“Come, this way” Sam rose to his feet, beckoning Mavis out of the bunker, but she raised a hand to him and he fell silent, as if the air itself had decided he was done speaking.

  Mavis turned her head slightly, addressing the bunker people without looking at them.

  “I’m leaving,” she announced.

  A wave of relief surged through the crowd so hard it almost sounded like a sob.

  Then she added, conversationally: “If any of you try to stop me, I’ll collapse this mountain on top of you.”

  The relief curdled instantly into frozen terror.

  She looked back at Francis. “Let’s go.”

  Francis swallowed. “Okay.”

  Bethany stepped forward suddenly, voice shaking but firm. “Wait—”

  Mavis’s eyes slid to her. Bethany froze, but she didn’t retreat.

  “My kids,” Bethany said quickly. “Please. If you’re leaving—just—don’t—”

  Mavis stared at her as if Bethany had begun speaking a language she didn’t understand.

  Then, after a long pause, Mavis said: “I wasn’t going to.” She had meant it more like a tease rather than an actual threat, in retribution for how they had all treated her. Maybe it was cruel, but she had wanted them to know that she could do it.

  Bethany’s shoulders sagged, relief and grief mixing in her face. She nodded, unable to speak.

  As Mavis stepped over the bunker threshold, she paused and looked back once—at the dark entranceway, at the huddled faces further inside, at Bethany holding her children so tightly it hurt.

  The three visitors led Mavis outside where their military van was parked.

  “Do you want to come in with us?” Monica offered to her.

  “Uh, sure.” Mavis replied. She got into the back seat, following behind Francis.

  Soon they were on the road. Mavis had never been in a moving vehicle before – this was a first for her. The way it jittered and jolted across the rocky surface of the ground outside was a funny sensation. The others seemed used to it, but it was as if at any moment she could be flung out of her seat with a sudden bump in the road. I guess that was why they wore these things – she felt the nylon strap across her chest from her shoulder diagonally down to her waist. Seatbelts, they were called.

  As she had feared, the vehicle suddenly lurched into a pothole and the frame creaked with the impact, forwards momentum carrying them quickly out of it. In the midst of this, as she had moved her hands out beside her on the seat to steady herself, her hand had met Francis’s, and she had instinctively grabbed it.

  He looked over at her with a reassuring smile, slightly amused at her reaction. It was as if she had never travelled in a vehicle before. Wait – maybe she actually had never travelled in one before, the thought crossed Francis’s mind.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Mavis blushed slightly, letting go of his hand.

  “No reason”. Francis looked away, too embarrassed to ask her or reveal what he had been thinking.

  “You know, it would be so much easier for me to just fly there, if I knew where it was we were going.”

  “Even if there was a storm?” Sam opined from the driver’s seat, squinting out his windscreen into the distance.

  “Yeah, sure.” Mavis replied. “I mean, I could just go around it, or above it, or even through it. It doesn’t really matter.”

  “Could you dissipate one?” Sam asked curiously.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like, cause it to go away, or move it along.” Sam elaborated.

  Mavis contemplated for a moment. “I don’t know, I’ve never tried.”

  “Well maybe now’s your chance. Otherwise, we could end up having a rough night.” Sam pointed in the distance. They had been lucky with their journey on the way here – it had been mostly clear skies, so they hadn’t tested the efficacy of their mobile lodging in a storm. It wasn’t something any of them looked forward to.

  Mavis crossed her arms defensively, realising he had baited her into this. Her pride would not allow her to refuse, for otherwise they might think she wasn’t able to do it. If she tried and failed, they would have reason to laugh at her. And if she succeeded, he would be getting exactly what he wanted.

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to” Francis said, concerned by the murderous expression which had materialised on Mavis’s face. “You don’t have anything to prove to us.”

  Mavis softened at his words. “No, it’s fine. Stop the car.”

  Sam gradually brought the vehicle to a halt by the side of the road, and they all got out. Mavis leapt into the sky, looking down at the people below who craned their necks up to watch her. She hovered there for a moment, about 20m in the air, taking in the awe on their faces as she felt the wind rush through her hair. She had misjudged Sam. He, too, was afraid of her. They all were. But unlike the others back at the bunker, these 3 were not filled with despair. They had awe, and hope. Hope in her. And she liked that. It made her feel… needed. Wanted. Valued. Perhaps they would take her somewhere she might be able to belong.

  Mavis turned her attention to the looming storm in front of her, some distance away. She lifted her arm out, eyeing the storm through her fingers. Then quickly swung it in a 90 degree turn to her right, out beside her. It wasn’t like she had to do that. It was just for show, for the people down below who were watching. She wanted them to know what came next was because of her.

  The clouds rapidly parted and the storm was severed in two, the air moving rapidly and spreading out. But at this distance, for such a visibly rapid movement to occur, the speed at which the air was actually moving must have been far greater. Over there in the distance, the winds were strong enough to rip structures from their foundations as air moved across the ground like a shockwave, flattening everything, curving over hills and creating massive vortices. Mavis and the others were oblivious to feeling any effects in their current location, but that was soon about to change – because when such a mass of air was displaced, something needed to fill its place. It came from all around – a wind picked up, in the direction of that location, gradually becoming stronger. The ominous grey clouds had moved and partly dissipated but now fresh warm air rose to fill in the gaps, feeding the storm, expanding its scope and hastening its development.

  Mavis realised she was losing control of the situation. The wind just kept growing stronger, no matter what she tried to do to fix it. She kept mixing the air in frustration, trying to get rid of those clouds, but all she was doing was adding more energy to the system.

  “Hey!” Sam screamed out, his voice barely audible over the now gale-force winds. “We get it! You can stop now!”

  “We’re sorry!” Monica added.

  “Please!” Francis cried out.

  Mavis looked down at them, they were struggling to maintain their footing now. She gave up and flew back down towards them, embarrassed at her failure. She shielded them from the wind in a large dome, and they collapsed to the ground, disoriented at its sudden disappearance.

  Soon, they returned to their feet, as Mavis landed on the ground beside them. They observed her worriedly.

  “I didn’t mean to do that… I just… lost control of it.” Mavis stammered in frustration. The dome shielding them from the wind blurred and allowed small wisps of wind to enter as Mavis’s focus moved away from it to the people in front of her.

  “It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” Monica reassured her with a smile. Francis and Sam looked up in awe at what was transpiring around them. The invisible force keeping the wind at bay extended around and above them, even including their vehicle. Mavis realised the wind had begun to seep through and reinforced the defence.

  She looked over at Francis, then down at the ground in shame. “You can go back in and continue driving.” Mavis said to them. “I’ll follow behind outside and shield you from the wind.”

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  “Ok, thanks.” Sam responded. They did so. For the next few hours, the vehicle drove on – Sam could see nothing ahead of him except the swirling winds just beyond the invisible barrier that was a few metres in front of the van, which moved along with them. At first he had been hesitant to pick up speed. He had even worried Mavis might abandon them. But now, he had full faith in her. Besides, he didn’t want to annoy her by going too slow. He pushed the van as fast as it would go.

  Outside, Mavis continued following, flying above the van. It was still far too slow for her liking, but she put up with it. What she disliked more was the sense of loneliness that once again permeated her mind. Sure, she wasn’t really alone, as Francis and the others were only metres away from her down there in that vehicle. But it didn’t feel like it. She had much preferred being in there with them. Although, she was sure they didn’t like being in there with her.

  Suddenly, the road seemed to disappear from underneath the vehicle as the gradient of the ground became a sharp descent. It was airborne for a moment before the wheels slammed hard back down onto the surface of a rocky landscape. It descended in an uncontrolled manner – Sam couldn’t see anything ahead of him, it was just a raging foggy mist. He slammed on the brakes, but that didn’t help – at their current angle of descent, it just tipped the vehicle forward as the back wheels lifted off the ground, their momentum carrying them into a forward roll.

  But they felt something latch onto the roof, stopping the vehicle at an awkward angle. Mavis had caught them. She reoriented it and set it back on the ground, having dented the metal frame slightly with her hands. She looked through the windscreen, hovering slightly above it. “Are you guys okay?”

  Sam and Monica looked out at her. They were shaken but unharmed. “Thank you.” Monica said.

  Mavis landed beside the van and opened the door so they could hear her better. “So, are we going to continue on? Do you know where we are?”

  The question prompted Francis to think for a moment. It was impossible to tell if they had been on the right track from any external reference, but their internal navigational aids told them they were following exactly the same route as on the way there. How come then had they encountered this… crater? It surely hadn’t been here before. He considered what Mavis had done earlier. Maybe… had she caused this? A depression in the ground as if the very earth itself had been torn and lifted by swirling air moving at incomprehensible speeds. It sure was possible. He looked at the face of the girl in front of him, Mavis, who was looking in through the open door. Her face was worn, and her blonde hair was matted and dirty, but she was still beautiful to him. And her eyes – they shone with a burning desire, but her expression was soft and subdued. She had seemed concerned. Wait – was it that she had been concerned about him?

  Mavis saw him examining her and turned away in embarrassment, not wanting him to see how she had felt about him. Francis kept staring at the side of her head, and beyond, to the misty wasteland, in awe that the girl before him was capable of causing all this.

  Sam started up the vehicle again and they continued down the incline of the slope, this time with Mavis inside the vehicle. The wind had seemed to die down somewhat, perhaps because of the geography of this area it was less severe. Above them, storm clouds were still ever present. Gradually the slope flattened out and after a while they stopped to rest for the night. There had been a building they had stayed at before, on their way here, which was now nowhere to be seen, but no one said anything about it. They would just stay inside the vehicle.

  Mavis found it hard to sleep. The wind constantly rattled against the sides of the van. She was worried the storm might become a hurricane and topple them over. But she didn’t know they had prepared for that.

  “Don’t worry,” Francis whispered, noticing Mavis still awake, tossing and turning in the narrow bed in the back of van beside him. “We’re anchored in place by bolts which have been driven into the solid rock below us.”

  Mavis looked over at him. It was a bit ridiculous of him having to reassure her, and he soon realised it, for even if the worst happened, she would not be harmed. She was worried only for his sake.

  ??????

  The next day was a blur. They continued driving, and their surroundings became more familiar again. Finally, they came to the border zone. It was a wide area that had been impacted by heavy fighting – the landscape bore scars of many battles that had been fought over the last few months. Now this area was deserted, for the enemy had pushed them back, scouring the land of all foliage and signs of civilisation. Like much of the world, this place too was now a barren wasteland.

  “Do you hear that?” Sam said, concerned. A whirr in the sky above. A military plane had spotted them. The enemy. Missiles rained down and Monica who was driving, swerved to avoid them as they exploded nearby, narrowly missing. A helicopter also began to chase them, firing bullets in their direction.

  Mavis unbuckled her seatbelt with a scowl and opened the door of the moving vehicle, then leapt out. She soared into the air and faced the helicopter, disintegrating it, it exploded in a fireball as it fell to the ground. Then she chased down the aircraft. It zoomed away in retreat, for the pilot had seen what had happened, and didn’t want to meet the same fate. But there was no possibility of escape.

  The metal frame creaked and became brittle and weak as it was poisoned by an unseen force, the pilot felt the controls come off and disintegrate as the engines flamed out and exploded, then a brief sharp pain as everything around him collapsed and went dark.

  Mavis hovered in the air as she watched the disintegrated wreckage fall back to earth like confetti. Ahead was still the van, in the distance, driving towards her. She turned around, looking out towards the horizon, as she waited for them to catch up. The ruins of destroyed buildings dotted the war-ravaged landscape. There among them – she spotted something in the distance. A tank, and soldiers. She flew closer to get a better look, not because she needed to in order to take them out, but because she was curious.

  She hesitated for a moment, realising she didn’t know whose side they were on. But when the tank aimed its turret up towards her to fire, there was no longer any doubt.

  They became one with the ground as it swallowed them up in a large area. They didn’t even get a chance to realise what was going on. It was just as if everything around them including the nearby ruins turned to a fine particulate that settled in a now flat plain – dust. The hills had shifted and warped, much like the cement floor back at the bunker, but now on a much larger scale. A scale at which those people and their military equipment had been no more than tiny figurines to Mavis, for her to dispose of as she pleased.

  She flew down closer to observe the affected area. All was silent. If there were any other survivors nearby, they would not dare show their face. They kept hidden, for their life depended on it.

  Mavis waited for the van carrying Francis to arrive. She landed on the ground as it approached and slowed as it neared her. She got back inside. They didn’t ask her about it. They didn’t ask about what she had seen, or done. They could guess. They had seen the landscape, not only here, but from before as well. They were just grateful she was on their side.

  Soon, they arrived at the entrance to the compound. From the outside, it was just another destroyed concrete husk. Mavis realised she had spotted it from outside, for it was quite large, and surrounded by a patchwork fence that must have been functional at one point. The exterior had only been a small part of the complex, though. What existed underground was far more expansive and important.

  They reached the large steel door that was reinforced with concrete.

  Monica picked up her radio. “It’s Monica, Francis and Sam… and Mavis. We’ve arrived.”

  A moment later, a response came back. “Ok. We’re opening the gate. Welcome home.”

  There was a clunk and then the actuator began to raise the door. It was painfully slow. To relieve the awkwardness, Monica turned back to look at Mavis with a smile. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said to Mavis, who was surprised to see her beaming face.

  “It’s not much, but it’s home.” Sam added nonchalantly.

  Monica glanced back at the door for a moment. Still only halfway open. “I hope… I hope we can be friends,” she said, looking at Mavis again.

  Mavis didn’t really know what to say. She broke eye contact with Monica and looked over at Francis who was sitting next to her – he was slouched in his seat with his eyes half open. He looked as if he had drifted off to sleep, that’s how tired he was. It had been a long day.

  Mavis tapped his arm gently to wake him. “Hey, we’re here,” she said.

  Francis roused and sat up in his seat, rubbing his eyes. “Thank you,” he said as he looked at her, deep into her eyes. He meant it not only for coming with them, and saving them, and not killing them, but for this moment right now, for just being there with him, for being close to him, for touching him, for the way her eyes met his with a gentleness that defied the strange world they lived in. She had forgiven him, and that was all that mattered. It was a forgiveness he felt like he had never deserved. That feeling almost made him start to cry with joy.

  But then the door to the bunker was fully open and Monica lurched the vehicle forward, driving down onto the ramp. They descended down the dark spiral tunnel inside, their eyes gradually adjusting to the artificial lighting.

  When they reached the bottom, a team of people greeted them and began to hose the vehicle down. It was to get rid of the radioactive dust, as much as they could. When that was done, they got out and took off the outer layer of their clothes – the warmer climate in here didn’t require them, and they also needed to be washed, for they were contaminated. Mavis also surrendered her coat and pants, the same ones she had taken from the facility long ago, and received new, lighter military attire. It was like she was in a daze. She didn’t question anything, and no one questioned her. She just copied what the others were doing.

  Soon, an older, higher ranking military officer came and greeted them. He shook their hands and embraced Monica, Francis and Sam, then finally Mavis. He shook her hand. He spoke to her, with a warm grin on his face. She saw his lips moving, but didn’t hear what he had said. She wasn’t listening.

  He escorted her through a few hallways. In a trance, she looked around, observing the new environment. This place was very different from the previous bunker. That one had been much more dingy – dimly lit, dirty, and smelly. It was like night and day compared with this one. This one was well lit, well maintained, clean and orderly. Even the people here looked better kept. Sure it was far from perfect, there were still cracks in walls, oddly placed vents and cabling, but for a bunker in an apocalyptic world, it was the equivalent of a 5 star resort.

  The man turned towards a door in the side of the hallway and stopped, with Mavis beside him. “We’re here – this is your room,” he said, but again she didn’t hear him. That’s how exhausted she was – it was like being underwater.

  He opened the door for her, and she went inside. It was small, with a large bed in the centre that extruded from the righthand wall. Quilt and sheets neatly covered it. There was also a bedside drawer with a cute lampshade on top. On the far side was a small cabinet, a desk and a chair. On the left was a door that opened into an ensuite complete with a shower.

  It was one of the best rooms they had. A small piece of luxury in a section of the compound reserved for only the highest-ranking officers. If not for the glazed stone floor and lack of a window, it could have been mistaken for a hotel room.

  The man said one last thing, then closed the door and left her. Mavis took off her boots and collapsed into the bed, quickly falling asleep.