Sometimes, you just need to step forward and do something.  Action, instead
of reaction.  Or, as a couple of my former professors would have said,
"proactivity."  I hate that word.  It's so empty, so meaningless.  

Really, it's something they throw around to sound more knowledgeable.  How
is being 'proactive' functionally different being 'active'?  They both
involve going ahead and taking the initative of doing something, instead of
waiting for something else to happen first.  I suppose proactive just
sounds better.

By adding those three letters, the people who bandy about all the popular
buzzwords of the day can remain competitive in the cuthroat world of office
politics.  And if that's what they need to do, then who am I to begrudge
them that?  I just wish they'd stop talking like that all the time.

This is one of those minor points that kept me from really moving on in my
life, I guess.  I was only a few months out of college, but I still didn't
have a job.  Some of the others did, I know.  I could live on what I had 
saved up for a while, scrape by for a while longer.  My needs are fairly 
meager.

And right then, the thing I needed most was to do something, *anything*.
A bit foolhardy, but in the end it did work out for the best, I think.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Man, I loved that show.

- = - 

Wings of Fate
Chapter 14:  Flight
by Raviprasad Duvvuri
created by John Evans and Ardweden

- = - 

I stood staring at the others, all staring at me.  They were being
unusually quiet; I'd expected them to at least question my decision, but
they weren't.  

"We're going to Aomori," I repeated.  

The prospect of travelling to Aomori had been shot down before, when we
were fleeing Tokyo, so I was a bit puzzled that no one was saying anything.
This time, though, someone spoke up.  That someone being Akari.  "Is that a
good idea?" she asked.  "I thought we were supposed to wait for your uncle
here to get word to your... relatives... up north."

I still felt pangs of guilt every time Akari expressed her disappointment
that I'd hidden my true nature.  She had to face it now, especially since
she'd met my family.  Well, there was no use worrying about it.  It was
done and in the past... the best I could do was try to remind her that I
was still the same person.  "Well, what else can we do?  It'll take a few 
days for word to get up to the enclave and then back.  We can't exactly camp 
out here," I answered.

"We could go back to Tokyo," Kenchi said, chuckling bitterly.  "But somehow,
I don't think anyone wants that.  Or am I wrong?"  He looked at Akari, but
she turned her head down, away.  "Exactly.  We could just move around from
town to town, maybe camp out a bit.  But I don't like the idea of hiding."

"These people after us are resourceful, if nothing else.  They know how to
find us, and they've nearly caught us with our pants down twice.  Hell,
they did get Soshi."  I blurted that last bit out, and regretted it
instantly.  But then he shrugged it off, and I didn't feel quite as badly
about it.  Not until later, at least.

Shuukou started walking down the path, away from us.  She had her arms
wrapped around herself, which meant even she was getting unnerved.  We
watched her for a few seconds before realizing she wasn't going to say
anything, so we began walking after her, also silent.  I winced when Akari 
went to nudge Soshi, to let him know we were going.  Soshi flinched wildly,
breaking from Akari's touch.  This blindness couldn't be easy on him, the
way it was making him rely on us.  He'd always been fiercely independent. 

I wondered what my life would be like, without sight.  Not something I 
wanted to think about too much, really.  Without my vision, it would be a
pretty empty existance.

Kenchi had caught up with Shuukou and had his hand on her shoulder, slowing
her down.  They waited for the rest of us to catch up, and we walked as a
group toward our cars.  We were quiet until we reached the clearing we'd
moved the cars to, the sound of snapping twigs and our own breath the only 
things breaking the calm. 

I decided to repeat myself a third time.  The time had come for action.  
I knew that I for one was tired of sitting around and just waiting for 
something to happen.  I think it bored me more than anything, which was a 
shame; just less than a year ago we'd been together all the time, enjoying
ourselves and enjoying the freedoms of life.  And now?  Now we were all so
tense that we couldn't even loosen up and speak freely.

"We're going to Aomori."

"Fine," Shuukou replied.  "Let's just get away from *here*, first."

Kenchi got an odd look on his face at that and he reached into his pocket.
Pulling out his keys, he pressed the button to unlock his car doors.  He 
watched Shuukou lean against the hood of the small sports car.  He shrugged 
and turned to me.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen Kenchi smiling genuinely.  That
bothered me, for some reason.  Kenchi rarely lets things get him down.  It's
probably his second most endearing character flaw.  He got scared by the
smallest things; I always thought he was rather insecure about a lot of
things, especially the future.  The fear of the unknown... powerful stuff,
if you let it be.

"If you say so, we'll do it.  It's not like we have any pressing engagements."  

Akari turned to me and looked into my eyes.  I was surprised by what I
found there.  There was all of Akari's usual quiet strength, but there was
something more... a sense of challenge.  My default leadership of this
group had never been challenged before, really.  I certainly didn't expect
Akari to be the one to do it.  But then, it passed.  Maybe I'd mistaken
the look in her eyes.  I'm not the mindreader, after all.

"Are you sure about this, Judou?" she asked.

"I'm sure, Akari."  I smiled to reassure her.  "Remember, Soshi said he can
block us.  And the sooner we get to Aomori, the better."  I looked at the
others.  Soshi was sitting in my car, but Kenchi and Shuukou were still 
standing next to us.  Odd, I hadn't even noticed Soshi opening the door,
let alone getting into the car.

Kenchi smiled and playfully punched at Akari's side.  "Tell you what,
Akari-chan," he teased.  "There's a really nice waterpark on the way there.
We should get there tomorrow morning.  How about we stop there, and just
relax?"

Akari narrowed her eyes at him.  "I didn't bring my swimsuit, Kenchi."

"And I don't think anyone would mind that in the least!"  He smiled widely
and poked her in the side.   She laughed back and slapped his hand away,
thanks in her eyes.  "Ne, Shuukou, I don't suppose you could be convinced
to-"

"How are we going to be protected?" Shuukou questioned, ignoring Kenchi's 
jibes.  "If Soshi is going to be casting the spell, he can only protect one 
car at a time.  And we can't all fit in the same car."  

"Already taken care of," Soshi answered.  He was laboring to get out of the
car.  He had something clutched in his left hand, which made his efforts to
slide out of the back seat even harder.  I could see both Kenchi and Akari
wanted to help him, but they didn't.  It was hard for them, too.

Soshi finally got out and ambled over.  He walked straight to me, and if
I didn't know he was sightless, I'd never have known it.  It was eerie, how
quickly he was adapting to being blinded.  

I remembered, then, another time this had happened.  Well, not this
exactly, but something similar.  It was when Akari had gotten her contacts.
She'd been really excited, since she had worn glasses all her life.  One
day, she had fallen asleep with them in.  A big no-no, though none of us
expected her to lose her vision for three weeks like she did.  Maybe that
was part of why she was so sympathetic, on top of her usual nature.  She
never did get used to it, though.  Even until the day the eye patches had
come off, she was still stumbling and bumping into things.

Soshi handed me a string of beads.  I held it up in front of me, studying
it.  They were small glass beads, and there was a small gold cross hanging
from the chain.  I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.  I'd forgotten
momentarily that he couldn't see my visual cue.  

He answered me anyway.  "It's enchanted with the spell to protect you.
It'll cloak your car from anyone who tries to follow it with sorcerous
tracking.  Hang it from the rearview mirror."  He stood expectantly,
anticipating some question or another.  I didn't say anything, though.  
It was what he wanted, and I rarely got the opportunity to turn the tables
on him.  Besides, I owed him a lot for his little stunt in the basement.

"Good," I said.  "But I don't need it.  Kenchi does."  I tossed the beads
to Kenchi and he caught them easily.  "So, we're all set?"  I looked around 
at everyone.  I think they were in a bit better of a mood, but still very 
anxious.  But the overwhelmingly oppressive tone of earlier was broken, for 
which I was very grateful.

Kenchi frowned slightly, rubbing his chin.  "We should have a backup plan,"
he said, "in case we get split."  He walked over to his car and leaned in
through the open window.  He pulled out a road atlas and opened it out on
the hood of his car.  I joined him in studying it.  

"You think we'll get split up?" Akari asked.  "We can just stay close to
one another."

"No," Soshi answered. "That's asking for trouble, even assuming we can keep
track of one another.  It's hard enough travelling in groups.  Factor in
Judou's driving and you're asking for chaos."

"And then there's the matter of those demons," Shuukou murmured.  "Maybe we
should split up intentionally?  So they can't track us as easily?"

"Let's not rush to any decisions like that, Shuukou."  Kenchi looked up
from the map and turned to face the other three.  "There's no reason to
assumbe that we'd be any easier or any harder to track either way, so it's
best to just stick together as much as we can.  But," he added.  "We should
make our best effort to make sure nothing goes wrong."

I nodded in agreement, still studying the map.

"Besides, whomever is chasing us knows we're going to Aomori."

I turned and stared at Kenchi.  He stared back dispassionately.  I felt very 
small, all of a sudden.  I didn't like it.  "What's that supposed to mean?" 
I demanded.

"Nothing," he said, turning back to his atlas.  "It looks like we'll be
hitting that waterpark after all, Akari.  In case we get split up, at
least.  It's right on the way, and we'd want to get off the road about then
anyway."

I frowned at Kenchi's statement, wondering what he meant, but more
importantly what he knew.  I was hoping he hadn't been using his powers on 
me, but I wasn't sure.   I think I'm a bit more susceptible to them than
the others because of my heritage, but I've never tested that theory.  I've
never wanted to.

"Head's up!"  I looked up to see something flying in my direction.  By
instinct, I reached out and caught the object.  It was Kenchi's cell phone.  
I looked at him and he pointed his thumb at his car.  "I've got another one
installed in the car itself.  Hold onto that one.  If we get split up, just
call.  I programmed it into the first speed-dial spot."  

Kenchi then folded up the map, which the others were taking as a sign to
start getting into the cars.  I hurried over and unlocked my car door.  I
wasn't lucky enough to have a new car with all the options like Kenchi, so
I had to climb in and unlock the door for Akari.  Soshi was already inside.  
I hate it when people get impatient like that.  I scowled, but made an
effort not to let Akari see me. I think she did anyway. 

We pulled out and started on our way.  It took us about a half hour to get
to the highway -- my family's home is very isolated -- so it was late
morning when our trip started in earnest.  

The time passed fairly quickly.  There was light traffic headed northbound.
There were a lot more people coming south, it seemed.  There must have been
some festival happening back in Kamakura, I guessed, though it would have
made more sense for them to be taking the train.  Ah well.

We stopped for lunch sometime after one.  We pulled over at a small
roadside udon stand in a small town just off the highway.  I had to
distract Shuukou for a minute when we got out, in order to buy Kenchi
the time needed to tell the shopkeeper to insist that there was no pork or
beef in his soup stock.  It was a familiar routine to us; we'd found it was
easier to convince Shuukou that she wasn't eating meat than it was to
convince the restuaranteer that Shuukou really didn't want to eat meat.  It
was a bit dishonest, perhaps, but we saved some time that way.

I was pretty impressed by the noodles.  For a small place in the middle of
nowhere, the shopkeeper had excellent technique.  He probably could have
made a brisk trade in Tokyo with these dishes.  We finished quickly, more 
a testement to the food and his skill than to any hurry we were in, and
climbed back into our automobiles.  We stopped to get gas, since I was 
running a bit low.  

I remembered then, while we were stopped, that I wanted to talk to Shuukou, 
in private.  She'd been the first real human to talk to my great-uncle in a 
good number of years, and I wanted to know what had passed between the two 
of them.  She was clamming up about it, and I figured I had the best chance 
of anyone of finding out what happened.

"Shuukou!" I called out.  She froze, paused in the act of climbing into
Kenchi's car.  She looked at me, as did all the others (aside from Soshi, of
course).  "Could you come with me?" I asked.  "Just for this next leg of
the trip?"

An unrecognizable look flashed across her features, something similar to
anger, but not quite.  She acquiesced, though, and nodded.  I looked
between my car and Kenchi and embarrassment in my voice, smiled at him.

"Would it be okay if we switch cars?  It's kind of a private matter, and I
don't think Soshi wants to try to fit into your seat."

"Can you drive stick?" he asked.

I blinked.  It figured that he'd drive a manual transmission.  But I had 
learned how, a while back.  I was rusty, of course, but I could do it.  
"No problem."

He tossed me his keys and I handed him mine.  I climbed into his car,
adjusting the seat to fit my significantly shorter frame.  Shuukou kept
quiet the entire time.  I finished fussing with the mirrors.  With a
parting wipe of a smudge on the rearview, I turned to smile at her.  She
rolled her eyes.  

"Oookay, then," I said, and I started up the engine.  Kenchi's car roared
to life, the mere sound of it filling my veins with pure testosterone.  I
understood now why he'd spent so much money on it.  It was a toy, yes,
meant to make him feel more manly... and did it ever do the job.

We got back on the highway, heading north.  I tried to ask Shuukou what
she'd talked about with Goranu, but beyond saying that she explained what
had happened, she was startlingly closed-lipped.  Something was wrong, but
I had no way to find out what.  

About an hour after we had lunch, traffic began to get thicker.  Before I
could wonder why exactly, I saw the road construction signs.  I groaned,
hoping that it wouldn't be too much of a delay.

About ten minutes later, we hit the serious traffic delays.  Cars were
crawling along at 20 kilometers an hour, and I'd already lost sight of my
car.  Kenchi had been keeping right behind me (my poor abused car!), but
when we hit the pack, he'd gotten stuck behind.  Traffic came to a stop
altogether about a mile later.  Up ahead, the road was closed down to one-
lane only, which would explain the slowed traffic.

I was annoyed.  We weren't supposed to have this sort of problem -- the
roads were expected to be in perfect shape, day in and day out.  I honked my
horn in frustration, earning glares from Shuukou, as well as the drivers
around me. 

The phone rang suddenly, which startled me.  I picked the handset off the
dash, but the phone just kept ringing.  I remembered the cell phone I had
put into my jacket pocket and pulled it out.  I answered it with a cautious
"Hello?"

"You know, Judou, it really doesn't help if you keep both phones when we're
trying to call you," Kenchi's voice floated out from the small phone.

"Sorry!" I apologized, and then asked, "What happened?"

"We took a detour about two miles back.  I'm surprised you missed the
sign."

I hadn't missed the sign, it just hadn't occurred to me to follow it.  "So
where are you now?"

"We're probably about five miles ahead of you by now.  We stopped at the
first phone we could find."  He paused.  "I think you're pretty much stuck.
On the radio, they said the delay could be as much as an hour and a half."

I swore loudly into the phone, earning a chuckle from Shuukou.  "Okay, so
what the plan?" I asked.  

Kenchi was shrugging.  I knew he had to be.  "We'll just meet up at the
waterpark tomorrow.  Like we said before."  I agreed, and he hung up then,
since his time allotted was almost done anyway.

I groaned and stared at all the traffic, wishing I had Kenchi's magic and
a megaphone, so I could tell every one else to just clear off the road.  I
didn't though, and I was sure it wouldn't work that way anyway.  At least,
I don't think it would.

We inched forward.  There's not that much to say about it, really.  Nothing
was happening, we were too far from any real cities to get good music on
the radio, Shuukou was being far from the world's best conversationalist,
and to top it off, all of Kenchi's CDs sucked.

Well, not all of them.  He had that Kiroro CD that I'd been wanting to
borrow.  I slipped it into my pocket, so that I'd remember it later.

At some point during this, I dozed off.  It says a lot for the movement of
traffic that absolutely nothing happened during this time.  I didn't even
drift into the shoulder.  But I did dream.

I didn't realize it was a dream at first, but then I felt it.  I looked 
down at the spear sticking out of my belly in disbelief.  The pain was 
incredible, a dull ache radiating from a burning point of excruciating 
agony centered in my stomach.  I didn't dare move -- the slightest shift
would send the sharp barbs of the spear head ripping into my intestines,
making ribbons of my internal organs.  

My hands were warm and sticky.  I was already bleeding profusely, but I
knew I was both lucky and unlucky to have a wound in my gut like this.  The
good news was that I'd live longer, since the bleeding wasn't as quick.
The bad news was also that I'd live longer, since the bleeding wasn't as
quick.

I looked up into the eyes of my assailant, and screamed when I saw that it
was none other than myself.  Or rather, some wild-eyed and almost feral
version of myself.  I was barely able to recognize the face, even though
I'd seen it in the mirror every morning of the twenty-four years I'd been
on this earth.  This strange Judou grinned cruelly, down at me, and I
was scared.  He reached forward to twist the spear...

I bolted upright, awake in a flash.  My head snapped quickly to both sides, 
my actions twitchy and sudden.  Shuukou looked at me oddly.  She must not
have noticed I was sleeping (I guess this answered the question of whether 
or not I do snore -- and I'm pleased with the results).  

I shook my head and looked ahead.  We were almost out of the merge, and then 
we were there.  Traffic picked up a bit then, and I felt rather silly that I
was excited at the prospect finally getting the speed up to sixty in the
construction zone.

We found the cause of the massive slowdown.  Off to the right side of the
road was the twisted wreckage of a car.  Though wreckage is putting it
lightly.  The car looked as though it had been lifted into the air and rent
into wide ribbons by some angry god, before being dropped again.  Flames 
licked the ground around the crash site.  

It bothered me that the car was the exact same as the one I was currently
driving.  This wasn't a very common car that Kenchi owned, and it was a lot
to chalk up to mere coincidence.  And there was the heavy, sickening
presence that I felt as we drove by the crash itself.

The section of one-lane road ended, and I pulled into the left lane,
speeding up steadily. 

"Judou!"  I jumped at the sudden shout.  My hands jerked the wheel
instinctively to the right, yanking the car out into the middle of the next
lane.  I was lucky no one had been there.  I moved all the way into that 
lane and looked over at Shuukou. Her eyes were filled with panic. I think 
she was surprised to find the same in mine. 

We both glanced over our shoulders at the same time, our gazes falling on
the beast at the same time.  It was a large wolf, white as snow and twice
as large as any wolf I'd ever seen.  It was loping along the side of the
road, saliva streaming from the corners of its jaw as it snarled viciously.

And it had seen us.

I slammed on the gas, the car bursting forward in an unexpected rush of
speed.  An angry driver blared his horn at me as I cut him off, but I
barely registered the sound.

"Is he?" I asked.  Shuukou was staring out the back window, peering
intently for some sign.  

She turned to me after an instant. Her face was flushed as she nodded once.  
I glanced at the speedometer.  I was going just over a hundred, but still 
the thing was keeping up with us. 

All around me, the other drivers were swerving out of my way, shaking their
fists and honking their horns angrily.  I didn't know how to explain it to
them -- all they needed to do was look to the right, and they'd see for
themselves.

I stepped on the gas, pushing up past one-hundred-fourty kilometers an
hour.  We cruised out of the construction zone, the car hopping as it hit a
hump in the road.  Shuukou was still looking out the rear window.  

"It's falling behind," she said, "but it's still there!"

"What the hell is it?" I swore.  It didn't do us any good if it fell
behind.  If it knew it was on the right trail, it could still find us.  
Another driver swerved out of my way, and I realized something... they
couldn't see it.  Was this some sort of illusion?  That would explain why
the creature was able to keep up with us.  If our pursuants couldn't find
us magically, they could maybe try to fool us, make us reveal ourselves in
mundane ways.  It didn't take a lot to listen to the police radio and find
out how many people were driving twice the speed limit.

I slowed down a bit, because I knew I was right.

Shuukou wheeled on me.  "What are you doing?" she demanded.  Her eyes were
full of suspicion then.  I scowled and looked back over my shoulder,
pointing with my thumb.  

"Take a look!" I shouted.  "It's not catching up, is it?  It's still right-"
I went silent as a car behind us was thrown to the side.  The wolf-creature
just swatted it out of its way, redoubling its efforts to catch up, now
that we were slowing down.

I pressed the pedal, jamming it down to the ground.  It sanky mushily.  I
glanced at the road ahead, which thankfully was mostly clear.  Unfortunately, 
we were starting to run low on gas -- Kenchi hadn't filled up back at lunch.  

I did manage to outpace it though; the creature had its limits, as much as
it tried to overcome them.  But that wasn't really reassuring at all, since
we only needed to get trapped in traffic, or hit another construction zone,
or even just attract the attention of the police.  

In the end, it was my driving skill that pulled us through.  Well, my lack
of driving skill, to be honest.  I was pushing my abilities to control the
car, somewhere around one-sixty.  I was weaving around the other cars, my
stomach lurching with each wild swing from lane to lane.  I couldn't even
see what Shuukou was doing, but if I knew her, she was probably tightly
gripping her handrests.  And scowling.

My luck ran out when I came up behind a gasoline truck.  He was in the right
lane, so I swung over to the left.  Just twenty meters ahead was a station
wagon.  And in the right lane was another car, a sedan, about four meters
ahead of the wagon.  The driver seemed to be content to match speeds with
the driver of the wagon.

I had to slow down to avoid a collision, which the beast used to his
advantage.  We couldn't afford to get stuck here; we'd be paying with our
lives.  

I decided to speed up, coming up right behind the wagon.  Then, I'd whip to
the right and accelerate again, just before I weaved between the cars. 
I'd tried this manuver once before.  Unfortunately, it was while playing
Hard Drivin'.  Even more unfortunately, it didn't work then, either.

Speeding up wasn't a problem.  Neither was pulling into the right lane,
though the driver of the truck wasn't too thrilled with me.  He leaned into
his horn, the blaring of the trumpet deafening me.  I sped up again, and
tried to announce to the station wagon that under no circumstances was he
allowed to cut me off.  

He chose not to listen.

I had to slam my brakes to avoid colliding with the orange sedan in front of
me.  The car started to skid, the back of the car slipping out of control.
I yanked the steering wheel to the right, turning into the spinout, but the
car was already into the shoulder and on its way into the ditch.  The truck
driver behind me tried to brake as well, but he wasn't able to control his
cargo.  The truck jackknifed.

I braced myself for the impact and winced, waiting for the pain of flying
through the windshield.  I had the presense of mind to glance over at
Shuukou and be glad that she at least had her belt buckled.   Funny, the
things that come to mind.  

I bounced off the airbag, my neck snapping back.  I ached, but I realized
that I wasn't going to die.

Yet.

I remembered the beast, and kicked open the door to Kenchi's ruined coupe.
I crawled out weakly and looked up just in time to see the huge wolf
leaping through the tanker truck.  No, I realized, not through in the sense
of passing through it, but in the sense of ripping it apart, sending
pressurized gasoline flying everywhere. 

I leaped back into the car as the gas went up on a huge fireball.  The car
was forced back from the explosion, rolling over twice.  

Battered, bruised, and panicking, I climbed back out of the car.  Shuukou
was finally managing to do so as well.  I looked at the twisted shrapnel,
the towering flames.  And I looked at the smouldering corpse of the wolf-
beast.

"Is it--" I started, but then Shuukou placed her hand on my shoulder and
nodded.  She had a nasty cut on her forehead, but she didn't seem to
pay it any notice at all.  I looked back at what had been Kenchi's car.

"Kenchi is going to kill me," I groaned as I collapsed to my knees.  I
wasn't able to support my weight any longer.  This wasn't a good sign.

"We have to go," she said, guarded concern in her voice.  "The second a
police officer or news camera gets here, we're lost."

I reached into my jacket and pulled out the cellular phone.  The now
crushed-and-mangled cellular phone.  "Damn it!" I swore.  I looked up at
Shuukou.  She shrugged back and offered me a hand.  I accepted it, and she
helped me up.

I limped over to the car and reached in, pulling out the string of beads.
They were remarkably still intact.  I shoved them into my pocket and turned
back to Shuukou.

Leaving the wreckage behind us, we slipped into the woods beside the
highway.  The next town was only a half-dozen kilometers or so ahead.

I just hoped we'd make it before nightfall.

FIN (chapter 14a)

- = - 

AUTHOR'S NOTES
[or, In Which Ravi Offers Thanks]

This was a hard chapter to write.  Not because of the actual writing, but
in getting the motivation to write.  

For a number of reasons, it's getting harder and harder getting support in
writing.  And maybe it's a crutch, but it is something I need when writing.
Someone to bounce ideas off, someone to offer suggestions, or even someone
to just say "You can do it."   I don't get much of that any more.  

I'm not going to whine or point fingers.  Just gonna offer thanks to the 
people who have helped.

First off, thanks to Ardweden, Kate, and Phoebe for being very supportive
while I wrestled with this chapter.  Major, major thanks to Kate for
sitting and listening to me rant, and then putting up with me while we
discussed the story.  Thanks a lot, imouto-chan.  I couldn't have done this
without ya. ^_^

Thanks to Ardweden, Scott Schimmel, and Phoebe for last minute prereading.

Comments to duvvuri@uiuc.edu or ifurita@sandwich.net, please.

Until next time!

Raviprasad Duvvuri
September 21, 2000