Lexicon

would be Life—
    And Life is over there—
    Behind the Shelf
    — EMILY DICKINSON

[ONE]
    Wil shouldered open the emergency room doors. After the darkness, the sunlight felt like an explosion. He gasped air. He made it to the white paramedic van and leaned against it. In one hand he had the thing. It was dark inside, but he hadn’t had trouble spotting it. A piece of wood, about the size of a book, with a piece of yellowed paper speared to it. He had left the paper in there. The wood was heavier than it looked and frigid to the touch, like it wanted to leech the heat from his body. There was a symbol on it that looked like nothing he had seen before, and the more he looked at it, the more something in his gut twisted, and his eyes watered, until he looked away. But it did not change him. It was true. He was immune.
    He headed back to the Valiant. Then he stopped, because he couldn’t show this thing to Eliot. Eliot had been very clear about that. He glanced around for something to wrap it in. The doors of the paramedic van were open. He peered inside and found a small towel and shook the sand out of it.
    When he reached the car, Eliot’s eyes were closed. Wil pulled open the door. Eliot’s chest hitched and his eyes peeled open. “I did it,” Wil said. “I got the word.”
    Eliot blinked.
    “Right here,” he said, raising the towel, but Eliot’s eyes squeezed shut. “It’s okay! I covered it up. It’s a kind of symbol on a—” Eliot’s head jerked left and right. “I’m not telling you details! I’m describing the general kind of object!”
    “Ssss,” said Eliot.
    “I know what happened here. Why everyone died. There was something stuck to the word that—”
    “Ssss!”
    “Okay! I’m just saying, if you look at this thing, you won’t
die
. It’s not
fatal
anymore.” This didn’t seem to make any difference to Eliot. “You look terrible. Have you been drinking the water?” He spotted a bottle near Eliot’s feet, the lid off. The mat was wet. “Jesus, you haven’t.” He leaned over Eliot, looking for the other bottles. The smell in the car was very bad. “Drink.” He twisted the bottle’s top and held it to Eliot’s lips. Eliot’s throat clicked. His Adam’s apple bobbed. When water spilled down his chin, Wil lowered the bottle and waited until Eliot no longer seemed to be drowning. Then he said, “More,” and tipped it forward again.
    “Gguh,” said Eliot.
    “I have an idea. We drive to a hospital. A hospital with living people in it. Then I use this thing to make them help you. Right? I just word them. We tell them to help you but not tell anyone we’re there.” Eliot was leaking water again, so he put away the bottle. “Good plan?”
    Eliot’s head turned left then right.
    “Oh,” Wil said. “What’s your plan, then? Because it’s pretty obvious to me that you’re dying. And we both know I don’t have a hope in hell against the people who are after us all by myself, even if I do have a magic word. So it’s either a hospital or I try a little amateur surgery on you myself with whatever I can find lying around. Do you want me to do that?” Eliot said nothing. “I’m not doing that. I’m getting you to a hospital.” He closed the door and jogged around to the driver’s seat. “Keep drinking the water.”
    He tucked the towel and its hidden package between the seats and turned the key. The engine clicked emptily. He blinked. He’d forgotten about the gas. He glanced at Eliot and saw Eliot looking at him with a complete lack of surprise.
    “Shut up,” said Wil. He studied the roadway ahead, filled with bones and rusted metal. “I can find gas. I’ll be five minutes. Can you not die for five minutes?”
    Eliot’s chin dropped.
    “Don’t lie to me. If I have to, I will cut you open.”
    “Ff,” said Eliot. “I. Fine.”
    Wil eyed him. But he wouldn’t learn anything from Eliot’s face that Eliot did not want him to know. “Sure,” he said. “You’re fine.” He climbed out of the car.
    • • •
    He found a dust-coated SUV with keys in the ignition and gas in the tank. This was a much better option than trying to reintroduce life to the disintegrating piece of shit that was the Valiant, so he climbed in and steered around wrecked vehicles. The interior had an odd smell, which he tried not to think about. When he got close enough to the Valiant, he put the SUV into neutral and jumped out. Eliot seemed to have deteriorated in the meantime: