Felice returned the phone to its cradle and staggered outside, found herself facing the blue sky and the Texas plains, opening out ahead and above her in a great, sunbleached vista. On the far side of the track the land fell away into the same small valley that the track ran into, and from this point the high ground gave her a stunning view of the land stretching out towards the east and north. She saw a vague column of smoke rising from the direction of what might have been a town, and faint movement on a road far away, but it was all unclear in the persistent haze of the crushing heat. Nothing moved in the sky overhead, no birds or planes or emergency helicopters, and she could hear nothing except the ringing in her ears. There was no wind, no birdsong, nothing from the road. Just a sun-blasted grave. She walked on weak legs over to the car, pulled the door open. Mini roused herself from a half-sleep and looked over at her through narrow, bloodshot eyes, mumbled a greeting.

“Get out,” she said, having to try twice to make a sound. “Someone’s coming to help.”

Mini struggled awake, unfastened her seat belt, looked back to Aaron where he lay at an awkward angle on the back seat. She pulled her door open, the side window giving up and falling outward in a sudden cascade of shattered pieces. She staggered out and around the car to join Felice at the rear door. They opened it and dragged Aaron out, Mini slapping him gently to wake him up and Felice splashing cool water on his face. He moved clumsily and slowly, leaning on the car and dragging himself on Mini’s shoulders, as they pulled themselves away from the car and into the dubious shade of a stunted tree near the shed. Mini and Aaron collapsed against it and Felice went back to the car, feeling as if she were pushing herself through water as she forced one foot in front of the other. She grabbed the last of their water bottles from the car, poured one over her hair and face until it was completely empty. The shock of the cool water woke her up a little and she moved back to the shade, handing the remaining water to Mini and Aaron. Aaron dropped his in the sand, sagging back against the tree, and Mini took a sip before she too sat back and closed her eyes. Felice joined them, trying to find a place in the shade to sit and brushing ants and sticks away with superhuman effort. She sat back against the rough bark of the tree, on the opposite side from Aaron and Mini, feeling the heat rising from the ground and a kind of dry, exhausted tickle in her throat. She wanted to reach around to get water to ease it, but the effort of speaking and moving was too much. Instead she just leaned back against the tree, closing her eyes so she could focus on the sounds of the land around her. She listened carefully, trying to ignore the ringing and roaring sounds from the acoustic shock of Aaron’s gun, to focus on the sound of the empty scrub around them, drifting off into the peaceful, super-heated emptiness of it, her thoughts slowly fading into the great uncaring blue sky …

#

3PM. WBGT: 103

Distant sounds brought Felice back from a drifting, chaotic semi-consciousness of half-remembered dreams. She remembered a sense of swooning, looking up at stunted, twisted tree branches, vague engine sounds. Voices, someone lifting, then sliding completely into blackness before she was moving again. Had she half-stumbled, half fallen through a big double door into a sudden shock of cool and fragrant half-life? Then more urgent voices, the pain of an injection, rough hands on her. Other memories blurred and merged with the more pressing, solid sound of voices in the room with her now, a brief twinge in her hand, and the sound of a door closing. Then she knew she was awake, lying on her back on a hard bed, her body torpid and heavy like influenza or COVID and her head light and floating.

She opened her eyes slowly, peering into the gloom of a small room. Dark cotton sheets on a single bed with an old fashioned footboard, a small bench against a wall at the base of the bed and next to it a door. A chest of drawers lined the far wall of the room parallel to the bed, and behind the bed over closed curtains she could hear the sweet sound of an air-conditioning unit. A tall figure leaned against the chest of drawers next to a dim purple lamp, a long dark satin shift tight against a washboard stomach. The lace-edged half-sleeves of the shift opened to thin, dusky-skinned arms lined with tattoos of strange symbols, ending in long, elegant hands with dark-painted nails. Shoulder-length black hair was pulled back around an austere, drawn face, dreadlocks and cords of purple and silver extensions barely visible in the half-light. “Raven,” Felice croaked, her voice coming out dry and weak. “Where am I?” She pulled herself partially upright on the bed, feeling a twinge of pain in her left hand and dragging the sheets up to follow her when she realized she was stripped to her underwear. “Are my friends okay?”

Raven pushed off the chest of drawers, coming to stand beside Felice in two short paces. They produced a glass of water from somewhere beside the bed and held it to Felice’s lips. “Drink this,” they urged, and as Felice gulped the liquid they added, “Your friends are fine. In another room. You’re in the Base. Welcome to the Texan Gaia Cell.” Raven waited for Felice to return the empty glass, and pulled the blanket up slightly to cover Felice’s shoulders. “What happened?” They asked.

“Some men attacked our car,” Felice told them, and explained what she could remember. “I think they wanted our aircon, because their car didn’t have any. Or … maybe their windows were broken? I can’t remember.” Everything since the gas station was a blur of panic and heat. “Aaron shot them, and they went off the road. I don’t know if they’re hurt or not.”

“They’re dead,” Raven told her flatly. “If their car went off the road and they had no aircon, they’re dead by now. Nobody can survive out there in the middle of the day.”

“Thank you, Raven.” Felice placed a hand over Raven’s slender fingers where they rested on the bed next to her, nails painted in a shade of purple so deep it was almost black. “I haven’t spoken to you in months and I dumped three sick people on you.”

“Not sick, Felice,” Raven corrected her, voice firm. “Dying. Ten more minutes and you were beyond help. And this –“ she waved her free hand at the side of the bed, where an exhausted IV drip hung on a simple wire stand “- is very makeshift. You were very lucky.” Felice realized that the drip must be the reason for the pain in her hand. “Anyway,” Raven continued, “Think of it as Karmic rebalancing. For saving our radio station. Maybe someone besides you heard it and got out.”

“Oh,” Felice almost breathed her surprise. She had thought of the radio station as a purely personal connection between herself and Raven. She had never imagined anyone else might be listening. “I guess so.” Her voice broke and she took another sip of water. “Do you know what’s happening in the city? How bad it is?”

Raven shook their head, stood up and returned to their position against the chest of drawers, taking Felice’s glass gently from her hands and placing it out of sight by the bed as they did so. “We don’t know much. The power went out a few hours ago, so there’s no internet connection, no radio, no cellphone reception. Helicopters are grounded and drones can’t fly because of the heat. There’s very little information coming out and even less being reported.”

“Nobody can send a message out?”

“Sure they can,” Raven replied, waving their hand dismissively. “If they have a laptop, with a LAN connection to a hub, and independent power for the hub, and a direct connection from there to an office outside of the heat dome, and someone listening. And aircon good enough to keep them alive.” They shook their head. “One TV channel was reporting from a staff member who was in a green room with a landline, far away from the outside. But they lost contact with her an hour ago. The kind of organizations that have the infrastructure to communicate aren’t talking to the press, I think.”

“What about tonight?” Felice asked. “When it cools down?”

“This is a heat dome Felice,” Raven reminded her. “That’s why you ran. It isn’t going to cool down. The forecast is unclear but maybe it’ll drop below the lethal zone for a few hours before dawn. But then it’s going to be pumped back up even worse when the sun rises. Tomorrow’s going to be worse than today.” They added. “Almost nobody in there has solar power. Even if they survive to tomorrow, the heat’s going to be worse, and anywhere with its own power is going to be under siege. There’s going to be violence and shooting by nightfall.” They looked back over to Felice where she lay, small and weak, on the bed. “And I don’t think you should be leaving here today either.”

“I can’t stay, Raven,” Felice argued, struggling to sit up in the bed. “We’ll be a burden on you, and I’ve booked somewhere to stay in the hills.”

“You nearly died, Felice,” Raven pointed out to her, “And your car is fucked. We haven’t even brought it back here. You can’t drive through a heat dome with no window. You’ve already tried that once.” They walked back over to the bed, dropped into a squat next to the bed so their face was level with Felice’s, hands resting on bony knees. “Also we think that the National Guard are stopping people before they can leave the area. We don’t know if they’re turning them back or holding them, but it’s dangerous either way.”

“What?! Why?”

“This is a huge disaster, Felice,” Raven reminded her, reaching out to grab one of her hands. “Listen. There are millions of people down there under the heat, and most of them are going to die. Do you understand? A million deaths in three days. The government need time to figure out how to manage the fallout, which means they need to keep what’s happening in there secret, you get it?” Seeing Felice nodding, Raven continued. “It’s better you stay here until the chaos is over.”

“Surely it won’t kill everyone?” Felice whispered. “You’re okay! Maybe others can survive like you.”

“We have solar panels Felice, this is a zero-energy house, and we’re in a gulch with shade over the house and a stream. There’s no heat island here, no neighbours, and most of the house is out of the sun during the day. That’s why we’re here! Most of our setup was made years ago, before they killed the solar industry. It’s not like that down there!” They gestured vaguely in the direction of the city. “Most of the city is going to die, and the government is going to have to explain it. Their best bet is to manage the evidence, which means even if you had a working car, you’d be taking a huge risk driving out of the dome.” They squeezed Felice’s hand. “You can stay here. And once you find out what has happened down there, you can decide what to do.”

“What do you mean, what to do?”

“Think about it Felice,” Raven spoke urgently, almost in a whisper. “It’s possible everyone in your company is dead, most of your friends, your lovers, almost everyone who works to keep the city running. You won’t have anything to go back to, even if you’re allowed to. You may have to think about a new start.” They paused, keeping a gentle grip on Felice’s hand. “You can stay here. Your friends too.”

“But –“ Felice struggled to think through the fog of exhaustion. “There’s three of us. We’re a burden.”

“Not at all,” Raven pressed. “This is a compound, Felice. We are stocked for a hard summer. You can stay as long as you like. Until it’s over, while you think about what to do next, and we repair your car.” Seeing Felice’s resistance begin to fade in the face of the reality of the situation, they added, “And if you feel you need to help us in return, I have an easy way for you to contribute.”

Felice gave Raven a cautious, suspicious glance. “What …” she asked slowly, “Is that?”

#

6PM. WBGT: 96

EMERGENCY! THE HEAT DOME HAS OVERWHELMED THE POWER GRID AND EMERGENCY SERVICES. YOU WILL DIE IF YOU ARE NOT UNDERGROUND. THE HEAT WILL NOT STOP OVERNIGHT. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR SHELTER. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MOVE. STAY STILL, STAY HYDRATED AND STAY COOL.

The broadcast shack was in the back of the compound, connected to Raven’s ‘zero energy house’ by a shaded pathway bordered on one side by a scraggly garden of beans and squashes and on the other by a trellis overgrown with passionfruit vines. The walk was short but exhausting in the late-afternoon heat, even though it was a little cooler than the hell of midday. Raven’s compound stretched out beyond the vegetable garden, several solid buildings that looked like they had been made with ochre mudbricks of some kind, what looked like a cellar entrance, and a large open shed with several vehicles in it. All the buildings were covered with solar panels, and in the middle of the compound a rickety old windmill stood silent and still, a set of taps and pipes at its base hinting at some kind of wind-powered water system. Beyond the small white broadcast shack the group’s radio mast stood tall sentinel over the entire compound, a towering pylon of silvery struts and wires. As she hurried through the heat to the shack Felice had looked up that that, taken in the structure her legal work had validated.

Now she sat in front of the broadcast desk in the air-conditioned cool of the shack. It was a simple desk with two chairs, sturdy-looking microphones, and a bunch of dials and switches she did not understand. Raven sat across from her in the other seat, repeating the latest emergency message for the fourth time. Then they turned to Felice, switching off their microphone. “Are you ready?” They asked. “Just tell them what you saw,” they added, when Felice nodded. The light by the microphone in front of Felice turned from red to green, and leaning forward, she began her speech.

“My name is Felice, and I escaped the heat dome this morning. Please listen to me. I will tell you what is happening as the city dies…”