Metallic Heart

by Liahona West

  After a few moments, Henry walked over, and whispered, “Is Eloise close by?”

  “No,” Bannack said and glanced at her a few paces away with Sibyl.

  “Good. Because Eloise’s nanites are dead.”

  Bannack had to hold onto the wall for support. “What are you saying?”

  Henry bowed his head. “If she gets sick, even a cold, her nanites won’t protect her. She will be at extreme risk of infection or death with any injury or illness. Without her nanites…”

  Flashes of his dad’s death from a flu that turned into sepsis flooded his mind. Seizures. Bleeding. The cold, dead eyes Bannack had to close. His worst fear for Eloise would come true sooner than he thought.

  To distract his mind from imagining Eloise’s death and stop the stinging of his nose, Bannack asked, “And Seth?”

  Henry rubbed his face once. “They won’t heal him because they don’t recognize his DNA, but they won’t kill him either. His healing is stagnant. There’s only so much they can do in their deformed state. Bannack,” Henry touched his arm but Bannack flinched away, “there’s no more serum that we know of.”

  “Does he know?”

  Henry didn’t react right away. He just stared, his eyes gentle and brow pulled together, making Bannack nauseous. He finally nodded. “Seth knows. He’s—"

  A shuddering noise caught his attention, and Bannack turned to see Eloise slumped against the wall. He jumped at her. “Hey.” He shook her. “Stay on your feet.”

  Eloise blinked and looked up at him. “Sorry…I’m not—”

  She lost consciousness. Bannack gathered her up in his arms, her appendages and head swinging, then called for Luke. “Help me!”

  Luke rushed forward.

  “There’s a room not far from here,” Bannack looked at Eloise, his eyes watering, “that has some basic medical supplies. There might be something there.”

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  Bannack jerked his head to Seth, the boy’s eyes round. “A few weeks back, she was struck by lightning and we think she may have lost her nanites. She got sick and her body can’t fight it. I will bring her back in one piece.”

  “Let’s at least test her blood,” Henry said, “so we can find out how the nanites are doing.”

  “Alright.”

  With Eloise shaking in his arms, Bannack waited for Sibyl to draw a vial of her blood, then rushed from the room. Bannack barreled down the hallway, Luke following, desperate to find medicine to help her.

  “Hang on, Elle. Just hang on.” His throat burned.

  “Bo…”

  Light appeared at the end of the hallway. Luke and Bannack skidded to a halt. They whirled around.

  Joy stood in front of a group of ten or so of her employees. All of them held crossbows, clubs, and swords.

  Bannack spun around to run but four men moved in the way. They were trapped.

  “Put me down,” Eloise demanded.

  “But—”

  Her hand on his cheek stopped him short, and he did as she asked. Anger from being trapped and the threat on Eloise’s life built in his body until he sucked sharp air in through his teeth. Eloise’s cheek was so soft. Snarling, Bannack unsheathed his sword and sliced through the air, aiming for Joy. His arms vibrated as he connected with another blade. Before he could recover, the defender smashed his fist into Bannack’s ribs. He cried out and fell.

  “Tie up the boys.” Joy’s eyes narrowed. “I want Eloise alive.”

  Idiot! You knew something was wrong, and you did nothing.

  “No!” Bannack’s head cracked into the wall and his vision blurred. All he could hear was Eloise’s screams, driving him to stand and ignore the massive headache. Again, a fist collided with his face. Off balance and fading into unconsciousness, Bannack slumped against the wall, then slid to the floor.

  He couldn’t see.

  His muscles wouldn’t move, no matter how hard he pushed them.

  Warmth trailed from his lip, nose, and his bum ear.

  Silence.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Eloise

  Eloise gasped, held back by Joy’s fist around her hair, and watched in terror as Bannack and Luke, beaten until limp and bleeding, were left on the ground. Anger surged through her. Her lungs lacked the air needed to yell, nor did she have strength in her body, and it would be pointless, so she grew silent to calculate her escape.

  Men and women walked on all sides of them as Joy led the way down the hallway. A man pulled Eloise along, her scalp stinging. She tried to shout, but her voice came out in a rasp instead. “Do we have to keep doing this?”

  “Yes. We do.” Joy stopped walking and gritted her teeth. “My son is dying, if he isn’t already dead. It’s too late for him…and you.”

  She’s going to kill me.

  Fear gripping her lungs, Eloise pulled her silver-handled butterfly knife from her pocket. With one swift motion, she sliced through the radial artery of the man holding her. He screamed and fell, but not before he sprayed her with blood. The red liquid spread across the floor, and Joy’s employees scattered away from the dying man.

  Clothing bloodied, Eloise crouched on the ground and watched Joy’s composure break.

  “Contain her!” Joy screamed, eyeing Eloise’s knife.

  “What?” Eloise asked, and she chuckled. The chuckle turned to a cough that clawed at her throat and she lost her balance. On the ground, Eloise groaned, pain ricocheting against her bones as she said, “Afraid of a paper cut?”

  They came at her. Eloise sacrificed her throwing knives into the heads of three people. Her muscles burned. The boot knife stopped a man in his tracks, his eye impaled. A fist swung at her. She ducked and slashed her claw-shaped karambit through the woman’s vest, shoving her away with an unbalanced flat-footed kick.

  Eloise fell on the ground, crying out. All she saw was red, the ground ebbed and flowed like ocean waves. Her entire body was on fire. When she coughed, crimson sprayed from her mouth. The hallway reeked of body odor and blood. Like when Edmund died, Eloise’s stomach began pushing her last meal up her esophagus and Eloise spit.

  A man ran at her, this one too large for her to fight off. Eloise backpedaled along the frigid floor until her back hit the icy wall, her hair lifting at the nape of her neck, and she gasped. The man loomed over her. He stared with apologetic eyes before grabbing her arm, which made her reflexively dropped the remaining knife. It clattered onto the floor.

  He kept squeezing. Eloise’s cry built from a low growl into a whimpering scream as the bone bent. Tears sprung from her eyes. The man jerked his wrist. Her arm snapped, and she screamed again, this time from the hot, searing pain the exposed bone caused. It had a pink color to it and her blood ran down her arm. Only then did the man release her.

  “You’re so majestic when you fight, darling,” Joy crooned. “Like a wolf. I would love to watch you beat up my men all day, but I must insist you stop, or I will kill Bannack and your friend.”

  Five dead bodies lay in front of Eloise. The pain from her fractured arm restricted her from speaking, so Eloise cried and whimpered on the floor.

  Joy’s face contorted, and she screamed, “Test me again and watch me prove to you I will do as I say! Now,” she cleared her throat, “I want to show you my favorite view.”

  Arms pulled Eloise forward. Every step jarring until her body took pity on her and blocked the pain receptors. Her head became a dense fog of nothing. Blood trickled from her mouth.

  When they reached the balcony, a large area overlooking the ocean, the man released Eloise and stepped away. Joy stood in front of her, frigid air whipping at her pants.

  “There,” Joy said, then pointed at the horizon. “If you look out there, sometimes a pod of orcas will pass by.”

  “I don’t…care.” Eloise crumpled to the ground. Her jaw loosened, and tears blocked out her vision. She knew Seth would be okay. Joy was distracted enough with her
that when Henry finished his analysis, it would confirm the nanites had awoken. Somehow, though, Eloise had to get rid of Joy or she would continue her tirade until she found Seth. Unfortunately, in her moment of pain and confusion, Eloise struggled to think.

  I don’t have my knives. My arm’s broken. If Joy doesn’t kill me right now, I’m going to die because my nanites don’t work.

  Footsteps pounded on the roof above Eloise and she looked up to see a body swing down onto the balcony.

  Bannack.

  He landed with a thump, then dragged the tip of his sword across the ground, the sound an ear-splitting screech. If Eloise had use of her arm, she would have covered her ears. Instead, she just winced as her teeth and bones rattled together.

  Then he slid his arm around her and held on as he crouched. He extended his sword. Threatening. Daring them to come close. Eloise cried out when he moved her.

  “You hurt my woman,” he whispered. “No one…hurts my woman.”

  Eloise looked up at him, and she knew why the entire room had quieted. His eyes were dark and narrow, his glare holding the people around him hostage, and the power in the way he held onto her, protected her, was thrilling. He sneered. The entire expression was terrifying and promised, without a doubt, he would spill blood.

  No one moved. Bannack’s reputation at the facility, even after years, was still intact, proven in the way Joy’s remaining five employees looked at him in complete terror.

  “I’m so…tired, Bo. I can’t fight anymore. I can’t. I can’t.” Eloise buried her face in Bannack’s chest, her broken arm limp and blasting through her body. Blood dripped from the bone protruding out of her skin. She whimpered.

  “Akoma.” Bannack set Eloise down, caressed her cheek, and the last she saw of his face before he swung his sword in a giant arc, was pure hatred and tears. He drew his lips up to reveal his teeth, which made his eyes shrink to slits, and he let out a bellowing battle cry.

  Two people, cut down by the akrafena, thrashed on the floor as blood left their bodies from their throats. Blood covered his chest, face, and arms until it coated his clothes. Bannack Owusu, the man Joy had trained and the man he spent years rejecting, finally came exploding out of him. He held nothing back.

  A hand snagged Eloise’s hair and pulled. The pain from her arm rendered her helpless, and she cried out, fear clenching around her chest. Joy had slunk around Bannack’s onslaught, and she held half of Eloise’s body over the edge of the balcony. She screamed. The wind whipped her hair about her face, closing off the world, and it howled into her ears. She panted, deep ripples of fear making escape impossible.

  When her hair blew away from her eyes, she caught sight of Bannack held on his stomach, his face in the ground and his arms spread out to the side.

  “Ban—” The rest of his name disappeared in to the salty air when Joy pushed her further until she balanced precariously on her backside.

  She cried. “Please, don’t.”

  “First, you failed to save my son. Then you ran away, leaving him helpless and dying so you could get rid of the one thing that could save his life. Since I don’t,” Joy’s voice faltered in her hatred, “see you with him, he’s probably dead. You took my son away from me!”

  “I didn’t.” Eloise shook her head and used her good arm to hold on to Joy’s jacket. “He wanted to go. I never made him do anything. Let me go. Please!”

  “You are useless to me!”

  Bannack screamed over the howling wind and Eloise cried harder, hot tears covering her cheeks. She was losing her grip and soon she’d plummet to her death.

  When Bannack tried to escape, breaking the nose of one woman to free his arm, he was attacked. Desperate, Bannack clawed at their faces, screaming until he was hoarse.

  This is the last I’ll see of him.

  That realization hurt more than her broken arm. She was going to die after months of trying to run from it. Death was coming for her and she couldn’t stop it. At first, he would mourn her, the pain would be terrible in the early months or years, crushing even, but then he’d adjust. He’d learn how to live with the grief. Eventually, he would rebuild his life, but he’d never forget her. No. He’d never forget, and he’d never be the same. She wouldn’t want him to be. She’d stay with him as long as she could, holding him but never touching, snuggling close but never smelling him, speaking words he’d never hear, and maybe, just maybe, he would recognize her presence and find comfort.

  A voice rose above the howling wind. “Mama! Stop!”

  Joy let out a shaking gasp. Her eyes widened, she released Eloise safely on the ground, and turned.

  Seth, holding onto the door jamb for support with Sibyl, Charlotte, and Henry behind him, glared at Joy. “What’s wrong with you?” His lips quivered.

  Joy scrambled away a few feet, and watched her son as if he were a phantom. “Y…you’re stan—standing.” She stared, barely able to breathe, and Seth smiled. “How?”

  “Practice. Also, Henry checked and co…nfirmed. Charlotte’s exercises gave my body the…blood flow it needed to wake the nanites and start…working.” Seth let his smile fall as he turned to his mom. “Because of Eloise, I can walk. You did nothing…except keep me trapped. I never got to make…friends. You never taught me how to bake pie or took me…to see animals. I never got to pet a goat. Eloise…gave me all of that. Not you. I want you to look at her.” Joy didn’t move but flinched when Seth screamed. “Look at her! She’s dying!”

  When Joy rushed to her son, Eloise crumpled onto the floor. She held her numb arm and laid in the fetal position, snot wetting under her nose and lips, and her body convulsing with sobs. Bannack’s familiar arms wrapped around her and pulled her into his lap. He folded his body around her.

  Eloise blinked back her tears as she watched a blurred Seth. He looked at his mom. “You hurt her,” he said. “Why?”

  “I thought you died. I—”

  “What’s wrong with…you?” He asked again, this time yelling. “You spent all this time trying to save me…but you hurt everyone to do it. That’s so messed up and I ha…te you for it.”

  Joy blinked several times, and although she tried to speak, she only fumbled over her words. “You—I—you we’re dying. I…I had to do something.”

  His voice quieted. “Why couldn’t you just be…my mom?” Tears flew off his lips. “Instead, you turned…into a monster.” Seth looked away.

  Joy stumbled and fell, shaking. “Seth, please, I did what I had to do to save you.”

  “And look where that…got you. Alone.” From behind his back, Seth pulled out a needled syringe, lavender colored liquid inside, and spoke in a dark, accusatory tone. “I found this in your…desk.”

  Joy gasped and stood. She reached for it, but Seth pulled it away.

  “It’s from before, isn’t it? Before the expl…osion that killed Eloise’s parents?” Seth asked. Joy nodded, and Seth glared with hurt and anger in his eyes. “I can’t believe you. You had this all…along and you still insisted on using her…nanites!”

  “I’m so sorry, Seth, I knew Eloise’s nanites worked, which is why I used her. “I only had one of those.” Joy pointed to the syringe. “If I used it on you…If you died because it wasn’t tested correctly, I—”

  “I was dying anyway!”

  “I was trying to keep you safe.” Desperate—so much in fact that the sting of sympathy hit Eloise’s gut—Joy reached for her son, but he flinched away. She dropped her hands. “I understand you’ll never forgive me for what I’ve done, no matter how I justify it. What I did was wrong.”

  “It was worse than…wrong. It was evil.”

  Seth’s last word made Joy flinch, but she recovered quickly and nodded. “I deserve that. But,” she looked at the nanite syringe, “I can go away forever. The nanites, if you inject me with them, will wipe my memories completely because there’s nothing for them to heal and they’ll turn on my mind. You can sleep better knowing I ne
ver knew you.”

  In the silence of the balcony, while Joy’s few employees, Sibyl, Henry, Charlotte, Luke, Bannack, and Eloise watched, tension grew. Seth’s arrival was unpredictable, his ability to stand shocking, and now one more unknown hung in the air. Eloise watched Seth, his anger toward his mom palpable and Joy’s desperation to keep her son bordering on tragic. They waited for his decision.

  “You’re right,” Seth said.

  He walked toward Joy and she closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate. Clenched in his fist was the syringe, his knuckles white.

  Then he pivoted away from her and, on wobbling legs, stood in front of Eloise. Her throat constricted.

  “Seth,” she said as she stared into his eyes. They were hard and determined, the look of a boy who had grown ten years in only a few moments. She could see the fracturing of his heart, the hurt and pain. “What are you doing?”

  “No…” Joy’s voice carried on the wind.

  “I’m saving you.” He looked down at the syringe in his hand. “Please?”

  Without saying a word, Eloise lifted her good arm. Bannack rolled up her sleeve and Seth drove the needle home.

  A strange sensation grew from the injection site. Her veins became ice, almost painful, as the nanites rushed through her body. She grappled for Bannack, suddenly afraid. Real blood warmed the ice the nanites caused. They recognized her and coursed through her body. Physical relief consumed her. It made her skin crawl and grow goosebumps, and she shuddered. The fever left, taking chills and weakness with it. Eloise looked at her arm, expecting it to heal, but nothing happened.

  “I think we have to set it before they will start healing,” Bannack said with an apologetic look.

  Eloise closed her eyes. “Not now.” The idea terrified her, and she made a disapproving noise. “It’s numb, anyway.”

  “Wh—what? Why?” Joy asked. Her mouth hung open, and she looked from Eloise to Seth, who completely ignored her.

  Eloise glared at Joy. “Because you don’t deserve it.”