Phantom Universe

by Laura Kreitzer

CHAPTER 18: TRANSPORT

  16 years old

  That little bag contains everything she needs to brush her teeth, shampoo, condition, and brush her hair, and provides a full body deodorant after she uses the stream of water in the cave to wash off the last few day’s residue. Jaden also finds the bag as fascinating as cooking breakfast.

  Gage keeps his distance from Summer, letting her decide how close or far away she chooses to be to him. She’s not sure what to do with the freedom he provides, but enjoys it all the same. They all sit in a circle around the cooked breakfast as the sun hits the rushing water and bathes the cavernous cave in a crimson dawn. La lunamow is served in an Asian-type sauce with the strangest kind of beef Summer’s ever tasted. As she literally licks the spoon clean, Gage offers up the rest of his food. She hesitates for a moment.

  “It’s okay, take it,” he offers again. She accepts it, ravenous from lack of food the past several days. When she finishes with his portion, her belly finally feels full. This is the most energy she’s had in weeks, it seems.

  The waterfall, constantly in the background, suddenly becomes a vibrating mass of rippling water. “Ah, that would be the transport. They’re earlier than they said.” Cameron jumps to her feet. “Perfect.”

  A flat, oval-shaped, silver hovercraft brakes through the water, and the dust in the cave scatters in a storm. The noise from the wailing wind created by the hovercraft is deafening, and all she can hear is the hovercraft’s engine echoing through the caves passageways and reverberating back. Summer covers her eyes and crouches down, unsure how to react. She reaches out, hoping to find Gage. Not really knowing why she would be looking for him in the first place. It’s automatic, she realizes. I am searching for him because I trust him. Before she can digest this bit of insight, a hand grasps hers and yanks her harshly to her feet. Blinking, she stares into the face of Max, one of the soldiers of the Canadian League. Her face drains of color. For a moment she considers resisting, but doesn’t know what will happen if she does.

  Max, without the scowl, looks terrifying all on his own. His almost-white hair, grey eyes, and milky skin give him a sadistic appearance. With a locked jaw, his eyes squinting at her like she’s just an annoying spider he can easily kill by knocking down her already-weak web, he looks more like a predator. Summer’s light weight makes her easy to throw around, and that’s exactly what Max does. His fingers clasp around her right wrist, pitch her across the cave and right through the open hovercraft door. It’s Paige, the other soldier in the Canadian League, who catches her, yanks her arm up behind her back painfully, and smiles delightfully as Gage storms the hovercraft, yelling at them. His voice is lost in the chaos. Cameron’s arm wraps around Jaden protectively, her cheekbones sharp, eyes starving for a fight, as they step through the hovercraft’s doors. The door shuts, and it’s like everyone’s gone deaf it’s so quiet. There isn’t an eye that isn’t huge, everyone in various states of upset.

  A painful, achingly silent second goes by before Gage yanks something black from his belt and slams it into Paige’s neck. She jerks behind Summer as the blow hits Paige, but she doesn’t let go. Summer’s eyes are still wide with shock and fright. Her body shakes with uncontrollable tremors, and her blood freezes in her veins. I should’ve known my good luck wouldn’t last long.

  “What do you think you’re doing, Brooks?” Gage’s tone is bitingly cold as he regards the situation. The light angles from behind him, and his blonde hair and beautifully angry face are framed like a painting. “Let go of her now. That’s an order! And I won’t repeat it.”

  “Or you’ll what? Knock me out? Oh, I’m shaking in my boots,” Paige sneers, goading him. A strange, delighted smile creeps up her face. “She’s just a blue-eyed savage, just like the rest of them.”

  Summer’s arm and shoulder begins to tingle with a pins and needles sensation, her fingers already numb.

  “If you aren’t going to follow the orders of your commanding officer, I will do what is necessary to obtain order again.” Gage’s teeth grit, his green eyes hardening into bright, intelligent emeralds. “Your name is Paige Brooks, not fate, therefore you have no right to decide anything about Summer’s life!”

  When Paige doesn’t let go, there’s a second of buzzing, and then she almost collapses on top of Summer. Gage’s arm snaps forward and pulls Summer out of harm’s way as Paige’s body hits the ground with a thud, her jaw hanging slack. There’s a collective intake of breath as Gage replaces the device that just knocked her out into his belt.

  “All of this for an Outlander, Appleton?” Max shouts as he bends down to check on Paige.

  “I’m pretty sure neither of you own a soul, Everfast,” Gage says with not even a tinge of emotion. He pushes Summer behind him, and Jaden pulls her into her arms. “If this was your sister, wouldn’t you want her to be given the proper medical care if she was in this condition?”

  Max jumps to his feet and stands only inches away from Gage’s face. “My sister isn’t some scarred, dumb slave who’s malnourished. Even in the past no one wanted Summer badly enough to keep her safe!”

  Gage takes two steps back, deeply inhales two breaths, and swallows twice compulsively. “You’re right, you’re sister’s busy selling her body for food and shelter. How old is her most recent husband? A hundred and twenty? Kind of young for her.”

  Max flies at him, face ashen grey with fury. His fists are held high, punching wildly at the air. Gage ducks and punches him in the gut, suddenly throwing his elbow out to catch him right under the ribs, too. Max, on the verge of collapsing to the ground, grasps his stomach with a sharp intake of breath. “Splash,” he curses, breathless.

  “Shut up you babbling idiot! If you ever come after me again, Everfast, you will be suspended.” Gage’s voice is robust with authority and power. “And you know what that means? Another year in the Canadian League, soldier. I can make your life a living hell, Everfast. I can make you a Lifer if you don’t clean up your temper.” He points his finger at Max, the gesture threatening. “And if you ever touch Summer, or go after her in any way, being suspended will be the least of your problems. You got that?”

  Max coughs and nods.

  Gage pivots around, his face a mask of outrage, and strides straight to the sliding doors at the front of the hovercraft. He raises his hand and wipes it across the air before him. The doors glide away and Gage steps through.

  At the far end of the hovercraft, Summer finds a seat and tries to fold into herself. With Paige slack-jawed on the ground, and Max still gasping for breath, Summer feels a sort of queasy relief.

  “John and Casey! It’s so good to see you,” Summer hears Gage greet the men on the other side of the door. She can hear laughter as the men joke around. “Listen, men, I just want to make sure we’re headed to the right place. We need to drop off two patients at Phantomship Medical Institute. These other two bozos need to be taken home—they are taking the day off. No exceptions!”

  “Yes, sir!” they say nervously, their joking laughter gone.

  “What’s our ETA?”

  “Twenty five minutes, sir. Communication has been up and down all week, so we might stay airborne for longer if we don’t get permission to land.”

  “Thank you, men.”

  Gage exits, and the door slides shut behind him. He immediately locks eyes with a frightened Summer who sits in the farthest corner with her legs drawn up, arms around her knees. Jaden perches next to her and Cameron relaxes in the other corner. Gage wavers for a second, barely taking time to glance at the other two, before he goes straight to Summer and crouches down so she is higher, making him less intimidating. He rubs his temples in frustration. The tension still arcs in the air like tendrils of zinging electricity.

  “One step forward, two steps back,” he says with a sigh and drops his hands.

  Summer stares back through her brilliant blue eyes, not knowing how to react.

  “You always look at me with all the profound sadness in the world.
” He reaches for her hand, and she flinches just slightly before she grips his hand with all the intensity in her. The tension dissolves in the air like fine mist.

  “I had no idea they’d be aboard—I guess I should have assumed since we would all be in the same area. It would be ridiculous to send two transports all the way out in the middle of nowhere when they could send just one. Anyway, I’m sorry. I should have stopped Max before he got to you. Those two seem to foul up everything they touch.”

  She squeezes his hand reassuringly. Gage takes the open seat on her right, and Summer immediately seizes his palm, ready to change the subject. “Are you a faerie?” she writes across his palm with a calm she doesn’t feel inside. She’s still not convinced they aren’t real.

  He coughs a laugh.

  She writes, “This hovercraft just wouldn’t work if you weren’t a faerie.” Logic.

  “You’re unfathomably precious, you know that?” His eyes shine with reluctant amusement.

  She shakes her head, a grin capturing her immediately.

  “But no, I’m not one.” His grim expression smoothes, and the wrinkles on his forehead disappear. “This hovercraft practically negates magic. It’s purely scientific, no magical spells.”

  Before he can continue, she glides her fingers softly against his palm again, not writing anything. The wrinkles appear on his forehead again, and she reaches up with her thumb and smoothes them out for him. “I’m only playing,” she writes, and then continues her graceful movements across his palm.

  Gage smiles, his head lain back, and closes his eyes. “It feels nice.”

  “I’m going to wait until we get to the hospital to check you out, Summer,” Cameron interrupts. “Just relax until then.” Cameron glares over at angry Max and the unconscious Paige on the other side of the hovercraft.

  To the left of Summer, Jaden bounces excitedly in her seat. It’s one of the qualities Summer really likes about Jaden: she doesn’t let anything bother her. While Summer’s scanning every room she walks into for threats, Jaden’s running through the hailstorms head on. Yet Jaden stands triumphant, smiling and giddy at everything she sees around her. It’s not the same for Summer. She’s jealous of Jaden’s sense of adventure, but she wonders if deep down Jaden is just as jaded as she is. It’s a black thought, really. If not—and she hopes not—she considers Jaden one of the greatest mysterious of the universe. And more importantly, her friend.