Strike

by D. J. MacHale

  “This is it,” I said. “Ready?”

  Tori nodded. Kent nodded.

  There wasn’t a living soul between us and the dome, only small piles of burning plane wreckage.

  “I am too,” I said. “It’s time to find out what the hell this is about.”

  I got to my feet and ran.

  Kent and Tori were right behind me.

  It was the last leg of a journey that began on Pemberwick Island and would end at the gate to hell.

  ELEVEN

  We sprinted directly for the dome and the massive door that was a quarter of the way around the structure from us. A missile shot by overhead, streaked past the huge steel igloo, and slammed into the ground causing a minor earthquake-like rumble that nearly knocked us off our feet but didn’t stop us from moving. We had committed and there was nothing that would keep us from reaching our goal.

  “Damn, this thing is big,” Kent exclaimed.

  He was looking up at the structure that towered over us. From this close we couldn’t see the top since the shape of the building curved in to a center point. The sheer enormity of it took my breath away.

  Tori put her hand on the surface.

  “I thought it would be hot,” she said. “I don’t know why.”

  “Because it’s a doorway into hell, that’s why,” Kent said.

  I started moving again, quickly making my way counter-clockwise around the circular base of the building, headed for the giant door.

  “You realize we’re running square into a bull’s-eye,” Kent said.

  I picked up the pace and sprinted. There was no reason to be cautious. We would either be hit or we wouldn’t.

  We ran for a solid thirty seconds without reaching the door. That’s how massive this thing was. I finally caught sight of what looked like a vertical beam running up the side of the building in front of us.

  “It’s the edge of the door frame,” I announced. “We’re almost there.”

  I slowed down, more to catch my breath than out of caution. We were only a few yards from the opening when a black shape appeared, moving out from within. I put on the brakes and got down on one knee as the others joined me to watch a Retro fighter drone float out from within. It moved slowly, only a few feet off of the ground. The three of us crouched close to the outer wall of the dome in the hopes that whoever was controlling this killer drone wouldn’t spot us. The musical sound of its engine grew louder as the entire length of its stingray-shaped fuselage was revealed. The craft drifted forward slowly until it completely cleared the door frame. Once it was in the open, the fighter instantly picked up speed and launched skyward to enter the dogfight.

  “This place is like a freaking clown-car,” Kent said, stunned.

  “They must be assembling the drones inside,” I said.

  “How is that possible?” Tori asked skeptically. “We’ve watched planes come out of there for days but I haven’t seen a single shipment of parts going in.”

  “So you think they’re just magically appearing in there?”

  “I don’t know what to think,” Tori said with frustration. “But I’m dying to find out.”

  I could have kissed her. She wanted to see what was in there as much as I did.

  “You okay, Kent?” I asked.

  He hesitated a second, giving the question some real thought. He then nodded and said, “Yeah. Yeah I am. I’m tired of wondering who these guys are.”

  That was all I needed to hear. I jumped up and took off running the last few yards to the doorway. I stopped when I reached the outer edge of the frame and looked back at Tori and Kent.

  “Keep going, we’re with you,” Tori said with confidence.

  I felt my gut twist. This was it. From the moment SYLO had invaded Pemberwick Island, we had wondered what the forces were that had turned our lives inside out. We were finally going to find out. The idea suddenly terrified me, though not enough to stop me from pushing on.

  I took a cautious peek around the corner in case there were any Retro soldiers, or Retro drones, on their way out. I didn’t see a single soul, so with a quick nod to the others I rounded the corner and entered the dome.

  I had no real expectations as to what we would find in there. Part of me thought it would be like the giant hangar at Area 51 with several Retro drones waiting to be activated. Or maybe there would be some kind of high-tech assembly line that was spitting out the fighter planes. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see teams of Retro soldiers hunkering down in the seemingly indestructible dome, waiting for the attack to pass, or harried Air Force officers in front of a massive map, plotting the eradication of the rest of the world’s population. Seeing any of those things would have made sense.

  What we actually saw made no sense at all.

  The cavernous space was empty. No soldiers, no parts, no planes, no clue at all as to why SYLO would want to throw its might into destroying it. The floor was so clean you could eat off it. The internal framework of the super structure, with its heavy-duty steel girders, rose high into the air, meeting at the peak, which had to be at least forty stories overhead.

  Halfway around the dome, one on either side, were two rounded, egg-shaped structures that looked to be built into the outer walls. They were iron pods of some sort with open hatches that showed their walls to be well over a foot thick. The interior of each pod looked to be the size of a small room. The word EMERGENCY was stenciled in bold red letters on each door.

  Other than these two odd, heavily reinforced little emergency rooms, there was nothing in the colossal space but air. The dome was no more than an enclosed void . . .

  . . . with one notable feature, and it was a big one.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Kent said.

  It was a movie screen.

  At least it looked like a movie screen. It was gigantic, like the kind you’d see in an old-time drive-in movie. It reached from side-to-side of the cavernous dome and rose at least thirty feet into the air. The entire “screen” was encased in a massive, solid frame that looked like it could have been manufactured a century ago. It was three feet wide all the way around and looked to be made out of cast iron and painted light green. I guess you could call it old-school industrial looking. There was nothing about it that looked even close to something that was built by the same people who had the advanced technology to create the predator drones that fired incinerating lasers.

  “It doesn’t look like a gate to hell,” Tori said, stunned. “Or to anywhere else.”

  The only sign that this monstrosity was anything other than a simple screen was the surface itself. It was arctic white, but it gave off a soft glow that made me think it was somehow energized.

  “It’s like, I can’t focus on it,” I said.

  “Maybe it’s a giant computer monitor,” Tori said. “I mean, these guys are pretty high-tech, right?”

  I walked slowly to the left, with the idea of looking behind the screen to see if it might be hiding something on the opposite side of the dome. Our footsteps echoed through the silent cavern. The only other sound came from the ongoing battle that raged outside. Every so often another explosion would rock the dome, but its foundation was solid enough that there was barely any shaking.

  “Are we crazy for being in here?” Kent asked. “SYLO is trying to blast this thing into oblivion.”

  I ignored him. I was too curious about the screen.

  We reached the far left side, where we could see that the frame was about four feet thick. It was definitely a massive piece of industrial hardware. Rounding the structure we could see the back surface of the screen. It was a plain jet-black wall with no glow.

  “Whatever this thing does, it’s all about the front side,” Tori said. “Maybe they control the fighter planes from in here and—”

  “Wait,” I said. “There’s a plane coming. I hear music
.

  We hid behind the screen, while peering around the edge to the open door of the dome. I expected to see a black drone floating in from outside at any second.

  Four more Navy jets screamed past in the distant sky, being chased by a half dozen Retro fighters.

  “This battle’s not going to last much longer,” I said. “There are too many Retro planes.”

  “Yeah,” Tori said, numb. “And here comes another one.”

  The nose of a Retro drone appeared . . . not at the door of the dome, but out of the screen right next to us.

  “Whoa,” Kent exclaimed. He backed quickly away until he hit the far wall of the dome.

  We crowded together and watched in awe as a Retro fighter, complete with its musical engine humming, floated out of the glowing screen.

  “That’s . . . that’s not possible,” Kent muttered, numbly.

  From where we stood we could see both sides of the screen. The plane was definitely not coming through from the back side. It was appearing out of the screen itself.

  “It’s being created,” Tori said with a gasp. “That’s how they’re making so many planes. They don’t need parts. Or workers. This screen, or whatever it is, is creating them.”

  “You mean like a design program that actually spits out something real?” Kent asked.

  “I don’t know what I mean,” Tori shot back. “Except whatever this thing is, it’s giving birth.”

  The plane was nearly out, but the screen wasn’t finished.

  Something else came out of the screen that made Tori’s theory fall apart.

  It was a Retro soldier.

  “No!” Kent exclaimed, too loud.

  The soldier stopped abruptly and shot a look our way. As soon as he registered three prisoners dressed in orange, he tensed up and raised his black baton.

  “Scatter!” I screamed.

  The others moved instantly. The only way we could avoid getting shot by his baton-weapon was if we became three different moving targets.

  Kent ducked behind the screen; I ran toward the floating plane to use it as a shield and Tori went straight for the door.

  The soldier fired wildly, missing all of us. The burst of energy from his weapon hit the inner wall of the dome with a sharp crackle of power and dissipated quickly.

  Both Tori and I dodged and weaved, trying to be difficult targets. My idea was to stay near the plane, thinking the soldier wouldn’t risk damaging it. I hoped that Tori would make it out of the dome entirely. Kent, on the other hand, had disappeared behind the screen. He may have been protected from being shot right away, but if Tori and I went down he’d be trapped back there.

  “Come on!” I shouted to the soldier. “You know you want to blow me away.”

  I was trying to taunt him into coming after me and forgetting about Tori.

  The guy looked indecisive. He waved the wand back and forth between the two of us, unsure of which he should target. That’s exactly what I wanted in order to buy Tori enough time to get out.

  “Can’t get me, can you?” I shouted. “You look scared. Why don’t you put that down and come after me? I’m a lousy primate. You’re a trained soldier. But you’re scared because you know you can’t take me.”

  I was throwing out everything I could think of to keep his attention on me.

  The guy fired and I dove to the ground, rolled, and bounced back up. A quick glance showed that Tori was nearly at the door. She would get out and I hoped she wouldn’t stop until she had left the camp.

  I found myself directly between the floating aircraft and the soldier.

  “What’s the matter?” I taunted. “Afraid you might get busted for missing me and hitting one of your drones? Drop the weapon and fight fair.”

  The guy fired. He didn’t care about the drone, or fighting fair.

  I hit the deck again. The charge missed me and pinged off the wing of the aircraft. The jolt was like a wake-up call to whoever was controlling it. The musical engine powered up and before I could get back to my feet, the craft blasted out of the dome at full speed.

  I was left on the floor, twenty feet away from the soldier, with nothing to hide behind and nothing to stop him from spraying his weapon in my direction until he hit me.

  The soldier knew it too. He was in no hurry. With a confident laugh he slowly raised the baton in my direction. All I could do was wait until he was about to fire and then dodge to try and make an impossible target. But that wouldn’t save me for long. He would eventually connect and I’d be done.

  “What is this thing?” I called to him. I wanted to buy as much time as possible. “How did the plane come out of there?”

  The soldier wasn’t about to start a conversation. He raised the baton and took aim.

  I waited until the last possible second and then . . .

  Kent tackled the guy from the side.

  The soldier never saw him coming. The force knocked the weapon out of his hand but rather than go for it, he fought back against Kent. Kent was bigger but the soldier was, well, a soldier. He was a trained fighter. Once the surprise was gone, Kent wouldn’t have much hope of beating him.

  Unless I got to the weapon.

  The two of them were locked in a vicious wrestling match. Kent tried desperately to pin the guy down but the soldier was too strong. He got to his feet, lifting Kent up on his back like a pro-wrestler, and threw him to the deck. Violently. Kent hit with a sickening thud.

  The soldier turned back to retrieve his weapon and saw me going for it. He broke into a run, but didn’t get far because Kent wasn’t done. He grabbed the guy’s legs, trying to tackle him. The guy kicked to get away but Kent was tenacious. He got his own feet back under himself and yanked the soldier back to keep him away from the baton.

  That gave me time to sweep the baton up off of the floor.

  “Let him go!” I screamed to Kent but I don’t think either of them heard.

  The soldier turned on Kent and threw a punch. Kent let go of him and ducked. It was a good thing because the roundhouse was powerful. If it had connected, Kent would have been knocked cold. He dodged the punch and charged the solder again, nailing him with his shoulder and wrapping his arms around him.

  “Shoot!” Kent yelled.

  I couldn’t. I would stand just as much chance of hitting Kent as the soldier.

  “Back off!” I screamed at Kent. “Let him go!”

  Kent must have thought I was yelling at the soldier but all I wanted was for Kent to get away from the guy so I could get a clear shot.

  With an adrenaline-fueled cry, the soldier shot both of his arms upward, breaking Kent’s grip. He then charged at him like a bull going for a red cape. Kent ducked to get out of the way, but wasn’t fast enough. The soldier nailed him hard in the chest and wrapped him up like a charging linebacker. He kept his legs pumping, driving Kent backward . . .

  . . . directly for the glowing screen.

  Kent was off balance and couldn’t get his feet under him. I braced myself, ready for the collision when Kent hit the flat surface.

  The soldier kept driving.

  I winced.

  The two hit the screen . . .

  . . . and disappeared.

  There was no crash. No collision. No broken bones.

  One moment the two of them were there, and the next second they had been swallowed up by the glowing screen.

  “What was that?” Tori cried as she ran up to me.

  “I . . . I don’t know,” I said, stunned. I then focused on her and said, “You were supposed to get out of here.”

  She didn’t reply. All she could do was stare at the blank screen, dumbfounded.

  “They’re dead,” she said, stunned.

  I looked to the screen, my mind racing.

  “I don’t think so. The soldier came out of there. So
did the plane and probably all the other planes we’ve ever seen. That’s not a computer screen—or an incubator or a magic box that makes planes and people.”

  “Then what is it?” Tori asked.

  “I think it’s a doorway.”

  “But there’s nothing behind it,” she argued.

  “Not here there isn’t,” I said. “I think that doorway leads to someplace else.”

  “You mean like . . . hell?”

  “Maybe. But those drones didn’t just appear out of thin air. They came from somewhere. And that soldier stepped out like there was nothing to it. I think there’s something through there and that’s what this dome is all about. SYLO doesn’t care about blowing up this metal can, they’re trying to get to that thing.”

  We stood there, breathing hard, staring at the glowing, white wall.

  “It’s over,” Tori said.

  “What is?”

  “The attack. Listen. No more explosions. No more screaming fighters. SYLO’s given up.”

  “That means the Retro soldiers will start crawling out of their holes,” I said.

  Tori gave a quick look to the door of the dome, then back to the glowing white screen.

  “This is it, Tucker. The answers are in there. Kent’s already made it.”

  “He saved my life, again,” I said.

  “He did. You owe him. You want the truth? We’ll find it through there.”

  I could already hear the sounds of activity outside of the dome. The soldiers were on their way back.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “It’s the most sure I’ve been about anything since we left home,” she replied.

  My heart was racing. Was Tori right? Were we about to find the answers we had been so desperately searching for? Or would we be vaporized?

  I handed Tori the black baton.

  “Take this,” I said.

  “Don’t get all macho-protective. I can handle myself.”

  “I know. That’s why I want you to have it. You’re a way better shot than me.”

  Tori gave me a small smile and took the baton.

  “I meant what I said before, Tucker,” she said.