by Eliza Green
Quintus said, ‘The Originals respond to emotions. I noticed that early on, but the other nine didn’t agree. So we carried out more tests on the emotions of the participants. In Arcis, with the last set, a little loyalty appeared to go a long way to earning trust.’
Carissa stared at Julius, a newborn like Jerome, but who listened to the Collective. The whistle to return the wolves and Copies to safety must have accelerated his own plans for action.
Dom had dropped his gun on the ground and was trying to reason with Julius. But Carissa knew the newborn served only one. In the city, Julius’ experiences with the rebels would be picked apart and used to strengthen the Collective’s position in this battle.
Julius could not be allowed to leave.
‘Convince the rebel leader to call this off and surrender our property.’ Quintus’ voice sounded harried and stressed. ‘That includes you, 173-C. We do not need sustenance out here. We can last longer than the humans.’
She spoke low so as not to attract attention. ‘What’s wrong, Quintus?’
‘Nothing, why?’
‘You’re eager to have us return yet you can survive without us. You can make more Copies.’
‘Yes, but we need the experiences of the Copies that have lived among the rebels. We must learn how to cross over to the Beyond. Time is running out for us.’
Running out?
‘What’s happened to the city, Quintus?’
Rover jerked forward suddenly, forcing Carissa to grip the handhold tighter.
She saw Julius was making progress, more than she liked. She glanced down to see Jacob was no longer paying attention to her. She slid off Rover’s back and hit the ground with a thud. As soon as she did, Rover took off towards the digging machines where the other beasts were.
Jacob spun round in shock. ‘Carissa!’ He pulled her to her feet. She brushed the dirt off her trousers. ‘What are you doing?’
Her voice came out as a squeak. ‘My NMC is working again, Inventor. Quintus is talking to me.’
Quintus said in her head, ‘Convince the Inventor to return to the city.’
Jacob’s gaze hardened. ‘What is he asking you to do?’
She told him the truth. ‘He wants us back. But he wants Julius more because he’s had experience with the rebels. We have to stop him.’
Jacob glanced around uneasily.
He grabbed Carissa’s arm suddenly. ‘Remember where your files are?’
‘What is his answer, 173-C?’ said Quintus.
Her security files; the Inventor had shown her how to access them. She nodded, relieved Quintus could only hear her, not the Inventor.
‘Grab what you can before he terminates access, and save them to your backup.’
Carissa concentrated on the connection to the city, made possible again by Quintus’ efforts to contact her. She opened the database that gave her access to maps and security codes. Though she was sure the Collective would revoke it after her attempts. She found over-ground maps and underground ones with incomplete sections. She grabbed maps of the city’s medical facility and designs for the Guardians and Copies. And any medical data she could.
‘I can sense you, 173-C,’ said Quintus. ‘Whatever you are looking for won’t matter if your friends are all dead. Stop what you’re doing, and I promise not to hurt them.’
Carissa froze.
The Inventor looked down at her. ‘What is it?’
‘He’s threatening to hurt you all.’
The old man’s mouth pressed into a thin, white line. ‘Access the command frequency code, Carissa. Do it now, before he can change it.’
Carissa found it in her security files. They had been updated, but her access had not been revoked. ‘I have it.’
The Inventor nodded. ‘Now use it.’
He ran over to Max, who was watching Dom, and spoke to him. Max looked over at her.
She whistled hard. The ground shook suddenly as three Guardians, including Rover, thundered towards their group. The startled Copies who rode the beasts fell to the ground. The orbs flying erratically overhead circled above Carissa’s head now. She ignored them and saw Max raise his weapon while the Inventor grabbed Dom’s discarded Disruptor. He handed the more lethal weapon to Max and took control of the Atomiser. Dom continued to keep Julius in his sights. Other soldiers had joined his efforts.
Carissa watched the three beasts come. Rover, she noticed, stuck to one in particular.
Max aimed for the other one, but the Inventor stopped him and pointed at the one Rover followed. ‘That one.’
‘Hurry!’ she said, guessing Quintus would change the code and call his Guardians back.
Charlie grabbed a spare Electro Gun and joined Max. The Disruptor in Max’s hand shook with the power stolen from the frozen Copy on the ground. Charlie pointed his Electro Gun at the Guardian that Rover followed and hit it. The beast came to a shuddering halt while the second Guardian slowed in confusion. Rover slowed too and part whined part growled at Charlie.
The Inventor fired the Atomiser at a section of the fallen Guardian. Max followed up with a blast from the Disruptor to disable it. The old man tossed the weapon aside and accessed the control panel through a de-atomised hole, then disconnected the beast’s central command. The wolf went into full shutdown mode.
‘It’s just temporary,’ said the Inventor. ‘When he reboots, he’ll listen to the first voice he hears.’
A new whistle sounded in Carissa’s head and almost deafened her. She covered her ears to drown out the noise. Quintus had changed the command frequency code.
The beast they’d failed to stop shook away its confusion at losing its directive then looked around at the group. Its yellow gaze sharpened in tandem with a snapping, snarling threat directed at the people before him. Rover lay down and rested his head on top of the deactivated Guardian.
‘You’ve made a huge mistake, 173-C,’ said Quintus. ‘One you will pay for dearly.’
36
Dom
Dom hadn’t noticed the activity happening behind him. If he had, he’d have grabbed one of the soldier’s weapons and run over to help. It was their shocked faces that alerted him to the impending danger. He spun round, Julius forgotten, to see one of the beasts knock Max to the ground. The impact dislodged the Disruptor from his hand. It skittered across the dirt. Dom ran over to the fight and grabbed the gun from where it had landed. He checked the charge to find it was empty.
With a huff, he exchanged the Disruptor for the Atomiser that had been discarded nearby. He aimed the weapon at the Guardian that was stalking towards Max and Jacob. The blast found its mark but did little more than de-atomise a section of the hardened exoskeleton. Without a blast from the Disruptor, the structure would repair itself.
Kaylie and Imogen rushed forward and fired their electrical weapons at the hole Dom had made, but it had already closed up.
Dom set the Atomiser to fire again but the rogue Guardian lunged at Max and snapped him up in his teeth, shaking him from side to side. Max’s screams punctured the air, setting Dom’s teeth on edge. He grappled with the gun and released another blast. Kaylie and Imogen fired at the hole faster this time. The Guardian yelped and released Max. But the damage was done. Dom swallowed hard as the sound of Max’s bones breaking filled the air.
The injured Guardian refocused on its new aggressors: Kaylie and Imogen. They coaxed the wolf away from Max, giving Dom space to check on him.
His face was a bloodied mess, but worse, his eyes were closed. Dom pressed two fingers to his neck. No pulse.
Rage bubbled up in his throat. He released it in a loud yell. Dom snatched up the Disruptor gun and strode over to the soldiers in the middle of the battlefield, frozen in shock and staring at their dead colonel.
He stopped before them. ‘Protect the others.’
Anya and her team, including Vanessa, were being attacked by diving orbs.
The soldiers ran off to help them.
He assessed the chaotic scene
as Max’s death forced him into a new role. A shocked Jacob stared at him. Two soldiers restrained Charlie as he attempted to get to Max. Imogen and Kaylie continued to lead the rogue Guardian away. Sheila glanced at Dom, looking for guidance.
Hell, he had no clue. Dom ran a shaky hand through his hair and assessed the rest of the scene.
Julius. He turned to see the Collective’s mole and his two newborns had almost reached the digging machines, with Jerome and Alex their prisoners. But with a vicious Guardian loose and two more headed this way, he couldn’t think about them right now.
Several armed Copies followed the pair of Guardians, this time on foot. Dom knew to win this everyone had to work together.
He only had a few seconds to get this right, or as close to right as he could.
He looked over at Anya, armed and ready for combat, as were Jason, Warren and Vanessa. The orbs were a nuisance, but Anya, he saw, understood the real danger lay elsewhere. While the soldiers fired at the orbs, she had a fast talk with them, then pointed at the approaching Guardians and Copies.
Dom’s gaze flicked back to the danger. ‘I need everyone to listen to me. We don’t have much time. These things are coming. Real bullets will injure the Copies, not immobilise them, but we need to slow them down. So get Anya’s team out from defence and swap your guns for theirs. I need everyone else to create a distraction for the Guardians. Don’t get too close to them.’
His stomach lurched as soon as he suggested it. The team with the least experience would have to fight alongside the soldiers.
Anya and her team stepped up and swapped their revolvers for guns that shot electricity. Not as effective as the Electro guns, but they would deal damage. When one of the soldiers tried to swap with Anya, she held on and raced towards Imogen’s group.
The valley was left unprotected. The soldiers in the trucks, stuck in the dangerous terrain and the camp’s only mode of transport, were on their own now.
Two Guardians under the Collective’s control ran rings around the main group surrounding Carissa, Charlie and the Inventor. Intermittent blasts of electricity nipped at them and kept them away. After what had just happened to Max, Dom was tempted to hand Jacob and Carissa over. But if it hadn’t been for the Inventor or the young Copy, they wouldn’t be here right now.
The one other thing that kept the Guardians at bay surprised him more: June.
She was following the attackers’ arc around the group. Whenever she lunged at them, they startled and took a step back. Dom wondered if what she carried might save her life—all their lives.
The Copies scattered and fired Electro shots into their group. A couple of soldiers were hit and dropped to the ground. Dom knew the Electro Guns weren’t enough to kill, but if the Collective had modified them, he couldn’t assume anything. The two hit soldiers writhed in pain on the ground.
Out of action. But still alive.
While the Copies grappled with the soldiers protecting Jacob and Carissa, Dom turned his attention to the first of the beasts. A dejected looking Rover still sat beside the decommissioned beast. Dom called him over. Rover looked up and trotted over tentatively, glancing back at the Guardian he’d left behind on the ground. But the second Dom stalked closer to one of the Collective’s Guardians, Rover perked up and fell into step. He heard him growl behind him. The sound comforted him; he would not be doing this alone.
On his sweeping arc around the team that now also protected Vanessa, he tapped June’s arm. ‘The wolves are avoiding you. Come with us?’
She replied with a nod and kept her steely gaze on the two Guardians running laps around the team. Rover kept pace with Dom. As he’d already seen, the beasts refused to get close to June. The Collective must have warned them not to hurt her.
June had one of the Electro Guns. But his Disruptor was out of charge.
He held it up. ‘This thing needs power. I need you to fire at one of the Guardians.’ June flashed him an unsure look. ‘Trust me, the beast won’t harm you.’
She raised her weapon and nestled it into the crook of her shoulder. She fired and her shot crackled in the air. Dom steadied his weapon as the energy blast filled and shook his gun. The beast looked over, head low, looking ready to charge. Dom swapped the Disruptor for the Atomiser and aimed it at the beast’s belly while Rover chased the second Guardian around. He fired once; it exposed the delicate innards of the beast with his shot. He swapped the guns over and shot the juiced-up Disruptor at the open wound. The wolf went limp and dropped to the dirt.
‘Jacob, I need you!’ shouted Dom.
He had to risk the Inventor’s life for the next part.
Two soldiers shadowed the old man as he ran to the site of the fallen Guardian. He slid down to the ground and worked fast to disconnect the beast’s power supply.
Dom looked up to see the second Guardian running straight for him. It had shaken Rover’s pursuit. The Collective’s Guardian lunged at him, like it had with Max, knocking both guns out of his hand and Dom to the ground. June couldn’t get there fast enough to counteract the beast’s command. As it winched open its jaw, Dom caught a flash of jagged, metal teeth glistening with saliva. A breath rushed out of him and he raised his left arm, just as a set of teeth clamped down on it. He squeezed his eyes shut and braced for the pain, but nothing more than a sting hit him. Opening his eyes, he checked the damage. The beast had punctured his flesh only; his teeth had hit the new arm the Collective had given him.
He looked up in surprise at his super arm. The beast shook Dom to get loose. He gritted his teeth through the new pain. Jacob, he saw, had finished with the other Guardian.
‘Jacob,’ he said nodding at the Atomiser. ‘The gun.’
The Inventor grabbed it and pointed it at the beast. He fired once. But without a second blast from the Disruptor, the beast continued to move.
‘You have to do it now.’
Dom controlled the thrashing beast as best as he could. Jacob cursed as he tried to locate the wriggling Guardian’s control panel. June’s presence, along with two soldiers who protected Jacob, appeared to unsettle the beast even more.
Dom stared into the yellow eyes of the wolf that, if it weren’t for his surgery, would have ripped his arm right off. A strength he’d only seen a flash of kept the wolf under control.
Jacob did enough to take the wolf off line.
The creature released its hold on him, allowing a shaken Dom to ease his arm out of its jaw.
His arm was slick with blood, but Dom ignored it and surveyed the rest of the scene. The soldiers fought with a dozen Copies. From the chaotic scene, he couldn’t tell who was winning. A Copy went down and a sharp whistle sounded. The Copies scuffled back amid peppered gunfire, returning to the digging machines that Dom now knew were only there as cover.
The rebel soldiers relaxed their tense posture around a terrified Carissa, Vanessa and an angry Charlie. Charlie broke free from his protection to go to Max.
Dom searched for Anya to find her staring in shock at something on the ground.
What the hell?
And that’s when he saw the familiar faces. Dead.
37
Dom
He stared at the carnage around him. Bodies from both sides lay dead on the ground. The Copies had beaten a hasty retreat back to their position of safety. Dom assumed the whistle had come from the Collective.
The defeated Guardians lay broken and abandoned. A panting Jacob straightened up after decommissioning the latest one. Rover sniffed around the decommissioned wolves, whining in confusion and looking at Jacob.
Everyone had been shocked into a similar state of numbness. But with Max gone, Dom had no time to grieve the dead. He walked over to Charlie, who had bent over the body of his dead son.
He hunkered down beside him. ‘I’m really sorry, Charlie.’
Charlie nodded but kept his eyes on Max.
Dom swallowed back the lump in his throat as he stood and checked out the opposing scene. The diggers were in a
state of retreat, kicking up plumes of dust into the air. The Copies had rallied around Julius and his two rogue soldiers, helping to corral Jerome and Alex away. A few Guardians that hadn’t been sent into battle carried extra passengers on their backs.
Dom waited to make sure they weren’t coming back. The orbs that had acted like pests followed after the fleet, but one flew in the opposite direction. Dom tracked its movement overhead to see it heading for Jacob’s open hand. The old man lifted his hand up and the orb he had reprogrammed landed in it. Dom wondered what information the device had captured.
But a more serious situation surrounded him: the troops who’d been stunned into silent submission. They could do no more out here. The camp would serve as their haven for a while longer, long enough to regroup and figure out a way to rescue Jerome and Alex.
June cried out in pain.
And to find out what lived inside of June.
Half the soldiers looked to Dom; the other half had rallied around some fallen soldiers. His eyes went to Anya red eyed and crying, staring down at someone. Sheila tried to lead her away, but Anya pushed her off.
Dom’s heart thumped in his throat on his walk over to her. His breaths shortened to a fine, painful point. Who else was dead?
He shoved soldiers aside in his attempts to reach Anya. His bloody arm drew more than a few curious glances. She didn’t look up from the ground. He saw who had caught her attention.
Jason.
Lying on top of him was Warren. He must have thrown himself on top of Anya’s brother.
Sheila looked up at Dom, her eyes an equal shade of red to Anya’s.
‘A Copy fired at Jason. Warren tried to protect him, but he was too late. The Copy caught him with a second blast, to the back.’
Dom’s mouth opened but no words came out. He’d hardly known Jason. And Warren? At least he’d died doing something worth a damn.
‘Anya, I’m so sorry...’
She looked up at him, wiping away another fat tear with her hand. But she said nothing.
