by K A Riley
One at a time, our faces wet with tears, we leave Kella, Granden, and the Insubordinates behind, and Wisp starts to climb the ladder into the truck.
“Now let’s have a look at your new digs,” she says. “I’ll show you around before you go.”
Still sad but laughing at the whirlwind of emotions I know we’re all experiencing, we line up behind Wisp and begin to follow her into the behemoth of a truck. Before it’s my turn, Render flutters down on wobbly wings and lands at my feet. I bend down to pick him up and tuck him under my arm. Usually, he’d be perched on my shoulder or flying around looking for food or a game to play, but he seems to need to be carried at the moment.
Despite his obvious fatigue, even he seems impressed by the massive vehicle. I don’t blame him. It’s an imposing and impressive sight that makes our other truck, the one we drove all by ourselves from Reno to Oakland, look like a hover-bike. It’s got body armor, wheels as tall as Wisp, and inside, according to Kammet, it’s got a water-storage tank, a fully-stocked pantry, and a dozen sleeping bunks that slide out of recessed compartments in the walls. Plus, as Kammet continues to boast from behind us, it’s got an integrated communication network system and medi-repository complete with an array of clinical supplies and diagnostic instruments.
Once on board, we marvel at the interior of our new mobile home.
“Okay, I take it back,” Cardyn gushes as he climbs the short set of extending steps and ducks through the steel-framed doorway on the side of the truck. “This thing is awesome!”
“And huge,” Rain points out, scanning the living quarters and offering up a series of impressed nods.
“It’s room you’re going to need,” Wisp promises. “This army of ours is just getting started.”
“As long as I don’t have to bunk with Manthy,” Cardyn moans.
“There’s plenty of room for you under the truck,” Manthy says, and there’s no doubt it’s a threat.
Ignoring my two constantly bickering friends, but grateful for the shift in mood, I walk around the truck’s spacious interior with Brohn at my side. The belly of the truck is practically a palace. It’s got a fully-stocked kitchen with a glistening marble countertop, two collapsible Cherrywood tables, four comfort-loungers, a bank of viz screens on one side, and a four-seat game console complete with a cache of VR-sims and holo-ball challenges on the other. In terms of comfort and distracting things to do, it’s literally the best place I’ve ever been in my life. When Brohn and I get to the back, we encounter a narrow metal ladder.
“Where does this go?” Brohn asks, peering up to where an open portal rains light down on us.
“That’s the Communications Pod,” Wisp tells us. “There’s a surprise for you up there. Go on up.”
I shield my eyes with my hand and look up into the pod before I clamber up with Brohn right behind me. We step into what looks like a small but fully furnished conference room where I see a familiar but very unexpected face.
“Olivia?”
Climbing up behind Brohn, Wisp giggles at our surprise and delight.
“You can’t do this next part without her. And she refused to stay behind anyway.”
“And you were able to disconnect her from the console in the Intel Room?”
“And secure me up here,” Olivia finishes. “Yes.”
She spins around in her swivel mag-chair in the middle of a buffet of consoles, monitors, and controls. Even her three hovering orb-monitors have come with her.
“What’s up there?” Rain calls from down below.
“Our saving grace,” Brohn calls back.
Rain and Cardyn, with Manthy dragging herself along behind, climb up into the tidy compartment and squeal their delight at seeing Olivia.
Rain and Manthy hug her on either side, and her tendrils wriggle and caress their shoulders until Wisp reminds us all that this is only the beginning and that our next mission awaits.
Epilogue
“I need to get back,” Wisp says, gesturing back down the Pod’s access ladder. “And you need to get going. But before we go our separate ways, though, we need to send a message.”
“Message?” I ask.
Wisp nods. “Time to spread the truth.” She turns to Olivia. “Are you ready to broadcast?”
Olivia says, “Nearly” and leans over her work station, her back to us, her tendrils woven into her monitors with lines of red code scrolling through the air in front of her.
Wisp turns to us and looks suddenly serious. “Most of the cities and their infrastructures have been wiped out with the populations consolidated in a few major cities: San Francisco, as you know. But also Chicago. Philadelphia. New York. New Orleans. Atlanta. Washington, D.C. The smaller cities are mostly gone. The medium-sized ones are on their way out and are being left to fail, turn into pits of violence, or become ghost towns. A lot of the land in between has been scorched by years of bombings, battles, and radiation fall-out. We’ve seen some of it. Granden’s seen it all. Millions have been exiled, imprisoned, or killed in the name of Krug’s war against the Eastern Order. It’s not going to be a pretty picture out there.”
Olivia swings around in her swiveling mag-chair to face us. “I forget sometimes how isolated you were. Wisp is right. The country isn’t what you think it is. A lot has changed during your time in the Valta.”
“We’ve seen some of it,” Brohn reminds her.
“Right,” Rain says. “Someone even shot at us in Reno.”
“Just to watch us die,” Cardyn sings out.
When Olivia looks confused, Manthy, along with an eye-roll for the ages, explains that it’s a line from an old song and apologizes for Cardyn being, and these are Manthy’s exact words: “a maniacal, human-shaped maggot sandwich.”
Olivia laughs her tinny laugh and then, with a series of indicator lights blinking to life behind her, swings back around to her monitors to announce the successful completion of her communication patch.
“It’ll have to be a pretty basic message,” she instructs us. “Quick. Simple. To the point. I can set it so it runs on a continuous loop on as many bandwidths, communication hubs, and network feeds as I can access. The Patriots will shut it down as soon as they get wind of it, and it won’t get to everyone, but word about you has already started to spread. People will pay attention.”
Wisp asks me if I’d like to do the honors.
At first, I hesitate. After all, I reminder her, she’s the Major. But she shakes her head, and a round of, “Yes, Kress. You should be the one” from Brohn, Cardyn, and Rain, and a gentle nudge from Manthy prompt me to step forward.
Finally, nodding my consent, I tip my head toward the transmitter on Olivia’s console. I take a breath and clear my throat, ready to talk to the world.
“We have defeated the Patriot Army in San Francisco,” I begin. “The city is free. The Eastern Order is fake. Krug is a liar.”
And then, after Olivia checks the scrolling read-out and asks if we’re ready for her to initiate the broadcast, Brohn puts a hand on my shoulder and tilts his head back toward the transmitter.
I nod again and lean down toward the communications monitor with one more message:
“Krug. We are the Emergents. And we’re coming for you.”
End of Book 3
Want to read more about Kress and her Conspiracy?
Coming Soon: The Emergents Trilogy
Book One, Survival:
In the year 2043, with the nation destroyed by war, seventeen-year-old Kress and her Conspiracy of friends embark on a dangerous cross-country mission to locate and recruit Emergents, fellow teenagers who have begun to exhibit strange evolutionary abilities.
Not all Emergents are ready to accept who and what they are, however. Some have even started using their abilities for selfish or evil ends.
Now Kress has to figure out who is friend and who is foe as she risks everything to expose the government’s lies and take down the tyrannical President Krug once and for all. Picking up where
the Resistance Trilogy leaves off, the stand-alone Emergents Trilogy follows Kress and her Conspiracy on a daring quest to restore democracy and truth to the country.
Coming in June 2019: Seeker’s World
On her seventeenth birthday, Vega Sloane receives a series of strange and puzzling gifts. Among them is a key shaped like a dragon. The question is: What exactly is it meant to open?
All of a sudden, the peaceful town where Vega grew up is crawling with shadows, strange beings and unlikely allies.
Vega soon discovers that many of the ancient stories she once considered myths and legends are true, and that a magical world exists beyond her own…one that only the chosen few can see. It’s a world where cruel beings stalk the lands and magic lives on the air, where the Blood-born prove their worth in an ancient academy that trains those born with special powers.
Pre-order it here: Seeker’s World
Also By K. A. Riley
Resistance Trilogy:
Recruitment
Render
Rebellion
Emergents Trilogy (same world)
Survival (Available for Pre-order)
Sacrifice (Coming Soon!)
Synthesis (Coming Soon!)
Seeker’s World Series:
Seeker’s World
Athena’s Law Series:
Book One: Rise of the Inciters
Book Two: Into an Unholy Land
For updates on upcoming release dates, opportunities to read for free, exclusive excerpts from upcoming books and more:
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