The Survivors | Book 15 | New Beginning

by Hystad, Nathan

  “It’s empty!” he called.

  Realization coursed through me. “These people. They’re gone, Slate. Everything is automated. Like the abduction drones.”

  Slate nodded, letting the door slam closed. “I think you’re right. Let’s move to the city and see what we can learn. If this was their home planet, these things have to be controlled by something. If we can find it, we can shut the entire network off.”

  “And keep an eye out for these guys.” I hitched a thumb toward the crashed vessel. “We don’t want any more surprises.”

  Slate landed on the ground as he clambered off the hull and continued working on the jetpacks. Once they were operational, we each attached one to our suits and turned them on.

  My gaze fell upon the city in the mountains, and we lifted from the surface, flying for what I hoped was our final destination.

  The entire trip took ten minutes, and we began descending toward the middle of the city. It was bigger than I’d thought from above, the buildings spread out amongst the rising peaks and valleys of the giant mountain range.

  The system’s star was setting beyond the tallest, quickly dwindling our sunlight. We found pathways connecting every building. They were about the width of a two-lane road, but without markings. I crouched as we stepped onto the first one, running a finger over it. “They’re smooth. Metal.”

  “The buildings are made from the same thing. Must be a resource found in this range.” Slate stared at the nearest structure. “We need to learn about this city. What each of these places is for. Otherwise, we’ll be searching through them for days. Weeks, even.”

  We’d lowered as near to the city center as we could, hoping it was some version of a downtown core, but there appeared to be a pattern. Each building was similar in distance to the next, likely on purpose, which must have been extremely difficult, given the rough and erratic terrain. I said as much to Slate, but he only grunted. He seemed distracted.

  “What’s on your mind?”

  He smirked, surprising me. “I thought this was going to be tough.”

  “What? You solved it already?” I laughed, but he nodded, agreeing with my quip.

  “I’ll give you three guesses.” Slate crossed his arms, and I scanned the area. From our perch on the roadway, we had a good view of the entire region. The waning sunlight reflected off the metallic street to my right, and I used the tint feature to block it. Then I spotted the drone. It was the same kind that we’d arrived in, like the ones from the abduction fleet.

  “There. You think that’s our clue?” I asked.

  “Why else would the thing have landed here? I have to assume some other sap found the trail at some point, and came to figure it out.” Slate started for the drone, parked almost a kilometer away. A tall building loomed behind it, and I hoped he was right.

  “But why is the drone still there? It would imply the being flying it didn’t make it out,” I suggested.

  “Well, they didn’t have one thing going for them.”

  “What’s that?”

  Slate slapped me on the back as we walked. “They weren’t Zeke Campbell and Dean Parker!”

  I smiled with him but felt a knot building in my stomach as we marched for the destination. I hoped he was right.

  ____________

  Jules had spent the last hour helping Doctor Bolid with his injuries. He couldn’t walk, and he was clearly traumatized by spending the last two days beside his partner’s corpse, but she thought he might live, and Jules was grateful for that.

  She patched him up as best as she could and took the time to warm herself. Only now had the feeling begun to return to her extremities, and everything tingled in the heated camp.

  “What are you going to do?” Bolid asked. They were inside his lab, Jules sitting at the sole desk.

  “Are the communications working?”

  Bolid confirmed that they were down. “Yeera blasted the box on her way out. Why would she do all of this? We were friends with her and Selen.”

  “I’m afraid Selen is dead too,” Jules confessed. “I don’t want to get into it all, but she’s not herself. I think she’s planning to do something terrible.” Jules grabbed the Locator and saw the red dot had shifted now. She flipped the device around and showed it to Bolid. “Where’s she going?”

  The Shimmal man squinted, his snout flopping. “That’s what we call the Core. It’s the heart of the region. The Core is where this continent began thousands of years ago. The ice has built off of it and created this landmass.”

  “How far away is it?” Jules asked.

  “A hundred kilometers or so.” Bolid coughed, and his eyes began to close. She’d given him medication, painkillers, and suspected he wouldn’t be conscious for long.

  That was far. Was Dean with her? The first location Yeera had traveled to was closer, forcing Jules to try there first to check if she’d left Dean. If anything had happened to him…

  She bit her lip, staring at the dot moving inland. She couldn’t think about it. Not yet.

  “Why would anyone want to destroy the ice continent?” Jules asked.

  Bolid’s eyes went wide, all signs of drowsiness vanished. “That would go against what we’ve set out to do as researchers. This area of land is imperative to the Shimmal people. Without the balance, the entire world would be in jeopardy. Destroy this, and you destroy our race.”

  And there it was. Doctor Yeera was afflicted by this mutation. She would have been abducted like the others, and at some point, it had activated. Her goal was focused on slow destruction of her entire planet.

  Sure, blowing up the ice continent wouldn’t harm them immediately, but the devastation would be long-lasting. Jules needed to stop her.

  “I have to go, Doctor Bolid, but I’ll be back.” Jules started to move, and the doctor called to her from his seat.

  “Stay cautious. I’ve seen a lot of animals in my lifetime, young one. Predators of all kinds. Yeera has the look. The killer’s eye that only the fiercest have. She will assassinate you without hesitation,” Bolid said with conviction.

  Jules didn’t reply, but she held his warning close to her chest as she returned to the bay. She walked past the dead body, trying not to stare, and climbed into the Snow-Tracker. The bay opened as she pressed the button on the dash, and her vehicle rumbled as it turned on. Jules played with the mapping system, first adding the location Yeera had taken Dean to at the start, and then she added in the Core, where she guessed Yeera was currently heading.

  As Jules figured out the Tracker’s controls, she thought about the map and wondered which destination she’d try first.

  Once she had the hang of things, she drove the vehicle into the deep snow. To her right was where she thought Dean might be, ten or twelve kilometers away. To the left was a lengthy drive to stop Yeera. Dean could be with her too, but judging by the disposal of the other lab doctors, she doubted the woman would leave loose ends.

  Jules pulled the throttle and sent the unit screaming into the snowy landscape.

  ____________

  I craned my neck to see the pointed spire of the nearby structure. It went on into the sky, where hundreds of star pinpoints appeared in the darkening evening. Slate was at the edge of the abandoned drone, and he set his glove to it. The drone lifted as ours had before, the hatch on the underside lowering.

  “Better check it out first.” He climbed in and dropped a hand, giving me a boost. It looked exactly like the other one, except this version had been lived in. Empty wrappers, blankets, and changes of clothing were piled in the corner, where the shackles stuck out of the floor. There were computers, alien tablets, and physical books. I plucked one up, finding it was triangle-shaped, with the spine on the longest side. I flipped a page open, seeing green ink scrawled in unfamiliar patterns. My translator program had no results.

  “Slate, I think this has been here a while.”

  “I have that feeling too.”

  “What’s our move?” I asked, letti
ng him take the lead. He was like a bloodhound on the scent of its prize, and I didn’t want to stand in his path.

  “We secure the building. I can only assume that’s why the ship landed at this one in particular.” Slate sifted through the alien possessions, but nothing worked. Whatever had been powering the electronics was drained.

  We returned to the shiny metal street and walked up to the front entrance of the skyscraper. It was half-built into the edge of a mountain, and the dark brown rocky embankment covered most of the rear section of the place.

  The doors were hinged, much like our own had been before technology allowed sensor sliding entryways. Slate pulled it and shifted his position to stare at me, laughing at himself. He pushed it then, gaining entry to the dark foyer.

  The same alien symbols we’d seen on board were written on the walls, and we turned on our suits’ lights, keeping our rifles close.

  “Does it seem like we’re always walking into dark places with our guns drawn?” Slate asked.

  “It feels oddly familiar,” I joked. “Which direction?” The floor was smooth metal like the streets, but the walls were rough, like the interior of the drone. I hoped that was a good sign. At least we knew that whoever had created the fleet had built this city. We were close to finding answers.

  There were five corridors leading from the round entryway, and we had to choose which to take. It was clean, reminding me of the Grinlos’ world, and I was prepared to find more automated robots or drones. We waited to see if our presence brought any defense mechanisms to life, but it stayed quiet.

  “Let’s start with the left one.” Slate stepped in, and a blue shimmering light illuminated the hall. It created a barrier, and if we wanted to continue on, we’d have to march through.

  “Great.” I reached a finger out, but Slate swatted my hand away.

  “Don’t. Let’s check the tunnel over.”

  We tried them all, each of the five doing the same thing as we approached the corridors. Now we had five glistening vertical pools to contend with.

  “That visitor from the drone out there… they came inside and chose one of these barriers. They walked in, and judging by the fact that the drone remains, they never left,” Slate whispered as we appraised our conundrum.

  “Like you said, they weren’t Dean Parker and Zeke Campbell.” But my words fell flat.

  “You can turn around,” Slate muttered.

  “No, we can’t.” Slate needed this. “Not to mention the fact that I unleashed a section of their fleet. If we don’t stop this, far more unsuspecting people will be abducted like you were. We can’t have that.”

  “I know. But you can go, Dean.” Slate’s eyes were intense as he said this, as if we weren’t a team to the end.

  “I don’t think so, buddy. We’re in this together and always will be.” I took a deep inhale of my suit’s recycled air and tried to focus. Regnig said I was the Recaster, and that I had to trust my instincts. With the exception of the odd misstep, my track record was pretty clean.

  “What are you doing?” Slate asked, but I hardly heard him.

  I stood with my hands out, my rifle snapped onto my suit. One of these corridors would possibly lead us to our end goal. The others might be danger, or perhaps they would all take us to the same place. We didn’t have enough information. Were they portals, or blockades we wouldn’t be able to pass through?

  I appraised the colors, but they were all so similar. Their blue glow was soft against the dark room, and I asked Slate to turn his lights off. I did the same and watched the hallways.

  The barriers flowed in patterns, the waves of lights bobbing and rolling at the same speed—except one, the second from the right. I stared for longer, making sure I was right.

  “Boss, are you seeing what I am?” Slate asked.

  “I think so.” I flipped my visor controls on and tinted the helmet. As I went lower, a difference in color became clearer. “One of these things is not like the other.”

  “You did it!” Slate exclaimed, but I wasn’t celebrating just yet.

  “Doesn’t mean anything. It could have been modified later. Fixed. Built by a different technician. There could be a multitude of reasons for the variances,” I told him, but inside, I agreed with him. That was the correct hall.

  Slate started to walk to the right side, and I grabbed his arm, holding him away. “I go first.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m… older.” With that illogical explanation behind, Slate only shrugged, and I hoisted my rifle again.

  This was it. We’d found the city of the alien race that had created the drones. They were gone, but their inventions were still active and participating in some post-mortem operations. They needed to be stopped.

  I jabbed my gun into the light, and it passed into it with ease. With a quick glance at Slate, I entered the blue abyss.

  Nineteen

  The mountains of ice stood high. Jules couldn’t believe the snow continued to fall. The clouds grew denser, blocking any sunlight from reaching them, and she lost track of time. It was afternoon but felt like midnight amid the storm and icy depths.

  She searched for any signs of Yeera’s path and finally found the trail from her Snow-Tracker. This was where she’d led Dean a few hours ago. A lot probably happened in that time, and Jules hated herself for letting him out of her sight in the first place. She’d only had suspicions at that point, but she should have acted on them, or at least made an excuse for Dean, and escaped together.

  But then she wouldn’t have learned Yeera’s ultimate plan of destroying the very ice continent they were on. Dean’s life was more valuable to her than anything. Jules told herself that a few times, but her training lingered in her mind, telling her to stop Yeera at all costs.

  The snow eased near the cliff of frozen water, the wall blocking the wind and piling flakes. She located the tracks again and followed them to an opening in the ice. A tent structure was built a few yards away, probably a waystation for passing scientists. Jules powered the Snow-Tracker off and quickly exited the comfort of the vehicle. It was so warm inside, and out here, it was a hellish freezing tundra.

  Her eyelashes froze in seconds, making her flip the goggles over her brow, and she dashed toward the tent. The edges of it flayed in the wind, tugging at the fabric, but it held. She tried to slow as she neared but slipped on the slick ice. Jules lost all balance and landed hard on her back. Her pack was in the Tracker, making the blow painful. She lay there for a second, trying to catch her breath.

  She gasped in the frigid air and scrambled to her feet, moving more cautiously this time. The tent door was open, and snow had begun stacking near the entrance. Dean wasn’t inside.

  She returned to the cold, searching around for footprints. “Dean!”

  Jules kept calling and saw a pair of tracks leading into the ice cavern. She had an idea, one from her quick trip to the Catoleels’ nest with Yeera. She switched her goggles to the thermal sensor option and searched for any indication of a body.

  There was a dim glow of yellow in the middle. That could be him, but the layers of ice between them would diminish the results. “Dean!” she shouted louder, but it was lost in the wind and snow.

  Jules entered the cave, not sure what she expected to find. There were more tunnels, and the main room’s glassy ceiling was being kept upright by five tall adjustable beams jammed into the ice. She glanced up and heard one of them creaking. Jules noticed a crack in the ice between the beams, as it began to spread like wildfire.

  The whole cave might collapse! That was all she needed. Jules checked the yellow marker in her goggles, and saw it was now orange. She was closer. The middle tunnel seemed like the most direct path, and she went that direction, sliding over the ice as the ground descended.

  As she ran, the blot of color grew darker, and finally, a few minutes into her venture, it turned red. She was right by it. But… it couldn’t be Dean. It was square. She turned a corner, and her worst fears cam
e to life. Like the one before, this device was sitting on a metal rack, burning hotly. She wiped her goggles and flipped off the heat sensor application.

  “Dean, where are you?” She stared at the box, knowing now that it was likely filled with thermal generator fuel.

  “Jules?” a raspy voice said from behind the device. She ran to him, finding Dean slumped near the heat. His hand was pressed to his stomach, and he managed the strength to smile at her. She saw the blood seeping through his fingers.

  “Dean!”

  “She pulled a gun. I knew she was acting strange, and by the time we stopped driving, she was done with pretenses. The moment we exited the Tracker, she shot me.” Dean was weak, his chin dropping to his chest.

  “We’ll get you to safety.”

  “Jules, she’s crazy. I think our Locator is busted,” he said, licking his dry lips.

  “It’s not. Something was loose. She’s the target, and I know where she went. How did you manage to find this room?” she asked.

  “Followed her tracks after she left. I crawled inside.”

  Jules peered to the floor and gauged the severity of the situation. With the heat sensor on, her vision had been sidetracked, but it was obvious as she gazed into the tunnel behind her. “How bad is it?” She knelt near him, and he groaned.

  “I don’t think it hit any major organs.”

  “I need to look at it. We have to control the bleeding.”

  Jules tried to examine the wound, but Dean grabbed her hand in protest. “Can we get out of here first? I don’t know what this thing is.” Dean tried to laugh but only coughed instead. She checked for blood on his lips but didn’t see any. That was a good sign.

  “Okay, but if it’s too much, let me know,” she said.

  They managed to prop Dean up, and his labored breath worried her. His skin was clammy despite the chill of the room, and he was almost too heavy for her to move, but he accommodated, using his legs to ease the burden.