by Jaclyn Lewis
He yells at me “I don’t want to stick around to see how this turns out. We should go…NOW!”
I stop punching to argue with him “Silas, we can’t leave her here! She’s our sister! Besides, he said he only wants one. Let me trade myself for her. She’ll die with him.”
“No!” He shouts at me even as we move toward the specter that’s open.
Once inside, he continues, “Our deaths won’t save her, Genna. And what he said doesn’t even make sense. He’s a madman. That man does not determine our future. He’s just trying scare us. We have got to keep moving. We’ll tell the police. If they fail then there’s nothing we can do to stop him anyway.”
Always rational, reasoning. Never a flit of emotion to overrule it all. I know he’s right—our best chance at saving her is to get out now while we can, but how can he be so cold?
Kylee fires up the engines. Pax is standing in a corner—looking as though he wants to fit tighter and tighter into it until there’s nothing left.
Seeing him makes me jump up and run to him.
The flash.
The pause—
The flash again.
I move my hand up to uncross his arms, but he won’t be budged. He’s punishing himself.
“I should have known she couldn’t catch up. I should have carried her myself. It’s my fault. She’ll die and it’s all my fault.”
He looks down at the floor of the specter.
I want to be angry with someone and Pax would be an easy target right now. Why didn’t he just help her those last few yards instead of relying on someone else? Was it because of his concern for me? Is it really myself I should be angry with?
“He won’t kill her.” I whisper. I’m exhausted from the shock of what just happened. I keep seeing Ember—her eyes tainted with defeat--something I have never before seen her allow in herself.
“He won’t kill her but he’ll reset her. He’ll experiment on her. He’ll feed her some story that will make her want to be on his side. Then what Genna? Isn’t that the same as death?”
He’s right, and I fall into another lapse of uncontrollable sobbing.
We’re back in Vegas parked next to Specter 27 and ready to get out. Everyone is just waiting for me to compose myself. We’ll need the long-range specter to get home, but first we have to get to a police station. The two guards with us are happy to come along and testify. They don’t have any proof, but maybe the police will believe our story and arrest Camp—at least question him and delay his plans.
One of the guards is named Nathaniel and the other is named Kline. We run without stopping to the police station.
“We need to speak to someone immediately!” Paxton shouts at the receptionist.
It’s only now that I notice I have a little of Ember’s blood on my arm. The tears start anew. It grabs the attention of an older officer walking by and he asks us to tell him what happened.
“Titus Camp—the man who owns CGC is planning a terrorist attack. I don’t know when, but I think it’s soon.” Nathaniel adds. He gives as much detail to the plan as he can and the officer writes it all down.
“Ok, son. We’ll send out a squad car when it becomes available.”.
He tries to calm us down by assuring us that they “have everything under control.”
“No, you have to go now…you don’t understand.” I try to convince him.
“Oh, I understand, but you have to know we get all kinds of crazy calls. ‘My sister was abducted out there in Roswell.’ ‘I think my mother is a clone.” He chuckles. “If only I had a nickel for every weird thing I heard. Now, if you leave me your contact number, I’ll get back to you if anything turns up.”
He smiles, but I can’t muster a smile back. Dejected, we walk outside.
Kline asks, “So what’s next? I mean, I just risked my job and my life to get the word out and now no one wants to hear it.”
“Paris.” Silas replies. “We are going to Paris. And we’ll call every government agency we can find along the way.”
“What about your family?” Kylee asks Paxton.
“I already looked them up. They disappeared two years ago and were presumed dead in a house fire. The remains couldn’t be identified.” Paxton replies.
I already knew this information. I had seen it on the Dawn Device not long after we returned. I always figured if he wanted to talk about it, he would bring it up.
“I’m so sorry.” Is all Kylee can muster,
“I’ve mourned them once. It wasn’t hard to do it again. We’ll head to Paris, Kylee. Maybe you can get your happy ending.” He tells her.
Kylee smiles. She knows now that whatever happens, she should have at least have a few questions of her own answered. On the way back to Specter 27, Paxton humbly asks us all if we would look for Trina after we head to Paris—if there’s time.
“My parents are gone. I have no one left here, but I loved her once. I can’t just let her die.” He whispers.
Gently, I take his hand in mine. Of course we understand. In all the commotion, I had forgotten about her. But these feelings must be so confusing for him. I want him to know that it’s ok. That I want her rescued too.
Suddenly, we are aware that there is a girl following us—not older than fourteen.
“What do you want?” Paxton asks impatiently.
The girl is covered in gothic makeup, piercings, and tattoos. Her jet-black hair is stringy and falls into her eyes as she speaks in a high pitched tone. “I heard what you said back there. I believe you. I want to come with you.”
Pax looks at me. I look at Silas, and he looks at Kylee.
“Shouldn’t you ask your parents?” Kylee suggests.
“There’s no one here to miss me.” The girl says. “And if what you said back there was true, I don’t want to die here alone.”
Her desperation stirs compassion in all of us and we agree to take her along. She’s quiet the whole way back to the specter.
Paris is horribly crowded, but Kylee already knows where we need to go because she’s looked it up on the Dawn Device. She has decided to just park us cloaked at the Charles De Gaulle airport. We know we will be in deep trouble if get caught, but at this point we decide it’s worth the risk. Who knows how much more time we have?
There are only two sets of people listed with the names “Luc and Dianna Delacroix” so we’re hoping that we can narrow it down to the right set of parents. We’re just a few blocks from the first set so we leave the specter and take off running.
“Hey, I don’t speak French very well. I just had that one semester in high school.” Pax sounds concerned.
“I know.” I tell him. “But thanks to Elise, we do.” I smile at him as we approach the apartment.
When we ring the doorbell, an elderly woman answers. Kylee asks her name and she says she is Dianna.
Disappointment crosses her face as she asks if perhaps she ever adopted a daughter or had children of her own. She says “no”.
As we turn to leave, we offer for her to come along with us. Our explanation is short, and of course sounds unbelievable so the woman declines and slams the door in our faces.
We have to take a taxi to the other apartment listed. It makes me nervous and my heart races for the whole ten-minute drive. What if it happens now? Camp sounded so confident that we could never thwart his plan and the further we drive away from the specter the more a panic rises in me. What if we’re just deserted our only means of salvation?
Kylee’s hands are shaking. We have no idea if the police will be able to stop Camp or if we’ll die here looking for her parents. We’re taking a huge risk just by being here and being so far away from escape.
After trudging up three flights of stairs, we knock on the door. A very young woman with long brown hair and eyes as dark as night answers the door. Her husband is sitting on the couch inside playing with a child who looks to be about two years old. Kylee asks for their names and they say they are Luc and Dianna Delacroix.
The man a
nd woman do resemble Kylee a lot except that they are in our age category—mid-twenties or thirties at most. Maybe this is a brother or sister of hers. But then we remember that not all the embryos were taken at the same time.
The couple is very kind, but they say that they don’t think they can be related to Kylee. In a quick thirty seconds or so she tries to tell them what happened—that she’s an embryo leftover from the conception of the child who bounces on Luc’s knee.
They look at her in disbelief as she begins to cry. They aren’t mean, but instantly take a protective stance between the child and us—assuming that we are crazy.
Just when I think we’ve lost this battle, Kylee pulls out a gun and points it at the wife.
Pax tries desperately to stop her “No Kylee. This is not the way.”
“Back off.” Kylee argues. “I sat back and waited—patiently waited while we tried to find their family, tried to save the world. Well, it didn’t work. But this is my little bit of the world, and they are coming with me.”
The little girl begins to cry. Kylee tells them to pack her an overnight back.
“Just for one day. Come with me for one day. I promise…it will be better!”
That last phrase grates against me like sandpaper. The same phrase Titus uses to justify all the evil in his heart--“To make it better.”
I understand that rescuing someone against his or her will—even at gunpoint could be seen as a kindness in retrospect, so while I remain conflicted, I’m also silent. I just hope everyone survives long enough to be grateful that Kylee did it this way.
Frantically, they pack up a few things for the baby whose name is Madeline and get into the taxi with us. The mother sobs and tries not to draw the attention of the taxi driver—afraid of what Kylee will do if she slips up.
“So what did you say was going to happen?” The man—Luc asks.
“There’s a guy who’s developed a weapon to destroy Earth. He plans to use it soon—any minute most likely.” Pax answers. “We are really sorry for any inconvenience, but it is for your safety—even if I don’t agree with the methods.”
He glares at Kylee still holding the gun.
When we get back to the airport, we offer our taxi man an escape—beg him to come with us. He backs away saying, “no…no…you are all crazy.” and speeds away—probably to report us to someone. But by then it will be too late—probably for all of us.
With every face we see, a pity arises in us because we know the terror that could be visited on these people at any moment, but very few will listen to us. When we recall the specter to our dimension, Luc and Dianna are in awe of the ship before them. Dianna looks terrified, but she walks in.
“Where are we going?” Kylee asks Paxton impatiently and she revs up the specter. “I need coordinates, Paxton.”
“Chicago. That’s where Trina is.” Pax was ready with the coordinates on the Dawn and hands it to Kylee. She says we’ll have to park on Lake Michigan and walk to the condo listed, but it isn’t more than half a mile.
We flash in next to a giant Ferris wheel. Music, cotton candy, popcorn, and the laughter of children fill the air. Everyone on the pier stares at us—not sure if they should be frightened or amazed. We haven’t even bothered to cloak it this time—ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
Paxton and Silas run full speed to Trina’s condo and Kylee and I stay behind and record a projection on the Dawn Device. Our plan is to project it onto the side of the specter with a message warning the people of Chicago about the coming disaster. Of course, they will think we are crazy. A few people call the police and they run from us—the ones who are trying to rescue them.
“Please! Come with us—there’s plenty of room! You’ll all die if you stay here!” The message says. Hannah is watching in silence—quietly hoping that others will listen, too.
Just as the sirens of the police cars are heard closing in, Pax and Silas come running back--without Trina and her family. My heart breaks to see the puzzled look on Paxton’s face. We are gone before the red and blue flashing lights can catch us.
It feels like a waste to just take off with a mostly empty ship, though so Kylee decides that we’ll go somewhere where people will listen to us. She sets a course for Africa.
We land in a remote village of Zambia and tell everyone to climb on board because the Earth is about to get blown away. I’m amazed that they understand us, most of them speaking broken English, even more amazed that they believe us. The local orphanage sends all their children—72 in fact to the ship to be rescued.
Each grubby hand and foot means another life rescued from this place. The children are loud and there are so many I’m afraid they’ll overrun us as they pile on board.
So many villages. So many orphans. We hop from village to village until the specter is full. They believed us when no one else would, thankful for the second chance at life.
They leave what few possessions they have behind without grumbling or complaining. They mumble things about prophecies and juju and witches, but I don’t really understand it.
The specter is filled with chatter as everyone tries to figure out what happens next. Our questions are answered for us when we see the flash of doom in the sky…a flaming object headed our way. And not just for us, but for the end of Earth.
Chapter 26
*
Dr. Mitchell
I don’t have a plan. The end is coming and I am out of plans. A, B, C through Z. All the plans are gone. What we need now is a miracle, a rescue.
I wonder where Trina has gone. No one answered at her Condo, so in a rush of distress, Silas and I broke in through the front window. Her place was almost cleared out—basically empty. There was bread on the counter that hadn’t molded yet and milk in the fridge that hadn’t gone bad. They couldn’t have left very long ago. A few pieces of furniture were left behind and a family photo—Trina, her husband, and their baby. I wish their smiling faces could tell me where they’d gone. And why they left. I wish I could tell her that I tried--that finding her was part of the plan.
I’m snapped back to reality by the ball of light headed our way.
Kylee’s already revved the engines and we shift into dimension five. She shifts out near Earth’s moon—to look down on the planet and await the future.
Maybe the simulations were wrong and the missile won’t work the way we thought it would. Desperation leads to this kind of wishful thinking I guess.
After the flash, an armada of twelve other specters—all even larger than our own, instantly surrounds us.
At first we panic, and Kylee gets ready to rev the engines again, but we seem to just blend in and no one notices us. I’m sure it is because they are too enthralled with the ghastly success of their mission. Or perhaps Titus knows we are here and wishes for us to see, wants to let us get away so he can continue his cruel game of cat and mouse.
Then, there’s a kind of burst of energy—light and…something else that ripples over us before the explosion. Then the flaming object touches my home world and spreads like a wildfire. I want to cry out because the silence is too much to witness. And in it all I feel both responsible and violated. Responsible because I couldn’t fix it. Violated because those are my people—every single one.
Earth--fading from the beautiful blue and white it was meant to be to the orange and red inferno that is in front of us. Like snow melting over a flame, it just implodes into itself. It feels like watching a movie—those old made up images that CGC called “memories”. And then Earth ceases to be.
There are not now and never will be words to express the gravity of horrors in this moment--the screams of billions that will never reach our ears. One great writer once called Earth the “Silent Planet"[2]and now it is in all its truth—only ever silent now.
The lead ship isn’t hard to find; it’s Specter One. “Kylee, fire on that ship. Give them everything we’ve got.”
“Ok.” We maneuver toward them, but they are gone with a flash befo
re the first missile strikes.
“No!” Screaming it seems to help. “No! We waited too long. They won’t get away with it. I swear if it kills me I will find him. I will.”
“You know Ember was probably on that ship.” Kylee reminds me.
“Ember would have been the first to say ‘fire’ if she were here.” I say through gritted teeth.
Even as my shaking hands open the door to storm out of the cockpit, I can hear Kylee starting the dimension shifters and starting a course for home. Erimos. The only place to call “home”—only this time it’s really true.
There’s weeping and wailing on the craft as the weight of lost friends and family members bears down on our passengers. The only ones who missed it were the children too young to understand that what they were watching was more than a movie screen. At least there is one mercy left in the universe—the innocence of children.
Genna finally lets lose her emotions for Ember that for the sake of survival she’s been suppressing. She goes to the bunkroom she shared with Ember on the flight and cries for hours—asking to be left alone.
The thought of Camp’s cruelty overwhelms us all. But even though I’m hurting I don’t think I feel the severe ache these people do. I pity them. Everything and everyone they know is gone. Trina is gone.
But I’ve been to Erimos and I know it’s potential. I know we can start again. Maybe these people are wishing they had died too. Maybe they feel guilty for surviving. Maybe they are remembering the face of someone that would have made it out if we had just had a little more time. I don’t know, but I do wish I could help them or tell them something that would erase the pain. The mood is so dark on this ship. Maybe after seeing this, being reset wouldn’t be the worst thing after all.
Luc’s reaction doesn’t surprise me. He and his wife are clinging to Kylee—once their captor—now a rescuer. They don’t have to say anything, but I know this means “thank you.”
Just then, Silas walks to the cockpit and turns on the specter-wide intercom to give a speech.
“Hello. My name is Silas. You all don’t know me from Adam, but I know we all share the devastation of what we just witnessed. I want to let you know that four others and I came here to stop it and we failed. We failed miserably. I’ll never ever stop replaying our choices in my mind, wondering if we could have done it differently, if we could have stopped it, if we could have had a better plan. After all, we weren’t trained for any of this. We were simply…people. There are a million ‘what ifs’, but I am grateful for the faces I see that survived. So for that I don’t regret that we tried and saved some even if we didn’t same everyone. All that is left of the human race is us and the few million people who live on two planets named Erimos and Pavana.
