Fever [Sunsinger Chronicles Book 5]

by Michelle Levigne

  Green and red and purple flames boiled from all over the plague bomb. The smoke gushed and churned, black and green, slithering like a snake through the air. Gorgi turned white and grabbed Bain by the arm.

  “We gotta get out of—"

  The first wave of the explosion hammered through the air, picking up the boys and flinging them through the waterfall curtain. Bain yelped when he slammed sideways against a rocky outcropping. The sound died in the water gushing down across him. He coughed and choked and dragged in a deep breath that was half water.

  Then he plunged under the water and with his ears blocked he felt the second shock wave and heard the mammoth explosion with his whole body. Gorgi lost his grip on him. Bain struggled against the churning of the torn current. His breath tried to twist free of his lungs, but somehow he held his lips and jaw tightly closed.

  Shock waves buffeted through the water, thrashing him down to the riverbed, banging his legs against rocks. A red haze filled the darkness behind his eyelids. Numbness flowed through his body. Blackness hovered at the edges of the red haze. His breath started to turn to fire in his lungs. Bain couldn't seem to move his arms to swim and fight for the surface. All he could feel was water, muddy grit churning against his face, twisting him in every direction.

  Then the blackness began to take over, swirling in closer from the edges until it swallowed him. From far, far away, Bain felt the breath escaping his lungs, bubbling out past his lips. He couldn't do anything to stop it. Worse, he couldn't seem to care.

  * * *

  Chapter Twelve

  Consciousness returned with the heavy, scorching brilliance of the sun beating into his face. And pain.

  Fire raced up his left leg, pulsing in perfect rhythm with the ragged thundering of his heart.

  Bain groaned and tried to turn his head to escape the relentless brassy whiteness of the sunlight. Movement only made his head hurt, threatening to explode.

  “Hey, are you waking up now?” Gorgi's voice boomed through the pulsing emptiness of pain in Bain's head.

  In answer, he groaned and tried to lift a hand to shield his eyes from the sun.

  “You're going to be okay,” Gorgi continued. A shadow fell across Bain's face—blessed relief—and a wet cloth plopped down across his eyes and cheeks.

  “Hurts,” he managed to whimper.

  “Be glad it hurts. At least you didn't break anything really important. What if you couldn't use your legs anymore?"

  “Break?” His voice cracked, but not from the changes of adolescence.

  “Broke your left leg. Not bad enough to see any bones,” the other boy hurried to say. “Just a really gross angle. But I got it all straightened out and set before you woke up."

  “Set?"

  “Ripped up what was left of your shirt and used it for bandages and used some branches for splints. I think I did pretty good.” He moved the wet cloth across Bain's face. “Sorry, but we lost the first aid kit. I don't have any pain pills. Do you hear that?"

  “Don't—hear—anything,” he managed to mumble. Wet touched his lips. Bain tried to suck on the edge of the rag and get some moisture into his parched mouth.

  “I hear something.” Gorgi's voice sounded far away. Footsteps told Bain his friend walked away. “Yeah! There it is! A shuttle—no, two of them! Hey! We're over here!"

  Bain reached up, slowly, and dragged the cloth off his face. His whole body screamed fire, with jagged spots of pain like his skin had been scraped with broken glass and his muscles twisted into knots. He gritted his teeth and ignored it as best he could and tried to push himself up on his elbows.

  Fortunately, Gorgi had his back to Bain and to the sun. He jumped up and down, waving his arms, continuing his shouts. Bain tried to tell him he was being stupid; shuttles flew too high up to see one person jumping up and down on the ground.

  Then the low rumble and shriek of shuttles descending reached his ears. Bain squinted into the bright afternoon sky and stared as the shuttles banked and turned and flew low over the smoking top of the mini-canyon. Then he held his breath as they turned again and flew straight toward the boys.

  “Please, please,” Bain whispered, repeatedly, as Gorgi continued jumping up and down and shrieking at the top of his lungs.

  And the shuttles did land. They sent up clouds of exhaust and dust and settled on the rocky slope leading down to the bank of the river. Bain gasped and panted, fighting the pain as he turned himself around to watch the shuttles land. Gorgi ran up the slope to meet them, still waving his arms.

  Nearly two dozen men in the light gray-and-olive combat uniforms of Rangers piled out of the shuttles’ hatches. Bain clenched his fists and grinned and tears filled his eyes. He barely heard when one of the Rangers broke away from the group and ran down the slope toward him, shouting his name.

  It was Devon. Gorgi ran with him, telling him everything he had done since he had pulled Bain out of the river and saw his leg was broken. He told him twice, as Devon yanked off his uniform jacket and folded it into a pillow and put it under Bain's head and gently lowered the boy back down to lie flat.

  “Have you taken anything for the pain?” the medic asked. He pressed two fingers against Bain's neck, checking his pulse.

  “Lost—lost the first aid kit,” Bain whispered.

  “I'll take care of that first thing, then."

  He winked and pulled out his hypo-spray and slid a medicine cartridge into it. The tip was cold and Bain flinched at the shock at first touch to his neck. It hissed. Moments later, cool relief spread through his body.

  “What were you two doing in the river?” he asked as he ran the diagnostic wand over Bain's splinted leg.

  “We ran away to blow up the plague bomb,” Gorgi said. He squatted down on Bain's other side and intently watched the medic work.

  “Blow up a plague bomb? You found it?” Devon nearly dropped the wand. “Sergeant!” he yelled, and half-rose to his feet.

  “Yeah. Over there.” The older boy pointed at the dissipating smoke coming from the tall pile of rocks at the bend in the river. The waterfall fell undisturbed. The river still rushed by, tossing and spraying against and around the rocks.

  “How did you—” He stopped as the Ranger sergeant skidded down the slope to join them. “This is Sergeant Coreen, boys. She's in charge here. Tell her what you just told me.” Devon grinned. “Maybe you should tell her your name, first."

  “Gorgi Cole, ma'am.” Gorgi tried to salute. That earned grins from Devon and the sergeant. “Bain told me about the plague bomb and we both figured nobody could have found it yet because we found it in a place only us kids go. So we had to run away and blow it up."

  “Blow it up?” the red-haired, freckled woman echoed. “How in the name of the Five Mothers did you manage that?"

  “Well.... “Gorgi looked at Bain. For a moment he couldn't seem to speak. “We had to. It was still oozing all this goopy green stuff into the water and we knew people were going to keep getting sick."

  “Of course. That was very sensible.” She nodded and smiled, and then reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “Why don't we go take a look at it, and you can show me what you two did, all right?"

  “Go? You mean—” He looked back and forth between the far-off trail of smoke and the shuttle. “I can ride in a real Ranger shuttle?"

  “How else are we going to get there?” Sergeant Coreen nodded toward Bain. “How is he?"

  “He's going to be just fine,” Devon replied. “Right?"

  “I feel a lot better already,” Bain said. “Go on and show them, Gorgi."

  Devon gave Bain another shot as the other two walked to the shuttle. He opened up his backpack and started spreading the contents on the ground.

  “Your friend did a good job with setting and splinting. I'm almost sorry to take it off,” Devon continued, covering the sound of the shuttle launching.

  “He wants to be a Ranger."

  “Well, if he keeps impressing the sergeant, he has
a good chance of getting in. Where did you find him?"

  Bain told him the whole story, starting from the beginning as Lin had taught him to tell a story or make a report. Devon grinned in some places, chuckled in others, shook his head, frowned, and in the end said the one thing Bain needed to hear.

  “You did your captain proud, Bain. She's on the verge of turning gray, fretting over you. The whole time, she kept saying she knew you could handle whatever happened because you were smart and strong and good.” Devon checked the set of the inflatable cast that encased Bain from the arch of his bare foot to halfway up his thigh. Then he sat back on his heels. “You did a great job. Not many grown men I know who could turn an enemy into an ally in a few days."

  “Gorgi's not my enemy. It's all those stupid, wrong stories his uncle kept believing."

  “That too.” He shook his head again. He had been doing that a lot since Bain started his story. “This could have turned out a lot worse than it did. The idiots here on Bareen are going to be sorry they tried to pick on Sunsinger and her crew."

  “You're not going to hurt anybody, are you?"

  “We don't have to, Bain. They wasted valuable time and put a lot of people in danger. Every person who dies because they didn't get to proper medical treatment on time is going to be their fault. I think that's hurt enough."

  Bain swallowed hard and silently agreed.

  * * * *

  The Rangers had come out searching for Bain, trying to find traces of the tunnels that Lin insisted he had to be imprisoned in. The tunnels underneath the colony had been searched end to end with no sign of Bain. Lin remembered his remark about waking up in a puddle and decided he was underground somewhere else. The Ranger shuttles had far more sophisticated equipment than the sensors Ganfer used. They had been attracted by the seismic shock of the explosion and had come in that particular direction to investigate. The pilots had decided to fly low and follow the river, to see the reaction to the explosion and maybe find some clue to the cause. If not, they never would have seen Gorgi and Bain.

  Lin met the shuttle when it landed. She didn't jump inside, but she was waiting at the hatch when Devon helped Bain climb out. Her hair didn't show any new gray, but the shadows of sleeplessness and worry under her eyes and in her cheeks were too visible. Bain didn't feel at all embarrassed when she hugged him.

  “So,” she said, drawing back, “you've been trying to rescue the universe again, I hear."

  “Trying.” Bain swallowed hard against a thickness in his throat that threatened to turn into tears.

  “You're growing up too fast."

  “Huh?"

  “Here, let's try this.” She took hold of his arm and guided it around her shoulder.

  That took some of his weight off his good leg. Bain found he could walk if he kept the steps short and in synchronization with Lin's steps. Devon slid into step with them and put Bain's other arm around his back, taking more weight off the boy's broken leg.

  “You're growing up too fast,” Lin repeated. “Don't you know only grownups take big risks like that?""You're not mad at me, are you?” He grinned as he asked, already knowing what the answer would be.

  “I'm too proud to be angry.” She nodded toward Sunsinger, waiting exactly where Bain had seen it last. “Let's get you inside. Anyon is waiting to give you another exam and Ganfer has a new collar link—a bigger one, since you were ready to outgrow the old one anyway—and we even got a new batch of hot chocolate and some diswi, straight from Mordor Caderi."

  “What about Gorgi?"

  “Hmm? Your friend? He can have some too, when he catches up with us.” Lin grinned and shook her head, stopping Bain when he opened his mouth to protest. “Gil was with me when Devon called in his report. For his part in all this, Gorgi can join the Rangers right now if he wants."

  “Good.” Bain looked at Sunsinger, shining bright in the sun, and he smiled. His leg didn't hurt. His new friend was going to get what he wanted. They had blown up a Mashrami plague bomb and saved people's lives.

  Everything was going to turn out just fine.

  END

  * * *

  About The Author

  Michelle lives in Strongsville, Ohio, just about half an hour from Lake Erie and Cleveland. She graduated from Northwestern College, Iowa, with a BA in theater/English, and from Regent University, Virginia, with an MA in communication (film/writing). She has over 40 short stories and poems to her credit in fan fiction—Star Trek, Highlander, the Phoenix, Beauty&the Beast, Stingray, among others. Her first professional sale was also a first-place win in the Writers of the Future Contest, with the short story “Relay.” This story introduced one of her favorite “Barbie Dolls,” Rhea Jones. She's a pivotal figure in a series of books Michelle calls Wildvine County. Someday they'll even see print....

  “Sunsinger” belongs in a universe Michelle created called “The Commonwealth". Bain and his adventures are about 3/4 of the way through the planned books—there's a lot of history she's still fleshing out. It's great fun, having thousands of people and stories running around in her head. And someday she'll get them all on paper.

  Visit her web site, members.aol.com/MLevigne, to see some of the other universes Michelle plays in, and other books available or keep track of her Writers Exchange Releases at: www.writers-exchange.com/epublishing/michelle.htm

  OTHER BOOKS AVAILABLE THROUGH WRITERS EXCHANGE:

  SUNSINGER: Sunsinger Chronicles Book 1

  Bain Kern wanted to crew a starship and explore the galaxies. But an orphan on a colony world in the path of an alien invasion had no real hope of his dreams ever coming true.

  SPACER'S CREED: Sunsinger Chronicles Book 2

  Bain's prayers were answered: Captain Lin Fieran wanted him to stay on Sunsinger and be her crew for another evacuation trip to Lenga. When they got there, everyone had already been evacuated, so they went to the next world in the path of the Mashrami invasion.

  DEAD WORLD: Sunsinger Chronicles Book 3

  Bain and Lin meet up with Ranger Captain Gilmore again. Gil has an important mission for Sunsinger's crew: helping test a new device to protect ships from the alien Mashrami. The only problem is, Lin has to get Sunsinger very close to the aliens in order to test it!

  * * * *

  THE LADY AND THE ORDER: Sunsinger Chronicles Book 4

  Bain and Lin meet up with Sister High Scholar Marnya, a member of the Order of Kilvordi—the Church scholars and scientists who brought civilization back from the destruction of the Downfall and took Humans back into space. Marnya needs their help on a very important mission: She needs to travel in disguise, to see if the conditions on the colony worlds match the reports that she receives. Plus, someone is trying to kill members of the Order, and Marnya is the most important target of all. Bain's dreams of having the power and resources to help the helpless come a little closer to reality as he learns from Marnya and her bodyguard, Jax.

  * * *

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