by Amy Cross
“Good question,” Doctor Phillips mutters.
“We're not on any side,” I tell the soldier, watching his hand in case he reaches for one of the guns he's carrying. “We're nothing to do with this war.”
“You're from the island?”
“This is our home,” I reply. “You shouldn't even be here.”
“I wish I'd come here before,” he stammers, stepping toward us before suddenly slipping and dropping to his knees.
Instinctively, I rush forward and support him, but I can already tell that he's lost a lot of blood. His face is pale and his eyes are starting to close, and his lips are trembling.
“I didn't want to fight,” he whispers. “I wanted to stay at home and work the market stall in Bayetsville. That's all I wanted. Then they closed the market and I had no job to do, so -”
He pauses, and then suddenly he slumps forward. I manage to catch him again, and this time I lower him to the ground. His dead eyes stare out across the forest until I close them gently, and then I sit for a moment, listening to the sound of gunfire in the distance.
“There but for the grace of God,” Doctor Phillips mutters, taking one of the guns from the dead man's belt and tossing it to me, before taking another gun and checking the energy levels on its side. “At least he's at peace now, and at least we didn't have to listen to a long, boring and rather sentimental story about how he wanted to be a market trader.”
“I thought I'd outrun this,” I whisper, staring down at the dead man's face.
“And you were wrong.”
I look up at her and see – for the first time – a hint of sadness in her eyes.
“If this war could be outrun,” she continues, “don't you think the rest of us would have done it long ago, Asher? Face facts. You can run for a while, but the war will always catch up to you. Even here on the island.”
“Then what do I do?” I ask. “How do I get away from it?”
“You make it stop.”
“How?”
“Do you remember how people said the revolution never came?” she replies. “It was a common phrase for a while. People said the revolution never came, so we just had to accept the world as it is. Well, I think there might still be hope yet. We might – might – be on the cusp of a revolution right now, but only if we do the things we need to do. A lot of people have been working for a very long time to get us to this point, and a lot of sacrifices were made. Asher, very few people had the right DNA to be used in this project. The others are dead. I'm not saying you're some kind of special little snowflake, Asher. I lied to you once, I told you that you were a great soldier, but to be honest I was simply trying to pump you up. The truth is, you were one of a few hundred whose DNA contained the minor mutation that would allow this plan to work. And thanks to a series of coincidences, you're the only one who's still alive. You're our only hope.”
“Please don't say that,” I whisper. “I can't be anyone's hope.”
“Tough shit!” she says firmly. “Now get up off your ass and let's go to the beach, and then maybe you'll stop being a pussy and start facing up to the opportunity that we have here.”
Before I can reply, I hear a familiar humming sound in the distance. I immediately tell myself that I have to be wrong, that it can't be what it sounds like, but then slowly I turn and see a circle of lights advancing across the sea and heading toward the beach. Heat from the ring of guns is already making the air shimmer.
It's a warship. Just like the warship I faced all those years ago in the battle at Talton V on the day Mads died. I guess the war really did come and find me again.
“Come on,” Doctor Phillips says, nudging my arm. “Let's go do this. You -”
Suddenly a blast of energy flashes through the air and I feel a heavy impact against my shoulder. Spun around by the force, I immediately drop to the ground, but the searing pain is already enough for me to know what just happened.
I've been shot.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Iris
“She's my mother and you didn't tell me!” Nissa shouts, still trying to hit me as I hold her by the wrists. “She's alive!”
It's taking all my strength to keep her from punching me, and she's showing no sign of calming down. Finally, figuring that I have to do something, I twist her around and push her against a tree, but even this doesn't seem to help. She's furious, filled with a kind of burning rage that I don't think I've ever seen before in my life, and I'm certain that as soon as I let go of her wrists she'll come at me again.
“Why didn't you tell me?” she screams. “Why didn't she tell me?”
She tries to kick me. When that doesn't work, she finally stops trying to attack, and I wait a moment before very slowly and very cautiously letting go of her wrists.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?” she sobs, with tears streaming down her face. “I thought she was dead! She was standing right in front of me! She was talking to me, and she didn't say anything! Does she even know who I am?”
I pause, before nodding.
“So why didn't she tell me?”
Even if I could speak, I don't know how I'd answer that question. As Nissa slumps down sobbing and puts her face in her hands, I feel as if I'm completely incapable of helping her. In the distance, more booms signal explosions at the beach, and I can hear both the sound of gunfire and the sound of soldiers screaming as they die. We need to get out of here, but I know I can't possibly get Nissa to move, not now. Finally, crouching down, I try to move her hands away from her face, but she shoves me back. She's sobbing so hard, her shoulders are trembling.
Reaching out, I place a hand on her shoulder, but she quickly pulls away.
A moment later, there's a rumbling sound in the distance. I turn and look back toward the beach, and I spot a large circle of lights moving beyond the treeline. The warship must have finally made landfall, and I'm sure that thing will have no trouble cutting its way through the forest. A weapon that size could level the whole of Steadfall in about five minutes, and none of our sticks or stones or knives have a hope of slowing its progress.
Suddenly Nissa punches my shoulder, but then she puts her hands back over her face.
“She had your best interests at heart,” I want to say. “She did it for you.”
Then again, those would just be platitudes, and I'm sure Nissa would see through them quickly enough.
“Does she even like me?” she whimpers finally, lowering her hands once more and staring at me with tear-filled eyes.
I nod.
“Does she care whether I live or die?”
I nod again.
“Is she ever going to tell me who she is?”
I pause, and then I shrug.
“Everyone said she died when I was born,” she continues. “Was everyone lying to me?”
I shake my head.
“So they all thought she was dead too?”
I nod.
“Did you know she was alive?”
I pause.
“Iris,” she says after a moment, her voice trembling with fear, “tell me the truth. Until she showed up the other day, did you know she was alive?”
I nod.
“Did you always know?”
I nod again.
“So why didn't you tell me?”
Taking a deep breath, I realize I have no way to answer.
“There's no point talking to you anyway,” she says suddenly, her voice filled with scorn. “All you can do is nod and shake your head and shrug, and make a few signs with your hands. You're useless!”
I nod.
“Why didn't she tell me?” she sobs, and this time she leans forward and puts her arms around me. “Why did she act like I was just some stupid kid she'd only just met?”
In the distance, a high-pitched scream rings out. More soldiers are dying, and I can hear the slow, persistent hum of the warship moving across the beach. The ground is rumbling gently, and when I look over my shoulder I see that the warship is makin
g its way toward the tree-line. Based on its current trajectory, I'd say it's aiming straight for Steadfall. Sure, warships move slowly, but they're basically impossible to stop. A moment later, I hear a crunching sound, and I watch as the first trees start to fall.
“Maybe she thinks I'm not good enough,” Nissa says.
I shake my head, before getting to my feet. Reaching down to her, I wait for her to take my hand so we can run, but she simply stares straight ahead into the forest.
Tapping her shoulder, I point toward the trees, indicating that we need to keep moving.
“Where is she right now?” she asks.
I shrug.
“Is she at Steadfall?”
I pause, before holding my hands up to indicate that I don't have a clue.
“I bet she is,” she continues, wiping her eyes. “Everyone always said that she was a fighter. They weren't lying about that, were they?”
I shake my head.
“She seemed stiff and slow,” she adds, finally standing up. “Like she'd been hurt. She was still good at fighting when that man attacked me, but she couldn't just cut him down. She needed your help. Was she injured once? Is that why she's not as fast anymore?”
I nod.
“So she needs us.”
I tilt my head slightly.
“If she's going to fight,” she continues, “she needs help. She needs all the help she can get, and that includes us. We have to go and find her!”
I shake my head.
“You can't stop me,” she says, her voice trembling with fear. “She needs us.”
I reach out to grab her arm, but she pulls away. And then, before I can try again, she turns and runs toward the beach. I try to cry out, but all I manage is a faint grunt. Nissa is already in the distance now, running toward the sound of gunfire, silhouetted against the explosions that are rocking the beach every few seconds.
Struggling to my feet, I set off after her.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Asher
Letting out a cry of pain, I stumble against a tree before looking at my left shoulder. Sure enough, I took a glancing hit from a stray laser blast, and my skin and flesh are still sizzling and bubbling. When I try to move my left hand, I find that I can barely even make my fingers twitch, and the pain is getting worse by the second.
Suddenly the sound of distant explosions seems to make my head shake. Filled with a sense of panic, I turn and look all around, and for a few seconds I honestly can't remember whether I'm on the island or back in the war. The ground is shuddering beneath my feet, but I know I have to keep going. Despite barely being able to walk, I force myself to stumble through the forest.
The pain in my shoulder is getting worse. I feel as if the meat is still cooking from the heat of the blast, and -
“Don't move!”
Turning, I see a heavily-armored soldier aiming a gun at me from just a few feet away. Most of her face is covered by her visor, but I can just about tell that it's a woman. There are burn marks on her chest-padding, and it's clear that she's taken some hits.
“You're under arrest!” she barks. “All inhabitants of the island are considered enemy combatants until further notice!”
“That's not how it's supposed to work,” I whisper, leaning against the nearest tree as I try to stay on my feet. “I came here to get away from you.”
“You'll come with me now,” she continues, “and -”
Suddenly she stops speaking.
I wait for her to continue, for her to bark more of her stupid orders, but she seems genuinely shocked by something. A moment later, she lowers her gun, and then I watch as she raises her visor and stares at me with a horrified expression on her face.
“What is it?” I ask, wincing as the pain continue to build in my shoulder. “What do you want from me?”
“It's you,” she replies breathlessly. “When they said the name of the person we'd come to find... I thought it was too much of a coincidence, but it's really you!”
“I don't know who you are!” I shout. “I don't -”
“Prove it to everyone,” she continues, stepping toward me as the expression on her face changes from shock to anger. “Prove it to them all. Prove it to everyone.”
“What?” I stammer, before remembering where I've heard those words before. “No, please...”
“It's you!” she screams, lunging at me and grabbing me by the throat.
Falling back against the tree, I try to push her away, but my left arm is useless and my right isn't strong enough. She's gripping my throat tight, as if she's trying to squeeze every last breath from my body.
“I never forgot your face!” she sneers. “I dreamed about you! You were in all my nightmares!”
Reaching down, I fumble for a moment before feeling the handle of a blaster poking out from a holster around her waist. I manage to take the gun out and turn it so that it's aimed up at her face, but at the last moment I realize I can't pull the trigger. It's definitely Sabrina, the little girl from the abyss, but she's all grown up now and there's so much hatred in her eyes. Even as she continues to throttle me, my finger brushes against the gun's trigger but refuses to press down. I can't kill her. There has to be a way to help her, to somehow -
Suddenly there's a blast of light and Sabrina slumps against me. Startled, I see that one side of her face has been blown away, and a moment later her lifeless body falls to the ground.
“Were you just going to wait there and let her do that?” Doctor Phillips asks breathlessly, lowering her gun. “Seriously, Asher? Why didn't you fight back?”
“It wasn't her,” I whisper, kneeling down and rolling the body onto its back. “It can't have been her.”
And yet, as I look at her bloodied face, I realize that it really might be Sabrina. It's hard to believe that after all this time, our paths could have crossed again, but I think this young woman was once the little girl who was forced to torture me back in the abyss. Even now, smoke is rising from what's left of her face, but one of her eyes is intact and I gently force it shut. I guess I was right about what would happen to her. She was taken into the system and she became a soldier, and now she's dead.
“It's time, Asher,” Doctor Phillips says, as more explosions rock the beach. “Both sides are here because of you and me. The original plan has to change a little, but don't worry, I'm very good at thinking on my feet. I need you to surrender to our side, so that they'll take you back to the city. That's the only way the plan can work. I know you don't understand right now, but you don't need to understand. You just need to trust me.”
“What if I refuse?” I ask, turning to her. “What if I don't want any part of this?”
“Then they'll rip this island apart to find you.”
“Why couldn't you leave me alone?” I continue. “That's all I wanted, to be left alone by the rest of the world.”
“I'm afraid it doesn't work that way,” she replies, before turning and starting to make her way between the trees, heading toward the gunfire on the beach. “You have a job to do.”
I look back down at Sabrina's smoking body for a moment, and then I start to follow. I don't even know why, but I let Doctor Phillips lead me through the forest until we're almost at the edge of the beach.
“What will they do to us when they take us back?” I ask.
“I told you,” she replies, stopping and letting me step past her. “They'll scan your DNA into their system. From there, your DNA will function as a virus, coursing its way through their network. The best part is, you don't even need to understand the brilliance of the idea. You just need to play your part.”
“And then?”
“What do you mean?”
“Then what happens?”
“The revolution, if all goes to plan. I once heard a rather nihilistic young woman proclaim that the revolution would never come. She said if it was coming, it would have arrived by now. I've got to admit, I laughed at her. I wanted to tell her that these things simply take time,
but I didn't bother. What would be the point? Words are easy, Asher. It's actions that are so very important, especially at a time like this when the fate of the world hangs in the balance.”
Beneath my feet, the ground shudders again. At this rate, the island is going to get ripped apart by the sheer force of the fighting.
“I want to come back here,” I whisper. “When I've done whatever you want me to do, I want to come back to the island.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“That's the deal,” I continue, turning and watching as the warship continues to move slowly across the beach, blasting at everything in its path. “I get to come back to the island and then I want to be left alone forever.”
“That's entirely possible.”
“You have to promise me.”
“I'm in no position to do that.”
“Because they'll lock you up for treason?”
“Oh, no,” she replies. “I don't think I'll let that happen.”
Turning to her, I see a faint smile on her lips.
“I've witnessed human nature at its best,” she continues, “and at its worst, and I don't think there's very much difference. The revolution is coming, but whether it succeeds is another matter. Either way, whatever comes next, it'll just fester over time. That's how humanity works, Asher. Everything rises and then everything falls, and this will just go on and on until the last miserable member of our species is dead. I'm tired, and I don't want to watch it anymore. I'd rather go out at the high point, when there's still potential and nothing has been spoiled. So you'll have to take this last part of your journey without me. It's been a pleasure watching you grow up, but I'm out of here.”
“You're staying on the island?” I ask.
“No,” she replies, and her smiles grows. “Too many people. I've played my part. They can do the rest themselves, and I think I finally realized that I want to be alone. Properly alone, where no fuckers can ever bother me again.” She pauses for a moment. “Good luck with the revolution, Asher. I have faith in you. You and I are more similar than you'd like to admit.”
I open my mouth to ask what she means, but suddenly she raises her gun and places it under her chin.
