by S. S. Segran
“Too late,” Victor said. He crouched on one knee, staring down toward the refinery site. “We’ve got company.”
Aari crashed through the undergrowth, low-hanging branches slapping at his face, roots trying to catch his feet. Tegan raced ahead among the skyscraper trees as she led the way with Chief. Victor brought up the rear, his footfalls eerily silent. Shouts came from the refinery site behind them, followed by the long, rising whine of a turbine.
“Chopper!” Aari yelled.
“We can’t get to the car right now!” Victor barked. “They’ll follow us from above!”
“Can’t you take it down?”
“It’s too far! Stay in the trees!”
“They’re probably gonna bring out the Marauders!” Tegan warned. “We should get to high ground!”
Humidity saturated the air, almost thick enough to feel. The wide canopy two hundred feet above them filtered out most of the sunlight, and it was as if the plants themselves were reaching out to grab the intruders who had so rudely disrupted the rainforest’s natural rhythm. The jungle that had seemed inviting just a couple of hours earlier now disoriented Aari. Which way was north, which way was south, he had no clue.
A sound penetrated his ears, sending electricity through his spine. Maniacal braying reverberated through the moss-covered trees. It seemed to come from everywhere.
Tegan skidded to a halt, dropping like prey evading the gaze of the predator it had gotten wind of. Beside her, Chief bristled, eyes flitting back and forth. Aari and Victor stood on either side of them.
“I can’t tell where they’re coming from,” Tegan muttered.
“They’re behind us.” The Sentry tilted his head so one ear faced upward. “There’s four—no, three of them. They’re fast, and they have our scent.”
“Can we climb the trees?” Aari asked, looking up. “Never mind, the branches are too high.”
“We’ll have to hold our ground.”
Aari swallowed. Why does he sound eager? He wished they could use the incendiary gels Victor had in his bag, but that meant running the risk of starting a forest fire they might not make it out of unscathed. Or alive, for that matter.
The Marauders had gone quiet. The hairs on Aari’s arms rose.
“They’re closing in,” Victor murmured. “Less than three hundred yards.”
“I’m looking for an animal to mindlink with,” Tegan said, “but it’s like they’ve all fled.”
“Guess they sensed something bad invading their home, and it’s not us.”
Aari picked up a fallen branch; it was surprisingly heavy. He tried to stomp it in half but it wouldn’t break. Looking around, he spotted a cluster of boulders. He hastily wedged the branch between two of them and, using his full weight, bent it until it snapped. He took one end for himself and tossed the other to Tegan. “Careful, the edge is sharp.”
“One hundred yards,” Victor said. “They know exactly where we are. They’re spreading out to surround us. Chief, no stupid stunts. If you can’t fight them, you run.”
The wolfdog snuffled. Aari wondered if he actually understood the Sentry’s instructions. He stole a glance at his watch. This isn’t how I want to spend my time at nine in the morning. What even is my life anymore?
Victor craned his neck. “Fifty yards.”
Aari hoisted his improvised spear.
“Thirty.”
Tegan lowered her stance.
“Fifteen.”
The rainforest around them had gone terribly still.
“Ten.” Victor’s eyes narrowed. “Here we go.”
A black void shot out from the trees ahead as a second lunged from behind. Victor swept his hands out on either side, throwing the beasts back with his concussive blasts. The third Marauder attacked from the right; Chief caught it by the throat and tried to slam it into the ground, but it was too strong. The creature twisted away and went for the back of the wolfdog’s head.
“No!” Tegan swung her weapon, catching the Marauder across the jaw. Unfazed, the beast—standing at shoulder height—turned its sulfur gaze on her and leapt, sending her crashing to the forest floor and knocking the spear out of her hand. She rolled away and snatched it back up just as the Marauder threw itself onto her once more. With a yell, she pierced the sharp end of the branch into its belly. The beast roared, twisting itself free, and backtracked. It lowered to the ground, preparing to pounce.
Aari hollered, catching its attention. The Marauder shifted, putting him in its sights, and took off after him. Aari turned on a dime and sprinted toward a tree with several vines dangling. Teegs! he shouted telepathically. I’m gonna bait this guy! Use your spear! I’ll cover you!
She acknowledged him as he reached the tree. Giving one of the vines a tug to test its strength, he wrapped it around his fist and started to walk up the trunk. He kept his weapon in his other hand, at the ready. When he reached the first branch, he clambered onto it and released the vine.
Below, the Marauder had begun to climb the tree. Just behind it, Tegan approached at a prowl. Aari deflected the light around her until she was invisible. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the beast continue its ascent, its unsheathed claws hooking into the bark and leaving gouge marks on its way up. As it stretched out a paw to pull itself higher, it brayed, its hind leg slipping loose as blood spurted from it. Furious, it looked down to see what had injured it but there was nothing there. It tried to resume its climb but was attacked again; from Aari’s angle, its haunches seemed to have been the target. The Marauder growled and released the tree, landing on the ground with surprising grace, and scented the area.
It took a cautious step forward, and its right eye exploded. It screamed—a guttural, agonized sound that tore through the undergrowth. Aari nearly fell off his perch and, in his shock, dropped Tegan’s cover. She reappeared in front of the Marauder, the tip of her spear dripping gore.
The Marauder stumbled back, head thrashing, then honed in on her. Its hackles stood on end and its cropped tail went stiff. For a moment, girl and beast stared one another down. In Aari’s head, Tegan yelped, What are you doing? Cover me!
Sorry! He deflected the light around her once more. The Marauder sprang where Tegan had just stood. It was met by air. It whipped around, searching for the girl, ears pinned back.
I’m right beside it, Tegan told Aari. I’m going for its other eye. When I do, jump on it and finish it off.
This is insanity.
Sure is. Ready?
Let’s go.
Tegan plunged her weapon into the Marauder’s remaining eye and bellowed. “End it!”
Aari launched off the tree with his spear aimed straight down. He landed on the Marauder, the weapon going straight through the back of its neck. The beast collapsed, its body rising and falling with rapid, shallow breaths as it bled from both sockets, until it heaved its last exhale.
Aari and Tegan stared at each other, neither able to process what had just happened but both absolutely elated. Aari started to pull his spear free. “That was—”
An impact knocked the wind out of him as he hit the dirt, hard. Tegan landed beside him, face-down in the compact earth. In the next second, another Marauder was on top of him, lunging for his throat. He yelped, pushing at its neck. Déjà vu flashed behind his eyes and suddenly he was on top of Ayen’et again, fighting the beasts just as they were now. Only this time, there were no Guardians to save them.
Not like this! Not like this! He saw Tegan between the flurry of three-inch fangs. “Teegs! Get up! Run!”
She pulled herself up, disoriented but already making a grab for her weapon sticking out of the dead Marauder.
Without warning, the Marauder was thrown sideways. Aari lurched to his feet and pulled Tegan up with him. They spotted Victor with both hands outstretched and nodded their thanks.
The thumping of helicopter blades echoed above the canopy. Aari groaned inwardly, wishing he had a bazooka.
Chief wrestled with the last Marauder a f
ew feet away. There was blood on him, but he fought so viciously that Aari wasn’t sure if it was his or the beast’s. The Marauder that Victor had cast aside came barreling back but the Sentry was fast with his abilities. He used his blasts to fling the creatures in different directions at the same time, aiming to break them against the girthy trunks of the trees, but the muscular beasts kept coming back for more.
Tegan suddenly whooped. “Yes! Now we’re talking!”
A streak of gold rocketed out from the foliage, bowling over a Marauder. The beast roared as the new arrival snared its powerful jaws around a foreleg and wrenched it.
Aari’s face split into a huge grin. Jaguar!
If there was ever a perfect animal in the surrounding biome to subdue their monstrous adversary, it was this one. The wild cat, though stocky and much shorter, nearly matched the beast’s length at six feet. With its crushing bite it could pierce through the armored bodies of crocodiles and tortoises. Aari figured it should do the trick with the Marauders.
The beast caught in the jaguar’s grasp yanked its mangled leg free and clamped its maw around the smaller creature’s muzzle, ripping the skin and leaving long, angry marks along the snout. Tegan cried out, clutching her face. Aari caught her as she stumbled back. “Steady, steady. You okay?”
The other Marauder tried to join the fight, but Chief slammed it aside before Victor sent it flying against a craggy rock.
Tegan shook herself, snarling. “I’m fine. But now I’m mad.”
The jaguar dodged under the first Marauder and spun to wrap its paws around the beast’s neck. It sank its canines into the broad skull, puncturing bone. Aari goggled as the Marauder thrashed. The cat tightened its hold, sinking its claws deep into the sinewy haunches and rocking its head from side to side until the Marauder buckled and went still, tongue hanging from its open mouth.
“Help Chief!” Tegan shouted to Aari.
Aari searched for another weapon but only found a rock the size of a small melon. It’ll have to do. If David could defeat Goliath like this . . . well, God be with me. Or whatever omniscient being is watching over us, if any.
Gathering his courage, he screamed out a war cry and barged over, arms raised over his head. The Marauder saw him coming and headbutted Chief aside. Aari hurled the rock; the granite struck the beast square on the forehead with a loud thock and bounced off. The wolfdog attacked from behind, biting and clawing with scarlet drops flying through the air. The Marauder, distracted by the nuisance, tried to snap at Chief. Aari scooped up his rock again and got close enough to bring it down on the beast’s head with every last ounce of strength he had left. The creature fell onto its front legs, stunned. He swung down once more. Still the beast refused to give in, unsteady as it was.
As Aari hoisted his weapon yet again, the jaguar burst in and tackled the Marauder to the ground, delivering the same skull-crushing bite it has used before.
“That’s the last one!” Tegan called out, winded. “But the chopper’s still above us!”
Victor knelt to inspect Chief’s injuries. “It’s getting closer, which means I can take it down soon.”
Aari absently put a hand on his chest. His heart was beating so hard he could feel it clearly through his shirt. “Teegs, if we link up in the novasphere with you looking through a bird’s eyes, I can hide the car from the chopper.”
She nodded, and together the four of them ran through the forest, steadily drawing closer to the lone, snaking road that connected the refinery site to the rest of civilization.
The Jeep had been parked out of sight from the road and covered with branches. The problem was, Aari could not for the life of him recall where exactly the car was hidden now that they had bolted deep into the forest. But Victor led with confident strides, so they followed.
As the helicopter steadily thumped on, Aari glared suspiciously in the direction of the refinery site, or where he thought it was. “Aren’t the guards gonna chase us too?”
“They are,” Victor said. “But they don’t have the Marauders’ tracking skills.” He rubbed his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment as though he was in pain.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look it.”
Victor scowled. “Sometimes I can use my abilities for a while before I start to get a headache, sometimes not.” He motioned ahead. “There. Just past that tree.”
Once the Jeep was cleared of its camouflage, Victor slid into the driver’s seat with Tegan beside him. Aari and the wolfdog slumped in the back, catching their breaths. As soon as Tegan found a bird to mindlink with, he hopped into the novasphere, located her, and was seeing through the bird’s eyes within moments. The car shimmered before disappearing altogether. “All clear,” he announced.
Victor pulled the Jeep onto the road, then stopped it again. Aari saw his hands tremble. “Are you sure you want to do this? You’ve gotta be drained from using your abilities.”
The Sentry unbuckled himself. “I’ve got it. Just make sure I’m visible when I get out so I can draw the chopper closer.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“No,” Tegan said.
“That’s not for you to decide.” Victor looked calm, but his tone was cold.
“This isn’t about that. That chopper is about three, four hundred feet in the air. If you try to slam it away, it may work but we don’t know where that will leave you. I’d really prefer avoiding any more close calls. A team needs to look out for each other, doesn’t it? Because that’s what we are, like it or not.”
Victor stared at her for the longest time, his face devoid of emotion. Then—and Aari wasn’t certain if he had imagined it—the tightness around the Sentry’s eyes eased for a split second. He put the vehicle into drive and they tore down the road the same way they’d come.
Behind them, the helicopter continued to circle as its quarry sped away.
Kenzo knew he was being watched. On the other side of the one-way glass several feet behind him, Arianna Abdul and Dr. Nate would be monitoring the assessment, the first one they’d managed to get to after a long morning of meetings. This was the day’s fifth session, with seven more left to go. SONEs from each of the five echelons had filed in and out of the CUBE’s evaluation chamber below the Sanctuary where a small team of the Counselors, himself included, conducted examinations to ensure they were still committed to the cause. Or, as he really knew, they were tested to ensure that the effects of Dr. Nate’s repurposing hadn’t somehow worn off.
It was disheartening to see that not one of the other teenagers were like him, impervious to the mind-warping. The worst was when his cousin came in. They’d shared smiles, but Kenzo had felt as though he was lying to her face without saying a word. Then, when Ren locked pinkies with him—something they’d retained from childhood, something that was a secret promise between them through all the hardships they’d faced together—he had to take his leave. He’d barricaded himself in a bathroom stall, sobbing with his forehead pressed against the door.
She was all he had. Somehow he had escaped the effects of the repurposing and she had not. He was alone.
Once he’d gathered himself, he returned to the evaluation chamber and continued conducting tests, keeping an eye on the monitors for abnormal brain patterns. Driven by artificial intelligence, the software was able to analyze and assess a SONE’s fidelity to the programming. An auditory loop played through the earpieces that the youths wore when settling into their chairs. The audio targeted an area of the brain to elicit truthful responses. It had only just been implemented, and it equally terrified and intrigued Kenzo.
He, along with a few other Counselors monitoring the assessments, had been the first ones to take the evaluation. Kenzo had thought that was the end, that he would be made once the AI recognized something was off about him.
But nothing had happened. There was no blaring of alarms, the monitors didn’t light up in warning, no one came rushin
g in with batons or guns or Marauders.
He’d puzzled over his miraculous escape until it was his turn to do the monitoring. That’s when he realized the software was programmed to search for deviations against a set of pre-determined parameters, not to detect complete imperviousness. Dr. Nate must have been certain that, after at least a year of living as SONEs, all the youths were, in fact, integrated into the cause. His focus was on finding diminishments, if any, in that commitment. Who would have fathomed that there would still be a free mind among the repurposed masses who’d deliberately remained trapped underground for months?
A beeping snatched Kenzo from his thoughts. He looked down at one of the monitors, then quickly moved to block it from view of the watchful eyes behind the one-way glass.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Against the thrum of steady patterns on the screen, one wavered.
Number Sixteen.
He made a furtive scan of the seats until he found the person he was looking for.
A slender Caucasian girl, her chest-length hair dyed a mesmerizing blue, sat with her eyes closed just like the others. She was probably around Kenzo’s age, and far taller. He tried to see if he could remember anything about her but nothing stood out except her royal purple shirt that marked her as a member of the small Administrative echelon. The name on the monitor read Piper Whittaker.
Kenzo pursed his lips. He’d have to tweak the data before the session ended and the reports were automatically sent to Dr. Nate’s tablet. But with the diminutive man and Arianna mere feet behind him, he’d have to be careful.
“What was that beeping?” one of the other Counselors asked, walking over to the workstation.
“Beeping?” Kenzo repeated. “When?”
“Just now.”
As the Counselor neared, Kenzo waved him away. “Oh, that. Nah. I hit a key by mistake and it warned me not to exit out of the program early. Everything’s okay here.”
“You sure?” The youth tried to maneuver around the curved table to join him, but Kenzo suddenly jerked his chin toward the front of the room.
