The rough stalt ground raked fire over SA’s palms. When she came to a halt—the coppery taste of her own blood on the back of her tongue—she flipped onto her back and drew a knife with each stinging hand. She met the scrutiny of the three soldiers and their blasters. They had the drop on her. Even if she got one blade loose, they’d fill her full of holes before she got the others off. While fighting to get her breath back—her ears ringing from the blow—she looked into the mean eyes of her aggressors, waiting for their move.
The rumble SA had started in the transmitter room continued to gallop towards them, but the soldiers seemed more concerned with her than the shredding death rushing at their backs. The rearmost of the group then looked behind. Despite being in the sights of the other two, she copied the third soldier and looked past them at the cloud of stalt dust filling the far end of the corridor.
When the white swell drew closer, the other two soldiers finally turned to see it. SA scrabbled to her feet, spun around, and sprinted away from them. Although vulnerable with her back exposed, the soldiers now had far more to worry about than taking her down.
Just before she vanished from sight, SA looked back at the soldiers again. They were running after her, or rather, they were running in the same direction as her to get away from the dust cloud. It moved like a force of nature, not yielding to anything. If they didn’t get out of the way, it would roll right over them and turn their skin to paste.
Another sharp left and then right, SA couldn’t hear the soldier’s clumsy getaway anymore, just the bellow of crashing stalt. Maybe it had already consumed them.
The next turn led SA into a hangar, the bright sun blinding her momentarily from where it shone through the large open exit at the far end. It turned every surface into a mirror, but she pushed on, blinking in an attempt to regain her sight.
The transmitter room had been vast, but the hangar dwarfed it by comparison. At least six times the size, it had a tall ceiling that looked like it stretched as high as the palace itself, twenty metres tall, if not more. There were soldiers everywhere, but none of them noticed SA. Even if they had, they were too busy saving their own lives to care.
SA watched a ship fly out into the bright desert. It looked like one of the first to get free. A small fighter, something about it demanded her attention. When a large chrome mech followed behind, her frame sank. Reyes and Sparks—she’d missed them.
Over the rumble of the collapsing palace, SA then heard more soldiers burst into the hangar through the door she’d just entered. They saw her before they saw the ships. The trio she’d just gotten away from led the group. They levelled their blasters at her for a second time.
Chapter 3
Where the group in the corridor had only been three strong, they now headed up a squad of over twenty beings. For a second, SA paused and stared at them. Despite their attempts to kill her, it lifted her heart to see they’d made it. Enemy or not, no being deserved to be torn to shreds by the collapsing palace. Then she focused on the blasters aimed at her, not only from the front three, but those behind them too.
As the swell of the falling palace grew louder, SA stepped back a pace. A moment later, the first signs of the chalky rush raced in on the heels of the army. After she’d watched them all look behind, she took the opportunity and ran. Better to try to avoid blaster fire than wait for the suffocating cloud. At least she had a chance against the soldiers’ blasters.
The rest of the ships were lined up against one wall about twenty metres away. A few half-hearted shots came at SA—which her zigzagging run helped her avoid—but she kept her attention on the vessels. One of them would get her out of there.
The smell of exhaust fumes and fuel filled the air, and the roar of more and more engines starting erupted as SA scanned the still-parked ships. The second she saw one she recognised, she’d get into it. With no Sparks to hot-wire them, she had to pick one she didn’t need a fingerprint or a key to start, and one she knew how to fly. Although—with an army so large and with an undoubtedly high turnover of troops—maybe none of them needed identification to get into the sky. It would be an expensive task to have to modify them so frequently, so why would Enigma bother? Also, she might not find one she recognised, so she’d have to try her luck. If she could fly one ship, she could fly them all. At least, she hoped she could.
The rip and smash of the collapsing palace drew so close the rumble of it shook the ground. SA continued on her dodging run, the stress of her sudden changes in direction hurting her knees. Would the next turn be one too many? She gave up and ran straight. If any soldiers were still focused on her, the falling building would crush them in the next few seconds anyway.
The line of ships ranged in size. Some looked like they could take an entire army millions of light-years away. Some looked like they’d need refuelling every half an hour. If SA had any hope of getting out of there alive, she needed a good balance of both. She needed to be nimble, and she needed to get off-world.
One of the blasts from behind ran so close to SA it dazzled her, momentarily giving her blind spots in her peripheral vision. She heard the hiss when it singed her hair, and ruffled her nose against the strong stench of it.
Now just metres between SA and the ships, the sound of boosters, laser fire, and structural ruin made her head spin. She checked behind to see how many of the army still fired at her. Half of them had already been consumed by rolling dust, but a few blasts still burst from the cloud. Then the sound of destruction entered the hangar, and the laser fire stopped.
SA paused to watch the cracks streak away from the door frame she and the army had just entered through. Like reverse lightning, an explosion of fault lines raced up the wall, forking and growing wider as they went, moving faster than she could trace them.
When many of the cracks reached the ceiling, the wall leaned forward. A cumbersome titan, the large lump of stalt slowly fell.
The screams of dying and scared creatures added to the insanity around her. Nothing SA could do for them now, she took off again in the direction of the ships. Then she saw the cracks in the wall behind the vessels … The destruction had caught up with her.
While clenching her jaw as if it would help her find more energy, SA doubled her pace, until she saw she had no chance of getting there in time. Better to stand back than be buried beneath a mountain of stalt, even if it did mean not getting to a ship. Like she’d just seen with the wall behind the army shooting at her, the cracks stretched from floor to ceiling. Large chunks of crystal fell onto the ships first, the rest of the wall tumbling down behind it.
Beings screamed, the rumble of rocks smashed down, and ships’ engines roared with the need to get out of there. For a second, the white dust gathered at the bottom of the wall as if building momentum, then rushed towards SA. Because she’d seen it coming, she had the good sense to hold her breath. After a deep inhale, she pursed her lips tight. The dense cloud of dust was thick enough to choke her on its own. Who knew what the sharp stalt particles would do if she breathed them in? Probably turn her lungs to liquid.
Driven back a couple of steps because of the choking rush, SA realised her one major error too late to do anything about it. She hadn’t given the same consideration to her eyes that she had to her lungs; instantly blinded by the white cloud, her world suddenly turned black.
Chapter 4
Despite her best efforts to avoid inhaling the dust, SA found it impossible; there was simply too much of it. She coughed and spluttered, the grit leaving a taste of lime in her mouth. But the darkness plaguing her sight had lightened. For what good it would do her.
The sound of the crumbling palace swirled around SA. Destruction came at her from every angle. Blinded and overwhelmed by the chaos, she barely knew which way was up. It drove her to inaction, rooting her to the spot.
The air clearer for now, SA drew several deep and wheezy breaths. It helped to settle her ragged pulse and straighten her thoughts. She looked in the direction of where she knew
the hangar’s exit to be, at least where she hoped it to be. The brightest spot around, it must be coming from where the sun bounced off the stalt desert. She couldn’t do anything about someone trying to shoot her, but she could at least try to run out of there. From the cacophony of insanity around her, she probably didn’t have to worry about being gunned down anyway. It sounded like most of the creatures were more concerned with their own survival than anything else.
The sound of destruction spurred SA on. No other option but to run, she faced the large blurry light that she hoped to be the exit to the hangar and broke into a sprint. Every blind step could be the one that tripped her, her stomach lurching in anticipation of a fall. She pushed through her desire to slow down. Whether she took her time or not, she wouldn’t be able to find her way any more easily. At least speed gave her a better chance of getting out of there.
Something then crashed into SA’s side, sending her several wobbly steps to the left before she fell to her knees. No give in the hard stalt ground, the shock of her landing ran fire from her patellae, up the insides of both thighs, and into her stomach with nauseating precision.
The deep cracking around her ran a vibration through the ground as it drew closer again. Although far fewer than before, the sound of whining engines swelled through the chaos. It sounded like the remaining few were getting out of there. Everyone else was done for—including her.
SA jumped back to her feet again and ran at the light. She couldn’t give up. Not that she expected a response, but she tried anyway. Seb? Reyes? Sparks? Bruke? If Bruke had even gotten out of there. Poor Bruke. Her sense already told her what the lack of reaction confirmed: no one could hear her. As much as disappointment tugged on her tired frame, she wouldn’t let it beat her. She dragged speed from deep inside, gritted her teeth, and screamed. It helped her push through the pain, exhaustion, and confusion.
Another loud splash of falling stalt behind, the wind it created crashed into the back of SA. It felt like half the hangar had dropped. At least she was ahead of it; silver linings and all that. A second later, the linings were left behind as the cloud of dust rushed forward and smothered her, choking her with its dry grip. She held her breath and kept moving.
This time SA saw the being coming from her left and stopped before it crashed into her. No more than a silhouette in her grey-toned world, it ran across where she would have been had she not halted. Although she noticed the one at her left, she had no chance of seeing the one behind. When it slammed into her, her head snapped back before she got flung forwards.
After several unsteady steps—her arms windmilling—SA managed to keep her balance. The second she picked up to full speed again, her big toe connected with something hard and immovable on the ground. The pain she’d felt in her knees had nothing on the sharp rod of fire that streaked up her foot, snapping a hard spasm through it that even made the strong structure of her boots yield.
Another crash-landing, her already sore palms paid the price for softening her fall again. A large, hard, and calloused foot then stamped on the back of her right hand as it ran past. Although it stung, SA knew the shoeless creature hadn’t broken anything. Thank the stars it didn’t have boots on.
Spurred on by the devastation behind her, SA jumped to her feet again. Despite the hard pulsating throb in her toe, she picked up her speed until she moved at a sprint. Silhouettes all around her, she sensed she’d become part of the mass and final exodus from that side of the palace. Anything left behind wouldn’t be getting out of there.
And then light. It opened up around her, seeming to give her a clear view of things despite her blindness. While panting to recover, SA inhaled the fresh Varna air. Even her very first breath brought some relief to her tight and dust-filled lungs. Another deep inhale and she coughed hard, the metallic taste of blood lifting up onto the back of her tongue.
After she’d swallowed it down with the stalt’s taste of lime, SA looked up in the direction of what must have been the sun. She felt the warm press of it as she listened to the structure collapse behind her in a damn near deafening crash. For the briefest moment, she allowed herself the smallest of smiles. She’d made it.
Chapter 5
It took for SA to step outside to appreciate just how loud it had been in the hangar. The screams and cries from the grieving soldiers still rang out around her, but now they had no ceiling to both contain their grief and throw it back at them as if mocking their plight. The final crash of the falling structure had removed the groans, pops, and cracks that had ripped through the palace like a prophet of doom heralding an extinction-level event.
A ringing in her ears—which hadn’t entirely left her since she’d set the leveller off—SA turned on the spot as if she’d see something other than whiteness, but everywhere looked the same, especially now the silhouette of the palace had gone with its collapse. She could make out the movement of beings around her, and nothing more. Not even their forms were entirely visible; they were just grey blobs of varying sizes. In the chaos of their panic, they moved without rhyme or reason. The mass exodus clearly ended outside the palace. Now they’d fled, they didn’t know where to go beyond that.
It would be a complete waste of time, but SA did it anyway. Seb? Reyes? Sparks? Bruke? None of them replied to her. It took for that moment for her to realise the sound of the ships had gone too. The traffic in the sky had already moved on, either fled or downed; hopefully, her friends were safe. When she looked up, her sight turned whiter than ever.
As SA’s already rapid pulse quickened, she rode out her heavy breaths and continued to turn on the spot until she felt dizzy. In an attempt to ease the ringing in her ears, she opened and closed her mouth. It had no effect. Blind and helpless, her spinning only served to confuse her more. Now she’d lost where she came from, she had no idea where to go. What a moron. “Damn it.”
“Oi, you!”
The words ran ice through SA’s veins and her shoulders snapped taut. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t see, she knew they were addressing her, but she didn’t reply. There seemed little point; they’d reveal what they wanted soon enough. From the sound of their voice, she’d say they were desperate to do it.
Even with the noises of the survivors around her, SA still heard footsteps approaching. It sounded like maybe five or six beings at the most. No doubt they were soldiers still fighting for their cause.
“You’re one of them,” the deep voice of a few seconds ago said. It sounded like it belonged to a beast of a creature, a baseline delivered from what could have only been a cavernous diaphragm.
At first she nearly denied it, shaking her head before she spoke. But there seemed little reason to. Instead, she took one final deep breath and tried to centre herself. A few metres between her and the creatures coming towards her, she clenched and raised her fists, widened her stance, and faced the direction of the speaker.
The beast with the deep voice laughed. “And there’s me thinking you’d come in without a fight. I mean, I might be wrong, but it looks like you can’t see anything. Otherwise you’d see the two guards approaching you from behind.”
When SA spun around, the realisation hit her slightly later than the punch to the back of her head. It struck the bell in her skull and added a flash to the white dominating her vision. The beast behind shoved her forwards. She tripped, fell, and landed on her already sore knees and palms.
Before SA could do anything, one of the creatures kicked her so hard in the stomach it drove the air from her body. On all fours, she coughed and gasped for air before another creature kicked her from the side, flipping her over so she landed on her back.
Despite being dizzy from the beating, when SA looked up, she saw with slightly more definition than before. Silhouettes, clearer than they’d been a moment ago, even with the bright sun behind them. A quick count showed her five creatures. When she saw the next one take a two-step run up, she rolled out of its way before it could connect. As it kicked air, she brought her leg arou
nd and swiped its standing foot. The beast hit the ground hard, but before it had a chance to yell out, she climbed over it and plunged a knife into the top of its head with a definitive crunch. She buried the blade up to the hilt. The beast’s muscles relaxed beneath her as she withdrew her knife and climbed off it.
At least two of the remaining four soldiers hissed at her. She also heard a throaty growl and the snapping of strong jaws. The blade raised and ready to fight, the warm trickle of the creature’s blood ran over the hilt and rode down the peaks and valleys made by the fingers of her tight grip.
If the creatures had any fighting experience, they didn’t show it. They stood shoulder to shoulder in front of her—a neat line ready to be taken down. Maybe they took her blindness to be complete.
The one with the deep voice spoke again. “You got lucky. It’s not going to happen again if you try to fight the rest of us. Give up now and we’ll let you live.”
Because of her slightly better view, SA managed to link the voice to the tallest of her attackers. The knife’s grip slick in her right hand, she loosed it, heard the gasp of a clean hit in the beast’s neck, and watched the silhouette fold while the life gargled out of it. The others froze, and before they had time to recover, she threw three more knives at them. Each one hit the head of one of the silhouettes. Each one dropped its target.
For the next few seconds, SA stood still and listened. If any of the group remained, she couldn’t see them. While she had to keep her wits—her giddy pulse goading her to take action—she could only fight what she knew to be there.
SA let some of the tension leave her body with a long exhale while she slowly turned around again. No silhouettes close to her. The same white view as before, she didn’t know which direction to head in. But she had to make a decision. A group of five had been easy enough to defeat with partial sight; if a larger squad approached her, she had no chance.
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