The Coming Storm_A Pax Aeterna Novel

by Trevor Wyatt

  The door unlocked with the press of a button and he fell inside, not even bothering with his safety restraints. He pressed the button to turn on the ignition, and the engine roared to life.

  Cassius ordered the car to drive him home. Slowly, the vehicle started to move.

  “Increase speed now!” Cassius exclaimed to the car.

  The car obliged and the barricades that lowered to prevent exit splintered in their feeble effort at containment, covering his windshield in bits of wood and mangled metal.

  The group that had followed him slowed their chase as he picked up speed more than their feet could carry. Rocks pelted the back and roof of his car. Cassius winced at first, before he took in a deep breath and relaxed. Though the rest of his body seemed at ease, his hands gripped tightly to his seat.

  As his car drove him through the now deserted streets to his home, everything raced through Cassius’ mind.

  Was he foolish for thinking that Centralia had any interest in helping them?

  Was he responsible for all this?

  Was it his fault that people lay dying in the streets, crippled by an illness they didn’t understand while waiting for help that was never coming?

  All he knew for sure was that he needed to get home, to grab his family and find shelter before the riots became worse.

  Only then, after it died down, would he be able to formulate a plan to save them all.

  Because, no matter what Craig thought, they really were his people.

  Chapter 8

  Cassius

  The road before Cassius was empty, save the occasional lone wanderer afflicted with the Crop Fever. The fading sunlight overhead wrapped the barren landscape in an orange haze, making the place even more dismal than it once was.

  His mind was still plagued with the guilt Craig had instilled him. These feelings would be hard to shake, he knew. Still, he had more important things to worry about than wallowing in his own self-pity.

  After what felt like a longer drive than it actually was, his home appeared over the horizon. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that none of the rioters had come for his family yet.

  He ordered the car to slow down and pull away into the driveway beside his home. Once the vehicle was parked, he shut off the engine and stepped out.

  Lyla was waiting for him at the door with a worried expression on her face, and he made his way over to her.

  “Are you alright?” Lyla said, her voice cracking as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. “I saw the news, that there was a riot near the transport ship. What’s going on?”

  “I’m fine, really. I’m okay,” he said. His hands found her waist and pulled her protectively close. Franky stood behind the pair, occasionally glancing behind his father, as if anticipating more people to be coming with Cassius.

  “I was overseeing the evacuation, but out of nowhere, navigation systems were remotely disabled. Everything just moved so fast from there and people started going insane.”

  Lyla choked back a sob while her husband spoke. This was far too much for her to handle so suddenly. Cassius gently led her and Franky back inside and locked the door behind them.

  “Listen, if anyone comes to the door, don’t answer. Take Franky and Sienna to hide and let me do all the talking.”

  Lyla shook her head, wiping a tear from her cheek.

  “Let’s just go,” she said. “Take the transport ship to Centralia and make them send help!”

  “No, I don’t want to do that,” Cassius replied. “I have my suspicions that Centralia is responsible for keeping us trapped here in the first place. They’ve made it abundantly clear that they’re not interested in sending aid to the people of Elban. Whether they’re afraid of spreading the plague to their own city, or they wanted this to happen in the first place, I don’t know. I don’t trust them.”

  “Do we have any choice? If we stay here on Elban, then who knows what will happen to us? They’re going to come for you, Cassius,” Lyla said, her voice pleading. “Please, I don’t want to stay here! We can go so easily!”

  Cassius was about to speak, when a thunderous knocking interrupted him. Franky jumped backwards and nearly trip over the end table near the wall.

  “Cassius, let me in!” the familiar voice of Craig called from the other side of the wooden barrier. Cassius turned to face the door and peered through the window to its left. He was cradling a small form in his arms.

  It didn’t take Cassius long to realize that it was Peyton.

  “You open this door right now!”

  “Please, come on! Let’s go! We don’t have time!” Lyla begged. “We can’t worry about Craig and his daughter when our own children need saving!”

  Three more loud thumps were heard before the door gave way from Craig’s shoulder. Peyton was behind him now, covering her eyes with her hands while her father held a gun trained straight for Cassius’ torso.

  “Take her—take her now!” Craig screamed, his free hand gripping Peyton’s shirt collar and shoving her toward Cassius. “She’s the only one in my family not infected! She’s the only one that’s got a chance!”

  His face was stained from the tears that had poured from crazed and bloodshot eyes. Peyton tried to struggle against his force, but the child was unable to resist even her sickly father’s grip.

  Cassius raised his hands, palms facing toward Craig as he maintained eye contact.

  “Slow down, Craig,” he said in a calm tone. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying here and we’re going to get this contained.”

  “We’re going to get this contained—ha! Contained? You think you can contain this?” Craig said, going into full blown hysterics at this point. “Look everyone, Cassius over here thinks you can contain something like this! Wow, you’re either the biggest liar, or the biggest idiot I’ve ever seen in my life!”

  He tapped the gun against his own forehead before pointing it back to Cassius.

  “No, how about this? How about you take my daughter, get her off this rock, and leave us to deal with the mess you’ve made.”

  “Craig, even if I were to leave, my shuttle only holds four people. I wouldn’t have room for your daughter,” he said, reaching out to Craig.

  Craig grew silent.

  “I’m sorry for this,” he said quietly. His eyes darted around the room for a moment before locking onto Lyla’s.

  Time seemed to move in slow motion for the next few seconds.

  Craig swung his arm and pointed the gun at Lyla, squeezing the trigger once his hand stabilized in its aim. A loud crack rang out from the barrel along with a bright flash.

  The bullet pierced through Lyla’s chest, out her back, and through the wall behind her.

  She staggered for a moment, clutching the hole above her heart with a trembling grasp. She gasped for air, trying to fill her failing lungs, as blood escaped her heart and spilled onto the floor.

  Cassius watched her fall back against the wall, her eyes darting between him and Craig as she slowly slipped down. The exit wound left a trail of blood along the wall until she finally hit the ground, slumping to the side and lying motionless on the cold floor.

  Her last breath hissed from between her lips, while her eyes slowly slipped out of focus.

  “There we go. Now there’s room for Peyton,” Craig said coldly. He glared at Cassius and shook his head. “What’s one more death among the thousands of others you’ll be responsible for? Well, two more.”

  Craig turned the gun on himself, pressing the cold barrel against his own forehead before pulling the trigger. Another loud crack was followed by an explosion of red that coated the wall beside him.

  His body fell forward into the pool of Lyla’s blood, his cold dead eyes looking up at Cassius.

  Cassius had to choke back the bile that threatened to erupt from his throat. He fell to his knees, a shaky arm reaching to Lyla’s body.

  He was in shock, unable to even cry. No words escaped his lips. His hand stroked her shoulder gent
ly. He had to get out of here, to take Sienna and Franky as far away from the hell that this planet had become.

  Cassius was broken out of his daze by the sound of sobbing beside him. He turned his head to see Peyton, crying with her face in her hands.

  She was only six years old and had just witnessed her father murder someone before committing suicide. Her hands and face were covered with blood, most likely from trying to wake him up just moments ago in vain.

  Cassius held his arms out and pulled her into a gentle embrace. Cradling the child, he stood to his feet and looked around for his own children.

  “Franky! Get Sienna and take her out to the ship,” he said. His son was visibly shaken. He, too, was in shock and unable to really comprehend what was going on.

  “We’re leaving!”

  “B-but dad, what about them?” he asked, his voice shaking. He was looking at the two bodies on the floor.

  “We don’t have time,” Cassius said as he walked past. “Do as I say.”

  “Y-yes, sir,” Franky said, coughing and limping slightly as he turned to leave the room and fetch Sienna.

  On the shuttle, Cassius tugged firmly on the safety belt that crossed over Sienna’s torso, making sure the small child was firmly fastened in her seat. He did the same for Franky and Peyton before sitting in the pilot’s chair and buckling himself in.

  Fingers glided across various buttons and switches as the ship roared to life.

  The ship slowly rose from the ground and moved forward. Cassius didn’t even wait for the clearance to proceed before pulling back on the controls and heading upwards toward the upper atmosphere.

  Cassius’s expression remained stone cold and blank as they broke through the atmosphere and entered orbit around the planet.

  He stole a look at Franky, who was sitting on the seat beside him. He was silent, staring forward at the vastness of space.

  He could tell, even now, that Franky’s condition was deteriorating. If they didn’t get to Centralia fast, Franky would succumb just as all the others had. Cassius pressed forward, wanting to put as much distance between them and this chaos as possible.Cassius pressed forward, wanting to put as much distance between them and this chaos as possible.

  Chapter 9

  Cassius

  Space held much less turbulence for them than the upper atmosphere.

  They still hadn’t broken orbit, but it wouldn’t be too long until they were free of Elban’s gravity. Although the vessel was nothing but a glorified shuttle meant for the use of Elban’s governor, Cassius had it retrofitted and equipped with a sub light drive—one he expected to be enough to get them to Centralia.

  Peyton had fallen asleep. Whether it was due to stress or a child’s natural circadian rhythm kicking in, Cassius couldn’t tell. But he was at least thankful that she was resting. The poor child had witnessed too much.

  They all had.

  Sienna seemed to be on the border of sleep and wakefulness. If she could just fall asleep, and if Franky would follow, that would make this trip much easier for Cassius to deal with.

  He loved his children dearly, and seeing them suffer so far away from home was such a painful thought that he didn’t want to deal with at the time. On top of that, he had a child that wasn’t even his own to care for. Just how was he going to manage this?

  Franky’s condition was becoming worse faster than he expected as well. The child hacked violently, a spot of blood spewing from his mouth and into his palm from how his throat had become raw.

  It was a horrible sight, watching his son grow sicker, becoming more like the ravenous masses that had suffocated him just barely two hours ago.

  It was imperative that they get to Centralia as fast as possible. Otherwise, Franky would lose his mind and suffer a horrid and painful death.

  Their trip seemed to be going smoothly, until Cassius caught sight of a massive projectile hurtling past them. Alarms sounded, signifying that the sensors detected hostile activity behind them.

  Someone was firing at them.

  Cassius gripped the controls tightly, swerving left and right to avoid the shots that hurtled toward them. A few zipped past them harmlessly because of his deft maneuvers.

  Still, it was too close for his own comfort.

  This didn’t make sense to Cassius. The people of Elban didn’t have weapons like this.

  Then, realization struck him.

  “The Lange Corporation...” he muttered to himself.

  It was all starting to make sense now. Centralia didn’t contact them back. The transport ships were disabled. Now, they were being fired upon.

  The entire planet was basically under a quarantine. They didn’t want anyone leaving, not even him. And if this were the case, then that meant the Lange Corporation was responsible for the Crop fever. They made Elban a place for their farming experiments. And now that things had gone haywire, the Lange Corporation didn’t want to take responsibility.

  They had left the people of Elban to die.

  “Dad?” Franky asked, confusion in his voice. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re under attack,” he said honestly. The child had seen so much so far, what was the harm in being blunt now?

  The sirens had awakened Peyton and Sienna from their restless sleep. The two girls’ eyes fluttered open and they exchanged nervous looks around the room.

  Cassius dove to dodge another projectile. It ripped past, smashing into a meteoroid and shattering the block of ice and metal like it had been nothing more than Styrofoam. Cassius’ muscles tensed, his knuckles going pure white from his tight grip.

  If he had been under any more stress, he was sure a vein would burst in his forehead.

  He continued to duck and weave in an effort to throw off their attackers. Cassius didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up. Eventually, he was going to slip, and one of them would pierce the hull of the ship.

  He couldn’t let that happen. Cassius needed to figure out a way to shake them off for good.

  “Daddy? I’m scared,” Sienna said in a heartbreaking tone.

  “Just hold on, sweetie. I’m going to get us out of this,” he said, continuing his maneuvers.

  One of the projectiles flew dangerously close past the front window. Had he been going any faster, it would have gone straight through the cockpit and killed all four of them.

  Cassius searched for anything he could use as a shield. After what felt like forever, he spotted a cluster of meteoroids drifting not too far away. Cassius banked the ship left and headed toward them, narrowly missing several other shots along the way.

  He slipped between two of the larger ones, using them as a shield just in time for one of the projectiles to smash into the largest of them. That shot would have gone flying through the back of the ship and out the front.

  The shots ceased after the attackers lost sight of Cassius’ ship.

  He breathed a sigh of relief.

  “That was close,” he said, releasing the controls for a moment and slipping back in his seat.

  He hadn’t realized how tightly he’d been gripping them until the soreness in his hands settled.

  Sweat dripped down the side of his face.

  The adrenaline had begun to fade away, leaving in place the inevitable fatigue.

  “Why were they shooting at us?” Franky asked, still shaking from the ordeal.

  “Because someone didn’t want us to leave Elban. They have something to hide—and I know what it is,” Cassius said. He unbuckled his restraints and set the ship on autopilot for the time being.

  He stood to his feet, going behind his seat to check on the girls. “It’s okay, though. We’ll make it to Centralia, and I’ll make everything right.”

  Peyton sat motionless, staring forward blankly without even making a sound. Her occasional blinks were all that told Cassius that she was even still alive.

  He turned his head to see Sienna beside them. Her entire body trembled, her lower lip quivering as if she were hold
ing back tears.

  Cassius couldn’t blame either child for their reactions. He wished he could be alone, even if just for a minute, and vent all the feelings he had been keeping bottled up for the sake of these children.

  He wanted to scream, he wanted to shout, to curse everything over the loss of his wife. He wanted to mourn all that he’d lost in this cruel stroke of fate.

  He gripped a fistful of his own hair and breathed deeply. The last of his adrenaline was leaving his body, making him feel weaker and more tired than he had ever been before.

  Cassius was interrupted by the sound of coughing and wheezing. He turned and saw Franky’s entire body convulsing in a violent fit brought on by his fever. Red marks appeared on his neck where the safety restraints had rubbed against him in his thrashing, and blood trickled down the corner of his mouth.

  With another cough, a spurt of blood coated the control panel in front of him.

  Cassius reached inside his pocket and produced a medium sized, plain white handkerchief. Gently, he wiped the blood from his son’s face and the console.

  Franky continued coughing, more blood spurting from his mouth with each cough.

  “Here, keep it,” Cassius said. He handed Franky the handkerchief, which the boy took and held against his mouth to stop any further mess.

  After making sure all the children were okay, Cassius checked the panel and made sure the autopilot was taking them on the right course. With his head in his hand, he leaned against the back wall and slowly slid down to a sitting position.

  His breathing was deep and labored, the events of the last several hours taking its toll on him. He reached into his pocket and brought out his tablet. With a swipe of his finger, he flicked through photographs of himself with his family.

  Better days—the ones where he was happy and everything seemed to be going so right for him. They were all behind him now.

  Now, he only had his children, a planet in flames, and a government seemingly conspiring against all of them.