Burn Out

by Kristi Helvig

  Kale pulled one off the top of the pile and stroked it like it was alive. He put his thumb over the power panel. Nothing happened. “You weren’t kidding then. No one can use them except you?”

  “Like I would’ve let you lay a finger on it if it would work for any of you.”

  Kale looked thoughtful. “You’re not worried that someone would cut off your thumb so they’d have your print any time they wanted it?”

  Something about the way Kale said it sent a shiver down my spine. I liked him better when he was high on pain meds. “It’s not my thumbprint that powers it. It’s my vibration.” I stared at him coldly. “And in case you had any other bright ideas, you have to be living to vibrate, so cutting anything off won’t help you.”

  Kale studied me. “Calm down. I wasn’t thinking of cutting you, Tora. I’m just remarking on how smart your father was.”

  We might be in the same boat for now, but it was pretty clear that Kale jumped into any boat that wasn’t sinking. And ours sprang new leaks with every impact of the incoming bombs.

  I really needed to use the bathroom before going back to the weapons room. “Be right back,” I said.

  After using the recycling machine, I observed my dark hair in the mirror and sighed. Nothing would tame my wild locks. I tucked a wayward strand behind my ear and combed through the ends with my fingers, then froze. What the hell was I doing? My father had taught me better than to primp for a boy, especially one of the burner variety. I shook my hair back out and marched into the front room.

  Markus had moved to the table. He and Kale were discussing something about ship engine mechanics. What bothered me was James. He sat next to Britta, whispering in her ear. She leaned into him, nodding. Their bodies were almost touching; it looked—intimate. They didn’t even notice I’d returned. Had he lied about their being together? Nothing he did or said should bother me, so why did seeing them so close together make my stomach turn?

  “Are you ready?” My voice came out harsher than expected, and James looked startled.

  He stood quickly. “Yeah.”

  We walked in silence to the back room. I was so not doing any more talking.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “Sure.” That’s all I would give him. Not another word.

  He touched my arm as we ducked through the doorway again into the weapons room. Tingles ran through me, which pissed me off. I was onto his game. He wanted to get me to trust him so he could take me down.

  His thumb lightly rubbed my forearm. “Tora?” My heart sped up and my knees went weak. “What’s wrong?”

  My body needed to stop reacting to him. I jerked my arm away. “What’s up with all the whispering with bird girl?”

  “Bird girl?” He had the nerve to look amused.

  “Britta, the one you were all over just now. Were you plotting how to trick me?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t figure you out. I was just talking to her … about you.” His fingers grazed my arm again as I tried to unlock another case. “Look, Kale is the one you need to worry about. Not me.”

  “Yeah, so you’ve said.” I unlocked another gun case. “Remind me again why I should trust you but not Kale? You have to obey him, right?”

  “Britta didn’t when she knocked you out,” said James. His brow furrowed. “But if she goes rogue again, Kale will show no mercy. It’s funny. I owe him my life but I don’t trust him with it.”

  I handed him an armful of guns and remained in front of him. “Sounds like there’s a story there. Want to tell it?” I noticed he didn’t seem to have any interest in holding the guns the way Kale did.

  “It’s a long story.” His eyes held mine. “I promise I’ll tell you everything soon … once I’m sure I can trust you completely.” He said it in a teasing way, almost flirtatious, and my heart rate sped up again.

  I arched an eyebrow. “That’s funny. You’re the one who doesn’t seem very trustworthy. I’m an open book, I have nothing to hide.” Though part of me wanted to trust him, trusting someone made you vulnerable. They could let you down. They could die. They could kill you.

  He turned and faced the center of the room. “Nothing to hide, huh? So what’s with the empty case here?”

  I smiled despite myself. “Be patient. We have to finish these first.” I clucked my tongue. “Just when I was thinking you didn’t have an interest in these guns.”

  He smiled back and accepted another armload from me. “It’s more curiosity than interest. I mean, look at us. Have guns made us better people? Better at killing things maybe, but I’m not sure that’s much of a legacy.”

  My hand brushed his as I extricated myself from the weapons. I ignored the tingle of electricity that shot up my arm. “Ah, a philosopher-soldier. How interesting.”

  I opened the last case on the second wall and fingered one of the guns as I removed it. I remembered this one. This was one of the ones my father made me practice with for hours at a time. Aim well, Tora, because whatever you hit won’t exist afterward. There had been many additional boulders near our shelter door in the past. I’d obliterated them during target practice, so I named the gun Boulder-Killer—B.K. for short, which was only slightly more creative than naming my first gun Trigger. I’d taken B.K. and planned to destroy the rock where I’d found my mother and sister dead, but changed my mind. I kept the rock to remember the pain.

  James watched me handle the gun. “If you don’t mind my saying, your father placed an awful lot of responsibility on you by making you the sole operator of these things.”

  A sigh escaped my lips. “He didn’t key them to his own vibration, because I think he knew deep down that they’d kill him eventually. If I could use the guns, I could protect myself from the Consulate. It’s why he trained me.”

  I told James how he’d made the guns as ordered in the beginning. “They were powered by human energy the same way Infinities and other devices were. When he realized the magnitude of destruction his creations could cause, he changed his mind. He keyed the gun panels to my specific energy vibration. Because the likelihood of two people having the same vibration is about nil, only slightly more probable than identical fingerprints, he figured it was a smart move. He chose me. My sister was younger than me and he didn’t want to involve her. My mother … well, yeah. Anyway, I guess my father’s plan was genius, since they died and all.” I heard the harsh tone in my voice but couldn’t help it.

  “How did they die?”

  I choked back a sob. I didn’t know how they died. No, that wasn’t true. I knew how they died. They cooked alive. The better question was why, but I had no answer for that. How could they die so close to our shelter door? Why were they outside without their suits on? Did they even try to get inside? No matter how many times I went over it in my head, I came up blank. My voice squeaked out. “I don’t know what happened exactly. Why the hell am I telling you so much, anyway?”

  I grabbed another case and dumped the guns inside, but I had a choice to make. I rubbed my fingers over Trigger—she’d been my constant companion over the years. A loyal and reliable weapon, and I’d never forget how she’d saved me from Markus several weeks ago. But I needed something with more power. “Good-bye for now, Trigger.” I placed Trigger into the crate, ignoring James’ stare, and tucked Boulder-Killer into my waistband.

  I wiped my damp forehead with the back of my arm and went to the island in the center. “Just one more.”

  James walked over to my side. He tucked a sweaty lock of my hair behind my ear. “We’ve both lost people we loved, Tora.”

  I shivered at his touch and tried to remain calm. I turned and looked into his eyes. “Yeah, so?”

  His eyes didn’t let go of mine. “So maybe we can trust each other is all.”

  We stood just a foot apart from each other. The green flecks in his eyes seemed to shift, merging with the brown and then changing again. His eyes were almost as impressive as his abs. The silence grew and the ghost of a smile curved on his
lips. The charged feelings running through my body were way beyond my comfort zone. I broke eye contact, my thudding heart reminding me that I wasn’t in control. “We, um, really should finish up here,” I mumbled.

  James nodded. We faced the clear rectangular case, and I tried to ignore the heat I felt coming from his body. He needed to stay a good five feet away at all times in order for me to concentrate.

  He ran his hand over the case, staring down into the empty space within it. “Were you and Markus together?” he asked.

  That was not the question I expected. I laughed. “Give me a little more credit than that.”

  “Okay, but weren’t you the one asking me about dating Britta?”

  “Good point.” I waved my hand over the top of the compartment. When I reached a special spot on the lower left corner, a panel lock appeared.

  “Whoa, cool,” said James. “I’m guessing it’s not empty.”

  “Hardly.” When the case unlocked, a small square panel in the top center of it opened toward us. I reached in and as my hand approached the center of the case, the object glowed.

  James gasped. “It’s invisible.”

  “Yeah, unless I’m touching it.” I grasped it firmly and pulled it out.

  James’ eyes were wide. I couldn’t help feeling a small surge of satisfaction. He didn’t seem surprised by much, but he sure looked it now. “What the hell is it? It doesn’t look like a gun.”

  I reached up through the center of it and touched the trigger of the spherical object. “I’m sure my dad once told me its technical name but I don’t remember, because I’ve always called it The Obliterator, aka T.O.”

  “That sounds worse than a gun. It looks more like a bomb.”

  Damn he was smart, which only made him cuter. I nodded. “A bomb that fires like a gun. If I powered up and pressed the trigger, everything within a twenty-mile radius of me would be wiped out.”

  James whistled. “Everything except you, right? Because it’s keyed to your …”

  “Vibration,” I finished. “Right. Only something vibrating at my exact same speed would survive.” I removed my hand from the weapon’s center and rubbed the smooth, polished surface. “He designed it as a last-resort weapon. I don’t even aim it, just press the button.”

  “Pretty cool,” said James. “You could take down a whole fleet by yourself.”

  “Yeah, and all of you.” I tried to say it like I was joking, but James didn’t look amused.

  I shifted The Obliterator to my other hand and pulled B.K. out of my waistband. “Don’t worry. B.K. here will take care of that ship outside. I just need one good shot.”

  “You have nicknames for all your guns?”

  “Of course—guns are the closest thing to pets I’ve had. I was ten when I had to learn how to use them so naming them made it more fun. Here, can you hold Boulder-Killer a sec while I figure out how to hide T.O. under my clothes?”

  James slowly looked up and down my body, which made my cheeks burn, yet he looked all business as he took the gun. “Absolutely.”

  “Oh, please. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” I said, my face blushing hotter.

  James’ eyes burned as he looked at me, into me. I turned away and lifted my shirt. T.O. wasn’t huge but it wasn’t minuscule either—big enough to accommodate my finger in its center. Its shape was even more problematic. Ball-shaped items did not make for easy hiding. My drawstring pants and T-shirt were loose, but not loose enough. The weapon stuck out too much from my back pocket, making it look like I had a tumor on my ass. Plus, I didn’t want to accidentally sit on something that lethal. I tried the front pocket, but it was too big to even fit inside.

  “Everything okay?” he asked, giving an exaggerated yawn.

  I called over my shoulder. “Sorry if I’m boring you but I’m having issues here.”

  James laughed. “I see that. I’d be happy to help.”

  I scowled at him, which only made him laugh louder. “Don’t worry, I promise I won’t look.” His own gun was tucked in his waistband, and he waved B.K. around as he walked toward me. “Have no fear,” he said, striking a mock pose with my gun and aiming at the wall, “Boulder-Killer is here.” He put his finger on the trigger panel.

  I don’t know which one of us was more surprised when the gun went off.

  Chapter THIRTEEN

  THE LASER HIT THE FIRST CASE ON THE WALL, SHATTERING IT to bits.

  “What the—?” James dropped the gun, as if it were on fire.

  Footsteps pounded down the hallway outside, and I hesitated a second before shoving The Obliterator into my bra. I scrambled toward B.K. but didn’t get there in time.

  Kale burst into the room, gun drawn, swearing up and down about having to run down the hall on a bum leg. Markus and Britta followed him. At least they hadn’t given her a gun too. She would have shot first and asked questions later. Kale looked from James to me, appearing confused that neither of us had a gun in hand. I stood about a foot from James, with B.K. on the ground between us.

  “What in the holy hell is going on in here?” he asked.

  “I accidentally fired the gun when I got it out of the case,” I said, bending to pick it up while keeping a hand over my chest, so my lethal right boob didn’t roll out onto the floor.

  Kale looked around the room, frowning. His eyes rested on the center case right behind me, then fell on James. “Is that what happened?”

  James still looked shaken. “Yes, sir. She scared the crap out of me.”

  “We better get moving,” I said. Markus’ eyes met mine with a steely gray stare. He didn’t believe me. He couldn’t have known what happened, but he sure didn’t believe my version of the story. His gaze traveled down to my chest and my larger right breast. Only Markus would notice that, the perv.

  I ignored him and pushed my way through the group and into the hallway. What did happen? There’s no way James could have fired the gun, unless he was vibrating at the exact speed as me—an almost statistical impossibility.

  Kale hadn’t been able to activate the guns when he had tried, and I had no doubt that Markus and Britta had given it a shot while we were back here. Which means the fact that James fired it was no fluke. I stopped in my room and grabbed a brown satchel, then removed T.O. from my bra. I placed it into the smaller inner compartment of the bag. As soon as I zipped the pocket closed, the seam disappeared and became invisible. No one would know it was there. I slung it over my head, with the strap diagonal across my body so that my injured ribs were on the opposite side. The others might be suspicious that I’d taken to wearing a bag, but I couldn’t help that. This weapon needed to stay safe.

  “When’s it gonna be night again? They’ll have to go away when the storms start, right?” Britta moaned.

  “Not for a few hours yet.” Kale stretched. “Be patient.”

  Markus leaned down and picked something up off the floor. “We shouldn’t be too patient. I’m only saying that because this fell from the door when the last bomb hit. It looks sort of important.” He held up a screw.

  The indestructible door was falling apart. Something close to panic set in. “Not good,” I agreed.

  The blast of another bomb almost knocked me off my feet, and Britta hung on to the chair as the room rattled. Kale cursed as the table knocked into his injured leg. As soon as the aftershocks settled, I’d make my move. It was the perfect time. I suited up, and turned on B.K.

  “You don’t have to do this by yourself.” James’ low voice sliced through the air. “Let me come with you.”

  I shook my head. “I’m the one with the cool weapon, remember? No use in the rest of you getting hurt.”

  Markus touched my arm in a halting way. “Be careful up there. Take your best shot and get back down here.”

  Kale nodded. “Aim for the underside of the ship in the back end. It’s where the engine is.”

  “Great, because it would be pretty hard to hit the top of the ship from the ground.”


  “Always the smart-ass,” said Markus.

  James smiled at me until he noticed Britta staring at him. His somber expression returned quickly.

  I raised my gun and started toward the ladder. “I want to time opening the door just right. I want to go out, aim, shoot, and get back inside.”

  The aftershocks lasted longer this time. They were getting weaker though. Maybe I could make it up the ladder before another bomb hit. As I reached the bottom rung, a heavy creaking noise sounded above me. Several pings echoed as small objects bounced off my helmet. More screws. Before I could react, an arm came from behind me, pulling me to the ground.

  The heavy shelter door crashed to the floor, inches from my feet. Several additional screws and pebbles scattered across the room from the impact. James fell on top of me, shielding my body with his. Our faces were so close that the only thing separating us was the clear plate of my helmet.

  “You okay?” he said loudly, like the helmet made me deaf or something.

  “Yeah,” I yelled back just as loud, eliciting another smile from him. “Thanks for saving my ass.”

  “I hate to break this little love fest up,” said Markus. “But I have to point out the obvious. We. Have. No. Door. Maybe the perfect timing you were talking about could be like, now.”

  James scrambled off me, and I jumped up. We were sitting ducks. They could drop some kind of gas or bomb in here and that would be the end of it. I ran to the ladder and looked up. At least the ship wasn’t directly over the opening. That was something. Unless they’d already dropped men who would deliver the next bomb personally. Like a pod city delivery, but instead of getting thermoplastic-fiber furniture, we’d get our heads blown off.

  “Put your suits on,” Kale addressed his group. “The oxygen will leak out of this place fast.”

  Oxygen. My dad did an emergency drill with us once in case something crazy happened. I’d only been about ten years old. He’d been so sure the door would hold, he said we wouldn’t need it. The memory clicked into place.