“It’s got to be there,” he said, pointing at the building. He opened the channel on his multiband again. “Everyone meet at the central building. We’ll corral all its occupants into a room somewhere, then take a look at whatever weapons they have in this depot.”
With the seekers out, it didn’t take long to clear the compound, including the central building. The seekers did most of the work, but the Guard managed to capture a few of the Alliance troops before the seekers knocked them out. They put their conscious prisoners in an empty conference room after restraining them.
In the middle of the central building, on the ground floor, they found an odd, self-contained dome with an entrance protected by an energy shield. The six Guard stared at the shimmering white opaque field.
“What do you think is in there?” Alex asked.
Zavier shook his head. “Whatever it is, it wasn’t made by the Alliance.”
Alex walked forward and lifted his hand to touch the barrier.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Wren told him. “We don’t know how much power is moving through that door.”
“I can think of a way to test it,” Zavier said, nodding toward the hallway.
Wren grinned. “Kalma, why don’t you go grab one of our guests.”
“Yes, sir.” Kalma walked back through the hallway, toward the prisoners. Just before turning the corner, he saw Alex and Zavier discussing something intensely, while Traven shook his head, seemingly amused.
The conference room where the prisoners were detained was only a few corridors farther. Without wasting any time, he chose the soldier tied closest to the door. “Come with me, please,” he said, bending over to release the body restraints while leaving the restraining bands on the man’s hands.
“I won’t tell you anything,” the soldier spat.
“Well that’s great, because I didn’t want to ask you anything,” Kalma replied. “I’m glad we’re both on the same page.” He grabbed the soldier’s arms and yanked him to his feet.
The two walked back to the weapons chamber in silence. When they reached the doorway, Kalma positioned the guard directly in front of the barrier. The other five moved slowly to the edges of the hallway.
Kalma looked at the Alliance soldier standing next to him. “All right, I lied, I do have a question for you. Do you know what happens if someone touches that shield?”
The soldier’s voice trembled as he answered, “I… I don’t know.” He could see where this was going.
“I thought you weren’t going to answer my questions?” Kalma said.
“Kalma,” Wren cut in. “Stop chitchatting and let’s see what happens.”
Kalma gave the soldier a hard shove and jumped back away from the door. The soldier slammed into the barrier and rebounded back with strands of electricity rushing over his body. He flew through the air about five feet backward, then hit the ground with a thud, his uniform scorched and smoldering from the shock. He moaned and rolled over into a fetal position, shivering with pain.
“He’s still alive!” Alex hooted, holding out his hand.
“I obviously don’t have it on me,” Zavier replied. “I’ll pay you when we get back.”
“You’d better.”
Kalma shook his head. Those two will gamble over anything.
Wren walked back to the doorway and looked it over. There was no sign of any change to the barrier. He turned around to address the others. “It looks like that’s all we can do for now. Let’s get all the prisoners to the top side and call in the reinforcements. The Council may want to interrogate these poor souls.”
“They’d be better off if we killed them now,” Malik offered.
“I can’t argue with you there,” Wren replied, “but one of them may know something about what’s behind this shielding. Right now, they’re our biggest lead.”
The soldier on the ground was still whimpering.
Wren looked down at him and then back at Malik. “This one certainly doesn’t know anything, I can’t see a reason to bother with him anymore.” He paused a moment, staring at the mysterious white barrier, then turned away and started walking down the hall toward the exit. “Kalma, take care of this one, then move the body somewhere out of the way.”
“Yes, sir.” Kalma watched the others walk down the hallway and turn the corner, then pulled his handgun from its slot in his armor and put an energy bolt into the soldier’s head. Waiting until the footsteps of the other Guard weren’t audible anymore, he then walked back to the barrier and inspected the glowing white energy carefully. He’d heard of these barriers before but had never seen one in person. He tried to remember the details of the stories his mother had told him, but it'd been so long ago, and those memories were cloudy at best. Even so, there was one thing that stood out in his mind, and there was only one way to test it.
He positioned himself in the center of the doorway and took a deep breath. If this doesn’t work, it’s really going to hurt. He looked back at the Alliance soldier lying behind him. It won’t kill me though.
He lifted his right arm and slowly pushed his palm into the surface of the energy field. As his hand entered, he felt a warm tingling sensation run through his body. No pain. Slowly, he walked straight forward into the room beyond.
After a few seconds, Kalma returned through the barrier into the hallway. The soldier’s body was still lying limp on the floor, and no one from his team had returned. Kalma smiled broadly, moving toward the soldier on the floor.
“A weapon indeed,” he said, still shocked, “and one the Alliance just might need for a time.” He picked up the soldier, tossing the body over his shoulder. “This war is moving too fast, and I’m not ready for it to end,” he told the dead man he was carrying. He had to find a way to remove the weapon from the facility, and that wasn’t going to be an easy task. “Although,” Kalma continued, “if there’s one, then there just might be another.”
He took the body back to the conference room and dropped it on the floor in front of the other prisoners before releasing the body restraints on another and yanking him to his feet.
“Are you going to kill us all?” the man said with disgust.
Kalma looked the soldier in the eyes and gave him a polite smile. “Not yet. We have far worse things planned for you, I’m afraid.”
He pulled the man with him until he exited the building. Traven was busy securing a different prisoner to a tree standing nearby. Kalma, taking Traven’s lead, brought his prisoner to the same tree and tied him there.
After all the prisoners were secured and the troops had arrived, the six Guard walked back through the forest to their skimmer, piled into the vehicle, and began the drive back to the city just as dawn approached.
“I’ll inform Councilwoman Denetaa of our success and brief her on the mystery room. I suspect she’ll send a tech team to crack it open and see what’s inside. Whatever’s in there, it’s probably a good thing the Alliance didn’t get their hands on it.”
Kalma leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, relaxing. There was only one way to remove the weapon from that chamber, and since he’d get caught doing it himself, he had to find someone else to do it for him.
Chapter 12
After a few months, the living space in the cave was cramped, with about one hundred and fifty people in residence so far. Ethan had found a small alcove just big enough to serve as his private sleeping quarters deep in the back of the cave. In the afternoons, he’d join small hunting teams to search for food or serve as a lookout. Game was plentiful in the area, and they could usually snag a deer or two. If that didn’t work, he’d sneak back into the city. Recently, avoiding patrols was getting trickier, but so far, he’d made it back without incident.
Every time he returned from the city, John would chew him out for risking the safety of the hideaway. “What if they caught you?” he’d say. Ethan rarely paid attention to John’s concerns. He knew it was risky, but dealing with over a hundred starving people h
ad its own set of problems. He trusted his own abilities to roam the city without getting caught much more than one of the others, especially when driven by hunger. More than that, Micah didn’t bring it up, so Ethan had no issues venturing out on his own, even if John disagreed. Water was plentiful, due to the small stream in the lower regions of the cave, and after boiling, it was clean enough to drink.
Ethan felt surprisingly well rested that morning as he stretched out his muscles and climbed into the tunnel that led to his room. Since it was so small, he had to wriggle on his belly to get out. The ceiling rose slowly until he could eventually stand and walk to the more inhabited regions of the cave. He didn’t know why he liked the room so much, but he felt drawn to it, just as he had been to the cave itself.
His feelings had led him to discover the cave a couple of months before, after the resistance left the West River Academy. They wandered the forest for a few weeks, moving as often as they could. Every other night, Ethan ventured out on his own to search for the cave. He knew it was there but had a hard time translating his feelings into physical directions. Then one night, just after the group moved camps, the gentle tug he felt became an irresistible pull. He followed it through an odd clearing and to the cave. The next day, they searched it and then began moving everyone inside.
Passing a large cavern on his right, Ethan was reminded of the morning’s upcoming meeting. There were meetings once a week, during which they usually discussed benign things like food rationing, how to keep the kids entertained, and any other topics of interest. That day, however, was going to be a rather heated discussion.
He exited the cave and walked another mile or so to the clearing. This place intrigued him; there was something about it that made him feel at peace. He visited often, usually when John had upset him.
He sat down and leaned back against a smooth, sheared tree trunk. Closing his eyes, he took a slow, deep breath. As was his ritual, he began imagining what could’ve ripped this tree in half, leaving only the stump. He suspected it’d been hit by lightning, given the scorch marks on it, but usually the rest of the tree would lie next to its broken trunk. This particular stump was all alone, and lightning would have left it splintered, not smooth. Even stranger was the small grass-filled crater just in front. It was too large to have been caused by the tree falling, but he couldn’t think of any other natural phenomenon to explain it.
Oh well. He resigned himself to think about the looming meeting.
They’d been hiding in the cave for a while now, and it was time to decide what to do next. The group was too large to stay on the move, but it was also likely they’d eventually be discovered in the cave. They couldn’t stay there forever. Ethan wanted to move to the next unoccupied city and rejoin the fight, but no one was sure where that was. They’d lost all information sources since leaving the school. Even when he’d go back for food, he didn’t stick around long enough to get the news. It was simply in-and-out and don’t get caught. For all they knew, the war could be over, the Alliance defeated. And if that were true, then what would they do?
Ethan got to his feet. No, we haven’t lost yet. We have to keep fighting. He felt a small surge of energy run through him. Things are going to change. We can still win this war. He looked across the crater one last time, then at the stump next to him. I just know it.
He hiked back to the cave, doubling back twice to make sure he wasn’t being followed. As usual, the only things around were birds and other small creatures. As he approached the entrance, he saw John waiting for him.
“Where have you been?” John said accusingly.
“I went on a walk. I had to clear my head before the meeting this morning,” Ethan replied.
“You’re late, and I was afraid you decided to do something stupid, like go on a half-crazed food run into the city again.”
“Let it go,” Ethan snapped. “We needed the food, and I don’t get caught.” He kept walking past John and headed toward the largest room in the cave, where they held the assemblies. John fell in behind Ethan, and they walked in silence. As they approached the large cavern, Ethan could hear the rustle of multiple conversations and the clank of plates and cups. There was always food at the meetings; it eased the tension.
As they entered, John made his way to the front of the room. At least, it was the place they decided would be the front. It was catty-corner to the entry and near the opposite wall. Natural columns of rock, where stalagmites and stalactites had grown together, were scattered haphazardly through the space. In general, it was open and spacious—until you crammed more than a hundred people in it. Around the edges, the ceiling slowly came down to meet a rising floor. Several people sat on the incline to get a better view of the meeting. Small dim lights hung from the ceiling, powered by the flowing stream deeper in the cave. The entire tunnel system had been fitted with the lights a week or so after the group moved in. The light made the calcite and mineral deposits in the rock structures shimmer, giving the room a majestic touch.
By the time John had gotten everyone’s attention, Ethan managed to find a spot against a wall near the entrance where he could make a quick exit if needed.
“All right, all right. Most of you know what the meeting today is about,” John said in a loud, commanding voice. “We need to decide what our next move is.” Murmurs ran through the crowd. “I’ve heard rumors that some of you have been wanting to leave, but honestly we have nowhere else to go.”
“Then we need to send a scout team to look for unoccupied cities,” Ethan called from the back. John glared at him across the room.
“It’s too dangerous,” he replied. “If the scouts get caught, then our location will be compromised. We need to stay here and ride this out. Eventually the Alliance’s military forces will make their way back to us. This cave is safe, and we’ve been successful at finding food. We can wait for rescue.”
“That’s crazy,” Adrian shouted from somewhere in the middle of the crowd. Ethan smiled. I’ve always liked Adrian.
“Eventually the Urlowens will find us here,” Adrian finished.
“They’re far more likely to find our scouts traveling to nearby cities,” John replied.
“We have to think about the children,” Tom called out. “They couldn’t make the hike even if we found somewhere to go.”
Allison fielded that one. “If the Alliance knew we were still here, they could send transport for the kids.”
The crowd was starting to get a little restless. “Now listen,” John said. “The Alliance has their hands full defending other cities. We need to wait until they regain the advantage and can press the front. They aren’t going to be able to spare men to help us move through the front lines.”
Ethan found Micah in the middle of the room. He was strangely quiet. Whatever his opinion, he was keeping it to himself.
“We’re not even sure where the lines are anymore,” Ethan said, a twinge of anger in his voice. “At a minimum, we need to send out scouts to get more information.”
“At the risk of getting caught? You’re reckless enough, Ethan, but let’s not risk everyone here to fulfil your quest for excitement,” John snapped, then took a deep breath. “Fine, fine. I say we stay put, keep to ourselves, and wait for help. However, we’re all in this together, so let’s vote on it. Who’s with me?”
To Ethan’s disappointment, nearly every hand in the room went up.
“Very well, then. The majority vote is to wait out this storm and hope for rescue,” John said, his tone proud. “This meeting is adjourned.” He slowly began making his way through the room greeting the others. Politics seemed to come naturally to him.
Furious, Ethan stormed out of the cavern.
Chapter 13
Still fuming, Ethan approached his alcove in the cave, crawling on his hands and knees, then on his stomach to pass through the narrow opening. After squirming out of the tunnel, he paced the five-foot span of the room. “John’s crazy!” he seethed. “He’s going to get us all killed
. We either have to leave, find help, or both. We’ve got to figure out what’s going on in the war, and we have to fight back!” He walked to the wall opposite the entry and punched it. “And now my hand hurts!” he growled. He hated hiding, and worse than that, he hated giving up.
He rested his forehead against the stone wall, then slammed both fists into it. Calming a bit, he closed his eyes. “I’ll do it,” he said quietly. “I’ll find help, even if I have to do it alone.” Ethan let the cool cave air seep into his body.
As he began to relax, fists and head resting against the wall, realization struck him. The stone wall wasn’t cold at all. It was warm—too warm. Nights of lying on the hard floor, fighting the slow creep of the cold through his blankets, had taught him a simple truth. Rock was cold.
He lifted his head and stared at the wall in front of him, what was left of his anger subsiding to a newfound curiosity. Opening his fists and laying his palms gently on the rock, he concentrated, focusing on the heat in the wall. The more he focused on the sensation, the more it grew.
Suddenly, a yellow light began to emanate from beneath his hands and spread toward the edges of the wall. Ethan jumped back. The moment his hands left the rock, the light died, and the stone looked as it always had.
“I must be losing my mind,” he said aloud, yet something inside him stirred. He knew he wasn’t crazy, and he knew that somehow, the war was about to change.
Slowly placing his hands on the wall, he felt for the heat again. It only took a few seconds for the warmth to grow and the light to return. Again it began spreading toward the outer edges of the wall, but before it reached them, it stopped. The light had taken the shape of a doorway. Before he had time to process what was happening, the light and rock had vanished. He stood stock-still with his hands in the air, staring down a long, shimmering white-metallic hallway. On either wall, rows of lights near the ceiling illuminated the corridor.
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