by Ann Bakshis
“Where did you get this thing?” Braxton asks.
“It’s the transport the army used when they first invaded. We kept it. Good thing too,” Neo answers.
The vehicle has six wheels, two in the front and four in the back. The front is slightly elongated with three semi-flat windows at the top. The door folds down allowing us access to the cramped interior. One side is lined with navigational equipment, including radar and infrared. Braxton takes a seat at one of the consoles, Lehen and Vier on either side of him. Artemis takes a seat in the back, behind the weapons cache. I join him, spotting a small ladder reaching into a hidden pocket in the roof. I climb, pop open the compartment door, and come face to face with a cannon.
“This has some massive firepower,” I hear Braxton comment as I close the hatch and take my seat.
Neo and Caitrin take the front and begin driving us west.
“Where to?” Caitrin asks.
“The Factory Borough,” I say.
Everyone’s head turns and looks at me. “I left something there and I want it back.”
No one asks questions, for which I’m thankful.
The ride is long and quiet. Neo is driving slowly, even though we’re on paved ground. The radar screens in front of Braxton show no sign of other vehicles or aerial units in our area. We reach the southern entrance to the Borough just as the sun is rising. The Tartarus transport is sitting outside the medical building. Neo stops, allowing Braxton and I to jump out. While Braxton enters the building, I search through the vehicle, locating my pack buried under a pile of blankets in the back. Everything is still inside.
“Trea,” Braxton calls from outside the vehicle.
I exit, slinging my pack over my shoulder. “What’s the matter?”
“Come with me,” he says, taking my hand and rushing over to the medical building.
We step inside, but there isn’t anyone to greet us. The patient logs behind the front desk show where each person is being treated, but the place feels abandoned. The security doors are unlocked, so we walk through to the waiting room. Medicine decanters, bandages, and tablets lay scattered all over the floor, as if dropped in haste.
“Where is everyone?”
“Looks like they all left in a hurry,” Braxton replies.
We exit the building, climb back into the Tyrean vehicle, and instruct Neo to continue heading north through the Borough. It doesn’t take us long to realize why everyone left as quickly as they did.
Flames are dying down amongst the rubble of the factories. The river of oil-filled water is on fire, trapped in the channel by the locks leading to the lake. Across the river we can see the housing structures have collapsed from bombing. The only structures left untouched are the Regulator towers in the center of each housing courtyard.
Neo stops the transport, so we can step outside for a better look. Braxton, Vier, and Lehen search the structures — or at least what’s left of them — looking for survivors. Caitrin, Artemis, and I navigate the bridges to gain access to the other side. We walk past the fencing separating the different sections. I turn the corner that leads to Jagger’s old house. I stand in front of the door that swings on hinges barely there. I think of Naomi, Cass, and Jagger, wondering how their lives would be so different if Quin and I hadn’t paid them a visit all those months ago.
I turn around to see a monitor still affixed to the outer wall of the Regulator tower displaying the image of a lion’s face, large and foreboding, with flames radiating from its mane.
“What’s that?” Caitrin asks, coming up next to me.
“The new symbol for Sirain,” I answer.
We meet up with Artemis and cross the bridge back to the other side, joining the others as they continue to scour the rubble.
“Over here,” Lehen shouts from the factory by the northern entrance.
We crawl under the collapsed doorframe and into the pile of bricks. Lehen is kneeling next to Mack, whose legs have been badly crushed under a beam. A few of the prisoners’ bodies lay nearby.
“What happened?” Braxton asks, assessing Mack’s life-threatening injuries.
Mack wheezes, then coughs up a little blood, but finally answers. “We saw an aerial unit heading towards the city. Bevan and a few of my men got into our airship to give chase. I knew it was only a matter of time before more ships came. I called for the evacuation of the Borough. Several of the Acheron Regulators stated they would move everyone to one of their havens. As we began, an explosion out over the lake caught our attention. We knew it was the city, so we sped up the evacuation.” Mack coughs up more blood, and his body shakes as his skin grows paler. “We were almost done when the mortars started falling. We tried to hold them off to get the rest of the people out, but it was too much.”
“You did well, Mack,” Braxton says, patting the man on the shoulder.
Mack smiles, but it fades in a moment and he’s gone.
“Now what?” Vier asks.
“Let’s get back to the vehicle. I’d rather not stay here any longer,” Braxton says.
Neo drives out the south entrance, turns west, and keeps going until early afternoon. Caitrin grabs several food packets and distributes them out. Artemis takes one sniff of the food and begins to gag.
“Not the upscale cuisine you’re used to, is it?” Braxton comments, stifling a laugh.
Artemis scowls, but does take a few bites. I take my packet and satchel, open the hatch, and go outside. The ground is brown, with only a few tufts of green trying to break through. I walk until the vehicle is out of sight before sitting down, then open the packet of food, take out the journal, and eat while I flip through the pages.
It takes me almost ten minutes to locate the possible location of the Barracks. In the northern section of the Tyrean territory sits two landing pads outside a land bridge. No further drawings depict what’s on the other side of the tunnel under the bridge, so the person who drew this may not have had access.
A while later, Braxton walks up to me and sits down. “Why’d you come out here?”
“I needed some space. The vehicle is a little too crowded for me.”
He seems to buy my excuse. I honestly just don’t want to be around them anymore. I wish I could sneak away during the night, but Braxton watches me like a hawk and now that Artemis has joined our group, he won’t leave me alone either.
“Here,” I say, shoving the journal into Braxton’s hands. “I think this is where the Barracks may be.”
“Well, now that we have an army vehicle, we can check to see if you’re right.”
We get up and go back to the transport. Braxton inputs the co-ordinates that are listed in the margin of the page. The image swirls on the screen, finally focusing on a manmade land bridge covered in pine trees and shrubs. Two landing pads flank each side. He scrolls the image down trying to move beyond the tunnel, which is at least a mile long, and comes upon a large complex of small buildings. Just as Braxton begins to zoom in closer, our feed is lost and the new symbol for Sirain flashes across all our monitors. The image fades into chaotic footage from Acheron.
“Citizens of Sirain,” Vladim begins, “our great sister city of Acheron has been destroyed by our enemies. They infiltrated from the north, beyond the boundaries of Sirain, and obliterated this great metropolis, murdering thousands of our brothers and sisters.”
The display changes to show the city sinking into the lake, though the platforms we escaped on have been edited to make them look to still be attached to the city when it sinks.
“He’s altered the footage,” Vier says. “Why?”
“Probably to make everyone believe there aren’t any survivors,” Lehen replies.
“Our army has managed to restore order in many of Acheron’s Boroughs after their siege. We’re now working on a counter attack to rid them from Sirain and move them further north, away from our borders.”
“What’s he talking about?” Neo chimes in. “The only enemy this country has ever seen are the Hos
tem. Who else is there?”
“He’s hiding something,” Braxton says.
We all turn and look at Artemis who has been sitting quietly in the back. He begins to look uncomfortable as we all stare.
“What makes you think I know what it is? I haven’t been involved with any of his politics in decades. It’s not like he confides in me. The man can’t stand me.”
We turn our attention back to the monitors as the image changes again, this time showing Vladim standing with Mair, Thane, and now Kedua.
He looks straight into the camera, almost as if he is looking only at me. “Our Antaeans will demonstrate to the world we are a country not to be taken lightly. In several days, we move past our borders and will defeat this new plague on our society.”
The screen goes back to the image of the Barracks.
This needs to stop. Vladim needs to be stopped.
I exit the vehicle, with Braxton right behind me. “Don’t do it,” he says, almost pleading.
“I have to end this.”
Braxton puts his hands on my arms. “Not alone you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“At least let one of us come with you,” Vier says from the open door.
“No, I need to do this by myself.”
“Why?” Braxton asks. “Why is it always you by yourself?”
“It started with me, so it needs to end with me.”
“What does that mean?”
I kiss him hard on the lips, dig in my satchel, and remove the tablet. “Here, you’ll need this.”
I jog north, not stopping for an hour. I have to make this quick as I’m sure Braxton will have Neo try and come after me in the transport.
Removing the pipe from my pack, I take off the cap, and slide the chaser into my palm. Within seconds it begins to glow, emitting my location. Several minutes pass before I hear the sound of an aerial unit approaching from the west. A mortar falls a few feet in front of me, but no more are released. Perhaps they can see me on their radar, and notice that I’m alone. It circles before landing. The door opens and Commander Caderyn steps out.
He looks at my hand, noticing the chaser. “How’d you get one of those?” he asks, approaching me cautiously.
“From Iscariot,” I say, tossing it over to him. “He doesn’t need it anymore.”
“Anyone else with you?”
“You know there isn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t have landed.”
He smiles, places his hands behind his back, and nods to two soldiers standing in the doorway to come out. Their Levin guns are aimed at me, though it wouldn’t do them any good if they did fire.
“Check her for weapons,” Caderyn orders.
One of the soldiers secures his gun before frisking me. He takes the empty satchel and tosses it to Caderyn. The soldier shoves me forward, past Caderyn, and into the airship. I’m secured to a seat behind the cockpit, with soldiers sitting on either side of me. Caderyn sits next to the pilot, the door closes, and we lift off. The monitors above my head are off, so I can’t tell which direction we’re going. Cool air filters around me, but I feel hot and uncomfortable.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Why do I not think things through before I act?
Time passes slowly. I start to fidget, and decide to try and loosen my restraints. Caderyn turns to see what the noise is, notices me, and signals to the soldiers. Before I can finish working my bonds free, I feel a pinch in my arm, the lights begin to dim, and my hearing ceases.
CHAPTER 23
Braxton
She disappears over the ridge. I’m still in shock at her departure, but I should be used to her acting irrationally. She always thinks she knows what’s best, but I know holding her back would only drive her further away from me. The tablet in my hand is the same one I gave her back in Tartarus, but why would she want me to have it? I had it created for her. What’s on it that she thinks I need this?
“How could you let her go?” Artemis yells at me before I’ve stepped completely into the transport.
“I trust her to have a plan,” I respond, lying through my teeth.
If I let them know how I really feel, they might not follow me, or help me rescue her when the time comes. I need to keep it together.
“Are you serious? She’s only nineteen years old, she couldn’t possibly understand what she’s up against.” Artemis takes a deep breath before continuing. “You’re letting your feelings for her cloud your judgment.”
I grab him by the neck. “I love who she is, not what she is like you do. Don’t think that I don’t know what you did to her back in Tyre. I heard you reminiscing about the trick you pulled, slipping a neural stimulant into her drink so she would constantly feel an attraction to you, sleep with you. I didn’t kill you then because you were my High Ruler, but you’re not any longer, so don’t think I won’t kill you now.”
Neo’s at my side telling me to calm down. Although it would feel good, he’s right. My anger won’t help Trea at the moment. And we may still have some use for him.
“Can you track her?” I ask Neo, releasing Artemis.
“Maybe.”
Neo goes over to one of the radar screens and points to a dot flickering towards the north of us. It lands and remains motionless for several minutes, then lifts, and begins heading west. The hatch is closed and we follow the aerial unit as well as we can. It’s too fast and moves out of range in a matter of minutes, but Vier widens the proximity of the search. We pick up several air and ground units heading north, but only one going west.
I wonder why there aren’t any going south. Surely there is some kind of populated area there.
Caitrin continues to drive for a couple of hours as we track it on the monitors, before the airship lands in what looks like a remote area in the far northern section of Tyre. Lehen has Trea’s journal open to the page where she thought the Barracks might be, and they look to be the same spot. Neo types in the coordinates to map out a quick way for us to get there, but there isn’t one. It’s going to take us at least four days, if not more, to get to the Barracks. Neo continues working at the console to find a better route. I sit on the bench next to Vier, fidgeting with the tablet, hesitating to turn it on.
“Vier,” I begin after a half-hour of silence, “what do you remember about the Dormitories?”
“Why bring that up now?” he responds.
“Well, from what you and Lehen said earlier, it seems you had different training and conditioning than Trea. I want to know what it was and why.”
Vier takes a deep breath, holds it in, and then speaks. “From what I can remember, it was only Eunice who treated Trea differently.”
Lehen pipes in. “Eunice would come into our conditioning sessions, even when it wasn’t her day, so she could spend time with Trea.”
“Why?” I ask either of them.
“You’d have to ask Trea,” Vier answers. “I doubt she remembers, though. I think her protector did a number on her memory, probably to prevent her from learning who and what she is.”
“Did either of your protectors do any mind tampering?”
“No,” they answer in unison.
“Mine always told me what I was. He didn’t want me to forget,” Lehen says. “Thatcher wasn’t tough on me like the instructors at the Dormitories. He and I stayed along the border of Sirain with the country to the north. I’d ask him about the other Antaeans, but he’d never tell me anything.”
“What about you, Vier?”
“My protector was collected when I was ten. I never really asked any questions about the past, nor did he tell me anything of consequence.”
“What was your training and conditioning like?”
“As I said earlier, a lot of the conditioning was done while we slept,” Lehen says. “There were speakers hidden in our beds. The instructors would play recorded messages during our naps and while we slept at night. ‘An Antaean should always be prepared to die for their country’, and ‘Antaeans are the most powerful we
apons Sirain has’, things like that.”
“Why would they tell you to prepare yourself for death? You heal,” Artemis says, joining the conversation.
Lehen replies. “We heal faster, but we can still be killed. It was mostly so we wouldn’t be afraid to get deep into battle. If we didn’t fear death, we would be more forceful with our enemies.”
“Our training was mainly hand-to-hand combat and weapons drills. It was crazy, teaching a two-year-old how to shoot a weapon that was almost as big as they were. We could barely hold them.” Vier says.
“How could they expect such children to handle that?” Neo asks. “Two-year-olds have barely mastered the art of talking, let alone teaching them to kill someone.”
“Our genetics are different than those of normal children,” Lehen responds. “The researches enhanced our DNA to work at an accelerated speed. We may have been two-years-old, but our physicality and mentality was that of a five-year-old.”
“Wouldn’t you just keep aging if your cells are maturing at a higher rate?” Artemis asks.
“No. Once we reach the age of eighteen, our growth stops. We’ll stay this age physically until we die,” Lehen says with a forlorn look.
“You’ll never grow old?” Neo asks.
“No, never,” Vier responds. “We’re made to last for as long as the country needs us. Then, maybe, they’ll let us rest.”
We sit quietly for another couple of hours. Caitrin stops the vehicle and we all exit to stretch our legs and eat. We don’t stay long and are back underway in ten minutes. As night falls, Neo takes over driving so Caitrin can get some rest. I sit in the passenger seat, clutching the tablet in my hand. I look out the window in front of me, seeing nothing but darkness, and hope Trea is safe.
Why did I let her go? She can’t handle this on her own. Why can’t I stand up for myself with her? What’s wrong with me? I’m getting soft.
I feel myself drifting off to sleep, but I fight it. I need to stay alert. After a couple of minutes, I turn on the tablet, hoping the brightness from the screen will keep me awake. I tap the folder icon on the bottom of the screen, and five files pop up. After considering each, I finally decide to look through the one labeled “Final Stage”. The first file that flashes across the screen explains the contents.
