by K. Makansi
“Who?” I ask, even though I don’t want to know.
“You wouldn’t know them.” I breathe a sigh of relief. Their anonymity makes it easier for me to bear, but not by much. At least it’s not Jahnu or Kenzie—people I would have once called friends.
“Eli,” I put my hand tentatively on his shoulder, “we can—”
He slaps my hand away.
“Don’t,” he says, without looking at me. “We need to evacuate. We don’t have a hope in hell of winning this battle.”
“Tell me what I can do,” I say. “I know the Defense Forces better than anyone here. I can help you.” Eli glances at me warily.
“Remy and Gabriel—are they alright?”
“They’re unhurt,” I say, which is only partly true.
“Okay. Let’s move. I’ll call our team off the streets and meet you in the tunnels. Get Remy and Gabriel and bring as many ships down as you can.”
He nods at me and I meet him eye to eye. A look of understanding passes across his face. Five days ago he was screaming at me from the rooftops of a Sector seed bank as I took two of his friends and comrades hostage. Today we find ourselves fighting for the same thing, even if we’re doing it for different reasons.
“The closest entrance to the tunnels is two blocks south of here. You can’t miss it.”
“I think that’s how I got up here.”
“Oh.” He looks at me as though suddenly confused. “I was wondering how you got up here.” I hold out my wrists, which are still bleeding.
“It wasn’t easy.”
“That’s nothing,” he says. “Just wait ‘till Rhinehouse gets hold of you.” His tone is wry and he gives me the barest twinge of a smile. But then it slips off his face so quickly I wonder if I imagined it. “Get Remy and Gabriel. Meet in the tunnels.” He takes off back in the direction he came, jogging easily with his Bolt in his arms, checking around him. I don’t relish the thought of facing Remy and her father again, but I run back to the building they’re hiding in and rap on the threshold to announce my presence. I don’t want to startle them. Both of them look up at me, their faces tear-streaked and grimy. Gabriel has his arm around Remy, and they have closed Brinn’s eyes and are gripping her hands with white knuckles.
“I know I’m the last person you want to see right now, but we have to move. OAC black ops are landing. We have to get out of here.”
“Why should we trust you?” Remy chokes the words out.
“You don’t have a choice. Follow me or stay here and die.” I look her in the eyes. “You’ll have to leave her. I’m sorry.” Remy lets loose a guttural sob and buries her head in her mother’s chest. But Gabriel nods wordlessly at me and takes Remy by the hand.
“Let’s go, little bird.”
The injustice of losing both a mother and a sister hits me as solidly and surely as Remy’s fists ever could. I swallow my own tears and turn, waiting for Remy and Gabriel to lead the way out.
Remy stays close to her father’s side, and together we make our way slowly out to the streets. I blink to clear my eyes. Focus, Vale. I can hear shouting in the distance and see the blue flashes that indicate Bolt fire. I keep careful watch, ready to fire at a moment’s notice, but for now the battle is beyond my vision. I lead Remy and Gabriel through the dead city, keeping to the shadows. A sonic grenade explodes to our left and a building starts to topple into the street.
“RUN!” I shout, and I grab Remy’s arm and pull her forward in a sprint, and her father follows. Old stones and concrete fall into the street, littering the pavement with chunks of rock. Another grenade, this one a traditional explosive, goes off thirty meters in front of us, blowing a crater in the street five meters deep. Have they spotted us, or were those grenades thrown randomly? Remy and I stare at the crater and I push her over to the side, under an old tattered awning, for cover. Her father follows her and they huddle together. A few meters away, I kneel behind some of the fallen rock and stare up into the sky, searching for the Eagle responsible for these latest grenades.
I catch sight of a wing tip and my contacts light up, outlining the ship. I don’t bother to aim—I fire as rapidly as the capacitor will charge, launching blue streaks into the sky and giving away my position. As the ship’s Bolts are turned on me, I duck behind the crumbled wall I’ve chosen for cover. I wait for the Bolts from above to stop, hoping I’ve hit the shield generators. After a few seconds, I turn my fire onto the main hull. Telltale orange and red sparks fly like falling stars. We can’t wait to check to see if I’ve done enough damage to get it off our backs. I gesture to Remy and Gabriel to follow me. It’s only one more block to the tunnels. I close my eyes briefly and hope we can make it.
The airship plagues us no more. A half block from the entrance to the tunnels, I hear shouts behind me.
“Remy!” I turn and my contacts identify Jahnu, Soren, Kenzie, Eli, and the man called Firestone, moving low to the ground in formation, as a team. Soren is shadowed by a smaller figure, who I recognize as the boy from the Sarus. Behind them, another group, is also moving in formation. Another Resistance team. Soren breaks formation and runs up to Remy, throwing his arms around her and hugging her tightly, his lips pressing into her hair. She clings to him and jealousy sears through me. She hates me, but she’s found room for Soren. I quell my anger and turn away, checking the skies above us. Eli comes up to me, his expression grim.
“Black ops are scattered throughout the area, headed this way. Almost all the ships have unloaded their men. They’ll have us surrounded in minutes. Everyone who was aboveground when Remy and Soren landed has been accounted for, dead or alive.”
“I don’t know how far the Sector is willing to go,” I tell him. “I want to believe they won’t annihilate everyone, but …” Eli nods.
“Understood. We’ll act on the assumption that they’re taking no prisoners.” He relays this information through his earpiece and then addresses everyone surrounding him. Soren has his arm around Remy, comforting her as I wish I could.
Just then I see a moving shadow out of the corner of my eye. I turn to my right and my contacts outline a soldier in red, stealing a glance around the corner from an alleyway. I duck and pull up my gun at the ready, but not before he pops off a shot. It whizzes by me, but I hear someone cry in pain. I aim and fire, and the man collapses.
“Tunnels!” Eli shouts, suddenly aware of the danger. “Move!” The Bolt hit one of the Resistance fighters in the leg. He’s limping but alive. Jahnu and I cover for Remy, Gabriel, Soren, and Soren’s younger shadow, none of whom are armed, while Eli, Kenzie, and Firestone fan out across the rest of the street, walking backwards as everyone else jogs towards the tunnels. But when Bolt fire starts erupting from the alleyway, I know we’ve been found.
We return fire, but they duck back behind the corner. They’re impossible to hit in the darkness, and I’m fairly certain I’m the only one in the Resistance group with combat contacts in. We fire ceaselessly at the alleyway, but quickly realize that they’re approaching us from more than one direction. One by one we duck into the entrance to the tunnels. Finally Eli is the last one in, and Jahnu and I cover for him on either side as he sidesteps down the incline. We turn and sprint down the rest of the way, and as we descend we pass an enormous set of metal doors that Eli and Jahnu slam and latch from the inside.
“They won’t have brought a battering ram,” Jahnu grins.
“Who needs a battering ram when you’ve got explosives?” Eli responds, rolling his eyes. Everything around us is chaos. The lights are flickering and have gone off in sections of the tunnel, and in the distance I can see one hallway has collapsed. We’re isolated here for now—everyone seems to have already abandoned the facility.
“Listen up,” Eli says, addressing the motley crew of people, tired and haggard, from aboveground. “We’re going to Code Evac. Teams will go to their pre-assigned rendezvous destinations outside the city, just like in the drills. Disable all communications devices—they’ll be able t
o track you by the signals they emit. You’ll be disconnected for a few hours, but it’ll be better than being shot down from above.”
I realize then that I’m forgetting something incredibly, terribly, overwhelmingly valuable.
“Where’s Jeremiah?”
Eli gapes at me, realizing he has made the same mistake. Then he puts his finger to his ear, listens, and turns as someone I don’t recognize stands. “Good luck. We’ll see you at the rendezvous point,” Eli says to her. They must have gotten a message from the Director. They shake hands and the woman and her team—including Remy’s father—stand. I watch as Remy and Gabriel hold each other. Though Remy is still crying, tears streaking down her cheeks, her father’s face is set in grim determination. He bends down and whispers something in her ear, and she nods. Then he kisses the top of her head, turns on his heel and follows the rest of his team out the door.
“They’re going to help Rhinehouse destroy his lab before we they leave,” Eli says, by way of explanation. Then he scans my face and turns to Soren. “Soren and Vale, go get Jeremiah. He’s in the first holding room in the west hall. Kenzie, come with me—I need to get my hard drive. It has the backup of the DNA on it. Jahnu, Firestone, Remy, and you”—he points to the boy with Remy and Soren—“head to the mess hall. We’ll all meet there in ten minutes.”
Soren raises his eyes to me for the first time since we faced each other in the capital. I can tell it’s all he can do not to rip my throat out with his teeth. His eyes aren’t quite as murderous as Remy’s were, but they’re full of rage and bitterness. It’s just then I realize his knife is in the pack that Eli and his team confiscated from me when they brought us here.
“Jahnu,” I whisper. “Where’d you guys put my stuff?”
“I’ll take you there,” he says. “It’s on the way to the mess hall. We can all go together.” He squeezes Kenzie’s hand and she gives him a reassuring smile. They must be together. I wonder if Moriana would be happy for her cousin. Just then, there’s an explosion somewhere above us and the lights go out. Dust falls from the ceiling and I duck, covering my head with my arms, just in case. I hold my breath, but nothing major collapses around us.
A torch light comes on.
“Everyone okay?” It’s Jahnu. His light flashes around and everyone appears unhurt, though uncertain and afraid.
“We’re fine,” Kenzie returns, her own light coming on. “Let’s move. We need to get out of here.” Everyone except Soren, Remy, and I have torches, and as we move to split up, Firestone tosses his torch to Soren. He and I form the rear guard behind Remy and the boy as Jahnu and Firestone lead the way down the dark, oppressive halls. Soren matches his stride to mine as we pace tersely through the corridors, measuring ourselves against each other.
Jahnu points out to me where he has to turn to get to the mess hall and to the little alcove where my pack was stored. I jog forward and rifle through my backpack. I don’t bother with any of the rest of our supplies—they’ll just weigh me down. I pull Soren’s knife out of the pack and turn back to him, holding it in my palm. I can’t find the words to express the guilt I feel at having been responsible for his experiences the last few days. So I open my palm to him soundlessly.
Soren takes the knife and tucks it into his belt without looking at me. Without a word, he turns away and continues down the halls. I sigh and remind myself that making peace will take time. I follow him, keeping my footsteps light and my ears tuned for any sign that we’re being pursued, any hint of an explosion above that will bring the world down around us. But aside from our footfalls, silence abounds.
At a certain point I start hearing muffled shouts through the halls, and I quickly identify the voice as Jeremiah’s. My stomach does a flip. Soren shoots a backwards glance at me, presumably thinking the same thing, and darts off in a jog. The shouts grow louder, but they’re still unintelligible. I can hear him pounding on the door. Is this corridor so deserted that no one’s heard him and thought to let him out? I anxiously follow Soren until he stops abruptly, throws the locks on the door and pulls it open. On the other side, Jeremiah’s mouth is open and his eyes wide in fear and anger. But when he looks up and sees Soren, his expression morphs into one of surprise and even happiness. A grin spreads easily over his bearded face, the first real smile I’ve seen in days. Soren’s eyes are similarly alight, and it occurs to me that Jeremiah and Soren were once just as close as Miah and I are now.
“Soren Skaarsgard. Well,” Miah looks Soren up and down, “I see you haven’t taken a bath since I last saw you.”
Soren’s smile is so wide it looks like it might take over his whole face, and he throws his arms around Jeremiah in an embrace that might knock another man down. But Jeremiah matches Soren kilo for kilo, and they clap each other on the back and pound for so long I’m about ready to warn them these tunnels could collapse on us at any minute when they finally pull apart.
“I knew you’d come around eventually,” Soren says to Jeremiah.
“Well, when Vale told me you’d been back to the capital and hadn’t bothered to come say hello, I had to track you down to exact my revenge.”
Soren’s expression dims for a moment, but the smile flares back to his face and he claps Miah on the shoulder one last time.
“Let’s get you out of here,” he says and steps aside, letting Miah out of his tiny holding room.
“Yeah, it took you two assholes long enough.” Jeremiah suddenly glares at me in mock anger and I roll my eyes.
“There was a lot going on,” I respond. “Let’s go, we need to move. Soren, you know these tunnels—lead the way.” I’m trying to be deferential, but maybe anything from my mouth sounds like a command. Soren’s eyes narrow and I think he’s about to spit at me. He thinks better of it, though, and turns, heading back the way we came and in the direction of the mess hall.
“Seriously, though, Vale,” Miah mutters to me as we jog, “what’s going on up there?”
I fill him in quickly on the events of the last hour, and Jeremiah’s face falls when he hears about Brinn.
“I never knew her, but Moriana said she was one of the Sector’s best scientists. And now Remy.…”
The halls are tomb-like and skeletal without light or people. When we turn into the mess hall, Remy’s eyes are dead and cold, and she doesn’t even acknowledge me. Soren quickly sits down next to her and throws an arm around her, and Jeremiah shoots me a questioning look. What’s going on? his eyes seem to say. When Remy doesn’t seem to notice Soren either, a grim, bitter smile briefly flutters onto my face. A distant explosion rocks the foundations, though, wiping away all traces of jealousy and bringing me back to the danger of the moment.
“Everything’s deserted. We’re just waiting for Eli and Kenzie,” Firestone says in his lazy drawl. He’s the only one who seems unperturbed by the fact that the Resistance base is being decimated.
A dim flash of blue light down the hall alerts us all to danger, and pounding feet and shouting echo through the halls. Remy is suddenly on her feet, flame in her eyes. I can see her chest heaving, even in the shadowy torchlight. Jahnu, Firestone, and I pull our Bolts up and at the ready, and Soren’s knife glints in the light.
“Eli!” I recognize Kenzie’s voice, breathless, and there’s another flash of blue down the corridor. My heart thuds to a stop, but around me, everyone is moving. Jahnu and the boy are physically restraining Remy, pulling her back, away from the fight. Soren’s got his arm thrown out against Jeremiah’s chest, telling him not to move. I realize only three of us are armed, and I leap into action, running to the hallway where Kenzie and Eli are coming from. Firestone is somehow at my side. We kneel together and sight down the halls, where I can see Kenzie running frantically, pulling Eli by the hand, who’s stumbling and looks dazed. I blink twice and my contacts outline the distant soldiers in red, and I know they’ll have similar sights on Kenzie and Eli. I aim and prepare to fire, but before I can even get a shot off, Firestone has casually loosed three low-en
ergy warning shots down the hall. The men duck behind a corner or into a door and disappear. I glance over at him, surprised.
“Well, we don’t want to kill ’em if we don’t have to,” he says easily in response to my inquisitive look. Kenzie and Eli dash past us into the mess hall, and we quickly turn and follow them. Firestone shuts and bolts the door behind us.
“Go!” Kenzie shouts at Jahnu, who has been waiting tensely for orders. Without a word he turns, dragging Remy by the elbow, and leads the team out through a separate passage. Firestone and I take up the rear, but there’s not much time to check behind us. We’re all sprinting through the base, the last remnants of the fleeing, defeated Resistance.
31 - REMY
Winter 3, Sector Annum 106, 07h12
Gregorian Calendar: December 23
The sun is risen now, pinkish yellow in the sky as rays feather out through the treetops. I clutch my knees to my body, pulling them in tight for warmth like I did when I was a child. The forest around the boulder I’ve chosen for my perch is brown and wintergreen, and the chill air nips me playfully, smiling at me, beckoning me to its games. I do not smile back. I see my mother’s face in the treetops and the clouds, everywhere. I wish we’d burned her, but maybe the Sector’s grenades will have done that for me. Maybe the explosives started an inferno that consumed her body and will distribute the carbon remnants of her soul through the world to start something new. I hope that’s what happened. The thought of her body rotting, desolate, in the bleak and empty streets of our twice-abandoned city is enough to steal the blood from my heart.
This is our rendezvous point, an old factory about a hundred and fifty kilometers away from the main base. It’s long since crumbled and been retaken by the surrounding forest, beaten back for so many years and now returned with a vengeance. My dad’s team was supposed to rendezvous here, too, but they still haven’t shown up. I wonder if they couldn’t get to their vehicle, or if they had to walk, or if.…
