No Darker Fate

by John Corwin

  The black ghoul, Simion Moore, shouted at his two companions. They changed course and plowed into the task force like a wedge. Bodies literally flew as they punched and kicked through the pursuers. Moore grabbed one of the Scions, Adam, Marissa's executor. The three ghouls lifted the flailing man and pulled him away. Before the others could react, Moore cracked Adam's neck. The crunch echoed. The stunned Scions stared, mouths slack, eyes wide as each ghoul laid a stone on Adam's eyes and mouth.

  Marissa's scream of agony rippled through the air. "No! Save him!"

  The onlookers launched into action as light poured from the stones on Adam's eyes. The attacking Scions dropped like unstrung puppets as they reached the vicinity of the stones. The ghouls shifted to Normal, their prize in hand, then tore another gaping scar and hopped. A blast of thunder rolled across the cemetery. Alexia looked to her right and spotted Lucas. He was almost outside the cemetery. Still running but limping even worse than before. She shouted at the others.

  "Get him," Andre said.

  Marissa screamed something incoherent. Tears cascaded down her cheeks. "I'll kill him myself for creating those abominations." She grabbed Alexia's hand. "Go."

  They hopped and shifted back to Normal. Marissa clenched her fists and stared at Lucas. He gave a shout, grabbed his head, and went down in a heap. The other Scions closed in. Three executors grabbed him. Lucas tried to shift states, but Andre and Marissa's combined mental attacks clamped him into Normal.

  "What do you want with me?" Lucas asked, groaning. Sweat rivulets formed clean streaks on his dirt-stained face. "I didn't want to do it. Someone did this to me."

  "Brother, it pains me to pronounce sentence on you," Andre said, "but you've been tainted beyond redemption."

  Mikhail took Andre by the arm. "Not so hasty."

  Andre looked at Mikhail's hand before shrugging it off. "We already agreed on the sentence, Grand Arbiter. Now we'll carry it out."

  "Agreed," Marissa said, her teeth clenched and fury etched into her pale face. With the black eyeliner streaking down her cheeks and the rage in her eyes, Alexia felt cold certain death hovering seconds away.

  Other Scions chimed in, forming a single voice of angry, overwhelming consensus. Mikhail shook his head and backed off. Alexia wondered why he, of all people, was so hesitant.

  Despite his crimes, she didn't want to see Lucas killed. If he'd been controlled by an arbiter, why did he have to be the one to die? Then again, Lucas had tried to kill her. His mind was out of control. His brain corrupted by a rogue arbiter. Yet, there was something about him that offered her hope. Something she longed for in his wild eyes. She tried to speak up, but her throat was knotted with—what? Regret? Agony? Tears welled in her eyes. She felt desperately sick at the thought of him leaving this world. Try as she might, she couldn't understand why these emotions were assaulting her. She'd only just met this man, this murderer.

  This wasn't right. He deserved a hearing. Somehow she had to delay his death. They couldn't take him now. Panic pounded her heart faster, harder. Still, she couldn't open her mouth. She couldn't defend this murderer in the face of this angry mob.

  Andre nodded toward an executor. The man produced an ender, identical to the stiletto-like device Lucas had almost used on Alexia. The executor approached Lucas with a solemn air. One of the executors holding Lucas forced an arm up.

  "Time to go on, brother," the executor with the ender said, and moved it toward Lucas's armpit.

  "This is quite irregular," Mikhail said as though discussing the weather. "Not even a hearing?"

  Andre clenched his jaw. Turned toward Mikhail. "Every minute this man is alive he's a threat. For all we know the ghouls can't survive without him. We've all the proof we need that he's the perpetrator. Ending him now is the only answer."

  Mikhail stared coolly at Andre. His eyes scanned the knot of Scions. Alexia could see little sympathy for Lucas in their eyes. Why would a man in Mikhail's position stick his neck out for Lucas? She didn't know. Didn't care. She wanted to shout at them. Tell them to stop this madness this instant. But why? What was wrong with her? Lucas was a killer. A madman.

  Wings thundered overhead. Everyone craned their necks at a churning cloud of black mynas that circled a hundred feet up. An eerie chorus of laughing and inhuman chatter filled the air. Alexia finally understood what they were saying: "Lucas." A stream of mynas dive bombed Andre and Marissa. Marissa shouted and fell back. Andre ducked.

  Lucas roared. His face bright red, veins pulsing in his neck, he jerked free of the executors, and vanished into the Blight. Alexia switched sight, saw him, and hopped. She stumbled right into him, face to face, and locked onto him with all her might. Carried him back into Normal. Lucas's momentum toppled her onto her back. He bellowed. His pupils dilated until his eyes were pitch black. The world vanished.

  Thick liquid filled Alexia's lungs. She tried to scream but couldn't feel her mouth. Couldn't feel her appendages. Couldn't feel anything. She tumbled in oblivion unable to sense if her eyes were even open. Black thick suffocation pressed her from all sides. Eternity seemed to pass. Was she breathing? Moving?

  Sensation rushed back like feeling to oxygen-starved limbs. Something warm pressed tight against her. She opened her eyes. Lucas stared back, his eyes normal. Alexia recoiled and let go. Backed away. They were in the city but the streets were quiet.

  "Forever," said a lone myna bird perched atop a street sign. It regarded them with a cocked head for a moment before flapping away.

  A dull red sun sat low in a clear purple-hued sky. Murmuring, moaning and gibbering broke the silence. A man walked past.

  "Where are we?" Alexia said.

  The man continued on without acknowledging her. She noticed more people wandering the streets and cars moving jerkily like an old stop-motion film. A wrinkled woman slumped against a wall, wailing. A boy ran up and down the street shouting nonsense. A middle-aged woman, her eyes vacant, walked past babbling.

  "See nobody. Where? Nobody. Find nothing."

  Alexia shuddered when she realized how similar the speech was to that of the ghouls.

  "Where are we, Lucas? Where did you take us?"

  They weren't in Normal or the Blight. They were somewhere else.

  Chapter 27

  Lucas stared at a familiar landscape with alien features. The dim red sun cast long shadows, discoloring the usual hue of the sky and anything it touched. The air, while clear, was crisp and chilly despite the season. Towering skyscrapers blocked much of the weak sunlight, casting the city in dusk. Aside from the usual dirt and grime, the buildings looked normal. They weren't in the Blight. The air was too clear. The off-color sun dispelled any notion they were in Normal.

  At least they were far away from his pursuers. He looked at his companion and recognized her. His heart missed a beat. "Alexia?"

  She looked at him, her lower lip trembling. "You've done something to us. I can't open a scar to Normal or the Blight."

  "The birds told me to go here, wherever here is."

  "Told you? How did the birds tell you?"

  "I don't know. I saw this place in my head."

  A myna landed on a fire hydrant, cocked its head at him, and flapped across the street. Lucas followed. Alexia reluctantly trailed behind. After a long walk, they reached the edge of the city and entered an older neighborhood. A familiar place. The bird landed atop a mailbox and cocked an eye at him. Lucas slowed and fought back a cry of anguish. They were in Edgewood. The house in front of him slumped. Weeds had claimed the front yard, algae covered the roof. Even the old oaks seemed bent and gnarled from the evil that had visited this place. It was here his family had been slaughtered.

  A man shuffled out the front door, muttering under his breath.

  Lucas gasped. "Dad?"

  A woman approached down the sidewalk. His mother. They both looked weary, worn down, but otherwise normal and dressed in the same clothes they'd died in.

  "Mom! Dad!"

  His parents walke
d into each other without seeming to see one another. Their bodies flickered and phased together, then parted as they continued their original routes.

  "Why, why, why?" his father, James, suddenly said in a shout. "Where is everyone?"

  His mother, Libby, started to cry. "James," she said. "Lucas? Jenny? Where are you?" Her cries echoed through the canyons of the dead city.

  Neither heard the tormented shouts of the other.

  * * * * *

  Mikhail helped Andre and Marissa off the ground. Blood streamed down Marissa's cheek where a beak had struck it. Several dead and dying mynas were on the ground. One flapped its wings but its head was twisted at an unnatural angle. Mikhail booted it away. He tried to wrap his mind around the events of the last few minutes and found himself afraid for the first time in years.

  "Where are they?" Andre asked.

  "You saw same as I. Alexia grabbed him. They vanished."

  A seeker ran to them, breathing hard. "Sir, we looked everywhere. They're not in the Blight. They're just gone."

  Lucinda limped over, a hand pressed to her left leg. She'd been in the group the ghouls had attacked. "He's going to kill her just like Cross did."

  "Enough about Cross!" Andre roared. "It doesn't matter at this point." He turned to Mikhail. "How'd you know Alexia's name? You two were never introduced and she's new."

  Mikhail shrugged. "My task force members told me about her. It is not big problem, I hope?"

  Andre seemed mollified. He pulled Mikhail aside.

  "You told me about Cross," Mikhail said. "Why get upset at your arbiter?"

  "It'll get them stirred up and looking for ghosts. I don't want panic in the ranks."

  "I am sorry about your executor."

  "Adam was Marissa's personal executor. He was only twenty."

  "Middle age for executors," Mikhail said. "So tell me, what now? We have executor with ability to Blight shift, hop, and vanish to nowhere. I hear through grapevine that Alexia saw this incident before it happened."

  Andre's face turned crimson. "Who told you?"

  "I heard from task force. No mention was made of source."

  Andre glanced back at Lucinda who was jabbering to anyone nearby about Cross. Mikhail hoped he would pin the blame on her. In reality, the Statists had long ago resorted to mundane methods for eavesdropping on their rivals.

  "Lucas Fowler is more dangerous than anyone realizes," Andre said. "We must end him."

  "Agreed," Mikhail said. He was lying, of course. Lucas was a gift of random evolution or whatever created Scions in the first place. If Alexia was truly a futurist as he suspected, the two of them would make a formidable addition to the Statists' ranks. Even better, they would be the perfect rulers.

  He had to find them before Andre did.

  * * * * *

  Martin clenched the pipe in his teeth. "Amazing."

  Tollee shuddered. They'd watched events unfold from a tall hill at the edge of the cemetery. During their search Martin had found a trace of Lucas's mind. Just as the signal had come into range, it had abruptly dropped in strength but originated from the opposite direction. He'd pushed Tollee to her limits to reach the cemetery. Tollee's mind still reeled with the possibility that Lucas had somehow hopped hundreds of miles in an instant. It couldn't be possible. But Lucas had already freaked her out with his other supposedly impossible abilities.

  "I don't know where he took her," Tollee said after scanning the area through the Blight. "We gonna look for scars?"

  "Not with the factions scouring the area." His eyes locked onto two men.

  Tollee zoomed in and examined them. One was gaunt, the other almost cherubic. "Who are they?"

  "Mikhail Sokolov and Andre Feno, grand arbiters for the Statists and Transcendists, respectively."

  "The top leaders of both factions?"

  Martin smiled. "Oh yes, dear. Apparently my experiments have caught the attention of some very important people. I think this will work to my advantage. Once we capture a ghoul I can prove the existence of the afterlife."

  All this mayhem for a stupid experiment. "If those things come from the afterlife, I sure as hell don't want to die."

  Martin seemed to stew over that for a few minutes. "I believe their instability is caused by a sudden corporeal resurrection."

  "Even if you do discover the afterlife, what good will it do you? We all die. We're all going to this afterlife you talk about. So what?"

  "It is only the greatest discovery a man has ever made, my dear. If the afterlife exists in a quantum state similar to the Blight, we might actually be able to travel there. Imagine it, visiting God whenever you wish. The master of all physics that govern our universe."

  Tollee choked back her response. What if God didn't want them there? What horrible response might He have, assuming He existed? Maybe the afterlife was just like the Blight, dead and nasty.

  "I wonder if they'll be able to turn that executor they captured into another ghoul," Martin said, puffing on his pipe. "I'd give anything to witness that."

  Even if they didn't, what would stop them from murdering more Scions? Tollee's stomach knotted hard as a rock. This was insanity. The ghouls might keep killing. If they did make more ghouls, they'd be unstoppable after a while. She might become a ghoul. Her idea of abandoning Martin in the Blight wasn't going to work. He might be the only one who could stop this. She focused on the grand arbiters as they conversed below. They could force the information from Martin. Maybe they'd spare her a prison sentence for turning him in.

  Martin's gaze focused on the horizon. He was unaware, too deep in thought to notice her intentions. She grabbed his arm, locked eyes on the grand arbiters and opened a scar.

  Pain exploded in her head. Her eyes watered. She felt herself falling but was helpless to stop her descent. The ground knocked her breath out. She tried to speak but heard only a dry rattle emanate from her throat.

  Martin's face, blurry from the tears in her eyes, filled her view. "Et tu, Brute?" He tsked. "I imprinted you with certain safeguards long ago, child. You could no more betray or harm me than pick up the world and spin it on your finger."

  Tollee's vision started to fade. Her breathing became shallower. She couldn't take control, couldn't get oxygen.

  "You've put me in quite a bind, child. Whatever shall I do with you?"

  The world fragmented. The edges of her vision closed in blackness toward a single point of white light.

  Martin said something else, but his words were muffled. Something broke free in her mind. Her body tensed. She sucked in a deep rasping breath and wiped the hot tears from her eyes. It took her a moment to stagger to her feet. A moment for her brain to form a coherent thought.

  "Martin, you've gone crazy. We need help. Can't you see how dangerous the ghouls are to all of us?"

  His face reddened. "Continue to question me and I'll imprint you with even stiffer controls, you twit."

  Tollee backed away, fear blooming like a black rose in her throat. She felt static in her hair and switched to Blight view. A slender tendril of light extended from Martin's head to her. She screamed and shifted fully into the Blight. The mind snake puffed into sparkling motes. Martin scowled.

  "Come back, girl. You'll never escape me. My reach is infinite."

  She couldn't go back to him. But if she didn't, she couldn't exit the Blight unless she ran as far away as Lucas had. Knowing what demonic things Martin had done to her mind, she could never go back. She'd rather die.

  Chapter 28

  Andre gathered Marissa, Thomas, and his other closest advisors in the conference room back at the Transcendist compound.

  "I have a feeling Mikhail has other plans for Lucas Fowler and our initiate, Alexia."

  Marissa frowned. "Like what? Even he can't want such a dangerous man to live."

  "I think Mikhail puts more stock in the Cross legend than he lets on. When I met with him in North Dakota, I told that story to push him in a direction I thought best. Lucas Fowler can't
be allowed to fall into Statist hands. I'd hoped the Cross analogy might convince him that a quick execution would be best."

  Thomas broke into the conversation. "You're overlooking something here. Lucas Fowler has abilities that surpass anything we've heard of before. He shares core abilities with at least two classes of Scions. What if he's the proof we need?"

  "Proof?" Andre asked.

  Marissa's eyes widened. "You mean if an executor can become a seeker, what prevents a chum from becoming a Scion?"

  "Exactly," Thomas said. "If we capture this guy, we can find out what neural pathways connect differently for him as opposed to others. It might take a few years of study, but our scientists would love it."

  Andre shook his head. "It's an intriguing proposal, but completely unworkable. If this man can hop out of our detection radius, how can we possibly hold him for study?"

  "He hopped somewhere without line of sight," said Whitney, one of Andre's experienced seekers. "Any seeker who's tried that has either vanished for good, or died outright."

  "Who the hell tried hopping without line of sight?" asked Thomas.

  "Remember Tyrone, that kid we picked up off the streets ten years back?"

  "I thought he ran away."

  Whitney cleared her throat and looked at her hands. "I lied about that."

  Andre clenched his fists. "You lied? Tell me what happened."

  "He and some other initiates were bragging about how far they could hop. Tyrone told them he memorized a spot and didn't need line of sight. He hopped and never came out of the Blight."

  "You lied to your leaders," Andre said again, voice low. "This won't go unpunished."

  "Please, Andre. I was ashamed and afraid."

  "His death was his fault. Your fault stands with the lie. After this crisis is over, you'll be sentenced to one day of sensory deprivation."

  Whitney blanched. "That's rather harsh. After all I've done—"

  Andre slammed the table with his fist and stood. "You are a trusted member of my inner circle." His shout caused a ripple of surprise in the room. He glared at the group, his eyes raking each of them in turn. "I won't tolerate lies from anyone." He took his seat and gave himself a moment to calm down.