No! This was not part of the plan. He had to be pissing off Kale big-time.
Kale stood up and took several steps away from the bed. He turned and faced Dad, who was fully upright and had swung his feet over the side of the cot. My stomach twisted inside and I clenched my fists. Shoot him. Shoot him now.
“So naive,” Kale said. “How does one live in peace without weapons to protect oneself? Those Consulate burners need to be taught a lesson, and I’m going to be the one to take them down for what they did to innocent people.”
“You are governed by anger, not reason,” Dad said. “When your primary motivation changes from justice to revenge, no good can come of it.”
Kale clucked his tongue. “I don’t need your philosophical rubbish, old man. You only have one use right now, the one reason why I risked my ass to save you from the Consulate. I need those trigger formulas and I need them now.”
“And if I say no?” Dad asked. He’d stopped coughing.
“Then that leaves zero uses for you.” Kale took one more step back. “So what’s it gonna be? We could be a great team, you and me. Leading a Resistance so powerful that no one could touch us.”
“The world doesn’t need more power. It needs more peace.” Dad’s voice sounded so tired.
I heard the sound of a gun powering up, and it wasn’t mine. Sweat dripped from my hairline into my eyes. Why wasn’t Dad shooting him? What was the point of asking for my gun if he hadn’t intended to use it?
“Last chance,” Kale said. “And to be clear, there’s only one right answer here.”
Dad spoke slowly. “I’m afraid I can’t help you, Kale. I wish you could see how similar you’ve become to your enemy. The killing of innocent people was supposedly one of the reasons you despised the Consulate.”
The cot was very still. Dad didn’t seem like he was even trying to reach for his gun. I wanted to fly out from under the bed and claw Kale’s eyes out with my bare hands.
“If you’re not with us, then you’re against us,” Kale replied calmly. “That doesn’t make you innocent; it makes you the enemy. And you know I can’t abide enemies.”
A laser fired and Dad’s body fell off the bed to the floor. A scream rose in my throat but I stifled it. Kale’s heavy footsteps walked to the hut entrance and he left. I heard him call out to the others. “Well that was a big, ole waste of my time. Looks like we’re going to have to make James help us after all. Let’s go find him.”
They retreated into the woods, talking loudly as they went. I crawled out from under the cot and rushed to Dad’s side. Blood pooled underneath him. He had a laser blast through his abdomen. His eyes were slitted.
Tears streamed down my face. I pressed my T-shirt onto the wound but the blood soaked right through it. The hole in his stomach was too large. I held his hand. “Hold on, Dad, I’ll get James.”
Dad’s voice was barely more than whisper. “Don’t think even James can fix this.”
I couldn’t stop crying. “Why? Why didn’t you shoot him when you had the chance?”
“The others … would have … killed you. Couldn’t risk that.” His eyes weren’t focusing. “I want you …” His breathing became ragged. “… to live … a long, happy life. Live for … those of us … who can’t.” His eyes closed.
I flung myself over his body. “Don’t go, Dad. I love you.”
He exhaled one long, uneven breath and lay still. I sobbed and lay down on the floor next to him. It was such a cruel act of fate to have found him alive, only to have him ripped away from me again. Permanently. I wrapped my arm around him and turned on my side. I didn’t care if Kale returned and found me. The plan didn’t seem to matter with Dad dead. Dead because of all those guns. I hated those guns, but not nearly as much as I hated Kale. I’d heard what Dad told Kale about how no good can come of it when your motivation is based on revenge rather than justice.
That might be the case but I was going to get revenge anyway, and good would come out of it. Because Kale would be dead. My goals were simple and crystal clear. Get the guns. Kill Kale.
It was good to have goals.
Chapter SIXTEEN
FOOTSTEPS POUNDED THROUGH THE FOREST AS I LAY NEXT to Dad, my arm still wrapped around him. The gun. It was still under the covers on the cot. I scrambled to my feet, slipped on the blood-covered floor, and smashed back down onto my knees. James and Max tore into the tent, weapons raised.
“We heard gunfire—” Max said, before his eyes widened in horror. His gun fell to the floor.
James rushed to my dad and bent his head to listen to his chest. “He’s gone.”
“They’re all gone now.” My voice rose an octave.
Max stared at James. I’m sure I looked crazy. I was covered in Dad’s blood—it was in my hair, on my clothes, my face.
I walked to the cot, retrieved my unused gun, and tucked it into my waistband. “Soon Kale will be gone too. Then he can rot in hell for what he’s done.”
James came over and touched my arm. “Tora, I’m so sorry.”
Fresh tears poured from my eyes. With plentiful water and adequate hydration I could apparently cry for an eternity. I swiped away tears with the back of my arm. “I want him to pay.”
James smoothed my bloodied hair and tucked it behind my ear. “Yeah, I know what that feels like, but trust me, I’m not sure you want to go through with it.”
“I didn’t want to go through any of this.” I crossed my arms. “And tell me that you don’t still want to see Allan Davis dead.”
James looked into my eyes. “I do want him dead, but not more than I want you alive. If I can only have one of those things, I want you.” He pulled me toward him and encircled me in a tight hug.
A hug is exactly how Callie would have tried to make me feel better. I put my head on James’ shoulder and cried. He didn’t even seem to mind that I was getting blood all over him. I looked over his shoulder at Dad’s body. He’d escaped confinement only to die at the hands of the same person who’d saved him. It wasn’t fair. I imagined Callie waiting for him somewhere beyond this world and hoped he found her.
I raised my head from James’ shoulder. “Can we move him somewhere better than this?”
“Yes, but for now it will have to be in the woods. Anywhere else and Kale will know about it.”
Max agreed. “We can take him into the woods and come back when it’s dark. The sky is already losing light.”
“What about the meat monsters?” I said.
James called someone on the com device. “Some of the others are coming to help. We’ll dig a shallow grave. It should keep the animals away until we can move him.”
The idea of putting Dad in the ground sickened me, yet the thought of him being monster food was worse.
“Okay,” I sniffed. But something bothered me. “Wait, who did you just call?”
James frowned. “Edgar, why?”
“Are you sure he’s okay? I mean, why did Kale come back here so quickly, anyway?”
James clenched his jaw and Max answered. “That would be thanks to Sonya. She blew off her meeting with him. I asked her where she’d been and she said something like ‘oh, now James needs me instead of his precious Tora’ and that we’d all be sorry.”
“She probably called Kale on his com channel to tell him about the meeting,” James added. “I should have guessed it was a setup. Maybe I could have stopped this.”
“I never heard Kale’s ship,” said Max. “He must have landed a ways out and traveled here by foot with his men.”
Red-hot rage consumed me, and I added Sonya to the list of people I intended to kill. “I’m taking down that red-haired burner,” I said. I tried to get a grip on my anger. “Any word from Markus about the weapons?”
James shook his head. “He hasn’t found anything. I’m going to tell him to head back, but be careful where he lands. Kale’s men are probably on the hunt for all of us.”
I told James and Max about Kale saying he’d need James
now, since he couldn’t rekey the triggers.
“He’ll need me to do what he wants with your dad’s guns, and then he’ll kill me for being a traitor. The guy has lost it.”
The others arrived a few minutes later, led by Edgar. I followed as they carried Dad’s body deeper into the woods, far enough from the hut that we wouldn’t be heard if Kale and his men returned. The others had brought shovels, but first they used their guns to laser the ground, to make it easier to dig.
“Do you want to leave?” James asked me, concern etched on his face. “I’m not sure you should see this.”
“No, I’ll stay. I need to see that Dad’s at rest.”
As James and the others dug away, I walked a short distance until I found some wildflowers and plucked a handful. The pink and white petals were a stark contrast to my blood-caked hand. I closed my eyes and inhaled the sweet scent. It brought me back to the dream I had of floating through the clouds and meeting Callie.
Find Dad, I pleaded silently. You can all be together again.
I squeezed my eyes shut as more tears threatened to leak out. Stupid tears. They were totally useless and couldn’t bring Dad back, so I didn’t see the point of them.
When I returned to the group, I noticed the grave was on the deeper side of shallow. They must have come to the same conclusion I had. They stared at the makeshift bouquet in my hands.
“Who am I kidding?” I asked. “We’re not going to be able to come back here, maybe not ever.”
James studied my face before digging the shovel deeper into the ground. The others silently copied the motion. Soon, they were ready to lift Dad’s body into the ground. It had been different on Earth when all the bodies were disposed of by sun incineration. Even when someone had died inside the pod cities, they put them outside to burn. Put them out on the ground in the daylight, and they’d be dust by night.
I joined the others around Dad’s grave. The sky had darkened and we didn’t have much time. I knelt down and said a silent good-bye before dropping the flowers onto my father’s chest. He’d have part of Callie to keep his body company, though I hoped the rest of him was elsewhere. I stood and nodded to the others, who started shoveling the dirt back into the hole. I love you, Dad. Tears flowed again, and this time I was ready to go. Instead of thinking of Dad in the ground, I wanted to remember the times I sat reading in his study while he worked in his notebooks at the desk.
I wiped more tears from my eyes. “We don’t have the guns, we don’t know where Kale and his men are, and the Consulate is supposedly about to attack. What do we do now?”
Max wiped the sweat from his face with his shirt. “We probably should figure out a new plan.”
“We’ll finish here,” said Edgar to James. “Why don’t you and Max take Tora to get cleaned up? Stick to the woods and away from the camps to avoid Kale’s men.”
“We’ll see if Markus has found out anything about the guns and I’ll be in touch before dark.” James touched my arm, sweat dripping from his hair. “Let’s get you to the creek.”
I felt numb. Max walked just ahead to make sure it was safe. We traveled through the woods, careful to avoid the clearing by the bar. The winged insects and birds chattering and zipping around barely registered in my consciousness. We wound our way through the trees, overshooting the camps to make sure we were nowhere near Kale. By the time we reached the creek, the sun barely hovered on the horizon. Streaks of red and orange slashed through the sky. It looked like blood.
Max stood guard by a large tree while James dropped his pack along with my gun and accompanied me to the creek. I stepped into the water and walked to the center, submerging my arms while I watched the blood swirl away. My shirt was hopeless. The stains would never come out. I started crying again.
“Shhh,” James murmured into my ear. “It’s okay.”
I scrubbed furiously at my hands, trying to clean the blood from under my nails. “No, it’s not okay. This was your shirt.”
“Huh?”
“I took it … back on Kale’s ship. I wanted something of yours.” I splashed my face and rubbed it until the water was clear. “There, I told you.”
When I sat down and leaned my hair back into the water, James knelt next to me and wound his hands into it. He massaged the blood out in a gentle, rotating motion. “That’s sweet,” he said. “But don’t worry. I have a few extra in my pack.”
“Let me guess … they’re white.” I remembered the drawers that brimmed with nothing but white socks and shirts.
“Of course,” he said. He paused. “Do you need more meds for your ankle?”
I sat up and wrung out my hair. “The pain is nothing compared to what I feel inside. Got anything for that?”
James took my hand and helped me up. “You know I do, but I’m guessing you don’t really want it. This is one of those kinds of pains you want to keep.”
I tried to manage a smile but couldn’t. “You know me so well.”
When we got to the tree, Max turned around while James dug a fresh T-shirt out of his pack and handed it to me. “Here you go. You’ll have to deal with the pants for now. I don’t have any extras and they’d fall off you, anyway.”
“That’s okay. These’ll dry.” I pulled off my shirt and tossed it onto the ground. It was almost completely crimson. I never wanted to see it again. The pants were a little less stained, though not by much. I yanked the clean shirt over my head and picked up my gun. “I guess I should hold this until my pants dry out.” I didn’t want to risk it getting wet and not working again.
I looked up at James. “Hey, you’re wet too.”
He shrugged. “No big deal. I’ll be fine.”
Grief got the better of me, and I put my arms around his neck. “Thank you. I’m not used to people taking care of me.”
James kissed my forehead. “I know you can take care of yourself, but I hope you’ll let me help out once in a while.”
Max coughed. “Is it okay if I turn around now?”
“Oh, sorry, yes,” I said. “Thanks for helping with all this.”
He looked up at the darkening sky. “I’m happy to help, but we need to figure out where to go from here.”
“Where will be safe from Kale?” I asked. “Do we sleep in the woods?”
“We need to find his ship before he takes off with the guns,” said James.
I thought a minute. “Kale has a thing for flying at night. He thinks he’s clever that way. I bet he’ll leave and come back just before the light break. He doesn’t want to get killed before he can regroup and figure out a new plan, and he can’t do anything without someone to fire those guns.”
James studied me. “Then we get everyone in our ships, get some rest, and wait to see where Kale lands when he returns.”
Max looked back and forth between us. “I hate to play devil’s advocate, but how important are the guns? If we took off now, we could relocate everyone without worrying about Kale.”
“The Consulate has people who can rekey them. And it’s not like there are tons of other colonies where we can hide. Kale, or the Consulate, or someone else will figure out how to use the guns. With the weapons out there, no one will ever be able to live in peace. I have to finally get rid of them.”
James raised an eyebrow.
“We, I mean.”
Max sighed. “I guess you’re right. Sometimes, I just wish the easy way out was the right way. Why doesn’t it ever work that way?”
James pulled out his com and called Markus to find out his location. Unfortunately, Markus hadn’t seen any sign of the weapons. James told him to move to an area near Max’s ship, while Max called the others on his com. We’d meet up with them and split into two groups. We’d take shifts to search the skies for signs of Kale.
James, Max, and I trekked back through the woods. Exhaustion racked my body and I hoped the meeting place wasn’t far away. Sad as it was, I actually missed living in the bunker at the moment. I could take a nap anytime I wanted, and sin
ce I’d been alone for years on end, it was a frequent occurrence. I’d even choose a nap over more beach time alone with James at the moment, which proved my insane sleep deprivation.
I took James’ hand when he offered it and kept my gun in my free hand. At least I’d be prepared if we came across a meat monster. We walked in silence following Max.
After what must have been close to a mile, Max turned and whispered, “I think we’re about there.” He spoke into his com device.
The sound of another com device came from nearby. “We’re here.” Edgar’s large form stepped out from behind a tree and motioned the others to follow him. It was difficult to make out who was who in the darkness. Thick clouds covered both moons and most of the stars. I spotted Reed’s light hair in the group.
She ran up and hugged me. “I heard what happened to your dad. I’m so, so sorry.”
I’d never been hugged so much in my life but I was getting more used to it. “Thanks.”
“We’re here too, sweetcakes. You okay?” I looked to my left, and Markus and Alec appeared at my side.
I threw my arms around Markus in a bear hug. “Markus, it’s so good to see you.” I was surprised that I meant it, and more surprised that I was turning into the hugger. Maybe it was contagious.
Alec touched my arm and gave me a gentle squeeze.
“What’s the plan?” Edgar asked.
James gave him a brief rundown. “Any questions?”
“No, sir,” said Edgar. “We should split into two groups.”
Reed linked her arm through mine. “I’m going with Tora.” She was so sweet—she couldn’t have been more the opposite of Sonya if she’d tried.
“Fine,” said Edgar. “Tora, Reed, Alec, Markus, Web, and Trent stay with James. I’ll take Connor, Max, Becca, Tyler, Ian, and Bez.”
Strange Skies Page 14
