by Kyle West
Things had changed, so much so that I wondered how it would all ever work out. The hard part, the immediate problem, was going to be making the others understand everything — for them not only to accept me back, but to believe what I had to tell them. I had seen the Elekai, had spoken to the Wanderer. I was the messenger. I had the revelation.
Would any of them believe? It was hard to imagine Samuel or Ashton buying it. I realized then what I would have to do. I would have to agree to go back to Skyhome, so that Ashton could test me. He could see for himself, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the virus that infected me was different from any other kind. Maybe when he saw that, he would understand.
Maybe they all would.
Chapter 21
Askal landed a good distance away from where the army was camped. The Askala settled behind a tall, wide mesa that would completely block him from view. I told him to wait there, and that I’d be back in an hour or two.
As I jogged away, I saw ripples in my vision once more. My eyes were reverting to their normal state. So I had to be touching something with the xenovirus, somehow, for my eyes to turn white. When I walked into camp, I wouldn’t be mistaken for a Howler. Maybe the whitened eyes were an effect that only happened while communicating with xenolife. That would make sense. It made me wonder why my eyes had been white back on Odin, after I had first woken up. Then again, hadn’t I been communicating then, too? The Wanderer had sent me that vision, so maybe the vision had something to do with it. It was good news, because it meant I could have some control over when my eyes were white, and when they were normal. Or at least, that’s what my hope was. I would have to test that theory later. Maybe it was something Ashton could test. Hopefully, going back to Skyhome wouldn’t be necessary to figure that out.
After hiking a mile or so, Odin came into view on top of the same bare hill where I had departed from it. It was mid-afternoon — the warmest part of the day, which meant the frigid air was barely tolerable. Gilgamesh was gone; Odin was the only ship left. The hill was surrounded by crude tents, shanties, and blazing fires to keep back the cold. Now off the back of the dragon, now out of the Great Blight, I was hit in full force by the reality of the frigid air.
I rushed ahead to get to the ship. My mind raced with everything I would tell everyone. I didn’t even know where to start.
As I passed the outer ring of tents, I started to feel nervous. I passed under the gaze of fearful men, who stared to the east from where they had fled, huddling in groups around fires for warmth. I hurried past them, averting my eyes. I passed women and children, wrapped in blankets inside tents. The army had remained camped on the hill rather than moving on, which meant that Makara and the gang lords had come to some kind of impasse. With both the cold and the xenoswarm, any lack of movement was death.
I wished I had a mirror, so I could make absolutely sure my eyes were not white. Just in case, I had my hood drawn up, and kept my face down. Getting mistaken for a Howler would be the worst thing possible right now. I’d be dead before I even had the chance to do my job.
I climbed the hill, the sharp wind blasting against me. I started to run, the cold air like ice in my lungs. I crested the hill, and Odin hulked above me. I couldn’t see inside the tinted windshield, but if anyone was in the cockpit, they would now see me. I just stood there, in the cold, waiting for someone to come out and meet me. I didn’t want them to think I was being aggressive. I also didn’t want them to somehow capture me before I had a chance to explain what had happened. I grew colder the longer I stood there. It looked like I was going to have to go into Odin myself. Maybe they were all away, for some reason. If luck was with me, Samuel or Michael would be the first one out that door. Both of them had been the calmest at my change.
I grew impatient, and started walking forward toward Odin. It was then that the blast door slid open. Makara walked out, alone, wearing a thick black parka with the hood pulled up. She stood on the boarding ramp a moment, arms folded, staring in my direction. Her expression was inscrutable.
Finally, she sighed and walked the rest of the way down the boarding ramp, and came forward. The fact that she was approaching me rather than calling for backup was a good sign, I guess. Maybe she had changed her mind. Still, I felt nervous, even though it was only Makara and I had known her longer than any of the others. I thought of all we had been through, and how much had changed. We had been through a lot in the last three months, and our journey to Bunker One had changed everything — had given us new purpose in our lives.
The thought didn’t have more time to develop, because Makara now stood before me. Even though she was playing it cool, I could tell that she was glad to see me. I could see it in her eyes.
“You’re back,” she said.
“It was inevitable.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Quit being cryptic. Where did you go? Thought you would have been inside a dragon’s stomach by now.”
“That dragon is actually pretty nice,” I said. “His name is Askal.”
Makara stared at me. “Askal?”
“Turns out all of you guys are right,” I said. “I’m infected, but it’s something different. There are two different kinds of the xenovirus.” I forced a smile. “Turns out I have the good kind.”
“Alex…” Makara said. “We have a lot to talk about.”
“Where’s everyone else? Anna? Samuel?”
Makara looked away, shaking her head. “Ashton and Michael left in Gilgamesh yesterday, not too long after you left. They’re going to New America, trying to find recruits.”
So I had been gone two days rather than one. I was starting to lose my hold on time.
Something in Makara’s face told me that there was something else. Something she didn’t look forward to telling me.
“Where’s Anna?”
I knew the news was not good.
“Samuel and Marcus are off looking for her,” Makara said. “An hour after that dragon took you, she ran off, that way.”
Makara pointed to the east. The direction of the xenoswarm. The direction of the Great Blight.
“And you let her go?”
“Of course I didn’t,” Makara said. “You think my opinion would have stopped her? It was an hour before anyone realized she was gone. Marcus found one of his bikes missing.” Makara looked at me. “Not hard to figure out what happened. He and Samuel went after her, but they haven’t found anything yet.”
“It’s been two days,” I said. “You should have found her by now.”
Makara nodded. “I know. Either she doesn’t want to be found, or…”
Makara didn’t finish, but she didn’t have to.
“What about Ashton? Michael?” My voice was becoming more emotional. “They could find her with their ship.”
“They’re on their way back, and I just got off the comm with them,” Makara said. “They’re bringing Julian and some new recruits from New America; that’ll add more to the search. As for me and Char, we need to stay here and keep an eye on things.”
My next question was why Anna had run off. I didn’t want to believe that she had done it because of me. That was a bit difficult to comprehend. I didn’t see why anyone would want to do that.
“I’m going after her,” I said, turning around.
“I guess there’s nothing I can say to convince you otherwise.”
“No. I’ll find her before the day is out. I promise you that.”
“You sound very confident of that.”
“I have every reason to be. I’ve got something no one else has.”
I ran from the camp, and Makara stood there on the hill, watching me go. I didn’t truly believe I had every reason to be confident. I just wanted to prove to Makara that I was right.
And hopefully, I was.
* * *
I ran down the hill, past tents and startled people, past the fires and into the cold afternoon. My boots churned the bare, rocky ground as I set out across the Wasteland. The mile pretty much
ran itself, and within minutes I was circling the mesa, only to find Askal was not where I had left him.
I slid to a stop, throwing up a cloud of dust. I was crestfallen that he had flown off. I hadn’t counted on that.
It was then that I heard a mighty roar that shook my bones. I stared upward at the mesa’s side. The dragon was roosting on a thin ledge, his long neck snaking around to the mesa’s side, where he sniffed at a small patch of xenofungus. He then noticed me below, staring at him. With a flap of wings, he glided to the desert floor, his light pink body catching the sun’s rays and glowing golden. He settled onto the dirt in front of me.
“About time,” I said, rushing to climb on his back. I held onto the ridge in front of me, preparing for flight.
“We have to find Anna.”
What happened?
He read my thoughts about Anna. My worry about finding her had now become his. Askal charged forward, nearly sending me careening rearward off his back. He flapped his wings mightily, pushing off the ground. We were once again in the air, each new beating of wings carrying us farther above the crimson desert.
Where is she? Askal asked.
“She’s somewhere east of here,” I said. “She left yesterday, to go after me.”
I had no idea what Anna thought she was doing. She was strong, but she wasn’t invincible. If she ran into the crawler army, then she wasn’t going to survive. All I could do was find her before that happened. If it hadn’t already.
Your mate? Askal asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Sort of.”
Askal was confused by my answer, but did not respond directly. Clearly, relationships among the Askala were far less complex. Instead, I focused on scanning the ground for signs of motion.
An hour passed in this way. We took the same route as we had on our way to the Great Blight. If Anna was heading there, then we should find her on that path. Neither Samuel nor Marcus knew exactly where she had been going, so they might have gotten off-course.
We had been flying an hour when Askal veered for the ground.
“You found something?” I asked, teeth chattering.
I believe that is her.
I gazed in the direction we were descending. I saw a solitary female figure, katana in hand. She had long black hair, blown by the wind, and held a blade in her right hand. It was definitely Anna. She turned, gazing up into the sky at us. I wondered what she would be thinking, seeing a dragon flying down at her. She placed herself in a ready stance, her katana held in both hands in front.
Askal swooped down, landing a good distance away. He landed face out, I guess to let Anna know that he wasn’t a threat.
I hopped down and ran toward her, keeping my face turned until I felt my eyes return to normal. When I turned to face Anna, her eyes were wide with disbelief. She sheathed her katana, and started walking my direction.
Suddenly, she was in my arms. I held her tight.
“Don’t do that again,” I said.
“I could say the same for you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I found you and that’s what counts.”
She looked at me with tearful eyes. “I should have trusted you. I thought, if I hurried…I might be able to find you. To say I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright,” I said. “None of that matters now. You were doing what you thought was right. I would have done the same.”
She pulled back, looking me in the face. It was hard to read those green eyes.
“You really just took off after me?” I asked.
She gave a small smile. “I knew you were in the Great Blight, somewhere. An hour after you left, I tried to get Makara go fly the ship there. She wouldn’t budge. Said her place was with the army. So that morning, I left, with nothing but my pack and my katana.”
“What about your bike?” I asked.
She shrugged. “That old thing broke down. Tried for hours to fix it, and just ended up leaving it there.” She stopped, looking up at me. “I knew, even at the time, that going east after you was stupid. But I figured if you could be stupid about something you believed in, why couldn’t I be, also?”
I didn’t have an answer for that. Her logic was flawless.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I flew back on that Askala there, and…”
“Askala?”
“Yeah. His name is Askal, and he is an Askala.” I smiled. “It’s what their entire species is called.”
Anna laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Told you they weren’t dragons.”
I laughed as well. I remembered our conversation from earlier, of how Anna hated for them to be called dragons. I wasn’t even thinking of that when I decided on the name.
“I guess we all got what we wanted, in the end.”
Anna gazed over my shoulder, at the Askala. “You just got on that thing and flew away, like you owned it. There was no hesitation.” She paused. “I couldn’t have done that.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “You might have, if you knew what I knew.”
Anna stared off doubtfully. I brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
“You’ll never believe what happened to me,” I said.
She looked at me. “You went to the Great Blight.”
“How did you know that? You mentioned it a second ago, but…”
“It really wasn’t that hard to figure out. With the way your eyes were, I thought you were one of them. I thought you went to go join them. I planned on doing the same thing.”
“What?”
“Well, I don’t know what I planned, really. The thought did cross my mind, though. I thought it would all make sense, when I got there.”
She took a few steps toward Askal. She didn’t seem afraid of him. Admittedly, for an Askala, he was on the cute side. The dragon, in turn, gazed at Anna silently with his white eyes. Anna smiled.
“Funny name,” she said. “Askal.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that.”
“He can talk?”
“To me, at least. It’s a side effect of…”
I didn’t finish my sentence, but Anna pieced together the rest on her own.
“You are infected, then.”
“Yes. But it’s not what you think. I will actually be okay. At least, for a while.”
“What do you mean by that?”
As she looked at me with worry, I explained everything I had gone through, leaving nothing out. I told Anna about my dreams of the Wanderer while the rest of them had been fighting for their lives. I told her about how Askal had taken me to the broken Xenolith, and about the pool beneath its roots. I told her what the Wanderer had related to me on the island — about the Elekai and the Radaskim. Finally, I got to the part where I had agreed to try and fight the Radaskim Xenomind, by infecting it with the Elekai version of the xenovirus. She was a little confused when I said that that Wanderer had called the Radaskim Xenomind Askala, so maybe I could have chosen my name for the Askala better. The Wanderer had also called Askala the Dark Voice. That, at least, was enough to differentiate that Xenomind from the Wanderer, who was the Elekai Voice.
Anna said nothing once I was finished telling her my story. I wanted to give her time, so I waited for her to break the silence. Such things took time to process.
The first thing she said, however, was unexpected.
“The prophecy is true, then. I thought when I saw you here, safe, that perhaps I would have more time.” She sighed. “The old man was right, in the end.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Wanderer told me that I would lose someone I loved. So, I stopped trying…to love, I mean.”
Anna said nothing more, and I felt myself tearing up. What she was saying I couldn’t believe. She loved me? She hadn’t said it directly, but…
“I had no idea,” I said. “And…”
I didn’t know how to go on. Instead, I held her as her eyes watered up. Her tears fell to the cold dust. Finally
, she looked up at me, her eyes haunted.
“You can’t go dying,” she said. “We need you still.”
She broke down in tears. I could do nothing but hold her.
“It’s alright,” I said. “It will all work out, somehow.”
“No, it won’t! You’re going to die, you know? You’ve just told me that much.”
“Maybe there’s a chance I won’t die.” I knew it was a long shot, but I just didn’t want Anna to be sad anymore. “He just said ‘sacrifice.’ He didn’t say that sacrifice was me dying.”
“Everyone else’s prophecy came true, didn’t it? Why wouldn’t mine? Why wouldn’t yours? They are one and the same.”
I didn’t have an answer for that. Instead, I kissed her. She stilled, settling into me, her muscles going slack.
“It is the only way,” I said, when we parted. “If this is my path, and if it saves everyone, I have to do it. He told me, in that cave, that it all hinged on me. I know what I have to do.”
From far in the past, a thought came to me. Something my father always told me. I said it now.
“A man does not do what he wants. He does what he must.”
She pulled back, wiping her eyes. “There has to be another way. We’ll find it. We’ll talk to the Wanderer, together, and we’ll make him tell us.”
I felt only sadness. Though the Wanderer was an Elekai Xenomind with millions of years of memory and knowledge, he did not know everything. All he knew was what it would take to win. And that meant infecting the Radaskim Xenomind, and bringing about the end of the invasion.
“We have to find Askala,” I said. “The Wanderer said that she is like the mother of all the Radaskim. She is the source of the Great Blight’s power. She directs it, and without her, they would be powerless. If she is infected, then it all reverts to the Elekai’s control. The invasion will be stopped in its tracks.”
“You don’t know that,” Anna said, stubbornly. “If we can just kill her, somehow…”
