Midnight City: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series)

by J. Barton Mitchell

  The main force of blue and white walkers had been completely washed out of existence.

  * * *

  WHAT REMAINED OF THE dam’s defenders stared in awe as the gates of the dam slowly closed, sealing off the powerful flow. As the main surge of water began to recede, they saw dozens of motionless blue and white Spider walkers spread out before them, all crushed and destroyed and lying crumpled in the water like mechanical corpses.

  The color on their armor didn’t stand out for long. A thick, black, rustlike substance formed on their surfaces, spreading and consuming the machines where they lay, like a metallic cancer. No golden fields of energy rose from their bodies, no crystalline shapes of light. There was only the rust.

  Above, the Raptors ceased their firing, circled a few more times, and then their engines roared as they banked hard and flew toward the east, followed by the Vultures and Ospreys. Watching them recede was like watching a giant black cloud move toward the horizon, shrinking and diminishing in the sky until it vanished.

  When they were gone, the river valley was filled with a strange, surreal silence that felt very out of place. The crackling of fires on the walls and the lapping of water against the new shoreline were the only sounds.

  Eventually, a shocked, disbelieving cheer went up on one side of the dam. It was quickly echoed all along the walls by a hundred young, ecstatic voices.

  As they roared in victory, some looked upward toward the very top of the structure. There, a silhouette against the bright sky, stood what looked like a tiny figure, a young girl, her arms extended, her hands and eyes glowing with an unearthly golden light.

  The figure stood a moment longer … and then she vanished.

  Rumors blossomed from that brief sighting, stories that would be told over the months to come. Tales of a young girl who had stood at the head of the dam while plasma bolts filled the air all around her, and somehow willed the old structure back to life. Willed it back to life … and saved them all.

  They were only rumors, of course. But they would spread nonetheless.…

  * * *

  HOLT STARED, JUST AS astonished as those outside, watching the water cease its flow and everything return to normal.

  It took him a moment to realize that the door was no longer shaking at his back, and the buzzing of the Seekers was gone. He stepped to the side and let the ruined door fall to the floor. Beyond it, there was nothing but a dark, empty staircase descending downward.

  They were gone. Holt guessed that the pattern had repeated itself all throughout Midnight City. Without the support of the larger force outside, what remained of the smaller Mantis group had withdrawn, taking their Seekers with them.

  The city was saved. And Zoey had done it all. Somehow.

  He watched as the little girl stepped back through the hole in the ceiling, descending the ladder to the floor. When she finally stood before him, Holt stared at her in a whole new way. His heart beat heavy and fast in his chest. He was stunned.

  “Zoey…,” he managed to say. But there were no more words.

  Max barked and rushed to Zoey, brushing up against her, and the little girl petted his head and scratched his ears.

  Then she kneeled down before Mira and her empty, black eyes. Zoey placed her hands on Mira’s chest.

  “Holt,” she said. Something strong in her voice made him look down at her, down at them both. “I need to know,” she continued. “Do you believe?”

  Holt looked back at her. Ten minutes ago, he would have answered no without hesitation. But not now. Regardless of what had happened to him, or what might happen to all of them … there was finally, ultimately, a reason to hope. He only wished Mira were able to hear the answer herself. “Yes,” Holt said firmly. “I believe.”

  Zoey was silent, reading him or weighing his answer, he wasn’t sure which. Then she nodded and looked back down to Mira. “Hold her hand,” Zoey said.

  Holt felt his heart begin to pound again. He kneeled down before Mira, on the other side from Zoey, and took her small, still hand in his own.

  Zoey closed her eyes. Holt watched expectantly, waiting.…

  “Be free,” Zoey said, and a flash of rippling golden light blossomed around all three of them.

  When it faded, Mira inhaled a gasping breath. Her whole body shook, and Holt held her down until the spasm ended.

  When it did, she opened her eyes. And the world seemed to stop.

  They were perfectly clear. Clear and conscious and alive. The veinlike black tendrils of the Tone were gone, leaving only twin seas of intense emerald green.

  Her eyes blinked and focused as her awareness returned, and when she saw Holt, she smiled. “Hi,” she said softly, staring back at him.

  “Hi,” Holt replied. He brushed the strands of hair off her face, ran his fingers across her cheek and chin, feeling all of her. He couldn’t believe it.

  “Still making you work for it,” she whispered. “Aren’t I?”

  Holt stared back a moment, feeling life and warmth return to him. When he had held off as long as he could … Holt pulled Mira to him.

  The world faded away as they kissed, absorbed and lost in each other, their closeness overriding every other sensation.

  Max whined next to them, and Zoey reached out and covered the dog’s eyes. She smiled broadly, and watched as the moment went on and on.…

  49. THE SEVERED TOWER

  MIRA SAT WITH HER BACK against the wall of the old barn they’d made camp in the previous night. After they escaped Midnight City, Holt had doubled back with Max to get his guns and other things from the security lockers at the main gate where he’d left them.

  There had been little resistance, everything was still disorganized after the attack, and when he got back, the four set off toward the east. They didn’t stop moving until the sun began to set on the horizon, and they saw the old, abandoned farm surrounded by thick reeds of overgrown wheat.

  It was odd, Mira thought. The silence and clarity of life without the Tone. She hadn’t realized how she’d become used to the constant, insistent whisperings and hisses in the back of her subconscious, and she had lain awake in wonder, listening to the sounds of crickets and night birds in the dark outside the barn’s old wooden doors for hours.

  Before, she never would have noticed. The sounds of the Tone would have blocked them all out. It was going to take some getting used to.

  Mira looked up and saw Max, sleeping near what was left of the embers of their campfire. Next to him, Holt was collecting his things, discarding supplies he no longer needed, sorting and organizing the others. He did everything so meticulously, so exactly, repeating over and over again actions he had drilled into himself in order to survive. Mira smiled, knowing that part of him would never change, even though others might. She was happy about it, actually. It was a part of him she liked.

  She watched him pause suddenly, considering something in his hand. She recognized it immediately, the old abacus that was the Chance Generator. He looked at it in a slow, haunted way, and something about it bothered Mira. He hadn’t said what he’d done to get them out of Midnight City alive, but she knew the artifact had played a role. But whether he was disturbed by the results or by something else was unclear. She watched him gently place the artifact beside his pack.

  Zoey sat next to her, looking up at beams of sunlight that trailed through the dust-heavy air.

  The little girl was different now, too. But wasn’t that to be expected? Hadn’t Mira been affected in her own way by the Oracle? That thing changed you, no matter who you were. Sometimes a little … sometimes a lot.

  “You’re thinking about the Oracle,” Zoey said, and Mira felt no sense of surprise at the observation. After everything they’d been through, it was difficult to be surprised by Zoey’s abilities anymore. “I didn’t like it,” the little girl confided.

  “What did it show you?” Mira asked.

  “Lots of things,” Zoey replied, looking away from the sunlight and back at Mira.
“Things I understood and … things I didn’t. It made me remember. Not everything, but some things. Things I shouldn’t know, things it scares me to think about.”

  “We don’t have to keep going,” Holt said from behind them, and they both turned to him. “We can stop right here. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Mira and I will still protect you, no matter what.”

  Zoey was silent. “I don’t think I could if I wanted,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s right, either. If there’s one thing I have to do … it’s keep going. But thanks, Holt.” She smiled at him.

  Mira watched Holt’s gaze harden. “Then I’ll help you,” he said. “However you need. You asked me to believe, and I do, and before you and Mira … that wasn’t anything I ever thought I’d be able to do again.”

  Mira felt a strange emotion at his words. They were closer than they had ever been, but ever since she had kissed him, kissed him in a way she had wanted to for a long time, something had been bothering her. She knew why, too. He had asked her, after all. She owed him the truth. But how could she tell him? Especially now, after everything that had passed between them? Was it even the best thing to do?

  “Did it tell you what you need to do next?” Holt asked Zoey.

  Zoey looked thoughtful, and Mira guessed she was reliving what she’d experienced in the Oracle. It had taken years before Mira slept through a night without dreaming those images.

  “It showed me the beginning,” Zoey said.

  “The beginning?” Mira was puzzled. “You mean you need to go where something started?”

  Zoey nodded.

  “Is it a place?” Mira pushed. “What does it look like?”

  Zoey described part of what the Oracle had shown her, and as she did, Mira recognized the images. A destroyed, insane landscape filled with impossibilities. Something like a tower in the distance, split in half, frozen in midair. Mira knew what it was even though she had never seen it herself. There was only one thing it could be, and somehow, it seemed to make sense.

  “The Severed Tower,” Mira said, her voice almost a whisper.

  Both Holt and Zoey looked at her. Even Max looked up at the tone in her voice.

  “That’s what she just described,” Mira said. “I haven’t seen it, but I know Freebooters who have.”

  Holt was at a loss for words, but he always recovered quickly from moments like that, and usually with a sour look on his face. This time was no exception. “The Severed Tower,” he said sarcastically. “Well, that’s a relief. I was worried it was going to be something difficult.”

  Zoey looked at Mira questioningly. “It’s ‘diff-cult’?”

  Mira smiled at the little girl.

  “It’s in the middle of the Strange Lands, Zoey,” Holt said before Mira could answer. “Where the artifacts come from. It’s full of the damn things, and now we have to go marching right through the center of it.”

  “You said we needed something before.” Zoey looked at Mira. “To go inside the tower.”

  “That’s right.” Mira reached inside her pack. “A radioactive substance.” She pulled out the glass cylinder and the Dampener. The plutonium she’d intended to trade for Ben’s life. She showed it to Zoey. “Something we just happen to have.”

  Zoey smiled. “See Holt? It’ll be easy.”

  Holt looked up again, eyeing the glass cylinder. “Yeah…”

  “Why don’t you take Max outside to play?” Mira suggested.

  “Keep away fetch with the Max!” Zoey exclaimed, and Holt tossed her the dog’s chewed-up purple ball. Max watched Zoey with excited, perked-up ears. He ran after the little girl, barking enthusiastically, and they both disappeared into the bright sunlight on the other side of the doors.

  Holt and Mira, alone now, looked at each other.

  “Can we really make it to the Tower?” Holt asked, simply and pointedly.

  “I’ve never been,” she answered back. “Ben was the only person I’ve ever known who’d seen it. Well, Ben and the Librarian, of course. But others have done it. A few have even gone inside.”

  “How many?” Holt asked.

  “Five,” she said, and Holt sighed in exasperation. The small number was a testament to how difficult the quest would be. “At least according to the records in the Vault, but there could have been others, I suppose. Freebooters not registered with Midnight City … but it’s unlikely. It’s inside the core, the deepest part of the Strange Lands … and the most dangerous. The Anomalies there are more deadly than anything in the other rings. Only the best Freebooters can stay alive in the core.”

  Holt rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Well,” he replied, thinking it through. “It’s lucky we have the best, then.” He looked at her and Mira looked back.

  “What did the Librarian mean when he called Zoey the Apex?” Holt asked.

  Mira had forgotten about that; it had been in the middle of a tense situation. Had he really meant that? If so, how could he have known? Surely he was wrong.…

  “Mira?”

  “You know that when the Strange Lands formed, during the invasion, no one who lived in that part of the world ever came out, right? They just vanished?”

  Holt nodded with a dark expression.

  “The Librarian believed that one person did come out,” she continued. “He thought that the life forces of everyone inside the zone were split and merged … except for one. He called that person the Apex.”

  Holt looked dubious. “How did he come up with that theory?”

  Mira shook her head. “Who knows? He was part genius, part crazy. It was some complicated equation he was always working on. The thing was too technical for me, it took up six blackboards inside the Vault, but he believed it, I know that much, and he felt that whoever it was, was very important. But he never told me why.”

  “Do you believe him?” Holt asked, holding her gaze.

  “I don’t know,” Mira said. “Do you believe Zoey really controlled the dam?”

  “It’s the only thing I can figure,” Holt said with a perturbed look.

  “But there’s been nothing to show she has that kind of power,” Mira said. “And why would she have it? It’s so specific.”

  “And there’s the fact that that entire thing was run-down and rusting where it sat. It shouldn’t have been able to work at all.” Holt winced suddenly and sat down on an old hay bale next to him.

  He lifted up his shirt and studied a wicked-looking gash over the back of his left ribs. Mira winced along with him at the sight of it. It must have been something that happened yesterday during their escape.

  “God, Holt, did you sleep with that?” she asked in annoyance. “You need to dress it.”

  “I was too tired last night,” he said, still looking at the wound. It had stopped bleeding, but it was caked with dried blood and dirt. “I didn’t think it was this bad.”

  “Well, you thought wrong,” Mira said as she stood up. “I’ll get your med-kit.”

  “Actually,” Holt said. “I was … kind of hoping you might help me do it.”

  Mira went still with her back to Holt as the weight of what he was saying occurred to her. “I thought Holt Hawkins did everything himself,” she said, reaching for the med-kit near the campfire. When she turned around, they stared at each other as implications passed between them.

  “Well, I can’t totally reach it,” he replied slowly. “At least … not without you.”

  Mira felt a gentle warmth flow through her as she held his look. She moved toward and around him, kneeling down behind his back. “I look after you … you look after me? Is that the idea?” Mira asked softly. She felt Holt breathe as her hands found the wound and started cleaning it. He relaxed at her touch.

  “That’s the idea,” he said.

  “I have to tell you something, Holt,” she said, and her mouth suddenly felt dry. “You asked me a question,” Mira said. “About Ben. And … I think I owe you an answer. I think you deserve to—”

  “Hey.�
� Holt’s voice was almost a whisper, but it was enough to stop her. Mira looked up and saw he was looking gently down at her. “Do you think you could maybe tell me this tomorrow?” he asked. “Instead of today?”

  Mira held his gaze as long as she could … and then looked away, back to his injury. She nodded. It was funny the way life threw things at you. It could be unfair. It hit you with things you wanted, things that made you happy, things you knew you needed … but it never seemed to do it at the right time, did it?

  When she was done dressing the injury, they packed in silence, and were gone an hour later.

  * * *

  MOVING NORTHWARD THROUGH THE plains turned out to be a painstaking journey. Holt wanted to avoid the more direct routes and not push through the tall grass or the wheat fields, since it would leave an obvious trail behind them. The decision made her remember the price on Holt’s head, and she wondered again exactly who was looking for him. And why. It was something he had yet to tell her, but she was patient. He would tell her when it was time.

  As they moved, Mira looked up into the air. They had spent so much time in forests or under Midnight City’s cavernous ceilings that the open sky felt impossibly tall and deep. There were kids who lived most of their lives in Midnight City, never feeling the warmth of the daylight, and most who ventured outside the cavern were terrified of the sky.

  It was disorienting, dizzying to look at when the ceiling had always been a few hundred feet above you. They said it felt like they were going to fall up and into it, and whenever Mira left Midnight City, she always got a sense of what they meant.

  Ahead of them, the ground sloped upward, and the crest of a grassy hill blocked the view of the horizon.

  “The Max!” Zoey shouted, and dashed forward. Max barked excitedly and chased after her.

  “Zoey, don’t get too far ahead, please,” Mira called after her.

  “We won’t!” the little girl yelled back as she and the dog raced up the hill to see what lay on the other side. It left Mira and Holt to walk together, and she noticed something else, something in Holt’s hand. The sight of it caused a pang of concern.