by Kate Sander
Crushed to death. Not a way she thought she’d ever go out.
Black overtook her vision. A loud screech reached her through the mass of bones and lack of oxygen. The monster, Azreal, exploded through the bone pile. Senka was launched against the wall. The impact was a relief as she was tossed like a rag doll and went crashing back to the floor. It took her a second to catch her breath and come to her senses. The unearthly shriek continued.
Kai was on the back of Azreal, claws in his shoulder, jaws clenched around the massive animal’s neck. Azreal was screaming a terrible sound, clawing at Kai and trying to throw him.
Senka winced when she saw Azreal's poisonous claws rake against Kai's shoulder in a spurt of blood. "Kai, let go!" she yelled. Kai obeyed and Senka was already running full tilt at them. She jumped higher than she'd ever jumped before, her inhuman speed helping. The monster clawed through the air at her but missed, distracted by its blood flowing out of its neck. Senka landed on its shoulder. Her hands were still bound in front of her. Using it as an advantage, she swung her arms over a horn and pulled down. The monster lost its balance and teetered to its side. The horn pierced her bindings and broke them.
Hands free, Senka dove away from the monster as it crashed to the ground. She turned swiftly and grabbed its jaw. Using her new found incredible strength, she ripped off the bottom jaw in a spurt of blood.
Azreal tried to scream and struck out weakly with its front claws, tongue flapping uselessly against its neck. Senka easily dodged and skidded to a halt. Her feet tripped slightly on something. She smiled and picked up the stray, broken piece of femur from the ground. She ran, jumped and with both hands, shoved the sharp end through Azreal's eye into its brain.
Senka landed and immediately looked around to find Kai. He limped towards her, dark blood leaking from his shoulder.
"Thanks, buddy," she said, rubbing his giant flank. He purred, leaning into her, and his giant form almost knocked her over. Kai was easily four hundred pounds and his head was almost even with her shoulder. Pure muscle, he'd come to her aid when she was hurt after her last fight with one of these monsters. All he needed was a scratch behind his ears.
“Good job, buddy,” she mumbled. Kai huffed, turned away, and limped his way to the door.
Senka followed him. All seven of the guards were dead, Kai had done a number on them. Senka stooped and picked up a sword, following a blood trail out into the hall. She quickly caught up to the elder, who was dragging himself on his hands and knees for the exit.
She dragged the tip of her sword along the stone wall as she approached. Kai merely stepped over him and padded silently into the jungle to nurse his wounds.
"Please," the elder said. He turned to face her and tried to scramble away. "You wouldn't kill an unarmed old man?"
Senka smiled.
"Watch me."
2
Carter
Nerves.
They made his hands tremor and sent his heart racing. Funny, he could guide agents through insanely dangerous situations without even breaking a sweat, but sitting here in this clean kitchen made him want to run out the door.
"Anything in your coffee?" Shelly Hayes yelled from the kitchen, tone terse but trying to remain as friendly as possible.
It had been almost sixteen years since Carter had seen Shelly. And apparently, as he recently found out, he'd left her alone and pregnant with his son.
"No, thanks Shelly. However you make it is fine."
Shelly walked into the modern kitchen, tray of coffee mugs tinkling as she placed it gently on the table, carefully ensuring the coffee wasn't spilled. It must be keeping her thoughts off the situation.
Carter wished he could take part in some mind-numbing task to forget what this discussion was going to be about. Even if just for five minutes.
"Chris is just washing up after work. He will be down shortly," Shelly said. She took a seat across from him at the table and grabbed a coffee mug. "Isaac is staying with a friend. I didn't want him to be here for this."
Carter nodded. He followed Shelly's lead and took a coffee mug, not quite hiding the tremor in his hand.
Chris walked through the door. Carter stood to shake his hand.
"Bring it in," Chris said, beaming, pulling Carter into a bear hug. "You found my son. No handshakes here."
Carter allowed himself to be pulled into a hug and tried to lock eyes with Shelly, who kept hers focused squarely on her cup of coffee.
She hadn't told him.
Chris didn't know.
The situation just got infinitely more complicated.
"Sit, sit!" Chris said, taking a seat and grasping his wife's hand. "I just called you here for this coffee to thank you and your team," Chris said. "Isaac has told us a little of what happened. You rescued him from child traffickers in Germany. When I came to you for help, I didn't think... I had no idea..." He took a deep breath. "I'm rambling. Thank you. And your team." Chris looked at the door. "Is anyone else coming?"
"No," Carter said, voice breaking. "No."
Shelly looked at Carter and he understood. Chris apparently didn't get the hint.
"We've been doing therapy with Isaac. We have a wonderful team of psychiatrists and psychologists provided by the Canadian Government. He's been struggling, but we're taking it day by day. One thing he made clear. He wanted to ask you about a woman named Dr. Charlie Penner?" Chris looked at Carter, smiling. "She helped him escape, and he really wanted to thank her."
"Dr. Charlotte Penner did not make it out of the compound," Carter said stiffly. "She was killed in action during her escape."
Chris squeezed Shelly's hand, eyes glistening with tears. "I'm so sorry, Carter. Is there anything we can do? She sacrificed herself for our son. Does she have any family we can donate money to?"
Carter shook his head. He must walk a fine line here and divulge enough information to stop Chris from asking questions. "Charlie had a wife," Carter said tersely. "She is being cared for."
"Well, we have to meet her."
"Chris," Shelly said. "It's okay. They knew the risks. I'm assuming that if we contact her it would be damaging." She held Carter's eye.
"Yes, yes it would be. Thank you for understanding."
"How many people died?" Chris asked, finally starting to read Carter's body language. "Dr. Penner was a prisoner with Isaac, that much we've been able to get out of him. Did you have others that went in to the compound?”
"The agent who was involved, as well as her canine partner, both were killed in action during the rescue," Carter said stiffly. Chris and Shelly both gasped and Chris started crying. "She was my partner and greatest friend. She knew the risks of her job and she chose to go in. Not only did she save Isaac, she saved eleven other children. Something she would gladly give her life for."
Shelly rose and left the kitchen, leaving Chris to sob silently and Carter to look anywhere but his face. Shelly returned with a box of tissues. Chris grabbed one and blew his nose loudly.
"I think you need to talk to Isaac's team before you tell him," Carter said. "Survivor's guilt is a very real and very dangerous situation." He took a final swig of his coffee and went to rise.
"Tell him," Shelly burst. She couldn't keep the secret. Not anymore. Not after all this. "Tell him, Carter. I can't."
Carter nodded. "Isaac is my son, too, Chris."
Chris' mouth hung open, "You told me you didn't know who the father was?" Chris stammered to Shelly. "You said you were already pregnant."
"She was," Carter said. "I didn't know. She never told me. It was a one-time thing at a party."
Chris nodded slowly.
"He's still your son, Chris." Carter said. "I would love to be a part of his life. I have always wanted children, and missing out on his life is..." he stared pointedly at Shelly, "very hard for me. Of course, it's up to your family. There's a lot you need to discuss."
Carter quickly and efficiently retreated from the kitchen and made it outside and all the way to his
car. He was unlocking the car doors when the attack came.
"I wanted to tell you," Shelly shouted from the door. "I asked you for coffee. You blew me off and I never heard from you again."
"DON'T YOU DARE PIN THIS ON ME!" Carter shouted. The anger, the loss, the hurt, the heartache. He couldn't take it anymore. "You asked me to coffee. You didn't say why. You just let me play football without knowing I had a son!"
"I DROPPED OUT OF SCHOOL!" Shelly's turn to yell. Chris scrambled out on to the porch. "Stay inside," she commanded him. "I was twenty years old. I dropped out of school. Chris provided for me and raised your son like his own. I gave up everything to raise him. You just got to live your life like nothing happened."
Carter swung the car door open, banging it against the curb leaving a sizeable dent. "You took the choice away from me."
He slammed his keys into the ignition and tore away from the curb, leaving Shelly to weep in Chris' arms.
No one saw the fifteen year old standing at the end of the street. Isaac, whose eyes looked exactly like his biological father’s, watched as Carter left his mother screaming on the doorstep.
The sight wrenched his heart, and, remembering Dr. Penner’s lessons, he vowed revenge.
3
Senka
Senka sat near the small fire, spinning her ring. It was gold, shaped like a lion, with a ruby for its eye. As soon as she'd touched the ring after cutting open the monster's stomach her memories had returned in a painful flood.
"Should've just left it there," she muttered. Kai purred his disagreement. "How's the shoulder?" The panther licked his paw, ignoring her. "Great."
A painful bite in her neck. "Fucking mosquitoes," she said, smacking it with her hand. "You'd think that, seeing as I'm in an entirely different world, they wouldn't have mosquitoes."
Kai stretched, massive claws scraping the ground. Rising slowly, he gave her a meaningful look and hopped into the nearest tree. He moved silently and gracefully. It reminded her of Tomo, her old partner in the ZTF.
"I know you're pissy, but get over it," she snapped. "The old man set me up to die. Of course I had to kill him."
Silence. His long black tail whipped the air in front of her face indignantly.
"Good, ignore me. Whatever."
A small snap of branches before one dropped painfully on her head.
"Asshole!" she said, jumping to her feet.
A light growl was the response from above.
"Sure, laugh at me." She sat back down. "Good thing you're cute," she said to the trees. "You sure your shoulder is okay? Not infected?"
Silence reached her.
Shaking her head, she returned her focus inward. The fire jumped and flickered, illuminating her face, giving it an eerie glow as she rested comfortably against a tree trunk.
Why was she back here?
"You took the pills and listened to a ghost," she muttered to herself. "This is what you get instead of just dying like you were supposed to."
Kai growled from the tree branch above her.
"I don't care if there are things I need to do," she snapped. "I want to die. Why doesn't anyone get that?"
A softer purr in response.
"You don't know the things I've seen and done. I shouldn't have killed that guy, Kai."
Her ring, given to her by Jules, her first love, dropped from her hands. It landed silently on the ground in between her feet, the gold flickering in the firelight. She could just leave it there, start over. Slowly let the memories drift away and discover a new life, a new name, in this world. She hadn't always been Senka. She had started her life as Elizabeth Ballantyne in The Pas, Manitoba, Canada. The second child, she had an older brother and three younger brothers. Life had been boring. Then came the car accident and the coma, when she'd woken up in this world with special powers and no memories. A Zoya. Her master, Appolyon, had taught her how to fight. She'd joined with the Melanthios tribe and her crew, Jules, Tory, Ujarak and Eli, to bring down a dictator. After she died trying to return Sol, the heir to the throne of Solias, to his rightful throne, she'd woken again in her own world. Then came the Zoya Task Force, an undercover organization run by the Canadian Military. They recruited and trained Zoya to carry out missions for the good of the Queen and the Canadian government, using their special powers and utmost secrecy to circumvent the United Nations. Senka and her partner Tomo had excelled. With Carter in their ears, they were unstoppable. This was, of course, until Tomo was kidnapped. They were told she was dead and Carter and Senka had moved on. Senka had eventually found her again, after she'd designed a pill for Dr. Freudman to send people to The Other Place as Zoya. Usually it took a coma to get here, but not anymore. The doctor was working for an organization called the Ampulex. Senka wasn't sure what that organization was, but knew Dr. Freudman was a Zoya with seemingly unlimited resources.
The world's balance was shifting. Senka had no idea where she was in The Other Place. Other Zoya's files were classified, she had no idea about anyone else's story, other than Tomo's. And this place didn't sound like anything Tomo had ever told her about.
"Maybe if I didn't remember any of this shit I would go back to doing the right thing."
Kai dropped down from the branch and nuzzled her hand. She dug it into his fur, like she used to do with Leo. Before Leo died to save her back in that compound in Germany.
The anger was immediate and white hot. She had to remember. Revenge was more important than moping around. That asshole, Freudman, had killed her dog Leo and her best friend Tomo. Tomo, or Dr. Charlotte Penner, with her long red hair and fiery personality, should be in this world. Senka had expected to see her when she woke after she'd taken the pills. Instead, she'd encountered a monster.
The sky was dark, though no light from the stars drifted through to the forest floor. The fire crackled merrily, even as her stomach roiled with anger.
"There are a whole bunch of mysteries, Kai. I don't really know where to start."
Kai purred and settled his massive head into her lap. Her eyes were heavy.
"But I just kill things, I don't solve mysteries."
She yawned and settled into sleep, the warmth of the fire and her panther making it easy.
The beautiful bliss of black overtook her. There were no nightmares in this world. It must be the lack of pollution and cars...
BEEP!
Senka and Kai fired awake and to their feet.
"What the hell was that?"
Kai's hackles were raised and he growled into the trees.
BEEP!
"That sounded like a car?"
Utterly confused, Senka looked around.
"Kai, you hear it, right? This isn't just in my head?"
A menacing purr gave her the answer.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Vehicle horns disrupted the immense dark of the jungle along with the sounds of a group of people shouting. A flock of birds took off in the distance in a collective shriek.
"Go right, stay in the trees," Senka mumbled.
Kai leapt up the trunk and into the trees.
Sword gripped in her hand, Senka crept through the trees and the vines.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"QUALE A SUA?"
The shout in Portuguese reached her ears. Senka was rusty, but still remembered some slang from a mission there. "What is your problem?"
A loud WHIRRRR reached her. It was an emergency siren, much like what they used to use in air raids in the war. It had been installed in most coastal cities in the last few years due to the increase in natural disasters.
But that was in her world, not in this one.
She crept through a mass of vines. A heavy fog overtook the trees. Senka could barely see anything in front of her. Essentially blind, she moved slowly, certain to watch her footing on every step. The air changed, becoming dense and heavy. The smell of the ocean reached her nose. Even her movements seemed slow, lethargic. A large mound emerged in the dark. Senka wished she had her guns, or at l
east her bow, instead of this awkward, stolen sword. Creeping, with really no other option considering how heavy the fog was, the mound started to take shape. It was a car. An old Toyota Corolla emerged in the darkness. The lights blinked on, blinding her. She took another step forward and the fog cleared.
She was standing on pavement on the top of a hill that gradually meandered down to the ocean. Lights of a coastal city greeted her. There was wall to wall traffic trying to get up the hill. A man ran past her, slowly, methodically.
"What's going on?" she asked him. She tried to reach for him but her arms were too heavy. He completely ignored her anyway, and slowly ran past her. Senka tried to move to grab another man but her feet were stuck in place.
The world seemed to be turning in slow motion. The people were moving slowly. Sound was heavy and damp, like it was struggling to reach her ears.
The sound of the emergency horn reached her again, slowly ramping up. Car horns sounded. A massive crash overtook all sound. People started leaving their cars and running up the hill, panic stricken and frantic.
A wall of water rushed towards them.
Screams echoed around her.
"Come this way!" she screamed as the people ran past. They didn't see or hear her. She was a ghost here, doomed to watch and do nothing.
A small cry reached her ears. A toddler, maybe three years old, was standing in the middle of the road. Snot ran down her nose, big tears reached her chin. Men and women ran by, fear overtaking human decency.
"Momma!" the little girl cried, clutching a teddy to her chest.
