She ran beneath the covered walkway that led to the science building. She placed her back up against the wall, trying to regain her breath and collect her thoughts. No students or faculty were anywhere to be seen. Must be in a classroom on lockdown.
Another explosion sounded nearby. She searched for the source and saw the traces of the fireball dissipate into the air nearby. The sky filled with the black streaks, some of them smashing into the ground, others engaging in dogfights with the Space Fleet fighters.
One thing Mia knew for sure—now was the time for her gun.
She put her backpack down and dug through the mess. The pistol was one of the only gifts from her father that she was grateful for, besides her watch and—of course—her life. Although some days she was more thankful for the first two than the last one.
“Shit,” Mia breathed as she turned her backpack upside down. The pistol hit the ground with a clank and she swooped it up. Her fingers wrapped around the grip and a satisfying click sounded. The thin strip of light that ran along both sides of the barrel turned from red to green. The only way it’d turn back to red is if she took her hand off of it, or if it began to overheat.
Mia stood, her weapon pointed at the ground. She thought about picking back up her backpack but decided against it. It’d only slow her down. She looked around for any sign of the aliens. For now, they all seemed to be screeching across the sky or bombing nearby buildings. She stepped out into the courtyard, pages still floating to the ground around her.
A certain page nearby caught her eye. Mia walked over to it, not believing what she was seeing. She recognized the book it came from: A Brief History of the Mortuk-Terran War. She knew it well, because it was one she’d read many times as a child. She loved to hear the story of her father’s heroism from another point of view.
That, and the page that sat on the ground, the edges burning, the flames racing to the center, contained a picture of her father. His eyes looked back up at hers. “You happy now?” she asked as the page turned to ash. “Joshua Ivan finally has another war to fight, just like he always wanted.”
Mia Ivan left the burning page behind as she ran to the edge of campus. Her main concern was finding the only man she loved, Nick, and getting the both of them out of Washington D.C. and to safety.
Episode Two
Return of the Mortuks
Chapter Nineteen
Ivan held the tablet tight in his hand as he walked down the hallway towards the brig. He’d watched the footage on it over and over again, the recording of the conversation between Hayden and his father. What he saw haunted him—scared him to his core.
Nervous voices spoke in hushed tones as people walked past them, turning their heads to focus on tablets of their own or to the person they walked with. Nobody wanted to look him in the eye. If they only knew. He gripped the tablet tighter.
He approached the door that led to the brig. The marine stationed outside gave him a salute and opened the door. Ivan stepped inside. Hayden stood from his cot and walked over to the bars. “Give us a moment,” Ivan told the marine standing inside the room.
“Yes sir,” she responded before turning to leave. She closed the door behind her.
“Well? You watch the recording?” Hayden asked.
Ivan walked over to the bars and nodded. “Yeah, I saw it. Whatever it is, it doesn’t look good.”
“What do you mean ‘whatever it is?’ We know what it is. An attack on Earth right as the Mortuks show up again? It’s them and you know it.”
“The Mortuks attacked us millions of miles from Earth. There’s no way they got from the Earth Territorial Line to Earth itself without anyone noticing. There’s at least a hundred different military stations and colonies. Someone would’ve seen them. Someone would’ve stopped them,” Ivan said, not quite convinced himself. He had to admit the timing was impeccable if it was just an Earth-borne terrorist attack.
“You saw what we were up against back there,” Hayden said. “Our weapons did nothing against their fighters. One shot from their mother ship was enough to tear the Ricochet apart. Would’ve killed us all if it weren’t for me, need I remind you. We have no idea what they’re capable of. They’ve had forty years to prepare.”
“We haven’t exactly been sitting on our asses either,” Ivan said. “Besides, alien invasion or not, there’s not much we can do about it from out here. We’re sticking with our plan to dock with the Comoran. We’ll assess the situation then.”
“We’re just going to abandon everyone on Earth?” Hayden shouted, anger flaring in his eyes.
Ivan sighed. “Look, I understand why you’re upset. But you’ve got a lot to learn. We can’t just fly into the middle of an alien invasion and improvise. This ship hasn’t been battle-ready in decades. We’d be nothing more than a distraction for ten minutes, tops.” Ivan took a step towards the bars of the cell. His feelings towards Hayden had softened, but he still wasn’t fond of the boy. But he could see the fear behind the anger in his eyes—the fear of losing his family, a fear Ivan knew all too well. “I know you’re scared for your father. Don’t worry about him. He’s the most protected man this side of the ETL. If anyone’s going to get through this okay, it’s Gerald Key.” The words tasted vile in Ivan’s mouth. He never thought he’d be trying to comfort the son of the man he most hated. Gerald could be as nice as he wanted to to his face, but Ivan knew the type of man he really was. He wasn’t fooled that easily.
Still, watching the exchange between Hayden and his father, he could tell that the boy was ignorant to his father’s faults—an ignorance Ivan couldn’t blame him for. An ignorance Ivan envied.
Ivan reached into his pocket and pulled out his keycard, a gray and blue piece of plastic with his name and the Space Fleet logo emblazoned on it. He pressed it against the metal box that sat on the right side of the door to the cell. The locks disengaged with a clank and Ivan pulled the door open. “Can I trust you to not be insubordinate, to not let your emotions cloud your judgment and to follow my orders without question?”
Hayden stood in his cell for a moment. Ivan could see his wheels turning. The kid finally nodded and stepped out of the cell.
“Good.” Ivan shut the door behind him. “I’m sorry I had to do that. I hope I don’t have to do it again.”
Hayden stared straight ahead at the door. “Can I go now?” he asked, turning his head over his shoulder.
“You’re dismissed, cadet.”
Hayden swung the brig door open and slammed it behind him, leaving Ivan alone, trying to decide how worried he should be about the look in Hayden’s eyes.
Chapter Twenty
Mia pressed her hands against the manhole cover and lifted. She’d disappeared down the very same manhole a few hours earlier, hiding from the attack that was happening above her head. The rumble of explosions and roar of ships sounded for hours. But for the past thirty minutes, it’d been mostly quiet.
Her eyes darted around, searching for signs of life. The sun was going down, but the sky was already mostly dark from all the smoke. She wasn’t sure what was worse: the smell of the sewers or the smell of death and destruction outside. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked upon the slain humans that littered the ground, the destroyed buildings that once were businesses and homes and the alien vessel that pierced the ground, violating the Earth’s landscape.
She bit at her lip and forced away her tears. Now wasn’t the time. She needed to get to her boyfriend’s house. She needed to be sure he was okay.
She waited a few more moments and, convinced it was relatively safe, she pushed aside the manhole cover and climbed out of the sewer. Her feet sloshed in her shoes as she ran for cover behind a nearby car. It seemed to be in okay condition. She reached up and opened the driver’s side door.
A body fell out and Mia fought the urge to scream. She scrambled backwards across the asphalt, pushing the woman off her. She got to her feet and brushed the death off her clothes, her breath growing ragged. Unable
to look at the body, Mia turned and faced the full scope of the alien assault.
Plumes of smoke littered the city. What was once a vibrant, towering skyline was now only four skyscrapers, three of which had significant damage. The one on the far left, however, seemed to be untouched. At least something was spared. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw a few of the needle-like ships flying in circles downtown, perhaps patrolling or searching.
She looked up to space, hoping to find some clue as to what was going on. But no ships were visible—neither human nor alien.
Mia waited a few more moments. She took a couple of breaths, trying to build up her confidence, before turning and facing the death behind her.
The woman sprawled on the ground, a hole in the left side of her head, a matching one on her right. The aliens had shot her. Mia couldn’t help but think that as far as deaths go, she was one of the lucky ones. A shot to the head was quick—painless. Judging from the destruction surrounding her, it could’ve been much worse.
Mia stepped over her, feeling guilty for leaving her just lying there. Wasn’t much she could do, though. She didn’t have time to stop and give her a proper burial and she wasn’t going to be in the minority on that one.
She peered into the car. On the passenger side sat a man, his head slumped into the dash, identical holes in the sides of his head. Mia pulled her head out of the car. She propped herself up, her elbows on the roof. She breathed slowly, trying to keep her emotions at bay. Now’s not the time for a breakdown. She closed her eyes and fought to remember the limited military training she’d received before dropping out of the academy. Now was the time to put it to good use.
A renewed sense of confidence settling in, she acted fast before the doubt could creep back. She set her backpack on the ground, followed by her jacket. She used the jacket to brush as much glass as she could off the seat of the car, before laying it out and sitting on it for extra protection. She leaned over the passenger seat and opened the door, then pushed the man out, the sound of flesh hitting asphalt reverberating down to her core. She swore she’d hear that in her nightmares, along with the other sounds of this day.
Mia grabbed her backpack and threw it on the seat next to her. She pressed the button to start the car and entered her boyfriend’s address into the cars computer—the autopilot did the rest. She pulled her pistol from the back of her waistband and watched out the driver’s window, her guard never going down.
Mia pulled up to Nick’s house. Or, where his house used to be. It was rubble now. The scorched earth and craters confirmed her suspicions of a bombing run.
She sat in the car, the headlights illuminating the debris as the sun’s descent concluded. The rubble from all the houses in the neighborhood stretched and blended together. She couldn’t tell where his house ended and the neighbor’s began. She wanted for them to bust free but it was as if a wall had been built up inside of her. A dam refusing to let any emotions slip through the cracks. She hated it. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to do something. But all she could do was sit there and stare in shock.
Maybe he got out. The dark reminder that he would’ve still been asleep at the time of the attacks crept up in her mind. Still, the attack might’ve woken him. He could have gotten out before the bombing. She had to check.
So why was she unable to get out of the car?
No matter how much she wanted to, the act of lifting her hand and pulling on the handle seemed impossible. It was as if the weight of an entire warship had tied itself around her wrist—it was impossible to lift.
She tensed her jaw and steeled her resolve. She couldn’t give up on Nick. Not when he was the only thing she had left. Sure, she had friends, but no one she was really close to. No one like Nick. She remembered when she had family, too—Beth and her father. Some nights, if she tried hard enough, she could even remember her mother.
But now it was just Nick.
She looked out at the rubble one last time before furrowing her brow and squinting. She wasn’t going to give up on the last of her family just because she was scared.
She found the strength to lift her hand and open the door. She turned the car off and shoved the keys into her pocket before slamming the door behind her.
The scorched ground crunched beneath her feet. She kneeled down and felt the burnt grass. It was still warm.
A few houses down, some rubble shifted and a boom echoed throughout the neighborhood. A fresh billow of black smoke rose into the sky. This really did feel like a war zone.
“Nick,” Mia called out as she approached the remains of the small, two-bedroom house. “Nick!” She climbed over the first wave of debris. She was astounded by how much wood had been used on the house. All the newer, more modern homes were made from other, less fragile things, like steel or even ultainium in some cases. The older, cheaper ones had been made from wood.
“Nick!” she all but shouted, trying her best to keep her voice down just in case there were any aliens nearby. She doubted there would still be any this far away from downtown, but better safe than sorry.
She began to dig through the rubble. It was all still very warm, some of it even too hot to touch. Every once in a while she’d have to stop to pull out a splinter, or to press a fresh cut against her side to stop the bleeding. But she didn’t give up. She wouldn’t stop searching until she knew for sure whether or not Nick had made it out.
She came across a few of their belongings—their treasures. A picture of them at a museum, the stuffed penguin he’d given her for their fifth anniversary, a bra from the night before. None of them mattered anymore. None of them were Nick.
“You looking for something?” a gruff man said with the click of a gun. The cool metal of the barrel pressed up against the back of her neck and Mia froze, her hands slowly moving towards the sky.
Chapter Twenty-One
“I don’t want any trouble. I’m just looking for my boyfriend. This is his house,” Mia said, surprising even herself at how calmly her words came out.
“Not looking for any trouble either, but I’ll put it out if any comes my way,” the man said, pressing the gun into Mia’s neck a little bit harder. “You got a way out of here?”
Mia shook her head, trying to keep her thoughts away from the keys in her pocket, as if the man could read her mind.
“Question’s rhetorical, sister. I know you came in on that car back there. Where’s the keys?”
Mia couldn’t give up her only means of escaping the city but, then again, it wasn’t like she had much of a choice. “Okay, I’ll hand over the keys on one condition.”
“I’m listening,” the man replied.
“I’ve got a gun in there. Let me get it out. You wouldn’t leave me out here defenseless, would you?” She knew it was a long shot. Guns would be in high demand soon and if you knew the right guy and paid the right price, you could get around the fingerprint lock. Still, no damn way was she going to be left out here all alone without a weapon.
He chuckled. “Tell me where’s the keys, and maybe I’ll think about it.”
Mia weighed her options. Handing over the keys was the only thing she could do that would guarantee her survival. “They’re in my pocket.” She reached down to pull them out but the barrel of the gun pressed deeper into her neck.
“Ah ah ah,” the man said. “Slowly. Don’t get any ideas.”
Mia resisted the urge to elbow the man in the crotch right then and there. Slowly, she reached into her pocket, which was more difficult then she’d imagined, given her squatting position. She retrieved the keys and handed them to him.
“You stay right here. Move and I’ll shoot.”
Mia wasn’t sure if she believed the man but she didn’t want to find out. She’d find another car—although it was daunting to think of how far she might have to travel to find one that wasn’t crashed, burned up or had already been stolen.
The car door opened then shut. The vehicle started up and she clenched her eyes.
She fought the urge to get up and run after the man. His gun wasn’t on her now. This was her only chance.
She heard the car door opened back up, and another shot of fear coursed through her. Was the man coming back? Had he changed his mind, deciding against letting her go free?
The back door opened and closed. She turned her head to try and catch a glimpse of what was going on but the headlights of the car blinded her. She couldn’t see a thing.
“You care more about a gun then you do a damn baby? I oughta shoot you, but I ain’t taking care of nobody,” the man shouted before getting back into the car.
The vehicle peeled out and Mia jumped to her feet. She was about to give chase—to follow it as far as she could and take it back. But something caught her eye on the scorched front lawn next to the curb.
It was a baby’s car seat.
Mia approached with caution, as if a rabid bear was waiting to attack. Her hands shook. She rounded the front of the seat and held back a gasp.
Sitting buckled up in the car seat, big blue eyes reflecting the burning of the houses and the full moon, was a baby. It stared up at her, as peaceful as could be.
Mia stepped forward, unsure what to do. “How did you…?” She stared at the baby in disbelief. She’d been so focused on getting inside the car and defending it from aliens that she didn’t even think to look in back. The baby had been so quiet, too, probably sleeping. She couldn’t believe it. She’d heard that some babies were heavy sleepers, but this just too it all to the next level.
She sat there for a full minute, staring at the baby, the baby staring back. “Hi there,” she said finally, with a small smile. Sadness pinged within her as she thought back to the driver of the car, the mother—how she fell on top of Mia and she threw her aside. The other passenger, the father—how she pushed him out of the vehicle, his body hitting the ground with a sickening thud. She wanted to vomit. She wanted to cry. But her dam held strong. Unwavering.
Empire (Empire, Book One) Page 8
