by Adam Holt
She kept looking straight out the window, but I looked at Aunt Selma for a moment, her eyes intent on the horizon, focused on keeping me safe even if it meant danger for herself. After a breath: “No, I’m fine. There is no virus, Auntie. They’re just making up things. The aliens—I mean, the Ascendant—just want me back, and they want the Harper Device, too. To them it’s a weapon. I know how to use it. Sorry we got you involved.”
“What will be will be,” she said. “Now go on and tell me the rest.”
By the time I finished, we were almost back in Middle of Nowhere.
“Don’t the Lord work in mysterious ways?” she said, looking over at me. She grabbed my seatbelt and gave it a tug. “Tully, you might want to tighten that. There’s no time for smooth landings anymore.” We took off longways on the lake, but we landed shortways. We buzzed the treetops on the far side, hit the choppy water with too much speed, and plowed into the shore in front of her cabin.
She bounded out of the plane and headed toward her woodshed. She kicked open the door, and before Sunjay and I could enter, two shotguns flew out from the darkness. I grabbed one and threw the other to Sunjay.
“You boys have taken gun safety classes in Texas?” she asked, but our reaction told her everything she needed to know. “Good grief! Fighting aliens but don’t know how to shoot a shotgun. I’ll give you a crash course then. Let’s prepare for the worst.”
“What’s the worst?” Sunjay asked.
“Well, those boys at the general store will put two and two together. Then Goldcap or some prospector comes up here looking for information. He fancies himself a bounty hunter, but he’s nothing more than a fur-trapping panhandler and propane salesman from Wisconsin. It probably won’t come to violence because he’s had a crush on me for years. I’ll get you boys good and hidden before him or anyone else arrives.”
My heart sank. We needed to find the Ascendant home world and rescue Tabitha. I needed to contact Dad. He would know what to do. Mostly, I didn’t want to hide anymore, but we would have started running right then, we would have told Aunt Selma to fly us as far as the fuel would take us, if we knew what was coming.
AWAY TEAM BETA –
THE ANNOUNCEMENT IS MADE.
THOUSANDS OF LEADS ON THE BOY’S LOCATION.
TOO MANY TO EXPLORE.
A RESULT OF PANIC.
FLY TO DESTINATION THREE.
REMAIN IN SHADOW MODE.
- GT
PROFILE: MIKE HARPER, Space Alliance Commander
HEIGHT: 6’2” WEIGHT: 220lbs. Blonde hair with red streak, blue eyes.
Tully’s father, finder of the Device, crippler of the Lion’s Mane, formidable fighter and leader.
Do not engage him without support.
WORSE THAN WORST
Aunt Selma hid us in an abandoned mineshaft on the other side of the lake from her cabin. She peeled back several boards and we squeezed in. “Stay put,” she told us. “I’ll give you a sign when the coast is clear.” We sat shivering with our guns in our laps and peeked through the slats at the woods outside—for about five minutes.
“We’re too far back from the lake to see anything,” I said. “Let’s go.” Sunjay shook his head. “Look, we can always sneak back here if we need to.” I pried off a board and crept into the woods. He reluctantly followed. We retraced our steps through the snow to the far side of the lake in time to see my aunt go inside her cabin and turn out the lights.
“A shotgun is useless from here,” said Sunjay. “I wish we had black staffs.”
“Or I had my powers,” I said.
We tried to stay calm, but I felt like a coiled spring ready to pop. Images of Tabitha on the LiveWall kept coming back to me. An alien virus? A reward for my capture? The Ascendant announcement proved just how brilliant and evil they were. They needed to capture me, but it was easier to turn that job over to the people of Earth with a well-told lie. “They’re as clever as they are evil,” my dad commented on our way back to Earth, and this proved the point.
At the same time their message gave us some valuable information. We had a few more weeks or months before they would arrive and cure us all of cancer and make us perfectly happy. And, more importantly, Sunjay and I knew more about their location—the purple tower from my dreams, an ocean surrounded by ice.
“Where are they, Sunjay?” I wondered aloud.
“It’s a planet or moon with ice and oceans,” he said. “That doesn’t narrow it down that much.”
“We’ve got to figure it out,” I said. “We’ve got to get there.”
“I know, but let’s not worry about that now. I’m just glad they aren’t here.”
But somebody was. We heard the sound of gravel under tires. Just as Aunt Selma expected, the Ascendant’s announcement inspired curiosity. Unfortunately, this visitor was only the first of many.
A shadow hopped out of the truck and approached my aunt’s dark porch, banging loudly on her door with the butt of his gun. Then he stepped off the porch, pulled out a cigar, and turned toward the lake. He was covered in a mountain of matted furs and wearing buckskin boots. He looked more like a beast than a man, and as he lit his cigar, we saw his teeth glimmer.
“Ah, now I get the whole Goldcap thing,” Sunjay said. “It’s the teeth!”
Goldcap glanced over his shoulder at my aunt’s closed door. Agitated, he called someone on his holophone. An image of another mountain man appeared over the water. They grumbled a few words before the image disappeared. Then Goldcap turned back toward my aunt’s house.
“Who’s he talking to?” Sunjay asked.
We found out. In the distance we heard the rumble of more trucks, and minutes later an entire posse of men and women stood outside my aunt’s cabin.
“That escalated quickly,” Sunjay said. We could handle one mountain man, but not an entire mob, nor could we run away from them. They knew the mountains better than we did.
“Selma, get yourself out here,” Goldcap boomed. “I seen them boys at the general store and figured this all out. So we’ve come to collect them boys and our reward.” No answer. “We don’t want no trouble, Selma. We’re just here to do the right thing.”
No answer.
“This is all my fault.” Sunjay’s voice trembled. “If I hadn’t been so crazy about sending that tape to Queen Envy, we would never have gone to town. If I hadn’t wanted that root beer float so bad, they wouldn’t know we were here.”
Goldcap stepped toward Aunt Selma’s door, but before he could knock again, the porch light flicked on and the door opened. He fell forward trying to knock and then straightened himself, looking a bit embarrassed. In her overalls my aunt leaned against the doorjamb, not that I could see much of her behind the bearskins.
For the next few minutes Goldcap and Aunt Selma spoke. She never changed position while he looked agitated, shifting back and forth and gesturing. The mob in the yard did the same. Tension mounted. Looking at all those men in their hides, a dangerous thought crept into my mind. These men know how to track animals. They can track us. I might need to use my powers tonight to keep us free. That might cause some natural disaster, but to keep the world safe, I might have to endanger it.
Still, Aunt Selma looked calm. The wind whipped snowflakes across the lake and muffled Goldcap’s words, but tension was rising. We couldn’t sit there any longer.
“Sunjay,” I said, “this isn’t going to end well. We have to strike first. It’s time to move.”
“But your aunt said to wait for a sign.” Sunjay grabbed my arm.
“We survived an attack in space by the Lord Ascendant. We aren’t going to let a mob of Alaskans take us down.”
Across the lake my aunt examined her fingernails and blankly stared at that mob in her yard, looking unconcerned.
“But the sign...” Sunjay didn’t finish his thought. We instinctively ducked as a silent shadow glided above our heads and across the water toward the cabin. Sunjay’s eyes were as big as saucers, flying saucers.
We both realized that the night had gone from worst to worse than worst.
“Okay, there’s our sign. Now here’s the plan. You take my holophone and I’ll take the hologlasses. Let me know when you get to the other side.”
We both took off through the snow around opposite ends of the lake, running flat out with lungs on fire. I lost view of the cabin for a few moments, and during that time I heard Goldcap’s voice rise. There were screams, wild gunfire, and the sizzle of loose electricity.
I dove into a ditch as bullets whizzed over my head. They weren’t meant for me. A purple glow came from my aunt’s yard, and a red tentacle whipped back and forth over her cabin. The tentacle was as thick and long as a fire hose. The mob wasn’t in the yard anymore but dangling above the yard in the clutches of the tentacle. They shot wildly at the alien ship, but the tentacle simply shook them until they dropped their guns.
The tentacle was attached to a black sphere covered in purple letters. It was a lesser version of the Lion’s Mane, which had captured my dad’s ship in space. My heart was in my throat. We had no way to fight such a thing.
The tentacle dropped its captives into the lake one by one. They swam for shore, drenched and swearing in fear. Only Goldcap hopped out of the water and screamed at the glowing black and purple spaceship.
“Hey, you alien scumbags, I thought we had a deal. Now where’s my reward?” he yelled.
In answer, the ship lowered itself into my aunt’s yard. A ramp appeared on the side of the sphere. Down the ramp walked what appeared to be an enormous man, dressed in a tunic and covered in swirling tattoos. An Ascendant warrior. He carried a black staff, and the ends buzzed with power. Goldcap aimed a shotgun at him, but the Ascendant wasn’t concerned. He raised the black staff, and from fifty yards away, yanked the gun from Goldcap’s hands. It flew toward the Ascendant, and he snagged it with one hand. The alien stood on the ramp weighing both weapons.
“Earther, you desire a reward?” growled the Ascendant warrior. “A reward you will receive. I will show you a better weapon.”
The gun flew back toward Goldcap, who stumbled backwards. With another flick of his staff, the Ascendant tossed Goldcap over my aunt’s cabin and into the woods. We heard a sickening crunch. There was a reason we called these guys black staffs.
The black staff hopped off the ramp and into my aunt’s yard. Surprisingly he stumbled once and struggled to keep his balance.
“Watch your step, hon,” my aunt said to him, “we don’t want you getting that pretty outfit all dirty.”
“The boys,” he snarled. He walked toward her, standing eye level with her even though she was on the porch and he was in the yard.
“Sorry, I’m all out of boys. You want some coffee instead?”
Down the ramp came three more black staffs of the same size, shape, and attitude. I knew what was about to happen, and we couldn’t allow it.
Temptation surged: Use your powers. It’s time. Wake the Sacred and it all becomes so easy. I imagined what I could do: blast them with fire; toss them into portals that opened over the lake; sever that red tentacle and chop their ship in two. Finally, I yanked my mind out of it. I might win this fight, but I might destroy something else. There has to be a better way.
My hologlasses sprung to life. A text message from Sunjay: “That escalated some more. What now? I’m here.” Across the yard I saw him wave and duck back behind the woodpile.
We didn’t have much time but we had them surrounded. We couldn’t shoot them. They’d see the flash and disarm us in seconds. We needed some luck, a distraction, something unexpected. I scanned my surroundings. Not much around but rocks. I grabbed the biggest rock I could throw. It worked when David fought Goliath, I thought. Then I remembered something.
“Sunjay, the Upthruster! It’s leaning against the cabin,” I texted back.
“???”
“Grab my aunt and fly out of here. I’ll distract them. 3,2,1. Go!”
I took aim as Sunjay made a run for the Upthruster. Then I chucked the rock at the nearest Ascendant’s head. It was an awesome shot. The only thing was, at the same moment, several things happened.
A deafening boom came from the woods. A shotgun blast and a roar to go with it. One Ascendant hit the ground, but it wasn’t because of my rock. He spun and fell, and the other Ascendant turned to face Goldcap, who flew out of the woods in a limping rage.
My aunt took advantage of the situation. She reached behind her door, grabbed an axe, and hit one of the Ascendant in the leg. He roared and staggered as the other two took on Goldcap.
Sunjay swooped in and Aunt Selma scrambled onto the Upthruster. They flew toward me. I dropped the gun and grabbed onto the railing of the Upthruster. Sunjay tried to pull me on, looking back at the cabin in fear as we blasted off into the woods. I held on to the rail for dear life. Whoosh! A purple flash sailed over our heads and hit a tree in front of us, sending purple sparks and wood chips everywhere. I looked back and watched as the wounded Ascendant shot at us from his knees. The others were still grappling with Goldcap. We flew over a mound of snow and the scene disappeared.
“To the mineshaft!” Aunt Selma yelled, pointing to a small gap in the trees. Sunjay did his best to steer the board toward the gap, but we were above the suggested weight limit and flying low. We narrowly avoided a dozen trees at every turn. Only four feet off the ground, I half-ran, half-bounced as we sped through the forest. Every bush threatened to knock me off. We flew like this for a minute before my aunt said, “Shut this thing down before you kill us!”
Sunjay pushed the back of the board down and we came to an abrupt halt that sent him and Aunt Selma sprawling. Since I had been holding on to the side of the board, I landed softly with the Upthruster in my hands. I tucked it under my arm and put my index finger to my lips. Shhhh. We were a quarter mile from the cabin now, and with any luck, the Ascendant did not have time to track us.
“Now get your tails in that mineshaft and stay this time,” she said. “I’ll be right back. Gonna make a track to divert these idiots.” She tramped back to our landing point, covered our tracks, and hiked up the ridge behind us, making a new set of tracks. Having a survivalist for an aunt isn’t so bad sometimes.
The wind began to die and snow continued to fall. I examined our new hideout more carefully. The mineshaft’s entrance was a dusty space the size of our living room back in Houston. Sunjay produced his holophone and put it in flashlight mode so we could see further back. The only point of interest was a tattered American flag covering something in the corner. Sunjay wandered back to inspect it, unveiling several wooden boxes that showed the same word: “DYNAMITE.”
“We can blow up the Ascendant, like in cartoons,” said Sunjay. He started to open the top of the box, but I jumped up and threw the flag back over the explosives.
“Great, but let’s not blow ourselves up for no reason,” I said. “Old dynamite is unpredictable.” He shined his light deeper into the cave and we saw nothing but rubble.
“Huh, cave in,” said Sunjay, “or maybe someone covered the entrance. Hey, it’s like the video game! If only we had a portal gun, we could portal ourselves to the other side.”
“The point of Cave-In! is to escape, not to trap yourself deeper in the cave,” I said.
Cave-In! The thought of my favorite video game sent me back to my couch in Mission Control, knee-to-knee with Sunjay and Tabitha. Before we sneaked into space. Before we got split up. When life was simple: friends, a couch, and a video game. That simple life was gone, and in its place was a complicated world full of lies, risks, and dangers—but also hope.
“Hey,” Sunjay said, “don’t get any crazy ideas, Tully. No powers. You promised.”
“You’re the one reading my mind,” I said, looking at the scars on my hands. “Why not, Sunjay? Just make a portal out of here and back to my aunt’s cabin. Then toast those clumsy barbarians and get out of here. Seriously, what good are superpowers that you can’t use? If I call on the Sacred, I can ge
t us out of here. I know I can.”
He shook his head. We both knew it wasn’t that simple. I nodded and shoved my frigid hands in my pockets. We heard snapping twigs outside the mine entrance. I pinned myself against the wall and held my breath, but it was only my aunt. She replaced the boards and joined us.
“Sakes’ alive,” my aunt said. “You should’ve told me those aliens had magic purple batons. Big, clumsy, and angry. Like a bunch of possessed cheerleader bodybuilders they are.” I had a mental image of the Ascendant twirling batons in cheerleader uniforms, with their fierce tattooed faces. I almost laughed out loud. Danger and adrenaline do weird things to your brain. The frigid temperatures brought me back to reality. We grew silent. Our breathing settled down and teeth chattered.
Man, I would rather fight the Ascendant anywhere else. We could lose a few fingers from frostbite before the battle starts. I tried to picture them again, this time without the cheerleader unis. And something struck me about the Ascendant.
Clumsy. One of them fell off the ramp; another struggled to get his footing against Goldcap. In Earth’s gravity they were muscular monsters but not very coordinated.
Aunt Selma had managed to hold onto Sunjay’s gun. She found an old pickaxe and handed it to Sunjay, making an attack motion to show him it was a weapon. I was unarmed but still wearing my hologlasses. I turned them on. There was plenty of battery and a signal, so I blinked through my contacts list until I found my dad’s number. I blinked again and the call went through, his face flashing in front of my eyes. The call would probably give away our location to the authorities, but it was worth the risk. Unfortunately, the call went straight to voicemail. I thought about calling the police, the FBI, the Space Alliance, a dozen other people, but what would I say? “Hey, it’s me, the boy with the alien virus. I’m under attack in the woods. Could you come save me?”
And what would they do when they found me? Whether someone saved us or captured us, we wouldn’t be free anymore. And if I weren’t free, I couldn’t save do the only thing that mattered to me.
