by J. M. Page
“What about the Prince?” he finally asked.
Celine nearly stopped in her tracks to level a surprised look at him. “What about him?” She looked both ways around the nearest intersection, thinking it was eerie to see the palace so empty when it was usually bustling with activity.
“I thought you didn’t like me talking to him? I thought he was dangerous and untrustworthy?” She found herself smirking even as she said it, teasing her robotic companion.
Rufus lifted his little arms in what resembled a shrug. “Maybe he could help?”
Celine made a show of pretending to consider it, but she knew it wasn’t possible. Ben would just be a liability. Something for Scorpia to use against her. She’d rather he stay safe. She shook her head, finally recognizing the corridor they turned down.
“I can’t risk him being put in danger,” she said, breaking into a sprint toward her quarters.
She wasted no time changing into her old dusty flowing garment that she arrived in, leaving the pretty, albeit ruined, dress on the neatly-made bed. A pang of longing hit her in the gut, forcing the air from her. What might life have been like if she’d been born on the other side of the wall?
She had to turn away before she let melancholy take hold. Things were as they were and she couldn’t change them. She couldn’t go back in time to change the circumstances of her birth any more than she could go back and unmake the decision to be rid of her arm.
Her old robes felt odd, heavier than she remembered. Before she left the room, she tucked Ben’s coin in her pocket. For good luck.
“I know I can stop her,” Celine said, not sure who she was trying harder to convince. “I don’t know how, but I’ll figure it out, one way or the other.” She had to. The whole city was counting on her, whether they knew it or not. The tunnels too. The fate of the whole planet rested on her shoulders.
No pressure.
Without looking first, she walked out of her room and into the hallway and bumped right into poor Aris, nearly knocking her over.
“Oh!” said Aris, when they collided. “Oh! It’s you! What are you doing here? Everyone’s meant to be on the evacuation ships.”
Celine didn’t ask why Aris herself wasn’t on the ships. Maybe she was left to round up any stragglers. It didn’t matter at the moment. She shook her head, her jaw set.
“I’m going to fix this,” she said, stooping to give Aris a quick, but tight, hug. “Thank you for all your help and for not treating me like the ignorant outsider I am. I’ll never forget that.”
When she released Aris, Celine realized she might have said too much. Aris looked worried, her mouth slightly open, her eyes narrowed trying to read in between the lines. There wasn’t any time for chatting, though. Celine knew the way out of the palace from this point and she took off in one direction, while Aris turned on her heel and went in the other.
Chapter Twelve
Ben
“Your Highness! Thank goodness I found you,” a small woman said, barging into the meeting room where Ben sat staring at a screen. He thought he remembered her name starting with an A. Airie? Anna? He didn’t acknowledge her right away.
On the screen was Ben’s father, the King, along with a selected group of dignitaries and advisors all aboard an evacuation ship destined to leave the planet any moment.
“Bennett, this is no time to be stubborn. Make your way to an evac ship. I’ll tell them you’re on your way,” the King said.
Ben gnashed his teeth and shook his head. His momentary relief at knowing his father was safe from harm was washed away on the rapids of his anger and disgust. What kind of King ran away when his people were in danger? When there was panic in the air and uncertainty in their hearts? What kind of leader just left his subjects to deal with that?
“Terrans will persevere,” his father said, reciting the old adage. “There are plenty of ships for everyone, it’s just a matter of corralling them.” The comparison to livestock only made Ben’s blood boil and steam. The way the King spoke about the people in the city made it abundantly clear that their welfare wasn’t the first thing on his mind.
“Fine,” Ben said. “If you’re so certain of that, I’ll get on the evac ship.”
The King’s eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. “Really?”
Ben nodded, folding his arms in front of his chest. “Sure. Once everyone else is safe, I’ll get on the very last ship.”
“Bennett—” his father said, a warning in his tone. Ben knew he was ready to launch into a lecture, but in the background he heard the pilot giving the countdown for take-off.
Ben held up a hand to the screen. “I won’t let cowardice make me abandon my people or my home. Maybe that’s a concept lost to you in your self-preservation. Have a safe flight, father.”
Without waiting for a response, Ben ended the transmission. In his head, he continued the countdown he’d heard until the ground rumbled and shook. Outside one of the massive windows, he saw a ship rise up, darkening the city with its enormous shadow. He shook his head and turned back to the girl, still bouncing on her heels.
Aris, the name came to him from the abyss. He finally took a good look at her and spotted the concern and urgency written in her expression. The way she wrung her hands and couldn’t stand still for anything.
“What is it?”
“Celine, she—” The instant Ben heard her name, his heart seized. Celine’s name spoken from Aris’s frantic mouth spelled trouble. “Well, she looked like she was in quite a hurry to go somewhere…” Aris said, now unable to look him in the eye. “Wearing what she arrived in, I’ll add.”
A hot knife of betrayal twisted in Ben’s gut. She was supposed to be fixing the force field. He knew he shouldn’t have left her alone. Knew he shouldn’t trust her. Things were always suspicious around the outsider and he knew for a fact she’d kept myriad secrets about herself.
And she’s had an explanation for every single one, another voice said, deep in the recesses of his mind. And he did trust her, no matter what evidence there was to say he shouldn’t. She’d never done anything to harm anyone. There was no faking the wonderment she displayed in flight, either.
No, if Celine ran off, there had to be a good explanation. A good reason. Maybe he didn’t see it, but she was always a step ahead of him.
Ben looked toward the window again, the evacuation ship with his father now long out of sight, and looked over the city he knew so well, blanketed in dust, the giant walls barely visible through thick orange clouds.
Where are you going, Celine? he wondered, electricity buzzing in his chest. This was all too much. They were in this together — or were supposed to be. Now he had to figure it all out without her?
He played through all the information he had, slowly, point-by-point in his mind. There was a vengeful alien that hated humans and wanted to rid her planet of them. She disarmed the force field to get rid of the Terrans but…
Ben thought back to how Celine talked about her father and all the other modders in the Wastelands. Those that were led to believe the city spelled death for them. He didn’t know how many people lived in the Wastelands, but those were Celine’s people, just as the Terrans were his.
If the alien wanted everyone off her planet…
Celine must have gone to face the witch alone. Ben cursed under his breath, jumping up from his seat the moment realization hit him.
“Your… Highness…?” Aris said, but he was already running out of the room, praying he wasn’t too late.
Chapter Thirteen
Celine
“Celine,” Rufus whined as they neared the tunnels she’d called home her whole life. The ground rumbled underfoot with every ship launch, the enormity of the exodus straining the planet’s rigidity.
She ignored him and ventured through the mouth of the tunnels. Just as she did, a massive quake sent debris raining down on them, cracks appearing and spreading up the walls and ceiling.
She didn’t have much time.
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It wasn’t long before she was in the main part of their village, but it was unrecognizable in the panic. People didn’t know what was going on or where to go. Everyone thought the safest place was underground, but Celine didn’t trust Scorpia. Ship launches never caused these kind of tremors before and Celine suspected the alien had done something — dug new tunnels, spread out the existing ones, thinned the walls, it was hard to say what exactly — to undermine their structural integrity.
Another quake sent up a chorus of panicked cries and a shower of dust filtered in through the cracks in the ceiling.
Amongst the chaos, Celine spotted a familiar figure. “Dad!”
Abatu turned, his expression confused and his mechanical eyes landed on Celine, focused, and his face lit up. Through the swarming crowd, they found each other and embraced.
“Celine,” he said into the top of her head, nestling her face into his chest. “I—”
“Dad I—” They both said at the same time.
Abatu frowned and shook his head. “I’m the one that should be—”
Celine mimicked his expression. “I never should have—”
Abatu huffed a great sigh and pulled her back in for another tight hug. They didn’t have to say any more. Celine found she wasn’t angry with her father any more. Just worried. Worried and afraid that they wouldn’t make it out of this alive.
Celine looked over the crowd, trying to see past to the tunnels that branched from the main hub. She needed to go after Scorpia. Hopefully she could find her before it was too late. She needed her arm if she was going to have any hope of fixing the force field, any hope of saving the city.
“Everyone, listen to me,” Abatu said, his voice booming. No one paid him any heed in their fear. “Panic will not help us, brothers and sisters,” he said again, a lone point of sanity in the middle of chaos.
Celine’s eyes drifted from the branching tunnels to her father, struggling to get people calm and under control. He’d never get them out of there at this rate.
“Dad, we have to get them out of the tunnels. They’re going to collapse,” she said.
Abatu’s mouth formed a grim line and his shining blue eyes turned red. “How do you know? Is it the humans?”
Celine shook her head, old frustrations bubbling up inside of her. “No, Dad, it’s not the humans. They’re not evil at all. They’re… welcoming. It doesn’t matter,” she said, pushing aside thoughts of Ben and his welcome. “Someone wants everyone off the planet. Everyone. She’s going to collapse the tunnels, I just know it. You have to get people out. I have to go after her.”
Her father grabbed her arm and frowned, finding it soft and fleshy. Something flashed across his face — sadness? Hurt? Guilt stabbed at her, but she didn’t have time to indulge in it.
“No one knows these tunnels like you, Bug,” he said, using the nickname he came up for her when she was a child. Celine saw the manipulation, but also saw his point. “All your years of sneaking out to the surface might come in handy. I’ll get everyone together, you lead them. I could never navigate the way out, not the way things are.”
Celine hesitated. Her father admitting his weakness meant a lot. It meant he really needed her help. She looked back to the tunnels and then to the panicked modders. There were too many people to get to safety for her to worry about chasing after her arm. Her arm would have to wait. Or they’d have to find another way.
It was a tough decision, but one she had to make. She nodded. “Okay. I’ll lead the way.”
“Everyone,” Abatu roared, loud enough to cut through the ruckus. “The tunnels have been compromised. Celine is going to lead you to the surface and to safety. Listen to her,” he said, giving his daughter a small nod. Her chest swelled with pride and a bunch of people looked to her.
“Stick close to the person in front of you. We’re all in this together and we’re all going to get out of this together,” she said, turning back away from the hub, and out toward the surface.
Celine navigated the group through crumbling tunnels, reassuring them when the entire planet seemed to be crumbling underfoot. Twice, they’d come to a blocked tunnel, one that had already collapsed, and she had to find an alternate route. Time wore thin, but she couldn’t let on how worried she really was.
Luckily, her father was right. No one knew the tunnels better than Celine. After years of sneaking around, she could find her way through the maze blindfolded and asleep. The surface was finally in sight.
The woman at the head of the line, Tabitha, looked at the surface warily as Celine paused at the entrance and ushered her forward.
“Where are we supposed to go now?” At her side were her two small children, holding hands with each other and her. They were all wrapped head-to-toe in the same kind of garment Celine wore, giving them some protection from the elements.
Celine fished in her pocket and took out Ben’s coin, giving it a final squeeze before she handed it to Tabitha. “Head North. You’ll find the walled city. Show them this and ask for passage on the evacuation ships.”
Murmurs of “evacuation” sprang up through the crowd, but Celine hushed them. “Hopefully it won’t come to that, but get to the city.”
She just had to hope she wasn’t sending them to a different kind of danger. They couldn’t stay in the tunnels, that was for sure, but would the Terrans be as welcoming as she said? She played over the possible outcomes one-by-one as the modders filtered out onto the surface, forming a long procession across the great expanse of desert.
At last, she saw her father. He was the final person in line and Celine heaved a great sigh.
Just as she did, the ground rumbled, shaking and trembling enough to send her and her father to their knees. Bolts of pain shot up her thighs, but Celine ignored it, distracted by the rocks falling overhead. Cracks wide enough to put her arm through formed in the ceiling, and a curtain of dust blocked the exit.
“Dad!” she cried, realizing her father’s struggles to get up. “Give me your hand!” The ceiling shuddered, dust and sand fell, roaring like rushing water.
Abatu scrambled, reaching for her hand, but she couldn’t hold onto him. She couldn’t get her stupid mutinous alien arm to cooperate.
No, no, no. Not like this.
She turned, reaching with both hands, and her father was able to hold on. With a great heave and a tumble, they rolled out of the tunnels, onto the blessed sand of the surface. Just in time to watch their home crumble to nothing.
For a long moment, both Celine and her father stared at the rubble with pained expressions. There was no evidence that there had ever been anything other than a pile of rocks in that spot. No evidence that hundreds of people, countless generations, had lived their lives entirely just beyond that spot.
Celine’s stomach knotted and twisted, hot and full of despair. She didn’t get her arm back. She wasn’t going to be able to help Ben and his people. Guilt clawed at her chest until she could hardly breathe.
“You did it Bug. You got us all out,” Dad said, pulling her into a hug even while their butts were planted in the sand.
Celine nodded, choking back emotion. He was right. She did it. Even if it wasn’t the thing she was trying to do, it was a good thing. That had to count for something, didn’t it? She’d saved all the modders and her Dad.
She pushed back tears of mixed relief and anguish, clinging to his shoulders in a way she hadn’t since she was a little girl. It was over. There was nothing more she could do.
He stroked her back, soothing her as he always had. Before their relationship got so strained.
Wind and dust whipped around them, burying their laps and stirring the rubble, sending rocks skittering off in all directions.
Celine sniffed and frowned, pushing away from her father to narrow her eyes. The wind should only push rocks in one direction.
Just as she had the thought, rubble exploded from the collapsed tunnel and Scorpia herself emerged in a torrent of angry clicking.
&n
bsp; Her tail swished back and forth, twitching as she focused her beady gaze on Celine. “YOU! You ungrateful little ape.” Scorpia skittered down the pile of rocks with unnatural grace and Celine scrambled backwards on her hands and feet, pushing herself up to stand.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Celine said, trying to keep her voice steady even while Rufus whined into her neck. Her stomach did a somersault spotting her arm attached to Scorpia. Visions of ripping it from her bodily sprang to Celine’s mind, but she pushed them aside. They could get out of this without anyone getting hurt. They could talk about this.
“You saved them! They were all supposed to DIE,” Scorpia screeched, beyond enraged, her tail flailing wildly. “They all deserve to die. The invaders wiped out my kind. My family. It’s time I repaid the favor.”
Celine swallowed past the lump in her throat, trying to figure the way out of this. There was always a way. Always a secret passage or something to save the day. She just had to keep talking long enough to figure it out.
“I know you’re hurt,” she said, taking another step away from the incensed alien being. “But that was a long time ago. Many many human generations. Things have changed. The Terrans aren’t the backwards people they once were. They’re accepting and generous. We can all share the planet in harmony. There’s no need for this destruction,” she said. Her eyes flitted to her father and found him a rapt audience, his expression unreadable.
Scorpia unleashed a barrage of furious clicking. “No need! NO NEED? You wouldn’t say the same if it was your children murdered at the hands of aliens. If it was your home, destroyed and your loved ones left for dead.” Scorpia sounded hysterical now, frenetic and crazed.
Celine held up her hands in a sign of deference. “But I am saying that. Don’t you see? You’ve destroyed my home, left my loved ones for dead… But still, I think we can find peace.”
She thought she might be getting through to the heart-broken creature. Maybe they had a chance. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father get to his feet, hatred burning in his eyes.
