by Kyle West
The crawlers and flyers were dangerously close, now. Still, we remained standing, to be consumed in pointless sacrifice.
“I want to do whatever I can to stop them,” I said. “We all do.”
He smiled. “You will get your chance, Alex. You must merely be patient. You must merely be open to the possibilities – to what the lords of fate place before you.”
I had no idea what that meant, and didn’t have time to think about it. A crawler, twisted and with three white eyes glowing, sailed through the air ahead of the swarm, on course to crash into me. I could only watch in horror as that twisted face gnawed at empty air, as its long claws curled in the expectation of entering my flesh. The end of my life was near, but still, I stood calm, defiant.
In a roar and beating of wings, a completely white dragon swooped right in front of me, striking at the crawler with extended claws. The crawler gave a wretched scream when another dragon, this one colored red, appeared on our left, giving a bone-shaking roar that stopped the frontrunners in their tracks. Both dragons swirled toward the ground, landing between us and the oncoming horde.
“We must go,” the Wanderer said.
The dragons lowered their wings. The Wanderer ran forward, climbing onto the back of the white dragon. He meant to fly on it. Once mounted, the Wanderer looked at me with white eyes, expecting me to do the same.
Unthinking, I ran to the red dragon, scrambling up its leg and onto its back. I settled between two ridges there, and found myself surprisingly secure. I held onto the ridge in front of me. The hard, scaly skin was warm to the touch. No sooner was I settled than both dragons took flight, beating their wings and lifting off from the ground, where the crawlers writhed in a teeming mass in the spot we had vacated. The fungus and Crater fell away. We angled south as the sun victoriously burst through the clouds.
I smiled, wondering if any of this was real. I knew it was a dream, but it felt more real than reality.
We sped on, going even faster, the air sharp and revitalizing. Soon, the spire appeared in the distance – no longer sinister, but welcome – like returning home. I didn’t understand this sentiment, because I had never had a home in my life. Even Bunker 108 had felt unreal – humans weren’t meant to dwell underground, surrounded by gears and machines and bolts.
I suddenly had an outward vision of myself, riding on the dragon. It was such a strange sensation that it knocked the wind out of me. I saw myself, eyes staring ahead intensely toward the spire to the south.
And my eyes were completely white.
Chapter 15
I shot up in bed in a dark room, fear and panic clutching my heart. Cold sweat ran down my bare chest.
“Alex!”
It was Anna. I felt her hand on mine before I even had a chance to realize where I was and what was happening. A moment of chaos passed, where I didn’t know or understand anything. There was a deep pulse, a thrumming, surrounding everything. It was a moment before I realized that this sound and vibration was Odin, flying through the air.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice parched.
Anna reached for a nearby canteen in the darkness, and held it to my lips. I felt the cool water enter my mouth. I drank a good long while.
Anna didn’t answer me for a moment. “I’ll get the light. I’ll tell you everything.”
“No. Don’t. Keep it off, unless you want to split my head open.”
My mind was still spinning. The images I’d seen were a maelstrom, overwhelming me, keeping me pinned. I had no idea where to start – whether I should try to connect to that reality, or this one.
Anna sat down next to me, the cushion of her stool swishing. She held my hand again.
“I’m glad you’re awake,” she said. “You were out for the longest time.”
“How long?” I asked. “Spores, right?”
I could see Anna’s head nod in affirmation in the darkness. “They got in through our skin. Maybe through the mask, too. But yeah. We were all out for a long while, but all came to with the morning. You, though...you stayed unconscious. We moved you onto the ship. We didn’t lose anyone, but we also weren’t attacked. Makara gave the order to blast that damn thing to pieces.”
At first, I didn’t know what she was talking about. Then I realized that she was referring to the spire.
“No,” I said. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
I didn’t know why I felt so strongly about that. I was remembering my dream. The spire was the last vision I’d had, apart from the fact that my eyes were –
I closed my eyes.
“Alex?”
No. It was just a dream. It wasn’t real. Still, I kept my eyes closed.
“So, it’s really gone?” I asked. “The spire?”
“Yeah. It is.”
Anna wasn’t telling me something, and it was driving me crazy.
“You never told me how long I was out.”
She hesitated. “Two days, Alex.”
I sat up straighter in bed, opening my eyes. “Two days? We should have left that thing alone. It wasn’t what we thought, at all. Is Vegas still there?”
Anna didn’t answer me, and her lack of an answer was answer enough.
“I didn’t want to shock you,” she said. “Not at first. You’ve been through a lot.”
I felt coldness crawl over me. Another city, gone. The second largest one in the Wasteland. Thousands of people dead, in a couple of days. And I had been asleep during all of it.
“That’s why we’re in the air, then,” I said. “That’s why we’re not helping.”
“Makara and the gang lords gathered who they could,” Anna said. “A couple thousand, maybe. Thousands more died. The farms were the hardest hit.”
The farms. Michael’s wife and kid would have been there.
“Michael’s wife is fine,” Anna said. “So is his kid. They’re both on the ship, safe.” She sighed. “Much more so than everyone else. They’re all heading west. Gilgamesh and Odin are hovering above them, to keep the air clear of any dragons, if they come.”
“Have there been any?”
Anna shook her head. “No. Not now, at least. They attacked the city, and there was nothing we could do. When we shot that spire thing down, it made them all go haywire. The only thing we could do was try to evacuate everyone. Luckily, Rey and some of the other lords had already prepared a lot of supplies and trucks. The water trucks are filled, and will help water the people and fuel the vehicles...at least for a little while. They won’t last forever, though.”
“How long?”
Anna paused. “A week, maybe. Even with the amount we have, we’re going to have to find another water source, soon.”
I said nothing, and could only be shocked by how much things had changed. I realized then why that spire had been empty of Blighters. It wasn’t because it was trying to trick us. It was trying to protect us. In the dream, something strange had happened. The Wanderer, with his white eyes, had been infected with the xenovirus. But he was not dangerous. At least, I didn’t think he was. And the feeling I got, when we had ridden the dragons back to the spire...
My head swam. We rode dragons. It was just a dream, but it had felt so real. It was messing with my mind, now, so much so that I knew, without a doubt, that destroying that spire was a mistake. It had unleashed the swarm.
“It’s really gone, then?”
Anna nodded. “We’re probably ten miles west of Vegas now. Everyone’s been kept going by force. I don’t know how much time we have until the swarm starts to follow...”
I shuddered. Everything had changed so quickly. I felt I had changed, though I hadn’t been awake to witness any of the attack’s horror. I had been here, sleeping, while everyone had been down there, dying.
“I guess everyone in our group is alright?”
“Yeah,” Anna said. “It was the farms that got hardest hit, like I said. We rescued a lot of the farmers. Many were left behind.”
I squeezed her hand. “A
re you alright?”
“I don’t know,” she said, after a moment. “I’m still trying to decide that.”
“I can’t imagine what it must have been like. Did the gangs make it out alright?”
“Yeah,” Anna said. “Makara, Char, and Marcus hold the reins, for now. The fact that they were right is giving them some leverage with the gang lords. Who knows how long that will last, though? Rey and Jade want to go their own way, and Cain is thinking of going with them.” Anna sighed. “None of them understand that we can’t be fighting each other right now.”
“They’ll probably agree to work together,” I said. “At least for now. Without unity, they can’t have L.A. Now, out of their home, they have no choice but to press on.”
“I hope you’re right.” She leaned down, kissing me on the cheek. “I was afraid you’d never wake up. At first, we thought you were dead. Your pulse was so slow. You should have seen how worried Makara was.”
I laughed. “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.”
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
Anna was looking at me, not answering. Something had changed. Even in the darkness, I could tell that she had tensed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
A sudden fear clenched my chest.
That was when Anna screamed.
Before I knew what was happening, she rushed to turn on the lights. I was blinded, and covered my eyes with my arm, so as to shield them.
Footsteps sounded from the corridor. Michael slid open the partition, running into the room.
“What the hell is going on?” Michael asked.
Anna was crying. Crying at what?
It wasn’t long before I got my answer.
“His eyes...” Anna said. “He’s turning.”
I turned my head to the side. I knew I was in the clinic, and if that were so, on my right there would be a mirror. I faced myself toward it, not daring to open my eyes.
Then, slowly, I opened them, and wanted to scream myself.
Anna was right. My eyes were completely white.
***
I stared at my reflection dully for a moment, wondering how it had happened. But the image didn’t lie. My vision wasn’t any different than what I was used to, except perhaps my sensitivity to light was sharper. Looking at the reflection in the mirror was like being stared at by one of them. The eyes – I couldn’t think of them as my eyes – stared back at me empty, vacant. There was no doubt. Like the crawlers, like the dragons, like the Wanderer – I was infected.
No wonder Anna had screamed. No wonder she had run.
Michael still stared at me, his expression shocked.
Samuel and Makara were next to run into the room. I kept my head turned. I wanted to hide. I didn’t want any of them to see.
“What’s going on?” Makara asked.
I dreaded what would come next. I didn’t want anyone to know, neither her, nor Samuel, nor anyone else. Anna’s reaction was enough pain for a million lifetimes.
I knew, however, that I would have to face this sooner or later. I turned my face upward, and opened my eyes.
Everyone gasped.
“I’m infected,” I barely managed.
No one said anything for what seemed an eternity. I heard Char and Marcus speaking outside the door, their enmity now forgotten. I wondered who would be the first to draw their gun.
Samuel suddenly took charge. “Makara, find us a spot to land. Now.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere! Just hurry. Bring the army to a halt. Anna, call Ashton. Tell him to drop everything and come here.
Anna didn’t move.
“Go! You want to help him, don’t you? There might still be time.”
She ran out of the room.
Time? There was no time. Once infected, there was nothing now preventing me from becoming a Howler. All the same, wouldn’t I have transformed by now? Anna said it had been two days since the spire. Usually, it took no more than two hours for someone to turn.
What the hell had happened to me?
With Anna and Makara gone, Char and Marcus entered and stood against the wall, saying nothing, ready for anything. I sat up in bed, shaking my head. I was glad that both of the women were gone. For some reason, they were the last ones I wanted to see me like this. My gaze first found Samuel, who just looked at me as if to confirm that what he saw was real.
“Holy cow,” Michael said. “She wasn’t kidding. White as a Howler’s, only the rest of you is normal.”
“I have no idea what happened,” I said. “I had a dream, where I found the Wanderer, and his eyes were the same way. Maybe I’m more like him than the Howlers.”
I remembered something the Wanderer had told me – not in the dream, but when we were in the cave, on the way to the Great Blight. He said he had gotten lost in the Great Blight, and that he became...different. His eyes had been clouded then, as well – yet not completely so, as mine were now. But in the dream, they had been dead white
“Well, you haven’t turned,” Samuel said. “It’s been two days since we were all knocked out by that spire. You were in a deep sleep the entire time. Maybe the spores affected you differently. The thought that you would turn never came to any of us.”
I still didn’t know what Samuel was talking about. Why me? As far as I was concerned, we had all been affected by the spores. Was I the only one with whitened eyes, the only one that was turning?
Beneath me, I felt the ship veer and dip to the ground below. Makara was landing.
“What do you remember, Alex?” Samuel asked.
Everyone waited for me to speak. Marcus slid shut the clinic’s partition door behind him. As I watched the brothers, something seemed different between them. During my sleep, they had come to some sort of understanding. I guess being attacked by an army of crawlers was enough to do the trick.
“I remember flying to the spire, and you guys collecting samples,” I said. “That’s it. Then, nothing. I found out about Vegas from Anna, before she...”
I couldn’t make myself go on. Everything felt broken with her, now. I had no idea how long I had left in the world. Samuel just needed whatever information I could give him, if I didn’t make it through this.
“As you said, the spire released some sort of spore that knocked everybody out,” Samuel said. “None of us woke until morning, but you stayed out. You were still alive, but in a coma so deep I didn’t know if you were ever going to come out of it. I kept those thoughts to myself, however. Anna, though...she never left your side.”
I didn’t want to think of Anna. I didn’t blame her for screaming at me. I would have done the same. That realization didn’t make the pain go away, however. It just made it worse.
“When we came to our senses, we flew away from the spire,” Samuel went on. “Makara decided we needed to destroy it. I didn’t argue.” Samuel shook his head. “Gilgamesh shot off a couple missiles at the spire. It went down easily enough.”
“What happened then?” I asked.
“Well, it didn’t change your state. Your eyes stayed closed, and you stayed in your coma. But everything else changed. As soon as that spire went down, all hell broke loose. The swarm – dragons, crawlers, birds, behemoths, and other monsters besides – they came out of nowhere. Many had been buried in the fungus, dormant. We took off for Vegas, the swarm on our tail. We had to get the city population moving before it was attacked.”
For a minute, my changed eyes were momentarily forgotten as I focused on Samuel’s story.
“What happened next?” I asked.
“The swarm attacked Vegas. They didn’t stop for anything. The farms were the first struck, but luckily we had time to move everyone behind walls, taking a large supply of food and water while we were at it.”
“Yeah, Anna told me as much.” I turned to Michael. “Glad to hear your family is alright.”
Michael gave a single nod, but said nothing.
“That night,
and for the rest of the next day, we fought. The gangs gathered, such as they could, against that storm. It didn’t matter who was who anymore. We were all just fighting for survival. We battled over the next two days, trying to let anyone who couldn’t fight get a good head start. Finally, at the last minute, we turned and fled. The city was gone. We left by the west gate last night, leaving that city to its fate. The swarm is still in the city. There are people there. I guess they won’t be people for long.”
Those words chilled me. Two days, and it had all gone to hell. Now, we had a force of two thousand people out in the middle of the desert, in the dead of winter. Food, water, and supplies were low. We had to make it to Los Angeles under these conditions, and not only that, but conquer the city.
It seemed impossible. And it was even more so for me, if the virus had its way with me. I would never live to see how it all turned out.
“You said killing that spire caused all this?”
Samuel nodded. “It appears so.”
Then, a thought came to me. Maybe the spire wasn’t directing the Blighters, as we thought. Maybe it was holding them back. Protecting us, even. Calming them. However, that thought didn’t make any sense. Or maybe the Blighters had been so angry to see their spire fall that they had to attack. That was the likeliest option. Only...
I remembered my dream, such as I could. Those dragons had rescued me, for some reason. It wasn’t just a silly dream. It was real. There had been a message there – a message from the Wanderer. What was he trying to say, aside from the fact that my eyes were white now, like his? That had been real enough. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any answers. Answers were what we needed, but I didn’t see any way to find them. The Wanderer, wherever he was, was not about to walk into our camp and explain everything.
If my eyes were white, like theirs, did that mean I was somehow part of the xenoswarm? I didn’t know who I was anymore. Maybe I wasn’t even fully human. I didn’t understand why all this was happening, why it had to be me. I remembered the Wanderer, and his prophecy. It all hinged on me, somehow. Those were his words. What did my current state have to with that? If I was going to die before I had the chance to play my part, what good was any of it?
