I attempted to speak again. This time, their bickering was cut short long enough to actually be heard. “We don’t know that for sure. It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”
“So is attempting to make peace, if it means avoiding more bloodshed.”
“I don’t get it,” Jet mumbled. “If these rebel groups knew about the invasion before it happened, why didn’t they do something? Warn people? Maybe something could’ve been done.”
“They did try,” Kale replied. “No one listened. Their voices were drowned out, along with all the others who had theories about the end of the world. They were just more crazies building bunkers in their backyard, raving on and on about the apocalypse. Eventually they just gave up trying to convince people what was coming. So they went into hiding. Prepared.”
“That’s no way to live,” I said.
“I disagree. Look at them now. They’re the ones with the most weapons, the most knowledge about the Invaders … and they have a whole support system, people they can rely on. That’s smart, if you ask me.”
Jet huffed. “Nah. I’m with Sky. I’d never wanna live like that. Preparing for the end all the time. You’re not living that way. You’re just waiting to die. I’m glad I didn’t find out until it happened. Even after this, even now, I wouldn’t change a thing. Wouldn’t go back and do it differently.”
Kale’s voice went quiet. Something about the tone drew my eyes to his. “Yeah, me either. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”
At some point, Jet and Kale resumed their quarreling, and I tuned it out, losing track of how long we’d been speeding through the air. Kale’s amusement could still be heard from the front seat, his boyish laughter filling the tight Capsule, while Jet’s rigid fingers remained pressed into my shoulders. Their wisecracks zinged relentlessly over my head. Back and forth, back and forth, as if there was nothing better to argue about than a girl and their cavemen-dick-measuring contest.
Seriously. Boys.
The robotic drone I’d heard earlier started to sound again, its alarm alerting us we were nearing our destination. “Getting close,” Kale said.
“The others can’t see us?” Jet asked.
“Look,” I turned my head, pointing to the glass. “It’s incredible.” Invaders zoomed past us, zipping by in the same Capsules like shooting stars, the sun’s reflections bouncing off their hoods’ silver linings. We were in the middle of their beautifully orchestrated skyway, gracefully whizzing by, completely undetected.
“Positive. According to their radar, we’re one of them. We’re going to land right on their base station runway. They won’t know what hit ‘em.”
“If you’re not on board with Rico’s plan, why’d you fly us here anyway?”
“Because I’m going to keep my word. I still want you as allies. And you still want revenge, right?”
“Hell yes.”
“I’ll still give it to you. You just might not want it anymore, once we do this.”
I turned to look at Jet and we exchanged long glances. Kale was either mighty confident in his ability to make peace with these creatures and the clean slate he envisioned to come with it, or he was certifiably insane.
My money was on the latter.
CHAPTER 10
More alarms emanated through the vehicle, the front console brightening while Kale worked his magic over the controls. The San Francisco skyline came into view, the majestic arch of the Golden Gate Bridge lining the horizon. Bodily discomfort took a backseat to my mind’s awe; the sight stole my breath and instantly captivated me. I’d never been far from Morton—the coast of the Florida panhandle was about it—let alone anywhere across the country. I was officially in California, and the realization was exhilarating.
As exciting as it was spotting the Golden Gate and a glimpse of a world I never thought I’d see, the chrome base station hovering near the end of the bridge diluted that thrill. It was a fortress, wide and dreary, the structure’s intimidating nature beyond measure.
We began our descent, horizontal flashes of blue and white light waving us in, directing Kale onto the landing track. I gulped as we touched down, thankful to be on the ground again but equally unnerved by what that meant.
Kale hurriedly rummaged through his bag as he eyed our final descent. “It’s going to be a fireworks show the second we get out. Whatever you do, don’t lose me. I’m going to head for Corridor Seven on the left, and then haul ass toward the east wing. Here, drink this when the hood opens. It’ll take a few seconds to work.” He tossed two vials of something clear over his shoulder, along with the rest of our weapons he’d confiscated earlier. I handed one vial to Jet and gripped the other tight in my fist.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Something confidential the rebels have been working on. They just recently perfected it. Rico was going to give you some for the mission, Skylla.”
“What does it do?” Jet asked warily.
“It’s an invincibility drug, but it doesn’t last long. It’s still pretty weak, but it’s better than nothing. I’ve only got one left, so we gotta make those count. Jet, hightail it across the track to Corridor Five. That’s the way to the children’s camp … and Skylla, you’ll come with me to Central Control. We enter through the east wing of the ship—”
“What?” I sat forward.
“Not happening.”
As Jet spoke, Kale glanced up and his gaze locked with mine in the rearview. He said, “We have to stop Rico from going through with his plan. If we get there before he does, we can turn things around. For everyone. We need to make sure he doesn’t get his hands on the Shepherd activation console. The switch was flipped on when the Invaders arrived on Earth, and if Rico gets his hands on it, he could disrupt the whole activation process. His plan is to override the language coding so he can reroute the meeting-point location coordinates and redirect the Shepherds to his sabotage location.”
“Wait a minute,” my brow furrowed in confusion, “I didn’t agree to that yet. The Invaders still need to pay for what they’ve done. We can’t just let them go through with their takeover.”
“Maybe not, but if Rico’s mission succeeds, we’ll have nothing left. We need the Shepherds. Here, Jet.” He tossed a piece of paper back to me, and I handed it to Jet. “Directions for how to get back to Central Control from the children’s camp. When you’re done, come find us.”
“You don’t need Skylla with you.”
“She’s safer with me. I know my way around. You’ll be busy looking for your sister. She’ll slow you down.”
“Wait. You’ve been to this control station before?”
“Well, I mean, I have the maps. I’ve studied them,” Kale answered, shrugging. “Been to C1 in New Orleans. It wasn’t nearly as heavily guarded as this place.”
“How long will this stuff last?” I asked, holding up the invincibility vial. I tipped it upside down, watching the clear bubbles float to the top. “Long enough for Jet to grab his sister and make it to where we are? She won’t be protected.”
“You’ll have to get creative,” he said to Jet, shifting his gaze from me to the disgruntled passenger behind me. “You can shield her for a little while, but when the drug wears off …”
“I get it,” Jet said sternly.
“And prepare yourself for the possibility that she might not be there, man. Good luck. Seriously.”
“Thanks.”
“Here goes nothing.” Kale raised his guns, straightening in his seat, and Jet and I followed suit, scrambling to pull every weapon we could from our backpack, dispensing its content between us.
I snapped an Aqua Bomb onto my belt and checked my Glock’s ammo, and Jet slipped a rifle strap over my head. “Finger on the trigger,” he whispered. I unclicked my harness and wiggled out of its straps to adjust the weapon, a lump rising in my throat as the alarm’s beeping sped up and the clear hood began to glide open above us.
Chucking back the vial’s contents, I forced breaths in and out as I
felt the Capsule line up with the track. The vehicle slowed, coming to a stop on the base station’s deck, behind a row of identical Capsules. Counting helped my breathing. Five, four, three, two …
“Fire!” Jet yelled the second the lid stopped sliding and clicked into place. I pushed myself out of the Capsule with my arms and sprang to my feet, hauling myself over its body and flinging to the left. Jet was right next to me, lining his back up with mine to make sure we were covered. Fire exploded all around us, as did a choir of ear-piercing shrieks. Invaders swarmed the deck, their jaws dropping with that thick, clear ooze to unleash their cries.
My shots were automatic.
I aimed at the Invaders that had already been on the deck, exiting their vehicles. They surged forward, closing us in, and Jet and I leveled them, turning slowly in a circle to empty our rounds into their taut white skin. More poured onto the deck from inside the ship, floating toward us in the same calculated, uniform arrangements I’d seen that day in the woods. I was conscious of Kale’s presence somewhere on our right, could hear him shooting amidst the creatures’ sharp cries, but I didn’t stop firing.
Aqua Bombs, Venom Spheres, and different metal cylinders I’d never seen before spiraled at us from every direction. Kale moved in to join Jet’s and my formation, yelling over the fire, “We have to move!”
Jet was only able to lock eyes with me for a second before he sprinted across the black track and over the landing pad’s barrier, but that was all we needed to say what we couldn’t say aloud. He disappeared and I joined forces with Kale, dodging the Invaders’ weapons and throwing kicks at their slender, strong forms while they lurched at us from every direction. We managed to move to what I assumed was the corridor Kale was aiming for, barreling in through the door and falling into the hallway, slamming the door behind us. A blast of the wet, damp, swampy smell I hated smacked me full force and I broke into a coughing fit.
“Sky!” Kale yelled, throwing me to the other side of the hallway. I banged into the wall and winced as Kale took a hit to the chest. He cringed and buckled over, a gasp of air exploding from his lips as he dropped his gun.
“Kale!” I rushed forward and helped him stand straight, struggling to get a look at what had hit him. Please don’t be an Aqua Bomb, please don’t be an Aqua Bomb. My fingers scrambled to pry his arm away from his chest.
He was gripping the metal cylinder, breathing hard through his teeth. “Sookay,” he forced out, “stings, but the drug’s working.”
“Tell me which way to go!”
“Keep moving down this hall. Make a left at the double doors on the left.”
I grabbed his gun and shoved it back in his grasp, trying not to focus on the blood spilling from his chest. It leaked and trickled around the cylinder lodged in his skin. Throngs of Invaders filled the halls, their lean skeletal legs bending and snapping as they charged for us, but their efforts to attack were in vain. Kale’s pain was lessening, the drug taking effect. I could feel it moving through my body too, a fuzzy, euphoric high zipping through my veins at lightning speed. Bullets and hot metal cylinders grazed my arms and cheeks but no pain registered. Each nick and scrape barely caused me to flinch.
With our newfound strength, Kale and I lifted our heads and powered forward side by side, charging ferociously through the packs of creatures, delivering bullets to each and every one as we soared by. Just as we reached the blue double doors, two Invaders grabbed hold of me, their exquisite, strong fingers closing around my neck and shoulders. Another grabbed Kale, and he jerked forward to shoot and cover me, but he didn’t need to. The two Invaders dropped me as if they’d touched something hot, and those ghastly screams ensued, unfurling from deep in their lungs. They began to retreat, lowering their heads in submission.
The Invader that grabbed Kale didn’t let go. Kale’s eyes widened in surprise as the others continued to retreat, struggling against the creature restraining him. I raised my gun to take care of it, but Kale drew his knife and slammed it behind him, into the Invader’s torso. The creature sank to the ground, its pale arms and legs going limp, and I fired a bullet into its skull before reaching for Kale and rushing through the double doors.
“What was that?” Kale panted.
“I don’t know. It’s happened before.”
We picked up our speed, running next to one another down the hallway. Kale halted at a chrome elevator door, bringing his fingers to a screen on the wall. His fingertips flitted over it, moving strange images until the door hummed and opened.
“We have five minutes,” he said. “If we’re lucky.”
We dashed into the elevator, and I prayed to God that the Invaders didn’t somehow shut it down with their superior technology. I shifted from left to right, unable to remain still. The swamp smell was making me nauseous, and the elevator’s speed wasn’t helping. I turned to check on Kale’s chest, looking for a way to dislodge the weapon. “We have to get this out of you and get you bandaged up. If the drug wears off while it’s still inside you—”
“No time for that.”
“We better make time! I can’t make it out of here alone.”
“You won’t have to,” he shot me a sad smile. “Jet will come for you.”
I yanked myself into him, gripping the sides of his jacket, burning him with my gaze. “We’re not leaving you here to die.” Dropping to the ground, I swung my bag from my back and around my hip, digging inside for the med supplies Kale had packed.
Jackpot.
An antibacterial injection. I’d only ever heard about these, had never seen them in the flesh, but one glance at the long syringe made me sigh in relief. I recognized the drug name immediately. Before the Invaders arrived, before my parents were taken from me, I’d seen news about it on television. My mom was a nurse. She’d cited GuardCore Antibacterial Injections as the most innovative advancement in the pharmaceutical industry in the last twenty years. Seeing what the invincibility drug Kale had given us was capable of certainly eclipsed GuardCore, but who knew what kind of crazy side effects we’d have to worry about when that stuff wore off?
Without asking, I stuck Kale with the needle and emptied its contents into his chest, making quick work of his shirt buttons to expose his bloody skin. He didn’t object, just stared down at me, his dirty-blond hair flopping when I brushed at his chest with my shirtsleeve to get a better look at the wound. “You might feel this,” I said, moving fast before he could protest. I lifted my knife and plucked the weapon from his chest, using my palm to put immediate pressure on the area the second the bomb lodged free. Ripping my sleeve with my teeth, I used my free hand to tear off material and press it onto the wound. “Hold that.”
“We’re almost there—”
“Just one more second.” I dug through the first aid supplies, peeling a string of gauze from a medical tape roll. I slapped the gauze over the wound and taped over it, then tossed the remaining supplies back into the bag. “That’ll have to do for now.”
“Thanks.” Kale eyed me curiously. “Skylla, what happened back there … it wasn’t the first time?”
“No.” I dropped my gaze to my feet. “It’s weird, right?”
“I was going to say … amazing.”
Before he could continue, the elevator door opened and I was assaulted with another ripe wave of putrid swamp water. I gagged and squinted as we stepped out, eyes watering. He ushered us toward another chrome door, gaining access by drawing more strange symbols onto the door’s screen.
“Where are they?” I asked, shooting cautious glances right to left. “I thought the entrance to Central Control would be crawling with them.”
“I thought so, too,” Kale murmured. “You ready?”
I nodded, not sure if I was really ready for whatever was on the other side of that door. My mind jumped to Jet and his search for Hera. I wondered if he’d made it that far.
I forced my thoughts to halt, unable to imagine the other possibility.
The final chrome door glided op
en, and the wind was knocked out of me as Central Control was revealed. Kale dashed inside, but I stood, stunned, my gaze drawn to the round, clean room. It was clinical and cold, but provided with the perfect dash of warmth by the crystal-clear tank that lined its walls. The round tank was filled with an array of marine life, fish I’d never known existed, and rich, intricate plant life that beckoned me to dive in and touch it with my fingertips. The green was greener than anything on Earth, the water the clearest I’d ever seen. It was purely magical, reminding me why I was so drawn to the water.
Surely, something this beautiful couldn’t be sinister after all.
“Sky, you with me?” Kale’s voice floated toward me. His back was to me as he positioned himself in front of the main console, already going to work, busy typing and sliding images and commands all over the computer’s panel, mumbling to himself while he moved. My gaze fell on the seven planet models and I stilled, suspended in fascination. The wrong kind of fascination. I should’ve been horrified to see the truth for myself, but I wasn’t. I wanted to reach out and touch the spinning blue globes as they hovered in the air over the control panel, wanted to run my fingers over their continents and marvel at their beauty.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I replied absently.
“Good, I need your help. I’m going to make sure all the Shepherds are activated and loaded into the dock Capsules. I need you to watch the door for incoming. And oh, also keep an eye on the seventh planet prototype. It should alert us as the remaining Shepherds activate. Only two lights should be missing.” He paused and lifted his gaze to mine.
“Missing?” I asked, my voice jumping.
“Yes.” He nodded solemnly, his eyes softening as he continued to hold my stare. If I wasn’t mistaken, there was an apology lurking there. A genuine one. “I’m one of them,” he said.
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