Valiant

by Merrie Destefano

  Justin has his bat, and I have my switchblade, the red laser glowing like a beacon of death.

  “Gabe, stay down!” I yell without looking behind me. “Get out your switchblade, just in case!”

  No one is getting my brother. Not today.

  Then the ground wavers unexpectedly beneath me. I stumble and fall, sliding off a car to the pavement as the universe shifts and a thousand silver mirrors surround us.

  I push my way to my feet, and Justin is beside me.

  “Gabe!” I cry out.

  Reality changes, an alternate universe peeks in at us. A door to the future opens, and two Xua step out. Right in front of my brother.

  “No!” Justin yells. “Gabe, get away from them!”

  “Leave my brother alone!” I cry.

  Justin and I clamber over another pile of cars, trying to get to Gabe. My hands keep slipping; my feet can’t find purchase.

  One of the aliens talks to Gabe, tilting its head as if speaking to a child who can’t understand. Gabe looks back over his shoulder at me.

  “Use your switchblade!” I yell as I make it to the top of the heap of cars. “Or your knife! Kill them!”

  Gabe frowns, then he spins around, switchblade glowing and ready to slice the alien open.

  That Xua must have known what Gabe was going to do, because it swerves to the side, then it knocks the blade out of his hand. Like it’s done this a hundred times before and knows exactly how to win this fight. The blade clatters to the ground and skitters under a nearby car.

  I’m running and sliding and climbing, Justin a few steps ahead of me.

  We finally make it to the median, but we’re not fast enough.

  The last thing I see is my brother’s face when he turns back toward me one last time. He yells out my name, and I know he’s scared. He did everything I told him; I kept him alive all night long, and none of it saved him.

  The Xua grab my brother and pull him through the doorway.

  Into the future. Into another world.

  I have failed.

  Part 2:

  Hunters

  25

  Justin and I stand beneath a knot of freeway overpasses. Everything above and below is concrete, blue-gray in the half light of a late winter afternoon. Shadows fall across us—the shadows of technology, always moving forward, part of our continual race toward a better life, a race that includes our current space program.

  Years ago, back before I can remember, the government ran our space program. Supposedly, it was part of our desire to “reach out to the universe and see if there’s anyone else here besides us.” Stupid idea. That original program failed, even though we still had a few probes wandering about through space.

  Meanwhile, our central government slowly lost power. In its place, the individual states and a few mega-corporations rose up. Whoever had the most money gained control and, oddly enough, whoever had money always wanted more. So when our last experimental probes finally returned from Titan fifteen years ago, JPL-NASA was formed, and the first publicly funded space program began. We were promised jobs, a better economy, a decrease in crime—a whole list of promises went on and on—if we would only invest.

  As a result, somewhere above us, the Valiant hurtles through the heavens, aimed like a bullet at Titan. Somewhere below us, the earth shudders at the mistake we’ve made.

  My brother is gone, taken by the Xua, an enemy we’ll encounter when we’re mining on Titan. The aliens will come over a distant mountain range, drawn by the sound of our machines. They’ll discover how easy it is to slip inside our bodies, and they’ll add us to the ever-growing list of species they want to dominate and devour.

  We’ll find out there really is something else out there beside us.

  And it’s pure evil.

  I curse, slamming my fist against the cement median. The Xua have something horrible in mind for Gabe. I just don’t know what it is.

  “I did everything he said!” I shout, not caring if I attract attention. Why bother? I’ve already failed. “We made it through the night and it didn’t work!”

  “Sara, it’s not your fault.”

  Justin’s behind me, trying to make me stop. He grabs my arm and holds it still.

  “Why couldn’t I fix it? Nothing I do changes anything!” And I’ll never get another chance. I know for sure now. Aerithin would have come already if he were still alive.

  Tears stream down my cheeks, and my throat aches. Justin drops the bat, then wraps both arms around me and pins my fists to my sides. I’m yelling again, but this time it’s more like a primal scream. “Why are we even still alive?!”

  “Calm down, dammit!” he says. “You’re hurting yourself.”

  “I don’t care!”

  “I do.”

  He presses me up against the median and straddles me, arms on both sides of mine. For once, I hate the fact that he’s so strong.

  “Let me go,” I say, my eyes narrowed.

  “I can’t handle this, Sara. You have to stop. Please!”

  He has blood smeared across his cheek and his hair’s wet with it. At first, I wonder if it’s his blood. Then I remember that bat, how he was swinging it to protect my brother. “Gabe.”

  That one word comes out like a sob, rattling through my rib cage, taking all my breath and my strength. My legs sag, and if Justin hadn’t been holding onto me, I would have collapsed on the ground.

  His arms are around me, his warmth seeping into my bones. Part of me wants to relax, to sink into him, but I can’t. Instead, I let out a wail so loud it feels like it soars across the galaxy. It destroys asteroids, it explodes planets, it turns suns into black holes.

  “Aerithin was wrong,” Justin says. “He had to be.”

  I look at him, not understanding, my brow furrowing.

  “Listen to me,” he says. “Surviving the night may not have fixed everything—”

  “It didn’t fix anything!”

  “I know. But that doesn’t mean it’s over.” Justin pulls me closer. “Because it’s definitely not over.”

  “That’s easy to say, but it’s not true.”

  Tears stream down my face. I worry that I’ll never stop crying.

  He lifts my chin gently with one hand, then leans in closer and kisses me.

  “It’s not easy to say,” he says. “None of this is easy. My heart is breaking, too.”

  I lean my head on his shoulder, my eyes closed. I take in a long, shuddering breath.

  Then he whispers words that give me hope.

  “It’s never over. Not for me. Not as long as you’re alive.”

  For an instant, I forget that we’re standing in the midst of a battle zone. This isn’t the end of the world. It can’t be.

  His words echo in my heart, and one last tear slides down my cheek.

  Maybe there is hope.

  Maybe.

  If he’s here with me.

  Then the world shakes harder than I’ve ever felt before. A jagged, sharp, soul-punching shift.

  “What the—” Justin looks around. “That’s not an earthquake, is it?”

  I shake my head. Something really bad is about to happen, and we both know it. I can see it in his eyes, a panic, a cold, dangerous pit of terror, and we’re both about to fall inside.

  “We have to get out of here,” I tell him.

  Justin’s fingers lace with mine; together we climb and vault our way back across the freeway, and I worry that I won’t be able to keep up with him. But he doesn’t leave me behind—he would never do that. He stays with me as we race across the first two lanes of cars and bodies.

  We make it to the top of a car in the last lane.

  “They’re here,” I say.

  We both see it, a million mirrors reflecting us, a million Saras and a million Justins, a mill
ion cars that stretch out into infinity.

  Justin puts his arm around my waist, and together we leap to the ground. It feels like we’re falling through space, like we’ll never land on earth again, like we’ll just keep falling and falling past planets and asteroids and moons.

  Then the reflections disappear.

  We land on the pavement.

  Now an army without number lines both sides of the 405 freeway—southbound and northbound, as far as I can see in either direction—Jumpers all ready to attack. Some of the aliens are probably Hunters, but I can’t tell which are which. They all stand side by side, all facing the center of the freeway, thousands upon thousands of them, all focused on their Leader, who walks atop the median. One hand raised above its head, it’s ready to give the signal.

  Then a bank of clouds blocks the sun, and I see the Leader in mock twilight.

  A chill rushes over me and I freeze, remembering the frenzy that rolled down the riverbed just last night in Snake City.

  They’re going to do it again.

  “We can’t stop,” Justin says in a low voice.

  He tugs at my hand, and we back away, slowly, trying not to be noticed. We step cautiously past the ripped bodies of the Xua-possessed people who had been chasing Gabe, all of them dead now.

  Justin and I make it to the ramp, then start walking faster, past the cars with the broken windshields and the crying woman. Blood spatter stains her face and the sleeve of her blouse has been ripped off. Her hands tremble as she turns toward the freeway, her dark eyes mirroring what’s happening out there.

  “You have to get out of here!” I say as we jog past her.

  But instead of running, the woman stares open-mouthed at the Xua army behind us. A frenzy is about to form, and it’s going to start rolling through the suburbs. We have to get out of here, fast.

  Justin grabs the woman by the wrist and pulls her with us.

  Behind us, the skies darken as the host of Xua burst into smoky vapor.

  My feet pound the pavement as we race through suburbs that used to be peaceful but are now peppered with dead bodies. Despite what’s happening, no sirens wail in the distance. No one’s coming to help us. We’re all alone.

  It’s just the three of us.

  But maybe, just maybe, the human race is going to survive somehow. Maybe we can still win this war. We have to, because I’m not giving up.

  I can’t give up, because I’m so in love with Justin that it hurts.

  It’s time to come up with plan C.

  26

  Downtown Santa Ana peers at us on the horizon. A skyscraper burns in the distance, flames licking the side of the building, thick clouds of smoke keeping us in an eerie, unending twilight.

  We’ve been running for almost twenty minutes before I realize we’ve been going in circles. Fortunately for us, the Xua frenzy headed north of the freeway instead of south. Otherwise, we’d be dead.

  Justin continues to lead the way, and I try to stay focused, but everything inside me is numb. All the streets here are two-lane blacktops, and every house either has a picket fence or a thick hedge. Everything looks completely normal, like in a dream. That’s probably why I unintentionally guided us here. I wanted to pretend everything was better than before. Like maybe one of these houses belonged to me, and my parents were inside, waiting for Gabe and me to come home.

  It’s a dream I’ve had for many lifetimes, that one day my family would live in a little house like this, that my parents wouldn’t sell drugs anymore, that Gabe would be safe, that Justin would be my boyfriend…

  But I’m not going to focus on dreams anymore. I need to focus on reality. And winning this war. I don’t know how we’ll do it yet, but I can’t let Gabe die for nothing. I’ll just have to find a way to save the world myself.

  The woman who was with us breaks away, rubbing the skin sites on her jaw. “It’s so quiet. I can’t stand it,” she says. “What happened to the music and why isn’t my Raja yoga program on?”

  I stare at her for a moment, before I realize that she’s an Addy and her skin sites must be broken. She’s not only in shock; she’s probably going through withdrawals.

  She gazes back at me, a look of torment in her eyes. I wonder if she remembers what happened on the freeway or how long she’s been standing beside her car. Before I can ask if she’s all right, she lopes away from us, mumbling something about her husband.

  At least she remembers she had a husband.

  It’s important to remember the people we love.

  I slow to a stop, one arm clutching my side, panting for breath. “We need to find Natalie and Billy.”

  Justin nods.

  “I’ll come up with a plan once we’re together.”

  “I know you will.”

  If I didn’t feel like my world had caved in on the 405, I’d smile at his faith in me.

  I’m pretty sure I’ll never smile again.

  A few bodies litter the ground, but it’s impossible to tell what happened here. No lights shine in nearby houses even though it’s starting to get dark. We jog off at a slow pace, passing several car wrecks, bodies still curved over steering wheels or slumped against passenger-side doors. In two of the accidents, we discover a trail of bloody footprints that lead away from the cars, as if some of the people survived and walked away.

  “Is that a fire truck?” Justin asks, a note of suspicion in his voice.

  He points down the street, and we both stare at it for a moment, hesitant to move closer. The truck is a block away, flipped on its side like a discarded toy. Several bodies are strewn beside it on the ground, their limbs twisted and broken. This must have just happened—the wheels on the truck are still spinning.

  The Xua who caused it could be nearby.

  “We need to get out of sight,” I whisper. We’re heading into the shadows of a nearby alley when a police car rolls down the street, driving slowly. The officer at the wheel spots us.

  “You kids better get home,” he calls out. “We just put out a seven o’clock curfew for Orange County. Anybody caught out later than that’s gonna get hauled in to jail.”

  A curfew? In the middle of the apocalypse? I glance at Justin, and he gives me an almost imperceptible shake of his head. This guy isn’t a real policeman. Either he’s a looter wearing a cop uniform or he’s a Xua. I don’t know which one is worse.

  He stops his car and examines us, maybe noticing the blood on our clothes. “You need a ride?”

  There’s something in the backseat of the police car, but I can’t tell what it is. A body, maybe. And there’s a smear of blood on the back door. I shift closer to Justin. “No, we’re almost home.”

  The man eyes us. “You two know anything about what happened over at Century Unified High today?”

  A shiver floods through me as I remember that group of kids possessed by the Xua. Justin shakes his head. “Nope. Sorry, Officer.”

  He stares at us for a long moment. “Well, I’d stay away from that part of town,” he eventually says. “There’s been a lot of looting and vandalism over there. Go home and stay there, okay? Where did you say you live?”

  “Fountain Valley,” Justin lies, and he takes my hand. We’re both ready to run if we have to.

  The cop nods, then drives off. I wait until he’s out of sight before I look at Justin. “It was almost like he knew exactly who we were. I think he was Xua.”

  Justin nods, wiping sweat from his forehead. “I was thinking the same thing. But if he was possessed, why would he let us live?”

  I have no idea, but we need to get out of here just in case he changes his mind. I cup my left hand around my ear, trying to contact either Natalie or Billy. All I get is static. “We need to hook up with Natalie, Billy, Ella, and Gabe—”

  I instinctively include Gabe in that list, and when I do, his name catches in my th
roat. I blink and turn my head away. I don’t want to, but I start crying, deep sobs, and I can’t catch my breath. I feel like I’m going to curl in a ball and it’s taking all my strength to stand up.

  Justin pulls me into the shadows of a nearby house, where no one can see us. Then he gently rests one hand on my shoulder. “Go ahead and cry,” he says. “We’re safe here.”

  I lean into him, my arms around his waist, my head on his shoulder, drawing strength from him. I need him more than anything right now.

  Justin touches my chin with his hand, gently lifting my face until I can look at him. He wipes away my tears.

  The look in his eyes breaks my heart. Losing Gabe was as hard on him as it was on me.

  “I’m sorry,” he says, his voice thickening, his words coming out slowly, like he’s trying not to get too emotional. “I did everything I could.”

  “I know. This isn’t your fault; I know it isn’t.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  He pauses to flex his hand, stretching his fingers then clenching them in a fist, his skin speckled with drops of blood. A grimace settles on his face as he tries to scrape the blood off with his fingernails. “I did stuff—stuff I can’t talk about.” He pauses, and a long silence wraps around us. I remember that bat, the bloodstains on his shirt and his face, the bodies I saw lying on the ground between the school and the freeway.

  “I’m supposed to be the ‘hero,’” he says, tears forming in his eyes. “I mean, I’m the guy who’s been genetically altered for things like this, and I just failed my most important mission ever. I love him, too.”

  Then he can’t say any more. He leans forward and buries his face in my hair.

  I close my eyes and try not to get swept away by the pain. It feels like my heart is cracking in two.

  “We’ll get through this,” I say. “You’ve always been there for Gabe. And me.” I pause to take a shaky breath. “I was so worried you would both get caught; I’d already lost Gabe, and I thought I was going to lose you, too. I can’t… I just can’t… I don’t know what to do, not yet. But we’ll figure it out. Together.”