by A. P. Kensey
“Quiet!” said Haven. “We’ll have to go in through the hole.”
“What’s your plan?” asked Bastian.
“I’m working on it.”
“Old Roku and I usually prefer the head-on approach,” said Bastian.
“Big surprise,” said Haven. She sighed. “Fine. Let’s swing around to the back and approach the tent from the other side. Hopefully we can catch them before they use the radio.”
“I’ll just fry the radio,” said Bastian with a smile.
“Actually, that’s a good idea,” said Haven reluctantly. “Ready?”
Bastian’s answer was drowned out by a loud explosion. White light burst out of the hole in the ground. Inside the dome room, people screamed. The white light disappeared, leaving only darkness. Soldiers shouted to each other down below, and above all the racket came the shrill voice of a young woman speaking rapidly and confidently.
Roku and Bastian shared a knowing look when they heard the woman speaking, but Haven didn’t recognize her voice.
“Now’s our chance,” said Bastian.
Haven nodded and the three of them ran out from behind the boulder. The soldiers were standing over the hole, aiming down into the black abyss. Haven, Bastian, and Roku were only a few feet behind them when the nearest soldier whirled around and aimed his rifle directly at Haven’s face.
“Awrite there, boys,” said Bastian with a grin. “You’re not much for security if you let us sneak up like that, yeah?”
“Identify yourselves!” said the soldier closest to Bastian. He moved forward aggressively and Haven took a step back.
“We’re selling life insurance,” said Bastian. Haven and Roku shared a wary glance. “Interested?”
The soldier pressed the muzzle of his rifle against Bastian’s cheek. “Call it in,” he said. The soldier next to him reached for the small walkie-talkie clipped to his bullet-proof vest.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” said Bastian, wagging a scolding finger at the soldiers. “I think ye should have bought that insurance.” Pale yellow fire crawled up his finger, and Bastian grinned.
15
Colton reached for the next rusted metal rung. The handholds were bolted to the inside wall of the dome like wide, square horseshoes with their tips stuck into concrete. As the rungs took him higher and higher from the floor, gravity pulled his body down with increasing force. The dome wall expanded around him in all directions like a wide field—he had to crane his neck all the way back to see the dim floor a hundred feet below. In the sullen blackness of the massive room, he was a tiny ant crawling up the wall of an upside-down bowl. A few rungs below Colton, Marius hung rigidly from a handhold, his arm looped around the thin metal handle. He closed his eyes and whispered softly to himself in Russian.
Each rung was about a foot away from the last, leaving a hundred rungs below them and another hundred ahead. At the halfway point, the roof slanted quickly inward on its long curve toward the ragged hole in the peak. Soon they would be moving from rung to rung along a nearly horizontal surface, their feet dangling beneath their bodies, far above the hard concrete floor. Even now, halfway up the rungs bolted into the wall, Colton had to lift his legs back up to the ceiling to hook his heels in place to stop them from swinging.
It didn’t help that every light in the room had gone out when Dormer’s bomb exploded. He must have rigged a short-range EMP burst along with some sort of disorienting flash bang—all of the soldiers that had been looking directly at the bomb when it exploded now stumbled around blindly, bumping into walls and each other as they scrambled madly about the room.
The Electro-Magnetic Pulse may have been enough to knock out all of the lights, but it wasn’t enough to hide the dim outline of the floor a hundred feet below. Colton swallowed hard and turned back to the metal rungs in front of him. He reached for the next and pulled himself up. His right foot slipped off and he dangled in the air like a kid on playground monkey bars, swinging gently forward and backward. Marius watched him intently—he would be unable to help if Colton slipped. If either of them grabbed the other in mid-fall, their combined weight would be more than enough to rip a ladder rung from its mooring and send both men plummeting to their deaths.
Colton hoisted his legs up to the ceiling and pushed down on a rung with the bottom of his feet. He took a deep breath and continued up toward the hole. There was more shouting below. Kamiko looked like a bright blue glowworm moving through the darkness, illuminating her immediate surroundings and leaving a trail of dark blue light behind her wherever she went. She barked terse orders and shoved aside any soldier she thought wasn’t doing his job.
She was calling out all of the residents of the Dome and lining them up in the middle of the room. A soldier with a clipboard moved down the line, checking off names. Colton climbed faster. He could hear Marius breathing heavily a few rungs down. If Corva hadn’t been so ill, he wouldn’t have been able to force himself to attempt the climb.
Colton counted rungs as they ascended. When he reached one-fifty, there was no way to keep his feet on the rungs. He hung in space, reaching forward and moving to the next rung with just his hands as fast as he could. Forward momentum was essential, and one slip would mean his death.
Bright red light ignited below as the soldiers produced flares from their vest pockets and cracked them open. Red sparks shot violently out into the darkness, casting long shadows on the kneeling residents of the Dome. Colton saw Noah and Micah sitting close to each other beside Corva. She swayed upright as if she was having a hard time staying conscious.
The rungs never seemed to end. One-sixty, one-seventy, one-eighty—Colton’s arms burned. His hands shook uncontrollably as he released one metal rung and reached for the next. The tendons in his forearms felt like they were slipping toward his elbows, tightening painfully and making it difficult for him to keep his fingers clenched around the rusted metal.
One-ninety.
He wasn’t going to make it. Colton stopped with both hands gripping the same rung. He hung there stupidly, swaying back and forth like a dangling piñata. Marius grunted behind him but Colton couldn’t even turn around to see what he wanted.
“Go,” said Marius quietly. He stuck out his leg and pushed Colton in the middle of his back.
Colton grit his teeth, swung forward, and reached for the next rung. His fingertips touched the rusted metal and slipped off. The momentum of the swing carried him backward. He bumped into Marius, who let go with one hand to grab Colton’s wrist and lift it back to a rung. Colton gripped the metal in relief, breathing heavily.
“Pssst.”
Colton and Marius looked around, confused. Neither of them had spoken.
“Pssssssst!”
The noise was coming from the hole. Colton strained to see. The tiny amount of ambient light from the night sky filtered down through the jagged hole in the dome room and pushed against the darkness within. In the gloom, the silhouette of a head popped down into the hole. Long hair dangled from the head as it turned to face Colton and Marius.
It was Haven.
She held out her hand for Colton. With new resolve, he swung his legs back, then forward. The movement allowed him to reach for the next rung, then the next, ignoring the fact that he couldn’t feel his arms, or his wrists, or his hands. He also ignored the acid sensation burning through the tendons in his forearms.
The next rung he grasped was softer than the others, and he realized it was Haven’s arm. She reached down with her other hand and grabbed him by the collar. He was hoisted out of the hole and onto cool desert sand. He closed his eyes against the chill night breeze, welcoming its touch against his burning face.
16
He opened his eyes and saw two other men sitting on the ground behind Haven as she lay in the sand, each holding one of her legs to keep her from falling into the hole. On the ground nearby were the unconscious bodies of three armed soldiers. Colton got out of the way as the two men holding Haven’s legs lowered her back into the
hole to retrieve Marius. He popped above ground, sputtering and gasping for air, then rolled over to lay on his back in the sand, his belly quickly rising and falling as he laughed softly to himself.
The lights in the dome room switched on. Bright light beamed up through the jagged hole. Colton backed away cautiously, knowing that the soldiers would be trying to catch a glimpse of the men stationed above.
“We don’t have much time,” he said, still trying to catch his breath. A man with short red hair and a freckled face helped him to his feet and brushed sand from his shoulders, smiling the whole time. “Who are these guys?” Colton asked Haven.
“Friends. This is Bastian,” she said, pointing to the smiling man, “and Roku.” Roku nodded and went back to watching the dark desert all around. Haven pulled Colton to the side and went through the same motions as Bastian, brushing sand from his shoulders and arms, but much more gently.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “How’s Noah? What happened?”
“I’m fine, Noah’s fine,” he said. The relief on her face was obvious. “There are a lot of armed men down there and some woman who says she’s looking for you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Kamiko Masura. You know her?”
The two men with Haven shared a quick glance, then looked away. Haven shook her head. “No, never heard of her. What does she want?”
“Whatever it is, it’s not good. She injected everyone with some kind of virus.”
“Fade,” said Bastian. He wasn’t smiling anymore.
“What’s Fade?” asked Haven.
“Marius will tell you all about it,” said Colton quickly. “I have to get back inside before they notice I’m gone and you need to get out of here.”
Haven looked at him like he was crazy. “No!” she said. “We have to get them out. We can’t just leave everyone behind. Not you, not Noah, not anyone.”
“You can’t do any good by making yourself a prisoner,” said Colton. “Kamiko is the new Phoenix. You can’t go up against her, Haven. Not without help.”
“I brought help.”
“It’s not enough. You haven’t seen anything like her before.”
“I don’t care. I made a promise to Elena and I’m not going to abandon everyone to die.”
“Like you abandoned us to go chasing after Lee in Chicago?” he said hotly, instantly regretting his words.
Haven looked away, into the desert. “Yes,” she said. “Like that.”
She suddenly reached out for him and drew him close. Her mouth found his and they kissed, softly and deeply, and Colton felt warmth bloom in his chest. His lips burned and he stepped away. Haven put her fingers to her lips and moved them through the light blue flame that wavered back and forth. The skin of her entire body was alight with a layer of flames unlike any Colton had ever seen. They shimmered back and forth in beautiful harmony, like a field of tall grass in a strong, shifting wind.
He touched his own lips and felt a small burn mark. “They took my ability,” he said. “They took everyone’s.” Physical contact had not been an issue between them until that moment, even though it had been confined to long hugs and holding hands. Once, while they hugged, Colton had brushed Haven’s cheek with his own and held it there, pressed against her soft skin until the blue flames ignited and flowed out from her and onto him. But it hadn’t burned—not like the kiss had burned. He had been able to absorb the flames and not feel a thing. Without his Conduit ability, his skin would burn with every kiss.
“We were just getting started,” whispered Haven. Her eyes filled with tears as the calmness in her face was replaced with anger. She took a step toward the jagged hole. Shouts echoed up from the floor below.
Bastian reached out and grabbed her arm. “There’s a cure,” he said. “Alistair designed the virus, and he made sure there was a cure in case he accidentally got infected.”
Marius, who had sat forgotten in the background, grunted loudly and got to his feet. “We will get it,” he said, as if it were that simple. “Then we come back to save the day.” He brushed sand from his pants and looked at the others with his eyebrows raised. “Well?”
Colton looked at Haven expectantly.
“I made a promise,” she said, more to herself than to Colton.
“You promised Elena you would try to keep everyone in the Dome safe. The best way for you to do that is to find the cure. We’re powerless without it.”
She reached up to touch his cheek but blue flame sprouted from her palm. She clenched her fist in anger and turned away from him. “We’ll return as soon as we can,” she said. Without looking back, she walked off into the darkness.
Bastian slapped Colton’s shoulder. “We’ll sort it out, mate. Say, you don’t get many scorpions around here, do ye?”
Colton looked at him and blinked.
“Thought not,” said Bastian. He smiled with relief and patted Colton on the back, then followed after Haven.
Roku walked past Colton and stopped. He looked down into the jagged hole of the dome room, the muscles in his jaw working. With reluctance, he followed the others.
Marius stood next to Colton. “Why you didn’t tell me you were staying?”
“I thought you wouldn’t climb the ladder if you knew the truth.”
“Maybe so.” He sighed. “Don’t worry, I look out for Haven.”
“And I’ll look out for Corva.”
Marius smiled sadly. He hitched his belt a little higher around his protruding belly and set off across the sand. The four silhouettes receded into the shadows until their outlines disappeared. A moment later, Colton heard the low whine of a helicopter motor and the slow spin of its blades cutting the air.
He went back to the hole and sat on the edge. He waited until the helicopter lifted off the ground and flew away into the night. The small blinking lights on the tail grew dimmer and dimmer, and Colton felt Haven drifting farther and farther away.
When he could no longer feel her presence, he leaned over the lip of the hole and banged loudly against the metal edge with his fist.
“Hey!” he shouted. The soldiers’ heads snapped up and they looked right at him. “Missing somebody?”
Kamiko glared up at him from the dome room balcony, blue lightning shooting out like whips to lick at his feet. Colton smiled and rolled onto his back in the dirt. There was no way he was climbing back down the ladder. Let them come and get him, if they could. He put his hands behind his head and spent his last few moments of precious freedom looking up at the distant stars.
17
The helicopter thumped low and quiet across the night desert. There was a silencing system built into the craft that muffled the loud whup-whup-whup of the blades, presumably to allow for stealth approaches and deployment.
The moon had finally risen and peeked just over the horizon, shining bright and full and painting long shadows over the small rocky hills and hard-packed dirt. It did not reflect against the exterior of the chopper, which had been painted flat black with no identifying marks. The paint seemed to absorb the moonlight and created the illusion that a black hole was floating over the desert. The chopper flew so low that swirls of sand puffed out on the ground below as Marius piloted the craft away from the Dome.
It looked like a giant wasp flying toward its prey. The body of the chopper was segmented near the back and gave the craft an insectoid appearance. Two long, heavy guns protruded from the front of chopper below bulbous black windows that looked like giant eyes. The overall impression was that of intimidation and malice.
Marius mumbled to himself from the pilot’s seat and reached up to flip a red switch that blinked quickly. As soon as he flipped it, the chopper shuddered and dropped a few feet in the air. The twin landing rails attached to the belly of the chopper momentarily scraped the desert floor.
Bastian let out a scared yelp and everyone in the chopper scrambled for a handhold. Haven wrapped her hands around a thick strap of nylon that was bolted to the wall next to the door.<
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“Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?!” shouted Bastian toward the front of the chopper. He sat in one of the six black seats lining the back section of the craft, right before the body segmented and dipped down toward the tail rotor. Even with the silencing system, the cabin of the chopper was obnoxiously loud.
“Pah!” said Marius from the pilot’s seat. “Put wings on a cow and Marius could fly it.” He reached over his head and flipped another switch. The aircraft smoothed out and ascended to its original cruising altitude. Marius looked back at Haven and winked right before another shudder ran through the chopper. He gripped the steering column firmly with both hands and turned away to focus on flying.
He had explained that staying low to the ground was a good way to avoid being detected by enemy radar; a trick he had learned during his military time in Russia. Haven was less worried about enemy radar and more worried about enemy tracking devices. They had all performed a cursory check as soon as the chopper lifted off the ground, but of course had found nothing. Haven wasn’t surprised. If there was a tracking device on board, it would be buried deep within the craft’s circuitry and nearly impossible to disable without ripping the instrument panels to pieces.
Marius banked the chopper to the left and Haven looked back in the direction of the Dome. She saw a tiny light on the desert floor—the hole that led down into the dome room. There were no headlights between the chopper and the Dome—no pursuing vehicles that she could see.
“So where we go, anyway?” asked Marius.
Bastian released the death grip he had on his seat and walked to the front of the chopper. The electronics on the instrument panel glowed bright green and painted his face a sickly color as he shakily sat down in the copilot’s chair. He spoke to Marius in hushed tones, and a moment later Marius changed course and headed east.
Roku sat across from Haven quietly, studying her. She returned his stare and he looked away slowly.
