Darkness

by Kyle West

  I pulled Anna along, pushing her in front of me. She ran toward the corridor.

  I reached a hand backward to assist Ashton. The old man gave me his arm, and I pulled him toward the corridor.

  More dragons slammed into the hull from above, forcing the ship further downward.

  “Come on!”

  Anna pushed me into the ejection pod. Ashton lost his balance and was about to fall backward into the bridge from which we had climbed. I grabbed his arm, and Anna grabbed my torso. Together, we pulled Ashton into the pod. I slammed the door shut.

  A second later, I was pushed back into the door as the pod shot out from the ship. I floated upward inside the pod, then slammed into the ceiling from the drop. From the port in the door I saw only misty gray.

  A pair of hands pulled me backward, forcing me into a seat. I felt straps cover my body and snap into the buckle. Anna tried to do the same for Ashton.

  “Help me lift him into the seat,” Anna said.

  I helped pull on Ashton. As we fell down and down, somehow, someway, he managed to strap himself in.

  “Now,” Anna said.

  She pushed a button near the door. Suddenly, the pod lifted up again. She had deployed a parachute.

  I could see nothing outside from the port. I could only hear the wind, whooshing by...

  From somewhere distant, I heard a crash and explosion. Aeneas had fallen, crashed into some mountain where it would rest forevermore. We floated downward. I felt my breakfast come up, and forced it back down with great difficulty.

  A few seconds later, a massive thud jolted us all. Our seats bounced up and down on springs, obviously built with suspension.

  Then the pod started to roll. But it only rolled once before sliding to a stop.

  Our panicked breaths filled the pod, clouding the window.

  “Everyone alright?” Anna asked.

  I nodded, though there was little point to such a gesture. It was too dark to see anything. We were pointed away from the sun, and the clouds were so thick that little dawn light found its way inside.

  “Ashton?” I asked.

  He was quiet, his head slumped to the side. A trail of blood snaked its way down from the corner of his mouth.

  “Oh no...”

  Anna unstrapped her safety harness, making her way to the scientist. She placed two fingers on his neck, waiting a moment. Another.

  “He’s alive,” she said. “He must have passed out from the G-forces.”

  From above, I heard the wail of dragons. At least three shrieks sounded as they circled above.

  “They know we’re here,” I said.

  “So does Gilgamesh,” Anna said. “These pods have tracking devices built in. As long as we stay here...”

  Ashton stirred. “That is not advised.”

  “Ashton!”

  I unstrapped myself from my seat.

  “I’m fine,” Ashton said. “Thanks for asking.”

  “We need to move,” I said. “Those things could knock this pod down this mountain for good.”

  “How do you know we’re on a mountain?” Anna asked.

  “Because we’re surrounded by them.”

  “Now, don’t fight, you two,” Ashton said. “Let me just get this door so we can get our bearings.”

  Ashton stood up on unsteady legs, reaching for the latch. Frost had already collected on the outer shell of the pod.

  “Must be cold out there,” Ashton said.

  “Like I said,” Anna said. “It would be best to stay here until Gilgamesh comes.”

  “If it comes,” I said. “We have no idea if they’re okay, too. We need to get out and see what’s going on.”

  “Unfortunately, all of our cold weather gear was on that ship. We wouldn’t last thirty minutes out there.”

  Anna had a point. At the same time, oxygen was also a commodity, and this pod sure didn’t have a lot of that.

  “We can’t stay in here forever,” I said. “This air’s already stale. We need to get out and scout around. Hell, maybe the ship didn’t crash too far away. There might even be supplies we can use.”

  “I don’t know, Alex. I guess it’s worth a try.”

  I nodded, and reached for the latch. It felt colder than ice on my bare hands. I took a deep breath, and opened it up.

  And was greeted by an image of frozen Hell. Gray ice covered everything, and a tall precipice was only a few feet away, falling seemingly into colorless infinity. It took all of my gumption to step out of that pod. I was rewarded by slipping and falling on my butt, only to slide further toward the ledge.

  “Whoa!”

  I reached out, grabbing a rock that felt hot to the touch. No, not hot. Cold. So damn cold that it felt like a stovetop.

  I switched to my other hand to take some of the pain off. Already I felt my bare fingers going numb.

  “Alex!” Anna was standing in the doorway. She was too far away to reach me.

  “Hold on,” I said. “I’ve got this.”

  I reached my other arm up, pulling myself along the ice to where I was sitting on the rock. The pod was just a few feet up the ledge, sitting atop some more rocks – an island in a sea of ice. If we had landed just several feet to one side or the other, the pod would have surely fallen off the cliff and we would have died.

  Well, that death probably would have been less painful than what we were about to face now.

  I saw ahead about a hundred feet in every direction before thick dust cut off my vision. The harshest of all winds, like the devil’s breath, blasted me from the side, chilling me to the bone.

  We wouldn’t last an hour out here.

  “Get back inside,” Anna said.

  That was easier said than done. I had to cross the ice again, and if I fell, I might not be lucky enough to catch myself this time.

  There was no way I was staying out here. The dragons were gone for now, but the cold was my worst enemy. If I could get back in the pod, we could wait for Gilgamesh to pick us up. If there was a Gilgamesh left.

  I took a careful step – then another – before slipping again. The ice was just so smooth and sloped. Anna was there to grab my arms. Together, she and Ashton pulled me inside the pod. As I sprawled on the floor the door slammed shut behind me.

  “Well,” Ashton said, breath clouding the pod’s interior, “there’s our answer.”

  “All we can do is wait,” Anna said.

  ***

  For hours, we did just that. We huddled in the back corner of the pod. The air had barely warmed and was already stale.

  “Should we open the door again?” I asked.

  Anna shook her head, shivering. “I’d rather suffocate than feel that cold.”

  Ashton said nothing at all, closing his eyes.

  “Don’t die on me, Ashton,” I said.

  “I’m not dying,” he said, raspingly. “Just taking a little nap, is all.”

  “That’s how you die in the cold,” Anna said. “Just stay focused.”

  Focused on what? It wasn’t like that would make Gilgamesh...

  The sound of an engine swooped from above.

  “There it is!” I said, standing. “They’re alive!”

  Anna shook her head. “About damn time.”

  Even Ashton managed a small smile.

  “Come on,” I said, moving for the door. “We have to get out.”

  I forced the door open again. The sun was at least shining a bit, but it had done nothing to warm the air. The cold was even more unbearable than before. We had to bear it, though. Just a little while longer.

  I tested a step on a rock just outside the pod door. It held because it was not covered with ice. The ice ended about six feet to my right. There was no way I could jump that distance, so I would have to slide down the ice, angling myself to the right until I hit the bank of rock on the other side. However, I had to stop myself before reaching the precipice just ten feet downward.

  It was risky, but there was no other way out.

/>   “Here goes nothing,” I said.

  I pushed out as far as I could, sliding both down and away from the pod. I reached out for a particularly large rock, grabbing with both hands. Thankfully, it held my weight. I pulled myself toward it, rolling onto the rock and off of the ice.

  “You expect me to do that, boy?” Ashton asked.

  “I’ll give you a boost,” Anna said. “Alex can catch you.”

  Ashton shook his head, his white hair blowing wild in the wind. Already, his lips were blue.

  He knelt on his knees, and Anna shoved with all of her might. Ashton shot across the ice – far faster than I expected him to – and started to slide down toward me. I reached out, grabbing him by the arms. Thankfully, enough of his momentum from Anna’s push allowed me to pull him the rest of the way. He slid right on top of me, cursing.

  When he rolled off of me, Anna took her turn. She slid with ease down the ice, grabbing the rock as I had, albeit with more grace. Her katana was strapped to her back; at least it had been saved.

  I stood, and I could now see a good ways over the cliff. The sun had broken through a lot of the dust, and below, between the mountainside and another mountain, I could see the wreckage of Aeneas. Fires burned throughout its hull, snapped in two. Metallic pieces of the ship littered the packed snow and ice, like a gigantic insect that had been stripped of its exoskeleton.

  “Come on,” Anna said. “There’s nothing for us there.”

  She pointed upward, toward the slope. Barely discernable on the wind was the sound of Gilgamesh’s fusion drive.

  “It’s just over that rise,” she said. “Come on.”

  She struck a course up the slope, picking her way carefully. Ashton and I followed her trail.

  Finally, we came to the rise. The bright sun shined, and the glacier upon which we stood was blinding. Two men stood at the bottom of the ship’s boarding ramp, waving us on board. Probably Michael and Julian. Each toted a semiautomatic rifle. I didn’t remember them having those.

  I started forward a few steps. Anna grabbed my arm.

  “What?” I asked.

  Then, I saw. Ashton’s face was pale in a way that had nothing to do with the fierce cold.

  I read the name along the hull of the ship. Orion.

  This wasn’t Gilgamesh. It took a moment for that thought to register.

  This ship was not Gilgamesh.

  Then, my eyes drifted above the name of the ship to rest on a man who stood on the ship’s bridge, watching us. A smile was on his lips, and a familiar, almost friendly gleam was in those brown eyes...

  There was no way.

  It was Emperor Augustus of Nova Roma.

  Chapter 24

  I didn’t know whether to run, hide, or scream. The Emperor of Nova Roma had somehow caught us in the last place we expected to see him: the sub-zero mountains of Wyoming on a cold, late December day.

  I fell to my knees, not even caring about the sting of the cold glacier through my pants. I was done. I had fought as much as I could. We were as good as dead, whether we ran from that ship or toward it.

  I had to decide between a bullet and the cold.

  “Come on,” Ashton said, pulling on my arm.

  He walked forward a few steps. Realizing we hadn’t followed, he turned around. Anna and I stared at him, uncomprehending.

  “You kids want to die out here or what?”

  Of the three of us, Ashton should have been the last one to urge us forward. Augustus had an axe to grind with him. Because of Ashton, Augustus hadn’t been allowed inside Bunker One. I supposed Augustus was fairly happy with the way things turned out, seeing that Bunker One fell in 2048. Thirty years later, Augustus was getting his reunion.

  Ashton resumed his forward march. Anna and I looked at one another for a moment before forcing ourselves onto weary feet. My hands and feet were so numb I couldn’t feel them and my lower legs were starting to feel the same way. We had to get inside to warm up.

  We caught up to Ashton. The two guards flanking the boarding ramp motioned us onto the ship. They were covered head-to-toe in warm clothing, their outer layer a white, fur-lined parka. Masks covered their faces for further protection against the cold. Clearly Augustus had taken time to ensure his men were well-equipped – probably something we should have done ourselves. As soon as we started walking up the ramp, the blast door opened. I wasn’t sure what would meet us inside.

  When we stepped in, the air was warm but it would take a while for us to thaw. We stood huddled and shivering as the two guards came in behind. The blast door shut. I heard the boarding ramp retract.

  The two guards conversed in Spanish for a moment before one of took off his mask. I recognized him as Maxillo, Chief Praetorian of Nova Roma.

  “Maxillo!” I said, unable to restrain yourself. “You’re alive!”

  I’d last seen the Praetorian on the mountain road outside of Nova Roma. Along with his guards, we had been ambushed by a group of crawlers, and later, a xenodragon.

  He shook his head. “Yes. Only five of my Praetorians survived that night. Many in the city died. But we are here. The Emperor knows this is where the true battle will begin.”

  The deck of Orion vibrated as its engine thrummed. The ship was preparing for liftoff.

  From what I could see, Orion’s interior was exactly the same as Odin’s. Ashton had once mentioned that those two ships, along with Perseus, had been based on the same schematics.

  “Augustus has ordered that you seat yourselves until the ship is in flight,” Maxillo said. “For safety reasons.”

  Ashton muttered something about safety and his butt, but in the end, allowed himself to be led to the wardroom table. More Praetorians found a wall on which to support themselves in preparation for the ship’s liftoff. It looked as if Augustus had taken the time to select new Praetorians for his elite guard, only it did not look as if all twenty-five were aboard the Orion.

  As the ship lifted, I felt Anna touch my hand under the table.

  “We’ll be fine,” I said, opening my hand to hold hers.

  “The tracker,” she said. “That’s how he found us.”

  I looked at her questioningly. Then, I remembered what she had said about the escape pod. Each one was equipped with a tracking device so that another ship could find it. Only it wasn’t Gilgamesh, but Orion, that found us.

  I had no idea if Makara, Samuel, Michael, and Julian were okay. Had they crashed as well? Or had they gotten away? If they had escaped, then they would have saved us rather than Augustus.

  As these thoughts spun in my head, Orion stabilized and reached a steady cruise speed. My biggest question was how Augustus got his hands on a spaceship and how he had found someone to pilot it.

  Maxillo entered the wardroom from the corridor leading to the bridge. I hadn’t even noticed that he had left in the first place.

  “The Emperor will see you now.”

  We sat at the table for a moment before rising. Two Praetorians flanked the corridor. The one on my right reached out his hand.

  “Your weapons.”

  Begrudgingly, I handed over my cherished Beretta and my combat knife. Anna unstrapped her katana from her back while Ashton handed the other Praetorian his handgun.

  They waved us ahead, and I followed Ashton down the corridor – past the conference room and into the bridge.

  Already Augustus sat facing toward us in the co-pilot’s chair, a smile stretched across his face. Sitting in the pilot’s seat, still facing ahead, was a man I had never seen before. I looked at Ashton. Maybe he knew who this man was. If he did, he gave no sign of recognition.

  “Welcome aboard the Orion,” Augustus said.

  Below, the clouds sped underneath. From the LCD, we looked to be flying southwest. That would take us back to the Wasteland. California.

  Maybe even Los Angeles.

  “Where are we going?” Ashton asked.

  “No thanks for your rescue?” Augustus shook his head. “I should have sus
pected as much.”

  “We both know what this is, Santos,” Ashton said.

  Augustus frowned at the mention of his real name.

  “What is it then, Cornelius?”

  “Revenge.”

  Augustus laughed. “Revenge? For what? The sweetest revenge would have been to let you freeze to death on that glacier. I saved you because I believe the past can be forgiven. Especially when so much is at stake.”

  Ashton growled, but said nothing. Augustus turned his eyes on me and Anna.

  “Perhaps the two of you will be more accommodating. I’ve been waiting for this meeting so that we can start the final attack on Ragnarok Crater.”

  “Well, why now?” I asked. “Were you waiting until you were sure you could win?”

  Augustus smiled. “Very good, Alex. As you have recognized, it would have been foolish for me to have revealed myself until the time was right. After all, you see me as your enemy. I had to wait for the right opportunity.”

  “That’s an interesting way to put it,” Anna said.

  Since no one had asked, I supposed I would. “How did you rescue this ship?”

  “The old-fashioned way. Blood and boots on the ground. A couple of thousand died on the way there, but in the end we found our way to Bunker Six.” Augustus gestured toward his pilot. “Meet Jonas Sparks, of Bunker One.”

  The pilot swiveled in his chair to face us. He had blond, spiked hair, thick glasses, and pale complexion. He offered no form of greeting. He looked to be forty years old.

  “Jonas Sparks,” Ashton said. “Yes, I remember that name. Worked in aviation.”

  Sparks offered a bland smile. “I’m surprised you even know the name. It’s an honor, Ashton.”

  “Sparks found a place in Nova Roma,” Augustus said. “He found his way to my borders after Bunker One fell. He has a knack for technology. You can understand how I might be interested in someone with his abilities. Using Sparks to find the lost spaceships has been part of my plan all along. We knew where the spaceships were housed from data we had previously downloaded from Bunker archives. It was just a matter of reaching them and putting Jonas in the seat long enough to figure out how it all worked. And of course, Sparks took the liberty of disabling the component that allowed you to track us – meaning neither of you could see that both Orion and Perseus had gone online, while I could track the positions of both Odin and Gilgamesh – and, interestingly, Aeneas.”