War_Apocalypse

by JC Andrijeski

  “Do I really look that different?” I said quietly with a smile.

  “Yes,” he said without hesitation. “I thought those pictures must have been doctored on the feeds. Or else it was someone else… that there’d been a mistake.”

  He squinted, as if trying to concentrate.

  “You’re… taller,” he said finally. “Your body’s totally changed…”

  He stared at my chest, and I felt a pulse of irritation from Revik, who sat beside me on the opposite side as Wreg.

  Jaden didn’t even glance at him. “…You look completely different, Al. Your face, everything. Even your eyes are different.”

  He hesitated again, staring at my mouth, and again I felt a ripple from Revik, one holding more overt aggression that time.

  “…Your smile,” Jaden said. “Your smile is the same. Your voice is… close. But something about that is different, too.”

  I shrugged, honestly more indifferent to his appraisal than anything.

  “Seers age different,” I said. “You knew that. I changed when I found out what I was. And when I got married.”

  Revik’s hand fell on my thigh, his fingers tightening there possessively.

  Jaden’s eyes followed his hand. He frowned, shaking his head.

  “Not like that,” he said. “Seers don’t age like that, Allie. You should have been a kid when I met you, right? I looked it up on the reference feeds. The pictures they showed of seers had them looking like kids until their twenties. I saw pictures of an eighteen-year-old and she looked about ten, in human years.” He hesitated, still staring at me. “Did you know? Did you know what you were? Even when we were together?”

  Again, I felt anger on Revik, that time hot enough that I flinched.

  He looked away when I glanced up, even as his light coiled a little deeper into mine.

  “No,” I told Jaden, fighting to hide my puzzlement at the intensity of Revik’s reaction. “No, of course I didn’t know then. I didn’t know until I left San Francisco.”

  “How did you find out?” Jaden turned his head, looking at Revik. Even with the drugs, his eyes grew colder, as did his voice. “Did he tell you?”

  “Yes,” Revik said, his voice openly hostile.

  Jaden frowned at him, a hint of revulsion in his face.

  I clasped Revik’s fingers where they held my thigh, pressing my leg against his where we were strapped into the crate next to one another.

  Looking at Jaden, I sighed. “You’re right. That’s the usual aging pattern for seers… but mine happened differently. It’s complicated, Jaden. I really don’t want to explain all that now.”

  Jaden glanced at Revik, his blue eyes darkening a few shades. Feeling another pulse off Revik as he noticed the hostility of the other’s stare, I gripped his fingers tighter, adding,

  “…I’m a seer, but I’m a different breed than most seers. So is my husband.” I emphasized the word ever-so-slightly. “The kind of seers we are, we’re able to adjust our maturation cycles to fit that of the species primarily responsible for raising us.”

  At Jaden’s deepening frown, I made an explanatory gesture with my hand.

  Jaden followed it with his eyes.

  “My parents were human, so I grew up human… mostly. But my physiology changed once I got around other seers. Particularly once I got married,” I added, again hitting that word harder than necessary. “Using my aleimi… my seer abilities… sped that up, too.”

  I hesitated, seeing Jaden’s confusion worsen, even as I wondered why I was trying to explain this.

  “Yeah,” Revik muttered. “Why are you trying to explain it?”

  Glancing up, I squeezed his fingers, fighting not to smile.

  Exhaling, I looked at Jaden.

  “Look,” I said. “Everything will be explained to you, okay? To all of you. Probably not by me, since clearly I suck at it…”

  Wreg snorted in amusement, exchanging a look with Revik.

  I elbowed Wreg, looking back at Jaden when Revik’s fingers tightened on my thigh.

  “Jay, look,” I sighed. “I’m tired, okay? All of us are tired. It’s been a long few weeks––”

  “A-fucking-men to that,” Wreg muttered, elbowing me back.

  Revik released me long enough to reach over me, smacking Wreg on the back of the head. Wreg laughed, smacking him back. “She started it…” he complained.

  Revik grunted, once more wrapping his hand around my thigh.

  Clicking at both of them in amusement, I glanced at Jaden, only to find his eyes on Revik’s hand on my leg. The drug exaggerated his frown as he stared, right before his eyes rose to Revik’s face. He seemed to be seeing him as real now, anyway. He’d gone from looking at him like a comic book villain to seeing him like a chained tiger.

  “Is he the one who taught you, Al?” Jaden said. “How to kill people, using that ale-emi stuff?”

  Revik abruptly tensed.

  I held up a hand to him, feeling almost like I’d stepped between them. I stared at Jaden then, my voice an open warning.

  “We’re not talking about that Jaden,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s none of your fucking business,” Revik growled.

  There was a silence. I saw Balidor, Wreg and a few other seers looking at Revik now, the smiles absent from their faces. They watched him warily, and I found myself tensing a bit at their expressions. They were looking at Revik as if he was a chained tiger now, too.

  Glancing at Revik warningly, I looked back at Jaden.

  “Just wait until we get somewhere, okay? I meant it when I said my team is tired. That includes me. And my husband. You might not want to poke that particular bear right now, Jay.”

  Wreg grunted humorlessly, glancing at Revik.

  Revik turned, scowling at him.

  Jaden clearly missing my warning, the staring seers, Wreg’s sarcastic grunt and everything else––or deliberately chose to ignore all of it. His eyes never left my face.

  “So you’re just… not going to talk about that,” he said, frowning. “I saw you, Al. We all saw you.” He motioned at Frankie, Angeline and Sasquatch. “We saw you kill people. You made that one guy practically explode. Now you just want us to forget all of that and trust you? And trust that murderer you married?”

  Feeling my jaw harden, I glanced at Revik. Revik’s stare at Jaden definitely did not seem calculated to reassure him about his safety.

  Frowning, I had to concede Jaden’s point. At the same time, I was really, really not up to having this conversation right now. Especially not with him.

  I began to wonder if we should just knock him out.

  “I’ll do it,” Revik muttered under his breath.

  I suppressed a smile, glancing up at him and squeezing his fingers.

  But Jaden wasn’t done, and now I could see the other humans watching us, too, listening to the exchange.

  “So what is that… list thing?” he said. “You said our names are on some Apocalypse list, right? What the hell is that about?”

  I leaned back on the padded bench, still holding Revik’s hand. It hit me how tired I was. I found myself fantasizing briefly about one of those special redeye, mocha coffee drinks they used to make me at the Third Jewel restaurant in the lobby of the hotel.

  Revik gripped my hand tighter, sending me more heat.

  Sighing, I combed my fingers through my hair. “That’s another long story, Jay.”

  Stop fucking calling him that, Revik muttered in my mind.

  I looked over at him, frowning, but he didn’t meet my gaze. I wondered if he’d sent that to me deliberately, or if I was just hearing him, with him sitting so close.

  I supposed it didn’t matter.

  “We really don’t know much about the lists yet,” I said, answering Jaden belatedly, my voice flat. I was about to close my eyes when Angeline spoke up, making me jump.

  “But isn’t it your job to end the world?” she said.

  When I
turned, startled, she looked at me intently from the other side of Sasquatch, her pupils larger than normal.

  “You’re the Bridge, right?” She motioned at Revik. “He’s the Sword. Doesn’t that make you, like, the senior two members of the Four?”

  I blinked, stunned into silence.

  “Yeah.” Frankie looked between me and Angeline, then pointed at her, as if she’d just remembered something. “Yeah… the Four. That’s the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, right? I read that. I remember. You’re the head honcho. And he’s your lieutenant?”

  Still staring at both of them, I fought to think.

  It hadn’t really occurred to me that my friends had been hooked into the feeds and the media hype around me and Revik for the past four years.

  The fact that they knew me personally would only have added to the local hype.

  They’d heard SCARB say I killed my mom and those innocent people on the cruise ship. They’d seen vids of me in D.C. and the accusations that Revik and I killed the President. They would’ve followed Revik’s and my estrangement and the media talking heads arguing about whether I was working with him while he conducted terrorist attacks with the Rebels.

  Clearly, they’d seen footage of me from the Registry job.

  They would’ve seen articles about me working as a prostitute for the Lao Hu.

  They would’ve seen the fan sites for me and Revik.

  They would’ve seen the crazy Myther prophecies about both of us.

  Glancing at the Bridge symbol tattooed on Frankie’s arm, I remembered that Angeline had been interested in seers and seer religion even back when I knew her. She was probably the only one of my friends who even knew what the newscasters were talking about, when they first started calling me “The Bridge.”

  “It’s not that simple, Ang,” I said.

  Hesitating, I shifted my head on the padded wall to look at her, then at Frankie.

  “That whole Four Horseman thing isn’t exactly a one-to-one translation from the seer myth. I don’t ‘cause’ the apocalypse. My coming is supposed to signal the Displacement is coming, yeah, but I’m not the one who makes it happen––”

  Wreg cleared his throat delicately.

  I glanced at him, frowning when I saw his quirked eyebrow.

  “––Well, not in all of the interpretations, anyway,” I said, a little more grumpily.

  Hearing Revik snort, I went on without looking at either of them, my eyes and words focused on Angeline.

  “Either way, the Myths agree on my purpose,” I said, a little louder. “I’m supposed to be here to help humans, not kill them off. The translation from Prexci to English on this is mostly crap, so I get why human scholars wouldn’t see it that way, but they’re wrong. The seer language imputes a lot of concepts around the evolution of light in all beings, not just seers and humans. Animals, too, and beings from other planes of existence. Even other galaxies, and creatures that haven’t evolved yet. A major concept behind the Myth of Three is that all of these species, at key moments in their history, are given opportunities to quickly advance their evolution. This can happen peacefully. Usually, though, they need a little push.”

  I shrugged, grunting.

  “…Sometimes a big push.”

  Feeling Revik’s attention on me, I hesitated, glancing up at him. Realizing I’d been quoting Vash, along with books Revik himself had given me, I felt my cheeks warm.

  “What?” I said, speaking low, only to him. “Was that not right?”

  It was right, he sent, smiling.

  I rolled my eyes. “Are you just shocked I’ve actually read a book since we met?”

  His smile grew, his eyes sharpening with a more intense light. You’re just really turning me on right now, he murmured in my mind. Is that wrong?

  I laughed. “We’re not supposed to do that right now,” I scolded, pushing at his arm as he gripped my thigh tighter. “Talk to me like a real person.”

  You wanted me to say that out loud?

  Shaking my head, I laughed, clicking at him.

  The others stared between us. Noticing their wide eyes, I wiped the smile off my face, realizing my and Revik’s interaction probably looked pretty weird from the outside.

  That time, Frankie broke the silence.

  “What does any of that actually mean, Allie?” Frankie said, pulling my eyes back to her. “Is this disease really supposed to ‘help’ us evolve? Because pardon me if, on behalf of the human race, we all say ‘fuck you’ to you and your evolution.”

  I exhaled in impatience. “I told you. We had nothing to do with this. We were trying to stop it. That’s why we went to South America in the first place.”

  “Well, bang up job,” Frankie shot back. “Stellar, Al.”

  There was a silence.

  Then Revik let out a low snort of humor.

  So did Balidor on the other side of him. I even felt Wreg smile from where he was massaging Jon’s shoulder with his good arm and hand.

  My mouth hardened though, even as I shrugged.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I really am.”

  There was a silence where all of the humans sitting across from us stared at me, maybe expecting me to say more, or maybe wondering what to ask next. When I glanced to my other side, I realized Loki was listening, too, a faint frown etched into his forehead.

  Truthfully, I’d assumed he was asleep. I found myself wondering if the other seers, strapped into seats on the other side of the crate, had been listening, as well.

  Just then, a sickening drop roiled my stomach.

  Something lifted the crate straight up without warning.

  Talei and Balidor described the lifts to us before we were locked inside the crate, so I should have remembered it would happen like that. Really, I should have warned the others, although presumably the seers who strapped them in would have done that already.

  In any case, the motion caught me completely off-guard, bringing bile instantly to my throat. I managed to control it, probably only because I’d dealt with worse in the past few weeks.

  Turns out, not everyone has my gag reflex.

  Sasquatch was the first to lose it, emptying the contents of his stomach within seconds of the crate leaving the submarine’s deck. Frankie followed.

  A few seconds after Frankie, Jaden coughed, shuddering in a kind of exaggerated wave before his body convulsed violently, too. He threw up on the floor of the crate right next to where Sasquatch had already decorated the metal ridges with bright yellow bile and chunks of whatever rations he’d been given in Albany before we left.

  Angeline looked overly pale through that first lurch of motion and flight, but she managed to hold hers down until the other three got sick. Then the smell must have hit her, because eventually she vomited too, her body wracked in a painful-looking arc as she forced out water and more brightly-colored bile.

  I closed my eyes. I tried to close my nose to the smell, too, but it wasn’t easy.

  Burying my face in Revik’s side, I tried to breathe in him, instead of the fumes. It only half-worked. Hearing the scattered chuckles and giggles from the seers strapped down around me didn’t exactly help, because then I wanted to laugh, too.

  From my other side, I heard Jax mutter, “Oh, that’s great. That’s just fucking fantastic. I thank you all very much for this experience…”

  At that, Revik, Wreg and Balidor lost it, bursting out in real laughter.

  I tried to hide my giggle in Revik’s jacket, even as he tightened his fingers in mine, kissing the top of my head.

  15

  STUPID HAPPY

  WE TRAVELED THAT way the whole route to the hotel, and although the motion was more of a vibrating rattle once the crate had been loaded onto a transport vehicle, I had to pee and the smell of vomit only seemed to get worse in the warm interior of the organic walls.

  When seers at the hotel finally opened the crate upon our arrival, everyone on the other side of the doors winced visibly back, grimacing fr
om the smell.

  A few of the seers on our side, initially Anale and Morlo, burst out in a fresh spate of involuntary giggles, even as they covered their mouths and noses with protective hands.

  As for me, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

  I unbuckled the restraining bands and practically vaulted over Jon and Wreg’s laps to get at the opening, still fighting that sick feeling in the middle of my chest that told me I could hurl at any moment.

  Wreg and Jon, then Jax and Holo, weren’t far behind, with Jon only semi-conscious as he leaned on Wreg’s good side.

  I watched as Jon fought to shake himself awake, blinking up at the sharp, staccato sound of hard sheets of rain hammering against the overhang to the deliveries area behind the hotel. Revik followed us out of the truck trailer a minute or so later, the delay just long enough for me to realize he must have helped unbuckle others on his way out. The realization gave me a twinge of guilt since the thought hadn’t even occurred to me.

  But yeah, only a twinge.

  Grinning a little, Revik jumped off the end of the truck.

  Seer medical techs were already surrounding the truck’s bed, ready to escort Jon, Angie, Frankie, Jaden and the other humans to decontamination and quarantine booths.

  Balidor, who now stood next to us along with Wreg and Jax, said it would take a few hours to get them all through, so we might as well go inside and eat. They had to ensure none of the humans had the disease; they’d also developed tests to determine if any might be carriers by now, too. Jon had to go through the process for that reason alone, even though he’d been tested already for immunity.

  Lucky for us, they’d already checked to make sure Sarks and Elaerian couldn’t be carriers, so we were off the hook.

  Wreg grumbled about the length of the process louder than anyone, which was funny, since he’d designed most of those protocols. Even he didn’t disagree that Jon should go through it with the others, though.

  Not far behind Revik, Sasquatch’s large form appeared out of the darkness of the truck bed, his face deathly pale as he blinked into the bright lights of the delivery entrance to the hotel.