by J J Hane
In the light from the hoversled it was difficult to see the hole burned into her torso. It looked like it was just low enough and barely far enough off center to have avoided hitting her right lung. At least, that was my hope. If her lung was destroyed, there wouldn’t be much I could do.
“Okay,” I said, studying the injury. She had obviously suffered a number of bruises and cuts, as well, but nothing else looked life-threatening. I held up the bandage and the spray. “I’m going to need to put these on your wound, okay? It’s probably going to hurt a lot.”
“Have you done this before?”
“Um. No.”
She hissed out a sigh. “You had to be a farmer. Couldn’t be a medic…”
“Farming is important,” I said defensively. “Also, you need to take off your jacket and lift your shirt up above the hole.”
She gave me a look.
I hoped that the reflected light from the hoversled’s headlight wouldn’t be enough for her to see my face reddening. “Not far, though,” I added hastily. “Just enough for me to get the bandage on.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, but she propped herself up on her elbows.
I had to help her get her arm out of her sleeve. We decided it would be best to just leave her left arm in the jacket rather than trying to get it off. I had her pull her shirt up just far enough to expose the blackened, puckered wound below her ribs.
That definitely helped keep my mind where it was supposed to be…
Solar rifles had a lot of advantages over the old projectile-based weapons that most people used before the Fall. They were a lot more accurate, lighter, didn’t jam, and they burned everything they touched. There was nothing I could do about whatever internal damage it had caused, but I could treat anything on the outside and hopefully prevent or, more likely, stop, an infection.
“How bad is it?” Serenity asked. She was looking up at the cloudy night sky, teeth clenched in pain.
“Well…” I began, but I didn’t know what else to say. Her flesh had swollen around the injury, cutting off a lot of the blood loss, but all the running and getting knocked around by explosions had opened the wound up again. “I’m sure it’s fine…”
Serenity laughed a little.
“This is going to hurt, I think,” I told her. That’s what they always said in the movies. How accurate were they?
I pointed the can of antibacterial spray at the grotesque injury and pressed the little button on the back. A heavy mist of clean-smelling liquid spurted out, coating the injury in a fine layer. Serenity hissed.
“Sorry,” I said. I sprayed again, making sure the whole area was covered well.
“No, it’s okay,” she said, her voice a little relieved. “That actually numbed some of the pain.”
“Their medical tech is pretty advanced,” I agreed, consciously speaking of them instead of us. I carefully wiped the area around the injury clean as best as I could before placing the thick bandage over it. When I pressed the sticky edges into her skin, Serenity caught her breath, her abs tightening, whole body turning to stone for a moment.
“Not all the pain,” she added after a moment.
“I’m so sorry, Serenity,” I told her.
“You’re not the one who shot me.”
“No, but…”
I didn’t know what I was apologizing for. She was right. I hadn’t shot her. I didn’t make her do any of the things that led her to that point in time. Still, I wanted to apologize. I wanted to tell someone how sorry I was about everything, all the problems that were, in a way, my own fault. How I’d gotten the city attacked, the mall destroyed, what I’d done to Mac…
“Raphael,” Serenity said, voice strong despite the pain she must have been in. “This wasn’t your fault. You were pulled into things much bigger than yourself. You’ve done what you believed was right from the beginning. That’s all anyone can ask of you.”
Maybe those things weren’t necessary completely my fault. Maybe they would have happened without my involvement. It didn’t matter. They felt like my fault.
I helped Serenity lean forward so that I could see her back, where the rifle shot had hit her, burning through her into the stolen hoversled. It was just as bloodied and, honestly, gross. Fortunately, as I had learned in a recent health class, the human back has fewer nerves, so it wasn’t quite as painful for her when I cleaned, sprayed, and bandaged that side of the injury. I helped her lay back down on her uninjured side, setting the medical kit beside her and covering her with the blanket.
“Okay,” I said when I was finished. “I’ve done everything I can for now. Look in the kit for pills labelled with something like ‘boosters.’ Those should help with the healing process, at least a little bit.” A thought occurred to me. “Can you, um, you know… Read?”
“I don’t know if you can see me rolling my eyes or not, city boy,” she muttered. She sounded exhausted.
“I’ll take that as a yes, then.” I got behind the hoversled controls again. “Which way?”
Serenity lifted her head enough to look around. She nodded away from the fires still smoldering around the hilltop. “That way.”
We set off in silence toward what I hoped would be the final confrontation. I steered with one hand, pulling out the device Hoskins had given me with the other. I had to dodge the shattered remains of the ancient city, as well as the many trees and bushes that had grown up to consume it. Broken buildings, rusted cars, and twisted metal poles rose up out of the darkness like specters of the past, shades clawing their way out of hades, echoing their former glory.
It didn’t take long to find Azrael’s army. The first sign that we were getting close was the noise: unified shouts, pounding drums, and the ongoing rustle of thousands of feet moving through the woods. There was an orangish glow up ahead, the diffuse light of hundreds of torches.
It was only then, as I saw the light extending through the woods, that I realized how large Azrael’s army really was. I also realized how many people must have been in that mall when it was destroyed.
I switched off the headlight, slowing even more as we got closer. “How are we going to find Azrael in all of that?”
“He’ll probably be at the head of the army,” Serenity replied from her place on the floor.
With a sick feeling of dread in my stomach, I angled the hoversled toward the front of the column of marching warriors. We were far enough from them that they wouldn’t be able to see or hear us, while I could track them with the light from their torches.
Suddenly, there was movement in the darkness ahead. I tried to swerve to avoid it, but a dark shape struck the open side of the hoversled, bouncing us off course and nearly knocking us into a tree. I jerked the wheel back out of instinct, causing us to slide sideways, the rear of the little craft striking something as we went, spinning us around. I slammed the brakes, forcing the machine to a halt.
“Don’t move,” a familiar voice ordered from behind me. I felt cold, sharp steel at my throat.
Chapter 22
“Margot?” I asked.
There was a noise of displeasure. “Ah. Our little monk has returned.”
The knife came away. I turned to see Margot perched on the hoversled like a bird of prey, watching my face in the near darkness, the lights on the control panels barely illuminating her scarred features.
“What news?” she asked, or maybe commanded.
“If we can stop Azrael from leading his army any further, the Martyrion won’t destroy them,” I replied, breathless from the sudden fright. “Also, can you please stop threatening me?”
“No,” Margot answered simply. “How do you plan to stop Azrael now?”
“I have an idea.” I looked around. “Where are the rest of the survivors?”
Margot growled in displeasure. “They refused to join me in fighting the traitor once they saw his might. Cowards.”
“What are you doing lurking out here?”
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
; Margot didn’t reply.
“Fine. Just point me to him.” I turned back to the controls, got the hoversled back on course.
“You’re keeping the girl alive?” Margot asked. It didn’t sound like a challenge, just a genuine question for once.
“Yeah. You might have notice that I’m kind of into the whole not murdering people thing.”
Margot snorted. “How very civilized of you. You’ll find your ideals aren’t going to be very helpful out here.”
“You’re not very helpful out here,” I muttered.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
When we finally reached the front of the army, I saw that we were at the very edge of the woods. Less than a hundred meters away was the buffer zone, with the Martyrion gleaming brightly beyond it. If they reached the buffer, I knew, the Archangel would destroy them all. Incidentally, it would probably destroy me, too.
I pulled around to a better vantage point, powered down the hoversled, and hopped off. “It’s now or never,” I told the scarred former general. “Are you coming with me?”
Margot seemed to consider her odds. I got the impression that she was deciding whether the glory of dying in a hopeless fight to save her people was worth dying next to me.
With a grunt of pain, Serenity forced herself up. “I am,” she said.
“You should probably wait here,” I said slowly.
She shook her head. “No way, city boy. If you’re going to face Azrael, I’m going to be there. These are my people we’re trying to save. Besides, I got you into this mess in the first place.”
“Fine,” Margot said, hefting her curved sword. “I’ll go with you two. You’ll be dead in seconds without me.”
“Thanks,” I said, trying and failing to keep the sarcasm out of my tone. “We’ll probably be dead in seconds with you, too.”
Margot seemed unconcerned with that little detail.
We hurried to approach the army as they moved steadily forward. The shadows, illuminated by the hellish light of scattered torches, resolved themselves into hundreds, thousands, of warriors. I could make out men and women, as well as smaller figures that I desperately hoped weren’t children. There were plenty of swords, spears, and axes in the front lines. There were also more advanced weapons: rifles, handguns, shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. I wasn’t sure how effective the Martyrion defenses would be against those things. If the army reached the buffer zone, it could get ugly very quickly.
“We must hurry,” Margot hissed. “They will see us.”
“Hang on,” I replied. “I need you two to block the light.”
I lifted the little Messenger device, activating the screen. A blue glow emitted from it, illuminating us. With a growl of annoyance, Margot moved to help conceal it. Serenity pressed closer to me, leaning on me for support while using her body to shield the light.
“What are you doing?” Margot demanded. “We don’t have time for your toys.”
“Trust me,” I replied, scanning my fingerprint, then my retina. “We have time for this toy.”
I typed in the password, and the screen switched to a camera-like view from the sensor on the other side. I lifted the device, pointing it at a tree that I hoped was far enough away from me and from the advancing army. There was a little targeting reticule in the center of the screen. I tapped it once it was aligned with the tree. It flashed red, a little prompt appearing.
Target input accepted. Engage energy transfer?
“What is that?” Serenity asked.
I tapped the little ‘Y’ to accept. The screen went blank, then switched to a scrolling series of numbers and letters that flew by without giving me time to read them.
“Let’s just hope this works,” I said. The code stopped scrolling, the screen going dark.
Ten seconds passed. Nothing happened.
Thirty seconds.
“We’re wasting time,” Margot insisted.
A full minute.
“It didn’t work,” I said, hopelessness flooding through me. This device was supposed to be the one advantage I had over Azrael. “Why didn’t it work?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Serenity announced. “We have to stop them, one way or another.”
I felt like there was a rock in my stomach. “You’re right.”
“Obviously,” she teased, forcing a smile.
We started walking toward the leading edge of Azrael’s army. When Hoskins had given me the device, I had been shocked. It had given me a hope of being able to persuade Azrael and his warriors. Without it, I was fairly certain that my mission to save thousands of lives was as doomed as ever.
We were spotted seconds later, thirty warriors rushing forward to surround us before we could react. The device back in my pocket, I held up my empty hands. Serenity followed suit, with Margot reluctantly joining us a second later.
There were shouts of confusion, questions for order, general chaos as the soldiers, some of whom were Jackals, found a supposedly dead general with a wounded girl and a city boy.
One man stepped forward, his gun pointed at the sky rather than at us. “General?” he said, uncertain.
“Jareth,” Margot said, lowering her arms back to her sides. “We have come to confront Chief Azrael as murderer and a traitor to all our people.”
Jareth looked confused. “What? That’s not possible. I thought you were killed…”
“I wasn’t!” Margot snapped. Somewhere in the back of my panicked mind, I was grateful for Margot’s unparalleled grasp of the obvious. “Thanks to this idiot child from the city, I and a few others were able to escape Azrael’s treachery.”
“But,” Jareth began.
“Quit arguing!” I finally shouted. All eyes turned to me. “We have come to talk to Azrael. Bring us to him, now!”
From the look on his face, I realized that my burst of confidence had poor timing. Jareth was, I thought, about to shoot me. The whole army had been coached by Azrael and by the destruction of the mall into a burning, emotional frenzy of hatred toward the city. To them, I represented that city.
Fortunately, that was when the Archangel finally got into position.
The sky above us lit up with the familiar white light of the Archangel. This time, instead of a wide beam to power the city, or a wider, red beam to slaughter thousands, the energy came down in a narrow stream, barely wider than a man, striking the tree I had targeted a hundred meters behind me. There was a brilliant, blinding white flash that threw everything into stark relief, followed an instant later by a roar of displaced air and the thunderous clap of the tree exploding, the area around it reduced to a glowing crater in the time it took to blink.
The burst of hot air nearly staggered Margot and I, and it did knock Serenity to her knees. The gathered warriors stumbled back, hastily throwing their arms over their eyes to belatedly shield themselves from the blinding light.
It must have been a pretty intimidating sight for the warriors who were facing us. Many of them simply turned and fled, while the remaining men and women backed up, looking frantically at the sky as if in the hopes of seeing the next attack in time to move.
“Well,” Serenity said over the ringing in our ears as I helped her to her feet. “That was certainly dramatic.”
“Come,” Margot barked, striding forward into the mass of troops before us, physically shoving out of her way anyone who hadn’t caught up to the situation yet. Once again, I was impressed by the ability of the outlander leaders to assume control by simply assuming they had control.
Supporting Serenity, I followed after the erstwhile general. It wasn’t a particularly dignified or impressive way to approach the leader of the tribes, slightly hunched and awkwardly shuffling until Serenity could get her own legs underneath her again. The warriors around us crowded closer, seeming to realize that just letting us by would probably look bad to their leader. Instead, they formed a tight circle, escorting us into the main body of the army.
Wading into the s
ea of warriors, I could see that it consisted of men and women of all ages. There were boys younger than me, women older than Margot, and everything in between. Many of them had visible signs of the diseases that kept lifespans short beyond the walls of the Martyrion: leaking sores, patchy hair, and the unhealthy thinness of malnutrition. Evidently, Azrael had put the least healthy members of his army at the front.
Those he hadn’t determined were too unhealthy to be of use to him, that is.
There were murmurs of fear and confusion as we passed, many of the people looking up to the sky, waiting for the bright light of the Archangel to erase them from existence. I couldn’t help but look up, too, the same fear tightening my chest. How long before the Council decided that the army was too close, too much of a threat? How long before we were all ashes floating in the breeze, along with all the civilizations that came before?
It was obvious when we were getting close to Azrael. The warriors we were passing looked much healthier. They were still thin, but it was the whipcord thinness of men and women who had spent their lives fighting. Their skin was clear, eyes alert: recipients of the medicine I had brought to try to save lives.
I felt my anger growing. So many betrayals.
At last, we broke through the masses of warriors out into an open area between the trees. Azrael stood in the center of the space, arms hanging loosely at his side, long jacket open to expose the two short guns he wore on his hips. His dark hair was tied back away from his face, giving his already sharp features a severe edge. The army fell still as the three of us approached.
Margot stalked forward, head high, eyes broadcasting a challenge.
“General,” Azrael said, quietly, unmoving. Once again, I was reminded of a snake waiting to strike. “I see your sense of self-preservation remains as strong as ever.”
“You treacherous, murderous, foolish boy!” Margot shouted.
“Diving in with both feet, isn’t she?” I whispered to Serenity.
The general confusion around us turned quickly to shock at Margot’s boldness. I could almost feel the air being drawn out of the clearing from the collective gasp. Murmurs spread rapidly through the army.
