by Clint Lowe
Cady gripped my hand tighter, a frightened grasp of a child.
“Don’t be insane,” I said to Dante, remaining in front of Tanton and Cady. “The ship’s about to blow. Let’s just leave.”
He shook his head slowly, keeping close aim. “Give me the rod, and you can leave with me,” Dante said, then his lip dropped into a snarl portraying an angry mobster. “But that boy who can’t grow a beard, isn’t.” He nodded for me to move out of the line of fire. “Step aside.” He was going to shoot Tanton no matter what I said. Even standing in front of Tanton, Dante would shoot through me if necessary. It gave me little option.
I did not want to reveal the rod. Part of me still wanted every ounce of money it was worth. But it had to be sacrificed. I plucked it from my pouch, and in a flash of my hand, I held it up toward the small embers of fire that burned above, threatening to plunge the source rod into the flame.
“Shoot either of them,” I said in my nastiest voice, “and this rod goes into the fire. Shoot me, and I drop it and it explodes.”
Dante’s eyes amplified. Two things would have startled him, one: the fact if the rod touched the flame, we all would be disintegrated, and two: he desired the rod’s riches.
Greed crawled over every inch of his body; you could almost see the green monster.
But I wanted the rod almost as much, perhaps more. Dante had as much money as the burning hell of this ship had heat, and he already had all the best houses and shuttles that man could afford; but me on the other hand, I needed a life: to get away from him and finally be free of the mob. This rod signified my life. It was my life. So it pained like breaking my own ribs when I said the words, “Let us leave, and you can have it.” Then I pressed the door button. “We take one pod. You and the rod take the other.”
As my words spewed out of my mouth, it felt like I was vomiting, heaving my very soul from my stomach. But after that initial rush of sickness subsided, much like real nausea, a soothing calm swept over my body because I defended a small girl and an honorable young man. And life with them on Cerulean – Cady’s laugh, Tanton’s smile, and perhaps that next kiss – would be so much better than life alone with all the riches. And so it was done. My new life would not be materially rich, but people rich.
Dante blinked, considering my offer. Surely it would be too good for him to turn down; he couldn’t resist the rod.
“Just give it to me,” he said.
I shook my head, waved the rod by the flame. “We need a deal.”
“You won’t plunge it into the flame,” he said. “You’ll kill the girl.”
I glanced down at Cady and she looked up at me. Her eyes were so strong for such a small girl, and in imitation of me, she shook her head no, and it was obvious what that meant, and so I said her words, “All of us together, or none of us.” And Cady squeezed my hand with a calmness.
Dante released an angry sigh that sounded like a lizard hissing. “I’ll take the rod,” he said, then as I began to lower it from the flicker of flame, he quickly turned the laser and pow, shot a blue streak into the pod’s door and automatic-release button. It sparked then burned a fire. The door was stuck slightly ajar, enough to squeeze through, but with the release button damaged, it would short-circuit the inside count-down button and the pod could never leave. Then Dante added, “But the janitor and girl stay behind.”
“You’re heartless,” I said, and the rabid gleam in his eye confirmed it. He was relentless, not even allowing us to leave once he had the rod. There is no way out of this, I thought. Dante has won. He always wins.
He commenced his approach and crept ever forward, black boots making an eerie clink clank as he stepped heel to toe heel to toe. In a moment he would be upon us, and there would be no chance of escaping in the pod. Once he was close enough to ensure his shots would not to damage the rod and he could catch it before my dead body dropped the power source, he’d kill us all, and that would be it.
There was only one thing I could think of doing: I slowly waved the rod in a circle, threatening to drop it and then placed it back toward the flame, threatening to ignite it. Dante smiled, believing it as hollow threats, but it was all distraction, not threats. Slyly I tapped Tanton's hand, then pointed toward the release button aflame, hoping he read my thoughts.
Dante crept closer, eyes focused on the rod and the flame, ready to shoot me if I plunged it higher. But with Dante’s eyes so absorbed, he wasn’t watching Tanton, and Tanton’s hand slipped out behind me and stuck my identity shield in the release button’s fire and reflected great light into Dante’s eyes. “Argh!” Dante called and ducked his head. It allowed time enough for us three to jump the passage and scramble behind the opened glass door and use it as a shield. Dante blazed away. The shield soaked up a barrage of laser fire, blue streaks blasting against it as flames burst out the side of the door. Dante pushed ever forward into the corridor. The shield gave us time, but soon he would leap out from behind the door and have us exposed.
The maintenance pod was opened before us, a tight squeeze for three and an uncomfortable journey to Cerulean, but it was possible.
But something was impossible.
“There’s no time to allow for the ten-second countdown,” I said. One would have to stay in the corridor and press the automatic release button.
All three of us could not escape.
One must stay behind.
It did not take long for me to make a decision.
“Tanton,” I said to him in a voice resembling a commanding officer. “Get Cady inside the pod.” Tanton took her hand, but was hesitating to leave without me. “I’ll follow, pressing the release button as soon as you’re in,” I said, then nodded toward the opening, my most serious expression.
It was clear Tanton knew there would be no time to scoot in. He stood there, lasers blasting on the edge of the door in spits and spats. Tanton edgily stared toward the corridor. It appeared he was about to rush out and tackle Dante in an attempt to get me and Cady off the ship. But he’d never make it. Dante would shoot him.
Tanton let go of Cady and took a step forward.
That was as far as he made it.
I had always dreamed of creating a life just for me. A life where I could have everything, and no one else mattered nor could they interfere. Now it had turned to the complete opposite, a split decision to sacrifice my life for another, two others.
You two will not die, I thought. You both will live.
I sprang from the door and shoved into Tanton and Cady. And despite longing to swim beside him in the waters of Cerulean, I said, “Sorry, I can’t go with you.” My face pressed against Tanton’s cheek. Our final touch. One that would stay with me for my brief remaining eternity, then I pushed them both back into the pod.
Tanton fell inside the maintenance pod with Cady, calling out “Evita!” but I slammed the pod’s shield closed, locked it, then stepped aside and pressed my hand to the release button. With an echoing Zoooong, outshot the pod. In the glimpse I had of it leaving, it left me with an image unforgettable: Tanton banging his fists on the glass, Cady crying with enough tears to fill the Cerulean rivers. But it was not a sad image, not for me. Seeing them escape to freedom gave me a feeling of life I could never imagine.
Then Dante grabbed me and slammed me into the glass wall. The glass didn’t break but I felt one, perhaps two of my ribs crack.
“You saved them and killed yourself,” Dante said right in my face, the anger in his voice matching the flames.
Fire gusted out of the ship behind us, proliferating into space. It would soon burn us into nothing. Dante turned to see it, the fire reflecting in his eyes. His eyes at once trembled with fear and a hatred of me. He peeled me off the glass and swung me around, nearly pulling my arm from its socket. Swiftly he snapped his arm around my throat, ready to squeeze what little air remained in my lungs. He then put the laser to my temple, forced me to look at the onrushing flames that were about to swallow our glass passage.
“I’m gonna shoot you right before we explode,” Dante said.
There was no way out of this death. Either the laser to the head or the exploding ship. At least either one would be quick, little more than a split moment of searing heat. I glanced at the last pod, the release button aflame, short-circuiting the connecting countdown button; I was so agonizingly close to escape. Then the flame burned hot to my cheeks and handed me a thought: I started this chain of explosions, and there is one last explosion I could cause.
With limited oxygen, I strained to tell Dante, “At least shoot me in the heart. A heart that was never yours.”
“Filthy whore,” he said, and shifted the laser from my temple to my chest.
My chance.
I snatched his hand and, with all my strength, managed to shift the laser up a few inches to my shoulder and pull the trigger. A burning-hot searing flash tore through the top of my flesh, and I screamed out in pain, but mingled with my screams was an agonizing groan from Dante.
I spun around to see the laser had skimmed the top of my shoulder but struck right into his shoulder. It was not a deadly wound, but enough for me to escape. Dante’s face screwed into hatred, and he tried to raise the laser, but his wounded shoulder slowed him. That bought me enough time to squeeze into the semi-opened pod as he fired shots into the shield.
Dante stood in the passage, clutching his shoulder and eyeing me. “The pod won’t release,” he said. “Like I’ll never release you.”
The countdown button was blacked out; the pod wouldn’t release; at least not by pressing the countdown or automatic release button. But there could be another way. I held up the rod, ready to cause the final explosion, praying it would work. “I’ll release myself,” I said, and Dante’s shocked eyes caught mine as he saw the rod in my hand. Despite thinning oxygen, I took the deepest, hardest breath possible – a breath that could be my very last – to try fill my lungs because there would be no time to close the shield. Then with careful underarm aim, I tossed the rod into the flames of the release button.
Boom!
The rod exploded with the tremor of a vicious earthquake, and it shot me and the pod out into the void of space like a shooting star. The remains of the ship and Dante erupted in an explosion of yellow and red-hot flame. The pod had shot clear of the ship but the glass hatch remained open, and I held my breath while the pod was spinning end over end and out of control.
I tried to press the button to close the shield, but the force and intense spinning flung me out of the pod. I reached forward and fingertip-snatched the rim, holding on as I spun, the oxygen in my lungs slowly evaporating.
My broken ribs burned as I tried to pull myself forward in an attempt to struggle back inside the pod, but the force swung me again and my fingers slipped from the rim.
Alone.
Floating in freezing cold space.
The pod was swirling before me, fingertips from reach.
My arms reaching, legs kicking.
Space and stars whizzed around me, a dizzying array of lights.
An image flashed into my mind, a vision of myself floating forever frozen in space. It wouldn’t be so bad, I thought, better than a life with Dante and his thugs. And at least Tanton and Cady will live. And that did it. The image of those two on Cerulean made me fight harder.
I must see them again.
Despite the cold pressing me, my mind clicked into a higher state, and I stopped flailing my arms and kicking wildly, and instead straightened my body until I was as stable and straight as the rod that blew me out here. My hands, fingers, every part of my body stretched forward, almost feeling like my spine was separating, making me a vital inch taller.
The pod swung and swung and swung round close enough for me to get a solid grasp of the rim. I drew my hands to my chest and rocked forward into the pod, pain rampaging through my shoulder and broken ribs, body feeling a strange fizz from the vacuum of space. I shuffled myself upright and leaned back into the pod and reached to press the shield button, offering the silent prayer Please oh please, God, don’t let it be broken, nor damaged from the explosion.
The glass was in tact, and quickly closed over me. It brought a wave of relief and a fresh load of oxygen that spread into the pod with a gentle woosh. The indicator showed the oxygen level rising, but I could not hold my breath until it fully returned. I opened my mouth and gasped and found the air hard to breathe, tight on my lungs. But the more I gasped, the more oxygen flowed into the pod, and with each breath came more oxygen until breathing eased.
My body slumped down into the pod like a doll lifeless, falling into a relaxed state I’d never experienced in my life.
It was so relaxing, a state so calm, free of the violent mob-filled world that had dominated my life, that I could have stayed in that pod, resting, watching the unfathomable view of the cosmos until my breath ran out. But now I had something more to live for: two people to find.
I typed Cerulean into the pod’s search screen, and the thrusters ignited in a quiet gush and began moving me through space. The pod moved by the burning remains of the Welkin and wove between pieces of shrapnel and the men and women floating with their eyes and mouths opened, expressions forever of horror. It would be impossible to forget the sight, but as I traveled out through space I did my best to concentrate not on death, but on life, and my new home planet.
Where there would be a new life.
A life with a little girl.
And a life with Tanton.
CLINT LOWE is a writer of fiction, fighting to go the distance with his dreams. His stories are a mix of the weird, the fantastical, and the heartfelt. He created the YouTube channel Write Heroes, where he explores the various aspects of the craft while showing viewers fascinating spots of the world.
He lives by the beach in Melbourne, Australia.
Write Heroes YouTube Channel http://bit.ly/2qa2wdYWriteHeroes
Amazon Author Page http://bit.ly/33yqbDGClintLoweAuthor
Newsletter http://eepurl.com/gsOvIj
Also by Clint Lowe and available at Amazon:
Swimming In Puddles https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L24SSNC
As an Indie author, I would really appreciate it if you left a review of this book on Amazon. And if you have read my book Swimming in Puddles, feel free to join the Swimming In Puddles Facebook Group to discuss how the story may have changed your life.
https://facebook.com/groups/421709215151847
