The Dead Prince

by Alejandro Betancourt

  Seconds later, she feels a sharp pain in her lower back, and she collapses.

  Chapter 20

  Zack finally makes it home. He knows he has to be quick in getting his parents and sister out of there; Blake stays outside to keep an eye on things. As soon as Olivia sees Zack, she rushes to him and gives him a big hug. Zack looks at his parents and can't avoid feeling a bit sad for them; they seem so vulnerable now that he knows the truth.

  "Are you okay? What's going on?" Jim demands.

  "Well... it seems that Olivia and I are the heirs to the Euperian throne, somehow. But I have a feeling you and Mom probably already knew that."

  Jim looks at his son and then turns to look at Isabella, who stands motionless, a troubled expression on her face.

  "What the... what are you saying?" Olivia asks her brother.

  "Your biological father and mother are King Uphu and Queen Liaj," Isabella says in a rush. "But you're our children, too. We were entrusted to take care of you, and we love you as if you were born to us."

  Just then, Zack's phone starts to beep. He looks at his watch and then at his parents and Olivia. "We have to leave, now!"

  Olivia jumps when the doorbell rings. This is followed by hard, frantic banging on the door. Zack is scared frozen, but Jim loads his pistol and points it at the door.

  "Zack, open the door!" It's Blake. Before Zack can react, Blake blasts down the door. "We need to leave right now!" he shouts to the astonished family inside.

  Blake hustles them out of the house, and they jump into the car. Zack gets into the driver's seat; Jim and his wife and daughter sit in the back. Blake approaches the car from the front passenger side and throws in a tracking device, before telling Zack to drive north to their fishing hole. He'll follow if he can.

  Zack presses on the accelerator, and the car's tires scream to life just as a UNSTF van full of agents veers in and blocks their path. Blake jumps over their car, to the astonishment of Jim and his Isabella, and force-blasts the van, the burst of power shoving it out of the way. More cars pull up; Blake continues force-blasting the stream of cars as they arrive at the scene. With his bare hands, he literally rips apart those few agents who are able to bail out of the crippled government cars and are bold enough to engage him up close.

  Zack is astonished by Blake's impressive display of destructive power, yet he knows he can't stay there admiring his guardian's work any longer. He slams his foot on the gas pedal and races the car down the street toward the expressway.

  ❖❖❖

  The speedometer reads one hundred miles per hour as the Parker family speeds down Route Six toward Matamoras Bridge. Jim and Isabella hold tight to their seatbelts as their minds churn through the day's unexpected events; Olivia cries softly to herself. Her brother's revelation has left her utterly distraught. She realizes that her life has changed forever; she and her family will now be treated as fugitives.

  As the car approaches the bridge, a sudden movement in the car's rearview mirror catches Zack's eye. Three SUVs, followed by a pair of sedans, are about a hundred yards behind and gaining fast. He looks up to the sky and sees the flicking blue lights of a drone flying practically on top of them. Seconds later, the SUVs are right on their tail; their headlights light up his car. One of the SUVs bulldozes their car off to the side of the bridge. In one big whoosh the car skids across the divider and smashes into the guardrails, causing the car alarm to shriek and the airbags to deploy. When they scrape to a stop, Zack and Jim lie shaken but unhurt, but Olivia can't move and Isabella's limp body lies right on top of hers.

  "Olivia, we're going to be fine," Zack says. "I need you to force-field us."

  Olivia tries to summon her powers, but her left arm is mangled and jammed between the twisted car frame and the seat. "I can't move. My arm is stuck."

  Zack takes a deep breath and force-blasts his car door to get out. He hears two agents shout at him to drop to the ground and raise his hands. Zack pushes himself out of the car, and in mid-air force-blasts the first agent. The second agent points a gun at him with a frightened expression on his face and slowly moves back to check on his partner.

  Zack ignores the threat and moves to the passenger side of the car. Using his superhuman strength, he pulls his unconscious mother and his bruised and battered sister from the wreckage. His father tries to squeeze himself out of the car through a window, but Zack tells him to remain inside for his own safety.

  Zack sets his mother on the ground next to the car. Olivia, holding her injured left arm with her right hand, stands beside him. They slowly move away from the car with their hands raised. A pair of agents approach them with their guns drawn.

  "Stop and put your hands behind your back!" an agent behind a SUV shouts. "No monkey business with those powers of yours!"

  Zack looks at his sister and smiles. She smiles back. Sis, when I distract them, send the most forceful blast you can muster toward them and be ready to throw up a shield.

  I'll be ready, Zack.

  Zack slowly moves up in front of his sister to conceal her from the agents. He then puts his hands behind his back and lies down on the ground. Now! he mind-shouts, and Olivia sends a blast of energy in the agents' direction. Fireballs hit two SUVs, causing them to go up like Roman candles. Zack rolls over, rises to his knees, and sends a force blast of his own at their attackers.

  The agents that have escaped injury send a barrage of bullets in Olivia and Zack's direction. Brother and sister take cover behind their wrecked car as Olivia throws up a protective force field. As bullets hit the outer shield, they start bouncing off in all directions. Subsequent bullets start getting caught in the shield's protective layer, signaling that the force field is losing strength. "I can't hold it up for much longer!" Olivia shouts.

  The shield vanishes seconds later, and she collapses to her knees, exhausted, as the bullets caught in it moments earlier patter to the ground. One of the bullets makes it through to slam into her chest, and she crumples.

  Zack sees three figures running down a mountain slope toward them. One of them is Blake; Wally and Eva follow close behind. Wally leaps forward and lands right in front of where Olivia lies on the ground, turns around, stares furiously at the UNSTF agents menacing their friends, then plunges forward to engage the enemy. The agents start firing at him in earnest; but despite taking bullet after bullet, Wally arrives at the swarm of agents cowering behind their vehicles and starts furiously swinging punches at them. Blake joins Wally, harnessing fire from the burning SUVs and turning himself into a human torch. He dashes into the pack of UNSTF agents, burning down everyone in his path.

  Zack remains behind the wreckage of the family car, trying frantically to stop his sister from bleeding to death. Eva approaches from behind, touches Zack on the shoulder, and kneels next to him. Zack is taken aback. "Eva," he says gently, "I — you can't —"

  Ignoring him, Eva focuses on Olivia, who is hemorrhaging her life onto the dusty pavement and having trouble breathing. Eva gently lifts Olivia's head and says, "This might sting, Odilia, but it will heal you." She then rubs her hands together and lays them on Olivia; the bleeding stops, and to Zack's amazement, the pool of blood starts retracting into his sister's body.

  Meanwhile, Blake sees Wally drop to the ground, finally overcome. Just as he's about to rush to his friend, two stealthy, armored helicopters rise over the bridge, having approached covertly from below. Blake freezes for an instant; but as the choppers start shooting in their direction, he tears into motion, convinced that their best chance for survival is to get to the other side of the bridge.

  As he runs to alert the others, jinking from side to side, missiles launched from the helicopters hit the pavement around him; they can't get a lock on him, but the shrapnel and shattered pavement they kick up sting. Zack enters this new fray, jumping up onto one of the burning SUVs, drawing the fire down as he absorbs its energy output, and sends a tremendous force blast toward the helicopters. Olivia, now completely healed thanks to Eva'
s efforts, raises her arms and throws up an extended half-spherical force field around them all, to insulate everyone from the bullets and the missiles coming from above. Only air can get through.

  Zack smiles, seeing his sister standing strong. Blake shouts at everyone to walk over the bridge to the other side, to make their escape through the woods. Zack runs toward his father and signals for him to get out of the car. When he realizes that Jim isn't moving, he pulls his father carefully from the car and places him in a fireman's carry over his shoulders. Meanwhile, Blake is carrying Wally, and Eva and Isabella are up front with Olivia right behind both of them, maintaining the shield as it moves along with them. She struggles to morph it enough to keep from dragging debris along with them, but manages to maintain its integrity.

  The group halts their advance as UNSTF agents appear at the far end of the bridge. Zack looks behind him and sees agents in formation advancing from the other side. The protective field soon dissipates, and Olivia is too drained to muster another one.

  "It's over, Zec!" Ambassador Jabieko shouts from inside the helicopter. "If you resist us, you will die!"

  Zack looks around and sees Isabella kneeling, holding Olivia's hand. Olivia and Eva stand next to each other, glaring at the helicopter. Blake lays Wally against a SUV and holds his hand over Wally's chest, trying to stop the loss of blood from multiple gunshot wounds.

  Zack lays his Dad gently on the pavement in front of him. He can't read any thoughts coming from Jim, certain that the only father he remembers, the only father he's ever known, is dead. The erstwhile prince closes his eyes, knowing the end is near. He's failed his parents, sisters, friends, and his race. Seconds later, he feels the agony of an electric shock that consumes his body. His regenerating powers try to combat the shock, but the voltage keeps getting stronger. He looks behind him and sees wires from a Taser attached to his back. He tries to overpower the pain and reach the wires; but before he can, he falls head-first to the pavement.

  Chapter 21

  A bright flash of light forces Zack to open his eyes. It takes him a couple of seconds to regain his sight, and when he does, he finds that he's no longer on the bridge. The only thing he can perceive, floating in front of a purple background, is the ghostly figure of an older woman. He feels like he's seen this woman before, but for the life of him, he can't remember where or when. "Zec, my son," the woman says clearly, "your story does not end today." She strokes his forehead with her finger. An explosion of light blinds him once again, and he feels an incredible surge of energy suffuse his entire body, reminiscent of how he felt the night of the school dance fire.

  When he opens his eyes again, he's back on the bridge, sitting up. He turns to the agent holding the Taser. The agent squeezes the trigger, sending another electrical shock through Zack's body. Zack, unfazed, stands up and pulls off the wires off his back. He's glowing with supernal energy that makes him as radiant as an angel — an avenging angel, ready to take the fight to a deserving enemy.

  It's clear to the enemy that this is a defining point, and that if they don't win now, they never will. "Kill them all!" Jabieko shrieks into his comrade from his helicopter, which lags behind the others. All the agents open fire again.

  To no avail.

  Zack instantly draws upon his new energy reserves, taking hold of his own powers as well as those of the other Azhalians around him. The fires of the burning SUVs snuff out, the UNSTF agents feel a wave of weakness, and the air goes as cold as a ghost's kiss. The bullets coming their way puff into dust as he absorbs their kinetic energy. Zack lifts a dense force field to shield his group, steels his skin, closes his fist and then, with one powerful punch, strikes the pavement with such force that the bridge shatters and everything falls. In midair, he refocuses the force field to protect his parents, sister, Blake, Eva, and Wally, defending them from the fall, falling debris, and the cold Delaware River water.

  As the bridge continues to crumble, concrete fragments and shredded metal tumble into the river, taking agents and cars into the water with them. An enraged Jabieko orders the helicopter gunners to fire toward the river.

  As they turn to do so, a missile hits the tail of one of the gunships, blowing off the counter-rotor. "We've been hit; we're under attack!" he pilot shouts over the radio. As the chopper spins helplessly down toward the river, unable to stabilize, the sky lights up as fireballs are launched from below. The helicopter carrying Jabieko swerves abruptly, but is hit by a fireball and twirls down onto the river's edge, auto-rotating just enough to make the crash survivable.

  Jabieko slowly opens his eyes as the water rushes in. He tries to unbuckle himself, but it's jammed. He uses his alien strength to tear off the seatbelt. He checks on the pilot and copilot, but they're unresponsive. He pulls the helicopter door open and sees agents rushing toward him.

  "Sir, are you okay?" the first agent to reach him asks.

  "I'm fine, but see to the crew." Jabieko hops down and looks toward the sound of gunfire and what appears to be artillery. "Who's attacking us?"

  "We're not sure, sir. We're getting hit from three different locations, but we're holding our ground and we have backup coming. They're two minutes away."

  "What about those Euperian kids?"

  "No information on them yet, sir."

  "Get me the hell out of here and find those kids!"

  ❖❖❖

  Blake carries Isabella out of the water, and tells the other to follow him. Eva crawls toward them as Olivia looks around and weeps. Soon, they enter the forest on the other side of the bridge.

  "We've lost Wally and Jim, but Zack is still alive," Blake consoles them as they cluster together. With a flick of a hand, he uses carefully directed heat to dry their clothing and hair, and warms their bodies enough to offset hypothermia. "We'll find him once we get to safety." His words ring hollow; for the first time since he became Zack's guardian, he cannot discern his king's presence. At their nods of acknowledgment, they continue their march through the forest — until minutes later, when two unknown individuals, a man and a woman, come into view. Both are armed with what appear to be submachine guns and wear full tactical gear. Blake signals the group to stop; he sets down Isabella on the leaf litter and settles into a wide stance, both his hands bursting into white flame.

  "We mean you no harm!" the woman shouts. "We've been sent by Dr. Buchanan to get you to safety."

  The tall, muscular man starts walking toward Olivia. Eva steps in front of her and begins gathering energy. Frost forms on the tree limbs and leaves within 20 feet of her.

  "I mean no harm," the big man says, his breath visible in the sudden cold. "I just want to give this to Olivia; it's from the doctor." The man takes a small wooden box from his jacket pocket and holds it out. Stepping forward suspiciously, Eva grabs it and passes it to Olivia. Olivia opens the box and sees an engraved pen.

  "They're telling the truth," she says instantly. "I gave this pen to the Cannon for his 50th birthday."

  "Where's Zack?" the woman asks.

  "We don't know. We lost him after he destroyed the bridge," Blake responds.

  The man glances at the woman. "I'll go find him. Take them to safety."

  "Let's go," the woman commands, and knowing it's their best chance, they obey. Blake picks up Isabella in a princess carry, like before, and they follow, alert for betrayal or further UNSTF attack.

  ❖❖❖

  "I see him."

  Aaron jumps into the river and swims to Zack's floating body. He grabs him and pulls himself and Zack back to shore. Janice helps Aaron drag Zack to dry ground.

  "He's still breathing," Aaron says, relieved.

  "Good. We need to move now. UNSTF reinforcements have arrived, and our people won't be able to hold their positions much longer."

  Aaron arranges Zack's body on his shoulders and stands. Preparing to move out, he tells Janice something he'd never let himself dare hope he might get to say: "Let Matt know we have the king."

  THE END

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