"I know that you're attracted to danger. Have you ever thought that maybe that's why you're drawn to Benji? Because he is on the wrong side?"
I stood up, wiping the mud off my hands onto my jeans. Benji was so far from dangerous that I might have laughed if I weren't so offended. "He's on my side."
"I'm not arguing with you, Rory. We can't trust him. That's the end of it."
We continued walking, cold and exhausted. My breath puffed out a fleeting white mist with every other step. Dr. Z had been wheezing for the last five or so miles. Cy's encouragements came more often. He stayed at the helm, and the darker the night sky became, the more desperate he became.
When the sky began to show the first signs of daybreak, Cy's encouragements were louder, and he sounded more like a drill sergeant. "We must hurry. No more breaks! It's just over the hill!"
I sighed. The hill was five miles away. "We've got to get on the road, Cy! It will be so much faster."
Cy thought a moment and then nodded. "Agreed. Let's go! Let's go!"
The sky began to turn colors. Cy was a good quarter mile in front of me, and Dr. Z was farther behind me than that.
Cy turned back, and I waved him on. "It's okay! Go! We'll catch up!"
A low, throbbing sound came from the other side of the hill. Cy seemed to recognize it and took off in a sprint, more than a sprint. He seemed to have switched on the nitro and surged ahead. A few moments later, he disappeared over the hill. I picked up the pace, afraid that he would see Apolonia and leave before I could see him one last time. Dr. Z was falling farther behind.
"Hurry!" I called to him, but my voice was drowned out by the pulsating noise.
Just before I reached the peak of the hill, Benji's Mustang appeared from the other direction, stopping abruptly the second he saw me. The roaring thrum was so loud I couldn't hear him coming.
Benji jumped out, ran around the front of his car, and wrapped his arms around me as he crashed into me.
"Christ, Rory!" he yelled over the noise. "You're freezing!" He yanked off his coat and draped it around me. "Are you okay? I've been looking everywhere for you!"
I had two fistfuls of his shirt, burying my face in his chest. "I'm so sorry I didn't call you!"
He held me at arm's length to look me over. "You're covered in mud. What the heck have you been doing?"
"I..." I looked in his eyes. He wasn't waiting for me to give away all my secrets. He was genuinely confused and concerned. I had trusted Cy more than once during this crazy night. It was his turn to trust me. "How did you know to look for me here?" I was yelling close to his face like we were in a dance club. The pulsing noise was so loud that it seemed to drown out everything else, even my thoughts.
Benji glanced at the hill and then back at me. "Because that's where everyone else is."
"What?" I said, pushing away from him to run to the top of the hill.
Military vehicles were surrounding a large craft, every curve of its hull smooth but not shiny. Strange symbols spanned a quarter of its length, and the light coming from its underbelly seemed to glow from its casing. It was hovering just a couple of feet off the ground over the remnant foundation of the old gas station on the far side of the bridge.
"It's the Nayara," I breathed.
"The what?" Benji asked.
"Her ship," I said, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. There was no denying it now.
The Nayara had come to take Cy away. He would board her, and I'd never see him again.
"Whose ship?" Benji asked.
Dozens of soldiers had encircled the craft, most pointing their automatic rifles. Others were pointing Geiger counters or video cameras.
"It's been there for over an hour, just sitting there. I looked for you all night. When I couldn't find you and you didn't answer your phone, I figured you were...with Cyrus."
I turned to him, a little offended. "Seriously? You thought I'd just hop off your floor and get into Cy's bed?"
Benji looked ashamed. "I couldn't sleep, so I went for a run to blow off some steam. It passed right over me, and then I saw the Humvees heading this way. I ran back to my car and drove this way, thinking there would be a roadblock or checkpoint or something."
"Are there any?"
"A few orange-and-white barricades, but no one is manning them. I just drove around them. It looks as though they called everyone to the site once the movement started."
I glanced down, looking for Cy. I didn't see him, but I did see the man with crocodile boots standing in the middle of it all. No gun. No camera. Just staring at the ship with his hands on his hips.
"I don't know. I just had a feeling you'd be here."
"Benji," I said, looking up at him, "can I trust you? I mean, really trust you?"
His eyebrows pulled in. "Of course you can."
I hugged him tightly. "Thank you," I whispered, just as Dr. Z jogged the rest of the way to where we stood.
Another loud sound filled the air as I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It sounded like a dubstep foghorn. My hands automatically covered my ears to protect them. The noise was deafening.
The ship was lifting slowly into the air, and an LED-like glow lit up the edges of the ship. The Nayara was powering up. My ears were ringing. Benji and Dr. Z were tugging at their earlobes and moving their jaws around, too.
The sight was breathtaking. The lights and lithe movement of the ship were unlike anything I'd ever seen. It wasn't hovering clumsily as it lifted away from the ground, like one of our clunky mechanical crafts. No sound of an engine, just the pulsing of an electrical source. No scorch marks on the ground.
"Sweet zombie Jesus, I'm looking right at it and still don't believe it."
"Incredible, isn't it?" Benji said, keeping one arm around my shoulders, rubbing his hand up and down my arm, trying to warm me up.
Another sound, this one familiar, was muffled by the ship. Cy was running toward the huge craft, waving his arms, screaming, "Apolonia! Stop! Apolonia!"
Just as he said her name the second time, the ship pulsed for just a second, like the breath taken before a scream. In the next moment, gun-like barrels fired from the ship at the vehicles and soldiers. The sound and heat penetrated my bones, even a quarter of a mile away. Benji and I were pushed backward. I covered my face. Benji covered me. Bullets weren't coming from the gun-like barrels protruding from the front and sides of the ship. They looked more like fire in gel capsules. The capsules exploded on contact, but they also spread, igniting everything they touched. The fluid didn't splatter though. It jumped.
"Incredible," Dr. Z said, the scientist in him captivated.
The men scattered and then began firing back. The ship gracefully rocked back and forth as the capsules rained down on everything. Cy stood on the edge of the woods, waving his arms, his screams silent.
"C'mon!" I yelled, pushing out of Benji's arms. "Take me across the bridge, Benji!"
"Rory, that's crazy! You'll get yourself killed!"
I opened the passenger door. "Cy is going to die if we don't, and if he dies, we'll all die."
"Wait. Seriously?" Benji said as Dr. Z and I crawled into his car.
"Let's go!" I screamed.
Benji scrambled into the driver's seat and turned the Mustang in a perfect doughnut in the road, tires squealing, and then he stomped on the gas, racing toward the chaos.
Apolonia's ship lifted higher into the sky, still targeting the soldiers and vehicles on the ground. The pulses coming from the ship were rattling Benji's car. I clicked my seat belt and steadied myself with both palms on the dashboard.
Cy was far enough away from the mayhem but still waving his arms. She was blowing up everything. The surrounding trees were ablaze, and almost all the military vehicles were incinerated. He was right. Apolonia was emotional. He hadn't shown up at the correct time, so she was going to punish those who had come in his place.
"This is insane!" Benji said.
"Yes, but it's important! Go!"
Benji jerked the wheel left, turning the Mustang off the road and into the grass. We sped over the uneven ground, stopping less than one hundred yards from the burning woods. I reached for the door handle, but Benji grabbed my arm.
"What are you going to do?" he asked, panicked.
"I'm going to get him out of there! He won't leave until he's in that ship or until he gets himself killed!"
Without waiting for a reply or permission, I jumped out of the car and immediately broke into a sprint, running toward Cy. He was still waving both arms toward the sky, hoping Apolonia would see him. Fire blazed all around us. We didn't have much time.
Crocodile Boots had gotten inside the last remaining Jeep, but it was spinning its wheels, centered over bodies and the wreckage of another vehicle. The Nayara suddenly turned all her guns on his struggling Jeep.
Cy saw what was about to happen and ran to stand between Crocodile's vehicle and the Nayara.
"Apolonia! I'm here! Stop this!" Cy said. He took another deep breath and yelled something long and beautiful in what had to be his native language.
Just as the Nayara powered up to fire, silence fell. No pulsing, no foghorn, just the flickering and popping of the burning vehicles and earth around us. The ship lowered to the ground.
A door opened. Cy didn't hesitate. He bolted for the opening and disappeared inside.
The man in the crocodile boots stepped out of the Jeep, took off his belt, and threw it into the Nayara. It wasn't until it disappeared that I realized what it was--a grenade belt.
"Cy!" I screamed.
Crocodile Boots wrapped his arms around mine, barely struggling to keep me in his grasp. He watched and waited, and then he smiled when the front of the ship exploded, sending it to the ground on its side.
The earth cratered under the Nayara's weight, and the ship pushed a massive mound of dirt in our direction. Crocodile Boots didn't move. He just watched as the huge craft barreled toward us.
The Nayara came to a rest, lying lifeless on the other side of the mound of dirt that had stopped just a few yards from the toes of my boots. Her underbelly was no longer glowing, and a gaping hole exposed her insides.
"Easy now," Crocodile Boots said in a raspy voice. A toothpick bounced between his lips as he spoke. His shoulders were broad, and his smile was just as sleazy and cheap as his suit.
The five soldiers in the Jeep jumped to the ground and surrounded us. Their AK-47s were pointed at Nayara's wound.
"Should we proceed, Dr. Rendlesham, sir?" one of the soldiers asked. He was speaking to Crocodile Boots.
He has a name after all.
"Inside. We just want Cy. Kill everything else."
"No!" I said, fighting him with every step.
Finally, he threw me to the ground and straddled my hips. He gripped my wrists and held them against the dirt. A piece of steel was lying beneath my left arm, and it dug into my skin.
Unable to move, feeling sharp metal slicing through my skin, I was in our hotel room again. Sydney was crying in the bathroom, and my mother's eyes were staring into mine. They were bloodshot, and the skin around them was wet and smeared with mascara. Blood was dripping from the wounds in her skull from where they'd nearly beaten her to death with the telephone.
You're not alone, her eyes had said.
I'd managed a muffled, "It's not your fault," from behind the dirty rag tied across my mouth.
I wish I had told her then that I would come back. I would come back, so I could stop this idiot piece of shit sitting on top of me from destroying the world.
Rendlesham's disgusting voice brought me back to the present. "You're quite the pain in the ass, Rory. More than one little girl should be."
The more I struggled, the more the twisted steel cut into my forearm, but I ignored it and smiled. "I'm not finished yet."
"Oh, you are. You're finished all right," he said, leaning into my face. When he spoke, spittle dropped from his mouth and landed just under my eye.
Suddenly, Rendlesham was tackled from the side and knocked to the ground. I scrambled to my feet. Benji was holding Rendlesham to the ground, and the soldiers were trying to decide if they should open fire.
"Run, Rory!" he yelled, struggling.
Conflicted, I took a step toward Benji. He was going to get himself killed.
"Get the hell out of here!" he yelled again.
I turned on my heels and climbed the dirt hill. One of the soldiers grabbed for my ankle, but I kicked him in the face and kept climbing.
"Shoot her, idiots!" Rendlesham said.
"No!" Benji screamed.
A few bullets hit the dirt beside me before I rolled over the top of the mound and then scrambled into the hole of the hull. Stripped sharp pieces of charred metal scraped my legs and arms as I crawled along the wreckage, but the soldiers were already over the hill and shooting at me.
Farther inside, I tripped and stumbled through the darkness. I could see the beams of flashlights shining on the walls of the ship several yards behind me. They were inside. It was my first instinct to find someplace safe to hide, but hiding wouldn't help me find Cy. If he was still alive, he was probably critically injured and needed help. I had to keep going until I found him.
"Cy?" I half-whispered, half-yelled. I crawled on my hands and knees, feeling in front of me, hoping to come across the door Cy entered. He couldn't be far from it. "Cyrus!"
Within moments, I was in a narrow corridor. My hand landed in something cold and slimy. Hard bits also rolled around on my fingers. I reached out farther, and I felt a sharp edge and then a nose and a chin.
"Oh Christ. Please, no," I said, my hands trembling.
I YANKED MY HAND BACK.
"Cy?" I said, my eyes filling with tears.
I felt over the rest of the body. The clothes were slick and tight-fitting, not at all like Cy's jeans and shirt. What was left of the hair was very short and spiky, different from Cy's soft waves and curls. Exhausted in every way possible, my body collapsed against the wall, and I cried quietly, covering my face with my clean hand. It wasn't him. Cy could still be alive.
After a few minutes, I wiped my hand on my jeans and my nose on my shirt. I hadn't felt that alone in a very long time. Cy was hurt somewhere in a strange ship, and Benji was outside, either captured or dead.
Tears spilled down my cheeks. I'd left him there to die. I should have stayed with him. Instead, I ran away like a coward. How am I going to save anyone? I wasn't even brave enough to get into a fucking elevator.
Once my eyes adjusted, a faint red light at the end of the hallway caught my eye. I crawled toward it, over more slick-clothed bodies, through more sticky blood, and what felt like guts and bone. The red light led me to a larger room with connected desks, chairs, and darkened monitors. Maybe a control room or bridge. I wasn't exactly familiar with spaceships.
"Cy?" I called out just loud enough for someone close to hear, hoping I hadn't missed his body in the black corridor. I stood up. My entire body complained. My arm was covered in warm blood--my own. The rest of me was covered in the blood of others.
I leaned against a desk, beyond exhausted. I had wandered too far away from the point of the explosion. It wasn't likely that Cy had gotten this far inside the ship in that amount of time. Rendlesham and the soldiers might have already captured him. Maybe they'd captured Dr. Z, too. I was alone in a dark busted ship, tripping over dead bodies. I couldn't imagine how I would come out of this one on top or how, if Apolonia and Cy were dead, we would be able to stop Tennison and Rendlesham from activating the parasites.
An unfamiliar smooth voice speaking an unfamiliar language whispered something menacing in the dark, and then a familiar voice spoke back in warning.
I turned, seeing Cy and his betrothed. Apolonia was holding a sword to my throat. She was breathtaking. Her skin was a bit lighter than Cy's, and her long black hair fell in soft waves to her elbows. It was propped up somehow from the underside and then left to cascade over like a wat
erfall. She had two thick braids running across the top of her head and a heavy red stripe running across both of her eyes and nose, from temple to temple, making her pale blue eyes--that were just a few shades away from white--look even brighter. Her curve-hugging crimson uniform didn't leave much to the imagination, showing her toned shoulders, arms, and abs, and she was almost as tall as Cy. She looked both futuristic and savage.
She could be in a workout commercial or a hair commercial or a lipstick commercial, I thought as I noticed her shimmering plump lips. My day just got much worse.
"Don't make any sudden movements," Cy said.
"Don't worry. I won't," I said, slowly holding up my hands.
"You don't have to do that," he said and then spoke something to her.
She answered.
"English, please," Cy said to her.
"English feels unpleasant in my mouth," she replied. She spoke my language but awkwardly and with a severe accent. It made her seem less frightening even though she was looking at me like she wanted to take my life.
"Put down your weapon, Apolonia," Cy commanded. He spoke much harsher than he had ever spoken to me.
She obeyed but remained in a defensive stance.
I wanted to hug him, but I was afraid to. She could cut me in half at any moment.
"I'm so glad you're okay," I said. Every muscle in my body seemed to relax at the same time.
Apolonia muttered something in their native tongue. Cy reprimanded her. It was then that Apolonia pulled Cy's arm around her neck, and I saw that his leg was bleeding. No wonder she was unhappy with my comment. He wasn't okay at all.
"What did you come across on your way here?" Cy asked.
"A lot of dead bodies," I said before swallowing.
"We need to get you out of here and cleaned up, and I--" Cy stopped mid-sentence, let Apolonia go, and then limped over to me, pushing me to the floor. "Hide. Under here." He directed me under the desk. "Don't come out, no matter what. Understand?"
"But--"
"Just listen this once, Rory! Don't come out until I say otherwise."
I nodded and then sat still as I heard him grunt and groan as they turned to flee. A dozen pairs of footsteps were trying to be quiet and failing as boots pulled at the sticky blood in the hallway. The sounds grew louder as they approached our location. I sank back into the leg space of the desk as they entered the room just before Cy and Apolonia were able to escape.
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