Apolonia

by Jamie McGuire

  He fidgeted. "I need to tell you something."

  "If it's about Benji--"

  "It's not," he said, cutting me off. "It's about you. Thank you. Thank you for everything you've done since the day I met you up until this moment. Despite the...circumstances...you've been a true friend to me, Rory."

  "Is there another way to be a friend?"

  "I've seen a lot of things during my time here. You would be surprised."

  "No. I wouldn't."

  Cy laughed once and looked down. "I guess not."

  "If we could go back to the beginning, I'd do it all again. I just...I know you can't stay. I just know what it feels like to miss someone, and I'm not looking forward to it."

  Cy wiped a speck of mud from my cheek with his thumb and flicked it to the ground. "Part of me wishes I could stay."

  I glanced over to Benji, who was failing at pretending not to be watching us. "I'll be okay," I said with a smile. I turned back to Cy. "So...the plan..."

  "We're going to make our way inside the warehouse, track down the specimen, and find equipment to contact Hamech."

  "You make it sound as if you expect them to just let you."

  "They're not expecting us to walk into their house. But once they figure out what's happened, you, Benji, or Dr. Zorba can't be anywhere near here."

  "We're not leaving. You might need our help."

  "Trust me when I say, we'll be fine."

  "We're not going anywhere."

  "You need to at least make sure the professor is safe."

  "He is looking for a dear friend. He's not leaving either."

  "Rory--"

  Before he could speak, a loud rumble echoed from miles away, and after a few seconds, the ground shook. Two pillars of fire and smoke snaked up into the sky, looming over the tree line.

  "No," Cy whispered, staring at the dark columns.

  "What is that?" Benji asked, subdued panic in his voice.

  Apolonia wore a proud smile. "That is Hamech."

  Another explosion, and more smoke pillars and rumblings echoing across the sky made Tsavi touch Apolonia's arm. "We must go," Tsavi said. "He has found Nayara."

  The warehouse transformed from being a glowing beacon of light to a red-and-blue strobe-covered hub of activity. An alarm sounded, and soldiers rushed out to fill every Jeep. They left the property spinning their wheels.

  We crouched in the grass, trying not to be seen by the passing vehicles.

  Tsavi smiled at Cy, excited. "We could not have planned this any better."

  Cy's expression couldn't look more different. "Hamech is going to wipe out the city, Tsavi. Thousands of innocent humans will die if we don't find a way to contact him."

  Tsavi nodded, and she, Apolonia, and Cy took off at full speed toward the warehouse. The armed guards who were walking the grounds had disappeared. They'd all probably left in the Jeeps.

  It wasn't long before the aliens were out of sight, leaving us weak, helpless humans to wait in the grass.

  Squatting in the field, I spent equal amounts of time watching in horror as the sky lit up and the ground shook and watching the warehouse, waiting for Cy or one of the women to signal us. A full minute went by and nothing.

  Benji reached for my hand. I looked down at his open palm. I didn't want to be babied.

  He sighed. "I just know you're scared, that's all."

  "I'm not scared."

  "You're not scared for Cy?" Benji gripped his rifle, keeping his mouth tight in an attempt to conceal how it made him feel to ask that question.

  I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. "I think there are more important things..."

  "No. Not really. Not to me. There's an alien parasite in front of us and an alien invasion behind us. Things are blowing up. People are dying. I'd kind of like to know."

  "What? Is it you or him? You want me to choose out here in the field?"

  "No."

  "Then, what do you want me to say?"

  "That you don't want him to stay."

  "You just don't get it," I said, shaking my head. He didn't know what it was like to lose someone. He had no idea how it felt to say good-bye.

  "I would if you told me."

  "No."

  "Does he know? What happened to you?"

  I didn't respond. I couldn't. No matter how I explained it, Cy knowing something about me that I had refused to tell Benji more than once would be hurtful.

  Benji's eyes fell away from mine, his jaw working under the skin.

  "I didn't tell him. He just knew."

  "I guess I could have known, too, if I didn't respect your privacy."

  "He's leaving. You're not. I've already told you if it were the other way around--"

  "I see the way he looks at you. I hear the way he talks to you, the things he says. He loves the woman I love. It bothers me," he said through his teeth.

  "He doesn't love me! I'm different from what he's used to. I intrigue him. You see how Apolonia behaves. He got confused. But he loves her!"

  "And you," he said, not missing a beat.

  "Ugh!" I growled, crossing my arms. "Even if he did, which he doesn't, it wouldn't matter."

  "What about that wouldn't matter? Because he could decide at any moment to put you on a ship and take you away from here? Away from me? Probably just out of spite because he hates me. He always has. Do you have any idea how that feels? For someone else to have that kind of power...to destroy you?"

  "If I left, it would destroy you?" I asked, staring at him.

  His eyebrows were pulled in, and his entire face was taut with anguish and worry. He did understand, after all, how completely a good-bye could change someone. How it could change everything.

  "I kind of love you," I said.

  His entire face morphed from desperation to a surprised smile. "You do?"

  More explosions rattled the ground. They were getting closer.

  Dr. Z touched his face with shaking hands. "They'll be at the college soon. We have no way to warn them. I...I should take Silver back."

  I turned to him. "They can hear what's happening. Most everyone is gone for the holiday. The rest will be evacuated before you get there. And you'll never forgive yourself if you don't see with your own eyes that Brahmberger isn't in that building."

  "I'll never forgive myself if students die because they didn't get out in time." The professor walked backward a few steps.

  "Wait," I said, standing up. He turned his back on me and trekked back toward his moped. "You're going to get yourself killed. Dr. Z, I'm talking to you!" I yelled. No one from the warehouse could hear me over the alarm anyway.

  "Take care of her, Benji." He hobbled in a half-jog and half-walk, and just as he disappeared beyond the tall grass, a huge explosion, double the size of the previous ones, lit up the sky so brightly that I had to take a step back and shield my eyes with my forearm.

  "Dr. Z!" I screamed. "Get your ass back here!"

  A gust of wind traveled toward us, bending down the grass and revealing Dr. Z pushing his moped to the road. My hair blew back, and so did Benji's.

  "Whoa," he said. "Think that was Kempton?"

  I shook my head. "I can't just sit here and wait. We have to do something. Try to stop Apolonia's father. Try to help Cy. Something."

  "We can't just wave our arms in front of Hamech's ship, not without Cy or Apolonia."

  "I'm not sure Cy will be enough."

  "What makes you say that?"

  "Because it wouldn't make my dad feel better to see you if he was looking for me."

  Benji seemed to like hearing that. "So, the warehouse?"

  I took a few steps closer to the two-story concrete building ahead of us. The ground shook in reaction to the boom miles away. "If they're being shot at, we wouldn't hear it over the alarm," I said.

  Benji sighed. "I don't have much ammo left, but just say the word."

  "Word."

  We crouched while jogging to the side entrance of the warehouse. It was the
same door I'd snuck into when I followed Cy there nearly two days before. I couldn't believe that only forty-eight hours had passed. It felt as if I'd been running for my life for months.

  I reached up to the doorknob.

  Benji stopped me. "This is too easy. Something isn't right."

  "I bet they have a small group of soldiers guarding that damn rock, and the rest went to investigate the explosions. They probably thought it was us and have no idea they were walking into a fight with Hamech."

  Benji turned to watch the fireworks over the tree line. "None of those men will be coming back."

  The explosions were getting closer to the center of Helena and were happening more often, sounding more like an approaching thunderstorm than an interplanetary war.

  "I feel like we should have gone with Dr. Zorba," Benji said.

  "We can stop this from here." I turned the knob and pulled open the door, standing rigid when the barrel of a handgun touched my nose.

  "Easy," Benji said. His rifle made a cracking noise as he dropped it to the ground.

  The woman holding the gun to my face narrowed her eyes at me and then glared at Benji. "Oh. You are in so much trouble," she said.

  "Shut up, Bryn."

  My face screwed into disgust. "Who is she?"

  Benji sighed. "My sister."

  Bryn pushed out her bottom lip, and then she grabbed my jacket with her free hand and yanked me inside, shoving me up against the metal wall by my neck.

  "I said, easy!" Benji yelled, following us inside.

  Bryn retrained her gun onto my temple. "Dad has lost every bit of respect he's gained in Majestic the last twenty-plus years, Benji. You don't get to be mad about shit!"

  Bryn wore green fatigues and a matching cap, her golden blonde hair shooting out in a short ponytail at the nape of her neck. Her high cheekbones and almond-shaped green eyes made her look more supermodel than soldier. Her perfect teeth reminded me of Benji's, and I started to wonder if his perfect looks were genetic or if, being second-generation Majestic, they had been engineered. Today, anything was possible.

  "Really, I'm fine," I said to them both.

  Bryn smiled. "You're nothing. After tonight, it'll be as if you never were. So, be a good ghost and shut the hell up. You've done enough to piss me off today."

  I moved, slapping my hands together and simultaneously grabbing Bryn's gun and pointing the barrel at her forehead.

  "Whoa!" Benji said, barely having time to react. "What was that?"

  Bryn scrambled for the gun for a fraction of a second, but then her eyes widened with recognition that she had lost control of the gun, and her hands immediately went up.

  "I don't think I'm done for the day," I said, cocking the gun when she shifted as if she were going to try to make a move on me.

  "What else don't I know about you?" Benji asked, watching me hold the gun in awe.

  "Clearly a lot!" Bryn growled.

  "Stop whining," I said. "You didn't even tell me you had a sister."

  "I did, too."

  "No, you didn't."

  Benji sighed. "At Theta Tau. The drinking game?"

  I thought for a moment. "That doesn't count. I was drunk."

  Benji and Bryn looked at each other, neither quite sure what to think.

  "Where's Dad, Bryn?"

  "He's here," she said, lifting her chin above the barrel of her gun. She was afraid, breathing hard. "They took him upstairs. They won't let me see him."

  "Sorry to meet you like this, Bryn. I'm going to need you to take us to the rock."

  She shook her head. "I don't know where it is. I don't have that kind of clearance."

  "Dad does," Benji said.

  Bryn's eyes widened. "Benji, you're going to get him killed by these people! Why are you doing this?"

  "They aren't bad people, Bryn. They're trying to save us."

  She frowned, shaking her head. "You've been brainwashed or something. You know that's not true."

  "Walk," I said. "Take me to your dad."

  Bryn's lips formed a hard line, and she closed her eyes. "You're going to have to kill me. I'm not taking you to my dad." She opened her eyes once to look at her brother. "I'll never forgive you for this, Benji."

  He snarled back at her. "You will take us to Dad, so we can get that rock off this planet before it kills us all, or I'm going to kick your ass, you spoiled, close-minded, snotty little bitch!"

  Bryn's eyes popped open, and we both stared at Benji, stunned. I'd never heard him swear or yell, and by Bryn's expression, she hadn't either.

  I smiled at him. It was kind of sexy.

  Just then, Benji blanched, and less than a second later, he dived for his sister and slammed her to the ground.

  I didn't have time to react or ask what was going on before I had my answer. Apolonia's sword hit the wall, just on the other side of where Bryn's neck would have been.

  Cy and Tsavi stood motionless, both just as shocked as the rest of us were.

  "She's Benji's sister!" I yelled before Apolonia could take another swipe at Bryn.

  Benji and Bryn stood--Bryn more slowly than her brother--and Apolonia pulled in her weapon.

  "Rory," Cy scolded. "What are you doing here? I said to stay outside!"

  "Do you have the rock?"

  "No!"

  "Have you contacted Hamech?"

  "No!"

  "Then, you're not getting much accomplished in here alone, are you?"

  "Where's Dr. Zorba?" Cy asked, suddenly realizing he was gone.

  "He went back to Kempton. He's making sure everyone got out before Hamech destroys the campus."

  Apolonia looked to Cy. "Upstairs."

  They bolted up a nearby set of metal stairs, and we followed. Benji held Bryn close. After navigating the hallway, Cy pointed at a door and then kicked it in. No one was inside, but it was full of radios and computers.

  "Where is everyone? Did they all leave for Nayara?" Benji asked.

  "No, some stayed behind, but we corralled them in the courtyard," Cy said.

  Benji and Bryn traded glances. "Did you kill them?"

  "Not all of them," Tsavi said. "But some didn't give us a choice."

  Bryn fought her brother, slapping him in the face and beating the sides of her fists against his chest. "Let me go to him! I have to see if he's alive! Let. Me. Go!"

  Benji kept hold of her until she collapsed against him and began to weep.

  A boom, this time much closer, shook the building. Without a second thought, I bolted out the door and ran down the hallway, opening doors and trying to find an office with a window. Unable to find one, I ran to an exit door on the east side, which led to a metal railing that spanned the length of the building. Each end turned onto stairs that led into the courtyard. The remaining men, most of them in white lab coats, were standing among lifeless soldiers, facing in the direction of Helena, their faces lit by the glowing annihilation.

  Hamech's ship had finally come into view. It was oval, beautiful, and a behemoth, floating over the north end of Helena toward the warehouse. Half of Helena was burning, but the huge ship persisted, dropping thick, gelatinous fire from its center and edges onto buildings, melting them like acid on Styrofoam. The viscous flames moved over the charred ground like liquid mercury, scorching everything in its path and joining other streams to form larger pools.

  Two fighter jets flew over the warehouse, so low and loud that the walls rattled. I covered my ears and then watched in horror as they fired on Hamech. I wasn't sure which outcome would be worse--the fighter pilots not saving the city or Apolonia's wrath if her father's ship exploded. The ship belonging to Cy's Amun-Gereb shot the jets out of the sky, and they dropped helplessly to the town below. The jet fuel mixed with the flames on the ground, causing more explosions.

  I put my hands on the rail and steadied myself as a powerful blast of air nearly drove me back against the warehouse. I gripped the rail, and my eyes squinted to shield them from the hot wind. It was overwhelmin
g to see that much destruction and death. Where the earth wasn't orange with fire, it was red with glowing embers. Wind whipped through the blaze, making the inferno rise in pillars, as if it were reaching out from the pool of flames, trying to climb back to the ship. Fiery debris fell out of the sky like rain, and the early morning clouds were red, reflecting the devastation below. A quiet college town the day before, Helena now rivaled the bowels of hell.

  "Rory!" Benji called, bursting through the door.

  The view ahead made him stop in his tracks. He was in as much awe as I was. He slowly reached out for me with one hand, Bryn's 9mm in the other. I let his hand take mine. Neither of us was able to look away.

  "My God," he whispered. "It's all gone."

  THERE WERE ONLY TWO THINGS LEFT TO DO, and I had no idea how to accomplish either of them. Hamech's ship was moving slowly, but it was headed straight for the warehouse. We still weren't sure where the specimen was, if Tennison had reactivated the parasites, or if Brahmberger was being held captive somewhere inside the facility.

  I shook my head. It seemed very hopeless.

  Benji squeezed my hand. "It's not over yet." He pulled me down the gangway, and we descended the stairs.

  "Frank Reynolds!" he screamed. "Dad!" He was pushing his way through the lab coats, looking at each face.

  One man grabbed him. "Benji?"

  "Sebastian!" Benji said, gripping the man's shoulders. "Where is my father?"

  Sebastian shook his head, pushing his broken glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I haven't seen him since we were forced here. Rendlesham said you betrayed us, but Frank didn't believe it. None of us believed it. And we were right. You did it. You brought us the girl."

  Benji glanced at me for a brief moment and then lowered his chin at Sebastian. "I need to know where you saw my father last. Is he alive? Have Tennison and Brahmberger recovered the organisms?"

  "The rock still hasn't shown activity, but the girl," he said, glancing at me, "knowing her past resilience, we believe she could stimulate them. Before, they had reacted immediately to the aliens. In theory, they're more attracted to an extraordinarily strong host." He stood up tall, clearly proud of Benji. "We've just been waiting for you to complete the objective, sir."

  All the breath left my lungs. Cy was right. Benji wasn't just a college kid who happened to be going to the right college at the right time. He wasn't just watching over me for his father. Benji was one of the twelve. He was Majestic.

  All the things he proved capable of since the radio station weren't learned just from his father. He was a soldier, and Ellie was right. I was his target, and he had achieved his objective--to bring me to the warehouse.