Return to Zero

by Pittacus Lore

“It’s a bit disorienting, so you might want to shut your eyes,” Rabiya told the group in what was quickly becoming her customary warning.

  “My dear, I’ve always wanted to bend space and time,” Dr. Chen replied. “Let’s do this.”

  And with that, Rabiya teleported them out.

  Lexa stepped up before Taylor and Nine, a laptop bag slung over her shoulder.

  “With all our systems down, I’m no good here,” she said. “I’m going to New Lorien. I’ll watch out for the little ones.”

  “Ella will be stoked to see you,” Nine said. The two of them hugged and then Lexa made her way over to the Loralite stone.

  Dr. Goode came up to them next. He didn’t carry any luggage. Instead, he held an Inhibitor cannon, which he must have been studying in his lab.

  “I’m staying,” he said firmly. “I’ve been in plenty of fights before.”

  Nine shook his head. “Nah, Malcolm. I don’t think so. If something goes wrong here, we need you safe. You’ve got a lot of wisdom and shit.” He lowered his voice to a whisper, but Taylor could still hear. “Unlike me, you actually know how to run an Academy. Wherever it might end up.”

  Malcolm frowned, considering this. “I can be of use. Might I remind you that these people imprisoned my son?”

  “And we’ve got people out there looking for him,” Nine said. He lowered his voice. “If things go bad today, I’ll tell Sam you say hi when I see him in prison, then wait for you to rescue us.”

  Taylor touched Malcolm’s arm. “Thank you for everything, Dr. Goode. But we don’t want anyone to stay who can’t teleport out on their own.”

  Malcolm sighed. Resigned to leaving, he thrust the Inhibitor cannon in Taylor’s direction.

  “Here,” he said. “Give the scabs from Earth Garde a taste of their own medicine.”

  Taylor smiled. “We will.”

  The crowd in the student union gradually thinned as more and more people were teleported to safety. Taylor looked around at the remaining Garde. They weren’t so many now.

  “Do you think this is enough?” she asked Nine quietly. “To hold them off?”

  Nine grinned at her. She could tell he was enjoying this. “Even if it’s not, we’re going to give them one hell of a fight.”

  The doors to the student union burst open and Maiken sped inside. Maiken had been assigned to keep watch at the barricade with a couple of others. Taylor knew what her presence here meant. Before Maiken could even start breathlessly speaking, Taylor was headed to the door.

  “It’s happening!” Maiken said. “They’re coming!”

  There was only one direct way into the Academy. One way out. A winding road that only straightened as it emerged from the woods. That had given Taylor pause all those months ago. Made it seem to her like the Garde were trapped inside.

  Taylor couldn’t count the Peacekeepers who marched through the woods in a regimented line. One hundred. Maybe two. There were more back at the encampment, she knew. This was only a first wave. Greger Karlsson testing their resolve. Even so, the Garde were outnumbered something like four to one. The barricade that they’d assembled yesterday and now hid behind felt suddenly flimsy. The tangle of desks and tables wouldn’t hold back an army. Not for long.

  But the Garde behind it might.

  The soldiers stopped about fifty yards away, dressed in body armor and carrying Inhibitor cannons. Some of them held grappling hooks attached to ropes, probably meant to tear down the students’ haphazard wall. The Garde peeked through openings in the barricade or peered over its top. The Peacekeepers surely knew they were there; they could definitely see them through the gaps. But Taylor had taken care to make sure the glowing Loralite stone behind the students was hidden behind a thick lunch table. She didn’t want the Peacekeepers to know about that. Not yet.

  Taylor thought back to capture the flag, how team after team had been beaten by an organized squad of Peacekeepers, at least until Isabela broke the game.

  Back then, everyone had been showing off, trying to catch Greger’s eye and look good for Earth Garde. They’d been working in teams, yes, but they’d also been working for themselves.

  Now, they were together. They were an Academy united.

  “YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF THE GARDE ACCORD!” Greger’s voice rang out through the trees, booming out of a megaphone. Taylor couldn’t actually see him. He was no doubt a safe distance behind the Peacekeepers. “SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO USE . . . TO USE FORCE!”

  Taylor had her own megaphone. It was Nigel, standing right next to her. As Taylor yelled back, he amplified her voice.

  “WE DON’T WANT TO FIGHT YOU!” Taylor responded. “BUT IF YOU ATTACK US, WE ARE WITHIN OUR RIGHTS UNDER YOUR PRECIOUS GARDE ACCORD TO DEFEND OURSELVES!”

  Her message delivered, Nigel squeezed Taylor’s shoulder.

  “Good luck,” he said.

  “You too,” Taylor replied.

  Nigel jogged away from the barricade, touched the Loralite stone and teleported away. He had another role to play.

  “Remember, don’t hurt any of them too badly,” Taylor said, her voice carrying down the line of Garde positioned on their side of the wall. “Focus on disarming them. The Inhibitors are connected to their armor by tensile cords. We want to—”

  “We know, Taylor,” Nicolas said from on her left. “We’re good. We’re ready.”

  At some unspoken command, the Peacekeepers started forward. Their faces were stoic and hard. Taylor didn’t recognize any of them. The familiar ones, those who had worked with Archibald, they were gone.

  “Push!” Taylor yelled.

  As one, the Garde shoved forward with their telekinesis. To the Peacekeepers, it must have felt like a wave of force rolled over them. Some toppled onto their backs, scrambling for balance in the dirt. Others hunkered down and weathered the telekinetic burst like a strong wind, trying to raise their weapons all the while.

  “Give me chaff!” one of the Peacekeepers yelled.

  Taylor heard the putt-putt of two grenade launchers and then the air between the Garde and the Peacekeepers filled with swarming bits of metal and flashing lights. They had used this trick during capture the flag. All the detritus wreaked havoc on a Garde’s precision telekinetic control. It hurt Taylor’s eyes just looking into the cloud.

  But they were ready for it.

  “Maiken!” Taylor yelled. “Anika!”

  In a blur, Maiken swept around the barricade, sprinting at top speed while pulling with her telekinesis. She dragged some of the chaff clear in her wake. The rest Anika pushed to the ground with her magnetic control. A couple chunks of metal flipped loose from the barricade, caught in Anika’s pull, but nothing that they couldn’t live without. Just like that, the air was clear.

  The Peacekeepers had made up some ground, though. They were closer.

  “Grappling hooks!” one of the Peacekeepers shouted. “I want to be able to see our targets!”

  A handful of soldiers scrambled forward to try flinging their hooks at the barricade. It was a waste of effort. Taylor didn’t even need to give the command; the Garde along the wall batted aside the hooks with ease, leaving the limp ropes lying in the grass.

  “Push!” Taylor yelled again.

  Once again, the Garde rammed them with telekinesis. More Peacekeepers buckled under the pressure and fell back. Others kept coming, pressing forward and aiming their weapons. The shock collars would never make it through the gaps in the barricade, so the Peacekeepers didn’t bother firing those. Tranquilizer darts, on the other hand—the projectiles sounded like rain as they bounced off the Garde’s twisted metal cover.

  Something whistled by Taylor’s ear. To her left, Ben from Brooklyn gasped as a dart stuck him in the neck. He fell into the grass, nearly knocking down the Garde next to him. He was unconscious in seconds, the sedative working fast. One of the tweebs grabbed him, pulled him to the Loralite stone and teleported to safety. It was the only dart that wasn’t intercepted by their
blockade or telekinesis.

  “Okay, we warned them,” Taylor said through her teeth. “Disarm!”

  As one, the Garde stopped pushing with their telekinesis and started pulling.

  They yanked tranquilizer guns and Inhibitor cannons out of the Peacekeepers’ hands. The weapons were attached to their body armor, but that was okay. In fact, it was perfect. Taylor focused on two Peacekeepers, ripped their weapons away and then tangled their cords together. She then yanked on that doubled cord and used it to clothesline a third soldier. Next to her, Nicolas pulled two Peacekeepers that he’d connected in a similar way into Taylor’s bunch, getting their wires gnarled up further. Omar used the ropes from the grappling hooks to entangle a few more Peacekeepers. All the Garde used the same technique—they ripped weapons away and used them to bind the Peacekeepers into one large group.

  By now, the soldiers were more focused on screaming at each other than they were on fighting the Garde. They bumped heads and knocked into each other, fell to the ground in kicking heaps, tried to shove one another away. Some of them smartened up and started to clip free of their body armor. It was too late for that.

  The sight made Taylor smile. They’d managed to snare virtually all that first wave together. All of them connected.

  “Pull!” Taylor shouted. “Now! Pull!”

  With the combined power of their telekinesis, the Garde pulled the struggling Peacekeepers towards them. They rolled through the dirt or tried to ineffectually grab tree roots. Some of them tried to get their weapons free from the mess of bodies and cords, but to no avail.

  “Open it up!” Taylor shouted.

  With his superstrength, Nic pushed aside a trio of stacked cafeteria tables, creating a wide gap in the barricade. They dragged the soldiers through the opening. Shouting and grasping, some of the Peacekeepers managed to grab hold of chunks of the barricade, straining to stop their momentum. The Garde were stronger.

  Taylor backed up as the jumble of soldiers clamored behind their wall. She backed up until she was right next to the Loralite stone.

  Soon, the entire squad was dumped right at her feet.

  She reached down and gripped the ankle of the nearest Peacekeeper. Then, she reached back and touched the Loralite stone.

  A flash of blue light and, suddenly, the sound of thundering water.

  Taylor stood on a hillside overlooking Niagara Falls. She’d been there once with her father when she was a kid. It worked just like Nigel said. Picture a place with a stone and the Loralite would carry her there.

  Her, and the hundred or so Peacekeepers she was connected to.

  The soldiers lay on the hillside, blinking and disoriented. One of them turned onto his side and puked. Another nearly rolled into the water but was stopped by a couple of his buddies. Taylor stood over them all.

  “One-way trip, guys,” she said. “Enjoy your vacation.”

  She pictured the Academy, touched the Loralite and teleported home.

  When she reappeared, only seconds later, a shout went up from the other Garde. Ahead of them, the trees were nearly clear of Peacekeepers. The handful that Taylor hadn’t teleported away were retreating.

  “Holy shit!” Nic bellowed happily. “I can’t believe that worked!”

  “We should do that again,” Anika said.

  “We could try,” Taylor said. “But I don’t think they’ll fall for it twice. Get the wall sealed back up.”

  Taylor looked over her classmates. Some of them, like Nic and Anika, seemed pumped up and ready for more action. But there were others whose eyes looked a little sunken or were sheened with sweat. One of the tweebs, she thought his name was Danny, bent over at the waist to catch his breath. Telekinesis was a muscle and not all of them were up for a protracted fight.

  “Second wave coming at ya,” said Nigel’s voice in her ear. The Garde closest to Taylor all jumped as they heard Nigel too. “Mostly on foot, but they’ve got a couple trucks. Might try ramming through.”

  Taylor turned towards the administration building. Nigel’s shape was visible on the rooftop, the highest spot at the Academy. From there he’d be able to keep an eye on things and then call out orders. With all their technology compromised, he was the closest thing they had to walkie-talkies. Taylor waved to indicate that she’d heard him.

  “Okay,” Taylor said. “There’s another group coming in with vehicles. Get ready.”

  Taylor peeked through a gap in the barricade. The Peacekeepers weren’t visible yet. They were approaching more slowly. Cautiously.

  Something buzzed by overhead. Drones. Four of them zipped out of the woods and began circling in a formation around the Garde.

  “Knock ’em down!” Nic shouted.

  Taylor squinted, catching a glint of something in the trees. She spotted one of the Peacekeepers, hunkered down behind an oak, waiting. He wore goggles and a gas mask.

  “Wait!” Taylor shouted, but it was too late.

  Her classmates reached out with their telekinesis, easily grabbed hold of the drones and smashed them to the ground. As soon as the robots hit, their payloads exploded. Mustard-colored tear gas spread in a cloud around the Garde, choking them.

  The next group of Peacekeepers marched forward. Goggles, gas masks, tranquilizer guns and handheld shock sticks that were basically cattle prods.

  Tears streamed out of Taylor’s eyes. The air burned her throat. She heard an engine rev and tires squeal, but couldn’t see the truck through the smoke. She leaped away from the barricade seconds before the crash—desks and tables flying through the air, breaking glass, screams.

  Taylor shouted through haggard coughs.

  “Fall back! Fall back to the dorms!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CALEB CRANE

  LA CALDERA—DURANGO, MEXICO

  IN THE CLOAKED SKIMMER, THEY WATCHED FROM above as Isabela and Einar turned themselves over to La Caldera’s guards. As soon as they were reasonably certain that the two of them wouldn’t be executed, Five swung the ship towards the prison. They picked up speed. A lightning bolt aimed at their enemies.

  “Strap in, we’re landing hard,” Five warned. “I’m putting us down right on the roof. Right down their throats.”

  In the copilot seat, Caleb pulled the belts across his chest and tightened them. Behind him, on the benches, Ran and Duanphen secured themselves as well. Caleb’s leg bounced up and down. He was anxious. He always got this way before a fight. The battles he’d been in before—Patience Creek, the Harvesters’ headquarters, Switzerland—those had kind of snuck up on him. He’d never willingly charged towards certain death. His dad probably would’ve been proud, even if it was currently taking all of Caleb’s self-control not to pop a nail-biting duplicate.

  The smoldering desert shot by beneath them. The prison came into view. Closer.

  Sweat beaded on Caleb’s neck.

  Closer. Almost there.

  Red lights lit up across the skimmer’s console. An alarm sounded.

  “Shit!” Five barked. “They’re painting us!”

  “What does that mean?” Caleb asked.

  “It means—”

  Caleb didn’t see the rocket fired from the prison’s roof, but he heard it. A high-velocity shriek and then an explosion that yanked him taut against his restraints. Burnt air rushed into the cockpit, stinging Caleb’s eyes.

  At the controls, Five let out a feral growl. His skin was metal now as he activated his Legacy, tapping into the steel ball bearing he kept hidden behind his eye patch. He wrestled with the controls and rolled them to the left. Caleb hung from his seat, only the belts keeping him from falling forward into the skimmer’s cracked windshield. A second rocket whistled by, grazing them, but doing no more damage.

  A warning siren keened incessantly from the console. Mogadorian script flooded the display. Caleb didn’t need to understand the language to know what that meant. They wouldn’t be flying this skimmer out. If Five couldn’t get the ship under control, that wouldn’t be a
problem anyway. They’d all be dead.

  Straining against his seat belt, Caleb looked into the compartment behind them. A huge hole had been ripped in the side of their ship, just feet from where Ran and Duanphen were strapped in. As the ship rolled, their bench began to come loose from its moorings, pulled towards the sucking air beyond. Ran looked dazed, bleeding from a cut on her temple. Duanphen held on to her with one arm, the other struggling to detach her tangled seat belt. A couple stitches on her forearm popped from the strain. Duanphen gritted her teeth.

  “Hold on!” Caleb yelled. He loosed a trio of duplicates and they tossed themselves into the rear compartment, lunging for the girls and their bench, heedless of their own safety. A piece of shrapnel detached from the opening and ripped through the head of one duplicate, but the other two made it. They threw their weight into the bench, held Ran and Duanphen down, kept them from flying out.

  “Brace yourse—!” Five screamed.

  They hit the roof with a jarring, deafening impact, and rolled. Concrete churned beneath them. The skimmer’s console flashed and beeped, all manner of catastrophic damage being reported, none of it mattering.

  Caleb’s head banged against the cockpit ceiling and for a moment everything went black.

  Five slapped him hard across the cheek. Caleb blinked back to awareness. He was upside down. Everything was upside down.

  “If you’re alive, you need to move!” Five shouted. “We’re exposed!”

  Gunfire. Bullets pattered against the skimmer’s compromised armor. Tiny holes opened up inches from Caleb, beams of sunlight shining through the smoke and dust.

  Five put his shoulder into the skimmer’s windscreen and knocked it free. With a roar, he flew from the spaceship and charged their attackers.

  Caleb unbuckled and fell onto the skimmer’s roof, which was now its floor. Crouching low to avoid stray bullets, he hustled into the rear compartment and found Duanphen and Ran also unbuckling. They were singed and cut up, but none of their injuries were too bad. The three of them exchanged looks. There was no time for words. They knew what needed to be done.

  Get out there, Caleb said to himself. Protect us.