by Ryan Decaria
“Why are you smiling?” Dravovitch’s eyebrows narrowed until the fluffy clouds formed a unibrow. He turned toward Margery. “Why is she smiling? And why are her teeth red?”
Margery returned to her desk. “Her wound must have opened up.”
What was Margery’s deal? She should have tattled. What game was she playing?
“I’m fine.” Okay, this was the real test. Anika stood tall and walked straight ahead. Mostly straight. Straightish.
Margery adjusted the stupid wig on her head. “She’s obviously still in shock. Can you blame her?”
She sauntered to the bridge and warily climbed the steps. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
“Yes.” He followed close behind her. “Let’s.”
He led her to her alcove, and Anika shuffled inside. She turned around as metal arms shot out, clamping manacles to her ankles and wrists. A hundred tiny robot needles popped up around her.
“Is everything ready?” he asked.
Margery sat up straight. “I’m not ready. You still have a few weeks. Perhaps you can work out a better way for her to survive the process.”
“Now you come to my aid?” Anika pulled against the restraints. “After I’m chained? You frightened cow.”
Margery slumped into her chair.
“No.” He crossed to his alcove and spun around. A hundred of the needle robot arms sprang up around him. “We can’t risk any more delays. My machine is perfect. The vessel is perfect. We have more than enough energy. No more stalling.”
Anika gaped from the metallic arm shaped like a tuning fork, which was pointing straight at her, to the pretty rain cloud. The beeps and warbles melded nicely with the pulsing pain in her head. On top of the arm with a large ball on the end, Anika saw a face. A girl with slicked-back hair had a finger in front of her lips shushing her. Someone was hiding in the machine, or maybe Anika was hallucinating? She almost recognized the face before it spun out of view.
“Dad,” Anika said. “What are you going to do about the alligator?”
“What alligator?”
“The one that ate Macy’s hand?”
“What about it?” Dravovitch narrowed his eyebrows together as he stared at Margery. She flipped switches and pulled levers, prepping Anika’s demise.
“It’s still hanging around, eating people’s pets.” Don’t give him everything. “It wants something from you, and it’ll kill to get it.”
He shook his head, bewildered, and focus on Anika. “How do you know this?”
“Oh, we’re friends.” Anika giggled. Dang. Stop giggling. “Not friends. Acquaintances. No. Whatever.”
“Acquaintances?”
“The girl’s delusional.” Margery craned her neck for a better look at Anika. “You should let me examine her.”
The girl’s face spun back into view with the machine. Anika should know that face. Something about a dance. Zombies. A princess face she hadn’t recognized. Sasha!
Dravovitch followed Anika’s gaze toward Sasha. Distract, distract.
“I talked to it,” Anika said. “Several times, actually.”
He laughed. “You talked to an alligator?”
“More or less.” Anika shrugged, which wasn’t easy being bound in the machine. It was more of a slouch.
“Strange that I believe you,” he said. “I’ll look into it.”
Sasha spun around in the rain cloud. How did she get inside? She couldn’t be there, couldn’t stop this. Anika was a goner. Only bug-girl remained.
“The same way I talk to Boulsour,” Anika said. “The way he taught me how to drive.”
Dravovitch smiled. “You amaze me.”
“Well, don’t let that stop you from killing me.”
“You might survive,” he said. “After a fashion. I designed the machine to give you my blood in return. I will attempt to revive you the best I can. I have more questions.”
Ew, she didn’t want his blood. Wasn’t he dying? “Promise me you’ll deal with the alligator,” Anika said. “Protect the kids for once.”
“I will.”
Anika narrowed her eyes, bringing her father into focus. She pulled against her restraints. “Then get on with it!”
Dravovitch lowered his goggles over his eyes and held out his arms. “Throw the switch. Do it now!”
He cackled maniacally.
Margery grabbed the huge lever and pulled it down.
Anika’s hair rose up around her head. A hundred pinpricks as the robots assaulted her body from every angle, sucking the blood from her into tubing that stretched out toward Dravovitch. Orange blood. The machine roared and sparked as a torrent of electricity spilled out on top of her.
Anika screamed.
Sasha hurtled off the machine, grabbing the arcing metal arm as lightning struck Anika’s skin. She yanked down, swinging the tuning fork toward Dravovitch as the full force of lightning coursed down the arm, through Sasha, into him instead.
Anika’s infected blood flowed into Dravovitch’s veins.
Her father’s blood flowed into Anika’s veins in return, but the blood sparked red and boiled as electricity swirled around the tubing. Pain raged under her skin.
Dravovitch screamed in agony. Sasha screamed out in rage.
The air screamed around them.
Lightning consumed Sasha and Dravovitch in a dazzling ball of arcing electricity swirling around them. Sasha grabbed the prongs of the arm and bent and wrapped them around Dravovitch, pinning him in.
Stray bolts of electricity flicked Anika’s arms and legs. Pain exploded across her body. Her nostrils filled with the stench of burnt cloth and skin.
She closed her eyes against the brightness.
Everything went dark.
“Anika!”
Someone was shouting.
“Sasha! Anika! Please help me!”
The warm metal grating dug into Anika’s face and hands. Her body ached from a dozen burns, sending a pulse of agony to her brain every few seconds. She coughed. Sputtered. Moaned. Blood dripped from her mouth.
Something shuffled in the distance.
“Anika, please!”
What did Jackie want now? Couldn’t she see Anika was the one who needed help? The cavern was black except for the twinkling diodes from the rain cloud.
Anika tried to tell her off, but all that came out was a dull moan.
Sasha’s body lay in a heap like a rag doll dropped out of a crib. Her tank top and shorts were charred and singed. The lightning should have given her power, yet she was still and lifeless.
Someone was crying. Not Jackie, though.
“Anika, help me.”
That was Jackie again. So needy. Anika curled up into a ball, the holes in her clothing still smoldering. Burns flared across her body, but the pain eased up. The smell was sweet and smoky.
Anika grabbed the railing and pulled herself up. Something was wrong. She felt her head for antennae. Nothing but crispy, fried hair. Her arms and legs still human. She’d failed again. Dravovitch had won.
“Come on,” Margery whimpered from near the elevator doors. “Open up!”
Her half-sister cowered, pushing the button over and over again.
Jackie screamed.
Anika stumbled down the steps, a wave of nausea coursing through her. Bracing herself from one desk to the next, she inched across the platform to the stairs. Something skittered around Jackie’s cage, large and black, a white streak across its back. It hissed, sticking a spindly blackened arm into the cage.
“Oh, crap.” Anika took a step back. It wasn’t a white streak. That was the shiny lab coat.
She’d turned her father into an insect monster.
Anika grabbed a stapler off the desk and heaved it at the monster. “Leave her alone.”
The stapler bounced off its glistening carapace. It turned and stared at her with a dozen eyes. Its mandibles twitched, tasting the air between them. Anika stumbled backwards as it crashed onto the platform.
> She fell to the grating, the metal biting into her palms.
The creature inched toward Anika, raised a spindly arm, and slammed its claw on top of her.
A spear zipped over her head, knocking the claw aside, missing Anika by inches, smashing a hole into the metal floor.
Anika scooted back, straining to see who had…
Boulsour hurled himself at the insect, smacking it full force, sending it tumbling down the steps. Boulsour turned and held out his hand.
Anika grabbed his hand, and Boulsour lifted her to her feet. “Thanks.”
“It’s growing,” Jackie called out. “Get me out of here.”
Boulsour and Anika peeked over the edge of the platform as Dravovitch’s blackened carapace ripped apart. Giant segmented legs sprouted from its back, lifting its body into the air. Its arms and legs extended, segmenting over and over again. Its body elongated, and antennae sprouted from its head.
Three more spiny mandibles sprouted around the first.
It hissed again, louder, echoing throughout the cavern.
Anika sat in the chair, grasping her head as pain erupted inside.
Boulsour grabbed her chair and spun her away from the stairs. She rolled halfway to the elevators and tumbled out, sprawling on the rubber mat.
The monster scurried onto the platform, gripping Boulsour with a massive claw. Anika scooted to the wall as they struggled. The insect hoisted Boulsour into the air, shook him like a ragdoll, and hurled him across the cavern.
“We’re going to die.” Margery whimpered.
Anika was sick of almost dying, and she wasn’t about to give up. She stood as the monster stared out at Boulsour’s body lying motionless near the far cavern wall. Anika wasn’t going to defeat it herself. She needed a superhero.
“Sasha!” Anika ran up to the alcove. The monster turned its ugly head, tracking Anika’s movement. As it skittered across the platform, Anika grabbed Sasha’s lifeless body. “Sasha, babe. You’ve got to wake up. I need you.”
The insect hissed.
Sasha’s eyes shot open.
Sasha reached out, catching a monstrous claw in her hand. She tossed Anika aside and got to her feet, still struggling to keep a hold of the claw.
Dravovitch raised itself to its new full height, towering above them.
Sasha strained against the weight of the giant claw pressing down on her. “What’s going on?”
Anika backed to the railing. “I turned Dravovitch into a giant insect.”
“Go under. Drop to the ground.” Sasha let go of the arm and followed Anika as she rolled under the railing. They both crashed to the cavern floor.
The insect jabbed its legs through the metal, but the spines caught on the grating. It couldn’t quite reach.
“Jackie is locked in the cage over there. Margery is cowering by the elevator. Boulsour’s been fighting for me, but it tossed him somewhere.”
Sasha nodded. “That’s all?”
“I think so.”
Dravovitch tore at the platform, trying to get to them.
“I’ll distract it,” Sasha said. “Grab Jackie and get out through the tunnel.”
Anika wiped sweat from her face. “We can’t. You knocked the power out again. The door won’t open.”
“Oh, right.” Sasha stared at the monster. “Then we’ve got to kill him.”
Sasha grabbed Anika and pulled her out from under the platform as the insect crawled over the edge.
“Lead it away from the platform,” Anika said. “And break the lock on Jackie’s cage.”
Sasha waved her arms as the creature skittered toward them. “Where are you going?”
Anika pressed herself against the cavern wall. “I’ve got an idea.”
When the monster chased Sasha across the cavern, Anika ran back up the stairs onto the platform. She scooped up the spear and ran to the wooden box on the shelves. “Margery, I need your help.”
Margery shook her head, scooting farther back.
Anika grabbed her sister by her shoulders. “Margery, if you don’t help me, we’re going to die.”
She focused on Anika. “What do you want me to do?”
Anika grabbed her mother’s device from inside the wooden box. “Help me get this open.”
“What’s inside?”
“My mother’s life work,” Anika said. “Poison designed to kill Dravovitch.”
Anika turned as the insect crawled onto the platform and skittered toward her. Boulsour lurched between them and growled, no roared!
The monster jabbed at Boulsour, but he knocked each claw away and cracked the creature’s chest with his fists.
Boulsour ducked as the creature’s arm smashed into the wall, sending chunks of rock into the air.
As Boulsour wrestled with the monster, Sasha rushed toward the platform like a triple jumper, each step sparking a blast of electricity, creating a strobe effect. She flung herself toward it, crashing into its head, knocking it into the cavern wall. As it reeled, Boulsour bounded on its back. Sasha yanked on its head. The insect reeled back.
All three tumbled off the platform.
Margery took the device from her and examined it. “I think it was supposed to open when the blood flowed into your father. I don’t know how to open it.”
“Figure it out.” Anika pulled herself up. Her footing was shaky, but she managed to stay on her feet. The rain cloud was still turning. Boulsour and Sasha were still fighting the thing below, but they weren’t going to last long. The poison had to get into its bloodstream. She had to figure out a way to get it there.
“Anika.” Jackie stumbled up the stairs. “We’ve gotta get out of here.”
“Can’t,” Anika said. “The elevator isn’t working.”
Jackie slouched against the table. “So, we’re going to die?”
Anika grabbed Jackie’s shoulder. “Are you ready for one last Olympiad event?”
Jackie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Hell, yes.”
Anika smiled. “We have to figure out a way to deliver this poison into the monster’s blood stream. Well, then we have to actually do it.”
Jackie gazed out at the insect creature. “Sudden death round.”
The monster hooked Sasha with a scaly limb and flung her across the cavern. A blast of light escaped Sasha as she hit the stone wall. Sasha crumpled to the ground.
The monster came at them, but Boulsour grabbed its spindly legs and pulled it back.
Anika held the spear out. “We need to hurry.”
Jackie grabbed the device from Margery. “What tools we got?”
Anika poked the spear at Dravovitch’s face. “It’s a mad science lab. Look around.”
A crack echoed around the cavern. Its screech was deafening. Boulsour held it back. The creature whipped around and attacked him.
Jackie shook Margery, who was watching the battle in a daze. “Hey. Wake up.”
Margery couldn’t take her eyes off the monster. “I can’t.”
Anika backed away from the creature and set the spear down. She knelt beside Margery and lifted her chin up. “I need you to help us, Doctor. We need to make a giant syringe and inject this poison into it. Understand?”
Margery nodded.
Boulsour slammed into the elevator doors, bending the metal inward, though not enough for anyone to fit through. He landed face up on the floor, which creaked under his weight.
Anika placed her hand on his cheek. “How’s it going, big guy?”
His eyes focused on Anika’s face as she helped him sit up.
“I need you to buy us some more time,” she said. “Okay?”
His eyes brightened a tiny bit. He pulled himself up and surged off the platform as the insect climbed up the steps. They both fell into the darkness below.
Anika pulled her focus away. “Jackie?”
“He’s still part human.” Jackie picked something out of Anika’s hair. “Right?”
“I suppose.”
“Do
you think Boulsour could rip off part of its scales? Maybe on its back?”
“No.” Anika scooted to the edge of the platform searching the cavern floor. “But I know someone who can.”
“What are we going to do after that?” Margery asked.
“I figure we cut open an artery,” Jackie said, “and jab some tubing inside it.”
“Great.” Anika grabbed a tall vial from the shelf and tried to break off the bulbous bottom by whacking it against the railing. The whole vial shattered. She tried another. This one broke cleanly. Anika handed the glass neck to Jackie, with the sharp side down.
“Like a needle,” Jackie said. “I knew I liked you.”
Anika inspected the end of the device. “Margery, we need some kind of tubing.”
“You have to get it from the machine.” Margery pointed at the sparkling rain cloud. “It already connects.”
Anika nodded. “You’re going to have to get it.”
“I’ll try.” Margery crawled over to the desk and pulled out a toolbox. She flipped it open and grabbed a wrench. She flung herself under the railing and dropped to the ground.
“I’ll get Sasha.” Anika jumped off the side of the platform. She even stuck the landing. Her head was clear. Her hands steady.
The insect bellowed.
Anika sprinted toward the heap of Sasha, and slid to her side, pulling Sasha’s head into her lap. “Hey, babe. Time to get up again.”
Sasha didn’t move.
Anika didn’t have a van engine handy. She patted Sasha’s cheeks. “Come on.”
Nothing. Another snap echoed across the cavern. A bottle crashed. Flames ignited around the insect as it screeched.
Anika pulled Sasha’s feet out from under her and laid her flat. Hopefully nothing was broken. She slammed her fist on Sasha’s chest. “Wake up!”
She hit Sasha again. And again.
Sasha sprang up, knocking Anika on her butt. “What happened?”
Anika struggled to her feet. “Boulsour’s keeping the monster busy, but he won’t last forever.”
“I’ll help.”
“No.” Anika grabbed her arm. “We have a plan. We need your help.”
Sasha nodded. “Lead the way, smartypants.”
Anika led her to the platform. Sasha grabbed her around the waist and vaulted them over the railing. They landed near the elevator, and she set Anika on her feet.