by J. N. Chaney
“There’s Janus,” said Karin, pointing at the stage.
The Cognitive stood there with Alma and Josef. I started for them at a brisk walk since things seemed to be calm now. Once we were closer, it became apparent that something was wrong. Josef looked stricken as he spoke to the other two while making a lot of hand movements.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Is it the Director?”
Josef shook his head and I relaxed. “All the fighting was a diversion,” he said.
“A diversion for what?” asked Karin, looking from him, to Janus, to Alma.
“Fusion cores,” Alma supplied.
I stared at her in confusion. “What do you mean? What do fusion cores have to do with anything?”
“It appears that Mario's followers raided the engineering lab and took our supply of fusion cores,” Janus explained.
“How many?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“All of them,” said Josef.
Now Josef’s current state of unrest made perfect sense. A jolt of anger lanced through me and I thought of the upheaval Mario's had just delivered to the community. And for what? Fusion cores? It didn’t make sense.
“Where is the traitor?” I spat. “He needs to pay for what he’s done here.”
“I believe his men carried him to safety,” Alma said with a look of disgust. “Nero was among them.”
“We have to go after them,” I declared, looking at the rest of them. “Where are the other hunters?”
“Protecting the Director, along with your mother,” answered Alma. “A few are in the infirmary. Some… didn’t make it.”
I swallowed the fresh anger that threatened to erupt and tried to think. “And the prospus?”
Alma grimaced. “Prospus Thompson and Folson appear to be working with Costas. Nagata is missing.”
A glance at Karin told me she was just as stunned as I was. It didn’t surprise me that Allan had chosen to side with Nero’s father. I supposed Nell doing the same made sense too. They had both been so willing to follow him into danger when we’d gone down the Boneclaw tunnel.
“I’ll come with you,” announced Josef, drawing himself up.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You need to keep an eye on things and make sure nothing else was taken.”
“There are only the three of you,” he argued. “You could use another body. Janus can monitor what’s going on here.”
“What if something happens to the power?” Karin pointed out.
Janus laid a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Apprentice Braid, I think she is right. If the traitors attempt to shut me down, then this facility will be vulnerable. At the moment, only you and Prime Doyle have the knowledge to fix any serious issues.”
Josef looked like he might argue, but he relented. “Alright. How do you plan on finding them?”
“Actually, I have an idea on that,” I said, clearing my throat and pulling out the datapad. “When we found the fusion cores for the ceremony, Mark was able to detect them using scanners in the area.”
“Clever,” murmured Josef.
“Yes,” agreed Alma. “I was impressed when they pulled it off.”
“Can you do a widespread scan and find out where they are?” I asked Janus.
His form flickered for a moment as he processed the data, then it went solid again. “Facility 3. I’ve sent the information to your pad.”
“Facility 3?” I asked, somewhat dubious. “Most of that is closed off. Isn’t the power shut down too?”
I vaguely remembered something Janus had taught us long ago about the facility being blanketed with radiation. As a kid more interested in exploring, I’d tuned it out not wanting to hear about someplace we weren’t allowed to go.
It didn’t seem like the best place for a rebel hideout if you had to worry about radiation poisoning.
“Yes,” answered Jo, his brows knitting together. “Though the signal isn’t inside.”
An orange dot appeared on the map and I smiled. “None of the other prospus know about this, so we have the advantage.”
“Okay, then.” Karin blew out a breath. “Let’s go get our fusion cores back.”
The three of us stood in the darkened cave system on the path that would take us to Facility 3.
It reminded me of the final part of our Selection tests only hours before. My body was exhausted. Karin and I had been up since the early hours of morning to prepare for the day, as I was certain Alma had been, but there was nothing to be done about it.
We’d learned after a stop to the armory that Mario's men had already been there. Not much was left except a few bio-coded guns and short blades.
Josef re-coded them for us, but with a limited supply of ammunition, they wouldn’t last long if we got into a fight. Our hope was to at least scout the area Costas had taken the cores and report back.
As we moved silently down the deserted corridor, I was taken back to my youth. The Director often brought me along on scavenging trips once I was old enough, and I loved it.
Back then, the wolves had mostly kept outside and Boneclaws coming into the caves was almost unheard of. Wandering through the caves with my father had been an adventure.
Now he was receiving medical care and fighting for his life.
A hand on my arm pulled me out of my thoughts and I came to a stop to see Alma. She and Karin looked at me with concern when Alma spoke.
“Girl, you are distracted,” she observed. “You are the leader right now. Put away all the emotion and think like one.”
The older woman was right. I hadn’t even been paying attention to where we were going. The three of us stood at a fork and Alma had stopped me from walking down in the wrong direction.
“You’re right,” I acknowledged. “We need to go the other way. Sorry about that. I’m good now.”
Alma stared at me as if deciding whether to believe me, then nodded. “Good.”
I moved off, taking the left fork, and pushed all thoughts except the mission out of my mind. Now that I was paying attention, it became clear that the rebels had come this way.
Mario's people had not been careful. The whole area was cluttered and disturbed, as though it were almost intentional.
Could this be a trap? Or was Mario so confident in his men and the success of his coup that he simply didn’t care?
The former troubled me. I signaled to Karin and Alma to stop. Consulting the pad, I ushered them to a room, and together we slipped inside.
“We’re getting a little close to be talking out in the open,” I explained.
“That makes sense. What’s wrong?” Karin asked.
“It’s just… doesn’t this seem a little easy?” I asked.
I could tell neither of them had considered that possibility from their sudden looks of concern.
“A child could follow the trail they left,” I explained. “I have a bad feeling we’re walking into a trap.”
“But they don’t know we’re tracking the signal,” reasoned Karin.
“That is true,” agreed Alma. “And it’s likely that they assumed no one would be coming after them so soon. The only missing hunters that came back were with Mario. With the amount of injuries sustained and protection for your father and the Primes, there aren’t enough other hunters to mount an attack.”
“You have a point,” I conceded. “Still, I don’t like it. We should find an alternate route.”
“Good idea,” said Karin. “There has to be another way to where they’re holed up.”
Unfortunately, there wasn’t. Mario had chosen his hiding spot well. The orange dot marking the fusion core’s location had stopped moving in Quadrant S. It was situated on the far side of the facility, close to the outside, and the only way to get to it was to keep going. Anything else would take us out of the way and eat up time we didn’t have.
Agreeing to keep moving, we left the room.
As I was about to take a step in the direction the map said to go, a loud
thump sounded in the distance.
10
“Uh, what was that?” asked Karin, fear plain in her tone.
“If I had to guess,” I replied, “I would say that it was a Boneclaw.”
“I’d say you’re correct,” whispered Alma. “We need to move.”
“It sounded like it came from the compound,” said Karin worriedly. “Maybe we should go back? They might need us.”
“We don’t know that it came from there,” I pointed out. “For all we know, it’s headed this way.”
“And if we go back, we’ll just run into it,” she realized.
“Exactly. Let’s go. No more talking until… until it’s safe to do so.”
Alma’s mouth twitched as if she might smile at my awkward wording, then another thump sounded, closer this time, and we began to move in earnest.
The older woman had let me take the lead on our scouting operation, even though she was not only the elder, but outranked both me and Karin. If Nero had taken part in the rebellion—and with his father their leader, why wouldn’t he have—then the Primes would revoke his standing.
At least I thought they would.
I recalled Mario's exchange with Jacob Abbot, the Sustainability Prime. If they had planned this together, the Prime was in a position to help keep Nero as the next Director. Still, Abbot had appeared unprepared for the arrival of the missing hunters.
The events of the last few weeks all started to run together, even as I struggled to make sense of them. The fatigue was starting to take over and I caught myself stumbling more than once.
The distant thumps continued, and though none of us said it out loud, I was sure we were all thinking one thing. Whatever was making them was getting closer.
I checked the map constantly, both to make sure the orange didn’t move and to keep myself calm. We’d long since passed the point where communication with our facility was viable and that didn’t help the uncomfortable feeling in my gut.
The thumps stayed with us, getting just a little louder each time, but it almost began to fade into background noise. Almost.
They had to be Boneclaws. Frost horns certainly couldn’t make that kind of sound. Now that we knew for sure that they weren’t attacking the facility, it made even more sense to keep going.
We walked another thirty minutes before the first signs of Mario's hideout became evident. Barriers had been constructed from the debris. Mario and his people had taken anything they could find to create the makeshift barriers. The result was imposing.
Their staggered formation would prevent a large group from launching an effective attack because it wasn’t wide enough for more than one or two bodies to fit through. Moving fast wasn’t an option either. Pieces of sharp, twisted metal stuck out at odd angles sporadically. If you didn’t pay attention, one of them would leave a nasty gash that would likely stop any pursuit.
Or escape, I thought dryly.
All in all, it was a smart move.
THOM.
THOM.
I’d been so busy studying the barriers that I hadn’t noticed the thumps had gotten closer. A lot closer. And I was pretty sure there was more than one Boneclaw making them.
From the pallid look on Karin’s face and Alma’s set jaw, they had drawn the same conclusion. We all tightened our grips on the weapons we carried.
“Maybe we should hide until the creatures pass,” Karin suggested nervously, speaking under her breath.
“It might be a good idea,” I agreed, pulling out the pad to look for somewhere we could get out of sight. “I don’t feel good about going through those barriers just yet. We have no idea what’s waiting when we get past them.”
Taking down a single Boneclaw was hard enough to do with a full-size group of seasoned hunters. With just the three of us, I didn’t think we stood much of a chance against one, let alone more than that.
The map showed that the only way to bypass the barriers at this point was to double back and take a small tunnel that had been used for transport between the facilities. It did a kind of loop through the cave system and had once sported a hover rail system that shortened travel time between facilities to minutes.
Now it was a series of cave-ins and rubble, passable but dangerous. Without the rail system working, it took hours to get from one point to another. Nothing of value had ever been found in them and our people tended to avoid the tunnel altogether.
Unfortunately, it also looked to be our only option.
We jogged back toward the split, trying to move fast but stay quiet. Inside, my fight or flight instinct was going into overdrive. My body seemed to move jerkily, as if protesting running toward the danger. The good thing about the fear was that it was dumping adrenaline into my system. Sure, I was terrified, but at least I no longer felt exhausted.
THOM.
THOM.
THOM.
The thumping no longer sounded like it was far away at all. Now I could discern the scraping of claws and make out heavy breathing.
“Move!” I hissed to the others.
They didn’t need to be told twice.
The Boneclaws were already in sight when we arrived at the antechamber that would take us to the tunnels.
Three of them.
Our feet hit the cave floor with loud slaps that might as well have been a holo reading “We’re right here! Come eat us!” If they’d had eyes to see.
One of the animals stopped moving and stood erect, swiveling its large head in our direction. Its ears perked as we rounded the curve and it took off at a dead run, letting out a terrible roar that echoed all around us.
“Go!” I yelled, no longer worried about being quiet.
I didn’t have to steal a glance behind me to see that they were giving chase. The ground shook beneath us and the bellowing was starting to hurt my ears.
“There!” cried Alma, pointing.
I followed her gaze and saw the opening was barely 50 meters ahead. We all dug in, closing the distance to the tunnel, its darkened hole acting as a beacon of safety.
The Boneclaws were just behind us now. I slowed a fraction to let Karin and Alma go ahead and gripped my staff, urging it to power up. If anything, I could act as a distraction and give them more time to get away.
Not bothering to aim, I pointed it over my shoulder and let loose with a round of blue energy. There was a loud crash then an awful screaming. I couldn’t be sure if I’d hit one of the Boneclaws or knocked a part of the cave loose on top of them.
“Stupid girl!” Alma chastised me when I caught up to them. “They could’ve killed you.”
“But they didn’t,” I pointed out. “And we need to keep moving. I don’t think whatever I did will hold them back long.”
She gave me a dithering look but nodded.
“There’s only one way to go,” Karin said, gesturing toward a path. “The other one’s caved in.”
Something about the pile of rubble looked off to me, but there wasn’t time to check it out and we took off at a run again.
The thumping had resumed but didn’t sound like it was in the tunnel, and I wondered just how much damage I’d done.
Within a few minutes, the adrenaline seemed to have worn off and we’d all slowed to a fast jog. The tunnel curved, then split in two directions.
Again, there was only one way to go.
As we passed the second cave-in, I finally realized what was bothering me about the natural blockade and stopped.
“What is it, Lucia?” asked Karin, looking exasperated. “We don’t exactly have time to stop and study the scenery.”
“This looks recent,” I said, turning to them both. “I think someone did this.”
“What for?” she asked, the exasperated look giving way to one of trepidation.
“To herd us,” Alma supplied.
“You’re exactly right,” said a familiar voice. “That was easier than it should have been.”
Bright lights flicked on in front of us and I was temporar
ily blinded by their sudden appearance. I blinked until they adjusted then stepped back.
Mario stepped out of the open tunnel and aimed a rifle at Alma. The blast echoed in the tunnel and her body jerked backward with the force of the round.
“No!” I screamed, turning and dropping to her side. Blood covered the ground next to her and her eyes fluttered from the shock of the ruthless attack, but I could see it wasn’t fatal. She was still breathing.
I didn’t see what happened next. One second, I was moving to stand, then someone howled in rage at the same time, another echoing blast filled the passage, and I found myself in the dirt next to Alma.
Disoriented, I pushed up on my knees, groping for my staff. Karin stood in front of me, holding her gun in Mario's direction. I realized she must have shoved me down because he was standing in a similar fashion, his face pulled tight with rage.
“That was very stupid, Miss Riddell.”
Without another word, he squeezed the trigger.
Karin jerked back like Alma did, and then fell.
I felt frozen, unable to move, even after her body landed with a heavy, limp thud.
I scrambled over to her and tried to staunch the flow of blood coming from the gaping wound in her chest, but it was useless.
Her eyes went wide as her breath rattled and came faster. I gripped her hands. “Karin!”
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing but came. Her hands went still in mine, and I watched as the life left her.
11
“You bastard.” I could hear the anguish in my voice but didn’t care. “I’m going to make you pay for this.”
Mario barked out a laugh, as though I had told him a joke. “All by yourself? I doubt it.”
The sheen of unshed tears collecting in my eyes obscured my vision, but I found the staff in the dirt and used it to push into a standing position.
“Ah ah, don’t do anything rash,” Mario warned me. He tilted his head at his men then pointed at Alma. “Get her up.”