Strike

by D. J. MacHale

  “Car?” Kent said. “We’re not all going to fit in one car.”

  “Sure we will,” Olivia said with a wink. She looked to the first Sounder and said, “Go.”

  He raised his pulser and pushed the door open.

  We were instantly fired on from the other side with energy blasts that hit the walls all around us.

  “Split up!” the first Sounder commanded.

  I grabbed Tori’s hand and pulled her off to our right as lethal shots of energy flew everywhere, hammering the cement walls and ceiling, blasting out chunks of material that filled the air with dust and debris. I pulled her behind a wide column for a moment of protection.

  Peeking around the edge, I saw that we were in a subterranean train station, though the vehicles didn’t look anything like the subway trains I was used to. They were individual, round cars about the size of an above-ground swimming pool with windows all around. A dozen were lined up next to one another with their doors open, ready for passengers.

  The station looked like a shipping depot, with crates and equipment piled everywhere.

  “Which one do we get on?” Tori asked.

  “Wait until the Sounders choose,” I said. “This is their show.”

  The battle continued, with Olivia and the first Sounder firing from behind stacked crates while continuing to move closer to the cars.

  I didn’t think there were many Retros, based on the number of shots that were being fired. That wouldn’t last. More would be coming soon.

  The Sounder with Bova made the first move. He boldly dragged the prison commander out from hiding and pulled him toward the cars. He must have thought the Retros wouldn’t risk shooting at him.

  He was wrong.

  He got halfway across the floor to the train cars when he screamed and fell back, letting go of Bova. Someone had taken a very good, or very lucky, shot.

  Bova took off screaming, “Shoot! Shoot them all!”

  Olivia and the other Sounder went on offense. They ran out from where they were hiding, firing multiple shots at the stacks of crates the Retros were using for cover. It was a frightening barrage of energy as the crates were hit with such violence that they exploded into a cloud of debris, forcing the Retros to back off.

  “Move!” the Sounder screamed back at us.

  “That means us,” I said and pulled Tori out from behind the pillar.

  Kent appeared from the far side of the depot and we all ran for the round train cars.

  On the far side of the station, more Retros came running with their pulsers drawn and ready. It was going to be close.

  All around us the floor was blasted apart by stray pulses of energy. The Sounder and Olivia continued to fire at the Retros as they ran, but speed was everything. We had to get in a car and out of there before more Retros arrived.

  The Sounder chose a car in the dead center and the rest of us followed him aboard. He went straight for the controls, which were on the opposite side from the door. Olivia jumped on next followed by Tori and me.

  “Hang on!” the Sounder commanded.

  He hit the throttle just as Kent stepped on board. The door wasn’t even closed as the car shot forward.

  “Hey!” Kent shouted.

  I grabbed him by the shirt and held on tight or he would have fallen right back out. When I pulled him in the door slid shut and was instantly pummeled by rounds of energy being fired from the station.

  “Jeez, he wasn’t kidding about hanging on,” Kent said, his eyes wide with exhilaration.

  “What about the guy we left behind?” Tori asked, breathing hard.

  “He’s dead,” the Sounder replied. “They were shooting to kill.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tori said.

  Olivia put her hand on the Sounder’s shoulder in sympathy.

  He didn’t take his eyes off of the tunnel ahead but gave her a brief grateful smile.

  I stood next to him to see we were flying through a dimly lit subway tunnel that wasn’t much wider than the car we were on. The control panel was a large computer monitor touchscreen that the Sounder kept his fingers on. There was another monitor next to it that looked to be a map of the subway tunnels. A small moving light showed us where we were in the system.

  “What kind of train is this?” I asked.

  “It rides on a contained cushion of energy,” Olivia said. “There are no tracks so there are multiple routes and tunnels to take.”

  “Yeah, well, let’s take a tunnel they’re not expecting because they’re coming after us,” Kent announced.

  Behind us, the lights of another train car could be seen.

  “What’s your name?” Tori asked the Sounder.

  “Sokol,” he replied. “Captain Sokol.” He looked at Tori and added, “Kenny.”

  He was a big guy with jet-black hair and dark eyes to match.

  “How well do you know these tunnels, Captain Kenny Sokol?” Tori asked.

  Sokol took his eyes off of the tunnel long enough to give Tori a wink.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll give ’em a run.”

  We were flying through the tunnel. Literally. I didn’t know how safe it was to be moving with such speed, but it didn’t look as though we were getting any further away from the train that was chasing us.

  “Hold on to something,” Sokol warned.

  I reached up and grabbed on to the overhead railing.

  “Why?” Kent asked.

  We reached a fork in the tunnel and Sokol took a sharp cut, sending us into the tunnel to the right.

  Kent was the only one who hadn’t grabbed the railing and was thrown to the deck.

  “That’s why,” Sokol said.

  “Jeez! A little more warning next time!” Kent shouted back.

  “You okay?” Olivia asked.

  Kent got to his feet, more embarrassed than hurt.

  “I’ll live,” he said. “Won’t I?” He directed that to Sokol.

  “Doing my best,” the Sounder replied.

  Behind us, the chasing car made the same turn.

  “Didn’t lose them,” I announced.

  “We’re headed for a multiple juncture,” Sokol said. “Let’s see how good they are.”

  This time Kent gripped the overhead rail.

  “Never tried this before,” Sokol said. “Should be okay.”

  “Should?’” Kent asked, nervously.

  I glanced at the monitor to see a series of intersections coming up. It reminded me of something straight out of a video game. A life-or-death video game.

  “Here we go,” Sokol announced.

  He threw the car into a quick right turn, flew forward for a few seconds, then hit another hard right turn.

  “I doubt these junctures were designed to be taken at this speed,” I said.

  “They weren’t,” was Sokol’s matter-of-fact reply.

  Enough said. I watched our light on the map moving quickly as we approached several more intersections.

  “Another one,” Sokol called out.

  He made a sharp left turn. Too sharp. The flying car bashed the wall, sending a shudder through the speeding vehicle. The circular car spun and for a second we were flying sideways. Sokol made a few quick adjustments and we spun back around until the controls faced forward again.

  “I may puke,” Kent said.

  “They’re still coming,” I said.

  I pointed to the monitor, where the image of the other car was on the map. They had followed us through every turn.

  “I guess the answer is they are very good,” Tori said.

  “They have the same monitor,” Sokol said. “They know every move I’m making.”

  “Eventually we’re going to reach the end of the system,” Olivia warned.

  “We’ll have to stop and make a
stand,” I said.

  Sokol kept his eyes on the track. He no longer bothered making ridiculous turns. Instead, he increased the throttle.

  “We can’t outrun them,” Tori said.

  “I know, I just want to put a little distance between us,” Sokol explained.

  “Why?” Kent asked.

  “We need a station,” Sokol replied.

  I looked at the monitor, searching for one.

  “There,” I said. “There’s a juncture up ahead to the right. There’s a long straightaway and then the tunnel widens. Is that a station?”

  Sokol gave the monitor a quick glance, and smiled.

  “It’s perfect,” he said.

  “So we stop there and get out?” Kent asked.

  “Something like that,” Sokol replied.

  We reached the juncture and Sokol made the turn. Once inside the next tunnel, he increased the throttle until we were moving with frightening speed. I figured he wanted to give us as much time as possible to get away once we stopped and jumped out.

  “Did they follow us?” Sokol asked.

  I glanced at the monitor. “Yup. Right behind us. A little further back, though.”

  “Perfect,” Sokol said with a satisfied smile.

  I looked to Tori, who seemed as confused as I was. But Sokol seemed to know what he was doing so none of us questioned him.

  “I’m going to come to a stop in the next station,” he explained. “It’ll be abrupt so hold on. Once we stop moving, get out fast.”

  We rapidly approached the station but Sokol didn’t slow down. He wanted to buy every possible second.

  “Here we go,” Sokol said. “Hang on. We’re stopping in three . . . two . . . one.”

  The lights of the station flashed into view, and a second later Sokol powered down so quickly we had to hold on tight or we would have been thrown to the front of the car. It was an excruciating few seconds until the vehicle finally came to a stop.

  Sokol quickly spun the vehicle until the door faced the platform.

  “Go!” he yelled. “Get out.”

  The door slid open and we piled out onto the platform. A few people were there, staring in wonder at the fools who had flown into the station at breakneck speed. As we ran for the stairs that would lead to the street, I glanced back to see that Sokol was still at the controls.

  “What is he doing?” I asked.

  We all stopped to look back.

  Sokol was furiously inputting commands into the control panel.

  Olivia laughed.

  “Oh that’s great,” she said with a giggle.

  “What’s great?” Kent asked.

  “Watch,” Olivia said.

  The car started moving again, in the opposite direction. As soon as it began moving the door started to slide closed. Sokol left the controls and sprinted for the opening, which was shrinking rapidly. He jumped out and cleared the frame just as the door sealed shut. A second later the nuclear-powered train car launched out of the station and disappeared back into the tunnel.

  “Everybody out!” Sokol screamed to the people on the platform. “If you stay down here, you’ll get hurt!”

  “I love this guy,” Kent said.

  Sokol ran up to us and blew right by.

  “Don’t want to be here,” he said as he ran past.

  None of us did. We all took off running.

  The few other people who had been in the station ran with us. They didn’t exactly know what was happening, but they believed Sokol did and whatever was about to happen, it wouldn’t be good.

  We had an idea of what it would be. And it was very good.

  We hit stairs that led us up and out to the surface.

  Night had fallen. We found ourselves in what looked like an industrial area full of warehouses and barren lots. It was a desolate place with only a few dull streetlights that didn’t do much more than create shadows. The area was essentially deserted.

  “We’re in luck,” Captain Sokol said.

  “This wasn’t luck,” Kent said, breathless. “This was brilliant!”

  “Sending the train back was brilliant,” Sokol said. “Doing it way out here was luck.”

  “What happens when two nuclear-powered trains collide?” I asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure,” Sokol said. “But we’re about to find out.”

  Two hundred yards behind us, the ground erupted. The two trains had hit at full speed, causing an explosion that blew through the tunnel and continued on and up until it breached the surface beneath an ancient warehouse. The force of the explosion raged through the building and blasted through the roof, sending a cloud of debris into the sky that had to be seen as far back as the dome. A brilliant spray of light shot up through the hole, creating a beacon that lit up the decrepit neighborhood, making it come alive, if only for a brief moment.

  “Yaaa!” Kent screamed in triumph. “I really hope Bova was on board.”

  “That was pretty slick, Kenny Sokol,” Tori said.

  “I told you I’d give ’em a run,” Sokol said.

  The dust and debris settled as the light dissipated and the smoke drifted away.

  “So what happens now?” I asked. “Feit knows about the Sounders. He’ll be out headhunting.”

  “Now we do what we’ve been planning for all along,” Olivia said. “We strike back.”

  EIGHTEEN

  We had a long way to go to get somewhere safe.

  We didn’t dare use Captain Sokol’s communicator for fear the Air Force would zero in on it to track us down. That meant we had no way to call for a ride. Our only option was to walk.

  I was exhausted and I’m sure Tori and Kent were too. To say it had been a long day was a total understatement. We didn’t talk much as we trudged through the darkened streets. Talking took too much effort.

  The city smelled. The streets were filthy. The air pollution burned my eyes. Scattered showers dropped burning rain at every turn. If the rest of future Earth was anything like this, I could understand the anger that led the United States government to invade its past self. They were acting out of desperation. I got that. I actually tried to convince myself that their monstrous tactics were somehow justified.

  It wasn’t that I wanted to let them off the hook; I was looking for a way to justify my own feelings.

  If I could push the button that Tori asked about, I’d do it. I would wipe out the entire population of future Earth. Was I angry? Sure. Was I disgusted by the way Feit and Bova could so easily take lives? Absolutely. But it came down to a fight for survival. If the U.S. government of future Earth thought it was okay to murder billions of people in order to save their own population, why couldn’t we do the exact same thing to save our own?

  Throughout our ordeal I kept hanging on to the hope that we could one day return to our normal lives. I was kidding myself. Not only would that never happen, I felt certain I would never be able to return to my normal self. I had seen too much. You can’t erase memories. I had become numb to the loss of human lives. Maybe that was a defense mechanism. Seeing Scottie’s life so cruelly snuffed was the last straw. I would do whatever it took to survive, and to stop these monsters. Did that make me just as much of a monster as the Retros?

  Maybe.

  I didn’t care.

  Olivia and Sokol brought us to another large, nondescript building and walked straight for the front door. Lights shone from several windows of the surrounding structures. The first signs that this building housed something other than typical residents were the two burly, armed guards with pulsers who greeted us as we stepped through the front door.

  We were in Sounder territory.

  After quick greetings, Olivia took us to an elevator that brought us up to a top floor.

  “It’s late,” she said. “We all need sleep. There’s a r
oom for each of you here. Take a shower. They’ll send up some food and then we’ll meet in the morning. That cool?”

  We all grunted our approval. The idea of a shower, food, and sleep sounded better than perfect.

  Olivia directed us each to a room. Tori took the first, I took the second, and Kent was last. If we needed each other during the night, we knew where to go.

  My room was as simple as possible. There was a bed, a couple of chairs, and a bathroom. Even so, it was more than I needed. I immediately stripped down and got in the shower. It was the first normal, warm shower I had taken since Pemberwick Island. It was heaven. I stood under the powerful stream, letting the spray sting my skin and wash away the layers of filth. It was then that I realized how long my hair had gotten. It had been cut short for football season but now fell down into my eyes. At some point I would have to get it cut. But who would do it? It wasn’t like there were any barbers around. Compared to all of the horror we’d seen, it was strange to be worried about something as dumb as getting a haircut. It was just one more of the thousands of ways the life I knew had changed forever.

  Once my skin started to prune, I figured I’d had enough so I got out and grabbed the rough white towel that was hanging on the door. At least it was clean. I toweled off and stepped back into the main room to see Olivia sitting on the couch.

  I instantly covered myself with the towel.

  “Jeez, really?” I said, annoyed. “You gotta stop sneaking up on me in the shower.”

  Olivia laughed and covered her eyes. “Sorry. Bad habit. I brought you some food, and something to sleep in.”

  Next to her on the couch were gray sweats and a white T-shirt. Olivia wore a similar set. I grabbed them and went back into the bathroom to put them on. When I came out, Olivia had set the tray of food on a low table. There was a bowl of some kind of grain, an apple, and a pitcher of water.

  “Not exactly an Italian from Amato’s,” she said. “But it’s all we’ve got. The apple is a delicacy.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’m so hungry I could eat the table.”

  I sat and ate the bland-tasting gruel while Olivia watched. It was an uncomfortable moment. I didn’t know what to say to her because I didn’t know who she really was.