by Justin Sloan
Through the smoke clouding the air, she could make out the outline of the largest Syndicate ship hovering right over the freeway intersection. Kaylin held tighter to Jaxon’s hand, relieved to feel him close to her. This time, when the main ship dropped its payload of missiles, they would be far enough from the blast to stay safe.
A humming sound approached them, and Kaylin tensed, scanning the streets. But the humming quickly turned to a dull roar, and three fighter jets streaked overhead.
Ian punched his fist in the air. “Go get the bastards,” he called after them.
The jets disappeared into the smoke surrounding the main ship, and Kaylin lost sight of them for a tense moment. She squinted into the smoke, and suddenly caught sight of the glowing tails of two of the jets.
They shot up, passing over the top of the ship. A flashing light shot out from the side of the gigantic vessel, and one of the jets disintegrated in midair. But the other jet managed to fire off two rockets at the top of the alien craft.
A high-pitched boom sliced through the air, louder than any explosion Kaylin had heard so far. The missiles were Syndicate technology. She didn’t know how the US military had gotten ahold of them, but she could only guess they’d salvaged them off a fallen Syndicate ship the day before, when the invasion had begun in other key cities.
A concussive blast shook the ground. The ship’s shields absorbed most of the enormous blast, but it was enough to knock the ship off kilter and send it listing toward the ground.
Then the third jet dove low, firing off two more missiles. Kaylin clapped a hand over her mouth, not believing what she was seeing. The missiles were headed straight toward the freeway still packed with people. The military was firing right at the civilians they were supposed to be protecting.
Kaylin cried out in horror. Her yell was drowned out as the missiles exploded, shattering the ground with an earth-shaking boom. The explosion ballooned up, swallowing everyone on the freeway, along with the listing ship.
The Syndicate shields couldn’t handle it. They flickered and then crumbled, and the explosion struck the engines of the ship. A smoking hole peeled open, and the ship’s sinking turned into a rapid dive. It crashed into the ground, obliterating the remnants of the freeway and the people trapped there.
Kaylin had one moment to gape in disbelief. Then the ship exploded. Blinding light shot out from the wreck, followed by a concussive wave that toppled Kaylin to the ground.
She willed her body to fall toward Jaxon, shielding him with her body as a low roar and a wave of heat struck them. It stung her skin, rolling over her like hot air from an opened oven. But the heat receded only a moment later.
Kaylin rolled off Jaxon and stared up, watching an all too familiar cloud of fire and blackened smoke reach into the sky. She shook her head back and forth, struggling to grasp what she was witnessing.
She’d seen the cloud of fire before. It was the exact same one that had engulfed the ruins of their apartment complex the first time Kaylin had lived through the invasion.
A thick cloud of dust drifted down from the sky, blocking her view of the fireball in the distance. “What--” A cough shook her chest, cutting her off, and she tried again. “What the hell?”
She could barely hear her own voice over the ringing in her ears. A rough hand grabbed her arm, making her yelp. She instinctively reached for her weapon, but then realized it was just Ian.
“You two all right?” he demanded, yelling to be heard.
She looked down at Jaxon, and he gave a timid nod.
“We’re fine,” Kaylin said, but her voice shook. She swallowed hard and choked out, “It wasn’t them.”
“What?”
“The explosion. The Syndicate didn’t cause it. It was our own military.”
Her head spun as she struggled to wrap her mind around this. She’d risked her life on a daily basis to battle the Syndicate, desperate to pay them back for killing Jaxon. Every single bullet she’d fired into Syndicate lines had been fueled by her all-consuming need to avenge her brother’s death.
But it hadn’t even been the Syndicate who fired the missiles that killed Jaxon. It had been her own military. The military that she worked alongside in the Resistance, who she’d trusted to save lives, not to take them.
But they’d betrayed her. It was her own military who had shot at a freeway packed with innocent civilians, who had caused the ship to crash and explode, who had sacrificed thousands upon thousands of people to take down a single ship.
They had killed her brother.
Her hands shook as she reached out to cup Jaxon’s face, reassuring herself that this timeline was different, that her brother was still alive. Jaxon’s lip trembled as he choked back panicked sobs, and tears streamed down his reddened face, trickling through her fingers. She pressed a kiss to his hair and crushed him against her chest in a desperate embrace.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m going to keep you safe, I swear.”
She couldn’t trust anyone else to do it, but that didn’t matter. She was going to keep her brother safe from the Syndicate, with or without the military’s help.
KAYLIN SCRAMBLED TO HER FEET, pulling Jaxon up by his hand. All three of them stood there for a moment, pausing to take in the disaster in the distance. Then Ian broke into a stilted jog, continuing toward the pier. Kaylin and Jaxon following closely behind, taking the emptiest streets as they worked their way closer to the lakefront.
Few people remained outside, with most having retreated indoors after the main ship exploded. The silence on the streets clashed eerily with the sounds of war behind them, and unease raised the hairs on Kaylin’s neck.
The smoke on the opposite side of the freeway grew thicker every second, as explosions burst in the city streets and buildings tumbled into ruins. But the northern side of the freeway, the side they were on, seemed largely untouched by the destruction. Kaylin carefully scanned every street they ran down, searching for any sign of the Syndicate deployment pods, but she saw none. The Syndicate seemed to be keeping to the south and the east, targeting the more densely populated areas before they pushed the invasion north.
That didn’t mean they were safe. The Syndicate hadn’t hit the area with large numbers, but she could still hear the sound of their weapons ringing out every few minutes. The sounds came from several streets away, but they were still far too close for comfort.
They turned a corner onto a small side street that was bordered on one side by a row of houses and on the other by a small, dilapidated park. Jaxon suddenly stopped running, gasping for air as he struggled forward at a quick walk. Kaylin slowed to walk with him, and Ian stumbled along beside them. The old veteran was gasping for breath, his face reddened with exhaustion.
“How much farther?” Jaxon asked.
“Only about a mile, I think,” Kaylin said. “We’re getting close.”
She fished in her backpack for a water bottle and handed it first to Jaxon, then to Ian. Just as she was shoving the water bottle back in her pack, gunshots rang out with a strangely high-pitched ring. They sounded close, and smoke plumed up from the street corner just twenty yards away.
Panicked voices called out. A moment later, two small explosions followed.
Then there was silence.
Kaylin drew her pistol, and Ian held his shotgun ready at his shoulder.
“Was that Syndicate fire?” Ian asked, keeping his voice quiet.
“Sounded like it,” Kaylin whispered. “Jax, stay behind me.”
He scrambled behind her, hugging her waist and pressing his face into the small of her back. She could feel tremors of fear shaking his small body, and a fresh surge of protective adrenaline flowed through her.
“If we can cut through there, we can avoid the corner,” Kaylin said, pointing toward a thin alley on the opposite side of the street.
Ian nodded, and they took off at a jog across the pavement. She peered down the alley, ensuring it was clear, and then jogged through it
, leaping over bags of trash and crumpled boxes. They paused at the end of the alley, listening for the sound of soldiers, but the street seemed to be quiet.
“Jax, stay here,” Kaylin murmured. She nodded to Ian. “We’re going to make sure the street is clear.”
Her brother nodded and took a few steps back, hiding in the shadows behind a garbage bin. Kaylin took the left side of the alley, and Ian took the right. He held up three fingers in a countdown, and as soon as his last finger closed into a fist, they burst out onto the street.
Kaylin found herself staring straight at a Syndicate pod. It had landed on the sidewalk, just three yards from her. She felt a single moment of relief as she saw that the pod was empty. But that relief evaporated as she caught a metallic flicker in the corner of her eye, the tell-tale sight of light reflecting off armor.
“Enemy sighted!” she called to Ian, whirling toward the Syndicate soldier. It was standing over the corpses of what appeared to be a family--a man, a woman, and two kids. Both were little boys, hardly any older than Jaxon. The sight of their blank, bloodied faces made rage bloom in Kaylin’s chest.
She took a step toward the soldier, her gun raised. It raised its own weapon, a red plated pistol that matched its armor. A high-powered rifle was slung over its shoulder, but it didn’t bother drawing it, seeming to think Kaylin wasn’t enough of a threat to warrant the larger weapon.
Kaylin had just enough time to dive to the side before the Syndicate soldier pulled the pistol’s trigger. The round struck the ground three feet from Kaylin, right where she’d been standing just moments before. Dust flew up in her face, and she struggled to aim her own pistol as she fired off two rounds. Ian’s shotgun boomed along with hers as they both scrambled for cover.
Their bullets would do nothing. She knew that too damn well. Their guns were too old-fashioned to even make a dent in the Syndicate armor. Her only hope was that the soldier couldn’t see her weapon through the dust, and would assume it was a modern gun capable of piercing armor.
She ducked behind a parked car, and Ian dove behind a truck parked across the street. The Syndicate strode toward Kaylin. She fired a round at it, but the lead bullet pinged harmlessly off its armor.
Two blasts rang out, and Kaylin winced, ready to feel a Syndicate round tear through her flesh. But it didn’t. Instead, the Syndicate soldier jerked to a stop, throwing up an armored hand to shield its neck.
Kaylin turned to see Ian standing up from behind the car, aiming the shotgun toward the Syndicate warrior. Kayline gaped, wondering how the hell the small shotgun pellets were managing to stop the Syndicate soldier in his tracks.
Then it dawned on her. The weak point. Every Syndicate soldier had it--just a tiny space on the armor covering the back of their necks, where their ventilation system could reach the outside air. She hadn’t known about it until recently, when she’d heard a rumor about it from a Resistance soldier. But now that knowledge was proving to be useful.
It didn’t look like Ian had actually managed to hit it, but the Syndicate was obviously worried the tiny, scattered pellets of the shotgun would find the weak spot. The alien soldier tucked away its pistol into its belt and took up the larger, more powerful rifle slung over its shoulder. Then it swiveled to face Ian, protecting its weak spot from the shotgun fire.
And leaving its back turned to Kaylin. She charged, jumping up from behind the car and leaping onto the Syndicate’s back. She clung to its neck with one arm, pure adrenaline making her grip as secure as steel.
The alien jerked in surprise and reached up to grab her. Its armored hand wrapped around her arm in a crushing grip, but it was too late. She used her other hand to bury the muzzle of her pistol right into the Syndicate’s weak spot.
She pulled the trigger.
The Syndicate soldier jerked violently as the bullet struck it. But it didn’t stop, and instead reached up with its rifle, as if trying to shoot her off its back.
Kaylin frantically fired a second shot. This time, the alien went limp.
As it fell to its knees, the gun tumbled from its hand and skidded across the pavement. Kaylin aimed and fired a third shot, and it collapsed to the ground in a motionless heap.
Kaylin shakily climbed off its back and to her feet. Then she leaned over and fired a final shot into the alien. Four shots, and four bullets. One for each member of the mutilated family lying just yards away. The revenge wouldn’t bring them back, but it still lit a burning sense of accomplishment in Kaylin.
“Incoming!” Ian yelled.
Kaylin whirled, finding two more Syndicate soldiers jogging toward her. She cursed and leaned over, snatching the pistol from the Syndicate’s weapon belt.
As soon as her hand closed around the gun, she could feel the hum of alien energy within it. It filled her with a fresh burst of excitement as she whirled toward the incoming soldiers, knowing she actually had a chance to take them down.
The soldiers didn’t give her a chance to aim before they opened fire. She cursed and leapt to the side, barely managing to avoid their shots. Chunks of pavement exploded around her feet, and one flew up and sliced into her forearm. A line of blood appeared in her skin, but she couldn’t even feel the pain over the adrenaline coursing through her body.
She fired back at the Syndicate soldiers as she scrambled to the side of the street, seeking cover. The weapon was light-weight and had hardly any recoil, allowing her to easily fire off a volley of five shots right before ducking for cover in a cramped alley.
She paused for breath before quickly peeking around the corner. Two of her shots had found their targets, burrowing through the armor of the leading Syndicate soldier. It crumpled to the ground, and Kaylin let out a wild whoop of victory.
But she didn’t get a chance to get another shot off before the remaining alien opened fire on her again. Kaylin ducked back around the corner. The wall shook, and chunks of brick rained to the ground, forcing her to retreat further into the alley. She cursed, realizing the wall wasn’t going to hold against it for long.
Then two more shotgun blasts rang out. It was exactly the distraction Kaylin needed, and she leapt from the alley. The Syndicate had turned to face Ian, leaving its back exposed to Kaylin. It raised its rifle toward Ian, and Kaylin let out a rapid volley of rounds.
Three of them struck the Syndicate. But not before it managed to fire a round straight into the truck shielding Ian. The truck exploded just as the Syndicate crumpled to the ground.
“You fucker!” Kaylin yelled, rage turning the words into a hoarse snarl. She fired two more rounds into the alien’s crumpled body, making sure it was dead. Then she raced across the street, desperately hoping to find Ian alive behind the wrecked truck.
Smoke billowed from the twisted metal, clogging Kaylin’s lungs. A coughing fit wracked her chest as she plunged into the smoke, searching for Ian. Then she heard the most beautiful sound she could have imagined.
More coughing, but not hers. Ian’s.
The smoke cleared slightly, and Kaylin reached down, grabbing Ian’s shoulders. She hauled him backwards, out of the cloud of smoke and over to the other side of the street. He cursed and let out a couple cries of pain, but she took that as a good sign. It meant he was still fully conscious.
She rested him in the shade of a building and bent over, examining his wounds. Burns covered his limbs, and his lower leg was twisted at a sick angle. Kaylin cursed, realizing he must have dislocated his knee when the blast threw him against the sidewalk.
She knelt at his side and started to roll up his pant leg to get a better look. But Ian snaked his hand out and caught her arm, stopping her.
“No time,” he said. “Just go. Get the kid out of here.”
She shook her head. “It’s just dislocated. All I need is a minute to get it back in the socket and--”
Ian roughly shook her, cutting her off. “You can either save your brother or you can save me,” he snarled. “And I’ll be damned if I let you choose me.”
Her vision blurred. A single tear coursed down her cheek, startling her. She roughly scrubbed it away, struggling to regain her composure.
She never cried. Not since the day she’d lost Jaxon. She’d completely buried away the part of herself that was capable of those sort of emotions. It was the only way she could survive.
But now she couldn’t keep the tears away. Ian hardly even knew her, but he was willing to sacrifice himself to save Jaxon. She’d been convinced for so long that it was her against the world, but Ian had proved her wrong.
Kaylin wanted to tell him all of that, but she knew there wasn’t time. So she just choked out, “Thank you.”
The faintest hint of a smile lifted his expression. “Just make sure that boy makes it out of here alive. That’s thanks enough.”
She squeezed his shoulder comfortingly, but then Ian’s eyes widened in horror.
“Behind you!” he roared.
Kaylin whirled to find a Syndicate soldier bursting out of the alley on the opposite side of the street. Its rifle was aimed squarely at them. She lifted her own gun, but it was too late.
The high-pitched explosion of a Syndicate weapon rang out. She braced for the killing shot, but she couldn’t feel it. She only felt the numb heat of adrenaline rushing through her. She squeezed her trigger, but the alien soldier began crumbling to the ground before her round even struck it.
A fresh hole appeared in the Syndicate’s chest, right below another hole burned through the soldier’s throat. Kaylin whirled around, searching for whoever had fired the killing shot.
Jaxon stood four yards from her, his body trembling under the weight of the Syndicate rifle gripped in his tiny hands. Kaylin gaped at it, unsure where it’d come from. Then she realized it was the rifle the other soldier had lost its grip on. When the weapon was flung to the ground, it must have skidded into the alley Jaxon had been hiding in.
Jaxon stared wide-eyed at the Syndicate soldier he’d just killed, blinking rapidly in disbelief.
Ian let out a short, barking laugh. “Atta boy!”