“You are in violation,” the Sentry caught up, “of Paradiso code…”
Sam was trapped. Between the robot and a leap to his sure death.
“You have been deemed behaviorally unfit for Paradiso citizenship. You will now be processed.” The ends of the tentacles turned to bloody drills, and in one quick lunge, they—
Pew!
There was a flash of light and a quick blast and the Sentry exploded, raining sparks.
Then, from the heavens, copper and brass airships emerged, each as large as busses, and began firing on the Sentries, in many cases saving people right in the nick of time. The armada of guardian angels swept the flight deck, destroying the invading machines and causing most to flee. Within thirty seconds, Vista had been saved and the largest of the airships landed before a crowd of curious onlookers.
A panel opened, a ramp extended, and none other than Dr. Tam from Atlas approached the gathering.
“What is this!” snorted the King, who made his way to the front. “Tam! You!”
“We were heading to a site and passed Vista. We heard the commotion and thought you could use some help,” Tam said.
“We don’t need your help!” the King snarled.
Dr. Tam remained calm, cool. He nodded to the smoldering piles of ash that were once deadly Sentry Units. “I can tell.”
The King tried to relax. He took a deep breath and tossed away some of his pride. “Thank you…I guess…”
There was a long pause. Tam approached the King, who flinched with caution, and spoke quietly. “Henry,” he whispered, “it does not have to be this way. We can work together.”
“Never! I will never—”
There were murmurs in the crowd. Loud rumblings.
“Henry, don’t be foolish...”
Another pause, even longer. Henry sighed. “Perhaps we can discuss details of partial cooperation in the future.”
“Perhaps.” Tam smiled.
And they kept talking for several minutes. Citizens of Atlas climbed down from their airships to shake hands with the people of Vista. Sam wanted to keep watching, but he felt someone jerk at his wrists. It was Dougie. He’d cut the rope, freeing him.
“Thanks…”
The child beckoned him over.
“What?”
He led him to the air bike, which he promptly hopped on.
“You sure you’re old enough to operate that th—”
The engine roared to life. The blades whirred like mad.
“Alright then…”
They left the capital and returned to the auxiliary pad, where Melanie worked under the hood, putting the finishing touches on Sam’s craft.
“Is it ready to go?” he asked when they landed.
“Yes, sir!” She slammed the hood shut and smiled proudly. “Might not be as smooth as before with cheap parts, but I wouldn’t hesitate to put a baby on board and send it over the moon.”
“I like the confidence.” He climbed up to the hatch and looked down into the cockpit. Everything looked to be in order. “I don’t know how to thank you…”
“Ain’t nothin’ to it, I said. Just remember this next time you feel like the world’s against ya. Because my friend, I assure you that it surely ain’t, and when you’s feelin’ blue, just remember that there’s a million other people in the world feelin’ the exact same way, and that as long as we got each other, then we don’t need nothin’ else.”
“I’ll remember that. Thank you.”
She nodded. Dougie waved. Sam slipped down into the craft and closed the hatch. When he started the engine, two golden balloons popped from the sides and immediately rose, rose, rose into the air…
29
The Field of Frost
And so Sam Pierce continued his journey, his repaired aircraft taking off into the misty skies. The ride was rockier with the makeshift balloons and half-fixed engine, but everything was going fine thus far. Of course, he hoped that the fog pocket would dissipate after a few hours. Sadly, it did not. Then, the compass’s needle started wildly spinning, going haywire.
“Well, that’s inconvenient.”
There was a loud pop and the airship jostled, shifting to one side.
“And that’s very inconvenient…”
Then there was a whoosh of air, but not from the dying balloon. No, it was accompanied by the flash of a familiar winged silhouette. It was only a matter of time before he heard the—
Roar!
A foul, angry grumble shook the sinking vessel.
Squinting through the mist, Sam could see the ominous form of Diakrino coalescing in the distance. The dragon reared back its wings and came right for his ship, throwing out its talons and slashing the second balloon.
Seeing the beast circle around to take another shot at the descending craft, Sam went to a little cargo area in the back and dug through a locker, where he found a flare gun. Diakrino’s dangerous tail swiped at the hull during another pass, throwing him off his feet. He staggered up and slid open a window, the frosty air howling through the fuselage as he searched the heavy fog for any sign of the monster.
For a while, there was nothing. Just the sight of the shrinking balloons and a thinning veil of white. But then, the dragon’s murky body came into view. Sam fired the first shot. It missed badly. Just one left. Diakrino vanished again.
“Come out…come out…”
Bursting from the clouds, Diakrino raced toward the open window with widened jaws.
“Go back!”
Sam didn’t hesitate. He didn’t doubt. He just fired. And the glow of the purple flare shot across the milky sky and right down Diakrino’s gullet, making the demon wail in pain and fly away, concealed by the endless ocean of vapor.
Nevertheless, Sam’s victory was brief, as an alarm started pulsating near the cockpit. An altitude gauge was falling fast. He looked out the windshield as the aircraft dipped beneath the fog. Outstretched before him was an endless wasteland of ice and snow.
“Great, if it’s not one thing, it’s another!”
He went over the controls and looked for some kind of emergency switch, or ejection, or something. Meanwhile, the tether connecting one of the deflating balloons snapped off, the subsequent barrel roll throwing him painfully against the glass. The other balloon’s hitch broke almost immediately afterward and the craft nosedived to the earth.
Sam was powerless.
Gravity pinning him to the back wall, he watched in horror as the surface of the icy desert hurried up toward the windshield. And after the quick, dreadful sound of crashing metal, he blacked out.
Beep…beep…beep…
“His heart’s slowing,” the doctor said as he examined various instruments. “We’re not sure why.”
“Will he come out of it soon, doctor?” Beverly asked with a disturbing lack of hopefulness.
He didn’t answer her question. “Perhaps we should speak in private, you and Mr. Pierce. We need to discuss some contingent matters.”
“Contingent matters?”
“Just…in case…”
“In case what? In case my son doesn’t pull through? In case he dies?”
Beep…
“Yes. It’s standard policy.” It was clear that he was uncomfortable. He kept looking away. It bothered Delaney. She would’ve thought doctors were used to dealing with death.
They stepped out into the hall and departed for an office. Del moved close to Sam and ran her fingers through his thinning hair. She kept looking up at the heart monitor.
Beep…beep…
She sang, as softly as she could: “Twinkle, twinkle, little star…How I wonder, what you are…”
Beep…beep. Beep. Beep.
The tone jumped.
“Up above the world so high…Like a diamond, in the sky…”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
She didn’t know what she was doing. Or how she was doing it. But she got the sense that she was helping. Comforting.
That she was giving him n
ew life.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I…wonder…what you…are…
Sam opened his eyes. His face was partially buried in snow, frozen on one side. Crisps of ice dotted his hair. Muffled wind whistled through his ears. His head throbbed and sitting up was agonizing.
He took a second to collect his bearings. When his vision cleared, he found himself lying across the broken windshield. The craft’s fuselage stretched above like a silo. It was dark. The windows had been shattered. Beyond them was a wall of snow. Was the ship buried? Had it dove into the ice?
Brushing off the pain, he found a heavy coat and slipped it on. Then he started the climb toward the top of the main shaft, where he saw light streaming in, his fingers purple. About halfway up, he noticed his watch face had been frozen over. He tried to blow warm air onto it, but his breath was too frosty. “Whatever,” he muttered and continued his ascent. He eventually reached the rear window, kicked it open and climbed out, falling into the snow.
The outside light was blinding. Pure white as far as the eye could see. Sam shook the cold and examined the ship. It was mostly submerged, with only the back end back end poking up out of the ice sheet. The propellers, however, were still slothfully spinning.
“Okay…” Sam looked around. Just barren white in every direction. A blizzard was in full swing, making it difficult to see more than a few yards. He imagined it was as perpetual here as fire in Hell. “Now now what?”
The ground quaked. In the distance, a little mountain formed in the snow before an enormous mammal emerged from beneath the ice. Like an elephant-sized bear with straggly gray fur, the beast let out a roar that boomed across the landscape. It took one look at Sam, licked its lips, then took off, a trail of raining slush whipping from its hair.
“This is starting to get really old…”
He ran. Trudging through the snow. As fast as he could move. He could hear the constant thump thump thump of the monster’s paws slamming to the ice in pursuit. With one huge leap it soared over the wreckage of the aircraft and continued its chase, trotting on all fours while Sam scampered ahead.
At one point he tripped and made the mistake of looking back when he got up.
It was within a few feet.
He could feel its breath. Its slobber hit the back of his head. The shadow enveloped him. He started to wonder if it would tear him apart when it caught him or just swallow him whole. He hoped digestion wasn’t too bad, but secretly yearned to die before he got sucked down the throat.
Then, he fell.
The field of frost gave, caving in. He tumbled through a hole in the earth like a well that’d been disguised by a thin layer of snow. When he looked up, he could see the ever-shrinking circle of light of the exit and the bear gnashing its teeth in frustration beyond. The farther he plummeted, the darker it got, until he finally closed his eyes and felt his body smack warm water. Swimming for his life, he paddled to the shore of a subterranean lake, gasping for breath.
He collapsed to a beach of pebbles and took in his surroundings. He was in a cave. Like the Grotto of Purpose. Only the water was dark brown, there was little light and steam slowly rose from the surface of the pool, which was surrounded by rocks. Above, he heard the snow bear give up on its quest to dig down into the cave and finally walk away with disappointed grumbles.
“Well…that was easy…”
A claw rose from the mucky water. Surfacing to the shore, a crab the size of a housecat looked at Sam with stalky eyes that whipped to and fro. It was bright orange, like it’d already been cooked, and four tube-like appendages hung limply around its mouth like a slimy mustache.
“What in the world are you supposed to be?”
The crab aggressively snapped its claws.
Sam rolled his eyes. “You’re going to have to do a little better than that.”
Snap. Snap. Snap.
From all around, restless snipping and snapping and popping and clacking echoed throughout the chamber as dozens of the crabs emerged from nooks and crevices between rocks.
“Uh oh…”
He stood at the center of the hungry-looking swarm as they closed in.
“Back off! Back!”
He hurled a rock and the crowd momentarily dispersed, but came immediately back together and continued its slow advance. One let out a little screech and leapt to his jacket, digging its hooks into the fabric. Sam ripped it off and jumped to a high boulder, but could only watch helplessly as the army of crustaceans clambered up the side. He kicked some away, but the numbers were too overwhelming. It wouldn’t be long before—
“Ah! Quite the haul! Quite the haul!” came a vile-toned voice from the darkness as a net was thrown over several of the crabs. The rest of the creatures fled like mad, scuttling back into the recesses from which they emerged, while the foul creature known as Jinx vaulted from the shadows and smashed the captives with a stone until they were just twitching in gobs of goo. “Yum! Yum! Yum! I’m eating good tonight!”
“You again?”
Jinx looked up in surprise. “Sam-oo-el? I…I…what are you doing here?”
“Same question.” Sam hopped down. “How did you even get here?”
“I am the gatekeeper, Sam-oo-el! I am wise and majestic!” One of his crabs jerked. Jinx nonchalantly bashed it with his rock until it stopped moving.
“I see…” Sam let out a sigh. “I really stopped caring about how this whole thing worked a long time ago anyway. I’m just along for the ride at this point.”
“So…” Jinx split open the carapace of one of the crabs—while it was still squirming—and started pulling out slippery bits of flesh, with which he slovenly stuffed his face. “What can I assist Sam-oo-el with today?”
“I need to get to Delaney. But I’m a little lost…”
“Mmhmm.” He smacked his lips and sucked juice from his fingers. “This way.”
The creature hobbled to a tunnel near the rear of the cavern and led Sam to what looked like one of New York’s subway stations with an old train sitting motionless on the tracks. Inside, he found the car to be in obvious decay. Seats were ripped. A layer of dirt and rocks carpeted the floor. Most of the windows were smashed and broken. The walls were covered in a thick, grimy film.
“Yup, just like modern New York,” Sam said.
“Now,” Jinx bounced onto the back of a seat and sat like a gargoyle, “where would Sam-oo-el like to go?”
“Delaney. I already told you.”
“Yes. Yes. The woman. Well, take a seat and I—your ever loyal Gatekeeper—will take you where you desire like a memory you wish to recall!”
“Um, thanks?”
Jinx nodded and smiled. Did he suddenly enjoy Sam’s approval? He skipped to the front car and a few seconds later the train was moving through a blurry tunnel. It rocked and buckled and shook, but otherwise felt no different from the trains he rode to work every morning.
Eventually, the train burst into a steaming jungle. The tracks zipped and wound around trees, past rhinos with three horns grazing on fronds, over sparkling rivers, through a giant hollowed log teeming with insects, and under the shadows of flower heads larger than houses before finally rushing into another craggy passage. It was too dark to see, but Sam could feel things go cold. The metal of the railings frosted over. Blue light finally found its way past the windows and Sam realized that the train was moving through a cave of ice. It glistened beautifully on all sides, a translucent, gunmetal sheen that gradually turned to rock as the compartment warmed up and pulled into a station nearly identical to the one from which it came.
Finally, the train squeaked to a stop and the doors dinged open. Outside, Sam was alone as the train screeched on without him. The station was covered in illegible graffiti, weeds grew up through cracks in the concrete and there was a distinct dripping sound echoing from somewhere unseen.
“So still a lot like New York…”
There was a little beep. Very subtle. Very soft. More like a chime. Pushed up t
hrough fissures in the ground were mushrooms, the heads of which pulsed with multicolored light at each ding of the invisible bell. They made a trail on the floor leading through a corridor, where Sam found a ladder leading up a vertical shaft.
“Alright…this has got to lead somewhere, I guess…”
He carefully made his way up. The rungs were frozen and the air chilled as he ascended. When he reached the top, he pushed a manhole cover out of the way and crawled up into a street carpeted by a thin layer of crunchy snow. He was in an alleyway between two hexagonal skyscrapers. Most of the windows were shattered. Wreckage lined the streets. A forest of concrete and glass surrounded him on all sides.
In an instant, he knew exactly where he was.
And his suspicion was only confirmed by the electronic chirp of a Sentry Bot as it came flying down from above, its eye pulsating red: “Halt, citizen! You will stand down!”
Sam took off.
He flew around a corner and into a street. The empty city was ghostly. Nothing but debris half-covered in snow. Mere ruins. It would’ve been positively eerie if he wasn’t being chased.
“You are in violation of Paradiso code [not found]! Halt for immediate processing! Your cooperation will ensure a safe, pleasant and quick experience!”
“No thanks!” He hopped over a broken Bot but tripped over a buried piece of rubble, falling to his face with a mouthful of snowflakes. His pursuer was already on top of him when he turned around, its drill-tipped tendrils whirring toward his face.
“Please remain still for maximum—”
With a quick burst of sparks the Sentry Bot shot through the air before crashing to the wall of a building, falling to the snow as the light of its eye faded and its voice fizzled out.
Sam took a deep breath.
Then, he heard footsteps.
From the shadows of the dilapidated buildings, several human figures emerged. They were wearing black jumpsuits and black hoods with black goggles. One was carrying what looked like a pistol, only with wires protruding from the side and a red switch instead of a trigger.
Farewell from Paradise Page 21