by Kyle West
More than that, there were so many times Michael could have ended my life, but Askala and the writhe had waited for this. She considered the nukes a greater prize than even Elekim. Askala had conquered this Bunker once for the very purpose of gaining the nukes.
Now, she was conquering it again.
“You killed them, didn’t you?” Anna asked.
Michael didn’t answer. Now, he had stopped using the computer completely. I knew, at some point in the next few seconds, the shooting would start.
Unless I found a way to stop it.
Quietus had warned me not to do this, away from the strength of the ichor. But I saw no other choice. I didn’t want to shoot Michael, and I didn’t want Askala to use him to fire the nukes.
I closed my eyes and reached out for the writhe.
“Alex!” Anna said. “Alex, don’t...”
It was the last thing I heard before I was swallowed by darkness.
I could only hope that Quietus’s warning had been enough to prepare me.
***
The darkness was far more oppressive than it was in the Xenolith. There was only coldness and pain, like I was being crushed in the deepest pressures of the sea. There was nothing but the pain, the panic, the realization of my mistake in doing this.
Here, Askala whispered. Here I shall keep you until the end of time.
I tried to scream, but there was nothing for me to scream with. I couldn’t even form thoughts with which to defend myself.
You’ve given yourself into my hand, Elekim. Now, despair, as I crush you.
The darkness was then pinpricked with thousands of points of light – white, blue, yellow, deep red. The points were different sizes, and it was a moment before I realized they were stars, and that I was in space. A white-hot light brightened in my vision, making it impossible to see. Heat baked my skin, a heat that increased with each passing second. It was a pain beyond imagining.
As I screamed, the heat subsided, ever so slightly. I felt a weakness in Askala’s will, a hesitation.
I realized I wasn’t alone.
Now, Alex. Attack!
The voice was Anna’s. I didn’t know how she was here, but I used this chance to focus on the writhe. At last, I found it, forming a connection with my mind. The will of the writhe wavered, but did not break. I attacked it with all my conscious energy, knowing that this was my one chance to defeat it.
But I didn’t have the strength. I held firm, not letting the writhe push back against me, but I could only hold this for so long. Suddenly, I became aware of Anna joining her will to mine.
Together, she said.
We pushed against the writhe. A burst of light, brighter than any star, ignited in the darkness. The writhe let out a long scream, alien and terrible. The surrounding stars burst into novae, blinding in their mutual radiance.
We waited in the following silence for a long time, until the light faded, until the stars were gone and a great, warm emptiness had been left behind.
And then, there was only darkness.
***
When I awoke, it was not on the Command Center floor. It was in a bed. I still saw the stars floating in an endless black. My mouth was dry, and every muscle was stiff.
With effort, I opened my eyes to find my vision blurred. A face swam before me. I couldn’t tell who it was; the room was dark, and my eyes couldn’t seem to focus.
A hand closed around mine, its warmth entering my skin.
My voice came out raspy. “Anna?”
“Who do you think?”
And like that, she held me, her hair pressed against my cheek.
“Where am I?” I asked.
“You’re on Perseus. It’s 01:34.
01:34. I’d been out ten hours, give or take. Trying to remember anything was a great effort.
“How did I get here?”
“You fought the writhe, remember?” Anna asked. “It controlled Michael’s mind.”
I wanted to ask more, but it was too hard to even think. I settled back on my pillow, closing my eyes once more.
“The army must be at the Great Blight now,” I said. “Did they make it past Last Town?”
“Yeah,” Anna said. “An entire day has passed. You slept through the night, through today, up until now.”
So, I had been out not for ten hours. It was more like thirty-plus.
“And I just now woke up?”
Before Anna could answer, everything returned to me. Anna had been there with me, in the darkness. Without her, I would have lost the fight with the writhe.
“You helped me,” I said.
Anna nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know how it happened, but I just sort of...reached out. I found you there, fighting the writhe.”
“How did you do it?” I asked.
“I have no idea. It all just sort of...happened. Like I had no control over it.”
There were so many things we didn’t understand, but one thing was for sure: without Anna, I probably would have never woken up.
“Whatever you did, you saved me,” I said. “As far as how it happened...we’ll have to ask Quietus the next time we see her.”
“I was knocked out, too, but I woke up this morning. I guess you had it a lot worse.”
“What about Makara and Samuel?”
“They’re both alright. Pretty beat up, but alright. Michael overpowered them both, disarmed them...I can only speculate why he left it at that. Makara thinks the writhe somehow made him stronger. He waited just long enough for Samuel to put in his password before knocking them both out cold. He slammed their heads against the wall, one with each hand.” Anna shook her head. “Neither saw it coming. It almost seems...unreal. He dragged them into one of the dorms.”
“And they’re alright? After all of that?”
“We should count ourselves lucky. Askala wasn’t worried about killing them, so much as getting Michael to the computer. He had just started programming the nukes to hit Los Angeles, when we came along. Julian said you, I, and Michael just went down on the floor. There was really nothing he could do, but he watched until we all had gone sort of...still. He found Makara and Samuel in the adjoining dorm, and was about to go down for help, only Samuel and Makara came to. Long story short, Samuel was able to clear the nukes’ flight path.”
It was hard to believe all this had happened.
“And Michael’s still out?”
Anna nodded. “Yeah. Makara and the rest have been working with the troops on the plateau, setting up the lines. It seems Askala has noticed. A huge swarm is coming to the plateau.” Anna paused. “They should be there by tomorrow.”
“Is that where we’re headed?”
“Yeah. We should be there soon.”
***
We approached the plateau from the air. It commanded a high view of all the surrounding terrain, so when the swarm attacked, they would have to climb sheer cliffs on all but its western side. Orion was parked right next to the railgun, power cables stretching from the ship to the gun. The entire area was covered with xenofungus, lit and glowing in the night. Just a month ago it would have been nothing but rock and dust.
We landed next to Orion. When we disembarked, the ground squished beneath our boots as we went to Orion, where we found Makara standing in front of the ship. A deep bruise discolored her forehead. Both she and Samuel were lucky not to have any serious damage, but the wound looked nasty.
“We’re going to meet on Perseus,” she said.
Samuel, Julian, and Ruth exited Orion, coming to stand by Makara. Lauren was the last one out – if Michael was in the clinic on that ship, then it made sense that Lauren would be here, too.
Everyone headed for Perseus, going to the conference hold once inside.
Everyone took up their seats, and we waited for a long, drawn-out moment. Lauren was the first to speak.
“What are we going to do?” Lauren asked. “Michael is showing no signs of improving. We’re going to run out of IV fluid, and he can’t
keep living in this state.” She sighed. “Maybe now that Alex is awake, we can take him to the Elekai.”
“Going to the Xenolith would be a good idea,” I said. “Not just for Michael. There is something I should have done the first time we were there.” Everyone looked at me, wondering what I was going to say. “I need to screen everyone for writhes.”
“You can do that?” Makara asked.
“I think I can,” I said. “I only wish I had thought of it earlier. If I try to reach out to someone’s mind, and there’s no connection...then I’ll know that person doesn’t have one.”
“Alex, this could be dangerous,” Anna said. “You were out for over twenty-four hours.”
“I’ll have the ichor to draw on. It won’t be as dangerous.” I paused. “Besides, this is something we have to do. I don’t think anyone else is infected, but we have to be absolutely sure.”
Everyone exchanged looks.
“You won’t be able to read our thoughts, or anything like that?” Lauren asked.
I shook my head. “No. That’s not really how it works. I can only do that sort of thing with the Elekai, and even then they have to allow me to see it.”
“I think it’s a good idea,” Makara said. “I mean, if it’s possible.”
“I think it is,” I said.
I looked at Anna, whose green eyes looked at me worriedly. I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t afraid, because she would be with me – not just physically there, but with me in case things went bad. I still didn’t understand how she had been able to follow me into that darkness, but it was comforting to know that she could. I didn’t want to mention that to everyone else; not unless Anna herself wanted me to say it. But Anna looked away, appearing troubled.
“We should sleep,” Makara said. “Tomorrow morning, we’ll head for the Xenolith.”
“What time?” Samuel asked.
“Let’s try to head out at 0:800. It’s a little late, but we’ll need the sleep. We have a full day tomorrow.”
Full day didn’t even begin to describe it. Besides our seeing if the Elekai could heal Michael, and my screening everyone for writhes, the Radaskim would arrive at the plateau at some point tomorrow. And even more, we would probably fly to the Crater when that happened. Another thing I had to do at the Xenolith was talk to Askal and Quietus both, finalizing plans for their part in the battle.
In short, this would probably be my last normal night of sleep for a long time.
“Are we going in Perseus?” Lauren asked.
“Yeah. Orion stays here to power the railgun.” She faced everyone else. “That’s it. Try to get some rest. We’ve come a long way, and we need to go a little further still.”
“Once we’re done at the Xenolith, what then?” Ruth asked. “Are we actually fighting in the battle, or...”
“The plan is to stay as far from the battle as possible,” Makara said. “Not because we’re trying to avoid it, but because our mission is at Ragnarok Crater. Char and Marcus will be commanding the New Angels. That frees me to go to the Crater with everyone else.”
“When the battle joins,” Samuel said. “Then we leave.”
“Any more questions?” Makara asked.
No one said anything – either because they had no questions, or because they were tired.
“Get some shuteye,” Makara said. “I’ll see you on board at 0:800.”
Chapter 11
At 0:800 we converged on Perseus. We left the plateau behind, and I watched Orion and the neighboring railgun drop away with distance. The xenofungus was a blazing spread on the plateau’s flat surface, and Reapers milled around the gun’s position, setting up sharp, wooden stakes that were to form a perimeter.
As we rose higher and higher, I could see the eastern fringe of the plateau, where Augustus’s men were setting up additional defenses. Machine gun nests were being constructed on the higher portions of the plateau; they would have a commanding view of the steep slope that led down into the western valley, where xenofungus and xenotrees expanded in an orangey shimmer.
That valley was where the majority of the battle was to take place; as the crawlers and other monsters tried to ascend to the heights of the plateau, they would be held in check by Augustus’s legionaries, who would use their shield walls to batter back the monsters and jab them with their spears. From the machine gun nests, gunners would rain a hail of bullets on the charging horde.
Dragons, as always, would be the main concern, and they would be here by the hundreds. That was what the railgun was for. Mach 10 rounds would be fired from the center of the plateau, disintegrating any dragon that showed itself in the open air. The railgun would cover the machine gunners. Being in the center of the plateau gave the railgun the widest range possible – the turret and barrel could be turned in any direction needed.
The railgun’s main weakness was that it would be far away from the main bulk of the army, exposed in the center of the plateau where it could be overwhelmed on all sides, either from the ground or the air. To mitigate this, the Reapers were driving sharpened stakes, about twelve feet long, deep into the xenofungus, which proved to be a pliable surface. Together with the stakes, a force of two hundred Reapers would be guarding the gun at all times from both ground and air incursions. If the railgun itself were ever attacked from the air, the turret could be turned to meet that threat.
The stakes, the constant guard of men and Recons, and the railgun itself would hopefully be enough to protect the railgun from a determined attack. Since the eastern side of the plateau would be the most heavily defended, that meant the railgun could only be attacked from the north, the south, or west. The Radaskim would have to wrap around the western side of the plateau, giving the railgun’s defenders enough time to prepare for the attack. Hopefully.
Carin, Augustus, Char, and Marcus had been responsible for most of the battle plan. It seemed like a good plan, but we were counting on Askala throwing the full weight of her force at the eastern line. The Radaskim seemed to rely on overwhelming numbers more than anything else. We weren’t sure how many there were going to be, but we expected there to be far more Radaskim than we had ever seen. This battle would be impossible to win, in the long run; even without the slightest strategy on the part of the Radaskim, their numbers, their big monsters such as the Behemoths, and their dragons would wear us down eventually.
I’d consider it a success if our side managed to last three days.
The only purpose of the army, and this battle, was to buy us enough time to reach Ragnarok Crater and deal the death blow to Askala. I had no idea if we could do that in two to three days. It seemed like it should be a good enough time.
It was scary to think about how much of our plan was based on assumptions – but assumptions were all we had.
***
We arrived at the Xenolith before midmorning, landing on the padded surface of the fungus not far from the entrance of tangled roots. I looked up at the massive Xenolith; even after seeing it more than a few times, it never ceased to amaze me. It stood hundreds of feet tall, and gave off a silvery aura in the midmorning light. Its entire gnarled trunk was composed of countless vines, each one as thick as a tree, and its spread at the top fell down in countless fronds that provided shade to the entire area surrounding it.
This part of the Great Blight was comparatively bare – endless xenofungal plains stretched in every direction, except for the few odd hills that rose above the horizon. Even though this Xenolith was plain for all to see, somehow the Elekai had managed to keep it hidden from Askala. Or, I thought, maybe it wasn’t hidden; after all, a battle had been fought here just days ago. Maybe Askala was so focused on the army in the west that this place wasn’t a priority. Sooner or later, she would attack it.
We approached the large roots, Samuel and Lauren pulling Michael on the gurney. It wheeled surprisingly well on the xenofungus. Michael’s eyes were closed, and he lay on his back and was kept in place only by Ruth and Makara holding him and making
sure he didn’t fall.
I focused my attention on the twisted roots that were the door into the Xenolith. At my touch, they unraveled and revealed the glowing spiral tunnel within.
We followed it down in silence, the gurney’s wheels squeaking. It was a few minutes before we reached the massive entry cavern, glowing and glittering. The ichor lake spread before us, its surface as smooth as glass.
This was Lauren’s first time here. She stepped away from her husband toward the lake, staring at it with wide-eyed wonder. Even though I’d seen it quite a few times, it still had the ability to awe me.
Neither Askal nor Quietus was here to greet us. I watched the lake, expecting one of them to emerge from the surface. But it was eerily silent.
We stood there for a moment, waiting. It was hard not to be solemn in this place.
Lauren was the first to speak, turning to me.
“What now?”
We were here for three reasons – to screen everyone for writhes, to heal Michael, and to finalize plans with the Elekai, getting them to the battlefield as quickly as possible. I thought about which of these was the most important.
“I guess we can screen everyone first,” I said. “That will probably be easiest.”
It would be easiest, supposing no one was infected. I didn’t think anyone else was – surely, Askala would have used them against the rest of us by now – but it paid to be careful.
“How’s this going to work, Alex?” Makara asked.
“First, we need to enter the pool, one at a time. I think that’s the easiest way to do this. After everyone’s been screened, we can put Michael in the ichor.”
“Are you sure it will heal him?” Lauren asked.
I didn’t want to tell her that I wasn’t one hundred percent sure.
“It healed Anna,” I said. “Hopefully, it will do the same for Michael.”
Lauren didn’t like that answer, but there was nothing I could do about that.
“What is this stuff, exactly?” Lauren asked.
“The ichor is like life for the Elekai,” I said. “It heals. It nurtures. It transmits thoughts and intent, and probably does a hundred other things that I don’t know about. Somehow, it gives me power, too, which is why we’re here in the first place.”