by AJ Eversley
She brought her mouth closer to the glass and breathed on it. In the lingering fog on the glass, she wrote, “She can save me.”
Kenzie asked, “How?”
She wrote, “By letting me go.”
Kenzie felt the room drifting back to the present reality, but he wasn’t ready yet. He didn’t fully understand. He tried to hold on, but soon he was back in Adam’s room, kneeling on the floor in the corner, trying to figure out what just happened.
“Are you okay, son?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just got up too fast,” he lied.
Chapter 44
When I returned twenty minutes later, it looked like a bomb had gone off.
“What the hell happened?” I asked, stepping over the debris scattered all over the floor.
Adam’s hair was standing on end, and I could have sworn it was sizzling. Kenzie was in the far corner on his knees, sweeping up glass from broken light bulbs. Chevy, who followed me in, was hiding behind my legs, assessing the scene.
“Um,” Adam said, “it turns out his power is a bit stronger than I anticipated.”
There was smoke coming from the computer and a table that had been tossed over. I handed over the food I brought down for Adam, who took a big bite as I headed over to Kenzie.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded as he dumped the glass into a trash can. Chevy rubbed his head under Kenzie's arm and pushed up against him.
“What does this mean, Adam?” I asked.
He staggered over the wreckage, bringing the sandwich with him. “It means,” he said between bites, “that this plan should work.”
I sighed in relief.
“That’s good then, minus the mess.” I smiled.
Adam nodded absently, too focused on his sandwich to even talk.
“So, I can go now?” Kenzie asked. He seemed tense, like he was in a hurry.
“Yeah, sure. Leave the mess for me to clean up.” Adam waved his hand and winked.
“Thanks,” Kenzie replied as he left.
I followed close behind him with Chevy tagging along.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Follow me.” He grabbed my wrist and took off fast, Chevy stumbling to keep up.
He pulled me toward the weapons wing, which was mostly abandoned aside from the two guards standing at the entrance. We flashed our IDs, and they let us through. The weapons wing was a long narrow tunnel that led into a large cavern of stone. Inside this room was a massive amount of weaponry, some equipment I didn’t even recognize.
At the end of the room, there was a small entryway that led to a stone stairwell going way up. The stairwell was dark as we ascended until little dots appeared in the blackness—stars. We emerged from the cave and out into the open sky that was covered in bright beautiful stars, more than I’d ever seen before. We were situated right in the canopy top, above the camp, which we could see below over the edge.
“Wow,” I said.
“I know.” Kenzie sat and stared up into the sky. I sat beside him, and Chevy curled up beside me with his head resting on my lap.
“What’s going on?” I turned to him.
He looked down at his hands, as he always did when he had something important to tell me but didn’t know how.
“I saw something,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“After the test, with Adam. I was going to help clean up when I suddenly saw a…vision. I saw your mom.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“I was in a huge warehouse, full of pods with humans inside. They were being used to make Carbons. They all looked like they were sleeping, except for one. I went up to the pod, and inside was your mom. She was trying to tell me something.” He wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“What was she trying to tell you?” I asked.
“She said you could save her,” he said.
I had heard that before, but they were dreams. They weren’t real. My mother was dead.
“I can’t save her. She’s already dead. You were mistaken.” I shook my head in disbelief.
“I’m not. Sawyer, I think she is being used as a host for a Carbon.”
“No, I saw her die. I couldn’t even find her body, it was crushed so badly. She could never have survived,” I argued. “It was a dream. You’re just confused.”
“Sawyer!” He grabbed both my shoulders and turned me to face him. “I’m right, and you know I’m right. She is in there.”
This didn’t make sense. She couldn’t be. There was no way.
Tears burned my eyes as they threatened to spill over. How could she be alive? I witnessed her die. But I also thought my father died, and I’d been wrong about that. Could I be wrong about this too? Could she still be alive? Maybe my father wasn’t lying to me all along.
“But how can I even save her?” I asked.
Kenzie looked down again. “She said the only way to save her is by letting her go.”
“So in order to save her, I have to let her go? How does that even work?” I questioned.
“I’m not sure, but I have a feeling the warehouse I saw in my vision is what we will be walking into when we attack. I also have a feeling we will find your mom among the pods. I’m not sure what we do after that, but I know this was a message meant for you. She wanted you to know this.” Kenzie was looking me in the eyes, and I felt the tears welling up again.
I wasn’t strong enough for this.
If my mother was still alive, how could I let her go?
I couldn’t do this.
I wouldn’t do this. Someone else could.
“Why me?” My voice was barely audible. Kenzie put his arms around me and pulled me close.
“I don’t know,” Kenzie whispered into my hair.
We sat there for a few minutes, staring up into the beautiful speckled darkness as Chevy snored on my lap.
“Do you think we are all that’s left of humanity?” I asked. “I mean us and Kuros?”
Kenzie took a deep breath and wrapped his arm around me. “No.”
“If there are others out there, why won’t they help us?” I wondered, mostly to myself.
“Not everyone is as brave and stupid as you are,” Kenzie joked.
I poked his side as I leaned back into him. He wrapped his arm around me tighter. No matter what the outcome, I had to try to save what was left, and if that included my mother, then I’d save her too.
The stars were the key. Both of my parents said that, and I could only hope they were right.
~
I woke up with a jolt and felt something was wrong. The space around me felt smaller, closed in. I reached above me into the darkness, but I didn’t feel the cold stone of the sleeping pods at camp, instead I felt smooth glass. My eyes adjusted, and I noticed cables coming out of my hands. I tried to pull them out, but I couldn’t. I tried to sit up, but I was tied down at my chest, ankles, and waist. I looked to my feet where multiple cables were coming out of my naked body. I was attached to the pod. I was trapped. I screamed for help, banging my hands against the glass sides, barely audible, but hoping someone would hear me. They must hear me!
I heard footsteps coming near, and I quieted my hands, waiting to see if the being behind the footsteps was friend or foe. Two small hands the size of my own were placed on the other side of the glass. A face peered into the pod, and my heart leaped. It was my mother.
“Help me!” I begged, but she shook her head.
“I can’t. Only you can do this,” she answered. I banged against the glass again.
“I can’t! I’m trapped. Please help me!” I screamed.
Her hand gently caressed the glass where my hand lay on the other side. “You are strong, stronger than you think you are. Use it. Use this. It is the only way,” she answered, and then she pulled her hand away. She was gone.
“No, wait! I don’t understand! Use what? Mom!” I yelled, but she w
as already gone.
~
Gentle hands were shaking me. “Sawyer, you’re okay. It was a dream,” Kenzie whispered into my ear. I went to sit up fast, but Kenzie held me down, saving me from a heavy headache had I sat up in the small sleeping pod.
I felt my heart still racing and sweat across my brow.
“What happened?” I asked, confused.
“You were dreaming. I heard you mumbling something and came to check, but you’re okay now, it’s over.” He pushed my hair away from my face, and his hand lingered on my cheek.
“It felt so real,” I sighed. It felt like I was there, like she was there. But it was only a dream.
“Come on, Max has outlined a plan. We should get to the control room,” he said. I reluctantly followed him down, but my mind was still reeling.
~
The plan was set. We would attack tomorrow night. I tried to reason with Max that the Carbons would outnumber us easily and that we should only send in a few, not risk so many lives.
“These people don’t want to just sit here and wait for their doom, Sawyer. You aren’t the only one who wants to be the hero, and you can’t do it all on your own,” Max said. “So whoever is willing and able will fight, come what may.”
I looked to Murray for support, but he agreed with Max. It was no use, I was outnumbered, and they wouldn’t listen to reason. Our only hope was to get to the main control system and shut it down fast. That was the only way to save our people.
I was bred for this. More than half of my life was spent training for the one moment when we could take back our lives, take back what was rightfully ours. And now more than ever, I had to be the best.
All around me soldiers and regular people alike were suiting up for the battle to decide their own fate. What they didn’t seem to consider was that more than half of them wouldn’t live to see tomorrow’s sunrise.
Theresa stood in the middle as she was being fitted for a vest. I shook my head as I approached, but she threw up a hand to stop me.
“You all aren’t leaving me here again, no way! I may be old and slow, but I know how to use a knife,” she said.
“That look alone could kill,” Byron joked with a wink as he placed a vest over her head.
“Stay toward the back,” I begged. “We’ll need people to lead the group back to camp. You can do that, right?”
“Of course I can.” She was offended I even asked. “I can and will do more than that. Don’t worry about me.” She softened and patted my cheek.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Adam was being suited up as well.
“Not you too!”
“Someone needs to be nearby in case you need help,” he stated. “Don’t worry, I don’t intend to get in on the action. This old body couldn’t run more than a minute before I’d keel over and die.”
I was still not happy he was coming, but I wouldn’t stop him. I couldn’t. He had every right to join this fight and deep down inside, I knew we needed him.
“There is one thing you can do.” I looked down, patting the head of my shadow. “Watch Chevy for me? He’ll want to come, but keep him with you, will ya’?” I asked.
“It would be my honor.” Adam smiled. He had to know that this might not be a mission I returned from, and I wanted to make sure Chevy had someone to take care of him when I was gone.
I looked around me and felt the weight of it all dragging me down. Kyle was at the front, giving everyone a crash course on how to use a gun. Most hadn’t even held one before today. He smirked at me.
After Kyle finished, he walked up to me. “Half of these people won’t make it out, but I couldn’t be more proud to lead them into battle,” he said as he clapped my back, moving on to help the next person.
I felt sick.
My stomach was in knots, and all I wanted to do was beg these people not to come, not to risk their lives. I wanted to find another way, but I knew there was none. I said I’d fight for those I loved, for the remainder of humanity, and I wasn’t alone in thinking that.
I couldn’t breathe.
I pushed my way through the crowd until I reached the front entrance. I stepped out into the forest and took a deep breath. The guards didn’t stop me as I walked deeper into forest.
My pace was quick, hoping the distance would ease my beating heart, but I couldn’t get far enough away.
I was quite a ways away when I heard the crunch of leaves beneath feet behind me. I didn’t startle since I’d heard them follow the minute I left camp.
“You shouldn’t come out here alone,” Kenzie said.
I turned to him. “I knew I wasn’t alone.” My heart was pounding, but this time it wasn’t fear for what was to come. It was the way Kenzie was looking at me.
The corner of his mouth tugged into a smile. “If you’d let me, I’d never have you be alone again.”
In the face of all that was happening around us, I found myself smiling too. A real smile.
He came closer and wrapped his arms around me, and I melted into him.
“They don’t understand what they are getting themselves into. I can’t take it,” I whispered.
“I know, but wouldn’t you rather go out fighting than stand by idly while the only people you have left fight for you?” he said, and I knew he was right.
I broke away from him and looked up into his piercing blue eyes. They seemed to go on forever, taking me with them.
Knowing that my end was near seemed to change my priorities. I had never had a boyfriend, nor had I ever cared for one. Actually, up until Kenzie arrived, I didn’t even have many I’d consider a friend. I preferred it that way. The fewer people you cared about, the less it hurt when they were gone. Yet without even trying, Kenzie had opened me. He’d given me hope for happiness, no matter how temporary it’d be.
He leaned in closer, and I felt his breath on my neck as he whispered, “I do remember promising to pick up where we left off a while back.”
I was smiling. It felt like it had been far too long since I had truly smiled since I felt it on the inside.
I tilted my chin up and met his lips. His hand touched my cheek, and he pulled me closer. I wrapped my arms around his neck. My hands found his hair as our bodies pressed together, and our lips moved in rhythm.
Carefully, he laid me down on the forest floor, and we stay there wrapped up in each other’s embrace. My head rested on his chest, and I listened to the strong beating of his heart.
Nothing else mattered. The lies, the torture, all of it didn’t matter anymore; all that mattered was us.
“I’d love to spend my last days here, holding you,” he said as he squeezed me. “You have never looked so beautiful.” He kissed the top of my head.
I closed my eyes and sighed, wishing I could’ve stayed there in that moment forever.
The sun was setting, and I shivered.
“We should get back,” Kenzie said with a sigh, the regret palpable in his voice.
I groaned.
“We don’t want to get lost now, do we?” he suggested.
“I’m a great navigator, so there is no chance we will get lost,” I protested, but with the forest darkening, I was already second-guessing which way we came from.
“I know you are, but we still have to go back.”
I groaned again, but I stood.
Kenzie grabbed my hand, and together we walked back to camp.
~
Theresa had prepared an amazing meal for us as a “last meal” sort of thing. I wondered where she found the ingredients, but she shushed me and told me to mind my business.
We gathered around the fire. Kenzie sat on one side of me, Chevy on the other.
Murray stood up, and we all fell silent. “You all know what is coming tomorrow, and I first want to say, thank you.” He scanned the crowd. “You are all braver than I could’ve ever imagined, and I’m honored to go into battle with each and every one of you.”
There was a hoot from the back, and I suspected it
came from Kyle.
“Tomorrow, not everyone will return. There is no shame in being scared. There is no shame in fear of the unknown. Just know that your sacrifice will save thousands. Together, we will save humanity.” Everyone cheered this time, and I found myself joining.
“So eat up, enjoy the night, and be ready for tomorrow.” He lifted his cup, and we all joined him. “For humanity!” he yelled, and we all echoed the sentiment and took a drink.
Chevy nuzzled closer, and Kenzie put his arm around me. I let the warmth of the fire seep in and thought, I would love to spend the rest of my days right here.
Chapter 45
After a night of no sleep, I rolled over to the side and climbed down the ladder from my sleeping pod. Chevy stood and stretched, crawling out from the bottom floor pod he’d acquired.
I sat by the fire and offered Theresa my help as she baked fresh bread, but she refused.
Slowly, everyone woke up and joined us. Nobody talked, and the tension could be cut with a knife.
We had to wait until dark to enter the city so we had a little coverage from the darkness, but we still had a long journey ahead of us to get there.
I checked and rechecked my weapons, secured my vest, tucked my knives into my tall boots, and braided my long hair back out of the way. Time moved too slowly and too quickly all at once.
~
The sun fell as we reached the outskirts of the city. It would be less than a five-mile hike to Kuros. We were almost there.
There were four groups. The assault team which was the largest, led by Kyle. The second team would clear our route to the tech shop concealing Colemans base. Murray led this team.
Kenzie, Byron, and I would be the only ones heading inside. With Kenzie’s help, we’d get the hatch open, head down to wherever it led, and shut down the mainframe using the star-pendant keys.