by TIME, S. O.
I hope we find Hitori soon. Despite my lack of understanding about what’s going on here, about what’s going on with me, her wellbeing is still taking up the largest amount of my concern. I want to see her smiling more than I want to actually understand why.
“We’re getting closer to the entrance,” Cortez announces.
We move across the pod-ridden streets as we all head north. The roadway that turns into a ramp is about three blocks away from us and our path is unobstructed for the most part. It doesn’t take us very long to get to it, but the center of the bridge has collapsed. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to walk through it.
“Great, now what?” Cortez belts out.
“We’ll be fine,” Kou responds.
“We have no way to get across, what are you talking about?” Cortez fires back.
Kou smirks, places his hands behind his head, and turns to me. “We have our answer right here,” he says slyly.
They all turn to me contemplating Kou’s words. I point at myself before speaking. “You’re not thinking about—”
“Eiiiiiiji, my buddy, my pal, my friend, thank you ever so much for volunteering to pass us through the gap with your portals,” Kou says as he moves to wrap an arm around my shoulder.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get off me,” I say, moving Kou’s arm away. “I’ll do it.”
“You really think this’ll work?” Kel asks.
“I was able to open them fine when Eugen attacked me. I feel no different now.”
“See? That settles it. Perfect,” Kou answers. “Besides, the next passageway through the highway is about ten kilometers down and we’d waste too much time getting to it.”
The rest of them shrug their shoulders and we begin climbing the ramp. The bridge is eight lanes wide, mostly empty except for a couple abandoned pods. The highway below is littered with transport vehicles that fell when the center of the bridge collapsed. I look down and see a few lifeless bodies scattered about from people who were probably trying to run back to this side, away from the destruction that lies ahead of us. I’m sure the others have noticed as well. The energy around us becomes more tense and as the temperature continues to drop, I begin to feel more like I did when I first came to this planet. The blood on my clothes is about dry and I can feel the cold seeping into my skin.
After walking for about ten minutes, we reach the gap that splits the bridge in two. It’s at least fifty meters wide. Everyone stops a short way from the edge, and I walk to the front. With a few seconds of focus, I open a travel Tear leading from our edge to the other side. The two teardrops ripple with inner light from either end of the gap, and I hear one of the others murmur in amazement.
“We can run and jump through them, right?” Kou asks.
“Yes,” I say perplexed by his question. “Why?”
“I got an idea. I wanna see what it’s like to jump through one and out the other end, we could use this in battle to get around to places we hadn’t been able to reach as easily.”
“Ah, I see what you’re saying. Like someone could engage an enemy and someone else could be sent around to another location to attack from behind or something.”
“Exactly! The possibilities are endless.”
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” I catch myself saying. “I’m willing to try it.”
“Sounds good,” Kel adds.
Everyone else nods in agreement. Kou takes a few steps back before sprinting full speed into the Tear, jumping out of the other side and sliding on his feet until he stops. He gives us a thumbs-up when he turns back to face us.
“Alright, who’s next?” I ask. Tramil, Cortez, and Kel all stare at each other.
“Do a rock-paper-scissors!” Kou shouts from the other side.
“It’s only fair,” Cortez says.
“This is ridiculous,” Tramil responds.
“Then by all means, go ahead,” Kel replies.
Tramil lifts his hand and gets ready for the first game when all of the lights go out. Streetlights, holosigns, and the glowing windows of nearby buildings go dark, leaving us in the rapidly dwindling light of late dusk. We exchange a quick look, and then one by one we all run through the Tear. Despite our injuries, we all race through the streets attempting to get to Founders’ Park.
“Kou, have you heard anything from Hitori?” I ask, struggling to quell my growing anxiety.
“She says they’re heading back now. I told her to wait with Andrew, Chives, and anyone else she might be with inside the bunker until we get there.”
“Where is Isao keeping the Councilmembers?”
“At his new headquarters, just north of Founders’ Park. Since many of Isao’s troops are still stuck outside of the barrier, Isao is relocating anyone on this side of the bridge to the heart of the city so he can focus his attack on fighting the nymians and gathering his troops. Since our own forces are busy defending our stations and bunkers against the nymians, Isao is holding down the center. I highly doubt he was expecting to lose access to so many troops with the shield coming into effect. In trying to find Hitori, I think he completely ruled out a second outbreak of this magnitude. I also don’t think he considered how many people like Kel would end up defecting mid-fight.”
Kou reads from Cortez’s holo.
“Mom says she has no camera access on this side of the city either. We’d need to get the power back on for her to see, but our top priority remains getting to Hitori and rescuing the Council. We’re on our own out here.”
Kou’s words echo through the streets along with the sirens as we run deeper into the darkness that has now enveloped the city.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“H ow close are we?” Cortez yells.
“About two kilometers,” Kou says. “We need to reduce the number of casualties on our way there.”
“What about the Council?” Kel asks. “Do we have the time?”
“We’re not going to run by as people get slaughtered out here. Our whole purpose is to save them,” Kou shouts back.
At the end of the block we see four civilians fleeing toward an underground entrance, two nymians following close on their heels. At first it looks like the civilians will make it, but one of them trips, bringing another down with them. Kou activates his crystal, fists glowing red as he sprints forward. Kel dashes beside him, arm outstretched and fingertips shimmering with blue light.
“Hey, give me a boost, will ya?” Tramil says from my left. I nod and stop, opening a travel Tear leading from right in front of him to the air above the nymians. Tramil charges through, falling out of the Tear in time to ram the leading nymian into the ground with a powerful kick. He jumps to the ground in front of the other one before it can charge past and reach the civilians. The nymian doesn’t hesitate—a massive claw lashes out with terrible speed, certain to cut Tramil in two. Right before the blow lands, a sheet of glowing blue light appears right beside Tramil, and the claw bounces off it as the nymian howls in frustration. Tramil spares a fraction of a second to give Kel a thumbs up before charging his fist and laying into the beast. Kou arrives at that moment to punch into the first nymian, which had started to rise. I watch in amazement as Tramil and Kou deliver blow after blow, while Kel raises shields in just the right moments to block the nymians’ attacks. The system is brutally effective—each time the beasts are caught off guard by one of Kel’s shield blocks, Tramil or Kou have an opening to exploit. They move around the beasts carefully to avoid the sludge that spills from their wounds while persisting with their attacks.
Cortez gets the civilians to their feet, protecting them from any debris with a shield of her own while hurrying all four safely into the underground entrance.
Tramil finally brings down one nymian using a vicious spinning kick. Powered by his red crystal, the hit lands square on the beast’s chin, and a sickening snap signals the breaking of the nymian’s neck. In almost the same moment, Kou cracks through the other nymian’s skull. The beasts fall still. Tramil and Kou a
re breathing hard, but they’re clear of any new wounds thanks to their teamwork with Kel. The areas of the floor where the sludge falls melt quickly and seep into the ground, forcing Kou and Tramil to jump through the gaps as they make their way back to regroup. I feel a mixture of relief and queasiness. I’m glad the civilians are safe, but I can’t help but wish I had Tears powerful enough to send these creatures home. They never asked to come here.
Everyone exchanges fist bumps.
“You make a hell of a candle, Kurosawa,” Tramil says.
“You’re one to talk, your aura was so bright it looked like fifty candles combined,” Kou replies as they shake hands. He turns to Kel. “Great turtling, I didn’t get a scratch.”
Kel grins. “Helps that you move so fast. Those old vets may have more experience, but young blood sure gets the job done quick.”
“Look at all that sludge,” I find myself saying.
They look back to the holes in the ground where they just fought. Their energies shift uncomfortably. We look at the city around us and see holes in buildings, signs, and all over the ground. Whether the beasts are defeated or allowed to roam free, one thing is certain—the city will be destroyed by the end of this. Regardless of how this ends, our home will be lost.
As we move through the city, the sounds of panic and fighting grow louder. Sirens, nymian screams, and the boom of red blasts fill the air sharply—but we don’t see anyone. We slow down in confusion as we reach a long wall, the noise still unnervingly loud.
“Has this wall always been here?” Kou asks.
“I’ve never seen it before. Maybe someone put it up as the nymians started coming through,” Tramil responds.
“No, that can’t be. There’s no way they’d have enough time to get something like this up. It’s too long,” Cortez says.
“Regardless of how it got here, it’s in our way,” Kou says. “A lot’s going on over there. We’d save a lot of time if we could get through it. It’ll give us more of a chance to save more people, and it’ll be faster.”
“Let’s find some rope,” Kel says.
Kou scoffs. “I’m gonna jump over it,” he announces. He jogs back to give himself enough room and then sprints forward, leaping with the help of red power charging his legs. He reaches upwards to grab the top—but his hand goes right through it. He drops with a yell, half in-half out of the wall.
“Kou are you okay?” I shout as he lands with a thud. He moans as we hurry forward, but starts to sit up on his own. His legs from the knees down appear to be in the wall.
“Holy…it’s a mirage!” he yells back, scrambling to his feet. Without wasting another moment, he moves forward, appearing to melt into the wall. We rush after him, phasing through the illusory barrier.
“You know I could’ve made a Tear for you to jump through, right?” I ask Kou, but he doesn’t answer.
His attention is in front of him and we turn to look as well. That’s when we finally see it—the unbridled chaos that has swallowed the city. The sun has dipped far enough below the horizon that most of our light comes from a large group of shields located a few blocks ahead at the entrance to the memorial park. From the mix of bright blue and streaks of red I can tell the group is made up of both blue users and people deploying Hana’s newest shield. They are holding up a ragged perimeter around dozens of terrified civilians that I sense more than see. Bursts of violent red light puncture the growing darkness as active soldiers struggle to keep the beasts from reaching the shielded area. None of the humans are fighting each other, but the forced alliance isn’t sufficient to end the violence. The confusion of darkness and battle has people running every-which way. A building to our left has mostly collapsed, leaving a swath of treacherous terrain that soldiers struggle to pull civilians through. As I watch, a civilian trips and rolls into a puddle of black sludge. They scream as the substance burns into their flesh. The soldier who hauls them up soon stumbles back in horror, looking at his red, peeling hands.
I take in the entire, terrible scene in a few stunned seconds until a sudden movement catches my eye. I step forward and let out an involuntary yell as I see a nymian pounce on a woman trying to pull up a man trapped under debris.
Kou doesn’t appear to have stopped since charging through the wall, but he lands upon the nymian a second too late. I stumble forward numbly as the group takes on the beast. The man is sobbing uncontrollably, saying a name over and over again. He doesn’t notice as I use a small Tear to move away the stone that had been crushing his leg. I dimly note that the nymian has been dealt with as Cortez pulls the man up and throws him over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry. No one bothers to check the woman—I don’t need my powers to know that the nymian’s attack killed her instantly. The sludge left behind burns through the ground and takes her remains with it, deep into the blackness beneath.
The subsequent moments are a blur. I’m not sure if it takes us five minutes or fifty to reach the group of shields. I use Tears as best I can, but there’s only so much I can do with such little focus. By the time we get to the park, Tramil is carrying someone as well, and Kel has an arm around a white user who is too busy keeping Cortez’s passenger alive to tend to his own injuries.
As we stumble through the perimeter, a number of white users grab our various injured civilians. Cortez quickly moves back to the edge to relieve a couple of blue users who look like they are about to faint, while Kel tries to get a collapsed healer to drink from their canteen. I turn to see what Kou is doing and catch sight of one of Isao’s generals watching us from the base of a broken statue. Kou and Tramil see him in the same moment and fire up their energy, but the general slowly puts his hands up. His palms glow with a muted viridian light, but his stance is clearly peaceful.
“I’m General Dal Porto. I’m not here to fight you.”
“How can we trust anything you say?” Kou interrupts as he maintains his stance.
“Other than the fact that I can’t really move much right now, just look around you, son. This isn’t about your side against our side anymore. Right now we have our duties to protect these people, and together we’ve been doing so more efficiently.”
Kou deactivates his crystal and so does Tramil.
“I don’t know about other sections of the city, but here, your active leaders and us generals have come together. We figured, since these damn creatures are coming in the dozens, it’s best we fight together. We need your high-tech shields to protect the civilians and you need our forces to fight the beasts off.”
“What are you doing with your crystal?” Kou asks suspiciously.
“Maintaining the wall.”
There’s a brief silence as Kou and Tramil try to hide first their surprise, and then grudging admiration.
“The entire mirage?” Tramil asks, somewhat incredulous.
“Yes. We’re getting civilians together and evacuating them through the wall so the beasts don’t spot them. It’s taking all my energy to keep it up, so pardon me if I appear a little stiff at the moment.”
“Right. Well—where are the rest of your forces?” Kou asks.
“The unit I placed here was one of many that was annihilated during the first waves of the attack. I’ve been stuck here ever since in order to maintain the wall.”
We all remain silent as we watch both our forces and Isao’s troops working together as civilians flee successfully through the general’s illusion wall.
Our silence continues for a brief moment before Kou steps forward and asks, “What can you tell us about the serum?”
The general’s energy flares, but his expression remains unchanged.
“What did you say?”
“Look, I understand why you think you might need it, but if you know anything about what just happened at Cerros Towers, you know how dangerous it is.”
The general’s eyes narrow.
“You need to mind yourself, boy,” The general replies. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
; “I was at the Fall when it happened the first time,” I add. “It’s too unstable.”
His energy quickly dips and he scrunches his eyebrows together as he closes his eyes.
“You do know,” I say. “Have you already lost other troops to it?”
His energy roils as he grows defensive.
“What other choice do we have?” he snaps. “Worst case scenario, we lose ourselves, but save the civilians.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” I respond. “The man I saw at the Fall attacked his own people—your people—with no second thought.”
“I was injected with a small dose during the interview with General Bartek,” Tramil begins. “I never felt the same after. I had this rage within me…I didn’t feel like myself. Armis, my brother, noticed and tried to get me to leave the program. I attacked him. Without another thought, I… I felt this unwavering desire to hurt him. My own brother.”
“Just before we got here, another one of your men attacked civilians and we had to fight him off,” Kou continues.
“Sir,” Kel adds, joining us as they give the general an automatic salute. “Eugen was my friend. He was in my unit. That serum turned him into a monster.” They walk up so that the general can see their uniform. “Sir, I don’t want to see any more good people die because of this.”
The general looks over at the line of shields, frustration engraved in the deep lines of his face.
“No matter what we do, we keep losing people. I wonder if the other Branches have lived through such misfortune,” he says. He shakes his head and slowly moves his hand to his holo. “I have some thinking to do. I would appreciate it if you’d leave me to it. I wish you all a safe journey.”
He continues to look at the civilians being evacuated and doesn’t once turn back to look at us. We glance at each other and then begin walking away. Kou and Cortez take the front while I stand back with Kel and Tramil. I have my switch in my hand in case I need to activate my shield. I notice Tramil wipe a tear away as he walks, silently.