by Jackie D
Kaelyn turned to Johnson, who looked as confused as Kaelyn had moments before. “Does the Hand of God patrol the tunnels?”
He just kept staring in front of him, looking like he was trying to understand things beyond him. Kaelyn waited another moment and smacked his arm.
He looked at her and shook his head. “Not that I know of, but I don’t know a whole lot.”
Arrow saw by the way Kaelyn’s face changed she was going to take Valor and her mother’s side on the issue. “If we get trapped down there, if they do patrol it because they’re looking for us, there’ll be nowhere to hide.”
“There’s nowhere to hide out here either, and we already have plenty working against us, and you don’t want the integrity of our passage to be one of the issues. We need to control what we can, and this seems like the best option,” Kaelyn said. Her voice was softer than Arrow had expected.
Arrow sighed, knowing the final decision was hers, but that she’d also been outvoted. “Denver it is.” She punched in the coordinates and prayed they’d make it to friendly territory before getting picked up.
Once Arrow turned the transport toward Denver, everyone was eerily quiet. Not the comfortable kind of silence Kaelyn enjoyed. No, this was like a heavy, wet blanket smothering the people it had been placed upon. Kaelyn knew she’d made the right decision, but she’d also disappointed Arrow. That thought alone made her even more uncomfortable.
She took time to stare out the window. Barren landscape as far as the eye could see showed the ravages of climate change. The soil was so arid nothing could survive there. No people, no plants, not even a cactus. They passed areas that had once been bustling with people, offices, parks, day-to-day life. Now, everything was abandoned. The sides of buildings and houses were crumbling, parts scorched from what she could only assume was the sun. Playground equipment was half bent over, twisted, looking as if it was weeping from the loneliness of being long forgotten. The sky was a shade of red that Kaelyn had no word to describe. It looked like an open gash, festering with infection. There were no clouds, just decomposing sky, as far as she could see.
Arrow spoke to her from the front seat. “This is what it looks like when we leave a weather bubble.”
“So, this is their doing?” Kaelyn thought back to what she’d seen within the protection of the bubbles. The sky looked the same as it had during her time. Blue skies, billowing clouds, and even a tinge of humidity at certain times of the day. If it hadn’t been a ruse, it would’ve been lovely.
“No. This is what climate change did. They just picked which areas to rehabilitate.”
Kaelyn was beginning to understand better now. Controlling people’s access to water and healthy soil was the most powerful weapon anyone could ever employ. A person could wield it like a sword that had the power to devastate thousands of people at a time. The Hand of God had allowed people to live outside Eden, but they still controlled them through the bubbles, so it wasn’t a huge risk.
“How hot is it out there right now?” She couldn’t imagine the temperature number this atmosphere would create.
Valor pushed a button on the middle console of the transport. “One hundred and forty-seven degrees.”
Kaelyn turned her music back on, hoping the familiar words and instruments would ward off the blatant malice of the world she no longer recognized. She tried closing her eyes, but the need to witness the horror firsthand forced her gaze back to the landscape. The long-forgotten bones of a suburban area whizzed past her line of sight. Dried up riverbeds, cracked and broken trees, old cars abandoned on the side of the road, served as nothing more than empty shells of a civilization that once thrived.
A loud beeping sound filled the car, startling her from her blistering anger at what the world had become. Valor touched a few buttons on the screen, and a video image of what Kaelyn assumed was the sky above them came into view.
“Incoming drone,” Valor said as he started pressing a different series of buttons.
Kaelyn wasn’t sure what that meant, but she knew instinctually that it couldn’t be good. She sucked in a breath and turned off her music, not knowing what to do to help and not wanting to do anything that would add to the tension.
“Deploy the reflection barrier,” Arrow ordered Valor in a calm and focused voice.
“Reflection barrier is up.” He pulled at a different screen on the console. “EMP is charging.”
Arrow flipped a switch on her steering wheel. “Everyone hold on.”
Kaelyn wanted to ask what the plan was, but before she had the chance the vehicle swung around in a tight circle. She felt the tires skid from underneath them and her body pushed up against the door. The car skidded to a stop, and Valor flung open the door. The wave of heat that flooded the car was like nothing Kaelyn had ever felt. The air was scorching; she could feel it in her lungs, pinpricks punishing her species for having wreaked havoc on the only planet they’d been awarded.
Valor shut the door and ran a few feet from the vehicle. He pushed a button, and a few moments later started running in a different direction. Kaelyn squirmed to see what was happening. Arrow hopped out next and met Valor at the back of the vehicle. She wasn’t expecting the urge to tell her to get her ass back in the car. She hated Arrow being outside and vulnerable, even if it was only for a few moments, and even if it wasn’t her decision to make.
Before she could force her mouth to form words, the back gate to the transport opened and a weird looking machine was tossed inside. A moment later, they were back in the transport. Sweat was rolling down their necks, and she could see it shimmering off their arms. Valor downed a bottle of water, and Arrow hit the gas so hard the tires squealed.
“Do you think we got it before it sent the transmission back?” Valor asked Arrow.
Arrow shook her head. “I don’t know, but we need to get out of here.”
“Is that the drone?” Kaelyn tried to get a better look, but there was a metal screen blocking her view.
“Yes,” Valor and Arrow answered in unison.
She couldn’t see it, but she could hear the hissing and popping the electrical components were making from the machine behind her. It sounded like it was dying, a perfect representation of the world around them.
Chapter Twenty
MacLeod paced the large conference room. He felt the familiar sensation of rage start to pump through his body. It was invigorating, and he wanted to punch the glass window in front of him, or better yet, the commander who had just given him the news.
People were talking to him, throwing out information, ideas, and worse, excuses. Finally, a voice broke through that soothed his inner devil. Nora inspired many emotions in him, but right now, her presence was like a piece of ice to his scorching temper.
“If you had to guess, which direction would they have headed?” she said, hands flat on the table, her body angled toward the commander.
The commander squirmed under her scrutiny. No one was used to having to discuss anything with a woman. It forced them out of their comfort zone, and MacLeod loved watching them try to navigate the correct amount of respect balanced with their knowledge that men were the superior gender.
The commander turned his hat over in his hands. “North would be their best option. There’s another Resistance base in that area, and they’ll want to stay in friendly territory. But there’s more. The corporal that escaped has some information for you.”
He hated that name, Resistance. He tried not to fly over the table at him. “Don’t call them that.” He gripped to top of his chair. “They’re traitors, pure and simple.”
The commander, to his credit, knew better than to argue. “Yes, sir.”
“Where’s that corporal? I want to get this over with.”
The commander went to the door and motioned at someone to enter. A moment later, a kid who couldn’t have been a day over seventeen walked through the door. His hands were shaking, and he stared at the ground. He loved to inspire this kind of respect from
his people. It helped to dull the anger he was feeling.
The commander pushed him forward. “Tell him about the Phoenix.”
He looked like he was about to vomit all over the table. “Phoenix isn’t just a project, it’s a person. Her name is Kaelyn Trapp.”
MacLeod felt the blood in his body pool in his head. He must have heard wrong. Not only was it impossible, it didn’t make any sense. “What did you say?”
The corporal looked up at him now, fear etched around his eyes. “Kaelyn Trapp, sir. She was with them, and she isn’t old the way she should be.”
He rubbed his hands together, a motion to help control the rage that was making them shake. “Commander, triple the drones. I want all of them dead, except this person who claims to be Kaelyn Trapp. I want her brought to me, alive.”
The commander stood a little straighter. “Sir, if this is really Kaelyn Trapp, keeping her alive is not a good idea.”
MacLeod slid his hand over the top of his gun. He didn’t have the patience or the inclination to deal with insubordination. He said what he wanted, and there was no room for argument. This commander would be easily replaced, and it would be a warning shot to the rest of the morons in his army.
Nora’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he relaxed slightly. She squeezed him a bit as she spoke. “Commander, surely you understand the importance of needing to talk to someone who claims to be Kaelyn Trapp. If this were true, she would be in her mid nineties, and it sounds like that isn’t the case. We need to know what’s happening to protect our people.”
“It just doesn’t seem possible,” the commander muttered under his breath.
MacLeod was impressed with Nora’s deductive reasoning. He hadn’t thought of questioning the imposter, he simply wanted to see her tortured, but he liked where her line of thinking was heading.
“Go on, Nora.” He relaxed and took a seat.
Nora looked over to the corporal who looked as if he might pass out. She crossed her arms and looked out the window. “How old was this person who claimed to be Kaelyn Trapp?”
“Probably around thirty, ma’am.” He sounded convinced, a direct contrast to his expression.
Nora pulled up an image on the projection screen. “Is that her?”
The corporal nodded vigorously. “Yes, that’s her.”
“Fascinating,” she said thoughtfully. “There might be others.”
MacLeod stood, his emotions pounding in his head. “Others? Like who?”
Nora shook her head. “I’m not sure, but if they somehow developed the technology to keep her in some kind of preserved state, wouldn’t they do it with others?”
The thought was preposterous. The very idea that something like this could be happening without his knowledge was a betrayal. He wanted every single person responsible. He wanted to hang them from columns in the center of Eden. He wanted everyone to witness his crowning achievement, the final annihilation of the Resistance.
He grabbed the commander by the collar and pushed him against the wall. “Find them all and bring them to me. Go to all the bases, all the Resistance villages, and find out where they are. If they won’t talk, start killing at random. I don’t care what it takes, I want them all.”
The commander straightened his shirt when he finally let him out of his grasp. He nodded to the corporal, and they speedily exited the room. Nora was beside him instantly. She rubbed his back and led him to his chair.
She pushed the call button on his desk. “Please bring in some tea with extra sugar.”
The fondness he felt for Nora wasn’t shared with anyone else in the world. Not any of his wives or mistresses could hold a candle to his daughter. “You always know what I need.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Arrow opened the trunk of the transport. Valor had managed to take down the drone with the EMP, but they still didn’t know if it had sent their location before it had fallen. She pulled it out and turned it over. She pulled the hatch and looked at the smoldering innards. She took the detection device from her pocket and scanned the drone. After a few moments, the message scrolled across the screen, NOT REPAIRABLE.
“Shit.” She dropped the detection device back into her pocket.
Valor was leaning against the transport. “What did you think would happen? The EMP is supposed to wipe it out.”
“I know. I was just hoping we would be able to download some of the information.” She dropped the drone on the ground.
She looked around the area and used her shirt to wipe the sweat from her forehead. “Any word from the other Phoenixes?”
Valor leaned closer, keeping his voice down. “No, but we aren’t supposed to, unless it’s an emergency.”
“I know. That’s why I asked.” She shut the back of the transport. “Let’s see if we can get in there without drawing too much attention to ourselves.”
Kaelyn jogged up from the tree where she’d just relieved herself. “Thanks for stopping.”
Arrow gestured to get back in the car. “We just needed to get inside a weather bubble.”
Once inside the transport, Arrow pulled the device off her shoulder and rotated her arm. The pain was gone and she felt good as new. She turned and looked at Johnson. “What’s the protocol for a full search?”
Johnson shrugged. “Send out all available drones.”
“How many is that?” Arrow asked, happy she didn’t have to badger him for an answer.
“I don’t know for sure, but thousands.”
Arrow had assumed as much, but she didn’t like the answer all the same. “They’re going to flood all the emergency broadcast frequencies.”
Her mom leaned forward. “That’s what we wanted. Our people don’t usually fight back. If they know MacLeod is looking for the Phoenix, they will. He’ll have to start fighting battles all over the colonies. It will weaken them in Eden.”
She was right, but it did nothing to squelch the fear Arrow had pumping through her. They were making the best decisions possible for the circumstances they were in, but that meant nothing if things went south.
She put the coordinates into the transport. “We’ll stop in the village right outside Denver for a few hours. Then we’ll trade out the transport and get into the tunnels before sunrise.”
“Will we be safe there?” Kaelyn asked.
Arrow shrugged. “I don’t think we’re safe anywhere. We just need to get as close to the tunnels as possible.”
* * *
This village wasn’t like the last one they had visited. Kaelyn strained to see out the window as they pulled the transport into a series of makeshift carports that sat alongside a large warehouse. There was nothing else of distinction, and Kaelyn struggled to understand how this was a village at all. There was nowhere to sleep, no center to the community. It seemed like they just stumbled on a warehouse that a passerby might use as shelter. There was an old light rail car in the distance. It had fallen over on its side; the windows were shattered and there were branches winding through whatever openings they could find. She could barely make out the RTD on the side.
Arrow and Valor pulled a large tarp over the transport. It wouldn’t prevent people from peaking under it, but it was inconspicuous enough to not draw attention. Although, Kaelyn wasn’t sure there was anyone around to see it. Johnson’s pleas for a bathroom were answered by Valor, who pulled him back into a wooded area.
Macy kept herself busy by arranging her pack for what must have been the third time that day. Kaelyn assumed this was probably a nervous habit of sorts, needing to organize in a sea of chaos.
The lonely sounds of a zipper opening and a piece of paper moving was all she could hear. There was no hum of people near them or machines working. She watched Arrow scour the paper maps, seemingly trying to etch them into her mind on the chance they weren’t available to her at a later time. At first glance, she seemed relaxed, body leaning against the transport with one foot propping her up her weight. But her eyes were laser focused on the i
nformation she held. The tips of her hair that fell against the edge of her ears and face were damp with perspiration, and Kaelyn thought of how they would feel, slick and smooth under her fingertips. She imagined touching the side of her face and how it would feel to have Arrow lean into her palm.
Valor interrupted her internal lusting. “We should get inside.”
Kaelyn could only assume that inside meant the warehouse, but she couldn’t imagine an entire village of people calling this their residence. Then again, she couldn’t have imagined most of this when she’d been put into her suspended state. She was going to ask him to explain but changed her mind. She’d learned over the last several days that there was no explanation that could properly prepare her for what she was about to see.
The inside of the warehouse was well lit with high ceilings. It would have looked just like any other warehouse she remembered from her time before if it weren’t for the hundreds of people moving about inside. They had divided their personal spaces with makeshift walls, mostly constructed out of old pallets and cinder blocks. She was doing her best to take in the ways people had arranged their designated areas as they moved through the expanse, but it was becoming more difficult the farther they made their way to the center of the building.
The loud sounds of chatter and noises quickly faded as people turned to gawk at their arrival. She watched as older people grabbed hold of children, pulling them closer. She wanted to stop and tell them she meant them no harm, they were here to help, but she didn’t. She realized that this might be their intention, but it wasn’t something she could guarantee. Their very presence was putting all these people at risk, and the weight of that truth started to squeeze at her throat making it more difficult to breathe.
Arrow was a few feet in front of her, and she wanted to grab her hand. She needed assurance that this was the best option, she needed grounding, but she also needed the closeness of Arrow. Instead, she resolved to try to make eye contact with as many people as possible. To smile at them, trying to offer assurances she had no business making.