Talen

by Shay Savage

  “It’s going to blow!” Aerin screams over the alarm.

  “That was the idea!”

  “Wait!” She plants her feet and brings us both to a halt. “My mother!”

  “What about her?”

  “We have to take her with us!”

  “She’s on his side, Aerin!”

  “I don’t know what happened to her,” Aerin says, “but she’s not like your father. I don’t know why she’s saying those things, but I can’t just let her die in here!”

  A handful of guards rush down the hall, ignoring us completely. Ford stumbles out of the office with Jennifer and my father trailing behind. They look around in confusion.

  “We don’t have time to go back for her!” I yell. “We’ll never get out of here alive if we do.”

  “I have to try, Talen.” She releases my hand and takes a step back. “With or without you.”

  “I’m not leaving you in here.”

  “You aren’t dragging me out, either.”

  I can tell by the look on her face that there will be no changing her mind. I don’t like it, but if we are going to have any chance of escaping before the generator explodes, we have to move fast.

  I race past Aerin and toward the office entrance. Ford turns on me, and I duck down, avoiding his baton and stabbing him in the thigh. He yells almost loud enough to drown out the alarm before dropping to his knees. Harp grabs my father’s arm, yelling something I can’t quite make out before pulling him the opposite way down the hall. Jennifer starts to follow, but I grab her and hold the knife up to her throat.

  “You’re coming with us!” I yell. “No argument. Just move!”

  “Talen!” Aerin grabs at my arm.

  I ignore her and shove Jennifer back toward the generator room.

  “That’s the wrong way!” Jennifer screams. “The generator!”

  “There’s a way out, Mom!” Aerin places herself between me and her mother. “You have to come with us!”

  “Aerin, I can’t—”

  Aerin doesn’t let her finish her sentence. Instead, she grabs her mother forcefully by the arm and drags her backward out the double doors and onto the catwalk.

  The heat coming from the generator is intense. At the base, I can see a bright orange glow. Several people in lab coats work furiously at the control panel, but I can’t hear what they’re shouting at each other.

  “We can’t get out this way!” Jennifer shouts.

  “Trust me, Mom!”

  Aerin keeps a hold of her mother as we run across the catwalk and into the maintenance tunnel, up the ladder, and down the main corridor. The alarm continues to blare, but the noise isn’t as intense as we move father away.

  At the end of the corridor, we slow for a moment to grab the packs of supplies, and then we’re off again with Aerin in the lead and me following behind. We run as fast as we can through the hallways as everything around us begins to shake.

  “What’s happening?” Jennifer cries.

  “The generator is overheating,” Aerin replies. “Just keep moving!”

  “There are a dozen monitors for that!” Jennifer says.

  “Not when they’ve been disabled,” Aerin replies.

  “You did it?” She stops, and I run smack into her back. I give her a shove and tell her to keep moving. “Aerin, that’s going to set off another quake!”

  Behind us, an incredible crash is followed by a partial collapse of the corridor. The walls begin to shake more violently as the earth and rocks behind the metal walls begin to push through.

  Jennifer screams and covers her head with her hands. Aerin grabs her arm and drags her faster through the hallways.

  “Just a little more!” I yell as the ground below begins to shake violently.

  “We’re not going to make it!” Aerin screams.

  “We will! Just keep going!”

  As I run, the bouncing light of the flashlight catches the panel leading to the outside. I hear another crash just to my right, and a chunk of earth blows through the metal wall of the corridor and strikes me on the shoulder. I stumble but don’t lose my footing.

  Aerin reaches the panel first and rips it open. I help her and her mother into it before I quickly scurry behind them. The entire corridor collapses behind me, and the walls of the shaft start to buckle just as we reach the end.

  I tumble out, landing hard on my injured shoulder and rolling a few feet before I collide with something. When I look up, I see Ford standing over me with his weapon pointed at my head.

  “Hello again, son. I assume this is all your doing?”

  Chapter 24

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I mutter. I stare up at Ford for a moment before looking toward the sound of my father’s voice.

  He’s only a few yards away with two more of his personal guards, standing casually and smiling his self-satisfied smirk. Aerin is lined up between my father and her mother, scowling at the travois covered in supplies.

  Ford takes a step back and motions for me to stand.

  “She said they rigged the generator,” Jennifer says as the ground starts to shake again. “It could trigger significant seismic activity. We need to move down the mountain and quickly.”

  “There’s a road just north of here.” My father stares at me as that smug tone flows out of his mouth. “I have a transport on the way. Motorized. We’ll get to safety in time.”

  “It should be here in ten,” one of the guards says.

  “Get up,” Ford says. He taps his fingers over the top of his weapon. “I’m happy to just use this if you prefer.”

  “Get those knives away from him,” my father says.

  I stand slowly. Ford spins me around, tearing my pack from my back before ordering me to put my hands on my head. I comply, eyes on Aerin’s frustrated face as Ford takes my knives.

  “Like that really matters,” I mumble.

  “Shut up.” With his gun against the back of my head, he kicks my pack out of the way.

  “You think it’s only my knives you have to worry about,” I say as I quietly chuckle to myself.

  “What are you going on about?” Ford moves in front of me and glares.

  “Nothing.”

  He smacks the side of my head with the butt of the gun, and I stumble.

  “Keep your hands on your head!” Ford points the gun at me again. “I asked you a question.”

  I glance down at my belt and then quickly look away again. Ford takes the bait, telling me to keep my hands on my head as he examines my belt.

  “What is this?” he asks, yanking one of the vials from its holder. “What do you have in here?”

  “Nothing you’d be interested in,” I say with a shrug, refusing to make eye contact.

  Aerin looks at me quizzically as my father and her mother discuss transports with the guard.

  “Get them out of here,” my father says. “They don’t need to see this.”

  The guards nod and grab Aerin by the arms.

  “What? Wait! No! Talen!” Aerin screams and struggles against Ford’s counterparts, but there’s nothing she can do. “Talen!”

  They lead Aerin away from the shaft entrance and into the trees, presumably toward the road. Jennifer follows slowly, glancing at my father and then at me before she turns around and heads through the trees. My father stays behind, examining the contents of the travois.

  I watch from the corner of my eye as Ford uncorks the vial and looks into the top. Unhappy with the lack of information this provides, he tips it over, pouring the white, crystalized powder into his hand.

  “What is this?” he asks. “Drugs? That would just figure.”

  He shakes his head as he brings his hand closer to his face to further inspect the powder. He glances quickly at my father before he sniffs at the contents. Some of the powder ends up on the tip of his nose. He rubs at it, unintentionally grinding the crystals into the membranes of his nostrils. He blinks rapidly a few times, rubs at his nose again, and then taste
s a small amount with the tip of his tongue.

  “Salty,” he mutters. He claps his hands together to rid himself of the powder. “Definitely not coke. What is this stuff?”

  I turn my head and hold my breath as the powder hovers around us and then falls to the ground. Ford tosses both vials onto the ground before grabbing me by the back of the neck and marching me over to my father.

  “What am I going to do with you?” my father says with a sigh. “When they told me you had been spotted in the mountain facility, I didn’t believe it. I assumed you were long dead but apparently not.”

  Ignoring him, I look through the trees, trying to catch a glimpse of Aerin as she’s led away from me. To my right, I hear Ford’s breathing becoming strained.

  “I was tempted to let Harvey do his little experiments on you,” my father says, continuing on, “but I don’t think he made it out. Jennifer insists on keeping her daughter around for now, but I don’t think you’ll be going with us.”

  My father nods at Ford, and I hold in a scream as Ford grabs my injured shoulder and roughly shoves me to my knees. I reach out to break my fall, quickly grabbing the vial on the ground in the process.

  Rising back to my knees with the vial carefully concealed in my palm, I glance up at Ford. He squeezes his eyes shut, blinks rapidly a few times, and then places his hand on his chest.

  “What’s wrong with you?” My father snaps at the man. “Get on with it!”

  Ford tries to lift his arm to point the gun at my head, but instead he takes a stumbling step toward my father, then stops. He opens his mouth to say something, but he can’t get a word out. His eyes go wide as he grabs at his throat.

  “What the hell?” Dad cries out.

  Ford opens his mouth again, reaches for my father, and then falls to his side. He gasps for air, but I know he won’t be getting any oxygen into his blood at this point. I shuffle a few inches away, staying on my knees to keep from drawing any attention to myself as my father comes closer.

  “Ford, what’s wrong?” The look on my father’s face resembles true concern, but I know he doesn’t actually care about this man. “Get up!”

  Ford rolls to his stomach, coughing and gasping. He tries to hold himself up by his arms, but ends up falling face first into the dirt. My father jumps back, eyes wide as Ford coughs again, spewing a mist of blood on the ground.

  “What did you do?” My father looks at me, and I wonder if I’ve ever surprised him before.

  Ford continues to convulse on the ground as I slowly stand. Dad looks at me, composes himself quickly, and gives me a half smile as he shrugs.

  “Well, there’s one less mouth to feed.”

  “I have a question for you,” I say as I take a few steps toward my father.

  “I know you do, son. I’ve done a terrible job trying to explain it all to you. You really need to see what’s been happening in the capital. We’ve made so many advancements in hydroponics and wind generators. Once we have the land we need—”

  “You aren’t going to have any of it,” I say, taking another step as he begins to back away. “You are going to tell me what happened to Mom.”

  “Your mother?” He has the audacity to try to look confused. “Theo, she caught the virus; I’ve told you that before. Remember when we talked about how it wasn’t just those Naughts you care so much about who get sick? Your mother got sick, and there was nothing they could do to save her.”

  “No, she didn’t. You killed her. You got rid of her the same way you tried to get rid of me.”

  “Theo, son, think reasonably.”

  “You did it, didn’t you, Dad? You killed my mother the same way you tried to kill me. She was in your way, and you needed to have a strong, consistent platform to get elected. She went against everything you were trying to do, so you killed her.”

  “Talen, you need to just think for a minute,” he says. “You’ve never taken enough time to stop and think about the big picture and neither did your mother. You were both so busy worrying about individuals that you never saw what was happening to our entire race!”

  “You admit it, then. You killed her.”

  “I most certainly did not.” He straightens his shoulders and stares down at me.

  “Of course not,” I say with a nod. “You’d never get your hands that dirty. You had someone do it for you.”

  “You never understood the need for sacrifices,” he says, unable to control his anger any longer. “There is a greater good here…”

  “A greater good?” I laugh. “You only sacrifice others to bring you more power. You never sacrifice yourself. You wouldn’t know the first thing about it.”

  “You’ll never understand, will you, Theo?”

  “I understand that you’re going to die.”

  “Oh, my poor, misguided son.” Again, he shakes his head at me. “What do you think you are going to do?”

  “I don’t ask others to kill for me,” I tell him. “I do it myself.”

  “You don’t have your knives,” my father says. “You can’t keep a hold on me while you get them from Ford, and this mountain is about to blow. Time to face facts, Theo—this is over.” He smiles his big, smug, self-satisfied, narcissistic smile. “For now, anyway.”

  “Yes,” I say softly. “It is.”

  I flick the tiny cork out of the top of the vial and lunge at him. Landing on top of him, I grab him by the hair and wrench his head back. I take the vial and shove it between his lips, still holding his head back to force the powder into his mouth and down his throat.

  As he struggles below me, I hold his jaw closed until I feel him swallow. I wait until he swallows again, just to be sure, and then jump off of him. I take several steps back as he rolls to his hands and knees, spitting on the ground.

  “What did you…?” He coughs, then gasps.

  “Cyanide,” I say simply. “Ford was only exposed to a small amount. You, however, just swallowed about twenty grams.”

  He reaches out but can’t maintain his balance. He falls to his side, sputtering as his eyes bug out, and he claws at his throat. His body jerks violently; his face turns blue, and my heart pounds as I watch the gruesome spectacle.

  President Harrison LaGrange digs his fingers into the dirt around him and then goes still.

  “That’s for you, Mom,” I whisper.

  The ground below me begins to vibrate.

  Without another glance at him, I return to Ford and retrieve my knives and his gun. He reaches for me—unsuccessfully—and then rolls to his back, still gasping for air.

  “Sorry,” I mutter. “It should be over soon.”

  I rush over the rocks and through the trees in the direction Aerin had been taken. It only takes me a minute to catch up, and as I do, I hear the rumble of a motorized vehicle in the distance.