by Cindy Borgne
I forced myself up and put on the sweater.
Kayla turned around and her eyebrows flew up at seeing me on the edge of the table. She rushed over and zipped up the sweater. “You need to rest.” She handed me a water bottle.
We took long drinks.
“I have to be ready to move,” I said.
“No, rest while you can.”
I gave into her persistent pushing. A foreboding vibration went through floor and shook the table. We continued whispering to each other.
“So Bret’s going to blow this dome?” she asked.
“Yes, and the tunnel leads to a corn field. Once there we have access to the entire Argyre post.”
A rumble went through the building as the walls shook and dust floated down from the ceiling.
Kayla looked up. “Doesn’t Bret know we’re in here?”
“I don’t think so, but we’ll be safe seeing as we’re underground, and the explosion has to distract Beacon and his men.”
“I hope you’re right about Clare.”
“Me too.”
Kayla paced back and forth in the small room.
My eyelids drifted shut. When I opened them again, Kayla rested next to me along the edge of the table sleeping on her side and facing away from me. I touched her arm and she mumbled. This gave me the feeling a few hours had passed.
Clare’s injection had helped. The chills and back pain were gone. Instead, an uneasy feeling stirred in my stomach. Vibrations in the wall grew into a rumble. The light flickered.
“Kayla, get down!”
With a flinch, she slid off the table. I rolled off with her and we ducked under the table. Everything shook. We huddled together as the table shifted, and quakes rolled through the ground.
Booms echoed like thunder. The lights flickered. We held each other tight as it sounded like everything was falling apart. Small bits of cement dropped onto the floor. The lights gave one last flash before going out, leaving us in the pitch dark. The dome above the station had to be down.
“Now what?” Kayla sighed, shakily. “The power’s out. Great.”
Fear of being trapped gave me a burst of energy. I went to the door and yanked on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Without power, the basement would lose heat and oxygen.
“What if Dr. Clare can’t get to us?” Kayla asked.
“I don’t know.” I put my hands on the wall, trying to sense Clare beyond the door.
“I-I hate not being able to see.” Kayla’s teeth chattered.
With shaking knees, I fumbled my way back to her and touched her trembling hands. Terrified, we held each other in the darkness.
Her heart pounded against my chest. “Maybe something came loose in the ceiling. Can you check . . . .”
I picked up on angry vibrations coming from the hall. “Wait, someone is coming. I don’t think it’s Clare.”
“Get behind the door, and be ready to slam it on them.”
A rush of adrenalin continued to give me strength. Feeling my way, I pressed myself against the wall as far as I could to the side of the door. My heart raced as the angry vibrations came closer. Kayla waited next to the table. The door creaked open.
An officer shined a flashlight into the room. “Get over here.” He glanced nervously into the hall as the walls rumbled.
Kayla sat on the floor, winced and held her leg. “I can’t walk.”
He took a step inside holding shackles. They clanged as he took another step toward Kayla. I held my breath, dreading the thought of any of these officers laying a hand on her. He stopped and looked around the room. I held my breath and pressed against the wall.
He spun around “Where’s the traitor?”
I raised my foot up and pushed it as hard as I could into the heavy metal door. It slammed into the officer and sent him tumbling backwards. Kayla shifted around to his side and kicked him in the groin. He let out a grunt, and his flashlight went tumbling. I grabbed it and backed up against the wall.
“Hey!” Another security officer rushed in.
I swung the flashlight and bashed him in the head with it. The officer collapsed on top of the other one. Kayla grabbed the laser pistol off his belt, adjusted the setting and fired. An electrical spark flashed out of the pistol. Both men jolted before going limp. We had a chance to reach the supply closet and crept out into the dark, empty hall with the alarm still blaring.
“So much for Clare’s help.” Kayla whispered. “Where are we going?”
“We’re getting out of here.”
As we moved along the side of the hall, I regretted not being able to do anything for Nate. Beacon would make sure Nate was safe, but only because he wanted to use him. Trying to rescue Nate, would only get us back in a cell.
We reached the end of the hall. It was a dead end except for the door to the supply closet.
“We have to go back,” Kayla said.
Voices came from the other end. I cut the light and opened the door.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“In here.” I pulled her inside, shut the door and turned on the flashlight.
Inside was a large vacuum and shelves full of cleaning supplies.
Kayla flipped the lock. “We can’t stay here. Either they’ll find us or the air won’t last.”
“I know. Let me see that pistol.”
She handed it to me. I aimed at a corner of the floor and fired several blasts. Cement crackled and sizzled as it crumbled and fell through to the basement. I shined the light down past the burnt edges of the hole.
“We have to jump.”
Kayla pulled on the vacuum. “Let’s move this in front of the door first.”
We shifted the vacuum and blocked the door with it.
I shined the light through the hole. It was about three meters down. I handed her the flashlight and jumped. When I landed, a jolt of pain from my back caused me to almost fall on my knees.
“You okay?” she whispered.
I straightened and the pain let up. “Yeah, jump down.”
She tossed me the flashlight, jumped and landed without a problem. Furnaces surrounded us and heating ducts weaved through the ceiling. I led the way around all heating units, looking for the corner with all the crates. Our feet scraped across the dust. The air was chilly. I zipped the sweater up to my neck.
At the other end, I spotted the rusty crates and shined the light on them. “The entrance is under those crates.”
We pulled them aside one at a time. They were made of a thin half rusted metal and empty, which helped. In the corner we found a hatch on the floor. We grabbed onto a large ring and pulled the heavy hatch open. Below, rusty stairs with a railing led down into a dark pit. I hadn’t noticed how unstable they looked in my vision.
“I hope those hold,” Kayla said.
“We don’t have a choice.”
Kayla glanced at the crates. “We have to move these closer to hide the hole.”
The crates scraped across the cement floor as we dragged them. Kayla put a cautious foot on the first step. When it held, she continued down a few more, making the whole thing rattle.
“Keep hold of the railing.” I inched down and shifted the cover back over the entrance.
The metal stairs creaked as we stepped down. I hoped nobody could hear it. The railing felt like gripping an ice cube. The lower we went the colder it got.
At the bottom, I sighed and let out a trail of steam. I pointed the flashlight down the tunnel with cement block walls. “This way.”
Both of us walked on the dirt packed floor with our arms folded together. A soft whistling noise drifted through the tunnel. The cement block walls stopped, and the rest of the tunnel wall was a solid reddish-brown rock.
“It has to be below freezing down here,” Kayla said.
I shined the light up. Small vents were installed into the rock ceiling. These vents had to be put in to allow air to flow from the post into the tunnel.
As I walked, a chill went th
rough me followed by a twinge of pain in my back. The walls danced and blurred. Not able to see before me, I wobbled.
“Ian.” Kayla took me by the arm. “What’s wrong?”
“Clare’s medication is wearing off.” I guessed we must have slept at least five hours after Clare had left the room.
“Whatever drug they gave you is causing a reaction. Did Clare say what it was?”
“She said it was an untested version of Lixatra.” I pulled the hood over my head and continued walking slightly hunched next to Kayla. “Beacon said drugs are what made me psychic in the first place.”
“You didn’t know this?”
“No, Clare had been sneaking it into my food for years. I had no idea, until now.” I paused. My own words made me feel ridiculous. How could I have thought Clare would ever help us?
We were almost to the point where the tunnel branched off.
“So this version is experimental?” Kayla asked.
“Yes and it’s causing images to race through my mind even while awake. I-I’m having a hard time controlling it.” I rubbed my eyes as the edges of the walls blurred.
Outside I saw a Vallar midrange send a missile into one of the Marc buildings. It exploded and debris flew everywhere. I didn’t know if it was part of the building over the tunnel. The two Phantoms circled the area.
Kayla pulled me by the arm. “Careful, you almost bumped into the wall.”
I put my hands on my temples. “Not now, not now, stop!”
“Ian.” She gave me shake. “We have to keep going.”
Fighting the visions made my head pound, but I managed to fight them back, not knowing how long I could keep it up. Kayla’s face came into view. The cold air had made her cheeks red. Even if I didn’t make it, I had to at least get Kayla to the corn farm. She had a chance to make to the rest of the post from there.
Kayla put an arm around my waist. “Lean on me.”
After about six hundred meters from the stairs, we stopped before the two passageways. A small frozen puddle was in the middle with a narrow trail of ice leading toward the right.
“What way?” Kayla asked.
I pointed right. As we followed the tunnel, the ice trail turned into water. The tunnel narrowed until it was about three meters wide. We stopped at the dead end with a circular metal plate in the wall about a meter wide. Water leaked out of the bottom of the plate and rolled down into the small stream.
“There’s a drainage pipe behind that plate,” I said. “It leads up to the farm.”
Kayla pushed on the plate. “It won’t budge.” She pointed the laser at the edges and fired, holding the beam steady at the edges of the plate. Light from the laser lit the tunnel even more. Sparks flew and bits of rock broke away from the plate.
I leaned against the wall shivering. As the pain in my back continued to worsen, I held the flashlight in one hand, keeping it steady and breathed into my other numb hand.
A trace of deep voice echoed through the tunnel.
“Damn!” Kayla turned her head and paused a moment. “How can they be onto us so fast?” She continued blasting the edges.
I saw Nate standing next Beacon and answering his questions. “No! No!”
She lowered the pistol. “What’s wrong?”
“Nate’s helping Beacon. H-He’s also psychic.”
“Another psychic!” She frowned. A puff of steam rose from her mouth. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“I’m sorry. It’s h-hard for me to think.” A feeling of dread rushed over me. How could I ever escape with Nate after me?
Kayla’s eyes softened. “How many other psychics does he have?”
“Only one. I thought he was dead, but they lied. Instead, Beacon turned him into a psychic robot.”
“I don’t want to find out what that is.” Kayla continued lasering. She almost finished circling the edges when the laser beam flickered and went out. She pressed the trigger a few times, but all it did was click.
We pushed with all our strength. Kayla backed up and gave the plate a kick. It fell into the pipe with a clang and splashed into a small pool of water. Several clumps of rock and dirt fell both into the tunnel and the drainage pipe.
Kayla put her head in the pipe and looked up. “There’s light up there.”
Another blur of voices echoed through the tunnel louder this time. The memory of what they did to Alexis came back to me.
“Hurry.” I about pushed Kayla through the hole and crawled in after her. At least I stopped that from happening, and I had to get Kayla to freedom.
We stood up with our feet and edges of our pants in the water. Small metal steps were built into the side of the pipe. Kayla went up first. Our feet slipped on the damp and slippery steps.
Kayla struggled to push open the thick metal cover at the top. “It’s heavy.”
My legs threatened to give out as I climbed up next to her and helped push the metal plate to the side. She climbed up and pulled me out by my hand. I collapsed next to the hole, trying to catch my breath. The warm air helped thaw my frozen skin.
Kayla struggled to get the metal plate back over the hole while all I could do was rest.
She leaned over me and touched my cheek. “You’re burning up.”
I had to get Kayla out of this corn field and struggled to my feet. She helped by giving me a hand up. I led her to the right, which let out into the usually more populated section of Argyre. Because of the battle, most of people had evacuated.
Kayla held my hand as I staggered behind her through a row of corn stalks with my back screaming in pain. It sounded like someone tapping a giant drum as several vibrations rippled through the dome above us. Vallar and Marscorp vessels battled out there, but all we saw was an artificial blue sky. At least neither side wanted to destroy a dome full of corn.
Demanding shouts came from behind us. My legs continued to weaken. Kayla pulled harder, but all I did was slow her down. The last bits of energy faded from my body, and I dropped to the ground shivering.
She dragged me by the arm. “Ian, get up!”
“I can’t.” My joints were seized up like gears with no oil.
Kayla held my face with both hands. “Your eyes they’re . . . .”
“What?”
“They’re completely bloodshot.” She looked down the row of corn and back down at me.
I remembered when Bret had been lying on the medi-bed, struggling to get up. He had wanted Sonny to inject him with Virotone. I had thought it was a crazy idea at the time, but now I understood why. If only I had something to get myself on my feet.
“You have to go without me,” I said.
“What?” She stared at me.
“Nate will find me no matter where I go, but you can run and make it back to Vallar.”
“But I can’t leave you here.”
“Yes, you can. I want you to go. When you get back, tell Sonny I said not to be too sad over me. Tell him I want him to go on and help the disabled.”
Tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks.
“Hurry before they come.”
She stood up, looked around and started away from me. I shut my eyes, hoping to be unconscious by the time Beacon arrived.
Kayla ran back, grabbed me under the arms and pulled.
“Kayla, leave me.”
“No. No, I won’t.” She strained to keep going, dragging my legs through the dirt. After several meters, she wobbled, but wouldn’t give up.
“I don’t want them near you, please, let go.” I cried in fear of them hurting or killing her, and tears ran down my face.
Kayla dropped down on the ground whimpering with my head in her lap.
“Why won’t you go?”
“Because . . . .” She wiped my tears off with her palms. “I think I love you.”
I had to be hallucinating. She hadn’t come back. I was sleeping and dreaming what I wanted to hear. Had the line of reality blurred so much I could no longer be sure?
Kayla kissed me on the cheek and held me in her arms. Her tears rubbed off onto my face.
I forgot about Beacon. My aches and pains faded. I reached up and put my arms around her. The warmth from her body eased the chills. Her calming way stopped the images.
She kissed me again on the cheek. I rested my head on her shoulder while my cheeks brushed against her soft neck. She was here.
I could see Beacon, Kodet and several security officers running toward us. “You have to go. They’re almost here.”
She caressed my cheek. “Shhh . . . .”
We clung to each other as the corn stalks shook, and the men crashed their way through.
“You idiot!” Beacon charged for me.
Kayla got in front of me. “No!”
Beacon shoved her aside. She got up and lunged for Beacon, but Kodet and another officer held her back.
Beacon grabbed me by the collar and held me about a foot off the ground. The edges of his eyes glowed red. His face rippled with anger like he wanted to strangle me. “Thanks to you we’re trapped.” He raged. “Trapped!”
“You didn’t have to come after me.”
Beacon raised his hand up to strike me. I braced for the blow.
“Stop, you’re going to kill him!” Kayla yelled.
Several of the petty officers watched with cringing faces and dread in their eyes. Mitch stood among them with his mouth half open.
Beacon huffed and lowered his hand. His fake blond hair dripped with sweat as the veins in his neck pulsed. He shook me several times and released my collar. My head dropped on the ground.
The petty officers grumbled in a group together.
“Stop talking and get handcuffs on them,” Beacon snapped.
Mitch stepped forward. “Sir, this makes no sense. Why do you continue to torture this boy?”
“You know that’s classified.”
“We came down here with you, risking our lives over the escape of two children. We have a right to know.”
The other petty officers grumbled in agreement with Mitch.
“All I can tell you for now is this boy is the key to us getting back to Earth.” Beacon made it sound like I could perform a miracle.
“That’s a lie.” The words came out too soft for most to hear.