by Matt Ryan
Jeff vomited over his chest and some of it got caught in his mouth.
“Stay back.” Derek pushed Evelyn back and Poly followed, standing in front of her.
Jeff held a large piece of the vomit in his mouth. Poly realized it was a bag covering a golf-ball sized object. He used his teeth to tear into the bag and expose the round stone. He then set it on his tongue where it absorbed into his mouth.
Evelyn grabbed the Panavice off Derek’s waist. “This is bad,” she said, and slammed her finger on the screen. Four glass walls crashed around each of the imprisoned men.
“What happened?” Derek yelled.
“I told you. He took something.”
Jeff yelled, and even through the thick glass, Poly heard the guttural scream. He pulled at the restraints, until they blew apart. He raised his freed arms up, with the broken cuffs dangling from his wrists. He stood and rushed toward the glass, striking it with his head.
“I don’t understand,” Derek said, keeping his gun trained on Jeff. “Nothing should give a human that much strength. That glass is rated for fifty caliber.”
“I told you to kill him, and now we’ve got a problem on our hands,” Evelyn said.
Jeff crashed himself again into the glass. It cracked. Poly yelped and thought of the first time she’d seen a grinner slamming against Ferrell’s gas station on Ryjack.
“If he breaks through, shoot him,” Derek said to the men standing near him. “Evelyn, you need to leave.”
Jeff punched a hole into the glass and pulled a big chunk of it out. He growled through the opening and ripped another big chunk of the reinforced glass down. He pushed through it and Poly swore the broken glass would have torn him to shreds, but he came out of the other side unscathed.
“Plug your ears,” Derek said and Evelyn put her hand over her ears.
Gunfire erupted from Derek and his men. Poly threw a knife and struck Jeff’s neck. It bounced off, the same as the barrage of bullets. He had a shield protecting him. Free from the glass box, Jeff rushed to the steel bars and grabbed them. The steel creaked under the strain, but held.
Derek raised his hands for a cease fire and the gunfire stopped. Poly’s ears rang, as she eyed the twins; they too regurgitated.
Jeff screamed and bent back one of the steel bars. Not enough for him to get through, but in a few more seconds, he’d have a hole big enough.
Derek pulled out a square-looking gun and shot Jeff, sending high voltage into his body. Jeff shook and screamed again, yet bent another bar.
“The twins,” Evelyn warned as one broke free from his restraints. “We need to fall back to the safety room.”
Derek zapped Jeff again with little effect. “He’s on something, but he’s still just a man. We can stop him here. You take Poly.”
The second twin broke free and walked to the edge of the glass.
“We don’t have enough time now. That thing will run us all down before we get there.” Evelyn slammed her eyes shut and kept her stiff arms at her side.
Poly watched the twins howl and slam their fists against the glass. They each created a hole large enough to get through. “Evelyn, we’ve got to go.” She grabbed her daughter, but Evelyn kept her eyes shut. When Poly tried to move her, she couldn’t. She might have weighed a thousand pounds.
Evelyn shook, with her eyes tightly closed. Her knuckles were white from her clenched fists, and she grinded her teeth. “No!” she screamed.
Jeff stopped moving and his whole body went limp, hanging between the bars. The twins had fallen as well, and lay still on the floor. Blood trailed from all their eyes, noses, and mouths.
Evelyn slumped to the ground. Poly dropped her dagger and held up Evelyn’s head off the floor. Her limp body flopped around in her arms.
Evelyn opened her eyes and gazed at Poly. “Should have killed them to start with. I saw their plans, and once they see you, Hank, Julie, and Lucas, they’ll want you as well.”
“Evelyn, did you kill those men?” Poly asked with tears in her eyes. She remembered the first man she’d killed, and his face haunted her still. Each of her kills stuck with her like a bad dream she couldn’t wake from. She never wanted her daughter to have to deal with something so awful.
“I had to. We waited too long from the start, and you all had a slim chance of survival. Besides, they would have found Will, Julie, and Lucas.” Evelyn looked at the ceiling. “I’m not sure this place is safe. I may have underestimated these people.”
Poly hugged her and wept into her shoulder. Evelyn’s small hands patted her back.
Derek knelt next to Poly. “Let me take her to the infirmary,” he said.
“I just needed to rest for a bit,” Evelyn said and got to her feet. “That took a lot out of me, but now I know what I have to do. I saw it in Jeff’s thoughts—the answer. There are others on her planet who are against her as well, her own daughter even. There are ways we can stop her if this operation fails. We need to have more than one chance at stopping them. Julie is smart, and Will knows what to do, so I need to do my part as well.” Evelyn took a deep breath and locked eyes with Poly. “Mom, I’m sorry. I love you.”
“No,” Poly called out, but Evelyn was gone. She disappeared once more in her slow-mo, and could be on another planet by now.
Derek moved next to Poly and wrapped her up in his strong arms. Poly didn’t resist. She needed a shoulder to cry on. She had a terrible feeling she was losing her daughter.
KRIS STOOD BEFORE THE DOOR to the stone room and looked at the Panavice Evelyn had given them. Their child queen spoke of this great new place for them once they completed a task for her. She’d sent them coordinates, and taught them how to use the Alius stone, but Kris felt jittery looking at the real stone. He adjusted his life jacket and felt it irritating his neck. He wouldn’t have worn it, if Evelyn hadn’t insisted. They were all wearing one.
“She needs us. We must go,” Naya said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Kris nodded, pushing the Panavice into his pocket. “She needs us,” he agreed. Raising his hand, he motioned for everyone to follow him forward. The steel door creaked as he opened it. He shoved it for the last couple feet and smelled the stale air seeping out from the domed room.
If any of them had known this stone was on their island the entire time, everything would have been different. Tough thing, looking back, distorted with current knowledge. Leaving this world wasn’t a problem. This world had grown past them, stepped over them; forgotten them in their haste to make the world great again.
Kris used his Panavice to light up the room. He’d watched Lucas use the stone enough to know the mechanics of it, and the rest of the tribe were well aware of it too, bouncing around the worlds as they evaded Marcus with the kids. This time felt much different, as the hushed group of mutants filled the dome.
“We’re all in,” Maggie called out from near the door.
Kris nodded and knelt next to the stone. Naya joined him, glancing around and rubbing her pant legs. He extended his hand and touched hers, calming her. She smiled and nodded her head.
He didn’t need to look at the Panavice for reference, he and Evelyn had worked until he was able to do it with his eyes closed. He felt the sandpaper-like surface of the stone, then typed in the code. “Hold your breath, and remember what you need to do,” he said as the stone hummed.
In a blink, the stone dome changed to a wall of dark water. Jasper blew out a great breath and kept the water from crushing them, yet the water still poured into the circle from the sides.
“Take a breath and swim hard!” Kris yelled out.
The water crashed against them from all sides. In the slosh, Naya slipped out of his grip. Water and bodies swirled around him. His life jacket pulled him along as much as anything else. Looking up, he spotted the gleaming surface. He pushed up with his hands and kicked with his feet, swimming hard.
A few other mutants were far ahead of him, breaching the surface. Reaching up, he felt the air with his
hand first, then his head emerged. He took a deep breath of the alien air and looked around at the heads bobbing all around.
A wave rolled over them, sending him back into the water. He swam back up. “Get to the shore! Help everyone who needs it.”
Talia screamed and flailed in the water. Kris took the young girl and lifted her above the surface. What had happened to her swimming partner? Thankfully, most of them were well versed in ocean swimming. Kris backstroked toward the shore, holding onto Talia until his feet could touch the sand.
Many of the tribe walked on the beach, but he searched the ocean for one person’s face in particular, his swimming partner. “Naya?” he called out, looking around the tribe as they came ashore. “I’ll be right back.” He tore off his life jacket and looked out into the water. “Maggie, head count.”
“Sixty-four.”
Four missing. He trudged into the ocean, then jumped into the waves. “Naya!”
A body floated over the crest of a wave and he rushed to it. He turned it over and saw Banya’s dead stare looking toward the sky. She must have been crushed against the ocean floor, or hit her head. He pulled her body to shore, handing her over to Jasper. Heading back out, a few more joined him in the search.
Despite the life jackets and knowing what was coming, they had three missing. In the next twenty minutes, they only recovered one more body. The other two were gone, swallowed by the sea. He knew of the danger, he knew of the risk, and it made it all the worse. He sobbed as a large wave crashed into him, sending him into a spiral under the water. He felt his shoulder hit the sandy bottom and watched the white water in the wave swirl by him. Thoughts of staying at the bottom nearly drowned him. Maybe he could just give up now and join them. The worlds had taken too much from him and his mutants.
Then he thought of Evelyn; she still needed him. His queen had a task for them to complete. Jumping off the bottom and breaching the surface, he took a deep breath. A big group was already exploring the edge of the jungle next to the shoreline. It wasn’t in his people to ask about the dead. They moved on, and so would he.
He reached the shallows and dragged his feet in the sand. “Anyone figure out where we are?” he asked.
Maggie looked down the beach. “No trash.”
No trash meant no people, or at least not developed yet. Back on Vanar, not a day went by when something didn’t wash up on the shore. Things could be different this time. “Anyone see a structure or an aircraft?” Kris asked.
“Nothing yet. I sent a few into the jungle to scout ahead. Oh, and we were able to revive Banya.”
Kris breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in quite a while.” If only he’d been stronger, he could have held onto Naya. No, not now. Not in front of his people. He pulled out his Panavice and swiped the water off to read the screen. Evelyn had sent him a note. He read it out loud.
“I hope you all made it through the jump. I’m not sure if I could ever forgive myself if anything happened because I asked for your help.” Pain hit his gut when he thought about telling her of the deaths. He didn’t want to upset her. “Assuming you are still willing to help me, you only need to walk east, down the beach a half mile. This is where you’ll find the base of the vault.”
Stuffing the Panavice back in his wet pocket, he looked over his tribe of people. This mission had already cost several lives, and he feared it could be just the start of their sacrifice. “We mourn the dead, after we help Evelyn.” They grumbled in agreement, with tears in their eyes. He gritted his teeth and blew a strong breath through his nose. “Come on, we head east.”
“WHY MY HOUSE?” HARRIS ASKED.
“Do you have a better option?” Travis said.
“Yeah, your place.”
“Too close to a populated area, in case something goes wrong.”
Harris eyed Travis and thought he spotted hints of amusement in that grin, but no matter. He was right. This made for a better location. The house would be destroyed if the purge people came anyways. “Fine.” He tugged on the large duffle bag. “But we start with Preston. We can check on the kids and find a way from there.”
“Agreed.”
Harris knelt next to the stone and typed in the code. Travis hovered over his shoulder and watched the code go in. “Still don’t trust me?”
“No, and I never will,” Travis said.
The room changed to the forest in Preston. “Trip?” Harris said, finding Trip and Hank facing a red-haired man.
“Harris,” Gladius said from behind them. “Dad?” She came running toward Travis.
Harris, with one hand on his gun and the other on his bag, turned and saw Gretchen as well. “What’s going on?”
“We’re being invaded,” Trip said and pointed to the sky. “This guy, Wes, was holding a portal open for them to flood us with the floating cubes.”
“Great, more of you,” Wes said and glanced at the stone. “They’ll be here soon, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they send detonation stones through first, to clear it out.”
“Dad,” Gladius said. “This guy has a way to their world. We can face the people who launched this attack.”
This might be the break they were looking for. Harris squinted at the young man who called himself Wes. There was fear in his eyes, and he fidgeted, glancing at the Alius stone. “You can take us to the purge people world?” Harris asked.
“Dear God, is that what you people call us?” He raised his hands as Harris approached. “Yes, I can take you there, but we need to go now.”
“I’ll go alone,” Harris said and lifted his bag to hang the strap over his shoulder.
“No way,” Hank spoke up. “How many times has it gone bad when you used that stone? You need our help.”
“Much as I’d like to see you go off into the great unknown, I agree with Hank,” Travis said. “We have a better chance of succeeding if we’re together.”
Harris adjusted his bag and clenched his teeth. He swore Joey would be the last one to die on his watch. Now Hank wanted to go and risk his life again. With them going, he’d have to be more careful and make sure Wes didn’t drop them into a trap. “Fine, we’ll go. Show me the code.”
“Whatever, but we need to go now.” Wes explain the code and showed Harris the digits.
“Now show me another code,” Harris said.
“What?”
“Another code. I know you know more than one code onto your planet.”
“This is stupid. The first code I gave you would put us right next to my friends.”
“Exactly why I want another code.”
Wes glanced around the circle. “Fine, one more minute and we’ll probably be dead anyways.” He tapped a second code onto his arm.
Trip held onto Wes as he neared the stone and Harris knelt next to it.
“Get your shields on,” Harris said and set his up.
“We don’t have one,” Gladius said. “The freaking invasion took them out.”
“Here, take mine,” Travis handed Gladius his Panavice.
“Thanks, Dad. Hank, if we stay close enough, we can share,” Gladius hugged him around the waist.
“Hey, Gretchen and I are going to stay here to warn the rest of the family and make preparations,” Trip said.
“If the cubes come, just blank out,” Harris said. “It can’t see you without your thoughts.”
“Be careful, Dad,” Hank said.
“Love you, son.”
Gretchen and Trip stepped out of the circle and Harris eyed Travis. He didn’t want to say it, but they didn’t have a choice. Transporting what they were carrying was dangerous enough, and they couldn’t let what they held get loose, or worse . . . be used against them. “Travis, we’re going to have to get close enough to share my shield.”
“I’d rather die.”
“Dad,” Gladius warned.
“Fine, but I’m not spooning you, and if you mess with me for one second, I’ll stick you.”
“I wouldn
’t expect anything less.” Harris sighed and waited for Travis to get next to him. He typed in the code and then stood and put his arm around a repulsed Travis.
“Here we go,” Hank said, holding onto Gladius.
Harris listened to the hum of the stone. Doing a quick turn, he found the place empty and parted from Travis. It was a dusty warehouse, but it looked to be empty.
“I hear something,” Gladius whispered, still holding onto Hank.
Harris did too. They were somewhere populated, maybe a city. He couldn’t make out anything through the window but the blue sky beyond.
“Yeah, we’re in Miami. Do you guys have a Miami?” Wes asked.
“No,” Harris said.
“Yes,” Hank said. “We do.”
Harris scanned the room again, holding tightly to his duffle bag. He stopped and watched Wes. The young man put his hands in his pockets and split his attention among the different people in the room.
“Show me your hands,” Travis said and pointed his gun at Wes, while holding a knife in the other.
Wes yanked his hands from his pocket and held them up. “You guys have got to relax. I’m not the enemy here.”
Harris walked closer to Wes. To his surprise, Wes didn’t seem to have the same fear level as he did back in Preston. Maybe all of his fear had been placed on what might have been coming out of the Alius stone. Harris eyed him, as if for the first time, and took in the young man as a soldier of some sort. He had no uniform, but he had that air about him. A confidence in his ability.
“Who are you, really?” Harris asked, and motioned for Travis to lower his gun.
“It doesn’t matter who I am. What matters is, we want the same thing. We want to end these invasions of other worlds. We want to stop her before it’s too late, and there is one person who can help us.”
“Who wants to help us?” Harris asked.
“Our leader. She’s been plotting for a while now, but we can’t get close enough, the queen is always a step ahead.”
“We know the feeling,” Hank said.
“We should meet with her then.”
Wes looked at the door and then the open window. “I don’t know where she is.”