by Matt Ryan
“Come on, Derek told me of a com center just over here.” Poly pulled at him. “We can monitor the outside better from there.”
Lucas adjusted Prudence on his side and wondered how useful his skill in bows would be against such people.
“We can do this, Lucas. Remember Ryjack? You killed hundreds of grinners. What’s a bunch of trespassers going to have on us?” Poly lead the way out of the cell area and into a small room filled with large screens displaying the entire surrounding area.
“What happened back there?” Lucas asked.
“You’ll think I’m crazy, but Evelyn killed them. She willed it with her mind. If she hadn’t done it, those monsters would have torn through all of us.”
He didn’t think she was crazy. At the fair, he thought he’d felt prying fingers in his mind. But they didn’t have Evelyn by their sides now. “If those three came close to killing us all, what chance do we have against an army of them?”
Dust stirred on the screen as more of the cubes landed in a wide berth on one side of the dome. Lucas leaned in closer. The wind pushed the dust away and revealed a large group of people headed toward them.
“Arrogant,” Poly said. “They are grouped up like we couldn’t hurt them if we wanted to.” Her mouth crunched up to one corner as she got closer to the screen.
Lucas stared at the side of her head and realized he had not been alone with Poly in a long time. He thought of the first time Joey started looking at her in a different way. Joey might not have admitted it, but at their eighteenth birthday party he’d noticed the difference. He spotted a spark in his eyes as he gazed upon Poly, even if he said he had a thing for Samantha at the time.
He choked up at the thought of his friend. “You know, I wish we were there more for you after Joey. . . .”
She turned away from the screen. “You were there. Believe me. When I finally had my thoughts together, I used my memory of you and Julie, all of you, to get me through the darkest days.” Tears built up in her eyes. “But now Evelyn is gone again. I don’t even know what she’s doing. Does Will do that too? Does he just leave you?”
“He’s distant sometimes, but he hasn’t left us, as far as I know. He’ll outgrow us quickly, though, and I’m terrified of that day. I can’t imagine doing this without Julie.” He regretted saying it the second it left his lips.
“You’re lucky. I feel like Evelyn doesn’t even need me now. In fact, I think she feels like I am a weight on her shoulders.”
“No, I don’t believe that. She loves you, we all love you,” Lucas said and wrapped his arms around her in a big hug. “And in a little bit, we can see how well Evelyn loves us with these defenses,” he joked.
“Look, one of them is waving.” Poly pulled away and pointed to the screen.
An older man walked ahead of the group. He looked thin, and maybe Asian, as he approached with both hands up. His mouth moved, but they couldn’t hear the words.
“What do we do?” Lucas asked.
Derek rushed into the room. “They want to talk.”
“With who?” Poly asked.
“You, he’s calling you out by name.”
“How the hell does he know my name?”
“He’s saying Evelyn sent him.”
WIND BLEW ACROSS THE DESERT floor, tousling Poly’s hair as she stared at the man waiting for her a hundred yards away.
“You sure you want to do this?” Derek asked. “Evelyn has many defenses set up to take care of these people.”
“Yeah, I do. Even if I can stall them for a while, it could give Evelyn the chance she needs to find a way to stop this invasion.”
Derek glanced back at the door and then at her. She hadn’t made full eye contact with him until that moment. He had a toughness to him, much like Harris, but a softness hid behind the eyes. They reminded her of Joey.
She cleared her throat. “I’m ready.”
“Fine,” Derek said. “You know, you remind me a lot of Samantha.”
Poly battled the small rush of anger and sadness that flowed through her veins, but smiled anyways. “Just make sure you have my back.”
“I’ll be right next to you.”
The door opened and Poly swung around to see Lucas leaning out. “I’m going with you. You can’t be alone with this guy.” He gestured toward Derek.
“No, you need to go back to Julie and Will. If this goes bad, you may be our last stand.”
“Okay, but if anything happens to her, Derek, I’ll hold you accountable,” Lucas said.
“I’ll let you skewer me personally.”
“Lucas, tell Julie how much I love her. I’m so sorry about Evelyn. I know she meant well, but it all came out wrong.”
“I will,” Lucas said. “Are you sure about going out there? That sounded almost like a goodbye.”
“I’ve missed a few goodbyes already. I won’t miss another.”
Lucas nodded, then left down the passageway and out of sight.
“Ready?” Derek asked with his hand on the door.
She motioned for him to get on with it.
Blood pumped through her veins, and she took a deep breath of the dry, dusty air to calm her nerves. She’d spent too many hours with Travis to not know this man was about to demand something she could never give.
Getting within ten feet of the man, she studied his worn face with a scraggly goatee and beard. He looked frail, yet the steel in his eyes told of the many days left in his mind.
“That’s close enough,” Derek whispered.
“Are you the mother?” the man said in a raspy voice, laden with an Asian accent.
“I have a daughter.”
He laughed. “You are the mother of the little one. I have a proposition directly from our queen regarding your daughter, and another boy much like her. She will not attack a single person on this world, and never return again, in exchange for the two children.”
“No,” Poly said.
“We are talking about a few billion lives in exchange for two. She has never made such an offer.”
“Tell her to screw herself.”
He laughed again, and looked over his shoulder at the small army they’d gathered. “We are not like anything you’ve ever encountered. We’ve face worlds so far advanced from your own, you look like cavemen in comparison. Why do you think we can’t just do both, take your child and this entire world?”
“If you could, it would be done already. Your queen fears my daughter, she fears what she is capable of. I’ll give you one chance to pack up and leave here. Never come back to this world and maybe I can convince my daughter to not pursue your queen any longer.”
He moved his gloved hand in one quick motion, until his fingers were holding a stone. “You know what this is, don’t you? I can see it in your eyes. You’ve met the twins then?” He smirked. “This is a stone made by our beloved queen herself. It has the power to destroy all of you.”
“Go ahead.” Poly was so sick of people coming into her life and trying to push her one way or another. After losing Joey, and now feeling a loss between her and Evelyn, she didn’t care what this purge person did or thought.
He chuckled and stowed the stone back in his pocket. “You’re making a mistake, young lady. She wants what you have and nothing will stop her. I ask you one last time to take this offer. Give us your daughter and the other one like her.”
“My offer stands. It is your decision, whether you want to live through this day or not,” Poly said.
The man’s smile faded as he threw something at Poly. Derek jumped in front of her and caught the stone, inches before striking Poly’s face. Derek groaned, but turned and fired on the man as he reeled back with another stone. Bullet holes peppered the man’s body, and he fell to the ground. The stone hit the ground next to him, cracking open like an egg. A green cloud lifted from the broken stone and widened toward her and Derek.
Derek fell to one knee in front of her, clasping his arm. “Go, run.” He pushed Poly toward the door
.
She pulled Derek to his feet and ran with him, more carrying him than anything else. She yanked the door open and pulled Derek inside, then slammed the door shut and locked it. She kneeled next to him. Sweat beaded on his pale face and he clutched his arm.
Poly gazed at his blackening hand and shook her head. “What do I do?” She thought of one of Vanar’s healing machines, but they were hours away from a stone.
“Cut off my arm, it’s traveling fast.” Derek squeezed his arm. He lifted his head long enough to look at it before falling hard back to the floor. “Cut it off!”
Poly couldn’t breathe as she pulled out her dagger from her sheath at her waist. She looked at the red dragon embroidered on the handle—another homage to Compry. The blackness crawled past his wrist and she pulled her knife back, shaking her head. “I can’t do this, Derek. I’m sorry.”
“You have to. Use your sword.”
My sword. She closed her eyes and reached back, feeling for it. She hadn’t used it in a long time. It reminded her too much of Joey, and after wearing it for so long, it felt a part of her. Pulling it out, she listened to the sound of it sliding through the sheath. This could cut Derek’s body in half.
“I’m going to raise my arm, then let it go. Cut it off just above the elbow,” Derek said. “I have a vile Evelyn gave me, I’ll smear it on afterward to stop the bleeding.”
Poly got to her knees and looked at his raised arm, making her spot of impact just above his elbow. This is insane. “On three. One, two, three.” She swung hard; it gave only the slightest resistance as it cut clean through his bone. The arm, black and shriveled, fell to the ground.
Derek shouted, but shoved a handful of white goo onto his stub. The bleeding stopped and he fell backward onto the floor, thumping his head.
Breathing quickly, Poly stayed on her knees, staring at a motionless Derek. She couldn’t believe what she’d just done. Shaking off the blood, she sheathed it.
Footsteps pounded toward her and several men slid onto the floor next to Derek. “What happened? They cut his arm off?”
“The poison, it would have killed him,” Poly said. “I—I had to. . . .”
The two men picked up Derek and carried him off. The distant footsteps dissipated and the entry fell silent.
Poly stood back from the wall and avoided the dead hand on the floor. She had an army to repel and the most knowledgeable man in the building just had his arm cut off. Pulling out her Panavice, she texted Julie. If they found a way to get through Sanct alive, they’d find a way to stave off these stone-throwing scumbags.
Someone pounded against the steel door, then a sound boomed around the small entry.
She turned and ran toward the monitoring room. She texted Julie again and glanced back to see steel doors sliding shut and locking.
“Thank you, Julie.” She ran, making her way down a series of hallways.
Julie ran out of a doorway and stopped in front of her. “You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, thanks for coming. Let’s get to the monitoring room,” Poly said, and they darted into the room. Half of the screens showed white. “They broke?”
“No, they used some kind of smoke bomb and fogged out half the dome. Good thing I know Evelyn’s coding. I spotted most of her defense mechanisms in the program. Lucas told me about a weapon Derek wanted him to use. Watch this.” Julie pushed on the screen and the ground rumbled, monitors moving around on the walls. Some of the fog left one of the screens and Poly thought she saw objects flying around in the mist. Maybe even body parts.
“You’re killing them?” Poly asked.
Julie pressed another button on her screen and a high pitched sound emitted from around the building. “Sound waves, concentrated.”
“Just scaring them off?”
Julie laughed. “You think they can live through a three hundred decibel, concentrated sound wave?”
The squeal from the sound rang in her ears and she put a hand on her stomach.
“Don’t worry, it’s directed at them, we’re just getting some reflection,” Julie explained. “Next, we have some sensor guns.” She pushed another button on the screen.
From the clatter of automatic gunfire and the deeper thud of artillery fire, Poly didn’t think a cockroach would be left out there. She put her hands over her ears and gazed at the monitor, tensing her muscles.
More of the mist cleared and the dirt landscape appeared. Poly stared at the screen in disbelief, as a group of people huddled around each other, with a clear dome protecting them. Not all were lucky though, many were either dead, or holding their heads in agony.
“They have some kind of shield,” Poly said.
“They can’t stay in there forever. I’m going to save the bullets.” Julie pressed her finger on the screen and the gunfire ceased.
“What do we do now?” Poly looked back at the door, hoping no one had breached it yet.
“They’re moving, look.” Julie pointed at the screen.
Poly watched the group move as a unit, closer to the building. “Do something,” she said.
Julie scanned through her Panavice, finally deciding on something. Pushing a button, she looked at the screens. “I energized the outside walls. They get within five feet and they’ll get zapped with a million volts.”
The group stopped fifty feet back from the building. All of their hands rose in unison and they faced the sky, throwing stones toward the top of the structure. Poly, having a terrible feeling of what those stones were about to bring, stepped back from the monitor as her body got a fresh jolt of adrenaline.
A couple of the screens showed the stones arching up to the belly of the building. The first stone struck and melted through. Then the rest hit, creating a huge hole in the steel cladding. Poly knew what the stones were going to do. “We’ve got to get out of here.” She looked at the back door of the room. She walked to it and looked across the hall. An explosion rocked the building and she stumbled into the hall. “Please tell me Evelyn planned for an escape?”
“I don’t know, there’s nothing on here but—” Julie got cut off by another large explosion. “They’re in the building. Dammit.” Julie scanned through the pages on her screen and then she brightened. “There’s an escape room. I’m texting coordinates to Will and Lucas.” She jogged out of the room and down a passageway, away from another explosion.
“This was supposed to be our last chance to save the world,” Poly yelled at Julie’s back, as she ran to keep up.
“I guess we better find a new way to save the world,” Julie answered. “Because this place is gone.” She slowed down at a collapsed section of the hall.
Stark sunlight poured into the building from a gaping hole coming from the ceiling. Liquid dripped onto the floor and hissed. Julie made a right turn and jogged away from the dissolving section of the building.
They made it down several flights of stairs, then ran up to Lucas and Will, who were standing in a steel room. Four other men joined them, and Derek leaned against a wall with his arm bandaged. His pale face regarded Poly as he swayed.
“Derek,” Julie said. “You know the way out. What do we do?”
He sparked awake at her strong voice. “They’ve breached?” He looked around the room and then at the floor. “This was the last chance for all of us. I’ve failed Evelyn.”
“Dude,” Lucas snapped. “Save the pity party for after we get out of this. Now get us the hell out of here.”
“This is labeled as the last resort room, this has to be it,” Julie said, pointing at her Panavice screen.
Derek kicked off the wall and pointed at a small panel. “You’re right, this is it. I’d hope to never need this room, but bless her mind for thinking of it.” Another explosion rocked the room and he fell to one knee. He sprung back up and used his functional hand to slap open the metal door and reveal a screen. “I need Will,” he said. “It will only respond to him or Evelyn.”
“Why?” Julie asked.
“
That’s the way she set it up.”
Will walked to Derek and looked up at the screen.
“Just put your hand on the screen and the computer will do the rest,” Derek explained.
Will raised his hand and almost put it on the screen before lowering it. He looked back at Poly, then the rest of them in a quick glance. “If I do this, that’s it,” Will said. “We lose everything. Maybe we should fight our way through this?”
Julie moved closer to Will and held his hand. “This isn’t about win or lose, this is about surviving.” She took his hand and slapped it against the screen.
The room hummed and vibrated under their feet. The steel doors slammed shut.
“What’s going on?” Poly asked.
“I think we’re about to go for a ride.”
EVELYN WALKED AROUND HARRIS AND gazed at the woman standing on the porch. She was frozen in time, but her embers still flowed, even more than the rest. It must be an indication of how strong they were, but in what?
It hadn’t taken her too long to find her friends. Their Panavices, designed by her, kept a signal only she could trace. What she found more unusual was the company they were keeping.
Evelyn took Harris’s gun out of his hand, then Travis’s as well. She hated disarming such men; they’d surely see it as an emasculation, and further their distrust of her. But she couldn’t let them kill these purge people. Not these ones anyhow; not yet.
She released time and chose the spot between the two warriors. Harris took half a second to assess the new situation, Travis a hair behind him. “I can’t have you killing our best chance at stopping the invasion.”
“You’re the one?” The braid girl asked.
“Yes, and I don’t have much time. Every second I spend here, means Earth is that much closer to getting taken.”
“Evelyn?” The woman on the porch said, lowering her stone. Her mouth hung open and she tilted her head.
“Not expecting such a little girl?” She’d become tired of her form and the instant lack of respect it granted.
“No, it’s not that. I just wondered if you were real. We’ve heard so many stories, but never had any proof. After a while, you stop believing.”