by Matt Ryan
She rolled her thumb around until she got it to pop back in place. “Get out of the car and I won’t kill you.” She held the gun up and the girl ducked back down. She fired a shot, bouncing it off the front windshield. They screamed and the door opened. “Thank you. Now stop doing whatever it is you are doing to block me, and walk into the desert and don’t look back.”
The twins walked away from the car. Their long, black curly hair waved around in the wind. Dropping a white stone on the ground, they stopped and looked at her. Evelyn felt the world come into focus. The wind, the heat, the sounds, all became amplified. She wondered if she had just experienced the world as a common person would—dull and lacking the colorful sensory receptions everything had to offer. The twins’ connections and embers floated around them.
“Where do we go?” one of the twins asked.
“Can’t you people jump around?”
“They won’t give us portal stones,” they said in unison.
God, she hated twins; something creepy about genetically identical people. “The cop was meeting someone here, so I’m sure they can help you if you wait around long enough.”
They both looked at the cop laying in the dirt. She assumed they would be disgusted, but they seemed indifferent at his gruesome demise. “Are you going to kill the queen?”
“I’m going to try. Now get out of here before I change my mind about you two.”
The girls sneered but walked away. Evelyn darted to the car and opened the back door. Travis’s foot slipped out and she climbed into the car. Cradling his head, she sighed. These damned stone people and their powers. She hated the idea of such a race existing. They could do so many things with their ability that she couldn’t understand, yet. If she couldn’t beat these people the way she wanted to, she might have to resort to doing things she didn’t want to do.
Hopping into the front, she started the car. Doing a U-turn, she eyed the twins. They were a few hundred feet away, their gazes following her as she drove away.
Another problem with her small body . . . cars weren’t built for little girls. She split her time between looking over the steering wheel, and pressing the gas pedal. She didn’t have time for this. Stopping time and running would be faster, but she just didn’t have it in her. Plus she didn’t want to leave Travis behind.
The flat road stretched out to the horizon, and she knew where she needed to go. The trip was undetermined, but the destination wouldn’t be. She’d only hoped the mutants had come through for her. If they did, it’d be a straight trip to the queen. And once she got ahold of that woman for a second time, she wasn’t going to let go until she ended her.
HANK STOOD AT THE EDGE of the circle. The forest around Preston had healed, for the most part. Charred branches and fallen trees were still prevalent, but it all made him smile. The silence. The sunlight. Had his friends already won?
This portal had been a thoroughfare of invading cubes. Now, a blue jay was squawking.
“Daddy, is this home?” Cindy asked.
“Yes, it is.”
“And there’s no dead people like Grandma around?”
“Nope, this planet doesn’t have such dangers.”
Cindy let go of his hand and turned in a circle, looking up at the sky. A small round rock landed near her.
Hank squinted and gazed at the green stone, as it broke open. A cloud burst around them. “Cindy!” He grabbed her and pulled her away from it. But two steps later, he felt the toxins bringing him to his knees. Hank fell down and watched as Gladius and Cindy fell next to him.
He hadn’t been in his world for more than a minute with his family, before getting them all killed.
“HANK, WAKE UP.”
He knew that voice and he bolted upright.
“There you are, big man. I knew if they caught me, you’d have no chance,” Lucas said.
“Lucas?” Hank got to his feet and looked at the cage surrounding him. In the other cages nearby, he spotted Lucas, Julie, Poly, and another man who seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place. One of his arms looked to be cut off, with bandages wrapping the appendage. Harris sat in a cage to himself and raised his hand in a wave.
Next to him, Cindy and Gladius stirred awake.
“What happened, Daddy?” Cindy asked, and four heads whipped around to look at her.
“Whoa, hold on a minute. Did she just call you Dad?” Poly asked.
“Yes—”
“Did you and Gladius get trapped in some kind of time rift?” Julie asked and then a terrified expression filled her face. “How long have we been in here?”
“Everyone, this is Cindy. You might remember her mom, Mary, from back on Ryjack.”
Lucas looked confused and then his eyes went wide. “You sly dog! No wonder you wanted to take the first shift that night.”
Hank tried to keep his face from going red, and failed miserably. “Yes, but only to help them. I didn’t even know Cindy existed until just recently. And when I found out, I couldn’t leave her on Ryjack.”
“Way to go, Daddy,” Lucas said. “Save her from Ryjack, only to bring her here.”
“Where is here?” Gladius asked.
“We’re in her prison,” Harris said and got to his feet. “The queen is rounding us up like sheep and stuffing us into these corrals. I’d hoped you two could escape this. And congrats on the kid, by the way.”
“Thank you,” Hank said. “So how are we going to get out of here?”
“It’s impossible,” Julie said. “I’ve looked at every angle, and they all lead to us being stuck right here.”
“There’s more of us still out there. So, there’s hope,” Hank said.
“How much did it take to get you in here?” Julie asked.
“We were ambushed right as we landed inside the portal circle in Preston,” Gladius said. “I didn’t even see our attacker.”
“Exactly,” Julie said.
Hank frowned and studied each of his friends. How long had it taken for them to give up in here? No place, no matter what Julie stated, was impenetrable. They could find a way, they just needed to figure it out.
The door at the far end of the line of cells flung open, and a beautiful woman stomped down the steel floors, sending vibrations through the metal framework. Hank glanced at his friends as they scowled at her.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said and covered her mouth. “There is another of you?” She stared at Cindy. “Not as brilliant as the others, but . . . wow, you sparkle.”
“Go to hell,” Poly said.
Hank pushed Cindy behind him.
“One or two more and we can be done with this. They should be here soon,” the queen looked back at the door. “You know, with all of you in the same room, there is a much stronger glow emanating off of you. This last one, Hank is it? Amplified it.” She tapped her chin. “Very curious, you lot.”
“What do you want with us?” Hank asked.
“Nothing more than the souls of your children.” She smiled. “Doesn’t that sound wicked?” She raised an eyebrow, then rolled her eyes and groaned when she didn’t get a response. “None of you understand the gift you’re giving. When I complete my transformation, there will be no more pain, suffering, or plight. I will be able to control all and be all. You said ‘Go to Hell’, but I aim to make this plane of existence Heaven.”
“You’re crazy,” Gladius said.
“You know, at first I underestimated your lot. I mean, we’ve plowed through worlds with way more tech than you, but I’ve never seen anything biologically like you in all the worlds. So I did research and while it was very difficult to figure out your history, I gathered from the different worlds you all bounced around on, that you were invented to defeat me. A man named Marcus Malliden seems to be behind it all. Is he still alive?”
“We killed him,” Poly said.
“Pity. And what happened to Joey and Samantha? You all started with six.”
“They were killed by Marcus,” Julie said.
“Interesting, and the humans on your planet were able to block out my collectors. Do you know how?”
Silence.
“I can make you talk.”
“How are your collectors doing now? Do they like their new master?” Harris asked.
“Your little bit of tech may have destroyed my reclamators, but it all matters not. I have no use for them, once I collect what I need from the children.”
“Evelyn is smarter than you and you know it,” Harris said.
She chuckled. “She might be smarter, but I’m wiser. She’s a little girl. Now that I know her tricks, she won’t get past my protection.”
Poly walked to the edge of her cell, getting close to the queen. “She’s smart enough to know not to come here. She will break you in a way you won’t see coming.”
KRIS HAD GONE THROUGH SEVERAL doors now. Each brought some sort of pain or difficulty, but the last room held something he couldn’t have prepared for. A miracle.
“Tara, is that you?” he asked.
His first wife stood in the circular room, with her back turned to him. Her long, wavy brown hair and bracelet gave her away. He’d given her that bracelet as a wedding gift. Made from a band of silver and sapphires. Nobody in the tribe wore such jewelry, but Tara loved it from the moment she saw it.
She looked over her shoulder and Kris fell to his knees.
“That’s not Tara,” Maggie said.
“Yes, it is. She’s been brought back to me.” Kris extended his arms and walked toward Tara.
She turned and faced him, extending her arms.
Joy filled Kris’s heart. Then he felt hands grabbing his shoulders. Maggie was trying to stop him. She didn’t want him to be happy. He fought with Maggie, shoving her to the ground. He would apologize later. First, he needed to embrace his wife.
Maggie grabbed his broken arm and yanked at it.
He screamed and raised his hand at Maggie, then stopped. What am I doing? She held her hands up, ready to defend. The trance-like feeling of seeing his ex-wife left him. He turned to face the woman, but no one was there. Just an empty room. “What do you think that was?”
“I don’t know. A projection of some kind. Did you see my mom?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. I bet if we went up to them and took those hugs, we’d be dead.”
Kris shook his head and rubbed his hurt arm. It still stung from Maggie ripping at it. He helped her off the floor and apologized for his behavior. She accepted it, and they moved toward the circular room.
“Freaky stuff. It must be some kind of magic,” Maggie said.
“I don’t believe in magic, but I believe in the capabilities of man. Whoever set this place up, doesn’t want the wrong people to find what’s hidden here.”
“We have to be close. I don’t even see another door in the room up ahead.”
Kris gazed at the circular stone room. It had a stone chest in the middle. The contents had to be what they were looking for, but how could he trust anything so easy for him to open and take?
“You think it’s in there?” Maggie asked.
“Something is in there and I doubt it’s pleasant.” He walked to the box and stopped a few feet in front of it.
A stone lid, about an inch thick, sat on top of the stone box. The lid had an engraving of a circle with symbols all around it. Some were masked by a layer of dust. He bent down and blew off some of the dust and one of the four symbols lit up with a green light.
“What’d you do?” Maggie asked.
“Nothing, just blew on it.”
“What does it mean?”
“I don’t know. These kind of symbols were on the doors as well.”
“Should we just try and open it?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got one useful arm. You think you can get the other half of this?”
“Yes,” she said and Kris heard the urgency in her tone. They both knew they didn’t have long before something terrible would happen to Char.
“Only live once, might as well leave with no regrets,” Kris said and stood next to the lid. “You ready?”
She nodded and stood next to him with her hands still blazing. The stone lid would absorb it, but he also thought if this didn’t work, she could melt it down.
“Okay, lift,” Kris said.
They both pulled on the small edge of the stone. Maggie’s hands burned hotter and another symbol lit in a bright red. “What the heck?” she said, stopping her efforts to look at the new symbol.
“You see that? When I blew on it, the green one lit, and when you got close with those hands, the red one lit. How much you want to bet water lights up one?”
Maggie’s face brightened and she ran back to the end of the hall. “Dad, can you throw up that wet shirt?” In a few seconds, she had the shirt and rushed back to the stone lid. She squeezed the shirt and a few drops of water struck the lid. Another symbol lit up blue.
“Only two more symbols left.”
“These are elements,” Maggie said, pointing at the lid. “Earth. The next one is earth, I bet. Is there any dirt?”
Maggie went to the floor and rubbed her hands on the stone. Not seeing anything but rock, Kris went to the walls and then to the ceiling. Each inch seemed to be carved from solid stone. A small stone lay on the floor and Kris picked it up. A rock was made of the earth, maybe it would work.
Hovering over the stone, he dropped the rock onto it. It bounced and then rolled off the edge. Nothing lit up.
“Worth a try,” Maggie said.
Kris patted his pants pocket and felt a lump. He plunged his hand inside and felt a small pile of sand. Sand was earth. It had to work. Grabbing as much as he could, he held it over the lid and poured it out like an hourglass.
Another symbol lit and he brushed off the lid to look at the final symbol. A spear holding up a heart, like a demented cupid. “What do you think?” Kris asked.
“Blood?”
“Maybe.” Kris remembered a sharp rock against the wall when he searched for dirt and went back to it. Using the back of his hand, he scratched the rock until he had a trace of blood running down his hand. With fresh blood, he ran back to the symbol and let a drop hit it. He stepped back, and watched as a spike came out of the symbol to the height of a few inches, before receding back into the lid.
“What the hell was that?” Maggie asked.
“I think it wants more.” Kris looked down at his hand. It had already scabbed over, and the flow had ended. He cut up his hand until the blood gushed once more, then placed it over the symbol. The spike rose higher and produced tiny needles around it, much like a cactus. Kris tried to maintain the blood coming from his hand, but he felt dizzy and cold.
He sat down and wrapped his hand up with material from his torn sleeve. The spike retreated back into the stone. “I don’t think I have enough blood in me.”
Maggie sat down and let her hand go out. In the darkness, Kris listened to her breathing, and stared at the four lit symbols. He had to be missing something.
“This sucks. I’m going to check on my dad,” Maggie said and turned back to the pit.
Kris hesitated, hoping for a last second inspiration, but nothing came.
They made their way down the ladder. Maggie jumped from the last few footholds and landed in the water. “Dad?” She shook him and looked back to Kris.
His heart sank and he prayed the big man wasn’t dead. Not now.
“Dad. Wake up.” She pushed on his chest and Char raised his head and opened his eyes.
“You get the treasure?” he asked.
“Not yet.” Maggie wiped her nose. “God, I thought I lost you there.”
“Still here.” Char coughed and in the dim light, blood trickled down his chin.
“Dad, you’re bleeding.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. We need to get you out of here.”
“Get what we came for first, then we can start thinking about ge
tting out of here.”
Maggie kept her glowing hands back and put her face on her father’s chest.
Char petted her hair and looked up at Kris. He shook his head and then looked down at her. Kris understood the meaning and would take care of Maggie as if she was his own. He fought back tears and turned to look back up at the door.
“Don’t even think about it,” Maggie said.
He didn’t know she’d been watching, but she’d probably thought the same thing. How much blood would it take to open the box? Kris thought he knew the answer, but didn’t want to say it out loud. And everything in him told him the only way out of this place was to open that chest.
“Think about what?” Char asked.
Maggie went on to tell him about the symbols and she rushed over the heart one with a couple sentences.
“It’s going to want a whole lot more than the blood anyone is willing to part with, is my guess,” Char said.
Kris agreed. “Aye, I think you’re right on that.”
Char nudged Maggie back and then rolled over onto one knee.
“What are you doing? You shouldn’t be moving,” Maggie said, holding out her hands as if she’d need to catch Char at any second.
“Nonsense, I think a third set of eyes is in order. A fresh perspective,” Char said and got to his feet.
“You can barely stand. How do you think you can make it up the shaft?”
“Piece of cake. I’m stronger than the average person, you know.” Char eased his way over to the wall of the pit and put his hand in the first slot. “Stay back, just in case.”
Kris didn’t need the warning, but Maggie took a few steps back to give her dad some landing room, in case he needed it.
“Be careful,” she said and looked to Kris. “I don’t like this.”
Char pulled himself up the first rung and then quickly made work of the next four with only a few grunts. In under a minute, the big man pulled himself on the upper platform and disappeared into the hall.
Kris nudged Maggie. “Go on up.”