by P. T. Hylton
“You don’t see shit,” she spat. “You are just trying to make yourself feel better before I kill you.”
“I see how hideous you are, on the inside just as much as the outside. I hope you think of me when Alex takes your head.” After a thousand years of fighting, Jaden drew his last breath, ready to finally rest.
“Nice try, but all your needling can’t change the facts. I’ve won.” Maryana swung Jaden’s sword with all her might. The hum of the blade fell silent as it passed through his neck. The light left his eyes, and his head fell to the floor.
33
Alex’s head bobbed from side to side as the transport rumbled and jostled along the road, but she didn’t notice. She stared straight ahead, her face unreadable.
She couldn’t believe it. The unthinkable had happened. CB was dead. She’d never talk to him again. Never hear one of his speeches. Never debrief after a mission together. He’d given her a shot at the GMT, he’d trained her, he’d put her in a position to lead when most commanders probably would have benched her. And now, he was gone. But she felt no guilt at being the one to drive a knife through his heart. It wasn’t her that had killed him, it was Maryana. Alex had set him free.
The fact that he’d done the impossible and resisted Maryana’s direct order to kill Alex made the loss even worse. Not only had Alex lost her mentor and her friend, but humanity had lost the strongest-willed son of a bitch alive. He’d proven that in his final stand, and now he was gone.
While CB’s death was the biggest loss in Alex’s world, it hadn’t been the biggest loss to humanity as a whole. That had been Jaden. He’d protected humanity for a thousand years. By all accounts, he was the greatest of the vampires. Even Maryana respected and feared him. Hell, she’d brought down the world, partly to mess with him. Now, their greatest protector and weapon in the war against Maryana had been lost.
And for what? The mission had been foolhardy, to say the least, and they’d paid dearly.
Barely a word had been spoken since they started driving away from Agartha. Ed occasionally stood and glanced out the back windows to make sure they weren’t being followed, but he did it in silence. Felix drove the truck, gripping the wheel hard, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. Somehow, Owl seemed to be the most shell-shocked of all of them. She’d been as close with CB as Alex had, and she had the added complication of being of Jaden’s direct bloodline. Alex could only imagine what complicated emotions she must be experiencing.
They’d been driving for over an hour when Frank finally spoke up. “All right, listen. I know I’m not a warrior, like you guys. Not really. I fired my first weapon a few days ago and I killed my first Twisted in that same fight. I’m just some guy, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I dumbly volunteered to let myself be injected with vampire blood, and now here I am, living in a nightmarish future.”
Alex looked up at him, her jaw clenched. Part of her was annoyed that he’d interrupted her quiet contemplation, but she also wanted to know where he was going with this.
“I may just be a random guy,” he continued, “but I’ve seen some shit. I lived through the end of the world. I saw some of the toughest people I’ve ever met crumble, and I watched as some of the most unexpected people found a way to survive.”
The beginnings of a frown began to form on Alex’s face. This wasn’t the appropriate time for stories of the good old days, and she was quickly losing patience.
“You know what the difference was between the people who survived and those who didn’t?” Frank asked. “After the worst had happened, some people found a way to get back up and keep moving. It’s not that they weren’t sad or shocked by what had happened, but they were able to keep going, you know?” He paused, trying to find the words. “I guess what I’m saying is, we have to keep moving forward. What happened today is one of the shittiest things I’ve seen in my long life, but Maryana isn’t going to stop now. That means we can’t, either.”
Alex couldn’t remain silent any longer. “We just lost maybe the two best warriors on planet Earth. They were our friends. Our brothers. Are you saying we can’t take a couple of hours to deal with it?”
His eyes met hers, and she saw a determination in those eyes that she hadn't noticed before. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Every minute counts. Every second. Get on the radio to Agartha. Start planning. We need a way to take Maryana down, and feeling sorry for ourselves isn’t getting us any closer to victory.”
Ed shifted in his seat. “Frank, I think you should—”
“I should what?” Frank snapped. “I should shut up? I’m not going to. There’s too much at stake. We have to step up to the plate and we have to do it now. And if you don’t like that, you can kiss my ass. I’m going to kill Maryana or die trying, and I hope you all are with me on that.”
“Uh, no,” Ed said. “I was going to say you should act like this more often. You almost sound like a real GMT member.”
As much as Alex hated to admit it, Frank was right. There wasn’t time for sorrow. Not now. She pushed herself to her feet. Her body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, but she forced it to keep moving. She went to the empty passenger seat and fell into it. Then she lifted the radio from the dashboard and held it to her lips.
“GMT to Agartha, do you read?” She waited ten seconds, then spoke again. “GMT to Agartha, do you read?”
“We read you, GMT,” a female voice said. “What’s your status?”
Alex squeezed her eyes shut. “We’re…we’re en route. I need you to put me on with Brian McElroy.”
Jessica stared out of the window of a nondescript apartment in Sparrow’s Ridge, careful to keep to the shadows. She’d been watching for a while now, and she’d noticed something odd. More and more people were heading out of the Ridge and toward the Hub. And she had no idea why.
She was considering this when she heard the sound of a key turning a lock. A moment later, Billy stepped inside, squeezing his bulky frame through the half-open door. As soon as he was inside, he eased the door shut and flipped the lock.
“Thank God, you’re back,” she said. “What’s going on out there?”
He shook his head, as if overwhelmed. “I’m sorry I was gone so long. I only meant to gather a few people for our planning session tonight, and then…”
She took a step toward him. “What?”
Billy’s large eyes were filled with sadness when he spoke again. “I don’t know if it’s true, Jessica, but people are saying the GMT tried to attack the city. They’re saying that Maryana killed some of them, it’s not clear who. Some say Jaden, and some say Alex. I guess there’s going to be some sort of parade through the Hub in a little bit. I don’t know… it’s all so bizarre.”
She could see in his eyes that there was something else. “Billy, what is it?”
“I don’t know if I should even… I mean, it’s not confirmed in any way. But people are saying CB died during the attack. They’re saying Alex killed him.”
Jessica grabbed the windowsill, steadying herself through the wave of vertigo and nausea that followed those words. She waited in silence until it passed. “Billy, we have to go to that parade.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said. “If you’re seen—”
“It wasn’t a question. We’re going.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then nodded.
They made their way through the streets as inconspicuously as possible. Jessica was dressed in the blue jumper of a sanitation worker, and she wore her hair up, hoping that would be enough to deflect casual eyes from recognizing her. They needn’t have worried. The people were so nervous and concerned about the word-of-mouth summons passed from Twisted to human about the parade that they didn’t pay much attention to their fellow humans. By the time they made it to the Hub, it was clear that the spectacle would be enough to deflect all attention from any individual attendee.
They arrived just as it was beginning. Lines of Twisted marched
through the street in carefully orchestrated formation. Jessica saw new faces among them, non-badges who she knew for a fact had not been Twisted earlier that day. It appeared that the Twisted army had been replenished after the GMT’s attack.
The crowd was somber and nervous as they watched, waiting for their insane queen. Every person in that crowd knew she was capable of anything, and that knowledge left them on edge. In many ways, crazy was far worse than evil. Crazy couldn’t be predicted, so none of them were safe.
After what felt like five hundred Twisted had passed, Maryana finally appeared. She sat in a chair carried by four Twisted, held aloft above their shoulders. She held something in her hands, but Jessica couldn’t make it out clearly at first. When she finally did, she gasped.
It was a glass box, and within that box was Jaden’s severed head.
“We’ve only begun!” Maryana shouted as they marched. “The parade is just getting started, and it doesn’t stop until we reach Agartha. We’re going to hold Jaden’s head up high as we wipe his city from existence.”
34
After an hour of debating in the cold conference room, the voices were starting to blend together for Alex. It was all just a drone of sounds.
The GMT and the leaders of Agartha were discussing how to proceed. There was no shortage of ideas. Cynthia proposed filling in the outer blast tunnel. Permanently closing the biggest way in and out of Agartha would leave them better protected. As others had quickly brought up, it would also leave them trapped.
The news of Jaden’s death had affected the citizens of Agartha even more deeply than Alex had anticipated. Even after all the of other vampires died, the people had held out hope that Jaden would save them. Now, their savior was gone. The only thing they wanted to discuss was how to fortify the city and hide from Maryana.
Alex had tried to tell them that any number of turrets and traps would only briefly delay the city’s downfall. Still, they’d ignored her and kept going around in circles about different configurations of explosives and traps.
Alex got lost in her own thoughts. She knew that there was a solution to this riddle. One that didn’t involve hiding under a mountain and waiting to die. She had all the puzzle pieces; she just needed to put them together. She decided to try making her point once again. “Look, I appreciate how scary this all is, but I still think we aren’t going to be able to defend the city against Maryana’s army for long. There has to be another way.”
“So what are you saying?” Cynthia said, her frustration beginning to show. “Should we just open up the front doors and let Maryana walk right into the city? You may just give up on New Haven, but we have some backbone down here.”
Ed stood up. “Watch your mouth. The people of New Haven are her prisoners, and you’re hiding in this hole. Good people have died fighting against all odds for you. If you disrespect us again, you are going to find out how much backbone we have!”
Owl stood up and put a hand on Ed’s chest, gently pushing him back toward his seat. “Fighting each other isn’t going to help anything. I know we are all stressed out, but we need to focus.”
Charles, the new head of Engineering, spoke up. “Maybe Maryana doesn't care about us now that Jaden’s gone. You said she wanted him dead more than anything. Now that she’s killed him, she may leave us alone.”
Ed smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Holy shit, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Maryana wants pain and suffering for all. She isn’t going to let us live happily ever after, just because she killed Jaden. She will come for us.”
“That’s why we are rebuilding the turrets,” Cynthia argued. “If we put up a strong enough fight, they may give up. She already has four times the number of people that live here. Losing a bunch of them just to get to us may not be worth it.”
Owl sighed. “I know this is hard, but you can’t think logically when it comes to Maryana. I’ve seen her up close, and she is crazy. Smart, but crazy. If she has to kill forty thousand New Havenites to get the ten thousand people in this city, she will. In fact, I think that might make her happy. That’s what makes her so hard to fight. She doesn’t take the path you expect.”
“Fine, she is coming for us. Then what’s the plan?” Cynthia paused for a moment, letting the silence hang in the air. “We are going to fix the turrets, unless you think the five remaining GMT members can take out Maryana.”
“We can’t.” Everyone in the room turned to Alex when she broke her silence. “There are at least one hundred Twisted for each member of the GMT. We’ve tried to sneak in and assassinate her. That failed, even with Jaden.”
“See? We need to defend our position.”
Alex held up a hand, silencing her. “Maryana is cruel in ways that make her seem crazy, but she still uses strategy. She always uses more force than she needs. She keeps the fights unfair, so that she comes out on top. Jaden told me a story of her creating an army of twenty thousand to kill a small group. Her forces almost took this city already. The vampires saved us, but if they hadn’t been here, that army of two hundred would have done it. I’m guessing that the next time she comes, she’ll bring at least twice that many soldiers.”
“So, what do we do?” Owl asked.
“The unexpected. We bring the fight to her.” Alex’s mind raced as the solution was forming.
“You just did that.” Cynthia said. “It didn’t work.”
“That’s not the we that I’m talking about. Five soldiers will never succeed. If we have an army of five thousand, it may work.” Alex paused, taking in their confused expressions. “The most success we have had fighting her was during the ambush. We almost had her there, and we killed a lot of her troops. She will be expecting everyone in Agartha to be hiding and defending. You’re proud of your backbone, Cynthia? Then use it. Let’s bring every able-bodied man and woman to fight her army.”
There was a long silence.
“Alex, they’re just civilians,” Owl said finally.
“They are more than that. I think Jaden saw it before he died. The people of this city are not just sheep that need us to protect them. They have the same drive and spirit that makes every member of the GMT fierce. We were all civilians until duty called on us to be better. This moment in history calls for all people to be better. They will rise to the moment. Each and every citizen of Agartha will fight for themselves. They will fight for their friends, their family. They will fight to save the human race from the plague that has kept us from walking on the surface for so long. They don’t need to be saved; they need to be unleashed.”
“So, we face the Twisted on the battlefield, outside of the city?” Cynthia asked as she crossed her arms.
“Better. We’re going to attack. I have an idea of where it will work. We will use the element of surprise. If we do it right, the battle will be quick. All we need to do is kill Maryana.”
The door to the room opened, and Brian and Stephanie walked in. “Alex, I’ve got something I need to show you.”
Frank and Owl exchanged a nervous glance as Brian prepared to fire the weapon once again. Brian and the rest of the GMT stood in the next room watching them through a window.
“That’s perfect,” Brian told them through an intercom. “Just pay attention to the effects. I want to know exactly how you feel.”
“Do I have to do this again?” Frank responded. “Maybe Owl could just—”
“Don’t be a baby,” Brian interrupted. “I need to repeat the test to confirm the findings.” He paused a moment as he tapped at his tablet. “Okay, going in three, two, one.”
Brian touched his tablet and the two Twisted fell to their knees. In a moment, both were on their backs, crying out in pain. They toppled over and lay on the floor.
He pressed the button on the intercom. “Please try to stand up as quickly as you can.”
“You’re an asshole, Brian!” Owl shouted. She tried to lift herself off the ground with one hand but lost her balance and fell back down.
/> Frank did better than Owl. He was able to get to his feet. Owl’s second try was more successful, and she was soon standing next to Frank. They wore expressions of pain on their faces, but they were starting to look steadier.
Brian touched the tablet again and the two relaxed. “Sorry about putting you through that. I just needed to verify the results.”
“Are you ready to explain now?” Alex asked.
“It was Ed’s idea.” Brian nodded in his direction.
Alex’s eyes widened and she looked over at Ed. “You came up with this?”
Ed looked from Brian to Alex. “Um, I think you finally mushed your brain staring at those equations, Brian.”
Brian shook his head. “Don’t you remember? In the cafeteria. You wanted a weapon that could shoot through walls and hurt only Twisted. This is it.”
Ed smiled. “Yeah, I guess I did come up with that. So how did I do it?”
“We are using the strength of the Twisted’s senses against them. It’s actually really simple. I’m generating sound frequencies that are imperceptible to human ears. The combination of low and high ranges disrupts their balance. The frequencies can go through solid objects. The range isn’t too far, but it is pretty effective, as you can see.”
“How come they could get back up?” Alex asked.
“Think of it like opening a door and there is a jet engine on the other side. If you go from silence to maximum volume, it is painful and disorientating. It is an explosion of stimulation for your ears and mind. Like a flash grenade. But eventually your body starts to adjust and you get past the disorientation.”
“How long will it last? And how close do we have to be?” Alex’s mind raced as she asked the questions.