I linger for a moment, hung up on the sweet idea of ending the life of the mad old hen. But Kroll is right. If the Ghost Legion traps us in this room, it might be impossible to escape.
We run out the door. Kroll turns the lock and I fuse the metal together to slow down the Empress and her beasts.
I follow Kroll to the side gate that he used to enter the plantation while I was distracting the guards and surveillance systems at the main gate. We find the gate sealed and guarded by a group of vicious looking ghost warriors. They attack us as soon as they see us, blocking our way.
Kroll meets them halfway, quickly breaking the necks of two of them. Pulse guns are pretty useless in this fight as all of them have their thick skin fully armed. The Ghost Legion is as effective as Kroll in that department.
I’m getting ready to get the receptor to create a huge cyclone that will lift the beasts off the ground when the entire Ghost Legion descends upon us from two directions.
“Get out of here,” Kroll yells at me.
I stop counting the warriors once I realize their number goes beyond one hundred. Plantation-15 has been at work. The ghost warriors have multiplied like a plague.
I spot a long, heavy metal plank against a building that’s under construction. With the receptor working at full throttle, I lift the plank off the ground and place it against the twenty-foot wall to create a sort of ramp. I quickly run up it and reach the top of the wall.
Before I jump down to the other side, I turn back to see Kroll surrounded by the Ghost Legion, being beaten brutally. Those beasts have been taught to hate Kroll. They won’t stop until they tear him apart.
It becomes obvious that the best option I have, perhaps the only option, is to sacrifice Kroll. To let him fight off the assailants for as long as he can so that I can get out of here and back to the space pod that’s waiting for me.
With the receptor back in my hands, our chances for victory have increased exponentially. Sacrificing Kroll is what I need to do.
But I am not the Empress. I have emotions. I can’t leave him behind. Kroll has grown closer to my heart than I would have ever imagined. I don’t know how to throw someone so loyal to the wolves. He has become my savage brother, never mind that he tried to strangle me the first time we met.
“Damn you, Kroll,” I mutter as I turn my receptor on. I close my eyes, feel the energy of the receptor enter my bloodstream and order it to create a massive earthquake. To win this fight, I have to get creative. Almost like when I first got my hands on a receptor and didn’t know what I was doing.
The ground below starts to shake as my energy field enters the surface of the earth disconnecting molecules and atoms. The ghost warriors are caught by surprise. They turn their heads left and right, losing their balance and dropping to the ground.
I see my chance and generate a shield around Kroll. “C’mon,” I whisper to myself as my earthquake quiets down. “Get up, Kroll.”
Several ghost legion beasts have their eyes on me now as I stand on top of the wall, receptor in hand. I attack them with an electric field. I blast a few away but most of them escape unscathed.
I work my blue shield to protect Kroll again while he’s lying down. I can’t tell if he’s conscious or if he’s even alive. There’s no time to worry about that.
The ghost warriors regroup quickly into two formations. The first group runs to the wall to get to me while the other formation concentrates on Kroll.
The first beasts race up the metal plank the way I did. I blast them off and realize with delay they have been a distraction as a bunch of them have reached the top already just by jumping up the wall. I leap onto the plank and slide down hurting my back and behind in the process.
As I run towards Kroll, I release a pulsating green energy field that sweeps some of the beasts off the ground and drops them against the walls of a building. I reform the shield around Kroll while the remaining warriors turn their attention to me. I hear a roaring behind me as the first beasts jump off the wall. Kroll and I will soon be trapped if I don’t do something about it.
Kroll leaps up crushing a couple heads in his wake. He stands with his back against mine as I form a powerful shield around us that I know for a fact I will not be able to keep going for long.
The ghost warriors stare as us not even attempting to break the shield. They will wait for me to tire out like dogs would wait for a cat to come down from a tree.
“Any ideas?” I yell at Kroll.
“I had a good one five minutes ago when I told you to get out of here,” he says, reprimanding me.
“You’re useless sometimes,” I say as I drop the shield and blast a few more beasts.
I put the shield back on and feel it getting weaker by the second. My last trick is fading fast. One of the beasts decides to move against the shield. He blasts us with his big gun and then physically attacks the shield with his fists. I increase my levels of energy until the beast backs away to protect his fists from the hot, electric current.
Then they all attack together. They keep getting electrocuted but won’t give up. Their rage is maddening and a few attempt to chew away the shield with their teeth. The skin on their noses sizzle.
My head’s spinning and my heart is pounding out of control. I try to look past the terrifying faces of the giants that want to eat me alive, past the ominous prospect of my future.
“Open the shield and run,” Kroll yells. “Leave the rest to me.”
The problem with Kroll is he has no imagination. I realize none of the Ghost Legion beasts do either. I could use that to my advantage.
I climb on Kroll’s back and hold on to his neck. I lift the shield before he has a chance to protest and create a whirlwind by drawing in a column of air and forcing it to move rapidly around and around. The whirlwind expands gathering more and more mass and sucking in beast after beast.
“Run,” I yell at Kroll who obeys instantly.
I’m keeping the whirlwind going as strong as I can. Its power diminishes. A lot of our enemies manage to escape it and get up for a second round.
Kroll reaches the sealed gate when I realize we’re trapped again. More ghost warriors begin to show up from all directions, some of them carrying big machine guns. If I attack them, the ones closer will take us down.
“Make some noise,” Kroll says as he lifts me off his back and sets me on the ground. He attacks a row of ghost warriors taking a lot of blasts and punches in the process.
I turn my blue energy field on and start blasting away the beasts that try to grab me. They’re too many and they don’t stay down for long. I close my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I whisper to the wind hoping it will carry my words back to Spring Town and up on Exodus all the way to Pip’s and Tobi’s ears.
An explosion makes my ears ring. I open my eyes to see the hordes of ghost warriors being shredded by a second explosion caused by something from above.
I turn my gaze to the sky and can hardly believe my eyes. The space pod has come for us and hovers above our heads. Kroll lifts me off the ground when a rope ladder is thrown down. He jumps to grab onto it as the remaining surviving beasts tug at our feet with their sharp claws.
25
It’s been three long days since I got my new receptor thanks to Kroll and there has been very little reason to rejoice. Eric has disappeared and Marisa swears up and down she wasn’t informed nor does she know where he could have gone. Rabbit and Scout seem to be doing worse rather than better, talking less and less, and there have been serious setbacks with the installation of the new defensive systems.
On top of everything, Kroll is stricken with guilt as he’s convinced he failed to protect me properly at the plantation. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell him the mission would have been a complete failure if it weren’t for him and his quick thinking. He insists his role as my protector has been compromised and he doesn’t think he deserves my trust.
The only bright spot in the day is that the new members of the Saviors hav
e been chosen by a committee comprised of Nya, Theo and Zoe. They have worked closely with their apprentices during the past week.
Eight kids were found to have special abilities and the appropriate ages to serve our cause. The most prominent among them is Kyle. He is seventeen and combines Finn’s agility with Nya’s accuracy for hitting moving targets. He’s nowhere near as good or sophisticated as those two but the combination of their powers could make him a formidable opponent.
It’s strange that Kyle and the other kids never felt that their talents were something worth mentioning. But then again they didn’t have to rely on their abilities once they got out from under the aliens’ grasp like the original Saviors did. To them their skills were nothing more than a reminder of the terrible training and disciplining they had to go through at the plantations.
“We are proud to have you by our side,” Damian said earlier during their welcoming ceremony. “Welcome to the Saviors.”
His words reminded me of the time when he welcomed Pip to our group. The feeling is bittersweet. I miss Pip and Tobi to the point that it physically hurts. But it’s good to know they are relatively secure.
The new Saviors will not join the fight unless absolutely necessary. They will guard Spring Town during our absence. They will be the bridge that will connect the old world to the new.
If the future opens up and welcomes us, I will always remember the day I watched the new Saviors rise and join our ranks.
*
I MEET WITH DAMIAN in the control room where he’s been working with Theo. I’m grateful to both of them for running the show so efficiently and tirelessly. Their dedication is an example to all.
“The preparations are done and the plan is set in motion,” Damian says, stepping away from the desk to show me a graph on the wall screen.
The numbers are telling the story of the final distribution of forces across all fronts. “One thousand warriors have been dispatched to the villages,” Damian informs me. “They will strike tomorrow in the evening.”
So that’s it. No turning back. Once the battle for the villages begins, the rest of the forces will move on the plantations in the hopes a lot of the alien forces will be away fighting the war at the villages.
“How much time before we go?” I ask.
“We will wait for the message that the troops have entered the plantation district. Then it will be our turn.”
I squeeze the receptor in my pocket to get some much needed reassurance. A lot will depend upon how well I control our connection.
“Freya? What’s troubling you?”
I look into Damian’s eyes and hold his gaze. “She’ll be waiting for me,” I say. “And this time she’ll be ready.”
“We’ll be ready,” he says.
Marisa rushes into the room barely able to breathe. “Eric’s back,” she says. “Thought you’d like to know.”
Damian takes my hand as I’m about to follow Marisa out. “You are ready,” he says. “You must know that.”
“It makes no difference,” I say. “This journey we’ve been on since the day we were born will end one way or the other.”
He nods unable to speak. He knows this battle is different and nothing will ever be the same.
*
ERIC’S HAIR IS SHORTER with his long sideburns and messy bangs framing his tanned face. The coat and heavy boots are nowhere to be seen. He’s dressed in the Dark Legion military uniform complete with a pulse gun and a shock bow.
“I didn’t think you’d come back,” I say.
“Did you miss me?”
“You took an oath to fight with us,” I snap at him. “This isn’t a playground where you can come and go as you please. In a different world, you’d be executed for this.”
Eric pulls a knife out of a pocket and stares at his mirrored image in the blade. Then he quickly wipes the knife down with an oiled cloth. “In a different world, I wouldn’t be taking orders from you.”
“Okay, did you get it out of your system? Can we get back to training?”
There’s sincerity in his eyes when he speaks again. “I thought you wouldn’t need me now that you have a receptor in your possession.”
I shrug. “You help me focus. You’re the first person I’ve met who actually understands how energy is channeled through my body.”
He grins before he hands me the knife. “For you,” he says.
“You’re giving me your knife?”
“Not my knife. A knife,” he says. “A knife old enough to have been held by many free hands in the past. It’s a good luck kind of thing.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything. Please.”
I decide to let his remark go unanswered. I take the knife and weigh it in my hand. “Thank you,” I say. “It’s one of the best knives I’ve held.”
Eric nods. “I went to see my son,” he says.
“Your son?” I don’t know what stuns me more. The fact that he has a son or that he’s willingly sharing the information.
“You met him,” he says. “Jonathan.”
Young Jonathan at the camp. I remember him. Eric has a teenage son.
“I thought you didn’t see the point in families,” I say.
“He’s not my biological son. I found him wandering around all by himself when he was a little boy. So I took him in.”
“You adopted him,” I say with a smile.
“What else could I do? I might not have fathered him but he is my son and I had to let him know I loved him. Just in case.”
“I understand,” I say. “I have a son, too. The need to protect our children is stronger than anything.”
“Where is your son?” he says curiously.
“Up on Exodus L-21. He’s a baby.”
“I’m sorry you have to leave your son behind,” he says.
“Why don’t we do whatever we can to return to them? You cannot worry about anything but that.”
“Two hundred thousand years of human history depends on their survival,” Eric says. “It will be our honor to fight for them.”
“It will,” I say. “Join me for one last training session?”
26
We march in the dark cloaked in absolute silence. Plantation-15 is abuzz with the news of the village attacks. We keep our communications to a minimum but we know that at least two more plantations are in the same situation dispatching large troops to assist the village guards.
Our troops have been instructed to prolong the battles at the villages as long as possible. We need all the time we can get.
As soon as the last armored vehicle exits the plantation grounds, we position ourselves against the outside walls. We have assigned the best fighters here at Plantation-15. This is where the war will be won. Or lost. The key to the control of the whole plantation network lies underground.
Finn’s group is the first to enter the plantation. I use the receptor to bring the side gate down for them to go through. Immediately, the plantation’s systems are alerted to the intrusion. Alarms go off simultaneously, drowning out the sound of the main gate being pulverized by Kroll’s chemicals.
Second group is in.
That leaves the smallest group which includes me and is led by Damian. They escort me to the second side gate. Once we’re in, the thirty dark warriors form a wall around me and lead me inside the first building we come upon. Our mission is simple. Rig the underground network with explosives. Then kill every alien we can find, including the Empress herself.
The uproar outside gets louder as the battle for the plantation begins. Once inside the building, we split in two. One group takes the west side. I stay with Damian’s group. We open a heavy gate that leads to a room with padded walls. Damian picks up a shirt with fresh blood stains on it from a chair. He sniffs the blood and turns to me. “It’s alien,” he says, obviously confused.
I take the shirt and examine the blood stains. Damian’s right. The blood is brownish with darker spots here a
nd there. Its thicker than human or Sliman blood. “Whoever it belongs to could have been injured,” I say.
“Or tortured,” Damian says.
“Let’s go,” I say taking his hand. We get to a backdoor that leads to a staircase. Every building in Plantation-15 has an exit to the underground network. We get down to Level 1 which is usually empty. The Dark Legion guards put the first explosives in place.
We move fast across the vast expansion of Level 1 planting explosives every two hundred feet or so. I desperately want to know what’s going on above ground. So many people I care about are in danger tonight. It’s enough to make my heart stop.
We get to the elevator. Damian and five of our guards join me on the ride to Level 2. That’s as deep as we plan to go. Anything below Level 2 would be too dangerous.
The elevator door slides open. Damian takes the first step outside checking the perimeter. “All clear,” he says.
We move slowly and stay close to the walls. Level 2 is not an open space like Level 1 but has several different sections and rooms that could be occupied. I walk behind Damian with my hand clutching the receptor.
Our guards open the doors one by one, guns in hand, and strategically place the remaining explosive mechanisms.
We come to a circular area with a long bench in the middle. I spot an empty syringe on the bench and pick it up with the tips of my fingers.
“It looks like they had to evacuate fast once they got the news about the villages,” Damian says.
“Yeah, probably,” I say. “We should get above ground now.”
We walk back towards the elevator. As we go past some wooden shelves, my eye catches the sight of a sensory receptor on the top shelf. I linger behind to reach up to get it when part of the wall behind the shelves crumbles down. The shelves collapse onto the floor in a mist of debris and splinters.
Two pairs of hands that belong to ghost warriors reach out from inside the wall and grab me so fast, I don’t even have time to blink. They drag me through the opening sticking a needle in my neck.
I watch Damian’s face through a haze as he rushes to my rescue with our warriors right behind him. An electromagnetic field is activated right where the missing wall used to be shocking Damian backwards. The last thing I see is that he falls down with shaking limbs. Then everything goes black.
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