The Dark Rift: Retaliation

by RM Brewer

  "Well, I'm surprised you didn't hear them. There must've been thousands."

  Jodie turned back to Hana. "Personally, Hana, I think you're full of shit. Besides that, making all that noise is going to attract virals, if there really are any on this ship. Why don't you just put a cork in it?"

  Hana glared at her.

  "Better yet," Jodie said, walking back to Hana. "Why don't I help you with that?" Jodie reached up and stuffed the gag back in Hana's mouth.

  A noise in the hallway got her attention and Jodie crouched down against the wall. The door opened.

  "Jodie?" Fester whispered. "Are you in here?"

  "Fester," Jodie said, standing up to greet him. "What are you doing in here?" She pulled him inside the door, happy to see him, yet concerned that he was there.

  "He's helping me," Chuck said, poking his head in the doorway.

  Jodie was relieved to see Chuck. Actually, she thought, whenever he showed up, she felt safer. "We should probably be quiet. Big mouth over there said she heard virals." Jodie gestured to the open cabinet and Hana.

  Chuck put his hand on Jodie's shoulder. "Don't worry, they're mine. They're going on a little trip. We paid the crew a visit and had them set the auto pilot. To make sure they did it right, we told them we were putting them in cryosleep. The launch sequence will start in about a half hour, so we'd better get going."

  Jodie smiled. She knew what Chuck meant. Kind of an ingenious plan to make sure the autopilot was set correctly, she thought.

  "More importantly, how are you feeling?" Chuck asked.

  "Oh, a lot better. Just really thirsty and I need a shower . . . and a nap . . . and a change of clothes . . . then, maybe a vacation."

  "Not much to demand, if you ask me," Chuck said. "Let's collect Hana and help her join the crew. Then we can get out of this thing." Chuck walked over to the cabinet and Hana started to choke out a garbled sentence through the gag. Chuck pulled the rag out of her mouth. "What was that?"

  Hana gulped in some air. "You . . . you have to give me another shot before cryosleep. I haven't had my second shot yet."

  Chuck nodded and stuffed the gag back in her mouth as she protested. "Yeah. Sure." He reached in and grabbed Hana around the waist and threw her over his shoulder. "Whatever you say."

  "By the way, where's Claire?" Jodie asked, almost afraid to ask the question. So many things had gone wrong that she wouldn't be surprised if something had happened to Claire. But, Fester seemed calm and she knew he wouldn't be acting that way if Claire wasn't okay.

  "She's waiting on the loading dock for us," Fester said. "She sprained her ankle and can't walk really well."

  Chuck turned around, slamming Hana's head into the door as he swung. She groaned as he turned back the other way and bashed her against the door again. "Oh, sorry about that. I'm kinda clumsy around terrorists, you know." Chuck grinned and winked at Jodie.

  Oh my, God, Jodie thought. I've never seen him intentionally be this mean. He usually just kills people instead of maiming them.

  "Fester, you take Jodie out by Claire. As I seem to recall, Jodie, you know how to hotwire just about anything. Claire said she'd do it, but she's a bit preoccupied with her current duty. Do you think you can get a military truck going?"

  "No problem. You don't need help with her, then?" Jodie gestured at Hana, who was breathing rapidly through her gag. Jodie wondered whether Chuck would actually give her the antidote. She thought, if it were up to her, Hana wouldn't get anything, except a knock on the head.

  "Nope. See you in a few minutes."

  "Follow me," Fester said.

  Jodie rushed down the hall behind Fester. "Sometime soon, you'll have to explain to me just how you ended up inside of this ship instead of waiting for us outside the fence." She tried to sound stern but found herself smiling instead. Fester wasn't about to be treated like a boy anymore.

  They came out on the loading dock and Jodie stopped in her tracks, about to pull Fester back. A soldier with some sort of strange headgear was sitting on a box on the other side of the loading bay and had spun around to face them.

  Jodie staggered backward. "What the--"

  "Jodie, it's just me. Claire."

  "Oh, my God." Jodie laughed at the sight of Claire, her head covered in electronic gear. "I didn't even recognize you with that thing on."

  "Pretty awesome, isn't it?" Fester said.

  Jodie smiled. "Fester, help Claire into the back of the truck. We don't have a lot of time."

  Fester nodded.

  Suddenly, a sharp crack echoed across the open loading bay and Claire's chest exploded in a spray of blood and flesh. She looked at Fester, a shocked, questioning expression on her face.

  "I'm so sorry, Fester," she said as she fell to the ground.

  Fester tried to run to her but had to dive out of the way as bullets pinged across the concrete, barely missing him. Jodie jumped behind the truck and screamed for him to take cover. She looked over at Claire, unmoving. Jodie didn't know if she was alive or dead, but she was losing blood rapidly. "Fester, do you have a gun?"

  "In the back of the truck," he called out.

  Great, Jodie thought. There was no way to get to the back of the truck without being out in the open. The only chance she had was to get the weapon strapped onto Claire. She looked over at Claire's body, seeing her hand reach up slowly to unbuckle the harness. Thank God she wasn't dead, but if whoever was shooting at them saw her moving, she'd be in big trouble. Just as that thought flashed through Jodie's mind, the shooting started. She realized she had no choice and she pushed off, sprinting toward Claire. She skidded to a stop, long enough to grab the back of Claire's shirt with one hand and the harness with the other.

  The air in front of her turned to a misty red as bullets slammed into her shoulder, chest and forearm. Yet, Jodie felt little pain and ran for cover, Claire and the weapon in tow. By the time they made it to the back of the truck, her shirt was wet with blood. Fester ran across the bay, nearly struck by gunfire. He tripped and fell, sliding underneath the front of the truck.

  "Jodie, you're shot," he cried, crawling over to her.

  It was about then that Jodie realized what was happening to her. She pulled up her sleeve, seeing the dent in the metal that made up her forearm. Her skin was torn, but already healing. A fleeting image of her wiping her face with Chuck’s blood on her hands flashed through her mind. She was becoming a super-soldier.

  Fester gasped. "You're like Chuck. You're like him. You're okay," he stammered, tears streaking down his face. He turned to Claire, whose face had grown pale. "What do I do?"

  Jodie grabbed his hand and put it on Claire's wound. "Keep pressure on this. I'll be right back."

  As she picked up the harness and headgear, she felt rage and resentment building in her. She could see her mother's face clearly and hear the sarcastic laugh coming from her mouth. "You're such a disappointment," her mother had said to her when she was only a child. The words ripped a hole in her heart, shoving love, empathy and reason out of her mind, leaving her wounded soul bare.

  Jodie strapped on the gun and aligned the headgear that held the sight. She walked out from behind the truck as bullets started to pelt her, blasting at the thin skin covering her metal frame. "I'm just what you wanted me to be now, Helen," she screamed. "You got your wish."

  Flicking the safety off, she aimed the weapon and fired at the shooters hiding behind a tank. Immediately, she found this was no ordinary weapon. Its ammunition blasted through the tank like it was made of paper, shredding it until it exploded in an enormous ball of fire. Gypsum guards scattered in all directions and Jodie brought them down, one by one, their bodies pulverized, vaporized, shredded, and disappeared into nothingness.

  When there was no more movement, she unclipped the harness and let the smoking weapon drop to the floor, exhausted. She was tired of killing, her life feeling like it had boiled down to a constant bloodbath fueled by revenge over what others had taken from her. "This has to be
over now. I can't do this anymore."

  "Yes, you can," a woman's voice called out. "Yes, you can, Jodie."

  Jodie turned to see who had spoken and stumbled, almost losing her balance. Her legs felt like rubber and she slumped to the floor. How could it be? She knew she must be dreaming. How could Mei be alive? Yet, there she was, lying on a gurney, her body looking much worse for the wear, but alive.

  Chuck came to Jodie's side and helped her to her feet.

  Jodie couldn’t bring herself to believe what she was seeing. "How?"

  "I'll explain later. We have to get out of here. Can you get the truck going?"

  Jodie didn't respond. She just stared at Mei, her tears clouding her vision. She wanted to embrace her, to touch her to make sure what she was seeing was real. She made a move toward Mei, but Chuck grabbed her arm.

  "Jodie, we have to go right now," Chuck said, urgency evident in his tone.

  "But, what’s happening? I don’t understand,” Jodie said.

  “I’ll explain later,” Chuck said. “We’re out of time.” He pushed her back toward the truck. “If we don’t go now, we’ll be on our way to the alien outpost with my horde.”

  “Uh, yeah. Right." Jodie ran to the truck, opened the door and started pulling at wires. Chuck trotted past her with Claire in his arms, an obviously distraught Fester running behind him, pushing Mei on the gurney. She stripped two wires and touched them together, hearing the truck turn over, but not start. She tried again, with no success. "Third time's a charm," she mumbled, striking the wires together. The truck roared to life as Chuck jumped in the passenger seat.

  "Everyone inside?" Jodie asked.

  "Yeah. Jodie, we have less than a minute," Chuck said.

  Jodie slammed the gearshift into reverse and backed up as the spaceship loading ramp began to lift upward. “Hang on back there,” she yelled. Jodie shoved her foot all the way down on the accelerator and the truck shot out of the back of the ship, flying off the elevated ramp and landing hard on the pavement.

  "Everybody okay?" Chuck called out.

  "Yeah," Fester yelled. "We're okay."

  "I love that boy," Chuck said, his head slamming back in the seat as the truck squealed away from the dock.

  Jodie reached out and grabbed his hand as the ship above them fired up. Sweat poured off her forehead and she shook with a fear she'd never known. She could feel the heat bearing down on them and looked in the rear view mirror, seeing the canvas tarp on the back of the truck start to smoke. They were going to burn up. Pulling her hand away from Chuck's, she gripped the steering wheel tightly, keeping the accelerator plastered to the floor. The truck picked up speed, careening across the tarmac. Overhead, the ship emitted a shrill, deafening noise, but Jodie kept driving, hitting the fence at the perimeter of the base at a precarious speed, sending a section of fence flying to the other side of the road ahead.

  They entered the highway and Jodie braked, trying to make the turn. The truck skidded sideways, lifting up on two wheels until it finally came back down on all four, the tires shrieking in protest, the smell of burning rubber filling the air.

  Jodie brought the truck under control, relieved to feel the temperature dissipating. She tasted blood in her mouth and touched her mangled lip, realizing she must have bit clean through it.

  In the distance, the spaceship gained altitude, the heat, and noise it had generated now gone. Jodie pulled over on the side of the road and looked up at the ship, its beauty not lost on her. A swirl of lights and a sweeping iridescent color traveled across its surface as it rotated slowly. She yanked at the wires underneath the dash, turning the truck off. "Claire. We have to help Claire."

  She grabbed the first aid kit mounted under the seat and they got out of the truck cab. She was shocked to see that part of the truck's canvas cover had completely burned away, exposing the area where Mei lay on the folded gurney and Fester cradled Claire's head in his lap. Jodie jumped up in the truck and embraced Mei, who managed a weak smile. Jodie wanted to stay with her, but knew Claire needed help now. "I'll be right back," she said, squeezing Mei's hand.

  Jodie let go of Mei's hand and stepped over by Claire, who was looking at Fester with an expression of love written all over her face. "The death ray," Claire said, her voice weak. "Let's hope this one doesn't have a death ray."

  Fester laughed, his eyes dripping tears into Claire's hair as he pressed down on her wound. "No death ray on this one," he said.

  "You bet, Claire," Jodie said, opening the first aid kit. "Only life here."

  Then, movement above caught her eye and they all looked up as the ship began to rotate, its color morphing into a swirl of rainbows, iridescent and spectacular. It slowly gained elevation, its massive structure still blocking the night sky. As it spun with greater velocity, it emanated a high pitched sound, almost like the waning ring of a bell. Jodie knew, under completely different circumstances, that this would be one of the most beautiful things she'd ever witness. Then, without warning, the ship was gone.

  Jodie felt her jaw drop as she was left with a view of the millions of stars sparkling in the Milky Way above.

  CHAPTER 22

  "Pass the popcorn, please," Chuck said.

  Jodie handed him the bowl. "Well, since you ask so nicely, of course." She smiled at Chuck, thinking he looked like Mr. Atlas now that he'd shrunk down to a respectable size. Both of them had been changing over the past few weeks. Jodie had grown taller and Chuck shorter. She hoped the transformation of her body wouldn't be as severe as what she'd seen Chuck go through.

  "What time is Claire coming? I'd hate to see her miss this," Chuck asked, shifting in his lawn chair.

  "Soon, I think. She'd better or Fester will have worn the bottoms of his shoes off. He's been pacing since about three o'clock."

  "Is she taking that job in Utah? Fester seemed kind of upset about that."

  Jodie laughed. "I think she wants Fester to finish high school and if it works out, he can come there afterward. He wants to study Police Science at a university. I don't see why he can't do that in Utah, do you?" Like father, like son, she thought. After all, Chuck was more of a father to Fester than his own had been.

  Chuck blushed and placed his hand on his half-melted badge. "No, no I don't. Like I've said so many times before, I love that boy. Hey, by the way, how did Mei's appointment with the CDC go today?"

  "Well. As well as it could, at least. Her body's definitely on the mend, but she's going to need some surgery. Her spine has the most damage. They said she's lucky she can walk at all."

  "What did they say about the virus?" Chuck asked. "I mean, was anything Hana told me true?"

  Jodie wondered how or if she could answer that question after what she'd found out. The CDC had told her something she'd known all along, but still found hard to accept. The virus was created with her DNA, but had never resulted in a viable super soldier virus until it was combined with Chuck's DNA. The CDC analyses also showed that she and Chuck had an indeterminate lifespan. They could live out a normal life or longer, which is what Hana had told Chuck.

  "Some true, some not," Jodie said, going back to her thoughts. What was even more fantastic was that the antidote was never complete either, until Chuck's DNA was added. The new antidote would act like a vaccine, protecting what was left of the world population against infection by any remaining virals. It would cure the recently infected like Mei, too. Sadly, millions of people wouldn't benefit from it, though and the viral threat would remain a danger for some time until they were all exterminated. "They said they want to do some tests on you and me to see if they can come up with a better solution for our problem."

  Chuck picked up a rock and smashed it in his hand. He grinned broadly, apparently proud of himself. "What problem?"

  Jodie laughed at Chuck. He could make light of any situation. She guessed that was because he'd been through just about everything a person could go through. He deserved a little humor now.

  "Well, whatever that antido
te was, even without my DNA, it must've been very powerful," Chuck said. "I really thought we'd already lost Mei when I injected her."

  Jodie leaned closer to Chuck. "I never asked you. What made you do that when you thought she was gone?"

  "Something I’d read in the Gypsum files. Then, Hana said it, too . . . about sedation. She said it wouldn't kill a viral. I don't know, really. I just had to try."

  Jodie reached out and grabbed Chuck's arm. "I'm so glad you did." She heard Mei laughing behind them.

  Mei hobbled over to a chair and sat, setting her cane down beside her "Aren't you two the cheerful ones? I think it's time for libations," she said, a bottle of wine and three plastic cups.

  "Good idea," Jodie said. "When is my dad coming out? He's going to miss a good drunk if he doesn't hurry up."

  "He said he'd be out in a minute," Mei said. "He's making a cheese tray or something. Hey, what time are the fireworks?"

  Chuck looked at his watch. "Well, according to my calculations, it's been three weeks, six days, twenty-one hours and seventeen minutes since I set the timer on those warheads. So, we have two hours and forty-three minutes."

  "You're sure it'll be up there by then?" Mei asked. "I mean, we might be waiting for ourselves to blow up if it isn't."

  "I set it for the same time as the Gypsum people set the autopilot for," Chuck said. That ship should have quite an explosive landing at the outpost."

  "Ha ha. Quite the punster, aren't you?" Mei reached over and handed Jodie a glass, then offered one to Chuck. "Well, too bad we won't be able to see it happen. How old will we be when the light from the explosion is visible on earth?"

  Chuck laughed. "Well, I don't even want to say, but it'll be about twenty years from now, I think. It all depends on where exactly in the Milky Way the outpost is. Unfortunately, we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

  Jodie took a cup from Mei and held it as Mei filled it. She appreciated the gesture. Actually, she appreciated everything Mei did. Almost losing her had driven her to a low point she'd never been before. She had no intention of letting that happen for as long as she lived, whatever amount of time that might be.