Cursed Apprentice (Earth Survives Book 2)

by R. R. Roberts

  Coru’s wrist light flickered over page after page, each, it seemed, more fascinating than the last in Noah’s eyes. The picture of Wyatt slouched on a horse, a too-big cowboy hat pitched low over his face was especially enticing. “Can I ride a horse, too?”

  “Yes.”

  With a shy smile, Noah turned another page.

  Together, they marveled at each drawing. The deer, butterflies, goats, hummingbirds, chipmunks, moose, bee hives, chickens, wild rabbits, beaver pond, salt caves, waterfalls, cherry trees, garter snakes, pumpkins!

  A picture of a frog had Noah’s full attention for several minutes. What was it about little boys and frogs?

  They looked at more pictures: The cabins, barns, the forest itself, wild flowers, fall leaves, the river, rushing in summer, frozen in winter; the rolling banks on either side, sometimes stark and brown, other times cloaked in velvety greens or fiery reds and oranges, or wonderous in brilliant snow. All these were exotic locations and creatures to young, sheltered Noah.

  When Noah turned the page to reveal a picture of Sean, he gazed at it solemnly for several minutes. In the image, Sean was playing his guitar and singing by a campfire, this man big and black and handsome, like Dom. “Is this my daddy’s brother too? Like you?”

  “He’s my very good friend, named Sean. He’s looking after the rest of our family up north. So, yeah—I guess you could say he’s our brother. We might look different, but we’re all family to one another. We love each other, we share with each other. The good stuff and the bad stuff. Mostly good.”

  Noah nodded his acceptance of Coru’s explanation and it occurred to Coru he was explaining this to himself as well as to Noah, and that it was a tale they both needed to hear. Sitting here with his brother’s child, he realized he felt different. He felt as if he could breathe just a little bit easier around the stone weight that had settled inside his chest these last several days, pressing him relentlessly down. He hadn’t even been aware of it until now, at feeling it shift, lighten. Noah’s presence had lifted it, had somehow dislodged it from its death grip around his heart. It wasn’t gone, it might never be gone, but maybe, if he was lucky, it would be easier to carry.

  This stolen, quiet time, this chance to share his most precious possession with this boy was a gift, as was the book of pictures itself. He’d taken the book with him when he’d returned to his own time of WEN 2341, and brought it back again with him to WEN 2047 when he’d…

  He pulled back. How could he have forgotten? He stared down at Noah, at the book in their hands, suddenly remembering why he’d come back.

  He was here for Wren. He’d come back to be with Wren. To stay with and love Wren, make a life with Wren. The light.

  But he was also here to stop his brother. The weight.

  And here, in these pages, was the world he was fighting to save. He had forgotten.

  All it had taken to remember was to see the world he loved through the eyes of a child. His brother’s child. Coru drank in the sight of Noah’s little head, bent over the art book, absorbing every detail of every picture.

  The certainty he was here to save this place for this child filled his heart, his chest—his entire body bursting.

  Coru. Wren’s tender greeting was a caress. My love.

  Peace washed through him; warmed him; centered him. My love, he returned.

  He smiled down into Noah’s trusting eyes, his faith in this world, and his place in it settling all around him like a blanket, protecting him, warming him, allowing his limbs to soften and relax, his disbelief and resistance gone. This was where he was supposed to be. Here with his brother’s son, here with his faithful friends, here to stop Professor Red by any means possible. This was right.

  “Okay.” Nelson was standing over them, his face dirty, smeared with blood, but happy. He reached his hand down for Coru to catch and haul himself up with. Noah scrambled after, grabbing Coru’s other hand. Nelson said, “We’re in. Let’s go.”

  Catching Nelson’s optimistic mood, Coru slipped his sketch book inside his jacket, then hopped across the uneven ground behind him with his crutch jammed under one arm and Noah still clutching his hand. Coru drew strength and faith from the child’s touch. Backing away from the wave of emotion that came with this realization, he redirected his thoughts outward to the tasks at hand.

  He had fences to mend.

  He raised the crutch into the air and said, “Never did thank you for this thing.”

  Nelson glanced back. “Pretty good for some wood and cord. Now if I’d had a carving knife, and some time, it would be a different matter. You’d probably never give it up.”

  Behind the tangle of blackberries Coru saw two iron doors, with rivulets of rust etched into their surfaces, yawning open. The POE trannie was sitting beyond the doors, it’s headlights on, illuminating a long dark passage inside the mountain. Entering the tunnel, the temperature dropped immediately. Coru clapped Nelson across the back. “This is amazing!”

  “Fruits of a misspent youth, my friend.”

  “Well spent, as it turns out,” Coru replied, climbing into the back of the trannie with a series of light hops, then bringing Noah in after him. He tucked a blanket snuggly around the boy. “What do you say, Noah? Want to go exploring?”

  Noah’s first full-on grin was like the twist of a knife in Coru’s chest. This was Payton as a child, innocent and unfettered. Would Noah be Coru’s second chance? He swallowed against the sudden hard lump in his throat and stared hard into the darkness ahead. Hurry, he thought. We must get there in time to stop Professor Red.

  Wren reached over the back of her seat to grip his hand for a brief moment.

  Coru asked, “We’re leaving the door open like this?”

  Nelson answered, “Might make the difference between a successful escape and a not so successful escape. We want every option in our favor. Besides, it’s hidden behind the blackberries.” He had a point.

  Dom was back behind the wheel. He pressed the accelerator, advanced several feet, testing the headlights, the trajectory of the tunnel. It was a straight forward course. He picked up speed and within a few moments was driving the tunnel as fast as he dared.

  Beyond the thin illumination the trannie provided, there was a total absence of light inside the mountain, a blackness and closeness unlike any Coru had ever experienced. It almost felt as if the mountain were squeezing them somehow, making them progressively smaller and smaller as they advanced into its deathly cold, bone chilling center.

  The benefit to this freezing, suffocating experience was the fact they were streaking toward their target while completely protected from the danger of an assault from the POE army encamped above them.

  “Here,” Nelson said sharply. “Right around here.”

  Dom slowed, and they all strained their eyes searching for signs of the old ladders Nelson had described.

  Wren relayed Nelson’s worries to Coru, They have to still be here. Please, let them still be here.

  “There!” Nelson pointed ahead excitedly.

  Coru still saw nothing. Oh. Was there a shadow?

  Cautiously, Dom guided the trannie closer.

  There. Coru saw the dull yellow rungs leading upward in the bouncing trannie headlights, winking in and out of view as they approached.

  It was all real—everything just as Nelson had described. It had taken them less than ten minutes to reach the shaft that would lead them up to the SFU Quad, the center of Professor Red’s stronghold.

  As they approached, Coru saw the ladder had a metal safety cage wrapped around it in a half-moon. His fears for their climb dropped from a high of ten out of ten to a nice, semi-scary four out of ten. This was safer than he’d imagine. This they could do.

  Dom turned the trannie around in preparation for a quick getaway and they all tumbled out. Wren handed out the headlamps Dom had provided to everyone, which, once affixed to their heads and they looked up—way up—went a long way to illuminating the sheer scope of what they we
re about to attempt. This would be hard.

  Nelson handed tape all around, demonstrating how to wrap their palms to avoid blisters. After he was satisfied each hand was protected, he handed out fingerless gloves—garden gloves also supplied by Dom and altered by Nelson with kitchen scissors back at Dom’s place.

  “Wow. This is some serious climbing,” Wren laughed nervously.

  Nelson motioned her toward him, totally focused on preparing his team to best advantage. “And we need…” he grunted, wrapping her bow and quiver to her body with a light cord, “To make sure these don’t… catch on the cage.” He stood back and surveyed the results. Satisfied, he met her eyes with a smile. “You don’t want to lose these.”

  He moved on, checking Coru’s crutch was secure across his back. “You’re like a mother hen,” Coru complained, not meaning it. They were lucky to have Nelson.

  Once Nelson was finished checking them all, they stood around him in a circle.

  Coru smiled, so glad they were at last about to make their bid to conquer Red’s stronghold. “Any other safety measures?”

  Nelson eyeballed him. “You’re feeling better.”

  Coru nodded. “How long will it take us to reach the top?”

  Nelson countered, “How long is a rope?”

  “So, as long as it takes.”

  “Yup. The good news is there are no POE chasing us. We can take the time we need.”

  Coru’s smile grew into a full-on grin. “Have I told you lately how glad I am you captured us?”

  Nelson harrumphed. “What can I say? I’m awesome. Everyone says so.”

  He and Dom grabbed the last of their ropes from the trannie and made for the ladder.

  Coru followed behind more slowly, testing his leg, his crutch strapped to his back, wondering how long he would be able to keep up. It was a long climb and tired limbs could mean a long fall if he, or anyone, slipped. The plan was to tie themselves to the ladder from time to time in order to rest safely on their way up. Nelson and Coru would lead, so Nelson could help Coru when needed, followed by Wren, then Dom with little Noah strapped to his chest so Noah’s head wouldn’t knock against the protective iron bars that wrapped around the ladder.

  Each of them drank deeply from their canteens, making sure they were topped up again before the climb, then one by one, they approached the ladder. The iron was icy cold to the touch, sending shivers through Coru, despite the tape and gloves.

  The climb was brutal. Again and again, hour after hour, they were forced to stop and tie themselves off to allow their quivering limbs some rest. Nelson’s insistence that they wrap their hands and wear the fingerless gloves was a lifesaver, especially for Coru, who relied on upper body strength to pull himself up since he had only the one good leg. Here was where his days doing grunge work on Surface back in WEN 2341 was paying off.

  “How much longer,” Wren gasped after taking a pull from her canteen. They were currently tied off to rest, their ninth time doing so. Coru, for one, was shaking so hard from exertion, the extreme cold penetrating his clothes and sweaty body, he had to clench his teeth to stop them from chattering.

  Nelson leaned back, training his headlamp up the shaft. “It’s hard to say. We’re slower, of course, moving together like this, and it’s been years, but I think we might be getting close. It doesn’t change as you climb. It just suddenly stops and you’re there.”

  Dom capped his canteen. “Let’s get to it.”

  They untied themselves and started again, rung by rung, hand over hand.

  They’d tied off twelve more times, their climbing times short and resting times longer when Nelson cried out in triumph. “It’s here. We’re here, at surface.”

  They scrambled up the last few rungs, each of them pulling themselves up and over, falling to the ground inside a small dark enclosure, maybe forty feet by forty feet, just as Nelson had described. With their weak headlamps, they could see they were now inside a metal shed which was empty except for a pile of buckets and a few scattered tools lying along the far wall and the undeniable gaping black hole in the ground it was shielding. There were sounds inside the tin shack. Mice. No one cared. They all lay still, catching their breath, just grateful to not be hanging onto stone cold iron for dear life.

  Dom shifted, untying Noah, freeing the little boy from his cramped position and offering him a zip lock bag of trail mix. Noah shuffled on his bum to the outside edge of the building, pressing his back against the wall as far away from the gaping shaft as he could get. He opened the bag of trail mix and ate quietly, his big eyes staring at the dark hole.

  Coru reached around, released his crutch and rolled onto his back with a groan. Staring up at the ceiling, his headlamp revealed years of spider’s webs, old and new, filling the rafters and dripping down toward them. “What now?”

  Nelson said, “Now we improvise.”

  Wren scanned outside of the shack. She said, “There’s a lot of activity out there now. They’re all up and excited to be here. They’re all getting some new addition to their devices.”

  “Devices?” Nelson looked bewildered. “For communication? Like cell phones? They have cell phone towers here? How do they have cell phones—.”

  “No. Inside their bodies.”

  “What?”

  “Subcutaneous devices; in their left forearms.”

  Coru was familiar with this concept. In his time, back home, they were used for many things, like passes into restricted areas, giving and receiving personal credits, parceling out medications. He frowned at Wren. Okay, so what’s so great about these they’re excited about them?

  Wren had read his memories. She sat up and looked over at Coru, shaking her head. These aren’t like those. These are—.

  “Wait. Wait. Wait.” Nelson held up his hands. “You’re doing it again. Say this out loud so the rest of us are in on it.”

  “Sorry. We don’t mean to be secretive,” Wren turned to the rest of the group. “The POE have a device inside their forearms. Coru was just remembering the ones they had back in his time, devices that can transfer credits, buy and sell, pay for services, access certain restricted areas, control medical conditions, that sort of thing. But these…these ones are different. These deliver a drug to the POE.”

  “They’re drug addicts?” Nelson was astounded. Through Wren, Coru read that Nelson had never understood why the POE soldiers had pledged their allegiance to Red in the first place. This made a warped kind of sense to Nelson.

  “No.” Wren was back to listening in to the minds that strayed close to the shack. Here the hive mind was bothersome, but not insurmountable. Coru could hear it with her—white noise, like a TV on in another room. If she concentrated, she could pick out differences in some of their thinking. There were still individual thoughts in there somewhere; she just had to dig to find them, then extrapolate. “Well, actually. Yeah. They kind of are addicts. You’re right, Nelson.”

  Dom frowned. “What are you saying, Professor Red is their dealer? They can’t go without the high he’s supplying them?

  “No. It’s not a high. It’s more of a feeling. Like a steady drip serotonin. As a POE, all is right with the world. It’s a drug that…”

  She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to decipher the noise. After a moment, her face cleared, and she opened her eyes. “They were protected from the original virus at the get go. The POE was created years before the BSV outbreak, so Red had time to build a following of loyal supporters. They admire him. They pledged their loyalty, a loyalty that was cemented after Red accurately predicted, and protected them from, the pandemic. But they don’t know it was Red who is responsible for the virus. They believe he’s one of them, that he rose up in the ranks. They pledged their loyalty to captains of the movement at the start and they were protected. They don’t know who is ultimately at the top. Whoever it was hasn’t stepped up and taken credit.”

  Nelson asked, “Zhang?”

  She shrugged. “He could make a late-in-the-game move
.” She looked at Coru. “Would he?”

  Coru shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  She continued, “But now, things are different. They’ve all been called into their stations and have been receiving a booster shot, I guess—that’s the only word I can use to describe it. It will protect them from any new viruses they may come across. If they are accidentally exposed to a new version of the disease, this device will shield them from it…?” She trailed off. “Does that even make sense?”

  Dom was on his feet and glancing around the shack assessing, antsy to move. “It does if you’re about to weaponize an army and send them out to infect their enemy.”

  “What? How do you weaponize an army?” Nelson frowned. “I don’t think so. How can you stave off a sickness you already have and remain contagious to others? I’m no scientist, but, is that even possible?”

  Coru jumped ahead. “No one in their right mind would agree to be exposed to a deadly disease. They can’t know what Red is doing—what we know he is doing. But if it’s out there already, how can we move among them now? Won’t we get sick too?”

  “They’re not infected yet. Plus, they don’t know.” Wren thought for a moment. “I think the device will be triggered remotely, along with the shielding drug, when they’re deployed. It’s the only thing that makes sense. He has to have remote control over their devices, otherwise, how can he hold them accountable? It must be remote.”

  Nelson shook his head. “Geez, if I were a POE, I’d rip that thing right out of my body. Like, yesterday.”

  “That’s just it, though. They want it. They prize it. They think it’s their protection, their saving grace. The last thing they want is to lose that protective subcutaneous device. They saw what happened to the BSV victims and are grateful it passed them by, thanks to the POE organization. Plus, they’ve been warned not to remove it….” Wren’s eyes widened. “Oh my God, if they try to remove it, it triggers something that will kill them within minutes. Once a POE, always a POE.”

  “Triggers what?”

  “They don’t know. I can’t find anyone who knows. But it’s a trade-off they’re willing to live with. Loyalty for protection.”