by Andrew Gates
When he finally reached the shelter, Dan was already standing at the ready, shotgun in hand. He stared out into the distance, not even making eye contact with the boy.
“Where are the others?” Jallah asked, frantically running toward Dan.
“In the lab. You should go too,” Dan replied.
“There’s a mech behind me!”
“I know. I hear it. That’s why you need to go to the lab!”
But before Jallah could do anything, the sound grew so loud behind him that he felt as if it were right on top of him. Dan’s jaw dropped and he desperately raised the weapon to the sky.
Jallah did not know what compelled him, but in that moment, he felt the need to turn and see what was happening. He spun on his heels and suddenly took in the sight. The mech was mere meters away now, tall and imposing.
Bang! Dan fired a deafening shot. Jallah was so close to the blast that he had to cover his ears. Smoke quickly filled the air around the weapon’s barrel. Bang! Dan fired again, boldly taking a step toward the incoming vehicle
“Are you crazy? You can’t fight it with a shotgun!” Jallah said.
Dan must have been desperate. He had no time to prepare for this and he clearly was not willing to leave the biodome they now considered home. A part of him must have felt that he had no other option but to stand and defend the only remaining place he called his own. Jallah could sympathize, but still, it was foolish to openly attack the mech like this.
“What did I tell you? Get to the lab!” Dan replied, dismissing Jallah’s warning.
“No!” Jallah shouted back. “I won’t lose you! Not like we lost Iris!”
He ran toward Dan, not daring to take his eyes away from the action. He expected the mech would open fire any minute now and blast them all to bits. But as Dan continued firing, the tall mantis vehicle stopped in place and stood still, unmoving.
Eventually Dan ran out of shells and took a step back. The domed town was suddenly very quiet. Not even a bird chirped in the distance.
It stopped, Jallah thought as he caught up to Dan and placed his hand on his back. Why did it stop? Surely the shotgun blasts didn’t damage it.
Neither Dan nor Jallah could look away. They both stared at the mech, wondering what was happening. A thousand possibilities raced through Jallah’s head, but none of them seemed plausible.
And then, after seconds that felt like minutes, a hatch opened on the roof of the vehicle and a human hand popped out.
“Stop shooting!” a voice demanded.
A voice. Who is that? How is this possible?
“Who are you?” Dan asked, repeating the same question racing through Jallah’s mind. He took a cautious step forward and raised the weapon high, even though it was out of ammo.
“It’s me!” Jallah recognized this voice, but he could not remember where he recognized it from.
“Who?” Dan asked.
“It’s me! It’s Grey!” the voice replied.
Grey. Jallah felt his eyes open wide and his breath give out. No way.
“Grey?” Dan repeated, his tone suddenly very different. He let the weapon drop to the ground as a familiar head popped up out of the hatch.
It’s him, Jallah thought, awestruck. He froze in place, hardly believing what he was seeing. But… but he can’t be here. It’s impossible. Could this be some trick?
Jallah felt the heavy vial in his pocket and wondered if it was beginning to affect him, if what he was seeing was some sort of Metamorph-induced hallucination. But when Dan sprinted forward and climbed his way on top of the vehicle, Jallah realized that what he was seeing must have been true.
“Grey, oh, Grey!” Dan muttered as he climbed his way up. Jallah could tell from the heavy sound in his voice that his eyes were beginning to tear up.
“Dan!” Grey replied, pulling himself all the way out of the hatch until he sat upon the roof.
Grey looked different. His skin seemed shriveled, his muscles thin, his hair and beard were nearly twice as thick as Jallah remembered, his face was darker and his grey jumpsuit browner. But despite all these differences, it was still Grey. The way he spoke, the way he moved, it was all the same.
Jallah watched as Grey pulled Dan up to join him on top of the mech. Then, practically out of his own control, Jallah darted forward, feeling tears form in his own eyes now. He followed Dan’s lead and climbed up the mech, only to be pulled up by Grey seconds later.
Once he was safely on top, the two brothers held a long-overdue embrace. Jallah smiled at the sight and caught the glimpse of another small hand poking through the hatch out the corner of his eye. He turned to get a better view of the sight and slid over to the hole. Looking down into it, he saw Kaitlyn sticking her arm up high.
“Jallah!” Kaitlyn said, staring straight up. Her face lit up like a second sun.
“Kaitlyn!” Jallah replied. He was so excited to see her, he immediately shifted his legs into the hole and dropped down into it, realizing only after he had lowered himself inside that she was looking for someone to pull her out.
Selena and Misha were also inside and none of them seemed to mind Jallah’s mistake. They all three approached him with wide smiles, teary eyes and open arms. Jallah embraced them all, not even taking the time to wonder how they even got here.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “You’re alive. I’m so glad you’re alive.”
“We missed you, Jallah,” Misha said.
“Yeah, we missed you,” added Kaitlyn.
Everyone was crying. It was hard to tell which sobs were coming from Jallah and which from the others. After what must have been two full minutes, they broke the embrace and separated from one another.
Jallah wiped the tears from his eyes with his fingers and the mucus from his nose with his sleeve.
For the first time, it suddenly occurred to Jallah that he was inside of an actual mantis vehicle. He quickly spun around, taking in the scene around him. Two tall back-less seats sat at the front of the vehicle, each with a set of monitors and controls before them. The rest of the cabin was like a big empty rectangle.
“I… I can’t believe it,” Jallah said, finally able to compose himself. “How did you find us?”
“We followed Dan’s advice. Head west. That was what we did,” Selena answered.
“West? All he said was west? But… west. That’s so unhelpful. I mean, what are the odds that you’d find us? That doesn’t seem-”
“I don’t know how we did it,” Selena interrupted, “but by the grace of either good luck or the Lord Beyond Both Seas, we did it. We found you.”
“All we had to do was follow the sky,” Kaitlyn explained. “West is where the sun goes down.”
Selena nodded to her oldest daughter.
“That’s right,” she said. “Don’t forget it.”
Follow the sun. Jallah smiled at the thought. There was something strangely poetic about knowing that the sun led them to Country Roads.
“Well, whatever happened, I’m so glad to see you! I thought I’d never see you again,” Jallah said.
“Me too,” Selena replied, nodding. “Me too.”
“Where’s Uncle Dan?” Misha suddenly asked, changing the subject. “I saw him with a gun on the computer screen.”
“Yes, you did! He’s up top on the roof,” Jallah explained.
As if right on cue, Dan suddenly dropped down into the hatch. His face lit up immediately as he saw Selena and the girls.
“Uncle Dan!” both girls shouted in excitement. They rushed toward him and held onto him.
Jallah looked up through the hatch. He saw that Grey leaned down over it with a hand outstretched. Jallah nodded to him, took the hand and allowed Grey to pull him up.
Now back outside and on the roof, Jallah could finally be properly reunited with Grey. The two of them held a long embrace and stared into each other’s eyes.
“Jallah, it’s so good to see you!” Grey said, eventually breaking the embrace.
“
Yes, good to see you too. I can’t believe you found us. Selena said you just headed west until you got here.”
“We did. I honestly can’t believe we found you either. It still doesn’t seem real. Of all the places in all the world, we found you here. It’s… it’s…”
“Incredible,” Jallah said, choosing Grey’s word for him.
Grey smiled and nodded.
“That’s right,” he agreed. “Incredible.”
“How did you even get this mech? I thought only mantises had them,” Jallah said.
“I stole it from some mantises,” Grey replied.
Jallah felt his eyes widen and his jaw drop.
“Stole it?”
“Right. It’s a pretty crazy story,” Grey replied, chuckling. “I can tell you later.” He suddenly stopped and looked around, then looked back to Jallah’s eyes again. “By the way,” he said, changing his tone, “what happened to Margery or Ophelia? Are they… you know?”
“They’re fine,” Jallah replied.
Grey let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Sorry about that,” Jallah continued. “I guess I should have said something sooner. When Dan thought a mech was attacking, he told them to get inside the lab and hide. They’re still there. They’re safe.”
“Oh good. That’s very good,” Grey said, slowly bobbing his head. “For a second, I feared the worst.”
“No, no, they are fine. Everyone is alive and healthy.”
“Good. Good,” Grey repeated.
“I’ll go get them!” Jallah said, suddenly standing up. He would love to let Margery and Ophelia know that Grey and the others were here. “They probably think something has happened since we haven’t come back yet. I bet they’re worried.”
“Please, go get them! No need to keep worrying them!” Grey replied, waving Jallah off with a grin on his face.
Jallah hopped down from the roof of the mech and quickly sprinted over to the lab. His feet seamlessly glided across the land. He had not felt this excited since arriving on the surface. It was like he was a real kid again, running with a smile on his face, not a desperate survivor struggling to survive.
Right now, everything felt right.
When Jallah passed through the open doorway to the lab, Margery and Ophelia jolted in surprise as they huddled together in the corner. They looked tense.
“Jallah,” Margery exhaled. She rushed toward him with a look of desperation across her face, but she suddenly stopped a few steps away from him as she caught his expression. “What is it? Why are you smiling? Where’s Dan?”
“Dan’s fine. I’m fine too. I have great news,” Jallah said, feeling giddy with excitement.
Ophelia moved from the corner now, curious to hear more.
“What is it?” Margery asked.
“Follow me. It’ll be easier if I showed you,” Jallah replied, motioning for them to come along.
He dashed back out of the lab with both girls following closely behind. He bounced with each step. When he returned to the mech, the Georgopolis family was now outside of the vehicle. Grey and Kaitlyn were on the ground, Dan and Misha sat on the roof and Selena was hopping down. Once safely landed, she turned and pulled Misha down to the ground too.
“It’s them!” Margery suddenly shouted in surprise. Before Jallah knew it, Margery passed right by him at full speed with arms outstretched.
The family looked up to see her and smiled as they beheld her face. Kaitlyn was the first to run up and meet Margery. They held a tight embrace and muttered words to each other that Jallah could not make out.
Ophelia came too, though her reaction was far different. She was quiet and slow. A mere tear crawled down from her left eye.
Dan dropped down from the mech too. Everyone was now on ground level. They each took a few minutes to greet one another and get caught up. There were tears and smiles all around.
After the initial moments of shock and awe began to wear off, Jallah heard the girls ask similar questions to his own: Where did you come from? How did you get the mech? How did you find us? Like him, they could hardly believe the answers either. It was a true miracle that they had made it here at all. Perhaps, after all this time of desperation and horror, their luck was beginning to change.
“Do you have any food?” Misha eventually asked, changing the subject of their conversation entirely.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything. You all must be hungry!” Dan said, apologetically. He pulled some spinach leaves from his jumpsuit pocket and offered it to them. “Here, take some spinach. It’s fresh. Ophelia and I picked it this morning.”
“Spinach? You actually found spinach?” Grey replied.
“Yeah. You want some?”
“Absolutely,” the younger brother said, taking a handful for himself.
The hungry Georgopolis family snarfed down the remaining leaves. Jallah was glad they had something to eat, but was also glad that it meant he did not have to finish the rest of the disgusting spinach himself.
“Any meat?” Kaitlyn asked as soon as she finished her portion.
Dan shook his head.
“Not right now. The spinach was all we had. But there is a lot of daylight still. We can go out and catch something,” he explained.
“We haven’t had meat in a long time,” Misha added. “Ever since we found the mech, we’ve been inside mostly. Mom and dad said they’d rather we stayed inside, so we didn’t get out to hunt much.”
“It was safer inside,” Selena clarified as if to justify her position.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be safe again. It’s safe here in the remains of the biodome,” Dan said. “We’ve been here for weeks, maybe months now.”
“Really? No zombie attacks?” Grey asked.
“Just two,” Dan replied. “One group followed us here when we first found the dome. But that was different. They didn’t come here on their own. They followed us. The second time…” He sighed.
“What?” Grey asked.
Dan shook his head.
“The second time, it was alone. Just a single zombie by itself. I think this was its turf.”
Jallah noticed how Dan didn’t give any specifics about how this was one of the original zombies, one of the first humans transformed through the Metamorph gas, or how it had a robotic arm that could smash through metal or how it nearly killed them all.
“Don’t worry,” Dan continued. “We’re safe. I think the other zombies knew to stay away from it.”
“A zombie had its own turf, huh? So they’re not completely mindless,” Grey said.
“Not completely, just mostly,” Dan replied. He snickered as he said it. Grey returned the laugh.
Jokes, happiness, laughter. Jallah smiled at the sight.
“Can we see the town?” Kaitlyn asked.
“Sure! We’d love to show you around, though there’s not much of a town left anymore,” Dan said, motioning for them to follow him. “Come on!”
As the newcomers followed Dan into Country Roads, Jallah felt a warmth grow in his heart. He still had so many questions, but he would save them for later. There would be time for questions another day. Right now, he would put those thoughts aside and bask in his joy.
His family had split apart months ago and nothing had felt right since then. But now the family was whole again… and so was his heart.
Jallah smiled. Things were looking up… finally.
Chapter Eight
Archives
SQL Kal Jakhu
“A mission,” Evirak said with a chuckle. He tossed his claws to the air in frustration and shook his head. “I would not call this a ‘mission’. When the Supreme Chieftain said he had a mission for us, this is nothing like I had envisioned.”
Jakhu sighed as she scanned through data on the ship’s archives. As much as she wanted to tell Evirak that she agreed with his every word, to say so was not her place.
“The Supreme Chieftain has given us an objective. By definition, this is a mission,” she deba
ted, though she knew quite well that her own argument was weak.
“An objective is not the same as mission, Kal Jakhu. We are soldiers. We should be on the battlefield. That is a mission. Looking through records is nothing more than a task.”
“Task, mission, objective, we shall do our duty all the same,” Jakhu replied, hoping this would be the last of Evirak’s outbursts.
The five members of Kreed Scion sat in the dimly lit archive room aboard Fruitful Spring, staring at data on monitors as they combed through records, contracts, contact information, anything leading to the current whereabouts of a builder named Kal Flokh.
Jakhu heard Kozakh sigh and Ezenkharam restlessly tap her claws against the desk. It seemed they did not hold enthusiasm for the duty assigned to them either, though they were not as brash about it.
The objective was simple: to discover what had happened to Kal Flokh following the assassination of Kal Khtallia. Evidently, she had gone missing.
Jakhu remembered first learning about her new assignment. The meeting with Ikharus was only one day ago. She and the other members of her squad had assembled in the throne room. They stopped before his Majesty as he stared down upon them with Kho Vylan by his side.
“Kreed Scion, you may rise,” Ikharus had said.
They did.
“Supreme Chieftain,” Jakhu greeted.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice. I have called you here to deliver your first mission as a newly formed Kreed.”
“We are honored, your Majesty,” Jakhu replied. She subtly bowed again.
“You are soldiers. You were not meant to roam the ship forever. I know you must all be eager to feel useful again.”
“I agree,” Jakhu said.
“There is a Kholvari on the surface, a builder that bears the name Kal Flokh. Among your squad, Kal Jakhu and Kho Kozakh have already met her.”
It was true. Flokh was not new to Jakhu, nor to Kozakh. They had met before, back when Jakhu and her Kreed had been assigned to guard the late Kal Khtallia. As Jakhu remembered, the Kholvari builder was soft-spoken, kind and very skilled, though Jakhu did not know much more about her beyond that.