Achilles

by Greg Boose

  They go a hundred yards, then two hundred, three, four, and the kids start to relax. The sea on either side of them remains smooth and quiet, and there are no signs of zims or any other forms of life. Third in line behind Tunick, Jonah calls over Hopper’s head a couple times to again ask Tunick questions, but the man just speeds up, crossing the rest of the coral reef like a cheetah zipping over a line of grass.

  Aussie falls in the water, and so does Bidson, but they’re back on the reef in seconds without incident. Peleus continues to shine overhead, and it stays with them all the way to the mainland’s silvery beach on the backside of the mountains. There’s smoke in the air. But Jonah can’t see where it’s from.

  While some of the kids drop to the sand in exhaustion, Tunick cartwheels around them, asking if anyone wants to race.

  “Hell no,” Hopper wheezes. “What I want is to get some real sleep. Where’s this camp of yours?”

  Tunick dislodges a few white seeds from his mouth and skips them out over the sea. He immediately replaces them with three more from his green hip sack.

  “What is that? What do you keep eating?” Michael asks.

  “Oh, just a snacky,” Tunick says. “You can have some back at my place. It’s about one mile east. That way, that way. You can sleep there, and we can have some more of your food, and we’ll tell each other our stories and eat those brownies, and we’ll talk about the crash and what happens next. I’d take one of those brownies right now if you’ll give me one. Will you give me one? Just the brownie, just the brownie.”

  Vespa and Jonah exchange a look before Vespa turns to Tunick. “Listen, man. We appreciate you getting us off that island, but we can’t go your way. We’re only going west. But even before we do that, you need to bring this Zion asshole to me. Can you make that happen? He’s got major, major crimes to answer to.”

  Malix pats his rifle. “Yeah. Where is this fucker?”

  “Zion? No, no, no!” Tunick whispers. White saliva collects in the corners of his mouth. “That’s mad! We go east tonight and I’ll tell you things. Things that will blow your mind!”

  Michael clears his throat. “Excuse me, Tunick? I’m sorry, but… Well, I really want to know what happened to Kip back there on the island and how we can find him. If there’s another cave we can try. But also, and I think Jonah has asked you this a couple times, but we’ve yet to hear the answer. What’s so bad about Thetis? Why did you leave?”

  Tunick wheels around, his eyes on fire. “What’s so bad about Thetis? Little boy, what’s so bad about Thetis is that they lie to you on Thetis. They tell you one thing, and oh, everything is fine and dandy and then you want to do something they don’t like and they lock you up and starve you. And then you say you’ve seen what they’ve been trying to hide, you’ve seen the outposts and the loooooong, scary history of it all, and then they say you can’t have any more verve because they say it’s bad for you, and then you tell them you’re going to live on your own and then—and then they try to kill you! They tried to kill us! Do you understand, little boy? They piled us all in a rover and tried to drive us right off a cliff, but ho ho ho, it didn’t work because Zion saved us. We escaped!”

  Jonah quietly turns his rifle on as Tunick speaks. The man’s entire body flexes as he rants and raves, and Jonah knows that look. He’s seen in too many times in too many foster homes. Violence is near.

  “So Zion is from Thetis, too?” Christina asks.

  Brooklyn asks, “Who’s ‘they,’ Tunick? Jesus. Just slow down.”

  “And what’s ‘verve’?” Bidson asks.

  Aussie steps forward. “Are you okay? I mean, you’ve been here for a long time, and I don’t know, maybe we can help you.”

  “And you can help us by finding Zion,” Vespa adds. “We’ll give you all our chocolate if you can get him here. Swear on my life.”

  Portis stops chewing on his hand long enough to take off his backpack. “Yeah, man, have some of our chocolate and then start from the beginning. Who tried to kill you? What exactly happened?”

  Tunick laughs and then rages in a wide circle, pulling on his beard and dreadlocks, mumbling to himself before stopping to point a finger inches from Portis’s face. “I get it. Now you want to take away our verve? That’s why you’re here! You’re from Thetis! What a plan! Oh, ho ho ho. You don’t know what you’re doing, Big Head, working for them. Of course you’re from Thetis!” Tunick shoves Portis down to the sand and steps over him.

  Jonah raises his rifle. “That’s enough! Back away!”

  Tunick ignores everyone but Portis. “You’re walking a terrible line, boy. Zion will kill you for this. I just showed you my reef and…this is my moon, and I make the rules, you understand that, Big Head? Do you want to tell me what to do on my moon?”

  Vespa aims her rifle. “Back off, asshole. Now.”

  Jonah fans out, and Brooklyn, Christina, and Malix raise their weapons. Tunick smiles and sticks his arms high into the air. He then hawks up a glob next to Portis’s head before twisting around, laughing. “Oh, come now. You don’t have to do that, everybody. Where did you get all those guns?”

  Jonah presses his eye to his scope. He can take this guy out at any moment, but he knows there are too many questions to be answered first.

  Tunick puts his hands down. “Okay, my beautiful birds. I was just kidding with the bigheaded one here, okay? I love you guys. You’re my favorites so far. Others were my favorites, but now you are.”

  “Take us to Zion,” Vespa says. Her barrel glows white. “I’m not going to ask you again.”

  Tunick belches.

  “Fine,” Vespa says. She aims her mouth at the sky and screams, “ZION! COME OUT HERE, ZION!”

  “ZIIIIII-OOOOOON!” Malix sings.

  “Wait, guys,” Jonah says. “Let’s not just call for him without a strategy. Maybe put up an ambush first, all the cadets and Brooklyn get in a U-shaped position? Draw him in and then come at him from all—”

  “ZION!” Brooklyn screams.

  The yelling seems to stir something inside Tunick. He slams his green eyes shut and peels back his lips and bites at the air. Then he chews madly on the inside flesh of his cheeks. Tunick can’t snap yet, Jonah thinks. Not until he helps them.

  “Just wait! Vespa!” Jonah says between her shouts. He shuffles toward her. “Everyone stop yelling for a second and—”

  “We just want to talk to you, Zion!” Malix shouts.

  “Yeah, you piece of shit!” screams Christina.

  “ZIIIIII-OOOOON!”

  “Shh,” Tunick whispers. “Everybody, shh. Please, let’s go right now. Back to my camp and I’ll show you some things. Lots of things that you’ll want to see. Please, let’s not yell for Zion. He’s not happy right now. Not, not, not at all.”

  “Yeah, well, you know what?” Portis yells, getting to his feet. “We’re not happy either, all right! We’re being killed left and right! We’re fucking being chased by a lunatic! One of us got sucked into a portal and didn’t come back!”

  “Zion!” barks Malix. “Zion, Zion, Zion, Zion, Zi-on!”

  Jonah scans the line of trees above the beach. The cadets have lost their sense of training and strategy, running on anger and revenge instead. When no one comes, Jonah checks the reef over his shoulder. It’s empty.

  “Guys,” Hopper says. “Forget Zion. Seriously, let’s not mess with that freak right now. He wanted us to run, remember? So let’s all just shut up and go to Tunick’s and get some rest and hear him out. The dude is from Thetis, remember? Think about that. We can use his intel.”

  “Yes!” Tunick opens his arms. “Jules Hopper! My best friend! Soul mate! A mate made of my soul!”

  “ZION!” Malix screams.

  “Malix,” Jonah shushes. “Stop!”

  “Go to hell, Firstie. Get in the game.”

  “Seriously, let’s just get out of here,” Hopper says.

  “We’re not going east, demic, so shut your face and get it out of your head,” V
espa says.

  Hopper walks between Vespa and Tunick. “Because of Jonah, right? That’s why we’re in such a hurry to keep going west? I heard you guys talking in the cave, trying to be all hush-hush. Your dad sounds like a real winner, by the way.”

  Vespa’s face turns maroon with rage.

  “Who’s Jonah?” Tunick asks.

  Jonah slowly raises his hand and stares at Hopper. He doesn’t know what to say. He still doesn’t want anyone to know he’s dying; if nothing else, if there were no sympathy or blame for the others dying along the way, it could make him expendable in the group. Jonah’s going to die anyway, he hears them say in his head. He should just sacrifice himself so the rest of us can get across.

  “Yeah, Jonah’s sick, for anyone who cares,” Vespa says. “If we don’t make contact with Thetis in twenty days, then Jonah’s not going to get the medicine he needs. And then…then he’s going to die.”

  Everyone turns to look at Jonah. The cadet stares straight at a shocked Brooklyn and confesses, “Dr. Z said I have a blood disease and I need treatment in less than thirty days. If not, she said I’m going to…I’m probably going to… I’m sorry I didn’t tell anyone. It was my secret to share, and I wasn’t ready to share it, Hopper.”

  Hopper shrugs and walks away.

  “Oh, Jonah,” Aussie says.

  “Damn,” says Malix. “Really? You seriously have like thirty days to live?”

  “Something like that. About thirty or twenty-eight days until I can’t be treated and it’s irreversible.” Jonah keeps his eyes on Brooklyn’s long face. She exhales with twitching lips. He doesn’t know if he’s ever seen someone feel so bad for him before. At that moment, he realizes he has a real friend. And now he’s going to die.

  “That settles it, then. If Jonah needs us to keep moving, we keep moving,” Brooklyn says with a shaky voice. “Forget Zion for now. Let’s stay ahead of him and make up some ground.”

  Jonah nods, thanking her. “It’s not all about me, though. I can’t do that to everyone. We should do what’s best for the group. And maybe that means going back to the crash site?”

  “Hell no,” Brooklyn says.

  “Well, I’m not going to die for Jonah just because he’s already screwed,” Hopper says. “And I don’t know about the rest of you freaks, but if you haven’t noticed, we keep dying or zipping through portals because we’re in such a hurry all the time. We’ll get west when we get west, all right? Let’s chill with Tunick for a while and hear what’s going on. The dude has been surviving here for a year now. Bet he’s got tons of tricks.”

  Vespa turns her gun to Hopper’s face. “We’re going west.”

  “So it seems, so it seems.” Tunick peeks over Hopper’s shoulder. “But if you follow me, I can take you to the others. I know where they are.”

  Jonah immediately puts Tunick’s forehead back in his crosshairs. “You know where they are? Are you talking about the adults? Doctor Z?”

  Bidson stumbles forward with an open mouth. “Really?”

  “Where?” asks Michael. “Where are they?”

  “Ah, ah, ah. I’ll help you if you help me. Scratch our backs together, if you know what I mean.”

  “Tell us where they are. Right now!” Vespa rams the butt of her rifle toward Tunick’s gut, but the man blocks it with his palm. When Vespa swings for the side of his knee, Tunick rockets an elbow into her eye. The Fourth Year falls to her knees and loses her rifle. In an instant, Tunick has his arm around her neck, the barrel of the gun lodged against her chin.

  “Whoa, dude,” Malix says. “Relax, relax.”

  “Let her go!” Brooklyn growls.

  “Now!” Jonah yells, circling left. Portis, Christina, and Malix circle, too. Each of them passes up initial clear shots, just as they were trained. Jonah is relieved they’re still following some protocol, but he can’t stand the sight of Vespa being so vulnerable. He doesn’t know how long he can hold out.

  “You just made a huge mistake,” whispers Brooklyn. “You’re a dead man now. You’re dead.”

  “Shoot him.” Vespa spits.

  In a singsong voice, Tunick says, “Shoot me and you’ll never find those adults you love so much.” He then gets serious. “If you ever want to be tucked in again and be told what to do and when to do it, then you should listen to me and give me what I want.”

  Brooklyn takes a step forward. “Screw you.”

  “Where’s the energizer?” Tunick barks. The desperation in his voice sends shivers down Jonah’s back. Vespa tries to drop her weight and twist away, but Tunick tightens his hold, choking her.

  Michael steps next to Brooklyn. “Where’s the what?”

  Tunick clenches his face and then spits a white stream onto Vespa’s shoulder. “From the ship, from the ship. The ion fuel cell container you were bringing to Thetis. I want it. I need it, I need it, I need it. Trade me for the girl.”

  “The thing Paul was looking for? It’s gone, man,” Portis says. “Nobody could find it.”

  “LIAR!” Tunick screams. “Don’t you lie to me, too! I’ll kill her! I’ll kill you all!”

  The cadets change direction, preparing to take him out.

  “Shoot him!” Vespa coughs. Jonah sees she’s reaching for her thigh pocket and the blue handgun, but she can’t reach it.

  “Zion will kill everyone. All of us. So stop LYING and just GIVE ME THE ENERGIZER!”

  Hopper holds out his arms, circling Tunick and blocking Malix and Brooklyn’s view. “Dude, we couldn’t find that thing. Seriously, Tunick. Bro, listen to me. Somebody stole it or it rolled into the jungle or it just blew up, because we looked all over for it. There’s no power supply.”

  “You’re lying to me,” Tunick says. “Just like they lied to me on Thetis. You want to lock me up. You want to tell everyone it was an accident.” He backs toward the jungle. The cadets shuffle their wide circle right along, keeping Hopper, Tunick, and Vespa between them.

  “Hopper, out of the way. Stop right there, Tunick,” Jonah warns. He finally gets a clear shot, and he knows some of the other cadets must, too, but at the last second he thinks about Dr. Z and the other adults. Killing Tunick may mean killing them.

  “Dr. Z!” Jonah shouts into the trees. “Garrett! Dr. Z! Anybody!”

  “Anybody!” Michael echoes.

  Tunick keeps moving toward the jungle, and Vespa keeps reaching for her pocket.

  “Stop, man. Just stop right there. What else do you want?” Malix asks. “We don’t have that one thing, but we have blankets, fresh water, and food, man. What else do you want?”

  They step into the grass, and Tunick finally stops and growls, “I want the energizer. That’s it. This is your last chance because I’ll kill this girl. I’ve killed girls before. SO TELL ME WHERE YOU PUT IT!”

  “If you assholes don’t shoot him right now,” Vespa says, “I’m going to—”

  “SHUT UP!” Tunick screams in her ear.

  Jonah sees it out of the corner of his eye. Up in the sky, disappearing into a cluster of clouds on the other side of the beach, are the blue lasers of an LZR-rifle. They come in tight pairs. Over and over.

  “Sean!” he yells, pointing to the lights.

  Everyone turns, and Malix shouts, “Cadets in trouble!”

  Tunick seizes the opportunity and whips Vespa into Christina. Their heads collide with a resounding thud, and they stumble backward into a shadow and then somehow disappear.

  “Vespa!” Jonah runs. It takes him less than a second to realize the girls have fallen into a shallow trench. When he reaches the shadowy lip, he knows Tunick is already gone, and with him, any chance of finding the adults alive.

  Chapter Ten

  Enraged, Vespa and Christina sit on the edge of the trench; Vespa rubs her throat and grinds her teeth while Christina takes a long swig from a water jug.

  Behind them, Jonah and Portis shoot pairs of lasers into the air. Jonah knows it’s his fault Tunick got away, and he can’t look anyone in the ey
e. How could he have gotten so distracted? He keeps shooting and looking down the beach. If it was Sean or Ruth sending those distress signals before, they’re not responding now. So, it was all for nothing.

  Michael, Jonah sees out of the corner of his eye, stands facing away from everyone. But when something squawks in the jungle, the boy spins around, and there’s a large wet spot on his pants.

  “Whaaaat? You did not!” Hopper bellows. “I love it. Wow. Classic pissy right there. Holy shit, that’s great. I knew I could count on you.”

  Something snaps in Jonah. He drops his weapon and charges at Hopper, punching him hard in the jaw. The hacker twists in the air, his long black bangs whipping in the opposite direction, and he disappears into the trench.

  “Finally, Jonah. Thank you,” Brooklyn says.

  “Asshole!” Hopper shouts from the bottom. “I can’t believe you hit me! Ass! Hole!”

  Jonah is immediately disappointed with himself. Even though it felt good, punching the hacker seems below him. Looking down into the trench and then back at Michael, he wonders what things would be like if an adult were with them. Would he have snapped like that?

  Vespa looks up at Jonah, her green eyes filled with venom. “The next time I tell you to shoot somebody, you shoot somebody. Do you understand me? No questions asked, Firstie.”

  “Tunick knew too much for us to just kill him, especially about the adults.”

  “I agree,” Brooklyn says.

  Vespa jumps to her feet. “ZION! TUNICK! DR. Z!”

  Hopper climbs out of the trench. The right side of his jaw is bright red. He spits and scrunches his nose. “Fuck you, Jonah. I hope you die soon.”

  Brooklyn’s fist comes out of nowhere, burying itself into Hopper’s stomach. The boy drops to his hands and knees and tries to catch his breath.

  “Stop it, guys,” Bidson says.

  Brooklyn can’t help herself. She kicks Hopper in the stomach, flattening him.

  Bidson shakes his head. “That’s enough.”

  Aussie stands in front of the group. “Guys, let’s go! Why are we just sitting here? We have to follow Tunick. He can lead us right to the adults.”