Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3)

by Christine Hart

  The window exploded and the sound blasted in knocking us with the force of a hurricane. A blow landed in my gut, knocking me back into the outdoor sofa outside the Ngong Hills Country Club.

  Blood dripped down Mr. Mbele’s face from cuts on his forehead. Feeling moisture, I touched my cheek. My hand came away sticky with blood. I had never been harmed in a vision until now.

  My heart pounded in my chest. I closed my eyes and focused on my brother’s face. I took a deep breath and tried hard to reconnect.

  Ilya, are you there? What happened?

  Irina, he’s gone. Dad’s gone. It’s only Ulu now.

  Where are you now? Are you safe? Can you get away?

  Aunt Tat and Claude are dragging me down a stairwell. I think it’s going to happen now. I’m scared, Irina.

  Fight it! Fight the change! If you can, keep him out. I know you can do it! You can stop it all!

  I’m in the same corridor as the snake bats. The things are still here. Now I’m outside. Ivan’s there, but he’s a zombie. He’s brain dead.

  Concentrate, Ilya! You can do this! If you keep that thing out, it has nowhere to go.

  Aunt Tat is sitting down. Claude disappeared. Wait, no, someone is holding me from behind! Ivan’s opening his mouth. No, something is forcing its way out of his mouth.

  It’s a tongue. It’s longer than a tongue.

  It’s slimy with veins covering its skin. The thing has its own mouth! The teeth!

  Oh God, it’s jumping at me! It’s got my neck. I can’t breathe. Can’t think. So tight. Let go! GET OFF ME! IT’S IN ME! ULLLLLLGHH . . .

  Ilya’s voice stopped suddenly.

  Ilya? Ilya! Come back!

  Nothing happened. I waited, panic swelling my chest.

  Ilya! Answer me!

  Silence ensued for a long moment. I clung to my mental image of Ilya, picturing the horrid scene with that tentacle of red flesh wrapped around my brother’s throat.

  A low growl, almost imperceptible at first answered back.

  You’ve lost, child. My world is coming, grumbled a deep chilling voice.

  The creature’s words filled my bones with acid and I leapt up off the sofa. I buried my face in my hands. “It has Ilya. It has my brother. What are we going to do?”

  “We go back and kill the red-eyed boy and the green woman,” Mr. Mbele said.

  Chapter 30

  My mouth felt full of cotton and my shoes full of lead as I walked back to the country club’s main hall. My friends still watched the news. The television showed Nairobi from a helicopter. The city had pockmarks of damage, but many of the major structures and green fields endured. I willed the camera to show us the urban slum that I couldn’t focus well enough to see in my mind.

  “We’ve got to go. The demon got Ilya.”

  My friends regarded me with wet eyes full of empathy and remorse.

  “We find a weapon to kill creature,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “Kibera might not even be there anymore,” said Jonah.

  “I’ll open a portal and check,” said Melissa.

  “You will not!” blurted Josh.

  “There’s got to be a way to check and see if it’s safe,” said Gemma.

  “I look now.” Mr. Mbele sat down at a nearby table and folded his hands in his lap.

  “I’m trying, but I can’t see anything. My mind is a mess,” I said, wringing my hands.

  “You want to go to Kibera?” said one of the waiters, bewildered at the thought.

  “We were volunteering there. One of our friends was left behind,” I said.

  “I’ve still got Nellie’s tablet and my laptop.” Faith pulled one after the other out of her bag. She handed the tablet to Cole.

  “What’s your WiFi password?” Cole asked the waiter.

  The man frowned with confusion, but when Cole pointed at the tablet and the laptop, the man understood. He pointed to a tent card on the bar. Cole and Faith had their devices connected while Jonah and I watched the news.

  “Wait, look!” said Gemma.

  We watched intently as the aerial view on television passed over the patches of Kibera that endured. Not all the slum had fallen, but we didn’t get a glimpse of our precious woods or the dreaded hedge site.

  “Guys, I can’t find anything specific to our campsite,” said Faith as she clicked on her keyboard.

  “Me either. People are talking about building collapses and casualties. Nobody’s making lists of what’s safe. I’m on BBC World, and they’re covering the disasters together. People are freaking out everywhere,” said Cole.

  “These conditions could make transmission of Terra Nova even more rapid,” said Jonah.

  “Campsite has been looted. Tents are gone. But woods are there,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “Let’s go.” Melissa rose and we all followed, knowing instinctively that she meant to find a spot away from the club staff to open a portal back to the woods outside Kibera.

  We followed Melissa to the other side of the club’s parking lot where a cluster of shrubs formed a wall next to an acacia tree.

  She swooped open a silver portal and stepped through fearlessly. A few seconds later she came back. “Mbele’s right. Our gear is gone, but the woods are fine. You can see fire smoke in the air around the city. But Kibera still stands. The part we were near anyway.”

  “I don’t know if this is good or bad.” Cole scratched the top of his head.

  “We need to destroy the seeds laced with Terra Nova. We can’t afford to walk away until we know that’s done,” said Jonah earnestly.

  A blend of grief and utter resolve filled Faith’s face. “I’m not walking away from Ilya.”

  “Neither am I.” I took a supportive step closer to Faith.

  “Then let’s go.” Melissa stepped back through the portal. Josh followed directly, then Cole, Faith, and Gemma.

  Jonah moved to go and I grabbed his arm. “I feel like we’re finally getting close to the end and I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I do know that I love you.”

  Jonah gazed at me with hopeful arctic blue eyes. I wished I had Ilya’s gift to pry into Jonah’s brain and hear his true thoughts. I’d have to settle for the words he chose.

  “I love you too. We’re going to survive this. And,” Jonah stopped short of adding what I wanted to hear, that we would get Ilya back alive. Instead, he pulled me by my waist and kissed me.

  I let my fear and panic fall to the ground, losing myself for just a moment in the kiss, hoping the sensation of Jonah holding me would stretch into infinity. Then he pulled away and stepped into the portal, pulling me in by my hand.

  The woods outside Kibera were still as trash strewn as we’d left them. Where residents had spilled out to escape the riot, people just wandered with armloads of possessions, refugees from whatever parts of the slum actually collapsed.

  The only trace of our campsite was Faith’s makeshift rock fire pit. There was no trace of our practically new tents and sleeping bags. We retreated farther into the trees away from the pedestrian traffic.

  “Before anyone makes a move toward the compound, we need the dagger. There’s something buried with the creature’s original body. It’s a blade that can kill the parasitic demon’s essence permanently. I’m hoping that we can use it on Ilya, get rid of the creature, and get Gemma to heal him.”

  Everyone stared at me in stunned silence for a moment.

  “So your plan is to do what this guy wants.” Faith cocked her thumb at Mr. Mbele. “And flat out kill Ilya.”

  “I can heal his body. I know I can.” Gemma didn’t sound as confident as her words suggested. Her eyes were full of doubt.

  “I’ll take you back to Chester now,” said Melissa.

  “The
rest of us will stay here. We’ll take up positions around the hedge site,” said Josh, pointing to the locations in the distance.

  “You better find this thing fast. If Tatiana so much as comes out, I’m going to kill her on sight. I can handle a little nausea,” said Cole.

  “I know you can.” I hadn’t told him that in my vision, he thrashed Tatiana to death only minutes too late. I prayed he could get to her faster.

  Mr. Mbele was right. We couldn’t change the future until we knew what to change. We tried to rescue Ilya and a riot broke out. Would it have happened if we’d hung back? I felt like I was making a plan to divert a river without knowing where to dig.

  “With Ivan dead, maybe that curse thing he had going is dead too. Who knows? It’s not like we ever knew how that hex-y whatever-the-hell thing worked,” said Faith.

  “I’ll take a small miracle for a change. Let’s go test that theory.” Josh and Faith bounded off eagerly.

  Melissa swooped a fresh silver oval in the air, concealed by my remaining friends standing shoulder to shoulder. The sky had grown dim overhead, the sun having just dropped behind the horizon.

  “Tomorrow morning could be the time from Mr. Mbele’s vision. If we don’t make it back . . .” I stopped. I didn’t have the heart to finish my sentence.

  “You’ll be back in time,” said Gemma sternly.

  “Wish us luck.” Melissa stepped into the portal.

  I contemplated my friends’ earnest faces. I broke eye contact and forced myself to step through the portal.

  Melissa had chosen her location well. We were back in the red brick ruins where no one could see us from the church windows or the nearby road. The sun hadn’t quite set in Chester, but an overcast sky made the world dark enough. A fine mist chilled the air, but I was too full of adrenaline to feel the cold.

  “There’s an archeological site down the road. Excavated Roman ruins. That’s where we’ll find the dagger. I’m not sure how deep or exactly where to dig. I’m hoping I can figure that out when we get there.”

  “Great. Lead the way.” She stepped aside to let me go first.

  The mist turned to a drizzly rain and I pulled my hood over my head and leaned forward. We reached the excavation site and I marched down the wood stairs into the muddy gravel pit.

  I squinted through the rain to see if I could make any sense of the hollows cut into the other side of the site. It looked more like the beginning of a building’s foundation than a remnant of the ancient world.

  I found a square brick mound that might have been a table or a seat. I put my hand on the stone and felt it cold and wet under my hand. Nothing happened. Anger swelled in my belly. Why had my psychic abilities started to fail these last few days, when I needed them more than ever?

  “Calm down, honey.” Melissa put a hand on my shoulder, squeezed, and let go.

  I noticed the tension in my muscles and my quick labored breathing. A wave of nausea rose, but I pushed it aside. I took a deep breath and tried to center myself. I put my hand on the brick and pictured the ancient village from my vision, surrounded by golden wheat.

  A bright flash transported me to a small dry hut where I had my hand on a smooth wood tabletop. I was alone in the hut, although the embers of a fire smoldered in a pit on the other side of the room.

  I left the hut and found the village in the aftermath of the purple-clad priestess’s successful assassination of the alien demon that had taken her people prisoner. How long had that creature dominated the people it found when it crashed to earth? If only they had known how weak it was, how much it relied on its precious armor.

  A rumbling sounded overhead and I whipped up to see a slim pod with strips of lights all over it descend toward us. The priestess marched down the stairs leaving the bloody throne and the dead demon behind her she crossed the field headed toward me and as she passed the town’s well, she pitched the bloody dagger into the pit. As though unzipping a suit, the woman moved her hand through the air in front of her, from her forehead down to her navel. Her purple robe disappeared and a luminescent white being took her place.

  The brightly lit pod landed between my viewpoint and the alien priestess. A door must have opened for her. When the pod’s base re-ignited and the vessel took off, the creature was gone. Had I witnessed interstellar justice? I could only assume this was the case.

  The town bustled with villagers running to see the slain demon. I peered over the edge of the well. The bloody dagger protruded from the bucket hanging mid-air.

  I lifted my hand to release my grip on the ruined brick and I flashed back to the rainy twilight at Chester’s Roman ruins. I turned around to find Melissa examining one of the nearby pits.

  “It’s in a well,” I shouted through the rain. “Is there anything around here like a well?”

  “Yeah. I’m standing right in front of it. There’s a little sign that says so,” said Melissa. She pointed at a small plaque mounted on a new cement pedestal.

  I ran to her. Where she stood, only a ring of stone showed through the earth. The original well had been deep. I kicked the dirt inside the well. My foot slopped in the shallow pool of muddy water.

  “Can you pull it out . . . you know,” said Melissa, waved her hands back and forth over the brick ring.

  I paused for a moment. Tampering with an archaeological excavation felt forbidden, like the destruction of a sacred piece of history.

  “These old ruins are not that precious. Think about why you need it,” said Melissa, sensing my trepidation.

  I placed my hands over the well and willed the dirt to come out. The puddle quivered and then belched mud. Earth flowed up and out of the well like a clogged toilet.

  The sky darkened overhead, but I squinted focusing on watching the flowing mud for a sign of the precious dagger. Wet earth pulsed up and out of the well in waves until a glint of metal caught my eye. The dagger! I plunged my hand into the freezing mud and dug it out.

  “I’ve got it!” I shouted.

  “Is that it? Is that the right one? Do we need anything else?” said Melissa.

  “No. Let’s get back. Now!” I said.

  Melissa swept her arm through the air. The silver oval opened and we jumped.

  Chapter 31

  “We got it!” I thrust my arm over my head brandishing the dagger. I quickly retracted it when I noticed how much attention I drew from Kibera residents milling around the edges of our one-time campsite.

  All my friends were clustered around Faith’s old fire pit, which she had re-ignited after sunset. The night sky blotted out most of the world around them.

  I handed the dagger to Josh. He tucked it in his belt. It went without saying that Josh was the only one of us with enough skill to stab Ilya without killing him by accident.

  “Are we ready to go?” said Cole.

  “Gemma should stay behind,” said Josh.

  “Will someone stay with her?” I asked.

  “I can take care of myself,” said Gemma through her signature pouty face.

  “Your sister is right. You’re our only healer. We need you safe and sound, not just for Ilya. More of us are likely to get hurt before this is over,” said Josh.

  “I will stay,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “Okay, final checks. Anyone hurt? Anyone have any questions?” said Josh.

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “Wait, give me a minute to see if I can still connect to Ilya,” I said.

  “You told us the demon got him,” said Cole.

  “But when Ivan was possessed, a part of him hung on, his consciousness. If I can connect to Ilya and warn him, maybe there’s something he can do to help. Or at least be ready to fight for his life when the creature inside him is killed,” I said.

  “Do it.” Faith’s dark eyeliner ha
d mostly worn off, but I could see where tears had streaked a hint of black down her cheeks.

  “As fast as you can. If you can’t reach him, we still have to go,” said Josh. He checked his weapons one last time.

  I ran off into the trees, treading on bits of plastic and paper until I found a large acacia. I sat down cross-legged against the tree and picked up the medallion around my neck. I closed my eyes.

  Ilya, can you hear me? Tell me you’re still in there somewhere. Please say something.

  The fire cracked and snapped in the distance. I heard the chatter of indistinct Swahili outside the trees.

  I opened my eyes to see Innoviro’s old Victoria office, gutted as it had been when Melissa and I popped back in weeks ago. I took a step forward, listening. Only daylight from the windows lit the empty office.

  Urgency pushed me ahead and suddenly the office came to life. The fluorescents overhead popped to life. Computers and cabinets and chairs all slipped back into existence exactly where they had been. But the space remained unoccupied.

  I walked back to my old desk. A pang of regret stabbed my chest. It had not been so long ago that I thought I had the best job in the world. I had a beautiful apartment. I had a future. I swallowed hard and carried on to Ivan’s office.

  Ilya sat at his father’s desk, clicking away on a keyboard.

  “Ilya, is that you?”

  Ilya made eye contact, but there was no flicker of recognition in his amber irises. “Who are you? This is a private office.”

  “It’s me, Irina, your sister. Your twin sister.”

  “I don’t have a sister. Don’t be ridiculous,” said Ilya.

  “Yes, you do. Listen, we don’t have time. You’re not safe here. You’re trapped in your own mind. Obviously you’ve lost your memory. We’re going to try to help you, but you have to be ready to fight.”

  “Fight who? What are you talking about? Listen, if you don’t get out of here, I’m going to call our head of security. By the time he’s done with you, you’ll be the one with no memory. Now get lost!”