Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2)

by Minton, Toby

  The Runners behind her hit the trash cans, crumpling at least one as they bulled through them and jolting Nikki out of her paralysis.

  She ran for the fence, nudged on by the shouts of her pursuers. Her vault over the fence was half jump, half scrambling climb when her jump fell short, and all pain in her shoulder and hand. On the upside, her roll over the top and smooth landing must have looked badass. On the downside, she lost so much time the Runners hit the fence as soon as she landed.

  Nikki darted across the empty street and through a gap between two buildings that was too small to even call an alley. Her shoulders brushed either wall as she ran. As soon as she reached the far end, she turned right again, heading back downhill.

  She was close to the free zone, which meant she was close to the rendezvous point where she’d left Coop, which meant she was close to escaping these goons for good. All she had to do was outrun them long enough, and hope Coop was armed and alert when she showed up.

  The sound of heavy footfalls behind her spurred Nikki on as she raced down the dark street, her breath coming faster and heavier with every few meters she covered. When she’d come up with this plan, the thought that she might not be able to outrun the Runners hadn’t occurred to her. Why would it? She and Michael had never gotten caught when they’d run from the cops. If they started to get tired, a punch or two was all it took to shake off the exhaustion and fire them back up. But tonight Nikki was fading fast. Her lungs were burning with each labored breath of cold air, her legs were going numb, and her heart felt like it was going to pound its way up out of her ears.

  She could see the moon reflecting off the water beyond the buildings at the bottom of the hill, which meant she was only a couple blocks from Coop, assuming, of course, that Coop was actually there.

  Call him, Nikki. Get him to come to you.

  Michael’s brain shout made Nikki’s heart lurch again, so much so she stumbled and almost went down. She wished he’d make up his mind tonight. Here or not here. One or the other. His sudden brain-numbing shouts after getting all whispery were going to give her a heart attack. She needed to put a bell on him.

  Nikki risked a quick glance behind her. The Runners were less than twenty meters back and closing. Not even calling for help was going to make a difference if she didn't put some distance, or something solid, between the Runners and herself.

  Breathing heavily, she turned sharply toward the first doorway in sight. Without breaking stride she charged up the handful of steps, shouldered aside the thin, crooked door, and ran down the dark hallway beyond.

  This close to the free zone, few if any of these buildings were occupied. This one, at one time a stack of apartments by the looks of it, hadn't seen human residents in what smelled like decades. She ran past the first two doors and ducked through the third before she heard the goons enter the building.

  Nikki briefly considered hiding, but she knew they'd find her sooner or later, and as much as it hurt to accept it, she also knew she was no match for two Runners, not on her own, not anymore. So she didn't bother with stealth. She ran from room to room in the small apartment until she found what she was looking for.

  The window in the back bedroom was boarded up like the rest, but this one had two boards hanging slightly askew—what the zoners lovingly referred to as a bum hole, a discreet way in and out that wouldn't tip off the cops to squatters.

  She rotated the boards up and wriggled through feet-first as quickly as she could. As soon as her boots hit the wet pavement outside, an arm punched through the hole and made a grab for her, but she twisted clear and out into the narrow lane that ran behind the apartments toward the rendezvous point.

  Harried by the sound of splintering wood and heavy boots dropping to the pavement, Nikki tried to wrestle her com unit out of her jacket on the run, which was no mean feat. The unit the team had given her was blockier than the flashy little disk the cursing Runner behind her had used. She was so intent on freeing the blasted thing from her pocket, she didn’t notice the shadows moving ahead of her until Michael shouted a warning. By then, it was too late.

  Something big and dark streaked from between the houses right in front of Nikki. She tried to stop, but she and whatever it was were moving too fast. It clipped her legs and sent her rolling to the damp pavement in a flailing heap.

  When the world stopped spinning, Nikki was on her back looking up between the buildings at the cloud-streaked moon, or what she could see of it before Apple Face blocked it out.

  With a snarl, he grabbed her by the jacket and hauled her to her tiptoes like she weighed nothing. He was pissed, and not in the fun British way.

  "You're just a little sack o' trouble, ain'tcha?" he snarled in her face. “Tell Angel we got one,” he said to his partner, his breath blowing Nikki’s hair back from her face as he lifted her off her toes completely.

  Nikki felt helpless dangling there, but at least it gave her a clear view of what was happening. Over Apple’s right shoulder she saw the other Runner, the one not calling Angel as ordered. His face was pale and slack, his eyes as wide as they would go, like he was one loud noise away from needing new pants. Over Apple’s other shoulder Nikki saw what had the guy spooked.

  The hunched figure in the inky shadows between the buildings was hard to make out, except for one of its hands resting on the ground in a strip of moonlight. The glossy black claw curled and flexed and its chitinous talons dug into the pavement like it was loose gravel. The thing’s head was turned toward the pale Runner, but Nikki could still see a red eye glowing out of the darkness.

  The pale guy stumbled back a step, shaking his head. “Holy Mary Mother of—”

  “Gideon?” Nikki whispered.

  Nikki, I don’t think he’s—

  “What’s your problem?” Apple shouted. He looked back at his buddy, who took another weak step backward, then he turned his head the other way just in time to meet the red stare from the shadows.

  Nikki’s boots slapped down as Apple let her go and stumbled back, putting Nikki between him and the thing—the…Gideon.

  Run, Nikki. Michael begged. Please, listen to me. Run.

  Nikki met the red-eyed stare and saw not the slightest hint of recognition. All she saw was hunger followed by a look she knew better than just about anybody. She saw the decision to attack.

  She dropped as the creature pounced. The thing was insanely fast, but for once luck smiled on Nikki. The creature’s powerful leap took it right over her as she dropped, and right into Apple.

  Nikki hit the ground hard, hard enough that for a second she couldn’t see a thing except little bursts of light. There was nothing wrong with her hearing though. The rumbling and tearing sounds coming from the other side of the alley made Nikki want to curl up and hide. But as bad as they were, they were nothing compared to the high-pitched wail that had to be coming from Apple.

  Nikki pushed up to her hands and knees to see the other Runner already sprinting for all he was worth back the way they’d come. He had the right idea. Nikki staggered to her feet on bloodless legs and fled.

  A minute before, Nikki would have sworn she couldn’t run another step. Now, she didn’t think she’d ever stop, no matter how much her lungs burned. She sent a heartfelt thank-you to every god she'd ever heard of for the gift of adrenaline. When an ear-tearing roar shook the air behind her, followed by the sound of claws on brick or pavement, Nikki prayed she’d have enough adrenaline to get her to Coop.

  She’d lost her com unit when the creature first hit her, so there was nothing she could do besides hope Coop was there. If he wasn’t…

  She knew the creature was closing on her. She could feel it behind her. She could hear its every growling, huffing breath, unless that was her. Nikki focused on the narrow alley in front of her, on the opening ahead where she hoped her ride was waiting, and tried to block out everything else.

  Just run, dammit, she growled in her head. You can still do that at least.

  Michael didn’t c
ome down on her for being hard on herself this time. He didn’t say a word. She tried hard to believe that wasn’t a bad sign.

  The opening rushed closer and closer, and for a shaky second Nikki thought she’d make it. She actually felt the surge of relief start before a dark figure stepped into her path.

  Nikki flung herself to the side with an embarrassing shout that ate up what little air she had left in her lungs. She tumbled and rolled out of the alley, adding dizziness and road rash as answers to the question of how this night could get worse. She finally stopped moving, in body at least. From flat on her back, she forced her eyes to focus on the slightly spinning figure above her.

  When she realized who it was, she almost passed out from relief, or maybe lack of oxygen.

  It was Sam. Praise the sweet Buddha Moses, it was Mr. Perfect Timing Sam standing between her and whatever was coming, his pistol trained on the dark alley.

  She was breathing like a Saturday-market bellows, but she dragged in enough air to force out, “Shoot already!”

  He didn’t. He just aimed into the alley, unmoving while she struggled to catch her breath. After a minute, he lowered his pistol and glanced back at her. “Shoot what?”

  She struggled to her feet but had to put her hands on her knees to ride out a coughing fit before she could respond. “Shoot…sir?”

  Sam’s smile transformed his plain face, like always. It also made Nikki want to hug him, despite how much she imagined it would hurt right now. He had that effect on her. He had since the first time they’d met.

  As she struggled to get her breathing back under control, Nikki moved closer to Sam so she could see up the alley. Aside from the harmless trash and whatnots, it was empty and dead silent.

  Sam’s smile was gone. He was all business again as he scanned the alley. “What happened?”

  Nikki opened her mouth but ended up closing it again after a wordless pause. She had no idea where to start. She couldn’t exactly tell him what she’d been doing or why. She was fairly sure he’d like her plan even less than Michael had, if such a thing was possible.

  But that wasn't the real reason she wasn't blurting out what had happened. Staring into the empty alley, Nikki saw nothing but the doubt that had become way too common for her over the past few months. Having her dead brother in her head had her questioning more than just her emotions. It had her questioning reality itself. The line between delusion and reality was more than a little blurred for her these days. Believing she'd just seen Gideon tearing apart a Runner, when Gideon had been gone for months, was more than a bit of a stretch.

  Sam holstered his pistol and looked over at her. He didn’t have the most expressive face in the world when he wasn’t smiling, but he knew she was wavering on a lie, that much she could tell.

  “I picked a fight with Runners.” She opted for simple and true. Lying to Sam made her feel like crap, probably because he was always upfront with her. Instead of saying things like, “this is nothing” or “you’ll be fine,” he came right out with “internal bleeding,” “concussion,” and “you’re going to die.” They had a fun past.

  “How many Runners?” he asked, looking her over, probably for obvious injuries.

  She shrugged. “How many are there?”

  He smiled a little, but when he met her gaze, all she saw was concern. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’ll live. This is worst of it, I think.” She held out her busted left hand, which didn’t look nearly as bad as it felt. Her knuckles were just a little swollen and red behind her middle two fingers.

  After a nod and eyebrow raise to ask for permission, Sam took her hand in both of his and started probing around with his strong fingers, which was fine for the most part, but when he got to those two knuckles she had to choke down a mouthful of curses. “Can you squeeze it?” he asked when he finally let go.

  “Um, yeah, but you just did, so—”

  He laughed quietly and shook his head. “I mean make a fist with it.”

  Unlike most people, he got her jokes. What’s more, he thought they were funny. It was one of his best qualities. In fact, there’d been a time when she’d considered breaking every dating rule she had for Sam. There’d been a time when they could have become more than friends.

  Turned out she could make a fist. It just hurt like crazy. “Son of a—dammit!”

  “Good,” he said with a nod.

  “Good? Do you know what 'dammit' means?”

  “It’s not broken,” he said, that small smile lighting his dark face again. “Just a bone bruise, maybe a small crack—”

  “You’re a small crack,” she mumbled.

  “—Nothing that won’t heal on its own,” he finished, his lingering grin telling her he hadn’t missed her jab. “I agree. You’ll live.”

  She was looking in his eyes when he said the last part, so she saw the shift. Even though he broke eye contact to look around the area, she saw his smile crumble. Whatever they might have been once upon a time, they weren't in the here and now. Something had changed between them.

  “Let’s get back to base so you can ice that hand,” he said, already moving toward the skimmer he had parked nearby. He didn’t look at her again. He just straddled the skimmer and started checking its systems while she climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Then he released the brake and guided the skimmer out over the water.

  The change with Sam had occurred about the time everything else in her life went down the crapper. It all came back to Michael, to when he…

  You can say it, Nikki. When I died, Michael’s soft voice said in her head. He was barely louder than the quiet engine of the skimmer as it hummed over the waves of the Sound, but she heard every word as his voice faded. You could also talk to Padre—Sam, I mean. You could ask him what changed. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to somebody besides me.

  Nikki wasn’t so sure. First off, she was terrible at talking to people about her feelings, or their feelings, or feelings in general. Empathizing wasn’t really in her bag of tricks. Second, she wasn’t sure Sam was the one who was different these days. Maybe it was all her. Her biggest reason for keeping to herself, after all, was her nagging fear that she was just flat-out crazy.

  Nikki rested her head against Sam’s back and closed her eyes. The steady hum of the skimmer and the sound of the water below were working hard to lure her away from consciousness. As she drifted off, she imagined what Sam would say if she told him she’d been talking to Michael. She snorted a laugh and shifted to find a more comfortable spot on Sam’s back.

  She knew what her reaction would be in his place. She’d get out the padded jacket and the rubber cutlery. That’s why she couldn’t talk to Sam, Elias, or anyone else about what was going on. She couldn’t ask anybody else to believe Michael was really inside her head when she wasn’t sure herself.

  Gideon

  When Gideon awoke, he knew he was back in his body. He also knew, even before he opened his eyes, that he was not where he'd fallen asleep.

  He was in a shanty, by the looks of it. The slanted metal roof and thin walls let in slivers of morning light that did more to confuse his eyes than illuminate. The furnishings, what little he could make out of them, were strewn at random about the room with no sense of order, some clearly broken if the extreme angles of the shadowy outlines were any indication. And the smell…

  Despite the thick odor, Gideon took a long breath to steel himself. The metallic tang underlying the room's general stench was unmistakable.

  He stood and fumbled at the wall behind him, running his hands over the boards covering the window from the inside. He knew what he would see when he let in the light, but as much as he wanted to run from it, he didn't let that stop him from ripping away the half-rotted boards.

  He turned away from the painful daylight and lifted his gaze to the carnage. Whatever he'd expected, this was worse.

  Gideon spent several moments just breathing slowly, forcing a rational detachment his body didn't
want to feel. The emotional barrier he'd gained when the Event fused him with the creature was there waiting for him. He could slip behind it, separate himself from his emotions the way he had so many times over the years. But he refused to do so.

  He was afraid to do so.

  He couldn't risk giving up control again. If his alien side was growing stronger, he couldn't give in to any part of it. He would protect his emotions himself, build his own walls. He started to do so slowly, brick by brick as he forced himself to look at what was left of the people in the small room.

  When he dropped his gaze to his hands, to the blood covering them, his wall crumbled.

  Worlds Apart

  Chapter 5

  Elias

  The afternoon sun on his back did little to warm Elias as he stared out over the wind-whipped waves below and the solitary grave on the bluff before him.

  He hadn't come out here to visit the grave, not at first. But as usual, his feet had ended up bringing him here anyway.

  He'd come outside to check the grounds, specifically the new sensor emplacements Gram and Padre had installed to enhance perimeter security. The sensors were installed correctly and placed to maximize their field of view while minimizing their sight profile. He'd known they would be. Gram was a talented engineer with a wealth of experience under his belt, and when it came to sight lines, concealment, and anticipating paths of approach, Elias would trust Padre's judgment over any man with twice his experience. Yet he still checked their work. Lately, he'd been double checking everything.

  His eyes drifted down to Michael's headstone again, and Elias had to make a conscious effort to unclench his jaw.

  He recognized his recent micro-managing as a coping mechanism. He was overcompensating, going above and beyond what was needed to make sure every task was carried out properly, to make sure there were no mistakes that might put a member of the team in jeopardy, that might get someone hurt. He'd lost a man for the first time in years, and he was doing everything in his power now to make sure that didn't happen again.