Jack tucked his beacon inside his shirt. Under no circumstances was he going to press that button. He understood that doing so would mean more than just the end of this field trip—it would mean the end of his chances at the School of Thought. He told himself that there were probably no Rüstov around, anyway. Jazen paced the landing area with two fingers pressed against his temple, scanning the area with those robotic eyes of his. When he was through, he nodded to Prime, which Jack hoped meant “all clear.”
“Farewell, candidates,” Hovarth said, stepping back onto the AirSpeeder with Prime. “I hope to see you all at first light and not a moment before.”
Jack noticed that Jazen had a slight mechanical twitch as he boarded the AirSpeeder with the others. He looked over at Jack and Allegra. Likely Jack’s nervous energy was giving him a minor glitch again. “Be strong for each other,” Jazen told them. “You can do this.”
Skerren rolled his eyes. “Please. It’s going to take more than a creepy campsite to scare me. I’m actually hoping to see a few Rüstov here tonight.”
As the AirSpeeder drove out of sight, Jack thought about the old saying “Be careful what you wish for—you just might get it.”
* * *
Wrekzaw Isle would have been an eerie and haunting place even in broad daylight. When Jack and the others had arrived, it was already dark. After the adults left, taking with them the headlights from the AirSpeeder, there was no light at all.
The ever-roaming Imagine Nation was still passing through tropical waters, so the children weren’t cold, but they weren’t exactly comfortable, either. Since they hadn’t planned on camping that night, they had no tents, sleeping bags, or flashlights. Skerren suggested building a fire.
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t,” Allegra said.
“The moon is new and the stars aren’t getting any brighter,” Skerren said pointedly. “Unless you can see in the dark, I’m going to make a fire.”
There was no wood on Wrekzaw Isle, but Skerren traced a mixture of oil, coolant, and fuel that was running around Revile’s grave like a miniature moat. It filled grooves in the rock and lined the area like a little river with random tributaries splitting off and dead-ending in dried-out shallows, or pooling up in deep pockets of stone. Skerren produced a flint from a pouch on his belt and started a fire the old-fashioned way.
“Skerren, don’t!” Allegra said as Skerren clapped a stone against the flint. Sparks flew into the oily channel and with a whoosh, flames ran around the perimeter like horses at the track. After the initial flare the flames calmed to a slow, even burn, lighting the area nicely.
“Let there be light,” Skerren said as the rusted junkyard glowed in the light of the fire. Jack realized he was standing right at the mouth of the pit that led to the infinite warp core. He backed away from the edge.
“Perfect!” Allegra said, a bit on edge herself. “Now every Left-Behind for a hundred miles will see that fire and know we’re here.”
“So what if they do?” Skerren replied. “Activate your beacon if that bothers you.” He threw his own beacon into the fire and jumped up onto the ridge to see if anything was out there. “Honestly, Allegra. You could at least try to put on a brave face. I can’t believe Prime lets you call yourself a Valorian.”
Allegra’s face rippled, and for a second, Jack thought she was going to cry. Instead, she stormed off to the other side of the campsite. She went as far away from Skerren as she could safely go.
Jack looked at Skerren. “Why do you have to be such a jerk all the time?”
“Don’t test me, Rusty,” Skerren sneered at Jack. “It’s not my fault if she can’t handle the pressure.”
“You don’t have to make it any worse than it already is,” Jack replied.
“Really? Look who’s talking,” Skerren countered. “I’m not the one who threatened everyone about Revile coming back to life.”
“I never threatened anyone,” Jack answered back. “Warned, maybe, but never threatened.”
“Why did you even say you fought him? What’s your game? Trying to psyche out the enemy? I bet that’s it. I bet you just love how everyone in Empire City suddenly thinks they see the Rüstov every time they turn around.”
“I’m just telling the truth,” Jack maintained. “I don’t know about these other Left-Behinds everyone’s talking about, but I know I saw Revile.”
Skerren scoffed at Jack. “Whatever you fought back before you came here—if you really fought anything at all— it wasn’t Revile. If it was, you’d be dead. It took Legend flying him into this ship’s engine to stop Revile. If that explosion didn’t kill him, how could anything you have in your New Jersey do it?”
“It couldn’t,” Jack agreed. “That’s exactly what worries me.”
Jack walked off to check on Allegra. He found her sitting by a pocket of fire with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. Her shoulders bounced lightly up and down as she cried. Jack gave her a minute and then came up behind her slowly.
“Hey, forget about him,” Jack said. “He thinks he’s so tough, but nobody cares what he says.”
“That’s just it,” Allegra said, wiping away tears that she didn’t want anyone to see. “I care! I’m not supposed to be scared. But I am. I’m scared all the time and I hate it. I hate it.”
“This is a scary place,” Jack told Allegra. “Even the SmartCams wouldn’t follow me here.” That was the truth. When Prime had started talking about Wrekzaw Isle, the SmartCams had taken off in the other direction. “It’s totally normal to get a little creeped out here. You’re only—”
“Don’t say only human,” Allegra interrupted. “Because I’m not, you know. I’m Valorian. And a true daughter of Valor knows no fear.” She said the last part mimicking Prime’s deep baritone.
“I was going to say you’re only a kid,” Jack replied. “Just like I’m only a kid, and even Skerren over there… even Skerren’s only a kid. I wouldn’t be surprised if deep down he’s a little bit scared too. No matter what he says.”
Allegra was barely listening. “I don’t like being back in Rüstov territory,” she said.
Jack blinked. “What do you mean back in Rüstov territory?”
“Back where I started.” That’s when Jack realized her tears were about more than just the general creepiness of Wrekzaw Isle.
Allegra told Jack that she had been born in a Rüstov “body farm,” which, Allegra explained, was a place where the Rüstov kept future host bodies prisoner. “That was what they called it, a body farm. After the fall of Valor that’s where they took the survivors.”
Allegra’s people always fought until victory or death, so Valorian prisoners of war were rare. Her pregnant mother had been one of the few survivors. She had had an unborn child to think of, so she had wanted to live, to fight another day. But while she had allowed her daughter to be born in captivity, she could never allow her to grow up there. When Allegra had been just a few weeks old, her mother had organized an escape with the other aliens in the farm, and had died getting Allegra out. She had died a prisoner so that her daughter could live free.
“I don’t remember any of it,” Allegra said. “I was too young. The others on the ship told me the stories. I grew up on a refugee ship, fleeing Rüstov space. It took years to get to safety. To really get all the way out. We always had to be quiet, we always had to stay hidden….” Allegra shuddered, unable to go on.
“Fear of the Rüstov was all you ever knew,” Jack said, finally understanding why Allegra turned into a puddle every time she saw him.
“I grew up thinking the Rüstov killed everyone who ever looked like me,” Allegra added. “And then we came here, and I saw that there were others like me, but I was nothing like them. Prime and the others… they’re fearless and strong. Not like me. I think Prime is embarrassed of me.” Jack wanted to tell her that wasn’t the case, but he thought she might be right. “I’m all alone,” Allegra said. “The cowardly Valorian. No matter
where I go, there’s no one like me.”
“Yeah,” Jack said. “I know exactly how you feel.”
Allegra thought about that for a moment.
“Yeah, I guess you do,” she agreed. Just like her, he’d been an outsider his whole life, and it only got worse when he got to Empire City.
“Stendeval says normal is boring, but I don’t know,” Jack said. “People here can have blue skin, three arms, and computerized brains and that’s still normal. I’m the only one interesting enough to terrify an entire city.” Jack gave a little laugh, like it was no big deal. Like he was used to it. In a way, he guessed he was. Allegra didn’t laugh with him, though.
“Do you ever get scared about your infection?” she asked. “How do you know you’re not going to turn into one of them?”
“I guess I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “I really don’t.”
It was the first time Jack had said anything like that out loud. Jack hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake. He checked to make sure that Skerren was out of earshot, but he honestly didn’t know what had prompted him to admit the possibility of turning into a Rüstov. Maybe it was because he and Allegra had so much in common; he felt he could trust her. Maybe it was because she seemed genuinely concerned for him. Maybe it was just something he needed to get off his chest.
“Scary, right?” Jack said. “I get scared if I let myself think about it too much. I try not to let myself do that. Everything in my life has changed so fast, I just have to focus on this one thing to stay sane. I have to believe I can beat this… I have to. I mean, what’s the alternative?” Jack shook his head. “I can’t think like that. I have to learn how to use my powers and beat this thing. It’s the only chance I’ve got.”
Allegra marveled at Jack. “I can see why Prime is so impressed with you. You have the courage of a Valorian.”
Jack looked at Allegra. The courage of a Valorian? “I don’t know if it has anything to do with being brave,” he said, trying to downplay the compliment. “It’s more like I don’t have any other choice.”
“My people say that we always have a choice. It’s only the brave who choose not to surrender where there’s no reason left to hope.”
Jack looked at Allegra. “There’s nothing hopeless about either of us. And nothing bad is going to happen here. I don’t even think there’s any Rüstov on this island. The Inner Circle wouldn’t send us here if they thought we might be in any real danger, right?”
The second Jack finished saying those words, Allegra’s expression suddenly changed. She was staring over Jack’s shoulder, fixated on something with a confused, somewhat scared look on her face. Jack turned around to see Skerren running toward him at full bore. He lunged at Jack with one of his unbreakable swords, letting out a guttural snarl as he thrust the blade forward. Jack fell backward and dodged the blade. As he fell, he locked eyes with a Rüstov Left-Behind that had been creeping up behind him. Skerren’s sword screeched its way into the creature’s chest.
Allegra screamed when she saw the Left-Behind. Skerren knocked the creature to the ground and pulled his sword out of its chest. He stood on the Left-Behind’s stomach and immediately thrust the blade back into its torso. It was a good thing Skerren’s skills were as sharp as his swords, because there were more Rüstov to deal with. At least three more by Jack’s count. Very quickly, Jack started rethinking his doubts about the rumored Left-Behind squads in Empire City and on Wrekzaw Isle in general.
Jack’s mind jumped back to the last time he had faced off against a Rüstov, when he had fought Revile. Jack prayed Revile wouldn’t show up next. He had barely gotten away with his life that day, back when he didn’t have any control over the way his powers kicked in. Just as he thought about that, any machinery that was even halfway working on Wrekzaw Isle started springing to life. His powers were firing up on their own again. Jack didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t ready to handle this kind of action by himself. He watched as Skerren pulled the sword back from the fallen Rüstov’s midsection, spinning it in his hand as he drew out the other blade. Skerren shifted his weight, pivoting to swing both swords into another Rüstov Para-Soldier. With a single fluid motion, Skerren cut the Left-Behind into three pieces. It was the second Rüstov he’d dispatched in as many minutes. Before Skerren could turn his attention to the two that were left, one of them fetched him a blow that sent him reeling.
With Skerren down, the iron giant that had hit him stepped out of the darkness and turned its attention to Jack and Allegra. Jack’s stomach sank. It was just like when he had seen Revile back at St. Barnaby’s. The creature was a rusted, Frankenstein-esque robot with exposed wiring, gears, and mummified skin. A scrap metal Robo-Zombie. A junkyard heap come to life.
The lead Left-Behind screamed a blaring static-filled cry and raised a fist toward the two children. Jack heard something snap into place on its wrist. By the time Jack realized the Rüstov had a gun, it was almost too late.
“Down!” he yelled, trying to push Allegra out of the way.
Allegra liquefied and Jack fell right through her. The barrel of the Rüstov’s wrist cannon spun like a Gatling gun, and a combination of laser pulse blasts and bullets flew through the air. They hit the exact spot where Jack had been standing just seconds before. The blasts ripped harmlessly through Allegra’s fluid form. She screamed just the same.
Jack scurried behind a rock, dodging sparks that were shooting out of broken machinery. All around, Wrekzaw Isle was trying to switch itself on, thanks to him. Random wheels turned, indicator lights flashed, and circuit boards shorted out and blew fuses. Everywhere in sight, Jack’s powers were active, but he wasn’t in control. He wasn’t using anything on Wrekzaw Isle to his advantage. If Jack wanted to live through this, that would have to change.
Jack peered over the rock to see what was going on. One of the Rüstov soldiers was standing near the remains of a worn-out engine that was trying to run. Jack focused on that engine. There was a fan belt on it that was struggling to turn. Jack thought about that belt turning faster and faster until the engine finally blew. The explosion knocked the Rüstov forward into the channel of flaming oil. Seconds later, the creature emerged screaming and completely engulfed in flames. It ran wildly before exploding all over the battlefield.
There was only one Rüstov left. This one looked stronger than the others. It was bigger and had less rust and decay. It was firing plasma blasts at Allegra, but she defaulted into total liquid form and slinked off to a safe distance. Stendeval had told her that if a Valorian woman could banish all fear from her mind, she could become indestructible. So much for that, Jack thought as Allegra solidified and immediately grabbed for her beacon. There was nothing there. That’s when Jack realized he was wearing it. Allegra’s beacon had caught on his neck when he had fallen through her.
The two beacons hung heavy around Jack’s neck. It was a lot easier to swear off using them when there weren’t any Rüstov Left-Behinds around. As Jack debated whether or not to push the buttons, the last Left-Behind skulked around the campsite, turning over wreckage and hunting for the children. Across the way, Skerren was coming around. Jack knew he was going to attack again as soon as he could stand. He tried to get his attention. “No… wait!” he mouthed silently.
Skerren saw Jack but paid him no mind. He ran at the Rüstov again, swords drawn. He had no fear—that much was obvious. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much control, either. In his rage, Skerren threw any attempt at stealth out the window. The Rüstov saw him coming and turned with his gun ready. He was going to cut Skerren to ribbons.
Jack thought fast. He broke it down to the simplest terms possible. The one thing he could understand. The spinning barrel on the Rüstov’s gun. If he could stop that wheel from turning…
Click.’ The gun on the Rüstov’s wrist jammed and misfired before he could get a shot off. It blew apart in its hand, and Skerren was safe. He rolled behind the Rüstov and slashed at him with his swords. The Rüstov tried to hit him, but his
gun hand was damaged, hanging on by wires and tubing. He swung it like a mace, but Skerren was too fast, dodging his blows and cutting away at the Left-Behind bit by bit. Jack ran over to Allegra to make sure she was okay.
“I can’t find my beacon!” she yelled. “I can’t find my beacon!” Jack shook her off and turned to Skerren, who had the Left-Behind on the defensive. Jack wasn’t thinking about hitting his button anymore, and he certainly wasn’t going to tell Allegra that he had hers around his neck. He was thinking about how they were going to finish this thing off.
That’s when he heard what the Rüstov was saying. It was only static at first, like white noise from a TV with no cable. As the fight went on, Jack was able to make out more and more.
“KSSSHH-CHHSHA… You are not the one… KSSSHH-CHHSHA… Where is the infected?… KSSSHAHHCHCHCHCH.”
Jack froze. The infected? The Rüstov were after him!
The Left-Behind grabbed hold of Skerren’s shirt with its damaged hand. With a blast the hand detached at the wrist and rocketed off into the sky, carrying Skerren with it. He crashed into a trash heap. From the sound alone, Jack knew it had to hurt.
“Skerren!” Allegra screamed. It was a bad move. The Rüstov turned and saw her. He jumped over and threw away the scrap heap that she and Jack were hiding behind. The Rüstov stood over them, staring down like grinning death. Allegra backed away and fell to the ground, stumbling. Jack stood his ground.
“Why are you looking for me?” he demanded. “What do you know about me?”
The Rüstov snatched Jack up by his shirt collar and lifted him into the air. That’s when Wrekzaw Isle’s lights brightened up again, and the Rüstov got a good look at Jack.
“KSSCHHSHH… You!” it said between static bursts.
The creature stopped dead in its tracks. It lowered Jack down gently and fell to one knee before him.
“My liege,” it said to him.
Jack and Allegra were stunned as they watched the Rüstov kneel in a state of complete submission. It took a second to register that the fight had just come to a screeching halt, and they were going to be okay.
Accidental Hero (Jack Blank Adventure) Page 18