by Justin Sloan
The sight of those eyes staring at her would’ve made her weak in the knees, if not for the mix of ferocity and disappointment in them.
“I can do it,” she insisted, knowing she was trying to convince herself as much as him.
He just shook his head, a compassion coming over his eyes that bordered on pity, and then turned to lift his blaster and fire.
Ashley appeared a moment later, blowing her cover to join in the defense of their rooftop, and soon it was clear their scanners had been dead wrong. There weren’t just a few extra drones, there were at least a dozen.
Dan pulled Samantha back by the collar into the protection of the stairwell, then shouted for her to snap out of it.
She stared at the drones, hearing them fire and watching as bullets and lasers tore apart the roof nearby, and gathered her will. Shouldering her rifle, Samantha took aim and connected with the red dot of a drone just as it swerved to get them in its sights.
KA-BOOM!
It exploded, taking down two next to it.
“That’s why the hell we keep you around,” Dan whooped in victory. “Thanks for the reminder.”
He ducked around the corner and let out a series of shots, then flung himself back and out of the way of more fire.
“Dammit, Dan!” Ashley’s voice sounded through Dan’s earpiece and from the other roof at the same time, reminding Samantha that she hadn’t put her own earpiece back in yet.
She did so just in time to nearly go deaf as Ashley shouted, “Get off that roof!”
“She’s right,” Samantha said. “Go!”
He shook his head and was about to argue, when his eyes went wide and he aimed his blaster over Samantha’s shoulder. She felt the vibration through his arm as it came to rest against her, and then he was pulling her toward the stairs.
“You go, I’ll hold them off.”
“No, Dan—” She was cut off by an intense whirring as five drones appeared behind him, the red circles at their noses already lit, ready to fire.
Without time to think, without the slightest bit of hesitation, Samantha aimed in, focused on the farthest drone. She took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger as an intense warmth flooded through her muscles. But her weapon never went off. Instead she sat there, staring, as the drone she had focused on shook, rattling, and everything froze in place except for the mechanized beast.
Samantha stared, amazed and confused.
Time moved again as the drone shook harder, turned red-hot, and then exploded, taking down the rest of them with it. The blast sent Samantha and Dan tumbling down the stairs, and he landed on top of her with an “Oompth” as her head smacked the floor.
At first she saw stars, blue stars, then realized they were his eyes, inches from her. Close enough to kiss her. She cocked her head, and as out of place as the thought was… she hoped he would.
But no, he was shouting something, his lips moving. And then he had her, pulling her up.
“Are you okay?” The words came like a distant whisper, accompanied by a dull ringing that grew louder and then suddenly popped, allowing his voice to come in clear this time. “Sam, are you with me?”
She nodded, eyes wide. Holy cajoles, she thought. What had happened? Had she had something to do with that?
“Must’ve been a malfunction,” Dan said, wrapping an arm around her and leading her down the stairs as fast as they could go. He holstered his blaster and pressed his earpiece back in. “Ashley, you up there? We’re making our way back.”
“Copy that,” Ashley said through their earpieces, her voice shaky. “They’re all down… I don’t know what the hell happened, but they’re all down.”
“Malfunction,” Dan repeated, but for the slightest second his eyes flittered over to Samantha. There was awe there. Terror-filled awe, but definitely awe.
He had seen her do it!
With a smile at the fact that she no longer doubted herself, and that he had looked at her like that, she said into her earpiece, “Gunny, you out there?”
“Yeah, girl,” Gunny’s raspy voice replied. “What you got for me?”
“We’re coming out, me and Danny boy. Get everyone in place, we’re taking over this mech.”
“Cheer-E-Os!” Gunny called back in his gung-ho way.
“Just… get everyone ready, you corny S.O.B.,” Dan said into his earpiece, then paused at the second-to-last stairwell down, hands on Samantha’s shoulders as he stared into her eyes.
“Um…?”
“Checking for a concussion,” he said, then nodded and released her. “You ready for this?”
She nodded back.
“And whatever that was… up there. Think you can do it again, if needed?”
This time she grinned with a more enthusiastic nod.
“I’ve got some questions for you when this is all done,” he said. “Maybe an apology too, for ever doubting you. I’d say a drink, if you’re old enough?”
“We’ll figure something out.” The words slipped out, and she blushed at the sound of them.
His eyes went wide, apparently seeing right through her. She wanted to meld into the wall behind her, just become part of it and sink out of existence.
But then his smile returned and he shook his head with a chuckle. “Just… keep those bastards off of me if they return, got it?”
She nodded, wanting to thank him for ignoring her accidental flirtation.
With a wave of his hand, he was off, and she was forced back to thoughts on their present situation instead of teenage swooning. Probably for the best, she told herself. Right now she needed to stay focused.
They emerged from the dim stairwell into the blinding light of day. A vibration rumbled through the ground, and then another, quicker and quicker.
“Mech incoming!” Gunny shouted over the earpieces.
Dan took off at a sprint, only pausing long enough to turn back and say, “Hurry your ass!”
“Sam,” Gunny said, “get in position six!”
“And follow your damn orders this time,” Ashley chimed in.
“On it!” Samantha replied, breaking off from Dan to turn left past an old thrift store recently turned to rubble. She moved along the side streets of what had once been Cleveland. The smell of smoke and gunpowder hung in the chilly air, and sometimes the team would joke that it sure was cold for hell.
She darted past Gunny, gave a nod, and found her spot at an improvised bunker at the edge of their block where she could see the incoming mech.
Holy balls, she thought as she set the thing in her sights. It was huge, bounding forward with each step and given an extra boost from thrusters at its back. While most would think of mechs as smooth or angled like a tank, this one was clearly meant to be part kill-machine, part intimidation. Its back was ridged to give it an alien look, its face glowing red. Spikes rose from its arms above the cannon on one side and the blaster on the other.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
“Almost on us!” she shouted.
“I’m in place,” Dan’s smooth voice came back. “You tell me when.”
She waited, feeling each heartbeat send her blood coursing through her skull. A warm tingling went through her, and she wondered if it was an aftereffect of whatever she had done on the rooftop, or simply a rush from the thrill of the moment.
“NOW!” she shouted, and everything moved into double time. She was up, firing at the mech’s feet, and then retreating into the nearby building to distract it.
BOOM!
Its cannon took out a twelve-foot radius of the area where she had just been standing. Lucky for her, she moved fast. A rattling sounded as its shoulder gun readied, but she was hurrying past the next building already, preparing to loop back around.
More shots sounded, and she knew Ashley had taken her spot on the roof. More explosions, followed by shouting in the earpiece, and then Samantha was in her second position.
Where was that son of a bitch?
She glanced around, seeing only rubble and smoke. Beyond al
l that, more smoke rose in the distance—black, thick. Was that… it was!
“Gunny, we got smoke coming from the direction of home base!” she shouted into her earpiece.
“Dammit, Sam!” he replied. “Stay focused.”
“But Gunny—”
“I KNOW! Ain’t nothing we can do about it right now but keep to the mission. We get this mech, we score a point against the Syndicate. Right now, we need a damn point.”
If the Syndicate is really our ultimate enemy, Sam thought, remembering her visions of the end of the world. Remembering what the man, or alien, whatever he was, had shown her. Hadrian… that was his name.
And if her power was real, then so was he.
The validation hit her like a punch to the throat, and for a moment she couldn’t breathe. All her memories came flooding back to her.
Then, she saw him.
A quick glimpse—at first a tail of smoke, then a man in a robe. He was gone when she looked again, but it was enough to rattle her.
If he was back, why? Why now?
“Sam, you got eyes on the mech?” Dan asked.
She spun, searching, and then… THUD. THUD. THUD. It appeared around the corner, its massive metal spikes of blue and red facing her.
“It’s got its back to me, facing your way,” she hissed.
“I’m going for it,” Dan replied.
“It’s too risky!”
“Risk?” Dan chuckled, though it was a nervous one. “Risk is what we’re doing, Sam. We’re out here risking our lives for everyone back there, and I mean to see it through.”
Sure, Samantha thought as she glanced back at the smoke coming from the direction of their base. If anyone was back there to keep alive anymore.
“AHHH!” Dan shouted, and then he appeared, leaping from a building and going straight for the mech. While she and others opened fire—away from the mech so as not to hit Dan—the mech turned, ready to engage, and Dan did his magic.
“The plate’s off,” he said. “Connecting wires.”
“We’ve got more drones incoming!” Ashley shouted, and Gunny cursed.
“Give me thirty seconds!” Dan hissed.
More gunfire, the sound of the mech’s cannon, and then an explosion.
“I’m hit!” Gunny said. “Holy Eggo-Waffle balls that hurts!”
“Stay put,” Ashley said, “I’m coming for you!”
“Dammit, Ash,” Gunny replied. “Stay where the hell you are! Dan needs you!”
“I can get to you,” Sam said, turning to see where she had last seen Gunny. “How’s that mech looking, Dan?”
“Got the wires, just—”
“Don’t you dare, Sam!” Gunny shouted. “Everyone stay put. Just… a little… blood. I’ll…”
Silence followed. Or, as much silence as could while buildings exploded from a mech going berserk and three LRR fighters shooting to distract it.
“Gunny’s… down… HE’S DOWN!”
“DAMMIT!” Ash screamed.
After a moment, Dan’s voice came through again. “And… we got the mech.”
It was a moment of horrible internal conflict. Gunny had been important to the cause, and yet, this had been something they’d been working toward. Something they knew had the possibility to turn around the fate of the Resistance.
Still, no amount of success could make up for the pain tearing through Sam’s chest over the loss of Gunny. It was almost unbearable, but it wasn’t the first time they’d lost someone, and wouldn’t be the last. If they let this stall them, then that meant they would have let it beat them.
“Get that mech moving, Dan,” Samantha said over the comms. “We’ve gotta go.”
“For the love of—” Ashley started, but Dan cut her off.
“She’s right. Gunny would’ve wanted it.”
Silence.
Whirring again. LOUD WHIRRING. Samantha spun to see a pack of drones coming her way, rising up and taking aim.
“We’ve got company!” she screamed, backpedaling.
They aimed in, the lights of their targeting systems creating red lines in her eyes. Her mind was telling her to reach for the gun and shoot, or run. Anything but sit there like a target.
Bullets started flying, and she could see them in slow motion, emerging from the barrels. It was as if time had slowed and now… stopped.
A flash of red and black, an arm around her torso, another under her legs, and she was at the next building over as time reset and the drones pulverized the empty spot where she had been a split-second before.
Her vision cleared, and she saw her rescuer.
Hadrian.
His face was fluid, changing before her eyes. It settled on an image he knew she would find pleasing, if not slightly disturbing. Especially since she still wasn’t totally convinced her memories of him were real.
A man in his forties, salt-and-pepper hair with a bit of stubble, and the same smile as her mom. It was what she sometimes imagined her dad might look like, even though she had no way of knowing. She had never met the douchebag Marine who impregnated her mom and then took off.
The drones whirred, confused. Then they zipped away, sensing something around the corner.
“We have to go back for them!” Sam shouted, struggling to break free from Hadrian. “They already got Gunny! We can’t just…”
She trailed off as gunfire sounded nearby, followed by explosions and then more gunfire and shouting.
“Dammit.” She pushed Hadrian away and fell to the rooftop. Another wave of drones appeared, followed by a second loud stomping toward them.
“This is the time,” Hadrian said, holding out a hand for her to take. “This is your time.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” She pulled her rifle around, aiming in on the drones and firing. Now they were on to her, but at least she’d kept them away from the shit-storm that was happening down below.
Hadrian closed his eyes and held out a hand. A pulse of energy like a shockwave flew out from him and hit the closest drone, causing it to start vibrating. The other drones zipped around it as the mech came within feet, then the vibrations stopped. All sound seemed to cease, and then—
KA-BOOM!
All of the drones were blasted by the explosion, tearing them to pieces as the mech below was knocked onto its back, its control box shattered and its shields down.
“This is bigger than them, Sam,” Hadrian said, and this time he didn’t wait for her to take his hand. He grabbed her, picking her up, and turned from the battle.
“Nothing’s bigger than them!”
He sighed, looking at her and then at the devastation below, and said, “I’ll show you. They will be fine.”
In a flash, they were on a completely different rooftop. Samantha saw the first mech go running by, glide forward with its thrusters, and strafe across an opening between buildings as it unleashed with a blaster that took out the last two drones.
She couldn’t believe Dan had really done it. With a yelp of excitement, she ran to the edge of the roof, looking for them. She spotted him with his controls on the opposite side of the street, within the skeleton of a building.
He moved his head as if about to look up, and her hand raised in return. But then something caused him to look behind him instead. A moment later, Ashley was there, jumping into his arms, laughing. And then… they were kissing.
It hit Samantha like a lead pipe. She couldn’t breathe. Her muscles tensed and her vision blurred, and then the window beside Ashley and Dan started to vibrate. They both turned and looked up, but Hadrian yanked Samantha away.
“This is precisely why you must come with me,” he said. He moved a hand out in front of him and a gateway opened. “You have the power, now you must learn to control it.”
“That wasn’t me. I can’t—”
“Yes, it was, and you can. One more minute, and those people you care so much about would’ve been full of shards of glass, thanks to your inability to control what I have t
aught you.” He smiled, though the smile looked unnatural on his face. “Now, it’s time you reached the next level.”
“But the Resistance, they need me.”
“Sam, look at me.” He held her shoulders, staring into her eyes. “You have been fighting for Earth, but not in the way you think. What I’m offering is for you to be part of an elite team, one of several chosen to go up against the real enemy here. An enemy I’ve hinted at before, but only now will you begin to truly comprehend.”
She felt like she had tasted a cake and loved it, then had the whole thing shoved into her face. How the hell was she supposed to process all of this?
Hadrian added, “What you’ll be fighting for from now on isn’t just Earth. It’s much more. Sam, you’ll be fighting for the fate of the universe.”
How does one argue that? Samantha was here for the fight, and if there was an opportunity to take it to the next level, she was ready. Or at least, she couldn’t say no. She only wished she had been told earlier.
Turning to the flowing light of the jump point, she steeled any remaining doubts, pushed them deep down, and then burned the hell out of them with her passion and determination. No more room for doubts. No more room for failure.
She stepped into the gate, ready to save the universe.
Everything went black, then lights flashed around her and she lost consciousness.
Visions returned of massive spider mechs and aliens so vile she wanted to turn and cry at the sight of them. An assault on Earth opened before her like a veil being lifted to reveal the universe, all of it in chaos.
And then she was in a bed, a cold sweat on her brow. She sat up, looking around, confused. Her head ached and her stomach clenched and unclenched repeatedly. How long had the travel taken? Where was she, and when was the last time she had eaten?
Then she noticed the man at the end of the room, and he noticed her. No, not a man, but man-like. Humanoid, but with translucent skin and eyes that looked like they were literally balls of fire.
He cocked his head, said something muted and indistinct, and then walked toward her.
Samantha’s heart fluttered, her mouth went dry, and then… she fell back to the bed, once again unconscious.
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