Project Emergence

by Jamie Zakian

  “Captain Stone,” he said with a phony layer of appall. “It’s against U.N.E. protocol to strike a detained prisoner. Good thing you hit like a little girl.”

  Sabrina smirked before unloading a full-force punch to the man’s gut. “We’re not on Earth anymore, freak,” she said, socking him again. Reyes pulled her back, but not before she landed another blow to the psycho’s face.

  Reyes pushed her into a corner, glancing at the officer beside them. “We’re good in here, Russ. They could use you upstairs.”

  “No problem.” The officer took a step, rocked in place, then glanced back at Reyes. “I could hear everything that happened in the hall between you and Captain Stone. He could too. Thought you should know.” He averted his stare and hurried from the room.

  “Great,” Reyes muttered, backing away from Sabrina.

  “Aw. Aren’t you two just so adorable?” the man sneered, glowering at Reyes.

  Sabrina stomped forward, knocking her palm against the psycho’s forehead. “Hey, crazy.” He rolled his leer to her, and she hardened her expression. “Who’s your accomplice?”

  “God’s my accomplice,” he said with a straight face.

  “Huh!” Sabrina nodded. She backed away, and Reyes launched his fist into the man’s stomach.

  A garble bounced from the walls, the man drooling spit and blood as he hacked. “Oh,” he wheezed, “how passionately you defend your women, Mr. Reyes.”

  “Answer the question,” Reyes growled, his face blank.

  Sabrina pulled the man’s handheld from her pocket, flipping on the power. “So it was God who sent you these texts?” she asked, holding out the display for him to see.

  The man didn’t look, his eyes only on Reyes.

  “Does she know, Mr. Reyes? What happened to your last woman and your part in all this?”

  “Shut up,” Reyes shouted, slugging the man square in the nose. Metal cuffs clanked against the chair, followed by a blend of groans and chuckles. Sabrina looked at Reyes, his eyes consumed in flares of rage.

  “Would she defend you, Mr. Reyes?”

  “Shut up!” Reyes cried out, hitting the man again and again.

  “Reyes!” Sabrina yelled. Her arms and legs froze, almost afraid to near the enraged man. She flinched when Reyes delivered a crushing blow. A tooth bounced off the floor and slid against her boot, the sound of fists slapping skin echoing in her ears. “Reyes!”

  Sabrina clutched onto his bulging arm, stopping it midswing.

  Reyes stumbled back, his gaze stuck to the floor. “It’s not … I’m not …”

  She stood there glaring until Reyes lifted his stare. There it was—that same expression she glimpsed when first meeting him. Not quite guilt or malice but a hint of remorse.

  “Ah, yes. She sees you now, Mr. Reyes.”

  Sabrina spun toward the man, clamping onto his blood-streaked throat. “One more word and I’ll kill you,” she said while squeezing. The man’s eyes narrowed, taunting her, and her empty hand began to shake. She wanted to crush his windpipe, so badly it frightened her.

  The moment her fingers unclasped, the man lunged for her. She jolted back from the animal of a man fighting his restraints.

  “Do it. Send me to my Father’s loving arms.” His voice raised, and he tilted his head to the ceiling. “I have done his bidding and will be welcomed into the kingdom, the hand of God.”

  He dropped his zealous leer to Sabrina, a trickle of blood oozing from his split lip. “My part is done. All the children are dead. Their souls will be delivered to God with or without me.”

  The chain of his handcuffs screeched against the metal chair as he attempted to stand, his venomous glare aimed at Sabrina.

  “My accomplices are all around you. You’re alone here, Captain Stone. Just you, me, and God.”

  A flood of laughter swallowed all the air inside the little room. Sabrina stumbled back, lecturing her nerves to remain calm.

  “I am the hand of God,” he shouted, cackling louder.

  She could no longer fight the shivers that assaulted her body. Frenzied howls of glee crammed her ears. Those ominous eyes trailed her every movement, clashing with the joyous sounds that streamed from the bloody mouth below them. She glanced at Reyes, who moved toward her. Instinct drew her palm to the hilt of her knife, and she elbowed the keypad.

  After the door slid open, she burst into the hall. Gales of laughter wafted into the tight corridor behind her, and she hurried away.

  ***

  Winslow couldn’t move. A thick haze kept his body still, silent, but he could hear just fine. All he could do was listen. First to Dr. Boone, who talked with soft flowing tones that soothed his mind. Then to Captain Stone who uttered words of an attack, which he was powerless to rectify. Finally, to his son’s voice.

  Chuck had spoken to him more now than during the course of his entire life. He was listening, whether his son knew it or not. The things he heard; the things his boy had said. He had no idea. His son was sad, tortured inside, and it was his fault. He should have been there for his child.

  With nothing to do but listen and think, he could clearly see his every mistake. The looks on his young son’s face every time he shrugged the boy aside for work. Humanity is counting on me, Chuck. You understand. Chuck always nodded and moped away, and he never gave a second thought.

  As confessions continued to flow from Chuck’s mouth, his heart broke. These would be his sins. He would absorb his son’s misdeeds and allow his boy a fresh start. Once his body returned to his control, he’d embrace his son. He’d forgive Chuck and hope for the same.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Sabrina wait.”

  Reyes grabbed her arm, and she pulled her knife from its sheath. She whirled around, shoving him from her face. At this point, an innocent man would walk away. He didn’t. His jaw clenched, eyes bouncing between the weapon and her face. Then, as expected, he dove for her.

  She knocked his outstretched arm down and sashayed aside. He stumbled, and she dragged the tip of her blade along his cheek. While he was busy bumbling like an oaf, she was studying his movements to prepare her next attack.

  His hand flew to his face and he gasped, staring down at the blood on his fingertips. “I can’t believe you cut me.”

  With a flick of her wrist, she spun the knife in her palm. A cool blade rested against her forearm, its sharp edge angled out, and she lifted her fists. “Get on your knees. I’m detaining you for questioning.”

  “So it’s like that?”

  Her eyes narrowed. She lifted her fist, ready to smash, then slash.

  “All right!” He raised his hands, locked his fingers behind his head, and slowly crouched to the floor.

  Sabrina crept toward Reyes, flinching when he jumped to his feet. He bashed his forehead against her nose, flashing the world to red. A sharp sting beamed from her eyes to zap her brain, but it paled in comparison to the scrape his treachery brought to her heart. As she staggered, he seized her wrist then twisted.

  The knife slid from her hand, clanking to the metal floor. Before she could react, Reyes slammed her back against the wall. His elbow hit the steel, a bulky forearm pinning her neck tight.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t wanna hurt you,” he said in a soft yell.

  “Let me go,” she growled, wiggling beneath the crushing weight.

  “Not until you let me explain.”

  “Mr. Reyes!” An officer stood at the end of the hallway, gawking as Reyes held Sabrina to the wall.

  Sabrina took full advantage of the distraction by driving the tip of her boot into his ankle. He buckled, and she thrust her elbow up, clocking the underneath of his chin.

  “What the …” the officer exclaimed as Reyes thumped against the wall.

  While scooping up the knife, Sabrina eyed the two men who crowded her escape.

  “Dammit, Sabrina, this is exactly what he wants. Us at each other’s throats while the person
on the other end of those texts finishes us off.”

  Sabrina shook her head, slinking closer to the dead end behind her. “You’re hiding something. I can tell.”

  “I’m getting help,” the officer said, reaching for his handheld.

  “No,” Reyes called out. “Just … go back to your duties.”

  The officer cleared the hall, leaving an open gap to freedom, and Sabrina almost bolted toward it.

  “Please,” Reyes said, his gaze as gentle as his soft tone. “No more touching.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. Slowly, he walked past Sabrina to sit on the ledge of the wide round window that ended the corridor.

  Sabrina sheathed her blade, keeping her fingers tight around its handle. An emerald glow shimmered through the glass behind Reyes, somehow enhancing his already honest face. She wanted to trust him, needed to if they hoped to survive.

  “I was approached two weeks ago by members of the Earthisum Movement. They offered me a ton of cash. All I had to do was leave the lower maintenance door of the shuttle open and walk away.”

  He looked to the swirl of the wormhole, his sorrow reflecting in the window. “I told them to shove it. The next day, they kidnapped my sister. I had gotten a day pass so I could take her to A-Sector. Sort of a good-bye trip. I just wanted her to walk the streets without a radon suit. See the shops, the glitzy people. View the world from underneath that huge glass dome.”

  Sabrina lowered her hand from the knife. Misery clung to Reyes. The anguish behind his far-off stare decimated her anger, damn near erased the sense of betrayal.

  “I let her out of my sight for ten minutes, so she could try on a dress, and I get a call with her screaming in the background. Then pictures, the worst pictures. I tore the sector apart until a few of your soldier buddies tossed me out. There was nothing I could do.” He looked at Sabrina, his eyes glossy. “They had her for two weeks. They must’ve thought she was my girlfriend because they kept calling her my woman. Every day, I got a new picture, each one bloodier than the last.”

  He lifted a trembling hand, wiping his eyes. She wanted to comfort him, but anger still blazed inside her chest.

  “I left the door open and walked away,” he said, glaring at himself in the glass. “Right before you boarded, I got a call from my mother. They dumped Marilee on her front porch in a torn radiation suit. Her entire left arm got boiled. They broke her jaw, eye socket, and … they did things to her, things no woman should have to endure.”

  Reyes turned away from the window, and Sabrina flinched. The way his fingers twitched, stretching out, it looked like he’d latch onto her at any second. He didn’t grab for her or lunge. He just shoved his hands back into his pockets.

  “I thought they wanted to hitch a ride to Mars, and I could weed ‘em out once we landed. I didn’t know they wanted to murder everyone, I swear.”

  Sabrina tried to muster up a hard glare, but it was about as much fun as kicking a puppy. “I understand why you did what you did, but you kept this from me, even after you knew we were in danger.”

  “I tried to tell you. I was going to tell you.”

  “There are dead children up there.” Sabrina pointed to the floor above them and the bodies she knew littered the hallways. “I could’ve saved them if I had all the info.” The sharpest edge of grief sliced through her. To keep from breaking down, she twisted her sadness into a blustery rage. “This is your fault. I can’t trust you.”

  Her temper rose, gaining a life of its own. At this point, she could either punch her pain away or run from it. Reyes looked pretty beaten down already, so she turned her back to him and stormed down the corridor. Her steady pace broke when she entered the locker room.

  Piles had begun to amass—arms, legs, blank faces in heaps. She covered her mouth to keep her cry from escaping. Never in thirty-five years of life had she witnessed such a horrific site. Innocents slain for no reason she could decipher.

  Tremors followed every step as she wormed her way through the remnants of a massacre. Her side bumped into a man, and he looked up from his tablet. “How many?” she asked, her eyes stuck on the death that saturated the room.

  “One hundred and seventy-seven,” he said in a choked whisper.

  The air sucked from her lungs, a sharp prickle traveling beneath her skin. One hundred seventy-seven children gone from the scraps of their world. Her duty to humanity, to her own conscience, had now slipped so far it could never return to her grasp.

  “Sabrina.”

  Reyes stood behind her. She could hear him, feel his presence, but she couldn’t look at his face.

  “You need my help,” he said softly.

  “You wanna help?” She waved her hand around the room. “Put a shroud on each of these bodies, so we can float ‘em once we punch through the wormhole.”

  She walked to the doorway, stopping in its threshold to glance back at Reyes. “I have to go tell those kids upstairs that one hundred and seventy-seven of their friends are dead.” The words brought a churn to her stomach, and a lump decided to take up residence in the back of her throat. Fingers clasped, keep that military stance, and walk onto the elevator. She repeated the credo over and over in her head until the elevator door slid open.

  ***

  Joey stood in the middle of the landing. She didn’t know how long she’d been there. The minutes moved fast, but the vacant faces drifted by so slowly as they were carted past her. Leaving was not an option. Her mentality had separated from her body a long time ago, a numbing buzz circulating in its place.

  Another one lifted into arms and gently carried away. One by one. In a train of corpses, they left her sight. Their eyes lingered on her until the shadows of the hallway stole their stares.

  Fingers clutched her shoulder, a voice muttered in her ear, and another body was whisked from the floor. She couldn’t tear her gaze from the vacant leers of the dead, no matter how hard she tried.

  “Joey,” Sabrina said, shaking her from a haze of absent eyes and voiceless lips.

  “There’s so many,” Joey muttered, pushing past Sabrina. She stepped to the edge of a small pile, staring down at a chubby leg. “That’s Astroboy. I didn’t know him, but he seemed okay.”

  A crop of red hair drew her gaze, and she dashed to the next mound, crouching low. “This girl wanted to see my room. I guess now …” She crawled around the side of the heap, digging through a nest of floppy arms. “That guy’s a twin!” Her palms slapped skin as she tore deeper into the pile. “But I don’t see his sister here.”

  She crawled toward the next stack of bodies. She had to find the guy’s sister; they needed to be together. Sabrina dropped to her knees, blocking Joey’s path to pale faces.

  “Come on. Let me get you out of here.”

  “No,” Joey shrieked, pulling away. “I have to find his sister. They’re twins!”

  Sabrina grabbed onto Joey, wrapping her in a tight hug. Joey clung to the arms around her, unable to stop the shudder of her every muscle.

  “It’s okay, Joey. I’ll do it.” While clutching tight, Sabrina turned Joey’s stare from the horrors. “Jesse needs you now. Let me take you to him.”

  “Yes.” Joey wiped her eyes, wiggling out of Sabrina’s hold. “And Kami and Rai. Can you help me?”

  Joey jumped to her feet, heading down the hall that led to medical. She stopped in front of the cafeteria and turned, bumping into Sabrina’s chest. “I have to get Kami, bring her here. That way I can watch all of them. Together.”

  “Okay.” Sabrina flashed a soft grin. “I’ll get Kami, bring her to you. All right?”

  “Yeah.” Joey attempted a nod, but her movements came out jerky. “No, that’s good. I’ll wait by Jesse.” She backed toward the cafeteria doors, thrusting her finger out. “You’ll bring her, right? You swear.”

  “I’ll bring her.”

  Only after Sabrina hurried from sight did Joey push open the doors. This time, people sat atop tables. Arms and l
egs moved on their own instead of flopping under another’s grasp. The groans, although sad to hear, calmed her frayed nerves. She hopped to the tips of her toes, eye line beamed to Jesse. When finding her brother still out cold, her heels sank back to the ground.

  The two officers who remained in the room watched the doors, not her. Sally dashed right in front of her and didn’t even spare a glance, so she hurried toward Jesse.

  Along the way, a hand clasped onto her wrist. She looked at the table beside her, and Rai sat up. An awful sound, much like a mouse being stepped on, flew from her lips as she dove into his arms.

  After stripping off the mask, Rai slid his hands around her. “You’re trembling,” he said, and the quake intensified.

  Rai lifted her onto his lap, and she collapsed against his chest. He kissed the top of her head, arms locked in a bear hug. “What happened? Is Kami okay? Jesse?”

  “They’re okay. They made it out alive.”

  “Alive! What the hell?”

  He tried to pull away, but she kept a firm grip, unable to part with the strength of his embrace.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered into his shirt. “Everyone was poisoned or gassed, except for me. I got Kami out and Captain Stone found us in the hall, but there’s so many dead people. So many. I saw them all. Put into stacks beside each other, on top of one another. Then they were carried away.”

  Rai slid his hands to Joey’s cheeks and drew her back. She stared beyond him, afraid he might see the fracture of her mind somewhere behind her eyes. He pulled her close once again, holding even tighter. “Joey, I …” His body inch away as he looked around the room. “How many?”

  She jolted at the question, at the images it conjured. “Too many to count,” she said, her words sounding slow and heavy in her own head. “More than in this room.”

  “I don’t see Kami.”

  “She’s in medical.” Joey slanted back, just far enough to glare at the door. “That Stone lady swore she’d bring her here. She better come through, ‘cause if I gotta go back out there—”