Project Emergence

by Jamie Zakian

  “No, she saved my life.” Kami shot Joey a smile. “Thanks!”

  “Where’s Rai?” Jesse asked. He inched around a wide bloodstain on the carpet and peeked into the empty, trashed bathroom. “He would never leave his laptop just sitting here.”

  Joey stepped beside Kami, staring at the computer’s screen. At first, she wasn’t sure what she was looking at. It was just a group of people, standing in a circle and hurling their arms and legs. Then, Sabrina rolled across the floor, leaving a trail of blood, and her heart all but leaped into her throat.

  “Where is this?” Jesse asked, his body jittering.

  When Kami moved the pointer to the video screen, the word Suckers appeared in the upper-right hand corner. “It’s the control room.”

  “Rai’s in there,” Joey yelled, leaning closer to the laptop. She pointed to the screen, beyond the visual of Sabrina bleeding on the floor, to Rai crouched behind a desk.

  “Oh crap!” Kami dropped to her knees, tearing through the debris that littered the room. “Oh crap, oh crap.”

  “What are you looking for?” Joey jumped back as Kami crawled past her feet.

  Jesse hurried to the door, stopping in its crumpled threshold. “I’m going.”

  “No, wait,” Joey called out, but he dashed from sight. “Kami!”

  “I got it.” Kami snatched up a small metal case and hopped to her feet. “Let’s go!” She pushed Joey into the hall, running toward the sound of the elevator’s creaky door.

  While half-in the elevator, Jesse waved his hand. “Come on.”

  Kami practically shoved Joey to get inside. The door slid closed, and Kami dropped to one knee, jabbing the case’s keypad with a shaky finger.

  “What is that?” Joey asked, peeking over Kami’s shoulder.

  The latches flipped open, and Kami lifted the lid, pulling out a clunky gun-shaped object.

  “A going-away present from my mom.” Kami grinned, raising the weapon to her chest while attempting her toughest leer. “It’s a multi-shot, low-density, plasma-burst shooter.”

  Joey shook her head, the elevator rocking to a stop. “Kami, we’re in space!”

  “Don’t worry.” Kami pushed Joey and Jesse against the wall before backing to the other side. She lifted the gun and clicked on the power. “It’s not strong enough to go through metal, just people.”

  A buzz and a whirl echoed from the weapon in Kami’s trembling hand. The door crept open, Kami slid her finger to the trigger, and Joey held her breath.

  ***

  Chuck stayed on the floor. The ache that spread throughout his body had long subsided, yet he remained down. Confusion swarmed his mind. All the lies, which he had given into, clouded his inner beliefs. God never spoke to him. It was a ruse, a scheme, concocted to obtain his unhinged mother’s love. Yet somehow, it had gone too far and he fell into his own fairytales.

  As he rolled onto his back, a broken rib shifted. A searing tingle shot into his lungs, and he hacked. The soreness swiftly returned. Wads of thick blood amassed inside his throat, and the cough teetered its limits of a frenzied whoop. He spun to his knees, choking and wheezing.

  A hand patted his back and he vaulted to the side. He forced his lungs to quiet, a light heave juddering his chest as he peered up.

  “It’s okay, son,” his father said in a tender voice.

  “Dad!” Chuck scurried back as his father bent to one knee. He looked at the bed, finding rumpled sheets. His head slowly rotated back and his father’s gaze filled his sight.

  “My boy.”

  Hands gripped Chuck by the shoulders, fingers clutching tight. He jerked away, but his father pulled him close. When a caring embrace fell upon him, his body grew rock-solid. He tried to recall the last time his father held him, drawing a blank. Without consent, his body wilted and tears filled his eyes.

  “Dad, I … I’ve …”

  “It’s okay, son. I know. I heard everything you said to me.”

  The sharp edge of his father’s tone inspired fear. He yanked back, but his father kept him under a crushing grip.

  “The bomb that you helped plant. The gas you told that man to release in the sleeping quarters, and what you had him do to me. I know about the two dead people in the back room and how you attacked that poor girl.”

  Chuck’s body broke into fits of tremors. This was it. Finally, what he had been craving for years. Someone to see him, judge his actions. A reckoning. Death was his destiny; he’d always known and his sins ensured it. The strangest mixture of fright and relief washed over him. He’d been hoping, praying it would be his father to enact this well-deserved punishment. Course hands slid up his shoulders. He closed his eyes as fingers landed on the sides of his neck.

  “I forgive you, son.”

  The grip remained on his neck, light and soft, and his eyes fluttered open. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t supposed to play out like this.

  He latched onto his father’s hands, squeezing them tighter. “No! Kill me!” Fingers slipped from his skin, and he moved his father’s hand back to his throat. “No! I’m evil. You have to punish me. It has to be you.”

  His father reached out, and he flinched.

  “I’ve punished you enough, Chuck,” he said, taking Chuck’s hand.

  “No!”

  “I forgive you.”

  Chuck tried to pull away, but his father held him snug, hugging him, kissing the top of his head. Every embrace burned like acid. He didn’t want to be forgiven, live with the guilt of what he’d done, be loved.

  “This was my fault, Chuck. I steered you down this path. That makes your sins my responsibility.”

  A torrent of sobs burst from Chuck’s bloody lips, bouncing from the shiny walls, and his father clutched him tighter.

  “No one has to know. Besides what you did to that girl, no one knows.”

  “They do know,” Chuck said in a panic. “Natalia and the entire flight crew thinks I’m some kind of Chosen One. They call me the voice of God. They actually think I can talk to God. They all know.”

  His father drew back, a stern expression overshadowing his gentle gaze. “What’s the next step in this plan? What are they supposed to do?”

  Chuck shook his head, trying to clear the fuzz from his mind. This mission had been burrowed into his brain. All those nights, when his father traded home for work and his mother came to him. They prepped for hours, rehearsed every scenario possible. The outcome always the same, everyone dies while he and Natalia take a pod to Mars.

  “Natalia said she’d reprogram the navigation. We’re supposed to meet at Pod-C in” —he looked at his watch, glossy eyes growing wide— “five minutes. We take off, and ten minutes later, the shuttle steers into the wormhole, disintegrating.”

  “Come on.” His father climbed off the floor, hoisting Chuck up beside him. “It’s time to earn your redemption.”

  ***

  Rai crouched behind a desk as Sabrina sail through the air, crashing to the floor at an arm’s length. The sight of such a strong woman, beaten and bloody, rattled his nerves.

  He glanced at Mr. Reyes, whose big ass was wedged in the wall, squirming to fit though the access hatch. A gut-wrenching cry drew his stare back to Sabrina. She flopped to her back, and their eyes connected. He could see her struggling with consciousness, fighting to go on through the pain. His legs surged forward. He reached for her hand when a deep voice yelled, “Hey!”

  Time seemed to slow as Rai sprung to his feet. His fists were ready, mind clear. A lifetime of jujitsu training, starting the moment he could walk, had honed his focus on one task: winning. Two men closed in on him; another pair not far behind.

  White knuckles barreled toward his face. He caught the fist in his palm, smirking. His fingers tightened, and he stepped to the side, twisted, then yanked up. The man whirled onto his back, a thump vibrating throughout the floor.

  Rai’s head tilted. A presence lifted the hairs on his neck,
and he kicked his leg to the side. Bones snapped beneath his strike. A woman launched into the wall, while his boot landed on the neck of the chump still in his grasp. The man’s chin pressed into the carpet under his weight. A pipe swung at his head, and he ducked, jerking the arm in his hold. The most sickening crack shocked his ears, the hand in his clutch drooping.

  Mr. Reyes tackled the guy behind Rai, taking a back full of kicks on the way to the ground. He should be helping the man, but all his muscles had gone limp. Breath caught in his open mouth as airways cinched to a close. The floppy arm, which had slipped from his loose fingers, slapped against the floor, and he flinched.

  “I killed the man.” He staggered. Bloodthirsty glares closed in around him, but his fists were caught at his sides, shackled by the burden of death.

  A sizzle filled the air, its loud snaps drawing his gaze. An orb of blue lightning streaked through the room, soaring toward him. He jumped aside. His arms waved, he teetered on his toes, and the sphere coasted past his stomach. He followed its crackle to a scorched hole in a man’s chest, whose fist was mere inches from his head.

  “Watch your back, idiot,” Kami yelled from across the room, flashing a cocky smirk. She fired off two more plasma bursts, dropping men at Rai’s feet. Empty eyes stared up at him from sizzling bodies, condemning him. He was a killer, and now his sister was too.

  “Oh, Kami, no,” he muttered, his words devoured by whirls of plasma bursts. They were supposed to guide their peers, shape a new world, and now all they’d have to offer is the morals of murderers.

  His fingers twisted into his hair. A burn filled his chest, and he wondered if the sting was his soul blazing to dust. Kami snickered, trailed by a woman’s scream. He turned away from the scatter of burnt bodies, only to glimpse the tip of a blade as it careened toward him.

  ***

  Sabrina dragged her quivering body across the carpet. A whimper seeped past her lips. The knife, still buried deep inside her gut, seared like fire with every move. Feet stomped all around her. Voices shouted, though she could scarcely hear over the throb in her temples.

  As if a light switch clicked, the fear of death vanished. Her time in this world neared its end, but she could still save the eighty-one children onboard this ship.

  Natalia’s cruel eyes filled her sight. The woman snarled while raising a knife, eyes locked on Rai who stood unaware.

  Sabrina ripped the blade from her stomach, howling as the scorch of serrated teeth tore her flesh. She clutched the sticky hilt, her fingers slipping. A surge of adrenaline rushed in, replacing the splinters of pain.

  She grabbed onto Rai’s shirt, pulling herself to her knees. Natalia charged them, and Sabrina lifted the knife. Her mind said lunge forward, but her body sank back, and the weapon was plucked from her grasp.

  ***

  Joey stood in the doorway of the control room. She couldn’t believe the scene in front of her. Mr. Reyes at her right, lost to a barrage of fists and boots from the trio surrounding him. Jesse had picked up a lead pipe and was laying people out.

  Two tiny blue plasma orbs hit the wall beside her. She ducked, covering her head as the transparent balls fizzled to smoke.

  A giggle rang out as Kami marched by, gun raised, smile painted on her face. That girl was having way too much fun. How Kami could even think straight right now, she didn’t understand. She wanted to run down the hall, jump back into the elevator, and let the door close all this away.

  Two more plasma bursts whirled by, dropping a woman who reached for Joey.

  “I got ya, girl,” Kami said, prancing off toward the group beating down Mr. Reyes.

  Joey backed away from hurling fists, bumping into a desk. She considered crawling under it then Mr. Reyes cried out, and her legs locked stiff.

  Beyond Kami, who lowered her gun, Mr. Reyes flung a charred body off his back. He patted the glowing red embers of his freshly singed shirt. “Ah, hell. That was brand-new skin, Kami.”

  Jesse grabbed at the weapon in Kami’s hand. “Gimme that before you kill one of us.”

  “I know what I’m doing.” Kami elbowed Jesse in the stomach, but he held tight.

  While the two bickered, Joey moved toward Rai. He looked terrified, frozen in place. She took another step, and the gleam of metal drew her stare to a knife, aimed at his chest. The woman beyond the blade charged forward, rattling the floor with her every step. Joey nearly tripped as Sabrina rose from the floor in front of her with a blood-drenched knife held high.

  Rai’s face warped in terror; the woman’s blade soared closer, and Sabrina sloped back.

  Joey leaped forward. She seized the dagger from Sabrina’s hand, bumped Rai aside, and jammed the blade into Natalia’s chest. The look on that woman’s face as a knife scraped past her ribcage etched into Joey’s mind. She’d never glimpsed so much shock, such hatred in any person’s stare before. Her fingers flew from the handle, which she’d buried deep in a woman’s chest.

  “Sorry,” Joey said in a whimper, her stare entranced on an ever-growing crimson stain around the knife’s shining edge.

  Speckles of warm blood pelted Joey’s face as Natalia tried to speak. Joey closed her eyes, wiping the sticky drops from her skin. She peeked through her fingers as Natalia lifted a trembling arm. Then the back of a hand whacked Joey’s cheek.

  She stumbled. Her legs tangled with Sabrina’s floppy arms, and she tripped, crashing to the floor beside the woman she’d just stabbed.

  “Joey!” Rai lifted her into his arms, wiping the splatters of blood from her cheek.

  “Help Sabrina,” she said, pushing Rai aside to see Sabrina crawl up Natalia’s leg.

  Natalia slid her hand along the gleaming wall, her fingers wrapping around a thick black wire. She rose slightly off the ground, then heaved her body toward the floor.

  A shower of sparks trailed the cord as it ripped from the wall. Buzzers squealed, a growling roar bellowed through the floors, and a violent shudder wrenched the spacebus to its side.

  Both Joey and Sabrina hit the wall. Joey thumped to the floor once the shuttle righted itself, while Sabrina landed atop Natalia. Sabrina grabbed onto the handle that protruded from Natalia’s body, and grinned.

  “God will reward me for what I’ve done,” Natalia garbled through a mouthful of blood.

  “You’re right.” Sabrina’s grip tightened on the hilt of the blade. “When you see him, tell him I said hi before he boots your ass to hell.” She twisted the knife, and Natalia gagged.

  A slow rush of air sunk Natalia’s chest. Her body slumped, the backs of her limp hands slapping the floor.

  Sabrina collapsed, and Joey jumped to her feet. Before she could take a step, the ground dropped out only to return with a punch.

  Joey yelped while plummeting downward. Her elbows broke her fall, lips nearly kissing the softly, quaking floor. As she lifted her gaze, Sabrina tumbled beside her. She called Sabrina’s name, but her voice was lost under the deafening pops of metal that burst at the seams.

  Sabrina’s lips moved slowly. Her eyes rolled back before drifting to a close.

  “She’s dying!” Joey yelled, grabbing Rai by the shirt. Beyond Rai’s flustered eyes, a soft green glow radiated from the cockpit. Through the wide windshield, the sparkling flecks of a wormhole’s edge spiraled in and out of view. The shuttle was veering out of control, bouncing off the sides of the wormhole’s force field, with no crew to pilot it.

  “I think she’s already dead,” Rai said. His fingers latched onto Joey’s arm, clutching tighter with every sway of the ship. “We have to leave her, or we’re dead too.”

  “No!” Joey ripped herself from Rai’s grasp. “She’s still alive. I’m helping her.”

  Mr. Reyes pushed between them, almost toppling Joey. He dropped to his knees and lifted Sabrina’s limp body, inciting a waterfall of blood to drench his lap.

  “Wait.” Joey ripped the shirt from a dead man’s fried torso, peering through a burned h
ole in the fabric. Beyond the control room’s open door, she glimpsed Jesse clinging to the elevator’s frame. He jumped like a five-year-old, gesturing for her to hurry while Kami waved her arms frantically behind him. They looked ridiculous, which was why her brain choose to ignore the frenzied display.

  She wrapped the shirt around Sabrina’s waist, tying the sleeves tight over the wound. “That’s the best I can do.”

  As Joey stood, a piece of the shuttle’s wing crashed into the windshield. The jolt brought her back to the floor, facedown into a puddle of blood. Above the deep groan in the air and the churn of bending metal, a deafening pop echoed from the cockpit. She looked up from the floor as a thin crack snaked along the windshield. Her body wouldn’t move. Flashes of white light flared from the control panels, eclipsing the wormhole’s emerald shine, but not one muscle would stir. The floor sagged inward at the center, its outer edges snapping up, and still her body remained paralyzed.

  Rai’s hand flew in front of her eyes, blocking the fractured glass that distorted the stars beyond it. His arm kept steady amid the quake that toppled equipment. He probably had a confident gleam in his eyes too, but she’d never know if she didn’t move.

  Joey rose to her knees, looking up at Rai. That gleam was there all right, so bright its warmth sent beams of strength to wash over her.

  “We gotta move,” Mr. Reyes yelled, limping toward the elevator as Sabrina flopped in his arms.

  Rai grabbed her hand, just as a thunderous clap boomed from above them. The rumble flowed through her body, chattering her teeth. Metal snapped, screeching, and she shrank down as a large steel beam broke from the rafters overhead.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  A giant hunk of metal plummeted toward Joey. In her mind, she ran full speed from the control room. But in reality, she sat frozen on her knees staring up at the massive object that was about to squash her.