They couldn’t without Milos Ravana.
What did you do?
“Bring . . . me . . . your . . . pain!”
He turned around when he heard those words, smelled the creature’s rancid breath. The thing was too big to reach the chapel through the tunnel, but the whole structure was falling apart. It wouldn’t be long before it could break free from the sanctum and attack.
“Sir—Garros, sir. Is it happening?” asked the soldier who had left him behind. Almost no one remained in the chapel.
“I think so,” he said as he began to walk out. “We’ll have to fight it. Fight them both. Somehow.”
“William told us this would happen,” said the soldier. “He warned us it’d return. But I always thought it would take longer. That monster inside, it looked like—”
“That was him,” Garros said. “That was Heath. His body, at least.”
“Are you saying that the creature, those things, turned William Heath’s body into that monster?”
“Yes. Heath was infected, not killed.”
“Sir,” the soldier asked. “Where’s Captain Farren’s body?”
ф
Ezra turned around when he heard the noise coming from the distance.
Exactly in the direction of Clairvert, he could see the disproportionally tall peak, especially now that a thick beam of light was shooting upward, reaching up for the night sky, piercing darkness and opening a circular vortex of clouds that gathered and exploded into lightning storms.
His heart almost stopped when he heard Jena scream, just a foot away from his ear, which she left ringing.
Ezra turned around. “Poole?”
Poole was still standing at the other side of Farren’s grave, but Ezra could immediately tell that something had happened to her: her eyes were wide open, unblinking, and when she opened her mouth to say a word, blood dripped from her lips.
Ezra ran around the tall grave only to see it move as though something was crawling underground.
Tunnelers, was the first thing he thought, but when he saw a large, sharp barb poking through the dirt and into Poole’s stomach, he knew it wasn’t a Tunneler. It wasn’t a Laani-like anything he had ever seen before.
“No—Poole!” Ezra yelled and the barb retracted into the dirt as whatever was hiding beneath came awake, stood and shook to reveal itself, ridding itself of its underground prison.
Poole took a step towards Ezra, hand stretched out to him, and then fell lifeless on the ground.
ф
Autumn had to ignore the screams she heard coming from the clearing.
What was happening to the city in which she grew, where she was born, where she met her first love and where she lost him, was far more important. She had heard stories from people, conveying stories from their leader, William Heath, that talked about this, a great danger that would one day find them:
The second Fall of Terria, when the creature which had caused all the destruction of a green world she had never known, rose once more to finish what it started and then, eventually, leave.
“It’s all over,” cried Davide, the tall bald man and former employer with whom she had broken fast many times.
“No, it will be okay. We’ll be okay,” said Sara, cradling her second child on her arms, trying to stop his tears. “We’ll be all right, birdy, we’ll all be all right. Shh, shh. We’ll be all right.”
Autumn was more inclined to believe Davide.
The time had come, she knew; what else could the show of lights flowing away from the mountain that housed Clairvert mean?
Yes, it was that time, but what saw rising minutes later wasn’t the monster she was promised. It was not a grotesque creature bound to destroy all life in the planet before moving on to its next conquest.
What she was seeing was a god. Or rather, a goddess.
Even all the way across the wasteland, she could hear the thunderous noise of the very core of the mountain coming undone, and the crashing sounds of stone and earth shattering like an eggshell, giving birth to the Figure.
It was a being carved in light so bright it was almost like the day. It was womanly in shape, with a slender stomach and supple breasts, long strands of light grew from her head like beautiful hair.
Taller and taller the goddess rose from her egg. Light broke off from her body and shaped long arms and ended in beautiful hands that stretched to the sides.
People had dropped to their knees, witnessing the birth of a deity.
And then, just as the goddess appeared to be fully formed, her brother, the devil, was born beside her.
Chapter 21
Eyes Open
“You need to tell me, right now, what you were planning,” Tara said.
In all her life as an altruist, a scientist, a wife, or a mother, she had never pictured herself holding a gun against one of her own. She had never pictured herself doing it to William Heath, much less a child like Tessa, who was not much older than her own son, and she’d never forgive herself for it.
And now, there she stood, hands on the gun, finger on the guard, pointing it straight at Eliza Mizrahi.
Even through her network of communication contacts, she had failed to locate her in Roue. It was a painful surprise to realize that after everything, Dr. Mizrahi had been hiding in Zenith all along.
“You talk to me like I’m betraying you,” said the woman, voice quivering, hands up, still sitting before the computer console. “I never betrayed you.”
“If you were backing Heath in any way you were not only betraying me—you were betraying Zenith, and all of humanity,” said Tara. “You sat here in this facility when pilots were killed, when Dr. Mustang was turned into one of the creatures, and you didn’t do anything for them! Why did Heath try to sabotage the Creux Defense Program and why are you helping him?”
“Don’t put the blame of a troubled child’s actions on me. What I’ve been doing here had nothing to do with any of that.” The doctor shook her head. “I thought you were better than this, Tara.”
“Don’t.”
“The Creux Defense Program was all my life. It was my sister’s life and it was my brother’s, and they both gave everything to it. Everything, to the very end. I knew I was heading the same way a long time ago, but I’m not as keen on losing my life as my siblings were. Please, lower the pistol.”
Tara put the gun down, and it was a relief.
“Every single pilot in here, from the ones who don’t deserve the gift at all to the promises like Poole or Perry have proven time and time again that even if the Creux are gifts from someone or something, maybe something divine, heavenly, they are still a gift to humans. Humans, capable of making mistakes. I couldn’t live without a failsafe. That’s what Ronald offered us.”
“But we rejected that offer!”
“You rejected this offer unilaterally, assuming I’d think the same way, Tara. It’s been so long, you don’t even remember—didn’t think about it again, not once, I bet. You didn’t. You took the choice for all of us and now who’s left, you and me?”
“What did you do?”
“I kept the project going,” replied Dr. Mizrahi. “Right in here, in Zenith.”
“How could you?” she cried. “Going for the Ladder meant giving up!”
“I never gave up!” Dr. Mizrahi yelled. Tara had never heard her voice raised. “I believed in every single one of those kids—every single one. I loved them. But things didn’t go the way I wanted them to go. And I never believed in Ronald Heath or any of his allies; I only liked what they offered humanity. Now, more than ever, you’ll be glad I did.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Tara, look at the console.”
Taking her eyes away from Dr. Mizrahi, Tara looked at the computer screens. The maps of energy radiation that scanned Roue and the surrounding areas were usually black except for the pool beneath Zenith that represented the Creuxen’s T-Core.
At the top of the image, she could see th
e white edge representing a large energy signature off-screen.
“What is it?”
“That’s coming from the Kerek area,” said Dr. Mizrahi.
“How could that be? That place is hundreds of miles away—oh,” Tara said, and she felt her palms grow sweaty. “Oh my god.”
“Tara, it’s too late to stop Lys. It’s awake. I spoke with Akiva. I spoke with him, not three hours ago. He’s up there. Milos Ravana is not ready to fight Lys. They didn’t find all the missing pieces. They failed. The chances of beating it are virtually zero. None. Ronald believed that Lys would leave the planet but I don’t. I know it’s going to come here and it’s going to destroy Roue. The Ladder Project will give humanity a chance of survival. Not all of it, but some of us can remain here.”
Hope is the last thing to die, thought Tara as tears pooled in her eyes and she let go of the gun. This must be the end, then.
“Come along, and bring your weapon,” said Dr. Mizrahi.
Dr. Mizrahi led Tara through the hidden parts of Zenith, and the whole way through, all Tara could think was: should I ask her if she knows about Ezra?
She was a woman of intellect, and for the first time in her adult life, she opted for blissful ignorance. If Dr. Mizrahi let her know that Ezra had died in their quest north, she knew she’d stop fighting because her battle would already be lost.
They emerged from the tunnels to the lower laboratories and the hidden complex, stepping into the compatibility labs. The giant computers at the heart of the room were quiet.
Dr. Mizrahi approached the largest of all, a rectangular hulk of machinery and circuitry protected by a steel shell; it was computer used to match each pilot to its determined Creux. She input eight digits into a panel and the computer began to whirr.
The hulk of polished metal split in two and the two segments slid to the sides, revealing a dark stairwell suddenly lit by a threatening red bulb. Tara took a step back and looked at the computer. There was nothing inside. The machine she had always believed to be vital to the facility she had played a part in founding, had only been a shell.
“Don’t feel deceived,” said the doctor. “I was kept from it for a long time as well. My sister. She kept things until the end. I’m convinced she still does. There is always more to Zenith than meets the eye. Come.”
“How could you hide this from me?”
“All the pilots, all the soldiers and employees in Zenith, all the citizens of Roue, could ask the same thing of you or me. You don’t get to be indignant about lies.”
She couldn’t argue.
“You said Heath died in here,” said Dr. Mizrahi. “If he did then it’s only a matter of time before this place is flooded with the military again, so I’m going to show you the project and its possibilities. I hope you’ll see what I see, because if you don’t, then—”
“Eliza, please.”
“I’ve worked here for too long. My affliction has grown worse—even worse than when it took hold of my sister. I’ve begun hallucinating, hearing voices, seeing shadows.”
“It doesn’t have to take you over completely. Hormesis is treatable.”
“We don’t have time for treatment any longer. I’m going to finish the Ladder Project and I really hope, I pray, that you can do this with me. This is something I’m going to do. I told you to bring the weapon because I trust in your judgment more than I trust my own.”
She opened a door at the end of the staircase to a dark room that smelled horrible.
“If you think I should be stopped from going through with it, that weapon in your hand is the only way. If I’m alive, I’ll make sure the third world exists, with me in it. If it doesn’t, it’s because you ended my life. I will not live to see humanity die under Lys.”
Tara’s hand trembled as she squeezed the gun and she shook her head. “Please don’t make me do this, Eliza. I’m begging you. You’re my friend.”
Dr. Mizrahi ignored her and hit a switch. Lights began to illuminate the inside of the room. She held her breath, covered her mouth, nauseated by the sight.
“This is going to be the future.” The madwoman raised her hands, turned towards Tara. “Pull the trigger, if you think otherwise.”
Tara Blanchard raised the gun, which she couldn’t hold still, and Dr. Mizrahi closed her eyes, waiting for its thunder.
ф
There was not much left of Clairvert or anything in it. The cupula had shattered, and the roof that once protected them now lay in pieces, crushing all that was left of the city proper.
Only the Creuxen remained: Lazarus, pinned to the wall by Milos Ravana’s sword; Quantum Ares, flat on its back and armless by the entrance; finally, Milos Ravana itself, standing outside the city.
He narrowed his eyes to see; the light had become blinding.
As everything shattered all around him, light had begun to bleed from the ground in glowing wisps. It was warm light, as though heaven itself was coming for them from beneath. But no one, not even Garros himself, believed in its promises of geniality.
Covering his eyes, avoiding the stems of light, Garros flanked the dozens of citizens as they ran away from the chapel.
“Outside! Go out of the city!” the soldiers yelled, ushering the people out before it all fell apart.
Even more light exploded into the fractured dome as another piece fell, and he could see the night sky, the clouds gathering around the peak, and the stars.
Then came the roar.
The Heath creature’s cage—its master’s sanctum—had begun to shatter sooner than Garros had imagined it would. He could already see its bulk through broken segments in the northeastern wall of the city.
There were still people in the city, too many to quickly funnel through the small cave leading to the outside. If the creature wasn’t stopped, the last of them would meet their end.
He would meet his end.
I’m not going to die until I understand.
The wall protecting them from the Heath creature shook as the monster began to pound against it with all its strength, screaming with each blow as though they hurt.
“Get as far away as you can!” he yelled at the soldier, who appeared to be waiting for him. “I’ll try to stop it, you get them all as far away from here as possible! Go!”
When the terrified soldier nodded and turned back to join the others, Garros looked at Ares. He’d have to pilot it. Even without its arms, he could use its mass to fight; he’d be able to deal some damage, certainly more than he could do without it.
Hearing as more pieces of the wall cracked and shattered under the monster’s strength, Garros scrambled towards Ares. His hands were shaking, barely strong enough to grip at the pieces he used to crawl up his mechanical big brother.
I’m not going to die until I understand.
The creature’s roar was louder, angrier. He knew it would be free to attack any time. Garros ran down Ares’ chest and found the open Apse. He took one final breath of air, looked at the city, which had become almost completely covered by tendrils of light sprouting from the floor like vines, and jumped into the darkness.
I thought you’d be gone, said Ares. I thought we were gone.
One last time. We’re doing this one final time. I know it hurts.
Garros . . . Garros . . .
The voice that called his name—it wasn’t Ares.
When he felt his spirit go into the giant Creux, Garros rolled using Ares’ legs. Twice he attempted the roll until the colossal Creux was flat on its stomach. He moved its helmet-like head up to see:
It was time. After one final blow against its prison walls, the monster rose to reveal its full size. It was far larger than he had seen it being just minutes earlier. It had grown in the span of minutes.
He couldn’t stand. He had never trained to stand without the use of Ares’ arms. It was impossible. Garros tried using the strength on the creature’s back—
The monster took its first step into the city.
—
to lift its upper body. He slipped and fell.
Garros . . .
The monster stepped into the city and stood at its full height. It was still growing, inching in on the ceiling.
He tried again. Once more he fell on its shoulder. It hurt.
The arachnid monster began to walk towards him.
. . . Garros . . .
Finally he managed to plant Ares’ right foot on the floor. Then his left. Ares stood straight and took a defensive stance just in time for the monster to reach him.
. . . Garros.
Quantum Ares received the charging monster, and its sheer power sent it crashing against the rocks that had crushed Phoenix Atlas. Unsatisfied by the damage, the creature charged at Ares again. It destroyed the boulders.
Ares fell on its back outside and rolled violently on the wasteland. Garros hoped that all the citizens of Clairvert had been standing far away.
Looking up at the shifting clouds in the sky, unable to move, Garros felt electricity in his stomach. It wasn’t the warm energy that fueled Quantum Ares; this hurt, hurt so much he knew that there had been irreparable damage.
As the monster broke through the remaining boulders and took its first steps onto the outside world, Garros lifted Ares’ head to see. There was blue fire on Quantum’s stomach, not far from the Apse. The T-Core was damaged.
Garros.
Erin?
Milos Ravana.
It was Erin’s voice, pouring through the T-Core, interrupting Quantum Ares’ attempts to whisper into Garros’ mind.
Go to Milos Ravana.
Erin—Erin, baby, where are you? I can’t see you.
Go to Milos Ravana.
Erin, please.
Go to Milos Ravana. Go to Milos Ravana. Find me there.
Okay.
And then: We shared the beginning, and now we share our end. Farewell.
The Unfinished World (The Armor of God Book 2) Page 30