by Alex Fedyr
Kalei saw the captain the moment she stepped out of the elevator. He was sitting behind the desk in his glass-walled office. He spotted her as she approached, setting down a stack of papers and standing up to lean against the front edge of his desk, crossing his arms in front of him. His hair was grey, buzzed short along the sides with an inch more allowed at the top. His large frame loomed over the desk even as he sat, his lean-muscled torso perfectly erect as Kalei walked in. He said, “Close the door behind you, Kalei.”
She obliged, the door latching to the frame with a resounding click, feeding her anxiety.
The captain looked angry enough to blow, but his voice remained quiet and even. “This is the third time you have been reported for breaking protocol and entering an Estranged crime scene. The first time, you tried to apprehend the criminal yourself. The second time, you gave some excuse about the suspect trying to escape. Each time, Sergeant Barslow has come to your rescue. Each time, he convinced me that you would not do it again. And now, you have made a third breach. You’ve used up all your get-out-of-jail-free cards, Kalei. If I had my way, I would sack you right here on the spot. But this is beyond you and me now. The people won’t appreciate punishing an officer for saving a life, but neither will they appreciate rewarding an officer for consistently breaking the rules. This is an impossible situation you’ve put me in.” He pushed off his desk and stood up, a full foot and a half taller than she was. Kalei felt her heart race frantically in her chest. She clenched her jaw tightly. “So, until I find a solution to this mess, you are suspended indefinitely. Hand me your badge and your gun.”
The shock unlocked her jaw. “Indefinitely, sir?” She pulled her gun out of her belt and handed it to him. “As in, forever?”
The captain barked, “No, not forever, Kalei. As in, ‘not defined.’ As in, ‘I have no fucking clue, so give me your badge until I make up my mind one way or another.’” Kalei obliged, and as he took the item, he said, “Now get out of my office. I expect you to fill out a report and have it on my desk before you leave.”
Kalei stood there, stunned, her thoughts tangled in a dizzying whirlwind of emotions. She heard herself ask, “So, I’m not fired?” She slammed her mouth shut, silently reprimanding her mouth for asking such a stupid question.
The captain was already behind his chair, dropping her gun on the wooden surface of his desk, gesturing toward the door with his free hand. “Will you just get out of here?”
She jumped and hurried to escape, shutting the door carefully behind her.
Talwart stood just outside, hands in his pockets. He was a skinny man with a narrow face and fully dressed in his police uniform, although he usually never left the station. He typically spent his days managing paperwork and collecting gossip. He casually asked, “So, how did it go?”
Kalei thought about it for a moment, trying to make sense of what had just transpired. She gave up with a shrug. “I have no idea.”
Even agonizing over every word she put in her report, Kalei still made it home well before two o’clock. She was grateful because it gave her a chance to talk to Fenn before the girls arrived. She still didn’t know how she was going to tell him... but she knew there was no way out of it. She had to tell him.
She pulled her car into the garage and pulled the keys out of the ignition. She stared at the dashboard, still trying to find the words to explain what had happened. Would he be mad? I mean, I know this is Fenn we are talking about, but how could he not be mad? Her screw-up had just dropped all financial responsibility on him, and there was no way they could pay for their house on just one income... But that was just it. She wasn’t even sure that she was out of a job. “Indefinite” was very... undefined... Would her sergeant find some loophole and convince the captain to let her stay on? Would he want to? Kalei had to admit, she had been nothing but trouble for the department since she started... Then she remembered, the captain had said that the people were involved now... did that mean that the press caught wind of the incident? What if the commissioner became involved? What if the mayor stepped in? The thought made Kalei sick...
Kalei stared at the white numbers of her speedometer, the pale simplicity of the font a sharp contrast to the grim possibilities swarming her mind. But the worst thought of all was the realization that she had probably blown any chance she had at becoming a Warden. Even with her high academy scores and her zealous determination, all of her applications to SWORDE had been rejected. And now... there was no point in trying anymore. There was no way they were going to admit her now... She would have to find a way that didn’t involve SWORDE. There had to be a way for her to—
The door from the garage to the house opened. She looked up to see Fenn in the doorway, his soft brown eyes shining with concern as they found her. He was absolutely perfect in her eyes, a lean, not-too-muscled figure, with a strong, straight nose that didn’t quite fit his soft mouth. He opened that mouth to say, “Kalei?”
Kalei clenched her jaw and forced herself to open the door. She wasn’t ready to leave the shelter of the car just yet, but she had to face the music. She climbed out just as Fenn came around, and, without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his body, her head burrowing into his shoulder. She didn’t realize she was crying until she heard him whispering in her ear, “There, there. It’s all right... it’s all right...”
When her tears slowed, he pulled back and looked her up and down. “Are you okay? Are you hurt at all? What happened, honey?”
Kalei said, “Let’s go to the kitchen. I need some water.”
When they were settled at the dining room table, Kalei told Fenn about the event at the store, and what had happened with the captain. At the end, she said, “And the worst part is, the boy would have been fine if I hadn’t gone in. SWORDE arrived right after we did. Sure, the kid would have been a bit worse for wear, losing a couple more ounces of blood, but he still would have been fine. I’ve screwed everything up for nothing.”
Fenn held her hands and looked into her eyes. “It wasn’t for nothing, Kalei. You had no way of knowing that SWORDE was going to get there so fast. You did the right thing. Don’t doubt that.”
Kalei looked at the tiles on the floor and said, “Yeah, but...”
“No buts about it, Kalei. Stop beating yourself up over this. So what if you lose your job? We’ll be fine. I’ve picked up some new clients, we still have the savings account if it comes to it, but I don’t think it will. I was watching the news after I called you. The mom has already showed up on every station, going on about a heroic police officer who came in and saved her son. The stations are eating it up, using it to prime their audiences for the E-day specials. There’s no way the mayor could fire you after that. It would be bad for his election.”
Kalei sighed. “Maybe you’re right.”
Fenn said firmly, “I am right. Now change out of those work clothes and help me child-proof this house before the little terrors get here, eh?”
Kalei laughed quietly. “Okay.” She obligingly changed into a pair of shorts and a blue tank top, the lighter clothes a nice relief from the heat after running around the city in her uniform. But as she went around the house cleaning up and moving candles to the top shelves, she couldn’t keep her thoughts from the Estranged in the store, of the way those eyes reminded her of her mother’s wide eyes... except her mother’s eyes never closed that night... it was hard to believe it had been seventeen years...
They say time heals all wounds, but Kalei knew better. Her wounds only festered with age. She could still remember the very first E-day, the day when the Estranged first showed up in the city. One had shown up on their doorstep in the form of a young man, and that man had taken her life away from her with a hug.
He was tall, with lean muscles and a smooth, strong chin, and brown hair just long enough to fall into his eyes. Even as her parents’ faces faded from her adult memory, the young man’s face was burned into her mind’s eye forever. His strong, angular face with his wide, naïve eyes.
.. He had walked through the door and hugged Kalei’s mom, then reached out to touch her dad. It was a simply, almost friendly act. But he was Estranged, and that touch— the skin of his arms wrapped around the skin of her mother’s neck, the skin of his hand closed around the arm of her father... That was all it took to shatter Kalei’s world.
The young man had fallen to his knees, his hair falling forward to veil his eyes as he doubled over and sobbed over the fresh corpses. Not his friend, though. The killer had a companion, an even taller, bleach-blond man who walked into the room with a fresh energy in his step, and a wide grin on his face. And as he walked through the room, the blond man kept laughing and laughing in a high-pitched shriek that made Kalei want to scream...
The doorbell rang, and Kalei jumped, nearly dropping the glass dolphin she held in her hand. She quickly placed the decoration on the mantel and walked over to the door.
“Auntie!” As Kalei opened the door, Kas immediately ran in and hugged Kalei at the hip.
Kalei smiled and rubbed the small girl’s head as she greeted her brother-in-law. “Hey, Qain, how’s it going? I hear you are taking another trip?”
Qain was half a foot taller than his younger brother, with an identical nose. But where his brother had soft brown eyes, Qain had steely grey eyes, which always narrowed slightly, as though he was repressing a great deal of stress. He sighed. “Yeah, they’ve got me going to Takaio this time. It could be a while. Sorry for dumping the girls on you like this...”
“No, not at all. It’s always a pleasure to have them.” Qain smiled politely and handed a sleeping Teia over to Kalei.
Fenn came up to the door, greeted a bouncing and babbling Kas, then looked up and said, “Hey, brother. How’s it going?”
“You know, the same old. Well, I’d better get going. I’m sure you four have an exciting night ahead of you. Bye, girls. Thanks again, Fenn.”
“No problem. Have a safe flight.”
Kalei shut the door as Qain made his way back to the driveway. She looked at Fenn and said, “That’s odd. He wasn’t even surprised that I’m home early.”
Fenn shrugged. “Last-minute trip. He’s probably got a lot on his mind.”
Kalei nodded. “True.”
Teia stirred and rubbed her eyes. “Auntie?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
Teia’s eyes flew open. “Auntie!” She flung her arms around Kalei’s neck, and it was all downhill from there. The girls were absolutely radiating energy, and they didn’t give Fenn or Kalei a moment’s rest as they tracked down all of their toys and demanded that their hosts play with them. Kalei and Fenn happily obliged, with Fenn slipping away a few hours in to start making dinner.
The girls were already beginning to crash by the time dinner was served, and Kalei was feeling pretty worn as well. Teia was practically falling asleep on her plate, and Kalei began fighting off the ghosts and anxieties that began to creep back in at the edges of her mind. She could even hear the blond man laughing as the memory of that night began to replay in her mind, unwilling to give her a moment’s piece on this anniversary. The laughter went on and on and Kalei was starting to wonder if she was losing her mind when Kas said, “Auntie, who’s laughing?”
Kalei’s head shot up and she looked at Fenn, who shrugged. Realizing the laughter was real, she ran to the living room and pulled back the curtains. The blond-haired man was standing on their lawn, laughing. He stopped when he saw Kalei, his face growing with a wide grin.
Terror robbed Kalei of her limbs, her lungs, even her voice. It crushed in across her chest, pouring down through her veins. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think.
Fenn stirred at the table behind her. “Honey, what is it?”
Power rushed back along with a fresh wave of horror. “Fenn! Grab the girls! NOW!”
Kalei didn’t have time to explain. Luckily, a loud BANG at the front door did it for her. Shit! He’s not alone. She pulled the curtains shut and ran to the office to retrieve her silver 9mm pistol from the safe. When she returned to the living room, Fenn had Teia sitting on the couch as he wrestled with her shoe, trying to get it onto her fidgeting foot.
Kas was sitting on the floor beside Fenn, crying as the Estranged continued to bang on the door. Keeping one eye on the source of the banging, Kalei walked over to her niece and gently rubbed her back. Kalei’s determination threatened to melt away as she saw the tears in Kas’s small brown eyes. Kalei took a deep breath. “Kas, remember what Auntie told you about the Estranged?”
Kas sniffed. “They’re bad people who want to hurt us.”
“Yes, and right now, they’re the ones knocking at the door, so we’ve got to be really quiet so they don’t get us, okay? Quiet as a mouse.”
After another sniff, Kas seemed to be holding her breath as she whispered, “Okay.”
Kalei placed her hand on the child’s shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. Kalei looked Kas in the eyes and said, “Now I need you to take care of your sister and follow Uncle down to the car. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes, Auntie.”
Kalei smiled in spite of herself and turned around to tell Fenn, “Don’t worry about the shoe. Just get the girls to the car and—”
The window shattered as two Estranged burst into the living room. Without hesitating, Kalei gave them each a bullet to the brain and told Fenn, “Get the girls to the car. NOW!”
Fenn scooped up Kas and Teia and ran for the garage door, the girls screaming in his arms.
A dozen more Estranged were climbing through the window, surprisingly agile and quick as they jumped through it. Kalei could feel the adrenaline rushing through her veins as the Estranged closed the distance between them. She shot the first four down, then ran after Fenn as the rest stumbled over their comrades’ bodies. She ran into the garage, slammed the door shut behind her, then grabbed a nearby stepladder and wedged it under the handle.
She leaned her forehead against the white door for a moment, catching her breath and willing her heartbeat to slow down. Behind her, a small voice asked, “Auntie, are we going to die?”
Kalei instinctually slid her thumb along the gun and put the safety on before she turned around to see Kas staring at her with wide, terrified eyes. Kalei closed her own eyes against the surge of tears the little girl’s question had created. Kalei opened her eyes again, kneeled down to Kas’s level, and said, “Everything is going to be okay, sweetie. Don’t you worry.” She just wished she could believe what she said.
Kalei looked past Kas to see Fenn still struggling to get a screaming Teia into her car seat. “Fenn, do you need help?”
“Nope, I got it,” he called back— BANG! The garage door shuddered against its rails as something crashed into it. Kalei wasn’t surprised they would try getting in that way; she just wished they would have taken longer to think of it. Fenn pulled himself away from the back seat, shutting the door as he pulled out the keys and said, “Hurry up and get in. I’m driving.”
Kalei was loath to give up control of her car, especially in a dire situation such as this, but she had to admit it was necessary. “Alright, I need my hands free to shoot anyway.” She scooped up Kas and rushed her over to the other side.
“Auntie, I can walk on my own—” Kas screamed and Kalei’s gut jumped as the garage door crashed against the rails again. Kalei glanced at the door and saw a massive influx of metal where it had been hit. She doubted it could withstand another strike like that. The thought wasn’t comforting.
She turned her attention back to Kas as she opened the car door and set the girl down. “I know, sweetie. I’m sorry. Climb in and get your seatbelt on. I need you to be a big girl and keep your sister quiet, okay?”
A third hit slammed into the garage door, punctuating the end of Kalei’s sentence. The door buckled and sagged, but, against Kalei’s earlier assessment, the rails continued to hold. Kas scrambled into her seat, and once her legs were clear, Kalei shut the door and hurriedly climbed into the
car herself.
Teia was not in agreement with the situation. As Kalei sat herself in the front seat, all she could hear was Teia in the back, screaming for her daddy. Kas tried to get her little sister to calm down, but screaming “Be quiet!” at Teia just added to the chaos. Another crash coupled with a metal ripping sound blasted through the garage and the door finally crashed to the floor. Both girls fell silent.
Kalei looked over her shoulder and saw the silhouettes of six Estranged pouring through the breach against a backdrop of the setting sun peeking above the house across the street. It was almost beautiful, but the circumstances cast the scene in a menacing light. Fenn put the gearshift in reverse and hit the gas.
The car bumped as it ran into their assailants and slowed as the tires tried to find traction on the remains of the garage door. In any other car, Kalei would have been nervous, but she had faith in her four-wheel drive. Fenn gave it some more gas and the vehicle found its way over the obstacles. Kalei flicked the safety off and turned to watch for the next wave of attackers. When the tires cleared the bodies of the first few, another dozen Estranged ran at them from the yard. They charged the car, punching and pounding and climbing onto the moving vehicle.
Kalei reflexively checked on the girls and found them staring at the windows like little statues, wide-eyed with fear. The Estranged shot into the living room, the Estranged under the tires, the Estranged pounding at their windows... Kalei knew this night would haunt these girls for the rest of their lives. Kalei felt her jaw clench as her hands tightened into fists. She cocked her gun and opened the sunroof.
Kalei was already climbing onto her seat, sticking her torso through the sunroof as they reached the end of the driveway. As she pulled the gun free of the car, she saw a middle-aged man push a young girl aside and jump onto the hood. His hair was long and thick, falling down his back in a thick, greasy lump. The remnants of a checkered tie hung from his neck, and his slacks were ripped and shredded to the point that they could no longer reach his knees. Despite all that, he was the picture of health: plenty of flesh on his arms and gut, plenty of strength in his legs, and a desperate hunger in his eyes. On his chest, he had a few small tattoos hiding behind the erratic swinging of his tie, but Kalei didn’t have time to figure out what they were. This man’s bare hands were more dangerous than the weapon she held, and she wasn’t about to let him near those girls. She lifted her gun as the man scrambled across the hood, reaching for Kalei. His black-nailed fingers twitched with anticipation as they closed in on their target, the deep black of the nails gleaming from beneath the grime like obsidian.