by Alex Fedyr
Shenaia reported, “No, he’s not Estranged.”
“Okay, you and Swirls escort him back to the van and check him out. Smiles and I will continue the sweep.”
“Roger that.”
Rubbing the boy’s back, Kalei asked, “Hey, where are your parents?”
The boy hesitantly looked at Kalei through a break in his dark hair, his eyes still puffy, his lower lip quivering. Kalei estimated he was no more than eight years old. He didn’t say anything, he just stared at her dark visor with wide eyes.
Kalei reached back and removed her helmet, smiling at the boy as she said, “It’s okay. You can tell me.”
The boy continued to stare at her.
Shenaia propped her gun against the wall so the light still shone on them and removed her helmet as well, kneeling down next to Kalei. She said, “Hey, come here, kid.”
The kid glanced at Shenaia briefly, but then returned to staring at Kalei. Shenaia whispered, “Hey, put on your helmet and get out of here. I think he recognizes you from the TV.”
Kalei tossed Shenaia a wary glance, put her helmet back on, and then retreated to the far wall. Far enough that the boy couldn’t see her, but close enough for Kalei to keep an eye on Shenaia.
“Kid, time to go. Get up.”
“No.”
“No?”
“The cop girl said she was going to shoot me.”
“Kid, we Wardens. We the good guys. Now c’mon.”
“No.”
Shenaia put her helmet on, reached back for her rifle, and tossed it to Kalei, saying, “Hold this.”
Kalei caught the rifle, but with the flashlight now pointing at the ceiling, she didn’t see what happened next. She heard the boy cry out, and then Shenaia stepped into the light with the kid slung over one shoulder, kicking and screaming and punching her back with both fists.
Shenaia didn’t seem to notice as she took her rifle back from Kalei with her free hand and led the way out of the apartment.
Once outside, they took the boy straight to the van. His shouts and screams garnered a lot of attention from the crowd, but luckily, the open back doors shielded them from unwanted attention as Shenaia put the boy down onto the back bumper. Kalei pulled a blanket out of one of the lockers and draped it around the boy’s shoulders. He immediately pulled it tightly around himself, pulled his legs inside, and glared at them from his shelter, only his neck and head visible above the brown wool.
Kalei touched Shenaia on the shoulder and spoke softly into the radio so the boy couldn’t hear. “You go ahead and give him the test. He could still be an Estranged. I’m going to grab the other kit from up front and start testing the other victims.”
“Gotchya.”
Kalei walked over to the passenger door of the van and gave a nod to the driver as she opened it. Beneath the seat sat the green testing kit she was looking for. She reached down and started to pull the kit out, but it caught on something.
Kalei bent over to take a look, but as she did so, her helmet bumped into the floor mat and wouldn’t allow her to see anything below the edge of the seat cushion.
This motherfucking piece of—
Kalei glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was around to see her, then she ducked back into the shelter of the van and removed her helmet.
They really need to consider switching to masks, Kalei thought to herself as she took a moment to pull an earbud from the collar of her suit and tuck it into her ear. If Erit tried to radio her and found out her helmet was off, that was one lecture she would never hear the end of.
Kalei looked under the seat. The small red box, molded from plastic with a handle at the top, was wedged behind some sort of lever that jutted out from the chair’s frame. Kalei reached in, grabbed the handle, and attempted to move the box around the bar, but the kit was too big. It was at least an inch wider than the gap between the bar and the seat. How the hell did they get this thing in here?
She slid the kit as far to the right as she could, then she placed her left hand on the seat cushion to give herself more leverage, and she gave the kit a hard yank. With a loud snap! it came free.
That didn’t sound good.
“What’s going on?” The urgency in Erit’s voice made her jump.
“Nothing! I, uh–” She looked over her shoulder and realized Erit wasn’t there. It was her radio. “Uh, I was just getting the second kit, and—”
“What is Wheels doing? Why did her nails just go full black?”
“What!” Kalei dropped the kit and ran toward the back of the van just as a scream pierced the air. She reached Shenaia and saw the boy slumped over in her arms. Kalei was furious. “What the hell did you do!”
Shenaia was rocking back and forth, stroking the boy’s hair, muttering, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” The young woman’s eyes were stretched wide open and her pupils were fully dilated.
Kalei opened her mouth, but she heard a shout behind her. “Kalei!” She looked back to see Dwaro running towards her. Shit! Her helmet was still in the front of the van. “Kalei, what happened?”
The yard fell silent as everyone looked at the van. Time seemed to slow down. Kalei saw Dwaro closing the distance between him and Kalei, one long stride after the next, she felt her heart pounding against the inside of her chest, and for two more heartbeats, she did nothing as Shenaia continued to mutter behind her.
Then the silence was broken by a deep, throaty laugh that carried across the yard and echoed off the cold brick walls of the complex.
Time kicked back into motion. Kalei turned away from Dwaro and looked past the open door of the van. In the heart of the crowd of onlookers stood the hooded man she had spotted before, now shoulder to shoulder with a half dozen new spectators. His hood was pushed back, and he held his stomach as the laughter sailed out of his grinning mouth. His bleach-blond hair caught the light and stood out bright against the gloomy scene around him.
“Get away from him! NOW!” Recognizing Xamic and the danger he posed, Kalei sprinted toward the crowd. The people around him were confused, bumping into each other and pushing away from Kalei, clearly unsure which “him” she was referring to. Then they started to run in terror when Xamic reached up and stroked a hand across the cheeks of a middle-aged woman and a young man. The pair fell like rocks.
Then Xamic bolted, the laughter shifting into a higher pitch.
Kalei didn’t slow her stride, pushing through the crowd and charging after Xamic. He ducked down a narrow alley between the apartment buildings, and disappeared for a moment in the shadows. Kalei followed, catching sight of him exiting the other end. She covered the twenty-foot stretch and followed him into the open.
About thirty feet of flattened dirt stretched out before her and ended at an aged chain-link fence that leaned away from its posts, sporting several holes where it had been cut or pulled up for someone to crawl through. Xamic slipped through one of those holes and ran toward a toppled boxcar. Track after rusted railway track covered the ground for as far as Kalei could see. The track nearest to her bore a mile-long cargo train, the majority of the cars still standing despite the proliferation of rust covering nearly every inch of the yard. But the section of five cars directly in front of her, the section Xamic was running toward, was toppled as though some giant had taken his massive hand and pushed them over. Beyond that, Kalei could see the remnants of a train wreck, with boxcars crushed and twisted, and piled at odd angles from a high-speed collision. Kalei couldn’t decide if it looked more like a pile of discarded toys, or a misguided piece of modern art.
This had once been the busiest railway juncture in Celan. E-day had put an end to that. A hijacked train crashed into the yard, traffic to West Lake came to a complete stop, and later, when Franklin built a new train yard on the East Side, the West Side railway became obsolete. Home only to runaways and rogue Estranged. A place for society to bury its dead.
Xamic reached the toppled boxcar, ten feet tall even on its side, and vaulted it easily
, as though it were a small turnstile in a subway. Kalei’s pace slowed momentarily, then picked back up as she spotted a gap between the cars on her right. She lost sight of Xamic, but he was still easy to follow. He kept Whoop!-ing like a frat boy on his way to a tailgate party. The sound carried easily across the abandoned yard.
Kalei skirted the massive pile of train cars, and on the other side lay several more tracks with trains still standing. Kalei slipped between the cars, and as she ran, she occasionally saw Xamic jump up onto the trains, shouting and skipping from boxcar to boxcar. Even with his antics, he was still faster than her, and the gap between them grew wider. Kalei ducked her head and pushed her legs to run faster. Her breath was labored, her legs were beginning to ache, but despite all that, she didn’t feel tired. If anything, she felt determined.
The rail yard was coming to an end. Xamic and Kalei had cleared the trains and were now sprinting across the open ground toward a twenty-foot cement wall marking the border to the freeway.
Xamic didn’t slow. Kalei didn’t either.
When Xamic arrived, he used his momentum to sprint up the side and easily launch over the barrier. Kalei tried to follow, but made it only halfway up the wall before she fell away. She looked around, spotting a maple tree growing beside the barrier about ten feet to her right. Its leafy green canopy reached about forty feet into the air, and its middle branches reached over the fence to watch the traffic on the other side. Kalei ran over and began climbing.
She was about halfway up when she heard glass shattering, tires screaming, and horns blaring as metal slammed into metal. Kalei scrambled to climb the last few branches, then shimmied over to the top of the wall.
Looking down, she saw about twenty cars – ten on each side of the freeway – slammed together in two mangled piles. At the heart of the collisions, the metal was so twisted and mangled, it was hard to tell where one car ended and the next car began.
Xamic stood on the cement median, watching her. He held out his hands and smiled, as if to show off his masterpiece. Then he hopped off the median and ran into the mess.
Kalei swung off the branch and dropped into a ten-foot pile of freshly dug dirt that sat to one side of a construction site. Her feet sank straight into the pile like it wasn’t there, and the dirt came almost to her neck before she stopped, pinning her arms to her body. Cursing, Kalei fought and kicked her way out until she broke free and ran out onto the freeway after Xamic.
Kalei jumped, dodged, and climbed over the wreckage as she ran. An SUV lay on its side, windshield shattered, the driver hanging limp, suspended by the seatbelt. Whether the woman was alive or dead, Kalei couldn’t tell.
She kept running, trying not to look too closely at the carnage she climbed over. She sidestepped the remains of a hot rod, catching a glimpse of white-walled tires before looking away, and as she passed, she felt a sharp bite as something caught on her arm, sinking into her flesh. Without looking or slowing, she ripped her arm free and charged forward.
Once she was clear of the first crash site, she spotted Xamic on the other side of the highway, leaning against the hood of a yet-untouched Smart car. The owner stared at the pile-up before him with wide eyes, seemingly unaware of Xamic’s presence. Xamic waited for Kalei to hurdle the median, then galloped off into the traffic jam he had created.
As he went, Xamic shattered windows and windshields left and right using a metal tire iron he had picked up. Screams rang out in time with every crash of shattered glass; some people climbed out of their cars and ran in the opposite direction.
Xamic continued to shout and carry on, occasionally stopping to take out a tail light or bash in a hood. The activity slowed him down, allowing Kalei to catch up.
As the distance between them closed, Kalei put on more speed. The sound of his destruction became louder, and she could see the families and commuters cowering in their cars as she ran past. Kalei clenched her jaw and closed the last few feet between her and Xamic.
Xamic spun around and took a deadly swing at her skull, but he missed her head as she dropped her torso and tackled him low in the abdomen. They both went crashing to the ground.
Xamic didn’t struggle as Kalei climbed on top of him, pinning his arms to the cement with her knees. Nor did he protest when she grabbed him by the throat. He didn’t seem to mind when the blood seeped out of her flayed right bicep, down her arm, and colored his neck red. Instead, he smiled.
“Y’know, the black in your hair really brings out your eyes. You have your grandfather’s eyes.”
She punched him in the face.
“You want to get physical, huh?” The ease and strength with which he moved made Kalei feel like a child as he tossed her off and reversed positions. Now he sat on top of her stomach with his hand on her neck.
Kalei snarled “You fucking—!”
“Shhh.” Kalei’s jaw locked. She could feel his darkness inside her, slowly creeping through her body and taking control. Her own darkness tried to bite and attack the invading mass, but his simply brushed the pestering blows aside as it continued to pour into her. He laughed. “The darkness is mine, sweetheart. You can’t use it against me.”
The sheer amount he sent into her was overwhelming. Yet even as the flow of darkness stilled, Kalei could feel that the opaque well within him was still full.
He smiled again. Kalei glared at him, then tensed as she felt his darkness tear a piece from hers. He leaned his head back and sighed deeply, as though enjoying a deeply refreshing beverage.
A brief moment later, he rocked his head forward and said, “You can tell Terin that I will be taking the dessert for myself. Once it has finished baking, of course.” Xamic grinned at her again.
Kalei tried to move her arms, she tried to use her darkness to push him back, but she couldn’t. She was trapped within her own body. It was a similar experience to the day Terin first found her downtown, when Terin had immobilized her by freezing something – presumably the darkness – within her.
But Xamic was different. Xamic was invading her. Kalei could feel his darkness within every inch of her body, holding her tightly beneath his control.
He leaned his head in close to hers. She couldn’t even wrinkle her nose against the smell of stale earth and fresh death. “You know, Fenn is a nice guy. He won’t stop talking about you, even after I told him what you are.” Xamic slid his left hand up to her chin as he slipped his right hand behind her skull. Then he snapped her neck.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Trapped
Kalei woke up screaming. She kicked off a blanket and sat up. The room was entirely bare, aside from the cracks in the walls and the light streaming in through the window. Kalei found herself in the middle of the carpeted floor, a red comforter askew beside her. She recognized the Recovery Room; she had been here several times, dropping off out-of-control visitors. It was weird to realize she was one of them. Again.
She held up her hand and flexed her fingers as she watched the black swirls assume their places on her nails. She felt as though Xamic was still inside her. She felt tainted.
At the thought of Xamic, her stomach seized, and she rolled over to dry-heave as her gut tried to expel its nonexistent contents.
When she was done, she sat back down beside the blanket and wiped off a glob of spit from her lips. Still a bit dazed, she tried putting the pieces together ...
Fenn is a good guy... even after I told him what you are.
The memory hit Kalei like a fist to the stomach. She doubled over for a second time, only this time, she kept her jaw clenched shut. When she recovered, she headed straight for the door.
Kalei tore through the halls, yelling for Terin all the way. He didn’t respond, but that didn’t matter; she knew where his office was.
When she reached his office, she had enough presence of mind to use the door handle, but the door still slammed into the wall with enough violence that the doorknob left a hole.
Somewhere along the way, Kalei had picked up a vase.
She couldn’t remember grabbing it, the trip down the hall was one angry blur, but the vase was there in her hands. So when she saw Terin lounging behind his desk, playing with a fountain pen, she didn’t hesitate to chuck the piece of pottery at him. He easily dodged it, which infuriated Kalei further, but she remained rooted in her place by the door as she demanded, “Where is my family!”
Terin leaned forward and set the pen delicately upon his worn, wooden desk. His face darkened as he propped his elbows on the table and interlocked his hands in front of his face, but he didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at her.
Kalei took another step into the office and continued, “Xamic knows where Fenn is. If he hasn’t already, he’s going to—”
“Xamic does not know where Fenn is.” Terin’s tone was flat. “I reviewed the recording from your ear cam. I can tell you for a fact that he is not going to kill your family. Xamic is messing with your emotions. You should forget about what he said.”
“You weren’t there! You didn’t have him—” Kalei cringed and faltered at the memory of Xamic’s hand around her neck. She clenched her fists. “He knows. And I need to stop him before he can lay a hand on those girls. Are you going to tell me where they are or not?”
He didn’t answer as he continued to maintain his thousand-yard stare.
Kalei muffled a frustrated scream. “Fine! I don’t need you. I’ll find Fenn myself.” She spun around and started toward the door.
Terin called after her, “I warned you before.” Kalei stopped. She heard his chair drag against the short carpet as he stood up. “If you try to find Fenn, I’ll have to kill you.”
Kalei turned back with a snarl. “Go ahead and try.”
Before Kalei could react, Terin had her by the neck, lifted her off the ground, and slammed her against the wall. Her elbow struck the side of his TV and it crashed into the floor with a dull crack.
“You want to know how to kill Estranged?” Kalei was surprised by his sudden attack, but she was even more surprised when she saw the tears in the corner of his eyes. The tears contrasted sharply against his rage. Terin’s grip tightened around her throat. “I’ll show you how to kill an Estranged.”