Prophecy: A Space Opera: Book Seven of The Shadow Order

by Michael Robertson

  Shaking his head, Seb pointed a stern finger at Bruke. “Shut up and get moving. We don’t need to die because you’re wasting our time moaning.” A bit harsh, but it needed to be said.

  The group set off, all of them running at a jog save for the huffing and puffing Bruke. The others looked over Sparks’ shoulder, watching the dots get closer on her screen. The cries from inside the city gave them an audible marker to go with the visual in front of them.

  When Seb saw SA had what looked to be a large grenade in her hand, he said, “What’s that?”

  Before SA could answer, Sparks looked down at it and gasped. “A leveller? Where did you get that from?”

  I took it from Moses’ armoury.

  Reyes’ eyes widened when she looked at it.

  “Am I missing something?” Seb said.

  Reyes continued to focus on the weapon. “A leveller does what it says on the tin. When it goes off, it reduces entire blocks to rubble.”

  Seb gulped. “Let’s hope we don’t need it.”

  Once they’d weaved through several more large rocks, Seb got his first clear sight of the city since he’d stepped out into the desert. Although he knew it to be bright when they approached from the sky, at ground level the brilliant neon glare exploded from the darkness like a supernova.

  “Just go ahead without me,” Bruke said between gasps. He already lagged behind them.

  Seb ignored his stocky friend and looked down at Sparks’ screen again, blinking several times before his eyes adjusted from the blinding the city had given him. So many red dots, he saw they bottlenecked and split, taking different paths from where the streets got too thin to accommodate them all. Another round of screams, louder than before, he looked back at the garish sprawl of the city ahead. For the first time, he heard the thunderous swell of footsteps closing down on them.

  Sparks’ computer might have shown Seb that even the closest of the red dots still had a little way to go, but he found it hard to trust. Instead, he squinted as he scanned the line where the city met the desert for signs of emerging slaves. If Sparks had already failed to scan for rocks, who knew what else she might miss. Even a lone runner would blow their cover.

  Despite him being a few steps behind, they still moved at Bruke’s pace, their boots hitting the dusty ground. It gave Seb the chance to take in more of the city. It looked to be a work in progress. The grid layout had been clear from the sky, and as they drew closer, he saw where new grids had been started. If it survived this, it looked like Kajan would eventually grow in every direction to the horizon. Prostitutes and gambling must have been lucrative endeavours.

  “I reckon we have about fifteen seconds,” Sparks said, her small face flitting between her screen, the city, and the leveller in SA’s hand.

  When Seb looked back at Bruke, who’d lagged behind even farther, he saw the others do the same. Probably not helpful to the poor creature, he watched him wince an apology at them, but fortunately he didn’t try to speak. It would be wasted energy. They wouldn’t leave him, no matter how much he wanted them to.

  A hotel stood as the closest building to them. At least fifteen stories high, every floor glowed from the bright electric lights inside it. A fire also burned within the tower. It looked like it had started on the second floor. Another glance up the tall building suggested the rooms above were empty. Hopefully it had been evacuated in time. The chaos would have driven the guests out before the fires did.

  The hotel stood as the first building in a new grid. It stood on its own; the next building was at least twenty metres farther away on the corner of a complete block.

  The red frogspawn on Sparks’ screen had split several more times. Clusters of creatures ran down the streets as a crimson flood. They moved towards the edge of the desert, divided by the architecture, but united in their hunt.

  The thunder of footsteps had grown louder. The vibration of their stampede hammered through the streets and shook off the walls. Screams, shrieks, and cackles. Furious insanity. A lust for wanton destruction. It sounded like hell had broken open and the denizens contained within had burst free.

  “We have to make a choice,” Sparks said, her eyes fixed on the burning building. “I say we take our chances and go straight past that hotel.”

  When Seb looked at her screen, he saw they wouldn’t make it to the next block. “I’ll protect you from the fire,” he said.

  A slight stoop in her frame, Sparks clearly accepted what she’d said as wishful thinking. Were the hotel not on fire, she would have guided them straight to it. Hell, when he looked at her screen, Seb didn’t know if they’d even make it to the burning structure.

  The thud of their steps as they moved towards the blazing building, Seb continued to look between Sparks’ computer and the illuminated city in front of them. The sounds drew closer, but still no sight of the insanity that created it.

  A few metres between them and the hotel. The screams louder, the vibration of their footsteps harder. The hotel or bust. They had no choice.

  Just before Seb ran through the smashed glass that had once been the front doors, he saw Sparks’ intention. He reached out and grabbed her, dragging her inside the burning building before she could run past it.

  Their footsteps were amplified by the hardwood flooring in the building’s foyer. A thick cloud of grey smoke collected along the ceiling, dulling the glow of the lights above them. However, it did nothing to hide the dead bodies scattered throughout the place. At least fifty corpses of various creatures, it undoubtedly provided a sample of what lay ahead in the city.

  While fighting against the twisting and thrashing Sparks, Seb crouched down and leaned his back against a wall. He pulled Sparks down with him. To help her calm down, he whispered, “I won’t let you burn. I won’t let any of us burn. This is our only chance.”

  The last one in, Bruke dropped down so he couldn’t be seen through the shattered windows and pressed himself against the wall beneath one of them. His mouth stretched wide as he fought for breath.

  A millisecond later, the sound created by the rush of insanity came at them through the spaces where the windows had once been.

  Because Seb couldn’t see outside, he looked around the space they’d hidden in. The foyer had been ripped apart. Anything made from upholstery—the chairs, the tablecloths, the curtains—had been shredded. Deep gouges scarred the white walls. Bodies lay scattered across the hardwood floor. Blood of all different colours painted every surface.

  Creature after creature then flashed past the smashed front doors. A constant stream, they spilled out into the desert. They had one thought on their minds: get to the source of the explosion.

  Despite the thick smoke in the foyer and the creatures tearing past outside, they’d made it. They’d gotten in without being seen. Seb continued to hold onto Sparks, who shook in his arms. He whispered to her, “It’s okay. We’re safe now.” He looked across at SA to see her clip the leveller back to her belt. They wouldn’t need it. Not yet anyway.

  Chapter 17

  The others gathered around Seb in the foyer. He wiped his stinging eyes—the smoke sending tears streaming down his cheeks—and continued to keep his voice low. “If we wait here too long, those creatures in the desert will be on their way back. I don’t think it’ll take them long to realise we’re nowhere near the wreck.”

  The stomp of something large then ran past a smashed window next to them, shaking the ground with every step. So huge, Seb only saw a hip pass the windows.

  When they could no longer feel the beast’s steps, Bruke said, “But if we go too soon, we’ll run into the stragglers.”

  “Exactly,” Seb said. The looks from the others placed the decision squarely on his shoulders—again. Either option could land them in a whole heap of shit. They would stand by him, but he needed to make the choice.

  A look around the foyer at the dead creatures and devastation, Seb then looked at Sparks. Although she returned his stare, her eyes flitted between him a
nd the stairwell to the higher floors. Smoke poured through the gap beneath the door, flooding their space with a thicker and thicker cloud. “Too much longer,” she said, “and we’ll pass out from smoke inhalation.”

  It had also grown hotter in the foyer from the fire above pressing down on them. Seb rubbed his burning eyes again, sweat as well as smoke making them sting.

  Because nothing other than the giant had run past the windows, Seb nodded his assertion. He then showed his friends the palm of his right hand to encourage them to stay put, and moved in the direction of the hotel’s exit. As he weaved through the bodies littering the hardwood floor, he did his best to avoid the many pools of blood like he had when he entered the place. They varied in size, consistency, and colour.

  Now close to the doors and farther away from the roaring fire, Seb heard the shrieks of the beings out in the desert. A mob of wild animals in the still night, they howled their insanity at Kajan’s permanent moon. Although indecipherable, something about their cries suggested frustration at the killings denied to them because of the abandoned wreck. It showed they had some basic form of cognition. Maybe enough to pull together into a hunting pack and flush the Shadow Order out of their city.

  The air fresher near the exit, Seb breathed into his tight lungs. Just before he stepped out of the building to get a clear look, a small creature no higher than his shin appeared in front of him. An ugly little thing, it had long spindly legs and arms, green slimy skin like a frog, and a wide mouth filled with needle-like teeth. Its overbite made it look like a novelty bottle opener. As it looked up at Seb through its squiffy eyes, its jaw fell limp with a slight clop.

  The creature then pulled in a deep breath to let loose a scream, but Seb darted forwards and stamped on it before it could. The rotund little thing burst like an atomic bomb, exploding with a shockwave that nearly threw Seb to the ground. The fierce release of air rushed through the hotel’s foyer, momentarily clearing it of smoke. It shattered the few windows that remained intact, damn near turning the panes to dust as it thrust the glass out into the street.

  His hands clasped to his ears, Seb opened and closed his mouth as if it would help relieve the ring in his skull. The small creature’s innards had made a mess of his boot and the wall, painting them both with a thick green slime.

  Even over his ringing ears, Seb noticed the absence of noise in the desert much like he’d noticed the absence of noise in the city when their ship blew up. A moment later, the creatures’ cries lit up the night again. They were heading back.

  Seb looked at his friends to see all of them staring at him with the same slack expression. He beckoned them towards him and shouted, “Quick, let’s get the hell out of here.”

  While he waited for them—everything in slow motion—his legs buzzed with the need to run.

  The second they left the foyer, Seb looked out into the desert and saw the shadows coming to life.

  “Damn,” Reyes said as the darkness turned into a mess of insanity. Creatures of all different shapes and sizes, they came forward in a line stretching so wide Seb couldn’t view them all without turning his head from side to side.

  Sparks turned to run into the city first. By the time Seb had spun around too, he saw she’d already stopped. More creatures were coming at them, a group of stragglers still emerging from the brightly lit streets. Only twenty or so. Not many if they had to fight them on their own, but they’d slow them down enough for the pack behind to catch up.

  Because he knew Sparks wouldn’t come, Seb grabbed her and dragged her back into the hotel’s foyer. She fought against him, twisting to get free from his grip.

  “We can’t go out there,” Seb said.

  “Where do we go, then?”

  “Up.”

  While looking at the smoking door, Sparks shook her head. “No way.”

  Not a decision he made lightly, but certainly one he had to make quickly, Seb scooped Sparks up and ran for the door through the cloying smoke. Although she kicked and twitched in his grip, nothing would stop him from saving her life.

  When he reached it, Seb grabbed the handle on the stairwell door and instantly let go. Too hot to hold, he stood on one leg instead and kicked it down with his suspended foot. He fell forward as it opened.

  They rushed in as thick black smoke fell out, flooding the foyer. At least it would assault their pursuers too.

  SA overtook Seb at the bottom of the stairs and led the charge, running into the darkness with Reyes and Bruke behind her. Seb put Sparks down. She dug her heels in again, her hands on her hips as she refused to move.

  “Please trust me,” Seb said. “This is our best option. Believe me, I didn’t want to go underwater when we had to, but I recognised it as the only choice. I’ll make this work, I promise.”

  The screams of the creatures outside now closer than before, Sparks looked back in the direction of the sound before pulling in a deep breath and running into the smoky stairwell after the others.

  As Seb listened to his friends run away from him, he noticed a fire axe close to the door. A metal-handled tool, he ripped it free and wedged it between the door handles, the wooden floor shaking from the footfalls of the creatures that had entered the hotel.

  Just as Seb slid it into place, he jumped backwards as something collided into the other side of the doors, forcing them inwards by a few inches. But the axe held.

  The doors came forward with another shove, sending Seb back a second step before he spun on his heel and ran up the stairs after his friends. Despite the promise he’d made to Sparks, he didn’t know what they were running into. But he did know it had to be better than facing what was gathering in the hotel’s foyer.

  Chapter 18

  With only the sound of his team’s footsteps to follow through the dense black smoke, Seb blinked against his stinging eyes and ran blind. He dragged his left hand against the wall to keep his bearings. An inhale to call ahead, it filled his lungs with the acrid, plastic burn around him. Stars punched through his vision as he coughed, every breath dragging more of the toxic air into his lungs.

  By the time Seb stumbled past the fourth floor, the smoke had thinned a little. It still rose up the stairwell, turning the tall structure into a chimney, but the worst of the flames and smoke came from the second floor. That wouldn’t be the case for much longer. The stairwell would soon be full.

  Every breath relieved Seb that little bit more, and the sound of his friends speeding off ahead of him lifted his heart. If they were getting quicker, then he would too.

  The ripping sound of tearing wood and then the clang of metal hitting concrete told Seb the creatures below had beaten his barricade. An instant later, the swell of insanity filled the tall cavernous space, their cries riding up on the back of the thick smoke.

  It sounded like thousands of them below. Nothing else for it, Seb gritted his teeth and pushed through the lactic burn in his legs. So many different beings behind, some of them must be able to run through the smoke quicker than he could.

  Six floors up, Seb quickened his pace and took the steps two at a time. Still thick with smoke, but it was better than lower down. Sweat poured from his brow into his stinging eyes, which he blinked against repeatedly.

  The stairs shook from the weight of the beings on Seb’s tail. Their loud calls made it harder to hear his friends ahead. But when he focused, he managed to tune in to them. They were still climbing.

  The sign on the wall had a number ten on it in what must have been twenty different languages. The first one Seb had seen through the black clouds. The pack on his tail were gaining. Those in the lead were clearly through the worst of it. The echo of his own gasps taunted him; did he have it in him to go all the way, or would the creatures catch him on the stairs?

  Smoke and sweat still stung Seb’s eyes and partially blinded him. His own fatigue got fed back to him with the slaps of his heavy steps against the metal stairs. He spoke to his friends through SA. How much farther?

  Reyes�
� voice came back. Floor fifteen is the top. We’ve propped the doors open to let some of the smoke out.

  As Seb passed eleven, he pushed the sounds behind him to the back of his mind and ground his jaw against his fatigue. I’ll be with you soon. They’re close.

  We’re ready for them, Reyes said back.

  At floor thirteen Seb heard the heavy slathering breaths of the beasts. Although he looked behind, he still couldn’t see them. The ones at the front sounded like they moved on four legs rather than two. They were eating up the stairs as they ascended at a gallop.

  A wobble kicked through Seb’s legs, and he nearly fell. The strength had left him. He wouldn’t make it. When he turned with the staircase to run up to the next floor, he saw it behind him. Somewhere between a wolf and a crocodile, the thing had a long forked tongue and a large mouth loaded with teeth. The sight of it gave him the extra burst of speed he needed.

  Just as Seb started the climb to the fifteenth floor, a green blast flew past him and into the creature’s face. It yelped before falling backwards down the stairs, its thick tail curling beneath it and turning it into a leathery bowling ball. The thud of it bounced off the metal steps on its way down.

  At floor fifteen, Seb saw Bruke, SA, and Reyes. SA and Reyes were at the front, their guns raised and pointing down the stairs. Bruke had his gun and what must have been Sparks’ weapon ready to hand over to them. He also kept the double doors propped open.

  SA and Reyes parted for Seb, letting him through to the top floor before sending another barrage of fire down the stairs. The smoke meant they had to shoot blind. Screams of fury rather than pain responded to their attack.

  Bruke tugged on Seb’s weapon as he ran through. “Give me your gun.”

  As Seb handed it to him, Bruke explained, “I’m getting ready to swap their blasters around when they overheat.”