Seb heard the swift movement behind him of the others raising their weapons. So much for him leading the way and keeping them safe.
Heat spread through Seb’s cheeks when he turned to the rest of the crew. The words jammed in his throat, so Seb offered them an apologetic shrug instead. SA continued to scowl at him.
“One good thing about me making that noise,” Seb said, his voice louder than before, “is it’s shown us it’s empty down here.”
SA still looked pissed. Since they’d landed on Carstic, Seb had totally disempowered her by taking the lead every single time. But he only did it to protect her. Her scowl deepened like she wanted to cause him physical harm. Then she launched a knife at him.
The blade ran so close to Seb’s face he felt the breeze of it against his left cheek.
SA had thrown it so quickly, Seb’s world only slipped into slow motion after it had passed him. The whoosh in his ear dragged out because of his slowed perspective finally catching up.
The sound of the blade embedded into bone behind Seb. He turned around as a zombie fell to the ground. It lay on its back, the knife sticking up from the centre of its face.
Heavy breaths and Seb’s world sped back up. A look at the downed zombie and back to SA again, and Seb said, “Thank you.”
She didn’t acknowledge him.
CHAPTER 28
After they’d killed the parasite inside the zombie that nearly got to Seb, they checked the rest of the canteen and the games room. None of them spoke for the entire time and Seb felt SA glaring at him for most of it. But he did his best to ignore her and continued to lead the group. Let her be angry with him. As long as she survived, he’d take her wrath.
When they reached the entrance to the sports hall, Seb didn’t even look at SA. He strode in first, Sparks tutting at him as he entered the large space.
The only place in the complex so far—other than the tunnels—not to have a white floor. Soft wood ran the length of the room. It lined the floor as boards butted close enough to one another for there to be no gaps between them. It had various lines in a whole host of colours to mark out different pitches and spaces depending on the game. Basketball rings were attached to the walls. It had a football goal on either side. They even had a climbing wall in one corner. Over in another sectioned-off space, there were skipping ropes, crash mats, and a few other exercise apparatuses.
The air smelled of stale sweat and dust. Seb ruffled his nose at it. “I suppose it makes sense to have a space like this,” he said, his voice echoing through the large arena. “There can’t be much else to do down here other than play sports.” None of the others replied to him, and when he looked at SA, she turned away.
“At least there’s nowhere for the zombies to hide.”
“So you don’t need SA to save your arse in here, you mean?” Sparks said. “Even though you still won’t let her go in before you.”
Seb shrugged. “I didn’t stand on that plate on purpose.”
Sparks put her hands on her hips and glared at Seb. She then pointed at SA with one of her long fingers. “In front of you is one of the most badass beings I’ve ever met. She’d kick your arse in a heartbeat.”
Although Seb baulked at the comment, his mind flashed back to how his gift had only kicked in once the knife had passed him. As much as his ego wanted him to fight for it, he had nothing.
“But all you’ve done since we’ve been down here is push her back and patronise her. You’ve been doing it since we landed. You’re constraining her at every turn. And then you do things like standing on the plate and put us all in danger.”
Seb opened his mouth, but Sparks cut him off.
“And to see how you walked in here. In your haste to be the first in every room, you’re getting reckless and putting all our lives at risk.”
“But …” Seb looked at SA and back to Sparks.
“You’ve got to use her for what she does best.”
“I don’t want her to get hurt.” Seb’s face flushed hot when he looked at SA. His voice wavered. “I don’t want any of you to get hurt. I could have helped Gurt on Solsans. I could have healed him. Maybe if I’d stayed back for a few seconds longer. Maybe if I hadn’t asked any of you to follow me into battle.”
“You didn’t ask us,” Sparks said.
Bruke then said, “And when Gurt got injured, you had to go after Sparks. She would have died on her own in the Countess’ palace.”
The pain of Gurt’s passing ripped at Seb as if a tear ran through the core of his being. Before he could say anything, Bruke added, “You couldn’t save them both. You made the choice Gurt wanted you to make. And you believed Gurt would be okay. You had to go after Sparks and the Countess. You had to end her reign.”
Seb looked back at SA, the starkness of her bioluminescent gaze boring straight into him. “I can’t lose anyone else.” He shook to even think about saying it in front of the others, but he kept his focus on her and said it anyway. “Especially you.”
The hard frown on SA’s face cracked for the briefest moment.
Sparks put a hand on Seb’s lower back and spoke with a soft tone. “But can’t you see you’re driving her away with how you’re being? In trying to protect her, you’ll make her hate you.” She pointed at SA. “That bird should never be caged, Seb, no matter how good your intentions are.”
As much as Seb wanted to argue, he didn’t have a response. He continued to stare at SA and she continued to stare back. Two steps towards her closed the distance between them. He reached out and lifted her hands up in his. “I’m sorry,” he said, a crack in his voice as he thought about Gurt. “I just couldn’t live with myself if you died too. I can see I’ve been an arsehole.”
SA’s eyebrows rose in the middle and her eyes shifted from side to side as she looked into one of his eyes and then the other.
“You think we don’t all feel the pain of losing Gurt?” Sparks then said. “We’re all struggling with it, but no one blames you, Seb.”
“But you came back to fight beside me. To join in a war I started.”
“We came back because you were fighting for a good cause. We wanted to fight for it too. You need to stop blaming yourself. We all made our own choice. We’re all adults.”
Seb still hadn’t let go of SA’s hands, and when he looked at her, she nodded along with Sparks. “Can we start again?” he said. “I’ll try to stop crushing you. Although that was never my intention, I can see now how it must make you feel. I don’t think you’re weak. Sparks is right, you’d kick my arse.”
A broad smile spread across SA’s face and she covered her mouth as if to stifle a laugh.
“And you’ve saved me on more than one occasion. I never meant to disrespect you. My intentions have always been true, even if my actions are a little misguided.” The words kept coming, running away with Seb as he said, “I just wanted to—”
But before Seb could say anything else, SA leaned forwards and kissed him on the cheek.
So close he felt her body heat, Seb’s head spun and his heart raced. Any words that had been in his mind before then vanished and his breathing quickened.
It took for Sparks to say, “Come on,” as she left the sports hall—the others following her—before Seb moved again. This time he let the others lead the way to the double doors between them and the mining section.
CHAPTER 29
Seb rode the high of SA’s kiss out of the gym. For the first time since they’d landed on Carstic, he let go of his need to control. The others were adults and could look after themselves. The warmth of SA’s lips still remained against his cheek. How long would he have to wait before she did it again?
The same white glare Seb had got used to hit him when he stepped out of the dusty gym into the stark corridor. The smell of sweat and dust gave way to the disinfectant reek of bleach tinged with rot.
Sparks led the way, SA and Bruke walking side by side behind her. For the first time since they’d been down there, Seb held bac
k.
By the keycard reader with her mini-computer in her hand, Sparks looked at the screen as she said, “I’d suggest leaving your blasters here. There are strong traces of ruthane on the other side of this door. It’s safe to breathe, but a laser blast will set the place off like an atomic bomb. Oh, and SA, you might want to leave your knives too. A spark from one of them could also ignite the air.”
Although SA put her gun she’d borrowed from Sparks down, she kept her knives strapped to her. She pulled out two and held one in each hand. As if to reassure Sparks she could use them responsibly, she gripped them hard and held them up to her.
“As long as you don’t throw them,” Sparks said.
SA nodded her compliance.
After SA and Bruke stepped away from placing their weapons by the door, Seb walked over and put his semi-automatic down. When he turned around, he made eye contact with SA, who smiled at him. Heat rushed through his cheeks and he smiled back.
While Seb stood there, grinning like an idiot, he nearly didn’t see it. The slightest of movements, something dropped from the ceiling in his peripheral vision. His world slipped into slow motion and he turned to see the grub land on Sparks’ arm. Before he could react, the thing had burrowed its fat head through her sleeve.
Too late to stop it, Seb shouted, “No!” and rushed to his friend.
Although he grabbed her right arm and lifted it, the grub had already vanished from sight. It left a stain of blood on her shirt.
Seb dug his fingers into the hole on Sparks’ sleeve and tore it wider. The space where the grub had just burrowed into had healed up already. Had he imagined it? But his hands buzzed with the need to heal her. “What the?”
A look at the others and Seb said, “Did you guys see that?” He spun back to Sparks before giving them a chance to respond. “Did a grub just dig into you?”
But Sparks didn’t reply. Instead, she stared at Seb with a blank gaze.
“Sparks?”
Before Seb could say anything else, a convulsion snapped through Sparks and her eyes rolled back in her head.
The echo of Seb’s voice ran away from him up the empty corridor, his desperation thrown back at him several-fold. “Sparks?!”
CHAPTER 30
Another several convulsions followed straight on the heels of the first as Sparks fitted in Seb’s grip. He had a hold of the tops of both of her arms, his shoulders and pecs locked tight as he tried to keep her still. But it seemed pointless, restraining her wouldn’t stop the parasite from taking her over.
White splutters of foam stuttered from Sparks’ mouth, and the purple eyes Seb knew so well had rolled back in her head. He only saw the whites of her eyeballs.
Then they snapped back, the purple irises gone as Sparks fixed Seb with the same red glare he now associated with the zombies. They’d lost her. His stomach sank and a lump clawed at his throat. But he wouldn’t give up on her. No way.
As Seb stared into his friend’s small face—her blood-red glare magnified behind her glasses—his breaths ran away with him. “This isn’t going to happen to you, Sparks.”
She might have only been tiny, but when Sparks raised her top lip in a snarl and glared rage at Seb, he jolted backwards from the shock of it. For a moment, he almost let go of her.
Seb quickly regained his senses, and in one fluid movement, he slipped around behind her, gripped her with one arm across her small chest, and used his free hand to hold the spot on her right arm where the grub had burrowed into.
Since their trip to Solsans, Seb’s hands had buzzed whenever he got close to a wounded being. Even corpses triggered his desire to heal them. But now, with his grip over the space where the grub had burrowed into Sparks, he felt nothing. The buzzing desire to heal her only moments ago must have come from where the creature had entered her. But that had fully healed now.
“Come on,” Seb shouted as Sparks twisted and writhed against his restraint.
Growls and snarls, Sparks angled her face in Seb’s direction and bit at the air separating them. Desperate to attack him, she twisted and writhed to try to get free of his tight hold.
Not knowing what else to do, Seb kept his hand over the spot where the grub had entered her body, but still no buzz ran through his hand. “You can beat this, Sparks.” A blurred vision from his tears and he shouted so loud his voice broke. “Not again. This isn’t going to happen again. No way.”
Both SA and Bruke watched Seb. He opened his mouth to shout at them to do something, but what could they do? What could any of them do? Before he could say anything else, SA turned and ran back into the sports hall they’d just emerged from.
CHAPTER 31
SA returned from the gym with one of the skipping ropes in her hands.
“What are you doing?” Seb said to her. Not that he’d get an answer.
When she got close enough, she made a motion to show him she wanted to tie Sparks up.
“And then what?” Seb said, his pulse racing as he tried to hold onto his rage. “What can we do with her then?”
“She’ll be easier for us to take with us that way,” Bruke said.
Seb scowled at the green beast. “What do you know?”
Bruke stepped back a couple of paces as if Seb’s words had dealt him a physical blow. He pressed his hand against his chest, clearly hurt by Seb’s attack.
Seb’s pulse raced and he gritted his teeth. “Acting like that isn’t going to help. It’s about time you grew a spine.” The edges of his vision blurred as his gift threatened to kick in.
SA reached over and put a hand on Seb’s shoulder. The serene bioluminescent gaze calmed him a little, and when he felt Sparks fight harder than before to get at SA, he let go of some of the tension in his body. They had to restrain her so she didn’t harm them.
A heavy sigh and Seb nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Bruke.”
Not one to hold a grudge, the apology seemed to be enough for Bruke, who stepped forward and said, “Let me hold her while SA ties her up.”
Seb waited for Bruke to take Sparks. He then stepped away, watching the other two tie her arms to her sides with the skipping rope.
“I’m going to find a way to help her,” Seb said as he took in his bound little friend. “Even if it means taking her back with us to Aloo. I’ll fight Moses to make sure she gets the best medical care. I’m going to find a way to fix her.”
The other two didn’t reply. Seb saw in their concerned frowns that they wanted to help her as much as he did.
CHAPTER 32
Seb wanted to abort the mission there and then. Sparks had now become his number one priority. But Moses wouldn’t pick them up if they didn’t eradicate the parasites from the mines. And they couldn’t fly out of there now their pilot had been compromised.
A look at the still-sealed doors to the mine, Seb said, “We need to get this section cleared as quickly as possible so we can get the hell out of here.” Bruke had stepped several paces back with Sparks in his arms. “Are you sure you’re okay holding her?”
“With no weapons allowed beyond those doors—” Bruke grimaced as he fought against the fitting Sparks “—I’ve got nothing else to offer. I’m best suited to keeping her restrained.”
Not strictly true, but he certainly had less to offer than the other two. It made sense for Bruke to keep a hold of Sparks. Between Seb and SA, they could face whatever came their way.
“Okay,” Seb said and walked up to the closed doors separating them from the mines. He drove a hard punch against them, the boom of his blow calling out into the area beyond.
The group hadn’t exactly been quiet up until that point, but the sound seemed to stir up the zombies on the other side. It took just a few seconds for their screams to light up the air and for the stampeding rush of footsteps to come towards them.
An increased heart rate from the sound, Seb jumped when the first thud crashed against the other side of the doors. Several more bodies slammed against the doors after it.
/> Seb moved over to the card reader and looked at SA. “I’ll open the door and then join you in the fight, yeah?”
The same calm look she always wore, SA raised her knives to show she was ready.
Just before he could swipe his card through the reader, Seb heard Sparks making more noise than before. When he looked at her, she seemed even more agitated than previously, spittle flying from her mouth as she twisted and shook in Bruke’s grip.
SA looked back at her too.
Seb frowned at her behaviour before he said, “It’s like—”
“She can sense the zombies on the other side,” Bruke finished for him.
“Yeah.” The sound on the other side of the door picked up, so the yells and screams rang even louder. “And they can sense her.”
A deep breath to settle himself and Seb looked at SA again. “I’m not sure that tells us anything we didn’t already know. The zombies aren’t exactly quiet, so it’s not like we need an early warning. You ready?”
SA nodded, so Seb ran his card through the reader. The red light on the screen turned green.
CHAPTER 33
The stench of ruthane, or rather, the flatulent reek of the additive mixed with the gas, rushed forward with the wave of zombies.
They ran straight at SA, who looked as calm as ever. A tight grip on her blades, she dropped down into a defensive crouch. Being the first thing the creatures were faced with, every one of them headed for her.
It gave Seb the opportunity to surprise them. He ran from the side, his world slowing down as he got close to the first one. But he stopped short of the pack.
It had been hard enough to kill the zombies before. Especially when he’d seen the lives they’d lived; connected with them as human beings. But now, with Sparks as one of them, he froze. They were the victims in all of this. They deserved saving like he planned to save Sparks.
Eradication: A Space Opera: Book Four of The Shadow Order Page 10