Prophet of the Badlands (The Awakened Book 1)

by Matthew S. Cox

  “Don’t hurt her.” Althea yelled.

  It was too late; the ivory figure bounced off the wall and landed on the desk, alive but unconscious.

  She knew it was going to happen and didn’t leave… Althea stared at her.

  Shepherd scooped her up and sidestepped out of the room. She cuddled to his chest with her eyes closed, adoring the back and forth motion of his run. Shouts and gunfire chased them. He skidded around a corner as bullets hit the wall behind him. Her hand flattened against his skin; her power boosted his adrenaline and endurance. She nudged his body into overdrive.

  The rocking gained intensity and she imagined the hallways blurring past them. Her body jostled about from several stops and hard turns as he changed course away from shouts and the chirps of arming weapons. Aurora said she could tell them herself. The woman had known Shepherd was coming. That meant she was going home.

  Althea kept her head down and her eyes shut, concentrating on bolstering Shepherd, huddled tight against him. He navigated in a frenetic dash through this place. Different chemical smells drifted by; they had found a part of the building she had never been. She sensed his worry; he did not want to confront people with guns while she was at risk. Each time there had been a corridor with so much as a single armed teenager, he went in a different direction. He got lost and ran wherever was open. His heavy tromping steps became metallic clanks as they went from concrete to catwalk.

  The change in the sound made Althea open her eyes. He loped across an elongated metal walkway from the upper floor of the primary building to the side of the cooling tower complex. As they got closer and closer, the great monoliths stretched so far above her she could no longer see the top.

  “That is quite far enough,” Anna yelled from in front of them.

  Shepherd slid to a halt, grabbing the railing to arrest a fall before shoving Althea behind him; the nine-inch blades slid out of his fingers and locked. The lens-eye whirred.

  “You know how this ended for you last time, cretin. Now get out of the way.”

  Althea clung to his side, staring around his hip at her. “Pixie, please don’t hurt him. Please don’t do this. Let me go home.”

  “I can’t do that, mite.” Anna tossed a lightning bolt between her hands. “If Shepherd gets hurt, it’s because you are running away.”

  He growled, stomping towards her with murder in his eyes.

  “No, don’t hurt her, either,” Althea wailed.

  Anna shook her head and flung her arms forward. A scintillating cloud of blue lightning arced from her fingertips into the metal railing, dancing along until it engulfed the huge man. Barefoot on the metal, Althea had nowhere to hide and convulsed with tingles that crept up her legs and became burning.

  She fell to the ground, twitching out of control and shrieking as the big man lurched to one knee. He moaned in sorrow, exuding guilt as if it was somehow his fault Althea screamed in pain.

  The light and crackling ceased.

  “Had enough, then? Or do you want more? On second thought, you’re going to be a needling little problem as long as you’re around.”

  Another smaller crackle; Shepherd gurgled.

  Stop it, both of you! Althea tried to yell, but her jaw remained closed.

  Shepherd tore loose a section of the balustrade, the whirring of his metal arms ground down to a belabored drone until the pipe gave way with a deafening crack. He staggered backwards as it broke, recovered, and swung the length of pipe at her. Anna ducked the bar as it whooshed over her head, and tossed another arc of lightning into the improvised weapon once it cleared.

  Rigid and shuddering, the big man fell to the side, draped over the intact railing. Foam sprayed from his mouth as he gurgled in anguish.

  “You had your chance.” Anna put more energy into the arc. “I’m doing you a favor, you poor sot. You aren’t even human anymore.”

  Althea reached out, clawing at the air towards the woman. She felt Anna’s energy killing this man who had come to save her, this man who only came because of what Althea had done to him. Her magic had made him want to protect her as if she was his daughter, now he would die because of it.

  “Stop!” The child’s scream flooded the woman’s mind, louder than the sizzling electricity.

  Althea’s desperate need to protect her protector mixed with her newfound rage, and she commanded the woman’s throat to close. Anna grabbed her neck with both hands, eyes growing wide as a constricting wheeze leaked from her nostrils. She reached one hand towards Althea, horror and astonishment in her eyes as she murmured and fell to her knees.

  Eyes rolling back into her skull, Anna loosed a weak gasp before flopping face down on the grate. Althea stopped concentrating and slumped, out of breath, against a strut below the handrail. As the large man struggled to his feet, she crawled to Anna’s side. Shepherd raised his claws at the inert woman, but Althea held her hand up.

  “Please don’t.”

  Althea’s hair rose when her hand touched Pixie’s cheek. After making sure the woman was still alive, she sent a flood of sleep into her brain that would keep her out for at least an hour.

  An immense metal hand drifted into her peripheral vision. Althea stood, clasped her hand around two thick, metal fingers, and glanced up at her guardian. “No one has to die.”

  The door at the building end of the walkway flew open; more of Archon’s loyalists clambered out with guns at the ready. The teen girl with the strange blue sandals led the way, her tiny machinegun faltered when she got a good look at how big Shepherd was up close.

  “Go away!” Althea screamed.

  The wall behind them became a shadow play in the radiance from her glare.

  No longer afraid, she was angry, and she added a blast of radiant fear atop her psionic command.

  They stopped, some trembled, the girl in flip-flops fainted, and several sets of pants became wet. Shepherd scooped her into his arms once more and ran in the only direction he could go from here―to the other end of the walkway, onto the spiraling catwalk that rimmed the outside of the nearest tower.

  ong strides took her higher into the air, upon the bouncing walkway, around and around the spiral. Soon, the journey brought them to the apex, a narrow viaduct leading straight across the first tower’s maw, through a dense cloud of dark smoke. The swaying metal bridge spanned a chasm of air filled with the taste of metal, broken by puffs of mist and fog from the darkness below. It went to the top of the adjacent tower, from which they could reach the ground away from their pursuers.

  Althea pointed at the connection, patting Shepherd on the shoulder to get his attention. He nodded and stepped out onto the suspended path, which swayed with his mass.

  “Well, that is most unexpected.” Archon’s voice came from the murk ahead. He emerged from the darkening mist, one hand along each railing. “Once again, you impress me.”

  “Stop. Aurora warned you taking me was a bad idea. Don’t you understand?”

  He smiled. “I understand she is overcautious. Precognition is not an exact science. Her visions of the future present the most likely outcome, but knowing the outcome allows you to change it.”

  Althea stared through the howling wind. “What if she sees what will happen because you know she was going to see the future? Wouldn’t she see what would happen because you reacted to what she told you would happen? I had a dream Den would be hurt, so I tried to save him. I got taken away because I left the village. Now I know the ‘hurt’ was losing me. If I stayed where I should have stayed, maybe he wouldn’t have been hurt. Maybe I saw myself causing him pain.”

  Archon pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re wounding my head, girl. I always hated theoretical philosophy… and time paradoxes are a thing from the tenth plane of Hades. What I think was that you did save your little boyfriend from some terrible unseemly event, but by doing so you put yourself at risk. You do not honestly think those raiders found you on their own do you? Aurora borrowed your little boyfriend’s new wife and
led them right to you. We were trying to elevate you from the tribals.”

  Flushed, she did not know if she should cry or scream with rage.

  Sensing her mood, Shepherd roared and charged. The grating bounced under his weight, making Archon grab the railing with a panic-laden moan. Althea fell on her ass, hooking her arm through the banister.

  He bore down on Archon, who only barely convinced his hand to let go of the leaping ground long enough to focus his telekinesis. The big man thrust his fingers into the floor, flying like a meat flag into the air as Archon attempted to fling him away. Metal walkway crumpled between cybernetic fingers. Shepherd glared at Archon as if daring him to keep pushing and join him in death when the entire trellis failed.

  Changing tactics, he slammed the oaf down instead of lifting. The huge body smashed into the bridge, bouncing Althea up to her feet as an uneasy sound leaked through Archon’s teeth. A brief glance over the side made her tormentor appear ready to faint from vertigo. Seeing the augmented man’s fingers lose their grip, he grinned and went to fling the nuisance into the air. Shepherd reacted faster than Archon expected, catching him by a bunch of his coat. The pair flew up, spun over, and came down as panic killed the telekinetic effort.

  Archon landed on his back, pinned under the growling Shepherd. A metal hand clamped around his neck and hauled him into the air. He grabbed at a plastisteel wrist too large to close his fingers around. His eyes rolled up in his head as he gasped for air, on the verge of fainting as Shepherd dangled him out over the deadfall. Althea stared, about to cry out when the giant hesitated, twisting to look at her as if knowing she would not want him to kill.

  Althea was not so sure this time.

  In a blink, he was gone, caught in a telekinetic spin that left Archon on the walkway and the big man sailing into darkness, his silent fall interrupted by a loud metallic crash and scraping a distance below. Althea leaned out over the edge, sobbing and screaming.

  Archon dusted his coat back into place. “Well then… now that he is out of the way.”

  She sobbed at the blurry man coming toward her, unable to see through her tears. “Why did you kill him?” As he drew nearer, she backed up, hand over hand clasped the railing.

  “Well, he did try to kill me, and I often have a somewhat dim reaction to attempts on my life.” He paused to ponder the situation. “You know, I do find it curious every time you develop an emotional bond with someone, it gets broken. So sad, really. You ought to love someone you cannot be taken from.” He tried his best fatherly smile.

  She backed up, clinging to a mid-level railing below the main one.

  He sent an appraising smirk over the side. “Very well then, since I broke your toy, I’ll see about getting you a new doll to play with. Perhaps one that is a bit smaller and easier for you to dress.”

  “I hate you.” Guilt came with the words, despite meaning them; she had never said that to anyone.

  He smiled through a dismissive chuckle. “If daddies had one sterling credit every time a daughter spoke those words, they could pay for proper schooling. Come now, it is quite unsafe up here.”

  Archon reached for her hand. She leapt away, scooting backwards across the grate.

  “Everyone I love gets hurt because of me. Aurora said the only freedom I’ll ever have is choosing who I let use my power.” She grasped the railing and gazed into the dark below. “What if I choose nobody?”

  “Oh, come now, girl. You are not about to fling yourself into oblivion. I know you better than that. Think about all the good you can do for the new mankind.”

  Althea retreated, careful to place her steps away from holes. It was impossible to bluff such a powerful mind reader. His smile grew, his best false trust me face slithered into her mind as though it had become her own thoughts. She winced, knees buckling, and put a hand to her forehead. Her fingers along the railing told her the platform widened behind her; she had reached the edge of the tower where they had started. He pushed into her consciousness and flooded her mind with a hundred rapid-flash images of his smiling face. Only her grip on the bannister kept her from swooning to the ground.

  He wanted to force her to love him. That was worse than being wifed. She would not allow it. The blurriness in her head drained away the instant she refused him. An odd warmth spread along her back.

  Archon stopped.

  She shook off a lingering headache. Archon gawked at her as if he had seen something that stole the color right out of him. She felt a surge of courage, and drew in a breath, trying to feel taller.

  Archon staggered. “H-How is it possible… I cannot…”

  Distant metal banging broke through the howling gale.

  “You’re bored of talking and just tried to make me love you.” Althea scowled. “I can’t love evil.”

  Archon scoffed. “I’m not evil… I am just doing that which must be done. You are going to let them kill us all.”

  A power welled up inside her, something new. Pure white light radiated from behind her, reflecting as bright wavering threads in his terrified eyes.

  He screamed; the shock of it brought her out of the trancelike state, and the glimmering light vanished as fast as it had manifested. Althea gasped at the sight of metal blades erupting from Archon’s body, soaking his stomach and thighs with blood. Shepherd had come over the side of the catwalk, a bloody mess all his own, and driven five fingers of nine-inch blades through Archon from behind. Althea’s arms flew out to each side to keep her balance. Seizing both railings, she tensed every muscle, but did not shout or look away. Archon glanced down at the gleaming blades protruding from his body with a smirk of drunken disbelief on his face.

  Shepherd lifted the wheezing figure into the air as he rose to his feet on the walkway. Blood burst from Archon’s mouth as he looked down, lips curling into a grimace of disdain and anger. Shepherd’s body rocked from unseen telekinetic force; Archon slid from the claws, collapsing on the grating as his blood rained down through it.

  The big man staggered backwards, driving his bladed fingers into the floor to keep from falling again. Archon dragged himself away and sat up. He glanced at Althea and tried to speak, but only made a wet gurgle.

  She took a step back.

  A glint of defiance shone in his face as his gaze snapped to the metal-armed monster. He raked his fingers through the air.

  With a sneer, Archon’s eyelids flared open and the giant howled with torment. Sparks flew from the cybernetic limbs as Shepherd’s entire body shuddered and twisted, back arched.

  Shepherd vanished in a spray of blood, except for two metal arms embedded in the catwalk by their claws. Destroyed wires sparked from the end of each artificial limb.

  Althea almost fell over the railing as she jumped up, watching the armless body paint a crimson stripe down the white thermacrete tower. Shepherd’s gaze met hers the second before he slid over the inward curve and fell out of sight. Her hand reached out as if she thought she could catch him.

  A tiny whisper left her throat. “No…”

  After seconds of silence, a resounding metallic crash came back up from below. He had fallen much farther that time.

  Lowering her weight off her toes, she leveled a glare down at Archon. Heavy bleeding had laid him out on his back, gazing wearily at the sky above. An incredulous chuckle launched a crimson glob through his teeth, as if his imminent death was so far removed from his expectations of how the day would go he found it humorous.

  “It has been a few weeks since I’ve stepped in warm blood.” Althea glanced down at her stained feet, her voice cold and creepy. “Is this what you meant by reminding me of home?”

  A second bubble of red saliva burst from his mouth as he laughed, a single loud sound like a kicked chicken. “Not really.” He winced.

  “I suppose you’re expecting me to save you now.” She squatted, touching her fingertips to the blood on the floor and drawing lines on his face. “Even after you took me away from my family and murdered my friend.”r />
  He forced a smile, his voice labored. “That was kind of the hope here, yes. We Awakened have to help each other; no one else will. We are one.”

  “You really ought to have listened to Aurora; you don’t understand what you’ve done.” Althea put a red dot at the tip of his nose. “She told me I would watch you die.”

  Archon’s detached joviality fell away to dread as the little girl stared at him with an emotionless face; as soon as she sensed fear, her lips curled into a sad smile.

  Her hand slipped through the shreds of cloth to touch his stomach. “But not today.”

  She shut off his sense of pain.

  “Oh, that is wonderful.” He lay back, moaning. “Yes, child. Good girl. We are of the same order.”

  Her somber tone slipped through a gap in the gale. “I’m nothing at all like you.”

  Archon wheezed into unconsciousness as she closed his wounds only enough to halt the onrush of death. He would not die this day, but he also would not hinder her escape. When she was certain she had done enough to let him survive, she cleaned the blood from her hands on his jacket and stood. She shot him a dire stare, imagining Rachel yelling at her to kill him.

  Guilt washed over her, and she walked away. Trudging with her head hung low, she went toward the enclosed ladder that led to the wailing depths.

  It was time to say goodbye to a friend.

  og and mist funneled about as Althea descended into the heart of the thrumming machinery. The cyclone trapped by the tower tugged at her climb, threatening to pull her slight frame off the ladder at one careless step. She ignored everything except for the metal bars that slid past her face and the sameness of the dingy white wall, broken only by the intermittent flash of her hands through her vision.

  Neither sadness nor anger followed her down; she felt nothing except the cold metal on her feet, and the tenebrous presence of the structure engulfing her. The walls grew narrower, and then wider as she sank deeper into a place filled with the mournful wails of the captive wind. She knew Shepherd was dead despite being too far away to feel it, and yet she had to see him one last time to apologize for what she had done.