by Kirby Howell
I glanced up at Grey, and his blue eyes looked back at me.
“Time to call in the Vegas riders,” he said. My heart lurched, thinking of Ben and Shad. They would have ridden hard all afternoon and evening, and if they’d arrived on time, they would be hidden in the hills just east of the Central Tower.
“They’ll be okay,” Grey assured me, and he pressed the palm of his hand against my cheek. “They’ll stop Karl from getting to the town.”
I nodded, and we ran to the fireworks beyond the large boulder. Grey immediately struck a match. Without pausing, he held the flame to one of the fuses, then stood up and motioned for me to stand back. A sparkle traveled up the fuse until it disappeared into the rocket. It flew into the air suddenly with a shrill screech that sliced through my eardrums. I clapped my hands over my ears and watched the rocket arc high into the black sky above us. It exploded with a startling pop and rained down white sparks that briefly lit the barren hilltop we stood on. The horses tied to the mesquite tree whinnied and pulled at their reins.
“Where will the Vegas riders meet The Front?” I asked.
“Probably halfway through the hills.”
The familiar nighttime noises blurred with the sounds of distant fighting. A canyon wren’s call became someone’s scream; the low pulse of water coursing through the dam’s turbines became the thunder of horse’s hooves. Gunfire peppered the night like Fourth of July firecrackers, and with each blast, my heart lurched in fear of who was on the receiving end.
Grey slid his arm across my back, pulling me against his side. I looked up at his face in the moonlight. He was staring sharply into the distance, listening.
Grey’s arm suddenly left my back, and he stepped toward the edge of the overlook, focusing his binoculars on the distant bypass bridge looming in the darkness. He handed me the binoculars as I joined him.
Chills ran down my back as I held them up to my eyes. Though it was far away, I could make out a line snaking its way through the hills on the Arizona side of the bypass bridge. There were riders on horseback leading the way. Behind them rumbled trucks. Lots of them. I could already hear the truck’s engines humming in the darkness like nocturnal insects.
“It’s the rest of The Front,” Grey said. “And my bet’s that Karl is with this group.”
“What makes you think that?”
“He wouldn’t be with the first charge. He’d stay near the back, where it was safer. We need to send up another rocket, so Jones can blow the bridge.”
Ten seconds later, Grey shot off the second rocket into the nighttime sky, and the lone white streak briefly lit the barren hilltops around us once more. I waited at the ledge, binoculars trained on the bridge. I held my breath, expecting a massive explosion, but as the seconds went by, nothing happened. The riders at the head of the advancing army reached the bridge and began to cross Black Canyon. Their silhouettes were only visible against the dark sky because they were moving. Where was Jones? Had he missed our rocket? Had he been killed like Hanson?
I looked up at Grey, confused. He was still, though a muscle in his cheek moved as he clenched his teeth together.
“Maybe we should shoot off another rocket?” I asked nervously.
A distant gunshot split the silence, the flare from the gun small and sudden on the distant hill where Hanson had pointed out Jones’s position earlier.
Grey pushed away from me. “Stay here.”
“Where are you going?”
“To blow the bridge.”
I leaped after him and latched myself onto his arm. “No, please don’t!”
“I have to, there’s no one else. We don’t stand any chance in beating The Front if that force crossing the bridge isn’t stopped. I won’t be long. I promise.”
I had an ugly feeling growing inside me. Tonight wasn’t going nearly as well as we’d planned it. Had we been foolish to think we could fight against The Front?
Grey stood still, arms at his sides, eyes closed, concentrating.
“Don’t tell me you’re leaving so soon.”
The voice came from directly behind me, and I jumped in fright, whipping around. Karl stood less than a foot away from me, dark eyes glinting in the moonlight. How had he gotten so close without being heard? I stared at him, dumbfounded and frozen. He was way too close for comfort, and the edge of the overlook loomed behind me. Grey was several steps away, too far to grab me and astral project to safety.
I took a miniscule step away from Karl and his eyes flicked toward me. Before he could say anything, two more shots rang out in the distance, sharp and clear, coming from the direction of the bypass bridge where Jones was.
“Sounds like there’s no need for you to go over there. One of my men is taking care of the problem,” Karl said.
“Taking care of the problem?” Grey asked.
“You were trying to blow up the bridge, weren’t you?”
“How did you know?” I asked.
“You picked a nice spot up here for us to talk. Nice and private.”
“What do you want?” Grey demanded. “Control over the dam? You’ve got it already, so why don’t you call off your fighters, and we’ll settle this now so no one has to die.”
Karl nodded. “That was my original goal, but now I’ve set my sights elsewhere.”
“So what do you want now?” Grey asked.
“I know your little secret,” he said.
“What secret is that?” Grey’s eyes narrowed.
“Must we continue playing games?”
I glanced at Grey, but he kept his eyes trained on Karl.
“I saw what you did at the radio station. Quite an impressive disappearing act.”
I took another slow step away from Karl, staying parallel to where I thought the ledge was, and slowly shifting my weight from one leg to the other, not taking my eyes off him as he studied Grey.
“You’re... special,” he said to Grey. “Would that be a good way to put it?”
I managed another step.
Grey stood stalwart, jaw clenched and eyes dead set on Karl’s. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.
“How long have you been here?” Karl asked.
“Since you chased us out of Los Angeles in January,” Grey answered.
Karl chuckled. “Not Hoover, I mean Earth.”
His words didn’t register at first. Then they slowly clanked into place in my head. He knew. Somehow, Karl knew Grey was alien.
I looked at Grey. He looked as shocked as I felt. He managed to shake his head, but before he could say anything, Karl said, “Let me help you remember.” He drew a piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it and began to read aloud, “Spent the day walking around campus. It rained most of the afternoon, but I didn’t mind – a good umbrella makes all the difference. Found a café here that reminds me of The Manor House at Cambridge. Wish I could go back and have one last Earl Gray there, but I guess some things aren’t meant to last a century.” Karl looked up at us and finished, “Saturday, August 7th, 1976, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University.”
Karl held up the page so I could see it. In the darkness, I recognized the impossibly small handwriting arcing across the page and noted the frayed left edge. Grey’s lost journals. When The Front discovered our underground hideout beneath Hollywood High, we were forced to leave quickly. Grey went back for his journals later but couldn’t find them. Karl must have taken them.
I looked up at Grey. It was plain he’d come to this conclusion as well.
“How badly do you want to go back to Andros?” Karl asked.
“It’s not possible—” Grey began.
“No,” Karl interrupted. “But you could make a new home. A better one.”
Grey shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been displaced now for, what, a couple hundred years? Based on what I’ve read, it seems to me you like it here. Earth, I mean. So much so that you stayed, through all the wars and terrible suffering. Either you have
an amazing amount of dedication, or you were hoping to disappear here, melt into the population, never to be seen again?” he asked thoughtfully. “Even after this plague when you should have given up and left, you stayed. Why? Isn’t that against your rules? To not get involved?”
Karl turned his attention on me, though he was still speaking to Grey. “Was it for her?” He moved toward me, and I started to scramble backwards, but he grabbed me, pulling me against him and pinning my arms behind me. My breath caught in my throat.
“Let her go.” Grey’s voice was dangerously soft. His head was lowered, and his eyes glowed blue in the darkness under his brow.
Karl didn’t move. “It was for her. Obviously. You’ve broken ties with The University, but they don’t know that yet, do they? You’ve ignored their rules, gotten involved here, and now you’ve allowed yourself to fall in love.”
I struggled against Karl. How did he know all of this?
“Okay, you know who I am. Then you know to take me seriously when I say, take your hands off of her.” Grey’s voice was controlled, but his fists were clenched with anger.
I kicked at Karl and tried to jerk free, but his grasp only hardened. “Don’t be a bigger pain in my ass than you already are, or you’ll force me to eliminate you from this situation,” he hissed into my ear.
I stood perfectly still, staring at Grey, who looked back at me, trying hard to hide his anguish.
“What do you want?” he asked quietly.
“We’re so much alike,” Karl replied, as if he hadn't heard.
“We’re nothing alike,” Grey said in a low, threatening voice.
“We are. More than you could ever realize.” The pressure from Karl’s hands on my shoulders was suddenly gone, and I whipped around, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Autumn!” Grey called to me, and I started toward him. Before I took two steps, Karl was suddenly between us. I gasped, stumbling over my feet as I backed away.
And then he was gone again, and I heard the horses whicker softly in the empty darkness. I tried to tame my own heavy breathing as I scanned the barren hilltop around us. The sounds of battle loomed louder and closer in the waiting stillness.
I heard a sudden gasp behind me, and I twisted around to see Karl pinning Grey’s arms behind his back.
“Believe me now?” Karl hissed in Grey’s ear. “Who better to help me than one of my own?”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I couldn’t believe it. Karl was with The University? Karl was like Grey? How could Grey not have known?
Karl hooked his foot around one of Grey’s ankles and shoved him, so he tripped and fell into the dirt. I rushed forward to help him, but someone caught me from behind, dragging me back.
I twisted and saw it was Karl. How did he astral project so fast? Grey had to stand still and concentrate to do it. Then I remembered Grey describing how his astral projection instructor had called him “short-sighted.” I grappled with Karl’s arms across my chest while my thoughts spun.
“Why don’t I know you?” Grey gasped from the ground.
“The University is a big place, and you’ve been checking in less and less in recent years. You obviously missed my little headline. Now, shall we talk about Andros?”
“What makes you think I want to go home?” Grey asked, standing up and not bothering to brush the dirt from his jeans. His eyes searched mine, grazing Karl’s arms around me.
“You obviously don’t want to be part of The University anymore. If you had, you would have been out of here as soon as possible. You want a real home now, just like you had before the wars on Andros, am I right?”
“Of course I want that,” Grey agreed, almost as if in defeat. “But you just said so yourself, Andros is lost to us.”
“Which is why,” Karl began, then paused to dig in his pocket before continuing, “we must create a new one.” He pulled a small glass vial from his pocket and dangled it in front of my face. It looked like the one Grey wore around his neck.
“You know what this is.”
“E-Vitamin,” Grey said.
Karl laughed and shook his head. “Oh, no. I don’t believe this has a name, but everyone seems to make up their own in the limited time they have before it begins killing. I tested it on a planet even further out than Earth. The humans there were so beautiful, I’d hoped a few might survive, natural immunities and such, but sadly not.” Karl shrugged his shoulders, in a “whoops” kind of way.
“And then you brought it here,” I whispered. “You released it here on purpose?”
“Earth is a lot more like Andros. Except for the people. This planet is crawling with them. I needed to start fresh, a clean slate to build on. Of course, I hadn’t counted on having quite so much trouble during the rebuilding years. But that’s where you come in. We don’t need to be on opposing sides. Don’t you see? If we worked together, we could rebuild this place in Andros’ image. Make it perfect this time, like it was before the wars. Can you imagine?”
I was horrified. Then I remembered the gun stuck in my belt. Karl wouldn’t see me pulling it out. I slowly slid my right hand under my shirt and wrapped my fingers around the handle. Karl didn’t seemed to notice, but Grey did.
His eyes were wide, and he shook his head.
Karl nodded, thinking Grey had responded to his question. “Once you see what I’m planning with your own eyes, you’ll come around. I know it.”
As quietly as I could, I switched off the gun’s safety and stared at Grey, trying to signal with my eyes that we didn’t have a choice. I took a deep breath and pulled the gun from my belt. Whipping around, I rammed the muzzle into Karl’s side, closed my eyes, and squeezed the trigger.
Sensing what was happening, Karl twisted away as the gunshot shattered the night around us. I felt the force of the blast travel through my arm and into my chest like a shockwave. Karl staggered back and flung me to the ground, so he stood between me and Grey, clutching his bleeding side. I landed roughly in the dirt, the gun still held tight in my fist.
I saw Grey, eyes closed to concentrate on projecting to me. Before I could aim the gun at Karl again, he lurched toward me, grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. His large hand closed over the gun, and I bent my head and bit his arm as hard as possible. He howled in pain and the small glass vial containing the virus disappeared into the darkness. I broke free of his grasp as Grey charged at us.
Karl grabbed my hair as I twisted away and yanked me back to him. He tore the gun from my hand, and as Grey came within arm’s length of us, Karl whipped Grey across the face with the butt of the gun. I screamed as Grey sprawled in the dirt.
With our faces only inches apart, Karl and I glared at one another. His grip on my hair made my scalp scream with pain. He glanced down at his bleeding forearm and then at his side, which wasn’t bleeding much. The bullet must have only grazed him. “You are pissing me off,” he gasped. “Remember what I said about eliminating you from this situation?”
Grey pushed himself up onto shaking arms. His cheek was split open, and his lip dripped blood down his chin. “You’re deluding yourself if you think I’d join you,” Grey said thickly, then spat a large amount of blood into the dirt and stood. “I won’t ask you again. Let her go.”
A succession of crackling pops rent the air, followed by a heavy, creaking groan. All three of our heads turned toward the noise, and we watched the distant bypass bridge slowly tilt to one side, spilling what looked like toy trucks and soldiers from its top into Black Canyon below. With a noise that reminded me of an elderly giant trying to sit down, the bridge collapsed. Beams and railings broke free, slamming into the canyon’s rock walls, the echo of the noise reverberating back to us over and over like machine gun fire. Cables snapped and whipped through the air like power lines, and the bridge disappeared from sight into the canyon below.
I took advantage of the distraction and rammed my knee as hard as I could manage into Karl’s crotch. His face twisted in pain, and a gasp escaped his p
inched lips. His hand released my hair, and I darted away.
A soul-shivering crash of metal against rock echoed through the canyons and seemed to last for minutes as the bridge met the dam’s concrete spillway. I fought against the urge to hold my hands over my ears as I clenched my teeth against the noise and scrambled away from Karl.
Grey tackled Karl around his torso, pulling him roughly to the ground and rolling a few feet. Clouds of dry dirt billowed into the air around us as Grey and Karl struggled for the upper hand. Frantic, I looked around for a branch or rock to use against Karl, but the ground was clean. There was a grunt, and Grey yelled my name.
A sleek, black object flew through the air and landed with a thud several feet from me. It was the gun. I dashed to it, sliding into the dirt in my haste. I snatched the gun and whipped around, heart pounding.
A dark figure loomed in front of me suddenly, and I fell backward onto the ground.
“Give me the gun,” Karl said from above me. I looked beyond him at the figure lying on the ground, unmoving. My insides froze for a moment until I saw Grey raise his hands to his head and try to roll onto his side. I refocused on Karl and my leg twitched to kick him again, but he’d learned his lesson and stayed just out of reach of me.
“Give me the gun,” Karl said again, slower and calmer this time. No doubt, he knew from experience that while I was just an eighteen-year-old girl, I wouldn’t hesitate to injure him.
I stood slowly, holding the gun out in front of me. I hardened my face and glowered at him from under my brow. I tried to pretend to be as familiar with a gun in my hand as I was with a gardening spade.
I took another step back and glanced at Grey, who made it to his knees and stared at us, still clutching his head as if he were dizzy. He held out a hand to me as if to say “stop.”
“You’re making a mistake, Autumn,” Karl said in the same calm voice. “Don’t you want a normal life for you and Grey? A world where he can be himself and not hide who he is anymore? Once we restore order, he can take you anywhere, on this world or even another one. There are plenty out there. You can be together. I can give you that, if you let me.”