Autumn in the Dark Meadows (The Autumn Series)

by Kirby Howell

  That was exactly what I wanted, except for the part that included Karl. He was an idiot if he thought I’d dismiss the disposal of our population as a byproduct of his grand plan to recreate Andros here on Earth. In the silence, I heard a soft dripping noise and saw splatters of blood in the dirt by Karl’s foot. My gaze followed a trail of blood up the outside of his pant leg to his hip, where his shirt was soaked in much more blood than before. The graze from the bullet must have ripped further open when Grey tackled him.

  Karl noticed what I was looking at and pressed his hand to the wound. Color seemed to leave his face as he shifted his stance, seeing the blood now pooling around his foot. He closed his eyes, and I knew he was about to astral project away. I began to squeeze the trigger. I couldn’t let him get away.

  He opened his eyes suddenly, startling me.

  “Grey?” Karl called over his shoulder. “I can make Earth just like Andros was before the wars. It’s possible; I’m everywhere now! And it would happen a lot quicker with your help. Once that’s done, you can go anywhere and do anything, and I will never bother you again.” A shade of desperation colored his voice. “Please, we can do this together.”

  He must be having trouble projecting, because he’s injured, I thought. Karl refocused his attention on me. “You know you don’t want to shoot me. What would your parents think?” Karl said softly. I noticed sweat shining on his pale forehead.

  “I know what my parents would think. If my mother were here now, she’d shoot you herself, and my dad would cheer her on. But she’s not here now because of you. Neither is my dad or my best friend or billions of other people. So by all means, keep coming closer and let’s make my mother proud.”

  Karl took a step toward me, and I stepped backward again. I felt something small under my sneaker and heard the muffled squeak of breaking glass. The vial. I stooped and picked it up, keeping the gun aimed at Karl’s chest. I glanced at the vial in my hand. The glass was fractured but not broken. Why did he need this if he already had Earth? I wondered. Then a sick thought entered my head.

  “If this doesn’t work out how you want it to, here on Earth, you’ll just go somewhere else, right?” I said, holding up the vial. “That’s what this is for. Backup.”

  Karl just stared at me. That was enough of a confirmation for me.

  “Grey?” I called. “How do I destroy this?”

  “It has to be burned. Throw it to me,” he moved to the side, so Karl wasn’t between us. “Don’t move—” Grey began to say, but at that moment, Karl lunged at me.

  I gasped and jumped backward, but my heels caught on something, and I fell. I heard Grey yell my name as I landed hard on the dry ground, but kept my hands tightly wrapped around the gun. My feet stuck up in the air, my calves propped on the tree root Grey and I had leaned against earlier by the cliff. I briefly wondered how close I was to the edge before Karl appeared between my feet. Without pausing to think, I aimed in the general direction of his legs and squeezed the trigger.

  The gun went off with a sharp bang that rattled my teeth, and Karl pitched forward, grabbing his thigh, loomed over me, then fell. He landed half on top of me, the air whooshing out of my lungs.

  I heard the noise of cascading rocks before I felt the ground moving. I thought it was an earthquake at first until the ground tilted and I began sliding backward toward the edge of the overlook. I suddenly remembered Hanson’s warning about the hillside being weakened.

  As my sliding grew faster, I scrambled to grab onto anything, but found only tumbling rocks and loose dirt. A hand closed on my arm and, with relief, I felt my momentum slow. But then I looked at who had the tight grip on my arm and saw Karl, his face white and sweaty, clinging to the cliff beside me. He had one arm curled around an exposed tree root and the other hand clamped on my arm.

  “Autumn!” Grey’s voice came from above me. I looked up and saw him not too far above us. He was stretched out on his stomach, hanging over the edge and extending a hand down to me. There was a popping noise, and Karl and I suddenly slid a few more inches, dirt spraying me in the face as our weight unearthed the tree root further from the cliff face.

  Grey’s hand darted out and caught the arm I flung toward him. I felt Grey pull and strain as he tried to lift me, but Karl pulled back, threatening to drag me out of Grey’s grasp. My chest felt like it was being ripped in two with Grey pulling in one direction and Karl pulling in the other.

  “Let go of her!” Grey roared. Blood dripped down his cheek from a gash at his temple, and his lip was swollen from where Karl had hit him with the gun.

  A husky whisper in my ear made me turn my head toward Karl. His face was inches from mine, his dark eyes staring into my own. “I know how much you love your new family.” He paused to smile, revealing blood-tinged teeth. “Make him want to help me, or I’ll make you very sorry he didn’t cooperate.”

  I looked back at Grey, desperate for help, then Karl’s hand on my arm disappeared. I whipped my head back to where Karl had been beside me, but he was gone. He’d managed to project away.

  “Give me your hand!” Grey commanded. I looked up at him. His torso hung halfway over the crumbling ledge, one hand still grasping my arm. He pulled me up a few inches, and I got one knee perched on the end of the tree root nearest me. His other hand reached closer, his eyes blazing with color.

  “You can do it!” Grey yelled. “Give me your hand! Swing your arm back behind you! Use your momentum to propel it up to me!”

  His waiting hand looked so far away. I drew back my arm behind me and swung it up, pulling myself toward Grey. He reached forward to meet my hand, and something slipped from beneath his shirt. It glinted in the starlight for a moment before it tangled with my fingers. I felt a slight pop and saw the object briefly before it disappeared below us. Grey’s vial. I stared after it and looked back at him, panicked.

  “Forget it! One more try! I’ll catch your hand this time! Just one more try!” he shouted.

  I flung myself toward him again, and this time he caught my wrist. His face strained as he pulled me toward him. Both of my knees bumped against the tree root, and I gingerly drew my feet up onto it.

  Grey pulled me over the ledge, and we rolled away from it, both gasping for breath. I remained on my back, arms shaking, but Grey immediately got to his feet.

  “What?” I said, as he pulled me up.

  “We should get out of here in case he decides to come back.”

  Karl’s last words before he projected away echoed in my head. “I think he’s probably gone for now,” I said, then realized I was still holding Karl’s fractured glass vial, but the gun was gone. I had no memory of dropping it as we fell over the side.

  “I think I lost the gun, but I still have this,” I said, holding up the vial. Grey took it and looked at it briefly, before slipping it into his pocket.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, smoothing my hair.

  “I’m fine. What did he do to you?” I asked, touching his bleeding temple.

  “He kicked me.” He winced as I used my sleeve to dab at a trickle of blood running down his temple. “Come on,” he said, “I don’t like the thought of staying here. Do you mind riding? I’d project us, but I don’t think I have the strength.”

  I looked at him in the darkness and knew he was right. He was covered in dirt and dust, his face and knuckles were bloody, and his shirt was torn.

  “Of course,” I said, as we approached the horses, which had miraculously remained tied where we’d left them, despite the fireworks, the gunshots and the distant rumble of the battle below us.

  “Where should we go?” I asked, as he untied them from the mesquite tree.

  “We should check on Jones,” Grey said. “The bridge came down late, so something must have happened.”

  My arms felt weak, and my knees shook with the events of the last hour, but I managed to pull myself into the saddle and follow him toward the distant hill Hanson had pointed out to us. I glanced at Grey, recalling the con
versation at the Eiffel Tower when he told me he believed someone from The University intentionally brought The Plague here. He had been right. I thought about the billions of lives extinguished for the sole purpose of giving Karl a blank canvas, how he’d already wiped out another entire planet with his failed first attempt, and I wished I’d shot him in the heart instead of the leg. I clenched my jaw and looked at Grey. His face was as grim as my own must have been.

  “I should have known,” he said, catching my glance. His voice was low and angry. “I should have figured it out.”

  “How could you have known?” I argued. “The University is a big place, and you’re all spread out visiting different planets and systems. And you haven’t been back for a while.”

  He was silent for a moment. “We know for certain who the bioterrorist was, at least,” he said. “You know, the thought of Karl being responsible for The Plague crossed my mind, but I never linked my suspicion of him with my fear of a traitor within The University. And it’s too late to go tell them. They’ve moved on now. I won’t get a chance to go back for another four years,” he muttered. “And I really hate that he has my journals. I should have gone back for them sooner.”

  “We’ll just have to do the best we can until you can get in touch with The University again,” I replied.

  There was no trail, and it was dark, so it was slow going. We left our flashlights off in hopes that our passing would remain unnoticed. The sounds of battle grew weaker in the distance. I hoped that meant the fight was ending, rather than moving away from us and toward Hoover. Again, I found myself wishing I knew what was happening with my friends. Where were Ben and Shad? Had Tess retreated with the other sailboats to take cover in Painter’s Cove? Had Daniel gotten the help he needed at the med center to survive his gunshot wound?

  Staying on the darkest side, we crossed three small rises before reaching the base of the hill Jones was supposedly on. Grey snapped his reins against his horse’s side, and charged up the side of the steep hill. I followed, clinging to my saddle.

  The hilltop appeared to be empty, but as we rode closer to the side nearest the bridge, a dark form lying in the grass appeared in front of us. Grey swung down from his horse and knelt by the still figure.

  “I’m guessing this is Jones,” he said, feeling for a pulse. He inspected the dark, wet patch on Jones’ chest. “Looks like the gunshot killed him instantly.”

  “Then who lit the fuses to bring down the bridge?”

  “I did,” wheezed a voice from the darkness.

  I jumped. Reacting to my movement, my horse danced backward, and I hauled back on the reins. I knew that voice. I slid down from the saddle, but Grey beat me to the shadow of a creosote bush, where another dark figure lay hidden.

  “Shad!” I exclaimed, dropping to my knees in front of him. He was pale, sweating and pressing one hand over a bloody gash across his chest. A gun was clutched in his other hand.

  “Well, aren’t you the very person I wanted to see?” Shad said, looking at Grey with half-lidded eyes. His voice was weak, his breathing shallow.

  Grey gently pulled Shad’s hand away. I grimaced. A gash about six inches long spread diagonally across his chest. With the release of pressure from Shad’s hand, blood immediately began to trickle from the opening again, blending with the sweat than ran down his stomach. I pulled off my sweatshirt and handed it to Grey, who pressed it hard against Shad’s chest.

  “Is that from a knife?” I asked.

  Shad gritted his teeth and said, “I’ve got some bad luck with cutlery. Glad I’ve got the doc to keep stitching me back together.” I was reminded of when Shad had been almost fatally stabbed when we still lived in Los Angeles.

  “What happened?” Grey asked. “We heard gunshots and thought Jones was dead, but then the bridge was blown anyway.”

  “That was me,” Shad confirmed. “Sorry I was late. Did I get any of ‘em?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, you got a lot of them.”

  “But how did you know?” Grey asked.

  “Brody,” Shad gasped in pain. “I was running ahead of the Vegas riders to try and help the Hoover Guard prepare for the attack, when I ran into Brody. He warned me. Said he’d been out toward the dam and overheard Hanson and Jones talking about ruining the mayor’s plan. Said we needed to find the mayor and see his plan through.”

  A small wave of relief passed through me. Brody hadn’t double-crossed us. He’d gone to stop Hanson. And Shad had come here to stop Jones and set off the explosions for the bridge.

  “If Hanson and Jones weren’t going to go through with the mayor’s plan, why bother to set the explosives on the bridge and in the pass?” I asked.

  “Sounds like they were being watched and had to go through the motions. They would have sabotaged the plan in other ways,” Grey said. “Glad you and Brody managed to get up here to see it through. You really saved the day.”

  “The mayor told us everything,” Shad said, waving off Grey’s compliment. “Guess he trusts me because I came in with you guys. Did you see Brody down there?”

  “He’s dead,” I said, quietly. “He and Hansen, well, I guess they killed each other.”

  Shad squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, they were bright with tears. In the silence of the moments that followed, the noise from the battle loomed louder. From this hill, yells and screams from the town below were carried toward us on the night breeze. The low rumbling of a distant explosion drowned out the voices. I looked in the direction of town and saw an unnatural orange glow tinting the black sky. Fire.

  I looked at Grey, but he was already looking at me. He nodded in understanding.

  “We should get you down to the med center,” Grey said. “This is going to need stitches. Think you can ride with me?”

  “Might need a little help,” Shad murmured, his eyelids drooping.

  Grey pulled Shad’s arm over his shoulders and helped him to a standing position. I steadied him while Grey led his horse over.

  “Shad, how did you get so far ahead of the rest of the Vegas riders? Ben and the others-”

  Shad interrupted me, a gasping, half-laugh escaping his lips. “I told you Thunder was the fastest horse in the West.”

  I smiled and shook my head. “You mean Greased Thunder.”

  He smiled, but a grimace shadowed his face.

  “Where is he?” I asked, looked around the barren hilltop.

  Shad waved his hand. “He’s around. He’ll come back to town when the noise dies down.”

  I helped get Shad onto Grey’s horse, then Grey climbed up behind him, and I mounted my own horse.

  “Autumn, it sounds like there’s still fighting going on, so I want you to stay as close behind me as you can. I’m going to try to stay out of it, but we may have to ride fast if there’s no going around it. And Autumn,” Grey paused, his voice low and serious, “I don’t want you stopping for anything. Anything, do you understand?”

  Grey’s blue eyes pierced through the darkness around us, and I nodded.

  The night grew quieter, and as we descended out of the hills, smoke burned our noses. The silence was punctured with gunfire only every minute or two. We left the hills behind us and passed in the shadow of the Central Tower, and the Hoover Settlement spread before us. Several buildings crawled with flickering flames, and the shapes of people and horses were clearly visible as they darted down the streets and between houses and buildings.

  Grey threw a glance at me as he gathered the reins tighter in his hands. His arms were around Shad, holding him up, but Shad’s head lolled to the side.

  “Is he okay?” I asked.

  “He’s lost some blood. We need to get him to the med center as quickly as possible. I just hope it’s still standing,” he said grimly, looking out over the town. “Ready?”

  I nodded, and Grey kicked his horse into a trot, then a canter, and I followed close behind. We crossed an empty patch of land behind a small cluster of houses on the edge of town, and as we ca
me closer, I heard the yells and screams of fighting men and women, the frightened neighing of horses, and the crackle of flames. The smell of burning lumber filled the air, and the smoke thickened around us.

  “Stay close!” Grey yelled over his shoulder as we neared the houses. It looked like he was going to cut through the middle of the neighborhood so we’d come out at the avenue that bisected Main Street. The med center was on the corner there.

  We kicked our horses into a gallop and flew through the long grass. I could see details of the houses now, a flower bed someone had planted near their back door, trampled now by boots and hooves. A smashed window, flames reflected in its broken edges. A dead horse lying in the shadow of a clothesline still strung with bed sheets that wavered in the slight breeze.

  A figure appeared around the corner of a house not far away. He darted through the grass and flung himself through the back door into the house right as a gunshot ripped through the air, and the window in the back door shattered. I recognized him immediately. It was Ben.

  Another figure appeared, chasing him. He kicked open the door Ben threw shut behind him and charged into the house.

  Without thinking, I yanked on my horse’s reins, steering him toward the house where Ben was hiding. We galloped across the yard, jumped over a small garden and rapidly neared the house. Fortiter, I thought, aiming for the open doorway. I ducked as we flew through it. The horses’ hooves made hollow clumping sounds on the floor as we crashed into a dark kitchen. A hallway in front of me led to the front door, which stood open to the avenue beyond. Ben was silhouetted in the doorway.

  I yanked hard on the reins, and my horse’s hooves slid on the linoleum as he skidded to a stop, nervously snorting and tossing his head at the cramped quarters he’d suddenly found himself in. The Frontman stood in the hallway between me and Ben, holding him at gunpoint, but his head was turned to stare back at me, eyes wide with surprise at seeing a teenage girl on a horse in the kitchen.

  I kicked my horse in the sides again, and he charged forward into the narrow hallway, half bucking in fear and half obeying my command to go forward.