by Alechia Dow
“Enough. 0rsa, leave here, and we won’t speak of this again.” Brixton steps forward. “You will not have me, or my brother. And you will not kill these humans.”
Morris is in the process of getting rid of a second guard when he stops. A line of six labmade guards stand behind Orsa, in front of my family, as he backs down. Confusion spreads across his features as he regards his brother.
Venom drips in Orsa’s tone. “I never suspected you were working for the rebellion.”
Brixton’s response is threatening. “What are you going to do about it?”
“I will tell your grandfather. This will cancel your father’s ascension. Every plan you’ve made—”
Brixton lunges and I toss the buzzkiller at Orsa. She catches it in one hand. “What is this?” And then her eyes widen as it starts to drain her energy on contact. She tries to shake it from her hand, howling in frustration when it sticks to her like a magnet. Her gaze flicks to mine. I can barely gulp in surprise when she backhands me hard with her free arm. Her Ilori strength sends me flying in the air, the wind whistling in my ears, until my back hits the side of the ship.
Something inside of me, something big, snaps.
I crumple to the ground. The air flees my lungs before I can scream.
The pain is instant and everywhere and radiating from my spine, I think, to the tips of my toes to my lips. Something wet drips onto my lips, and I wonder vaguely if it’s water or blood.
My heart pounds in my ears...or is that a ringing? I can’t tell. I attempt to move... I can’t. Nothing works. I have no control. Breaths come in short pants, as if my body can’t take in or let out anymore, and my vision blackens at the edges. I’m alive. Not for much longer, I suspect.
I don’t want to die alone. No one dies alone.
The world moves around me. My gaze drifts over to the melee, my body stuck to the sand that softened my fall. Orsa finally detaches the buzzkiller, but her movements are slow. Brixton grabs for her. I see flashes of hair and limbs, but they’re too fast.
Where is Morris? Where is my family?
A howl pierces the air as Morris faces off against three Ilori. His voice flickers in and out of my head.
I’m coming, Ellie. Wait for me. You’re going to be okay.
And then he’s on the move. He whips an opponent in the air like he’s tossing a ball. Sand flies up, and screams bounce off the ship. Panic envelops me. Not only am I going to die, but so will Morris. He can’t win. There are too many.
As his movements slow and a crowd forms around him, my heart sinks further in my chest. Please no. Please.
Morris, I try to shout, to prove I’m still here with him. But his name stays locked in my throat.
I squeeze my eyes shut, refusing to see him fall. Metal screeches, prickling my eardrums. The smoke drifts into my nostrils and I cough, the movement bringing a fresh wave of pain to my failing body.
Don’t give up, Ellie. Never give up. I’m coming.
I’m trying, but sounds and thoughts are drifting away.
A memory passes through my mind, and, briefly, it feels more real than everything that’s happened over the past few days and years. As if the center and executions were just a nightmare conjured from a book I read.
I’m thirteen again. The sun blinks down at me in front of the steps of the central library in Brooklyn. There’s a jazz band playing for Summerfest, while my mother dances within the crowd and the air fills with laughter and music. I turn, catching the MTA Flatbush line driving past as my dad plops his heavy hands on my shoulders, startling me, nearly knocking a stack of books from my arms.
“Got you your favorite.” He hands me a cheddar scone from Four & Twenty Blackbirds.
“Oh, thanks, Dad.” I take it from him and sniff the salty deliciousness just as Mom curls a finger at him from across the crowd. “You better dance with her.”
He kisses my cheek and vanishes into the sea of people. I twirl in my favorite white dress that makes my skin shimmer. I feel good. I feel happy. Alive. Beauty and light surround me. Thirteen-year-old me takes a mental photograph, promising that if I ever feel out of control, I can come back to this moment, and all will be right again.
But then it floats away, and I’m back in darkness, lying in the sand, wishing I could go back in time, away from the present where everyone I love is losing.
Morris floods into my narrow view as he picks up my head and holds me. I want to hug him close, to yell at him, to ask him how he managed to break away, but I can’t.
He stares down at me with so much sorrow that my heart breaks alongside the rest of me. “Where are you hurt?”
I cough, feeling something warm and sticky on my lips. Blood. Bleeding from your mouth is never a good thing. Pain radiates all over my body, but it’s beginning to numb. This is it, isn’t it? I’d always wondered if you felt pain up until your very last moments.
More blood dribbles out of my mouth with each cough.
“You are going to be okay.” His voice shakes. And then I think about my family, Alice, Avrola, the ship, but I can’t get the words out. He seems to read my mind, though. Because he knows this is the end. “They are fine. Everyone is fine. AvR0la is trying to wake your mom now.” He draws my head closer to his as he crouches beside me. “Ellie, please don’t leave me. Please.”
There are so many things to tell him, but I’m dying. I know that now. I’m not invincible. One strike from an Ilori, and my body is broken. My chest feels caved in, and my mind is overcome with thoughts and memories and words. I expected it to hurt more.
His fingers graze the edge of my face, and there are tears in his eyes. One plops onto my cheek, and he gasps, bringing his hands to his face. “I’ve never... Hearts must feel, for mine is breaking.”
I want to tell him that he has inadvertently quoted The Wizard of Oz. Even while dying, I am reminded of stories. I blink up at Morris, concern and hurt and pain all mingling in his expression.
More tears stream from his eyes and fall onto my cheeks. “I love you, Janelle Baker. I love you.”
I wheeze, trying to say the words back to him. I want him to know that I love him, too. It’s the only thing I can do.
“I know, I know,” he says, bringing his lips to my forehead. “I can’t read your beautiful mind. But I know you.” He brushes tears away. “I know you love me. This will not be the end. It can’t be. What can I do?”
I think about him singing to me. His voice. How I love to hear him sing. He looks down at me with a small, sad smile. He knows.
“This world... It’s bigger than the two of us. But it’s really only them and us, and I want them all to know. My star, I’ll never let her go.”
I remember our first kiss. The way he looked up at the sky as if thankful afterward. I was thankful, too.
“Please stay close to me... I revolve around you, you’re my gravity. They say we’re too different, that it can’t last, that you’re a star, shooting too fast. You hold your hand out, pulling me with you... I love you.”
One last time. Just one more try. One word.
“Love.”
And it’s all I can say before my eyes close on their own, but I can still hear him breathing and singing. I can still feel his hands holding me, my body draped across him. The world is fading to black.
I hope my mom finds peace. I hope my father finds himself. I hope Alice finds love that will shine brighter than the darkest of her memories. And for Morris—I hope that he finds happiness and that, when he thinks of me, I’ll bring a smile to his mind and a song to his lips.
Even as I die, the love in my heart is profound.
CHAPTER 25
“Swallowed in the Sea”
—Coldplay
M0Rr1S
M0Rr1S has never cried before, but then he’s never felt sorrow like this before either. He promised to save Ja
nelle. He promised to protect her. But he also let her come with him, even when the chances of success were slim. Now she’s dying in his arms, and there’s nothing he can do about it. Everything is his fault.
Through the tears he sings “Swallowed in the Sea,” expressing everything he feels, everything he wishes he could have said to her. Please come back to me. Please.
“I told you I heard someone singing, Rupert!” a human with long, dark blue hair announces. They are dressed in fitted, tight jeans, and a white dress shirt with a feathery red cape attached that billows gently in the wind. M0Rr1S’s jaw drops as this person crouches on the other side of Ellie.
“Coldplay,” another voice responds. “We can never seem to escape them. Remember when they tried to steal our look for their last album? Humans are so unoriginal.”
Humans?
M0Rr1S is at a loss for words. Has the onset of devastation addled his mind?
The being beside Ellie touches her face. “Janelle. Oh dear. Rupert, do you have the kit?”
“Of course I have the bloody kit, Allister! Is this not the reason we left?”
“Cecil, do make yourself useful for once and hand me the jars. Our girl’s life is hanging in the balance, for Jadu’s sakes!”
“You’re so dramatic,” Cecil responds before handing Allister a small container of bottles. “We already know the story’s ending.”
“You’re Andarrans,” M0Rr1S mutters, sounding odd to his own ears. “I’m sorry to breach your property, please don’t—”
“This is only the beginning,” Allister responds. “And yes, I’m male and Andarran. All of us are males and Andarran.” He sinks deeper into the sand and takes out five dark glass bottles with various liquids inside. He uncorks one and holds it before Ellie. “We aren’t going to kill you. The treaty is fine. Just, shush, okay?”
M0Rr1S will not shush. “What is that?”
“Right, M0Rr1S—goodness it’s such a weird name, yeah? I’ll call you Morris, like she does. Yes, all of you Ilori broke the treaty by coming here, but that was all part of the plan, wasn’t it?” Allister rolls his eyes. “I’m going to save her life, if you’ll let me.”
M0Rr1S rescinds his hand, unsure. Andarrans are kind. Healers. But very strict about their treaties. And old, so old they don’t have to adhere to time like Ilori or humans. They look so much like humans; there are very few traces of their otherness, unlike the Ilori labmade.
Allister drips a few drops of liquid into Ellie’s mouth. M0Rr1S waits—hopes—impatiently for her to somehow spring back to life, but an explosion floods his eyes and screeches in his ears. Sand shoots into the air as the Earth shakes beneath them. The ship is destroyed, and with it, the hope of saving humanity.
The remaining shell of IpS1L slowly descends into the ocean. Beside it, he catches whirs of 0rsa and Brixton clashing. 0rsa cannot keep up with his brother; M0Rr1S doesn’t know how long she held on to the human weapon, but she looks close to depletion, moving slow. She’s strong, so strong, yet not strong enough to defeat a true Ilori.
The guards rise from the sand. Prepared to fight again. He sets his jaw. Didn’t he overpower them? But then, they’re 0rsa’s security tech. Either he’ll have to use blunt force or sneak behind their code without triggering further alarms.
They turn simultaneously to regard him, causing him to push his thoughts aside.
The waves crash around them, as if they must match the battle raging. And then M0Rr1S remembers. Ellie’s parents, Alice and AvR0la are there. He needs to get them out.
Ferk.
“Go,” Allister insists, as if he can read M0Rr1S’s mind. Andarrans don’t have that talent. Do they? “I’ve got her.”
M0Rr1S snatches a reluctant glance at them before running off. He catches the footfalls of the other men behind but pays them no mind.
“Love a bit of action,” Cecil says in a singsong voice M0Rr1S finds familiar, but he can’t quite place. “So far Earth has been dangerously entertaining.”
“Oh, do shut up,” Allister yells from where he’s still stooped over Ellie.
The labmade guards run at M0Rr1S all at once, but Cecil intercedes, landing a quick yet powerful jab to one of their panels. The guard clutches their neck before falling forward and gasping for air. Blunt force works.
M0Rr1S barely has time to register when hands wrap around his neck. He pants before swinging his head back into soft flesh. A groan is all the reward he gets before there’s a visitor in his mind, searching for his shutdown tab. He pulls at the presence, latching on to it as he boots it from his system. Easy. Sneaking into human minds requires less power than entering Ilori minds.
Precious milliseconds pass as he streams through the Ilori’s channels, shoving miscellaneous data aside until finding the shutdown switch buried behind code. He slams his energy at it, and a guard drops a few feet away. How many more left?
The Andarrans—Rupert and Cecil, he recalls—gracefully sweep through their remaining opponents, much to his surprise. M0Rr1S had no idea Andarrans could be violent, but the thought is fleeting as he moves around the chaos to AvR0la.
He drops down before them. “Are you okay? Can you help me?”
AvR0la holds up their cuffed wrists. M0Rr1S has only heard rumors of these before. Poisoned. They block neural transmitters and movements. AvR0la winces.
“I don’t know how to break these.” M0Rr1S inspects them, taking care not to touch their silver surface. A touch could very well poison him, too.
“Oh, we might,” Rupert intones behind him. “We’ll take care of it.”
Beside AvR0la lies Ellie’s mother, facedown in the sand. M0Rr1S doesn’t waste any more time and picks her up. He runs toward an empty car that the Andarrans must have arrived in and sets her inside before running back to find Ellie’s father. But he’s gone.
M0Rr1S whips his head around to scan the shore. He can’t see anything through the smoke and the haze that has started to creep through the field of pods.
Just as he prepares to bolt in search of Ellie’s father, 0rsa flies past him and lands in the sand at his feet. Her body is bent and broken. There’s black blood leaking from a cut above her eyebrow and a weariness in her that M0Rr1S has not seen before. That must be the difference between the first models and the second. Still, it would be an easy fix for a healer.
“Please...stop Brixton.” She drags in a breath.
M0Rr1S considers letting them battle it out. 0rsa is no match for Brixton, and her death would settle many of his issues. But even if he denies it, he is a labmade, and killing another labmade is wrong. And 0rsa...even if she hates who she is, she is like him.
His knees sink into the sand beside her. She looks up at him with resigned anger. “Don’t.”
“I’m shutting you down, 0rsa. For your safety.”
“No.” Her nostrils flare.
“Let me in, 0rsa,” M0Rr1S demands. “I’ll save you, but you need to help me, too.”
“I will crush you and your family.” Her eyes flash with hatred.
“I have no doubt.” M0Rr1S sighs. “I never knew you were so ambitious. I apologize for denying you that which you’ve desired most. If I had known—”
“0rsa! I will end you for your treachery.” Brixton calls from the distance. M0Rr1S only holds 0rsa’s gaze as she flinches at Brixton’s words.
“I am Ilori, I do not feel,” she whimpers.
He doesn’t respond.
“I’m true,” she says it more to herself than to him. “I’m not like you. I’m not.”
“No, you’re better than me, 0rsa. You are the perfect Ilori.”
Footsteps approach them, and 0rsa sinks lower into the sand.
“Allow me in. Let me shut you down. I can end your pain. I can get you home. Continue to struggle and you will die.” M0Rr1S is not lying. 0rsa’s only chance at life right now, out
here, is to shut down and wait for healing. There are no healers here. Ilori, especially labmade, are not invincible.
“I hate you,” 0rsa spits out.
“I know,” M0Rr1S says quietly. He wants to pity her, and in her weak state, he almost could. Being subjected to his inferiority meant she had to question hers. Made her desperate to hurt anyone who stood in the path of her ambitions.
She looks beyond him to the sky. He wonders if she is looking for home and imagining another life, where she is true Ilori and respected. Her voice is soft, relenting. “Take it away.”
M0Rr1S closes his eyes and enters her mind. He pushes at the pain until is dissipates. A sigh of relief shudders through her, relief she doesn’t deserve. And then he presses forward, shutting 0rsa down, overriding her systems. She is strong, and it drains him to battle her mind for control. His knees are soaked from the moisture of the sand before she loses the fight. She shuts down, the life in her eyes dulling until it is gone completely. Asleep, but for how long? Sleep is eight hours for him, but 0rsa is older than him, so it could be shorter.
M0Rr1S shuts her eyelids just as Brixton approaches. “Brixton, stop.”
“She was going to expose us. Expose our—” Brixton comes closer, his voice dropping to a whisper so small, only meant for him. “We should kill her, M0Rr1S. Step aside.”
“I have every reason to, but I will not.” M0Rr1S will fight his brother if he must. He does not feel anything for 0rsa; she might have killed Ellie, and her punishment should be death. But he can’t kill her. It’s wrong to take a life, and so many lives have been lost already.
“You would expose Mother for this? Do you know what her penalty will be?” Brixton casts M0Rr1S a dark look.
“You—you knew? You?” M0Rr1S stares at Brixton as the world burns around them. There is nothing he can do. Each time he thinks he can grasp the events of this night...
“Not as long as you.” Air rasps through Brixton’s teeth. “We all play a role.”
“Is that why you killed the humans in my quadrant? A role?” The anger is quick and unrelenting.