by R H Nolan
Saris scoffed. “What, your fellow savages? You still don’t understand, do you? All that was a necessary step in the process. We experimented on them to refine the process, to make sure it’s safe for future generations—”
“You can’t do that to people! Experiment on them like that—”
“To ‘people’?” the Governor interrupted, amused. “Those things weren’t ‘people.’”
“I’m not talking about the Sandwalkers!” Max shouted.
“Ah… your fellow tribesmen. Well, I assure you, anything we did to one of them, I’ve gone through myself.”
Max’s surprise must have been written all over his face, because Saris smirked. “Where did you think I got my powers? Oh… you didn’t think I was willing to put myself on the line, did you?”
The governor held up one finger to the metal encasing half his face.
“I wasn’t like this when your father knew me. I thought we’d found the answer. The key to infinite power. What man wouldn’t put himself first in line to possess it? Your father wouldn’t cooperate, wouldn’t help me. Wouldn’t even experiment on Scavengers. Said it was too dangerous, that it was inhumane. That’s why he had to go.
“After he was gone, I did find power… but it only extends so far. The cancer has made sure of that.”
Max frowned in confusion. “But… if it already worked on you… why were you experimenting down there?”
“To help humanity reach the next phase of evolution, Max—without this happening to them,” Saris said, pointing to his face again.
“Which part of humanity?” Max asked coldly. “The part that lives inside the city walls? But to hell with everybody out in the Wastelands, right?”
Saris smiled the tiniest bit. “You originally came from Neo Angeles. You’re not one of them. Stop talking like you are.”
“I grew up there—”
“Are you a cannibal?” Saris sneered. “Do you enslave women and children to pick through other people’s garbage?”
“The Peacewinds don’t do any of that.”
“No, they just stand around, useless. A waste of resources and space.” Saris shook his head. “No, you’re not like them at all.”
“You made me into one of them when you kicked out my family,” Max growled.
Saris shrugged. “Your father was standing in the way of progress.”
“I think you mean he was standing in the way of you getting power.” Max narrowed his eyes as he stared at Saris. “All this talk about helping humanity is crap. You didn’t go insane from whatever you did to yourself, but those people down in the lab did… so you must have done something different to them. What, I don’t know, but it wasn’t to help ‘humanity.’ You just want more power, and you don’t care how many people you have to kill to get it.”
Saris stood there looking at Max for a long moment… then gave him a chilling smile. “Regardless, you will tell me everything you know about the Bug ship. Including how to get inside it, and what’s waiting there for me when I do.”
“I’ll never help you,” Max said, his chest burning with rage.
Saris laughed. “You already did. You led me there. And once I remove any remaining Bugs, I will use that technology to get what I need.”
“And what’s that? More power?”
“That, and to heal myself. Either by reversing the cancer, or creating someone who can. If I have to test it on a thousand Scavengers first, I will eventually find that one rare specimen with the ability to heal me.”
Max’s throat went completely dry when he realized the man was talking about creating a healer for himself—someone with the evolutionary ability to mend broken flesh, or bring someone back from the verge of death.
Someone like Lyra.
Max fought to control his fear. “I hope you never find them.”
Saris smiled. “I’m sure you do. But if you were to help me create that specimen… which you could easily do, just by handing over all the information you have about the Bugs and their capabilities… I would reward you handsomely. Beyond your wildest dreams.”
“And if I don’t, you kill me,” Max sneered.
“Well, I suppose I could banish you like I did before… but I learn from my mistakes.”
Suddenly the lights flickered.
Max saw confusion and the wariness flash in the Governor’s eyes. Saris glanced up at the track lighting across the ceiling, glanced dubiously at Max, then turned and headed for the door.
He had just grasped the handle when the entire door burst from its frame, slammed into Saris, and sent him flying backwards across the room.
Herk stumbled through the empty doorway, his body engulfed in shimmering green flames.
Seconds later, Ayla, Lyra, and Trox spilled into the room.
“Max!” Ayla cried out as she darted towards him.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “How did you—”
“Zryk was tracking you and told us where to find you,” Trox said as he scanned the room. “How do we turn off that thing you’re in?”
“I don’t know, but watch out—Saris—”
An awful noise cut his warning off completely.
The screech seared through his head, and he saw all of his friends cover their ears and scream in pain.
Suddenly Trox disappeared.
A second later, the horrifying sound disappeared, and there was the thud of a body on the ground, followed by a grunt.
“You’re a little out of tune there, Guv’nor,” Trox’s voice said.
Then another screech blasted out, followed by a metallic ripping noise.
Trox teleported again back within Max’s field vision.
“Missed me,” he mocked the unseen Saris with a grin.
“You fools—” Saris’s voice snarled.
Herk’s flames suddenly flared around his body, and he blasted past Max in a green blur.
There was another thudding sound as Saris’s voice was completely cut off.
“Get me out,” Max tried to yell, but his voice wasn’t nearly as strong as he wanted it to be.
“Working on it,” Trox called.
There was the sound of fingers typing away at a keyboard, and then suddenly Max was falling. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the cold steel floor with the wind knocked out of him.
“Get up.” Lyra bent to help lift Max to his feet. “We have to—”
Saris’s sonic attack blasted into Max’s brain again. Just as he doubled over in pain, Herk’s flame-encased body flew past him and SLAMMED into the wall by the doorway.
Herk dropped five feet to the ground, thudded there in a pile, and the flames evaporated from his body as he coughed and wheezed.
Max looked over his shoulder.
Saris was struggling to his feet, blood dripping from a cut in his forehead. The human side of his face was absolutely furious.
A few feet to Saris’s right was the metal door that Herk had blasted from the doorframe. And a few more feet beyond that, the metal wall to the right was rippled and distorted, like something had rammed into it. Max was guessing that was from Saris’s first shot, when he’d missed Trox.
His second shot apparently hadn’t missed Herk, but the boy’s powers had kept him from being seriously injured.
Max hoped.
As Saris staggered to his feet, he raised his hand, his palm pointed right at Lyra and Max—
Ayla swept her arm through the air, and the metal door on the ground moved through the air as if picked up by a giant, invisible hand. The door slammed into Saris and knocked over again onto the ground.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Trox yelled as he grabbed Max’s left arm and helped Lyra pull him up.
Herk struggled to his feet, and he and Ayla followed Trox, Max, and Lyra out the door.
“Ayla!” Saris screamed in fury as they ran down the hallway. “You’ll pay for this! You’ll ALL pay for this!”
Forty feet out into the hallway, Trox handed Max the bla
ck himirini helmet as they ran.
“Snagged this. Can’t lie, I thought about keeping it,” he said with a grin.
Max grabbed the helmet and pulled it on, then stopped in his tracks with a shocked look on his face. “Wait—”
As Max started to turn around, Herk grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Exit’s this way!”
All the others slowed down and turned back to see what what was going on.
“You don’t understand! My skates—” Max turned to Trox, panic in his eyes. “Can you teleport back in there and get them?”
Trox’s face twisted up in sympathy. “I can’t teleport with objects yet, except what I’m wearing… I’m sorry…”
“You have to leave them!” Ayla shouted.
“I can’t!” Max struggled against Herk’s grip. “My dad—”
Herk jerked Max forward, dragging him down the hall. “I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want you to die for them.”
Herk was right, and Max cried out in grief before running as fast as he could down the hallway.
The last thing Max’s father had given him before he died… was gone.
27
Max and the others raced out of a building. The sun was just above the western rim of the high city walls, and it glared down on the city like an orange spotlight.
Seeing daylight so soon after their escape surprised Max. He’d thought for sure that Saris had taken him back down into one of the sub-levels—to another lab or some smaller, more intimate place to torture him.
But it had been just another building at the city’s ground level, and now Max ran through the streets with his friends, propelled by nothing but his own feet.
Just like everyone else.
He’d gotten past the worst of his grief over the skates, though, and he finally yelled out as they ran through the streets, “Thanks for coming to get me, guys!”
“You’re welcome!” Ayla shouted back.
“Couldn’t just leave you there!” Trox added cheerfully.
The Dwellers all stood and gawked at them as they ran past, but no guards came rushing after them. No obstacles stopped them, no energy blasters ricocheted off the walls.
Max remembered Saris’s words—Didn’t you think your escape was just a little TOO easy?—and he had the uneasy feeling that something was terribly wrong.
When they reached the city’s outer wall, the gate was frozen in place. Max wondered why, then realized that when he’d left so abruptly last time, he’d shorted it out with his electrical attack. The gate had apparently been forced open and left there because they hadn’t fixed it yet.
“They left the front door open for us,” Trox joked.
As they all ran through the gate, Max blinked against the new onslaught of glaring sunshine. He began to lift the goggles up from around his neck, but by the time he had, his eyes had adjusted to the brightness. Without his skates, the goggles weren’t that necessary, so he left them down.
The two skiffs were there just outside the city wall, waiting for them.
Again, way too easy.
Trox teleported behind the controls of one skiff. Herk climbed in behind Trox, and Max crowded in with Ayla and Lyra on the other skiff. He was a little worried that their combined weight might be too much—then reasoned that the three of them couldn’t weigh any more than Herk and Trox combined.
“You can get us back to the starship, right?” Ayla asked.
“Yeah.” Max pointed to the southeast. “That way.”
Trox powered up his skiff, Ayla did the same with hers, and they took off.
Max knew something was wrong. He hadn’t even considered that possibility when he’d stepped into Oryk’s trap beside the Heap, but that was all he could think about now.
In case this was all a prelude to some horrible ambush, Max checked his stats to make sure he was in shape to fight.
HEALTH: 1008/1400 (72%)
Core: 700/700
Secondary: 307/500
Nourishment: 91/100
Sleep: 74/100
STRENGTH: 84/117
STAMINA: 184/255
AGILITY: 85/118
ENHANCEMENTS: Level 5
Energy Reserves: 0/4000
Disintegration
Efficiency: 24 units per cc
Energy Blast
Intensity: 4000
Base Range: 60 feet
Accuracy: 39%
Rapidfire
Intensity: 5 rounds of 800
Base Range: 60 feet
Accuracy: 33%
Lightwave
Intensity: 500
Focus: 50
Electrical Current
Intensity: 500 volts
Base Range: 8 feet
Accuracy: 50%
Energy Storm
Intensity: 4000
Base Range: 40 feet
Accuracy: 29%
Diameter of Attack: 10 feet
SOUL POINTS: 560
ARMOR: 260/300 (86%)
Chest 95/100 (95%)
Back 65/100 (65%)
Helm 100/100 (100%)
His Health was a lot lower than he wanted, but it made sense—Saris’s torture had taken its toll.
If Saris’s army caught up to them before they got to Zryk’s ship, he didn’t want to be at this kind of a disadvantage.
“Lyra,” he shouted over the whir of the skiff and the spray of sand in their wake. He held up one hand like he was asking if she could give him something. “Could you—”
“I was thinking the same thing,” she shouted back as she grabbed his hand.
A pleasant warmth spread up Max’s arm, across his back, and up his neck. In seconds, his whole body tingled, though it was nothing like the energy chamber or even when he reached a new level on his own. Then it stopped.
“That’s all I can do for you for another minute or two,” Lyra shouted.
“That’s fine—thank you!”
Max checked his stats and saw his Health had risen to 92%. Not perfect, but it was enough of an improvement to make him incredibly grateful. Once Lyra reached higher levels, he knew she’d be able to manage more.
Suddenly, Zryk’s voice came to life in his head.
“You must turn back, Max.”
“What?”
“I have sealed the tunnel from the surface and retracted the pod.”
“What?! Why would you do that?!”
Ayla glanced back at him over her shoulder. “Max?”
“We trusted you!” Max yelled at the unseen Bug.
“What’s going on?” Lyra asked, a worried look on her face.
“I did not betray you, Max. I am monitoring a large force of humans gathering near the access tunnel. I could not allow them easy entrance to the ship. They are waiting for you. Take your friends elsewhere, and I will inform you when it is safe to return.”
Max gripped the siderail of the skiff and leaned over just enough to look past Ayla.
The sand was too bright and cast a shimmering blaze on everything, making it impossible to see more than half a mile in front of them. Max snatched his goggles and brought them quickly up to his eyes.
As soon as his goggles screened out the glare, he saw them.
He couldn’t tell how many there were from this far away, but he saw the skiffs and the larger, bulkier desert transport vehicles crowded together. Dozens and dozens of soldiers, maybe hundreds, just waiting.
“Ayla!” he shouted as he took off his helmet, slipped his goggles into place, and replaced the helmet. “Turn around and head north!”
“What?! What’s going on?!”
“Saris’s army is already at the ship!”
“Are you sure?!”
“Yes! Turn now!”
Ayla banked the skiff to the left and began a sweeping turn.
Max turned back to Herk and Trox on the other skiff, who were watching Ayla’s change in direction in bewilderment. After all, they could clearly see the aboveground wreckage of the human spaceship, the one Max
had fallen through when he first found Zryk’s ship. It was a landmark they all recognized.
Max pointed in the opposite direction from the wreckage.
“Go back!” he shouted into the wind. “Go north!”
Trox couldn’t hear them, but he turned his skiff anyway to follow Ayla’s.
“Did they get to Zryk?” Ayla called, trying to look at Max and focus on steering at the same time.
“No, Zryk closed the tunnel. Those soldiers are waiting for us. It’s a trap.”
“What do we do now?” Lyra shouted over the wind.
Max just stared off into the distance in despair. He didn’t have an answer for that.
Sure, they could run, but they couldn’t do it indefinitely. Either the skiffs would give out, or they would have to stop for rest, or they would find themselves farther out in the Wastelands than Max had ever dared venture.
No one knew what was out there. No Peacewind who had gone farther than a hundred miles from the settlement had ever come back. Max was pretty sure no one could survive out there on their own—not even five kids with superhuman powers.
Zryk said he would tell them when it was safe to come back, but who knew how long that would be—if ever?
“Max?” Lyra shouted again. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know!”
“Well figure it out, because they’re coming!”
Max turned around.
All of the desert craft—the skiffs and the troop transports—were speeding towards them.
Maybe it was just his nerves, but it seemed to Max that the army was gaining on them.
He turned to see the tower of Neo Angeles on their left, a black column against the late-afternoon sun. Its shadow stretched far across the desert sands.
Then its shadow began to move.
Max did a double-take, then realized it was an illusion.
The shadow wasn’t moving, but something within it was.
A huge mass of skiffs and one-man boards was pouring out of the city. The transports moved like black water, spilling from the shadows out over the sand.
Max heard the rising whine of their engines. Lyra shouted and pointed, and Ayla looked over in shock.