by Alex Leopold
This was why Riley found herself hunkered low in her seat, exhausted but wound tight with adrenalin, her eyes hardly daring to blink.
“Come on you bloody beasts!” She shouted as she whipped the reins again, the effort making her muscles scream.
I can't keep this up much longer, she thought. Then she almost leaped out of her seat as an arrow buzzed past her ear and buried itself into the wooden crate behind her head.
Turning to look at it, she found it no more than an inch from her nose. If a gust of wind had pushed it any closer it would’ve found her neck and that would’ve been the end of her.
Glancing around she saw a pack of five riders no more than two dozen feet from the wagon having seemingly appeared from nowhere. The man who’d shot the first arrow already had the second notched, and this time he didn’t intend to miss.
Acadia found him first.
From a bow almost as tall as Cooper, he shot an arrow the size of a harpoon and it struck the trapper with such ferocity it tore him from his mount and flung him back into another rider.
As both men tumbled to the ground, Acadia was already drawing the bowstring back to his jaw.
“Up front!” Riley screamed.
Two outlaws had appeared from behind a ruined building and leaped onto the wagon beside her.
Acadia took care of the first man with an arrow from his bow. The second trapper was much faster and got a firm grip on Riley before she could kick him off.
With no weapons to hand she punched out her hand hoping the spark would whip out of it and strike him.
Except… Nothing.
Her outstretched hand simply hung in mid-air and for a heartbeat they both looked at it with curious anticipation. Then he smacked his forehead into hers and her body went limp.
He’s going to use the knife, her instincts told her. Move! Now, before he drives his blade into your chest!
She wanted to comply, but all she felt in her arms and legs were pins and needles. Then she heard a shot ring out and felt the outlaw’s body shudder from the impact.
This was her opportunity to get free, but she was still numb and instead of moving away she found herself being pulled closer to him. Then she was falling and through her blurred vision all she could see was the ground rushing up to meet her.
She bounced through the dirt like tumbleweed in high wind.
When she finally came to rest her whole body screamed in agony and she could do no more than grit her teeth as she felt every bruise, scrape and burn from the fall.
Up ahead she heard gunfire and, after managing to raise her head, she saw the wagon racing away from her toward the bridge on the horizon.
“Come back.” She coughed. But it didn’t turn around.
“You bloody crink!”
The trapper from the wagon was staggering toward her. He’d been shot, his shirt already damp with blood.
He fell on top of her and wrapped his thick hands around her neck.
“I’m going to rid this world of one more of your kind before I die.” He said hoarsely, his mouth foaming with spittle as his bloodied fingers dug into her throat.
She dug her nails into his face and tore at his hair, but even with his mortal wound he was still stronger than her and she couldn’t overpower him.
As her head thrashed back-and-forth, her eyes urgently seeking for some kind of weapon, she saw her father in the distance.
He was charging back to get her, driving his horse through lines of trappers who only moments before had been in his pursuit. As he broke through their ranks, his hand whipped the blue flame free with such ferocity that when it struck one man it almost cut him clean in half.
If she could just stay alive another dozen seconds he’d be able to save her. However, as the trapper crushed her windpipe, twelve seconds seemed like an eternity.
That was when Varick's face reappeared in her vision. He was gazing at her as if she was the only person in the world.
“You can't leave me, not now.” He whispered in her ear, his voice brimming with emotion. “I'm not done loving you yet, understand?”
His image dissolved into a white light that she felt rise from the bottom of a dark tunnel within her. It exploded out of her chest like a shot from a canon, and wrenched the trapper off her.
Semi-conscious she watched as he rose into the sky, a trail of opaque ghost-like ribbons marking his ascent. As she followed him up, she heard Varick whisper in her ear.
“I’ll find you, I promise.” He assured her, and in her mind she that his body was bathed in an unnatural blue-light.
She was reaching for him and he covered her hand with his own.
“Wherever you go, that’s where I’ll be.” He promised.
Hearing his voice again – this boy she didn’t know and yet somehow suddenly knew completely – electrified Riley.
He was out there, she sensed, searching for her. Had been looking for her nearly all his life.
Some force within her told her he was close, so close she could almost feel him pulling her to him. Which was why she refused to stay another second in the dirt, and why, even as she gasped for air, she found herself rising up onto her feet.
As the trapper’s body fell back to the earth, a bright light flashed in front of her and out of it came her father. Grabbing his hand with both of hers, she felt him pull her up onto his horse.
“Let's get back to the others.” He said spurring the animal on.
“They’re too far away. We won’t be able to catch them before they get to the bridge.” She told him.
“We will”, he replied. “I have a plan.”
28
The bridge was only a mile away, and like all lost civilization structures, time had stripped it down to its barest bones and covered it in thick vegetation. It was also robbed of much of its middle section, giving the bridge the appearance of two arms perpetually reaching for one another, never to meet.
“It’s got to be over twenty yards across!” Ellis shouted from his mount as he rode alongside the wagon.
“More like thirty.” Acadia judged.
“What are you going to do, jump it?”
“I might, if this wagon had wings.” The grizzly responded dryly, then added. “We’re going to switch it.”
“You can teleport something this heavy that distance? I’m impressed.” Ellis told Cooper after leaping from his horse onto the wagon.
She shook her head. “Not a chance, I couldn’t do something like that.”
That confused him. “Then who?”
“My father.”
He met that statement with open bewilderment.
“Doesn't he need to be on the wagon to do that?”
Yes he did, and at that moment he and her sister were as much as a mile behind them.
“Relax, Quill will find a way.” Acadia grunted back, his voice suggesting he was used to relying on her father’s ability to extract them from the impossible.
“Just make sure Whiskers knows she has to catch up or she’ll be left behind!” He added and his tone left little doubt whether he’d do it if he had to.
Cooper saw Mayat didn’t need to be reminded. The felisian was driving her horse at full gallop to catch them. The trappers also seemed to have understood their intent and were firing their weapons repeatedly in a final attempt to stop them.
Perhaps they wouldn’t be so desperate if they knew the only real anomaly was behind them, Cooper thought turning her attention back to her father and Riley.
As she watched, they vanished into another burst of light only to reappear in the next instant forty or so yards closer. Her father was able to switch like this every ten seconds or so, which meant he’d catch up with them eventually. But not before their wagon was driven over the edge of the bridge.
They’re not going to make it in time, she realized with a shudder. It’s too far.
For a moment she contemplated whether she could make the teleport herself, but dismissed the idea. I wouldn’t even k
now where to begin. That was when she heard her sister’s voice echoing in her head.
“We have a plan, Coop. But we need your help to do it.”
“What do you need?”
“Hold out your hand, and reach out for me in your mind.”
Cooper did as she was told, but nothing happened. And why should it, she had no idea what she was doing?
“It’s not …” ‘Working’, she was going to say but couldn’t finish.
The phantom of a hand had appeared in her own. The moment it did, she was yanked so hard she was pulled all the way to the tailgate of the wagon. If Ellis hadn’t grabbed her, she would’ve been dragged clean off.
“What are you doing?” He asked, straining to hold on to her.
“I don't …” She didn’t get a chance to finish.
Her sister pulled at her once again, pulled so hard her arm was almost wrenched out of its socket.
She could feel the strength sapping out of her. Yet, she continued to do what her father asked and kept reaching for her sister.
Her twin sister.
“You’re identical, which means you share a special bond.” He’d explained quickly. “Together you can do things other anomalies can’t.”
“Like switch a mile?” She’d asked unconvinced. “A whole mile?”
“I’ll help.” He’d replied, and like a metaphorical guiding hand, she felt him step into her head.
“I have to warn you though”, he’d conceded before they began. “This will hurt a little.”
He was wrong about that part. It didn’t hurt a little.
“It hurts like hell!” Cooper tapped back, and Riley could feel her sister squirming in agony as she pushed more of her strength into forming the teleport.
“You’re almost there.” Their father tried to reassure them.
He was right and Riley could sense they were close to switching the gap. Yet, each remaining yard, each last foot felt like a crushing weight pressing against her from every side.
“I can’t do this much longer.” Riley heard Cooper scream.
“Don’t worry, there’s not much road left.” A worried Ellis told her as they crossed onto the bridge and the wheels of the wagon smoothed out. “One way or another this is going to end soon.”
“How much more?” Riley begged her father.
“We’re close. Keep concentrating!”
She couldn’t though. She had to stop or every molecule in her body would fracture. Yet, when she tried to release her mind she realized she couldn’t. Her father had taken command of it and was continuing to push her to finish the switch. “What are you doing?” She screamed.
“Just hold on!” He repeated, repeated to both of them.
Neither could hear him though. The pain was so intense it consumed them and both girls began screaming like their blood was on fire.
Then they were surrounded in a piercing white light that quickly faded to black.
Part II
29
Night would soon fall. The eleven riders in black continued to push deeper into the Borderlands, the ripple’s epicenter now less than five hours ahead. They were on fresh horses, seized from a small settlement only a few miles behind.
Fifteen houses built in a tight pack and encircled by a tall fence made of thick wood and salvaged metal wire. Twenty families, fifty people, many only children, the Myrmidons had made short work of them.
After the settlement had been overwhelmed, the Myrmidons had beaten many of the men close to death and set fire to their houses as punishment for their resistance.
For his part, Control had used the hack on a man who’d attacked him. Hacked his wife too when she tried to step in to protect her husband. If she’d stayed back he’d have let her live, but she’d interfered when the hunger was upon him and he’d all but consumed her soul by the time he’d realized what he was doing.
Riding toward the sunset with their combined energy now coursing through his veins he felt no remorse for what he’d done. What he felt was indestructible. And more, he felt nothing for the girl from his dreams, except maybe it was time to really kill her.
They'd been riding for the better part of a day when the twins finally came to. The dangers from earlier that morning – the black-market souk, the warehouse and finally the bridge – were now far behind them, somewhere over a horizon that was slowly consuming a dying crimson sun.
Lying in the back of the wagon, squeezed between some of the crates like a pile of forgotten clothes, Cooper woke to find herself shivering badly. Even though she was wrapped tightly in a number of blankets, her blood still felt like ice and her joints screamed in agony.
Attempting to speak she couldn’t get a word passed her numb lips and chattering teeth.
“Just relax.” Her father whispered and gave her a hot drink. “Your body was almost completely drained.”
Stealing small sips, she felt the broth slowly breathe life back into her. It was enough that she could finally mumble a question.
“What happened?”
“I had to push you more than I wanted in order to complete the switch. It took almost all your energy to do it. For that, I am so sorry.”
“Can’t... see.” She stammered sensing her eyes were open but all she could make out was blackness.
“It'll clear soon.” Riley mumbled from beside her as she rubbed Cooper’s back.
Cooper tried to say something else but she was shaking too hard to be understood. Her father tried to shush her quiet, make her concentrate on getting her strength back, but Cooper was determined and sputtered out what she needed to say through a mouth so numb it felt like it had been wired shut.
“Want answers.”
When the night was truly upon them and the twins had regained enough strength to sit up, their father suggested they stop so the horses could rest. There were things to discuss, he agreed, and now was the time to do it. Before he’d start though, Ellis had to go.
“I promised you he could stay until we were out of danger.” He said to Cooper. “And I promised him he could remain until you were awake.”
The news took Cooper by surprise.
“I hadn’t thought our conversation from this morning was some kind of bargain.” She said testily.
“You want answers, he has to go. That’s non-negotiable.” He replied.
She thought to argue but from the look on everyone’s faces it appeared the decision had been made hours ago.
Acadia was already freeing a horse from the wagon’s harness, and Ellis, now dressed in one of her father’s coats, had a bulging satchel over one shoulder. He'd been ready to leave for some time.
“It’s okay.” He said with his easy-going smile that caused him to wince slightly as it stretched the bruises on his face. “I told you this morning that the only reason I'm in the Borderlands is to find the resistance. Wherever you’re heading it’s not going to take me to them.”
His smile was for Cooper but his eyes kept checking on the grizzly and the Sekhem warrior. Clearly, Cooper’s father had explained to him what would happen if he tried to persuade her to come with him. That rankled her.
“Why now?” She demanded of her father. A part of her did not want Ellis to disappear from her life so quickly.
“Why not in a day or two, after he's recovered?”
“It’s too dangerous for him to know where we live.” Her father explained.
“We could blindfold him.”
“No.” He responded flatly.
“Then let Mayat help him find where the resistance is hiding. She could do it in a couple of days I bet, and it would be to our benefit to know where they are.”
He shook his head. “We’re not losing Mayat, not even for an hour.”
“Why won't you help him?” She snapped.
“He doesn’t trust me.” Ellis replied for her father.
“Why?” She demanded, annoyed at how relaxed he remained. Did he find her attempts to try and help him amusing? Did he not want to s
tay with them, with her? She suddenly felt drawn to slapping him.
“It’s because I'm a memory-carrier.” He replied as if that were explanation enough.
“So? You’re still a crink like the rest of us, right?”
“A crink, yes, but not like you. My party trick is that I can store the thoughts and memories of people in my head.”
She shrugged. “And?”
“Imagine you could hold a hundred lifetimes in your head.” Acadia answered for him with his deep baritone voice. “Imagine you could do it as easily as hold arrows in your quiver.
“With that ability, you could copy Mayat’s mind and, within an instant, you’d know how to fight like she does. If you did the same to your father, you’d know all of his secrets in a second. All of them.”
When she looked at Ellis, he made his finger’s dance like a magician’s. “Ta-da!”
“Most importantly, Ellis can step into that part of his brain that contains these memories and turn himself into that person as easily as a chameleon changes color. And no one would be able to tell if that was the real Ellis or not, not even a skin-reader.”
“Is this true?” She asked him, pouting a little because she felt he’d somehow deceived her.
“Would you like to meet a pilot from the lost civilization?” He asked her, his smile never slipping. “What about a scientist who lived through the Dark Storm?”
“How about a Directory agent?” Her father asked. “Do you have one of those hiding in there for us?”
“I already told you, I’m not with the Directory.” Ellis argued, the smile vanishing. He looked younger in that moment, and it made Cooper wonder if he’d just shown them the real him.
“How his mind works, he could be a Squeak and he wouldn’t even know it.” Mayat pointed out.
“How can I argue with that?” Ellis asked with light-hearted cheerfulness.
“You don’t.” Her father explained coldly. “And we haven't the time to make sure you're not.”
Ellis gave him a flippant smile before returning his attention to Cooper.