by R. D. Brady
Lyla wanted to kick herself. Her focus had been so lasered in on Miles and getting him to safety that she had forgotten that not everyone in New City had chosen to be there. Her mind raced. There’d be no way to get the kids away from the families they were staying with before the attack without alerting New City that something was up.
“You’re right. We need to get the kids out. We’ll start with the kids that are on the work details. Any idea where they’re housed?”
Max nodded. “There’s an apartment building a few blocks from the front entrance. They keep all the kids on the work detail there.”
Lyla’s eyebrows rose. “All of them?”
Max nodded. “They pack them in like sardines. The kids don’t even all have beds. From what I’ve heard, not all of them even have blankets.”
“Okay. I’ll send a team. Their only priority will be getting the kids out. Do any of the kids work a night shift?”
Max shook his head “No. They tried it before, but the kids simply can’t adjust to the night hours. So all of them are on a day shift. It starts just after sunrise.”
“Okay. Then I’ll make sure we’ve got them before sunrise. And any fighter that sees a child in danger will be required to get that child to safety.”
Max let out a breath. “Good. That’s good. I was thinking I could go with the group getting the worker kids. That way it would free up the fighters.”
Lyla nodded. “That would be great, and I’ll see if I can get some other non-fighters to volunteer to help as well.”
Max paused. “What about the Unwelcome children?”
Lyla closed her eyes. Oh crap. What if they were on the ship? She stood up. “I’ll find Arthur. Hopefully their location is on the tablet or maybe one of the Unwelcome who’ve joined us will know where they are.”
Max stood as well. “Thank you. I knew you just hadn’t thought of them.”
She shook her head. “They shouldn’t have been overlooked. Thank you, Max.”
Max patted her shoulder before heading out of the room. “Everyone needs some help, Lyla. Even you. I’ll go see if I can get some more volunteers.”
Lyla sank back down into the chair. She had forgotten about the children. Truth was, some of them might very well die tomorrow. The only way to avoid that was to abort the mission. But this was their chance to remove the Naku from their world. With the Naku in this world, those children’s futures were already questionable.
A chill stole over her as she pictured children lying in the streets of New City. Max was right—the kids had to be a priority. She stood up. She needed to speak with Lewis and Riley, get them to relay the new priority to all fighters.
53
The lights had been on for hours. Or it could have been days. No matter where Miles looked, no matter how he turned his head, no matter how tightly he closed his eyes, he could not bar the light from seeping through. It wasn’t just the lights in the ceiling that glowed brightly. The walls, even the floor glowed with a bright white light. He hadn’t slept in what felt like days. He hadn’t spoken with his guards at the glass wall. For the last few hours, he wasn’t even sure if they were still there. The lights were so bright that it was hard to see.
Besides, his attention was elsewhere.
On the walls, videos of Unwelcome dusting children played continuously. Some were at the entrance to New City, some were obviously in camps. But the end result was always the same: a child would cry, a child would run, and then a child would disappear in a cloud of ash.
Miles felt like he was going crazy. The whole time he’d been on the ship, he’d put up with their tests, their physical requirements. But something had changed. This was actual torture. He was exhausted. He could barely think. All he wanted was to curl up on the floor and go to sleep. But the lights, the lights wouldn’t let him.
He opened his eyes again. Spots swam in his vision. But it wasn’t enough to avoid what was playing out on the wall across from him. A little girl with dark skin darted out of the line, trying to run for the forest. An Unwelcome stepped away from the front of the line, aimed his romag, and without any hesitation, pulled the trigger. The girl’s back arched and her hands flew up in the air before she slowly disintegrated. The dust quickly blew away with the wind, and there was no sign that she had ever been.
The girl was about the same age as Kayla. Over the last few hours, he sometimes thought it was Kayla. But then he had to remind himself that it wasn’t her. That she hadn’t died that way. That her mother had been holding her, and the two of them had disappeared together.
But it was so hard to remember that. It was so hard to remember anything. When they had first left the lights on, he tried to figure out why. He tried to figure out what their goal was. He knew that denying a prisoner the ability to sleep was a form of torture and also a way to get them to comply.
But the only thing they wanted him to comply with was killing. And he would not do that.
They had dragged him from his cell hours ago, or it could have been days. They’d set up another life-or-death event, where Anixquold held the keys to his survival. Each time, his abilities manifested. But he only hurt her enough to save himself.
After the last round, he’d been returned to his cell. So now they’d increased the psychological warfare. The lights had been bright, but then they’d added the videos. The images, almost all of little girls with dark skin disappearing in a hail of ash, ran every few minutes on the walls. There’d be a sound, a different one each time, that accompanied them. Try as he might to close them tight, his eyes would fly open of their own accord.
Now he sat in the corner of his cell, his knees pulled up to his chest, and his hands covering his eyes as he squeezed them shut. But the light still seeped through. He didn’t know how much longer he could take this. He felt like he was losing his mind. Nothing seemed real. He imagined he could reach his arm right through the wall, that the wall wasn’t really there.
That he wasn’t really here.
His eyes ached. His head pounded. Tears pressed against his eyes, only making the ache that much worse. He looked up at the ceiling. “What do you want?” he yelled.
Silence was the only answer he was given.
He could not do this. He dropped his head back down onto his knees. A short burst of sound emanated from the speakers. His eyes flashed open before he could stop them, and then he slammed them shut. He wrapped his arms around his head, his half arm resting against his ear, and prayed that he would die.
54
The doors to the throne room opened, and Lewis strode in. Oscar bit back his annoyance. The man still acted as if he was the second-in-command, merely tipping his head to Meg rather than the full bow that was expected.
But Lewis wasn’t the second-in-command. That role now firmly belonged to Oscar. And if Lewis thought that he was going to come back at any point and wrestle it away from him, well, he was in for quite a fight.
“Lewis, so soon you return to us,” said Meg.
“Yes, plans are moving along quickly. I see the repairs are coming along nicely.”
No thanks to you, Oscar thought, his anger roiling.
“Yes, they are indeed.”
Lewis flicked a glance at Oscar. “I need to speak with you about something with quite a bit of urgency.”
Meg waved a dismissive hand toward Oscar. “You can say whatever you need to in front of Oscar.”
Lewis hesitated for just a moment, making Oscar’s anger boil even more. The man dared to think he couldn’t trust Oscar when he was the one who had doomed them to a winter of starvation?
“Very well. Lyla has come up with a plan to rid us of the Naku once and for all. I have come to see if you would be willing to share any armed forces for the fight to come.”
Meg’s eyebrows rose, and she leaned back in her chair. “And what exactly is this plan of hers?”
Lewis smiled. “I’m sure you understand that I cannot give away too many details. But the plan has already begu
n. The first phase has been successful. We are about to initiate the second stage.”
“And this plan involves, I assume, saving Miles?” Meg asked.
Word of Miles’s abduction had reached them. Oscar wasn’t sure why they thought a rescue attempt would work. The boy was no doubt dead, or as good as.
Lewis inclined his head. “If all goes well, that will be one of our outcomes. You have known me for many years, Meg. I would not encourage you to do something that did not have a strong likelihood of success. I believe Lyla’s plan will work. And I believe with our people working with her as well, we only increase those odds.”
“How many people were you thinking of?”
“About two dozen.”
Meg nodded her head. “Let me speak with the council. You will be staying within the camp for a few hours?”
“I will.”
“Very well. You will have my answer after I have met with them.”
Lewis inclined his head before turning on his heel and striding out of the throne room. The guards closed the door behind him.
Meg drummed her fingers on the edge of her chair. “What are you up to, Lyla?”
Oscar knew the question was not aimed at him, so he stayed quiet, but his mind whirled. This was exactly the type of opportunity he had hoped would arise. He cleared his throat. “This could be an opportunity. If we can find out where their new camp is and relay that information to the Naku, they would be very generous with us.”
Meg shot him a look, narrowing her eyes. “I will not set the Unwelcome on a camp of innocent individuals. There are children there.”
“But Meg, you know we will be in a tough situation this winter. We need to offer the Naku something so that they will help us.”
“I won’t give them the new camp. They have done nothing to deserve that focus. They are simply following Lyla’s orders.”
Oscar bit his lip. Damn it. If Meg wouldn’t agree, he’d have to figure out another way. But it had been almost a month since he’d spoken with the Naku liaison, and the weather could change any day now.
“But …” Meg drew out the word.
“Yes?” Oscar asked, his anticipation growing.
“I will not have the lives of innocent children on my conscience. But Lyla … She is another issue altogether.”
“You have an idea?”
Meg smiled. “I always have an idea. She stole the Cursed from us, removing any chance of us easily surviving this winter. As far as I’m concerned, she owes us. And I know just how she can repay that debt.”
55
The lights had finally been turned off. Miles wasn’t sure how long ago that had happened. His eyes were shut so tightly he swore they were still on.
It was the sound of the glass wall to his cell retracting that caused him to squint to see what was going on. 41-G and 17-H stepped into his cell and gripped him by the arms, pulling him up and out. They kept a strong grip on him as they headed to the door at the end of the hall. Miles’s feet dragged along the floor. His legs did not seem to want to cooperate, and his brain struggled to remember how to walk.
They led him out into the main hall toward the gymnasium. The doors to the training space slid open sooner than Miles expected. He looked around, surprised they were already there.
I must have fallen asleep.
17-H and 41-G released Miles. He dropped to the floor, not prepared for the lack of support. His knees cracked painfully into the tiles. Pain shot up the palms of his hands. He stayed there for a moment, breathing deeply, anger beginning to run through him. They had run him through test after test for days, and now they wanted him to do one more. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing him crawl.
Footsteps and the clearing of a throat sounded from nearby.
Slowly, he stood up and glared at the human. “What do you want?”
The human smiled at him, and Miles couldn’t help but notice that unlike some of the human liaisons he had seen, this one seemed to be in perfect health. There was no gray pallor to his skin. Apparently the Naku hadn’t had to intrude upon his mind to get him to follow their orders. He followed them willingly.
The man took a step forward. But Miles noticed that he did not come too close. At least six guards stood within grabbing distance of Miles and the man. “My name is Alan Williams. I have the honor of serving the Esteemed Leader. He has asked me to aid him in today’s test.”
“Does he want me to kill you? Because right now, I’m okay with that.”
Fear flashed across the man’s face before he could cover it. He cleared his throat again. “It’s good you have spirit. But no, we have come up with a new endeavor for you. Consider it a gift.”
Miles’s brain was moving too slow to grasp everything that the man was saying. But he did hear that last word. He scoffed. “A gift? I think I’ve had enough ‘gifts’ from the Naku to last me a lifetime.”
Alan chuckled. “Oh, I assure you, you will enjoy this one.” He waved his hand, and light flickered along the wall.
Miles blanched, waiting for the light to become painful, but it stayed at a normal level. And he recognized that this was going to be yet another recording. But this one was different. The little girl with dark skin had her hair in long braids with ribbons attached at the end. She was wearing a yellow dress, just like Kayla had been. She skipped through the camp, and then she turned her head only slightly. Miles heard the screaming. And the girl began to run.
It’s not Kayla, he reminded himself. But the little girl looked so much like her. And it was so hard to think.
The girl ran and ran, screaming past other terrified camp members. And then she crashed into her mother’s arms. Her mother’s head was bowed low, so Miles couldn’t see her face. In his mind, he gave her the face of his own mother. His chest constricted. His already increased heart rate started to beat even faster. He knew what was coming.
Onscreen, the woman grabbed her daughter’s hand and began to run. But then she pulled her to a stop. An Unwelcome stepped in front of them. The woman grabbed her daughter as the Unwelcome pulled the trigger. She dove to the ground, but it was no use, and the blast caught both of them in the chest. Miles knew it only took a second for them to disappear, but on the tape, it went agonizingly slow. Inch by inch, the ash covered each of their bodies, their mouths open in silent screams. And then all that remained was dust.
The screen went dark. But Miles felt rage. In some corner of his brain, he knew that something was off with his anger, but his rage pushed all of those concerns aside. He wanted to kill the Unwelcome that had taken the lives of those two on the screen so callously.
Miles glared at Alan, feeling the warmth flow over him. He clenched his two fists, rolling them tight.
Across from him, Alan smiled brightly. “Excellent. Now I think you are ready for your gift.” He waved once again with his left hand. An Unwelcome stepped away from the group.
Miles spoke through clenched teeth. “What is this?”
“We did a little research, and we found the soldier who killed your mother and sister. As our gift to you, we are allowing you to do whatever you wish with them.”
With that statement, he backed up. The six Unwelcome between him and Miles stepped in between them, backing up as well. The remaining Unwelcome headed to the doors quickly.
In seconds, it was only Miles and the Unwelcome who had killed his mother and sister. Anger, fierce and hot, rippled through Miles like he’d never felt before. He pictured his mother and sister, their smiling faces. And this thing in front of him had ripped them from him. He had killed them right in front of him.
His heart was pounding so hard he thought he might actually see it fly from his chest. And he knew the only thing he could do to keep that from happening was to kill the creature in front of him.
He launched himself across the space with a yell.
56
Everything faded away. Miles did not see the training room. He did not think about the torture he’d e
xperienced over the last few days. He did not think about his new life with Lyla and Riley and Maisy. He did not think about the Naku leader, who undeniably was sitting up in the observation desk watching him. All he thought about was killing the Unwelcome in front of him.
The Unwelcome raised his romag, but before he could get off a shot, Miles shoved the romag aside and slammed his fist right into the helmet. He felt pain but also satisfaction as the helmet spiderwebbed with cracks. The Unwelcome went flying back, nearly stumbling over its own feet.
Miles gave it no chance to recover. He slammed a shin into the creature’s knee. It stumbled to the side, its balance knocked off. Miles slammed the heel of his foot into the other knee, further destroying its balance and being rewarded with an audible crack. The creature dropped to the side. Miles stomped on its stomach and then continued to wail away.
He did not think. He did not breathe. All he wanted to do was destroy the creature in front of him. He rained down blow after blow along its ribs, until the creature was barely moving.
Miles’s chest heaved. This thing in front of him had killed his mother and sister. He glanced at the helmet with the shattered faceplate. He needed to see its face. He needed to see the monster that had taken the most important people in the world from him.
He wrenched the helmet off its head, practically snapping its neck in the process. Its head fell back against the hard tile with a thud. He tossed the helmet with a scream. It slammed into the wall, cracking into a million pieces that cascaded down onto the ground. He turned and stared at the creature in front of him. Shock tore through him.
Large blue eyes filled with fear stared out at him from a blue face topped with red hair.
The Unwelcome who had killed his mother and sister was Anixquold.
57
Anger roared through Miles, a tidal wave of unending rage. But the shock cut through it like a knife. Anixquold stared up at him, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. A deep gash ran along her chin from where the helmet had struck her.