The Complete Colony Saga [Books 1-7]

by Collings, Michaelbrent

"What?" Buck sounded irritated.

  Of course he does. Because he doesn't know.

  "This has to do with the voices, doesn't it?" asked Theresa. "The two voices in our heads?"

  "Yeah," said Christopher. "Only...." He gulped. Mouth still dry, it felt like he was chewing on sand. "Only I counted three."

  The others looked confused. Theresa shook her head. "I heard two." She pointed at Lizzy, at Hope. "I figured – I knew somehow – that it was them."

  "That was just now, right? Right before I zapped them with my magic wand?" He waved the remote. She nodded. "Yeah. But you want to know how I knew there'd be something in there?" He pointed at Hope's back. At the ultrasound.

  "I was curious about that," said Buck. "You're not usually smart enough to figure stuff out."

  Christopher stuck his tongue out at the guy. It made him feel a little better. "Before, when Buck and Sally were about to murder each other... I think the things in the girls were doing that. I think they had chosen protectors – Lizzy had Sally, Hope had Buck. No one else thought it was weird how a two-year-old was using a snow leopard as a pillow? And how a geriatric patch of crab grass had adopted a nice girl like Hope?"

  "Christopher," Aaron said warningly.

  "Fine," said Christopher. "Anyway, at first, Sally and Buck were protective toward both girls, then... they kind of chose sides. Or had sides chosen. And then suddenly the girls decided to kill each other. But they didn't do it themselves: they had their guardians do the work. Only someone stopped it."

  "Momma," said Mo.

  "Right," said Christopher. "Maggie. Sorta like Ken, I think when she was all wrapped up in that gunk in the Wells Fargo building she missed getting a full shot of whatever juju the girls had. But she got enough to scream in our minds. Loud enough that it knocked some of us out. But...." He held up a finger. Waggled it in his best imitation of a prep school teacher. "And here's the important thing: When I fell down, I touched Lizzy's foot. And I had... I dunno what you'd call it, exactly. A vision, maybe. I saw what was in her. I knew it was there. I knew something was growing in her. But I also heard something else. The thing that's really pulling all the strings."

  ("DIE. DIE AND BE REBORN AND LIVE FOREVER IN ME.")

  His mouth worked as he tried to swallow. That sand feeling returned. "It wanted us dead. Dead as part of it. It wanted us to join it, to be it. But under it –

  ("Come see, come serve, come save.")

  " – there was another voice, too. And I got the feeling that was something that was, in a weird way, part of the Big Bad, fighting some small battle. But losing fast."

  He looked at Maggie. "I think that was Derek."

  31

  MAGGIE GASPED. HER hand went to her mouth. "How?" she whispered.

  Buck raised a hand. "Yes, Buck?" said Christopher. "Do you have to go number one, or number two?"

  Buck's eyes narrowed. "You know what I think?"

  "I'm holding my breath."

  "You said you heard three different voices in your head. I counted five in your little story: Maggie, her three kids, and this mastermind thing. So I think you suck at counting." Then, before Christopher could issue a crushing and appropriately sarcastic reply, he sighed and added, "But you're right. You're right about all of it."

  Theresa snorted. "Well, I think you've all lost your minds. I think we need to do something about these girls, and I think it needs to be more than just zap them with a remote."

  "What do you know?" Buck shouted the words. More than shouted – screamed them. "Where were you when this began? How long have you been with us? How long did you wait before you decided to kill Lizzy and Hope?" His breath came in ragged bursts, almost looking painful. Then he sank into himself. "I think he's right because I've been feeling different. I've been feeling close to Hope. And she's a good kid and I like her, but it's not really in me to go mano a mano with a damn jungle cat for a kid, no matter how much I like her. Grab her and run from the thing, yeah. But try and fight it tooth and nail? That's... that's just crazy. And...." His eyes took on a sharp cast, a haunted look. "I've heard them, too. I've heard the voices. Heard them all."

  "What do you think they want?" asked Aaron.

  "I think the loudest one... the farthest one... I think he's calling the girls. It – he – wants them, most of all," said Buck.

  "And them – the things in them? What's their role in all this?" said Aaron.

  "I don't know." Buck looked at his big hands, loose in his lap, as though they might hold answers.

  "I do." Everyone looked back at Christopher. "At least, I think I do."

  "Well," said Aaron after a moment, "don't be shy, son. Speak up."

  Christopher finally shrugged. "They're bees."

  32

  SURPRISINGLY, BUCK wasn't the one to laugh. Theresa beat him to that honor. A quick grunt that had little humor and cut Christopher more than he would have expected.

  He had spent most of his life proving that he shouldn't have any responsibility given to him; that he wasn't ready for it – and probably never would be. Now he wished with his whole heart he had a bit of Aaron's gravitas, was more someone that people could just trust.

  He needed Ken. They'd believe Ken.

  Ken's not here. They'll have to settle for you, Christopher. Quit with the one-man pity party and get this done.

  "Hear me out," he said. "You know how bees reproduce?"

  Theresa rolled her eyes. "I would assume when a Mommy bee and a Daddy bee fall in love, they get married and –"

  Christopher cut her off. "Look, Theresa. I gotta admit, for some reason I am tremendously attracted to you even though you're not my type and you tried to kill me and my friends. But will you cut the sarcasm for a minute and either add something helpful to the mix or just shut up?"

  Her mouth snapped shut so hard he thought he heard her teeth clack together. No one else made a sound, but for some reason Christopher thought he saw an approving twinkle in Mo's eyes. Like, "Good, young warrior, you have finally found your balls."

  For some reason, Christopher wanted to beat his chest and do a Tarzan yell.

  Focus. Not the time for ADD.

  "Here's what happens with bees: The eggs are all the same. Every single bee is born to be a drone, basically. But the queen lays certain eggs in a substance called royal jelly. Because they're born in this different environment, the larvae develop into new queens. They're called virgin queens. And guess what the first thing is that they do after achieving maturity?" He looked around the room.

  Aaron was looking from Hope to Lizzy. Then to Buck, then back at the girls. "They kill each other."

  Christopher nodded. "Until only one is left."

  "What happens with that one?" Maggie spoke so quietly that she could barely be heard.

  "She mates."

  33

  "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'she mates'?" demanded Buck. "What could that –"

  "It means all this – all that's happened – it's just the first wave. We're not seeing the final result, we're just seeing the house cleaning before the new owners arrive," said Aaron.

  Christopher nodded. "Yeah, I think so. I think Derek – who was also in the webbing, who also got a shot of whatever the girls got – is hosting a, well, a king, I guess you'd say. And the girls have queens. Immature at first, but now they see each other as threats. So they have two jobs: to get to the king, and to kill their rival."

  Maggie shuddered. Made a strangled noise. Mo put a hand on her shoulder. "Be strong, mother. Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei."

  Christopher doubted that Maggie understood what the Māori had just said – he sure as hell didn't – but she nodded and drew a hand across her eyes. Sat a bit straighter.

  "We've stopped them, though, right?" she said. "We've stopped the girls?" She nodded at his remote.

  Christopher shook his head. "This doesn't shut down the signal. It just jams it. I think instead of laying eggs, these things – whatever they are, wherever
they come from – they infect us with waves, with energy. And my super-awesome-genius toy here just keeps the waves from moving past a certain point. So I think the queens are broadcasting, and I know the king still is. Just the waves aren't getting through a little bubble I've managed to create. That's why the zombies got – well, lost, I guess you'd call it – when they came back the second time. The queens were calling them, and suddenly the call disappeared. The zombies were on their own. And they don't do well on their own."

  "That would explain why they were attacking each other on their way here, too." said Aaron.

  Christopher nodded. "Right. The queens now see each other as a threat. So any zombies nearby are going to break into teams, and are going to try to kill zombies on the wrong side, as well as us. Unless, I guess, they're zombies under the control of the king. Like that big burned bastard that bit Derek. And –" He glanced at Aaron, but saw no way around it. "And Dorcas. I think those two are with Derek in some special way. Like the Imperial Guard in Star Wars."

  Oh, dear Lord, I've gone full-metal nerd.

  "Then what do we do?" Maggie's eyes were dry, but red-rimmed, glassy. "How do we get my children back?"

  "I...." Christopher shook his head. "I don't know."

  "So you don't know everything," said Buck. "And suddenly the world makes sense again." He didn't say it as a joke, and Christopher felt the words not as sarcastic jabs, but as black humor that only darkened the situation. Irony in the last, because what would ever make sense in a world that had cast out order and sanity and replaced it with... this?

  "I am sorry," said Mo suddenly.

  "For what?" said Christopher. The big hunter had done nothing but save them and then show them a hospitality above and beyond any they could have expected – standing with them and shedding blood to protect virtual strangers.

  Fate. It's meant to be.

  "I fear I brought them." He looked at his hands, mangled and swathed in makeshift bandages. "When you and Amulek went to bury your friend, I opened the door to the bunker. And that is the way the creatures entered. I fear the little girls called with these transmissions, and the creatures followed the calls. Like sharks following bits of octopus in the water. If only I had kept the hatch shut, perhaps they would not have come after us."

  Christopher shook his head. "Don't be dumb, Mo. You saved us. And I think that the transmissions probably would have gotten out sooner or later. If anyone has to apologize, it's us. We got you into this."

  "No. It was meant to be that you come here. That we be with you."

  Amulek nodded. And Christopher felt oddly moved by the words and by the teen's agreement. Looking around, he saw that the others felt the same. Even Aaron and Theresa looked as though the world had brightened, if only a bit.

  "Thanks," he said. "But like I said. None of this was your fault. Lizzy and Hope were behind the hatches to the kitchen and sleeping area when the zombies came, so the transmissions probably would have gotten out regardless. None of it was your –"

  "Oh, hell," said Theresa.

  "What?" Christopher felt panic well up. What now? What was the world throwing at them?

  "I think I know what we can do. Maybe a way to stop this." For the first time since he had met her, Theresa smiled – fully and completely grinned. "Maybe a way to stop all of it."

  34

  MAGGIE LOOKED AT THERESA, and now a new shine was in her eyes. Hope and fear in equal parts.

  Christopher had never realized before how closely the two were related. Not just two sides of the same coin, but more like colors that bled into one another. Hoping for something's existence meant a necessary terror borne of the knowledge it could die. And fear met its end only in hope – often irrational, but still alive and with roots in the terror that was the only reason for its existence.

  "What do you mean?" asked Maggie. "How can... can...." Her voice choked to silence. She tried to continue. Couldn't.

  Theresa's smile melted away. She still looked hopeful. The smile that she had worn had changed her face; made it not merely attractive as it had been since Christopher had first laid eyes on her, but flat-out beautiful. Even now, without the smile, the beauty was still there, though more restrained. Hope in the face of nightmare.

  None of them had awoken from the night of terror... but Theresa seemed to think there might actually be a dawn.

  "You said they infect us with this download?" she said. "And that the girls weren't mature at first, so maybe that's why the zombies just attacked them, and why they didn't attack each other?"

  "Yeah." Christopher nodded. A thought hit him. "That might be why Maggie wasn't infected with a queen, and why Buck didn't end up with a king. Maybe they were just too old to be hosts." He laughed, then added, "Especially Buck."

  Buck bristled. Theresa hurried on, "So maybe they're still young."

  No one spoke. Aaron finally said, "I don't think we follow, Theresa."

  "What if...." She struggled for a moment, looking for the right words. "You know how you said the zombies downloaded at first? Until they were completely changed to what they needed to be?" Christopher nodded. So did Buck, in perfect time. Again he wondered how much they were really alike.

  Please, God, kill me now.

  "Well, what if the girls are still downloading?" she said.

  "They aren't," said Buck.

  Aaron shook his head. "Nope. They haven't done that breathing thing, not like the others. Not for a while, at least."

  "No," Theresa agreed. "But they are still changing. We know that. They're changing in a way that allows them to call the zombies. To call and choose guardians, and put those guardians under their control. They're changing in ways that allow them to make the zombies attack each other. And if we're right that these things evolve with downloads, then maybe the queens are still getting some broadcasts, just like they're broadcasting. Not from whatever changed the zombies in general, maybe from a closer source, like –"

  "The king," said Maggie. Her voice hitched, choked.

  "Yeah," said Theresa. "Changing for him, so they'll be ready when he finds them."

  "So?" said Buck. "What does it matter if they're still changing?"

  Christopher looked at the ultrasound monitor. The thing it showed was hard to look at. Not just because it was dancing along a little girl's spine, clinging to bone and swimming through flesh. There was also that disconcerting way it –

  He pointed. "There," he said. He didn't speak loudly, but everyone looked immediately. Just in time to see what he had seen.

  The thing – the queen – faded. Just as it had done a number of times before. Not as though it was passing out of the range of the ultrasound, but like it was simply disappearing. Leaving the range not merely of sight but of reality itself.

  "I bet that has something to do with it," he said.

  "What?" said Buck. "What's it doing?"

  (It writhed up and down a ladder, trickled on legs that phased in and out of reality, appendages that Christopher couldn't quite see because they existed in so many different places – not just spots in this world, but spots in many worlds – at once.)

  "I think it's going someplace else. Getting instructions, getting its... its download instructions, then coming back here."

  "Yeah," said Buck. He whispered the word, and for a moment he looked almost hypnotized. "Yeah, that sounds right. That's what she's doing." He shook his head. Rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. Christopher remembered his father doing that a few times when he'd had one too many drinks on those rare occasions they'd actually been home together. The movement of a man caught in something that he both wanted and despised.

  Buck's still under the spell. At least a little.

  What will happen when it takes control of him again?

  Buck shook his head. "Okay," he said, and his face furrowed in the familiar creases of irritation with the universe. "So they're still getting signals. What does that mean? What does it help us?" His big hands clenched into fists, a
nd for a moment Christopher worried that the big man might be the one to attack the girls. Might try to stop the thing that was trying to take over his will, to subsume his existence in something alien and ugly.

  Amulek put a hand on Buck's shoulder. Buck put his own hand atop the teen's. Clenched it so hard his knuckles glowed. "What can we do?" he said.

  "It's not enough to stop the signal with your little gizmo," said Theresa.

  Christopher looked at the monitor. Watched the queen phasing in and out. And almost jumped as she returned, because... was she larger now?

  He shook his head. "No," he said. "No, I don't think my 'little gizmo' is enough – turns out size does matter. And I don't think we have much time before it's academic."

  "What if we destroy the body entirely?" asked Aaron.

  Maggie sobbed at that. Buck reached his free hand to her. Clutched her arm. She fell into him. Curled up tight like –

  (an insect a bug a pupa about to rip its way free and fly)

  – a little girl. But she didn't say no. Didn't object.

  Christopher did. "I think if we kill these girls, that's the end." He looked at Aaron. At Theresa. "I think if anything happens to them, it's game over."

  35

  "YOU WANT TO EXPLAIN that, son?" said Aaron. "Near as I can tell, you just got done telling us that these girls are hosting queens, and that the king wants them real bad. So it seems to me that our first priority is stopping that from happening. Any way we can."

  "I agree," said Christopher. "But think about it. If we do something to Lizzy and Hope –"

  (Lizzy and Hope, not just "the girls," they're part of us, part of what's happening, part of... whatever's drawn us together)

  "– then what's going to happen to the things inside them?"

  "They'd die," said Theresa. "And the king wouldn't have a way to do whatever he wants to do."

  Christopher shook his head. "No. Lizzy and Hope would die. But the queens...." He pointed at the ultrasound monitor. At the queen, dancing in and out of flesh and bone, in and out of reality and a place far beyond. "I think they'd just go somewhere else. Wherever they came from. The place all this started from. And then...."