Floor 21- Dark Angel

by Jason Luthor

  “Yes. I would like you to answer a few questions for me before you go.”

  “Oh, so that’s the catch, now is it?”

  “No catch. If you don’t want to answer, I’m not going to make you. You’ll be free to walk out of here either way.” I nod to one of the guards standing in the back, and he steps forward with a key. A second later, the cuffs chaining Erin are off his wrists. “I’m being very serious here.”

  He keeps staring at me for a minute before he pushes his chair back. For an instant, I think he’s going to get up and walk out, but then he claps his hands once and folds them into his lap. “Well, what’s the questions, then?”

  I can actually feel myself breathe a little easier when he agrees to stick around. “The Tank. We’ve been hearing about her for a while now, and then we find you here, in the south. You’re supposed to be located, what? Seventy-five? One hundred miles northwest of here?”

  “Something like that.” He chuckles. “It’s the Tank you want to know about, then?”

  “Right.”

  “Well, what about her?”

  “Then it is a woman.”

  “Finest I ever met. Got a way about her. Knows how to bring people together.” He lowers his head a little, and I can see just a glint of menace in his eyes. “By force, if necessary, if you’re catching my meaning.”

  “So, she is violent.”

  “No other way to be living out in the Deadlands. Don’t misunderstand me. She’s not one to use force when she doesn’t have to, but it’s like I just said, we don’t authorize everything that goes on out there. Some of the clans are a little more willing to work together than others. Others have bad habits.” His eyes flick over to Tommy. “And yeah, they get the justice that’s coming to them when they do wrong. We know exactly how many of your colonists got killed in that raid. Wasn’t soldiers out there who got slaughtered. It was just working men, women, and children. I know that. They were the kind we don’t target, not under the Tank. Not if we can help it.” He looks back at me. “You wanted to know about our justice? Executed. Whole lot of them that got in on the raid.”

  The mention of it makes everyone in the room uncomfortable. Tommy shifts a little, and even the guards suck in a breath. “Death penalty,” I say. “That’s serious business. We don’t have those here.”

  “Well, we don’t exactly have time for prisons out there beyond the bridges. True, we have a place we call home, somewhere safe. We got our versions of colonies too, though. Dangerous places where the darkness is always just outside the window. Lock a man away anywhere out there . . . The Creep’ll eventually come for him. Not all of us have the luxury of living on islands, and find however many weapons as we might, there’s no weapon been made that can hold back the Creep forever.”

  “It’s just that an execution . . . It’s a hard thing to accept. There are so few of us left.”

  “Don’t think I know that?” He looks away with a smile, but he looks angry at the same time. “Think I like putting an end to a man’s life? That I enjoy putting down the few that’s left of us?”

  “No. No, I don’t.”

  “But it’s the world we live in, all the same.”

  I shift the subject. “So, this Tank. She’s been working to unite the clans out in the Deadlands. How has she managed to do it? We’ve been running into raiders for centuries. I don’t think there’s ever been a time we’ve seen so much cooperation between them.”

  “Again, it’s all her. She tries to get everyone to work together. If anyone threatens the peace, she deals with it. You mentioned we were packing more firepower than before. Well, it’s all because of her. She’s the one with access to them. Don’t ask me how she found the locations of the weapons. Nobody knows, save maybe her sister.”

  “Sister?”

  “Yeah. Poor girl. Barely speaks a word. Crippled, God bless her. Always in a wheelchair. Story is the Creep got to her, but she survived.”

  “Does her sister have a name?”

  “Not that anyone knows.”

  I suck in a breath as I lean back in my chair. “I’d like to meet with your leader. The Tank. Do you think that’s possible?”

  He looks straight at me. No smiles, no funny business. He just stares for a while before shaking his head. “She’s a strange one, but one thing I know for sure. She doesn’t trust you. Not you, specifically, Mr. President. Central Freedom, in general.”

  “Do you think our gift might help change her mind? Could you at least tell her my vision for what comes next? What I want to see happen between your people and mine.”

  “Of course, I can tell her.” He sits there silent for another minute, and I can see him thinking things through. “Never been a time I remember that Central ever offered food to us, let alone water. That means something, Mr. President. If nothing else, that’s something I do want you to know. That truck’s not just a gift. That truck’s life. That’s men and women’s children who’ll get fed tonight.”

  “I know there’s an incredible level of distrust between us.”

  “That much is true, but . . .” He nods quietly as he taps the table. “I’ll have a word. I know you’ve only been in power for a year or two, and I know you’re risking something with your councils.”

  It gets a smile out of me. “That I am.”

  “I’ll do you the same favor. Risk myself a bit and say a word for you. I’m not promising anything, mind you.”

  “I understand.”

  “Then will that be all?”

  “One last thing.”

  He nods, but I can tell he’s getting tired. Still, I have to ask. “We’ve been getting . . . reports, about something out there. A monster.”

  “It’s the Creep, Mr. President. There’s monsters everywhere in the Deadlands.”

  “This one’s different.” I take a breath as I remember the description. “A black creature that comes in fire, with burning red eyes.”

  The smile on his face fades, and what little color he has in his cheeks drains entirely while his eyes surge open. “Burning red eyes, you say?”

  “That’s right.”

  His head drops. “The angel.”

  “Angel.”

  Tommy’s been quiet this whole time, but suddenly he leans in. “Erin. What do you mean, angel?”

  Erin take a second before he finally looks up. “You never hear stories about them out here? About mysterious strangers that walk where they want and vanish when you spot them?”

  I shake my head. “There are rumors, but they’re old wives’ tales. Children’s stories.”

  “You’re twice a fool if that’s what you think.”

  Tommy looks over at me. “They’re not children’s stories. We saw some of the same things back in . . .” He hesitates, looks at Erin, then turns back to me. “Back where we come from.”

  “So, you’ve seen them, then?” Erin asks as he leans over at Tommy. “Seen them vanish like they weren’t ever there.”

  “Yeah, they . . . they teleport somehow.”

  “Anytime you get close to them. Had my first run-in with one when we’d first settled down up north, at a military base. I was never sure what I saw, but it looked to me like she was digging around in the guts of the place, taking a look at the wiring or something.”

  “Yeah, that’s about what I remember about the Angels, too.”

  “Thing was, they never attacked us. Long as we stuck to ourselves, they paid us no mind. Not this one.” He shakes his head and looks up at the ceiling, like he’s actually terrified. “This one you’re talking about? She’s different. She comes from nowhere, just appears. I’ve lost God knows how many men to her. She takes them into the darkness, and you never see them again.”

  “When did this start happening? Was there something that triggered it? Something you might have done?”

  “Couldn’t tell you. It started happening not too long after I made the move south, after the Tank invited me to join up with her. We started getting reports at th
e fringes, from out west, of a creature in black. A monster who appeared from nowhere, with technology like nothing we have. A creature who can fly, appear and disappear when she wants, and leaves my people broken. Arms, legs, it doesn’t matter to her. When she doesn’t take them, she leaves them bed ridden for months. And when she leaves . . .”

  “When she leaves? What then?”

  “Her wings. Wings of fire. You can tell anywhere she’s been. She leaves a mark, scorched into the ground. Angel’s wings.” He looks my way. “If you were thinking she was one of ours, I hope you’ll kindly think again. She’s an angel like I’ve never seen. Something black. Something out to get us. The men have taken to calling her the Dark Angel. If you’re willing to put your men out there on the hunt for her, you won’t go alone. I’ll put my men on the line to bring that bitch down.”

  I nod as I digest everything he’s saying. “I can’t authorize any militia operations without consulting the Advisory Council and War Council first. If this Angel really is a threat . . . Well, she hasn’t come to Central yet, but like I said, we do have stories about these creatures. I don’t usually talk about it because we don’t have any verification.”

  “Oh, I’ll verify it for you.”

  “Good. Good. Listen, I want you to talk to the Tank about all of this. About smoothing our relations, about finding these Angels. About making things more secure in this city. If there really are people out there with the kind of powers you’re describing . . .”

  “We’ll need to work together to track them down.”

  “Exactly.” I get up from my chair, and Tommy and Erin follow my lead. “You know, it’s ancient history now, but there was once a long dead leader who said, ‘I have returned with peace for our time.’ I can only hope we can follow in that man’s footsteps and create a peace between your people and ours.”

  Erin reaches a hand out and grabs mine. “To better futures, Mr. President.”

  Mike’s Recording 05

  Can’t help but laugh when Mandy stares at the ceiling and tosses a puzzle piece at me. “I hate this.”

  “Don’t give up, champ. Can’t win if you give up.”

  “There’s got to be something like a hundred other things I could be doing that are less frustrating.”

  “Nothing in life worth having that comes easy, though.”

  “I don’t think this puzzle’s worth the work.”

  I smile at her. “But there are plenty of things in life you do need to work hard at. How do you think we keep things safe around here?”

  “You mean like when you go out into the Deadlands?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Like how you protected me and my sister.”

  “Yeah. That wasn’t easy, was it?”

  “No.” She sucks in a breath, and I can see her shake a little. “I think about it a lot. Living out there. Crossing the Deadlands. You know, I’d never left the colony before.”

  “That’s what Cynthia tells me. You like living here in Central?”

  “It’s nice not having to use the poles to keep the Creepers away. I remember when one of the repulsion poles broke down.” She looks away and shakes her head a few times. It looks like she’s having trouble breathing just remembering what happened. “I never saw my friends from that building again. We had a funeral for all of them, but there weren’t any bodies. Just one headstone for all of them.”

  It gets me, right in the heart. “Kid. I’m sorry.”

  “Cynthia thinks I don’t know what happened, but . . .” She shrugs. “I know what Creepers do, but I don’t want her being worried. That’s why I don’t talk about it.”

  “Mandy. Hey. Anytime you need to talk, you got us. Okay? Nobody should keep that stuff to themselves, especially not little girls.”

  “I’m not that little. Plus, I know the Creepers can’t get us here.”

  “You’re right. Especially not with people like me and my friends on the job.” I say it with a smile and a flex of my muscles. “We’re tough. Promise you that I’ll always be watching out for you.”

  “Thanks, Mikey.”

  That’s when I hear a noise from the living room. I’ve barely got my head up before Cynthia walks into the room. “Mandy, are you giving Mike a hard time?”

  “No, sis.”

  “You’re not asking him to help you cheat with the puzzle, are you?’

  “I did, but it’s not like he ever helps me.”

  I shrug. “It’s true. Builds character.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Well, that’s what my dad used to say.”

  Cynthia drops onto the floor nearby and puts her cup on the coffee table. “Mandy, you’ve been here with Mike way too long. It’s time for you to go do your homework.”

  Her eyes roll. “That’s the last thing I want to do.”

  “Well, too bad. I heard you complaining about how hard the puzzle was, so now you can go try you luck with your math assignment.”

  Mandy huffs as she gets up to leave. “Fine. Mikey, I’ll keep working on the puzzle tomorrow.”

  I give her a thumb’s up as she’s walking out of the room. “Looking forward to it, kid.” As soon as she’s gone, I nod at Cynthia’s cup. “Took you a while to come back. Tea take that long?”

  “No, not usually. I got distracted, that’s all. It’s just, I was just reading some of the news about yesterday’s attack. Mikey. You told me you were perfectly fine out there.”

  “I was. Just, you know, things didn’t go so well with Mike and Dodger’s team.”

  “I know you said Dodger got hurt, but how many people did you lose?”

  When she asks, I can feel myself squint, like I’ve been shot at. “Must’ve been like, almost a dozen.”

  “A dozen people? Out of how many who went?”

  “Almost fifty.”

  “Mike, that’s just not . . .” She looks down into her drink. “We can’t take hits like that.”

  “Hey, I know we need to do better out there . . .”

  “Yeah, Mike. We really do. We don’t have enough people here who can fight, not with the militia stretched out across the colonies. If we’re always losing that many, one day we won’t have anyone to protect Central.”

  “It’s a problem. I know.”

  “They’re talking about putting in a draft. I don’t want Mandy to have to go out there again if she doesn’t have to.”

  “I get what you’re saying. Truth is though, we might not have a choice. When you’re out in the colonies, everyone’s got to fight. Here, people get comfortable. Start to forget how bad things still are in the world. As long as we can keep things safe here, we will, but there might come a time where we need to put more people in the field.”

  “And what about getting help from Fort Silence?”

  When she says it, I almost can’t answer for a second. “What . . . what did you say?”

  “I know what you said about how much your friend, Jackie, would hate it, but . . .”

  “Cynthia, Jackie was more than my friend. Okay? She’d flip if we made this place anything like how the Tower was run. I mean, you want me to turn my back on everything she did? You know she was one of the most important people I ever had in my life.”

  “Well, today, right now, is she more important to you than Mandy is? Than I am?”

  “What?”

  “Because, I’m never going to ask you to let go of Jackie, but I’ve got to look out for Mandy. I know what Jackie was to you, but Mandy’s all I had after my parents died. I can’t just wait and see if things work out while everyone’s debating about whether to talk with Fort Silence or not. I know Mandy thinks everything’s safe because we live in Central now, but I know it wouldn’t take much to bring down the energy screen around the city. Then, what? The whole place would be a target for the Creep. We have to do something to make sure that doesn’t happen, and if that means working with the fort . . .”

  She’s getting frustrated, and I almost want to jump across t
he coffee table and give her a hug. “Hey. Hey. I’m sorry. You’re right. Look, you’re right. Obviously, you know, I loved Jackie. She was closer to me than anyone. But you and Mandy . . . You’re with me. Today. I put my life on the line out there because I want you to be safe. If we have to think about talking with Silence . . .” I shake my head, ‘cause I still don’t think it’s a good idea. “It’s not off the table. I’d rather we try and find other solutions first, but if it comes down to it, then yeah, of course I’ll support an alliance. But I need you to know that nothing’s more important to me than you and Mandy being safe.”

  She smiles. “I know that. I think sometimes, especially when we hear this really bad news, I just get nervous. I’ll go out to the Deadlands anytime Central needs me, Mikey. I’ve lived out there for most of my life, stitching people up or pulling bullets out of them. I don’t want Mandy to have to go through that.”

  “I get it. This is about letting her be a kid.”

  “Yeah. She’s already been through so much with mom and dad . . .” She laughs, even if there’s not a lot of joy in it. “Um, anyway. Have you heard from Dodger?”

  “Oh. Nah, not yet. Course, from what I know, the wound wasn’t too serious. I know Tommy’s been wanting to stop in, but it’s been pretty busy for him since we got back.”

  “Do you know if she’s hurting a lot?”

  “Definitely, just, maybe not the way you think. Of course, the wound hurts, but a lot of the losses we took out there . . .” Thinking about it makes me look away for a second, out the window and into the city. “She lost a lot of people, and it’s just . . . It’s looking like it’s going to be really hard for her to bounce back from it. Dodger took it personal. Reminds me of how I took things when I lost my team, back in the Tower.”

  Tommy’s Recording 09

  The garrison hospital’s not exactly a place you want to spend your afternoon in, but it’s nicer than spending all day in the barracks. Air’s recycled constantly, so everything just smells clean. The halls are this perfect white, and the lights are turned up pretty high. It’s like walking into the afterlife or something. Not that I think Dodger cares too much about what it looks like in there. When she sees me, she looks fine, except for the medical pack sitting around her shoulder.