by Megg Jensen
"We should follow the tark," Torsten said, not responding to Malia's comment. "They probably know what direction the EU ship went."
Rutger hiked alongside Torsten. "Normally I would complain about the walk, but it feels really good to stretch my legs. Being stuck on the ship was starting to get to me."
"Me, too," Malia said, keeping stride, despite being shorter than both of them. She skipped ahead a bit, swinging her arms.
Torsten smiled. "It's nice to see her like that. Usually, she's so..."
"Uptight," Rutger said. "It's okay to say it. Malia knows. I know. It's one of the reasons we work so well together. She's the brains and the brawn. I'm the comic relief."
"I think you have some of the brawn, too," Torsten said, laughing.
"Not going to give me a part of the brains?"
Torsten slugged Rutger's arm. "Nope."
The two walked in silence for a few moments before Torsten spoke again. "I feel like I haven't thanked you enough. Last year we only sat at the same table in the mess. In the last few months, you've given me so much, I don't know where to start to thank you."
"Look," Rutger said, "we're all in this together. Even if I hadn't chosen to stand by your side that day, I think we would have ended up on the same side of the fight. I never trusted the other defenders. Talk about all brawn and no brains. Some of them made me look like a genius. At least I was willing to think for myself. I never did like following orders. Joining you gave me a good excuse not to."
"I'd probably be dead without you. I'm not much for brawn myself." Torsten remembered all the days he'd spent hunched over a vidscreen studying history. It hadn't done him much good in daily life, but his knowledge of the Key, minimal though it was, had set him on the path to Rell, the dragzhi, the tark, this unknown planet.
"Do you think we're walking into a trap?" Torsten asked.
"I'd be surprised if we weren't." For once, Rutger didn't smile.
"Then the faster we get there, the sooner we know."
The two men picked up the pace, catching up with Malia and then with Leila. Whatever waited for them ahead, they would face it together.
36
Torsten's calves burned, struggling to keep up with the revenant army. They floated over the rough landscape easily. He and his friends didn't have that luxury, so they climbed over piles of rocks, hopped over downed tree limbs, and pushed through the undergrowth without stopping to think about what might be hiding in it.
The treetops hung above them, obliterating the sky from view. Dark, wet leaves formed a canopy so tight the sunlight had to fight to shoot beams down to them to guide their way.
"They do know where they're going, right?" Rutger asked through deep breaths.
"Hell if I know," Torsten responded, huffing.
"It's not like we have another choice. If we stop following, then we get left behind." Despite her smaller stature, Malia kept up the pace without much effort. "So stop whining, boys. As much as I hate to say it, we should probably catch up with Leila."
Malia sprinted ahead, coming up alongside Torsten's sister, who also seemed to be handling the long run well. Her ponytail bobbed from side to side as she turned her head to say something to Malia, who answered quickly. There were no more words between the two.
Torsten was at least glad they weren't fighting. Despite all of their differences, they needed each other now. They'd figure out all of the other problems later. All that mattered was finding the EU ship.
And Rell.
Torsten still couldn't believe she was alive. He kept beating himself up over leaving her on the dragzhi ship. His grief at believing her dead had put him in a state of shock. Still, he should have insisted they take her body with them. Maybe they'd be safe on Phoenix now if he had.
"Hey, look!" Rutger nudged Torsten. "Do you see what I see?"
Torsten squinted, focusing on the break in the trees ahead. White metal shone in the full sunlight, and two distinct letters adorned it. EU. "It's them.”
He was so close to Rell, after all this time. A fight lay ahead, and there was nothing Torsten hated more than fighting. He'd spend most of his life avoiding it, but recently he'd been forced to take up arms and fight for what he believed in. He could do it again.
A great howl rose ahead, and the hair on Torsten's arms stood at attention. Screams echoed in the canopy. His heart raced as he pushed harder, closing the distance between himself and the women. Torsten pulled up alongside Leila, his fear fueling his adrenaline.
"Can you see what's happening?" he asked her. "Did Denestra tell you anything it didn't tell us?"
"Denestra said they would destroy anything in their path to Rell." Leila's lip curled. "I think we're facing quite a battle ahead."
"And what are we supposed to do?" Malia asked. "We can't just stand by and watch them slaughter each other."
"I'm okay with that." Rutger joined them. He staggered backward, leaning against a large tree trunk, his chest grating with every breath. "No one told me to prepare for a marathon."
"I've told you before, stamina always wins." Malia winked, kissing Rutger. A deep blush spread across his pale cheeks.
"I don't know about you, but I want to get out there and fight." Leila pulled her gun out of her waistband and took off toward the fray.
Torsten couldn't see anything other than the back of the revenant army, their lifeless toes floating just above the ground cover as they awaited commands.
"We should probably join her," Malia said. "You boys ready?"
Torsten gripped his sword in a sweaty hand. His thumb hovered over the gem that powered it. "No, but let's go anyway."
A smile spread across Rutger's face. "Now that I've caught my breath, yeah, let's do this."
Torsten put a hand on Malia's arm before she could jump in. "You do know we're probably fighting other humans? I don't know how I feel about that."
"I won't start a fight with any of them, but if they come after me, I'm defending myself—even if it's to the death." Malia gripped her gun. "I'm going to look for Rell. We should all meet back here by the time the sun is at its zenith. Hopefully, one of us will have found her by then."
"What about your crazy sister?" Rutger asked as Leila elbowed her way through the revenants.
Torsten sighed. "We need to find Rell before she does. I don't know what will happen if we don't."
"Right. So let's split up." Malia pointed to the left. "Rutger, you go that way. I'll take the middle. Torsten, you head to the right. One of us is bound to find Rell, even if we have to get past the fight and onto the ship. If she's out there, we'll find her. I promise, Torsten."
He nodded and tried to smile. He was afraid if he spoke his emotions would spill out.
Torsten ran to the right, flanking the revenants. As he came closer to the front, he could finally see what was happening.
An army of humans fought hand to hand with the revenants, under the direction of the tark. They had no weapons. Torsten was taken aback. In spite all of their technology, both sides had fallen into prehistoric methods of battle, simply fighting until one was overpowered.
It was strange, and wrong somehow. Torsten had been on the EU ship. They had tech years beyond what Torsten had seen on Phoenix. It didn't make any sense that they'd fight like this.
Until something caught his eye. One of the warriors from the EU ship opened her mouth, and fire shot out of it, blasting one of the revenants in the face. Still, it kept coming at her, oblivious to the fire engulfing its hair. The revenant reached out with its right hand, its left still clutching the tark, which hung lifelessly at the revenant's side.
The fire woman focused her attention on the tark, blasting it with a stream of fire. The tark crumbled, dropping to the ground. The revenant stumbled, then fell to its knees. The woman watched as it crumbled, its face planting in the dirt.
Without the tark controlling it, the revenant was useless. The enemy had just discovered their weakness.
Without missing a bea
t, the woman took a deep breath and blew fire at the next tark. Its revenant fell, dead. The body just as lifeless as it had been before the tark took possession of it.
The woman shrieked, pointing at the two dead revenants. The others took notice, then repeated just as she had done, taking out the tark one by one. The revenants in the back began to retreat into the jungle.
Torsten jumped out of the way to avoid their stampede. He ran toward the ship, focusing on the reason he was there. To find Rell.
He grasped his sword tightly in his hand, ready in case any of the fire breathers approached him. Luckily they all seemed occupied with the revenants, following them into the jungle.
Torsten wished he was religious. He would have said a prayer for the fallen revenants, those poor souls who hadn't been allowed to rest due to the tark's intervention. He hadn't grown up believing in life after death, but he knew now that something waited for them after their bodies expired. One thing hadn't changed: he was sure there was a scientific explanation for it, even if he had yet to understand it.
Torsten slipped in the EU ship's docking bay, skirting the side to stay unnoticed. His clothes set him apart. In contrast to the crisp white uniforms of Earth United, his dreary gray military clothes were filthy and torn. If anyone saw him, they would know immediately he didn't belong on the ship.
Torsten kept an eye out for his friends, but didn't see any of them. He hoped they made it through soon, particularly Rutger who'd run directly into the battle, trying to muscle his way through to the other side. In hindsight, it was a stupid choice. He hoped Rutger lived to tell about it.
Backing into a hallway, Torsten kept his eyes on the docking bay. People ran around it, readying ships. Should their army of fire-breathing humans not succeed, they were clearly prepared to take the fight back to the tark.
"Hey, you!" someone yelled behind Torsten. He spun around, raising his sword.
The man raised his hands. "I'm just a scientist. Don't hurt me."
Torsten eyed him. The man's hands shook visibly, sweat gathering at his brow. "Give me your clothes," Torsten said.
"What?" The man said.
"Take off your clothes, now!" Torsten lifted the sword to the man's throat.
Without another word, the man unzipped his one-piece white jumpsuit and stepped out of it, standing in the cold hallway with nothing but a pair of underwear on.
"Don't move or I'll kill you," Torsten said in his best threatening tone. It must have worked because the man backed a few steps away.
Torsten shed his top and pants quickly, then grabbed the jumpsuit, pulling it over his underclothes and zipping it up. It was snug, but it would do well enough.
"Thanks," Torsten said, taking off in a run down the hall. With a heavy heart, he dropped his sword, letting it clatter to the ground as he raced away. He hated leaving it behind, but discarding it completed his disguise. If he found Rell, he'd make his way back to the hall and retrieve it.
Torsten navigated the halls, counting every turn he took, trying desperately to remember his way back to the docking bay. Eventually, he'd have to get out again, with or without Rell. He'd rather live on this planet, abandoned, then accidentally leave on this ship. He couldn't trust anyone on it. Despite their shared ancestry, Torsten had given up all hope that Earth United would help them. Their refusal to speak to him when he asked for Rell proved it.
As he ran, he watched for anything that would give him a clue to Rell's whereabouts.
A voice caught his attention and a plea for help.
Torsten turned another corner only to find Leila with her back to him, her gun leveled at someone in front of her.
"Finally," Leila said. "You won't live this time."
Torsten looked past his sister at the person her gun was trained on. It wasn't an enemy.
It was Rell.
37
Rell stared down the barrel of Leila's gun, ignoring the chaos on the ship. She'd barely had time to formulate a plan after releasing Dr. Anderson's subjects. Maybe it wasn't the safest idea to set a bunch of genetically engineered cage-raised prisoners free all at once, but it was the humane thing to do. They would do as they wished, while Rell figured out a way off the ship and back to Phoenix.
It looked like Phoenix had found its way to her.
"Leila," Rell said, trying to keep her tone even. Rell had no idea how Leila had gotten on this ship, much less found her.
"Once, I had a defender try to shoot you, but a buried freak took the bullet for you. Then I shot you myself, and my stupid brother found a way to rescue you. This time, I'm going to shoot you, and I'm going to watch you bleed out and take your last breath. This time, there won't be any doubt." Leila's hand held the gun steady, pointed at Rell's heart.
Rell knew Leila was a good shot. Torsten had told her Leila often beat him during practice. The other defenders in the tower had respected her immensely, enough to make Leila their leader after the destruction of Hadar.
Rell was running out of chances. Leila wouldn't stop pursuing her. The last thing Rell wanted to was to hurt Leila in return. She'd liked the girl when they'd first met, maybe even thought they could someday be friends.
After everything that had happened, it was clear that wouldn't be the case. Leila would never forgive her for killing Mellok, and Rell couldn't blame her. She'd come into Leila's life and changed everything for the worse.
Rell lifted her arms, opening her palms to show she wasn't carrying a weapon. "If you're going to shoot me, then do it. Don't waste any time."
Leila closed one eye, looking down the sight of her gun. Her free hand closed over the hand holding her gun, steadying herself.
"Rell!" Someone ran up from the hallway to the side.
Leila pointed her gun at him.
"No!" Rell yelled as the gun went off.
Rell dropped to her knees, reaching for Wade. She pulled him to her, pressing her hand on the wound in his belly. "You shot your father!" Rell screamed at Leila.
The gun clattered to the floor as Leila staggered to them. "It's not possible."
"Rell!" Another voice yelled.
Rell looked up. It was Torsten, just in time for the great family reunion. Once again, Rell had gotten herself in the middle of Leila's family, and another person was hurt.
"I'm so sorry," Rell said to Torsten, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. "Your father was on this ship. He’s my friend."
"Liar!" Leila reached out to slap Rell, but Torsten caught his sister's hand mid-air.
"Don't. Just stop it, Leila!" Torsten twisted her arm behind her back, holding her as she struggled against him.
"That's not our father. He's dead! Don't listen to her." Leila jerked, but Torsten held tight.
He looked over Leila's shoulder at the man in Rell's arms. He looked like their father, but after what happened to his mother, he couldn't be sure he was the same man he'd been when Torsten was a child. "Rell?" he asked, knowing she had a story to tell.
"We have to help him. Then I can explain everything." It pained her to see Torsten so upset. His father there and hurt. Leila still struggling to get away. "You have to help me. I can't lift him myself."
"Lei, if I let you go, will you help us instead of trying to hurt Rell?" he asked.
"Never!" Leila spat at Rell.
"I'm here. I can help!" Cordan rounded the corner. He knelt, picking Wade up in his strong arms. "Follow me. I know where he can be healed."
Torsten forced Leila to her feet, following Cordan as he took off at a steady clip down the hallway. Rell hurried behind them.
Torsten. He was here. It was unbelievable. How had he tracked her down? She had to keep herself from reaching out and touching him. Even knowing Phoenix hadn't been destroyed with him on it, Rell could scarcely believe Torsten walking in front of her. She had so many questions. As soon as they helped Wade and contained Leila, she and Torsten would need to have a long conversation.
"Here we are. The infirmary. Let's get him a bed before
those outside fighting fill them up. I'm sure there will be injuries." Cordan carefully laid Wade on a bed. "I'll get someone to help him."
Rell rushed to Wade's side, taking his hand. "Torsten and Leila are here. They'll give you strength. It will all be okay. I promise."
"Dad?" Torsten said, his voice choked.
"Shut up. Lies. All lies!" Leila said. She had ceased struggling against her brother, but her eyes flashed with anger.
"Baby girl?" Wade's eyes fluttered open. "Is that you?"
Leila's protests stopped.
"Dad, it's us," Torsten said.
"Torsten, please forgive your mother and me for what we did. We never should have left you. We had good intentions, but we were young and foolish." Wade reached out with one shaky hand for Torsten.
"Dad?" Leila tentatively moved toward Wade, and Torsten let her go. She stumbled to the man's side, falling to her knees next to his bed. "Is it really you? Tell me something no one else would know."
"Do you remember when I tucked you in at night? We would make up stories, taking turns at the good parts. You were so creative and funny, baby girl." Wade smiled.
"That's exactly what we used to do before bed." Leila glanced at Torsten, then at Rell. "How did my father end up here with you?"
"That's a story for later," Rell said, ignoring the hostility in Leila's voice. "For now, the two of you should be with him while the healers work."
Just then, two medics in white robes rushed over, followed closely by Cordan. "Back away, all of you. We need space to work."
Rell turned and left the room, Torsten on her heels. "Rell, wait."
She pressed her back against the wall, then sank to the floor. Torsten sat next to her. Leila joined them, standing across the hall, her arms folded across her chest. Shooting her father didn't seem to have softened her.
Torsten looked like an overgrown child with his sad eyes and hunched shoulders. "I don't know where to start."
"Neither do I," Rell answered.