by Greg Boose
Paul gasps for air as Jonah painfully sits up to wipe his bloody lips, and all around them, the red apes are in an all-out brawl. They no longer pay attention to the movements of the cadets; they’re blinded by rage and pain. Feathers drift in the air, slowly falling onto Jonah’s heaving chest.
“Now,” Jonah whispers, and he quickly turns over onto his stomach and crawls backward toward the opening in the wall. Paul and Vespa slowly get on their knees and begin to follow him, and it looks as if Jonah’s plan is going to work, but then one mimic—a short, squat creature with one red eye and one yellow—is sent flailing out of a fight and toward the cadets, falling right on top of Jonah’s back, flattening him on the ground. Within seconds, another mimic jumps on top of the first, and its mouth lands right next to Jonah’s face, where it roars in his ear.
Paul grabs the top ape off of the pile by its neck and whips the beast into the stone wall behind them. The mimic bounces off and hits the ground in a lifeless heap. A few of the other animals see this, and they begin sprinting toward the wall to ram themselves against it, falling to the ground either completely knocked out, or pretending to be.
Jonah reels his arms into his body and rolls violently to his left, knocking the remaining mimic off his back. The creature reaches out and grabs ahold of his bicep, though, and yanks Jonah toward it with a demonic growl. It gets on top of him and opens its giant mouth full of sharp, brown teeth, and then drops its head onto Jonah’s chest, but before it can take a bite, Vespa plunges one of her knives into the back of the ape’s skull with a sickening squish. She then kicks the beast off Jonah and pulls the cadet to his feet.
Half of the animals continue to fight each other, seemingly unaware the cadets are still there, while the other half of the apes slowly advance toward them in silence, including the leader. The humming in the air ebbs and flows, like waves lapping at the beach.
“Someone take my other knife,” Vespa whispers out of the side of her mouth.
Still stripped to his torso, Paul steps in front of Vespa and Jonah, blocking them from the advancing animals. Over his shoulder, he says, “Give it to Firstie.” He flexes his enormous back and rolls his neck from side to side. “I can handle these things myself.”
Vespa slips Jonah a knife and then steps forward and stands next to Paul. Jonah quickly stands on the other side of Paul, squeezing the handle of the knife as hard as he squeezed his sheaf when the Mayflower 2 went down. The three cadets take a collective breath, and then without warning, Paul shouts into the air and rushes forward to tackle the two closest mimics. Vespa follows his lead and rushes into the mix, swinging her blade into the side of one as it tries to jump on Paul’s back. The beast flails in pain and strikes Vespa across the face with the back of its paw. Vespa crumples to the ground where three more apes dive on top of her and claw viciously at her jumpsuit.
A switch flips in Jonah; a wave of adrenaline rushes through him and he boots one of the apes off of Vespa, sinks his knife into the back of another. The third animal continues to claw at Vespa’s side, shredding the waist of her jumpsuit, until she’s able to sit up and slash her knife across its neck, killing it.
“Thanks,” she wheezes, and then she’s scrambling over to help Paul who has a mimic’s throat in each hand while he kicks a charging third in the stomach. Jonah runs to join in, but the animal he stabbed in the back grabs his ankle and trips him. He reaches back with his knife and slices the ape’s wrist, sending a fountain of watery yellow blood into the air. As he tries to get back to his feet, he sees a small handful of white seeds and recognizes it at once. Verve. They must have fallen out of Vespa’s shredded pockets. She must have gotten them from the hospital floor after Dr. Z attacked him. Jonah quickly scoops them up and shoves them into his pocket, and then he’s at Paul’s side, slicing his knife back and forth, doing anything he can to survive and help his fellow cadets.
The dead and wounded mimics now outnumber those still fighting each other and those squaring off with the cadets. Paul’s chest and back are covered in the yellow blood of the beasts, and he seems to heave with excitement of possibly adding to it.
But just as they feel like they have the upper hand, a new herd of purple mimics appear through the trees. There must be thirty or forty of them, and they just stand and watch patiently, waiting for their turn at the cadets. Jonah watches in awe as a blue-tipped, red-feathered leader howls for its herd to stand down. It then slaps its paws on the ground and howls at the purple group to stay back.
“That’s just too many,” Vespa says, taking a few steps backward. Jonah agrees and steps with her, not stopping as he grabs Paul’s thick forearm and gives it a tug.
“Until next time,” Paul says.
They step in unison toward the stone wall and its narrow passage, and within seconds, the red leader marches forward with its arms out wide, no longer mimicking their moves.
Once they get in front of the crack, Jonah slowly gets down on his stomach.
“You first, Firstie,” Paul says.
Jonah shuffles backward into the crack, keeping his eyes on the leader until it disappears behind Paul’s legs. Vespa follows him, and then Jonah hears Paul mumble and grunt inside the opening. There’s a sound of rocks shifting and crunching into each other, and then Paul yells, “I blocked the entrance! Now go!”
They move quickly. Jonah’s elbows and knees are raw by the time they reach the other side, but all he can think about is Brooklyn lying on her bed, her eyes blue and blind—and Mirker standing over her with a devilish grin. The man is just like his sons, Tunick and Sean, sadists with no regard for reason or empathy. Jonah stands and peeks his head out, scanning the road for soldiers. On his left, sitting quietly at the end of the road, the concrete sphere appears empty, save for Everett curled into a ball, and to Jonah’s right, the path is empty, winding its way up the cliff. No soldiers. No red or purple mimics. No two-headed yellow alien ghosts walking in circles.
“Before you go out there…” Vespa whispers.
He turns to see her wiping a knife blade back and forth on the front of her destroyed jump suit, cleaning off the yellow blood. An apologetic, yet stern, look appears on her face.
“Right,” Jonah says. He exposes his upper back in a flash and grits his teeth. When the tip of the blade pierces his skin, Jonah shoots his arms above his head and grips the edges of the rock. Within seconds, Vespa places the tiny silver tracker in the palm of his huge hand. He sets it on the ground and stomps on it.
Vespa then removes Paul’s tracker and smashes it with the butt of her knife, and a minute later, they’re crouched behind the sphere and whispering for Everett to answer them.
“You still alive in there or what?” Paul asks.
“Make some kind of noise if Mirker is still here somewhere,” Jonah says.
When Everett doesn’t answer, Vespa beings to creep around the curve of the sphere. Jonah and Paul keep their eyes on the road and the forest, ready to protect Vespa at a moment’s notice.
“Guys, get in here. Now,” Vespa says, her voice echoing.
The boys enter the sphere to find Everett on his side, gasping his last breaths with wide-open eyes. A small pool of blood shines under his neck, slowly expanding across the concrete. Vespa cuts the plastic bindings from Everett’s bruised wrists and the boy rolls limply onto his back. A smile slowly crosses his cracked lips. He tries to say something, but no words escape his moving mouth.
“Everett, it’s me, Jonah, from Achilles. Can you hear me?”
To their surprise, the boy nods.
“Okay!” Jonah says. “Everett, why are you down here? When you went through that portal on Achilles, is this where you showed up?”
He nods again.
“Fuck that, there’s no way,” Paul whispers. “You can’t just get zapped from a moon to a planet. Kid’s lying, or he’s gone crazy.”
Vespa peeks out the door to be sure the coast is clear, and then she kneels beside Everett and hovers her face ov
er his. The boy’s smile immediately widens, blood bubbling through his teeth.
“Everett, did Mirker tell you why he chained you up in here? Is there something he wants from you?”
Another nod.
“Speak, god damn it,” Paul says. “Just tell us.”
Everett’s mouth moves quickly, as if he’s telling a grand story, but again not a word comes out. Not even a whisper.
Vespa gently sets her hands on the boy’s cheeks. “We can’t hear what you’re saying. What does he want, Everett? What does Mirker want?”
Everett slowly raises his right arm and then points to the ceiling of the dome: the dozens of symbols carved into the concrete, an attempt to copy what the people of Thetis have found elsewhere. This strikes Jonah hard, knowing that they’ve discovered what could be the writing of an ancient alien civilization, and that it hasn’t been reported back to Earth. They are keeping secrets. Huge secrets. But why?
“What are we even looking at?” Paul asks. “I just see a bunch of shapes up there. Does it say something?”
Jonah lies down right next to Everett and follows the boy’s vision up his trembling arm. There’s no doubt in Jonah’s mind; Everett points to a stick figure with exaggerated legs and arms. It’s relatively small compared to all the other symbols, and it’s positioned right below several triangles. Jonah jumps to his feet to get a closer look, and very faintly, he reads his own name scratched alongside the figure.
“Shit,” Jonah whispers.
“What?” Vespa and Paul both ask.
“It’s me,” Jonah says, “It’s a picture of a person and there’s my name. Right below those triangles.”
Vespa gasps when she finally sees it.
“That’s not good,” Paul says. “Or, maybe it is good. Hey kid, you carve Firstie in there yourself or what?”
When the cadets look down, Everett’s arm is draped across his chest and his eyes are closed. Vespa puts her ear to his chest and then shakes her head. “He’s gone.”
Jonah takes another look at the stick figure. At his name, clear as day. He feels wobbly and confused. His hands shake so much that Vespa grabs them and holds them up against her cheeks.
“Hey, look at me. We have no idea what that means, so don’t dig too deep, okay?” she says.
Jonah stares at her green eyes and nods for a second before looking back at the carving overhead. Maybe Mirker did it. Maybe Everett himself scraped that up there. Maybe Captain Tejas put this all together. Maybe, maybe, maybe…
Paul rotates, his eyes scanning the cement. “Am I somewhere, too? Look for a big strong guy who can bench press 340.”
Vespa says, “Jonah, we’ll figure this out later, okay. Right now, we have to go.”
“Go where?” Paul asks.
“To get Brooklyn.” Jonah continues, “We go save Brooklyn and then figure out what the hell is going on around here. And I think we have to get inside the telescope building to get some answers.”
Paul pushes past Jonah and steps outside. He picks up a yellow stone and throws it against the outside of the sphere, shattering it. “It’s a trap, you know that, right? That asshole is just waiting for us to show up. He’s probably got ten men just sitting in Brooklyn’s room, waiting for you. Hell, one of the guys probably has his hand over her mouth right now, suffocating her while he whispers messed up shit in her ears.”
“Okay,” Jonah says. He shakes off what he just saw. For now. “Then we don’t go to the hospital and try to break her out. Instead, maybe we get her to come to us.”
“And how are we going to do that, Firstie?” Vespa asks.
“I don’t know yet.”
Jonah takes a moment to drape Everett’s other arm across his chest. He wipes blood away from his cheeks, sweat away from his forehead. Looking down at the boy, Jonah’s anger rises and falls until a wave of sadness washes over him. Yes, the kid pointed a gun at Jonah’s face and forced him inside that Achilles cave. And then he tried to force Jonah onto the white portal after it started up. But then Jonah shoved him onto it, apparently sending him back here. And then Mirker got to him. So, it was Jonah who had this boy tortured and killed. This is his fault.
“Sorry,” he whispers, and then Jonah steps out of the sphere and squints up into the greenish sky. He looks for Peleus and sees its faint outline over the trees. It doesn’t matter if he’s on Thetis or on one of its moons, death will follow his every step.
The cadets edge the path up the mountain, staying hidden just inside the tree line. Jonah keeps an eye out for drones while Paul stays on watch for more mimics or other creatures. Vespa moves silently with her shoulders raised on high alert. They get to the top of the cliff in under an hour and then hide behind a pile of boulders covered in smelly purple moss. They can see the top of the fence surrounding Athens. Far beyond the village, Jonah sees the giant white modules sitting empty at the bottom of mountain.
Paul turns to Jonah and Vespa. “So, who has a plan? How are we going to get Brooklyn out of there? And how are we going to get Jonah’s meds? You need me to put on a show or something?”
“How are your dance moves?” Vespa says.
“Pretty damn good, actually.”
Jonah runs his hand over the purple moss, petting it gently as he thinks. He goes over the interior of the village in his mind, picturing the different buildings, the layout of the garden, the trapdoor he escaped through. He sees his yurt and Matteo sitting on the one chair inside. His mind circles the telescope building and the farm building. And then he pictures Brooklyn groaning on her bed with Mirker standing over her with his arms crossed, ordering one of his men to remove the tubes from her arms. Faces from the village flood his mind: Matteo, Freeman, the Indian woman, the man with the red cap, the kids from Module Eight. Is there anyone who can help him? While other faces run through his mind, Jonah loses his balance and falls on his butt and feels the verve seeds in his pocket. Now it hits him. He knows how he can create enough chaos inside to get Brooklyn out. It’s going to come with a major cost, though. He’s going to have to promise something he doesn’t want to do, but he thinks it’s the only way.
“I’m going to go inside and get someone to help us,” Jonah says. “I’ll get Brooklyn out here. I’ll get her to come to us.”
“Yeah, and who is going to help us?” Paul asks.
“If I tell you, you’re just going to say I’m crazy and try to talk me out of it. But I think it will work. I just need to get inside without them seeing me. Any suggestions?”
“You’re looking for a diversion?” Vespa asks. Her eyes begin to scan the landscape.
Jonah reaches up and pets the moving purple moss one last time. “Yeah, a diversion would be nice. But still, I need to get back inside somehow. And I don’t think going through that trap door I came out of is going to work. It has to be monitored or locked.”
“Or boobytrapped,” Vespa says.
“Can you climb the fence?” Paul asks. “I mean, it’s only fifty feet high with spikes on top and people with rifles watching at all times.”
Vespa’s eyes continue to scan. “But they won’t be watching the fence if they’re watching something else.”
“You want to start a fire, don’t you?” Paul says, chuckling. “You love your fires, V. That should have been flagged at some point in the academy.”
“I may have an idea.” Jonah backs away from the boulders and hides behind a nearby tree. The two cadets quickly follow him. “All we have are Vespa’s knives, right?”
Vespa holds both blades up and twirls them in her hands.
“Firstie, if you’re going to suggest we go back and skin a couple of those apes and then wear their hides as disguises,” Paul says, “I would say I’ve heard worse ideas, but not many. Also, I’m totally in.”
Jonah cringes at the thought. “No, I was thinking you guys could do some kind of damage with the modules from the ship. Somehow push them over or cut something off of them or—”
Vespa raises her eyebrows. “Set them on fire?”
“Sure, yeah,” Jonah says. “We don’t have much time. The longer we’re out here, the more pissed off Mirker is going to be. The question is, can you get over there and make something happen in the next thirty minutes?”
The cadets study the giant modules in the distance. They must be a mile away, or more. Two of them are stripped to their metal shells, their material used to make tents in the village. But another three stand out there like giant marshmallows waiting to be skewered for a campfire.
“Even if we light them up, I still don’t know how you’re going to scale the fence,” Vespa says.
“That’s what your knives are for,” Jonah says. “I stick them in the wood and keep pulling myself up.”
Paul shrugs but then nods at the idea and Vespa quickly slaps the knife handles into Jonah’s hands. A second later, the two cadets sprint inside the tree line, curving their way toward the modules. Jonah watches until they’re out of sight and then slowly moves toward the village wall. Two drones zip along the top of the perimeter, buzzing back and forth, while another two hover near the gate. He slides down an embankment and gets himself in position. From this vantage point, he can no longer see the modules; they’re hidden behind the spiked wall looming over him. There, he waits.
Jonah hates that he’s sent Vespa and Paul off together. He hates the thought of them working together, planning, laughing, reconnecting; it’s ridiculous to think about his feelings for Vespa at this moment, when he’s curled up in a ball in an embankment waiting to scale a fifty-foot wall with nothing but a couple of knives, but his desire to be with Vespa is simply undeniable. Everything about her makes his heart jump. Even when she dismisses him.
He also thinks about Lark and Krev and Tunick and Hess and all the other kids who left Thetis because it was no longer safe for them here. He now fully understands that Thetis is, in fact, a very bad place to be. It’s killing every human here. Still, Jonah thinks, maybe they can find a way to breathe the air without getting sick, and the community can still be turned into the alien utopia promised to them.