Thetis--The Deep Sky Saga--Book Two

by Greg Boose

  “What do you think?” one of the men asks before spitting on the ground.

  The pudgy man bites his lip before answering, “I think he looked through the telescope and saw what he saw, and he saw the papers and knows about Zion out there and maybe the Kurtz guy. I don’t know if the kid slipped out the door when we weren’t looking, or what, but we have to find him before he tells anyone.”

  “Yeah, and then what?” a blond man asks. He holds Vespa’s knives in his hands, examining them. “What if he comes at us? We can’t just kill him. We need him for the thing.”

  “We hold onto him. But let’s just find him first.”

  Jonah scoots back even more on the roof. Sweat beads down his face and neck, soaking his collar. Need him for what thing? And what about the Kurtz guy? Kip? He hears them run off, and when he sees no one around, Jonah dangles his legs over the side and jumps. He rolls to a stop and looks around. He can’t go through the gate, and he can’t go back over the fence without the knives, so he has to get outside some other way. And quickly. He’s already wasted way too much time.

  Sprinting from tent to tent, Jonah moves toward the maintenance tunnel. He catches glimpses of a few stragglers, but mostly the village feels like a ghost town. When he gets near the farm building, Jonah hides behind a small tent and sees a few creatures pacing in their pens. A bright yellow capstone runs back and forth, its long arms dragging behind as it searches for a new rock to put on its head. He wants to stop and ask Francesca for help, to somehow sneak him outside in a cage or something, but that’s when he sees the silver, cannon-sized contraption on the side of the building: the wood chopper. Matteo showed it to him on his tour, saying they could never have built the fence as fast as they did without it. He makes a break for it.

  He’s halfway past the farm building when Griffin steps out of the shadows with his arms crossed.

  “What do you think you’re doing, Firstie?”

  “Getting out of here,” Jonah says, running around him, never breaking his pace.

  Griffin is on his heels, “Then, I’m coming with you. Some shit is happening. Dr. Z escaped and everyone’s freaking out. I think they’re going to start shooting people.”

  Jonah doesn’t know if he can trust him, but he doesn’t have time to argue. He reaches the wood chopper and begins to shove it toward the fence. Griffin gets next to him and pushes with all he’s got.

  “Where the hell we going with this?” Griffin asks.

  “Outside,” Jonah says.

  They reach the fence and Jonah immediately begins looking for the controls. Griffin shoves him aside and presses a small black screen on its underside, and a second later, four metal legs descend from the chopper’s belly and plant themselves in the soil. The blade pulls back, ready.

  “We’re just going to bust a hole in this fence, or what?” Griffin asks as he runs his hand through the lion in his hair.

  “Just do it.”

  The cadet presses a button and the blade shoots forward, slicing right through the fifty-foot log standing in front of it, sending bits of wood and dust all over them. Jonah gets ready to move the chopper to the right so they can make the hole even bigger, but to his surprise, the log separates from its base and slowly tips away from them, falling toward the jungle. With a resounding boom, it hits the ground and leaves a small gap in the fence.

  “Go, go, go,” Griffin says, pushing Jonah.

  Jonah jumps over the three-foot stump left behind and then ushers Griffin through. When Griffin squeezes past, Jonah sees the Module Eight kids huddled together inside the village, just a couple dozen yards away. They begin to walk toward the cadets.

  “Run!” Jonah yells.

  They sprint into the trees as the black smoke from the modules moves over the jungle, blocking the sun.

  “Now what?” Griffin asks.

  “Now, we look for Vespa and Paul and watch out for drones and Mirker and his people and the kids from Module Eight.”

  “Jesus. That all?”

  Jonah takes a sharp left toward the rendezvous point. He needs to get to the cadets before Dr. Z finds and attacks them—or before Paul and Vespa attack her.

  Through the trees, Jonah keeps an eye on the fence, which is fifty yards on his left. Four men pace back and forth in front of the gate. The short pudgy man from the telescope building is there, talking into a walkie-talkie while pointing at one of the other men who holds his palms up and shakes his head. The gate opens slightly and several more villagers spill out, some just kids. Where’s Mirker? Jonah thinks.

  As they get closer to the section of forest where they are supposed to meet the cadets and Dr. Z, Jonah and Griffin slow down and begin to move as quietly as they can, using tactics learned in the academy. After a few minutes, Jonah catches sight of Vespa’s green jumpsuit through the trees. He darts to a cluster of spiky bushes to get a closer look, seeing Vespa hiding behind a thick gray tree trunk with Paul next to her. Paul has his arm around Vespa’s waist and she leans her head against his chest. Jonah holds his breath as he watches Paul push hair out of Vespa’s face and kiss her cheek. Instantly, Jonah wishes he would have sent Paul into the village to free Brooklyn instead.

  “Sigg!” Griffin half-shouts as he runs past Jonah. “Hey, Paul!”

  Paul and Vespa quickly separate; Vespa sprints to another tree and ducks out of sight while Paul twists around to face Griffin.

  “Get out of here, cadet. Right now,” Paul growls. “You don’t want to be involved with this.”

  Before Jonah can step out from behind the bushes, Vespa leaps out from behind the tree and tackles Griffin, blindsiding him. Griffin lets out a shout as the two roll right into Paul’s legs where the Fourth Year places his boot right on Griffin’s throat.

  Paul spits over his shoulder and says, “I’m telling you. Get out of here.”

  “Wait,” Jonah says as he comes out from behind the bushes. “He came with me. It’s okay, it’s okay. Griffin helped me escape.”

  Still on top of Griffin, Vespa turns her face toward Jonah with a smile. “Jonah. You made it, thank the gods.”

  He can’t help but smile from the way she says his name. But the rush of adrenaline Jonah had been running on suddenly leaves his body, and he’s left shaking and exhausted. He plants his hands on his knees and whispers, “Barely.”

  Paul removes his foot from Griffin’s neck and nods over his shoulder. “You boys like our little fire? Seems to have done the trick, right? Tons of people are over there. Drones. Rovers. Quite the diversion we put together, if I do say so myself.”

  “Yeah,” Jonah says. “Looks like the entire—”

  “Wait. Jonah? Where’s Brooklyn?” Vespa stands and spins around. “Where is she? You were supposed to… Is she okay? Oh god, don’t tell me.”

  Jonah takes a deep breath. “She’s coming. She’ll be here. I hope.”

  “What does that mean?” Paul grunts as he yanks Griffin off the ground by his collar.

  “I have zero clue what’s happening right now, but I like it,” Griffin says.

  Exasperated, Vespa opens her arms. “Jonah? Seriously, what does that mean? That mean that she’s healthy enough to get here on her own? She can see now? She can walk?”

  Men’s voices suddenly enter the forest, sending the cadets hiding behind different trees. A rifle fires, and Jonah sees a flash of blue light zip far off on his right.

  “Motherfucker,” Paul seethes. “You guys led them right to us.”

  “My knives. Give them to me,” Vespa whispers.

  “I kind of lost them,” Jonah responds.

  “Damn it, Firstie,” she grits.

  Branches crunch a few dozen yards away; they’re coming right toward them. Jonah crouches down and grabs a rock. The noises get closer and closer, coming in from the right, and Jonah is the first line of defense. When it sounds like the men are right on top of him, he jumps out from behind his tree, raising the rock over his head. But b
efore he can swing it down, he sees it’s Dr. Z. And draped across her shoulders is a lifeless Brooklyn in a hospital gown, medical tubes sticking out of her arms.

  As soon as Jonah and Dr. Z lock eyes, he lowers the rock and the woman shrugs the sick demic to the forest floor with a huge smile on her wicked face. Her yellow teeth chomp together three times before she tosses a small bag at Jonah. It hits his chest and falls quietly at his feet, several bags of the clear medicine spilling out.

  “What the fuck, Firstie?” Paul says, pointing at Dr. Z. “What the actual fuck?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Vespa rushes to Brooklyn’s side and places an ear to her chest. “She’s still breathing. She’s alive.”

  Dr. Z steps over the girls and walks slowly up to Jonah like a lion approaching its prey. Her one good eye is just a giant pupil, dark and glassy, and her burnt red hair blows around her cheeks and chin. The stench from her breath sends Jonah back a few steps as she says, “Now your turn. Your turn now.” She comes closer, pinning Jonah against a tree. “Eat them. Eat the seeds.”

  “Firstie? What the hell is going on?” Paul asks.

  Vespa scrambles over to the bag Dr. Z tossed to Jonah and looks inside. Her face suddenly falls. “Jesus, there’s like only six bags of medicine in here. That’s not enough. That’s not enough for Brooklyn, let alone for the both of you.”

  Jonah looks over Dr. Z’s heaving shoulder. “That should get us through a couple days maybe. And then we can try to—”

  Dr. Z’s right hand shoots to Jonah’s neck and squeezes, cutting him off. She shoves her dirty left hand inside his mouth and pulls his jaws apart. “You eat now!”

  Just as Paul slams his hand onto Dr. Z’s back and rips her away from Jonah by her collar, more noises appear in the forest. Feet stomping on fallen branches. Muffled voices. Jonah massages his throat and locks eyes with Dr. Z. “I will eat, I promise. But not here. We have to find somewhere safe first.”

  Dr. Z smiles and nods rapidly, and then she spins around and ducks down to wrap her arms around Brooklyn’s waist. She sits the small girl up and a low groan escapes her cracked lips. Dirt and fresh scratches cover the demic’s face; Jonah can see she must have had a brutal ride through the jungle on Dr. Z’s shoulders. He whispers into her ear, “It’s me, Jonah. It’s really good to see you, Brooklyn. And you’re going to see me soon, too.” Before he can say another word, Dr. Z hoists Brooklyn onto her shoulders and jogs farther into the trees.

  Vespa scoops up the bag of medicine, and they all rush to catch up, Paul growling at Jonah the whole time, berating him for bringing the madwoman along for their ride. Dr. Z flies through the trees as if she isn’t carrying one hundred pounds on her shoulders, bounding up and down hills, bursting through walls of sharp leaves, jumping over gaps in the ground without breaking stride.

  “Where are we even going?” Vespa asks.

  “I have no clue,” Jonah huffs. Watching Dr. Z carrying Brooklyn like this reminds him of running along the reef on Achilles, the demic bouncing on his shoulders like a backpack as he tried not to fall in the water and get to Tunick’s ship before it left the moon. He left Brooklyn on the edge of the canyon. To live. To die. He doesn’t even know anymore. But he knows that right now, he’s never going to leave her behind again. He picks up his pace and runs right alongside Dr. Z.

  “Follow me, follow me,” Dr. Z says as she leads them between two huge orange boulders at the base of a mountain. Jonah has to shuffle sideways through the path, and at the end of it, they come to an enormous field of geysers shooting thick columns of water high into the air.

  “You really taking us through that shit?” Paul asks. “I say we hide and fight. Take Mirker down right now, get the jump on him. What are we waiting for?”

  “I agree!” Vespa yells.

  “We can’t,” Jonah says. “Look, I have to do something first with Dr. Z, and then we’ll go after Mirker. Trust me. I think I can get us some answers if I just do something first.”

  Griffin pushes his way to the front of the group and shakes his head. “Uh, no way we’re going through all that. Look at that shit. We’ll fucking burn to death!”

  Without saying a word, Dr. Z walks between the closest two geysers with Brooklyn balanced across her shoulders. She opens her arms out wide and both holes erupt at the same time, launching scalding columns of water right into the doctor’s palms. She’s knocked off balance and falls to her knees. Brooklyn slumps to the ground, lying flat on her back. Jonah runs to his friend as the woman slowly twists around to stare at him. She points a steaming, bright red finger at Jonah and motions to come to her.

  “What is she even doing here, Firstie?” Vespa asks. “Get away from her! Why would she be helping us?”

  “Because I promised her if she brought Brooklyn to me and grabbed our medicine, I would do something for her!” Jonah calls.

  Vespa puts her fists on her hips. “And what did you have to promise her?”

  “I told her…I promised her that I would eat some verve and hear her out.”

  Vespa and Paul look at each other as the field of geysers blasts in front of them. Jonah doesn’t know what else to say.

  “What’s verve?” Griffin asks.

  Vespa says, “It’s the shit that made those kids Tunick and Sean go crazy and kill everyone, and it’s what made the other kids from Thetis leave this place and go to Achilles. It’s a drug. A really powerful drug that Jonah should definitely not take. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “I’ll take some,” Griffin says with a laugh. “Been bored out of my skull since we came here. In fact, this is somehow as far as I’ve gotten outside the fence.”

  Jonah pulls Brooklyn’s head onto his lap, her eyelids flittering and showing slits of her bright blue eyeballs underneath. He hugs her to his chest, blocking her from the hot mist blowing over them.

  “You’re not really going to take it, are you, Jonah? Because the last time…you said it was too much,” Vespa says as she steps onto the geyser field. “You said the other kids went crazy on it. They were homicidal.”

  Dr. Z gets to her feet and stands over Jonah and Brooklyn, her sleeves dripping water onto Jonah’s neck. “It’s time to eat, so you can speak to them now. We’re almost there. Follow, follow.”

  “He’s not eating anything!” Vespa shouts. “Get the fuck out of here! Leave us alone. You’re free now, so run away.”

  Vespa’s words transport Jonah back to Achilles with the warnings written on the cook and legless man hanging from the tree. He could just grab Brooklyn and try to lose Dr. Z amongst the geysers. But he’s tired of running. And he’s tired of all the mystery and being in the dark. It’s time he learns what the voices want, what that symbol means, what the two-headed ghosts need from him. If he listens, then maybe everyone will finally leave him alone. And just maybe it will help him figure out a way to help everyone live a long happy life on Thetis.

  “Seriously, lady,” Vespa continues. “Get the hell out of here. Leave Brooklyn and just go.”

  Dr. Z turns toward Vespa with her hands shaking and her eyes on fire. But before she can even think about attacking the cadet, Jonah holds a palm up to her and says, “I’ll eat the seeds, okay? I will. I promised you, and I will. But not here; I need a safe space, someplace where we can’t be attacked.”

  A grin spreads across Dr. Z’s blue lips. She then whips her head skyward and clicks her teeth together, and a chill runs down Jonah’s spine as he knows she’s listening to the alien ghosts. “I see it, yes. I’ll bring him, I’ll bring him.” The woman lowers her eyes to Jonah and says, “I have a place. They showed me a place where you can eat. The old boy is there.”

  She leans down and rips Brooklyn from Jonah’s lap and hoists her back onto her shoulders. Ahead of her, hundreds of columns of water blast rhythmically, blanketing the air high over their heads with thick layers of steam. Dr. Z walks between the first two geysers, disappearing in the water, and Jonah
begins to follow her.

  “I told you guys,” Griffin says, “There’s no way I’m running through all those geysers and burning my face off!”

  Paul grabs Jonah’s bicep and pulls him back. “You’re not going in there, cadet. That’s an order. You’re not following that piece of shit lunatic. I’m not going to let you. I’ll…I’ll just go kick her in the back and send her into one of the geysers and grab Brooklyn and then we’ll make a plan. But a good plan this time.”

  “I promised her. It’s the only way we’ll ever know what’s going on around here,” Jonah says, yanking his arm away from the Fourth Year. The two boys look at each other for a second and Jonah sees the fear in Paul’s eyes. Jonah gives a sarcastic salute and turns to jog into the field. And within seconds, Vespa is right by his side, mumbling how stupid everything is.

  “You guys are gonna die!” Griffin yells.

  “You, too, V?” Paul calls. “Oh, come on!”

  Vespa shouts over her shoulder, “She has Brooklyn! You guys do whatever you want!”

  As the two cadets jog through the first two geysers, the one on their left explodes upwards with the force of a freight train, knocking Jonah to his knees. Hot water rains over his back and shoulders, but Vespa immediately rips him back up to his feet and together they stumble forward, swaying back and forth as if they’re on a boat lost in a storm. Dr. Z is barely visible as she marches through the field.

  Jonah and Vespa hold onto each other’s sleeves as they pull themselves this way and that way, dodging a dozen more geysers, shielding each other from the burning columns of water that come from every direction. Jonah spins away from a giant hole just as it erupts, covering the top of his head with his hands, and he can barely see Paul and Griffin standing on the edge of the field. They’re arguing. But not with each other. As several water jets between the two groups collapse and fall back into their holes, Jonah sees the cadets are yelling at the huddle of Module Eight kids marching toward them. Jonah tries to take a few steps in their direction, but Vespa yanks him back.