by Greg Boose
“Kip?” Hopper whispers. “What the hell are you doing here? We left you on Achilles.”
Kip’s upper lip twitches once, and then the young boy slowly twists around to face the other direction. All across his exposed upper back are fresh, bleeding carvings of the three circles in the “C.” And in the middle, between his shoulder blades, bleeds the name, “Jonah.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jonah gasps at the sight of his own name on the boy’s skin. He moves the light back to Dr. Z, and the woman’s yellow teeth glisten as a wide smile grows across her face.
The words stick in Jonah’s clenched throat before he’s able to say, “Let him go.”
She doesn’t respond; she simply turns around to face the other direction, too. And that’s when Jonah sweeps the light across the back of the room only to find it lined with dozens of shelves holding the same giant alien skulls he found after escaping the mimics the first time. The wire thin, mesh bones are a dull white, standing three-feet high with no eye sockets or ear holes, and they’re in pairs, connected by thick vertebrae in the back. Shiny black numbers are stamped onto each of their pointed beaks, the digits reflecting the gun’s light like tiny mirrors all over the room.
“Um, I think we should leave,” Hopper whispers.
Dr. Z and Kip slowly stand up at the same time and walk to the bottom shelf in front of them. They both pick up a skull—a pair connected by vertebrae—and they raise them high in the air before pushing them down over their own heads. Kip reaches for Dr. Z’s hand, and then they turn around to face the boys. The giant skulls begin to emit a slight glow.
“Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Fuck this,” Hopper says, reaching for the door latch.
Jonah stares in horror at the huge glowing skulls on top of the small human bodies, their distended shadows looming larger than life in the spotlight. He backpedals until he’s right next to Hopper, his back pushing hard against the door. On the other side of it, Mirker wants to sacrifice him, presumably to the same beings these skulls once belonged to. In front of him, he believes he’s about to be eaten alive or forced to put on a skull himself, maybe with Hopper as his partner. He rubs the trigger with his finger, whipping the barrel of the gun back and forth between Kip and Dr. Z.
Hopper suddenly opens the door and darts out, shouting, “It’s just me, it’s just me!” leaving Jonah to fall flat on his back into the main room. His finger pulls back on the trigger, sending a flash of blue into the room. The laser hits the beak of the skull on top of Dr. Z, spinning it completely around her neck and sending Dr. Z and Kip crashing into the shelves. The bottom shelf buckles and breaks, dropping a dozen skulls all around the perimeter of the room, sending bone shards in every direction.
Jonah pushes himself away from the door frame with his heels, only to have his shoulders run into a pair of legs. Gasping for air, he looks up to find the man with the red ball cap standing above him with a handgun aimed at his nose. The man takes a quick look through the door in front of him, watching the giant alien skulls crash to the floor, and to Jonah’s surprise, it doesn’t seem to faze him.
“That room is off limits,” Mirker says.
Jonah looks to his left to see the commander holding Hopper by his bicep. The hacker tries to rip himself away from his grip, but Mirker whips him right into the wall, denting the black wood. Hopper crumples to the floor, shouting, “I brought back the terraformer, you assholes! I can fix it! I can fix it here, so we can all live!”
“That true?” the man in the red cap asks.
“Yeah, it’s true,” Hopper says, rubbing his shoulder. “I’m here to help if you all will just let me. I found the terraformer. I’m saving the fucking day, man.”
“Bullshit,” Mirker says.
“It’s true.” Jonah tries to get to his feet, but the man kicks his hands out from underneath him. Inside the room, Dr. Z stumbles forward, pulling Kip behind her like a dog on a leash. The skulls on their heads begin to glow brighter than before. And all around them, the other skulls on the shelves and those broken on the floor begin to light up, too. Jonah needs to close the door before whatever is about to happen happens. He’s not going to be a part of Dr. Z’s plans anymore.
“Um, Commander,” the man in the red cap says. “You should probably see what’s going on in here.”
Mirker drags Hopper along the floor and throws him on top of Jonah’s legs. The commander, along with three other soldiers, stare into the room. Finally, Mirker clears his throat and says, “Throw them in there and lock the door. We’re going to check the ship and see if what this little prick says is true.”
“No way,” Hopper says. “I’m not going in there.”
Before he can say another word, one of the other soldiers grabs Hopper by the back of the neck and shoves him into the room. He immediately slips on a bone shard and falls onto his side. Dr. Z and Kip walk over to him and both extend their free hand to him.
“Hopper, don’t touch their hands,” Jonah says.
Mirker winds his fist into Jonah’s collar and yanks the boy into the air, holding him up so that Jonah’s boots hover inches over the ground. “Where are my sons? I know they’re here somewhere.”
“I don’t know,” Jonah lies. “Maybe you should go in there and look for yourself. They could be behind the door.”
Mirker laughs and pulls Jonah’s face down to his. “Nice try. Now, do you want to go in there yourself so that we can finally start up the sacrifice they’ve been asking us for, so that these fucking alien things will leave us all alone like they said they would when we handed you over, or do you want to come with me to the ship and look for my boys?”
The door at the far end of the room swings open, and in come several Module Eights, holding hands, marching quickly toward them in a tight huddle.
“These freaks again,” Mirker mumbles.
“Get lost!” yells the man with the red cap. He aims his gun at a lanky teenage girl in the front of the huddle that moves faster and faster down the hall.
Another soldier, a pale woman with a long black braid falling down her back, raises her rifle. She looks nervous, sweat pouring down her temples. Jonah knows she’s about to shoot. They’re all about to shoot.
“Jonah!” Hopper yells as he crawls all around the room, desperately trying to avoid the two outstretched hands that follow him.
Another door slams open, this one at the other end of the building. Jonah peeks his head over Mirker’s shoulder to see Vespa and Brooklyn standing in the doorway, LZR-rifles in their hands. Brooklyn’s eyes are open, and they’re not blue anymore. And her face is twisted into the angriest scowl Jonah has ever seen.
The soldier with the braid spins around and immediately fires two shots as the girls dive into the room. They fire back, blasting a stack of empty cages off a nearby table. Bottles shatter on the floor. Hopper shouts from inside the room. The Module Eight kids reach the soldier and the teenage girl grabs her wrist, sending the woman into a seizure just as a capstone appears underfoot, chirping and whipping its claws in a tornado above its head. Jonah wraps his hands around Mirker’s fist and pulls with all his strength, wrenching himself free only to fall flat on the ground.
Mirker remains calm amid the chaos, kneeling on one knee, pressing his eye slowly into the scope of his rifle. His first shot hits the Module Eight girl touching his soldier, blowing a hole right through her gut. The capstone shrieks and runs in the opposite direction with its claws whirling above its head, coming straight at Mirker, and he simply reaches down and snatches it by its arms. With one quick swing, he smashes the creature against the floor then tosses it into the room with Hopper. He quickly picks it up and swings it at the skull on Kip’s head.
The air above Jonah turns into a light show of blue lasers zipping in every direction. He thinks he hears his name, but he’s not sure where it’s coming from. He needs to get to Vespa and Brooklyn and then to the ship to show everyone Hopper brought the terraformer to end Mirk
er’s dictatorship. The colony can survive. It can thrive.
“Vespa!” Jonah yells.
Mirker shoots at the table where Vespa and Brooklyn disappeared. The man with the red cap jumps on top of the table behind Jonah and fires at the Module Eights, hitting a small boy in the leg, knocking him into a wall. A second later, a laser blows through the man’s shoulder, spinning him on the table like a top until another laser hits his stomach. He falls off the table, landing right next to Jonah. The cadet wrenches the handgun out of his fingers and immediately aims it at Mirker’s back, but then Hopper bursts out of the room still holding the capstone in his hand, knocking Jonah off balance. Hopper leaps on top of a table and then jumps off the other side, disappearing from view.
Mirker sees the gun in Jonah’s hand and dives on top of him. The man’s weight is suffocating and Jonah struggles to hold onto the weapon. A soldier’s boot comes out of nowhere to kick the gun out of his hand, sending it into room four just as Dr. Z and Kip exit, their giant alien skulls pulsing light on top of their shoulders. Jonah twists onto his stomach and attempts to crawl away, but the rest of the Module Eight kids are right there, blocking his path. Mirker’s hand wraps around the back of his neck and pulls him up just as Kip’s fingers touch the commander’s arm. A wave of electricity shoots through Mirker and into Jonah, bringing a series of flashing images into his head: Jonah landing on Zion, Brooklyn drowning in a sea of red sand, a gray being setting its strange hand on Jonah’s forehead, a pyramid imploding with a cloud of dust, Jonah pulling a spear out of his bloody gut.
And then just as quickly, the images disappear, and Jonah’s eyes focus on a fresh wound on Kip’s thigh. The boy leans against the wall, still holding Dr. Z’s hand as the woman soldier stands in front of him and yells things that Jonah’s mind can’t pick up. Everything sounds muffled. Things seem to move in slow motion. He wants to turn and run, but his body still shakes from the Module Eight connection. Mirker is on his knees, his head down, hands planted on his thighs, trying to make his own recovery. Finally, Jonah’s legs catch up to his brain, and he scrambles on top of the table behind him and tumbles over to the other side.
He lies on the floor and looks up and down the long room for his friends. “Vespa! Brooklyn!”
The top of Mirker’s head appears on the other side of the tables, his gray hair moving in one direction for a second before turning and going the other way. He’s either looking for Jonah or trying to get away from the Module Eights and Dr. Z who must be closing in on him. Jonah army crawls to the nearest door and pushes his way inside.
He’s in a room with the three frosties, the fuzzy green round creatures who hop around on their one thick leg. The creatures immediately surround Jonah, their big yellow eyes staring at him through green fur, and the boy prays they remain quiet. He reaches up to be sure the door is locked, but that’s when Mirker dives inside and lands on his side, his rifle rocking against his bloody shoulder as it unleashes a barrage into the main room. Jonah crawls to the far corner of the room, covering his head, trying to hide in shadows, but the frosties squawk and hop after him.
“There you are,” Mirker says. He pushes himself up onto his elbow, wincing in pain. “You ready to get out of here? You need me to carry your skinny ass?”
“You don’t need to sacrifice me; I know what the aliens want now. And it doesn’t involve you.”
Mirker sits up and presses his back up against the wall, keeping his gun trained on the doorway. A bloodstain appears and expands on his jumpsuit at his right knee. “They talked to me, kid. They talked to a lot of us, even though a lot of us don’t want to admit it. And if we don’t sacrifice your ass in that sphere down in the jungle soon, then they’re going to kill us all. And that’s a fact. We tried using Everett instead, but they only want you.”
Two Module Eight kids, a boy and a girl, shuffle into the doorway holding hands. Mirker mows them down before Jonah can say a word.
“You don’t have to kill them!” Jonah yells. “It’s not their fault they’re like this. They’re just kids. And Hopper really did fix the terraformer. He brought it back. It’s on the ship and if you help bring it out, everyone will think you’re a hero and you can stop all this.”
“I’ll stop all this when my boys show up safe and sound and you’re sitting in that sphere.”
Jonah gets to his feet. “They’re dead. Tunick and Sean are both dead. I watched them die right before I went blind. They’re not going to show up.”
Mirker’s face tightens, his jaw pulsing rapidly. He takes a deep breath and then jumps to his feet with a guttural roar. He charges at Jonah, scattering the frosties, but his bleeding leg gives out, and he falls flat on his stomach. His rifle skids across the floor and right to Jonah’s feet. The nearest frosty immediately hops on top of Mirker’s head and digs its claws into the man’s skull. Mirker howls and bats at the creature while the other two frosties time their jumps perfectly, landing on top of the first. Mirker struggles to his feet and spins furiously, bouncing off the walls, desperately trying to knock the stack of frosties off his head. A ring of blood drips down his face as the first frosty tightens its grip. Mirker falls to his knees and wraps his fist around the creature’s foot, but he can’t match the animal’s strength.
Jonah picks up the gun and aims it at the man’s chest. He knows it’s time for this to stop. It’s time for Mirker’s reign to end, to bring peace back to the colony. Hopper is going to fix the air, yes, but Jonah is going to fix the rest.
“Don’t,” Mirker says between cries when he sees Jonah holding the gun. “Don’t kill me. Shoot them off and I’ll make you my number two. No sacrifices, okay? Fuck the aliens. I’ll take care of you.”
Jonah takes a deep breath and keeps his finger on the trigger. When he first met the man, lying in the hospital bed, Mirker seemed empathetic and kind, saving him from Dr. Z’s first attack. He gave him medicine to see again, caring for him almost like a father would for his own son—a feeling Jonah has desperately wanted in his life. But the truth slowly unspooled: the man was fully prepared to kill Jonah to save himself. But isn’t that what Jonah is about to do? Kill Mirker to save himself?
Mirker moans and falls onto his hands and begins to sob, his blood dripping onto the ground in a thick stream. The frosties lean forward with him, perched in a perfectly straight line, sticking out over the floor like a diving board over a swimming pool. The man then leans back and sits against the wall, painfully bringing the creatures with him.
“Shoot them,” he begs. “And I swear I’ll treat you just like a son.”
Jonah opens his mouth to respond, to say he simply wants to be treated like a person—a person worthy of respect and dignity for just being who he is—but then two blue lasers zip in the room through the doorway, one hitting Mirker in the chest, the other shooting right through his neck. The man’s head spins away from his sitting body with the frosties still holding on.
Trembling at the sight, Jonah whips his gun at the doorway, only to find Brooklyn slowly march in with an LZR-rifle smoking in her small hands. She raises her foot and places it on Mirker’s seated, headless body, and shoves it over.
“Your sons were assholes,” the girl says. “No one wants to be like them.”
“Brooklyn!” Jonah yells, dropping his gun to the floor. He runs up to her and drops to his knees, wrapping his long arms around her tiny frame. He then pulls back and stares into her eyes. The blue is almost completely gone. And she has corneas and pupils and Jonah just can’t believe it. “You’re okay. You’re okay?”
“It’s really good to see you.”
He wraps her up again, looking over her shoulder to see Vespa standing there with a smile on her face, her arms crossed over her chest. She lets them have their moment.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been around to help. Things here have been a little crazy around here,” Jonah says.
“It’s all good, cadet,” Brooklyn whispers. “I’m just happy I could
get in a couple good shots.”
Jonah looks back at Mirker’s body and shudders at all the blood. The frosties have jumped off the man’s severed head, leaning over to taste the puddle. It didn’t have to be this way. He didn’t want this. He should have been able to convince the man that he was worth more to the community than just as a sacrifice. That he could have been an integral figure here, someone who made the community better through his addition, not subtraction. After all, it’s because of him that Hopper came to Thetis, and he brought the terraformer.
“Okay, you guys good?” Vespa asks.
Jonah pulls back and sets his hands on Brooklyn’s shoulders. “Yeah, we’re—”
Dr. Z stands wavering behind Vespa, the giant alien skull over her head now nothing more than a crooked necklace of sharp bones. Her eyes are milky white, and in her hand held high over her head is a sharp metal tool.
Jonah grabs Brooklyn’s rifle that hangs off her shoulder and spins the girl around as he fires. The lasers zip past Vespa and hits the doctor’s outstretched arm, blasting the woman into the table behind her, knocking it completely over. Vespa ducks and runs into the room just as Jonah runs out of it. He looks both ways, making sure there aren’t any last surprises, and then steps up to Dr. Z who lies still with her mouth moving, repeating something that Jonah can’t hear.
This isn’t fair, he thinks. Dr. Z was a good person. When all he’s ever felt is insignificant and invisible, she had actually treated him as a person worthy of respect and dignity for just being himself. He can still feel her fingers on his face after blacking out from the crash, how gentle they were as she cleaned his eyes and checked his broken nose. And now, he looks down at her milky white eyes and broken arm, wondering if he can somehow help her—be it saving her life or ending it without further pain.
Her mouth keeps moving and moving and Jonah aims the rifle right at it as he bends down to hear what she’s saying. Maybe she’s asking for help. Maybe it’s one last set of instructions she needs to relay. He gets close enough to smell her rancid breath, to hear her throat softly click as she tries to speak. And then there’s a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.