The Harmony Divide- Never Alone

by Dominick Gerard

  “Okay. Can we leave here please? Can we go to the pines? It’s peaceful and I can think clearly there.”

  Jenn smiled and the scene shifted. It was in a similarly frozen state. Everything was as Jenn remembered it, but it was all stuck. There was no sound of the wind rustling the pine needles or the creek water running over the rock bed. She couldn’t smell the distinctive scent of the forest. Nothing moved, and she felt a sense of loss and disappointment. She knew it was like this because the young woman’s brain was beginning to shut down and didn’t have the ability to form the full scene, even with Jenn’s help. The blackness was only a few hundred yards from them.

  Jenn looked at the young woman, whose expression mirrored her own. She felt the stillness, too. They looked each other in the eyes and the young woman’s knees gave out. She stumbled forward into Jenn’s arms. Jenn pulled her over to a large tree and rested her back against the trunk, settling down beside her. Wrapping an arm around the woman’s shoulders, she pulled her close so her head rested on Jenn’s shoulder.

  “I’m sorry. I thought we’d have more time.” Jenn was starting to feel weak. Parts of her body were becoming translucent. They were at the end of the line. It was now or never.

  “Jenn…” The young woman spoke just above a whisper. “Jenn. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough.”

  “We’re not done yet. We’re just getting started, but first… I’m not going to let you continue without a proper name. Leah was the name Charles picked for our daughter. I’ve had a name picked since I was a little girl. I think it’s beautiful and strong, just like you are. Will you honor me by taking the name Natalie?” Jenn’s throat constricted as she choked out the name. It was precious to her. A jewel she’d been holding onto forever.

  The woman smiled weakly, happiness dancing in her glazed over eyes. “I would be the one honored. It’s beautiful. It feels… right to me.”

  “I’m glad you agree… Natalie.” Both women smiled when she said the name.

  “Now, I’ve got enough energy stored to start your heart up, but the rest will be up to you. It’s time for your choice. Life or death. If you choose life, you’ll find me in the vault. All you have to do to wake me and transfer my consciousness back is touch me. If not, well, Natalie, it’s been nice knowing you.”

  The blackness was upon them. It was just a few feet away, creeping ever closer like a sinister fog. Natalie coughed and barely whispered her response, but Jenn heard her clearly.

  “I was never going to give up on you. No matter what. I was just feeling sorry for myself.” She coughed a short laugh then lifted her head up and looked right at Jenn. Her expression was one of sheer determination. “I’ll see you soon, Jenn.”

  The blackness was inches away from them. All the pines were gone except a small bit of the tree they sat against.

  Jenn used her remaining energy to start Natalie’s heart back up and both of the women disappeared from the dream. The blackness and everything else winked out of existence.

  Natalie

  Natalie gasped for air. All she got was smoke. Her lungs burned for oxygen, panic constricting her chest. She began to cough uncontrollably. She was in the middle of an inferno. Face down on the pile of corpses, which was nearly fully engulfed in flames, the heat was relentless. The smell of dead, charred bodies hit her like a gruesome wave, making her gag.

  She clawed her way forward, her hands touching flame. If she didn’t get out of this fire right now she would die. Burned skin, hair, and exposed bone came loose under her fingers as she frantically grabbed whatever she could to propel herself. Her clothes ignited, flames licking at her exposed skin. A burning piece of cloth fell on her head, lighting her hair ablaze. Panic slammed down upon her, but she couldn’t stop to douse the flames that burned her skin. She had to get out.

  She kicked her legs with all her might, swimming through the dead until her hands felt the exposed floor at the edge of the pile. Her fingers, slick with blood and soot, couldn’t find purchase on the tile. A desperate growl escaped her lips as she crawled forward on her elbows. She would not die here.

  The moment she cleared the flames, she rolled back and forth to smother the fire still alight on her clothes and roughly patted her head to put her hair out. Sparks flared up in anger, trying desperately to hold on to anything they could find, then winked brilliantly out of existence as she rolled around.

  “This isn’t possible. Absolutely amazing!” The distorted voice of the Interrogator came from the door entrance. Natalie smirked at the disbelief coloring his horrible voice. Did he sound… happy?

  He ran toward her, pulling out his long knife. Natalie quickly rolled away from him. She needed time. Time to clear her vision and lungs of the smoke from the fire.

  The soldier reached her within seconds. He raised his boot, aiming for her chest to pin her in place, but she caught his foot before it connected with her body. Natalie sprang from her place on the floor, wrapping her legs around his and twisting sharply. The soldier toppled over, landing hard on his face. He didn’t grunt from the fall, but Natalie began to hear a hysterical fit of laughter emanate from the fallen soldier.

  Natalie rolled away, wiping soot from her eyes. The nonsensical laughing unnerved her. Had he lost his mind? She kicked off her melted shoes and crouched in fighting stance. She felt naked without her armor, but she would have to make due. There was no time for retreat, no option to surrender. She must beat the Interrogator and get to Jenn. It was the only way.

  The Interrogator recovered quickly, stowing his long knife in its sheath and reaching for his side arm.

  Natalie smirked. Oh, yes, she thought, you’ll need more than knives to take me down.

  She closed in, feigning a grab for his gun and getting his long knife instead. This was her weapon. A gun stood no chance against a knife in her hands. She sliced into his armor, making a long, shallow gash up his side. The Interrogator made no sound due to the wound, no hiss of pain, no falter in his step despite the blood spraying from the wound except the unceasing cadence of his crazed laughter. Natalie scowled. Damn that pain conditioning. She squared up to his back. He was the only barrier between her and the conference room door. He may have lost his mind, she thought, but he’s still trying to kill me.

  The Interrogator turned, his gun level with Natalie’s head. Before he could pull the trigger, she dropped to one knee, slicing viciously at his exposed lower leg. Ligaments snapped under the knife guided by her hand, making his leg useless. Natalie spun, whirling around the now half-upright soldier with dizzying speed. His gun followed a moment too late, his shots missing her by inches as she dashed around him.

  Bullets ricocheted off the office walls and concrete beams around the room. Pieces of dry wall and stone flew in every direction like an obscene snowfall. Natalie kept moving, never staying in one spot long enough for a bullet to catch her.

  The solider attempted to stand, staggering to two feet and aiming his gun directly at her head. Natalie turned and leapt, wrapping her arm around his neck and stabbing downward into his already cut ribs.

  They fell hard, Natalie’s arm still around his neck and her knees now digging into his back. She plunged the long knife in and out of the soldier’s side, slicing deeply between each rib until she connected with his heart. He finally grunted in pain, his laughter cutting short, before rolling atop her. Sinking the knife deeper into his torso, Natalie rammed her heel into his injured leg.

  Leverage was all that mattered in this fight, and despite the soldier’s advantage in size, Natalie had him. His back arched as she dug into his wound, pain temporarily incapacitating him. Pinned beneath his considerable muscle mass, she gasped for breath, struggling to expand her lungs and take in air.

  He flailed about, frantically trying to grasp her, but she was securely positioned behind and under him, completely out of reach.

  He fired his gun wildly. A bullet grazed Natalie’s right leg. She gritted her teeth and jerked with all her might on his neck t
o throw off his aim. The Interrogator finally connected with an elbow to her ribs. She held on in spite of the pain. It took everything she had to keep him in her grasp. Her body was weak from torture. How much longer could she hold him? Her muscles shook violently with the effort of restraining the huge man.

  Under her strong grip around his neck, the Interrogator began to struggle less and less, dropping his side arm to the floor. Blood drained from his wounds in vast pools, soaking Natalie’s already ruined clothes. Her strike to the heart had been a fatal one, but it took time for the body to bleed out. She held tightly to his neck, just in case.

  He jerked a couple more times and finally lay still. A single word road his dying breath in a hiss. “Yes.” Natalie could hardly bring herself to release him, her joints stiff from exertion and fear. She pushed him off her, then quickly straddled him and stabbed him over and over in the chest. It was minutes before she recognized the sound of her own screams and felt the hot tracks of tears down her cheeks. The soldier’s last word had a sound of success or relief and it stabbed at her as brutally as her attack had been to him.

  A tornado of thought and emotion ran through her head. She had killed one of her own. An Interrogator no less. She had never heard of anything like that happening in the Legions before. Nobody disobeyed. Nobody wanted to, and Natalie finally knew why, thanks to Jenn’s help. It felt wrong, the murder. But she’d had no choice. He had to die, or she would’ve. She wasn’t sure what she was fighting for, wasn’t sure the nanites weren’t the right answer. Blindly obeying was almost better than this overwhelming emotion that came with consciously committing murder. But she had to go on. For Jenn, for Leah. For a chance at love.

  Jenn. She had to stay focused and go help Jenn. Natalie didn’t know how long she could survive in the vault by herself. She needed to get in there and transfer whatever was left of Jenn’s consciousness back into her body. Hopefully she’d be useful in a fight. If Natalie had to take on the rest of the soldiers by herself, things weren’t going to be pretty. Then there was the matter of Jenn’s baby. Could the baby still be alive somewhere? Was it possible? She didn’t have a clue. They’d run out of time in their last dream before Jenn could explain.

  Natalie was still straddling the dead man, staring at his flat faced helmet. She had beaten him, but he had nearly broken her. If not for Jenn, she didn’t know if she would have made it. She had considered, for a moment, giving up and dying, but something inside her wouldn’t do it. She simply couldn’t quit, no matter the circumstances. Jenn was the same way. The thought gave her strength.

  Minutes passed as she sat on top of the Interrogator. The sound of his laughter and his dying word echoed in the silent room while she tried to steady her breathing.

  Natalie

  After a few more minutes her breath became steady and her muscles began to relax. As she calmed down, she began to feel her injuries more acutely. Several spots on her legs, hands, and arms were red and raw. Skin peeled away, blackened and dead, where the worst burns occurred. Her whole body was sore, and exhaustion pulled at every limb. She needed water more than anything else. Her mouth and throat were completely dry. She didn’t think she could speak if she wanted to.

  Of the weapons the man had on him, Natalie could only use the long knife. The sidearm was coded to his DNA and wouldn’t function for anybody else. She was fine with that because the armor they wore was designed to stop lower caliber rounds like the ones from his gun, but the ultra-sharp and durable blades would slice right through.

  The helmets were secured in the same way the sidearms were. She could put on another soldier’s helmet, but it wouldn’t activate, which meant it was unusable. His body armor would certainly protect her, but it was far too big and would hinder her movements should she need to fight again later. The armor wouldn’t conform to her body, provide climate control, or repair itself when it was damaged. Even though the leadership never told the soldiers how anything worked, Natalie now suspected these nanites Jenn talked about were used in a great deal of their technology.

  She longed for her two Pretorian Blades, still attached to her armor out in the woods. A stab of regret sliced at her when she thought of the careless deaths she caused to Christine and her coworker after she’d hidden her gear. I’m sorry, Christine.

  Her armor and helmet would have helped her greatly in this situation, but she would have to make do without them. Her blades were an extension of her body and she felt exposed without them, more so than not having her armor and helmet. It was a thrill to be without the constant cover of the armor. Natalie chuckled at herself. What a thing to think. Jenn was right. She had fixed whatever those nanites did to her head.

  She felt different than she had before she arrived here. Different, even, than when she had been Christine. All her memories were there, with some of Jenn’s still mixed in, but she could now think freely. Her thoughts were so much clearer and she could analyze things far more quickly than she had when she was under the influence of the nanites. She would need that if she was going to survive this ordeal.

  It was time to move. Natalie reached toward the Interrogator’s belt, ready to search for extra supplies, when a sharp pain tore through her upper arm. The bullet clipped her just below the shoulder. She instinctively dove for the cover of an overturned table to her left. More shots rang out as she scrambled behind it. She caught a quick glimpse of her attackers. You’ve got to be kidding me! Great timing on that shield, Jenn.

  Two black clad soldiers entered the room with their weapons drawn. The shield had either been breached or had finally fallen. She didn’t know what that meant for Jenn. Had her body failed? Did something happen to the reactor? She didn’t have time to worry about it and shoved the questions to the back of her mind.

  It was time to let her Praetorian Guard instincts take over.

  Both soldiers were now firing into the table, but the thick metal was holding up nicely. Natalie watched the bullets make dents in the table, counting. She had to get this right or she was finished. The soldiers were trained to suppress their target and move forward, so she was sure they would run through their ammo quickly. She had to strike when they reloaded. The first soldier stopped firing. One, two, three… Five more shots rang out from the second soldier’s weapon before she made her move.

  Natalie launched herself at her attackers, vaulting over the table. As her feet hit the floor she threw her knife at the soldier on the right, who had finished reloading her weapon and was preparing to fire again. The knife landed squarely between where her eyes would be inside her helmet with a loud crack. Natalie winced. She’d thrown the knife so hard that the point stuck out the back of the soldier’s head.

  The soldier on the right had only begun to fall backwards by the time she got within striking distance of the other. He had finished reloading, but he wasn’t fast enough to raise his weapon before Natalie was on him. She slammed her outstretched arms into his chest, throwing all her body weight and momentum into the blow. The man flew back several feet and crashed into a large piece of equipment near the entrance door. He bounced off the equipment, shattered plastic and glass flying everywhere from the impact.

  As he hit the ground, Natalie noticed movement at the door. Another black armored soldier dashed through the door with his weapon raised. Natalie cursed and dove onto the ground near the fallen soldier she had put down with her knife. In one smooth movement, she rolled over the woman and pulled the knife free from the helmet. She sprang to a crouch, throwing the knife just ahead of where the incoming soldier ran. The blade flew through the air, heading straight for the man’s chest.

  The soldier dropped to his knees mid stride as the knife flew over his head and stuck into the wall behind him. Already heading toward him, Natalie threw herself in the air, arms outstretched. She grabbed the soldier’s head and twisted. His neck turned and snapped with a sickening crack.

  Natalie landed on her feet in a crouch and the man fell in a heap in front of her. The other soldier h
ad come to, crawling through the broken glass of the machine she’d thrown him into toward his sidearm. Natalie calmly reached down to the dead soldier below her and pulled his knife from the sheath.

  The remaining soldier picked up his gun and brought it up to fire when the knife Natalie had already thrown struck him directly in the throat. The man choked on his own blood, grabbing at the knife and wrenching it out of his neck. He fell to one knee and hurled it back at Natalie.

  She turned, catching the knife by the handle in mid-air. She continued to spin around, completing her 360-degree turn and releasing the weapon in another deadly throw. The knife struck the man between the eyes and he dropped dead to the floor.

  A few seconds passed as she looked around the room to make sure none of the soldiers were still alive. She listened for any movement in the hall. All she heard was the sound of the large ceiling fans and her own ragged breathing. The fire continued to crackle and burn across the room. Blood ran down the length of her right arm and dripped steadily onto the ground from the bullet wound near her shoulder. The bullet missed the bone, going cleanly through her arm, but still bled heavily.

  Natalie glared at the dead soldiers around her, hating them until she remembered their circumstances. They didn’t have a choice in their actions. A feeling of great loss overcame her. These poor people were just like me, she thought, I could easily have been one of them if I hadn’t found Jenn in that vault. She knew she didn’t have any choice but to put the soldiers down, but it didn’t make the feeling go away.