ARC: Cracked (14 page)

These
are our defenders? Oh, and an army of half-trained high-schoolers. An army, I’m horrified to realize, that I just drafted myself into. I should have headed into hiding with the babies.

We cannot win. We are doomed.

“You cannot win,” a hissing voice booms. “You are doomed.”

Holy shit
.

I scan the enemy army, looking for the voice. When they speak again I realize it isn’t one voice. It’s all of them speaking as one.

“But we are willing to negotiate,” it/they hiss.

Please negotiate! I don’t intend to become one of those wrong-time-wrong-place kind of deaths.

“Never!” croak the geezers. The old folks all reply at the same time but it lacks the eerie, impressive togetherness of the other side. That and there was a great deal of wheezing involved. Jesus, I spot a walker.

Rule of thumb: Never let people in diapers make life-or-death decisions.

The demons, starting at the very back of the crowd, raise their hands, then lower them just as the demons in front of them start to raise their hands – uncannily like “the wave” at a sporting event. The motion keeps rolling forward and, as it does, a black cloud starts forming above their hands, rolling towards the school. The air around it wavers, shimmering like the air above hot cement. As it moves towards us, the cloud gets bigger and gains definition, until it looks like it’s billowing and flickering.

I blink, not believing what I’m seeing. It’s a wall of fire, except painted in greys and black, taller than the school. And it’s coming right at us.

My eyes fly to the elderly Templars and their stoic stance calms me. Surely they have a plan to stop it.

Then again, what they have could just be dementia and they don’t realize it’s a problem.

The fire reaches the row of demons closest to us and they fling it at the school. I duck, covering my head with my arms, but there’s only the great roaring boom and the vibration. After a moment of shocked disbelief, I peek back out of the window. Outside, the ancient Templars have held off the black fire with a white cloud of their own. It rings the school, clinging to it, like a protective coating of cotton. It fades as the black wave dissipates.

I hope it’s not gone for good, because the demons in the back are raising their hands again, building the black cloud. It comes rolling forward, gaining shape and speed. As it gets closer, I fight the urge to duck, wanting to see what happens. At the very last second, the Templars throw up their hands and the white cotton appears, intercepting the fire with the great booming roar that seems to come from everywhere at once. Dust falls from the rafters.

“Students!” The burly cripple calls my attention back inside. He’s still standing on the bleachers where everyone can see him, but now his attention is focused on the whole audience. I creep back over to join everyone else and listen to the instructions. A dark-haired boy notices me and looks surprised, then gives me a faint, approving smile.

He thinks Emma’s turned a new leaf and has come to join the fight. Idiot.

The crippled Crusader is still talking. “The magical protections aren’t going to hold up forever and, once that happens, you’re our next line of defense. Squads, defend your zone until you hear the order to fall back.” He taps his earpiece and I see baskets of them being passed through the crowd. I snatch one as a basket goes by and fit it in my ear. I can’t hear anything on it yet, but I’m hoping it’ll come in handy.

The students are murmuring, making protesting sounds and I realize it’s at the assumption that they’ll be retreating. The Crusader shakes his head and holds up his hands for them to be quiet. Then he says, matter-of-factly, “The school is lost.”

The crowd gasps and rumbles. A few students shout denials and a girl in front of me covers her mouth. How could that possibly come as a surprise to them? They must not have looked outside.

The Crusader continues. “All we can do is give the younger students a head start on their evacuation.”

Evacuation? The younger students are sneaking out?

He continues, “Slow the enemy, stay alive.” Finally an order I’d obey – the second part I mean. “Once the children are out, you’ll evacuate through the south tunnel to lead them away from the children.” This was all said matter-of-factly, but now the commander draws himself up. He’s taller than I first thought and he gazes somewhere over the heads of his audience. The expression on his face is as if he were looking at something beautiful. His chin sets and he looks proud; he’s no longer just an old cripple, he is a noble knight who happens to be old and missing an arm.

He begins a pep talk, powerful and beautiful, full of honor and duty. His eyes – piercing blue eyes – drop and rove among the students, meeting their own as if he is calling them personally to undertake this holy mission. He plays the hearts of those in the room with the mastery of a violinist in the Philharmonic. Even my mysterious chest appendage gives a few sleepy vibrations as he plucks our strings. The words of the song are heroic, but I alone seem to recognize the title: suicide.

“This will be the first time most of you have ever fought. You’re young, but you’re brave and you have been training all your life for this. This is what Templars do.” His eyes, blazing with purpose, burn a path through the room. “Are we afraid of demons?”

“No!” shouts the room.
Crap – was that my voice?

“Are we afraid of death?”

“No!” I keep myself under control this time.

Throughout his speech the building shudders again and again. The faces of the students around me are serious, determined, heroic. Suicidal. I am not that person. It is time for this rat to abandon the sinking ship. The younger students are heading down, so presumably the escape tunnel is connected to the museum. I just need to get back to the door from where I came in, and I can find my way back.

I’m already on the outskirts of those gathered, thanks to my beeline for the window, so it’s easy to scuttle around to the back. I catch a view of Chi, near where I left him, searching for someone in the crowd. Our eyes meet and his widen with shock. I dodge between students.

The doors out to the hallway, where I came in from, are in the far corner of the back wall. Chi’s twisting his head around, scanning the crowd. He must have lost me. Good. I’m not worried about what he’d say if he caught me, I just don’t care to find out. I haven’t the time. I move even faster, staying low. Orders are wrapping up, the students are about to be sent to their deaths – I mean posts. The last thing I want is to get caught in the masses as they swarm towards the fight. It’s a struggle to keep my pace slow enough to go unnoticed; I want to bolt, but I don’t want to see the students’ reactions if the cowardly Emma is seen deserting the army. It could get ugly and, again, I don’t have the time. Ten feet, eight feet, six. I don’t know if Chi saw me, but he heads in this direction. It doesn’t matter; I’m at the door to the hallway. I ease it open and slide through. I’m out. In five minutes I’ll be in the tunnels and away from the impending carnage. I take two steps, preparing to run at top speed.

“Going somewhere?”

I freeze.

It’s Jo and she has a knife at my throat.

TEN

“Jo!” Not a brilliant response, but I’m taken by surprise. I take a step back, trying to put some space between my neck and the nasty eight-inch knife. If I can get far enough away, I can snatch that knife out of her hand and…

And what? I don’t have time to tie her up and stash her somewhere. I can knock her unconscious, but the students will only wake her when they come stampeding from the gym in a minute. Then she’ll tell. They’ll know the truth about me and they’ll hunt me down.
She’ll
hunt me down. There’s really only one option.

I have to kill her. They might figure out it was me eventually, but by then I’ll be long gone.

My eyes meet her narrowed ones in the skinny space between us. I try to rally some hate to match what I see in her eyes. It’d make it easier. But I can’t hate her, so I just hate myself more instead.

I ease another step backwards, trying to make the space I need. She’s too clever and follows me, the razor-sharp blade steady at my jugular.

“I repeat: Going somewhere?” she hisses. I need to talk her into lowering her guard.

I don’t bother to whimper and simper like I would with Chi. If I did, she’d probably run me through in disgust. Instead I’m honest – in my emotions at least. “Yes! I don’t know if you’ve noticed but demons are attacking the school! I’m no Crusader, I need to evacuate!”

“Oh, I noticed. I thought you might have something to do with it,” she accuses, pressing the knife to my skin.

So that’s where this sudden aggression is coming from. Well, maybe not so “sudden”; I have been trying to make her hate me. Exaggerated aggression.

“I don’t have anything to do with it! I know nothing about it!” This is all true.

“It seems awfully coincidental,” she snarls, her face inches from mine. “A Templar community has
never
been attacked head on, then you show up and the very next day they’re at our doorstep in droves.”

When she puts it like that, it does seem awfully coincidental. Surprise registers on my face and she must sense the honesty in my confusion. She’s observant like that. The blade pulls back a couple of millimeters.

My confusion is honest. I’m not. I need one more breath of space, then I’ll move to take advantage of her slip. Her knife will be in her heart and I’ll be on my way faster than she could tell Chi, “I told you so.”

I see arguments bounce around in her head as she decides what to do. She rocks back on her heels. I try to keep my muscles relaxed; I don’t want to give my intentions away.

Her eyes meet mine, consternation in them. Probably at no longer having an excuse to kill me. She backs away a hair more… Now!

I hesitate.

WHAM! The gym door slams open and students flood into the hallway. At their head – Chi.

Damn!

“Meda?
Jo
?” Although I’m the almost-murderer, Jo’s the one with the knife at my throat so she gets the appalled look from Chi. She lowers the blade as Chi stops in front of us, a rock in the river of teenagers trying to get into position before the geezers give out. The hallway’s narrow and we get shoved a little to the side so the students can pass. “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”

Where to start? Another shudder rocks the building, with more force than the previous ones, and I decide to start with the part that gets me out of here the fastest. As delightful as it would be to rat Jo out, it’s not very productive.

I open my mouth, but Chi keeps talking. “Why haven’t you evacuated?”

Perfect. Exactly what I want to talk about. But then I realize he’s not talking to me; he’s talking to Jo.

She glares at him. She’s so ungrateful, Chi, let’s focus on my evacuation instead. I’ll appreciate any efforts you make to get me out of here.

“I’m not leaving,” Jo says, her face set in stone.

Obviously a lost cause. Me, Chi, let’s talk about me.

“You’re supposed to leave with the others!”

“Other what? The children and babies? I’m a little old for that.” She’s snide. Another boom hits the building and a piece of plaster falls from the corner. The old folks must be giving out.

“No, the other…” Chi trails off, realizing this is going to go poorly. Too late.

“Other what, Chi? The other cripples?” She’s irate now, shouting in his face. “Plenty of them stayed behind, or didn’t you notice Commander Heron has only one arm?”

“
They
are Crusaders,
they
have magic to protect them.” Now he’s angry, shouting back. “
They’re
experienced in combat–”

If I don’t step in, Jo’s going to get some combat experience on Chi. And let’s not forget, I still need to be evacuated, preferably with an escort since all the Emma-haters are on the loose – and armed. “Focus!” I shout, and they both blink at me. They’d forgotten I was here. “What are we going to do now?”

“You two are leaving. Now.”

I like the sound of that. Go on.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jo says, crossing her arms. Then the building shakes again and she has to put a hand on the wall to catch herself.

“Yes, you are.” Chi stands steady, feet planted wide.

“No–” Jo starts.

Good God, children. Can we focus on what’s important? Me.

“Fine.” Chi shoves a hand through his hair, but he must have forgotten it’s in a ponytail and he messes it all up, pulling half of it out. He growls in frustration, then gets an idea and looks up. “Don’t do it for yourself, but Meda needs to get down to the tunnels – and she needs an escort.”

Ha. He really hasn’t been paying attention. My well-being is not high on Jo’s list of priorities.

“She’s a Beacon,” he says.

Jo rolls her eyes. “You don’t–”

He cuts her off. “Fine, I don’t know that for certain.” This is a change to the script. “But she
is
a Templar.”

“What?” Jo’s shocked out of attack mode. Chi explains rapidly, looking over his shoulder. The teen river has slowed to a trickle. Two more booms rock the building, back to back.

“We were in the shrine. Her mom was Mary Porter.”

“Who?” Jo asks.

“A Crusader. They thought she died eighteen years ago, before we were born. There’s a memorial to her in the shrine.”

Jo turns towards me, mouth agape.

“She didn’t know,” Chi rushes before Jo can ask.

Jo studies me, searching for the truth. I peel back my mask and let her glimpse the shock of my mom’s secret. We both flinch from the experience.

“Will you get her out of here? Please?”

Jo hates it, absolutely hates it. She wants to kill demons, I can read it in every line of her body. Hell, she wants to kill
me
. She doesn’t want to be sent somewhere safe with the children and cripples, a protected damsel in distress.

“Fine,” she says, her shoulders slumping. Her fight is gone.

Chi relaxes slightly. “I’ll take you as far as the west hall, I’m guarding the ground entrance there.”