Darkness (11 page)

At last, Michael set the little girl down. His brown eyes looked warm and happy. Ever since finding him in Vegas, I hadn’t seen him much with his family. I realized he had a lot to balance; being both a soldier and a father. Lauren probably wasn’t happy that Michael would be in harm’s way again, but I knew Michael wanted to do his part, especially since he was such a capable fighter.

“Thanks for saving our lives,” I said to him.

Michael arched an eyebrow. “Which time?”

“The Bunker,” I said. “You left your keycard by the motor pool.”

Michael looked at Lauren. “It was her idea, actually.”

Lauren smiled. “I knew we wouldn’t need it past that point. I guess I just had a feeling about it.”

“Thank you,” I said.

It felt good having everyone together. We had all come a long way since the fall of Bunker 108, and there was always hope for a new beginning now that all of our paths had crossed once again. I wondered if anyone else was out there from 108 that we just didn’t know about. It was certainly possible, especially if some had gone west toward Los Angeles rather than east toward Vegas.

Even still, five people surviving that night seemed a miracle in and of itself. It was something to be grateful for. It was too bad we would all have to be in harm’s way again, especially Michael, who had his family. It wasn’t going to be the last time we risked ourselves, either.

I looked out the open doorway.

“Is it time?” Michael asked.

I nodded. “Probably so.”

Michael lifted his daughter into the air, giving her a fierce hug and planting a kiss on her forehead. Callie, realizing that her dad was leaving yet again, started to cry. Lauren grabbed her, setting her on the ground and holding her back from chasing after her father.”

“Be back soon, Callie-boo-boo.”

Callie sniffled. “You promise?”

Michael nodded. “Promise.”

Next, Michael hugged his wife, kissing her on the lips.

“I’ll be back,” he said.

Lauren looked into his eyes, saying nothing. Maybe she knew there might be a time where he
didn’t
come back.

“Please don’t do this again,” she said.

Michael nodded. “This should be nothing. After this, I’ll take a break for a while.”

“You said that last time.”

“I mean it, Lauren.”

Lauren sighed, and nodded. “Okay. I’ll let you go. One last time.”

Michael kissed her again. A moment later, he and I left the clinic and headed for
Odin.

***

An hour later,
Odin
was prepped and ready to fly. We found the warmest clothing we could. We all had thick parkas with more layers beneath. I slipped my Beretta into an inside pocket of my parka and carried my AR in my hands. Besides weapons, we also had plenty of food. We had offloaded most of it for the Exodus to use in case it did take longer than a couple of days to do this. We left enough for the five of us to last for three days, which was far longer than we planned on staying at Bunker 84.

The last of our preparations made, we found our seats on the bridge as Ashton began liftoff. A crowd had gathered below the ship – Makara, Char, Marcus, and even several of the gang lords, including Cain and Rey. Makara held up a single hand in farewell as the gang lords stared on with hollow eyes in the dull light of the Wasteland. It was late morning.

The ship turned north, leaving behind the walls of Pyrite. I was pushed back in my seat as
Odin
accelerated.

We said very little that first hour. I merely watched the landscape below pass – a ceaseless red and brown of valleys, mountains, and dead trees. The lines of old highways cut through the landscape like cracks, empty now for thirty years. Lifeless cities spread across the flatter areas, buildings crumbling and disintegrating into the surrounding Wasteland.

The land transitioned from the brownish red of the Wasteland to a dull, monochrome gray. Clouds darkened, despite its being midmorning, casting the land below in shadow. The air grew thick with dust.

“It should be getting brighter, not darker...” Julian said.

“The dust is thicker here for some reason,” Ashton said.

“Something to do with Ragnarok?” I asked.

“Perhaps,” Ashton said.

If dust kicked up by the meteor was less prevalent in equatorial regions, then maybe it was
more
prevalent farther north. We had only gone a couple of hundred miles, so it seemed strange that such a short distance could have such a large effect.

The landscape changed from low valleys, hills, and dead forests into mountains. The dust was so thick that we could barely see the mountains below. Ashton slowed the ship out of concern for safety. It was dark and miserable.

Ashton turned the ship to port, angling us downward.

“We’re almost there,” he said. “Coordinates are showing that we’re almost on top of it.”

There was no way to see anything below, but that didn’t stop me from trying. A hulking mountain rose ahead of us, cold and gray. I wondered: if it was this dim during the day, how dark would it be at night? I imagined that the darkness would be absolute. We had to hurry and get inside the Bunker and then return to the ship before that happened.

We paused in midair at a hover. Ashton angled the ship downward, to get a full view of the mountainside.

He pointed ahead. “Somewhere in there. That’s our target.”

I saw nothing but bare mountainside. It looked cold as hell out there.

“Let’s scan the area,” I said. “Might find something if we’re a bit closer.”

Ashton nodded, edging the ship closer to the mountain. There was nothing but sheer cliffs, long-dead trees, and massive boulders.

“They didn’t want anyone getting in, did they?” Anna asked.

Michael grunted. “Guess not.”

Julian watched ahead intently, saying nothing.

We began our sweep of the mountain. We searched for ten minutes in vain, finding nothing but rock.

“We have to find somewhere flatter,” I said. “They couldn’t have built the Bunker door into sheer cliff.”

Or at least, I didn’t
think
they could have.

“I think you’re right,” Ashton said.

The ship rose above the ridge. Expecting to see only the other side of the mountain, sloping downward, we were actually surprised by another sight – a small valley, in the center of which was a frozen lake.

“That looks promising,” Anna said.

“Indeed it does,” Ashton said. “Going in.”

Ashton eased
Odin
forward. We had been advancing for a few seconds when something pummeled the ship from the side.

Chapter 9

The ship was sent into a haphazard spiral as a baleful roar, louder than any I had ever heard, shook the entire vessel. My seatbelt pressed deep into my skin as the ship spun downward. Blood rushed to my head. It felt like my stomach was rising to my throat.

We were going to crash.

Ashton cursed as he jerked the control stick upward. Slowly, the ship righted itself, and I could see the gray sky above, empty.

The thrusters kicked on, pushing the entire ship from its downward slide. But it was not fast enough. Something crashed into the ship in the back. As the ship remained immobile, I realized then that something hadn’t
crashed
into
us
.
We
had crashed into
something. Odin
was standing on end, the aft of the ship propped on the Earth.

The ship began to fall forward.

Ashton pressed a button on the dash. The forward strut squealed as it deployed, just in time to somewhat break the fall of the ship. The strut took on the pressure of the ship as it pressed its enormous weight down from above. The ship bounced a few times due to the strut’s suspension before settling.

Through the windshield I could see gray air and ground covered in similarly gray and dusty snow. We had landed in the valley, thankfully. If it had been the slope, we’d be sliding down to our doom.

But we had more pressing matters. There was still the question of
what
had hit us in the first place to send us crashing to the ground, and I knew it wasn’t the mountain that first time. There was only one thing big enough to attack us like that, and as long as we were grounded, we had no way of fighting it.

A xenodragon.

Ashton clicked on the radio. Not even static answered.

“The radio’s lost power,” Ashton said. He sighed. “Christ. Just hope it’s not the rest of the ship, too.”

I was about to use my own radio to contact Makara when another roar shook the ship’s frame. Now there was no doubt: we had been attacked by a dragon, and apparently it was coming in for round two.

“We can’t lift off?” I asked.

“No, I can’t do anything,” Ashton said. “Nothing on the dash is responding.”

“Is the fusion drive working?” Michael asked.

All of us paused to listen. No sound came from the aft of the ship, and no vibrations through the floor. That meant the engine was off.

“Not even backup battery power is working,” Ashton said. “Unless we can get power back on, we’re royally screwed.”

“I think we’re royally screwed even before that happens,” Michael said. “We have to get off this ship and find the Bunker on foot.”

Michael was right. We weren’t safe on this ship. The dragon knew we were here and would be coming back for us. Then again, we weren’t exactly safe in the open, either. If we left this ship, we would be sitting ducks.

“Let me call Makara first,” I said.

“There might not be time for that,” Anna said. “Let’s save our own butts first.”

I nodded and unstrapped my seatbelt and stood, racking my brain for something to do. I listened for any sound, but there was none. Maybe the dragon was gone.

That was when the ship was slammed from the side. I dropped to the floor and slid across the deck, feeling myself lift as the floor turned underneath me. I fell backward into the wall, the impact momentarily knocking the wind out of me. Around me came curses. The ship was on its side. Restoring power was now the least of our concerns.

“Is everyone alright?” I asked.

No one answered, but we all began to get up, one by one. Everyone could manage at least that much.

“We need to get to the exit,” I said. “Now.”

We were standing on the wall, and the ship had been plunged into darkness. The only light came from the gray late morning outside the windshield. Michael clicked on a flashlight and took the lead.

As the dragon screamed once more overhead, I knew we didn’t have much time left. Michael scrambled into the corridor leading from the bridge, climbing the bulkhead in order to reach it. We followed him. What had once been the floor now lay to our right. I wondered how we were going to get out of here. We couldn’t get out through the blast door if it was facing the ground.

“Head to the cargo bay,” Ashton said, wheezing.

“I can’t see where to go,” Michael said.

“Here,” Ashton said, snatching the light. “Follow me.”

He led us into the wardroom. The stairs into the cargo bay appeared very strange – from our perspective, they were built sideways into the floor, which rose to our right. We had to climb up to reach the stairs going into the cargo bay.

Anna went first, using a weapons rack built into the wall to push herself up. From there she was able to reach the stairs, pulling herself inside the pit where the stairs went toward the cargo bay.

“I can’t do that, girlie,” Ashton said.

“You go next to last,” she said. “Michael can boost you, and the rest of us will pull you up.”

Outside, the dragon screamed, distant. Maybe it was going away. Or, maybe, it would come in for one more attack – one we had no capacity to deal with.

Julian pulled himself up to the stairs. I followed his example. Once on the stairs, Julian reached down a hand for Ashton. Michel cupped his hands, allowing Ashton to place his foot there so he could boost him.

“Find something to hold onto,” Michael said.

Ashton was about to protest when he gave a startled yelp. He shot into the waiting hands of Julian, who grabbed him by the armpits. I reached down to assist.

Ashton moaned in pain as we hoisted him up. He was surprisingly heavy – we made no progress in pulling him up until he started to push himself on the wall. At last, he lay sprawled next to us, panting.

At last, Michael made the climb, using the weapons rack as Anna had. He pulled himself into the staircase. As he stood next to us, we walked toward the door to the cargo bay.

Michael pulled the sliding door open, revealing a mangled mess of supplies and parts within the dark bay. We crawled forward through the metallic jumble toward the very back of the ship.

“There’s a portal on the port side we can use,” Ashton said, pointing upward. “That’ll put us outside.”

The portal was already open halfway – wide enough for a person to squeeze through. I thought that was an odd bit of luck; I was afraid it might be stuck shut. We weaved our way there, avoiding the junk that blocked our path. Frigid air entered the bay from outside.

“Come on,” I said. “We don’t have much time.”

Michael nodded, and climbed out of the portal into the gray afternoon. We all followed.

***

The cold didn’t hit me at first when I entered the gray air. I first felt absolutely nothing.

Then it came. The air stung my skin, my eyes watered, and tears coursed down my face. I hastily wiped them away before they could freeze. As the wind buffeted me, my six layers of clothing felt too little.

“Raise Makara,” Michael said.

I raised the radio to my mouth. “Makara? We need immediate evac, over.
Odin
is down. I repeat:
Odin
is down.”

The radio was silent for a moment. Makara’s voice came in.

“What do you mean,
Odin
is down?”

From somewhere above, the xenodragon screamed.

“We need to find cover!” Michael shouted above the wind.