I Am Not Junco Omnibus: Books Four - Six (27 page)

"That," I snarl at her, "will kill me. So go right ahead."

She relaxes and the corners of her mouth turn up slightly. "You will not die, Junco. But you will feel pain."

She points to the screen where the djed is beginning to self-assemble, growing like some mutated beanstalk from out of the ocean depths. "Tier is done now, he will be here soon, he commands the timespace pretty well these days. On three you will go into your mind and fling yourself to Earth, never mind where, just in that general direction. Don't fight my guidance, I’ll get you to where you need to be. When we are on the ground we'll take the next step."

I just stare at her as I log the screaming coming from the screen in the background. The tsunami warnings are blaring and I can't help myself, I turn to watch. The split screen shows the growing Pillar on one side and the advancing wall of water on the other. The reporter is crying like a girl as he runs, trips, and then gets trampled by others even more panicked. His head bobs up, like he's gasping for air, then gets smashed down onto the concrete as feet connect with his skull. I watch, along with billions of others, as the blood seeps into his iriscam and blocks the view.

"One."

The feed switches—apparently reporters are expendable these days—and this one has a clear shot of Gideon and Tier fighting on the top of a building. They are a flurry of teeth and claws, blood is everywhere.

"Two."

Fling myself to Earth? That's her fucking idea? Tier becomes distracted, looking at the reporter, and Gideon takes advantage and pounds him in the head. Tier refocuses and the bloodshed continues.

Gideon is in my head urging me.
Go, Junco. Go!

I'm gonna regret this. But he's in charge, so—

"Three."

My time slips and suddenly everything is in battle slow-mo. I do just what she said. I fling myself out of the ship, have a slight panic attack because I'm not facing Earth when I feel my body move, and then Sera's voice is in my head.

Do not draw breath. I will guide you.

We're not in space. We're somewhere else. Somewhere blurry, like a tunnel. I concentrate on not blowing out my last breath of air and close my eyes as the blur makes the acid in my stomach go into overdrive. It immediately makes me want to puke, but if hurling in your helmet is a bad idea, then this would definitely be worse.

My body is so cold I feel the crystals form and then spread across my skin, making a sound that pulls me back to the cracking of ice when I used to break the rules and walk across our mountain lake in the winters back in Council 3.

This memory hurts so bad I forget to hold my breath and it bursts out. I open my eyes in a panic and watch the air as it crystallizes in real time. The cold overtakes the warmth my body has been supplying the liquid that bathes the outer layer of my eyes and the ice-cracking noise is in my head now, blinding me. My lungs burn and every reflex screams to rid myself of the carbon dioxide that is building, second after second, as we advance through the tunnel.

Shut down the core, Junco.

I'm not sure if that command was from Gid or Sera, but it doesn't matter. I obey and slow my heart, making the blood coursing through my body slow as well. I pull every remaining molecule of glycogen from my leg muscles, ask for the calories the extra bit of fat on my body contains, and have a fraction to enjoy my exceptional self-control before I am slammed into the ground face first.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The rapid wind and crackle of plasma fire erupts around me as I struggle to come to terms with what just happened. Sera is in my head, not next to me anymore, and her screams are so uncharacteristic I almost place them as foreign.

Port again, Junco! Port again!

"What the fuck does that mean? Port again?"

Teleport, you stupid child!

I don't think another teleportation is possible in this lifetime, let alone seconds after being slammed to the scrub that is scratching my face as I think.

But then the plasma fire grazes past my waist, taking out some skin and maybe even some muscle underneath for good measure as it burns a hole straight through my shirt and catches it on fire. I swat frantically, look around, and realize I need to do that port thing now or I'm gonna be gunned down by some nasty desert dwellers.

Go invisible, Junco!

"I can't," I croak out. "HOUSE has that power!"

Sera appears in front of me now, pulling me to my feet. "God, you are more trouble than you're worth. Do you really think—"

Another bolt of plasma flies past us, the arc reaching out to grab my arm, and I start shaking uncontrollably.

Sera drops me back to the scrub and turns.

I have just enough time to see the red fire she is emitting from her eyes before her rage turns into a crackle of electrons.

Electricity is pulled from a nearby power line and she wields it with the authority of Tesla himself. I duck my head, partly from the pain of the plasma burn and partly to avoid the dancing electricity.

Everyone else follows suit and the firing stops.

Teleport now, Junco!

I fling myself again and this time the tunnel is short and the landing quick. I crash into the side of a boulder next to a giant red rock, my shoulder flaming with pain as I look around to see how far I got.

Not far.

I laugh a little. Not far at all. About a hundred yards. Sera is gone now and the small troop of attackers are running around in a panic. I wait for them to see me but they are aiming at something else now. A cloud of dust and dirt is heading straight towards me from the east and I squint my eyes to see what it is.

A vintage HumVee. Like the Goat.

The armed men, who I am unable to identify by uniform but who might be Desert Republic soldiers, are following the racing vehicle on gravs.

Frantic screaming comes from the vehicle and I try and dial up the vision to see what's up.

A girl, it looks like. Flailing her arms out of the driver's side window.

She's screaming my name.

I try to get up and wince as the blood leaks out of the wound in my side, then crack a smile as I realize who the crazy girl is.

Selia!

I stumble over a few large boulders and half limp, half run towards her. She gets about fifty feet away, turns the wheel and skids sideways in the sandy dirt, then grabs a high-powered rifle and climbs to the back of the vehicle and starts spraying bullets. I reach the vehicle and take her place at the wheel.

"Drive!" she screams.

The engine is idling so I throw it into first and the tires spin for a fraction before finding traction, and we lurch forward. I shift again, and again as we pick up some speed.

I look back at my friend.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"Go north, Junco! We gotta get out of the Utopia!"

Oh shit. The Utopia soldiers do not fuck around if you're in their country illegally. I shift again, press on the gas, and we bounce along the uneven desert scrub. I come straight up out of my seat when I take the dozens of prairie dog holes at more than a hundred and ten miles per hour. I groan as I land hard on the seat and Selia curses at me in the back, but I'm preoccupied for a fraction by the pain in my side. My right hand reaches down and comes back sticky and red with blood.

I take my attention back to the road as the whine of grav bikes catches up with us and Selia starts shooting again.

"Get over the border, Junco! We gotta make the border!"

I can see the border. It's not that far away actually and I'm pretty fucking sure we're gonna make it. But the problem is that there's lots of soldiers over on that side of things as well.

"Those guys friendlies, Sel?" I scream at her.

"No!" she comes back with. "You gotta port us somewhere far, you got it, Junco? Somewhere far!"

"What the fuck? I just learned how to do that like five minutes ago, ya know! I'm not a fucking exp—"

"On three!"

"On three, what?"

She stops shooting, throws the rifle out the back window and then climbs up into the front passenger seat. "Port us!" She's flush with adrenaline, her face red and her eyes racing. "Right now!"

"This does not sound like a plan," I say back to her. But I have no time to wonder because they are shooting at us from the front now too.

"One!"

Oh shit. Tier is gonna kill me.
So bad
.

"Two."

We are only about fifty yards away now and I push down on the gas as we gain some speed. Bullets fly by my head as plasma fire reaches out to grab the metal chassis and the entire truck is electrified as Selia screams—

"Three!"

I tap her shoulder like Lucan and Tier do to me and pray to God she'll come along for the ride as I fling us forward.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

We fling forward in silence and I have a fraction to experience relief that Selia is indeed next to me. I can feel the tunnel more than see it this time, and I instinctively know that when the light becomes brighter the fling will end, so I concentrate on going faster, keeping the tunnel open, elongating it.

I only get a few second into practicing this new skill when we abruptly exit and roll in a jumbled heap until we crash into something relentlessly hard.

Another boulder?

No.

The hard thrum of music is interfering with my thought process as my hearing comes back.

I recover before Selia. She's shaking uncontrollably next to me even though the sand we're lying on is still rather warm from the sun that is still disappearing behind a relatively small mountain range.

"Sel? You OK?"

I push on her shoulder as her teeth chatter together and she manages a stiff, "Yeah, just great. Where did we end up?"

I look around. The hard thing we crashed into is a large truck and the music comes with party laughter.

"I think we're at a party or something."

She props herself up, her teeth chattering beginning to fade. "Who the fuck would have a party in the middle of the desert?"

I have no idea. It's all beyond my realm of worldly experience. We landed between two parked trucks actually, and when I crawl on my hands and knees to peer out behind the one closest to us, I realize it's a makeshift parking lot of sorts. There are people stumbling along and I have a small moment of panic that they will see me, but it dissipates when I realize they are all pretty fucked-up drunk.

I slink back to Selia who is sitting up now. "We're definitely at a party. They've got lights and listen…" I point my ear up towards the sky to show that I'm listening. "A generator to power it all."

Selia leans over and pukes.

"Gross, Selia."

She spits and drags her hand across her mouth with a snarl. "You're one to talk, you puke all the time."

"Yeah, but that's different. Anyway, what do we do now?"

Selia considers this for a fraction and then shrugs. "We get a ride to Vegas. We're meeting Irin there. And maybe Lili, but she's such a bitch, Junco. I cannot even explain it. Everyone makes fun of Ashur for being a piker, but shit. That girl has a stick so far up her ass she's ready to scare crows."