Thirty Three
By the time we returned, night had fallen. Again, the talk with Marin would have to be delayed. We both tumbled into bed senseless with fatigue.
The next morning, Roger barged into my room bright and early and blurted, “The virus is ready.”
I rolled over, nudging Marin, who grumbled and ignored the virologist. “That is good. We were hoping to hold a trial on one of the buildings soon.”
“Hepatitis does not keep well stored. We need to try infecting the E’mani tonight,” Roger insisted.
“I don’t know if we can get into the systems that quick. And Erin needs to fix the shot.”
Roger waved his hand. “The shot will not matter. The disease seems to thrive in the brine. By the time the clones are born, they would’ve already been infected for ten or twenty years. That is long enough to have engendered significant damage, cirrhosis, cancer, liver failure. We need to get the virus into their systems now though, this isn’t a quick thing.”
I hummed.
Marin rolled over and sighed. “I can get everyone together. Werner noted an access panel for the brine while we were there earlier. We should be able to do it.”
I nodded, stood up and shrugged on a jacket. We’d been so tired last night that neither of us undressed. “Okay let’s go.”
As we yet again walked to another spot, it hit me. What I was doing now could kill someone, lots of ‘em. By my direct actions and those of the remains, we were working to specifically hurt another being. What we planned was similar to what they did to Earth. Did we have that right? Was this the only way? Could I do it? Give an order that would mean deaths. My steps slowed.
“Are you all right, my love?” Marin asked.
My fists clenched. “No, I don’t think I am.” I stumbled to the nearest tree on the path. Marin waved Roger ahead.
“What is wrong?” Marin stopped next to me.
“We are going to do something that might hurt the E’mani.”
“Yes. And…”
“I’ve never killed anyone. I mean, I have. I defended myself, and after Hope… I wanted to annihilate them. But this is different. This is planned, calculated, enacted. This is cold. We are fighting them, yes, skirmishes, yet there are not that many here. There is no Xade to target. How do I know this is right?”
Marin smoothed down my hair and I dropped to rest at the base of the tree. “We do not know and there is no way to guess. One thing we do know is that Xade will not hesitate to come after us. Something drew his attention, be it the baby or perhaps he wanted you to suffer. Yet we know he will be back. He is not done with us or this world. If we do not take some action now, then it may be too late. By the time war comes, they could have already won. We need to make a decision if we are going to do this. And it is not just us.” He pointed between us. “It is everyone. We need to decide what we want to do and live with our actions.”
“But is it right?” My fingers trailed through the soil. The land tugged at me, echoing its sorrow. “Is this what we need to do to protect the people?”
“You feel the land suffering as I do.”
“Exactly. What if this makes it worse?”
“I cannot give you the answer you seek. We do not know if it will or will not. But I doubt it could get much worse.”
My God, were we wrong.
Later that night, we conducted a unanimous vote to implement the plan. I didn’t even make the team to deploy it. Marin, Thorn, Warner, Vale and the Avaresh took Roger to Bretelyn. We expected the virus to affect them over the next couple of years. The reverse was true. My worst fears came to life and I was the cause.
The disease spread in hours, rapidly disabling a significant portion of their population near overnight. The virus should’ve only affected the new clones. Yet somehow they all got sick. We watched as the E’mani fell from the skies, off their hover boards. Rael reported scores of clones dying. All activity in Bretelyn ceased by the time the team returned to Center.
Then the fighting began. The E’mani arrived in droves, hundreds pouring from the North. Xade must’ve figured out where we were based on the disease. The Fost couldn’t have created the virus alone.
The Avaresh confronted them in the sky. The aerial advantage the E’mani once had was now eliminated. They couldn’t sneak up on the Fost anymore, and the Fost held their own with the addition of the ferok and the imbued blades. It was cold and bloody and wrong.
There was a beat of inactivity in the morning. No attacks since Marin returned. I hadn’t seen him in all the action, too busy organizing the troops. Regardless of my training, the Fost kept me behind as support.
Till the last battle, when thousands of E’mani attacked in an organized wave. All of the E’mani that were on the planet, every clone, was pulled off whatever job they had, and sent at us.
I’d trekked to the laboratory under guard to join Roger when it all started.
A ship bore down on us as we walked. Lasers blazed along the ground. Giggy shoved me into the cover of the forest. I smelled scorched earth and heard their laughter following me as we ran toward shelter. It wasn’t just one vessel on the horizon. It was scores of them. Trees burned, exposing the rising suns and countless E’mani airships.
Then I saw the wings. Every color imaginable spread out in vast glory against the sunrise. A breathless pause then shrill screams and blood sprayed in a shower, banishing the light. A single gray feather streaked in red floated down to the forest below.
My vision.
Oh god. It was coming true. I fell to my knees in the dirt.
“We need to run. Go,” Giggy screamed. He grabbed my arm and towed me forward under the little canopy that remained. The rest of the guards ran to engage the enemy who were flying down to the surface.
I stumbled into camp and chaos. Soldiers were running to get their weapons and arm themselves. Troops poured into the area from surrounding environs.
Wind in my hair, a whisper in my ears, Marin’s voice. “The E’mani come in force. Everyone to the labs, defend the labs. Fost. To arms.”
This was happening too quickly. My vision, what else happened? Who? Where?
Hana, Marin.
I grabbed my knives and turned toward the labs. The paths were clogged with fighters heading to the call. I was ensconced in the middle when a blast exploded the path in front of us. A bomb.
The shock wave threw me backward. Several figures screamed and flailed covered in flames as cold spread through my belly.
The E’mani were close.
A legion of pale freaks stepped from the surrounding forest, pale gray uniforms contrasting starkly with the fire behind them. Their weapons made short work of the unsuspecting. My shield was up and diverted most of the blasts as I backed away.
This was happening too fast. What was I supposed to do? All that training and I couldn’t think. Jesus.
“Elizabeth.” I heard Xade’s voice through the ringing in my ears and the crackle of flames. “Come to us, Elizabeth, and no more will be hurt.”
My head snapped up but I didn’t see him. I dodged to the trees. One of the Stepford clones was in my way. I cut left, but he flowed to follow me. He tried to grab me. I kicked him like a mule. He flew back, impacting the nearest tree. His landing attracted more admirers for me.
Three more jumped me, the first I smacked hard across his face. He fell and didn’t get back up. His two brothers flanked me, grabbing my arms. They clearly didn’t want to kill me. Their hands were harsh but restraining and they’d harnessed their weapons.
They started to drag me back towards town. No. I dug in my heels testing their grip. They seemed weaker to me and I easily overpowered them. One tripped and hit the ground, his breathing shallow. His eyes focused on me, his mouth working. He reached out a hand to me. The second staggered at my side.
Not of my own volition, I took his hand. He died staring into my eyes, blood dripped from his nose. The E’mani were dying in droves. They were tired, diseased. They’d hoped their weaponry and numbers would overrun us, but our magic was more than a counter. I was still holding Wheezy’s hand when the one of his brothers put a blade under my throat.
I grabbed the knife reflexively. My hands bled as I gripped it and wrenched it out of his grip. He appeared startled. The E’mani were not up close fighters. I cut him down with his own stiletto then ran to the path.
I dawdled in the middle watching fights all around me. So much death, why did there have to be so much death? This time I ran to the doorway, not the forest.
Marin’s voice, in my head and in my heart. “Eliza—”
An explosion rocked the laboratory. Rock and debris showered around us.
Marin.
I pelted toward the fire screaming his name over and over. We never got to talk. I never got to fix this. This couldn’t be happening.
My breath shuddered out. Someone grabbed me holding me back from the ruins of the labs, Thorn, Zanth, I didn’t know. An E’mani vessel rose above the wreckage. I stopped fighting and focused on that ship. Rage filled me.
Never again.
I tagged a fighter running by randomly. “Protect me.”
Then I strode to the center of the clearing. Heat gathered in my belly, waves of power spread out from my head down to my toes, pulsing with my heartbeat. Tingles ran down my arms, sparks started to fall from my fingertips. A breeze shook the area, stirring up the flames in the trees surrounding us. The smell of ozone hung in the air.
No. They do not get to take anything more away from me.
Marin.
Please be okay. As long as he lived, I would be happy. I didn’t care anymore that he might be destined for Zara. I just wanted him to survive. This was my battle. I brought the E’mani to them.
I stooped and asked the land for more strength and it responded. Power punched through me, sweet and hot. I spread my arms wide embracing it. I looked up at the sky and envisioned storms. My skin itched like a thousand bugs ran beneath the surface. My vision went cloudy. I saw flashes of lights in the periphery, but form had no meaning now. Sound faded. More power rushed to my call.
I pulled until every cell shook and I could barely breathe. White fire filled my lungs. It hurt to think so I didn’t think anymore.
A sigh flowed out of my lips and I let it all go, everything I had. All the heat, all the love, all of the anguish burst from me and surrounded the entire field.
Lightning cracked in the silence. Thousands of bolts formed in spears across the sunrise and clouds boiled dark gray and sullen. E’mani ships exploded into flames. As far as the eye could see, waves of lightning ripped through the atmosphere. Everything turned red and still I forced the power out, I held nothing back.
More.
My throat raw, voice gone.
I gave everything for him.
My last wish, “Marin, please survive.”
~ * ~
White light poured down on me. I turned my head away.
No more power.
Sleep.
A slap brought me round. I was still in the field outside the labs. The grass was charred, in a wide circle, the laboratory burned. Figures scurried to and fro, but I disconnected. It was like watching a show. Nothing touched me.
Hands grasped my face. Hana towered over me. Her lips moved, but I couldn’t hear anything. Huh. I scanned around. Nope, only an occasional crackle in the air, no voices, no cries, no pain. Nothing. My vision was still red. I clumsily lifted my hands and brushed then across Hana’s face leaving streaks of crimson.
Blood. Ha. I remembered this. A drop glistened in the cracked black skin of my palm. Tissue charred, bone exposed. That was going to hurt like a bitch soon.
Hana flung my arm around her shoulder and half dragged me back towards town.
No. Marin.
I cried there in the field surrounded by death and silence.
Fost and E’mani ran past. I didn’t care.
Hana slapped me again, but I only saw the fire then darkness.