Resilience, page 15
“I know how we can stop Nyx,” Fletcher said, a triumphant look on his face.
Eli and Ariana glanced at each other then back down at the kitchen table. The twins noted the walkers’ lack of enthusiasm and hid behind their laptops.
Undeterred, Fletcher continued. “We have to open the boundary between our world and the spirit world.” Eva placed her head in his lap and huffed.
Kate felt a chill and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
The veins in Eli’s neck flared as he fought to maintain his composure. “And how exactly do we do that?” he said, leaning back in his chair, away from Fletcher, accidentally dislodging Una in the process. She landed smoothly on the fridge and ruffled her feathers in silent protest.
Fletcher chuckled and scratched Eva under the chin. The bear grunted in pleasure. “Isn’t it obvious? The earth spirit said the three walkers needed to be together in order to open the bridge between the worlds.”
Ariana shivered. It was the middle of summer, yet since Fletcher’s return, they’d all taken to slipping on a cardigan or wrapping themselves in blankets and scarves when they were in the house. It was like he sucked all the warmth from his surroundings, leaving behind a bleak cold that lodged under her skin, in her bones, like a disease.
“Clara told me the same thing,” Eli said. “The spirits are the solution to everything.”
“It’s been hundreds of years since the three walkers were called together,” Ariana whispered. “Hundreds of years since the sun emitted this much energy to Earth.”
“She’s right,” Bry said, entering the kitchen. In his hand he had a bunch of electrodes that he passed to the twins. They started attaching them to a blipping console. Bry retrieved a knotted cable from his pocket and started teasing it apart. “As a result of the unique mutation on your convergence sequence, you walkers steer a tremendous amount of cosmic energy through your bodies.” Seeing their shocked expressions, he added, “I did read Terence’s reports, you know.”
Her brother’s face flashed before her, followed by darkness. Ariana pushed against it, the energy tumbling through her system and displacing the despair. She glanced at Fletcher. Constant vigilance.
Fletcher yawned and stretched. “Well, I’m ready when you are.”
Eli nodded slowly, grinding his fist into his palm, the tension raising the veins in his forearm. “If we open the boundary, we will stop everything. Restore balance.”
“Exactly,” Fletcher said, slapping Eli on the shoulder. Cold danced around him, like a living, breathing entity.
The twins positioned the heavy console in the centre of the table, electrodes spilling out like limp noodles. Kate hooked up Eli and Fletcher while Kara pressed two electrodes to Ariana’s temples and one on her ribcage.
Ariana squirmed. The circular plasters felt sickeningly familiar on her skin. For a second she was thrust back into the MRI’s experimental chamber where excruciating bursts of current fried her synapses.
Jericho flicked his tongue against her cheek. You are safe here. It is only a memory.
Ariana watched the earth walker. He was so excited it was all he could do to stay seated. It felt wrong. Fletcher had never been able to access the walker state. Even the thought of trying used to fill him with dread. Now he was excited about it? Ariana shuddered. Pushing away the rising panic, Ariana nodded at Eli and Fletcher. “Let’s do this.”
Bry passed Kate the final cable. She fiddled with the baseline readings on the monitoring console then looked at the three walkers. Eli was calm, Ariana seemed anxious and Fletcher was obviously excited. She shivered at the icy chill in the air. “So, how does this work, exactly? Do you just cross over to the spirit world and bam, the boundary between the spirit world and the physical world is destroyed?”
Kara nudged her sister out of the way to double check the calculations. “It’s not that simple, sis. All three of them have never crossed over into the spirit world together, so we don’t know what to expect.”
Eli rubbed where the electrode attached to his neck. It was super itchy and he couldn’t wait to get this whole experiment over and done with. “In the walker state, the space between the two worlds, we can connect to all of our past lives and communicate with the spirit linked to our reincarnation cycle.”
“With the increased solar activity, together we might have access to enough energy to finally break through the barrier holding the physical and spirit worlds apart,” Ariana added.
“Might? Are you guys sure about this?” Eyebrows raised, Kate looked up from the console.
Ariana felt like vomiting. Robyn’s plan echoed in her mind. I just have to hold out long enough.
You are strong enough. We are strong enough, echoed Jericho from his perch on her shoulder.
The room fell silent. “Be careful,” Bry whispered in her ear. “Any sign of trouble and you get straight out of there, promise?”
Ariana nodded, folding her hand around the reassuring weight of the quartz in her pocket. Robyn had pressed the smooth crystal into her hands in the spirit world only days ago, and Kara had set the ridge of quartz into a metal collar. A failsafe.
“Ready?” Eli whispered.
“Ready,” Fletcher and Ariana answered in unison.
Ariana closed her eyes. The room fell away, replaced by utter blackness.
Ariana hovered in the void. Tiny pinpoints of light blossomed in the darkness, like diamonds scattered across folds of velvet. Around her body, blue light flickered to life.
Fletcher and Eli appeared out of the nothingness. Ariana’s skin prickled as her blue aura flared outwards in every direction. Red light surged around Eli. Their auras intersected and kept expanding. Ariana gasped as energy surged through her body and poured into the darkness. She felt power in her veins, her very bones. She’d never felt so alive.
This is definitely new, Eli projected.
Ariana looked over at Fletcher. He was staring at his arms, as if willing his green aura to appear. No … I shouldn’t be here … Please …
Fletcher sounded panicked and Ariana’s heart leapt. This was the real Fletcher. She reached out for the earth walker. It’s okay, Fletcher. We’re here. I’m here.
You don’t understand. Then he froze. Dark light enveloped his body. Fletcher rolled his neck and leered at her.
Horrified, Ariana recoiled as dark energy swept outwards from Fletcher toward her and Eli. When the darkness hit the blue and red streams of light, her energy sagged. Invisible fingers tightened around her throat and the blue light stopped pouring from her body and instead was sucked inwards. And it was cold, very cold.
Ariana glanced at Eli, wreathed in the dark light, his hands clutching his throat. Fletcher, stop, she pleaded. This is Nyx, not you. You have to fight her. A blade of pain lanced through Ariana’s skull.
Fletcher’s eyes were as dark as the void around them. His voice snaked into her mind. Today I remove the last blemish. Today the walker lines will cease.
He raised his arms and Ariana’s chest constricted. Dark light raced up her arms, over her chest and around her head. All that was left was the faintest hint of blue.
The monitors screeched and all three sets of electrodes flatlined. The walkers’ bodies slumped. “Holy shit,” Kara yelled, jumping to her feet. “Get them out of there, now.”
Bry dropped beside Ariana and started ripping off her electrodes.
“Don’t!” Kate cried. “It’ll overload the system.”
“What the hell?” Bry shouted. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?” He cradled Ariana to his chest. “Don’t leave me, Ariana. Come back.”
Kate grabbed Eli by the shoulders. “Can you hear me? You need to come back. Now.”
Kara’s fingers flew over the keyboard. This couldn’t be happening. They couldn’t lose them. Not now, after everything they’d been through. Jamming the emergency switch on the monitoring console, she hoped to hell the walkers would survive to forgive her for the pain she was about to inflict.
Ariana fought, concentrating on her breath and the energy swirling inside her body. Somewhere in the distance, a voice called her to come back. She heard Eli scream. His aura had shrunk to a faint red halo of light surrounding his head. Fletcher’s words rang through her skull: Today the walker lines will cease. Certainty displaced fear. Fletcher planned to kill them both and, by virtue, destroy the walker lineages. Never again would a walker be reborn in the physical world. This incredible bond linking humans and animals would disappear.
No. Focusing on the sliver of blue light on her skin, Ariana pushed her aura outwards, trembling with the effort.
The voice in her mind kept building. Ariana, come back. Come back. With a silent scream, she pushed against the invisible fingers strengthening their grip around her throat. Blue light flickered, then flared, on her skin. A surge of red echoed her call.
Ariana, come back.
Kara hunched over the console, her eyes wild. “It’s not working!” she yelled.
“I’ve increased the current. Try it now,” urged Kate, head buried in her laptop.
Kara dialled up the power and the air around them sizzled. Sparks showered the walkers but still they didn’t move. She banged her fist on the kitchen table. “C’mon, you guys.”
In the physical world, Robyn and Lenti sat in the ruins of the temple, meditating. Miranda stood to one side, where she had set up a Geiger counter to measure Robyn’s energy response. Brock filmed them on his tablet while a group of lab technicians took notes. All of a sudden, Robyn doubled over and screamed. In horror, they all watched her claw at her throat, gasping for breath.
Robyn felt Ariana and Eli’s energy tethers crackling with energy. She focused on drawing external energy into her system and funnelling it through the walkers’ energy tethers. Darkness edged her vision. Sweat dripped down her spine. In the background, the steady whine of the Geiger counter increased in pitch.
“Stand back, everyone! Reaching critical levels!” Miranda shouted.
Straining with the effort, Robyn pushed energy through the tethers. The mosaics on the temple walls began to dance, glittering in the sunlight. Beneath her, the crystal bedrock hummed with power.
Brock passed his tablet to one of the technicians, then crouched beside Robyn and whispered encouragement. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’ve always known it would be you, from the first day you entered my lab. Your intellect, your strength, even in the face of failure. You can do this, Robyn.”
Darkness blurred her vision, paralysed her limbs. She was only a vessel for the energy churning through her and she was steadily emptying. Brock’s voice faded. The sound of Robyn’s heartbeat thudded in her chest like a distant star.
Ariana gasped. The vice-like grip around her throat disappeared and, with a rush, she tumbled back into her own body. She heaved for breath, like a swimmer hitting the surface. The room spun around her, slowing, then stopped on her father’s face. “Dad?” she sobbed.
“Ariana.” Bry enveloped her in a hug.
Eli’s body shook. He spluttered and coughed, wild-eyed as he tried to get his bearings. Kate and Kara hunched over their laptops. Ariana held in Bry’s embrace. Then he saw Fletcher.
Robyn greedily sucked in air as the pressure around her throat loosened. Brock and Lenti grabbed her by the arms and helped her to her feet. Miranda stood over a laptop, scrolling through the results from the Geiger counter. “Impressive readout. Did it work?”
“It worked.” Robyn shook with adrenaline as she remembered Nyx’s dark energy, the power the spirit wielded through Fletcher’s body.
With a gasp, Fletcher stirred, eyes wide and uncertain.
Ariana ripped the electrodes from her skull and stood up, her chair crashing to the ground as she scrambled to get as far away from Fletcher as possible.
“What the …” Kate began.
“Ariana? What’s wrong?” Bry followed her across the kitchen to where his daughter pressed up against the pantry door. Eli joined them.
Fletcher’s eyes darted between Ariana and Eli. “I remember the void, the stars. Your auras kicked in. Then…” He stood, kicking his chair so hard it shattered against the wall. “It should have worked, damn it!”
“Whoa there,” Kara said, hands raised as if trying to calm a skittish horse. Eva stepped between her and Fletcher and growled, the throaty sound reverberating around the kitchen. The temperature plummeted.
Ariana reached into her pocket, toying with the piezoelectric quartz collar. Now. I have to do it now. Summoning her courage, she stepped around Eva and faced Fletcher. “What happened in there? Are you okay, Fletcher?”
The tension in his shoulders disappeared. He ran a hand through his hair and Ariana recognised the boy she cared about. As much as she hated what she was about to do, she had no choice. In one smooth motion, she took the collar from her pocket and clinked it shut around Fletcher’s neck.
Fletcher yelped and yanked at the collar. Confused, he stumbled backwards against the kitchen table. “What have you done to me?” he screamed, his eyes feral. Eva snarled and pressed herself against the earth walker.
The collar began beeping, a steady, insistent sound. The temperature in the room began to warm.
Ariana edged away, finding her father’s hand. “It’s for the best,” she said. “It kills me to have to do this to you, believe me.”
Fletcher’s eyes went black and he snarled.
Kara held up a slim receiver, her thumb hovering over the button. She caught Fletcher’s eyes and smiled. “Doesn’t kill me, though.” Uncertainty crept across him and he turned to Ariana.
“This is to protect you,” she said, fighting the tears that threatened to fall.
“And incapacitate you. Let’s not forget that part,” Kara said.
She pressed the button and Fletcher fell to the ground. Eva howled. Fletcher screamed, convulsing under the barrage of current. Then he lay still, his bear collapsed by his side.
Robyn stood in the ruins of the temple, staring at the mosaics, as the walkers’ energy tethers stabilised against her ribcage. A glimmer of white light played over her skin.
Lenti eyed the tiles as if seeing them for the first time. “The mosaics are made of the same crystal as the bedrock?”
Robyn nodded and smiled.
Brock ran though the readouts from the Geiger counter while Miranda fussed over the laptop. “The readings confirm your hypothesis, Miranda. The quartz collar has jammed Fletcher’s frequencies and contained the energy spike.” Brock grinned at Robyn. “You did it.”
“Now it’s impossible for him to enter the spirit world or the walker state,” Robyn said, getting to her feet. Overcome by dizziness, she leaned against Lenti until it passed. Seeing Fletcher like that – no, Nyx – had been terrifying. Her heart ached for the earth walker.
“With any luck, Nyx will remain trapped within Fletcher’s body until we can figure out how to be rid of her for good,” concluded Brock.
Miranda packed up her laptop and passed Brock the Geiger counter. “Yes, it’s a temporary reprieve at best.”
Brock slung the machine over his shoulder. “And there’s still the pressing matter of Vulcan.”
Robyn straightened, the push and pull of energy from the temple filling her with renewed strength and determination. “Yeah, he’s next.”
Chapter 19: Inhibitor
We’ve communed with animals since the dawn of time. All over the planet, there are ancient cave paintings depicting humans living, working and sleeping alongside animal kind. We’ve examined everything about them, yet no-one ever thought to examine the paint. Until now. And what an interesting concoction it is; plant dyes, bacteria, fungal spores, and oil from the human hands that mixed it. Proof that life is not separate: we are more powerful together. Ancient humans knew this. Maybe now, thousands of years later, we’re beginning to remember.
Brock Williams, Working Notes.
Robyn pipetted solution into the vial of blood on her bench, agitating it to mix the protein matrix with the blood cells. Heart in mouth, she watched for the tell- tale colour change that would indicate disruption of the convergence sequence, but the vial remained red. Damn it.
Sighing, she scrawled a line through her latest attempt at a deactivation sequence. Similar failures filled her notebook. Brock and Miranda were right – in order to stop Vulcan, they had to incapacitate his induced convergence army. And they were agreed, Fang’s environmental virus activators held the key. Thank God Brock had managed to smuggle out samples of Fang’s work when he’d fled the base in Bulgaria. Samples Robyn was busy putting to good use. She had to admit, Fang knew her shit – these activators were top shelf.
“Dr Greene?”
It took Robyn a moment to register who the person was talking to. She still wasn’t used to her new title, but Brock and Miranda had insisted she’d more than earned it. Robyn turned to see that a scientist had brought a fresh rack of vials.
“Anything yet?” Robyn asked her.
The woman shook her head and placed the rack on Robyn’s bench. “We’re working our way through the combinations you suggested, but none have bonded with the convergence sequence.”
Robyn cursed. She’d stayed up all night reading scientific papers and writing out a list of inhibitor combinations. For days, it had been all hands on deck testing each one, trying to unlock the key. To no avail. It has to work, it just has to. Robyn remembered Vulcan’s ultimatum: surrender or die. She smiled at the scientist. “Thanks for the update. Keep working through the list – I’m going to get some air.”
Yanking off her gloves, Robyn stepped out into the sunshine. Lenti emerged from his tent and followed her, her discreet shadow. She pretended not to notice but in truth, his devotion, his belief in her, kept her motivated. They had to find the key – for her friends, for the walkers, for every converger on the planet. Especially now Fletcher was back. Fletcher. The way he’d channelled tendrils of dark energy toward Eli and Ariana. The sensations she’d experienced through their energy tethers. It was awful. The memories pierced her consciousness when she slept. Ever since, Robyn woke up covered in sweat and gripped with pain.
