Adamant Spirits, page 30
For a moment, I wanted to grab her and shake her. To ask her why the fuck she didn’t go out and scavenge herself.
I exhaled and reined in the burst of anger. “There’s hardly anything out there anymore, and it’s too hot to go any farther.”
“I’m sorry, baby.” She teared up. “It should have been me out there, not you.”
Guilt stabbed at me for thinking the same thing a moment ago. “I’m okay. I did it.”
She was way too weak to go or do anything much.
She sniffed. “Yes, yes, sweetheart. This is great; this is amazing. Come, you should eat something. I’ll get these to your dad.”
She turned away and hobbled toward the far corner of the basement where we’d kept dad since his accident a week ago. Mum and I had erected a makeshift screen using an old bed sheet and some strimmer wire, our attempt to shield Harry from the severity of Dad’s injuries. Not that Harry would notice. He’d gone from an inquisitive, energetic little boy to a dazed, tired one.
I walked over to our bedroom area to check on him. He was curled up in his sleeping bag, chest rising and falling evenly. Lately, all he did was sleep. The dark circles under his eyes, the sores in his mouth, and his protruding ribs all told us that he didn’t have long to go. An icy fist unfurled in my chest, rising to choke me. I froze, focusing on my breathing. The warm, stale air filtered in and out of my lungs, melting the ice that threatened to encase me with the horrific knowledge that I was being forced to watch my little brother waste away.
Giving him my share of rations hadn’t helped either. He was dwindling, and the helplessness was killing me.
Why couldn’t it be over right now?
The thought which had promoted guilt a few weeks ago left me numb now.
I’d give him my share again today. I wasn’t hungry, not really. Missing meals didn’t seem to do me much harm. Strong genes from Dad’s side of the family, Mum said. Whatever that meant.
Mum joined me by Harry’s bed. “Let him sleep; he’s eaten.”
I nodded and followed her to the cooking area. “How’s Dad?”
She pressed her lips together. “The infection is getting worse. His fever… It won’t be long now. I guess it’s a blessing really. To go before we…”
Before we all got vaporized? Yeah, maybe it was. I glanced over my shoulder at Harry’s frail, sleeping form. Yes. It was.
“Maybe they’ll come for us though. Like they said they would.”
“Mum, please.”
The whites of her eyes gleamed in the gloom. “No, Hope. They said they would come, the transmission said they would take the worthy—”
“Enough.”
I was sick of hearing about the saviors, about an Arc that would never arrive. It had been a hoax, a last-ditch attempt by the government to instill hope in the people and make them believe that there was a spaceship on the way to save the worthy. Force them to be worthy more like, in the hopes of getting picked up.
It was an obvious ploy, and it had worked for a time. We’d tried to band together, work together, and help each other survive the food shortages, the power cuts, the water being shut off. And then slowly, like the rising dawn, as the heat moved from uncomfortable to unbearable, humanity realized that no one was coming to help. That our world was spinning closer to the sun, and nothing could be done about it.
Abandon hope people and step onto the crazy train.
This was where humanity became extinct. It was strange to think that something as innocuous as a rogue planet passing between the earth and the sun could lead to our end.
The science of it went over my head, something about it sending us off course, spiraling toward the sun. Well, at least the world’s governments had finally agreed on one thing—to keep the inevitable quiet until such a time as they were forced to reveal it.
The transmission had come a week before the official announcement, cutting off our regular viewing with static and a single message on loop. The savior is coming; all worthy will board the Arc.
Mum reached up to cup my cheek. “They’ll come, Hope. They have to.”
There was no point arguing with her. Besides, the smell of beans bubbling on the portable gas cooker was making my stomach clench in hunger and my mind rebel. “Save my share for Harry. I’m not hungry.”
No wonder this room stunk of farts.
“Hope, are we going to die tonight?” Harry’s grip on my waist tightened in anticipation of my reply.
“Not tonight, hun.” Although I had no idea how long before our inevitable vaporization occurred. For the billionth time since this whole mess had been announced, I wished I’d paid more attention in science class.
Harry squeezed my waist. “Hope, I’m cold.”
It was sweltering down here. I tucked the blanket around him regardless. “Just close your eyes and try to get some sleep.” My heart fluttered with anxiety. “I love you, buddy.”
“Tell me a story. Please…”
My head ached, my body throbbed, and all I wanted to do was sleep, but there was so little beauty left out there any longer that the lure of the beauty in my head was too much. “Fine. Just the one.”
Across the bunker, in the gloom, I heard mum shift. She was listening, like she always did.
“Once upon a time…” I fell into the story, and for a few minutes, death was held at bay.
“Hey Dad, how you doing?”
Dad turned his head to look at me. The whites of his eyes had turned yellow, the rims red and raw. “It doesn’t hurt anymore. The pain meds are working.” He attempted a smile which turned into a wince.
I kept my gaze trained on his face—a strong, capable, beloved face—because to look down would be to see the wound that was killing him, the infection that had climbed up his leg, devouring it in green-tinged pus. It was the result of a slash from a knife one of the nasties out there had given him over a can of soup. Dad had fought him off, but the knife had been filthy, the wound quickly became infected, and without proper medical supplies…well…
He was dying from a fucking cut that could have been easily disinfected and stitched up in a hospital, except the nearest hospital was ten miles away, and even if I had managed to get him there, it would have been picked clean of supplies.
“How’s your mother doing?” Dad asked.
“Okay.”
“Harry?”
“Fine,” I lied. Why tell him how bad Harry was, when there was nothing he could do to fix it?
We weren’t long for this world anyway.
“Listen, Hope, I want you to know how proud I am of you. Of the way you’ve stepped up and taken care of us this past week. I want you to—” He broke off to cough, his chest heaving in the aftermath. “I wish…I wish things could be different.”
“Yeah, me too.”
He locked gazes with me. “But I believe that we’ll be together again someday.”
How could he say that? How could he still believe after everything we’d been through?
A long sigh escaped his lips.
We were all going to die, and he was harping on about the afterlife and heaven? I swallowed my bitter retort and offered him a tight smile.
“Get some rest, Dad.”
He continued to stare at me, but his eyes were blank slates.
“Dad?”
A bubble of anger, a violent scream expanded in my chest, threatening to explode and take me with it. I exhaled, my body one big tremor, and reached out and closed his eyelids.
I joined Mum by our sleeping area.
“It’s getting hotter, Hope,” she said.
“Dad’s gone.”
Mum stilled, her eyes going wide. Her lips trembled, and then she nodded. “Good.”
I closed my eyes. Please, take us now. If there is a god, please let him end this now. Swift and sudden.
“Hope, I’m so cold,” Harry said.
“I’ll get you another blanket.” I stood and picked my way across the room to the bedding chest. It was so warm, none of us aside from Harry were using a blanket. I grabbed a blue throw. A low humming filled my head, like a bee trapped inside my skull.
“Hope…” Mum’s voice sounded strangely garbled and distorted.
I turned to face her, to see her on her knees, her hands held up as if in a plea, her face a picture of euphoria as if witnessing a miracle.
“Mum?” My voice sounded thick, the word elongated somehow. “What’s happening?”
Harry sat up, as if in slow motion, his dark eyes huge and frightened.
Mum turned to him, then back to me. “I told you they’d come.”
Her meaning clicked just as the world blazed white, just as Harry’s desperate plea sliced through the buzzing in my ears, and then I was shattering into a million, trillion pieces.
Two
I woke with a gasp, surrounded by red light. What happened? Where was I? The light, Harry and Mum. Oh god. I tried to sit up and slammed against something.
Glass.
I was trapped beneath glass in a tube of some kind. I’d watched enough sci-fi movies to recognize a pod when I saw one. I was in a fucking pod, and the air was suddenly too thin.
The oxygen was running out.
I was going to suffocate.
I needed out.
Calm down, Hope. Just calm down, or you’ll use too much oxygen and die quicker.
A bubble of laughter expanded in my chest, but I staunched it. This was not the time to lose my shit. I needed to get out of here and get back to Mum and Harry. Even as I thought it, part of me knew that was impossible, that I was probably far away from home by now on the Arc the faceless saviors had promised humanity.
Pain lanced through my chest, the ache of loss, the twist of grief, and for a moment, all I wanted to do was die too. To lie here and let the lack of oxygen end me. I stilled, vision blurring, head throbbing, breath hitching.
Just go with it. Just let it happen.
But what if they weren’t dead? What if they’d been picked up after me? The thought filled my mind at the same time as my survival instinct kicked into gear, forcing me into action, propelling me to do something.
There had to be a catch in this pod, a release button, something to account for malfunctions. My breathing shallow and even, I felt around the sides of the pod. It was a tight fit, not much wiggle room, and the red light in my face was distracting, but then my fingers brushed something oval and button-like. I pressed down with my thumb, and a low hiss filled the pod, followed by a click, and then the glass above me fell away. I sucked in a lungful of sweet air, chest heaving, and stared at the gray domed ceiling high up.
Okay, breathe. Get your shit together. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay. Harry’s teary face filled my mind, followed by Mum’s euphoric one. She’d been so happy for me. Relieved that I’d live even if they wouldn’t, but they could be here. Wherever here was. I had to find them.
I sat up and scanned the room. Rows and rows of pods filled the vast chamber, and several of them were lit up red.
Oh fuck.
I scrambled out of my pod, but my knees buckled as my feet hit the ground. Shit, my legs were like jelly. How long had I been out? It took a couple of seconds to get my limbs under control, and then I staggered past the unlit pods, catching glimpses of sleeping faces.
Cryostasis.
That’s what this was.
Humans in cryo.
I was in a fucking sci-fi movie.
I stopped at the nearest red pod and peered in to find a young man, eyes wide, mouth open as he panted. Shit. Where was the catch on the outside? There was no catch, just a numeric pad with strange symbols. I tapped at it, but nothing happened. The thing was dead.
I pressed my palm to the glass and leaned in. “There’s a button to your left. Find the button.”
“It won’t work.” His voice sounded distant and faraway. “I tried it, and it…it won’t…won’t work.”
He was struggling to breathe.
“No air.”
Mum and Harry could be in one of the other red pods, needing my help. For a moment, I was torn.
“Please…” Tears slipped from his eyes.
Shit, I needed to bust him out. There had to be something I could use to break the glass. I scanned the area, but there was nothing. Just the pods and empty space in between.
I slammed my fists into the glass, but there was no give whatsoever. The material was impregnable. Unbreakable. I hit it again and again until my sobs echoed around the room.
“Please…” The man inside pressed his hand to the glass. “Stay… me.”
I nodded and pressed my palm to his with the glass between us. I locked gazes with him and blinked back my tears.
His breath came shallower in short bursts, and then his hand slipped from the glass, and his eyelids fluttered closed.
He was gone. I took a shuddering breath and headed to the next red pod and the next, looking for Mum and Harry and finding dead stranger after dead stranger. Some of the pods were iced up from the inside. Others seemed to contain smoke.
A malfunction had killed all these humans either while they slept or after they’d woken in panic. Where the heck were the people…aliens, whatever that were responsible for this?
I needed to find my mum and Harry, but the room had rows and rows of pods, and a search could take forever. I needed to find someone. Alert them to what had happened and get them to tell me where Mum and Harry were.
But the dark part of me, the realist, had other thoughts.
And what if they didn’t care?
What if the creatures that had taken us weren’t the saviors they’d claimed to be? What if their intentions were less than noble?
No, I couldn’t afford to think like that because I didn’t have the luxury of choice. I was in a spaceship far from Earth, at the mercy of whoever had plucked me off my planet, and I wasn’t about to cower and hide. If they wanted me dead, there’d be nothing I could do about it.
An exit door sat across the chamber with a panel built into the wall. I headed to it, expecting to see the same strange symbols that had been on the pod, but the doors swished open as soon as I approached.
The fact there was no lock was an encouraging sign. Maybe the aliens didn’t think of us as prisoners. Or maybe I was overthinking things. I needed to find a crew member, report this malfunction, and find my family. The rest…the rest I’d deal with as it happened.
I navigated corridors lit up by flashing red lights, and panic bloomed in my chest. These were emergency lights, the kind of lights that came on when there was a problem.
What if the malfunction wasn’t just with the pods but with this ship? Where was everyone? The place was dead and empty, and an awful thought occurred—what if whoever was flying this ship hadn’t been able to fix this malfunction and decided to take escape pods and leave us here to rot?
I needed to find the bridge. That’s where the controls would be. Unless all the TV shows I’d watched about space were bullshit. There had to be a map or directions somewhere.
The flashing red lights were beginning to make my eyes hurt. The snakelike corridors were all blending into one. I took turns at random. Any doors I came across were locked. I was beginning to feel like I’d been walking for hours when I finally came across a flight of metal steps.
Bingo. A change in terrain.
I took the steps two at a time onto a wide corridor that led to more steps and a set of double doors. My gut told me this was the place I needed to go, and my feet carried me forward. They opened, admitting me into the stars.
My breath hitched then rushed out of me in a gush of air. I staggered into the room, enraptured by the vastness of space around me. I wasn’t stupid; I knew this was an illusion or hologram or something, but after being trapped like a rat in a maze of silver corridors, stepping into this room was like taking a full breath for the first time in hours.
But I wasn’t alone in the room.
A figure sat on a chair with its back to me. Long silver-white hair spilled down the back of the chair.
“Hello?” I approached cautiously. “Hello, are you in charge here?”
I rounded the chair, giving it a wide berth, and stared at the figure sprawled in the chair, hands gripping the armrests. It was a large man with smooth, poreless, silver skin, thick black lashes, and winged eyebrows. His mouth was wide and generous and perfectly formed above a strong jaw. He was dressed in a black jumpsuit, and there was some kind of emblem on his chest, an arch with a symbol I didn’t recognize on it, but he wasn’t breathing.
Shit.
I reached out to touch his face, smooth and cold.
Dead.
His eyelids flickered. Whoa, what the…I leaned in to get a better look. It looked like he was dreaming, but how was that possible if he wasn’t breathing? I carefully reached for his wrist to check for a pulse. Nothing.
He was dead either that or…shit, he was a machine. Maybe an AI or something.
Was he flying this ship? “Hello? Can you hear me?”
His eyes flew open, and I leaped back with a yelp. His bright blue irises flared neon for a moment, his pupils dilated, then contracted to pinpoints before expanding to a regular size. He remained still and silent as if on freezeframe.
“Hello?” I waved a hand. “I need your help.”
He blinked, and his gaze flicked to me. His smooth brow furrowed in a frown. “Human, female, age approximately nineteen human years, fertile, viable. Tri-star allocation.” His voice was deep and smooth, sending a strange shiver through me.
“What?”
“You should not be here. You should be in cryostasis.”
“Listen, there’s been a malfunction. People are dead.” My throat pinched. “They couldn’t get out of the pods. I tried…but I couldn’t…I was too late to save them and my mum and brother. I need to find them. They have to be here.”
He froze again, eyes going blank, and then symbols ran across his irises.
Shit. “What are you doing? Did you not hear what I said? People are dead, dammit.”
