Kate
My father squeezes my hand; I feel the warmth through the metal like fire. “Private, you’re getting exactly ten minutes to extract the target and get out. Staring at 1900 hours. Any questions?”
I have about a thousand, but none that he can answer with any base of reality to them. “No, sir.”
“Put on your gear, soldier. You’re about to go into enemy territory.”
Breathing in deeply, I shift the mask over my face. Immediately, I feel the sharp sting of it seeping through my skin. I swallow back the pain, fisting my hands at my sides.Why am I doing this?Spasms rock under my skin, clawing into my muscles with razor-sharp precision. I hold the image of Claire in my head because that’s my focus—anything after that I will have to deal with. I bite back the pain.
When the stabbing agony finally subsides and I’m able to form words again, I turn toward my father. “Sir, is there any way that...” But my words die on my lips. My father stands next to me, holding that shredded teddy bear in his arms. There’s a stick of a lollipop poking out the corner of his lips and he’s noisily slurping at it. To think that he was once myfather, a man with a responsibility, a man who led a platoon of others into war. He’s nothing more than a ghost now, just like this world; a ghost of a time before all this happened.
“Wow, what a cool mask. Are you going somewhere, Kit-Kat?” he asks with a childlike lisp that makes me momentarily shut down and stare blankly at him.
“Uh, y-yeah. I’m…I’m going to go get Claire-Bear,” I say in a trembling voice.
“The world is scary now, isn’t it?” he asks, hugging his bear tight.
“Yes, it is,” I whisper, trying to ignore the burn in my eyes.
“Will you help save us?” he asks with wide eyes. God, I hate to see my father reduced to this. This personality has shown itself every day since my mother’s death. My eyes fill with tears and trying to keep them from falling stings my nose. I wish I didn’t have this heavy weight on my chest. I wish this didn’t all fall to me.I wish my father was really here. I want someone to rely on. I need someone to help me here.I don’t want to do this all alone.
A large, heavy hand settles on my shoulder and Rune’s voice tickles my ear, “Our faceplates would heal him.”
“If he lived through putting one on, right?” I snap. “I’ve seen what they’ve done to sick or dead people. And I know what you thought it would do to me. Did you see my sister? All she had on were the pants and her hair was falling out!”
His nostrils flare as I stare at him. He seems to be reining in anger. I can see the flicker of dozens of emotions showing in his eyes. I see guilt written all over his stupid face, even without the words popping up. But pop up they do.Guilty as charged.
“You should put that mask on,” I say, low. “I’m not sure you’re dealing well with all thefeels. You look like you give a shit about what I think and I know you sure as shit don’t.”
“That’s not true—”
I flip up two metal middle fingers. “This is me giving absolutely zero fucks about your answer, Rune.” Spinning on my heel, I head straight for the top base of the bridge. An icy blast of wind follows me up.
Behind me Rune must have secured his mask on, because our misled group ofalien resistersscatter into the darkness immediately.
Then something from above me yanks me right off the ground. My heart almost explodes in my chest as my feet kick into the air. My body rises higher and higher, finding no ground beneath me. A pop of light flashes behind my mask and a scroll of words crosses over my vision. Targets and pinpoints light up before my retinas.Activation: Mode of Transportation: Aerial.
“Rune! Let me down!” I yelp, arms flailing.What the hell is he thinking?
“You need to trust me,” his voice sounds on the inside of my mask.
“Get out of my head!” I growl as panic swirls in a tornado through my brain.
That’s when he lets go.
The ground comes up fast while the world spins around me in slow motion. Every muscle in my body stiffens painfully as I wait for impact, but it never comes. Instead, I’m hovering an inch or two off the ground. And I think I might have pissed in my suit.
“Push up, away from the earth,” his voice says softly.
I push out my hands, slapping them flat against the cold ground, and thrust.
And suddenly, I’m flying.
I’m crying too, but that’s beside the point. The point is, I’m flying,like in the sky, and the broken world lies dozens of feet beneath me. A melting vision of firelight and dirt-soaked faces looking up at me. Out ahead, a wild splash of confetti stars surrounded by a metallic-stained sky, and it literally steals the breath right out of my lungs.
* * *
Landing isn’t so easy.
