“Who did? Because I would like a word with them. They obviously failed miserably,” Jude jokes.
“The scientists who created me.”
That seems to take the wind out of his sails. “When?” he asks after a pause.
“When I was five. Well, they tried before, but with no real intent. But when they announced that the Revival Project had been abandoned, they couldn’t wait to get rid of me. They couldn’t approach me, thanks to my electricity, so they asked one of the soldiers for his gun. Instead, Sergeant Kang killed them all. Then he sedated me and carried me out of the lab, and into the wilds.”
Jude frowns. “Why?”
“Because I was his son. Or at least, partially. He was the only Asian in the lab, and he had been one of the people they had asked for the gene pool. I looked too much like him to be ignored. And he saw some legacy in me. He kept me alive for years.”
Years that hadn’t been much better than the ones in the lab. Sergeant Kang Jae-Sun was another kind of monster. A cold man, with a soul that never saw the light.
“What happened to him?” Jude asks.
“I killed him.”
I never told this to anyone. Especially not Helios. When I found him in the wastelands, starved and alone, he had just lost his mother. I couldn’t tell him that I killed my only parent.
Jude hums. “So, patricide, too. You have quite the set of skills.” When I fail to comment, he continues, “Not that I can blame you. I regret not having done the same for mine. My whole family, to be honest.” I sense a story there, but he’s not inclined to share as he says instead, “Eat. Don’t make me force you. You know I’ll enjoy it.”
But his threat, for once, has no real bite.
I grab the plate he left near my sleeping bag. It contains beans and meat from one of the jars in theFirefly’s pantry. I chew slowly and mechanically.
I dream of Sergeant Kang. It was only a matter of time before he invaded my nightmares, like the rest of my demons.
He wasn’t scared of me like the scientists. If I lost control of my electricity, he would beat me senseless. But he also taught me how to survive in the new world. He taught me what to expect from people.
‘Always expect the worst, and you won’t be taken off guard.’
He was the worst.
Nails dig into my arm and I jolt awake. Jude is on the mossy floor. His sleeping bag is tangled around his feet. It looks like he has crawled toward me. He has one finger in front of his lips, urging me to keep quiet.
Real dread replaces the uneasy feeling left behind by my nightmares as I look at where he’s pointing, deeper into the cave.
An old god is drinking in the natural pool. The blue light emanating from the solar lamp barely reaches the monstrous creature. They’re smaller than most gods, which allowed them to enter the cave. But they’re still bigger than theFirefly.
They walk on four legs, their body like one of a giant rodent.
Once the creature has drunk their fill, they walk to us, incredibly quiet for a monster that size. Their feet have long claws, made to dig into hard soil, and their body is covered in golden fur. A scaly snout appears in the light, sniffing us, followed by a face with no eyes. The old god is blind. A giant, nightmarish mole.
As he—or she, you never know with old gods until you’ve tested their DNA—gets closer, I realize that one bite is all it would take to end me. Jude might get a chance to survive, if he can reach theFirefly. But Fyfe won’t start the engines if I’m dead, so his chances at survival are slim.
I dig into all my feeble strength and rise to my feet slowly. My legs almost give out halfway through, but I soldier on. I stand tall as the god smells me. Their giant nostrils flare and their breath warms my clammy skin.
They seem to hesitate for an eternity. But at last, they disappear deeper into the cave. So, they haven’t arrived from outside. They came from the ground. Another god that dwells under our feet.
“Holy shit,” whispers Jude. “How are we still alive?”
I fall to my knees, spent. One of my wounds is oozing fresh blood, as dark as oil.
“Most gods are territorial,” I say, “but others are content to avoid confrontation. I think they could smell that I was a…little different.” I almost said amonster. “That I could mean trouble.”
“For once, I’m glad you mean trouble,” he says. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
I let him haul me inside theFireflylike the rest of our things.
