“Is she serious?” Jude asks.
My mutant sister has no fear as she points a finger at us in challenge. She’s dragging something behind her. I realize too late that it’s a long metal spear.
“She’s going to throw it,” I warn.
Jude is already leaning over the edge, the rocket launcher over his shoulder. I get a hold of his belt before he can fall over. He shoots the rocket just as Maeve whips her arm back and throws the spear with a mighty force. The projectile pierces one of our aero engines at the same moment that the rocket hits the bridge, right on Maeve.
Alarms blare in theFireflyas we go down. I have time to pull Jude into my arms as we’re getting thrown out of the aircraft.
The breath gets knocked out of me as we land hard on the road below. The bridge is still standing, against all odds, but is broken in the middle.
As soon as I can move, I survey Jude. He’s stunned but unharmed. I might have a few broken ribs, but nothing life-threatening. I’ll heal. I always do. At least if we survive the next hour. TheHighwaymenwon’t be happy that we killed their new master. We might be able to pull off the same thing we did two days ago. Jump into the river and let the current take us to safety. To the hut. From this height, the water will be like hitting concrete, but I can withstand it, I think.
TheFireflyhas crashed farther away in the canyon. I doubt that it’ll be able to fly. The aero engine is on fire.
As we get to our feet, Jude points to the other side of the bridge. Maeve is alive. She rises from the smoke. Her clothes are in tatters around her body, but she’s otherwise in one piece. Some strands of her long hair are on fire. She survived a rocket and is now ready to jump over the broken bridge to reach us.
15
Clash of titans.
“Our experiences with raising mutants varied from team to team. Some were quite docile, while others were disappointments. But there is one in particular that turned out to be extremely difficult. Maeve couldn’t be punished and submitted to obedience the old-fashioned way. She could endure everything from physical pain to psychological threats. And in the end, the only thing that worked was starvation. We stopped feeding her, and she was forced to follow our rules. But trust me when I say we were happy to be rid of her when the Revival Project was abandoned.We left during the night, and by morning she found herself alone in the deserted lab.”
Extract of an interview with bioengineer Dr. Mark Harvax, 2051.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” says Jude.
And I remember what Bernie—the man we captured a few days ago—said about Maeve.‘She’s strong. Really strong.’
We dismissed his comment. After all, all mutants are stronger than normal humans, me included. But I certainly can’t survive a rocket. The Devil of the Wastes has thick skin, but he bled during our fight. There is not one drop of blood on her.
Jude pulls out the gun strapped to my holster and starts shooting. The bullets ricochet over Maeve’s skin. She looks bigger—more muscular—than before as she walks toward us.
“Fuck…” Jude breathes out.
She’s getting closer. And I know from the look on her face and the gleam in her yellow eyes that if we jump over the bridge and into the river, she’ll follow. The fall might render me unable to fight, while leaving her barely stunned. We can’t risk it. She’ll kill us in the water, like her pet god does its victims.
I look at Jude, then at our surroundings. He can’t run to either side of the bridge, where theHighwaymenawait. And he can’t jump without me; he’ll die.
My only choice is to face Maeve if I want to give us a chance to escape. And either way, we have a score to settle.
I take a fighting stance as she walks the remaining distance separating us. I share a glance with Jude, ordering him to step back.
“You think you can take my empire?” Maeve bellows. “I’m the only one strong enough to rule over the wastelands!”
At least, as I was building my underground city, I wasn’t under the delusion that I was the better man. I just wanted to carve my place in the world and survive.
In the distance, on the other side of the dam, Altamaha-ha is agitated. His long tail creates waves that crash over the canyon and the spillways. He’s frustrated that we stand on this bridge and are not closer to his lake. He’s hoping he’ll get the leftovers from our fight.
Well, he can go fuck himself.
Maeve rushes at me, forcing me to forget about everything but the incoming fight. I dodge to the side. I’ve learned my lesson from the Devil of the Wastes. I can’t let her get her hands on me, or she’ll crush me. Her foot comes down as she pivots, leaving cracks in the asphalt.
“Do you know which god I got my DNA from?” she asks.
“No. And I don’t care,” I say.
My veins turn darker over my body and neck as I prepare my electricity. Sparks rise from my skin. I’ve recovered enough and could set fire to a dry field. I’ve seen it happen before.
