I return to the first naga and swallow thickly.
I can’t just leave it, living in limbo. I can’t.
Death is better than being confined to a tank for hundreds of years.I’m not sure I can save him or the few around him but I can at least give them peace. Guilt mixed with regret joins the sickness churning my stomach as I set down my light and take out my rifle. I shoot the glass. The sound echoes in the huge chamber.
The bullet barely cracks the cylinder. A second shot doesn’t do any better.
I step forward up to the large vat and yank at the tubes.
They don’t budge.
Huffing, I lean away and peer up at the tank and the naga. Its eyes are closed again and if it—he—I don’t know—hadn’t opened his eyes, I would have assumed him dead. Maybe he didn’t open his eyes?Maybe I’m seeing things…
My thoughts shift as I turn away. Had Krellix come from a tank as well? I never asked him about his childhood. I know he lost his family and his home when us humans first arrived but I don’t know if that included a father and a mother. Parents or a… vat? I shiver.
Sick at heart, I walk as far as the grated pathway goes until I reach the end of the room. Stepping off the path and glancing behind me, I calculate there has to be several dozen tanks in all.
All of this just so humans could use alien lurker technology.
My stomach clamps with nausea. I look along the back wall of the room for another exit, desperate to flee this horrible place, but only discover another platform like the one I entered onto,with even more large, industrial machinery at the top. Some flashing lights come from a few of them too.
Hoping my alternate way out is up there, I climb the stairs and find the room’s power supply instead. Heading for it, I search the lights and interfaces until I come across a keycard access point on the main control panel. I stick my card in and am surprised when the lights in the room actually turn on. Faraway bulbs pop as a bright explosion repels the darkness. Blinking viciously until my eyes adjust, I peer down at the large, blank screens and buttons before me, choosing to ignore the hundreds of tanks behind me in the partially lit-up gloom.
There’s no alternate exit, at least not this way.
I drop into a crouch and bury my head in my hands. Taking several minutes to calm my nerves, and wishing I had Shelby’s eyes, all while praying that Krellix and the others are safe from the Boa—I rise back to my feet.
Because I’m going to do something they might not agree with.
But only I understand how far the military will go to get ahold of weapons to fight the Ketts.
I can’t leave this place behind intact.
I’m going to shut everything down and make sure no one can ever use the machines here again.
TWENTY-THREE
COMMANDER GRAFT
Krellix
The trees,and the ancient debris caught up and between them, swiftly morph into ruins and more collapsed buildings. Overgrowth becomes rubble and discarded materials—a maze of obstacles quickly changes the thickly forested landscape. Olivia heaves and shudders in my grip as I race closer to our destination.
Machines appear the closer we get to the camp. The growth of the forest recedes, ending at a wall made of wood, erected across a field of dirt and packed brush. I stop beneath the last of the canopy, unwilling to venture into open space. When I inhale sharply, human waste and the rusty scent of technology fill my nose.
Pausing briefly, I look around for the nearest break in the wooden barricade. This new one has replaced the one built when the humans first arrived. It’s taller and sturdier; I cannot easily climb over, not with Olivia in my arms
I hear shouting behind me and a slew of noise and activity on the other side of the wall. As I get my bearings, I see several machines flying above. We’ve been spotted.
Tightening my hold on Olivia, I do not expect a warm welcome from those inside the camp. I do not expect to be welcomed at all.
Olivia gasps and cries out and, ignoring the raucous machines in the sky, I follow the wall parallel while still remaining under the coverage of the forest. Heading north, where I know the majority of people have gathered based on previous scouting missions, I quicken my pace.
There are fewer and fewer trees to hide beneath the farther I go. One of the machines starts talking, demanding that I stop and place the girl down, but I don't, not yet. I need to get Olivia to someone who can help her, pass her into living arms and make sure she will not be abandoned.
Then I can return for Julia.
Julia.
