Illumination

Creatures worse than Apexes? Yeah, right. There’s nothing worse than hairless spider wolves with teeth like something from a horror movie and eyes like sacs of slime. He was probably bluffing, whoever he was. Trying to scare me, the creep. But still...Jack couldn’t help but shiver and glance around her as the four of them walked back to the buggy. It was an open area with nothing but ice for miles around, but the darkness seemed to encroach on her and swallow her up from all sides. He’s just trying to get into your head. Just relax, Jack.

Liam and Robin weren’t as mad as she’d thought they would be about the guns. “Well, they’re illegal, but they sure will help if any more Apexes show up,” Liam shrugged, watching as Robin, Jack, and Bailey shouldered their guns. “Just keep them compact and don’t show them to anyone at the colony. I don’t think they’d appreciate it.” He paused and then said, pointing to Jack’s blaster, “What model of gun is that?”

“Quicksilver 59-K, manufactured in...2318,” she answered.

Liam groaned. “Great. Just great. Not only are these guns illegal, but they’re potentially dangerous. Remember the Great Gun Fiasco of 2283? These guns are unstable and could blow up in your faces! Okay, this is real contraband here. But just remember, I had nothing to do with any of this.”

“Well, we all have Quicksilvers, except for you, so I’m not complaining,” Bailey said, rolling her eyes. Liam ignored her. “Hey, we promise you won’t have anything to do with this. What ya so touchy on anyways? Your reputation?” She laughed a high trill of a laugh.

“I have something to prove and a future ahead of me, unlike you two,” Liam said, addressing Bailey and Jack. “You’re both reckless and will probably get kicked out of the colony for your misbehaving.”

“Excuse me, I don’t misbehave,” Jack explained. “I am impulsive and protective of my family.”

“...which naturally leads to misbehaving,” Liam added, peering at her with his one eye. Jack sighed and shoved her hands in her pockets. Arguing with one of the stubbornest boys in her class was exhausting. But it wasn’t unusual, as the two of them bantered almost every day.

“The point is, I’ve kept my record one hundred percent clean,” he finished. “You two would be wise to do the same. After all, those who behave advance the farthest.”

“But die first,” Bailey muttered, just loud enough for Jack to hear.

***

“Here we are,” Robin announced, stopping at the edge of a precipice. “Looks like we’re in for some trouble.”

Jack shone her Illuminator down into the gorge and saw the wreckage of the buggy crumpled up to one side. It wasn’t that bad and could easily be fixed with the parts that Robin and Liam had gotten. The real problem was the two Apexes that were sleeping beside it.

“There’s no way we’re going to be able to fix the buggy without waking them up,” Liam decided forlornly. “It’s impossible.”

“So, what’s the plan? Do we scare them off, distract them, or kill them?” Robin asked, his voice quivering on the word kill. “They look like the ones that were chasing me and Bailey earlier, so chances are they won’t get scared off by us as easily this time.”

“Yeah, but we have guns now,” Jack said. As she looked down upon the two, hairless monsters, she felt unusually calm. If the dragon boy’s right, these things are nothing. You need to prepare yourself for something much worse.

“So...are we scaring them off?” Bailey asked, holding her gun at the ready. Liam, Robin, and Jack all nodded. “Great. Liam, you stay back with our packs in case things get ugly. I’ll take the lead and fire a warning shot. No drawing blood unless the Apexes retaliate. Trust me, we wanna save this ammo.”For what? Jack thought darkly, her mind flashing back to what the dragon boy had said. She gritted her teeth and shook her head fiercely, trying to clear the image away. Stop it! You’re letting him get in your head. Just forget about it and focus on the job. She expanded her gun to full size and trained it on the closest Apex, trying to keep her hands from shaking.

Bailey gestured for Jack and Robin to follow her as she picked her way down a path into the gorge. The ice there was smooth and slippery, unlike the harder clumps that Jack was used to. The recent snow must’ve smoothed it out, she thought, placing one hand on the gorge’s side as she walked down and bracing her feet to keep from sliding back down. The three of them soundlessly dropped into the gorge about ten yards from where the first Apex was sleeping. It was monstrous, its chest rising and falling and beads of grey drool snaking out of its mouth and dropping to the ground. Unlike most Apexes, who had six legs, this one had eight spidery limbs that branched out from its body and tapered to silvery, knife-like points. Click, click, click, the limbs went, tapping on the ground to an eerie, staccato beat. You are not afraid, Jack told herself firmly, readjusting her grip on the gun.

“I’ll fire a warning shot to see if I can wake him up,” Bailey explained. She pointed to either side of her. “Spread out so that if it attacks, it can’t target all of us at the same time.” Jack shuffled to the left and placed her finger on the trigger. The gun felt warm in her hands, but not dangerously so.

“Go!” Bailey pulled the trigger and there was a loud bang as a pulse of white light shattered the darkness. The bullet hit the ground next to the Apex, exploding in a flash of sparks, light, and fire. The creature’s eyes shot open and it growled at the sight of them, rising up on its spindly legs unsteadily. The other one somehow remained asleep. Robin and Bailey both fired shots to wake it up and succeeded. Now there were two burly Apexes staring them down, not advancing or backing up. They were just standing there, breathing heavily and growling.

Pull the trigger, Jack thought. Come on, do it! Her brain overrode her body and she jerked back on the trigger. There was an even louder bang and the gun jumped back in her hands, slamming into her ribs and knocking the breath out of her. A flash of blue blood spattered the ground in front of her and the second Apex ran. “I hit it!” she cried, more to herself than the others.

“A little unnecessary, but it worked,” said Robin, helping Jack up and watching as the first Apex backed away, stubby tail between its legs. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she panted, out of breath. The Apexes turned to look back at her for a moment, one of them bleeding profusely from a smoking shoulder wound. “That was a lot of recoil.” She eyed the gun, which was lying on the ground next to her innocently.

“That’s why it was banned,” a voice behind her said softly. Liam had joined them down at the bottom of the gorge. “Promise me you’ll never touch those guns again. Not just because it’s against the rules, but also because it’s dangerous.” He poked at Jack’s Quicksilver with the tip of his bare foot, which was crusted with black ice and black sores despite the Radiator that was wrapped around his ankle. Yuck.

“Promise me you’ll let us use it when we need to,” Bailey argued, stepping closer to Liam. “Sometimes you have to put yourself over the rules to survive.”

“Sometimes rules are all we have to protect us,” Liam countered, throwing his hands into the air.

“Calm down,” Robin said, getting between them. “Let’s fix the buggy before those Apexes get back. Then we can warm up with the heated seats, listen to some music, and see what needs to be done next. Liam, you’ve done radio work in the past, right?” Liam nodded and pulled out a thin screwdriver from his pack. “If you can fix the general communications line in the buggy, I might be able to radio the colony and request a pickup. I mean, they’re probably already looking for us. It won’t be long before rescue.”

“Right, then. Let’s get started,” Jack said. Liam and Bailey emptied their packs, pulling out supplies, and the three mechanics set to work on the buggy.

***

“It’s not perfect, but it’ll do,” Liam decided, studying the buggy. After a few hours of hard work, it was mostly fixed. “Alright, everyone climb in. Time to take it for a test drive.”

Robin hopped in the driver’s seat, Liam took the front, and the others were forced into the cramped backseat. This buggy was built for three, not four. Especially not for us two, Jack thought, Bailey’s elbow digging deep into her ribs. Robin put the buggy and gear and eased it forward at a slow pace. “Acceleration seems to be working.”

“Try the main comm and see if you can radio the colony,” Jack said, peering through the windshield as the buggy rumbled out of the gorge. Her brother reached up,pulled the comm down from where it was hanging, and dialed 382, the number of their colony.

“Krkh...krkh...I’m sorry, this holopad is unavailable at the moment. Please try again in—krkh—” The line cut out in a blaze of static.

Robin’s brow furrowed. “That’s unusual. They always have someone on the comm.”

“Try again,” Bailey suggested, tapping her boot on the ythafone mat and playing with her now-compact gun.

As Robin dialed, Jack turned and whispered, “Could you please put that away? You’re making me nervous.”

“Whatever floats your boat,” Bailey teased, casually dropping the gun into her pack.

“Hello?” a voice came over the comm, ending the conversation. Whoever it was sounded out of breath and panicked.

“Um..hello? This is Robin Amundsen, codename Bird, reporting along with Bailey Katadolo, Liam Griffiths, and Jacklyn Ferris-Amundsen,” Robin said, almost tentatively. “We’re reporting from buggy 2X-T and are trapped in the wilderness, at least a few miles from the colony. Requesting a search operation and pickup.”

There was a pause and muffled static, then another voice came on the line. It was Sierra. “Hi, Robin! Hi, Jack! Hi...other people.”

“Sie, what are you doing on the line?” Robin asked incredulously, with a big grin on his face. Jack’s shoulders slumped in relief. It felt so good to hear a familiar voice on the line. Sierra’s felt especially good after all she’d been through the past few weeks. “You’re not allowed to be in the main office!”

Their sister paused for a moment, as if debating whether or not to tell them something. “Yeah. About that.” She sounded tired and worried. Jack instinctively leaned forward and clutched the back of Liam’s seat. “There was...an incident. At the colony.”

“What kind of ‘incident’?” he asked, worry lacing his voice.

“Kind of a big one…?”

Jack jumped into the conversation. “Is anyone hurt?”

“No, I mean, not a lot of people. Only eight people died.” The buggy was filled with silence as the four of them stared at each other, eyes wide. Eight people were killed. What is this?

“Sie, what happened?” Robin asked, clutching the steering wheel tightly and stopping the buggy so as to hear her better over the noise of the engine.

“We were about to send out a search party for you, so we geared up the buggies. But one of the mechanics opened the trunk of the main buggy to grab some parts and something attacked him. I don’t know how long it’d been living in the trunk. It grabbed the mechanic with its tongue and...ripped him apart!”

“What kind of Apex has a long tongue?” Robin mused.

“No kind, as far as the records show,” the first voice jumped in again. It continued, “This creature seems to have merged with the enclosed trunk, and when it saw its prey, detached itself. The other mechanics fired at it, but it was too fast and they couldn’t shoot it. That’s when all the other trunks popped open and more tongues shot out, followed by the creatures, which looked like giant, leathery anteaters.” Jack almost laughed instinctively at the image of ancient anteaters made out of leather, but her nerves kept the sound from escaping her.

The voice concluded with, “These creatures escaped the buggy garage and wrecked the atrium, tearing into whoever was in their way. We tried everything, but nothing seemed to be effective. We had to order an evacuation to a nearby colony, bringing only the essentials like the colony’s main radio and the emergency ration supply. The creatures made no attempt to follow us. This was not some historical anomaly. This was a deliberate attack on our colony.”

There was a terrible silence inside the buggy, except for the buzz of the engine. Eight people who will never see their families again. Jack bowed her head, feeling as if she’d lost her balance. This is the start of something bad. Something very bad.

“I—I’m sorry,” Robin finally said. “What should we do then?”

“I will send you the coordinates of our new location on your buggy’s holomap. Follow the route and meet us there. None of our buggies are currently in working order, so you will have to make the drive yourself,” the voice instructed. There was a ping and a red dot showed up on the buggy’s map. “We wish you the best of luck and safe travels. Keep us updated. This is Falcon, signing out.” The line went dead before Sierra could get a chance to say goodbye to the others.

“Falcon? That was the General! We just spoke to the head of the entire colony operations program! I wonder if she knows about me,” Liam muttered, excited. Robin glared at his friend, who quickly fell silent.

“Let’s get going,” he said, his voice lacking the usual cheer. He tapped on the red dot and a course showed up on the 3D-hologram.

“Estimated time of travel: three hours and seven minutes,” the buggy informed everyone.

Robin gritted his teeth and called, “Buckle up!” He put the buggy into gear and shot up the rest of the gorge path to the surface, where they rumbled along the route at a high pace. Jack’s heart jumped in her chest every time they hit an ice bump in the road and were jolted upwards.

As they drove on through the afternoon, Jack thought back to what the dragon boy had said. Words flashed through her mind. Much worse than Apexes. Much worse.

Her breath caught in her throat as a horrible realization dawned on her. What if the dragon boy was talking about new creatures? How would he know that they were going to show up in the colony? He’s probably a nobody; an outcast. Wild accusations fluttered around in her head, and Jack pressed her fingers to her temples in an attempt to block them out.

“You okay?” Bailey asked, leaning over to look at Jack.

“Yeah,” Jack lied. I have to tell someone, and soon. This is eating me up. I can’t let this one guy get in my head. She sat back and let the warmth of the heated ythafone seats relax the tension in her muscles. I’ll tell Robin as soon as we get back. He’s got enough on his mind right now.

Soon, the buggy eased onto smoother terrain and fewer bumps jostled the passengers. Better get some sleep, Jack thought to herself, looking around. Bailey’s eyes were closed and she was leaning against the door. Liam was making cute (if Jack was being honest), almost imperceptible, snuffling noises as he slept. Only she and Robin were awake.

“I’m going to get some sleep. You good, brother?” she asked, careful to not wake the others.

“Go for it, little sis. I’ll wake you all up when we’re getting close,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the road.

“Goodnight,” she whispered as she turned over onto her side. Don’t worry, she coaxed herself. When you wake up, you’ll be back with the rest of your family. Just go to sleep. There’s nothing to worry about.

Nothing at all.