Lunar Rising

Standing under the cover of the metal greenhouse, I cradle myself in my arms, shaking. I’d seen John fall. And I didn’t do anything to help him. Neil still had Raven on his back, and Raven had passed out again. But me?

Empty-handed and empty-hearted, I had stood there with ice in my veins rather than blood. I stared at John, I shouted at him to get up. Then, the blinding white light prevented Neil and me from seeing anything more.

The hardest part was the knowing. I knew that it was too late to save him, but I also knew that I could risk trying if there was hope. Because what if it wasn’t too late?

Regret gnaws at me from the stomach. It consumes me in a rage that I can’t resist. I’m so angry. At what? Angry at how John had risked his life to help Raven? Or angry at myself for not going to help him as soon as he had fallen down?

Why couldn’t I risk my life for him as he had done for us?

Then I hear a rustling sound behind me. There is no time for sentiments right now. I turn around and survey my surroundings with narrowed eyes.

“Neil, you and Raven get behind me.”

I should’ve known that because this is the only building left, the government goons would’ve stationed themselves here. Neil hastily shuffles behind me, with his back to the open door. He hands me his blaster, and I prep it.

The greenhouse is silent. There is no sound except for the slight gurgle of water flowing through the pipes that stretch all over the room, next to the cases of plants and flowers. Above me, there is a large window with thick and protective material, shining pale white rays of light into the room.

Something’s off with this peaceful setting.

Suddenly, at the corner of my eye, I notice a shadow move. It can’t be a plant’s leaves moving. There’s no wind here.

I flip out the blaster and fire twice. The jets of fire silently glide through the air, fast and sharp, and they meet their mark. A loud cry is emitted into the greenhouse, and a man dressed in dark clothes stumbles out from his hiding spot, clutching his chest. My aim is impeccable.

At the sound of his cry, several more men leap out from their positions. My hands, trained and guided with instinct, pull the trigger swiftly. Three men go down, rolling to put out the flames. I’ve never handled a home-made blaster before, though.

“Neil!” I hiss in a panic. “I’m out of flammable gas bullets!”

He yanks the blaster from me unceremoniously and turns a couple knobs, but it takes much too long. Two men reach Raven and I. Whipping out my arm, I use my elbow to shove one away as I trip the other by swinging out my foot. The first man comes back quickly and dodges my flying fists. Then the second man surges in from behind me and attempts to grab my arms.

Neil comes to the rescue with his blaster. He fires two bolts of electricity, and the men fall down. I twist away from the second man’s grasp and snag the tranquilizer guns from both of the men’s belts.

Turning to fire, Neil and I stand nearly back to back, with Raven in between us. Our shots sometimes miss, hitting plants and pots instead. They fall to the ground with loud crashes, and somewhere near the far end of the greenhouse, a water pipe bursts and streams of water leak out, making the floor slippery. I fire at a man, but it takes me two shots to hit him. The first shot whizzes past his ear and grazes the side of a large tank of carbon dioxide. A tear in the side, very small, lets out gas in a thin whistling sound. Raven coughs from the loud disturbance and opens his eyes to see the battle.

“Stay low, Raven!” I shout through the sound of blasters.

“Where’s John?” he replies after looking around.

Caught off guard by his question, I slow down and one of the men’s hands connects with my side and sends me tumbling into the potted plants. A long table lined with pots is pushed back, and a few of the flowers on it fall over, spilling the dark brown dirt inside their glass cases. I launch myself from the table and jump onto the man’s shoulders before jerking him face-first into the same table. Then, a quick shot with the tranquilizer, and he’s down.

Suddenly, I hear Raven’s scream. I spin around to see a man grab him and drag him to the door, preparing to toss him outside into the radiation. I yell and dash forward, tranquilizing the man and kicking him aside to trip another man.

“Hey, Raven, you alright?” I ask him. His face is contorted with pain. Wheezing for air, he whispers:

“Behind you, Charlotte!”

My arm flashes behind me and tranquilizes the ambusher, without even glancing back.

Neil’s voice reaches me. “Charlotte, I think that’s all of them!”

I turn around to look at the scene. Men lay scattered on the floor. The greenhouse is a wreck.

“What do we do with these government people?” Neil asks me.

I carefully formulate my words. “We can’t allow them to escape with information regarding us being here, but we can’t kill them either.”

“Then…what are we going to do now?” Raven huffs. “We can’t stay in this greenhouse forever with them.”

“The lunar rising will only last for one more hour, no more.” I tilt my head upwards to look at the skylight. “It doesn’t seem like this lunar rising will end anytime soon. Neil, help Raven to a wall so that he can lean against it. I’ll grab the first aid kit. There has to be one here.”

Neil goes to help Raven, and I step cautiously over the sprawled men on the wet floor. I can see a panel beside the broken water pipe. Pulling the latch on the panel, I open it up to find a variety of emergency items, but the only one I grab is the first-aid kit. Then I raise my foot to step over a man. Right as my other foot crosses his chest, his eyes shoot open, and his hand flashes out to grab my ankle.

As I come crashing down to the ground, pulled by his arm, I let out a yelp. Neil looks up and pulls out his blaster. The man and I dissolve into a fight, punching and kicking at each other. One of his fists slam into my forehead, sending the world spinning and me falling to the floor in a daze. He dives towards me and I manage somehow to roll away.

Then he reaches out once more and catches my arm, digging his fingernails into the skin. I scream and kick him away. My arm is bleeding; the skin is torn but not deeply. I suck in my breath and clamber away from the man, but not before he hits the side of my head with one of his large hands. His other hand fumbles for the back-up gun at his belt, and his thick fingers try to unclasp the little strap holding it in place.

My head feels like a pickaxe is slamming into it repeatedly. Picking up the fallen first-aid kit, I swing the metal box towards his head and watch with some satisfaction as the metal meets his skull. A sickening crack, and the man lets out a huff before collapsing.

Blood pools around the back of his head and creates a river on the floor, merging with the trickles of water from the water pipe. I brush myself off and stand, clutching the first-aid kit that had just saved my life. My arm and my head throb, but my head most of all. I can hardly stumble away from the dead man. As I near Neil, whose hands are still on the blaster and the fingers are still curled gently on the trigger, I can tell that he’s trembling a bit. His blaster only stuns, but it doesn’t kill. I’ll wager that he’s never seen a person die until today.

I can’t look at him, or back at the man that I’d just killed.

“Come on, here’s the first aid kit. Let’s hurry up and bandage Raven’s leg properly.”

Neil hesitates before reluctantly taking the kit from me. After a few minutes, Raven stands up, leaning on me. His leg looks much better now.

“Can you walk?”

“Yes, I think so.” He looks around the greenhouse at the ruined plants and the busted water pipe, and the men lying in their own puddles of blood. Shock and disgust cross his face.

Neil clicks his blaster off and shoves it into his belt. “I think this greenhouse is clear of anyone else but us. I’ll go around and check things out, just to make sure.”

I don’t like the idea of Neil being alone, but I know that ensuring our safety is a must. Also, someone needs to stay and protect Raven, and I would never let more harm get to him.

“Come back in fifteen minutes.” I tap my watch to set a timer. “If you don’t come back by then, I’m gonna take Raven with me and look for you.”

“I’d prefer not, but I’ll try to come back before twenty minutes have passed.” Neil’s eyes sweep across the room. “If there’s any trouble, you’ll be bound to hear it.”

Neil walks off and disappears into the corridors wrapping around the dome-like greenhouse. The sound of his boots echoes softly and then fades away.

“I hope he comes back soon,” whispers Raven. “He’s the only one with the blaster.”

“Why didn’t he make and bring more?”

“I thought he would’ve made more, but I didn’t like him making these things, so I guess he stopped.”

Raven and I wait together for Neil to return. Raven practices walking while using my shoulder for support. We walk back and forth, and then, when he gets tired, we sit together next to an upturned table of pots and breathe in the damp, earthly smell of dark soil and green leaves.

I have not lost my sharp sense for movement. While Raven rests, I turn on Super-Ear and listen for any strange sounds.

Raven starts talking, and I turn it off so that I can focus on what he’s saying.

“These plants remind me of Earth,” he says. “My family has always liked flowers, but we never had the chance to try to grow them.”

I shrug. “They’re pretty and colorful. But they’ve never interested me.”

“I like Earth.” Raven is in deep thought. It creates a shroud that envelopes our conversation. “Even though it’s not so great now, the history it has is still pretty incredible.”

I frown. “So many animals have lived there, and in the end, we are the species that destroys the planet.”

“But we can also be the species that saves it.” Raven argues.

Suddenly, the foggy shroud around us pops. My watch begins to beep as the timer that I had set goes off. Fifteen minutes have passed, and I could hear the small sound of footsteps.

“Neil’s back,” I mutter, getting up and shutting off the timer. I give Raven a hand as he stands up too.

“I don’t like this place,” Raven murmurs in my ear. “This greenhouse provides vegetables and fruits, but why is it in the middle of nowhere? The other greenhouses are all attached to the city’s upper stories. And what are the chances that this building is protected against the lunar rising’s radiation, when only government-run objects are?”

“I don’t like how we’re trapped here.” I point outside. “The lunar rising keeps us inside. If there’s too much trouble here, we won’t be able to escape.”

The footsteps grow louder. Raven and I turn towards the entrance of a sloping corridor that spirals around the greenhouse. The door opens, and to our relief, it’s only Neil.

Neil’s blaster is out, and his gaze is steely and focused. “Guys,” he says in an urgent voice, “I found someone.”

Raven and I exchange glances.

“Who?” we ask in unison.

Neil just shakes his head and motions for us to follow him down the hallway.

The lights down this hallway are dark until Neil flips a switch.

“I didn’t want to turn on the lights before, because if there was someone else here, it would’ve given me away,” Neil explained. “But I checked, and double checked. There’s only one hallway here, and it’s this one. It circles the building twice before it ends at the top. There’s a room there that is locked, so I didn’t go inside.”

“Where is the person you mentioned?” I asked.

Neil nodded towards a small figure, hiding in the shadows of the hall.

“Come out,” Neil coaxed. “These are my friends. We’re not going to hurt you.”

I stifle a gasp as a child steps out. She’s a small girl with light green hair and purple eyes. I can tell that she is from a family who loves getting into the latest trend of hair and eye color. But where are her parents?

“Hello,” I say, standing still.

The girl shuffles slightly closer. She looks pale, terrified. She appears to be six or seven.

“What’s your name?” Raven asks her.

“Emilia,” she replies after a second. Her gaze flies to Raven’s leg and then she looks away. “My name is Emilia.”

“Emilia, how did you get here?”

She seems more curious of us than afraid, yet she refuses to answer straightaway.

“Did you walk here?” I ask.

“My parents run this greenhouse.”

“Where are your parents now?”

“I don’t know.” She gasps and bursts into tears.

Neil looks at us awkwardly. None of us have experience with a child. Tentatively, I reach out and pull her into an embrace. Raven leans against the wall.

The little girl presses herself against me, as if she is relieved to deposit her weary burden of emotion. Emilia cries into my shirt. Wrapping my arms protectively around her, I can feel her shaking as I hear her muffled sobs.

“There were a bunch of men,” she sniffles. “They were dressed in black, and when they ran past me, they told me to get out of the way. Then they took my mom and my dad away. They… they wouldn’t even let me go with them.” Emilia wipes her nose on her sleeve. I flinch but I don’t say a word to interrupt her. “Then the men went everywhere and became very quiet, like mice.”

“What did they do? Are they still here?”

“Many of them didn’t even see me. The ones who did told me to stay aside.”

“How many?” urges Neil, his hand ready on the blaster, “How many men?”

“Lots,” Emilia replies. “Lots and lots of them.”

Right as she says this, I see dark shapes emerge from the sides of the hallway, creeping out from their various hiding places. Five pairs of eyes are trained on us like wolves. Five blasters are pointed directly at our chests.

A feeling of dread creeps into my stomach.

“Neil, you checked the halls. You said there was no one here.”

“Oh yeah, but… I was lying.”

Neil looks at me with something in his eyes that’s he’s never had before. The girl runs and stands next to him, suddenly calm and cool. Both of their attitudes have suddenly changed.

“Sorry, guys.” Neil takes out his blaster and turns it on, pointing it right at us. “I know you didn’t expect this.”