Dark Future (13 page)

ConRad was the last man on earth I wanted to help. “Why would I help that bas—”

“Stop! No questions. His life is in danger.”

The wild look in her eye broke my mind’s fog. Could this be true? Did ConRad need me? Was this why I’d come here? I backed away, turned, and started up to the main base.

“Kris!” Quinn shouted. I glanced over my shoulder to see Quinn staring into nothing, eyes clouded over with inky black. “You’ll need a grenade. Don’t forget the grenade,” she whispered.

I started to run.

Chapter Seventeen

T
he echo of gunfire ricocheted off the metal doors that lined the passageway. The ceiling rumbled, pouring dirt and pebbles down on me. I threw my arms up in cover and ran toward the command center. Screams of men in pain broke through the low roar of battle. Then an ear-splitting shriek—high in pitch, deafening in volume. Not human. Not machine. Terror struck my body like lightning. I turned and threw myself to the ground, clamped my hands over ears, and squeezed my eyes shut. My head shook in disbelief. Only one thing could make that sound. I’ve heard it before. Would never forget. Alien.

There were aliens in the compound. A sob broke as I turned back and crawled over rocks and fallen debris.
Run. Hide. Live.

But ConRad needed me.

I swung my head back and forth.
No.

“NOOOOO!” My scream echoed down the deserted tunnel.

I glanced behind me. The monsters were close. With just a turn of one corner, I’d be at the command center. A spasm shot through my bowels.

On hands and knees I hung my head in shame.
I can’t. I can’t.

I heard Quinn’s voice.
I pray you’ll learn what you need to do this time.

I closed my eyes and looked within myself. Past the thick tar-like fear, deep beyond my churning intestines and my blood drunk on adrenaline was a small pocket of light. I dug deep and tentatively grasped the glowing ball.
Heat. Strength.
The ice of fear thawed from my muscles.

Turning, I belly-crawled forward.

Hard gray scaled bodies towering ten feet tall were attached to elongated oval heads. Wide front-facing eyes shined like tiny black mirrors. A double-hinged jaw, racked with razor-sharp teeth opened to half a grown man’s length. Viscous white slimed their bodies and dripped from stubby arms and claw-like fingers. Mucus mixing with blood whipped about as they moved at inhumanly fast speeds, coating the dead and walls alike.

The outside tunnel had been breached. The men who’d been guarding the entrance lay below in pieces. One by one, the aliens slithered out through the narrow entrance, crawled over bodies, and attacked.

I cowered, hovering on the side lines. The scene was like nothing I’d ever known. Machine guns fired and sprayed the room, hitting some targets, bouncing off the majority. Aliens swooped, dismembered, and beheaded soldiers in seconds. Bodies slid apart on their razor claws like tissue paper.

A man, a few feet away from me, was unloading his machine gun at the enemy. Quicker than an inhaled breath, a claw reached out. His gun dropped with a clatter by my feet, blood sprayed across my face.

The warmth along my cheek set me to motion. I dropped to the floor and using a headless body as cover—
don’t think about it
—I scanned the carnage for ConRad. The majority of soldiers left were defending the two double doors opposite the tunnel. I remembered ConRad telling me what lay beyond the heavily guarded doors. The Earth Portal.

I knew what this battle meant. If the aliens got to the portal, all human life would be lost. This was survival. It was them or us. My choice: Die here or die later. There was no in between.

Sweat rolled into my eyes. I swiped at my face, grabbed the gun, and crawled to a nearby overturned metal table. A small band of soldiers were somewhat successfully protecting the red double doors to the portal. Peering over the barrier, I saw ConRad in the forefront barking orders and firing guns. He was so far away. My heart sank. We were separated by a dozen feet, but it might as well have been oceans. Piled between us were the dead, both human and monster, and, of course, live killing-efficientlin="0 aliens.

A grenade was thrown, exploded, and killed off two of the closest aliens. Cockroach bits flew. I swallowed burning bile back down my throat.
Grenade!
Quinn had said I needed one. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but having an explosive was as good of a place to start as any.

“ConRad!” My voice was hoarse, I tried again and succeeded. His head snapped around and his eyes caught mine. A stricken look flashed across his face, and then it was gone. He whipped his head forward, refocusing on trying to stay alive.

“I need a grenade,” I screamed to be heard over the noise. An emphatic shake of his head was my answer.

I ducked back behind my metal barrier, lying as close to the ground as possible. The air was thick with smoke, dust, and the hot smell of gunfire. I tried, right? I asked and did not receive. The Prophesy must be wrong, or at least Quinn’s most recent vision. I’d done my best, tried to do what I was supposed to do, but the continuation of the human race was not up to me. My eyes were already plotting my escape route as a grenade flew over and hit the opposite wall, bounced, and rolled slowly, as if hand-delivered, to my feet.

A second of paralysis, then a bloodcurdling scream as I covered my head. This was it.
Death by being blown to bits.
A few stilted breaths later and I found the courage to peek through my fingers. The little doodad with a small ring-sized circle was still wedged in the top. I’d never handled a grenade, much less seen one in real life, but I’d watched plenty of movies, and they were educational, right? Linda Hamilton threw dozens of grenades and never blew herself up. Besides the mechanics seemed simple enough. Clamp down the lever, remove circle-thingy with teeth, then throw and release toward target. Under no circumstances were the steps to be reversed or, God forbid, done out of order. Of that, I was quite certain.

My sweaty fingers shook and wrapped themselves around the cold grenade.
Don’t think
. If I gave myself a second of hesitation, I’d chicken out. I jumped over the table and ran in the opposite direction of the battle—toward the entrance tunnel itself.

Time slowed. The compromised entrance seemed a mile away, when in reality it was only a few feet. Aliens poured out of the tunnel like rats leaving a sinking ship. Crouching low, I used the body carnage as cover. I grasped the gritty metal pin with my teeth and spat it on the ground.

For a split second my courage faltered. I needed to throw the grenade as far into the tunnel as possible, ideally pitching it over their heads so it wouldn’t bounce back and blow me up instead. My plan was to execute a triple front flip, stay suspended in mid-air, while simultaneously imuittlehitting my mark. This was possible, I knew, since I’d seen every
Matrix
movie at least twice. But maybe only high-paying Hollywood actresses could pull that one off. So I decided to do what I did best—run like hell.

I ran and leapt with all my strength toward the hole in the mountain. There was a loll in the incoming alien bodies. I threw the grenade into thick blackness. I crashed to the ground and slid to a stop when my head thudded against the wall. A loud explosion, flames burst out of the side of the mountain. Then my vision narrowed to black.

I
woke to find three ConRad’s staring down from above. My head hurt too badly to try and merge them together, besides something was wrong with his face. He was all pasty white and grim looking. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was scared. “What happened?”

“You’re awake?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to be.” I groaned. “My head. Did I hit it?”

“That and every other body part. How do you feel?”

“Like I hit my head and every other body part.” I raised myself up on one elbow and glanced around. I’d somehow been carried from the command center and was laying in one of the many adjoining pathways. ConRad was kneeling besides me, his hands clenched on his thighs.

“What happened? I remember throwing the grenade, an explosion, and then not much else.”

He turned his attention to the ground, and took a deep breath as if he needed a moment to focus himself. “When I first caught sight of you, you were flying through the air within inches of an alien’s razor-sharp teeth. I thought I’d see your head leave your body for sure. But you made it, by the goddesses, I don’t know how, but you did. Then the grenade went off inside the tunnel.”

I nodded. That must’ve been the explosion I remembered.

ConRad shook his head in disbelief. “How did you know to do that?”

“Do what?” My body hurt and for some reason I wanted to burst into tears.

His mouth twitched at the corners. My treasonous heart responded, skipping beats at ConRad’s version of a smile. “You triggered an earthquake of sorts and collapsed the whole tunnel, sweetheart. All the alien AlMy s in the tunnel were crushed under a thousand tons of dirt and rock.”

“And the rest?”

“With no new recruits we were able to take out the remaining aliens, and still maintain the integrity of the portal.”

“In other words we kicked butt?”

“If that saying means like it sounds, then yes.” He smiled fully—this one reached his eyes.

I cut my glance away and swallowed hard. “The wounded . . . they need my help,” I said, trying to push myself to a sitting position.

ConRad shook his head. “There are no wounded. They’re dead or alive, not much of an in-between with this battle.”

I closed my eyes in regret, but decided to get up anyways. “I feel better. Let me try to stand.”

“Good.” He helped me to my feet. “We’re evacuating the compound in fourteen hours. This place was barely habitable to begin with and now it’s toxic.”

I searched the area around me, trying to find anything familiar in the destruction. Debris was everywhere. Overturned tables and chairs, and computer monitors were thrown about and broken. Live copper wiring crackled and swayed from the ceiling. And of course the bodies. Blood flowed from alien and human alike. Unidentifiable parts were strewn about like a scene from the gruesome underworld.

I could never have imagined anything so horrific. Instinctively, I looked toward ConRad, trying to reach out for comfort. He stared at the same scene, but with his concrete mask in place. I reached for his hand, knowing he’d lost good men and very likely friends today. My fingers brushed his. He clamped his hand around mind. A surge of desperation waved through me. Then, as if it never happened, I was released and pushed away.

“I am glad that you are all right,” he mumbled, turned, and walked down the corridor.

How could he be so cold? He’d just walked away like he could barely tolerate my presence. Stunned at his callousness, I leaned against the wall. Hot tears found their way down my cheeks. Angrily, I wiped them away, pissed at my sign of weakness.

My head pounded. I squeezed my skull with my hands, hoping to keep it from kesize="bursting apart and spraying against the wall. My legs shoo
k. The adrenaline that surged through my body crashed, leaving me below rock bottom. I bit down on my bloodied finger, hard, and tried to get a hold on myself.

I needed to get out of here. Away from the blood and smell of death. My hope of escape with the goddess Aura had crumbled along with the destruction of the command center. I would never go home, never leave this hell.

I needed to be safe. If only for two minutes, I needed protection. Hadn’t he promised he’d protect me? He said the “claiming” was forever. He couldn’t just pull his protection whenever he felt like it. It didn’t work like that. In seconds, I was going to lose my blasted mind. And if I was, then it best be on the one man who could handle it, iceman himself. ConRad.