Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Nathan Pierce took a few minutes after writing his note to enjoy the sunset from his perch on the stationary merry-go-round. Washing the cloudy sky in brilliant shades of crimson and orange, the setting sun squeezed out the remnant of the day’s warmth to make way for the chilling night. It was a serene scene, one Nathan had come to enjoy the last few evenings he spent in the untainted section of the Broken Lands.

A cool breeze moved in from the distant mountain ranges, blowing across Nathan’s bare arms, carrying the scent of rain with it. I should grab my jacket from the pickup truck, he thought, but I don’t want to miss any part of the sunset. He knew the sunsets wouldn’t last forever—in fact, he was surprised this portion of the Broken Lands hadn’t been smothered in complete darkness like most of the world had.

The rest area the small playground resided in had been bombed. The restrooms and snack machines were nothing more than rubble, but miraculously, the playground had survived. It served as a sanctuary.

Nathan picked up his backpack and shoved his notes and pen inside, next to his pistol and a mask made of black stone. The backpack and its contents were the only things he owned besides the clothes on his back, his ichthys necklace, and a profusion of memories of his harrowing journey that began on the stage of his high school graduation and continued across Arizona and California.

“Hey.” Ginger sat down on a patch of yellow grass next to the merry-go-round. He looked down at her and smiled. Her hair was still up in pigtails, and she still wore her khaki shorts and green long-sleeve shirt, with the sleeves rolled up and a yellow and white daisy patch she had crudely sewn onto the left arm. She had added a long black sweater coat to compensate for the lack of pants, and her pistol hung snugly from the holster on her right hip.

As much as he wanted to be alone, to enjoy the sunset by himself, Nathan didn’t really mind Ginger’s presence by his side. Over the last few days, since his sister’s burial, he had gotten to know Ginger a little better each day. She had many qualities that reminded him of his sister, like her swiftness to take action, her sense of humor—something that took a while to come out, and her positive outlook regardless of her circumstances.

“The sunset is beautiful tonight,” Ginger whispered.

Nathan nodded, agreeing with her more than words could express. At one point in time, not too long ago, he had taken each sunset, each sunrise, and everything in between for granted. The splash of colors on the horizon was a second chance for him to appreciate God’s handiwork, even if these beautiful paint strokes were sure to fade soon. Each day, Nathan kept a close eye on the darkening storm clouds surrounding the Broken Lands, and each day he noticed they were growing larger. By his estimate, the clouds would overtake the clear sky within a matter of days.

This made each sunset special.

“The next town is about four miles ahead of us,” Ginger said.

“Good.” As they traveled across the Broken Lands, they continued to find abandoned neighborhoods, towns and houses, some utterly destroyed by the bombs President Stone had ordered to be dropped on the landscape—giving the Broken Lands their name. But some homes and buildings still stood, as if in vehement opposition to the president’s will to annihilate them. Most of these had been abandoned, left behind to rot away in the darkness. These were the ones that Nathan, Ginger, Ericka Shane, and the rest of Daisy’s Defiance used as shelters to sleep in and recuperate. Very few locations held any useful supplies, but some areas had vehicles from which the group siphoned gasoline and pulled parts to keep their trucks running, while others had food, which kept Daisy’s Defiance fed.

“We can stay there for the night,” Ginger said. “I think we’ll be able to reach Providence—and the plane wreckage—tomorrow.”

Nathan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The scent of rain relaxed him almost to the point of slumber. If it rained, he would dance in it until it stopped. He knew if his sister were still alive, she would do the same.

Her death had not been in vain. Through snippets of radio broadcasts, Nathan and his friends had learned that Daisy’s death had upset everything the president had strived so hard to establish. Instead of bringing the world together by demonstrating the consequences for disobeying the Falling Star Directives, the execution of his sister had only opened everyone’s eyes to the depths this country had fallen to—the public murder of a young, innocent woman to prove a point. The president’s sanctuary zones were being overthrown by those within, opening the cities to those who wandered the Broken Lands. The American Government had all but dissolved, especially with the president’s death—courtesy of Ginger’s sniping skills—and it seemed as if small colonies of people were already beginning to separate themselves from anything to do with the president or the Falling Star Directives. All of this was conveyed to Nathan and his friends via rogue radio broadcasts.

Nathan understood now, for the most part, why his sister had to die. He missed Daisy, but at least her death hadn’t been a waste. Nathan opened his eyes and caught sight of the sunset again. He smiled at its beauty. Please, God, give us safety. He prayed the same prayer each time Daisy’s Defiance approached one of these abandoned or mostly destroyed settlements, and each time the group found safety. He felt a sense of peace, which he attributed to the absence of Legion’s malevolent forces.

“The smoke from the plane wreckage stopped yesterday,” Ginger said.

The plane they had witnessed shortly after Daisy’s burial resembled a stealth bomber and had gone down across the horizon with a plume of smoke pouring out its engines. It looked to be heading into Providence, near the foothills. Ericka Shane—at one time a reporter for the Global News Network—had told Nathan she did a special on the leader of Providence a while back. She said she remembered him being an ultra-billionaire who was criticized for creating the city—with the help of SilverTech Industries—with castle-like walls and a special energy field to appease his paranoia about invading countries and World War III.

Coincidentally, before leaving Nathan, the woman with the blue eyes—the same one Nathan had seen on his graduation day and whom had recently told him it was time to fight—instructed him that the Almighty—God—wanted him to head south toward Providence.

Aside from that, and the crashed plane, he had received no other directions. And when he decided to make it his goal to reach Providence to see what God would have him do next, Daisy’s Defiance—every remaining member of his section of Daisy’s Defiance—agreed to go with him. It was a grim but sobering realization that nobody really had any other direction.

Nathan wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or not, but he could have sworn the plane that crashed looked like one of Vector’s transport ships—like the one Heather had boarded when she left him back in Los Angeles weeks earlier. He tried to ignore the possibility that it could be one of Vector’s aircraft. If it was, though, he knew there was a chance Heather could have been on it. And if she had been, she may not have survived the crash, meaning she could be just another corpse in the wake of Nathan’s journey across a darkening world. For the moment, he was content not knowing Heather’s whereabouts, not knowing if she was dead or alive. Content with the unknown. He could spend the rest of his life not knowing where Heather was or if she was even alive, but keeping hope that she was. If he found out otherwise, that she was dead…if he discovered that another of his friends had died…

“We should leave soon,” Ginger whispered.

Nathan knew she was being kind with her request. It was more a hint of what Daisy’s Defiance was going to do than a request for Nathan’s permission to move on. They all knew it wasn’t safe to stay in one spot for too long. Although they had enjoyed safety the last three days, there was no telling how long it would last.

Nathan stared at the sunset a minute longer, attempting to burn the image into his mind, give himself something to refer to when the darkness ate the rest of the world. Then he zipped up his backpack and stood with it in hand and stretched. A strong breeze moved the nearby swings back and forth. The creaking sound from the metal chains reminded Nathan of when he was younger and would swing so high that he swore he would flip over the bar.

Ginger stood up, brushing dead grass blades from her rear. “Sorry to rush you. I know you like to wait until the sun has completely disappeared behind the mountains to move forward.”

“It’s okay,” he said with sincerity. “I’m getting hungry. And tired. We need to reach the next town and find cover before it gets too dark.”

They walked back to one of the pickup trucks parked along the rest area curb. Ginger gathered everyone from their loitering spots along the way. The rest of Daisy’s Defiance had been watching the sunset, chatting with one another, or reading from the few books they had taken out of the city with them. When Nathan passed by, the people looked on him with awe and respect flooding their eyes—the same looks they had been giving him since his sister’s burial. He didn’t want to be looked at in such a way. He wanted to blend in, to disappear. He didn’t feel he had done anything special—at least nothing anyone else wouldn’t have done if their sibling had been on the president’s chopping block.

Nathan tried to put his thoughts behind him and focus on the task at hand. The group was headed toward Providence, together, with no way of knowing what lay in store for them along the way or once they reached their destination.

Heather could be there, Nathan told himself. He quickly shook the thought away. She’s not there. She’s safe and sound with Vector. Could Pearl be there?

Hope rose in him. He missed Pearl more than anything but tried his best not to think about her. He feared he would never see her again and didn’t want to have his heart broken and beaten more than it already was. The last time he saw Pearl, she was unconscious, being taken away by one of Heaven’s elite, who saved him from Evanescence’s Soul Eater.

At least now she can’t be used as a key to unlock Earth’s most demonic creatures.

“Hey, Nathan.”

He turned and watched as Ericka Shane, dressed in a pair of jeans, and a hoodie, climbed into the back of one of the pickups. She sat against the back of the cab and crossed her legs, setting her hands in her lap as if she was ready to receive a gift from the sky.

“Hey,” he replied, climbing into the pickup with her. He grabbed his jacket off the top of the wheel well and slid it on as Ericka moved over to give him room to sit next to her. The old Ford Ranger’s glossy green paint was chipping away—probably a result of untold adventures—to reveal gray primer underneath.

Ericka smiled at Nathan as he sat down. Other members of Daisy’s Defiance climbed into the back of the pickup until the bed was full. Others climbed into the cab, and the engine started with a rumble. The other pickup came to life, and the caravan took off toward the highway and the next town, guided by bright headlights and the soft glow of the moon overhead.

I don’t remember when I saw the moon last, Nathan realized. Looking up, he could make out a few stars here and there between the broken cloud cover. He remembered the gift Hwami had given him the night of his graduation—the star named after him. Which one is mine?

The trucks exited the highway just past a sign that read STERLING CITY LIMITS.

“Sterling?” a young man sitting next to Nathan asked. “Why have I never heard of these towns we’re finding? I’ve lived in California my whole life, and I never even knew Echo existed.”

“Me neither,” a dark-skinned woman sitting across from them replied. “It’s almost as if these towns and cities are just appearing out of nowhere.”

Nathan remembered the strange school—Mercy Springs Elementary—which had appeared from 1983, the one in which he and Heather found Olivia. He recounted the disappearing apartment complex in Los Angeles—again tied to Olivia. Did she—or Ryn, the bizarre man she said haunted her dreams—cause more buildings and cities and towns to appear around the world? Or is it just everyone’s imaginations that these names don’t sound all that familiar? California is a pretty big state.

The pickups slowed through the main street of the town, allowing everyone to view the destruction.

“Well, the president’s bombs have certainly been here,” Ericka mumbled. Everyone murmured agreement. The buildings along the main street had been reduced to rubble. Brick and mortar, wood and glass. Heaps of destruction greeted the group at every block. An old bowling alley looked promising to Nathan, until he saw that the roof had caved in.

The pickups moved farther down the main street, into the center of the seemingly abandoned town. In the center of a parking lot to their left, a missile stuck out of the asphalt. It doesn’t look like it went off, Nathan noticed. He was just grateful the president hadn’t decided to drop nuclear warheads. That would have definitely brought an end to everything.

A mile farther down the road, they came upon what looked to have once been a small neighborhood—now piles of rubble, except for one lonely house that still stood, despite the destruction around it. A small iron fence surrounded the yard, which was full of overgrown grass and weeds. No lights emanated from the windows, but the moonlight brightened the white shingles on the roof.

The trucks stopped along the curb.

Ericka stood up and stared at the building before remarking, “Looks abandoned.”

Everyone started to exit the truck bed. Nathan took his time, not all that eager to find out if the house was indeed abandoned or not. They hadn’t run into any trouble yet—no demonic hordes, no visits from good ol’ Evanescence, no friendly conversations with Legion. Maybe everyone and everything thinks I’m dead, or maybe, because my sister actually passed—and the president was assassinated—it’s the end of things.

Ginger approached as Nathan hopped out of the truck. He tightened his backpack over his shoulders. Maybe I’ll get a chance to examine the mask I obtained from one of Legion’s prisoners without anyone noticing. He didn’t want to draw attention to it, especially if what he heard was true and there was an actual soul trapped inside. Maybe I can rescue or free the soul somehow. At the very least, he had to keep the mask out of the hands of the enemy—all of his enemies.

“Cover me?” Ginger asked, tightening the straps of her own backpack. “Someone has to check the house before we decide to make it our temporary home.”

Nathan nodded as he took his backpack off, pulling his pistol from it.

He caught a glimmer in Ginger’s eyes—happiness, possibly—but only for a moment. It was quickly replaced with seriousness as she pulled her own gun from its holster and opened the iron gate. A long cement path led from the gate to the porch. Three steps up, and Ginger and Nathan were at the front door. The others stood around the low iron fence, watching with anticipation. Some had their weapons drawn, ready to run inside if the situation warranted. Ginger carefully pulled on the handle of the screen door and swung it open on creaky hinges.

Nathan stood with his finger on the trigger of his gun, waiting for something to lunge out at the group. It had been too long, he realized, since he had held his somewhat civilized conversation with Legion back in Echo—before his sister’s death and the assassination of President Stone. It had been too long since Evanescence or the man in the red suit had paid Nathan a visit. It had been too long since he had seen any sign of demons or monsters or anything else out of the ordinary. Even the crashed vessels they passed on their journey through the Broken Lands, transports Legion had arrived on Earth in, seemed barren and stagnant, void of any signs of life.

With her gun in one hand, Ginger slowly turned the door knob with the other and pushed the door in. It swung open silently to a dark living room. Ginger reached around the corner to the wall and fumbled around, finally finding a switch that surprisingly illuminated the room.

There shouldn’t be electricity here, Nathan thought. The bombs would have taken everything out.

Ginger and Nathan stepped across the threshold, letting only the screen door shut between them and the outside world. Their footsteps cast clouds of dust into the light pouring out of the bowl-shaped lamp in the ceiling. A stained couch covered in a revolting flower pattern sat in one corner, abandoned by its owners like one of the many derelict vehicles Nathan had seen in recent weeks. A tall armoire with glass doors showcasing various glassware and plates took up half of the wall. A kitchen waited in the distance, while a short hallway extended off the living room and gave passage to darkness and other rooms. Rooms Nathan was not looking forward to investigating.

Ginger led the way into the kitchen. Once illuminated, it too revealed it had been abandoned, with cabinets and counters caked in dust, a bone-dry sink, and a refrigerator full of rotten food. Ginger and Nathan managed to find a cabinet full of canned food—various soups, vegetables, and Spam. It was enough to last them another day. Another day to reach Providence.

Quietly, Ginger motioned for Nathan to follow her into the dark hallway. The light switch didn’t work, but Ginger had her flashlight out and used it to reach the first room on their right. The door was closed, but Ginger didn’t tarry long before she opened it, tried another broken light switch, and filled the dark space with the glow from her flashlight. An empty toddler’s bed and a bookshelf full of children’s storybooks greeted them. Nathan briefly remembered the children’s classroom in Mercy Springs Elementary School—the room he had found Olivia in.

Ginger moved on to the next room. She found the door wide open, and when she turned the switch on and filled the room with artificial light, Nathan lifted his gun at the woman sitting on the edge of the four-poster bed. Her hair was a startling white, and she wore a white dress with black polka dots across its surface.

“You?” Nathan whispered.

Ginger raised her weapon. “Who is she, Nathan?”

“Legion.”

The woman nodded. “It is true. I am a single part of the whole entity. I do not wish you two harm, though. Nor do I wish to meddle with your friends outside. I simply wish to speak to Nathan Pierce of Earth. Alone.”

“I don’t think so,” Ginger snarled. “You better give me a reason not to shoot you right now before you have a chance to stand.”

The woman simply smiled. “Please,” she said softly, looking at Nathan. “I wish to speak, as we did back in your city of Echo.”

Nathan lowered his weapon. “Talk about what? My sister is dead. The president is dead. What do you want?”

She gave a suspicious glance Ginger’s way. “Alone. That is my requirement. It is not much to ask, is it?”

Ginger turned to Nathan for an answer. He nodded. She lowered her weapon and headed into the hallway. “I’ll be close by.”

Nathan put his gun away. He knew if she wanted to, this woman could easily obliterate him, regardless if he was armed or not. She scooted over and patted her hand on the bed, signaling that she wanted him to sit next to her. He hesitated just long enough to reveal that he was uncomfortable with her proposition.

“Please. If my intention was to harm you, I would have done so already.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t really feel comfortable around you.”

“You mistake me for the rest of my kind. Psychotic. Murderous. Hungry.”

“Hungry?”

She nodded. “For power. For ash.” She stood up from the bed and took a few steps toward him. She swayed her hips from side to side, clumsily at that, as if trying too hard to walk like a true woman might. “I told you before that I have been observing you. You fascinate me. I can’t say the rest of my kind share my fascination.”

“Why are you so fascinated with me? This whole time, all I’ve been trying to do is save my sister. And she died. Part of the reason she died was because Legion invaded Earth, so I guess I have you to thank for that. Now I have nothing left.”

“You have everything left.”

“I don’t follow.”

“The plane that crashed in your Providence city. Aboard is what you will need to win your war. For now.”

“My war?”

“Light against dark. Good against evil. Whatever you want to call it. Your real enemy isn’t necessarily Legion, is it? It is the one you call Satan. The Devil. The Dark One.”

“As far as I can tell, Legion is working with…him.”

“Legion has been working with him. But some of us…some of us want something more. More than this hunger for destruction, for chaos and madness. Some of us want what you would call peace.”

Nathan found himself stifling a laugh. He couldn’t bring himself to believe this rogue representative of Legion would want peace.

“You doubt me. I understand that completely. But I truly want to help you destroy the Dark One’s servants. Chaos and Evanescence.”

“Chaos?”

“The one who wears the red suit.”

“Why would you help me? And how?”

“More questions. You are always questioning. I find it…remarkable. Instead of shouting answers, instead of assuming to know all, you ask and you search and you blatantly let others know that you don’t know. You aren’t necessarily humble, but you take pride in your search for understanding. Understanding which has served you well.”

“I don’t have time for this. I’m not going to help you.”

The woman put a hand to her chest. “It is not I who I am trying to help. It is you.” She turned away, as if embarrassed by the confession about to leave her lips. “I am more than just fascinated with you. I feel…sympathy and respect for you. Your sister has been killed—fellow flesh and blood—and yet you continue moving forward.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he confessed. “I take each day as a gift. But I’m not sure where this road will ultimately lead me.”

She attempted to grin, again clumsily, her lips instead forming something between a frown and a grimace. “You have only further proven my point. You don’t know the end result of your actions of today. Yet you continue to move forward. You continue to…strive. There is a strange strength within you that I do not fully understand. This causes me—the individual me—to feel something between respect and adoration for you.

“I have not felt these things for any other human, any other species, in the universe. I have taken part in the obliteration of worlds. I have participated in what you would call genocide, of entire species. I am filled to the core with darkness. It is all I know. I see in you a light, one that I do not comprehend. One that I do not have the ability to comprehend.

“My time is coming soon when I will be consumed by my siblings, by myself.”

“What do you mean consumed?”

“Legion is one. We are many. But some of us are individual. We…we are what you would call rogues. I have developed my own…self-awareness. It hurts, it stings and burns, but it feels good. It feels…alive? My kind will not tolerate this. My kind will consume my essence soon, and I will be no more.” She looked at him with urgency flaring in her eyes. “I want very much to help you, Nathan Pierce of Earth. To help you destroy those who I know have plans to destroy us. The Dark One seeks to destroy Legion—sooner or later—and then my kind will be no more anyway. If I can somehow…turn the tables…I can bring advantage to my kind. To Legion.”

“Why would I possibly want to help you get an advantage? You’ll just turn around and destroy us if he doesn’t.”

“Yes, Legion will destroy the human species, as it has other species. But I…I, Viranda DelaCourte, desire to help you destroy the Dark One’s servants, Chaos and Evanescence, before I am destroyed myself.”

“Viranda?”

“I gave myself that name. I read it…in one of your species’ marvelous books. Stories…stories are the breadth of your imagination, I have learned. Beautiful stories. Wonderful stories. Stories of hope, of betrayal, like the betrayal I am currently taking part in. Treason against my kind. Treason against myself.”

Nathan heard Ginger shuffle her feet in the hallway near the edge of the doorway. He knew she was listening to everything, and he didn’t expect her to understand any of it—he didn’t even understand half of it—but he figured it was a good sign that she hadn’t lost her cool and interrupted their conversation yet.

“I desire to give you time to think this over. But there is no time. My kind—Legion—is already moving forward to destroy you. You, Nathan Pierce of Earth, and you, the human species. We have already captured enough of your kind and have them imprisoned in the Hopeless Bastille. Now the rest of your species will be decimated. That is the way of things.”

Nathan’s hand instinctively drew his pistol from his backpack. He refrained from pointing it directly at Viranda, but his finger jittered against the trigger as he pointed the gun toward the floor. “That is the way of things? You talk like it’s nothing to destroy an entire planet, to wipe out an entire species!”

She shrugged, adding to Nathan’s anger. “In all truthfulness, it doesn’t mean anything to me. It is who we/I am. It is what I/we do. Legion destroys. Legion consumes.”

Nathan took a deep breath. He knew the others outside were going to head in any minute to look for him and Ginger.

Viranda stepped toward him. When he didn’t flinch, she slowly reached out and took his hand, staring into his eyes. Her grip felt cold, like his hand was pressed against the back of a freezer. “The plane that crashed, it holds the key to your victory over the Dark One’s servants. It has been…a pleasure…speaking with you, Nathan Pierce of Earth. I desire to continue watching you, learning from your tactics and unconventional strategies, but I sense my kind are already on their way to destroy me for my treason.”

She let go of his hand and sat on the edge of the bed again. “I will wait here,” she said softly. “For nothing, no one, can escape Legion’s grasp. Not even Legion itself. Not even me.”

I wish I could take her with me, Nathan thought, though not sure why. She’s the enemy, clearly. Legion is the enemy. But has this lone female—or whatever she is—indeed gone rogue? And is she truly struggling with her independence from this cohesive unit known as Legion?

She waved him away. “I must apologize. I lingered too long, and now my kind know you are here. The Sphere has brought the Age of Restraint to an end. Now the Age of Destruction has come, and I am…curious…if you will be able to avoid its effects.”

Nathan backed into the hallway, keeping a close eye on Viranda.

Ginger flanked him, her weapon still drawn. “We should kill her now,” she whispered.

Nathan felt conflicted. Legion can’t be trusted. But Viranda confirmed that we’re on the right path headed to the crash site. It can’t be a trap, can it? I sure hope not.

Screams erupted outside. Nathan and Ginger rushed to the front door. When Ginger opened the screen door, Nathan caught a glimpse of a naked female outside with bright orange hair. He grabbed Ginger’s wrist, pulling her to the side of the doorway, out of view. He turned toward the window to his left and peered through the blinds. He saw two nude females—the one with orange hair and another with a shaved head. Swirls of black ink covered their most intimate parts. They moved through the crowd like phantoms, barely touching each member of Daisy’s Defiance before turning them into pillars of black and red ash that lingered in the air like frozen snowfall.

Nathan pressed his back against the wall and tried to catch his breath. It took him a minute to realize he was squeezing Ginger’s hand. He let go, and she peeked around the wall to see what was going on through the screen door.

When she gasped, Nathan pulled away from the wall and grabbed her wrist again, this time yanking her toward the kitchen.

“We have to get out of here,” he whispered.

“They…they’re gone?”

“Yes.” He turned off the kitchen light and made his way toward the back door. When he saw the back door boarded up, he quickly hid himself and Ginger in the bottom cabinets nearest the refrigerator.

“What the hell was that?” Ginger asked. “What the—”

Nathan put his hand over Ginger’s mouth. “Shh. They’ll kill us if they find us. Just keep quiet,” he whispered.

They crouched silently, crammed into the small, dark space together. Nathan could smell his own sweat. Bare footsteps pattered across the kitchen tile.

“Where is she?” one of the Legion females asked.

“She is here. I can…I can sense her. She is attempting to cut off her Chord of Conduct and break away from the control of the Sphere completely.”

“Yes. She must be stopped before…wait, I hear her breathing. I sense her human form in the next room.”

Footsteps trailed out of the kitchen. Nathan closed his eyes and waited. He heard voices through the wall behind him.

“You cannot run anymore.”

“I don’t wish to run anymore. I have done what I desired to do.”

“You contacted the human, Nathan Pierce of Earth.”

“Yes, I did. I could do nothing to help myself. I am… enthralled…consumed…by him.”

Silence.

Nathan shifted his knees, pulling them closer to his chest. Ginger sighed. Her breath smelled like rotten onions.

“Your rebellion must be purged.”

“I understand. Please…make it quick.”

“No.”

A scream traveled through the surface of the wall. Nathan couldn’t hear anything beyond that.

He and Ginger waited for what felt like hours. Trembling, Ginger crawled out of the cabinet and stood in the kitchen.

Nathan crept out behind her. We should flee the house, but I have to see what occurred in that room. And then, to his surprise, he wondered, is Viranda okay?

Nathan cautiously entered the hallway, weapon drawn. He reached the bedroom and looked inside. To his disgust and surprise, Viranda’s body hung naked, her arms and legs spread and fastened between the posts of the bed, stretching her in an X position. A frightened look remained on her face, her eyes large but empty, her lips turned downward. A contraption the size of a soup can—a silver metal cylinder etched with glowing blue neon—had been shoved into the center of her chest, just far enough to tear the skin. A large circle at the end of the contraption hummed with a yellow glowing pulse. Blood pooled underneath her hanging corpse. The device appeared to be doing something to her.

Ginger entered the room and gasped. “What…We have to leave.”

Nathan reached out and took hold of the end of the machine and tugged. It slid out of Viranda’s chest. When it exited the wound completely, blood spilled out, splashing his shoes. He felt the pulsing in the machine slow to a stop and fall dead in his hands. Dropping his backpack to the floor, Nathan unzipped the main pocket and shoved the bloody device inside. After resealing the bag and strapping it back on, he followed Ginger into the kitchen. They pried off the boards blocking their exit and opened the door to the backyard.

Ericka Shane spotted the two Legion women from a distance before they reached the loitering crowd of Daisy’s Defiance. Besides the fact that they were two nude women with black swirls marring their intimate parts, roaming a deserted town, Ericka sensed something—darkness or emptiness—that made her turn and run in the opposite direction. Taking refuge behind an old station wagon parked along the curb, she watched as the members of Daisy’s Defiance were turned to ash. The scene filled Ericka with panic and fear, but she quickly brought herself under control and waited until they entered the house, where Nathan and Ginger were, before emerging from behind the vehicle and making her way toward the house.

A buzzing sound stopped her in her tracks. She hunkered down behind another vehicle and scanned the area, only then realizing the sound was coming from her. From her hoodie, to be more exact.

She looked over her sweatshirt and noticed a very small disc sticking to its side. The disc was smaller than her thumbnail, and was the same tan color as the fabric, making it almost impossible to see.

“Ericka?” a voice spoke from the disc. “I have you on my satellite. If you head a mile east, I can get a transport to pick you up.”

“What?” She pulled off the disc and squinted at it, examining the intricate copper circuitry embedded in the surface of its back.

“This is Absolute. I planted the chip on you when I asked you to shoot the video of President Stone’s atrocities.”

“You’ve been tracking me?”

“And listening to you. You and Nathan and your pathetic little group. I’m not sure what happened over there, but you’re on your own now, aren’t you?”

Ericka glanced toward the house. “I’m not on my own.”

“What happened?”

Ericka crushed the disc between her fingers and blew the tiny pieces to the ground. She pulled the gun from the back waistband of her jeans and analyzed her situation, resolving to help Nathan and Ginger. If they were smart and quick, they would more than likely head out the back door leading to the open field. Or possibly, if they were able to, they would head out the front door. But that seemed unlikely, especially if Nathan or Ginger had seen the destruction the two females had caused moments earlier.

Ericka took a deep breath and decided to head toward the side of the house to cover the back door. She stood up and then jogged toward the house. When she reached the side of it, she took a moment to catch her breath, still unable to completely shake the images of her allies turning into pillars of ash.

Something dark and stocky moved in her peripheral vision. She lifted the gun and felt a stabbing in her left thigh. She grabbed her leg with one hand while the gun was knocked out of the other. Something struck her in the throat, and she hit the soil hard.

A foot pressed against her spine, pinning her to the ground. “Don’t move,” a deep voice thundered.

Pain spread through her lower half. Then numbness settled in.

“You’re paralyzed from the waist down.” Another stab, this one to her neck. “This will make sure you cooperate.”

The last thing Ericka saw was Nathan and Ginger running out the back door of the house before her world drowned in black.