Alex Armstrong: Awakening (19 page)

“And the bit about additional obstacles…” Sonnier looked at his tablet and entered another series of commands and the thing that was coming to life lifted into view: a helicopter drone with quad rotors and some kind of gun retrofitted to its belly. “You ever play paintball?”

Alex’s eyes widened as he shook his head.

“Well, you’re going to get a taste of it today.” He pulled his tablet free from the railing and tapped the screen. It sounded as if somebody spit a watermelon seed. Alex felt the ball sizzle past his ear and splat on the elevator door in a cloud of pink paint. “I’ll be controlling the drone throughout the test. If I register a hit, it’s over. Do you have any questions?”

“Under five minutes; watch where I step; no paint,” Alex said under his breath. “What am I forgetting?” And then he remembered his shield. He glanced left and right and found it leaning against the wall a few paces away. It was the size of a serving platter, blue with silver trim.

“Whatever happens today, Alex, know that this is far beyond any freshman Simtest I’ve ever…”

But Alex wasn’t listening. All of his attention was turned to the shield. He closed his eyes and let his mind wrap around its rough, diamond-coated surface.

“I said are you ready?” Sonnier called.

Alex nodded.

“Good. The timer will count down from ten and then your five minutes will begin. Stay behind that white line and be ready to move. Good luck, son.”

Alex lowered himself like a sprinter.

Eight, seven, six…

Alex’s eyes cut up to the drone; it was moving forward and its gun was dialed in. He looked at the shield again. He could sense its weight, as if he was already holding it.

Two, one, zero…

Alex charged for the column and the shield lifted into a defensive position and absorbed the first volley. He stood with his back to the metal and listened for the drone. Left wall. He angled the shield so it protected his right side and peeked around the corner.

Pff!

The ball popped against the metal as Alex returned to cover. He felt flecks of paint dotting his cheek. The helidrone flew in fast. He flipped his shield flat side up and the moment the drone flew into view he sent it slicing through the air, straight for the paintball gun. Sonnier got off one wild shot before pulling up and steering the drone back to safety. The shield clanged off the thick glass wall.

“Going on offense right away…‌good!”

Alex jumped from cover and ran to the next column, then quickly advanced one more. He was halfway to the exit. He pressed flat against the cold metal and caught his breath, listening to the drone hovering somewhere near the exit. Alex leaned around the column for a look. His eyes narrowed at the wide line of shiny liquid running across the street. He traced its source to the downed helicopter and—

BOOM!

He felt the bass from the blast in his teeth and his balls, and when he glanced back at the helicopter he saw that it was on fire, igniting the spilled kerosene so the liquid running across the street was now a river of fire.

Pff! Pff! Pff!

The first shot zipped past Alex’s ear. His shield absorbed the other two. Lucky. He turned and looked at the pink splotch not five feet from where he sat and heard the professor laughing from his perch. Sonnier was keeping the helidrone high along the wall, far enough away that Alex’s shield wasn’t a threat.

3:15, 3:14, 3:13…

“You’ll run out of time before I run out of ammo,” Sonnier called.

Five more shots popped against the shield, pink paint now dribbling from the bottom. Alex looked at the fire again. It was too wide to jump; he’d have to use his shield. But that would leave him defenseless as he crossed. He leaned his head against the column and closed his eyes, trying to run through all his options when really there was only one. And he knew it.

Alex burst forward, pumping his legs as hard as he could straight for the drone, his shield angled above an arm’s length away. Sonnier responded with a barrage of paintballs but Alex caught them all dead center on his shield and never stopped running. When he saw the drone start to retreat, he shoved his palm forward and propelled his shield straight into the rotor. Three of the blades shattered on impact and the helidrone fell to the floor in a heap of metal. It lay there dead in a growing pool of pink.

Alex turned to the kerosene river. He flipped his shield paint side down and positioned it halfway across the flames. With a running start he bounded over, springing off the shield with his right foot.

POP!

Everything went dark; no more sand, no more ruins, no more fire. Alex groped for the nearest column and when he felt it he stood at its side, unsure whether this was part of the test or a circuit breaker pushed beyond its limits. He looked up at the sound of creaking plastic and watched the ceiling slide open. The column vibrated under his fingertips. Alex pulled his shield in tight.

The floor and the walls and the ceiling whirred to life, and Alex was back in the desert. Soldiers were now on either wall. Gunfire rang loudly and steady through the speakers.

“Are you ready for part two?”

Alex nodded.

“Then you might want to look up.”

Alex craned his neck. The top of the column was now about ten feet shy of the ceiling. Peering over the edge was a familiar face, her blonde hair draped to either side. “Eva?”

“You’ll have to speak louder than that if you want her to hear you,” Sonnier said. “That’s forty feet.”

“Don’t move!” Alex called. Eva waved.

“She’s now your partner. To pass the test, you need to get her down from there and out the door before time expires. And speaking of that…” Sonnier turned to the wall and pressed a button on his tablet. The timer reset to one minute and fifteen seconds. “Begin.”

1:15, 1:14, 1:13…

“Are you all right up there?”

“Yes,” Eva called. “And Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really sorry I’ve been ignoring you.”

“It’s okay,” he called.

“No, it’s not. I feel really bad about the whole thing. I shouldn’t have—”

“Now’s
really
not the time, Eva!” He glanced at the timer. “I need to get you down from there.”

“Why don’t I just jump? Just slow me down at the bottom so I land softly.”

“I can’t do that.”

“You did on the trail,” she called.

Alex shook his head. “And I haven’t done it since. No way. Too risky. No, the only way this will work is if we use the shield as a platform.”

“Okay!”

“But here’s the thing: I don’t think I can support your weight at that height. You’ll have to lower yourself the first ten feet; I’ll take it from there.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Sure you can,” Alex called. He lifted the shield so that it lay flush with the top of the platform. “Just close your eyes; get a sense of it.”

:40, :39, :38…

Eva touched her toe to the shield as if she was testing a suspect patch of ice. Content with what she found, she placed the full weight of her foot on the surface. It didn’t budge.

“Nice! Now the other foot.”

She took a deep breath and stepped onto the shield. It held. “I did it!”

One of the soldiers lobbed a grenade across the wall. Eva didn’t see it, but Alex did. “Oh, no,” he said. It was every bit as loud as he imagined. It startled Eva and she lost all focus. In the next instant she was plummeting to the floor, the shield still beneath her feet so she looked like a dropped nail. Her shriek was louder than the grenade.

The weight forced Alex into a penitent position, his kneecap cracking against the thick glass tile. Shockwaves of pain ripped through his body. “NO!” He looked up and gritted his teeth and raised both palms to the ceiling and was immediately compressed deeper into the floor, his chin falling below his knee. His eyes watered and his arms trembled.

But he had her. Alex ignored his throbbing kneecap and slowly lifted his head, jaw clenched. There she was—hovering now—ten feet from the ground. He took a deep breath and lowered the shield to the floor.

:13, :12, :11…

Eva rushed forward and ignored the instinct to wrap her arms around Alex and instead tried to pull him up.

“What are you doing?” he said.

“The timer!”

Alex’s eyes widened. He staggered to his feet and went to take a step but lost his balance and almost went down again.

“Put your arm around me,” Eva said.

“I’m okay.”

“You can barely stand!” Eva looked at the wall and decided there wasn’t time to argue and so she shouldered Alex’s right arm and put her own around his waist. She allowed him just enough time to regain his balance before guiding him through the door and out of the Simtest.

19 - Christopher Joyce

19

Christopher Joyce

“After all that work, I almost forgot…‌I almost forgot about the stupid timer.” Alex bent over and tried to catch his breath.

“You’re welcome.” Eva smiled and leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. “Sorry about the last few days.”

Alex felt a puff of air on the back of his neck as the door slid closed. “It’s okay. Patrick told me you’d come around. You know, once your period was over.”

“What?!”

He laughed. “Oh, I’m just playing. Come on; let’s see where this hallway takes us.” He limped forward.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just need to walk it off.”

Eva frowned and then shrugged her shoulders and caught up to him.

“I have no idea where I’m going, by the way.”

“Neither do I,” she said. The hallway was just wide enough for them to walk side-by-side. The sounds of their footsteps echoed off the grey walls.

“Long hallways like this remind me of
The Shining
,” Alex said. “God help me if we come around this next corner and there’s a couple of twins standing there in their blue dresses. I think I’d have some kind of meltdown.” He paused long enough for Eva to comment, but she stayed silent. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

She shook her head.

“Huge, empty hotel; guy goes crazy and tries to chop up his family. Red rum? None of that sounds familiar?”

“Nope. What was it called?”

“
The Shining
…‌I’m adding it to our list.”

“It’s becoming a long list.”

“Well, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” he said. “I’m thinking we’re gonna have to get together and have a movie week this summer.”

Eva smiled. She started fiddling with her bracelet but caught herself and forced both hands to her sides. “Whose house?”

“Hmmm. I don’t know. We can figure that part out later.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Every so often Alex would rub his right knee. “So are you gonna tell me how you got up there?”

“What? For your test?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. President Joyce.”

“Joyce was watching?”

“The whole time.”

Alex started pulling on his eyebrows. “But how—”

“It actually started with Startsman. He emailed me a couple days ago saying he wanted to meet this morning to discuss last week’s test.”

“On a Saturday?”

“I know. It doesn’t make much sense now that I’m saying it out loud, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it.” She shrugged. “Oh well. Anyway, I walked into the office and President Joyce and Professor Startsman were both standing there waiting for me.”

“Yikes. That’s intimidating.”

“No kidding. But President Joyce was really nice. He sat me down and explained everything and how they needed my help.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “After I agreed, we walked through a hidden door in the back of the office and down some stairs and into a long hallway just like this one.” She glanced over her shoulder. “It really is like another world down here.”

“Definitely more than dirt,” Alex said. The wall opened to another hallway on their right. They stayed straight. “So what did he say?”

“Who?”

“President Joyce.”

“What, you mean like when he was watching you?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know. Nothing, really. He seemed pleased with everything.” She paused. “He’s really short, by the way. Like, shorter-than-Patrick short.”

“What do you mean, he seemed pleased?”

“I don’t know, I guess I’m judging by the look on his face. It was like he was smiling.”

“The whole time?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Smiling. Well, it was better than frowning. Still, Alex thought there might have been
some
kind of comment. How about the drone he destroyed? That seemed pretty awesome, the way everything just kind of shattered. Or was he not supposed to do that? Alex suddenly felt light-headed. It probably cost a fortune. And it might have been the only one. He tried to picture ways to beat the test without damaging the drone.

“Hey, you would have liked the part when he lowered me onto the platform. It was soooo weird; it felt like I was a stuffed animal being plucked by one of those cranes.”

He smiled. “Good way to put it. Makes me wonder, though…”

“Wonder what?”

“If I actually…” He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

The hallway dead-ended into a yellow-doored elevator with the letters “SC” etched on the frame. Eva stepped aside as Alex held his arm against the scanner. It flashed green and chimed and the doors slid apart, a faint smell of coffee in the air.

****

“Ah, the damsel in distress and her knight in shining armor.” President Joyce pushed against the table and got to his feet. When he smiled, his eyes crinkled and he gained a chin. He gestured to the two empty chairs opposite his. “Please, have a seat.”

Alex noticed the president glancing at his knee as he crossed the room.

“Coffee?”

“I’ll take a cup,” Eva said. “Alex doesn’t like it, though.”

President Joyce nodded and turned to the server behind the counter, the only other person in the café. “Mandy, two coffees and a Coke, please.”

Alex’s backpack rested on the chair to the right. He pulled it off the seat and set it on the ground and shook the president’s hand. “Good morning, sir.”