Madelyn's Nephew (35 page)

Liam didn’t want to, but he moved towards the path. The young woman with all her stubborn confidence had suggested that Liam would be safe if he stayed on the right side of the path. Who was he to question? He was nothing more than a foot soldier on this mission.

The glowing orbs didn’t notice him.
 

When the outermost one floated by, it was no more than twenty meters away. He heard its hum. Liam quickened his pace. His legs were already sore. His heart was already pounding. The orbs circled. It was impossible not to stare at them. The girl should have mentioned them. Liam felt unprepared for this mission. He was clearly the wrong person to entrust with a crucial part of the plan.
 

With all his attention on the orbs, he never saw the broken patch of asphalt. His foot hit the tree root, turned to the side, and his weight transferred to an ankle that was in no way prepared to support him. This realization raced through his head as Liam fell towards the ground. Compounding his troubles, his knee bent to the side, stretching his ligaments painfully before his elbow impacted the turf.

Liam’s head whipped on his neck. The air was driven from his chest. The Quiver remote rolled off into the dark. Stretched out on the ground, like a toppled statue, Liam didn’t move. He had no memory of how much noise he had made during his fall, but it had certainly not been quiet.

The humming swelled.
 

He turned his head to see the outermost orb approaching again. When its orbit brought it as close as it would get to Liam, the ball of light stopped.

Liam held himself perfectly still and studied the thing.

He tried to gauge the distance—fifteen meters? Maybe a dozen? Twelve good strides might bring him close enough to touch the strange light. The girl hadn’t mentioned them. In fact, Liam had never heard of such a thing. He wondered for the first time if maybe they were a new phenomenon. Perhaps he hadn’t heard of them because he was the only person who had ever witnessed them. Or, maybe other people had witnessed them but none had survived the encounter.

The next ball, slightly closer in its orbit to the invisible center, approached. The sound of its hum joined the first. When it was directly in line with the first ball from Liam’s perspective, it stopped too.

The two orbs hovered a couple of meters apart.
 

The third one was coming.
 

Liam rolled to his side and tried to push to his knees. Every part of his body registered a complaint. Amongst the troubles in his legs, he might have also cracked a rib. He sucked in an experimental breath and waited for the sharp jab of pain. He reached in the dark until his hand found the Quiver remote.

When the third orb snapped in line with the other two, Liam forgot to worry about whether or not he had cracked another rib. He got to his feet and stumbled into a jog. He had to get to the building marked TWO. He didn’t even see any buildings yet.
 

A quick glance to his left showed him that the glowing orbs had moved slightly. The line was still pointing towards him—tracking him.
 

He whispered a curse and got his feet moving faster. The fourth orb was closing in on the other three. Moving through its smaller radius, it would be in line with the others in no time. After that, he could only see two more orbs. Liam didn’t want to find out what might happen when all six were aimed at him.

Just beyond a stand of trees, Liam saw the outline of a couple of buildings against the night sky. One was taller than the other. It had to be right. His pace wasn’t going to hold. His knee and ankle were giving out. A limp worked its way into his stride. Liam turned in time to see the fifth orb line up with the rest. The sixth was nearly there.

They should have never sent an old man on this mission. Liam knew that he was useful in a lot of ways, but running around in the dark was a stupid waste of his talents. Liam was slowing down—giving up—when his injured legged scuffed the ground and sent another bolt of pain up his leg.
 

He shuffled to a stop and turned towards the glowing balls. The sixth one took another quick loop through its orbit and then it locked in place.
 

They hovered over the dry lake bed in a perfect line.
 

Something was about to happen. He could feel the electricity in the air.

One by one, the intensity of the glowing balls flared. It looked like they were sending a wave of energy in Liam’s direction. He looked down at the Quiver remote in his hand. They hadn’t told him what it was for. He was supposed to get to the west window of unit seventeen and make contact with the others. The girl hadn’t even instructed him on how to use the damn thing.
 

The pad near the top of the remote had a faint purple glow. He hadn’t seen that before. Then again, maybe he could only see it now because it had gotten so dark out. There was no way to know for sure.
 

Another bright pulse rippled through the orbs. It definitely felt like they were gearing up for something. Liam glanced at the outline of the buildings, knowing he should run for them but sensing the futility of the action.

He raised the Quiver remote, pointing it at the line of lights and put his thumb over the pad. Maybe it would save him from whatever was about to happen. He stopped his thumb when it hovered no more than a millimeter away from the pad. He shook his head. He wouldn’t betray his mission just to save his own skin. Maybe they had chosen him because he was wise enough to know the difference between success and failure.

He turned away from the threat and limped towards the buildings.

Liam refused to look as a crackling burst of energy flowed through the glowing balls and then shot in his direction.
 

For a second, the left side of his body lit up with searing pain. It was boiling heat followed by a million tiny needles. Liam couldn’t help but flinch away from the pain. After the flinch, he simply added the new complaints to the catalogue of injuries that his body was reporting. He continued to limp towards the buildings, giving the glowing orbs no more of his attention.

As he passed the group of trees, he heard the crackle of energy from the line of orbs again. He didn’t turn. The second burst didn’t really catch him. He heard one of the trees burst into flames as he continued to limp towards the dark building.

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The big TWO was marked in tall, white numbers that danced against the black face of the building. Liam nodded and limped on. Despite his stoicism, the injury was slowing him down. He knew that the muscles on the left side of his body weren’t working as well as they should. He had the sense that they might never work properly again.

The door was propped open.
 

Liam pulled it open and slipped into the dark interior. The purple glow of the Quiver remote was stronger now. He swept it in front of himself and spotted a sign. Unit seventeen was on the third floor. The stairs might as well have been Denali. Liam limped forward and tugged at the railing with his free hand. Climbing the first step took all of his effort. The second was a little easier.

He focused on nothing more than raising his foot up to each new tread. Then, with it firmly in place, he mustered every ounce of energy left in his body to elevate to the next level. The constant dripping sound followed him up the staircase. As he rounded to the second flight, leaning heavily on the railing, he realized that the dripping sound was following him because it was coming from him. He left a trail of blood up the metal stairs.

Liam saw his goal by the glow of the purple pad. The door to seventeen was open. The floor was covered in paper. He nearly slipped on the litter and steadied himself against the wall. When he shuffled on, he left a smeared trail of blood and burned skin behind. Liam continued to the big room of unit seventeen and looked through the windows that took up two walls.
 

He didn’t know which direction was west. Between the dark path and the winding stairs, he had lost his sense of direction. He swept the Quiver remote in front of himself, hoping the purple light would show him a clue. In a way, it did. It was brighter when he pointed it towards the windows on his left. Liam spotted the moon through the trees and shuffled in that direction. It had to be west.
 

As he reached the window, he could see the dry lake bed down there. The orbs were circling again.
 

He tried to remember the exact words of the young woman. Once he got to the west window, he should be able to make contact. That’s what she had said. He should have asked what the hell she meant by that.

Liam looked down at the Quiver remote.
 

Of course it wasn’t a Quiver remote—not anymore. Quiver remotes had never sported that crazy purple glow, and they had never needed a bird’s nest of wires poking from the end. Clearly, someone had taken the old remote and repurposed it in order to fight Zumbidos. Maybe “fight” was the wrong word. Liam propped himself up with a bloody hand against the window. He laughed at himself. He had given his life for this mission and he didn’t even know if he was trying to fight the things. Nobody had really explained it.

Liam’s eyes began to lose focus. He could feel his body beginning to sway. Consciousness was on the wane.
 

He blinked. There was a second purple light from the device. As his vision came back into focus, he saw that he was wrong. The second light was out there, in the distance. He raised the Quiver remote until the lights were side by side in his view.
 

He hovered his thumb over the glowing pad. That had to be the signal. Besides, if he didn’t hit the button now, he would probably pass out before he got the chance.

He pressed down on the pad.

His device lit up with cold purple fire.

A line of purple light shot through the window, closing the gap towards the light in the distance. He turned his head to see another bolt of purple light coming at him from the south. His line hit the one in front of him just as the one from the south reached his Quiver remote. Liam was a corner of a giant triangle of purple beams.
 

His wet hand slipped on the window. Liam nearly lost his balance. Only the pain from his injured ankle kept him from slipping down farther.

The triangle pulsed and beads of energy began to course in a pattern around the perimeter. The ebb and flow of the light reminded him of the orbs. Liam slipped again.
 

The glow was so bright that he could see himself for the first time. It had been dark when the orbs had sent their burst towards him. He hadn’t gotten a good look at the damage. To be fair, he had been actively ignoring the injury. Now he saw it, and he was appalled. A big chunk of flesh was missing from his side. His jacket, skin, and muscle had been burned away. He saw his own bleached white bone exposed to the air. He could barely believe it.
 

For an instant, pride swelled through him. Even devastated by the orbs, he had managed to climb two flights of stairs and continue with his mission. His moment of pride was cut short when his hand slipped again on the glass and he tumbled to the floor. The purple beams cut off as the Quiver remote fell from his grip.

Liam landed on his burned side.
 

The needles of pain were the last thing he felt. His face was twisted in agony as his body let out its final breath.
 

The Claiming

It wasn't her fault.

It wasn't Lizzy's fault that she saw the cloaked people out in the yard. It wasn't her fault that she was drawn by the moonlight to watch them as they advanced on the house. And it definitely wasn't her fault when people began to die. Lizzy didn't want the strange dreams where she saw how they were killed. Even her sister was starting to suspect her.

It wasn't fair because it wasn't her fault.

Lizzy was claimed.

Inhabited

They were looking for an adventure—a night of harmless fun. Miguel has a map. Kristin’s friend has the equipment. The mine leads to the cave, and the cave is where they’ll find their fortune.