Strike (11 page)

Seconds later the building erupted in flames, sending people flooding out, desperate to escape the burning deathtrap.

I should have helped them out. I should have run to the windows, broken them, and pulled as many victims out as possible. But I didn’t. Who knows if I could have made a difference anyway? In that moment, another opportunity had presented itself. One that was more important. I had to take it.

“This is it,” Kent said, breathing hard. “This is our chance. Look.”

Terrified prisoners were not only running for cover, they were sprinting for the camp borders.

“The Retros are hiding in bunkers,” Tori said, breathless. “They don’t care if any prisoners are killed.”

Kent added, “Yeah and as soon as this attack is over they’ll come back and they’ll have us. This is it. This is our chance to get out of here.”

I watched hundreds of people fleeing from the camp, sprinting toward freedom.

“What about Tucker’s mother?” Tori exclaimed.

“She’s with Feit!” Kent yelled with frustration. “I’m sorry Tucker, we can’t help her. But we can help ourselves. This is the chance you were talking about. We can get out of here.”

My brain locked. Could I leave my mother? I couldn’t imagine doing that, but to save her I would have to fight my way through Feit and Bova and whatever Retro guards were protecting them. Not to mention survive this bombing. That seemed impossible. Suicidal.

Boom!

Another missile got through the defense and exploded on the skin of the dome, its thunderous echo rolling through the camp.

“Listed to me Rook,” Kent said. “The only way to help your mother is to get out of here and maybe get picked up by SYLO.”

I looked to Tori, hoping she would help me make the right decision.

“He’s right,” she said, wincing. “Feit wants you. He wants us. As long as we’re free, he’ll keep her around because he knows you’ll come for her. We have a better chance of helping her if we escape.”

My mind raced, calculating the possibilities. The opportunities. I glanced around the corner of the burning building and saw the target of the attack.

The dome.

There were two scorch marks on its skin from the missiles that hit it. Other than that it looked untouched. SYLO’s attack was doomed to fail. Again.

In that split second I made my decision. This really was the chance we were looking for.

“I’m not leaving,” I said.

“Tucker!” Tori exclaimed. “Staying here is suicide.”

“Running into the desert is no better,” I said quickly. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. We have nothing. As soon as the attack ends Bova’s going to send out soldiers to round everyone up. There’s nowhere to hide out there. Every last one of those people who bolted is going to be right back here before nightfall.”

“So what do you want to do?” Kent asked. “Going after your mother is as good as giving ourselves up.”

“There’s a third choice,” I said.

A shrill whistle warned of the arrival of another shot. A second later an explosion erupted on the skin of the dome. Though the ground shook on impact, it was another useless effort that did nothing to damage the structure.

“The Retro guards are gone,” I said. “This is our chance.”

“Yeah, to get out of here,” Kent said.

“No. To go for the dome.”

Kent and Tori exchanged quick, stunned looks.

Kent said, “The target? You want to run straight for ground zero?”

Two more SYLO fighters flew by. They were coming less frequently. The antiaircraft weapons were doing their job. The attack wouldn’t last much longer.

“If I’m going to die here,” I said. “I want to know why. I want the truth.”

“This is crazy,” Kent whined.

“Look, I won’t blame you guys if you don’t come with me. But I don’t think you’re going to have a better chance out in that desert. You told me we were better together, Kent. You’re right. We are. We need each other. I have no idea what we’ll find in that dome or if it will make any difference in this fight, but the best chance of finding that out is if we do it together.”

Tori looked away from the dome, where many more prisoners were flooding out of the barracks and running for the border of the camp.

“Or we could get out of here, find SYLO, and bring them back,” she said.

It was clear what Tori wanted to do. There wasn’t time to argue.

“You’re right,” I said. “Get out of here. Disappear into the desert and try to get to SYLO. But I can’t. I gotta stay here. I love you guys.”

With that I took off running for the dome before I could change my mind.

Once again, I was alone. I hated leaving them but there was no other choice. I forced myself not to look back, instead staying focused on what was ahead. The dome. The truth.

I sprinted along the sandy road, hugging close to the buildings for whatever protection they might offer. I came upon a prisoner who was lying on the ground. He had been hit by shrapnel. His pants were soaked with blood and he was in excruciating pain.

“Help me!” he called, with his hand raised. “I can’t move!”

I didn’t think twice. I blew right by him. I’m not proud to admit that, but I had been given an opportunity, the opportunity I had been waiting for. I wasn’t going to waste it.

A missile tore by overhead and slammed into the dome. The explosion was so powerful it rocked the ground, knocking me off my feet. When the smoke cleared I looked up to see that the missile may have found its mark, but it had still done no damage to the dome. The only sign that it had blasted into the steel surface was another scorched scar.

Two more SYLO jets blasted through the antiaircraft fire and made a run at the dome. Several black drones broke off from their protective ring around the structure and flew to meet them. It was a game of chicken with both sides firing as they streaked toward one another like an aerial joust. One of the Navy jets launched its missile . . . a second before the jet was hit by an impulse from the Air Force fighter that obliterated it in midair. A storm of burning shrapnel rained down on the far side of the camp.

The missile shot past the dome and screamed by overhead. It lost altitude quickly and made a direct hit on the barracks building that was already on fire. Thank God it had been evacuated. The second Navy jet broke off without firing.

That was the moment. While insanity continued to escalate around me, I had severe doubts. What was I doing? Was finding the truth worth abandoning my only friends in the world? Would knowing whatever was inside the dome make any difference anyway? Would it help save my mother? I thought about running back to join Kent and Tori but feared it was too late. I had committed. There was no turning back.

I ran to a large building right next to the dome that seemed more permanent than the others. It was made of cement and looked to be more of a command center than a barracks. I hugged the building and made my way along the outside wall, careful to avoid windows where I might be seen from inside. When I reached the end of the long building, I took a cautious look around the corner to see I was only fifty yards away from my destination. It was the exact spot where the Retro guards had stopped us that morning.

But now the guards were gone. They were probably huddled safely in underground bunkers, riding out the attack. It was the exact situation I had been hoping for. The dome was unprotected.

“This is crazy!” Tori exclaimed.

I spun around to see Kent and Tori running up to join me.

“No!” I screamed. “What are you doing?”

“Sticking with the plan,” Tori shouted, struggling to be heard over the constant sounds of the not-so-distant air battle. “We’re not splitting up. Not anymore.”

“Even if that means running toward a target that everybody else is running away from,” Kent added. “Just sayin’.”

“We’re going together,” Tori said adamantly.

I opened my mouth to argue but thought better of it. I’d seen that look in Tori’s eyes before. More times than I could remember. When her mind was made up, there was no changing it.

I looked to Kent.

“This is crazy,” he said, deadly serious. “But we came here together and that’s how we’re going to leave. You’re not flying solo on this, Rook.”

I looked between both of them. My friends. My family.

“You sure?”

“No,” Kent said.

“You know we are,” Tori added.

It was what I wanted to hear. I was tired of being alone.

“All right,” I said and turned back to our objective.

“This is it,” I said. “Ready?”

Tori nodded. Kent nodded.

There wasn’t a living soul between us and the dome, only small piles of burning plane wreckage.

“I am too,” I said. “It’s time to find out what the hell this is about.”

I got to my feet and ran.

Kent and Tori were right behind me.

It was the last leg of a journey that began on Pemberwick Island and would end at the gate to hell.

W
e sprinted directly for the dome and the massive door that was a quarter of the way around the structure from us. A missile shot by overhead, streaked past the huge steel igloo, and slammed into the ground causing a minor earthquake-like rumble that nearly knocked us off our feet but didn’t stop us from moving. We had committed and there was nothing that would keep us from reaching our goal.

“Damn, this thing is big,” Kent exclaimed.

He was looking up at the structure that towered over us. From this close we couldn’t see the top since the shape of the building curved in to a center point. The sheer enormity of it took my breath away.

Tori put her hand on the surface.

“I thought it would be hot,” she said. “I don’t know why.”

“Because it’s a doorway into hell, that’s why,” Kent said.

I started moving again, quickly making my way counter-clockwise around the circular base of the building, headed for the giant door.

“You realize we’re running square into a bull’s-eye,” Kent said.

I picked up the pace and sprinted. There was no reason to be cautious. We would either be hit or we wouldn’t.

We ran for a solid thirty seconds without reaching the door. That’s how massive this thing was. I finally caught sight of what looked like a vertical beam running up the side of the building in front of us.

“It’s the edge of the door frame,” I announced. “We’re almost there.”

I slowed down, more to catch my breath than out of caution. We were only a few yards from the opening when a black shape appeared, moving out from within. I put on the brakes and got down on one knee as the others joined me to watch a Retro fighter drone float out from within. It moved slowly, only a few feet off of the ground. The three of us crouched close to the outer wall of the dome in the hopes that whoever was controlling this killer drone wouldn’t spot us. The musical sound of its engine grew louder as the entire length of its stingray-shaped fuselage was revealed. The craft drifted forward slowly until it completely cleared the door frame. Once it was in the open, the fighter instantly picked up speed and launched skyward to enter the dogfight.

“This place is like a freaking clown-car,” Kent said, stunned.

“They must be assembling the drones inside,” I said.

“How is that possible?” Tori asked skeptically. “We’ve watched planes come out of there for days but I haven’t seen a single shipment of parts going in.”

“So you think they’re just magically appearing in there?”

“I don’t know what to think,” Tori said with frustration. “But I’m dying to find out.”

I could have kissed her. She wanted to see what was in there as much as I did.

“You okay, Kent?” I asked.

He hesitated a second, giving the question some real thought. He then nodded and said, “Yeah. Yeah I am. I’m tired of wondering who these guys are.”

That was all I needed to hear. I jumped up and took off running the last few yards to the doorway. I stopped when I reached the outer edge of the frame and looked back at Tori and Kent.

“Keep going, we’re with you,” Tori said with confidence.

I felt my gut twist. This was it. From the moment SYLO had invaded Pemberwick Island, we had wondered what the forces were that had turned our lives inside out. We were finally going to find out. The idea suddenly terrified me, though not enough to stop me from pushing on.

I took a cautious peek around the corner in case there were any Retro soldiers, or Retro drones, on their way out. I didn’t see a single soul, so with a quick nod to the others I rounded the corner and entered the dome.

I had no real expectations as to what we would find in there. Part of me thought it would be like the giant hangar at Area 51 with several Retro drones waiting to be activated. Or maybe there would be some kind of high-tech assembly line that was spitting out the fighter planes. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see teams of Retro soldiers hunkering down in the seemingly indestructible dome, waiting for the attack to pass, or harried Air Force officers in front of a massive map, plotting the eradication of the rest of the world’s population. Seeing any of those things would have made sense.

What we actually saw made no sense at all.

The cavernous space was empty. No soldiers, no parts, no planes, no clue at all as to why SYLO would want to throw its might into destroying it. The floor was so clean you could eat off it. The internal framework of the super structure, with its heavy-duty steel girders, rose high into the air, meeting at the peak, which had to be at least forty stories overhead.

Halfway around the dome, one on either side, were two rounded, egg-shaped structures that looked to be built into the outer walls. They were iron pods of some sort with open hatches that showed their walls to be well over a foot thick. The interior of each pod looked to be the size of a small room. The word EMERGENCY was stenciled in bold red letters on each door.

Other than these two odd, heavily reinforced little emergency rooms, there was nothing in the colossal space but air. The dome was no more than an enclosed void . . .

. . . with one notable feature, and it was a big one.

“You’re kidding, right?” Kent said.

It was a movie screen.

At least it looked like a movie screen. It was gigantic, like the kind you’d see in an old-time drive-in movie. It reached from side-to-side of the cavernous dome and rose at least thirty feet into the air. The entire “screen” was encased in a massive, solid frame that looked like it could have been manufactured a century ago. It was three feet wide all the way around and looked to be made out of cast iron and painted light green. I guess you could call it old-school industrial looking. There was nothing about it that looked even close to something that was built by the same people who had the advanced technology to create the predator drones that fired incinerating lasers.

“It doesn’t look like a gate to hell,” Tori said, stunned. “Or to anywhere else.”

The only sign that this monstrosity was anything other than a simple screen was the surface itself. It was arctic white, but it gave off a soft glow that made me think it was somehow energized.

“It’s like, I can’t focus on it,” I said.

“Maybe it’s a giant computer monitor,” Tori said. “I mean, these guys are pretty high-tech, right?”

I walked slowly to the left, with the idea of looking behind the screen to see if it might be hiding something on the opposite side of the dome. Our footsteps echoed through the silent cavern. The only other sound came from the ongoing battle that raged outside. Every so often another explosion would rock the dome, but its foundation was solid enough that there was barely any shaking.

“Are we crazy for being in here?” Kent asked. “SYLO is trying to blast this thing into oblivion.”

I ignored him. I was too curious about the screen.

We reached the far left side, where we could see that the frame was about four feet thick. It was definitely a massive piece of industrial hardware. Rounding the structure we could see the back surface of the screen. It was a plain jet-black wall with no glow.

“Whatever this thing does, it’s all about the front side,” Tori said. “Maybe they control the fighter planes from in here and—”

“Wait,” I said. “There’s a plane coming. I hear music.

We hid behind the screen, while peering around the edge to the open door of the dome. I expected to see a black drone floating in from outside at any second.

Four more Navy jets screamed past in the distant sky, being chased by a half dozen Retro fighters.

“This battle’s not going to last much longer,” I said. “There are too many Retro planes.”

“Yeah,” Tori said, numb. “And here comes another one.”

The nose of a Retro drone appeared . . . not at the door of the dome, but out of the screen right next to us.

“Whoa,” Kent exclaimed. He backed quickly away until he hit the far wall of the dome.

We crowded together and watched in awe as a Retro fighter, complete with its musical engine humming, floated out of the glowing screen.

“That’s . . . that’s not possible,” Kent muttered, numbly.

From where we stood we could see both sides of the screen. The plane was definitely not coming through from the back side. It was appearing out of the screen itself.

“It’s being created,” Tori said with a gasp. “That’s how they’re making so many planes. They don’t need parts. Or workers. This screen, or whatever it is, is creating them.”

“You mean like a design program that actually spits out something real?” Kent asked.

“I don’t know
what
I mean,” Tori shot back. “Except whatever this thing is, it’s giving birth.”

The plane was nearly out, but the screen wasn’t finished.

Something else came out of the screen that made Tori’s theory fall apart.

It was a Retro soldier.

“No!” Kent exclaimed, too loud.

The soldier stopped abruptly and shot a look our way. As soon as he registered three prisoners dressed in orange, he tensed up and raised his black baton.

“Scatter!” I screamed.

The others moved instantly. The only way we could avoid getting shot by his baton-weapon was if we became three different moving targets.

Kent ducked behind the screen; I ran toward the floating plane to use it as a shield and Tori went straight for the door.

The soldier fired wildly, missing all of us. The burst of energy from his weapon hit the inner wall of the dome with a sharp crackle of power and dissipated quickly.

Both Tori and I dodged and weaved, trying to be difficult targets. My idea was to stay near the plane, thinking the soldier wouldn’t risk damaging it. I hoped that Tori would make it out of the dome entirely. Kent, on the other hand, had disappeared behind the screen. He may have been protected from being shot right away, but if Tori and I went down he’d be trapped back there.

“Come on!” I shouted to the soldier. “You know you want to blow me away.”

I was trying to taunt him into coming after me and forgetting about Tori.

The guy looked indecisive. He waved the wand back and forth between the two of us, unsure of which he should target. That’s exactly what I wanted in order to buy Tori enough time to get out.

“Can’t get me, can you?” I shouted. “You look scared. Why don’t you put that down and come after me? I’m a lousy primate. You’re a trained soldier. But you’re scared because you know you can’t take me.”

I was throwing out everything I could think of to keep his attention on me.

The guy fired and I dove to the ground, rolled, and bounced back up. A quick glance showed that Tori was nearly at the door. She would get out and I hoped she wouldn’t stop until she had left the camp.

I found myself directly between the floating aircraft and the soldier.

“What’s the matter?” I taunted. “Afraid you might get busted for missing me and hitting one of your drones? Drop the weapon and fight fair.”

The guy fired. He didn’t care about the drone, or fighting fair.

I hit the deck again. The charge missed me and pinged off the wing of the aircraft. The jolt was like a wake-up call to whoever was controlling it. The musical engine powered up and before I could get back to my feet, the craft blasted out of the dome at full speed.

I was left on the floor, twenty feet away from the soldier, with nothing to hide behind and nothing to stop him from spraying his weapon in my direction until he hit me.

The soldier knew it too. He was in no hurry. With a confident laugh he slowly raised the baton in my direction. All I could do was wait until he was about to fire and then dodge to try and make an impossible target. But that wouldn’t save me for long. He would eventually connect and I’d be done.

“What is this thing?” I called to him. I wanted to buy as much time as possible. “How did the plane come out of there?”

The soldier wasn’t about to start a conversation. He raised the baton and took aim.

I waited until the last possible second and then . . .

Kent tackled the guy from the side.

The soldier never saw him coming. The force knocked the weapon out of his hand but rather than go for it, he fought back against Kent. Kent was bigger but the soldier was, well, a soldier. He was a trained fighter. Once the surprise was gone, Kent wouldn’t have much hope of beating him.

Unless I got to the weapon.

The two of them were locked in a vicious wrestling match. Kent tried desperately to pin the guy down but the soldier was too strong. He got to his feet, lifting Kent up on his back like a pro-wrestler, and threw him to the deck. Violently. Kent hit with a sickening thud.

The soldier turned back to retrieve his weapon and saw me going for it. He broke into a run, but didn’t get far because Kent wasn’t done. He grabbed the guy’s legs, trying to tackle him. The guy kicked to get away but Kent was tenacious. He got his own feet back under himself and yanked the soldier back to keep him away from the baton.

That gave me time to sweep the baton up off of the floor.

“Let him go!” I screamed to Kent but I don’t think either of them heard.

The soldier turned on Kent and threw a punch. Kent let go of him and ducked. It was a good thing because the roundhouse was powerful. If it had connected, Kent would have been knocked cold. He dodged the punch and charged the solder again, nailing him with his shoulder and wrapping his arms around him.

“Shoot!” Kent yelled.

I couldn’t. I would stand just as much chance of hitting Kent as the soldier.

“Back off!” I screamed at Kent. “Let him go!”

Kent must have thought I was yelling at the soldier but all I wanted was for Kent to get away from the guy so I could get a clear shot.

With an adrenaline-fueled cry, the soldier shot both of his arms upward, breaking Kent’s grip. He then charged at him like a bull going for a red cape. Kent ducked to get out of the way, but wasn’t fast enough. The soldier nailed him hard in the chest and wrapped him up like a charging linebacker. He kept his legs pumping, driving Kent backward . . .

. . . directly for the glowing screen.