Autumn in the City of Lights (28 page)

“I’m staying,” I whispered. He nodded, not surprised by my choice, then kissed me firmly on the lips.

“Please don’t come out unless you absolutely must.”

I agreed, and he projected away.

Moments later, I heard a roar of gunfire and fighting, but it wasn’t coming from within the studio lot. I chanced a quick look through the guard shack windows and saw two trucks rumbling in my direction. There was a gun turret in the back of one, and a man spinning it from left to right, shooting at New Burbank guards on horseback. The other truck had a bed full of gun-toting members of The Front. Clearly, Lush and Karl had called in the cavalry.

The trucks’ headlights swept over the guard shack, and I ducked down. Engines revved and metal screeched as the trucks rammed the gates. A bone-jarring crash rattled the guard shack. The gates had fallen. The Front was here.

The trucks stopped just inside the gnarled gates, and men and women spilled from them, prepping weapons and holding walkies up to their mouths.

Then I remembered the walkie I had. I pulled it out and pressed the button. “Ben!” I shouted in a loud whisper. “The Front is invading New Burbank. There are two truckfulls of people here now.”

“Autumn! Thank God,” he sighed. “Yeah, I just heard our sentries on the radios. What you’re seeing is just the first wave. At least a dozen more are on the way. We’re at war,” he said. “You’ve gotta get out of there. Both of you.”

“We can’t,” I replied. “Not yet. If we can get to Karl, we can end this here and now. If we run, they’ll keep coming after us.”  Ben wasn’t quick to respond.

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Take your radio, and get everyone at home somewhere safe.”

“Okay,” he said. “You guys be careful.” The radio went silent.

Hoofbeats sounded in the distance behind us. It was another wave of New Burbank riders. I ducked as I heard the horses pass my little guard shack. By my count, that made our numbers about equal here on the lot... for now.

I chanced another look through the window, but Grey was nowhere to be seen among the dark shapes darting to and fro, grappling with each other, twisted faces lit by brief and sudden pops of light from gunfire. Riderless horses fled the noise, manes streaking out behind them like forgotten battle flags.

Before I ducked back down in the guard shack, a cold set of eyes met mine. It was Lush. Her head was badly cut, and half her face was coated in blood that shone black in the night. She staggered toward me, the glare of focused determination lighting her eyes. She pulled a gun from her waistband.

I darted out of the guard shack, doing my best to avoid the brunt of the fighting. I found a side alleyway that ran behind some offices and turned down it.

Somehow, through the chaos roaring by the front gates, I heard Lush’s voice. “Run little girl, run. It’ll only make it more fun for me.” Lush’s words were slurred, and she reached out to steady herself against a sign as she lurched over the curb. Her fingers left bloody trails across it as she passed. She raised her gun, leveling it at me, and I scrambled into motion, hoping and praying her vision was impaired enough to affect her aim.

Bits of concrete showered down on me from where her bullet hit the side of the building. I didn’t look back and kept running, arms and legs pumping as hard as I could make them, ignoring the throbbing pain in my shoulder.

Lush fired again and again, her shots becoming more and more erratic. I dove behind a dumpster and realized I couldn’t hide there. She’d find me easily, and I didn’t have anything to defend myself with.

I chanced a peek around the dumpster, and she was there, closing in on me. I ran again, twisting through alleys and around the corners of stages, and yet Lush was always there, somehow keeping pace with me despite her increasing limp.

I found myself running down the middle of a street that was partially under construction, or had been a couple years ago. Piles of supplies lay covered by tarps, and equipment stood silently rusting. A gust of wind caught a nearby tarp and filled the top of it like a balloon. The edges that weren’t tucked in were torn and flapped in the nighttime breeze. I looked behind me and, for once, I didn’t see Lush, which only frightened me more.

Maybe I could hide somewhere. If she wasn’t watching me. Just then, I saw her stagger onto the street. I ducked behind a tarp-covered pyramid of supplies and watched her. She paused, as if unsure which direction I’d gone. I sighed in frustration when she started moving again, in my direction.

“You know you’re just as cowardly as Sam was!” Lush called. “A chicken.”

She was getting closer. I searched the ground around me for something, anything I could use to defend myself.

“Always running away. A lotta big talk but nothing to back it up!”

I peeked under the worn tarp. Short lengths of wood were stacked into a pyramid, still mostly intact despite the tarp being worn to rags around it. I grabbed one of the short two by fours and slid it out. It was heavy, but not too heavy for me. It would have to do.

“Just a little baby chicken.”  She followed it up with a clucking noise. “Both of you.”

I hunched behind the stacked wood, readying myself. I’d have one chance.

“Just a couple little baby chicks without their mamas.”

Lush’s voice was close, very close. I stood suddenly and swung the piece of wood like a bat, knocking the gun from her hands. It clattered to the ground as she cried out in pain, then launched herself at me. I swung again, connecting the end of the wood with the side of her head. That one was for Ben, and all the other people she’d hurt and killed during the Hillside Bowl bombing.

She crumpled to the ground, and I darted around her. I plucked the gun from the ground and gripped it in both hands. I edged around her, watching her for a moment, wondering if I’d killed her. Her chest slowly rose and fell, and I was surprised when a small wave of relief washed over me. I bent quickly, searching her pockets. Under her jacket was a second clip. On a whim, I checked her boot and found a small knife. I pocketed both and ran back toward the fight. I didn’t need to guess which direction to go – I could hear it: shouts and yells, truck motors, horses, and gunfire.

The fight had escalated since Lush chased me away from the scene. More of The Front’s trucks had arrived, along with several members on motorcycles. The remaining horses bucked and whinnied every time an engine revved. In the darkness, there were no defined sides, only chaos.

A truck whizzed by me, and I jumped out of its path. A figure in the bed of the truck threw something that swirled through the air, one end alight, leaving a streak of orange fire behind it. With a shatter, it landed near a group of fighters and exploded, but they barely noticed.

The explosion lit up the area briefly, and I saw bright red hair I’d know anywhere. Daniel was huddled behind a car, securing a belt around a man’s bleeding leg.

“Daniel!” I called, running to him.

He looked up at the sound of my voice and caught me in a bear hug as soon as I reached him. His show of affection surprised me, particularly when he didn’t let go.

“Thank God! Are you okay?” he asked in my ear. “Where’s Grey?”

“No idea,” I replied truthfully. I knew he’d gone after Karl, but I hadn’t seen him since the guard shack.

“We need to get you out of here,” Daniel said, finally letting me go and peeking around the car as sporadic gunfire sounded nearby.

“But there has to be something we can do—”

“Autumn, look around you! This is complete madness! We need to get you to Connie.”

Another Molotov cocktail exploded nearby. Daniel dragged me under his arm and covered my head with both his hands as bits of debris and glass rained down.

“She didn’t take Shad’s death very well,” Daniel continued. “Or your kidnapping. And I’ll be damned if something happens to you now that I know you’re okay.” He stole another look over the car. “As soon as it’s clear, we’re leaving!”

“Grey may need our help,” I argued, pulling away from him.

He lowered his voice so only I could hear him. “Grey has survived two world wars and God knows what else. He’ll find his way home when this is over.” He turned to two uninjured guards as they stood and hoisted the injured man into their arms.

“There seems to be a lull in action,” one of the guards said. “We’re going to get him over to the hospital.”

“We’ll follow you out,” Daniel said, standing. He offered me a hand, which I reluctantly took and stood.

After doing one more visual sweep for Grey, we rushed out from behind the car and made our way toward the front of the lot, but we found more fighting before we found a clear path out.

Taking me under his arm, Daniel barreled through the fray. I looked for Grey as we skirted a larger fight, lit by a nearby truck that was on fire. I gasped and pulled on Daniel to stop.

“It’s Grey! He’s fighting Karl!” I shouted.

“Where?”

I raised my hand to point, but they were gone. And I wasn’t the only one to notice their disappearance. A few of the people that had been near Grey and Karl paused and stared at the empty space.

“There they are!” Daniel pointed.

Grey and Karl’s fight recommenced several yards away from where they'd disappeared. I watched as Karl vanished and reappeared behind Grey, shoving him into the side of a dumpster. Grey stumbled and fell to his knees. Karl pulled an object from the waistband of his pants. A gun.

I jerked free from Daniel and ran.

“Autumn, no!” Daniel called from behind me.

Karl aimed the gun at Grey, who was still crouching on the ground. Sprinting harder, I screamed, hoping to get Karl’s attention and distract him. The gun went off, but Grey was gone. Karl swung around, searching for him.

Something fell from above, crashing into Karl. Grey was back. He’d jumped off the dumpster onto Karl.

I reached the group surrounding them as screams erupted. The fighting momentarily ceased as Frontmen and New Burbank people alike stood in awe. Then I heard the murmurs.

“It
is
true!”

“That’s what Karl did at the Summit!”

“Isn’t that the doctor kid?”

“This is messed up, I’m getting out of here!”

The tide of people shifted suddenly, coming at me, and I was caught in it. Bodies pressed against mine, and yelling voices filled my ears. The looming faces were frightened, enthralled, angry. I couldn’t see Grey and Karl through the sudden crush of people.

“Autumn!”

For a brief moment, I caught sight of Daniel fighting his way toward me, but then lost him again. The crowd around me surged one way, then the other. I had no idea which way we were headed, and I could barely stay on my feet, and even then, I was being stepped on or tripping over someone else. The massive amount of people around me was suffocating, and I was reminded of the stampede in Las Vegas.

A sudden wave of people pushed against me, and I lost my footing. I grabbed the person next to me, but they were falling, too. I hit the ground hard and was immediately kicked in the small of my back. I instinctively wrapped my arms around my head and tried to curl into a ball, but someone fell onto my legs. Another weight landed on my chest, and all I could hear was screaming and crying. I screamed for help but couldn’t hear myself over the din.

Then from nowhere, a powerful whoosh cleared the air of sound, and whoever was crushing me was gone. All was still. The sudden quiet was deafening.

For a moment, I thought Grey had projected me away, like he’d done to get me out of the way of the stampeding horses in Las Vegas. But he’d been nowhere around me.

I opened my eyes and uncovered my head, pushing myself up slightly to get a better view of the scene around me. The entire crowd was sprawled on the ground, fanned out in an enormous circle around three people who stood in the middle. I recognized the one in the middle, and my mouth fell open. It was Grey’s old companion from the University, Lydia.

I sat up further. Lydia was here – was
back
. Her eyes met mine across the crowd of splayed out figures just beginning to stir.

Another figure beyond the trio caught my eye. Grey. He stood, his brilliant blue eyes staring in wonder at the group before us, then his focus shifted, and I could tell he saw me. I stood quickly, but he was gone from sight. A gasp startled me. A woman lying near my feet was staring up at me with wide eyes, her body frozen in fear. I felt a presence at my side and realized it was Grey she was staring at. He’d just appeared next to me.

“Who...
what
are you?” she whispered.

“He’s our friend,” I answered and realized I’d echoed Grey’s first words to me after he saved me from The Front more than two years ago.

“Do you see where he went?” Grey called suddenly. He’d taken a defensive stance next to me, his hands on my arms, ready to project at a moment’s notice.

“No, but I’m quite sure Karl will show himself,” said one of the men standing next to Lydia. All three of them were turned outward, watching a different section of the dark lot around us. The man who’d spoken was older – much, much older. He reminded me a little of my Granddaddy – tall and willowy with age, but also strong like an ancient tree that would never fall.

“There he is!” Lydia cried, pointing, but Karl had already disappeared again. So had the third person in their group. Grey’s grip tightened on me as we waited, and the crowd around us began to move – waking, shifting, standing.

A man with fiery red hair climbed to his feet not far from me.

“Daniel!” I called to him. He looked dazed but unhurt and picked his way toward us.

The same woman who’d asked Grey what he was got slowly to her feet beside me.

“Who are those people? Where’d the third one go?” she asked.

“Is that Lydia?” Daniel asked. “Grey, are they... ?”

“Yes,” Grey said, smiling. “And by the looks of it, they’ve come to take Karl home.”

“Take him
home
?!” a man from The Front asked.

“There!” someone shouted. Karl briefly appeared, then disappeared, followed by a flicker of light in the shape of a human.

“What was that? Did you see that?” Several people around us demanded.

“She’s not going fast enough,” I heard Lydia say. “She’s going to lose him.”

“Aurin will collect him,” the old man replied.

Faster and faster, Karl appeared and reappeared, sometimes disappearing for longer lengths of time, though always followed by that same flicker of light that I figured to be the third person in Lydia’s group.

“How can she do that?” I whispered to Grey. As far as I knew, you had to have physical contact with someone to astral project with them.

“The University has put an astral projection quarantine on this area,” Grey said, watching. “Karl can’t project beyond it, and Aurin is a very, very good projectionist. She’s able to do things I couldn’t in another hundred years of practice.”  His arms slid further around me, and I felt him holding his breath, waiting.

All at once, Karl fell at the feet of the old man, and the figure of light darkened to become a young girl. She stood very still, eyes trained on Karl, who seemed to be paralyzed. He lay splayed on the ground, eyes wide, staring back at her. It was as if she held him still with her eyes.

The old man smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Aurin. I must say, you have proven your theory. Please take this man back to The University.”

Without answering, the young girl disappeared, and so did Karl.

“Wait, that’s it?!” yelled someone from the crowd. “Karl’s just... gone?!”

I was thinking the same thing. Were they really whisking him away, never to be heard from again? Removing him from Earth like one would press delete on a computer screen? It was too easy, too decent an ending for him. He needed to be tried, found guilty, imprisoned, and forced to experience all of the horrible things he’d inflicted on everyone else... for the rest of his life.

“Karl is part of our organization and deserves to be tried by his peers, not his victims,” the old man said in a low voice that was somehow still commanding everyone’s attention. “He will not bother your planet or any other again. We make this oath to you all. Those who answered to Karl and those who fought against him shall put down their weapons and make haste toward a peaceful existence with those around you.”

I raised my eyebrows and looked around at the mixture of the two sides surrounding us. Bewilderment and surprise painted our faces, and after a moment, everyone bent to lay their weapons on the ground, too afraid of the mystery man not to oblige.

“Is anyone in need of medical assistance?” the old man asked.

Several hands were raised.

He nodded genially. “Lydia will assist those in need,” he said, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Anyone with medical training or an aptitude for charity may help her.”

The woman next to me who had been vocal so far started to interject, but the old man gently cut her off.

“All of your questions will be answered in due course. I beg for your patience while I tend to matters slightly more important than your curiosity. And, in the meantime, know that we mean no harm, but that all fighting must end this moment. Please, depart now and go to wherever it is that you call home.”

I watched the woman next to me out of the corner of my eye, but she mumbled something about not having a choice and went with the crowd following Lydia toward the main gates of the lot. Grey, Daniel, and I waited while the old man made his way to us through the departing tide of people.

“Wingfield,” Grey said and clasped his hand in greeting without taking his arm from around me. “Your powers of persuasion haven’t faltered since our parting.”

The old man smiled and nodded in return. He paused and searched Grey’s eyes with his own. “It has been some time since we last laid eyes on each other.”

“Autumn and Daniel,” Grey said, indicating each of us. “Let me introduce you to my oldest friend, and my mentor, Wingfield.”

Wingfield nodded and smiled, then extended his hand to each of us. “It’s lovely to meet you, Autumn... Daniel.”

His hand was very large, and his palm felt papery and tough, like he’d worked with his hands all his life. His face was heavily lined. Skin sagged around his jaw, and the backs of his hands were crisscrossed with raised bluish veins and small dark spots.

“Your friends are aware of your affiliation with The University and your abilities?”

Grey nodded. “Most of my close friends — people I consider my family... ” A worried expression took over every corner of his face. “It’s not that I’m rejecting The University and everything we’ve worked on together, and it’s not out of disrespect, Wingfield. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you, and for what we all have managed to accomplish through The University, and—”

Wingfield raised a hand, silencing him. “You must choose your own path, Greyson. We all must. And if that path leads you away from us, then it saddens me, because I will continue to miss your presence, but it also lifts my heart to know you’ve found your way.” Then he added, “Lydia has had quite a bit to say to us since her return.”

My heart swelled suddenly for Lydia. Cool, distant, sometimes plain old mean Lydia went back to The University and fought for us. For Earth.

“Thank you for your open mind, Wingfield,” Grey said.

“You should thank Lydia,” he said. “She’s the one who swayed the committee to come here and collect Karl. She was quite passionate about it.”

“Lydia was passionate?” I blurted out. Wingfield smiled.

“It would seem some of Greyson’s bad habits transferred to her in their time on Earth together.”

I looked at Grey, who was smiling at Wingfield. Had his mentor just made a joke? I was astonished.

“Would you mind if I take Autumn home?” Grey asked.

“Of course, of course,” Wingfield said.

“Please come with us. Do you have time?”

Wingfield nodded.

“Daniel?” Grey asked, extending his hand to him, palm up.

“Oh! Right... ”  Daniel awkwardly took Grey’s hand. “I’m sure Connie is worried sick.”

Grey extended his other hand to Wingfield, who took it. This left me in the middle of the circle. I stepped forward against Grey and wrapped my arms around his waist. Without a thought of who might be watching us, Grey closed his eyes and began to concentrate.

I looked at Daniel, eyes clamped shut and practically grimacing with anticipation, then I glanced up at Wingfield, who towered over us all. His eyes were closed, and a small smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

The air seemed to vibrate around us, and I shut my eyes quickly, pressing my cheek against Grey’s chest.

“Welcome to Hoover Hollow,” I heard Grey say and opened my eyes again. “This is one of the places we’ve called home since The Plague.”

I noticed Daniel breathing deeply and staring at the ground. I touched his arm. “You okay?”

He nodded, took one last deep breath and looked up. “I don’t think I could ever get used to that.”

Grey had brought us directly in front of our home, and I looked at it with mingled relief and longing. The sun was rising behind the house, the sky a soft lavender color just hovering on the edge of brilliant orange. The house was beautiful in the dawn light. How many times had I imagined this in the past few weeks? And now it was real.

The others started up the driveway, and I stood for a moment, enjoying the warm feeling of coming home.

The front door flew open, and a woman resembling Connie in every way except the startlingly immense size of her middle came barreling down the front steps.

Calling out a warning about stumbling, Daniel rushed forward, but she swatted him away and charged at me. I couldn’t read the look on her face, and for a moment, I was frightened. But then she reached me and swept me into her arms, despite the enormous bulge of her pregnant belly between us.

She clasped me to her for a long time, swaying slightly. When she finally broke away from me, she said, “Welcome home, Autumn.”  She wiped tears from her cheeks and, taking my arm, walked me up the drive and onto the porch, inviting our guest to come in as well and demanding to hear about everything happening at the movie lot.

“Ben! Don’t roll so fast! I can’t keep up with you!” Rissi’s little voice could be heard from inside the house.

There was a crash as Ben bumped the front door open and wheeled onto the porch, Rissi close behind him. I closed the gap between us, bending over to hug him fiercely. Rissi rushed to me, jumping up and down while she waited for her own hug.

The men followed us into the house and then into the kitchen, where Connie sat me down at the table and immediately began pulling food from the pantry. She put the tea kettle on to boil water and stacked plates on the table, all while assembling the world’s largest smorgasbord before me.

Rissi chattered nonstop during this process but suddenly fell silent. I looked up to find her staring at Wingfield, her brown eyes wide.

“You’re like Grey, aren’t you? You’re friends, right?”

Wingfield raised his eyebrows – the only indication he was impressed. “Yes on both counts. My name is Wingfield.”

“I’m Marissa. This is my brother, Ben. He’s in a wheelchair.”

“I think he can see that for himself, Riss,” Ben muttered to her, then shook hands with Wingfield. “So you’re... like Grey, are you?”

Connie paused in slicing a gigantic loaf of bread. “What are you guys talking about? ‘Like Grey?’  What’s that supposed to mean?”

We all looked at each other, realizing she was the only one who didn’t know.

“Well, first things first, Connie,” Grey started. “Karl is gone. The Reconstruction Front has been disbanded. It’s over.”

Silence followed as Connie stared at him, her knife still hovering over the bread. Her gaze drifted from Wingfield to each one of us in turn, finally landing on Daniel, who came to stand next to her. “Really?” she asked him.

He took her hand and nodded. “We can finally move on.”

Connie looked afraid to smile. “But... but how?” she stammered. “After what Karl did at The Summit – disappearing like that – how was anyone able to catch him? And so fast? When I went to bed last night, everything was terrible and then in the middle of the night, I wake up and Daniel is gone, and it looks like Ben never came home, there’s no note and all of the neighbors seem to be gone, and now you’re all here, and Autumn and Rissi are home safe, thank goodness...” Connie finally paused for a breath, then asked, “How did all this happen?!”

“A great deal of it has to do with this man here,” Grey said, motioning toward Wingfield. “He’s a very dear friend of mine, and a mentor. I’ve known him my entire life.”

“I see,” Connie said, staring at Wingfield. “How is it that we’ve never met you before? Have you traveled far to find Grey?”

“Yes, I have,” Wingfield said without hesitation. “And that is most kind of you to say, Greyson. I always enjoyed and valued our time together. You are modest, though. Our roles may have reversed of late.”

Another silence followed, and I could tell Grey wasn’t sure how to proceed. Telling Shad and Daniel had been difficult. Telling Ben hadn’t been a problem – Rissi had taken care of that for him, though Ben now watched Grey with rapt attention. I was sure he was waiting to launch into his list of million questions.

A knock at the front door startled everyone.

“Uh... I guess I’ll get it,” Daniel said and reluctantly disappeared down the hall.

“Wingfield,” Connie pressed.  “How is it that you were able to help us with Karl? Did you know him, too?”

He nodded. “I’ve known Karl a very long time, indeed.”

“But how could you know him? You just said you’d traveled a very long way to—” Connie paused suddenly. I could see her putting it together — Wingfield knowing Karl, showing up suddenly and being capable of stopping him.

Her eyes darted to Grey, then to Rissi. “Why did you ask if Wingfield was like Grey? Like Grey how? Lydia!”

We all turned to see Daniel ushering Lydia into the kitchen.