Fury of the Six (The Preston Six Book 5) (7 page)

“Get us out of here, Lucas,” Poly said.

Lucas was already on the stone when it started to hum. He stepped back, and shot the rest of them a terrified look.

“Here we go,” Evelyn said.

“I didn’t touch the stone yet. Someone’s coming,” Lucas said.

“Edith, get—” Was all Joey said before a figure popped into existence.

“YOU FORCED ME DOWN HERE. You knew this was coming. I have no privacy with all these cameras watching my every move. I had to break them,” Gingy said. “I needed somewhere you aren’t studying me. I’m not a lab rat.”

Gladius took a slow breath and watched the performance Gingy put on. It wasn’t bad and she felt the emotion from Gingy building with each word.

“My sensors detect an elevation in room temperature. Are you sure you are alone?”

“Maybe it’s because I’ve been sweating like a pig down here, wreaking this place up. If you don’t leave me alone, I’ll start breaking things
he
likes.”

“There would be consequences.” The speaker clicked off.

Gladius stared at her, locking in on her eyes. She didn’t want there to be any doubt, she’d gut her from hip to neck if she squealed to the computer. Tears fell down Gingy’s face and she wiped them with her sleeve.

Leaning toward the coffee table, Gladius picked up a pad of paper and wrote a note on it.

Is there a place with no microphones?

Gingy nodded and pointed toward the kitchen door.

Gladius got up from the couch and motioned to the kitchen. Keeping her knife near Gingy’s back, she walked behind her into the next room. Gingy stopped just inside of the kitchen and held a hand over her mouth.

Gladius moved around her and saw blood spilling over the stainless steel counter top. Minter moved frantically, grabbing towels and filling a bucket of water. “We can talk in here?” Gladius asked.

“Whisper,” Gingy said and looked pale, staring at Emmett laid out on the counter. “You have to save him.”

Gladius huffed and pushed her forward. Gingy whimpered and moved next to Emmett. The gunshot on his leg continued to ooze blood. Gladius didn’t think she’d ever seen so much coming out of one person, although she held no pity for the man. To her, it’d be just fine if he bled out on that table.

Hank slid a knife up Emmett’s pant leg and cut the slacks in half. She watched them ball up a handful of paper towels and push it on his leg, trying to get the bleeding to stop. Gingy cried next to Emmett, her hands hovered next to his mangled face, but she never brought herself to actually touch him.

“We need to get the bullet out,” Minter said. “But if it hit a main artery . . .”

“We have a machine down the hall. It can save him.”

Minter pushed on the white cloth and they watched as it turned red instantly. He grabbed another and stared at Gingy as he applied it. Gladius wondered if he was going to pull out his gun and shoot her dead. She’d been with a lot of men in her life and she knew men like Minter were rare, along with most of the Six and their parents. Strange lot they were, when she thought about it. Anyone in their right mind would be letting this vile man die on the counter. Yet, here were her man and Minter, trying like crazy to keep him alive.

“Is there a camera?” Minter asked.

“Yes, two of them.”

“If we have any chance of saving him, it’s going to be in that machine,” Minter said. “But if you try one thing, he dies and you die.”

Gingy pursed her lips and sniffled. She took a deep breath and started to scream.

Minter had his gun out in a fraction of a second.

“Wait,” Gladius said, holding out her hand. She’d already seen the woman’s acting skills.

Gingy continued to scream, picking up a pot and throwing it across the room. It clanked and clattered over the steel tops and crashed to the ground. She grabbed more items and threw them around like a crazy person. Gladius shook her head in admiration. The chick was crazy, but she was her kind of crazy.

“I can’t take it in here anymore!” She picked up a pot and kicked the door to the hall open. Running down the hall, she slammed the pan into a small camera near the ceiling. Gladius, Hank, and Minter made sure to stay clear of any lines of sight from the camera and listened to her rant against her captors while destroying the hall and the next room over.

“If she sells us out, you better kill her.” Gladius glared at Minter and he nodded his head.

A few seconds passed and Gingy rushed back into the kitchen. “I hurt my hand,” she screamed. Blood dripped from her left hand as she rushed next to Emmett. “Come on. Let’s get him there.”

The thought of touching Emmett again repulsed Gladius and she was happy to see Hank and Minter handling the load on their own. She kept behind Gingy, with her knife pointed at her at all times. She didn’t like how well the woman could act.

Hank and Minter placed Emmett’s body into the tanning bed looking machine. Gladius remembered the few times she’d gotten into one, and the chills it gave your body as it repaired you molecule by molecule.

Gingy closed the lid and punched in the commands. At the end, she fell to her knees, sobbing into her hands.

Gladius might have comforted a distraught woman, but she was getting to know Gingy and was leery of how genuine the tears were. Hank on the other hand, didn’t have any such troubles.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered. “Emmett’s one tough guy.”

Gladius took a deep breath and held her tongue. She wanted to remind them of exactly who was in that machine. That man had tried to kill them all at one point, manipulated Joey and had Julie seconds from her death.

“He used to be
strong,” Gingy said and wiped her nose. “That is a shell of the man he once was. Emmett was the strongest, smartest person I’d ever known. What you all did to him, ruined him.”

“He attempted to kill most of my friends at one point or another,” Hank said.

“Only to protect us,” she said with her voice rising. “You all think you’re so righteous. You have no idea what Marcus is really trying to do.”

“Enlighten us then,” Gladius spit out.

She laughed and looked back at Gladius. “You’ll find out soon enough. You think he doesn’t know about your plans? Marcus knows
everything
.”

“He’s not a god,” Hank said. “He can be stopped.”

“In some worlds he is a god. . .” she whispered, turning to face Hank. “How do you know everything you’re doing right now isn’t just part of his plan? If he wants something to happen, it’ll happen.”

“Like you down here?” Gladius said.

The question sent her back to burying her face in her hands. Gladius held herself back from ending the woman. Every word she spoke felt like an angle. Of course Hank was eating it up. But she loved Hank for it. Bless a man who could care for his enemy. Gladius didn’t have it in her to spare Gingy and if the room was empty, she’d stab her in the temple.

“I’m just a tiny part in Marcus’s plans,” she mumbled in her hands. “He barely talks to me. I just want it to go back to the way it was. The way it was before you all came into my life.”

“That won’t happen,” Gladius said. “The world erodes everyone and everything; you’ll never be the same.”

Hank looked at her with a frown. She sent him a smile. She didn’t want to sound morbid, but the longer you lived, the more you knew not to believe things would turn out for the better. The good guys hardly won. More than likely, the stronger person would win and on occasion, the lucky one.

“How much longer?” Minter pointed at the machine holding Emmett.

“Probably an hour,” she said.

He huffed and took a seat at the back of the room with his gun resting on his lap.

Gladius gazed at the ceiling where the broken camera hung in pieces. She looked back at the door and wondered. “You think Alice knows we’re here?”

Gingy set her face between her knees. “Most likely.”

Gladius took a deep breath and watched Hank move to the door. “What can she do to us in here?”

“Turn off the air. Cut the power.”

“She tried to flood out Lucas,” Hank said.

It would be better if she didn’t know they were there, but it didn’t change the mission. As long as she didn’t know why they were there and she didn’t find Julie’s program imbedded in her, they’d be okay. She’d be damned if she was going to let some computer get the best of her and hers. She fumed and tightly gripped the blade in her hand, blaming herself for not clearing the house out before they left the front door unattended. This was her fault and she would never forgive herself if something happened to Hank.

Hank moved to Gladius and rubbed her back. “You okay?”

“Yeah, but if she knows we’re here, we don’t have a way out.”

“No, we don’t,” Gingy said.

Gladius squeezed her eyes shut and her lips thinned. It would only be a matter of time until Alice picked up on something and when she did, she’d find a way to end them all. She glanced at Hank. The idea of dying next to him was comforting. He was the first person in her life to whom she felt a true, romantic connection. All the physical flings she’d had were passing moments, but the year she’d spent with Hank filled in so much of her history, she didn’t think about the time before him.

“It’s going to be okay, we’ll find a way out of here,” Hank said.

“I know and I think I have the perfect plan.”

“I would like to hear this plan,” Alice’s voice said through unseen speakers.

“Shit,” Gladius said.

“SHARATI?” JOEY ASKED, DRAWING HIS gun with a shaky hand. He glanced at Poly. The last time they met, Poly had put a blade into Sharati.

Sharati glared at each of them but kept her curved dagger on her hip. “Tick, did you clear them out?”

“Yes.”

“You are fools for coming here. They’ve been watching every stone on this planet, waiting for you to jump here, and here you are.” She stared at Evelyn in Edith’s arms. “So it’s true. She’s been born. And you,” she pointed to Julie, “are with child.”

“Sharati, we were just leaving,” Julie said.

“You know he cleared the air here?” Sharati asked. “He predicted the world would end and it did. He gave us a new world to inhabit while he cleaned this world so we could return. So many died that day.”

Joey thought of the day they rode away from the growing cloud that would envelope the whole world of Arrack. Sharati had turned on them that day.

Lucas rushed to the stone and Joey kept his gun trained on Sharati.

“You can go, but that is what he wants you to do. He’s herding you. Why not stray from his path?”

Lucas paused and looked back at Joey.

“You want to help us?” Joey asked.

“There are those who believe you didn’t know what was in the package; we believe Marcus did. We are few in numbers but growing. We know he wants you more than anything in all the worlds, or more specifically, her.” She pointed at Evelyn. “We can do what he doesn’t think you’ll do and stay here.”

“This is stupid, hit the code, Lucas,” Poly said.

“Wait,” Joey called out, “I think she has a point. We could go to the next spot and maybe buy a week, but if we were to hide here, we might get months.”

“We are not staying here.” Poly put a hand on her knife.

“Fine, Lucas, get us out of here. Sharati, you need to step out of the circle.”

“I was afraid you’d feel this way.” She gave a quick nod toward Tick.

Joey turned around in time to see a ball fly toward them, cracking open in the sky. Bolts of electricity flew out from the stone. Joey felt a rush down the back of his neck, but the lightning bolt struck him in the chest. As Joey fell, he heard the stone humming.

LUCAS WAS NEXT TO JULIE who lay on the ground.

Joey jumped up, spun around, searching for Evelyn. She lay on top of Edith, touching her face. Edith jerked awake and looked around before clutching Evelyn and getting to her feet.

“Poly?” Joey rubbed her arm and she stirred awake.

“Evelyn . . .”

“She’s fine.”

“Tick threw a ball at us. You think it struck Evelyn?” Poly rushed to her and took her from Edith, inspecting her. Evelyn giggled and patted Poly’s arms.

“Holy freaking moly, where the hell are we?” Lucas said.

Joey did a slow circle, looking at the wasteland. Nothing appeared to be growing in the scorched landscape. Mountains were in the distance, yet there was nothing but flat desert before them. “Where did you take us?” he asked.

“I got hit before I could finish the code . . . I might have bumped in the last digit.”

“Please tell me this is a master stone.”

Lucas shook his head.

“This can’t be happening. Where’s Sharati? She must have done this.”

“I was trying to
save
you,” Sharati hissed from behind Joey.

He spun around with his gun in hand. “Where the hell are we?”

“I don’t know, but this looks like a purged planet.”

“Get us out of here,” Joey said.

“I can’t. He was right,” she pointed to Lucas, “it’s a one-way stone.”

Joey paced and squeezed the hilt of his gun tight. “Julie. Nearest stone off this rock.”

“To the north, a long ways. Days.”

He pointed his gun at Sharati. “Why did you do that? You’ve killed us.”

“I didn’t think he’d get a code off in time. We aimed to take you back to a safe house, to protect you. Not to some purged planet.”

“Purged?” Julie asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Sharati looked at the dirt around the circle. “When you’ve been to as many planets as we have, you see some that look like a great wind came through and peeled a layer off the whole planet. This place feels like that. We need to get off this planet quickly. It isn’t safe here.” She looked to the sky.

“Great. Julie, lead the way, please,” Joey said.

Julie had her Panavice out and searched the screen for a minute. “We should go through the gorge over there. There is usually a forest on the back side of it.”

“What country equivalent are we in?” Poly asked.

“Chile.”

Joey pointed his gun at Sharati. “You’re not coming with us.”

“I understand your apprehension, but you will need me. There are things on a purged planet you have to look out for.”

“No.” Joey said. “We are going that way, you go that way.”

Sharati touched the hilt on her dagger as if by instinct. “I don’t take orders from you. I will go on my own. If you find a pulser, stay far away from it. You will know it from the blinking green lights. And don’t trust anything in the sky.” She looked to the sky then turned and walked south.

Joey watched her for a few minutes until he was happy with her distance from them.

“Julie?”

She nodded and walked toward the gorge. “We should have kept her though. There is something on the other side of the mountain. Something powerful. It could be this pulser she mentioned.”

“She tried to kill us,” Joey said. “Are you prepared to have her by our side after that?”

“I’m not. She creeps me out big time,” Lucas said.

Julie led the way and kept a slow pace, rubbing her large stomach from time to time. Joey remembered Poly struggling with odd pains and sore feet while she was pregnant and he wished they had some kind of cart to help Julie. It wasn’t right, having her travel so much in her state. All the movement and exercise had to be straining on her and the baby, though Julie never complained.

The gorge gave them a nice path up the side of the mountain. Julie stopped periodically, but they kept a good pace up the hill. By the time the sun had reached mid-sky, they were near the top.

Joey, being tallest, got to see the city below first. He paused at the sight. The city had been enormous at one point, but now it was barren. The only true defining marks, were the concrete streets forming a nice grid pattern, crisscrossing through the old city that stretched to the horizon.

“We found another planet with a civilization,” Julie said, staring at the screen and then back to the city in ruins below.

“Did someone nuke it?” Lucas asked.

Julie shook her head. “No, there’s no radiation, plus look at the city. There is not a center point to the destruction. Everything seems to have just fallen down.”

“There’s a building still standing,” Poly pointed at one in the distance. “How long do you think it will take to get here? I don’t like the idea of being out here in the dark. This place doesn’t feel right.”

Joey felt the same way, but he wasn’t sure about the single building standing in the middle of a wasteland either. They were too far to make out the details of the building but judging the distance, he thought they could get there in a couple hours.

Julie didn’t appear to like what she was seeing on her Panavice. “There’s something strange near that building. It’s drawing a lot of power.”

“You think people are here?” Joey asked.

“I don’t know, but something is out there.”

The unknown terrified him. Before Evelyn, he could be reckless. Now, he had a precious baby girl to protect. He watched her for a few seconds. She gazed down at the ruined city with an unblinking stare.

“We ready then?” Lucas asked.

Joey nodded. “Let’s keep our weapons ready. Who knows if this is another Ryjack. Could be freaking grinners down there.” He led the way down the hill and toward the city. He pulled out his second gun and skirted the crumbled buildings as he approached the first street. Seeing the destruction up close, he thought of the massive earthquakes he saw on TV and how the buildings fell to the ground in massive heaps of rubble. Crossing the street, he stepped around the many blocks of concrete covering it.

Looking down the way, he didn’t spot any ambling grinners, or anything for that matter. The streets looked blank. No cars, no vegetation, no life. Nothing but rubble. He motioned for Lucas to move ahead. Lucas moved close to a building wall that hadn’t collapsed and held his bow out as he did. Joey moved behind him and covered the right side.

“I don’t see anything,” Lucas said.

“Looks clear.” Joey motioned for Poly and the rest to come out.

“What the hell happened here?” Lucas asked, looking at the piles of rubble pouring into the street. “It’s like freaking King Kong came through.”

“Earthquake?” Joey guessed.

“Chile
is
a hot zone, but I don’t know. Look at the street . . . no cracks. And where is everything? Cars, people, plants, there’s nothing but concrete.”

A bird screeched from above. The sound made Joey jump and he looked to the sky. It was then he noticed how truly quiet this place was. The bird soared high above, circling over them and then turned off toward the ocean.

Don’t trust anything in the sky,
Sharati had told them. Joey started to feel as if he had made a mistake sending her away. “Julie, you picking anything up?”

“Just the same power source as before. Looks to be straight down this street, toward that building.”

“Nothing else? No nets, no people, no Pana’s?”

“Nothing. This place is a blank slate, except for that one building. I’m not even picking up satellites.”

“What the hell happened here?” Lucas said.

“Sharati said this planet had been purged. I wonder what that meant.” Julie looked back and Joey saw the regret on her face. Maybe they could have gotten more information from her before he sent her away. “She said stay away from blinking green lights.”

“Well, if we see any, we’ll be careful,” Joey said, actively trying to keep his leg moving without a noticeable limp.

They walked down the street, passing one rubble pile after the next. A few still had what looked like intact walls and even what resembles shops or houses inside. Joey passed one such building and saw the children’s desks lined up facing a collapsed roof and shattered blackboard.

Joey glanced back at Evelyn. She gazed at each building with as much curiosity as Julie. She seemed to be studying everything around her even pointing and making grunting sounds at a few different objects in the rubble. A red bike sticking in the pile of broken concrete sparked her interest. The red color stood out among the sea of black and grey around them.

Lucas ran through the rubble, searching for water and food, but he didn’t find anything they could use. It was as if someone had already stripped the rubble for usable items. Joey eyed some of the rebar sticking out of the concrete blocks and the rust stains running down from it.
How long ago did this happen?

The black building a mile ahead became the only reminder of what man had once accomplished here. The rest of the city around it had suffered a different fate. Did they build it after the collapse? Was it the first in vast rehabilitation project?

About a half mile out from the building, Julie halted the group. “You see that? A green light just blinked.”

“I didn’t see anything,” Lucas said.

Joey leaned forward, staring at the black building and they all waited for the light to appear.

“I swear I saw one,” Julie said, breaking the one-minute silence.

Joey looked at the group. “We’ll all keep looking and if anyone sees it, let us know.”

“I think we should just go around,” Poly said.

“That is the only standing building in this city, if we have any chance of finding supplies, it’s there.”

“But something destroyed this place,” Poly pointed out, “and we’d be idiots to think whatever it is won’t destroy us.”