The Indestructibles (Book 3): The Entropy of Everything (27 page)

Chapter 53:

A life unlived

      Billy Case soared over the City, his city, his home, a metropolis in watercolors, the late day sun cast hot shards of orange light everywhere he looked
. The Tower, still whole, was not the floating starship he remembered drifting unmoored above an urban landscape but remained an integral part of it, a real tower, a shining building in the center of town.

      The roar of destruction was all he heard.

      He watched, unable to move, as a wave of devastation washed over the City, windows exploded outward, skyscrapers toppled, gas mains exploded beneath concrete roadways. The City fell, and then, as the tsunami splashed Billy, he tumbled as well.

*  *  *

      The wreckage of his family hardware store. Empty, forgotten. Roof torn away. Tools to build lay scattered on the linoleum floor. Who would use them now? There was nothing left to rebuild here. The City had fallen. Others had as well, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo.

      A burning raged in his stomach, the pain of loss. Something tugged at the back of his mind, something he wished he'd done, something he wanted to say. Goodbye. Who did he not have a chance to say goodbye to? Am I crying? I feel like I'm crying, he thought, but there are no tears.

      A hand placed in his. Warm, like the sun. Thin strong fingers. Her head on his shoulder. Love. In this life, there was love, and there was loss.

*  *  *

      Everything hurts. Why does everything hurt? He looked around. This was no place on earth, not the earth he knew. Carnage. The black ocean rushing in to fill a vacuum that shouldn't exist. Buildings mixed in with earth and stone like toys tossed in a sandbox. Everything washed away. Remnants of sandcastles after the approach of a rising tide.

      His entire body burning. From the inside. His life fading away. His companion leaving. Don't leave me here alone, he thought. I can't stand to be alone.

      Solar looking at him. Or was it Jane? One in the same. Her hair glowing brightly like a newly struck match in the wind. The sky above looming like something from a nightmare, black clouds and lightning. The end of the world.

      No, not the end of the world, Billy Case thought. Just the end of me.

      I hope I did enough with my time here. There was never going to be enough time to do everything. Hope I did enough.

*  *  *

      Holiday dinner on a farm. A burly old man. A kindly old woman. Central casting, Titus called them. Of course they've got a farm.

      Dinner with friends. Kate pouting on the porch. Jane speaking with her. Jane glows at night. How did I never know she glows at night? Just a little bit. A firefly. A source of energy, a gleam of hope.

      Titus with his hand on Billy's shoulder. My friend. Older. We're all older. Titus sporting a few more scars. His hair turning gray. Not gray, silver, yeah silver, like the moon. This is who we become. The four of us. Why only four? Everything's different here. But it's home, and it feels like home, and I'm safe. Snowing outside. Kate far away, Kate always far away, distant, and there's Jane and the snow melts and falls away from her. I wonder if she knows what it feels like to have snowflakes in her hair. How do you describe that? How can you tell someone how it feels to be caressed by mother nature with the first few cold flurries at the onset of a snowstorm?

      Christmas dinner is ready. Jane singing a song no one knows.

*  *  *

      I'm cold. So very cold. Not snow now, ashes, things burning. Buildings. People. He hears Titus's voice in his ear. California is gone. How can an entire state be gone? How does that happen?

      Something in his heart. Pride. Not proud of himself. Dude is proud of him. His Jiminy Cricket.
You did well,
the voice says.
You were brave. You did everything asked of you in this life.

     
You were a hero
.

      I'm sorry I have to leave, but this life won't let me stay. I'm sorry, my friend. I'll miss you most of all.

      And then he's alone in his head, alone in his heart, and all the pain in the world comes flooding back into him, his last moments, last thoughts. This is where I end. But it's okay. Everything I did in my life pointed to this moment. I was never going to run my father's store. Never going to have an ordinary life. Better to have an extraordinary finish.

      Solar's hand in his again. Warm. Always so warm. The light of the sun. She's singing again. I know this song, Billy thought. It's the song she sings when she's saying goodbye.

     
But since it falls unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not . . .

      This isn't my life, Billy Case thought. It's someone else's. Someone else's death. Not mine. It doesn't belong to me.

      "You need to come back to us now," Jane said. She sounded close, and young. "Come back, Billy. You're needed here."

*  *  *

      Billy woke up amid chaos, the world a cacophony of explosions and massive footsteps. Jane flew past him, a streak of flames, holding what looked like an entire streetlight in her hands. She used it like a baseball bat to take a swing at the head of a giant robot that had not been there when he was last conscious.

      "Wake up, glow bug, I need you," Jane said.

      "It's a robot, the brain is in the chest," Billy said, trying to get his bearings.

      Three robots surrounded them, two of which Billy did not remember arriving. All three were damaged as Jane ping-ponged between them, throwing haymakers and using debris as makeshift weapons. He searched for and found the robot with the null-gun mounted on its shoulder.

      "It's more cathartic to hit it in the head though," Jane said. "And I really need to hit something in the head."

      "How long was I out?" Billy said.

      "I don't know—you looked like a ball of light when I got here," Jane said. She'd shifted to using a small car as a blunt weapon. "Are you okay?"

      The memories he'd seen—his memories?—gnawed at his stomach.

      "I'm fine," Billy said.

      "You're glowing," Jane said. "Worse than before. You look like a light bulb."

      "Dude? Am I going to blow up?" Billy said, taking evasive action to get out of the way of a giant robot fist.  Lights along the side of the null gun indicated it was powering up.

     
Our power levels have doubled,
Dude said.
I am trying to keep control of it. Making you look normal is not high on the priority lists for making sure we do not hurt ourselves.

      "Hurt ourselves?" Billy said.

     
Let me worry about our safety
, Dude said.

      And what should I be doing, Billy thought.

     
I think you should enjoy being twice as powerful as you've ever been and tear these monstrosities apart,
Dude said.
I have had quite enough of them.

      Me too, Billy thought.

      "Coming in hot, Jane, look out," Billy said.

      "You sure that's a good idea?" she said.

      Billy got a running start, circling around a city block at incredible speed to generate power. He aimed at the robot with the null gun, which had lost sight of Billy and now had its back facing him.

      Will our shields hold? Billy thought.

     
Absolutely,
Dude said.

      "Like an arrow through the heart," Billy said.

      A fist through newspaper, he tore into the robot's metal armor, striking the mechanical creature with a sonic boom. The robot's chest exploded, its innards spraying out the other side like the guts of a shattered clock. The null gun fired, straight up into the sky, disappearing into the darkness harmlessly, a firework failing to explode.

      "Where did these other two come from?" Billy said.

      "I don't know," Jane said. "They were here when I arrived. Billy, we gotta finish these off quickly. Emily's in trouble."

      A robot tried to catch Jane in its fist. She matched the grab with one of her own, tearing a finger off at the root and stabbing the mech through the palm with it.

      "Heads-up," Billy said.

      "I don't question glowing alien wrecking balls," Jane said, flying up above the robot and out of reach.

      Billy aimed both hands at the mech's chest and tried to fire a controlled burst of energy. He got more than he bargained for, hitting it with a blinding stream of blue-white light. The blast obliterated the robot's upper body, sending its remains tumbling to the ground.

      "What was that!" Jane said.

      "I'm really hoping it's temporary, because I can see this going so wrong all the time," Billy said.

      "Take the last one together?" Jane said.

      "Please," Billy answered.

      They arced away, creating mirroring elliptical flight patterns. Billy and Jane flew at the robot with their fists poised, her red-gold energy signature beside his blue-white streak. They collided with the robot, throwing simultaneous punches, crushing the machine's armored shell and all but splitting it down the middle.

      Billy felt himself begin to shake, like coming down from an adrenaline high. He sensed the power beginning to regulate, starting to feel more normal, but the high was soon replaced by nausea, his head spinning.

      "Billy, where's Jessie?" Jane asked.

      He pointed down to the rooftop where he'd left her.

      "Is she hurt?" Jane said.

      "No, she got nulled," Billy said.

      "I have to get back to Emily," Jane said.

      "I'll come with you."

      "Everything is getting weird down there," she said. "I'm afraid of explaining whatever the heck is happening in there to you right now. It's like the whole world is about to explode. Check on Jessie. Make sure she's okay. Try to fix her."

      "Jane," Billy said.

      She swooped in to fly beside him, waiting.

      Have you ever felt the touch of snow flurries in your hair? he wanted to ask.

      "Be safe," Billy said instead.

      "You too," Jane said, offering him a worried smile. She flew away in a burst of flames.

      "Dude?" he said.

     
Believe me, Billy Case
, Dude said.
This is even stranger for me than it is for you.

      "That might be the least reassuring thing you've ever said," Billy sighed.

Chapter 54:

We make the same mistakes

      Kate recognized the sound of herself in pain.
She followed it, not needing to rely on the hyper-senses of Titus and Whispering to guide her to her future self.

      The trio burst into a large, open room that had once served as a foyer on the far side of the building. And there, they discovered future-Kate sightlessly fighting a slight figure in a black suit and white featureless mask. The White Shadow.

      Smaller than I expected, Kate thought, surprised at the Shadow's lean frame and long, thin limbs. The White Shadow didn't move like a ninety year old man, though. Still a fighter, future-Kate was talented and quick, but she battled blind and injured, and the Shadow toyed with her, blocking kicks and punches delivered just a little too slowly, taking advantage of future-Kate's lack of eyesight by moving with almost supernatural silence. Kate's future self landed two good punches, solid shots to the her opponent's chest, but the Shadow, almost as if aware of and because of younger-Kate, Titus, and Whispering's arrival, spun to one side, put an arm around future-Kate's neck, and held her tight, expertly holding one arm so the other could brutally push on a packet of nerves below.

      Future-Kate roared in pain.

      "Look at you," the Shadow said in a voice higher and softer than Kate imagined. "Look at all of you. I didn't expect this."

      "Let her go," Whispering said.

      "Hush now, chieftain," the Shadow said. "I want to ask a few questions of your younger friends. How does it feel to see yourself beaten?"

      "She's not me," Kate said firmly.

      "I suppose not. And you'll never be her," the White Shadow said. "Because you're all going to die here."

      The future Dancer went limp after The Shadow squeezed her neck again. He placed her gently on the ground.

      "She's not dead," Shadow said. "You know, she might have been better than me if she were whole. Or if she had more time. Some of the best fighters in history were sightless. But she let her anger get in the way."

      Kate stayed in place in the doorway as Whispering and Titus cautiously moved closer along the edge of the room. The Shadow laughed—again, softer, surprisingly higher—and pulled a small knife out of the inside of a sleeve and rested it gently against future-Kate's neck.

      "You werewolves are fast, but neither of you will get here before I slit her throat. I really don't care if you kill me, but I know her life is important to you," the Shadow said.

      "What do you want?" younger-Kate asked.

      "Me?" the White Shadow said and then paused, head tilted to one side, contemplative, curious.

      Thin fingers reached up and dug in under the collar to tug on the silky mask, pulling upward. The White Shadow revealed her face. Hollow cheekbones, huge, dark eyes, a full mouth that probably had been pretty in another lifetime, when it wasn't twisted up with hate. A face that seemed so very familiar.

      Who are you? Kate thought. I know who you are. I recognize that face. I've seen you before.

      "I want to see all my mistakes through to the end," the White Shadow said. "And little Dancer, I've made more mistakes than you could in a thousand lifetimes of your own."