The Last City Read online

  His entire move took barely a second, but his eyes had never lost contact with mine.

  The downside to fighting in the dome was that we had that much further to travel before I could get any relief from the pain. The stairs may prove to be troublesome, now that I didn’t have Jordan to carry me to the rooms below. I waited for Lena to bring out one of Castor’s serums, or… something, but nothing came.

  As she helped me up from the floor, she tried to justify the lack of relief. “The pain is part of the process. You need to learn to accept the feeling, and keep moving whatever you’re able to move.”

  It was hours later, when she mercifully allowed us to break, Haize was waiting below, and it wasn’t long before I was walking on my own, and facing Dax once more.

  However, it took several more hours before Lena decided I’d had enough for the day. And despite my exhaustion, I’d enjoyed learning Dax’s fighting techniques. They were somewhat less painful than Lena’s, yet somehow more empowering.

  As I made my way home, I couldn’t yet sense Jordan, and I figured he was still with Mason in the city, no doubt sorting through painful memories.

  It wasn’t yet evening, and not wanting to be alone again, my feet strayed from the path to home. And I found myself instead, at Rebecca’s tea table in her front parlor. I sat mostly in silence, as I listened to her and Hammond debate once again, over how much training she should go through. But instead of participating in their discussion, I lost myself in thoughts of Jordan. His scent from earlier that morning, wafted through me, filling me, his memory overtook my every sense.

  But when I could no longer hear Rebecca and Hammond talking in the background I looked up, ready to apologize for spacing out. However, they were no longer seated at the table with me. They were instead, staring out of the window.

  “I wonder where they are all going?” Rebecca mumbled.

  I turned my head, listening hard, and realized I could hear what she was talking about. It was a stampede, it had to be. Its rumblings seemed to vibrate through the floor. I joined her at the window to put a picture to the sound, and saw the warriors running toward the stadium. Then looking skyward, I saw them stream from that very direction, suited up and soaring toward the east.

  “Hammond?” I questioned.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” he said, placing one protective arm around Rebecca, and moving her away from the window.

  I began to leave the house determined to find out what was happening, but Hammond stopped me with a gentle grasp of my arm.

  “It’s probably best you stay here,” he pleaded. “We don’t know what is happening. Let them handle it.”

  But I had to go. No way I was sitting this out. And I still couldn’t sense Jordan. I hoped he was ok.

  As I made my determined way toward the door, my arm slipped from Hammond’s grasp. I turned back to them both, and whispered to stay safe, then striding from the small house, I raced along the walkway toward the stadium. As I reached the nearest group, Seph came up behind me, and pulled me backward, out of the way.

  “You should stay here. We don’t know how bad it is yet.”

  I gasped at his words, “How bad what is? What’s going on?”

  “The city is being attacked.”

  “But Jordan’s in the city,” I mumbled.

  I was sure he could take care of himself, but I had to get to him anyway.

  “Lydia, please, stay here,” he pleaded one more time, before sprinting off to catch up to the others.

  I closed my eyes and focused upon Jordan, searching with my soul. If he was on his way to me then I should have been able to sense him, even just a little, but there was nothing. And I wondered if perhaps the distance was too great. But that couldn’t be it, I’d sensed him before in the city from Tira-Mi.

  I ran toward the stadium, following the warrior’s path to the underground rooms, and changed into my warrior suit. I then lifted myself high into the air, until I could see above the town. Each moment was a fight to keep my focus upon my destination. I refused to think the worst. For before me, swirled a black cloud of warriors, swarming in one direction. And below me, were the Rathe, a raging river of brown, racing through the fields.

  All were aimed at the city.

  Landing just beyond the border trees that divided the city from the fields, I hung back, and waited for the bulk of the Rathe to enter. I didn’t want to be led directly into battle. And as I entered the city I headed straight for our house. But Jordan was not there, and I still couldn’t sense him. Deciding with reluctance, that it was necessary to move toward the fight, I left the house and headed north, toward the Spire.

  I darted from street to street, staying close to the buildings, not really wanting to be confronted by the enemy. But before I reached the edge of the battle, the ground beneath my feet shook, slowing my forward movement. Following this came the sounds of crumbling walls, of structures collapsing. Smoke and ash rose high above the houses.

  Jordan, where are you? I called out to him with my mind.

  But there was no response.

  I slowed my pace to barely a jog, and crept closer to the middle of the road. I then scanned the buildings ahead of me for any sign of impending destruction. And before I could acknowledge their presence, people began passing me, hurrying in the opposite direction. They weren’t the enemy I was sure, for they were dressed mostly in white, like most of the people from the city, and fear kept them together, in a tight-knit group.

  As the bulk of them approached, I felt myself turned around, and swept along with them in their scramble to get away from the fight. But it didn’t take much effort to pull away, and I ducked into a lane-way. I crouched beside a wall in time to see several of the Rathe running with them, keeping them together. They moved them in one direction, away from the battle, saving as many as they could.

  I closed my eyes and tried to sense a path to Jordan, but the Central Unit didn’t respond. It was as though he no longer existed. And as this thought cramped my chest, I held my breath, determined not to let it take hold. Just because I couldn’t sense him, didn’t mean the worst had happened. He promised we would stay together, and I was holding him to it.

  Jordan, please, where are you? I tried again.

  Lydia, he finally responded. His voice was frantic, urgent. Please don’t be anywhere near this. If you’re in the city, go back to Tira-Mi.

  I attempted to reach out to him again, but there was no further response.

  Once the street was clear, I peeked out from behind the house, checking every direction, and then continued on, hopefully toward him.

  Before I got too much further in, a brief pain pierced my right calf and I stopped once again. Upon looking down, I saw my blood splayed down my leg, from a fine tear in my suit, and I realized something had hit me. I ducked behind another house to peek out once more, and then I saw them. Shadows crouched amongst shadows, against walls, hidden in corners. Their weapons, targeting the buildings and the people, anything that was whole, anything that was moving. And I watched them, as one after another they hit their targets. There was no warning, no sound, no light, just an aim and destroy.

  I flattened my body further back into the shadows, to stay out of sight, and out of the fighting. And while trying to ignore the pain in my leg, I called to Jordan once more.

  “Lydia,” came a hoarse whisper behind me, and I swung my head in its direction.

  “Grid?” I whispered, upon seeing him.

  “Please, come with me,” he urged.

  But before I could move, the building across the lane from us shattered, disintegrating into a pile of rubble and ash. I ducked, covering my head with my arms. But at the same time, his arms swung around me, covering me from the debris, and pulling me to the ground.

  Pieces of rock hit the exposed areas of my body and I felt one sharp sting after another.

  Once the worst had stopped, I looked up through the ash to see a weapo
n aimed at us, and I rose my sheathed left arm. Then pulsing my hand as hard as I could, I watched as my attack contacted, sending him backward.

  Strong hands turned me around to face him, but it wasn’t Grid holding me, it was Jordan.

  “Why can’t I sense you?” I groaned, relieved to see him safe, and to see his face. I wrapped myself around him, and then squeezed my fingers into my palms attempting to stop their shaking.

  “Some of them may be looking for me. I don’t know if they can sense me, or if they can hear my thoughts, or not, but if they can, I don’t want them to sense me, or hear me, not yet.”

  “What?” I asked, confused. “Why?”

  “I knew these people, long before the Guardian, before the first attack.”

  “Who are they?”

  He pulled me to his chest with one hand, then raised his other toward another oncoming attacker, bringing him down.

  “Come away with me now,” Grid implored.

  “Lydia, please go with him.”

  “Not without you. We stay together remember? No matter what. That goes for you, too.”

  “No, you need to leave,” he insisted. “Please. There are too many of them.”

  “And Mason is about to reactivate the Guardian,” Grid added.

  “What?”

  “You can’t be in the city when he does,” he finished.

  “He has modified part of its programming,” Jordan said. “But he won’t know if it will work, or for how long.” He hugged me close, and I knew he didn’t want to let me go. I could feel it in his unswerving strength as he held me. “You need to leave the city. Please, it’s only for now.”

  “Come with me,” I pleaded, and I held him tight, burying my face against his shoulder, and into his neck.

  “I need to get closer to them,” he said softly into my ear. “Close enough to be sure of who I’m dealing with.”

  “Then I’m coming with you.”

  He groaned, and I could feel his head shaking, from side to side against mine. “No,” he whispered, loosening his hold on me long enough to look down into my face. “Please go with Grid.”

  I wanted to dig my fingers into his back. I couldn’t let him go. But the sounds of destruction around us continued to fill my ears, and the ash whipped around us with each new building that collapsed nearby. As reality shook me in time with the ground beneath my feet, I released him with reluctance, and placed my hands on either side of his face. But still I couldn’t move.

  “Grid,” he pleaded.

  Grid leaned in, moving to take me out of Jordan’s arms.

  “Don’t you dare,” I protested.

  But he did. He picked me up, too easily, and threw me over his shoulder. He then ran with me back through the streets, over the hills, and finally set me down outside of the entrance to the Colony.

  “Grid! I’m not some scared little girl anymore. I can handle myself.”

  “When it comes to the Guardian, I don’t care if you’re as tough as Lena, I’ll not leave you inside that city. Now, stay here. I’m going back for Gia. And pray we make it out before the wall goes up.”

  I wanted to argue, but I could never stay mad at Grid. I knew he was only trying to protect me, it was all he’d ever done.

  But Jordan… he should have stayed with me.

  16

  Silence

  Instead of following Grid, I remained where I was, watching him race back to the city, and hoping my stubbornness hadn’t cost him his freedom. When I could no longer see him, I turned toward Tira-Mi.

  My first stop was the dome where I changed, and thankfully, found Gaias still there to heal me. The pain in my leg wasn’t too bad, the cut not too deep. And once healed, I made my way to Hammond and Rebecca. They needed to know what was happening. They needed to prepare for the worst, should the militia travel this far south. But they also needed to prepare for the wards. The Guardian would call them to duty, and while protecting the city, they may also decide to visit Tira-Mi.

  Hammond was grateful for my visit. He could sense something more was wrong with me than the news I’d just delivered, but he also knew better than to ask.

  Rebecca however, let the questions fly, one after the other until I couldn’t take another sound, and I abruptly announced that I had to leave. However, before I made it home, Grid caught up with me, clutching Gia’s hand, and I sighed, grateful they’d made it out. But my relief at seeing them didn’t stop my own flood of questions from leaving me.

  He didn’t know the extent of the damage to the city, but he did know that the Guardian was back, along with the wall. And he also knew that Jordan and Mason were still inside.

  A sense of doom stirred within me, and grew stronger with each step that brought me closer to home. I didn’t want to think about all he’d said. Everything that I’d feared had become reality. If the Guardian was back, in control once more, then it would have control of the Spire, and all of its ante-chambers.

  Once I’d made it home, I couldn’t go inside. And so instead, I paced the length of our hilltop. Occasionally, I glanced at our little garden bench, wanting to sit, to be patient, but I couldn’t bring myself to settle into it. All I could do was wait, and pace.

  I focused upon the sounds of the night, hoping to hear something, someone. But all that reached my ears was a faint wash of the ocean, as it mingled with an intermittent brushing of leaves and branches - the song of the wind, its gentle presence accompanying me in my solitude.

  ∞

  I couldn’t tell how late in the night it was when I heard the faintest of footsteps approaching. I couldn’t sense Jordan. And I held my breath as I slowly turned, hoping the news would not be one of the worst-case-scenarios I’d spent the night struggling to suppress.

  The identity of my visitor however, remained a mystery as they traveled the garden path. Until his outline came into view, and the moonlight shone upon his face.

  “Jordan,” I exhaled, and ran to him. The relief at seeing him again was overwhelming and my knees buckled as I clung to him, not wanting to let him go.

  “You’re safe,” I whispered. But I still couldn’t sense him. Where are you? I tried to ask him, but there was no response. Why can’t I feel you? I was afraid to ask him out loud. He was cut off from me, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know why.

  “Come inside,” he softly said, and pulled me toward the house.

  He stared at me for the longest time. His face blank, not a single expression could be read from him. And I refused to let myself guess at what may have been going through him.

  “Are you ok?” I asked.

  “I’m sure you know that the Guardian is back, the wall is up, and the wards have been recalled. But this time they will remain behind the wall, within the city. You are safe,” he said, cupping one hand around my face.

  I tilted my head to rest my cheek against the warmth of his palm, and closed my eyes. I’d missed him more than I’d allowed myself to realize. But that sense of him, his essence that filled him, that made him who he was, was as much a part of me as my own presence was. And I needed to feel that again. Mason had assured us that our thoughts were safe inside our house, however Jordan still didn’t let me in. There was no reason, that I could think of, why he would continue to keep himself so closed off from me.

  I rose my hand to remove his from my face, and clasped it between both of mine. But my knees still felt filled with water, and so I urged him to join me on the couch.

  “Tell me everything you know,” I almost pleaded, as we sat side by side. It took every effort to restrain myself from climbing onto his lap and wrapping my arms around him once more. But I had to focus.

  “The northern quadrant of the city was destroyed, and part of the north-west, as well,” he sighed. “They destroyed everything. Those living in the western quadrant were evacuated to the south. There were a few casualties, though none of us were hurt beyond saving,” he said. “They lost almost half o
f the troops they’d sent, in a fight they weren’t expecting. The problem is, what they sent was barely a fraction of the ground troops they have ready. It was nothing more than scout party.”

  “Were they inserted? Saved?”

  “No,” he said without pause.

  So, there was actual death on this planet.

  “Will it take long to rebuild the city?”

  “Already done.”

  “What?”

  He chuckled at my amazement. I could only stare in disbelief.

  “They can’t get through the city wall though, can they?”

  “For now, no. But the possibility still exists.”

  “Why wasn’t the wall reinstated sooner? It could have spared us the attack.”

  “Mason wanted the wall down. He wanted them to come. He needed to see what they would do, what they could do. He needed to hear their thoughts, and attempt to understand their objective. And the Heart were hoping to catch at least one of their leaders.”

  It wasn’t his words that disturbed me when he spoke, it was his lack of emotion. He sounded as though every feeling within the emotion spectrum had been expunged from him.

  “But what about all of those people that lived in the city?” I continued anyway. “They could have been killed.”

  “No one has lived in that portion of the city since the first war,” he said.

  But his response only puzzled me further. I couldn’t imagine everyone from the city, residing only in the southern area. I’d only ever traveled through the south-western portion, and the lack of people that I’d noticed during my visits, had left me with the impression that it was the southern area that was the least populated part of the city.

  “When we were in the city you mentioned that you didn’t want them to sense you. Do they know you? Do you know who they are?”