The Last City Read online

  “Where are we going?” I asked them, once we’d passed their house.

  “Just keep moving. We shouldn’t be out in this weather,” Hammond insisted.

  However, it wasn’t long before I was led into the warmth of Grid’s front room.

  I looked around at the five of us, and realized that we were the outsiders. None of us fit in. Except maybe Gia. But after the Guardian had held her captive in the Spire, I doubted she still thought of the city as her home.

  “Why are we here?” I asked.

  “Gia can’t go out in that,” Rebecca answered matter-of-factly, while indicating with a slight nod toward the window.

  “The militia,” Grid began. “They’re not alone. They have a lot of help, both up there,” he indicated toward the sky, with a point of his finger. “And… from inside the city as well.”

  “They have help from inside the city?” I asked in disbelief, but that feeling was quickly followed by a confusing sense of déjà vu.

  “Yes,” he said. “Others brought here from other dimensions. Militia sympathizers. They’re mad about being brought here, about having their lives and their freedoms restricted the way they have been.”

  “You mean those from Terah,” I said.

  “Yes,” Gia answered. “There were many that were brought here before the Guardian was enacted. Before the first war on the city. Some were not forced into becoming its wards.”

  “Some of the Terahn’s only want to go back to their home world. But they don’t realize how long they’ve been here,” Grid said. “Their families would be long gone. They wouldn’t recognize the world they would be returning to.”

  A rumble beneath my feet, stopped any response I may have given, and I looked about me. The floor, the walls, the very room, appeared to be shaking, along with everything in it.

  “What was that?” I asked, once the tremors had diminished.

  “That was the militia. We need to get below ground,” Grid urged.

  “What? No,” I backed away from him.

  “We have a safe room,” Gia told me. “The warriors built it. Below the house. Please come with us.”

  She held out her hands, taking a step toward me. The fear in her voice and her eyes, should have been enough for me to do as she wanted. But I couldn’t follow her. I couldn’t stay with them. I needed to go home. I needed to be where Jordan would find me, if he should need to.

  I turned from them, and ran. Out of the door, through the garden, and along the path, back toward our house. I had to reach it. Grid would come after me. I knew he would. But not before getting Gia to safety. I figured I had maybe minutes ahead of him.

  And once around the final bend, I heard his feet behind me, coming closer, gaining with every step.

  “Lydia,” he called. “Stop.”

  I didn’t look back. I forged my way onward, trying to pick up speed. I was close, so close.

  “Lydia, don’t do this. He’s safe. You’re not,” his voice was right behind me. But still, I didn’t turn. I knew if I did he would catch me, and drag me back to their safe room.

  I was glad it wasn’t night. I would have stumbled, and I would have fallen. The path would have defeated me. But it wasn’t night and my feet cooperated. I jumped over the snow-topped hedgerow that bordered our garden, and felt myself slip behind the veil.

  Landing in a heap, I sank a foot down into the snow. It was fresh and it cushioned my fall. I was thankful it wasn’t hard ground. I looked up at Grid. His fists rested upon the invisible wall the field made, as he shook his head at me.

  “I can’t stay here and protect you,” he grumbled at me.

  “You don’t need to. I’ll be fine.”

  “No, you won’t,” he said, with sadness drawing down his mouth.

  “Grid, I’m sorry. Please keep the others safe. They’re our family. All we have.”

  He stared at me a moment longer, before lifting his hand to wave as he mouthed goodbye. He then turned back toward his home.

  “It’s not goodbye,” I quietly said, but I knew he couldn’t hear me, and I stayed outside in the snow until I could no longer see him.

  Once inside, I generated some supplies - water, food, some basic medicinal serums that I’d managed to learn how to request with accuracy. Enough to last several weeks in case I lost the use of the particle-cell that powered the house.

  I couldn’t tell how many days passed. The ground below me rumbled at infrequent intervals, and each time it did I froze, waiting for something worse, but my house remained intact. At some point however, a new sound roused my attention, and I realized I was hearing explosions. At first, intermittent, but with each hour that passed, the noise and tremors became a constant barrage, attacking both my senses and my nerves. And I began to wish I’d joined Grid and Gia in their basement.

  The explosions that rocked my house, intensified by the hour, to the point where I thought the fight was directly over me, and I dared to peek out from my hiding place under the bed. It had been a gradual descent to the floor. I had tried to spend my days in the front room, watching the path in case I had visitors, and watching the world for any sign of Jordan. However, as the violence intensified, I crawled my way to my room, where I graduated from under the covers on top of my bed, to wrapped within the covers underneath its solid, wood frame.

  As I peered out, I commanded the southern wall to become opaque, just enough so that I could see outside of Jordan’s wall-window, and I gasped. The sight was one I hadn’t expected.

  Lena, dressed in warrior gear, was firing upon my house, and attempting to disintegrate the protective field piece by piece. I pushed myself out from under the bed and called to her. But she didn’t react, she didn’t stop. And once the field was down, she stepped closer, into the garden, and resumed firing.

  I called to her again and again, but she continued as if she couldn’t hear me. However, as my house cracked and crumbled around me, as pieces of the walls and ceiling began to fly in every direction, I shuffled back under the bed.

  “Lydia, don’t make me come in there and get you!” she yelled at me. She was angry.

  And my worst fear - Lena, taken by the Guardian - was the first thought that ran through my mind. If it was true, I had nowhere to run from her. But even if it wasn’t, there was still nowhere I could escape to.

  “Lena,” I tried again, hoping she would hear my voice amidst the noise of my house crashing, falling around me. But the noise was unceasing as the room disintegrated. She either couldn’t, or didn’t want, to hear me.

  However, once the noise diminished, the crunching of boots upon the ruble, caused me to raise my head. She’d stopped firing. And she was coming in.

  As I began to pull myself out, I felt her iron grip upon my wrists. She dragged me out, and stood me up. Then releasing my wrists, she grasped my upper arms and shook me. Her teeth were bared, and her hands squeezed until I thought my bones would snap.

  “Lena,” I dared to speak. “Is it the Guardian?”

  She threw me sideways onto the rubble-covered bed, and then paced the width of what was left of the wooden frame.

  “If it were, you’d be dead!” she growled at me.

  “Then what?”

  In one swift jump, she landed above me. Her hands gripped my upper arms once more. Then pulling my face close to hers, she studied me. And I knew she was trying to read me. But whatever she was looking for inside of my head, couldn’t be found, and she roared her frustration, shaking me as she did.

  “Lena,” I gasped, pleading with her to stop. Her grip on my arms tightened until I was sure she would crush them, and my insides began to burn as though she was trying to tear me apart. Pain erupted in my chest, and as I tried to breathe a coppery warmth spattered the inside of my mouth. “Lena,” I begged again. But I could barely make a sound.

  “Your boyfriend,” she snarled, ceasing her attack upon me. “Has joined them, the militia. Mason too!”


  “No,” I wheezed out the word, trying to shake my head. Not possible.

  “Yes,” she hissed. “You’re coming with me.”

  26

  Losing Him, Losing Me

  Lena closed her eyes, and darkness overtook me. I didn’t even have a moment to wonder where she was taking me. And when the light made its presence known once more, I attempted to look about me, but all I saw was pale-brown rock. Embedded within the rock sparkled tiny colors, as though minuscule gems were buried in the walls.

  The moment she released me, I collapsed from the pain. She then picked me up, and almost threw me onto a table. As my hands made their slow way up each arm, I was surprised that I didn’t feel the bumps and depressions that her fingers should have left upon me. Instead, I felt what she’d done on the inside. With each movement I made, pain burned through my chest and down my back, and blood continued to trickle across my tongue.

  “Lena, what did you do?” Haize gasped.

  I wanted to sit up, to speak, to ask where we were, but I couldn’t move, and wished Haize would heal me, fast.

  “Shh, don’t move,” she said, hearing me, and a moment later I was encased in green light. I tried not to cry out from the pain, as I waited for my body to be righted.

  And it didn’t take long, as expected, but once I was healed, the green light was not removed from me. It kept me firmly in place. I tried to open my mouth, but I couldn’t even do that. I couldn’t speak.

  “Don’t try to struggle,” Haize said. However, all the concern she’d previously expressed was now gone from her voice.

  I tried to cast my gaze about the room, but I couldn’t take it all in. All I could see was a sea of faces surrounding me. And none of them seemed happy to see me. Most were dressed in warrior gear, battered and some torn. And some were covered in ash and dust as though fresh from the war.

  Where are we? I thought to her. Haize? I tried calling when she didn’t answer, but I could no longer see her, and I wasn’t sure if she was still in the room, or if she could even hear me. What’s going on? Why can’t I get up?

  Don’t struggle. You’ll be fine, she responded in thought. And you’re in the Colony.

  Where are the others? Where’s my family? I asked thinking of Gia, Grid, Hammond and Rebecca. I hoped they hadn’t been treated this way - captured and held.

  But again, she didn’t respond.

  “Haize, we don’t have time for this. Just take it from her,” Lena argued.

  “No, Lena. We don’t work that way,” Haize told her. “Remember who you are.”

  Take what from me? I tried again.

  “Your family are fine,” came Aleric’s voice. “We need to scan your memories, but we need you to cooperate.”

  Why? I asked him.

  “We need to be sure you aren’t involved,” Lena said, every word seething anger. “And if you are,” she leaned over me, into the light, but it didn’t stop her from moving. And she glared into my face as she spoke. “I will finish what I started, while Jordan watches.”

  “Lena,” Haize scolded her. “Enough.” She pushed Lena’s hands from the table, forcing her away from me.

  Will you cooperate? Aleric asked in me in a clear voice, rising above the murmuring in the room.

  Yes. Yes, I wanted to nod. But all I could do was repeat that one word over. I had nothing to hide from them. And I sure didn’t want to die a slow, painful death at the hands of someone I considered to be my closest of friends. I was glad however, that I couldn’t speak. My words would have gone unheard anyway.

  Haize smoothed the hair away from my face, trying to calm my thoughts, and murmured a gentle hush, attempting to soothe me. “We need to know everything Mason and Jordan have said to you, or may have given you.”

  Memories of them both came and went, but I couldn’t recall anything of significance. However, something was there, evading my reach, like words on the tip of my tongue, as though they’d already come and gone, never to be spoken again. I only hoped they didn’t plan on going through every memory with Jordan. I felt my cheeks grow warm at that thought. But whatever they thought Jordan and Mason were doing, I couldn’t believe them. I knew Jordan. And I knew he and Mason had not turned on everyone. They wouldn’t.

  How… How are you going to do that? I asked Haize, trying to distract myself.

  “Aleric will scan your mind,” she told me.

  “Much like the way the Central Unit would before insertion,” Lena added. But I was sure she only meant to scare me.

  “Every cell within every neuron in your brain will be scanned for recent memories. They will be extracted, analyzed, and then restored. Your cooperation is needed so that when I put you back together, your memories will be intact, and in the right place. But also, so that you won’t have access to anything you are not supposed to,” he added, almost as if it was an after-thought.

  If I could have gasped, stared open-mouthed in shock, or held up my hands in protest, I’m sure I would have done one or all of those things. But in my current state, I didn’t even want to acknowledge what he was saying, and what he was planning to do. I wanted to pass out, be oblivious to everything and everyone. I wanted to wake up and find this stupid war over. I wanted to see Jordan’s face, know he was ok. Be in his arms, wrapped in his warmth. And I wanted to stop the scream that was forming inside me, before it began.

  I hoped they planned to make me sleep during this.

  “No, you won’t be asleep. I need you awake and aware,” Aleric stated.

  His voice came from over my head. I couldn’t look up far enough to see him. Aleric wasn’t one to joke about such things, and I shouldn’t have needed to see his face. But I struggled in the light, attempting to turn his way anyway.

  “Don’t move,” he said, and his face appeared, upside-down over mine. “You won’t feel a thing. Trust me.” His hand loomed large over my face, and I felt his fingertips upon my eyelids as he closed them. “You’ll be better off not seeing this green light, and the people that surround you. It would only confuse you.”

  I didn’t want to ask what he meant, but I was sure I would soon find out. However, if I understood even half of what he’d said, I knew there was a chance that I may lose some of my memories, or they may not be accessible to me once he was done. But the worst part would be not even knowing that the lost memories where once a part of me. I wouldn’t even know they were gone.

  Jordan, I murmured inside my head, wishing I could speak his name, and I brought up his image, needing to chase away the worst-case scenarios I’d begun building. And instead, I focused all I had upon remembering him. Recalling the soothing tones of his voice, the way his eyes held me in place. The feel of his body beside me, his soul caressing mine, filling me with his love. I held everything about him before me, I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t.

  As I maintained my focus upon him, brief flashes of light and shadow interrupted his image. I didn’t want to think about them, nor examine what they were, but their presence persisted, disrupting my thoughts.

  I attempted to see what the lights were but they moved so fast that I could barely make them out. Within the light however, there were colors, brief flickers of people, of places, but they left me faster than I could see them, and in their place, was a brief darkness, a shadow of where something once was.

  I knew I would give myself a headache trying to analyze the flickering light and the shadows that remained, and so I returned my attention to Jordan. I had to stop thinking about everything and focus only upon him. And I wondered if he could sense me, hear my thoughts. But then I realized no, he couldn’t hear me. On Earth he could, but not on Threa. And he couldn’t sense me while he was in the city either, he couldn’t let the Guardian know that he’d left its constraining walls.

  A chill began to creep across my skin. I was cold. I wanted to move, wrap my blankets around me, but I couldn’t move. And remembered I shouldn’t. Aleric needed to do his job. Aleric… I
was sure I knew that name. This had to be a dream, these people and places coming and going… and a bad dream at that. The brief flickering of light, now intermittent at best, soon stopped, and I wondered if the dream had finally ended. I wanted to wake up to the sunlight streaming through the open, pale-green curtains that hung across my bedroom window. I wanted to turn up the a/c in my apartment to warm my skin, while I waited for Jordan to traverse the impossible bridge of spacetime to warm my heart. I tried to smile, knowing whatever dream I’d caught myself up in would soon end. Knowing the sound of his voice would soon fill my mind, and his presence would flood those empty spaces within me. And I hoped that when I did hear him, he would have good news, that he was bringing me to him, to be with him, in his dimension. There was nothing left for me on Earth, and he was everything.

  But I couldn’t wake up. I was stuck inside that dream, unable to move, unable to open my eyes. My bed beneath me was hard and cold. And I realized I couldn’t have been in bed, my bed was warm and soft. Voices soft like whispers, reached my ears, but I couldn’t make out their words, and I couldn’t turn to face them. I couldn’t do anything, but wait for my brain to wake up.

  I had no way to tell how much time was passing, and wondered if I should count the seconds. But I decided against it, it would be tedious and unproductive. And so instead, I waited, in silence and in darkness, and wished Jordan’s presence would join me soon.

  I knew somehow though, that I wasn’t asleep, and was somewhat relieved when the voices resumed their whispering. One voice was urgent, and one soft, almost caring, and shortly thereafter, the light returned to my brain. The flickering, the flashes began slow at first, but then they sped up, and I remembered where I was. I remembered what was happening. But also, I came to realize all they’d taken away, and all that could have been lost to me.

  And not soon enough, the flickering light stopped. I hoped they had what they were looking for. There was no way they were doing that to me again.