Kristi Helvig - Burn Out

“You’d think it’d be less painful than the regular kind,” Kale said through gritted teeth.

James looked apologetic. “No, but the beam also sterilizes the area. Stops infection, which is the worst that could happen in a case like this. This way, you won’t lose the leg.”

Kale’s eyes widened. He clearly hadn’t considered that prospect. James worked so methodically and calmly that I realized how lucky we were to have a medic like him around. I only hoped we wouldn’t need him again anytime soon. As great as the laser stitching contraption might be, I had no desire to have it focused on any of my body parts.

James finished bandaging Kale’s leg. “You need to stay off it as much as possible. Try to get some rest for a few hours. Markus, I’ll check out your ankle in a sec.”

“Thanks, I’m thinking I owe you my life,” said Kale.

“Then I guess we’re even.”

James owed Kale his life. I so needed to find out the details of that story. Markus and James helped Kale to his feet. Kale put an arm around each of their shoulders, and they started to move him to the couch. That was when the bomb hit.

Either the Consulate ship was no longer afraid I’d use the weapons or they thought breaking out their own bombs first would blow the shelter door off pretty quickly. A sonic boom rattled the entire shelter. Britta moaned, as if she was fighting her way back to consciousness—in her typical whiny fashion. A cup fell off the table, skittering across the floor. The W.A.R. machine moved several inches from its station but remained intact. Markus stumbled, almost bringing down Kale and James with him. He braced his hand against the wall to steady himself, a slew of curse words streaming from his mouth.

I grabbed onto the chair in front of me for support. The vibrations of the bomb continued to resonate through my weak ribs. I looked skyward at the hatch door. This was some serious stuff they were dropping on us. If that door didn’t hold, I wouldn’t have to worry about fending off Kale and keeping him away from the guns. I’d be too dead to care.

A HALF AN HOUR WENT BY WITHOUT ANY NEW BLASTS. KALE had fallen into a heavy sleep thanks to the meds and we’d moved him to my sister’s sleep chamber. I’d tucked James’ shirt into my satchel where it wouldn’t be discovered. Markus suggested everyone try to get a little shut-eye, and despite the fear of bombs overhead, I’d barely made it to my sleep pad before drifting off. I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to rest again, so I had to make this nap count.

Markus, James, and I sat in the study, while Britta’s whining could be heard all the way from the front room. She was demanding to be released from her restraints. I sat as far from Markus on the bench as I could, while James sat across from us.

“Can’t we tranquilize her again? Maybe use some duct tape?” I begged James. He chuckled, which meant he thought I was kidding.

“How’s the ankle holding up?” James asked Markus. He’d wrapped it and said the sprain seemed minor.

“It’s holding I guess—just hurts like hell. I gotta say I’m a little worried though.” Markus pointed upward where the Consulate was likely preparing a new attack. “We’re all injured to some degree, except for you.” He nodded at James. “It’s only a matter of time before they get down here.”

All I knew for sure about the door was that my father had it made special for the shelter. It looked and felt like some sort of super-metal, but I’d been so young at the time. I only recalled him telling me it would keep us safe. Though it had proven to be quite bomb-resistant, Markus was right. No matter how strong the door might be, it couldn’t hold up forever. If the Consulate managed to either successfully bomb or otherwise compromise the door, they’d get down here. If they got down here, we’d all be toast. Unless …

Markus seemed to read my thoughts. “Look, I know your feelings about the weapons. You’re the only one that can use them, so maybe it would be a good idea to get a bigger gun to use against those burners.”

Several of the guns in containment could take out any Consulate jerk who tried to get down here. Others could take down their whole burner ship. One in particular would take out pretty much everything. The problem?

As soon as I opened up my secret room, it would lose the secret part. Nothing would stop Markus or Kale from taking the whole arsenal. I didn’t know what good it would do them, but maybe they’d guessed it was possible for the Consulate to reprogram the guns. Hell, I worried about that myself. So maybe Kale thought they could still bargain with them. The power of the bombs coming down told me the Consulate was done bargaining.

“I don’t know, Markus. Not that I don’t trust you and all, but, well, I don’t.”

Britta’s screeching started again, a high-pitched whine about her discomfort. I smiled sweetly at Markus, “Can you go deal with her, please?”

Markus stood. “Fine.” He looked at James on the way out. “Can you please talk some sense into her while I’m gone?”

I steeled myself for the lecture about why I should bring out the big guns, so to speak. James watched me, not saying anything. He was no Markus, I’d give him that. I didn’t want to talk about the guns anyway. I wanted to talk more about his sister and ask about the picture. Since I couldn’t ask him that, I wasn’t going to say anything. If he wanted silence, fine. I was done being the conversation starter.

My silence lasted two whole minutes. I totally broke first. “Why aren’t you trying to convince me to get the guns?”

James glanced toward the hallway, like he didn’t want to be overheard. “Because I’m not sure that you should. I don’t think you can trust them.”

Them? “You say that as if you’re not with them, as if you weren’t shooting at me twenty-four hours ago.”

“I didn’t.”

The air went out of my lungs. “What?” I whispered.

He stared down at the ground. “Markus showed us a picture of you back on Caelia, it was on his com device, and—”

“Hold up. Markus has a picture of me? From when?”

James’ eyes briefly met mine before looking away again. “I don’t know. You looked so sad and … anyway, when you came out of this shelter, even though you had the suit on, I kept seeing the girl in the picture. I couldn’t shoot.”

It took a minute before I remembered Markus’ visit right before he left to find Caelia. Markus had pulled his tele-com out of his pocket and aimed it at me. “Smile, Tora, so I have something to remember you by if I don’t make it back.” I hadn’t smiled. “You better make it back. You’re my Plan A for getting outta here,” I’d told him. I hadn’t mentioned Plan B.

Had he known then what he was going to do? Was he already planning to steal the guns?

“I don’t know, James. It sure seemed like gunfire was coming from every suit out there.” I wanted to believe him but how naive would that make me?

“Oh, I shot all right. The ground, the rocks near you, but not you. I’m a pretty good shot. I knew the others weren’t aiming to kill anyway, so I figured I didn’t need to help.”

Arrogant much? “So you’re saying if you had tried to shoot me, you could have.”

He replied with a shrug. Infuriating, yes. But if what James was saying was true, he’d never tried to hurt me. Yeah, but he let other people try to hurt you .

His eyes gleamed as he studied me. “Of course, if Markus had said what a pain in the ass you could be, I might’ve aimed differently.”