Kristi Helvig - Burn Out

The sky zoomed by at an amazing speed, and though I’d never traveled to this part of the world before, it was hard to ignore the fact that Markus and Britta were doing god-knows-what in the other room.

I typed a quick message to Alec letting him know we were on the way, and he messaged back that he was “in awe of my bad-assedness.” I had a sneaking suspicion that he had an addiction to old shows too.

After a while, I refused to look down at the ground below. It was too depressing. The devastation reached everywhere. Miles upon miles of rock and dirt stretched before the ship, punctuated by the occasional cacti grove. The cacti were the only evidence that the planet wasn’t completely dead.

I must have drifted off for awhile, and I woke with my right hand gripping the Infinity on my wrist. I fingered the device, trying to figure out what the hell I could do to save myself when we returned to the Consulate ship. Hoping Kale and James wouldn’t try to ambush me, hoping I wouldn’t have to kill people, hoping there was still a peaceful way out of this mess. Kale’s voice echoed in my head: Hope is for pansies who can’t shoot straight .

A noise sounded near me and I whipped my head around.

Markus grinned. “You were expecting someone else?”

Britta followed him. I noted her mussed hair and strange facial expression. It took me a minute to realize she was smiling, a real smile, not the sideways ones I’d seen before.

Markus settled into the pilot chair and pulled Britta onto his lap. She curled her body around his, resting her head on his shoulder. I threw up in my mouth a little bit, but refrained from issuing a flight safety lecture about multiple occupants in the pilot’s space.

Markus stroked Britta’s hair. “I hope you slept as well as we did.”

I rolled my eyes. “Is that what you call what you were doing?”

Markus laughed but it died quickly. He stared at me. “So, here’s what I don’t get. You’re the only one who can fire the guns, so why would Kale want you dead?”

I wasn’t ready to disclose that James could fire them too, though Kale had to know. Because James told him. Kale wouldn’t want me dead unless he knew of another way to fire the weapons.

“Maybe the guns aren’t as important to him now and he just wants me out of the way?”

“No way,” said Britta. “Guns are always important to Kale. But the Consulate wants someone who can fire them, so killing you doesn’t add up. I mean, James is smart and all, but it’s not like he knows how to reprogram a gun. There’s something else going on.”

I got that. I just couldn’t figure out why James would be part of it. “How well do you know James anyway?”

Britta leaned into Markus. “We met when we both broke into the same abandoned pod trying to steal the W.A.R. machine. I could tell he really wanted it, needed it, but he let me have it … said he’d get one from another pod.” She smiled at the memory. “I thought he was decent. Anyway, we exchanged information and I told him I’d heard about a former government soldier who knew what the Consulate was doing with the W.A.R. machines. We decided to find him.”

“Kale.”

Britta nodded. “Yep.”

It still didn’t explain why James would want to kill me. “James certainly seems loyal to Kale.”

Britta frowned. “That’s what I don’t get. Yes, he’s loyal to him … for a lot of reasons. But I still don’t understand the killing you part. I don’t know what’s going on. The fact that they seem to have some new secret agenda is bad for all of us. ’Cept Markus. Kale wants him since his last copilot got skewered by that cactus.”

I eyed Markus. “What about you? Wanna tell me how you got hooked up with Kale in the first place?”

Markus squirmed a bit under Britta. “The first time I came to see you, I really thought you’d come with me and we’d sell the guns to the highest bidder.” He laughed. “Stupid me. Anyway, when I got back to Caelia, I heard about Kale’s interest in the guns and searched him out. He contacted the Consulate … and well, you know the rest. He’s a burner.”

A wave of fresh anger rode through me. “That didn’t seem to bother you much when you thought you were getting paid. Kale might need a copilot but he was ready to shoot you down in this ship along with me.”

Markus took his hands off Britta and held them palms up toward me. “I said I’m sorry. I have no doubt he’ll kill whoever he wants to, or thinks he has to.”

Britta shifted in Markus’ lap. “Kale looks at me like I’ve defied orders one too many times. For him, that’s enough to make someone the enemy.” She bit her nail again in quick, jagged movements. “Don’t get me wrong, if this had gone down a day ago, hell, even a few hours ago, I would have jumped at the chance to take you down.” Britta looked down at the ground. “But … it looks like we’re both on Kale’s bad side right now.”

Yeah, I remembered some old saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend . I thought about it. Kale had a crate of super-weapons, and someone who could fire them. He had what he needed, aside from a functioning ship.

I had Markus, who despite some significant character defects, had warned me about Kale and gotten me out of there. He’d backed up his words about having my back, and since he and Britta seemed to care about each other—which I might never understand—she might be less likely to jump me again. And we had the ship.

I narrowed my eyes at Britta. “But don’t you owe your life to Kale too?”

Britta trailed her finger along Markus’ arm. “Kale did save my life, and I owe him for that. I took this job because he promised me a lot of money—said I could start my life over on Caelia once it was finished. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. So I’m grateful to him, but I’m not going to be anyone’s puppet.”

She smiled at Markus again, and I guessed the rest. He’d made her promises that were better than Kale’s. Promises that twisted the bitterness she wore so well into something that looked almost like happiness. Something in my gut twisted inside. They had something I didn’t. Whatever I thought I had with James was delusion on my part. I had no one. I was alone.

Markus patted her leg and Britta rose from his lap. “We’re almost there. I gotta land this bird.” He winked at me. “I understand why you want to go back. If we stick together, we can deal with Kale.”

I nodded even though I wasn’t sure what we could do to stop them.

Britta flashed me her version of a smile. “Don’t worry. I’m too badass for them to mess with.”

Markus smirked and smacked her butt. “You lost me at ‘ass.’ What was the rest?”

She swatted his hand away, laughing.

I fake coughed into my hand. “Gross.”

Markus guided the ship down. “Here it is. Sector Two.”

The dome sat on the ground, looking like a curved bit of plastic had been plopped in the midst of nowhere. It looked exactly like the one in Sector 5, from what I remembered. How ironic that he couldn’t make it inside the pod city until everyone else left. It wasn’t until we’d almost touched down that I noticed the things clustered by the pod city’s main entrance.

“What are those piles out there by the door?” I asked.

No one answered. The ship touched down and I reached for my helmet. As we got closer, the piles came into focus—bodies. They were people who had tried to get into the dome and been burned to ash. My head swam.

Markus spoke up. “They’re outside our dome too. I’d imagine the numbers were much higher than this … the winds would have blown away most of them.”

A sick feeling knotted inside my stomach. These people were banging on the door, begging to be let in, and the Consulate let them all roast in their sunsuits. If anyone deserved the wrong end of my father’s weapons, it was those burners.