Matthew Costello - Rage

Raine looked up to see where the shots came from.

Something in the sky.

“Goddamned hovercraft! ” Portman said. “Shit.”

“Got to make us weave,” Elizabeth said. “Hold on.”

Raine looked over to Marshall, who really only had one hand to hold on. He saw that the captain had locked that hand onto one of the mastlike pieces of wood at the ship’s center.

Raine held on to the ship’s edge as it began to veer right and left.

He heard more bullets, landing dangerously close.

We’re sitting ducks here.

But when he looked forward, he saw Portman at the weapon at the ship’s prow, both the cannon and its user dark shapes. The bore of the small cannon now pointed up at a sixty-degree angle.

And finally Portman started firing.

The cannon produced shakes in the ship, a recoil that sent the airship knocking against the gorge’s side. Portman kept firing, shot after shot.

Raine saw a bullet tear into the balloon; had to be a few there already. Was there enough lift in the balloon to keep this thing in the air, this flying technology ancient and absurd?

Like a rejoinder to his disparaging thoughts, an explosion from above them produced a brilliant fireworks display as the Authority hovercraft exploded.

While the balloon craft kept moving forward.

And for the first time in a long time, Raine didn’t hear any gunfire.

They weaved their way along the gorge bottom, the only sounds the wind and the ship’s boiler.

Portman had moved over to the wheel while Elizabeth crouched beside Marshall, tending to his wound. With the amount of blood he’d lost, there was no telling if he’d survive… even after all they’d gone through.

Raine thought of Loosum.

The feelings… overwhelming. Confusing.

He saw a bit of color in the east.

The dark night finally giving way to the first hint of the sun about to rise.

And finally he let himself close his eyes.

From the moment they reached the Resistance base, Elizabeth and Portman raced around, grabbing things, rushing.

Marshall, bandaged, sat in a chair to the side.

“What about the file cabinets?” Elizabeth asked the rebel leader, now back in charge.

Lassard turned away from his terminal. “Don’t worry, Elizabeth. Got them all backed up.”

“Then just blow that stuff,” Marshall said. “Leave them nothing. ”

Marshall looked over at Raine.

“You all right, Raine? I owe you a big debt of gratitude.”

“It’s Loosum we both owe.”

“Yes. And if Lassard can get contact, this whole world will owe her.”

“Still nothing, Captain. I’m connecting with the Capital computer okay-they haven’t found the drive and yanked it. That’s good. But-damn-it hasn’t let me in to send the signal.”

“What’s the problem?” Raine said.

“We’re running out of time,” Marshall said. “Lassard’s program should let us use the Capital’s satellite link to reach all the Arks… and send the message.”

“To emerge? To come out of the earth?”

“Yes. We already have alerted our cells all over the territories. When the Arks rise, they will be there. Today could be the tipping point. To get all that tech, the caches buried with them, the people…”

Portman walked over, his arms filled with guns. “I’m gonna load up, Captain. We got to get going.”

“The Authority will track us here that quickly?” Raine asked.

“After what we did?” Marshall laughed. “There will be no price on our heads that will be too high. This is about to be as unsafe a place as can be.”

Elizabeth walked over. “Got my equipment packed. The essentials.” She looked over at Raine, and he realized they were three survivors, standing together.

Three people who had been entrusted with rebuilding a future.

About to go on the run.

“What about the computers?” he asked.

“In our other bases we have more. If the Arks were to come up, having computers would be the least of our problems. The important thing is that we have all the data.”

“And you’ll leave? Without reaching the Arks.”

Marshall looked over to the I.T. guy. “No. I imagine Lassard will stay. Until he hears the Authority is at the door.”

Raine looked at Lassard, too. Staying with the ship.

This world isn’t just about deals.

There was something else, besides the death, the brutality, the fear. There were people willing to sacrifice.

Marshall caught his look. Neither had to say what it meant if Lassard stayed.

Then the captain spoke.

Asking what probably seemed a redundant question.

“You’ll come with us?”

Raine stood there. Then, shaking his head. “No…”

He saw that Marshall didn’t believe what he was hearing.

Then he explained.

“There’s something I got to do first,” he said, the anger in his voice rising. This wasn’t just about Marshall and his Resistance anymore. This wasn’t just about the settlements and those who struggled to survive in the shadow of the Authority. This wasn’t just about orders anymore, about a mission.

Not after what had happened only hours ago.

“I will go to the Hagars. If Dan is to learn what happened to his daughter, he will learn it from me.”

The ancient, time-honored military tradition.

The lone knock at the door. The officer in a uniform standing there.

The message conveyed before that door is even open.

Marshall put his hand on Raine.

“Yes. That makes sense.”

“And then, Captain, I’m with you. To bring these bastards down. To try and save something out of this… very fucked-up world.”

Marshall smiled. “Don’t think I could do it without you. Elizabeth can show you where we will be headed. Pretty far away. But we will wait for you.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll get there.”

Is anger useful in combat? Raine wondered… even as he felt it building inside him.

The death of innocent people who just wanted freedom, who wanted a life. The mindless and brutal slaying of Kvasir. The creation of an army dedicated to just one thing… killing. The fact that Loosum had to sacrifice herself.

Yes, rage might be exactly the emotion needed.

At that moment Raine also realized… he was no longer a stranger here.

This was his world, as much as anyone else here.

Marshall nodded his head at the big man packing things up. “Make sure Portman gives you any weapons you need. We also have a vehicle for you. Fast, even has some armor. But you know what it’s like out there.”

“Yes, I do.”

Nothing else left to say.

When finally-a whoop from behind them, from Lassard.

“I got it!” Lassard turned around in his chair. Everyone in the room stopped, all eyes on him.

“Must have been as they got all their systems on line, full power, and it let the drive with the program connect and execute.” Lassard was indulging in some analysis, an I.T. guy to the core. “But-”

He grinned. “We can use their system to reach the Arks.”

And if what Marshall told him was true, if Lassard was really as good as they thought he was, the program he had inserted would override the Arks’ systems.

Resistance cells waiting, spread out over a hundred miles.

Would the Authority be able to pounce on some of the Arks?

Undoubtedly.

But they couldn’t be everywhere. Lives would be lost, but now lives from the past would be saved. As well as information, learning, technology.

Marshall spoke.

“Okay, Mark. What are you waiting for?”

Lassard held the gaze of the captain.