Kyle West - Darkness

Elias continued to smile, clearly pleased. “Oh, yes. We have some of the most powerful toys the U.S. Government ever created.” Elias shrugged. “Some two hundred of them, in fact.”

Two hundred nuclear weapons. Of all of the things the United States decided to save during the Dark Decade, why had they decided to save those?

Los Angeles. Nuclear weapons. And the five of us, held prisoner, were the only ones who had a chance to stop it.

“You can’t do this,” I said. “There are thousands of people living in Los Angeles. If you take out Los Angeles…”

We were going to lose the vast majority of people still alive in the Wasteland. Sure, Carin Black would probably die in the attack. At the same time, however, so would everyone else. With two hundred nukes, Elias could do a lot of damage.

But one question remained unanswered — why had he kept us alive to bear witness? And why was he deciding to go now? Clearly, he still needed us for something, and he believed in his prophecy about the Five. If all of this Askala stuff was true, then she wanted us alive for something.

For what?

“Humanity is polluted with darkness,” Elias said. “We must cleanse the world of its filth. We will begin with Los Angeles, but we won’t stop there. There is the rest of the world, too — and with the Aeneas, we can make sure most of the cancer is obliterated.”

“No!” Anna shouted, standing.

The woman guarding Anna knocked her in the head with the butt of her gun, causing Anna’s head to drop to the table. With a roar, I stood and began to wrestle the gun from her.

“Stop!” Elias shouted.

Several more women grasped my arms, forcing me back to my seat. Though Anna was knocked out cold, there was no bleeding.

She stirred, opening one eye. I put my hand on her face.

“Anna…you there?”

Slowly, she lifted her head from the table. “Yeah…I think so.”

Elias smiled, and looked like he was ready to speak again.

Except that was when all of the lights went out.

Everything was cloaked with darkness. Elias cursed above the din and began to shout orders.

“Secure the ship! Don’t let them escape!”

Several pairs of hands grasped me in the dark. Judging by the cries alongside me, Anna and the others were also being restrained. It was hard to tell anything that was going on.

I twisted myself, breaking free of the hands gripping me, scattering dishes and food in the process. I turned to face my attackers, grabbing a nearby metal plate. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. I stepped forward, swinging my plate. It whistled through the empty air.

Another pair of hands latched onto me from the side. Amid the screams filling the anteroom, I felt cold metal at my throat.

A blade.

At that moment, my assailant screamed, high and shrill. Her grip loosened as I felt her slide to the floor. I hopped away, and the blade the woman had held clattered to the deck.

“Got your back.”

“Anna!”

Then she was in front of me, scooping up the blade from the deck. There was just light enough to make out her form. From all around came sounds of panic. It wouldn’t be long until we were attacked again.

“Come on,” Anna said, pressing the hilt of the knife into my hand. “Michael and the others went aft.”

As I gripped the knife, she pulled me forward, out of the anteroom and into one of the corridors leading aft. The shouts and screams in the anteroom dimmed when we broke into a jog.

“Where are we going?”

Anna didn’t answer. She slowed to a walk in the light from the end of the corridor. The silhouettes of two men blocked the doorway.

At Anna’s approach, two guns were raised and pointed in our direction.

“Michael, it’s us,” Anna said.

I had no idea what the hell was going on. It was as if this whole thing were planned.

“That him?”

It was Grudge. I’d never been happier to hear his voice in my life.

“Get in here,” Julian said. “We have control of the fusion drive.”

The fusion drive. That was how they were able to cut off power. I hadn’t given Grudge enough credit. The fact that he had risked his life to help us after my lack of faith was humbling.

Anna and I entered the power room, which was bathed in a pale blue light. The room itself was rather small — the six of us crowded inside had filled it to almost overflowing. Pipes and machinery covered every surface, most of which fed into the large spherical tank set into the room’s very back. This was the fusion drive. It was about fifteen feet high, if I had to guess, and about as wide, made completely of metal. A touchscreen glowed blue in front of it. Ashton fiddled with the computer.

“Wait for it…” he said.

“Try to hurry it up,” Grudge said. “We don’t have long.”

Grudge turned to me, plucking a handgun from his side. With a flourish, he spun it around his finger and handed it to me.

“Believe this is yours.”

I took my Beretta as Grudge unclipped the holster and handed it to me as well.

“How did you…”

“There’s no time to explain,” Grudge said. “Suffice it to say…those buggers didn’t catch me. I was able to tail them as they took you to the bottom of the Bunker.”

The fusion drive continued to hum. Grudge went quiet momentarily as shouting came from the corridor amidships.

“I followed them all the way down to the cells they kept you in. They brought Aston out first.” He shrugged. “So I followed until I got to this ship. I waited until they left, then ran on board, hiding in an empty cabin. It took a while, but I found Ashton behind a locked door. Had to call out to be sure. Thankfully, no one was around, so we made this crazy plan. We knew they were bringing the rest of you here because of something Ashton overheard. He taught me how to power down the ship. I waited until they brought everyone else on board, then…lights out.”

I just stared at Grudge in shock. He gave a lopsided grin.

“Told you I’d be useful.”

“Alright, so what’s the plan now?” I asked.

“Take over this ship,” Ashton said, matter-of-factly. “And neutralize any Community members that put up a fight.”

“But first, we have to rescue my katana,” Anna said.

“Rescue?” I asked.

“It’s in the captain’s quarters,” Julian said. “You, Michael, and Grudge are the only ones with weapons.”

“I saw them take it there,” Grudge said. “These women might have a lot in the way of crazy, but not a lot in the way of firepower. Only a few of them have weapons, so we need to strike now while we have the chance.”

Ashton at last succeeded at powering down the computer.

“Locked down,” he said. “And only I have the password. This ship isn’t going anywhere unless I say so.” He looked at each of us pointedly. “The password is ‘bubbles,’ should something happen to me out there.”

“You’re not dying out there, Bubbles,” Anna said.

Julian snickered.

“Look, this is not a time for jokes,” Michael said. “We need to get a move on.”

I nodded. “Right. Michael and I can take point, Grudge can watch our backs. Be careful out there. We’re trying to be quiet. No shooting or killing unless absolutely necessary. Let them attack us first. This might be a big ship, but we’re sure to run into someone out there. Elias is probably on the bridge — maybe we should start there.”

Everyone nodded. I had no idea if what I was saying was right or not, but I guessed we would soon find out.

“Let’s go,” I said.

We exited the power room and entered the dark corridor. For now there was no sound. Elias had probably pulled everyone back to fortify the bridge.