Kyle West - Darkness

I took to the stairs down to the main deck. As we entered the anteroom, there were about ten women gathered around a mess of scattered vegetables and plates. One of the tables and many of the chairs had been overturned. I pointed my Berretta ahead, watching for signs of sudden movement.

The women ducked behind the tables as the rest of us arrived downstairs.

“These have no weapons,” Deborah said. “It’s the ones on the bridge we have to worry about.”

The women continued crouching behind the tables, staring at us with wide eyes.

One of them turned toward the corridor leading to the bridge.

“They’re coming!”

With a curse, Deborah started forward once again. Having no other choice, we followed her past the women toward the main corridor that led to the bridge. Footsteps pounded from the corridor ahead — reinforcements were coming, alerted by the woman who had shouted.

Deborah raised her handgun and gave a few warning shots. This was followed by a few screams from ahead. I was sure Elias was regretting making Deborah one of his guards; it was the only way she could have had a gun.

Though Deborah was now on our side, it didn’t exactly tip the odds in our favor. We still had to take control of the bridge, and I didn’t see how that would happen without losing people along the way. All of the higher-ups and guards in the Community had weapons — anywhere from ten to twenty of the women, along with Elias.

I didn’t have time to make any sort of decision, however. A woman, with hands over her head, approached from around a corner where the corridor ended.

“Don’t shoot,” she said. “Elias requests your presence. Without bloodshed.”

“What for?” I asked.

“The other ship is threatening to attack,” the woman said. “He needs you to call it off.”

“Only if everyone gives up their weapons,” Anna said.

I wondered why Elias didn’t just shoot at the other ship. Then I realized that he had never piloted this ship before. Of course he would be leery of getting into any sort of battle. He hadn’t counted on being attacked the second he left Bunker 84. Makara would win this fight, hands down.

Only, Makara was threatening to attack without knowing we were on here. And to let her know that, we had to go to the bridge. But as soon as we went to the bridge, we would be surrounded by Elias and the Community.

There was no way to win.

“No,” I said. “I’d rather we all went down in flames.”

Anna brushed me aside. “If your leader agrees to not attack anyone, then yeah. We will help. Neither side can have weapons if this is to work.”

“How can we guarantee no one has weapons?” Ashton asked. “We can’t, and there isn’t time to devise a system we can all agree with. All we have is each other’s word.”

I didn’t trust this woman or Elias’s offer. I was beginning to think that charging the bridge was the best bet. I had no idea what Elias’s game plan was, but I knew we probably didn’t really fit into his scheme for the Ascension once it came into full fruition. Now might be our only chance to take the ship once and for all.

But was I willing to lose people along the way?

I looked from Michael, to Julian, to Grudge. Ashton and Anna both looked at me, awaiting a decision.

“There has to be another way,” I said.

“Unless you have a better idea, this is it,” Anna said. “Makara needs to know we’re on board before this place gets blown to smithereens.”

“So we let her know once we storm the bridge.”

“We’ll all be dead if we do that. I’m sure they have the place fortified.”

“Of course,” the woman from ahead said, “you must surrender all your weapons before you enter the bridge.”

“We need a guarantee,” I said. “If Lyn agrees to be held for ransom, we can go in and take care of the other ship.”

The other woman’s eyes widened, showing that this was not a possibility.

“Tell Elias that,” I said. “That’s the only way we’re coming in there.”

“That is unacceptable,” the woman said. “We can offer someone else…but not Lyn.”

“Lyn seems to be the only person who means something to Elias,” I said. “We want her or we’ll let your ship burn before your precious Ascension can work out.”

The woman scowled, but said nothing in reply. She still wasn’t budging.

I tried to think of other options. But I came up blank. If we had Lyn with Michael and perhaps Julian standing guard, I felt confident that Elias wouldn’t try anything once Makara was called off. There was the problem of what to do after that, however. I couldn’t think that far ahead. My idea was far from perfect.

Anna was right, though. At least one of us had to go to the bridge. And if that person went, we deserved to have someone in return.

“I see no other option,” I said, staring ahead.

“We’re not actually doing this, are you?” Grudge asked.

I had no idea what was right. There was no good option. I felt like we were screwed, no matter what we did.

The woman turned and fled back to the bridge, guessing my intent. It was time. We had to charge the bridge and take out the Community once and for all. My hostage idea would not work out, in the end. We had to leverage Makara attacking to our fullest advantage and strike now.

That was when I heard screams come from the bridge up ahead.

“She’s attacking,” I said.

We ran forward to the corner. I saw it wasn’t exactly a corner; it was just a hook in the corridor that made two ninety-degree turns — one right, then one left, a few feet later. When we poked around this corner, the corridor led straight to a wide opening, through which I could see the bridge, massive in comparison with Gilgamesh. A large screen displayed a map of the United States in topographic detail, and beyond that I could see gray, tumultuous sky through the ship’s wide windshields.

A massive shape that was not Gilgamesh shot past the windshield, causing more screams to fill the air.

“Makara sure is flying that thing fast,” Julian said.

“No, that’s not Makara,” I said.

I ran ahead. If the situation was as bad as I thought it was, then Elias stabbing us in the back was the least of our concerns.

It looked as if our xenodragon hadn’t gone away.

I sprinted to the bridge, the others in tow. Anna’s voice came from behind.

“Alex, be…”

I entered the bridge. There were about a dozen women, along with Elias, waiting. They cast us a momentary glance before fixing their attention once more on the window. Apparently, we were also the least of their worries for the moment.

Lyn stood next to Elias near the pilot’s seat, which was empty.

“What is it?” she asked.

“The harbinger of the End Times,” Elias said. “Chaos.”

Anna, without a word, made her way to the pilot’s chair, taking up the controls. Elias did not protest, and in fact stepped away in order to give Anna space. He watched without a word. He gazed at me, his dark eyes blazing. It was hard to read that expression. Was it fear? Anger? Desperation? It was as if he was trying tell me not to get any ideas about taking control, even if things were not going according his plan.

I went to stand next to Anna as Ashton took up the copilot’s seat. Everyone else formed a protective ring around the two of them.

I took stock of the situation. As the ship veered lightly left from Anna’s steering, I saw that quite a few of the women had guns in their hands. Seeing those guns in contrast to their worn dresses was a bit jarring. I tried not to focus on how hopelessly outgunned we were and instead scanned the gray skies ahead. For now, there was nothing.