J. Mitchell - The Severed Tower

“Max, get back,” Holt said, pushing the dog clear. “Zoey, are you okay?”

She didn’t respond, just moaned and shut her eyes tightly. Mira and Holt both held her, trying to talk through the girl’s pain, to get her to answer, but she didn’t.

Above them, the big silver walker rumbled. A stream of green laser light shot from a diode on its body and enveloped Zoey.

“Hey!” Mira shouted at the machine. Ambassador didn’t move, though his multicolored eye flickered toward Mira. “Leave her alone! You hear me? Leave her—”

“Wait,” Holt said, watching as the green light pulsed around Zoey’s head. There was something familiar about it.

“Get her away from it!” Mira yelled at him.

“I think it’s helping her,” Holt said.

Mira spun, clearly intent on ripping Zoey out of his arms and away from the—

“Look!” Holt exclaimed and Mira stopped. Zoey had relaxed. Her eyes were still shut, but she was peaceful, not in pain, her breathing soft. “They did the same thing to me.”

Mira looked at him questioningly.

“After they took us, the Hunters, after the Crossroads. I was hurt. They healed me somehow. I remember this laser light, this green light.” The energy continued to stream from Ambassador, massaging and coating Zoey’s head, taking away her pain. “It’s helping her.”

They stared down at Zoey hopefully. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and looked up. “Sorry, Holt,” she said sincerely.

Holt brushed the blond hair out of her face. “Okay, but how about we don’t do that anymore?”

“I can’t help it,” Zoey replied weakly. “It happens more, the farther we go. But I have Ambassador now. He helps me. He stops the pain. Not all of it, but some. Enough so I can still be me.”

Mira breathed and looked away. It bothered her seeing Zoey like this. It bothered Holt, too. It was all the more reason to finish what they’d come here for. The green laser light flickered off, and when it did Mira looked back up at the silver walker. Its eye shifted to her.

“Thank you,” she said. The walker studied her with its optics. If it understood, it gave no indication.

“The Max,” Zoey said softly. The dog had pushed his nose under her hands, and she was petting him.

Movement appeared in Holt’s peripheral vision. He looked up and just managed to see a blur of blue-and-red light silently leap between two of the dead trees. He knew what it meant. “Oh no.”

Before Mira could ask, Ambassador stomped toward them. There was a flash, as a sphere of flickering energy blossomed to life, a protective shell around not just the walker but all of them.

It came just in time. Figures landed all around the walker in flashes of cyan, each holding their glowing Lancets. Their masks were over their mouths, their goggles covered their eyes, a dozen of them. Through the light of the crackling shield, Holt could make out Avril, Dane, Masyn, Castor, all of them.

Holt didn’t know what those crystal spear points would do when they hit Ambassador’s shield, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to find out.

“Wait! Avril! Avril! ” Holt yelled. The White Helix leader was right on the other side of the shield, but she didn’t turn to look. Of course she couldn’t see them anyway, with those goggles. She was using other senses now. “Avril, listen! He— it isn’t an enemy. It’s with us. ”

“It’s Assembly, ” Avril said with disdain, and Holt felt a little relief. At least she could hear him through the shield.

“Yeah, it is. Which means, unless you want to die, attacking it probably isn’t the best idea.”

“We will grow stronger,” Avril replied automatically.

“Damn it!” Mira yelled through the shield. “I’m sick of this samurai crap. It’s not helping!”

Avril did nothing. The Helix all around them tensed. Ambassador rumbled in anticipation.

“Avril,” a small voice said. Zoey’s voice. And, soft as it was, her voice carried. “Avril.”

The sound of it changed everything. In spite of her goggles, Avril turned toward Zoey.

“Ambassador is my friend,” Zoey said, still lying in Holt’s lap. “He won’t hurt you. You can trust me. Like you trust Dane.”

Avril slowly pulled the goggles from her eyes, and her stare locked on Zoey. She gazed at the little girl with what seemed like awe—and then slowly lowered her Lancet.

“Stand down,” the Doyen said. The others looked at her, unsure. “Do it.” Slowly, her Arc lowered their weapons and backed up.

Zoey looked away from Avril to Ambassador. The walker’s eye moved to the little girl and it rumbled. Holt guessed they were “talking,” that Zoey was suggesting similar things to the machine—and it must have worked. A few seconds later its shield flashed off, returning the landscape back to shadow.

No one moved. Everything was silent.

Avril slowly lowered herself to one knee. The rest of the White Helix did, too, removing their goggles.

“The Prime…” some murmured.

“We grow stronger,” said others.

Zoey studied the White Helix, and then looked back up at Holt and Mira. “You made new friends, too.”

“I’m…” Holt said carefully, “not sure I’d go that far.”

Zoey turned back to the figures in black and gray. She studied them one at a time, until she got to the Doyen. Her little eyes narrowed. “Can I call you Avril?”

Avril looked up at Zoey with surprise. “It… would honor me.”

“Avril,” Zoey continued. “We have somewhere we need to go. Don’t we?”

At the question, the other White Helix looked up as well, and Holt saw their anticipation begin to grow.

Avril nodded. “If you will permit it.”

Zoey smiled and scratched Max’s ears. “Okay.”

Holt and Mira shared a look. Things just kept getting better and better.

THE GROUP QUICKLY BACKTRACKED to the train tracks and followed them through the dark. They made good time, all things considered: a dozen White Helix escorting two prisoners, an honored guest—and a giant Assembly walker that could barely fit between the rows of dead trees. Everyone kept their eyes on the silver machine, and Avril even ordered Dane to stop his grueling Spearflow march. If things went south with Ambassador, she wanted him ready. Holt could relate.

The machine was Assembly, after all. A conquerer that had helped lay waste to this planet, and it had taken Holt’s sister and his family from him. Every hardship he had ever faced had been because of the Assembly, and now he was being asked to walk next to one. Holt might be able to do that—but he would never trust it. No matter what Zoey said.

Max followed next to Holt, dividing his attention between Zoey and the silver walker. When he looked at the latter, the dog made a low growl. He didn’t like the thing any more than Holt, but it was clearly hard for Max to know how to react. It had saved his life, too.

Ambassador, for his part, seemed only interested in Zoey. She walked maybe a mile before she had to stop, the pain in her head flaring again. Holt pulled her onto his back, and she hung there weakly while Ambassador bathed her in the green laser light, easing her pain.

Wrong as it felt, in this regard, Holt was grateful for the walker’s presence. It was the only thing that could make Zoey feel better, and if he had to walk next to it for that to happen—then he’d walk next to it. Forever, if need be.

As they marched, the husks of dead trees began to dwindle, thinning out until they were gone altogether. What they could see of the dark landscape gradually shifted to something more rocky, and just as lifeless. The White Helix were split in two, one group in front of them, and the other behind. Holt could see Castor had taken point. Masyn was gone, scouting ahead, and Avril and Dane walked nearby.