J. Mitchell - Midnight City

“Zoey!” Holt shouted. “Grab Mira’s stuff quick!”

The little girl grabbed the awful thing with its tarnished pocket watch face and stuffed it into Mira’s pack as the mad crowd churned and frothed around them. Explosions continued to push into the city, louder, closer. Holt knew it was only a matter of time before the Assembly burst in.

“Mira!” he yelled, shaking her hard, trying to break through the fog in her mind. He was not going to lose her, not now—“Mira! Wake up. You can do it, focus on my voice!”

“Holt…,” she whispered, staring up at him. Her eyes were so black, he couldn’t tell if she was even looking at him. “I used it… I used it….”

“I know,” Holt said, looking around, trying to find an avenue of escape. “I know. It’s okay.”

“It’s not…,” she replied weakly. “Said… I never would…” The strain in her voice, the obvious effort it took her even to speak now, ripped Holt’s heart in half. He had to get them out of here.

“Leave me…,” she managed to say, and Holt felt his blood run cold. “Out of time… what I deserve… leave me… get Zoey to—”

Holt shook her as he spoke, this time with ferocity. “Don’t you ever tell me that!” he yelled. “I will never leave you! Do you understand, Mira? And you aren’t going to leave me! You will not !”

Mira slumped in his arms, but he kept shaking her regardless. Shook her until she finally responded. “Okay… Holt…,” she said weakly. “Won’t… leave…”

“Damn right you won’t,” he said, pulling her up. He hefted her over his shoulder, fighting off the panicking, seething crowd as he stood.

He saw the Scorewall room ahead of them, but there were hundreds of panicked people in between. It was going to take a lot of energy to—

Screams filled the interior of the main hall. Holt looked behind them and saw the gates of the city burst open, and dozens of Mantis walkers erupt inside, plasma cannons firing and decimating everything. People were being cut down, falling or blown backwards.

The Assembly had penetrated the interior of the city. It was all but over now. And they would be looking for Zoey, Holt knew.

PLASMA BOLTS SEARED THROUGH THE AIR as more and more Mantises pushed inside the city. Holt watched as panels opened up on the sides of the walkers and small, deadly, buzzing objects sparked and hovered to life, rising up into the air, dozens and dozens of them.

They were about the size of soccer balls, with small turbine engines underneath that held them aloft. Survivors called them Seekers, small machines that could squeeze into tight spaces where the larger walkers couldn’t go. Their plasma cannons were small, but no less lethal, and they had the nasty ability to blow themselves apart at will.

Holt had seen one of them take out a dozen kids that way, inside the drainage pit of some city ruin. It wasn’t something he liked to think about much.

Max barked as the Seekers rose up and buzzed forward, raining down heated death from above. The Mantises pushed into the crowd, stomping through the people, sending them flying.

What was left of the Midnight City defenders were fighting valiantly against the aliens, but the effort wasn’t enough. Their guns and slings sparked harmlessly off the walkers, and the Seekers were too agile to be easily hit.

Still they kept at it, refusing to let their home be taken without a fight. Some had clubs and bats and swung them at the buzzing drones in the air, knocking them down. Others piled on top of the walkers in large groups, trying to drag them down, pulling at their cables and electronics, trying to rip them apart on the spot.

It was chaos. Holt had to get everyone out of here. And he had to do it now.

He looked to the Scorewall room, a hundred feet away, but the crowd in front of him was still thick and panicked, dashing wildly everywhere. Mantis walkers and Seekers were all over, shooting and buzzing and exploding.

His heart sank. He would have to carry Mira, and see to Zoey and Max as well. It would be nearly impossible for them to make it.

He heard Mira’s words in his mind once more: Leave me, she’d said. Leave me and go.

Holt shoved the thoughts away angrily. He wouldn’t leave her. He would never do that. There must be a way. There was always an answer.

Holt paused as something occurred to him. A solution. A dark and drastic one. But a solution nonetheless.

Quickly, he pulled out the aging abacus from his pack, held it in his hand. The Chance Generator did nothing, just sat in his palm, waiting, and Holt stared down at it with apprehension.

“No…,” Mira said next to him, barely brushing his hand with her fingers. “Not… worth it…”

Holt flinched as more explosions rocked the main hall. The Mantises were almost on them, the plasma fire intensifying. Mira looked up at him weakly, fading, slipping away from him, just like Emily. And when it happened, it would be his fault all over again….

Holt scowled, looked down at Zoey and Max. “Stay close to me, okay?” he said as he studied the abacus with uncertainty, deciding how it worked. Experimentally, he did the only thing he could think of. He slid one row of beads up to the top.

There was a flash of yellow energy in the shape of a perfect sphere all around them, just big enough to cover all four of them.

“No…,” Holt heard Mira mumble. But it was too late. It was done. Even though he couldn’t say he felt any “luckier” than before.

More plasma fire, more explosions. One of the larger buildings along the street came tumbling down in a mass of debris. They had to move.

“Go!” he shouted, and they all moved forward as one. The crowd was still in front of him; so were the Assembly, their cannons flashing and spraying lethal energy everywhere, their legs pinning and stomping people as they ran.

Holt expected the crowd to push and pull against him, to stop them from moving, to force them back.

But the panicked masses cleared out as they approached, giving them a way through. Holt smiled. It was working. He could almost run full-speed through the churning crowd.

As he moved, Holt noticed others nearby who were trying to push through at the same time, watched them get blocked and sucked down, trampled underfoot. But that had to be a coincidence, didn’t it? Surely there wasn’t a connection between—

A pair of Mantis walkers stomped in front of them, blocking their path, guns rising.

Holt shoved another row of beads to the top of the abacus, and an orange sphere of energy flashed around them.

Flame exploded from the base of another building as missiles buried themselves into it.

The structure collapsed in a shower of concrete and wood and metal, falling right on top of the two Mantises, burying them before they had the chance to fire.

Nearby, another group of people were blocked by a similar pair of Mantises… and he watched plasma bolts burn into them and send them flying.

Holt shut his eyes momentarily but forced himself to keep moving. He had to save her. It was all worth it to save her.

His luck parted the sea of people in front of them, and they pushed inside the Scorewall room. He stared at the cavern, the giant wall of numbers and names and lists stretching high above them. It was eerie somehow. This place was the hub of the city, and seeing it so empty drove home just how desperate the situation was.

“Everyone’s gone,” Zoey said quietly below him, and she slipped her hand into his.

“Yeah,” he murmured, studying the layout of the cavern. Screams and explosions echoed behind them. There were three offshoot tunnels to the Scorewall, and only one of them led to the Lost Knights. “Mira,” Holt said, looking over his shoulder at her. “Mira, which way? I don’t know which cavern to take.”