J. Mitchell - Midnight City

Mira mumbled something he couldn’t hear. She was almost lost, slowly slipping away. Holt had to hurry. He looked at his options: the three different openings in the black walls. He picked one… and just hoped the Chance Generator’s effects extended to picking tunnels as much as it did to avoiding plasma bolts.

There were more explosions behind them. He saw a troop of Mantis walkers rushing toward them.

He ran, pulling Zoey along, and Max darted out in front of them. Plasma bolts shredded the air and the floor all around them, and Holt prayed the abacus could keep them alive long enough to reach the compound. Mira had told him it worked for only so long, and he had no way of knowing when it was about to run out of power.

“Hold on, Mira,” he said as he ran. “Hold on.” Mira made no sound, didn’t even move on his shoulders, except to bounce up and down. Please let her still be there. Please…

THEY PASSED THROUGH THE TUNNEL, and then through an opening that spit them out into a room that wasn’t anything like what Holt had expected. It wasn’t a cavern like the others. Walls of concrete and steel stretched high up to a flat, smooth ceiling several hundred feet above. Metal pipes snaked all along the walls, and rusted, old ladders and walkways stretched among them. At the very top, skylights had long ago been built into the ceiling, allowing sunlight to filter in from the surface.

The Lost Knights had found and inhabited a part of the old dam itself.

The room was full of Lost Knights warriors, gearing up to fight the aliens that had invaded the city and were about to beat on their own gate. As Holt entered, they all aimed their weapons squarely at him. Max growled, and Zoey instinctively moved behind Holt’s legs.

Just outside, he could hear screams and yells, gunfire and explosions, and the buzzing of Seekers. Everyone in the room nervously looked at the tunnel that led outside.

“No pulling triggers!” a voice shouted from the center of the room. A small feminine voice, not unlike Zoey’s, only this one was laced with venom and guile. “At least not yet.” Holt watched as the kids, all dressed in red and orange, parted so that a little girl could push past them.

It was Amelia.

Her eyes moved between each of them intently, studying Holt, Zoey, Max, then finally settling on Mira, slumped across Holt’s shoulders. She smiled mockingly. “If you brought her here to sell, I don’t think she’s worth much anymore.”

Holt’s eyes thinned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean her bounty was payable by the Gray Devils,” Amelia said, walking slowly toward them, holding Holt’s eyes. “And from what I hear, the Gray Devils aren’t the faction they used to be. Their leader’s gone. Their numbers are dwindled. In fact… I hear pretty much the same thing about Los Lobos, too. It all sounds very tragic.”

The explosions and sounds of battle outside were suddenly forgotten as Holt put the pieces together. “ You told them,” he said, glaring at the little girl in front of him. “You told them both we were in the Vault. That’s how they knew.” Holt watched as Amelia’s smile broadened, and he felt his anger building. “You gambled they’d kill each other off in their frenzy to get Mira, and then the Lost Knights would be on top of that stupid wall of numbers back there.”

Amelia’s smile vanished. “That wall of numbers is everything, ” she fumed. “You just don’t see it. The Scorewall is order and structure. It’s meaning. Where you come from, there are no systems, no designs, no formulas to tell you what to do, nothing to spell out what’s right or wrong. Here… there are rules. And the rules make sense. We live or die by them. Midnight City is the world, Holt, like it used to be, only more honest. We rebuilt the world inside this cave, only we made it better. And if I could, I’d thank the Assembly for giving us the chance to create it.”

Holt stared at her, at all of them, like they were insane. “You wanna thank the Assembly?” he asked. “I think you’re about to get your chance.” He held up the Chance Generator for Amelia to see, and her gaze turned dangerous. “You want this thing or not?”

“Oh, yes, Holt. I do. And while we’re at it… why don’t you hand over Mira’s artifact, too? Lenore was Heedless, and if the rumors about her Succumbing are true, then I have a pretty good idea what it does… which makes it even more valuable than the Chance Generator.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Holt said firmly.

Amelia laughed, and so did the others. “Well, aren’t we confident?” she asked with a malicious glint. “Kill them quick. We have other visitors to deal with.”

The Lost Knights all raised their weapons. Max growled viciously.

“Holt…,” Zoey whispered behind him, fear in her voice.

Holt did the only thing he could think of. There were two more rows of beads left on the abacus in his hand. He shoved them both to the top.

The air around them briefly flashed into a crimson sphere…

…right as the Lost Knights pulled their triggers.

Holt flinched as every gun in the room simultaneously misfired and exploded, sending their owners crashing backwards, dead or badly hurt. Everyone who was left jumped back in shock, staring around wildly.

“He’s using the generator!” Amelia shouted, figuring it out. “Rush him!”

The Lost Knights stared at Holt, but none of them made a move.

“Now!” Amelia yelled.

The kids tensed, their fear of Amelia stronger than their fear of Holt’s luck. They moved forward… and plasma fire filled the air, punching holes in the concrete wall above them, raining debris down everywhere.

The kids in front of him panicked and scrambled.

Holt grabbed Zoey and ran forward through the chaos as the buzzing of Seekers filled the room. He knew that the Mantis walkers would be close behind now.

Two Lost Knights moved to block his path… but were quickly cut down by plasma bolts from above.

He kept moving, picking a door at random in the side of the wall across the room.

“Stop him!” he heard Amelia yell behind him. “Stop him bef—” The sound of her voice was lost in the roar of an explosion. Holt felt the heat of it on his neck as he ran.

More Lost Knights moved to block him… and were just as quickly crushed by a downpour of falling concrete and glass as one of the skylights crumpled above them. His luck was holding, awful as it was.

Gunfire erupted everywhere, but none of it was aimed at him. What was left of the Lost Knights defenders were firing at the walkers and buzzing Seekers. He heard screams and cries of pain and the sounds of bodies hitting the concrete. But Holt didn’t look back. He had to get Mira out of here. Had to save her. He had to…

Holt reached the door set into the corner of the room. A faded stenciling of letters on it read, CONTROL ROOM ACCESS—AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

He yanked it open, shoved Zoey and Max inside… and risked a look behind him.

The room was chaos now. Half a dozen Mantis walkers had pushed inside, and were firing and bowling over Lost Knights defenders. And then he saw something even worse. Every one of the walkers were headed right for Zoey, chirping loudly. They had seen her, Holt guessed. And it meant every walker in the city would be headed this way soon.

Holt lunged through the door and slammed it behind him. There was a dead bolt on it, and he rammed it home. It wouldn’t keep the Assembly out long, but it would buy them time.

Just on the other side was a flight of stairs leading up into darkness. They rushed up, taking the steps as fast as they could. Mira’s weight was becoming a major burden, and his legs were starting to weaken. But he kept going, forcing himself to climb.