J. Mitchell - Midnight City

THE DOOR BUCKED AND kicked behind Holt, and he desperately tried to keep it shut.

The lights on the control panel were flashing with urgency now, faster and faster. Information scrolled down the monitors that still worked. The rumbling underneath him continued to build.

The windows of the control center overlooked the dam’s main wall as it stretched in both directions. The structure’s huge metal gates lay along its length, keeping an unmeasurable amount of water behind them at bay.

Even though Holt had an idea what was coming, when it happened, he still couldn’t believe it. He felt his knees shake and buckle.

“Oh my God…,” Holt managed to whisper. And then the unthinkable occurred.

ZOEY LOOKED AT HER hands and arms and saw they were covered in golden, wavering energy.

Her real body was forgotten. She was the dam now. She was its turbines and generators and controls; she was the energy that coursed through its cables, and the pressure that was building in its pipes and lines.

She traveled through the structure, feeling it as individual pieces and as one giant whole. She found the parts she was looking for, the dam’s main function, and she forced herself into them, filling them with her energy and willing them to obey.

Beneath her, and in every direction, came a sound like rolling thunder.

The giant gates set into the concrete wall began to slide open, groaning and rumbling and spraying sparks and rust.

But they opened nonetheless.

Zoey watched as huge cascades of water exploded out the side of the dam, roaring downward like giant liquid obelisks that slammed and burst apart on the floodplain below.

Bellows erupted from the Spider walkers on the field, no longer tones of triumph or confidence. Instead they were sounds of shock and fear, and Zoey watched as dozens upon dozens of the huge machines, which had been on the verge of victory, turned and ran away from the dam, as fast as their powerful legs would propel them, toward the edges of the floodplain.

But it was too late.

The massive wall of water roared toward them, burying everything as it surged forward.

The flood plowed into the Assembly. Zoey watched them almost instantaneously be hammered forward and disappear under the giant swell.

The Spiders’ panicked, fearful electronic calls were suddenly drowned out as the water pounded them to the ground and enveloped them completely. Zoey watched the giant machines disappear in the torrent as it roared forward, saw them tossed and flipped as if they weighed nothing. And she felt them, too. Sensed their fear and terror as their shells broke open and the water gushed inside. And then, a moment later, the sensations were gone, wiped away….

The main force of blue and white walkers had been completely washed out of existence.

WHAT REMAINED OF THE dam’s defenders stared in awe as the gates of the dam slowly closed, sealing off the powerful flow. As the main surge of water began to recede, they saw dozens of motionless blue and white Spider walkers spread out before them, all crushed and destroyed and lying crumpled in the water like mechanical corpses.

The color on their armor didn’t stand out for long. A thick, black, rustlike substance formed on their surfaces, spreading and consuming the machines where they lay, like a metallic cancer. No golden fields of energy rose from their bodies, no crystalline shapes of light. There was only the rust.

Above, the Raptors ceased their firing, circled a few more times, and then their engines roared as they banked hard and flew toward the east, followed by the Vultures and Ospreys. Watching them recede was like watching a giant black cloud move toward the horizon, shrinking and diminishing in the sky until it vanished.

When they were gone, the river valley was filled with a strange, surreal silence that felt very out of place. The crackling of fires on the walls and the lapping of water against the new shoreline were the only sounds.

Eventually, a shocked, disbelieving cheer went up on one side of the dam. It was quickly echoed all along the walls by a hundred young, ecstatic voices.

As they roared in victory, some looked upward toward the very top of the structure. There, a silhouette against the bright sky, stood what looked like a tiny figure, a young girl, her arms extended, her hands and eyes glowing with an unearthly golden light.

The figure stood a moment longer… and then she vanished.

Rumors blossomed from that brief sighting, stories that would be told over the months to come. Tales of a young girl who had stood at the head of the dam while plasma bolts filled the air all around her, and somehow willed the old structure back to life. Willed it back to life… and saved them all.

They were only rumors, of course. But they would spread nonetheless….

HOLT STARED, JUST AS astonished as those outside, watching the water cease its flow and everything return to normal.

It took him a moment to realize that the door was no longer shaking at his back, and the buzzing of the Seekers was gone. He stepped to the side and let the ruined door fall to the floor. Beyond it, there was nothing but a dark, empty staircase descending downward.

They were gone. Holt guessed that the pattern had repeated itself all throughout Midnight City. Without the support of the larger force outside, what remained of the smaller Mantis group had withdrawn, taking their Seekers with them.

The city was saved. And Zoey had done it all. Somehow.

He watched as the little girl stepped back through the hole in the ceiling, descending the ladder to the floor. When she finally stood before him, Holt stared at her in a whole new way. His heart beat heavy and fast in his chest. He was stunned.

“Zoey…,” he managed to say. But there were no more words.

Max barked and rushed to Zoey, brushing up against her, and the little girl petted his head and scratched his ears.

Then she kneeled down before Mira and her empty, black eyes. Zoey placed her hands on Mira’s chest.

“Holt,” she said. Something strong in her voice made him look down at her, down at them both. “I need to know,” she continued. “Do you believe ?”

Holt looked back at her. Ten minutes ago, he would have answered no without hesitation. But not now. Regardless of what had happened to him, or what might happen to all of them… there was finally, ultimately, a reason to hope. He only wished Mira were able to hear the answer herself. “Yes,” Holt said firmly. “I believe.”

Zoey was silent, reading him or weighing his answer, he wasn’t sure which. Then she nodded and looked back down to Mira. “Hold her hand,” Zoey said.

Holt felt his heart begin to pound again. He kneeled down before Mira, on the other side from Zoey, and took her small, still hand in his own.

Zoey closed her eyes. Holt watched expectantly, waiting….

“Be free,” Zoey said, and a flash of rippling golden light blossomed around all three of them.

When it faded, Mira inhaled a gasping breath. Her whole body shook, and Holt held her down until the spasm ended.

When it did, she opened her eyes. And the world seemed to stop.

They were perfectly clear. Clear and conscious and alive. The veinlike black tendrils of the Tone were gone, leaving only twin seas of intense emerald green.

Her eyes blinked and focused as her awareness returned, and when she saw Holt, she smiled. “Hi,” she said softly, staring back at him.

“Hi,” Holt replied. He brushed the strands of hair off her face, ran his fingers across her cheek and chin, feeling all of her. He couldn’t believe it.

“Still making you work for it,” she whispered. “Aren’t I?”