J. Mitchell - Midnight City

Holt rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Well,” he replied, thinking it through. “It’s lucky we have the best, then.” He looked at her and Mira looked back.

“What did the Librarian mean when he called Zoey the Apex?” Holt asked.

Mira had forgotten about that; it had been in the middle of a tense situation. Had he really meant that? If so, how could he have known? Surely he was wrong….

“Mira?”

“You know that when the Strange Lands formed, during the invasion, no one who lived in that part of the world ever came out, right? They just vanished?”

Holt nodded with a dark expression.

“The Librarian believed that one person did come out,” she continued. “He thought that the life forces of everyone inside the zone were split and merged… except for one. He called that person the Apex.”

Holt looked dubious. “How did he come up with that theory?”

Mira shook her head. “Who knows? He was part genius, part crazy. It was some complicated equation he was always working on. The thing was too technical for me, it took up six blackboards inside the Vault, but he believed it, I know that much, and he felt that whoever it was, was very important. But he never told me why.”

“Do you believe him?” Holt asked, holding her gaze.

“I don’t know,” Mira said. “Do you believe Zoey really controlled the dam?”

“It’s the only thing I can figure,” Holt said with a perturbed look.

“But there’s been nothing to show she has that kind of power,” Mira said. “And why would she have it? It’s so specific.”

“And there’s the fact that that entire thing was run-down and rusting where it sat. It shouldn’t have been able to work at all.” Holt winced suddenly and sat down on an old hay bale next to him.

He lifted up his shirt and studied a wicked-looking gash over the back of his left ribs. Mira winced along with him at the sight of it. It must have been something that happened yesterday during their escape.

“God, Holt, did you sleep with that?” she asked in annoyance. “You need to dress it.”

“I was too tired last night,” he said, still looking at the wound. It had stopped bleeding, but it was caked with dried blood and dirt. “I didn’t think it was this bad.”

“Well, you thought wrong,” Mira said as she stood up. “I’ll get your med-kit.”

“Actually,” Holt said. “I was… kind of hoping you might help me do it.”

Mira went still with her back to Holt as the weight of what he was saying occurred to her. “I thought Holt Hawkins did everything himself,” she said, reaching for the med-kit near the campfire. When she turned around, they stared at each other as implications passed between them.

“Well, I can’t totally reach it,” he replied slowly. “At least… not without you.”

Mira felt a gentle warmth flow through her as she held his look. She moved toward and around him, kneeling down behind his back. “I look after you… you look after me? Is that the idea?” Mira asked softly. She felt Holt breathe as her hands found the wound and started cleaning it. He relaxed at her touch.

“That’s the idea,” he said.

“I have to tell you something, Holt,” she said, and her mouth suddenly felt dry. “You asked me a question,” Mira said. “About Ben. And… I think I owe you an answer. I think you deserve to—”

“Hey.” Holt’s voice was almost a whisper, but it was enough to stop her. Mira looked up and saw he was looking gently down at her. “Do you think you could maybe tell me this tomorrow?” he asked. “Instead of today?”

Mira held his gaze as long as she could… and then looked away, back to his injury. She nodded. It was funny the way life threw things at you. It could be unfair. It hit you with things you wanted, things that made you happy, things you knew you needed… but it never seemed to do it at the right time, did it?

When she was done dressing the injury, they packed in silence, and were gone an hour later.

MOVING NORTHWARD THROUGH THE plains turned out to be a painstaking journey. Holt wanted to avoid the more direct routes and not push through the tall grass or the wheat fields, since it would leave an obvious trail behind them. The decision made her remember the price on Holt’s head, and she wondered again exactly who was looking for him. And why. It was something he had yet to tell her, but she was patient. He would tell her when it was time.

As they moved, Mira looked up into the air. They had spent so much time in forests or under Midnight City’s cavernous ceilings that the open sky felt impossibly tall and deep. There were kids who lived most of their lives in Midnight City, never feeling the warmth of the daylight, and most who ventured outside the cavern were terrified of the sky.

It was disorienting, dizzying to look at when the ceiling had always been a few hundred feet above you. They said it felt like they were going to fall up and into it, and whenever Mira left Midnight City, she always got a sense of what they meant.

Ahead of them, the ground sloped upward, and the crest of a grassy hill blocked the view of the horizon.

“The Max!” Zoey shouted, and dashed forward. Max barked excitedly and chased after her.

“Zoey, don’t get too far ahead, please,” Mira called after her.

“We won’t!” the little girl yelled back as she and the dog raced up the hill to see what lay on the other side. It left Mira and Holt to walk together, and she noticed something else, something in Holt’s hand. The sight of it caused a pang of concern.

“Holt,” she said. “Why isn’t the Chance Generator in your pack?”

“I don’t like it in there,” he said without looking back. “I like it out where I can see it.”

Mira studied it closer. She wasn’t sure, but it looked like a few of the beads had been slid upward. It looked like it was active. Surely, Holt of all people wouldn’t be using the abacus. “Holt, why don’t you put the abacus in your pack?”

“It’s okay, I can hold it,” he said. “I don’t mind.”

“Holt, I’d really like it if you put it in your pack. It’s not something you should be touching.”

Holt glanced back at her, and when he did, there was an odd look in his eyes. Thoughts and calculations seemed to swirl behind them, dark ones, and it was something she had never seen from him before. But it lasted only a second.

“Yeah, okay,” he said. “Thing makes me cringe anyway.” He undid a pocket on his pack and stuffed the abacus inside. Mira couldn’t tell if it had been turned on or not, but at least he wasn’t holding it anymore. He’d used it only once, and she was doubtful that short an exposure could lead to compulsion… but who knew? It was a powerful artifact, and he had been tight-lipped about his experience with it. She had assumed it was just a hesitancy to discuss the negative effects it had caused in order to save them all. But what if it was more than that? What if he had used it at full power?

“Guys!” Zoey’s shouts from on top of the hill tore Mira from her thoughts. “Come see! Hurry!”

They both looked up and saw Zoey staring down at them impatiently. Holt smiled at Mira, and shrugged. “After you,” he said, motioning her forward.

Mira smiled back. He seemed himself again—it probably wasn’t anything to worry about. She kept walking and felt the ground start to incline under her feet.

They climbed to the top of the hill and crested the rise to where Zoey and Max sat, looking at the horizon that was now revealed before them.

When Holt saw what was there, Mira saw his body sag as his brain tried to make sense of it. “Holy God…,” he exclaimed, though it was barely a whisper. He had never seen it before, she guessed.