Fade (11 page)

Jonas managed to swing the steel. A warbling whistle, followed by a solid strike to its face, and it had him. Its fat, bluish fingers pressed in; Jonas’ chest felt like it might cave. A board zoomed over his head, rebounding off the fleshy blob’s shoulder. Lucy’s eyes fluttered and she went to her knees, the overuse of her new powers overwhelming her.

There was no one now. All this time, all the planning, it had been for nothing. The Fade would have this world, too. He took its face in his hands, pressing it away. The thing growled, its hazy, fat eyes widening. He would die there, now. He didn’t blame the girls for breaking down, of course. This was all fiction come to life for them. Its mouth—green swollen gums, jutting decaying teeth, caked with its own gore—opened.

It pulled him forward, stumbling again, jerking Jonas upwards onto its head. He smiled. Jonas stiffened his thumbs and buried them deep into its eyes. He thought that it felt like plunging them into ripe plums right before he was thrown across the pasture. When he landed, a wave of pain enveloped his body. But it was better than being eaten to death. He watched as the monster pawed at its face and then slumped forward, unmoving.

Angela cried. Lucy was coming around again. Cynthia was balled up against her tree, rocking herself. Every muscle ached as Jonas rose. He scanned the four corners of the pasture as far as he could see. They seemed to be alone now. They needed that to be the last one. The girls were done, and so was he.

The slight rise of the creature’s stomach was the single indication that it was still alive. He wanted to collect his trusty pipe, go over there and stuff it down its throat. But, he couldn’t take the chance that it might have another round in it. It would die soon enough from Angela’s wound. Until then, he had young women in shock to deal with.

“You are Jonas,” a voice from behind him said.

Jonas spun, his mouth falling open at the sight of the broad, tan man, (light armor covered him like leaves cover trees). With everything he could manage, Jonas took up a fighting stance.

***

“I come for talk.” In spite of being human, he was one of the Fade’s warriors. Of that, Jonas was sure. Jonas’ eyes followed the man as he approached the dying Golem. “I am Kah’en. You are in lucky I was being the one Aern sent.”

Jonas did not move, but he reddened at the mention of Aern, the bastard who had led the Fade in the war against his Earth. “What do you want?”

The sun was a melting orange pool to the right of where Kah’en stood. He pulled at the hilt at his side, which Jonas recognized. In a second it became a long sword, vibrating with dim, blue light. “You will be wanting to hear what I have to say, human.”

There were dozens like Kah’en, who were as human as Jonas, but they had come through the same gate as those giant, shadow-skinned murderers. Jonas had never quite figured that one out. But he had also given up caring years ago. The Fade were sociopathic killers, and this scum was no less so because he lacked their alien features.

Kah’en was tall and muscular, with eyes as brown as his coffee skin, and dark hair cropped short. He wore the light armor of a Fade warrior outside of battle. But still, it was formidable. Rough, leather leggings, a simple piece of black armor, broad shoulder pads. Aern’s symbol—a four-armed female figure—sat blue on his chest. Black steel sheathes covered his arms. Circuitry ran through them that Jonas hoped was still nonfunctional. The glowing sword made that a more realistic worry. 

“Say what you have to say then,” said Jonas.

The warrior raised his free hand and walked over to the still living Golem. He raised the sword, brought it down, severing the Golem’s head. “Aern will destroy you. He is much plotting against you.”

“Aern is here?” Jonas narrowed his eyes, bared his teeth like a cornered dog.

“Yes. You led us here. Whatever you were doing to disappear the signal finally failed. But I am here to be helping you.”

Jonas thought it best to hide his ignorance about just how
he’d
managed to lead them there. “Why help us?”

Said Kah’en, “I would be a fool when I lie and say that I care about your well-being.” Jonas nodded with an annoyed smile. “I do not. I am in this place because we are many who lost faith in our search for the Queen.”

Kah’en was worse at it than his taller, uglier brother’s-in-arms, but Jonas hated hearing any of them try to speak their languages. “What does that have to do with me?” He glanced over at the girls, then toward Kah’en. The warrior’s eyes were casually going from one girl to the next. Jonas felt his jaw tighten.

“You are being the first peoples who have ever defeated us. You are wanting this war to stop. So are we. We are believing Aern is heading to destroy us all on this fool’s journey.”

“Your people…
Hell
, probably just you alone, murdered hundreds of innocent children rather than let them get to safety. Not to mention the hundreds of millions more that you killed just for fun.” Jonas took a step closer. “You want me to trust you? You have no soul. You have no compunction about doing whatever it takes to accomplish your goals. I don’t know if you learned this during your time on our planet, but that’s not what we’re about.”

Kah'en frowned. “I could be making an argument against this point. I am so aware of how your race is feeling about us, Jonas. I am not lying that we feel no remorse over what we have done. It was war. We make no worries of morality against our enemy as your peoples do. What is, is. Our only law is being…”

“The strongest rule. Yeah, I’ve heard that enough,” Jonas said.

Kah’en grimaced. “I have seen many of your peoples rape the other in our holding camps. For what? To do what they are wishing. I have seen a man crack a boy’s arm so he could be stealing his bread. For what?” He shook his head. “Your morality is the joke. But hold on to it if you think. I am not being here to take it. I am offering you a chance to loosen yourself of this constant battle because we would choose to live rather than to be chasing an old fool’s dream.” He held out his hand, a small device held between his fingers.

Jonas sighed. He recognized it. They’d taken hundreds of them from the battle field. It was used to communicate. “How does this still work?”

“It no longer does. Not in the ways it did. But you can still be signaling me with it. It will still be getting coordinates of your place, when you or I think to meet later. But now you will be hearing my offer?”

Jonas nodded toward the sword.

Kah’en patted the scabbard which held the electric blade, now depowered and just a short, black hilt again. “Yes. Even though your actions lost us a war with your people, we are finding the ways around what you did to our technology. Of this you must also be aware.”

Jonas relaxed. Even if he died right then he would know that his sacrifice was worth it. His plan had worked. All of the Fade's technology had been reduced to de-powered junk. He’d managed to give his people the upper hand. However, the fact that they were finding ways around that was unsettling. “I’m not stupid enough to take this back to where we’re staying.”

Kah’en smiled wryly. “I was not imagining you would be.”

Jonas took it. “Not now.”

“We will be talking later then, huma…
Jonas
.”

“Go away, Kah’en.”

The large man sighed. “We are wanting the same thing.”

Jonas crammed his eyes closed like it hurt to say the words. “Hard to believe that. But we will talk.”

Kah’en nodded, pleasure on his face, and began to walk away.

“What will you tell him? Aern; what will you tell him? I assume you were sent to collect us from the Wraith that captured us.”

“Kill you, in actually. But I will be reporting that the
Wraith
failed,” said Kah’en, still walking away.

Jonas groaned, looked at the girls. They sat on either side of Cynthia, who had passed out. He bowed his head.

NINE

C
ynthia sat up, whipping her head around the room. It stank of moth balls and mildew. She looked for the door. Several feet away, a set of stairs—covered by the same brown and tan carpet squares as the rest of the room—led up to it. But she stayed put for the moment. The tall blonde (
What was her name?
) walked up next to her holding a wet rag. She looked way too put together to have just gone through what they had gone through.

“Jonas! She’s awake!”

“So,” Cynthia's face fell, “that happened, didn’t it?”

“Yea,” the blonde said. “Pretty messed up stuff. You passed out on us.”

Jonas came into the room. “You aren’t hurt, if that helps.”

Cynthia nodded. “I, um…I lost it out there,” she shook her head, catching sight of Angela. The redhead sat, almost hidden, behind a gray couch across the room, staring at the floor. “I’m still losing it. What the hell is going on, man?”

“I’m Jonas,” he dropped his chin. “I’m not sure where to begin.”

“Where am I? Start there.”

“I built this place when you were children. It needs a little work, but it’s not bad for having been neglected for—”

“Okay, listen. I want to go back to my first question.”

“The
what the hell is going on?
question. Yes,” Jonas said.

“We’ve got spam. You want spam?” The blonde again, Cynthia thought her name was Lucy, chimed in. “We stopped for it. All they had at the Get-N-Go.” Cynthia looked at her, furrowing her brow. “You know… in case…
you’re hungry
. Or something.” Lucy quieted.

Jonas said, “go fix her a plate, Lucy. It’s fine.” The blonde nodded and went that way.

Jonas watched after her and then turned back to Cynthia. “I’ll tell you what I told Angela and Lucy. There are things after you. Not just you, but that’s where they seem to be starting.” He exhaled noisily. “There’s no easy way to explain this without sounding insane.”

“Um, big monster tried to bite my face off. We’re past the point of abandoning our disbelief,” Cynthia said.

“Hm. Well,” he took a deep breath, “they weren’t supposed to find us here. Listen, this… Okay. I brought you three here when you were children. Do you remember that at all?”

“Not so much. Where did you bring us from?”

“Just… Right now, just know that we are in serious danger, and this may be the only safe place for you until you learn to use your abilities better.”

She let that roll around in her head. “So,
that.
I should be dead. Am I the only one that thinks I should be dead?” Her breathing picked up, despite her sarcasm. Her voice was higher, faster, bothered.

“Again. I promise you, I’ll explain everything. Right now, you rest and eat your… spam.” He looked at the thick slices of glossy meat as Lucy entered the room again. “I’ll grocery shop,” he said.

“I got you OJ too.” Lucy said, setting the food on the floor in front of Cynthia.

Cynthia picked up a chunk of the meat and turned it in her fingers, then let it drop. “No.” She stood, wiping her fingers on her pants, realizing she was wearing different clothes—an oversized gray t-shirt with the Get-N-Go logo on it, and a pair of blue jogging pants. “That’s not good enough.” Jonas turned, his lips flat and tight; that long, scraggly beard was gone now too. “I just got abducted, attacked by a
super
corpse and woke up in a strange house, I need more.” Her eyes brimmed with tears.

Jonas stood there, his face still tense for a moment, and then he started to speak.

Cynthia stiffened, her hands going to her mouth. “Am I imagin—?” She stuck an arm straight out, palm up, then slid the other from her quivering mouth. “No. Nononono.” The tears came. “No!” Cynthia blanched. “This is not possible. It’s not possible that I’m
not
dead. This…
This
is just another one of those fucked up psychotic episodes!” Her voice heightened; trenchant and wavering. She rose and took slow steps back. “Everybody just shut up!”

Jonas moved toward her. “Cynthia. Any…
episodes
you had weren’t you going crazy. They were the creature that abducted you. He has technology that—”

“Shut your mouth! I’m
not
crazy! I’m
fuck
ing not!” She tripped, her head barely missing the stairs. Her words were just lucid through her sobs. “I’m just a drug addict! I just had too many drugs. This
isn’t
real!” She didn’t bother getting up; she just bawled at the cement ceiling.

Angela was standing, staring, blank-faced. She turned to look at Jonas who was making his way to Cynthia. Cynthia kicked at him. Lucy stood on her toes, frowning as she craned to see her over Jonas’ shoulder. “Stop staring at me! Go away!”

“I can’t imagine how this must feel. To
all
of you.” He looked at each girl.

“I just need to wake up," Cynthia said. "Somebody wake me up,
dammit
!”

Jonas settled next to her and lifted Cynthia into his arms when she would let him. She wept there until she slept.

***

“So. What do we do?” Angela spoke, for the first time since they’d arrived, hands buried between her knees, shoulders hunched, head down, eyes peeking out at Jonas.

“Is Cynthia okay?” Lucy interrupted, popping out of the kitchen.

Jonas nodded. “She’s sleeping. We need to be quiet.” A shaking hand passed over his hair. “I can’t say I might not react the same way if I were her.”

“So.” Angela tried again.

“Oh. Yes. Well, like I said, it’s not safe out there. I think you can see that.”

“We’ve been gone for a while. My parents have probably already got the police involved. I’m messed up over this, but I don’t think this is a delusion like her. I’m just really scared. I don’t even
know
you.”

“I understand. You can call them. Maybe tell them you’re staying with a friend. But if you go back home… To be blunt, they
will
kill your family. I’m sorry how that sounds, but it’s true.”

“So, then you’re saying you’re not going to let us leave?” Angela’s face reddened.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“I heard you say
can’t go home
. I
can
go home.” Her hands were on the floor now, ready to push herself to her feet, run for the door.