The 17 (29 page)

Zack was asleep when it happened. It was the loud, shrieking cry that startled him awake.

Tyaz erupted into the room and stood over him. “You better come quickly.”

Her voice was no longer silky and soothing, but quaked with distress.

The first thing Zack saw was the deep rope burns around the neck of the girl he had come to know as Tess. She was a nice girl, small and frail with stringy brown hair and teal accents on her clothes. Caroline pushed frantically on her chest and counted, “One, two, three, four.” Caroline told another to pinch Tess’ nose and blow in her mouth, and he did with no affect.

Then the watches thrummed—all seventeen of them—in unison.

“18”

They had lost their advantage.

The stalemate was broken.

Caroline sat, shoulders slumped, over Tess and stared down at her pale face. “Someone killed her. Why? Who would do that?”

Zack spied Harness, who lurked far away from the group that had gathered around Tess.

Zack pointed at Harness. “Check his watch.”

Caroline pushed herself up and gazed at Zack, confused. “Why? Doesn’t it say what our watches say?”

“Just check it.”

Harness held out his bare wrists. “Sorry. Don’t have it. Chucked it. It hurt my wrist.”

“That’s convenient,” Zack said.

Harness just glared at him. “I didn’t kill her.”

“Why would he kill her, Zack?” Caroline asked.

“He and the others like him, not part of our groups, were dropped in here to kill us. If they killed three of us, they were promised a ticket out of here and home.”

The group all turned indignant eyes on Harness.

“You knew this?” Caroline was angry. Zack knew Caroline was scary when she was angry.

“Yes. But Harness told me to not say anything. I trusted him. I guess that was a mistake.”

The group began to walk menacingly toward Harness, who held his mangled hands up. “Whoa. Wait a minute. I swear I didn’t kill her.

Caroline pushed her way through the mob and stood in front of Harness. She looked up at him, eyes squinted in anger, nostrils flared, jaw clenched. “Eugene Harness, you say you have never lied to me. You say you have always been honest with me. Be honest with me right now. Did you kill her?”

Harness grabbed her gently on the arms with his twisted fingers and squeezed with a wince. “My hands hurt all the time. My arms hurt. My shoulders hurt—everything hurts. I can’t hold a knife. I can barely even hold a glass of water. It took everything I had to throw that spear thirty feet to kill that ugly dude to save Zack Goody-Two-Shoes over there. There’s no way I could grip a rope tightly enough to strangle an alien to death. Besides, that’s not my style. That’s a girl move, no offense.”

Caroline believed him.

So did Zack. “If he didn’t do it, who did? Did someone sneak in through the perimeter?”

“No way,” said a boy who in a show of vanity had ripped the sleeves off his gray and teal shirt to expose his well-defined arms. “We would have seen someone. There’s only one way in. We made sure of that.”

Caroline looked around the room and barked orders. “Everyone stays in this room. We sleep in shifts. We watch each other at all times.”

Harness piped up. “You guys have a bigger problem now. There’s only seventeen of you. You need eighteen to keep your stalemate going. There’s only one more out there. You better find him and quick.”

Zack swallowed harshly. “I’ll go.”

Caroline balked. “No, Zack. It’s too dangerous. You have to stay here.”

“For what? To be stared at? I’ll take Harness. Even with busted hands he’s still a pretty good body guard. This is important, Caroline. We have to find the last one before someone else does.”

Harness scoffed. “You think I’m going out there again? No way. I’m staying here. Nothing good can come to me out there. Besides, I’m not leaving Caroline here with you freaks. One of you killed that girl. Zack, take bright-eyes—that black chick with the funky hair. You know how to move around the gimbals now and she looks like she can take care of herself and you.”

“He’s rude,” Tyaz said. “But he’s correct. I’ll go.”

Caroline relented. “Fine. Go quickly.”

Zack and Tyaz gathered some gear, Tyaz sheathing a long, curved sword.

Harness tapped him on the shoulder before they departed. “You know, you may have to kill someone. I mean, actually kill ‘em and not just prick them with a dagger.”

“I know, Harness,” Zack said, somberly. “I’m well aware.”

“Here. Take this.” Harness held out Mizuki’s curved knife to him. “I found it on the beach. I thought you might want it. Maybe to fall on to kill yourself if you don’t have the stomach to kill someone else.”

Zack hesitantly grabbed it and scowled at Harness. “I know you don’t mean that.”

“No. I don’t. If you have to, use it. She wouldn’t want you to die like she did.”

Zack examined the handle; one side had an ankh symbol in plated silver, but the other had the symbol of the two moons of her planet in gold.

It was his most prized possession.

Part III

Chapter Four

The Unattainable Egg

When Zack was a little boy, his mother hid Easter eggs all around their property for him to find. He found most easily enough, but his mother would always hide one egg so well each year that he could not find it no matter how hard he tried.

It bothered him immensely. He stayed out in the yard for hours trying to discover it.

He never did. It was always elusive.

His mother lorded that over him each year, saying almost teasingly, “Well, there’s always next year, Zackary.”

When the next Easter Sunday rolled around, his mother would challenge him again. “Let’s see if Zackary can find
all
the eggs this time.”

He vowed he would. He vowed he would never give up until he was gripping that egg in his hand. He became so obsessed with finding that well-hidden egg that he began to disregard the ones hidden in plain sight.

Year after year he never found it. Year after year it tormented him.

It wasn’t until his seventeenth birthday that his mother revealed her deviousness.

There never was an egg.

She explained she simply wanted to teach him a tough lesson: that sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you will fail, that sometimes what you seek is unattainable and that everything is in the trying.

He came to call it the Unattainable Egg. He turned it into a slang term, like when he was smitten with a girl in his class, Ava, who was far out of his league, he would call her the Unattainable Egg.

It made him hate his mother.

And Easter, too.

Zack felt like it was Easter now.

Unlike the Unattainable Egg of his boyhood, Zack was sure number eighteen was out there—somewhere. And he needed to uncover this person quickly.

As they walked out of the city, Tyaz cupped her hand over her eyes and scanned the horizon. She sighed. “We have so much ground to cover. Where do we start?”

Zack had no good answer. “I guess we make our way back to the central building and fan out our search from there. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

Tyaz looked toward the horizon again through her ivory eyes. “It’s still going to be nearly impossible to find this person. It’s crazy to think we will.”

“We have to try. Everything is in the trying.”

He didn’t really believe that. It was just a poor excuse his mother used to justify her cruelness, couching it in a lesson that did nothing but traumatize him. Tyaz believed him, however, and that’s all that mattered to him now. She grinned widely and nodded. “Okay, then.”

†††

Zack watched the onyx sky erupt, lightning bolts streaming down.

A storm?

Zack knew better.

And so did Tyaz. Her eyesight was ten times better than that of a human and she told Zack the scene was much different.

“It’s not lightning, it’s the ceiling of a large dome warping,” she said, looking at it in amazement. “I can see three figures sitting at a podium set high above us. They are in shadows.”

The Ankhs behind the curtain.

“It won’t be long now,” Zack said. “One way or another.”

They marched on toward the central ring, the sky flashing and pulsating with light more frequently along the way. It signaled the Ankhs further weakening and Zack was more determined than ever to find the eighteenth and survive.

They reached the lip of the hill and Tyaz peered down to the building.

She turned her frosted eyes to Zack. “I don’t see anyone.”

They carefully repelled down the steep slope of the hill. Tyaz, who was also ten times more fleet of foot than a human, made it down skillfully. Zack struggled to remain upright, but finally made it to solid, flat ground.

He gazed back up to the sky and saw a swirl of dark clouds circling the center ring. Lightning flashed with no thunder. Wind blew hard against his face.

Tyaz also looked up into the vortex, her face grim.

“What do you see?” Zack asked.

Tyaz fixed her eyes on the swirl. Her lips moved, but no sounds escaped.

“Tyaz!” Zack bellowed. She ignored him as if in a trance. Finally, she blinked and set her eyes back on Zack. “Tyaz, what did you see?”

She gulped. “Sadness. Despair. They are dying. The eighteenth is in the building, hiding.”

“How do you know?”

She began walking briskly toward the door as she said “I just do.”

Zack followed her inside and a loud hum greeted his ears. Tyaz covered hers and winced. Her hearing was also ten times better than that of a human.

“What’s that infernal noise?” she asked through gritted teeth.

It came from the other end of the hall and the whirring of it was resounding enough that he could feel the sound waves beat off his body. “That has to be the Ankh’s power source.”

They had bigger things to worry about now; they had number eighteen to find.

Zack walked down the hall quickly and Tyaz followed the best she could as she braced against the noise that brought her pain.

He was done with being scared. He strode with confidence, pushing open every door, checking every room.

Nothing.

They walked down the other hall, pushing every door open.

Nothing.

Then another hall.

Nothing.

Finally, they paced down the last hall. The hum grew louder and Tyaz grew more taxed by the noise.

Zack was more concerned with the fact that Splifkin was nowhere to be seen.

Tyaz leaned against the wall and pressed her hands tightly against her ears. “I can’t go any farther. The pain is too much.”

“It’s okay. Stay here.”

Zack swung a door open and out flew a figure, burly and strong, who tackled him and pinned him to the floor. Zack struggled against the brawn of the figure, finally meeting his eyes.

It was Setal, who released him and covered his head in his arms, cowering.

“Don’t kill me,” Setal whined.

“I’m not gonna kill you. I’m gonna save you.”

Setal lowered his arms and peered at Zack. “You’re not going to kill me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Why would I?”

“People think I’m dumb, but I’m not dumb. There are eighteen of us. The Ankhs need seventeen. I’m the weakest. I don’t have a Spark. I’m in the way.”

Zack stood and helped Setal to his feet. “You’re not in the way. You happen to be just what we need.”

†††

“Why are we not going back again?” Tyaz asked, frustrated.

Setal fidgeted. “Yeah. Why aren’t we leaving? That crazy lizard guy is still around and he’s red. Red’s not good.”

Zack cracked a smile. “You never choked anyone with entrails, did you?”

“Um. No. I just wanted to intimidate people. Would have been cool if I had, though, huh?”

The hum was getting louder.

“Their power source is in there,” Zack said, pointing down the long hallway toward the door at the end of it. He could feel the pulses of energy now even this far away. “Splifkin was put here to guard it and, at the very least, scare people away so they didn’t discover it. We can end this now.”

Tyaz pleaded. “That’s not the plan, Zack.”

It was the Unattainable Egg and Zack was going to find it this time. “Circumstances have changed the plan.”

“It’s a bad idea.”

Zack didn’t heed her objections. He strode down the hallway to the door and jiggled the handle again. He threw a shoulder into the door but it didn’t budge.

Setal lumbered to Zack. “Let me try.”

He rammed his full weight into the door. It rattled, but remained unopened.

“No good,” Setal said. “The door is steel. Can’t break through it. Oh well. We tried. Let’s go to the others.”

Zack wasn’t about to give up so easily. He was never one to give up easily.

“Maybe there’s a crowbar or a lever we can wedge between the door and the jam and break it open.”

Setal shook his head. “And people think I am dumb.”

Zack threw his full weight into the door again. All he did was send ripples of pain down his arm. His frustration was building and his face became flush with rage.

He thought he must look very much like Splifkin now.

“There’s gotta be a way in!”

“You have to let it go!” Tyaz screamed from down the hall, her hands still clasped over her sensitive ears.

“She’s right,” Setal said as he grabbed Zack on the shoulder. “Even if we can get in there, what are we gonna do? We don’t know their technology. What makes you think you can turn it off?”

Zack slapped Setal’s hand off his shoulder. “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. This has gone on long enough.”

Zack just wanted it to be over. He was tired of the struggle, tired of the pain, tired of losing people he cared about, tired of doing things he did not want to do, tired of being in fear almost every minute of every day.

It was going to end now.

He banged his hand on the door over and over again. He kicked at it, too.

Setal tried to stop him, but Zack brushed him away again. He pounded and pounded, his hand becoming red and raw. He even butted his head against it a few times.