The Silent Army

That one, there …what did that mean? I knew that face. We were in my old precinct. Why couldn’t I remember?

I saw a chat portal as I sat alone:

She had something to say. Something you didn’t hear.

Then another face, of a man I’d never seen.

“You never heard the name Samuel Fawkes …”

The man in the chair cried out, and the memories scattered.

“What are you doing?” I asked. Lev had uncapped the syringe. I saw it was filled with inky black fluid.

The glowing orange mass in the man’s rib cage beat at a dangerous rate. I watched the heat throb up the side of his neck and branch across the weathered skin of his face. His bloodshot eyes bugged out, and stared up at Lev as he guided the needle. The tip pierced his skin, above the band of light, and he pushed the plunger down. As the fluid was injected, I scanned it, and caught the cold sparkle of nanomachines.

“What is that?” I asked.

“You’ll see.”

He injected the last of the black fluid, and the man began to sag back in the chair. His eyes swam and lost focus. Behind Lev, a timer appeared on a screen. It began to count down from ninety seconds. As it did, the man stopped struggling, and twitched. His heart rate began to fall. At thirty seconds, I thought it had stopped cold, but it maintained a slow beat. His body went into deep relaxation; then with fifteen seconds left, his pulse began to creep back up toward normal.

Since my death, life never had the same meaning. When I looked through my memories, it was clear I’d once valued human life. I’d seen lives ended or destroyed every day, and their suffering had begun to eat at me. I’d struggled hard to keep it at a distance, but over time, the barrier eroded. At the end I was worn raw, and even a revivor’s death could touch me.

Death no longer bothered me, not in the way it once did. The loss of human life could affect big change, when some lives were exchanged for those of others. Maybe Nico had been right all those years back. Maybe I just should have gone away from the rule of civilian law and made my stand in the grind.

Maybe, but still the voice inside insisted. Without feeling, or passion, it insisted.

This isn’t right. None of this is right.

The countdown dropped to zero. The man in the chair had regained consciousness. He no longer looked afraid, and instead he looked confused. He stared at the empty space in front of him.

“I can’t read,” he whispered. “What does it mean?”

The yellow light over the doorway turned red, and all of them turned at once.

Someone’s here, Lev said. We’ve been found.

Outside, down the hall, there was a commotion. The other revivors began moving, packaging up equipment. Lev signaled that I should follow.

We have to go now, he said.

What about him? I asked, pointing at the chair.

Lev’s left forearm snapped apart down the middle, and the blade inside shot out. It punched through the man’s breastbone, and his eyes bugged open wide. He looked down at the thing that had impaled him, like he didn’t understand.

I heard the bone split as Lev twisted the blade. The warm mass in the man’s chest fluttered and stopped. The light went out of his eyes, and his chin lolled to his chest.

The others filed out toward the back exit. With a loud snap, the bayonet retracted. A map appeared in the air in front of me with a route traced across it. Two security feeds appeared next to it, showing police vehicles in the front lot, and armed men in the lobby.

We can’t risk him being taken into custody, Lev said. Come on.

All but three of the revivors left the room. They kept their backs to the walls, the glow in their eyes becoming more intense. Energy was building up inside their chests.

They’re going to blow, Lev said. This entire facility will be destroyed. We don’t have much time. Go with the others.

I nodded and left the room. As we followed the others, I glanced back for one last look at the dead man. When I did, I saw him move.

He lifted his head an inch, and his eyes stared up to meet mine.

5 Atropos

Zoe Ott—Pleasantview Apartments, Apartment #613

I’d been standing across the street, staring at the neon sign in the window of a convenience store for a long time. People passed by me on the sidewalk, leaning into the rain as I watched the water trickle down, blurring the brightly colored light. I counted the bottles that were lined up there behind the glass, all different shapes and sizes. All filled with different colors, warm colors.

This is stupid.

I told Nico he’d leave me there. I knew it would happen. He acted like I was wrong and he wouldn’t, and he meant it, but it didn’t matter what he said he’d do or even what he meant to do. I knew it would happen, and it did.

I was useless anyway. Nico was hoping I was going to get something out of them, but it was obvious the minute we walked in that there was no way that was going to happen. When I tried to concentrate on her, I couldn’t get anything. That halo was there, above her big head, but I couldn’t see anything past it. When I pushed a little harder, I got pushed back. She looked over at me then, and she wasn’t smiling. My head spun, and I got a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t try it again.

After the shot went off, when Nico ran out of the restaurant and left me with the others, I started feeling like I couldn’t breathe. It was too much. I had to get out of there. Ai offered to have Penny drive me home, but I didn’t want that. I looked around for Nico, but he hadn’t come back inside the restaurant. I said I had to use the bathroom, and ducked out.

I was still staring at the bottles through the window when a car turned onto the street in front of me, and when its headlights flashed on the brick wall, I saw two shadows there. They were in the shape of people, but there was no one there. The shadows were burned onto the bricks.

“Soon,” a voice whispered.

I turned, and a woman was standing next to me. Her long coat and her clothes were burned black, and when the rain landed on her body, it hissed, throwing up smoke and ash. Her face was covered in soot, and her hair was scorched. When the wind blew, a cherry red glow swelled under the ash of her clothes. Embers scattered and flew up into the air around her.

I looked back toward the burned shadows, but the building was gone, along with everything around it. A big expanse of wet soot and sand sprawled out in front of me, sheets of rain coming down to form gray rivers and pools. Big shadows stood at angles in the distance, and I thought they were the remains of buildings.

I’d seen this before. I’d started seeing it back when I first met Nico. This city, the whole city, was gone.

“How soon?” I asked the burned woman. She turned to me, ash flaking away from her face.

“It had to be done,” she said.

Lightning flashed behind the canopy of gray clouds overhead, and a few seconds later, thunder rolled across the empty field.

“How soon?” I asked again.