“Cut me free now!” Athan shouts hysterically.
We’re running out of time.
I quickly cut the ties and turn him around. My eyes stare directly into his.
“Where did you get this knife?”
He senses the seriousness in my tone.
He squints, tears dripping down his face.
“My mother gave me that knife,” he says without hesitation.
“Her name.. What’s her name?”
The world around me sways.
The sun burns hotter. The light, more blinding.
“Her name was Jacee.”
My entire world shatters into a million tiny pieces.
“And your father?” I plead.
The elders are surrounding us.
“He, um.. died before I was born. My mother told me he died protecting us, protecting our home. His name was Palin.”
I fall to my knees. It can’t be.
“Did you know him?” ask Athan.
I manage to utter a reply, “Kind of… It’s complicated.”
“You dare defy the will of the Gods?” asks Elder Thestor hobbling towards us. His eyes angry, burning with zealous wrath. A dozen or so elders appear beside him. He pulls out the gun I had at 34 and points it at me. He must have found it at the crash.
“Seize them both!” he orders.
Two of the able elders charge us at once. The first grabs Athan’s arm. My heart’s thrashing out of my chest, like an internal explosion unable to escape. The pressure keeps building, like a jet engine igniting in my brain. Impulses conflicting, clarity forgotten, the entirety of me is seized like an unoiled machine.
The knife in my hand slides into the elder’s chest. I didn’t even have time to think about it.
The others pause. They watch as their brother falls lifeless to the sand, blood pouring from an open wound in his chest.
Elder Thestor points his weapon and pulls the trigger.
Nothing happens. It’s empty. I spent the last of the rounds on Lethe droids.
They begin to backpedal subtly. A few of them take off running towards the temple. Elder Thestor stands wordless.
My eyes find Rome’s, hopeless and meek. We can’t leave him here. No one deserves this. Athan and I swiftly cut him down. I toss him over my shoulder, promising death to anyone who dares to try to stop me.
The remaining elders silently part, allowing the three of us to make our way towards the trade ship. The augmented GPS of my retinal upgrade leads us straight to where I saw it land.
We timidly approach a grizzly man in the middle of running a diagnostic check on his shuttle. The dark brown hair flowing from his head rests well below his shoulders. His face, strong and defined, with features molded from granite. His hands are streaked with grease from the engine. They tighten their grip on the wrench he wields as he shifts his attention to us.
“This yours?” I ask openly.
He nods. Pulls the bandana from his face.
“The name’s Griffin. What can I do ya for?”
His eyes scan us thoroughly. Upgraded, undeniably Olympian. Southside accent.
“We need a ride. Like, fast.”
“Nothin’ in life’s free, mate.”
“I can pay you anything you want when we get back to Olympia. Name it and it’s yours,” I plead.
He scratches his tousled beard for a second, unamused. “That’s not really how this works.”
I glance at Athan without answer. This is our only way out of this place.
“Here. Take it. This is one of a kind. You’ll never find another like it.” Athan grabs the knife from me and instantly finds himself looking down the warm barrel of a Molon blaster.
“Slowly,” Griffin suggests.
Athan cleans the blade with his shirt and offers it to Griffin carefully.
The pilot inspects it, holding it up to the sun for a few seconds. “Sorry bout the drama, but ya can’t be too careful in uncertain times like these. I know a collector that lives past the Outlands, a former Olympian. Has an unhealthy kink for tha unique.” Griffin tucks the knife into his jacket. “I’ll fly ya on one condition. Don’t touch a damn thing. Nothing. There won’t be another warning.”
We cautiously agree and strap ourselves in with transport straps dangling from the sides of the shuttle’s cargo bay. Three large pallets of covered freight are single file between us.
“This is gonna get me blacklisted in Cau, but fuck ‘em, bunch of nutjobs anyway. Um.. What’s wrong with that one? Looks like he’s been ridden hard and put up wet?” asks Griffin.
“Yeah.. We found him like that.” Rome appears to still be out of it. I’m not sure if he remembers who he is or how to human. At least he’s free, I guess.
Athan’s sweating bullets. He’s even more nervous now than earlier, tied to a post and gagged.
“You ight, little one?” asks Griffin, lifting on the throttle. “First time flying or somethin’?”
Turbulence beats on the belly of the shuttle.
“Yeah… Well, first time alive,” replies Palin’s son, clutching his straps as we take off over the black sand.
“Two conditions, then. No puke in my shuttle.”
Chapter 15
The sight of the Olympian skyline leaves a bittersweet taste in my mouth. The glass metropolis stretches far into the evening sky. The city itself, a shimmering monument to human evolution and our relentless determination. I’m certainly thankful to be home, away from the nightmares that dwell outside, but now I must face the monsters within.
“Lethe has reinforced the lock-down after another bombing,” warns Griffin, piloting us through the almost transparent forcefield doming over Olympia, an electromagnetic barrier with holographic receptors. There’s no getting in or out without Lethe knowing about it now. This is the first time they’ve ever deployed it. I still remember when they installed the field projector at the top of Lethe Tower centuries ago. Things must be getting bad here.
“It’s absolute bullshit too. Of course, Lethe is blamin’ Kronos for the assassination attempt, but they’re tryna spin the whole thing into an excuse for more security for the people. Nobody with any sorta wits is fallin’ for that candy-coated crock of shit. We aren’t that blind or stupid.
