the water is yanked backwards by an unseen hand and slammed into the hard sand or a Mogadorian soldier. A dropped cannon rises from the grass and starts firing in all directions. Kraul after kraul is destroyed. Dozens of Mogadorians burst into clouds of ash.
Cannon blasts come from the other side of the lake, and I spin to see twenty or more Mogadorians wading in up to their waists. Rays of light hit the water all around us, creating enough steam that I can barely see Hector in front of me.
“Ella?” I shout.
“Over here!” she yells from my left.
“Take Hector.”
She wraps her arm around Hector’s chest. “Why?”
“Because I’m not going to stay out here while that girl fights all by herself. This is my war, too.”
Before anyone can stop me, I sink below the surface and the water instantly tickles my lungs. I swim deeper until the green-blue color of the lake becomes gray. I see the hulking body of Olivia below me; she’s lying lifeless on the lake floor, clouds of blood billowing from the hundreds of bite wounds on her back.
I head towards the opposite shore and after a minute I can see the legs of the Mogadorians. I swim next to the one farthest on the left. I plant my feet in the muddy bottom and launch myself out of the water. The Mogadorian doesn’t have enough time to react as I toss him towards the middle of the lake with my mind. I float his cannon into my hands, shoot him, and never let go of the trigger. The Mogadorians along the lake burst into ash, and when I’ve killed them all, I aim towards the hundreds near the vehicles.
There’s movement in the water behind me and I’m too slow; a kraul jumps and sinks its teeth into my side. The pain is immediate and horrible, as if someone was holding a hot branding iron to my ribs. The beast whips me headfirst into the water and then against the sand of the shore. I catch my breath and scream as it arcs me back over and into the water again. I’m sure this is how I will die, but suddenly the kraul’s mouth widens and releases me. I fall onto my stomach on the shore and watch as the kraul’s mouth continues to widen until I hear bones snapping. The raven-haired girl materializes before my eyes, her hands on the beast’s quivering lips. She looks back at me before yanking the jaws completely vertical, killing the kraul.
“Are you okay?” the girl asks me.
I lift up my shirt and place a hand on my wound. “I will be in a second.”
She ducks a blast from a cannon. “Good. What number are you?”
“Seven.”
“I’m Six,” she says before vanishing.
The iciness spreads from my fingers over my body, but I know I won’t be able to heal myself completely before the oncoming wave of Mogadorian soldiers reaches me. I roll into the lake and stay underwater. My wound is almost healed when I rise above the surface.
Number Six is on top of one of the armored Humvees with a glowing sword. She’s fighting several soldiers at once: hacking off body parts, blocking cannon fire with her blade, using telekinesis to aim a floating cannon high above her so it blasts through dozens of Mogadorians on the formation’s edge. She then hurls her sword into a crowd, impaling three soldiers at once. Number Six grabs the large gun mounted on top of the vehicle and mows down dozens of Mogadorians in seconds.
There are only twenty or thirty soldiers left. Maybe four krauls. Number Six holds one hand over her head while the gun in the other shoots and destroys the Humvees along the shore. Dark clouds form over the mountains and bolts of lightning crack and split the ground near her. The Mogadorians show fear for the first time, and I watch a few drop their weapons and run towards the woods.
“Out of the water!” I yell, fearful of the lightning. Ella drags Hector to the edge of the lake and Crayton follows.
I reach the shore near Number Six and pick up two cannons. I struggle to keep my footing as I press both triggers, turning more soldiers to ash, destroying two of the krauls. An injured soldier hiding behind a wrecked Humvee tosses a grenade at Number Six’s back, but I’m able to shoot it in the air. The explosion rotates Number Six and the mounted gun, and a moment later the injured soldier is nothing but ash.
I can’t keep my eyes off of Number Six. Her strength is mesmerizing. The blue pendant bounces around as the gun in her one hand cuts down more and more soldiers. She rotates to her left and blows a kraul into bits, and then she rotates to her right and takes out several more Mogadorians with a bolt of lightning.
The valley is bright and smoky. It’s damp and charred. I look around me and can’t believe that victory will be ours in just a matter of seconds. Crayton races over and I toss him one of my guns, and instantly he’s killing soldiers retreating into the woods. Hector runs with my Chest, and soon he and Ella stand behind me. I nod towards Number Six and smile at my friends, thinking that the worst is over; but that’s when Ella raises her eyes over my head and her face turns white.
“Pikens!” Ella yells.
Four of the horned monsters run down the mountainside at full speed. Directly below them, Number Six is preoccupied with the few remaining soldiers and the kraul. I uproot as many silver firs as I can and send them like rockets. Four hit the lead one and it falls backwards into the path of the other three, and it’s crushed and killed in the stampede.
“Number Six!” I shout. She hears me, and I point to the pikens rumbling down into the valley. She spins with the gun and blows the knees off the monster on the left. It tumbles down faster than the other two can run, and Number Six jumps from the Humvee a moment before the dead piken flattens it with an echoing crunch.
Crayton and I shoot our cannons at the other two, but they’re too fast, splitting up when they reach the valley floor. The clouds roar when Number Six stands, and an enormous bolt of lightning crashes into one of the pikens, cutting off its arm. It bellows and falls to its knees, but quickly regains its balance and charges ahead with blood spurting from its side. The other piken dodges Crayton’s fire and rushes in from the other direction. We all run towards Number Six, but Hector is too slow with my Chest in his arms. The piken closes in, and before I can help, the one-armed monster reaches down and snatches Hector and my Chest in its fist.
“No!” I scream. “Hector!”
I’m in such shock that when the piken throws a lifeless Hector and my Chest into the lake, I don’t use my telekinesis to stop either from sinking.
Number Six has killed the other piken. She turns towards us now and holds both hands up to the sky. A lightning bolt severs the monster’s head from its body.
For the first time all day, there is silence. I lean into Number Six, look at Ella and Crayton and the fire and destruction behind them, and I know that these quiet moments are about to become rare in my life.
“Your Chest, Marina,” Crayton says. “You have to go get it.”
I turn to Number Six and hug her. “Thank you. Thank you, Number Six.”
“I’m sure we’ll get a chance to do it again sometime.” She wraps her arms around my shoulders. “And just call me Six.”
“I’m Marina. This is Crayton and Ella. She’s Number Ten.”
Ella steps forward and shrinks to her seven-year-old body. She extends her small hand towards Six, who has her mouth open, speechless.
Crayton starts to explain Ella and the second ship to Six as I walk into the lake. I feel its coolness for the first time. I swim to the middle and dive, descending until the water is devoid of any light and my feet touch the muddy floor. I circle the bottom until I see my Chest. I rock it back and forth to dislodge it from the mud’s suction. Swimming with one arm, I start to ascend. When the water turns blue, I see Hector’s body and wrap my other arm around his waist.
Ella and Crayton stand with Six on the shore. I drop the Chest and slap my wet hands on Hector’s shin, arm, neck, all around his crushed back, hoping and praying the icy feeling will arrive in my fingers.
“He’s dead,” Crayton says, pulling on my shoulders.
I don’t give up. Hating myself for not trying the same thing on Adelina, I touch Hector’s face. I run my hand through his gray hair. I even levitate him a few centimeters off the sand and try it all over again, but it’s true. He’s gone.
