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‘Wow, hi,’ Eight says, and when he speaks it’s with his own voice.
It’s him. It’s really him.
Marina nearly doubles over with a delighted sob. She collects herself quickly, though, and grabs Eight first by the shoulders, then on the sides of his face. She pulls him in close.
‘You’re warm,’ she says in wonder. ‘You’re so warm.’
Eight laughs easily. He puts his hand over Marina’s and gently kisses the side of it.
‘You’re warm, too,’ he says.
‘I’m so sorry, Eight. I’m sorry I couldn’t heal you.’
Eight shakes his head. ‘Stop, Marina. It’s okay. You brought me here. It’s – I can’t even describe it. It’s amazing in there.’
Already, I see the energy spreading outward from Eight’s heart. It races through his body, fissures opening on his arms and legs. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain. He just smiles at Marina and looks at her like he’s trying to memorize her face.
‘Can I kiss you?’ Marina asks him.
‘I really wish you would.’
Marina kisses him, pressing in close, squeezing him. As she does, the energy swells up from within Eight and, slowly, his body begins to break apart. It’s different from when a Mogadorian disintegrates. It’s as if, for a moment, I can see every cell in Eight’s body and see how the energy from the well glows in between each of them. One by one, those pieces of Eight dissolve, and he becomes one with the light. Marina tries to cling to him, but her fingers pass right through the energy.
And then, he’s gone. The light flows back to the well and recedes deep under the ground. The heartbeat we triggered grows fainter. I can still hear it, but only if I really listen. The chamber is peaceful again, lit only by the glowing Loralite carvings on the wall. I feel fresh air on my back and turn around to see that a door has opened up in the wall. It leads to a staircase, sunlight coming in from the outside.
Marina collapses against me, a sobbing wreck. I hug her close and try not to break down myself. Adam watches us without staring too hard and wipes at something in the corner of his eye.
‘We should go,’ Adam says quietly. ‘The others will need our help.’
I nod at him. I wonder if we even accomplished anything down here. It was beautiful seeing Eight again, even for a few fleeting moments. Yet my conversation with the intergalactic entity that grants us our Legacies sure didn’t yield a lot of answers. Meanwhile, the time until a Mogadorian invasion is probably running out, if it hasn’t already.
Marina squeezes my arm. I look down at her.
‘I saw it, Six,’ Marina whispers to me. ‘When I kissed him, I saw inside the thing – Lorien, the energy, whatever you want to call it.’
‘Okay,’ I say, wanting to be gentle with her, but not sure we have time for this. ‘And?’
Marina grins at me. ‘It’s spreading, Six. Through the Earth. It’s spreading everywhere.’
‘What does that mean?’ Adam asks.
‘It means,’ Marina says, wiping her face and standing up straight, ‘that we aren’t alone anymore.’
30
Skyscrapers burn.
We run.
The Mogadorian warship crawls across New York’s skyline, its massive energy cannons bombarding the blocks indiscriminately. The warship already disgorged dozens of armed scout ships, the smaller vessels zipping up and down the avenues, ferrying warriors to the ground, where they blast whatever civilians they come across.
Other things leaped down from the ship, too. Hungry, angry things. I haven’t seen any yet; I’ve only heard their terrible howls rising above the explosions.
Piken.
New York City is lost, that much I know for sure. There’s no turning back the Mogadorians at this point. I have no idea how the other cities where Mogadorian warships were spotted are doing. The network is down in New York, and my satellite phone sunk to the bottom of the East River.
All we can do is run. Just like I’ve been doing my entire life. Except now, unfortunately, there are a million people running with me.
‘Run!’ I shout at anyone we come across. ‘Run until you can’t see their ships! Survive, regroup and we will fight them!’
Sam is with me. His face is ashen and he looks like he’s going to be sick. He never saw what the Mogadorians did to Lorien. He’s been through some hard times with us, but never anything like this. I think he always believed that we would win. He never thought this day would come.
I’ve let him down.
I don’t know where Nine and Five are. There aren’t any new scars burning their way across my ankle, so they haven’t killed each other yet.
I lost Agent Walker, too. She and her agents are on their own. I hope they make it out alive. If they do, maybe they’ll be smart enough to meet us back at Ashwood Estates.
If Sam and I can even make it that far.
We run down streets filled with smoke, darting around overturned cars, climbing over fallen chunks of buildings. When one of the scout ships cruises by, we duck into alleys or hide in doorways.
I could fight them. With all the anger I’m holding on to, I’m sure I could rip through them in no time. I could easily take down one of the scout ships on my own.
But I’m not on my own.
There are about twenty survivors following me and Sam. A family I pulled off a burning balcony with my telekinesis, a pair of blood-splattered NYPD officers who saw me take down a pair of Mog warriors, a group that came out from hiding in a restaurant when I flashed my Lumen inside, and others still.
I can’t save everyone in this city, but I’ll do what I can. That means not picking fights with the Mogadorians. At least not until I can get these people to safety.
I avoid trouble wherever I can. It isn’t always possible.
We cross an intersection where slashed power lines are draped across the burned husk of a city bus, and we run right into a dozen Mogadorian warriors. They bring their blasters around on us, but I blow them back with a fireball before they can squeeze off any shots. The ones who aren’t immediately incinerated get popped by the cops standing behind me.
I look over my shoulder, nodding to the officers. ‘Nice shooting.’
‘We’ve got your back, John Smith,’ one of them says.
I don’t even think to ask how he knows my name.
Our group runs a few more blocks before I’m drawn to the sound of nearby screaming. Around the corner, we find a young couple trying to escape from their burning apartment building via the fire escape. The bolts look like they’ve come unmoored from the wall near the roof, and now the whole fire escape hangs like a crooked finger over the street. Still five stories up, the guy has fallen over the railing. His girlfriend desperately tries to pull him back over the side.
Sarah’s face flashes into my mind. Just stay alive, I think. Survive this, and we’ll be together. I’m going to make it back to her.
I run towards the fire escape, bracing it from a distance with my telekinesis.
‘Let go!’ I shout up at the couple. ‘I’ll catch you!’
‘Are you freaking nuts?’ the guy yells back.
None of us have time to argue, so I reach out with my telekinesis and just yank the couple off the fire escape. As I’m lowering them to the ground, I hear the beats of heavy footfalls bearing down on me.
