I knew it wasn’t much, but if these intrudersweresomehow connected to that toxic fog, at least some of us could be prepared. And there were also other potentially useful artifacts in the museum that I wanted to check.
We recruited more people to help us along the way, and by the time we had reached the large storage building, there were eight of us. I barreled inside—aware that we probably had only a few precious seconds before the aircraft was upon us—to find my father already there, along with my uncle and fifteen other men, all frantically gathering equipment.
“You heard the shouting?” I breathed, locking eyes with my father. The pallid complexion of their faces made it obvious that they had.
My father thrust a mask into my hands. “Put it on,” he instructed.
As I navigated the cold metal of the mask’s helmet-frame and slipped it over my head, I felt guilty. “How many masks do we have?” I asked. We couldn’t have more than fifty.
“Just keep it on,” he grunted as he continued pulling equipment off the shelves. My eyes scanned the rows of boxes on the floor. Closest to me were the guns, twenty of them. I wasn’t sure how much use those would be, though, when we had so few bullets. We’d used up the bulk of our initial stock over the centuries, on defense against aggressive animals. Sixty years ago, an agreement was made to preserve the rest, but there were probably less than a hundred in total.
Still, it was something, at least.
My eyes traveled deeper into the room and spotted the boxes of flares. Those were also from the early days, but we hadmanymore of those. I’d always thought our founders had gone a bit overboard on the flares, but now I couldn’t have been more thankful. Flares, I could see as being a significant advantage. They were the closest we could get to actual bombs.
Robert, Jessie, and the rest of our helpers were also given masks, and then my father dipped into a case of flares and pressed five into my hands, along with a box of matches.
“You know how to use these,” he said sternly.
I nodded, swallowing.
“Take them and hurry to the hall with your friends. Use them if necessary.”
A shiver of fear ran through me at the dark look in his eyes.
“What about you?” I asked, glancing at my uncle and the other men in the room, who were equipping the rest of my group with flares and matches, along with six bulky bags of masks. I spotted Jessie’s father among them, as she held him in a tight hug. I realized then that the men were all among the toughest members of our community. My father must have been in the process of gathering them for the meeting, planning to talk to them about an excursion back to Zina’s colony. Now they had pivoted roles and were preparing to fight.
“We’re going to try to head off the ship,” he said, strapping a belt around his waist. “And do all we can to keep it away from the hall.”
He then pulled me into his arms, his eyes infused with such worry that my heart ached. I had no idea what might happen to him out there, and neither did he. I hugged him back tighter, not wanting to let go. For all I knew, I might never see him again.
“Now go,” he said gruffly, loosening my hold on him.
I opened my mouth to resist, but he pushed me firmly toward the door, along with Robert and the others we had gathered, the glare he shot me brooking no argument. Jessie joinedus, having been sent off by her father, too. Her fearful eyes brimmed with tears, her expression exactly mirroring my inner state.
I tucked the flares and match box into an outside pocket of the backpack I still carried over my shoulders, and retreated outside, gazing around the jungle through the thick visor of my mask. The rest of my companions were already lining up. I let them launch off first, taking the most direct line to the hall, and sent a reluctant Jessie after them, while I hung back to cast one last glance back into the museum.
Stay safe, Dad. Please, stay safe.
I turned and launched off, and at almost the exact second my weight left the deck, the shouting around us intensified to panicked screams, and I realized with sinking finality that time was up. The intruders had arrived.
I caught a glimpse of the aircraft’s round, dark underbelly through the leaves above me, its hulking form blocking out the sun. It was now directly over the settlement, but thankfully, still some distance from the hall. Though there were still people out there who hadn’t made it to the building.
As I passed a stretch of thinner foliage, I got a full view of the vessel. The closeness of its vast, glinting black exterior made my heart skip a beat. It truly was a monster. A beast of a machine, with eight wide, outward-pointing cylinders lining the base of it—cylinders that looked terrifyingly similar to gun barrels.
A second later, something shot from them. I clamped my eyes shut instinctively, expecting deafening explosions and cries of pain. When only a soft popping noise followed, I opened my eyes to see the jungle drenched in green fog.
The barrels fired again, and I realized this time that they shot out dark green balls, which exploded without a sound as soon as they touched the atmosphere. The fog descendedinstantly, shrouding the place and stretching out, seeking fresh air. It had to be some kind of gas.
I drew in a rasping breath, the sound of it echoing in my ears beneath the mask, and I realized that I had been so preoccupied with watching the scene unfold that I hadn’t been paying attention to the zip line. The next deck hit me unexpectedly. I tripped, barreling into someone and tumbling to the floor. As I gathered myself up, I realized that it had been Robert. He and Jessie had hung back, their eyes wide in horror behind their masks as they stared out at the roiling mist.
“I’m sorry,” I gasped.
I looked back out across the line toward the platform we had just left. I heard the door of the museum creak wide open. My father, uncle, and the rest of the men stepped out, gas masks donned, guns in their hands and flares strapped to their waists.
They looked like they were going to war, and in that moment, I feared not a single one was going to survive it.
“I can’t just go and hide in the hall while my dad’s out here,” Jessie said in a choked whisper.
