It’s the way of things that what goes up, must come down. What begins must end. Korwin and I retract. Well, I do. My glow fizzles and fades. The hair on my arms burns away. Korwin senses my withdrawal, opens his eyes and pulls his power back inside. It isn’t easy. He grunts with the effort. I’m in awe of his restraint.
The air around us cools. He holds me in his arms as I tremble violently, not from the cold but from the sudden loss of energy. I search for the ribbon at the back of my brain, the power that has become my crutch and my friend, and can’t find it. Leaning back from his embrace, I hold my hands between us. “It’s gone.” My voice cracks.
He gathers my face in his hands, our noses touching. “Are you still here?”
My gaze darts from his face to the utter destruction around us. We are no longer in the cell but in a pit of scorched earth, peppered with metal and glass. The building that once surrounded us is gutted, the night sky above, barely visible through the still standing walls. It is as if God himself has drilled a hole in the building from the top down. A green-uniformed arm sticks out from the rubble, dangling from a floor above us.
“I’m still here,” I murmur. “I haven’t gone mad. There’s no wolf. There’s… nothing.” I start shaking again.
Korwin’s hands turn my face toward his. “Look at me.”
I do.
“I love you.” His words are as sincere and intimate as if we were in our marital bed rather than a crater of our creation.
“I love you too.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
He helps me up. Each of his movements seems extraordinarily fast and graceful. Mine, on the other hand, are painfully human. We are both naked, standing in a disaster of our making, and I feel as helpless and scared as a newborn.
Screams filter through the walls. “I need something to wear,” I say. My bare foot comes down on something sharp and I retract it.
Korwin scans the rubble and then digs. “Don’t look.”
I turn my face away. A few strangled minutes later, he places a Green uniform and boots in my arms. One pant leg is torn and there’s blood. I don’t ask. I dress, thankful to have anything at all. When I turn back to Korwin, he’s dressed too, but not in a uniform. He’s wearing Elias’s oversized suit. The material adjusts to his size.
“He must have been coming to get us,” Korwin says. “Mission accomplished.”
I roll my lips together and squeeze my eyes shut. So much death. So much destruction. And by my hand! But in my heart, I know I’ve done the right thing. I’ve defended myself.
Korwin’s fingers wrap around mine, and he helps me climb out of the crater onto what remains of a hallway, although I have no idea what floor it was originally attached to. We navigate the wreckage until we can squeeze out a window. When we do, we drop into utter chaos.
“There’s one!” a man yells. Another runs at me with a pipe. Korwin hits him with his spark and he crumbles.
“Take the jacket off,” Korwin says, tugging at the Green uniform jacket.
I do as he suggests, ending up in green pants and a bloody, sleeveless T-shirt. It’s a cold night, but once I leave the jacket behind, I understand why he asked me to lose it. Crater City residents are rioting, beating the Green officers and waving blue flags.
“Blue, Korwin. The flags are blue!”
“These aren’t Liberty Party soldiers,” he says to me.
“Revolution!” screams a man standing on top of one of the many cars stalled in the street. He waves his flag and shakes his fist at CGEF. There is no power, but the crowd makes do with candles and lanterns. We navigate the sea of people hand in hand, smiles breaking out across our faces as we put distance between CGEF and ourselves.
“We’ve done it,” I say. “When CGEF fell, the people revolted.”
Korwin pulls me into a hug and kisses the side of my face.
“Do you think the others…?” I want to say survived the war, but I can’t bring myself to consider the alternative.
“Only one way to find out.”
Korwin weaves between the cars parked in the street. When he finds one that’s not boxed in, he pulses it open and climbs behind the wheel. No one says a word to us. The crowd is celebrating in the streets. With a spark, Korwin gets the tiny car running and navigates the parked cars until we are able to reach the highway.
We are the only ones on the grid. The only ones with power. “How are you feeling?” I ask, noticing him wince as the power drain continues.
He smiles. “Are you kidding? After being with you, I could do this all day.”
“It was wonderful.” I lean my head against the window and shut my eyes.
“Earth shaking.”
“Literally,” I slur.
His smile fades as we take the exit toward Willow’s Province. I feel his hand on mine. “Stay with me. We’re almost there.”
I force my eyes open, anxious to know the fate of our friends. We reach the site of the battle in the dead of night. A tank is parked sideways to block both lanes of the road. Neither of us recognizes the man in the Liberty Party uniform who approaches Korwin’s window.
“Oh!” he says when he identifies Korwin and me. “Jonas is going be relieved to see the two of you. He’s ordered a search party but we’re having trouble finding the manpower. He’s about to come out of his skin.”
“Can we pass?” Korwin asks, gesturing toward the tank.
The man shakes his head. “Sorry. You’ve got to go on foot from here.”
“But the reactor is miles away. I can’t walk that in the dark.” I look down at my hands, my powerless hands, and then at Korwin.
“Don’t have to make it to the reactor. Reactor’s gone. There’s a camp just inside the line.” He gestures with his head toward the tank.
We thank the man and Korwin pulls off the road to park. He helps me from the car. I can hardly move. Everything hurts and my legs cramp with each step. As we pass through the ring of military vehicles guarded by Liberty Party soldiers, I lean on Korwin. “I can’t go any farther,” I murmur. “Something’s wrong.”
He sweeps me into his arms and carries me. Inside the border, military tents dot the road and landscape. Each flies the Liberty Party flag, navy blue with five silver stars. One tent is significantly larger than the others and in a central location. There’s a light on inside. Korwin heads toward that one.
Blue uniforms pass us by with hurried greetings. Some recognize us. Others seem to be too busy to notice. I lean into Korwin’s chest and rest my eyes. I’m so tired I can hardly think.
“Hello?” Korwin calls inside the tent.
“Korwin! Lydia!” Jonas’s voice precedes a firm hug that encircles both of us. I try to respond but my eyelids won’t lift and I can’t get my lips to move.
Shuffling feet. “What’s wrong with her?” Laura asks.
“I don’t know,” Korwin says. His voice is laden with panic. “Where’s Charlie?”
“He’s dead,” David says.
Korwin gasps and I slip slightly in his arms.
“You have the bedside manner of a viper,” Laura hisses.
“Why sugarcoat it? It is what it is,” David says defensively. “He died saving an entire platoon of our people. Distracted the Deadzoners. He was a hero.”
“Stop,” Jonas commands.
There’s a moment of silence. I can’t open my eyes or speak, but I can cry. Tears trickle out of the corners of my eyes.
A hand strokes my hair. “She’s crying. She can hear us,” Laura says. “Korwin, set her down on the cot.”
He lowers me to the firm sling of a military bed.
“What happened to her?” Jonas asks.
“We had to use our power. All of our power. We blew up CGEF.”
“It was you,” Jonas says. “We got word that CGEF was bombed. That was the turning point. We were losing until then. The Deadzoners stopped their attack as planned, but that was just the beginning. Once people saw the building go down, they rose up. The Green Republic has been abusing the masses for so long, the people were waiting for an excuse. When you two took out the hub, they rose up and joined forces with us. Some of the Green soldiers even switched sides.”
“At what price?” Laura asks near my head.
“The Nanomem shorted her system,” Korwin says. “All of her energy went out and she can’t take any back in. Charlie warned us it could happen, but I’m not sure why she can’t move.”
David groans. “The medical tent doesn’t have the kind of technology to find out, Korwin. Without Charlie and the facilities we lost with the reactor, I’m not sure what’s going on or how to help her.”
Fingers run through my hair again. “She’s human,” Laura says. “Maybe she’s just exhausted.” A hand presses against my forehead. Two fingers grip the inside of my wrist. “Her pulse and respirations are strong. I don’t think she has a fever.”
“So, we let her sleep and see if her body can heal itself?” David asks.
“We’ll take shifts watching her,” Laura says. “Make sure she keeps breathing. If she stops, we provide life support.”
“I’ll have the medical crew hook up an IV. She could be dehydrated,” Jonas says. Footsteps recede into the distance.
“It’s going to be okay, Lydia. Just rest.” Korwin squeezes my hand. His lips press into mine. The kiss feels warm and soft. It is a comfort to me, but there’s no spark and the only tingle I feel is the tingle of affection, not the pull of electricity.
I drift toward oblivion, my breath evening out, my tears stopping. I’m almost asleep when Jonas returns and the inside of my arm is assaulted with the sharp prick of a needle. I cannot jerk or call out from the pain. The procedure is over in a matter of minutes.
After a stretch of silence, Laura says, “I think she’s asleep.”
“How many did we lose?” Korwin asks.
“We don’t have a final count,” Jonas answers. “Two thousand would be a close estimate.”
Korwin inhales deeply. “Warren and Mirabella?”
“Fine. They joined other business owners in Crater City. They’ll be establishing a new governing body under Liberty Party rule.”
“Hannah and Caleb?” he whispers more softly. He’s asking for my sake. They come from where I come from.
“Caleb suffered a blow to the head. He’s in the medical tent but they expect he’ll make a full recovery. Hannah doesn’t have a scratch on her. Caleb was protecting her when he was hit.”
“Thank God.”
“There’s something else you should know,” David says.
“David,” Laura interrupts. “This isn’t the time.”
“She’s unconscious, Laura, and even if she wasn’t, she’s going to find out sooner or later.”
I want to scream, to demand he tell me right away, but my body doesn’t respond. I go on silently, my breathing even.
“Tell me,” Korwin says.
“The first wave of Deadzoners made it to the wall. They blew it up. There is no longer a barrier between here and Hemlock Hollow.”
“Was anyone hurt?” Korwin’s hand squeezes mine, although I sense it’s an involuntary reaction to the news and not intentional.
“We don’t think so. Our troops took them out soon after. The Greens used the Slip addicts first, because they were afraid of the radiation.”
“You were right about the Deadzoners. Lydia and I discovered it was Dr. Konrad who designed the Slip to have mind control properties. Elias and the Greens were controlling them using ultrasound.”
“Ultrasound?”
“He knew we wouldn’t think to block it.”
“Block it? We didn’t know it was possible.”
“Elias said the Deadzoners wouldn’t stop until their bodies gave out.”
“I don’t think he appreciated how quickly that end would come. Some of those people hadn’t eaten in days,” Jonas says. “They dropped as soon as CGEF fell, but some were useless before that.”
“But not before they made it to the wall around Hemlock Hollow,” Korwin mumbles. “Trinity and Jeremiah went there with SC-13. Do you think any of the Greens or Deadzoners made it inside?”
“We don’t think so,” Laura said. “We took them out soon after the wall came down. I’m sure they’re okay. Trinity is an exceptionally smart and cunning young woman. She’d fight if she had to. I could see it in her, even in the short time I knew her.”
Korwin sighs. “I’ll go in the morning, just to be sure.”
“Bring back SC-13. I don’t like the idea of a gamma out there unprotected,” David says.
Laura clears her throat. “More importantly, Charlie told me the baby helped stabilize Lydia’s condition.”
“Stabilize,” David says. “Not reverse.”
“If there’s any spark left in her, he might help.”
“I’ll bring him,” Korwin says. “It can’t hurt.”
There’s a rustle of papers, more footsteps, the hiss of someone adjusting a gas lamp. “You need to get your rest,” David says. “I can take the first shift.”
“I don’t want to leave her,” Korwin says.
“You won’t have to. There’s a cot right over there.”
Korwin’s hand slips slowly from mine and his footsteps cross the room. There’s a creak and groan as he lies down on the cot.
“You too, Laura,” David says.
Her hands leave my head. “I’ll be right next door.” Her footsteps exit the tent.
David’s rough hand slips into mine and there’s a creak from a stool or folding chair. “I’m sorry,” he whispers in my ear. “I never meant for the Nanomem to do this to you. I thought I was helping you.” There’s a sob in his voice. “From the first time I saw you, looking so much like your mother, I knew they’d underestimate you. You’re not just a pretty girl with a spark. You’re a warrior. You’re a survivor. And you should be a leader. Who else has a heart like yours? No one.” Rough fingers stroke my face. “Michael would have been so proud of you. I’m so proud of you. Please get better. Please forgive me. I’m not sure I can live with myself if you don’t.”
There was a time I hated David. I blamed him for every bad thing that happened to Korwin and me. But now, lying here, having killed an unknown number of people in CGEF, right and wrong take on new meaning. I think back to David’s actions with as much pity as judgment. Blessed are those with the option of absolute morality; pity to those like us who have to choose the lesser of evils.
I do forgive you, I think in the dark and silence.
He shifts in his chair.
I am alone inside myself in the quiet of the room. I can’t move or speak, but suddenly I am overcome with gratitude. We’ve won the war. I’m alive and married to Korwin. I am surrounded by the people who love me. If I die tonight, I will take with me the knowledge that I played an instrumental part in bringing peace to this world. I loved and was truly loved in return. Most importantly, I have God. My faith has come back to me in inches, not miles, breathed to life by Korwin, Charlie, SC-13, and the cross that gave me comfort. I know in my heart my death will not be the end. Perhaps Bishop Kauffman waits for me on the other side. Maybe I’ll meet my biological father for the first time in heaven. Will my dear, heroic friend Charlie welcome me into my next life?
I give myself over to the newfound peace in my heart and pray. I’m ready. If it’s my time to die, God can take me.