Vartan fought to stay awake. Overhead, clouds had obscured the night sky. Lightning flashed off to the east, flickers of it illuminating tortured and twisting clouds. The heavens had turned angry, as if to express their rage against all things.
It had been so long since Vartan had seen lightning. Almost what? Two decades? Maybe more. He fixed his staggering attention on the distant flashes. Desperate to keep his eyes open.
Had he ever been this exhausted?
His head, falling forward, banged painfully off the rifle, brought him awake. Flashes strobed in wicked white that shaped the clouds into eerie lanterns. They bathed the humps of treetops, turned the forest into an impossible landscape.
As Vartan resettled himself, listening to the night chime, he felt the shudder of steps leading up to the hatch.
Ctein called, “It’s me,” before appearing below.
“Storm coming,” Vartan told him through a yawn.
The first distant boom of thunder rolled over the forest.
Ctein turned where he stood half out of the hatch. “We’re leaving just before dawn.”
“That’s crazy. Following Shimal out into the forest?”
“Here’s the plan,” Ctein told him. “The Messiah, the women, and children will form up, march down to the southern end of the mesa. They’re going to take the trail down to the trees. They’ll wait there. Meanwhile, you and I will hide. Watch. When the Supervisor’s people find the base abandoned, they will walk out in the open. When they do, we use the drone to swoop in close, and detonate it.”
Vartan rubbed his eyes, tried to get circulation back into his arms and legs. Anything to recharge his flagged energy. Shit on a shoe, his head felt full of fuzz.
“Listen to me. Ctein, I know you were among the First Chosen. But this is wrong. Batuhan is wrong. What worked on Deck Three isn’t working here. Anyone who goes down that trail is going to die.”
A flash of lightning betrayed the man’s incredulous look. “Do you know what you’re saying? The Messiah gave you an order.”
More lightning flashed in arhythmical patterns in the east. The low rumbling of thunder was louder now.
“He did. And I’ll do it.” The gravity, the exertions, the endless hours since he’d slept last, it all came to weigh on his weary soul.
The only two women in his life—Shyanne, whom he’d married, and Svetlana whom he’d loved—were gone. One, grieving and heartbroken, had escaped to who knew what fate, the other a rotting corpse that he himself had tumbled over the edge of the cliff. He’d watched in horror as her body smacked off rocks on the way down, each impact shooting colorful specks of invertebrates and bodily fluids until the corpse came to rest on a ledge far below.
Am I really living this shit?
He chuckled hollowly. “Go on, Ctein. Tell the Messiah that I’m taking matters in hand. He’s not to worry about a thing. Just follow the Prophet’s instructions.” A beat. “And yes, tell him I have faith in the universe.”
Just not the same as he does.