24

Selah burst into tears and ran into her mother’s outstretched arms. “Jericho had me. I’m sorry, Mother. It’s my fault. I gave an infusion to those two Outcast children Rylla met.” Selah slowed down her confession, noticing that her mother was not responding with any level of horror. Selah leaned away from her mother’s shoulder and looked into her eyes.

“I already knew what you were planning to do,” Mother said.

“Taraji! I need to get better at figuring out how to keep her out of my secrets,” Selah said.

“It’s well that we knew. At least the Cleveland documents on the infusion protocol gave us enough supplemental material to help you recover,” Pasha said. “We’ve never gotten into the chemistry that makes your blood a lifeline for other people.”

Taraji walked into view off the common room. She poked her head in. “How are you feeling?”

“She’s almost good as new. Those supplements helped,” Pasha said as she hugged her again. Selah could feel the fear and tension in her arms. She hated that she scared her mother so often. Her level of fear hadn’t registered with Selah until she had begun worrying for Rylla’s safety.

Selah glanced over her mother’s head at Taraji. Her facial expression said she hadn’t told them these blood infusions were shortening Selah’s lifespan. Taraji nodded, but her expression looked sad. Selah dismissed it. Her head hurt and she could only concentrate on one problem at a time, and right now that was a Blood Hunter.

“No!” Selah shouted. “I have to go back. He was going to tell me.” She scrambled for the door.

Taraji stopped her and glanced at Pasha. “Is this a side effect?”

Pasha looked concerned. “Mental confusion is not a symptom from everything I’ve read.”

Selah pushed her away and scrambled to leave. “You don’t understand. Jericho was about to tell me what makes my blood special. We have to go back to the dome. I need to find him.”

Pasha rushed to her side. “Honey, it would be useless to go back. It’s been three days. He’s long gone, and I doubt he’d tell you the answer even if you asked him from a distance, which would be the only safe way to talk to any Kingston.”

Selah pressed her lips into a scowl and sat back down with a sigh. “I came so close. I was face-to-face with Jericho Kingston. How am I here without him?”

“Contressa said the poor man had an unfortunate accident.” Taraji smiled, and her eyes actually twinkled with laughter. “While he was securing you in a SnowRunner, a whole stack of pallets holding hoses became unstable and tipped over on him. It only knocked him out, but that was enough time for a getaway. You went unconscious from the infusion, but Contressa drove you and the parts out here.”

“She’s another person I had concerns about, but the one thing I’ve learned about human nature is that people are willing to raise their values when children are involved.”

“She said to tell you it was a token for a debt she could never repay,” Taraji said.

Selah looked at her and then Pasha. “I almost had the answer, but I can tell you one thing.” She shrugged. “I’m not afraid anymore. If someone like Jericho Kingston can figure out the secret, we can surely find it.”

“You’ve healed in time to be part of the festivities. We’re ready to leave. For this special occasion the children have been allowed onto the command deck. Do you feel like going up? It would be wonderful for us all to be together,” Pasha said.

Selah marveled at how easily Pasha changed gears, but she agreed and rode the lift up with them. When the door slid open at the command deck, the new atmosphere startled her. The refit system generated a new harmonic vibration that replaced the greens and reds of the former system and generated a purple and blue hue on the control panels. It calmed her and she felt refreshed. Maybe there was hope to slow her disintegration after all. She needed to scrutinize those injection protocols. Apparently Pasha had found notations for supplements that Selah had missed. There might be extenders for her condition hidden in the files. She had spent so much time hiding her decline she never thought to enlist aid in slowing the process.

Rylla and Dane ran to hug her. “I thought I would get to say goodbye to Tuere,” Rylla said sadly. Selah fought the urge to smile as Rylla’s lip poked out, remembering the same method of self-expression just a few short years ago.

Selah moved to sit at the navigator station next to Mari. “I’m sorry, but it became too dangerous. People who were chasing me at home have come here, and we must go.”

The child ran the back of her hand down Selah’s cheek like she was stroking a puppy. “That’s all right, as long as you’re safe. I’ll say goodbye to him in my head.”

Mojica sat at the tactical station. “I’ve got all systems integrated with online weapons and defense. Shields are at optimum. I’d say we’re ready to go.”

“We’ve been testing the fusion engines for about two hours. Not a single glitch under any of the extreme conditions. Let’s go,” Bodhi said, looking a little nervous.

Taraji turned to Bodhi and smiled. “You want to take her out?”

Bodhi nodded and ramped up the engines to break inertia. The transport lifted slowly then slid forward. The landing struts retracted with a solid thunk, and everyone clapped.

Selah relaxed. A new start. Not much of a destination with no more domes to seek, but they were together, safe, and putting distance between them and Jericho Kingston. That’s all that mattered.

The sun shone brightly for the first time since the last storm. The snow melted under the brightness, and they watched out the windows as the woods passed by. Selah wondered if the Outcast children were playing in there, where the canopy of evergreens kept a lot of the snow at bay. Rylla and Dane pressed past Selah’s navigator station to look out the side shield.

Rylla yelled. Selah jumped. It took her a second to realize Baje and Tuere were standing at the end of the woods where the meadow sloped up the hill to Chicago. They waved furiously at Rylla and she waved back.

Selah felt bad Dane hadn’t been able to meet them, but she feared exposing too much of her family to the Hunter way of life. Rylla ran down the side of the command deck until she was out of windows to wave through. The transport shot off to the north.

Rylla came back and put her head on Selah’s shoulder. “You fixed them, didn’t you?”

Selah looked at her. “How did you know?”

“They were wearing skis. They couldn’t wear skis with their bad knees. So I guess they don’t have bad knees anymore, and you’re the only one I know who can do that. You know, after the plasma in Cleveland and all.”

Selah smoothed the girl’s curly hair. “You’re a very smart young lady. I hope you put that to good use.”

“I’m smart too,” Dane said. “I memorized the whole storybook.”

Selah smiled. “I’m very proud of you—”

A nasty screech burst from the right-side forward thruster. A thin wisp of smoke filtered from the vents. Selah released the children and hustled them from the command deck. Pasha joined them and the children clung to her sides.

“It’s all right,” Taraji said. She hit a series of relays and the sound stopped. “The new generator engines must need breaking in. I think the metal expansion should happen slowly so we don’t blow any receptacles.” She slapped a ventilation relay, and the noxious smell cleared from the air.

“Easy it is,” Bodhi said. He reengaged the thrusters. “What’s our track north?”

“Keep the water on the right and follow Lake Michigan to Milwaukee,” Taraji said.

The transport shuddered. Pasha clutched the children. Selah turned to her console just as the transport bucked, sending her against the navigation console. She tightened her seat restraint.

“Mother, take the kids below and strap in. Mari, watch out for them, please. Don’t use the lift,” Selah said. The four of them streamed off the command deck to the family quarters.

“Somebody tell me why we have problems when these systems were tested?” Selah had a map of the route they could fly the fastest to avoid magnetic storms. It was only eighty miles to Milwaukee, but at this rate they’d be lucky to get there after a full day of travel.

Taraji replied, “You’re not going to like it if I tell you there’s no reason for—”

A vibrating growl worked its way through the transport. By the time it reached them at the front, it was accompanied by an ear-piercing connection of metal parts. Alarms went off along the console. Taraji slapped off some components and activated others, silencing the sounds.

“We went over everything brought into the transport from Chicago, but has anyone stopped to think we could’ve been sabotaged while we were trapped in the Cleveland dome? We don’t know how soon the snow was actually manageable,” Mojica said. “We’ve been so preoccupied with the refit, we really didn’t investigate much.”

“But that would mean we might not have fixed the actual problem that brought us down here in the first place,” Bodhi said.

A banging sound pulsed through the transport. The right rear generator started to skip, and with the left side thrusters trying to move forward, the conflict caused a drag. The transport started to dip on the right side. Bodhi wrestled it straight again with Taraji’s help.

“No! We replaced everything,” Taraji said. “We need to set down and pull a thruster. The quality of the metals must be bad. Blades must be warping.”

An explosion rocked the transport. The right rear fusion generator blew out, shooting debris fifty feet from the transport. Taraji struggled to keep control as the transport careened toward the ground on the right side.

Bodhi’s panel flashed red warning lights. “I’ve got an aft generator going critical!”

The generator exploded. With the rear center stabilizer gone, the transport spun out of control, clipped the ground, and hurtled into the air. It smashed back to the ground and burst into flames.

Selah’s world erupted in heat. Surrounded by flames and smoke, she struggled to free herself from the restraint. It was supposed to keep her safe, but at the moment it was holding her upside down from a seat that had been bolted to the floor and was now on a wall. A warm trickle inched down the side of her face. She reached up. Blood oozed from a cut in her scalp. What happened? She blinked several times. Nothing looked the same. The command deck was a pile of burning rubble, with ceiling and walls collapsed into a heap and broken, sparking conduits competing for brightness with the flames.

Her head started to get fuzzy. Not now! Her fingers fought with the clasps until they released. Selah fell to the burning wall that was now a floor. Flames licked between the panels. She couldn’t breathe. The smoke burned her eyes. Selah closed them to wash it out.

A strange explosion happened as she opened her eyes. All the flames around her were sucked away in the same direction. The hairs on her arm rose. Her hearing faded as though hands had clamped over her ears, and then it returned like the rushing wind of a tornado.

She opened her mouth to yell. The transport exploded out at the front, and Selah was suddenly weightless. She slammed into an object that was carried along with her.

The air turned black.

Selah’s eyes opened. A stinging sensation brought a flood of tears, obscuring her vision. She felt warmth from above. She closed her eyes, and warm tears slid down her cheeks and plopped on her cold hands. Did she have enough strength to open her eyes again?

She did and wiped away the fluid with the back of her hand. More stinging—the back of her hand was covered in grit. She didn’t have the energy to open her eyes again, but it would be all right. It was always all right when she awoke.

Her eyes fluttered, cascading light to her brain like one of those kaleidoscopes her mother had bought her at the fair when she—

“Mother!” Selah’s eyes flew open. She forced air into her lungs as she tried to push herself up. Confusion stopped her until she remembered the explosion and looked up at the transport twenty feet away. Billowing black smoke churned from the blown-out front and the gaping hole in the side where the transport had split behind the command area. Flames were consuming the broken outside panels and the lower portions where the family would be.

“Bodhi! Anybody!” Selah scrambled to her feet and ran toward the wreckage. She stumbled into the jagged side, and metal pierced her uniform at her left thigh. She yelped as it tore her skin. She fought her way inside. To add to her confusion, the transport was on its side.

The fire raged. “Mother!” Selah gulped in a mouthful of smoke and started coughing. She lurched forward anyway, crawling over debris and beams. The ramp door to the right of the lift was broken open with a space too small for her to squeeze through. She mustered her energy and kicked until it broke through, but the motion propelled her down the chute that had been a wall.

Selah clawed at the sides to slow her descent until she crashed into a beam blocking the path. She pressed a hand to her side, the hip she had injured in the Mountain. It had healed stronger from that incident, and now it saved her from another serious injury. Selah crawled over the smoldering beam and worked her way through the smoke and flames to the family area.

It was unrecognizable. Twisted panels, beams, and fire covered the area around her. She wanted to yell but doing so made her choke. She tried to cover her mouth but then her voice was muffled. She searched, pulling at easy things to clear a path. They’d be in the family room. The comfortable seats had restraints. But Selah couldn’t recognize the areas lying on their sides, and she was already disoriented from the loss of blood from her head.

She reached up to touch the cut and her sleeve snagged on a jagged conduit. It jerked her into a pile of panels on her left. The fear of falling made her gasp, and she inhaled a good handful of smoke. She crawled off the pile, coughing.

A moan.

Selah froze. The only other sound was roaring flames. Selah glanced around the area in front of her, figuring out the order of the debris. She bent to her right and shoved a broken container under the edge of the panel to hold it up. She got down low to look under. Darkness.

“I’m here. Where are you?” Another moan.

The sound was too mild in the noise. The flames worked closer. The smoke billowed thicker. Selah crawled to the other side of the panel and tried to lift. A crosspiece rested on top, preventing her from moving it. Selah tried to force the piece off the panel, but it had broken at an angle that wedged it in place.

She angrily pounded on the crosspiece with both hands but only dislodged the debris above it, which rained down on her head. She was struck on the left shoulder by a loose transfer case that drove her to her knees. Selah cried out and tried to stretch the battered shoulder muscle.

The sound of another moan renewed her energy. Selah easily removed the debris now that most had fallen. She pulled over the transfer case and used it to prop up the other side of the panel. Crawling underneath, she pushed things to the side, creating a path that amplified the moan. It was much closer this time. Selah snaked her way through a pile of conduits. A hand!

She darted toward it, clearing the arm and shoulder. Dane! He was unconscious but alive. He would be all right. The rest of them had to be right here. She crawled around under the panel to be sure no one else was trapped, then went to the back wall.

Selah recoiled at the heat. The fire must be on the other side and ready to break through. She moved back to Dane and pulled him out. When they broke through the front of the panel, Selah stood and slung him over her sore shoulder. It wasn’t good for much more.

Stumbling out to the opening, she carefully laid Dane out of danger and darted back in. Knowing where he had been made her confident she could find her mother. She began a search of the next collapsed panel using the transfer case and broken container. It took longer to search because there were numerous large objects underneath. She found nothing, but she couldn’t get back to the wall because the heat was too oppressive. She had to go in the other direction to search. Her mother wouldn’t have been that far from Dane, under the circumstances.

Selah crawled out from under the panel. The next one started to smolder and she fled. It would burst into flames soon and this whole section would go up. She rushed to the other side of where she found Dane, her coughs burning her lungs. She slowed a little, covering her nose with her arm.

“Mother!” Selah gagged. She couldn’t get enough air to cough.

“Selah!”

“Mari! I’m coming.” Selah clawed at the debris. Conduits and ceiling tiles, several wall panels, and everything from the opposite side of the transport’s open area rested in a pile.

She barreled into it, throwing things in the direction of the fire so they could run the other way. Mari reached her. “Once I heard your voice I knew which way to dig.”

Selah pulled Mari to her feet and hugged her. She put her head next to Mari’s ear and said in a hoarse voice, “I have Dane.”

Mari nodded. “Dane was at his seat at the table. I was going to strap him in. Rylla and your mom were at the seats right beside me. So they have to be under here.” She bent over and coughed several times, gagging till she retched. Selah patted her on the back.

The fire broke through the panels at the back, roaring at the new fuel and sending darker, heavier smoke pouring into the area.

Selah grabbed at the pile, fighting the creeping heat and punishing smoke. Her lungs burned but she kept going. How could this have happened? They couldn’t die. She wouldn’t let them die.

Mari worked at her side, holding up pieces while Selah checked under them. The fire crept closer, but it was the heat that was the main problem. The floor that had originally been a wall had begun to melt. The surface was gummy to stand on.

They found Rylla first and pulled her out. She was choking and gagging but unharmed.

“Pasha is right beside me, but there’s a case on her arm. I can’t get her loose,” Rylla said.

Selah and Mari scrambled into the opening she had come out. Mari used her back as leverage to hold up the case and Selah pulled her mother free. They each took an arm as they backed her out of the debris.

Selah grabbed Pasha’s arms and Mari took her legs as they hurried out. The beams in the chute Selah had banged into served well as steps to move the unconscious Pasha. As they cleared the area, the fire blew through the last wall and sent an explosion of flames out the broken side right where they had run.

They laid Pasha next to Dane. Mari looked around. “Where’s Bodhi, Mojica, and Taraji?”

“Still in there. I expected them to be out behind me. Rylla, watch Mother and Dane.” Selah charged toward the flames licking out the left side of the hole and dodged in at the right. Mari ran right behind her. The rest of the area where they’d come up from was blocked by broken conduits and sidewall panels. Beyond that the command area was easier—not as many moveable parts as below, just the acrid smoke and approaching heat to hamper their rescue.

Selah reached them first. Mari gasped.