WORLD 4: AWAKENING

I watched my father harden his eyes at Arison as we walked through the disembarkation room into the holding area. He was struggling to find a quick way out of the situation.

“We can still talk about this, Arison, it’s not too late to solve everything without violence.”

“Shut up!” snapped Trace. He pressed his ABW against my father’s back and shoved him forward.

Arison snickered. “You will have to excuse Trace, everyone. He has quite a large problem with authority.”

My father stiffened and jerked his elbow back against the weapon. I heard a nasty word mumbled under his breath.

“Ha!” laughed Trace. “Not so pleasant, is it Commander? Being forced to do something you don’t want to do? Having someone betray you?”

“All you’ve done is betray your people, Trace, not me,” my father said as we walked on. “You swore to protect Colony Four, to protect your fellow citizens, and now you’re betraying them all!” He stopped abruptly and put his face an inch from Trace’s. “I will make it my mission to see you are held responsible for it.”

Trace didn’t hesitate and punched him in the face. It knocked my father’s head sideways but didn’t break his stature one bit.

“We’ll see about that, Commander,” Trace said hotly. He smirked an arrogant grin. “Really, I’m not even the one you should be so mad at. I mean, she’s going to have to answer for some pretty serious betrayal, too.”

Trace motioned behind our group. My father lifted his head and gasped, stumbling back a couple of steps. “Ebie?” he said incredulously. She stood in the door to the disembarkation room, fiddling with the hem of her dark blue Science shirt, avoiding direct eye contact. “What — what are you doing? Are they forcing you to do this?!”

An enormous laugh exploded from Arison. “Forcing? Why would she need to be forced to do something noble? She used you, sir, and that’s what people do to ensure their survival. They use whatever tools they have. Her tool happened to be you. Why do you think she insisted on all those extra meetings — because she was in love with you?” His laugh turned into a delightful squeal. “Oh, people are so foolish when they’re in love. When Ebie agreed to our cause, I asked her if there was any way she could get to you. She said she’d try and…looks like it worked even better than I thought.” Arison winked. “Never trust a woman…right, Commander?”

I felt like I would throw up at any moment. My father had been alone for so long. My heart had been overjoyed that he finally had someone in his life. I loved that Ebie made him feel loved. So finding out that it was all just a disgusting lie made me absolutely sick. As I watched my father’s reaction to it right in front of my eyes, I forgot about any kind of control I’d tried for earlier.

Ebie stayed silent in the background, her face hardened and unreadable. I couldn’t hold in my attitude; my voice was loud and shouting at her immediately. “So, that’s how they found out where I was on the expedition — from you?! How dare you use my dad the way you did! Is anyone important to you at all, Ebie? Maybe you should go and betray your daughter, too!”

Trace slapped the back of my head. “Shut up!”

I swung my elbow back at him and earned another, harder slap.

“Mayla!” my father scolded loudly. He shot me a look that told me to stop being foolish. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“Yes, listen to your father, dear child,” said Arison. He looked down at me like a scolding parent. But as he saw my anger boiling, his face morphed right into a snickering, psychotic grin.

I snapped and rushed at him. “You stupid little —”

Arison cut me off by quickly reaching out and grabbing my shirt at the back of my neck. He used the tight fistful of fabric to yank me around, holding his dagger to my throat. The whole thing was done with such ease it was like he’d done it a hundred times before. He stared right at my father as he spoke calmly against my cheek.

“You are a stupid girl, Mayla. This proves my point from before, doesn’t it? You’re willing to die to save your father, aren’t you?” I flinched as he poked the blade’s tip harder against my skin. “You’re angry about the injustice you think exists here and want me to pay for it. You assume that by getting rid of me it will save others.” His mouth moved to my ear. “Tell me, how is that different than me trying to save Colony citizens from our oppressive leaders?”

I couldn’t take the feeling of his hot breath on me anymore. I moved my body outward to try and break free but he dug the blade tip into my neck. Immediately, I froze in place and whimpered — a small trail of blood ran down my neck.

“Arison!” my father shouted and took a step forward.

“Step back!” Arison commanded. “I told you not to try anything or I would kill your daughter, didn’t I?” His cool demeanor faded; he clenched his teeth. “No more talk — get going!”

My father turned to the hallway, his jaw twitching with the tension. He led us silently to the corridor transport and Arison threw me into Trace’s grip again.

Something that I’d always loved about my job in Med Lev was fixing people. Healing them. It gave me so much joy to alleviate another’s pain. But for the first time in my life, I wanted nothing more than to hurt someone: Arison. I would have given up my position in Med Lev forever just for one chance to end him.

I made a promise to myself right then and there…I would kill Arison, no matter what it took.

“Where are we going?” my father asked. He pressed his fingers to the pad by the corridor transport and the doors slid open.

“Technology Level, please,” replied Arison. My father pressed the command into the transport and the doors slid shut. “Ebie is going to program my biometric access into the ship’s computer. You are then going to give the system your approval for me to have the highest level of clearance possible.”

“That’s your plan?” my father shouted and turned. He stared down at Arison like an insect. “You’ll kill everyone in Colony Four and take it for yourself and all your followers?” He motioned toward Ebie and Trace with a frown. “If that’s what you want to call them.”

Arison was taken aback. “Indeed you are mistaken! I don’t wish to kill any more of the Colony. As long as everyone cooperates, they will live a wonderfully long life on this world with leadership who actually care about them.”

The volume of my voice rose. “You really think they would follow you after what you did to everybody outside?”

Arison actually looked a little hurt for a second. “Oh, my dear Mayla. Once they come and see the people outside who we’ve had to make an example of, they’ll willingly give their cooperation. Over time, everyone will be grateful that they did.”

“I will never live a so-called life of cooperation with you,” growled my father.

“You’re right about that one,” chuckled Trace. He began to push me through the transport doors as they slid open. “You won’t be living at all, actually.”

Arison confirmed the comment with a snickering laugh. “Unfortunately, he’s right. If we’re going to build a new society here, we must rid ourselves of all previous leadership. A clean slate!”

I couldn’t help myself; I fought back a couple of times more against Trace as we walked up to Tech Lev’s main doors.

“Hey, now,” Trace said and grabbed my hair. He spoke quietly against the side of my head, his eyes glancing to make sure Arison wasn’t watching. “Arison said he wouldn’t kill you, but I never made that promise. I’ve always thought you were a brat, you know. Now you two get what you deserve. Your father gets his for leaving so many people back home to die, and you get yours just for being related to him. Isn’t it terrible knowing you’re going to die any minute now?” He squeezed my hairline in his grip, taking a few strands with it. “Well, consider yourself lucky. Most people on our world didn’t have that luxury. I left people I loved behind without even getting to say goodbye.”

“So did I, Trace,” I whispered fiercely, looking at him sideways. “All of us did. Why do you have more claim on grief than any of us?”

“Get in here!” Arison shouted to us in an irritated voice. He’d stepped inside Tech Lev with my father already.

I was shoved through the main Level doors. My head spun around — the place was empty. On a normal day, there would be dozens of officers milling around the place.

Trace pointed at Ebie. “Where is everyone?” he demanded.

“This isn’t my level, Trace,” she answered. “I don’t keep track of Tech people. But there should be at least a few officers here, even on a day like today.”

All eyes zoomed to my father for answers.

“Do you really think I’m stupid, Arison?” The pleasure on my father was clear; he enjoyed the fact that he was one step ahead of the enemy. “When regular communication went down, I obviously became suspicious, and I did the very simple and uncomplicated task of looking out the window. Once I saw all the carnage up close through a viewing scope, I ordered everyone to stay locked in their rooms. Almost all of our Protection Officers were sent outside with the on-planet teams, which was a big mistake on my part. I didn’t have enough re-enforcements to send out and fight you. So I locked us in. Every officer on board spread the word long before you came knocking on these doors.”

Arison shrugged. “You’ve actually done me a favor, sir. Now I don’t have to kill any of your poor technology slaves. We’ve got this whole Level to ourselves, so thank you!”

“You won’t be able to get to anyone, Arison,” my father warned.

“Oh, they’ll come out eventually. And then I’ll have your body out on display to persuade their cooperation.”

“Then you’ll have to kill me, too!” I burst out. Anger was an understatement when it came to how I was feeling. “There’s no way I’ll cooperate with anything that has to do with you. You kill him, you kill me!” I meant every word. There wasn’t much pushing me to live a long life anymore after losing Baylen.

“Oh, Mayla.” Arison frowned. “I said I would spare you if your father did what I wanted. Don’t make me a liar, dear. Please shut your mouth from here on out.”

I grumbled out unrepeatable words under my breath. “Coward,” I finally said loud and clear.

“Trace, switch me.” Arison held out his dagger and took Trace’s Air Burst Weapon as they exchanged hands. A new look of pleasure overtook Trace as he stood face-to-face with me and pointed the dagger right at my neck.

“If I have to use this,” he whispered, “it will be a dreadful sight for your father. Just thought you should know before you try hitting me again.”

Finally, Ebie decided to join the conversation. She stepped forward to my father and pointed at the station next to us. “Place your fingers on the screen there.”

“Now you decide to speak?” he snapped.

She made eye contact and hesitated. Her mouth moved slightly as if she were about to form words, but nothing came out. Finally, she slapped him hard across the face.

“Did you know I had a son, Archauus?” she asked. Her voice shook. My father stared back at her without an answer. “Well, I did. He was six years old and one of the most beautiful things…” Her voice trailed and shook some more. She sucked in a deep breath. “A year before A-Day, he got very sick. The disease got so bad that he couldn’t even get out of bed without help. We had developed a lot of technology at that point, so many medical advances during The Five Years. You remember, Archauus.” She took a step closer. “There was a treatment we created that would’ve saved him, and I begged the government to let us use it, but of course they said no. They didn’t want to let their special technology out yet, just in case it blew the big secret about the asteroids. Wouldn’t want to jeopardize our escape, would we?”

“Ebie, I know that —”

“You don’t know anything!!!” she screamed. “He died, Archauus! My baby died because the government only cared about saving themselves! What kind of people would just let my baby die?!” Ebie’s green eyes were raging with sadness and desperation. “And then my husband died during The Quiet Year! I lost Goran, too, and…” She had to stop to compose herself, fighting back sobs I could tell were right on the brink of escape.

I couldn’t help but feel a sadness for Ebie. What she’d decided to be a part of was horrendous, but still, compassion began to drip in. Losing someone that you love can be the worst feeling in the world — I of all people understood that. First my mother, then Baylen and Wes…I couldn’t even fathom what it would be like to lose a child. I tried to fight it, but my heart filled with pity.

My father reached out with a gentle touch and grabbed her hand. “This cannot be the way, Ebie,” he said softly.

Her face changed from sorrow to rage and she slapped him hard across the cheek again, then slowly stepped backward to Arison. “Do what I say, Commander, or your daughter will die.”

Arison was truly enjoying the exchange; his serpent-like grin was in full swing. “She’s right, sir. Now do what she says and give me the access!”

My father looked at me. I shook my head slightly. Trace saw our silent communication and placed the dagger tip right against the center of my chest.

“Good man,” I heard Arison say. My father was about to cooperate.

I knew that he would be able to fight off Arison and Trace if I was just out of the picture. Even if I could create a distraction somehow, he could at least take down Arison and leave me to Trace. The odds were in Trace’s favor if I went hand-to-hand with him — he would almost surely stab me with that knife — but I didn’t care.

Suddenly, I knew what I had to do, and I’d need to be fast. Reaching out, I grabbed onto Trace’s hands at the dagger’s handle, pushed the blade to the side and stabbed it directly through my right shoulder. I screamed with the explosion of pain.

Trace gasped in shock and became disoriented for a few seconds. I screamed again as I fought against the agony, slamming the palm of my left hand upward as hard as I could against his nose. He shrieked, pulled the dagger out of me in reflex, and grasped onto his face. The knife fell to the floor with a clank. Blood streamed down Trace’s mouth and chin as he stumbled away.

Arison turned instinctively at the commotion and that’s when my father lunged. He tackled him to the ground and the two of them fought violently. But it didn’t last long. Very quickly into the fight, Arison was able to break free; he jumped up and took off running through Tech Lev. My father bounded after him full-speed.

My knees buckled and I collapsed, clutching my wound. Blood was pouring from it down my arm, turning the rest of my warming shirt’s sleeve a bright red. I gasped and panted on the floor as I tried to remember any kind of medical training. I had to get to Med Lev. As I rose and took my first clumsy steps, Ebie came toward me with a look of fury.

I reached out for the first thing I could see: a metal rod of some kind, sitting amidst other tech junk on the nearest station. I swung hard at her head and she dropped to the floor, still conscious, but bleeding and disoriented. She crawled away on her hands and knees, whimpering.

A loud noise turned my attention. Somewhere in the back of Tech Lev, Arison and my father were fighting to the death. I looked desperately from their direction to the main Level doors; I needed to get to Medical. But my father needed help, too. I groaned and was about to start the walk through the stations when I heard the main doors open. Grabbing the metal rod again, I swung it around to smash whichever one of Arison’s followers had just appeared.

“Bay — Baylen?” I stuttered in a whisper. The rod fell to the floor with a loud, reverberating crash. My knees gave out again, this time in utter disbelief at what I was seeing.

“Mayla!” he cried and slid to the ground next to me. He pulled back and looked over my injuries, a look of fright upon him. “May, what hap — watch out!”

Trace appeared again, crawling up behind me with his dagger. The lower half of his face was smeared with blood and his nose was noticeably broken. There was no doubt he was coming in for the kill.

Baylen sprung out and tackled him to the ground, throwing a punch. Trace howled as his broken nose shifted even further. He let go of his dagger. I lunged out on my belly and grabbed it with my good hand, then rolled over onto my back, watching the fight. With a giant roar, Trace smashed his fist into Baylen and came after me again. The look on his face said more than any words could have — he was going to kill me as quickly as he could.

As he dove on top of me for my throat, I pulled the dagger upright without even thinking. He landed straight on the blade and it sank deep into his chest. It all happened so fast. I screamed in horror as his face right over mine dripped with saliva and lost its color. The life drained out of him quickly.

“Mayla!” Baylen pulled Trace’s body off of me and lifted me up to sitting again. “Are you okay?” He let out a pained cry at seeing my bleeding shoulder and tore off a piece of fabric from his shirt. But I didn’t care about my stupid shoulder, or Trace — Baylen was alive.

I stared at him, frozen in astonishment, hardly believing what was in front of me. I pushed his hand away as he tried to press fabric onto my wound. My left arm wrapped around his back; I pulled him close, my voice wavering uncontrollably.

“I thought you were dead,” I whispered next to his ear.

He stroked my hair. “I know, but I’m okay. I’m here.”

I pulled away and took his face in my hand. There were so many words I wanted to say. I began the start of some of them, but a loud crash across Tech Lev cut me short.

“Dad!” I gasped and somehow got myself up from the floor. My expression when I looked at Baylen was frantic. “We’ve got to get to my dad, Arison’s going to kill him!”

I took off before Baylen could stop me. “Hold on!” he called as he ran to catch up. “What’s happening?”

“They’re fighting back there!”

We wound our way through the maze of different stations until finally spotting them next to the break area. Planet four’s landscape spread out across the windows in stunning beauty, the sunset burning an intense crimson red and orange.

Although my father towered over Arison, they were still an even match. Arison had honed his murderous skills during his time as a Secret Keeper and was an excellent fighter. They ducked, swung, and blocked in an elaborate dance of battle, both heaving in exhaustion.

“Dad!” I cried and rushed forward to him.

He lost focus and turned to me in surprise. “Mayla! Stay back!”

Arison jumped on the opportunity; he pushed my father against the window and punched him, then wrapped both of his spindly-fingered hands tightly around his throat. My father strained to pry him off.

Baylen ran to help with the fight while I looked for another answer. I cursed myself for leaving the metal rod back with Trace’s body; I needed to find something, anything that could be used as a weapon.

It didn’t take me long to spot it: Arison’s ABW, under one of the benches against the wall.

My right arm was useless; blood dripped in a steady stream down its length and to the floor. I pulled up the weapon with difficulty into my left hand and shoved the handle tightly against my belly to hold it.

The men were still fighting, and now it was two against one. But although Baylen and my father were winning, the three men were so entangled in their fight I wasn’t going to be able to get a clear shot of only Arison. I switched the setting to maximum audio.

“Baylen!” I screamed. He took one look at me and understood what I was trying to communicate. He jumped out of the line of fire and shoved Arison into it. I pressed the trigger.

“AHHHH!” Arison squealed. He tried to run but my aim followed him. Quickly, he fell to his knees, clawing at his ears. My father was bent over, having been skimmed with the blast, hands on his ears, a pained look on his face. He straightened and shook out his head; he and Baylen sighed in relief as they saw Arison writhing on the ground.

“It’s okay Mayla, he’s down,” said Baylen. He reached out for the ABW. But I ignored him.

I couldn’t stop. The things Arison had done, the people he’d killed without even a second thought warranted more punishment than just some discomfort. I walked toward him, increasing the agony I delivered with each step closer. Soon, he was screaming.

“May!” cried Baylen. He put a hand over mine and tried to take the weapon away. I shoved him off and kept up my assault.

“MAYLA!” my father bellowed.

Finally, I released the trigger, my eyes unmoving from Arison’s agonized face. Baylen held out his hand and said something comforting that I didn’t pay attention to. My rage wasn’t receding. My need for revenge hadn’t been filled and I had a promise to keep. I switched the setting to full air blast.

Baylen gasped. “Mayla, listen to me, I want him dead just as much as you do.”

“Shut up!”

He tried again. “Please listen to me —”

“I said shut up!!!”

My father inched toward me, hand extended, voice calm and steady. “We need to keep him as a prisoner, May. Put it down, you don’t know what it will do to you to kill someone.”

My eyes burned on Arison. He arched his back on the ground, blood pooling in his ears. My teeth clenched in utter desperation for revenge. My body trembled with the need for it. “I killed Trace, I don’t care anymore!”

“You will,” said Baylen softly. He stood right next to me. “Trace wasn’t on purpose. Let’s go. We have a home now, and we can live here, together. Let’s stop being a part of these terrible things and just go be happy together. Please, May.”

My shoulders shook uncontrollably from the inner turmoil that held me. I gripped the ABW tighter. Again, Baylen begged me. My breathing was on the verge of hyperventilation until finally, my arm relaxed and I fell to the floor, sobbing. Baylen snatched the weapon and tossed it to my father before I could change my mind. He wrapped his arms around me and I cried into his shoulder.

A cackling laugh escaped Arison. “You see?!” he screeched. “You can’t do it, can you? You people can’t do the things necessary to survive! YOU DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE, COWARD!!!”

My father hardened his jaw, brought the Air Burst Weapon over his head, and swung it straight down onto Arison’s face, silencing him mid-laughter.