Assault or Attrition (34 page)
“Well, you’ll
need someone to help try and pilot this thing,” Brynja added. “And
if anyone could use a tan, it’s me.”
“You’re
leaving?” I asked. This was the first she’d mentioned her plans –
although it’s not like we’d been afforded much time to discuss our
futures since battling our way through The Spiral.
“I figure with
this much cosplay talent,” she said, gesturing towards herself,
“it’ll go to waste hidden inside one of your fortresses. I need to
hit the convention circuit and share my gift.” Brynja smiled and
glanced towards Peyton. “And besides, if I stick around here, the
princess will just keep hugging me.”
“I might,”
Peyton said flatly. “I have a hard time controlling it.”
Brynja wrapped
her arms around me and her lips brushed my ear. “I have to leave,”
she whispered, her voice laced with a thread of sadness. “You know
it has to be this way.”
“
This isn’t
the end,”
I thought, staring into her eyes as she drew back.
“I’ll see you again soon.”
Her lips curled
at the corners.
“You’ve always been a shitty liar.”
I shook
McGarrity’s hand, gave Brynja one last hug and sent them on their
way. I stepped back and wrapped an arm around Peyton’s shoulder as
the jet hovered into the sky, blinking away in a swirling
thunderstorm of purple streaks.
We had a
million things to do. My sister, niece and nephew needed me in
Canada. Gavin was still lost somewhere in the Dark Zone. And with
the discovery of more fortresses scattered around the world, I had
a lot of investigating to do, and multiple loose ends to tie up.
But before we got started, I had to tell Peyton something that had
been burning in my mind for months.
She turned to
me and flashed a knowing smile. “Whatever you have to say, it can
wait.”
“What?”
“You’re afraid
to tell me something,” she said, pulling me close. “I know when
your big fat brain is working overtime. I can practically see the
steam coming out of your ears. It’s okay, really. We have people
who need us now...you can tell me later.”
I shook my head
and averted my eyes. “No, I really can’t.”
She placed her
hands on the sides of my face, gently tilting my head until our
eyes met. “
Say it
, then.” She gazed at me with a sense of
hope and optimism that penetrated right to my heart. It was a
brilliant light that shone through the darkest moments, never
dimming, no matter what the circumstance.
“Even though
I’m here, I just...” I took a deep breath, trying to summon the
right combination of words. How do you explain to someone that you
have only a short time left? “I don’t know if I can give you the
kind of future you deserve.”
“I don’t need
you to ‘give’ me anything,” she replied with complete confidence.
“Don’t get me wrong – I love you. And in your own idiotic way I
know that you love me too. But I’m my own person. I was doing fine
for a couple decades before I met you, and I’d be doing fine even
if we never met.”
“I don’t know
what’s going to happen...” I sighed heavily and trailed off. The
words never spilled out...I tried to force them, but they never
came.
“No one does,”
she said. “But we don’t give up on the things we want. We just keep
moving forward.”
One level after
another we fought through The Spiral, never knowing what awaited us
below. We didn’t know how it would end, or how we’d escape when the
water rose and the darkness swarmed in around us – we just kept
fighting until we found a way.
Five years,
five months, five weeks – I had no idea how much time I had left.
But having a brain tumor or not, it didn’t really matter – because
in reality,
no one
knew. Everyone who died in The Spiral had
woken up that morning thinking –
knowing
– that they had the
rest of their lives to look forward to, and just a few short hours
later their futures were torn away. My mind drifted to Doug,
Chandler, Mac, and everyone else who’d died in The Fringe. They’d
all lost their lives without a moment’s notice.
I wasn’t going
to spend my final days worrying about how many of them I had left –
I was going spend each one filling it with as much life as I
could.
Two
Epilogue
Partial
transcript from the BBC News Simulcast ‘The Daily Express’
Hosted by Liam Beckett, April 2042
Liam Beckett:
“Devastation in Moscow as an explosion rocked the
Kremlin just moments ago. Three of the palaces and one of the
cathedrals have been completely destroyed, and the death toll is
expected to be in the hundreds. We are being told that the
President and his staff have been safely evacuated amidst the
chaos.
“No one has
claimed responsibility, although with Russia currently embroiled in
three different wars throughout Eurasia, there are a number of
possibilities as to who could be behind this deadly attack.
“As fires
blazed and buildings collapsed, security footage confirms that a
small group of masked assailants entered the Kremlin’s lower
levels. They emerged with a large casket, which they loaded onto an
aircraft before fleeing. Russian Intelligence has declined to
comment at this point, but speculation abounds that the casket
contained the body of superhuman Sergei Taktarov.
“More on this
harrowing story as details become available.”
Assault or
Attrition could not have happened without the amazing, fantastic,
incredibly good-looking people with impeccable taste who
contributed to my Kickstarter.
I wish I could
hug each and every one of you, but instead you’ll have to settle
for a very special ‘thank you’ in my Heroic Contributors section,
which is like a virtual hug.
Hopefully I’ll
see you at a convention, and you can get your hug in real life
(just warn me before you bring it in – if not I might freak out and
call security.)
"1st" Nick
Manning
#KennethLivitski
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