Athel (19 page)

Chapter
Nineteen

Akaela

The ground keeps shaking, as
though awakened from beneath. The half arch above us trembles, sending debris
everywhere. I try to scream Lukas’s name but my throat is caked with dust. I
duck, cover my mouth and nose with the collar of my shirt, and grope until I
find him, bent over on his hands and knees. I grab his arm and run, moments
before the arch disintegrates.

 
Destruction takes over the old plaza. The
flight of stairs, the statues, the ruins—they all crumble to pieces. I
trip and fall, losing my grip on Lukas. When I get up again, all I can see is a
cloud of dust swallowing everything.

Darkness
falls—a deep, dense blackness made of thick dust lingering everywhere.
The rumble stops, at last, yet its echo still rings in my ears.

“Lukas!” I
croak.

He leans
against my shoulder and bends over, coughing.

“The
door,” I hiss. “We have to get to the door and open it!”

“Don’t.”

I blink
and turn. The voice—not Lukas’s, yet equally familiar.

“Who’s
there?” I shout.

The voice
doesn’t shout back. Instead, it creeps close to my ear and says, “I wouldn’t
touch the door.” The faint glint of metal gives him away.

I flail my
fists in the air. “What are you doing here, Yuri?” I shout. “You’re the one who
stole the keys. I know you did! What were you thinking? That you’d get to the
Underground City all by yourself?”

Behind me,
Lukas whispers, “Yuri? Here? Really?”

Yuri
ducks, easily dodging my blind aim. When he next speaks, his voice comes from
farther away. “I’m just trying to warn you.”

I snicker
at that. “Warn us. Right. You didn’t give us any warning about sneaking up on
us, did you? What’s your evil plan now? Get the whole Underground City for
yourself and your equally stupid brother?”

“How did
he get here?” Lukas asks, his tone dripping with skepticism.

“He stole
the keys and followed us, that’s how,” I reply.

I’m sure
Lukas regrets giving away the data feeder to Wes. I squint into the darkness
trying to locate Metal Jaw’s ugly face, and as I do, a faint red glow gradually
settles over the darkness.

Lukas taps
on my shoulder. I turn, reluctantly ungluing my gaze from the shadows where
Yuri’s lurking. Arranged in a circle, five red lights beam upward from the edge
of the plaza, pooling from recesses in the ground.

“What is …
that?” Lukas asks, his profile framed by the glow. He snuggles his mouth and
nose in the nook of his elbow and shuffles over to what’s left of the plaza.

Something
whirs, like the humming of robotic treads, followed by the grating sound of
chains clanging against a hard surface. I run over, ignoring Yuri’s muffled
steps creeping behind me. I climb around the piles of rubble and fallen
walls—Yuri still tagging along—and reach over to Lukas.

A groove
appears in the middle of the circle delimited by the red beams. Two half disks
slide open, revealing a copper shield with the Astraca symbol embossed on its
concave surface.
 

I swallow
dust, my throat dry.

“That’s
the door,” Lukas says, breathless. “The entrance to the Underground City! It’s
been closed for decades and now it’s finally unlocked!”

“Let’s
open it, then!” I reach for the shield, but Yuri grabs my arm and pulls me
back.

“No.”

I turn to
face him, seething. “Don’t just stand there doing nothing!” I shout. “Go get
the others! That’s the door to the Underground City you’re staring at. We need
to get everyone in there before—”

“No,” Yuri
repeats, his voice firm. I’ve never seen him like this before. For a moment I
wonder if it’s fear what I glimpse in his eyes.

“I don’t
have time to play your stupid games, Yuri,” I snarl.

Lukas bends
over the copper shield and brushes his fingers around the edge, searching for a
latch.

Enraged,
Yuri leaps forward and slams his hands over the door. “I said don’t.”

“What?” I
try to push him away, but the guy’s as solid as brick.

He glares
at me and then looks over his shoulder. “It’s a trap,” he hisses in a low
voice, as though somebody might hear us.

“Right,” I
reply. “Give me one good reason to trust you.”

He
swallows but doesn’t answer.

“I thought
so,” I retort. “You’re a thief and a liar, Yuri. What are you doing here,
anyway? Your plan to steal the five
chavis
didn’t work out. The Underground City is now unlocked. If you want to be
helpful, go get the others and tell them to come to safety. Otherwise, get
lost.”

Yuri’s
face—the non-metallic part—flashes with anger. “You have to—”

He purses
his lips and abruptly turns around as new steps echo in the distance.

The lights
from the plaza cast a red glow through the night. A figure emerges from the
trees and waves a hand.

“Tahari!”
I call as soon as I recognize him. “The doors are unlocked, all five of them!”

I leap
forward before realizing our Kiva leader hasn’t come alone. Hennessy looms
right behind him, his long robotic legs unmatched by Tahari’s huffed pace.

Yuri spots
his father coming up to the plaza in long strides and abruptly shifts away from
the door. He just stands there and scruffs the ground with the heels of his
boots, while Lukas runs toward the men and recounts how we uncovered the last
door.

I step
backward, suddenly unsure what to think of Hennessy’s presence here. He glares
at his son, his face red from the lights shining from the plaza.

Why did
they come alone? Where are all the people they’ve been leading into the forest,
and why aren’t they all coming to safety?

I shift
closer to the door, where the red light caresses the curved surfaces of the
embossed symbol. Five
chavis
, their
dented ends converging into the middle of a pentagon. Voices trail in the
distance—mostly Tahari, talking to Lukas, sending orders to gather the
people.

Soon, dawn will sneak up on us and the Gaijins
will begin their attack
.

Soon, it’ll be too late
.

I rest a
hand on the copper and slide my fingers to the edge of the disk until I find the
latch and unfasten it. The five red lights blink and then die. Silence falls.
The face of the moon peeks from behind the rolling clouds.

I use both
hands to try to pry open the copper disk, but the door is heavy and doesn’t
budge.

“Come help
me!” I call, but nobody answers me.

And then
the door swings open so suddenly it knocks me off my feet. A low growl comes
from the depths within, like wind howling through a tunnel, yet deeper and more
haunting.

The red
lights come back to life, their beams carving red cones through the remnants of
dust still lingering in the air. The ground starts shaking again, a low beat
coming from deep within the earth.

Something
flashes inside the manhole.

It only
lasts an instant.

One long,
eternal instant, in which my father’s voice rings in my head and shouts,
Run
!

Chapter Twenty

Akaela

The door explodes. The cobblestone
cracks open, sending the copper plate flying across the sky. I cover my head
and roll away as rocks and debris rain down on me. A humongous beast bursts out
of the crack in the ground, growling, red eyes flashing and fangs snapping. A
huge droid in the shape of a wolf, black and majestic, looms out of the hole
and howls—a low, guttural, victorious growl that resonates across the
forest.

Its
metallic hide shines, outlined by the red lights around the plaza. Its sinuous
back is studded with spikes, its large paws equipped with sharp claws. They
grate the cobblestones as the monster leaps forward and growls at me, its snout
rippled to reveal sawtooth edges along its fangs.

The wolf
droid scoops away the debris with a sweep of its claws and bolts toward the
forest, its movements smooth and agile despite its size.

“No!” I
scream, running after the metal beast. “Lukas! Tahari! Watch out!”

In the
receding darkness, I spot Tahari and Hennessy running back into the forest. One
dark shadow remains still, though, hiding low in the bushes. The robot pounces,
scoops it up with its powerful snout, and then tosses it several feet away.

“Lukas!” I
screech, recognizing his limp body as it flails in the air. It drops into the
tall grass with a soft thud.

Why is he not reacting? Has he been
deactivated
?

I try to
reach him, but the monster is faster. It pounces again, framing Lukas’s limp
body between its huge legs, and then turns to face me, its fangs shining in the
dim light of the new day.

A deep,
metallic voice growls from within its bowels. “You have awakened Golow, the
Guardian of Astraca. You shall pay with your life.”

Guardian of Astraca
, I think.
Of course! The AIs that in 2089 rebelled against the citizens of
Astraca—bloodthirsty machines that killed and destroyed the whole city.
Powerful weapons
, as Lukas described
them, that were eventually deactivated and buried deep inside the Underground
City.

I stare at
Lukas’s body, sprawled lifeless between the monster’s legs. My heart races.

“What kind
of guardian are you,” I shout back, “if you don’t grant entry to Astraca’s own
citizens?”

The droid
angles down until we’re at eye level. “I’ve been programmed to kill everyone
who dares enter. Who are you?”

“My name
is Akaela,” I reply. “My ancestors built this city. And they built you, too.”

Golow
stares at me with its cool red eyes.

“I’m not
afraid of you,” I say.

The robot
claws the ground and ripples its wolf snout, studying me. “Is that so?” it
says. A rattle resonates deep inside its metallic frame. “What is it you’re
afraid of, then, child?”

I narrow
my eyes. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

Golow’s
eyelids close, its fangs snap. It takes me a moment to realize that the
clanging noise rattling up its throat is actually laughter. When it opens its
eyes again, it sits on its hind legs and looks down at me. “You know that’s not
possible, child.” It leans forward, its shiny nose almost touching mine.
“Everyone is afraid of something. What if I told you I could squash your friend
here in an instant?”

Golow
raises one of its enormous claws and hovers it over Lukas.

“Don’t!” I
scream.

Whoever
designed this bot made it scarily human. I now realize the full meaning of the
term AI, artificial intelligence. This robot can mimic human thought and
behavior like no other.

Golow
ripples its snout and bares its teeth at me, its long tail swaying. “Do you
fear me now?” It lowers one of its clawed paws and brushes Lukas’s chest, my
friend’s ribcage touching the robot with every intake of air.

Who
deactivated Lukas? What’s happening? Is this all a nightmare?

Yuri,
I think.
Yuri and his father orchestrated all this
.

 
“What do you want from me?” I shout. “My
people are in need. Our enemies are about to attack us. We need a safe place to
stay, and the Underground—”

“I want
your life.” The robot leans closer, the air around its metallic fangs chilled.
“Your life in exchange for that of your friends. Once I have that, I will open
the doors to the Underground City for your people to enter.”

I swallow
hard, pondering the words. “You know I’ll do anything for my friends.”

Golow
elongates its neck and comes so close I can count the razor-sharp spikes of its
sawtooth fangs. “Your sacrifice will not go unnoticed. When the keys to the
Underground City were hidden, extreme measures were taken to keep the doors
secret, and to make sure they would never be opened again in vain. It takes human
blood to open them again. One human life is all I ask.”

Golow
shows me its teeth again, and for a moment it almost looks like it’s smiling at
me. Makes me wonder if AIs take pleasure in killing.
 

I slowly
shift backward. “How do I know you’ll let my people into the Underground City
after you kill me? How do I know it’ll be safe for them in there? Shouldn’t I
go check it out first?”

Golow
growls and its stomach rattles with that grating sound that I’ve come to
recognize as its laughter. I take another step back, toward the hole it came
from. Golow’s not stupid and shifts forward, following me.

“You’re a
smart little girl, aren’t you?” In one swift leap, it bounds ahead and
obstructs the entrance to the city.

“You think
you’re smarter than I am?” Golow says, its red eyes shining, almost teasing me.

I take a
deep breath. Lukas is unconscious. Tahari, Yuri, and Hennessy have vanished.
One of them deactivated Lukas. I’ve been left alone, outsmarted by a gigantic
piece of metal that’s got its mind set on killing me.

Death
doesn’t scare me. Maybe that’s why, as I stand before the monster, the events
of the past hour become crystal clear. The lost key, then the doors unlocking
one by one. It was all a setup, meant to bring us here first. It had to be us
to awaken Golow, us to be killed in order to clear the way to the Underground
City.

A rim of
dawn bleeds into the sky. The treetops waver in the breeze, the leaves rustle.
The wind sweeps away the last whiffs of dust and debris and in the dim light of
the new day I glimpse the ghosts of Astraca’s ruins, now crumbled in several
piles.

Golow
stands in the middle of the old plaza, its majestic frame towering over what’s
left of the Foresight door, now just a cracked manhole that leads into the
Underground City. “Are you ready to give up your life, child?”

“I am for
my friends,” I reply. “Not for the benefit of the traitors who left me here.”

Golow
squints its red eyes. “I am a machine. I bear no judgment on mankind.”

“Mankind
created you.”

It nods. “And
when they did, they had no idea they’d just sealed their own fate.”

I swallow.
I know Golow is right. AIs destroyed Astraca at the peak of its glory in 2089.
Some said it was a glitch, others called it fate. The AIs so carefully built,
and around which the whole society rotated, suddenly turned against their own
creators and brutally murdered them. People were shredded to pieces, as the
story goes. I stare at the sharp fangs in front of me, wondering if that’s how
Golow will finish me too.

No. This
is not how I want it to end. It’s not how Dad would want me to end it. Dad
taught me how to fly. He taught me how to override my built-in deactivation
button so I could be free. And look at me now, unable to free my own people.

Golow
leans in, ripples its snout, and growls. It stares into my eyes for one more
second and then pounces, its fangs exposed and ready to dig into my flesh. I
twirl away and run, skipping over crumbled walls and overturned pillars. Golow
is faster, though, and much bigger. It leaps ahead of me, blocking my escape.
It laughs at me, enjoying every minute of the chase.

I double
back and run in the opposite direction, toward Lukas, still lying unconscious
on the ground. I drop over my friend and shove a hand behind his neck, fumbling
for his deactivation button. The wolf droid realizes what I’m trying to do and
with a swift jump swoops over me. I grab Lukas’s shirt and roll away, right as
the beast’s fangs snap inches away from us.

“You can’t
win, child,” Golow snarls, pouncing on me. “You’ll have to leave him, or I’ll
kill you both!”

One of its
paws sweeps me off the ground, knocking me several feet away. I fall on my
face, pain stabbing me in the chest. Golow’s sharp jaws scrape the ground,
cracking old cobblestones and debris in their destructive path.

“See,
child?” it says. “See how powerful I am?”

I scramble
back to my feet and run away from the plaza, back to where I spotted Tahari and
Hennessy fleeing. Golow takes me down one more time and watches me fall with
sadistic gusto. A big cat playing with its mouse. And as I fall, I catch a
glimpse of Yuri, crouched low in the grass, the muzzles above his knuckles
popped open and poised to fire. He closes his fist and points it at a limp body
lying on the ground before him.

Wes’s limp body
.

I
recognize Wes’s titanium blades, the tips raised behind him as he lies face
down on his stomach.

“Noooo!” I
scream, launching myself toward him.

I’ll stop you from hurting my friends, you
coward. I’ll stop you if it’s the last thing I
—

A bright
flash zaps before my eyes. I duck, still screaming, and throw myself between
Yuri and Wes. Yuri slams his fist into my face, knocking me off my feet.
Golow’s jaws follow, snapping inches away from me. I hear my own voice, my
bones cracking as I hit the ground, then the acrid smell of burnt flesh fills
the air, more screams, not my voice.

I fall,
roll, try to get up, and fall again. Pain seeps through my skull, making me
scream. Spots blink in my vision. I keep rolling in the grass, warped noises
echoing in my head, screams, clangs. Then steps, running.

A voice
whispers in my ear. “Get up, Akaela. Quick!”

“Wes?” I
whisper. I clamber up, my head spinning. The sky is pink, the sun about to peek
out from behind the mountains. The reek of blood and scorched skin fills my
nostrils.

“What’s
happening? Where’s Lukas?”

Wes
squeezes my arm. “There’s no—”

Golow’s
jaws come growling at us. Wes grabs my arm and drags me away as the angry droid
claws the ground below us.

“You can’t
run away from me, child,” Golow snarls in its deep, metallic voice.

Its fangs
come down again and one slashes through my calf. I scream. Wes lets go of my
arm and falls on his knees.

Golow
pulls away and raises its head, the cavernous blackness between its jaws gaping
above me. I try to run, but there’s nowhere to escape from the glistening fangs
coming down on me. I close my eyes.

I’m sorry, Dad
.

I’m so sorry
.

Something
whistles past me. The grating sound of metal clanging and bending makes me spring
my eyes open, and when I do, it’s not just fangs that are coming down on me.
It’s the whole beast.

“Akaela!”

Wes scoops
me away seconds before Golow falls on its head with a thunderous blow. Bolts of
electricity zap throughout its frame, and smoke escapes from the grooves
between its plates.

“How—?
What?” I blabber, trying to make sense of the scene unfolding before me. A
cable is wrapped around all four of Golow’s legs, crushing them into a knot of
squashed metal. The robot tries to move one more time, but the cable seems to
have a mind of its own and it sinks even deeper until all four limbs come apart
from the frame. Sizzling wires dangle from the hollow cavities.

I spin my
head, looking around. Wes is standing right by me, apparently unharmed, save
for his shallow breathing and a few scrapes on his face. I can’t find Lukas,
but spot both Yuri and Hennessy lying in the grass, a gray plume of smoke
rising from Hennessy’s chest.

The air is
still. Still and silent. Until a voice booms.

“It’s not
over yet!”

Tahari
drags Lukas by the collar of his shirt and climbs onto the stump of a broken
pillar, holding a knife to the boy’s throat.

Lukas has
regained consciousness and stares at us wide-eyed, his face as white as flour.

Wes sighs.
“I knew he’d screw up.”

“Screw up
what?” I ask. “He was unconscious!”

Wes
doesn’t reply. “Watch out,” he shouts instead, wraps an arm around my neck, and
pushes me down.

The cables
around Golow’s legs screech, furiously unwrap, and zap away.

My brother
appears from behind the heaping wreck of metal. “I hope you have a good
explanation for what just happened, Tahari.”