Burn Out (14 page)

“I accidentally fired the gun when I got it out of the case,” I said, bending to pick it up while keeping a hand over my chest, so my lethal right boob didn’t roll out onto the floor.

Kale looked around the room, frowning. His eyes rested on the center case right behind me, then fell on James. “Is that what happened?”

James still looked shaken. “Yes, sir. She scared the crap out of me.”

“We better get moving,” I said. Markus’ eyes met mine with a steely gray stare. He didn’t believe me. He couldn’t have known what happened, but he sure didn’t believe my version of the story. His gaze traveled down to my chest and my larger right breast. Only Markus would notice that, the perv.

I ignored him and pushed my way through the group and into the hallway. What did happen? There’s no way James could have fired the gun, unless he was vibrating at the exact speed as me—an almost statistical impossibility.

Kale hadn’t been able to activate the guns when he had tried, and I had no doubt that Markus and Britta had given it a shot while we were back here. Which means the fact that James fired it was no fluke. I stopped in my room and grabbed a brown satchel, then removed T.O. from my bra. I placed it into the smaller inner compartment of the bag. As soon as I zipped the pocket closed, the seam disappeared and became invisible. No one would know it was there. I
slung it over my head, with the strap diagonal across my body so that my injured ribs were on the opposite side. The others might be suspicious that I’d taken to wearing a bag, but I couldn’t help that. This weapon needed to stay safe.

“When’s it gonna be night again? They’ll have to go away when the storms start, right?” Britta moaned.

“Not for a few hours yet.” Kale stretched. “Be patient.”

Markus leaned down and picked something up off the floor. “We shouldn’t be too patient. I’m only saying that because this fell from the door when the last bomb hit. It looks sort of important.” He held up a screw.

The indestructible door was falling apart. Something close to panic set in. “Not good,” I agreed.

The blast of another bomb almost knocked me off my feet, and Britta hung on to the chair as the room rattled. Kale cursed as the table knocked into his injured leg. As soon as the aftershocks settled, I’d make my move. It was the perfect time. I suited up, and turned on B.K.

“You don’t have to do this by yourself.” James’ low voice sliced through the air. “Let me come with you.”

I shook my head. “I’m the one with the cool weapon, remember? No use in the rest of you getting hurt.”

Markus touched my arm in a halting way. “Be careful up there. Take your best shot and get back down here.”

Kale nodded. “Aim for the underside of the ship in the back end. It’s where the engine is.”

“Great, because it would be pretty hard to hit the top of the ship from the ground.”

“Always the smart-ass,” said Markus.

James smiled at me until he noticed Britta staring at him. His somber expression returned quickly.

I raised my gun and started toward the ladder. “I want to time opening the door just right. I want to go out, aim, shoot, and get back inside.”

The aftershocks lasted longer this time. They were getting weaker though. Maybe I could make it up the ladder before another bomb hit. As I reached the bottom rung, a heavy creaking noise sounded above me. Several pings echoed as small objects bounced off my helmet. More screws. Before I could react, an arm came from behind me, pulling me to the ground.

The heavy shelter door crashed to the floor, inches from my feet. Several additional screws and pebbles scattered across the room from the impact. James fell on top of me, shielding my body with his. Our faces were so close that the only thing separating us was the clear plate of my helmet.

“You okay?” he said loudly, like the helmet made me deaf or something.

“Yeah,” I yelled back just as loud, eliciting another smile from him. “Thanks for saving my ass.”

“I hate to break this little love fest up,” said Markus. “But I have to point out the obvious. We. Have. No. Door. Maybe the perfect timing you were talking about could be like, now.”

James scrambled off me, and I jumped up. We were
sitting ducks. They could drop some kind of gas or bomb in here and that would be the end of it. I ran to the ladder and looked up. At least the ship wasn’t directly over the opening. That was something. Unless they’d already dropped men who would deliver the next bomb personally. Like a pod city delivery, but instead of getting thermoplastic-fiber furniture, we’d get our heads blown off.

“Put your suits on,” Kale addressed his group. “The oxygen will leak out of this place fast.”

Oxygen. My dad did an emergency drill with us once in case something crazy happened. I’d only been about ten years old. He’d been so sure the door would hold, he said we wouldn’t need it. The memory clicked into place.

I gestured to the wall. “Everyone get back behind the table. There’s a metal partition that slides out and will seal the rest of the shelter so the air doesn’t escape.” The only area it excluded was the front part—where the ladder and door were. And me. James hesitated but moved farther back with the others.

“Just let me back in, okay?” I yelled.

James gave me a thumbs-up, before he became obscured from my view by the wall that Kale slid across the room.

I took the ladder two rungs at a time, and peered out the hole where the door used to be. There wasn’t anyone on the ground. Kale’s small ship stood miraculously intact. He’d been right that they wouldn’t want to waste a good ship. Its hatch door was open though, so they’d either looted it or tried to fly away with it. I hoped it was the latter
and wished I could’ve seen their faces when they realized Kale had sabotaged their plans.

The roar of the Consulate ship caught my attention and I looked skyward. It had flown about a thousand feet away but circled back around toward the shelter. If they hadn’t realized they’d succeeded in breaking in with the last bomb drop, they’d sure know it in a minute when they passed over the empty space where the door had been.

The large white ship revved its engines, blotting out the sun for one glorious moment as it sped toward me. Laser pulses shot out from the ship. They’d spotted me. I hunched close to the ground and raised B.K., waiting for the perfect shot. It was difficult ignoring the pulsing lasers as they got closer to me. The pulses crackled loudly as they hit the dirt, and the acrid smell of smoke filled my nostrils. At least there was nothing that could catch fire. Except me.

One shot came close to Kale’s ship and I knew we weren’t ever getting off this planet without transportation. My heart raced about a thousand beats per minute. I took a deep breath and bolted out of the doorway. I ran, dodging the death rays coming my way, until I was directly under the ship. I lifted my gun, aiming it right at the rear underside of the ship. They must have guessed what I was doing right as I hit the trigger panel. The ship veered sharply to the left just as the laser traveled the distance to the ship. I still hit it, but not dead center in the engine like I’d
planned. If it had been a perfect hit, the whole ship would have exploded.

Instead, the laser connected with the area where the right wing merged with the ship. Flames licked along the ship where I’d shot it. The ship swerved, no longer in control without the functioning wing. Huge clouds of smoke billowed out as it dropped. It hit the ground just over the ridge where Kale’s ship had been last night. An explosion ripped through the air as the ship crashed, but the only thing visible over the ridge were large plumes of rising smoke. I turned to run back to the shelter and jumped when I came face-to-face with a suit. My body—already on overload—started shaking. “What are you doing out here?”

James’ voice rang low and clear through the helmet coms. “I thought you might need help. I didn’t know your plan was a suicide run straight at the ship.”

“My plan was to save us. Remember? I did what I had to.” I tried to calm myself as we went back to the shelter, but adrenaline still coursed through my body. My legs shook as I climbed back down the ladder then refused to hold me up when I hit the floor. I sank to my knees, trying to catch my breath. The metal containment wall remained shut tight on the other side of the room.

James jumped down behind me and knelt at my side. His hand pressed lightly on my lower back. “You can’t fly solo all the time.”

“Like I’ve had any choice about that,” I said. I was too tired to move away from his touch.

His hand dropped as the wall slid open a foot. Kale leaned out. “Get the hell in here, you two.”

James steadied me and helped me through the partition. I pulled my helmet off and took a deep breath, while Kale secured the sliding door. He turned and assessed me. “Please tell me the explosion I heard was their ship being blown to smithereens.”

I inspected my feet. “Um … let’s just say that while I didn’t exactly kill their ship, it is severely injured. It crashed—that’s something, right?”

Britta groaned. “Great.”

Seriously? Let her try and take out a ship that size on her own
. “I did the best I could. What is your deal?”

Britta opened her mouth to respond. Her gaze flicked to James and she shut it again. Finally, she sighed. “No big deal. Just sayin’ it could have gone better is all.”

James stared coolly at Britta. “She risked her life out there.”

Kale raised an eyebrow at James, then turned to me. “You’re quite the soldier. I’m impressed, Tora.”

I shrugged. “They were close to hitting your ship and I wanted to save it.” All heads swiveled in my direction. “I knew if the ship was compromised, we’d have no chance of getting out of here. So I thought I’d run out real quick and blow them up.”

Kale laughed. Britta scoffed but otherwise remained silent.

Markus smiled like a proud parent. “I told you she was
a tough one.” Then he pointed at the metal wall. “I hate to be the voice of reason, but if any of those burners lived through the crash, I’m thinking not having a door could be problematic.”

He was right, nothing would stop a bomb from being thrown inside. But they’d have to be able to walk to do it.

Kale grabbed his helmet. “Britta, suit up, and guard the opening. Call me on the com if anything looks suspicious.”

If you asked me, Britta was the thing that looked suspicious. But no one asked me. She glared at Kale like he was a moron. “Where the hell are you going? And why the hell aren’t we just moving the guns and getting out of here?”

Kale spoke calmly, as though bringing down government ships was something he did before breakfast each day. “Because we need to make sure they’re all dead. Hopefully the crash knocked out their com system and there won’t be any help on the way.”

“It’s standard military procedure,” James added. A mix of anger and sadness crossed his face as he spoke the words.

“We’ll move the guns,” Kale said sharply. “But we also have to salvage all spare parts we can from their ship … and we have to finish off any survivors. Do you think you can handle this, Britta?” His face burned with contempt and I knew he was referencing her earlier defiance.

I stared at Kale in disbelief. “You mean, if someone over there is injured, you’re just going to shoot them dead? I’d hope we could be more civil than that.”

Kale squared his shoulders. “Hope is for pansies who can’t shoot straight.”

“No enemy survivors left alive. It’s protocol.” James spit out the words.

Kale’s voice was flat. “Trust me. They’d do the same to us.”

I believed him. I mean it wasn’t like the Consulate came waving peace signs at us, but I just didn’t get it. With so few human survivors in existence, everyone still insisted on the “us versus them” mentality. It would probably stay that way until the last human fizzled out. Markus was right that I didn’t think we deserved the chance to mess up another planet.

Britta still wore a sour expression on her face, but I’d begun to think it was the only one she had. Kale tipped Britta’s chin upward. Maybe he meant it in an encouraging way, but it looked menacing to me. “Buck up, soldier. We’ll be out of here soon.”

Kale would go to his ship to make any necessary repairs and reinstall the fuel converter, while Britta, James, and Markus guarded the shelter door and watched for trouble.

“Oh, one more thing,” Kale said before he left. He touched the device on his forearm. “I want everyone’s com devices left on from here on out.”

Britta looked quizzical. “Why?”

Kale seemed to weigh his response before answering. “We need to be able to hear one another at all times. What if something happens while we’re separated?”

James flipped his device on immediately. “Yes, sir. Good idea.”

I couldn’t decide if Kale did this because he didn’t trust Britta, or because he didn’t trust me, but I knew for sure that it had nothing to do with his concern for our well-being. He just wanted to hear what was said at all times. Britta and Markus turned on their devices, and it made me glad I didn’t have one myself.

After Kale left, I excused myself and said I needed to gather my things. This was it. I was leaving this place forever. The place I’d considered home for half my life. Memories of my family, the good and the bad, wouldn’t come as easily without the familiar reminders of the shelter around me.

I only had one more chance to visit my favorite room, so I headed down the hall. Even after all this time, the presence of my father was strong in the room. The study held a feeling of safety and comfort. I sat at his work station, running my hand along the smooth surface. The desk reminded me of him. Silent and strong constitution. The contents of the desk were neat and orderly, his work space meticulous. I’d briefly riffled through his things after he died, yet felt like I was violating his privacy even in death. Color-coded tablets were stacked in one drawer. I’d looked through the secret, plastic tablets after his death, but they mainly involved notes about the bioenergetic weapons. Most people had long ago shunned notebooks in favor of energetic devices, but my father knew you couldn’t
hack a notebook the same way you could an e-device—the Consulate would have to physically find it first.