Darkness (18 page)

“Does everyone eat here during mealtime?” I asked.

Elias nodded. “We are the Community, from highest to lowest. It does not matter who you are. In the Community, we always eat together.”

At that moment, trays of food were brought from the kitchen, carried by several women and some of the older children. There were fruits – watermelon, apples, bananas, even raspberries and dates. There were also vegetables, like carrots, asparagus, broccoli – nothing was cooked. Bowls of intricate salads were also brought out, along with several varieties of nuts.

The fruits and vegetables looked as fresh as could be. Still, despite the fact that I hadn’t eaten in a while, I had zero appetite. I had yet to see Anna and the others and there was no guarantee that they had been kept safe.

It was at that moment that the others were led into the anteroom from aft. Their hands were bound as mine had been. Anna’s eyes met mine. I felt my throat clench, knowing that she was in danger and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. All this, after all, had happened under my watch. I should have listened to Makara and gotten everyone out while I could have. Now that opportunity had passed.

At last, all of the Community women and children seated themselves. I kept my eyes on Anna, and she kept hers on mine. I realized she was trying to signal something. I had no idea what that was, though, and I tried not to let my frustration show.

My eyes finally found Michael, Julian, and Ashton, who stood to Anna’s side. Grudge was missing. He was the one who had escaped, then.

Behind them stood several women with guns holstered on their sides. If it weren’t for those guns, we could probably easily take these people in a fight.

“Please, sit,” Elias said, with a wide smile.

Anna and the others were pushed toward the table. Five empty chairs had been set up.

With Grudge missing, I realized what Anna was trying to communicate: not only was Grudge alive, but he was working to get us out of here.

I felt my heart rush at the thought even as I struggled to keep my face placid. Suddenly, I felt bad for the way I had treated him. Would he hold that against us, leave us to our doom aboard this ship? My gut feeling was no. If he did that, there was no hope that he himself could escape. He
had
to do what he could to help, regardless of his personal feelings on the matter.

He had snuck aboard a ship once. Maybe he had done it again.

I moved to an empty space next to Anna and sat. Everyone was now seated with the exception of Elias. He raised his arms as if in an invocation before seating himself.

Everyone began eating. I noticed that no one filled their own plates. They filled each other’s. It was very strange, and I figured it was part of their beliefs. Someone stepped behind me, grabbing both of my hands. I jumped out of my chair, causing everyone to face me.

It was the woman with blue eyes. She looked at me.

“Your bonds have already been removed,” she said.

Something told me that she already knew that – she was just trying to get my attention for some reason. The woman moved on to Anna before I could answer or ask her anything. I looked at Elias, who stared at me with his dark eyes, willing me to eat. Behind, the women with guns still stood guard in case we tried anything.

I reached for an apple. Without taking my eyes off Elias I bit into it.

Elias turned toward his wife, Lyn, who was whispering something to him. All around us, the women and children ate. It wasn’t quiet, but it also wasn’t loud – people mostly spoke in hushed tones. I had a feeling that it might have been louder except for the fact that everyone knew something big was about to happen. It wasn’t just our presence. Elias was going to make an announcement. The prophecy he’d made had come true – Outsiders had come into the Bunker, which would usher the start of the Ascension.

Maybe this was a feast of epic proportions. Maybe
that
was part of the reason we had been kept under lock and key for a while. They had to prepare everything for the Ascension. They had to pack their things, set up this feast, and prepare their minds to leave this place, and they couldn’t have us messing that up.

And there was still the question of Grudge. I looked at Anna to my side, this question unasked. Anna said nothing, though I had no doubt that she understood.

Had Grudge been overlooked when the Community captured us? It had been so dark up there near the park. It was hard to imagine anyone getting themselves out of the ambush the Community set up, but if there was anyone who could do it, it would probably be Grudge. The question now was what he would do with that freedom. He had survived
Odin’s
crash, had survived the cold, and now, had escaped being captured.

And now this man who had stowed away on our ship, whom
we
had saved, was our only chance of getting saved.

I reached for a bowl of salad, filled with lettuce, tomato, radishes, and sliced red onion. The eating was purely a mechanical act; a necessity. If there was a chance that we could survive all of this, then I needed all of the strength I could get.

For all of Elias’s hinting that he had important information to reveal to us, he had so far remained quiet, speaking to Lyn, mostly. I watched this tall woman with the blonde hair. I thought that she was beautiful, in a regal way – this was only diminished by the lack of human warmth in her eyes. Elias seemed to even defer to her, in some sense.

There were about ten children, total – probably way too many for Elias to have had them all with Lyn. The thought bothered me, so I pushed it out of my mind. All I knew was, this Community was very different from anything I had ever seen and it freaked me out. Among the women, Lyn clearly held the top spot. It seemed that whoever sat the farthest away from Elias held the lowest spot. The youngest women sat farthest away – the older ones sat closer. Maybe it was based on age.

My gaze shifted to Michael, Julian, and Ashton, who all sat side-by-side along the table’s long side. They ate, their eyes roving the interior of the ship for any weakness or chance for escape. There was little of that because behind each of our chairs stood a woman with a gun. All of us had been stripped of our weapons, and I could only wonder where they were being kept. I checked the holsters of each of these women, but my Beretta was not among them.

“How long have you all been in here?” I asked Anna.

She swallowed a mouthful of salad. “A few hours. The others, longer. Ashton was the first to arrive. Then Michael. Then Julian. I followed soon after.”

“Have you learned anything?”

Anna shook her head. “The same woman led us each here, one at a time.” She turned her head toward me. “What about you?”

“I got the grand tour,” I said. “I think he might be...possessed by the xenovirus.”

Anna raised her eyebrows questioningly.

“He says he hears the Voice when he sleeps,” I said. “Askala.”

Anna’s face blanched, but I didn’t have the chance to say anything more. Elias rose, and instantly, all eyes in the room turned on him.

“As you can see, the Outsiders have come. It is time for the Ascension.”

As Elias spoke, all voices stilled.

“As I foretold, five Outsiders would come into Bunker 84, ushering the beginning of the Ascension. On that day we would feast and
Aeneas
would fly out of the Earth.”

Elias paused, collecting his thoughts. He closed his eyes.

“There shall be Five,” he intoned. “The pilot. The scientist. The soldier. The slave.” Elias opened his eyes, and stared directly at me. “And the one who is marked of darkness.”

I tried hard not to react. He didn’t know which of us was which – at least, not yet. And we sure as hell weren’t going to tell him. His entire prophecy was shot to the ground because there were, in fact,
six
of us, including Grudge.

“Where are you planning on flying
Aeneas?”
Ashton asked.

“There is so much to do,” Elias said. “But I suppose we can begin by making our attack on Los Angeles.”

I stood up in my seat. Immediately, two pairs of hands latched onto me from behind. They forced me down into my chair.

“Los Angeles?” I asked.
“You
are attacking Los Angeles?”

Elias shrugged. “Of course. I never did tell you what Bunker 84 was built to house, did I?”

Elias’s smile widened as I felt my heart pound. Anna grabbed me by the arm, pulling me back in my seat.

“Stay cool,” she said. “We don’t know enough yet to be going crazy.”

Unlike these people,
I wanted to add, but I said nothing.

“There was a reason why Bunker 84 was kept more secure than most other Bunkers,” Elias said. “Including, to an extent, Bunker One. It’s because Bunker 84 was the site chosen for the storage of nuclear weapons.”

I tried not to let my shock show, but it was hard. I had definitely not been expecting that. A madman, with access to nukes. Then, another connection clicked in my head. If Elias was truly controlled by Askala, then I could see why she would have wanted him. If she controlled this Bunker, then she could control nukes. Could she even think that far ahead? Even to an advanced alien race, nukes would present a great deal of power. And if she could wipe out most of humanity using Elias in the process, all the better.

“You have nukes here?” Michael asked.

Elias continued to smile, clearly pleased. “Oh, yes. We have some of the most powerful toys the U.S. Government ever created.” Elias shrugged. “Some two hundred of them, in fact.”

Two hundred nuclear weapons. Of all of the things the United States decided to save during the Dark Decade, why had they decided to save
those?

Los Angeles. Nuclear weapons. And the five of us, held prisoner, were the only ones who had a chance to stop it.

“You can’t do this,” I said. “There are thousands of people living in Los Angeles. If you take out Los Angeles...”

We were going to lose the vast majority of people still alive in the Wasteland. Sure, Carin Black would probably die in the attack. At the same time, however, so would everyone else. With two hundred nukes, Elias could do a lot of damage.

But one question remained unanswered – why had he kept us alive to bear witness? And why was he deciding to go now? Clearly, he still needed us for something, and he believed in his prophecy about the Five. If all of this Askala stuff was true, then
she
wanted us alive for something.

For what?

“Humanity is polluted with darkness,” Elias said. “We must cleanse the world of its filth. We will begin with Los Angeles, but we won’t stop there. There is the rest of the world, too – and with the
Aeneas,
we can make sure most of the cancer is obliterated.”

“No!”
Anna shouted, standing.

The woman guarding Anna knocked her in the head with the butt of her gun, causing Anna’s head to drop to the table. With a roar, I stood and began to wrestle the gun from her.

“Stop!”
Elias shouted.

Several more women grasped my arms, forcing me back to my seat. Though Anna was knocked out cold, there was no bleeding.

She stirred, opening one eye. I put my hand on her face.

“Anna...you there?”

Slowly, she lifted her head from the table. “Yeah...I think so.”

Elias smiled, and looked like he was ready to speak again.

Except that was when all of the lights went out.

Chapter 15

Everything was cloaked with darkness. Elias cursed above the din and began to shout orders.

“Secure the ship! Don’t let them escape!”

Several pairs of hands grasped me in the dark. Judging by the cries alongside me, Anna and the others were also being restrained. It was hard to tell anything that was going on.

I twisted myself, breaking free of the hands gripping me, scattering dishes and food in the process. I turned to face my attackers, grabbing a nearby metal plate. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. I stepped forward, swinging my plate. It whistled through the empty air.

Another pair of hands latched onto me from the side. Amid the screams filling the anteroom, I felt cold metal at my throat.

A blade.

At that moment, my assailant screamed, high and shrill. Her grip loosened as I felt her slide to the floor. I hopped away, and the blade the woman had held clattered to the deck.

“Got your back.”

“Anna!”

Then she was in front of me, scooping up the blade from the deck. There was just light enough to make out her form. From all around came sounds of panic. It wouldn’t be long until we were attacked again.

“Come on,” Anna said, pressing the hilt of the knife into my hand. “Michael and the others went aft.”

As I gripped the knife, she pulled me forward, out of the anteroom and into one of the corridors leading aft. The shouts and screams in the anteroom dimmed when we broke into a jog.

“Where are we going?”

Anna didn’t answer. She slowed to a walk in the light from the end of the corridor. The silhouettes of two men blocked the doorway.

At Anna’s approach, two guns were raised and pointed in our direction.

“Michael, it’s us,” Anna said.

I had no idea what the hell was going on. It was as if this whole thing were planned.

“That him?”

It was Grudge. I’d never been happier to hear his voice in my life.

“Get in here,” Julian said. “We have control of the fusion drive.”

The fusion drive. That was how they were able to cut off power. I hadn’t given Grudge enough credit. The fact that he had risked his life to help us after my lack of faith was humbling.

Anna and I entered the power room, which was bathed in a pale blue light. The room itself was rather small – the six of us crowded inside had filled it to almost overflowing. Pipes and machinery covered every surface, most of which fed into the large spherical tank set into the room’s very back. This was the fusion drive. It was about fifteen feet high, if I had to guess, and about as wide, made completely of metal. A touchscreen glowed blue in front of it. Ashton fiddled with the computer.