Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives (19 page)

Traylor shakes his head, turning back toward the Manse, dead grass crunching under his sandaled feet. "No, I... I guess..."

"We kept you on the far side of the house," Tien explains as if he is deeply ashamed.
 “So you wouldn’t see it.”

"Yeah, I guess that's right," Traylor nods. "I never noticed."

I turn back toward the grassy plain.

Before us stands a massive metallic dome, rising out of the landscape like a bubble. Like a maggot.
 

"This is where they experimented on us," Tien explains. My heart sinks, my suspicions about this place confirmed. This isn't a school
for
mutants. It's a school where humans could learn
about
mutants–by doing things to them.

I shudder and feel the tears welling up.

"I'm so sorry, Tien," I say, taking his cold, pale hands in my own. His eyes meet mine for once, and I see a surprising amount of compassion within. Humanity. He eyes me like he loves me. 

And, I have to admit, that doesn't feel like a bad thing.

"Would you like to see it?" Tien asks, gesturing toward the dome.

I'm stunned, having trouble finding words. "I... I..."

"Hells, yes!" Traylor bellows, eyes wide.

"Traylor!" I scowl at the boy, mortified. "I don't think that–"

"JUNO! TRAYLOR!"

We all whirl to the left, stunned by a new voice.

I almost faint.

It's Ursa!

"Gods you two!" the woman screams. "Am I glad to see you! I need help! NOW!"

Ursa is drenched in blood.

27.

"The last human was here," Blaine says, getting up from the kneeling crouch he'd used to examine the body. There is blood everywhere, but not all of it belongs to this unfortunate fellow.

Not by a long shot.

"Yes, High Deacon," Jude agrees, kneeling in another patch of flattened grass only a few feet away.
There’d been a body here as well, but somebody had moved it.

That meant that
somebody
was still alive. 

The Children of Mutanity, using floating rail carts obtained in Venecici, had ridden the Engie tracks all the way to the Fringes, only to find that the last human and her friends hadn't got
ten off at the end of the line. They’d jumped off somewhere.

It hadn't taken long to pick up the trail though.

"They went that way," Jude points, his finger finding a nearly faded path of flattened grass meandering to the horizon. The wind is constant out here, causing the grass to ceaselessly shift and reassert itself. The path won't be visible much longer. Blaine joins him, staring in the direction Jude is indicating.

"There's something out there," Blaine says, squinting.

Jude squints his own eyes, but can't be sure. It
could
be something, but it could also just be a rounded hilltop.

"Farseer," Blaine orders, reaching out to one of the Children behind him. A mutant man, laden with field equipment, passes a long brass tube to Blaine who takes the device and holds it up to one eye.
 He smiles, handing the Farseer to Jude. Jude takes it and looks, a bulbous metallic structure suddenly appearing on the magnified horizon. 

"There's a Manse behind it too," Jude announces.

"We move quickly and quietly," Blaine says, reining his Children together. "Stay low in the grass. There's little cover out here, but that cannot be helped. Jude, you're with me." 

Jude nods, pride swelling in him.

This was it! The moment his life had been leading up to.

The last human.

Who is the last human?

You know who it is!

It's not her! It
can't
be!

Does it matter?

He shakes his head.

No,
he finally thinks.
I must kill the last human.

Blaine's voice in his head overpowers his own.

THE LAST HUMAN MUST DIE!

28.

"
I'm sorry... My fault... Mutations... Pilcrow? No! Juno... Last human? No!
"

"Pilcrow?" I repeat, face scrunched. "What does that mean?"

Ursa shakes her head, staring at Altair's unconscious form. "He's been spouting this nonsense since I found him." The woman's eyes find mine. "He seems to be dreaming about
you
a lot though." She smirks.

I roll my eyes. "It's probably the concussion." I turn to Tien, who's just finished putting a fresh dressing on Altair's head. "It
is
a concussion, right?"

Tien shrugs. "I can't say for sure but... Yeah, probably."

We're back in Tien's room in the Manse. Me, Traylor, Ursa, Tien, and Altair. When Ursa showed up in front of the Manse, hysterical, Tien had immediately rounded up a few of his brothers and retrieved Altair from the grasslands according to Ursa's directions. Ursa had seemed nervous–even for her–upon seeing the mutant boys from Everwinter, but she seems calmer now. Luckily, Altair's only major wound is on the head, and that not so severe. He will recover.

Ursa sobs a little, and I move to where she sits at the side of the bed to comfort her. "Why don't you take a walk?" I suggest. "You've done all you can for Altair. Take a break, get some air. The boys here won't bother you."
I think
.

Ursa shakes her head vehemently. "No... I... I can't. I feel responsible for him now. I want to be here when he wakes up. You go, Juno. Get some air. I don't imagine he'll be waking for a while yet."

I very much want to argue the point, but the look on Ursa's face stops me. She's traumatized. I nod. "Sure," I say. "Come on, Traylor. Let's go get something to eat with Tien." Traylor doesn't argue for once, heading for the door, Tien beside him.

"Juno?" Ursa calls, timidly. "A moment, please."

I nod at Tien and Traylor and they leave the room.

"What is it?" I ask, coming next to the woman
again.

Ursa's face becomes graver than it already is.

"It isn't safe here," she urges.

I sigh. "Look, I know some of these boys seem a little rough around the edges, but I don't think they'll hurt us. Not with Tien around anyway."

Ursa shakes her head. "It's not that," she says. "I
know
what this place once was."

I smirk. "Yeah, so do I."

"You do?"

"Yeah. They used to experiment on the boys here. They were stolen from Everwinter as infants and brought here." Ursa's jaw is almost on the floor. "Tien told me," I explain.

Ursa nods. "Well, thank the gods for him," she says. "But that's not what has me worried."

I roll my eyes, getting annoyed. "What is it, Ursa?"

She lowers her voice, conspiratorially. "I used to work here," she says.

My eyes pop wide. "What?" I say, hoping I'd misheard her.

"It was brief, and a
long
time ago," Ursa explains. "I don't think any of these boys will remember me but..."

I nod, understanding the woman's fear now. "Do
you
remember any of
them
?" I ask.

Ursa shakes her head. "It was so long ago, and they were just infants at the time... Juno, you don't know what we did here. It wasn't pleasant. It happened during a more desperate time in my life, and I was willing to compromise my scruples to achieve my goals."

I pause, staring. "You mean curing mutations, don't you? You did some of your experiments here..."
To help cure my Mother
, I think but don't say.

Ursa nods, touching the tumors on her face. "I didn't look like this back then," she says. "There's that at least. They haven't recognized me so far."

I study her face, the human she’d once been barely recognizable. I smile. "There's nothing to worry about then," I say. "You look nothing like those old fotos in your lab." I smirk sheepishly. "That's not meant to be an insult, by the way."

Ursa laughs and Altair groans at the sound, struggling
a little on the bed. "No offense taken," she finally says. "I suppose you are right." She smiles at me. "Go. Take a walk with Tien. I'll send someone when Altair wakes up. Then we can get the hells out of here."

I get up, putting a hand on the mutant woman's shoulder. "Take it easy," I say. "You deserve it."

And with that, I leave the room.

29.

I find the hallway outside the room deserted.
 

Boisterous voices echo up from the main floor, so I head down the stairs. I make my way to the mess hall and find a group of mutants surrounding Traylor
and the mutant boy Jurid. To my astonishment, the two are wrestling at the center of the circle, grunts and cries produced as they tangle. 

And laughs.
 

I sigh in relief upon realizing this is all for fun.
 Then I laugh too. Traylor is actually giving Jurid a run for it! I see Tien among the group, watching. I slip over to him and tap him on the shoulder. He turns toward me and smiles. 

"Wanna go for a walk?" I ask. He nods enthusiastically.

We leave together, with more than a few eyes watching us instead of the combatants in the ring. As soon as we're outside, it feels as if a huge weight has been lifted, like I'd been holding my breath for hours. Tien falls into step beside me and I relax. 

We head for the dome.
 

Tien looks at me, but when my eyes try to find his, they dart away.
 

He's such a timid creature.

"You're not like the others here, are you, Tien?"

Tien finally looks at me as if offended. "We are all the same," he replies. "We are brothers. We all come from Everwinter. We
–"

"You
know
that's not what I meant," I cut him off. "I mean in here." I tap my chest once. "You feel things that they don't." I hesitate. Tien's gone shy again. "You're more human," I finish.

Tien's gaze falls all the way to the ground and he deflates, as if I've just pulled a magic pin from his back that was keeping him upright. He nods. "They call me brother, but they treat me like a human." He pauses. "The people that brought us here, the science people, they all liked me
the best. I don't know why. I guess ‘cause I could relate to them. I understood what they were trying to do, even if it was horrific. 'For the greater good', one of them always told me." Tien shudders. "I understood the concept, but my brothers didn't. Or they refused to."

"And you accepted that?" I ask, making my disdain plain. "You accepted the fact that they were experimenting on you so that their kind
–
humans
–could be advanced?"

Tien shrugs. "No, I did not
accept
it. But, like I said, I understood it. Those people would have done what they did regardless of whether I accepted it or not. Not understanding it would have only served to make things worse. If my life was to be resigned to an endless cycle of pain and suffering, at least some good would come of it. At least there was the hope that it would result in a life being saved." Tien hesitates. "Even if that life was human."

I shake my head, hardly believing what I'm hearing.
 

Did my
Father know what went on here? 
I wonder for what seems the millionth time. I'm almost positive now that he did. And did he justify it by saying it was for 'the greater good'? He did use that phrase sometimes. Was saving my Mother worth such a hefty cost?

You would have done the same for Jude.

I nod to myself.
Yes, I would have
.
Without a doubt.
 

I love you, Juno Quinn...

"You really are one of a kind, Tien," I sa
y, interrupting my thoughts, smiling openly at the mutant.

Tien shrugs, saying nothing. I take his hand in mine. I can feel his hesitation, but then he relaxes and our hands clasp as one. His flesh is cold. Not freezing, but a hells of a lot colder than mine.

I don't mind.

We reach the dome.

I hadn't even realized that this was where we were headed. We're standing on a large stone patio before a massive door of frosted glass, standing open. I've never anything like it. There's little trails of dirt, leaves, and grass moving in and out of the building.