Five Moons of Pluto (5 page)

“It’s very difficult to talk about,” Sonya says proudly, thinking of her espionage. “Have you heard of anyone else making it out?”

“No, you're the first. I did however hear that no bodies were found. It was if they vanished into thin air. They sent in a team from here but they couldn't find anything that could have caused the tragic event...” Her voice trails off, and she looks out through her window, although it’s still covered in blue liquid. “Poor souls,” she whispers.

The bus soon pulls over to the side of a huge depot building. Everyone exits and lines up in front of the doors of the building. The depot extends out from dome steel walls. Up high on the glitzy walls are spots where metal has been replaced with darker, dull steel. Guards are posted around, some giving orders to other guards and some keeping a close eye on the new group. The doors to the depot open and a guard steps out. Big and muscular, he holds out a scanning gadget.

“Make sure you all have your zone cards out,” he says, his voice low and demanding.

Sonya searches inside her duffle bag for her imaginary zone card when she touches the cold metal of her sidearm. She wraps it up in the hooded sweater and continues her act. So far four people ahead of her have entered the depot. She looks back and sees the two men from the bus. One of them blows her a kiss. Sonya returns the gesture with her middle finger while her

other hand runs over the med kit. She opens it up and takes out a pill, then swallows it. She closes her bag resumes her performance.

Three people are ahead of her when she begins to feel the
affects of the pill. Her hands begin to shake and she falls to her knees. The people behind her step back. Arn sees her as he is about to get back on the bus and rushes toward her. Sonya vomits white liquid and chunks on the floor. Arn grabs her by the arm and yells for additional help. A guard runs to her and grabs her by the other arm and together they lift her up. She stumbles as she walks, her vision blurry, her head spinning. The voices are slow and unintelligible until finally she sleeps.

****

Sonya opens her eyes and looks around the huge room. She sees rows of beds, some occupied but mostly they are empty. She sits up and feels a sharp pain in her arm. A blinking circular chip is attached between her forearm and her bicep. She looks at the hanging square machine beside her bed with repeating lines going up and down and various numbers. As far as she knows, she’s all right.  A cold wind from the air conditioner causes Sonya to wrap herself tightly with the blanket, then she realizes someone took her clothes off and she wraps herself even tighter. She hears footsteps and sees Arn approaching her, and she balls herself up.

“How are you feeling?” he asks.

“Fine. Where are my clothes?” Sonya says, looking around to find them.

“Your clothes and belongings are underneath your bed.”

Sonya quickly looks under bed and finds her duffle bag and clothes.

“Don’t worry,” he tells her. “Two of our female nurses changed you while you were unconscious.” He looks at his tablet and brushes his finger across the screen. “I see no problems. Blood pressure is good. You have just a tad bit too much protein and iron in your blood. All in all—” he looks at her and smiles –“you’re fine.” Then he puts his hand on his chin and rubs slowly. “However we took a sample of the liquid you regurgitated and found various amounts of chemicals that irritate the digestive tract. They’re non-lethal in small doses, so I would like to run some tests to—”

“I really don’t have time, doctor. I feel better really, and besides you said so yourself that you see no problems.”

“I see no problems
now
. Who knows what may come after the tests. You can never be too

careful.”

“I’ll take my chances, doc.”

Arn
looks at her. He doesn’t have time to argue and he knows he’ll lose anyway. “Fine,”

he says. “I’ll write up a discharge report. The nurses were a little concerned about the scars on your back.

Sonya glares at him. “Why are they concerned?”

“Well... they noticed while cleaning you up that the scars on your back were never stitched up. They told me the scars were pretty brutal and that many were so deep they could have killed you.”
Arn sits down on the edge of her bed. “If you need someone to talk to, I—”

“I’m fine,” Sonya says. She scoots back toward the headboard and stares down at the space between them.

Arn stands. “Okay. I’ll get those papers written up.”

Sonya watches as he clears the room. She doesn’t have time for a discharge report either. She grabs her gear from underneath the bed and puts them on. She stands, throws her duffle bag onto her shoulders, and heads towards the exit.

Sonya enters a long white hallway with doors on each side. She walks down the hallway and spots an open door. As she gets closer she can here Arn talking on the phone. She peeks in and sees his back facing the door and his lab coat hanging from a chair. She notices a bulge in the coat, then she sneaks into the room and quietly reaches in his coat and pulls out a wallet. She places it in her back pocket and walks out backwards.

She wonders about guards at the front exits and decides that she can’t take the risks, so she pulls a fire alarm. When she turns the corner, she sees people come out of their offices and head towards the exit. Sonya blends in with the crowd as the guards make
their way to the emergency location. The crowd walks out of the door and Sonya strolls nonchalantly down the street.

She looks around and sees much of the old earth, which she has only seen on computer screens. A crew is working on a beautiful garden, planting an assortment of colorful flowers. A tall tree with lush green leaves sits in the middle. Sonya walks along the sidewalk in complete awe of what she is seeing. A young couple sits on a park bench, laughing. A man argues on his
cellphone. Sonya hears the sound of children laughing and turns to the sound and sees a huge field of grass. Young boys are locked in a game of soccer. She leans on the short iron fence and watches the smiles on their faces. When a young boy scores a goal, his parents cheer and applaud from the bleachers. Sonya admires the friendship, the bond, and the love they all have, and she wishes she could have that too.

Her stomach begins to rumble, snapping her back to attention. She wonders when she ate last. Then she sees a small bakery shop at the end of the corner. As she heads over to the shop, she can smell the aroma of freshly baked bread and pastries. She walks faster, thinking about how it must taste compared to the hard bread she had to eat. But she understands that

13.

one must eat to live, not live to eat.

She enters the store and a few minutes later she emerges with an assortment of bread and pastries. She rips into a piece of bread and chews it slowly, savoring every bit. Then her duffle bag begins to beep.

Sonya walks by a nearby bench and places her things on it. She opens the duffle bag

and looks around to make sure the coast is clear. She sees the tracker has picked up the signal, which doesn’t surprise her. When she looks closer though, she sees that the signal is coming from
inside
the Zone. The bread drops from her mouth, onto the floor. Her heart races and she steps back to regain her composure.
I’m so close
, she thinks, her eyes landing hard on the building in front of her.

****

Sonya sits outside of a coffee shop sipping on a cappuccino, but her eyes are once again fixed on the apartment building across the street, an eight-story building with security cameras on the front and sides of the façade. There’s a fire escape on the side which leads down to the sidewalk. Sonya notices the next few buildings are the same size as the apartment but a few feet away. She feels a presence coming towards her.

“Why?” says
Arn, trying to catch his breath.

“I was going to give it back.” Sonya gazes up at him then returns to her reconnaissance. “Have a seat before you pass out,” she tells him.

He accepts her offer and sits. “Bread, pastries, and...coffee?”

“Cappuccino.”

“Whatever. Explain to me why I shouldn’t notify the Zone authorities?”

“I’ll disappear before they come.”

“What makes you think I didn’t call them before I even showed up here?”

Sonya turns her full attention to
Arn. “You’ve wouldn’t have come up to me if you did,” she says. “Besides, who steals a wallet and buys bread and pastries with it?” She smirks at him as she takes a sip of her drink. “And coffee. You figured any normal person would transfer the creds to his or her account, but not this person. And you were curious as to why a person would do such a thing. You just needed to know.”

Arn
sits still, pondering her words. “So why
didn’t
you transfer the creds?” he asks.

“I have more important things to worry about than
creds.” Sonya places his wallet on the table in front of them. “Here you go.”

Taking his wallet,
Arn stands up. “I’m trying to help you,” he says. “But if you don’t want it,

14.

fine. I understand.” Then he turns around and starts walking away.

“Sonya,” she says loudly. When he looks back at her, she smiles. “My name is Sonya.”

“It’s a beautiful name,” Arn says. “Take care.”

Sonya watches him as he walks away. “Don’t go,” she whispers. But then he turns a corner and vanishes.

She sits still a moment longer looking at the corner, imagining
Arn turning around, running back and telling her,
I’m here for you.
But then reality kicks in and Sonya stands. She sets down her coffee and brushes the crumbs off her hands, then she heads for the apartment building.

A man holds the door open for her as he exits, and Sonya brushes quickly past him. He shakes his head at her rudeness. Sonya has no time to apologize; she takes out the tracker and follows its direction. Then she climbs up to the sixth floor, where the signal grows stronger, and

she stops at the door. She takes out a small device to hack it open.

The door closes slowly behind her and she drops her bag. She then takes out her sidearm and scans the apartment. It’s empty with not one piece of furniture. She goes into the bedroom and sees the GPS
walkie on the bed. Then she quickly turns around and an arrow flies by her head. She takes her last flash bang and rolls it out into the living room. When she hears a scream, she rushes out and shoots the Native American man in front of her three times. He quickly slumps to the floor and dies, his long ponytail soaked in blood. Sonya can’t help but look at him for a moment. He has several tribal and animal tattoos on his strong-looking arms and chest. Thin lines of red paint twist and turn on his face.

“Your eyes deceive you,” a voice says.

Sonya turns, drawing her gun. She sees the same man again, standing alive and unharmed right in front of her. She fires but the sidearm makes a clicking sound. The ammo has been depleted.

“What’s going on?” Sonya says, confused.

“You lost as soon as you entered the apartment.” He points to a clone of Sonya sprawled on the floor. “You are a skilled warrior...but it wasn’t enough to defeat me.”

Sonya drops to her knees. She stares at the clone on the floor, then she reaches her hand out to touch it. “How is this possible?” She looks up at him again. “Am I dead?”

“No,” he tells her. “But your brother will be soon.”

Sonya feels herself being pulled like dust into a vacuum by the clone of herself on the floor. She opens her eyes, not remembering when she’d closed them, and she’s suddenly looking up from the floor at the man. This is not another dream, she thinks, not with the amount of pain she’s feeling.

She looks over at the man still lying in the pool of blood, watching as it slowly disappears and then finally fades away. Her mind is spinning, trying to comprehend what has just happened and if it was actually real. So tired from the fight that she can’t even remember it, Sonya finally closes her eyes.

SEVERAL YEARS EARLIER

The full moon shines on the thick clouds giving them a beautiful blue glow. A Raven soars through the sky. In stealth mode the Raven is nearly undetectable by radar; it's the perfect weapon for the element of surprise. Inside, Sonya and her teammates are laughing and joking, paying no mind to the horrendous turbulence.

These are the people that know her the best, the people she would lay down her life for, and she knows they would do the same. Together they have completed over twenty missions with no casualties among them. They bleed together and kill together. These men are far more than friends; they are her brothers, and it is a bond only death can separate.

Boston’s face has an aged look from the many battles he’s endured. The thick hairs on his face hide the minor scars from those battles.

“I’m
tellin’ ya, the guy stood three days on a mine and it wasn’t even activated,” Boston says laughing, then he continues. “When we found him he had piss and shit all over him.”