New Olympus Saga (Book 1): Armageddon Girl (42 page)

Christine Dark

Lake Michigan, Illinois, March 15, 2013

“Hey,” Mark said, extending a hand
towards her. Christine took it.

“Hey-hey,” she replied. Images of dead
worlds orbiting dying stars flashed inside her head. She forced them to go
away. She’d deal with the visions and premonitions and the heebie-jeebies
later. She glanced at one of the wall screens and noticed the time. “Hey, it’s
past midnight. The worst day of my life is finally over.”

“Mine too,” Mark replied. “I’m sorry
about your father,” he added.

“Me too,” she said. Her eyes were dry
this time.
I’m all cried out
, she guessed. “I wouldn’t count him out,
though. He could pull a Gandalf and show up in a few days. The White Lurker or
something like that.”

Mark chuckled. “Sure. Weirder shit has
happened. Hell, weirder shit has happened in the last fifteen minutes.”

“I didn’t get to see the whole message
Dad prepared for me,” she added. “I dropped the cube when you tackled me. Not
that I’m blaming you, since the Big Bad was about to slice and dice me at the
time, but I still don’t know what's going on.”

“Got a riddle for ya,” he said with one
of those awesome internal grins only she could see. “What have I got in my
pocket?”

“What..? You got the cube?” She could
read his no-face like a book. “You got the cube!” Christine leaned over and
hugged him.
He wants to kiss me
, she suddenly realized, but he didn’t.

“I noticed it on our way out, when I was
rescuing the All-American Hero,” Mark said after a second of awkward silence.
“Figured you might need it. It’s the least I could do after you saved my ass in
there. I didn’t know you had healing powers too.”

“I guess I’m a multi-class multi-talented
freak of nature,” Christine said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

Mark produced the cube for a second, then
stuck it back in his pocket. “You should probably hold off on using it until we
are relatively sure it’s not going to attract more gangs of homicidal maniacs.”

Christine resisted a sudden urge to
pretend to look angry and start demanding he give the cube to her, maybe throw
in a couple ‘my preciouss’ for extra drama. It would have been funny, but too
much bad crap had happened for her to feel right making a joke. “You’re right,”
she said. “But at least we have it. That’s something.”

She thought again about the two sides of
the war. Cosmic Nerds versus the Outsiders, with Earth a little colonial
kerfuffle out in the boonies; there was bound to be lots of collateral damage.
She turned to Mark. “So what do we do now?”

“We fly to Condor's hunting lodge and if
the place has the fixings, I’ll make us some pancakes. You like pancakes?”
Christine nodded and he went on. “Pancakes, then we relax for a few hours.
After that, we’ll see.”

“After that, we figure out how to save
the world,” Christine said with conviction. When in doubt, act like you know
what the frak you are doing.

“Always wanted to do that,” Mark replied.

They sat side by side, and after a bit
she leaned her head against his shoulder and fell asleep.

Epilogue

Medved emerged from the waters of Lake
Michigan and gently deposited his beloved on the beach’s sandy soil. His lady
had been badly hurt, but she would recover. Rage filled him, but confusion as
well. He had wanted to tear the evil bitch that had hurt his lady, but instead
he had run, fled like a coward. He had never run away like that. He did not
understand why he had done so, and he hated things he did not understand.

He did not have time to ponder such
things for long. A violent convulsion seized his body and he collapsed next to
Lady Shi. The convulsions went on for a long while.

Some time later, Lady Shi came to and saw
Medved’s inert form lying on the ground. “Darling?” she asked tentatively.

Medved opened his eyes. A strange
lopsided smile that did not fit his coarse features slowly formed on his face.
“I’m afraid not, my dear,” he said in a reedy, tremulous voice. “I’m sure you
haven’t forgotten me.

“I’m your good friend, Mr. Night.”

THE END

TO BE CONTINUED IN
DOOMSDAY DUET