REHO: A Science Fiction Thriller (The Hegemon Wars) (25 page)

A warm flash welcomed them as the first of the grenades exploded. Reho closed his eyes as he thought of the Earth’s sun, its nuclear energy fueling their planet. He and Rainne had watched it set from the ship’s bow, their bodies hungry for each other and for the future—a future with no Hegemon. Rainne, who smelled like flowers from his mother’s garden, had been saved. Her black skin and radiant smile, the taste of her lips and feel of her skin . . . Then she was gone.

Ends watched as
Sola took charge on the ship. He had always underestimated her. Even with her addiction, she was a natural leader. He hadn’t had to ask, but he’d seen it in her eyes, in the way she’d run out onto the deck and kissed him, her lips full of passion. Then she released him and helped him pull the others out of the water. Rainne had been lifted first, her body frail and nearly lifeless.

Sola rushed everyone into the navigation room.

Inside, Rainne flung herself over Reho’s body. Beneath her, he twisted and strained as multiple alarms sounded on the medical monitor. Rainne’s screams disappeared into sobs as she buried her face into his chest.

“What can we do for him?” Thursday asked.

“We wait,” Sola said.

“Did the reactor count down?” Gibson ask
ed, looking up from Reho toward Ends.

“It never fin
ished.”

On the monitor, multiple blaring alarms converged into one loud, steady beep.

It flatlined.

***

Ends had taken over trying to revive Reho, but there was nothing he could do. He was gone. Rainne continued to cry on his chest, her own near-lifeless body tucked close to his.

“Get us moving, Gibson!” Thursday said.

A flash of white light followed by a thunderous roar came from the mainland.

“He did it.” Ends said.

Everyone paused, captured by the apocalyptic sight.

The anchors were already up and they were well within a safe distance from the blast. The tidal wave from the explosion reached them at fifteen miles out, rocking the boat no worse than the storm they’d experienced weeks before traveling to Neopan.

Behind them, the mushroom cloud extended high into the night sky.

It had been
seven days since they left Omega. Nothing remained of the alien compound now. With their home base gone, the aliens that hadn’t been there that night were now stranded across the continents—isolated and weakened. Those working on the space ship that Mar referenced had probably been destroyed by the nuclear explosion. But Ends had no way of knowing for sure.

Ends sat at the desk in the captain’s cabin pondering the journal Reho had left behind. The story was of the alien invasion written down by William, a young boy who had experienced it first hand. After reading it, he’d given it to Rainne, hoping it would comfort her. She’d received it reluctantly at first. But Sola had mentioned that she hadn’t seen her without the journal tucked under her arms or spread out in front of her atop the yacht, reading and gazing into the sun.

Now the invaders had been struck a major blow. Ends would lead others to wipe out whatever remained of the Hegemon. Then afterward, communities would become countries again, and their populations would grow. A thousand years from now, historians would explain the Blasts and the alien wars and speak of whatever would be left for them to study, discuss, and debate. Some would say we weakened ourselves and invited the aliens to take over our vulnerable planet. Others would argue that the aliens had influenced or even caused the nuclear strikes that devastated our planet. They would argue then the same facts that Ends argued now. How had the Hegemon chosen to invade our planet when they did?

In the end it was humankind that won. There was hope for us. There was a future for us. Even tied to the machine in Omega, Mar had known that.

And Reho. He’d given Rainne more than just hope and a future.

He’d given her a child.

***

Sola sat across from Gibson at the cafeteria table. She had been watching him obsess over a puzzle for hours. She hadn’t gotten high in over a week. And right now, she felt as though she may never need to again.

She leaned over the table. “The last piece.”

Gibson looked up at Sola. “If I snap it into place, then it’s finished. And everything seems far from done.”

She knew what was running through his mind, what was running through all their minds since Omega. The Hegemon were nearly destroyed, but something unexpected had occurred. Kawasaki was not only still in Neopan, but he had hijacked Log and was running both the city and Arcade. Reeves and Finch had begun organizing an assault against him but would wait. With Slater dead, they needed a leader. They needed Ends.

Sola stood up. “I’m going for a walk.”

***

Pounding on the door alarmed Ends. He opened it to find Sola standing there. She had been clean for seven days now. It didn’t matter. She’d done the right thing in the end by injecting the Cold-Blu into Reho. For that he’d forgiven her again.

“He’s gone!” she shouted as he opened the door.

“Gone? Who?”

“Reho. His body is gone.”

There was no
light. The last image in his mind had been Rainne. But even that was hard to bring back into focus. His body ached as though it had been smashed under a gasoline.
Gasolines
. A memory flashed in his mind: a man trapped in a burning car as Reho watched his own car go through flames of fire, the man’s body ripped from the inside, smashing against the windshield. And then the floodgates opened and his memories came rushing back: the man in flames—Dink—trapped within his burning car; killing a man—Dink’s brother—who had killed his Uncle Ron; men wearing strange hats and coats, holding umbrellas, dying in wet ash; strange creatures—half-human, half-animal—crawling on the dark jungle floor; a warbeast shredding the survivors of an explosion at the Kibo’s table; androids and Hegemon chasing him through the dark. And Jimmy.

The details of it all were too much for him to entertain. He felt his eyes and lips move but there was no light. He had died with Jimmy. That much he knew. Their bodies had been evaporated in the reactor room in the Mainframe.

Reho moved around; he could feel his arms and legs. He could feel the floor beneath his feet. He bumped into a wall.

Am I alive?

***

“Where is his body?” Rainne’s scream turned into sobs as she braced herself on the metal table where Reho’s body had lain for the past seven days. The journal evident, cradled
as though it were her unborn child.

“Are we sure there is no one else on this ship?” Thursday asked.

“I’ve watched those monitors for a week,” Gibson replied. “If someone else was here, I would know.”

“What do you think?” Thursday asked, looking at the crew. Everyone had gathered around the table. All that remained was Reho’s clothing, spread out where his body had been.

As Sola lifted Reho’s fighter pilot jacket, a device with hundreds of tiny wires dropped out from the sleeve. Ends flipped it over and recognized what it was: his AIM. The device was dead because it had lost its power source: Reho’s body.

“Is that his . . .” Sola said.

“Yes,” Ends replied.

Rainne tucked the journal under one arm and reached out with one hand, wiping her tears with the other. Ends placed the AIM in her hand. She clutched it to her chest and looked at the crew. They had done what Reho had asked: they had saved her. It had cost Reho his life. Her salvation had come at too high a price. If not for
the life growing inside her, it would be more than she could bear. She pressed her hands against her stomach and closed her eyes.

“He’s not dead,” she said.

***

A light. Across the room he saw a faint green light that hadn’t been there before. Reho rushed toward the light. It was a panel with a switch. Above and below the switch were the words
More Magic
and
Magic
. The switch was in the Magic position. He remembered Gibson and a story he’d once told. It had been a joke, a prank played on Kawasaki years before. It made no sense for it to be here, now. But there were just two options: leave it in the Magic position or flip the switch up.

More Magic.
He heard himself say as he raised the switch.

Nothing happened at first. He looked around, and saw only darkness. Then he heard something move in the room; it sounded like a metal door being raised. A sliver of light shot across the floor and expanded as one of the walls opened. Reho walked to where the wall lifted, revealing a window.

Light filled the room as he pressed his hands against the thick glass. He looked down at his naked body, millions of twinkling stars reflected on his skin.

The endless view was clear.

And amongst the stars, Reho saw one other object. What he thought should be the moon was instead a tiny blue sphere coated with white swirls.

Earth.

Thank you for reading

REHO

Book One of The Hegemon Wars

For updates on the next book in The Hegemon Wars

visit www.dldenham.com

I love to hear from my readers!

Your feedback and reviews are an essential part of my writing process.

Want to show
your support for REHO?

*Tell a friend about the book

*L
eave an honest review on Amazon and/or Goodreads

*Email the author!

Want to leave a review on A
mazon?

Amazon.com/author/dldenham

Want to leave a review on Goodreads?

Goodreads.com/dldenhamLA

Want to email D. L. Denham?

dldenham
[email protected]

Get connected today!

Visit
www.dldenham.com

About the Author

D. L. Denham is a native of Ascension Parish in Louisiana. A life longer learner and lover of education, history, science fiction, and writing, he pursues a career both as a Social Studies educator and Science Fiction author. He is an alumnus of Southeastern Louisiana University and will finish his Master of Arts in History in Spring 2015.

When he is not teaching, he can usually be found at local coffee shops hammering away at his latest book or reading about kings and assassins from a bygone era.

Reho is his first full-length novel and is the first of three in a planned series called The Hegemon Wars. Red Denver was his first published work and includes the protagonist REHO.

Visit him on the web at
www.dldenham.com