Rogue (25 page)

“These dudes are definitely really good at…building really sick stuff,” said Nick.

The pictures that followed all picked up pieces of the vast structure as the drone had made its overhead pass. It was hard to get a sense of how large the whole compound was, in part because it appeared to be bigger than anything they'd ever seen before; they had nothing to compare it to.

“Curious…I don't see any defensive weapons or emplacements,” said Ajay. “Anywhere along the walls.”

“No need,” said Elise. “Who'd be crazy enough to attack a place like that?”

They looked around uneasily at each other.

A wide variety of different buildings had been constructed within the walls, although what purpose they might serve was difficult to determine from the overhead angle. But it was clear that a great deal of thought had been given to the overall layout; the spacing and symmetry made this part of the Citadel look like something out of a storybook about Mount Olympus, a city built by or for gods of antiquity. In the center of what appeared to be the main cluster of those buildings, arrayed around a large open plaza, one particular building stood out, the only one of its kind—a huge circular stone dome.

As Will stared at the dome, he felt something tug at his mind: an intuitive stab of recognition. Twitching like a muscle he was just learning how to use. But this time he recognized it.

“I think he's in here,” said Will, pointing to the dome. “I don't know how I know this, but I think Dave is somewhere in this building.”

“Well, of course he is,” said Ajay, his voice quavering a bit. “Dead center in the heart of the darkness.”

“Strange,” said Jericho. “Have you noticed a single figure anywhere in sight, on top of or inside the walls?”

“None,” said Ajay. “Nowhere. I was about to comment on it myself.”

“What do you think that means?” asked Elise.

“One thing for sure,” said Will, “whatever this place is, it's not for the army they've assembled out here.”

“No, they're just cannon fodder,” said Jericho. “Like the snake-men.”

“What do you think they're all doing here, then?” asked Nick. “Did everybody just show up for the annual monster jamboree?”

“They're obeying orders,” said Jericho. “The Makers raise them like livestock. When they ring the dinner bell, these things come running.”

“But why now?” asked Nick.

“If your gods that made you gave you an order, wouldn't you follow it?” asked Ajay.

“I might if they asked me nicely,” said Nick.

“That's the reason for the wall,” said Jericho. “They don't want to reveal themselves. Whoever's running the show stays inside. Keep out of sight; it's easier to maintain their power over their peons.”

“I think you're right, Coach,” said Will, tapping the center of the Citadel on the screen. “This is the home they built for themselves. This is where the Makers live.”

“Well, I'm guessing there can't be that many of the Maker dudes or you would've caught some of 'em on camera, right?” said Nick.

“Maybe they're just not very outdoorsy,” said Ajay.

“If there aren't that many, what do they need all these buildings for, then?”

Will pored over the next series of images. Near the back right section of the compound, once the drone had banked a wide turn and began its journey back toward the grove, it passed over row after row of enormous squat chimney stacks, fashioned from black bricks, dozens of them, each belching a foul stream of multicolored smoke into the air.

“These are their factories,” said Will, letting his intuition lead him again as his eyes stayed fixed on the pictures.

“For what?” asked Elise.

“Maybe they make all that ‘made in China' junk here,” said Nick.

“This is where the Makers manufacture all the things we've seen in the Never-Was. From the ground up—the plants, the animals, their soldiers. They started at an elemental, maybe even molecular level. Earth, water, sky, all of it came from these buildings.”

“How do you know that, Will?” asked Ajay.

“This was nothing more than a void zone when they first got locked in here, an empty, blank dimension; that's what Dave told me. Turning it into the world that we've seen is what they've been doing ever since they were thrown in and the Hierarchy slammed the door.”

“Sorry for sounding thick about this,” said Nick, looking around, “but what would they need all this stuff for?”

“Raw materials. That's what everything we've seen since we got here is for.”

“Raw materials for what?”

“For making monsters,” said Will. “They created this whole world so they could build, grow, and support an army. The one we're looking at here.”

He pointed at a shot of the army in front of the wall. That silenced everyone. They looked at the pictures with a lot more concern.

“And we already know
why
they're doing that,” said Elise softly.

“So this is where it all started,” said Jericho, pointing at the chimneys on the screen.

“Behold their satanic mills, their infernal labs and foundries,” said Ajay.

“Is that from a poem?” asked Nick.

“Part of it. William Blake,” said Ajay. “And I'm shocked you recognized it.”

“I didn't
recognize
it; it just sounded like a poem.”

“This is where all the smoke comes from, then,” said Elise, pointing to the chimneys. “All that poisonous stuff choking the atmosphere.”

“Yeah, but it makes for some awesome sunsets,” said Nick. “That is, it would, if they
had
a sun.”

Will looked up at the horizon beyond the mountains. He had noticed it was getting harder to breathe, and as they drew closer to what they now knew was its source, the skies ahead appeared darker and more toxic here than anywhere else they'd seen.

“Wait a moment, what's this?” said Ajay, looking at the screen again.

They crowded around the screen to take a look. After the drone flew past the chimney array, it had taken a single shot of what appeared to be a massive construction site.

“Looks like they're building another smokestack,” said Nick.

“No, this one is different,” said Ajay. “It's more upright, and they're not framing it the same way. I don't even see any bricks, which is what they used for all the others.” He used his nimble fingers to enlarge a section of the screen for more detail. “This is some other sort of structure entirely. As you can see, they've cleared out the whole area around it, and it's near what looks like an entrance in the walls, with a road leading directly to it.”

“I don't see any workers,” said Elise. “How do you think they're building it?”

“They may be obscured by this,” said Ajay. “What looks like scaffolding around the structure.”

“Maybe the drone flew over during their coffee break,” said Jericho.

The ground around the site appeared to be soaked with some kind of black ooze that sent up thick tendrils of smoke. As Will studied that part of the photo, he felt a sudden chill run through him. He hoped, for once, that his intuition was dead wrong about what they were looking at. He closed his eyes and tried to send his mind closer to what was in the picture.

He suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. His eyes flew open and watered as if he'd been exposed to toxic gas. He coughed and sputtered, taking a few steps away. Nick followed him, patting him on the back.

“Hey, you okay, Will?”

He snapped back into himself and the poisoned sensation quickly subsided. He nodded and took a long pull of water from his canteen. Elise moved close to him, staring at him with deep concern.

What was that all about?
she asked.

Tell you later.

Nick was staring up at the violated skies draped over the mountains. “Man, these Maker dudes better get cranking on some pollution controls, stat, or they're gonna choke this whole place out.”

“Dave said that's exactly what happened the last time they were in charge,” said Will, putting his canteen away. “Back on Earth. They ruined nature. That's a big part of why the Hierarchy booted them.”

“For that, and playing God,” said Elise.

“It's a loathsome fiend indeed that fouls its own nest,” said Ajay.

“William Blake?” asked Nick.

“No, I made that part up.”

“The Makers don't give a rip what they do to this place,” said Will, packing up his saddlebag. “It's their sandbox. They built it, and they feel like they can do whatever they want to it to get what they need.”

“They never planned on staying here for long anyway,” said Jericho.

“Since there doesn't appear to be any time here, as we know it,” said Ajay, “maybe that starts with them. Maybe time doesn't affect them.”

“Will, the last time you talked to Dave,” said Elise, picking up Ajay's thought, “that time I saw him with you, he told us the Makers were assembling all their forces then. That was four months ago.”

“In our world, yes, but time is definitely funky here,” said Will. “The two places don't sync up with each other at all somehow. That might have been a week ago here, or a day, or even the same day.”

“Or it could all be happening at the same time,” said Ajay.

“Whoa,” said Nick.

“Or maybe there's so many of these things, it took that long just to get them together,” said Jericho.

“Whoa,” said Nick, more softly.

“Speaking of time and space anomalies, how did Brooke even get here in the first place?” asked Elise. “I understand how Hobbes could've made it across; he was right there in the room with us—”

“Yeah, but we left Brooke back at the dorm, out like a light, just before we left for the island.”

“With enough tranquilizer in her system to keep her down and out for a day and a half,” said Jericho.

“I don't know the answer to that,” said Will.

“Maybe she healed it right out of her system,” said Elise. “Maybe she was on our tail the whole time.”

No one spoke for a moment. A more somber mood had taken firm hold. Will took a few steps away from the others, looking out past the bridge. Ajay finished scrolling through the last of the drone's photos as it returned to the crossroads, but by then he was the only one watching them. He quietly disconnected the screen from the camera and stowed them both back in his pack.

Jericho walked out beside Will, respecting his silence as he stared into the distance.

“I figure it's kind of okay,” said Will.

“What is?”

“To feel like what's in front of us is five times beyond impossible and we're all going to die really horrible, excruciating deaths.”

“Most definitely. You'd have to be crazy to look at it any other way.”

“I can't stand it, though,” said Will, glancing back at his friends. “Feeling responsible. If that's what's going to happen.”

“How would you feel if you didn't do anything?” asked Jericho. “Just pulled out the Carver, cut a hole in the air, and we all went home, called it a day.”

Will looked at him skeptically. “We can't do that. Not now.”

“That makes it easy, then. The choice is already made. You just have to tolerate the feelings.”

“But I'm scared.”

“Me too.”

Will studied him. “You don't look like it.”

“I thought you were the master of hiding your feelings.”

“I am, sort of. I had to be.”

“Think you're the only one?” asked Jericho.

“No. I just don't feel very brave right now.”

Jericho exhaled, almost a sigh. “Brave is just a word we put on someone after they do something the rest of us don't think we'd be able to handle. Trust me, every one of them was plenty scared at the time. They just didn't let it get in the way.”

Will studied him. “So being brave doesn't mean you're not scared, then.”

“It means you're scared, and you do what you have to do in spite of it. You might want to write that one down.”

“Sorry to interrupt.” Ajay came up behind them, hesitant to intrude. “We were just wondering, Will, since time in its own strange way appears to be of the essence…what are we going to do now?”

Will gave another look at Jericho.

“Saddle up,” said Will, and moved toward their mounts. “Ditch the backpacks and load all your gear in these saddlebags. How long do you think the ride to the Citadel will be?”

“Horses are fresh,” said Jericho, walking beside him, looking off in the distance. “A few hours.”

“But what are we going to do after…um…uh,
after
we get to the Citadel?” asked Ajay, trailing after them.

“I'll figure that out along the way,” said Will.

WILL'S RULES FOR LIVING #14:

BEING BRAVE MEANS BEING AFRAID AND GOING AHEAD WITH IT ANYWAY.

They crossed the bridge at a trot, Will and Elise in the lead, riding cautiously. There were no guardrails on either side and the last thing they needed was for one of the horses to bolt and take someone over the edge into the lake. Will noticed a number of large, ominous shapes swimming alongside the bridge just under the surface as they crossed. Some sort of river beasts, trolling for an easy meal.

None of them wore their helmets at first; Will didn't want to limit anyone's vision if there were monsters around, particularly Ajay's. Nick looked a little uneasy on his horse—he confessed that he'd never actually been on one before—but Will figured his freaky agility would quickly help him learn how to make it work. Ajay rode behind Jericho, his arms wrapped tightly around Coach's waist. He kept his eyes closed until after they'd cleared the bridge.

They passed another small building similar to the ones back in the garrison on the other side, but it had been left unguarded. The road was entirely paved with stone here and ran straight ahead for about half a mile before dropping out of sight down a hill. Will signaled them to halt, waved Jericho to the front, and asked Ajay to take a look ahead. At the coach's direction, Ajay stood up on the back of their horse and steadied himself with his hands on Jericho's shoulders, while Jericho held the animal dead still.

“The road ahead of us is clear to the highway,” said Ajay, staring ahead; then he peered to his left. “It's clear, too, for the moment. The back end of the big column is about…two miles ahead. They're moving rapidly and I don't see many stragglers.”

Will let the thought come to him instead of trying to force it. “We'll cross over and head north of that road for a while, then ride parallel to it toward the Citadel. Once we get close to the highway, put your helmets on.”

“What do we say if one of them stops us?” asked Nick.

“Unless you recognize their language, don't say anything. There shouldn't be too many soldiers traveling off the road, but if there are, act like you own the place. Anyone else we run into will just think we're a small squad on some kind of mission.”

“But what do we want to make them think we're doing?” asked Elise.

Will glanced at Ajay. “We're transporting a prisoner to the Makers. One of the ones Hobbes has been looking for, the humans that snuck into the zone.”

“Oh dear God,” said Ajay, sinking back down behind Jericho on the horse.

“That's not
actually
what we're doing, Ajay,” said Elise. “You're going to be fine.”

“You say that now, but what about when they've got me drawn and quartered over a cauldron of molten slag?”

“Dude, chill,” said Nick. “We're not letting anything happen to you now. You're riding with the Bear.”

Jericho reached back and patted Ajay on the knee. “Next time, I'll let you watch me change.”

“Really? Oh, that would be most excellent.”

That prospect seemed to settle Ajay down enough to proceed. Will rode on ahead at an easy canter. The land gradually transitioned from the flats near the water to the gently rolling green hills they'd seen in the drone's pictures. If it was possible to put the reasons why they were here out of his mind, Will thought, he could almost think of this part of the zone as pleasant. Maybe it was just the abundance of green—it was soothing and seemed more like home, even knowing it was all fake. Whatever the reason, he was grateful for every bit of peace he could hold on to right now, and he greedily soaked it in, feeling himself settle down as he rode along.

After Will crested the largest hill, the highway came into view, a long gray ribbon cutting perpendicularly across the landscape ahead. Elise rode up alongside him, looking out at the road.

I'm still working with Ajay on this,
she sent to him.

Is he getting it?

A little bit, but more importantly it's keeping his mind off what's ahead of us.

Good idea.

“What do you think their plan is, Will?” she asked out loud, looking off into the distance toward the unseen Citadel. “What did you see in that photo? I know you saw something.”

“I can't be completely sure. But if it's what I think it is, what they're planning doesn't line up with what Franklin and the Knights believe is going to happen. At all.”

He didn't really want to say any more.

Tell me,
she sent.

He could feel her staring daggers right into his mind and knew there was no point in withholding anything from her, especially something as explosive as this. He glanced back and saw that the others were still about a hundred yards behind them.

“I think they're building something that's going to give them their own way back in,” he said quietly. “That's what is in that photo. I don't know what it is, exactly, or how it's supposed to work. But my guess is it's going to be big enough to send that whole army across.”

He heard her take a deep breath, and when he finally looked over at her, he didn't see the righteous fury he'd expected that news would inspire. She looked vulnerable and frightened.

What is it?
he sent.

“I'm looking around at this terrible place, and I'm thinking about that—sorry, I know he's still family—bat-shit crazy old grandfather of yours. And if there's some kind of disconnect between those two sides about what's coming next? My money's on the Makers.”

“I think you're right,” said Will. “But you're wrong about one thing: He's not my family. You guys are.”

Elise looked away, hiding her face. He wondered if she was blushing or embarrassed and if, as usual, he'd said too much.

You okay?
he sent.

No matter what else happens to us from here on out…
She turned and looked at him, a look that pierced him to his core, a look he knew he'd never forget.

I love you for saying that, Will.

She spurred her horse and galloped on ahead, moving as one with the animal, looking like she'd been in that saddle her entire life.

Will kicked up his speed to try to follow but he knew he'd never catch her. He knew she wanted to get to the highway first, and he knew exactly why: to make sure it was safe for the rest of them to cross. That's how she was going to deal with her fear, which was as good a remedy as any, and he couldn't argue with it as a tactic. That warrior side of her had come into such full expression since they'd arrived here that he wasn't even worried about her safety, in spite of what he was allowing himself to feel about her. It was hard to imagine anything she'd find waiting on that road that could pose much of a threat to Elise when her powers were fully engaged.

He also knew how hard it was for her to express anything as tender as what she'd just said to him and that she might feel the need to do something violent in response.

Will turned back to the others and waved them onward. He felt a burst of that same violent impulse erupt inside him; he wanted them all to pick up their pace, confront whatever forces were waiting out there, and get down to it. Maybe it was just the effect of seeing that fire in Elise's eyes, but the way he felt right now, he was ready to take on that entire army and the Makers, and they could throw the damn Knights in as a bonus.

With Will leading them, they reached the road five minutes later where it crossed through a small wood. Elise was waiting for them, standing in her stirrups, a wild look in her eye as she stared ahead down the road.

The bodies of a squad of black-armored soldiers were scattered around the site like broken toys, at least ten of them. A couple of them had been tossed up into the branches of the trees, as if they'd been caught in a hurricane.

“What happened?” asked Ajay.

“They left behind another greeting party for us,” she said. “Hiding in the trees.”

“Nice work, sister,” said Nick. “Next time save a few for me.”

“Ajay, can you see how far Hobbes and Brooke or any of the others are ahead of us?” asked Elise.

Ajay popped up behind Jericho on the horse and peered ahead. “I see a small group of riders on the highway, maybe three miles ahead. It looks like they're hurrying to catch up to the back of the column.”

“We'll keep heading this way,” said Will, pointing to the north of the road. “Just far enough to get us out of sight where Ajay can keep an eye on the road. But we need to move faster now. Everybody good with that?”

They rode hard and straight, heading north on a diagonal away from the highway, all of them bearing down. Both Jericho and Elise leaned into the gallop, peerless riders, and their horses were so big and powerful they chewed up the ground, pounding ahead. Even Nick—who already seemed to have gotten the hang of basic horsemanship—kept pace with them, using his legs to clamp onto the saddle, whipping the reins back and forth like some cowboy he'd seen in a Western. Will struggled to stay at the front of the pack.

A few minutes later, Will signaled a halt, and although he couldn't see it, Ajay looked back and confirmed that he still had the highway clearly in sight to the south.

“And it's a good thing we crossed when we did,” he said, looking farther back to the left. “There's another column moving up from the rear.”

“Onward,” said Will.

He led them straight ahead at a steady gallop, paralleling the road. The green grass and gentle hills he'd enjoyed ended not long afterward, giving way to a flat hardpan of dirt and blasted rocks. That range of mountains loomed over them off to their right now, and the ground gradually tilted up toward them. These were cold, black, and barren peaks. They projected their harsh weight down on the whole region and looked as if they'd thrust brutally out of the earth in the last hour.

Big round rocks began to dot the landscape, some of them immense, and soon there were so many they had to slow down and pick their way through them. Will was grateful for the cover they offered from distant unseen eyes but the place made him uneasy. He felt like the rocks themselves looked angry, cast off by those mountains as they continued to assert themselves. In the distance, echoing down from the mountains, they could hear what sounded like the grinding and tearing of almost constant landslides, boulders clacking off each other as they tumbled downward in some titanic bowling alley. Will half expected to see a barrage of them come barreling down the canyons at them at any moment.

The sky turned ever blacker as they rode on, the constant twilight they'd grown accustomed to now more like perpetual dusk, a grim shroud drawn over the land. They had to slow their pace to a canter. Jericho took the lead now so Ajay could keep an eye ahead and direct their path forward through the rocks.

As they cleared a dense cluster of boulders, a sliver of light appeared on the horizon, a slight glow that gradually dimmed upward as they rode toward it.

I…see…campfires…

Will heard the words slip into his head. He looked over and saw Ajay grinning at him from the back of Jericho's horse. Will gave a slight shake of his head.

You
are
a quick study,
he answered.

I…told…you…

Will glanced the other way over at Elise, riding alongside him, focused grimly on the light in the distance.

He can do it.

I know.

Great work, that's incredible.

I didn't have that much to do with it.

Granted, it's like talking to a two-year-old—okay, the world's smartest two-year-old—but it's still kind of startling.

Be glad,
she answered.
We're going to need all the help we can get.

They soon passed through the boulder-strewn area onto a flat, dry, featureless plain, devoid of growth or life of any kind. Will thought it was as if the Makers had lost interest in creating anything other than utilitarian ground this close to their home, nothing more than a way to get from here to there. They picked up their pace again, the cold glow from the camp cutting through the gloom and lighting up half of the horizon ahead of them.