Fury of the Six (The Preston Six Book 5) Read online

  Gladius looked to Hank who shrugged. “Yeah, she’s here.”

  “Your voice patterns are consistent with lying. You are not of any use for Marcus and he has given me permission to end you.”

  “End us?” Hank asked, and the lights turned off.

  Blackness filled the room and Gladius searched her pocket and pulled out the Panavice. She lit the room and saw Hank and Minter standing near the door.

  “You hear that?” Minter asked.

  “What?” Hank said.

  “The air, it turned off as well.” He looked at the ceiling and around the room. “It’s only a matter of time now.”

  “Emmett!” Gingy cried out, trying to open the machine. “He’s still in there.”

  Gladius hadn’t realized Alice had probably just killed Emmett as well. Whatever. The guy had it coming to him in so many ways.

  “Help me.” Gingy pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t open.

  Hank rushed to her side and pushed the door until the lock broke and the door flung open. Emmett lay on the table and Gladius hesitated before shining her light on him. Blood smeared over much of his leg but no new blood was coming out of the hole in his thigh.

  “He’s breathing,” Gingy said.

  “Yeah, maybe we . . .” Hank started to say, but Emmett’s lightning quick hand grasped his neck. Hank choked and pulled on Emmett’s hand.

  Gladius cleared the distance between them and had a knife in her hand, but Hank had it under control as he pushed Emmett’s arm back down. Then Emmett went limp as he slipped back into unconsciousness.

  “You’re hurting him,” Gingy said and punched at Hank.

  Gladius felt her blood raging as she saw her hitting her man. She jumped past Hank and punched Gingy in the throat. Her stunned face tried to understand what happened as she fell to the floor, gasping for air.

  “Gladius, did you really need to hit her? She wasn’t hurting me.”

  She ignored Hank. He didn’t understand the simple fact that some people just needed to be hit sometimes. Standing over Gingy, she raised her hand. Gingy cowered and covered her head. “Don’t you ever touch him again.”

  Gingy coughed and nodded.

  “Now, let’s tie up Emmett before his sorry ass wakes up again.” Gladius sighed, looking at Emmett’s stupid chest moving up and down. With each breath, he took another breath from her and Hank. She ran some quick numbers in her head, thinking of the cubic footage they had and the average person’s oxygen usage. If they got rid of Emmett and Gingy, it’d add days, easily. One glance at Hank’s sympathetic face and she knew he wouldn’t go for it.

  Minter gathered some cord as Hank carried Emmett to a chair and they bound him to it. Gladius checked the knots and when she was satisfied, looked to Gingy. “You.” Gingy whimpered. “There has to be another way out.”

  “There’s only the one door you came in.”

  “No way. Marcus would have a back door somewhere in this place.” Gladius pictured the whole bunker in her mind and thought of the places she’d use for a hidden escape. He would’ve been stupid to let Alice in on all his escape routes, and he surely wasn’t dumb. As much as Marcus hated AI, he would never stay in a place where something or someone controlled his only exit. “Think, Gingy, where have you seen Marcus enter and exit?”

  She looked at the floor, tears staining her ruddy cheeks. “I’ve only seen Marcus a couple times. He doesn’t like to be bothered.”

  Gladius laughed. “You must have noticed his comings and goings.”

  She shook her head.

  Gladius looked to Emmett and thought about shaking him awake to get answers, but she knew of his reputation. Getting information from him would be as likely as dogs flying. “You know you’re going to die in here the same as us, right?”

  Gingy looked up and nodded. “I don’t know a way out. If I did, I’d tell you and get the hell out of here.”

  “In Marcus’s room, I think I saw something,” Hank said.

  “Show the way.”

  “What about Emmett?” Hank pointed to the man strapped to the machine and a conduit running into the floor.

  “He’s not going anywhere,” Gladius said. “Now show me what you saw in Marcus’s room.”

  Gingy shook her head. “We’re not allowed in there.”

  “Come on, you’re coming with us.” Gladius followed behind Gingy as they made their way down the hall and into Marcus’s room.

  “There’s nothing in here,” Gingy said.

  “Then you won’t care if we look around.”

  Gingy’s jaw clenched. Hank pushed on a dresser and slid it a few feet. There was nothing behind it but a color of paint slightly different than the rest of the room.

  “Told you,” Gingy said with more sass in her tone.

  “Shut it. Check the wall next to his bed.” Gladius really wanted to find something now just to shove it in the brat’s face.

  “Nothing,” Hank said and moved to the bed.

  “He doesn’t like people touching his bed.”

  Hank lifted the mattress and revealed a sheet of plywood underneath. But that wasn’t what caught Gladius’s attention.

  “What do we have here?” she asked, pointing to a small electrical panel at the far back edge.

  Minter groaned and fell to the floor. Gladius jumped back, and turned in his direction, holding her Panavice up to light the area. He lay on the ground, not moving.

  Gladius raised the light to Gingy’s fiery face. She raised her fists and glared at Gladius not more than a few feet away. “You were conning me the whole time?”

  “I cannot allow you to leave.”

  Gladius saw Minter moving from the corner of her eye. Good, he wasn’t dead, but how did this little woman take out such a man like Minter? “I guess we found that back door. Now, why don’t you just turn around and head down the hall. We’ll be gone and you can go back to your little terrible life in this hole.”

  Gingy took a quick step forward and kicked Gladius in the stomach. Gladius cried out from the shock of her speed and the pain radiating through her midsection. She hunched down to the ground, it was the only thing her body would allow. Looking up, Gingy jumped and her foot came down near her face. Gladius took out her knife and stabbed her in the bottom of her foot. The knife stuck in place, hopefully into bone. Gingy cried out and moved back, hopping on one foot.

  Hank moved toward them.

  Gladius got to her feet in one jump and held her hand up. “No. She’s mine.”

  Gingy pulled the knife from her foot and staggered in pain. “Okay, I’ll give you the code for the bed, as long as you as don’t kill me,” she pleaded.

  Gladius saw red, getting up to attack the bitch. Gingy favored one foot but still managed to hold Gladius’s knife out and take a defensive stance, awaiting her move.

  Knowing her enemy’s foot was injured and was holding the knife on the wrong side, Gladius kicked Gingy’s leg and sent her back to the floor.

  Minter got to his feet, rubbing his head. He stood behind Gingy as she squirmed away to a corner of the room. “We should kill her.”

  “What?” Hank looked shocked.

  “She is dangerous,” Minter said, pointing his gun at her. “Look at how well she lied to us about her situation. A person like this shouldn’t be allowed to roam free. It’s only a matter of time before she’s trouble for us once again. Look at Emmett! We can end it now before it ever starts.”

  “No, we aren’t like that,” Hank said.

  “Thank you,” Gingy said. “I swear I won’t be any trouble.”

  Minter fired a shot, striking Gingy in the head. Her body slumped to the ground and blood filled the exit wound, spreading onto the carpet below.

  “What did you do?” Hank asked. “We don’t just kill people, Minter!”

  “She would have killed us the first chance she got,” Minter said. “Now, please tell me you can open that bed?”

  Gladius spent a while longer, staring at Minter. It w
asn’t as if she wasn’t about to kill Gingy herself, but the man did it without a second thought. He was exactly as she thought he was, cold blooded.

  Shaking her head clear, she jumped into action. “Julie gave me a few code breakers.” She scanned the pages on the Panavice and found the digital lock. Then she sent the code breakers to work.

  The bed clicked. “Ha! Got it.” Ignoring Hank’s look of shock as he stared at the dead body on the ground, Gladius stuffed her Panavice in her pocket and pulled the handle on the bed. The bed lifted up and lights lit the way down a staircase, illuminating a man wearing a black suit.

  “You guys didn’t waste any time, did you? Good for you. And Alice must be lying . . . she’s saying you killed Gingy?”

  Gladius didn’t know what to say. The man standing in front of her shook her to the core. She fumbled with her knife and got it in her hands.

  “Marcus?” Hank said, stepping next to Gladius to look down the stairs.

  JOEY FELT PARALYZED, LIVING A nightmare in real time as Evelyn floated toward the cube. He didn’t even have time to mourn Edith, as he watched his daughter look back over her shoulder and close her eyes tight, as if preparing for something.

  The cube exploded and mushroomed out before falling into the mall below.

  Poly yelped as they fell. It wasn’t that far, but landing on a hill of rubble made the impact more painful than necessary.

  “Evelyn!” Joey screamed as he saw her plummeting to a nasty looking pile of debris, a chill running down his spine.

  A silver streak rushed across the landscape and jumped into the air, catching Evelyn and landing safely on top of the rubble.

  “Sharati,” Poly said.

  Joey relaxed, letting the feeling of going slow leave his body. All he wanted to do was get to his daughter, to hold her. He scrambled over the rubble and got to her just ahead of Poly.

  He pulled Evelyn from Sharati and pressed her against his chest. She was okay.

  “You are all stupid,” Sharati said. “I told you to stay away from the green light.”

  “You saved her,” Poly said holding a knife in her hand.

  Sharati shifted her right foot back and put a hand on her dagger. “She is special, no?”

  “Yes,” Joey said at the same time as Poly said, “No.”

  They looked at each other and then Poly touched Evelyn on the back of her head. Evelyn kept her attention on Sharati. “She’s special to us is what Joey meant.”

  “Yeah, our little girl.”

  Hector stuttered out in shock, “Wh—what is that?” He pointed at Sharati. “Are you from the sky?”

  “She’s not from here, pal.” Lucas said dusting himself off. “You okay, Julie?”

  “I think so.” She rubbed her stomach.

  “Who are you people?” Hector asked.

  “We’re from Preston. North of here,” Julie said and looked up to Lucas. “We need to get moving. I’m picking up two faint signals. I bet you it’s those two birds.”

  “You destroyed it?” Hector said in amazement, looking at the destroyed cube.

  “Edith?” Evelyn said, pointing at the pile with tendrils of smoke rising from the top.

  Joey then realized how well Evelyn said her name, and he felt her pain. His daughter had just lost a great friend. They all had. He hated how Eve, not even one-year old, already had a death to deal with.

  “She saved us,” Poly said, tears dripping.

  Joey turned around and walked to the bottom of the rubble and onto the parking lot to find Lucas and Julie consoling each other. Poly walked up behind him and hugged him, he felt her body quiver against his, but he kept his attention on Evelyn. She looked up at him and he searched for the sorrow, the pain, yet she looked normal—a sweet mixture of curiosity and joy. It seemed ridiculous to expect a seven-month-old to understand death but Joey had.

  “She’s gone, Evelyn.”

  Evelyn made eye contact with him. Some of the joy left her face, but the curiosity held.

  “No,” Evelyn said, again clearer than she’d ever spoken.

  “She’s right, they don’t kill you, they take you. They ship your body to their tower,” Hector said still giving strange looks to Sharati.

  Joey turned toward the large building he saw a piece of the cube flying toward. Did that piece hold Edith?

  “She’s long gone,” Hector said.

  “Okay, so we stick to the plan,” Julie said.

  “What plan?” Poly asked. “We don’t even know where we are or what’s happening in this world and we just lost Edith to a floating cube that tried to suck us up like the Air Bud of Roomba’s.”

  Julie looked at her Panavice. “Moments before the explosion, a section was expelled from the cube, heading toward that building. My guess is she was on it.”

  “I saw it as well,” Joey said.

  Poly looked hopeful. “What do they do with them?” she asked, stepping close to Hector.

  “I don’t know, I swear, but no one ever comes back.”

  Poly sighed and gritted her teeth. “Who did this to this planet? What happened?”

  Hector looked confused and shook his head in small motions. “They came and started taking us, destroying large swathes of land, taking everything. Then they were gone, but they left their snatchers and watchers, looking for the last few resources.”

  Julie pointed to the black and green building sticking out of the rubble like a reminder of what might have been. “She’s in there.”

  “You can’t go there. They have defense set up all around it. We get too close and bam, gone.”

  “People run it?” Julie asked.

  “No, just the machines.”

  “Machines I can control, maybe. I’ll know if we get close.” She looked confident.

  Joey looked to Poly. She had the look of we-better-go-get-her and that is exactly the way Joey felt. Edith had become a second mom to Evelyn and a great part of the family since the day Evelyn was born.

  “We should find a way in,” Joey said.

  “Yeah,” Lucas agreed. “Just get me close and either Julie will shut them down or I can stuff another arrow into their holes. I mean, did you guys see the explosion the arrows made? Can we watch the video again, Julie? In slow motion this time?”

  Julie rolled her eyes and turned toward the building. “We could be there in thirty minutes.”

  “We shouldn’t go there. It’s just death. No one returns. My parents . . .” Hector turned and looked at the tower.

  “If we get there and we can’t get in, we leave,” Julie said. “But we need your help. You know the route there. Will you help us?”

  Hector kicked the ground and rubbed the stubble on his face. “Yes. But you have to take me with you. Wherever it is you are going.”

  They nodded in agreement.

  “I’ll keep ahead of you all and make sure there are no surprises,” Sharati said. She ran up the rubble pile and disappeared down the backside.

  Walking behind Hector, Joey kept an eye on the sky, searching for metal birds or a giant cube trying to suck them to oblivion. His finger tapped his gun.

  “This place is a bigger dump than Ryjack,” Lucas said. “Why do you think these machines are attacking people?”

  “They must be using us for something,” Hector said. “When I was just a boy, no taller than my dad’s hip, they came. A woman, who I thought was pretty at the time, announced our end on every TV, radio, and internet page. She told us they had great need of us, and that we should know we were but a moment in time; but not to worry because they would put us to use. My dad mumbled that statement for a long time after mom died. He was never the same.”

  “We’re so sorry, Hector,” Poly said.

  Joey felt bad for him and wondered about this woman taking over the planet with such ease. Did this invasion come through the stones? It must have. They sent waves of these things through the stones to strip this world and leave little behind. But why? Was she the one who created stones?<
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  They passed a fire station, a red fire emblem sat as the last reminder of the station and the color stood out from the rest of the grays and browns.

  “What happened to the cars?”

  “El Cubo’s, as you call them, there were many more in the beginning. They pulled the cars away, stripping them to nothingness in mid-air, taking the people from them as they did. The buildings were much the same, stripped out in the search for people. Very few things survived those first few weeks.”

  “No one fought back?” Lucas asked.

  “We did, they all did. But it didn’t amount to anything.”

  Joey shook his head and kept glancing at the sky. As if he didn’t have enough to think about, he now had something else to add to the list. With an infinity of earths out there, what were the chances his would get picked by this purge woman?

  As they approached the tower, Hector stopped. A green line had been painted in the middle of the street. Pits and chunks littered the road past the line.

  “We cannot pass,” Hector said firmly.

  Sharati stood at the top of what looked like a bookstore. A corner of it hadn’t collapsed and through the cracks, piles of books held up like last vestiges of the written world. What treasures those books could hold if this world ever got back on its feet. Knowledge of how to grow crops, or turn the electricity on, or recipes for concrete and steel . . . in a world where the digital had disappeared, books would be as valuable as gold.

  Lucas got close to the books and laughed. “Porn! I can see different positions in each page.” He reached in to grab one.

  “Lucas, leave it,” Julie said.

  “These could have undiscovered truths. How dare we disregard another culture’s gift to the world? Julie, you of all people should be supportive of any and all knowledge.”

  Julie sighed as she ran her fingers around her Panavice glancing from the tower to the green line. “Their programs here are much less sophisticated. This isn’t going to be a problem.” She worked in silence for a couple of minutes.

  Joey used the time to inspect Evelyn in Poly’s arms. He hated bringing her around the different worlds. He wished he could have stuffed her away somewhere safe and protect her. But unfortunately he knew there were greater goals than just saving his daughter from Marcus. He needed to end it all, end his plans for Earth. His heart pounded thinking about the next stages of the plan and what they involved, what he would potentially have to give up.