Chapter 26: End Game

Meyer dashed out of the main hall. I instinctively followed him. What a sight! Two planes skimmed the treetops on the other side of the river. The speed at which they travelled and the noise they left behind were mesmerizing. I covered my ears and ducked behind a low stone wall as they prepared for another pass.

Fiori, Eli and Yuki soon arrived out of breath. Without stopping, Yuki grabbed my sweater and dragged me back inside the main hall. Fiori did the same with Meyer.

“You want them to see you?” Yuki blasted me.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“Some old friends I fear,” Fiori answered while peering out the window.

The planes did a third pass and left.

I relaxed a bit. The silence was striking.

“They’re gone! It’s all good! Everything’s fine!” I forcefully cheered.

“Good? Are you that dense?”

If Eli could have rolled her eyes any further, they would have fallen right out of their sockets.

“They are looking for us Fenn! That wasn’t just a joyride! They must know we’re here, and they came to confirm it! And both you and Meyer ran right out and exposed yourselves. What were you thinking?” These harsh words came from Fiori. He had a hard time hiding his anger and disappointment.

“We need to leave,” stated Yuki. “We can’t stay here anymore! They know we are here. Our safety is compromised.”

“You know our safety was compromised from the start, right? If you think you can trust Hardi, then think again.” That was Meyer uncannily speaking.

Fiori pressed his lips together as his jaw tensed up. He was staring intensely at the wall behind me. He was thinking.

“We need to warn Evian! He can help us, right? He’s got connections! He’s got that mind control thingy!” It was Eli’s turn to chime in, but I cut her right off.

“We can’t trust him either!” I said.

“By now he will have seen the planes. By now he’s already realized that we’re in trouble. We don’t have anything to hide from him! He’s on our side Fenn. I know you don’t trust him, but right now, do we even have a choice?” Eli pleaded.

“And what if this was all his doing? What if there were no planes? What if this is just another one of his tricks? What if he’s in our minds right now? He can do that you know! You don’t believe me! Do you? He did it to me! He entered my mind! He made me believe I had killed Meyer. It was so real! So real…”

“I know Fenn,” Eli grabbed my hands. “We all know what he can do. But this wasn’t him. Those planes were real. Those planes came looking for us. Those planes found us. We are stuck in the middle of nowhere. The government is hunting us down. And like it or not, Evian is our best hope…”

I shook my hands free. Eli was probably right. But it still didn’t sit well with me. I was jittery. I was anxious. I started biting my lower lip.

“Your sister wanted us to trust Evian. More than anyone else, she hated him. But in the end, she still wanted us to go with him.” Fiori paused with a sad look on his face. “Your sister used to do that too. She’d bite her lower lip when she was upset.” Fiori let out a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry. I can’t…. I just can’t… I’ll go along with you guys…but I will never trust Evian.”

And that was that. I had spoken. My mind was made up. Unwavering, I stood facing my friends. Fiori frowned.

At the same moment, the front door was pushed opened. Evian followed by Arno and Doran, stormed the room. There was an apparent sigh of relief on each of their faces as they saw us all standing by the fire.

“What about Ashe?” Doran quickly asked.

“In her tent I believe,” was Yuki’s answer.

“Go get her Yuki,” commanded Fiori without skipping a beat. He then turned and addressed Evian directly: “Was it Hardi?”

“Most likely. We have no hard evidence, but he is clearly unhappy with our presence here. Ever since I defected the government… I noticed… he doesn’t seem as committed to the plan as he use to…” Evian then tentatively added, “Should we evacuate?”

“No. No that would be suicide in this weather. We have time. They won’t come back for a while. The nearest base is what… at least two days away? They know we have nowhere else to go. They know we can’t just run off into the forest. They know they have time. They have us trapped here. They could have sent drones to spy on us, but instead they used planes to intimidate us. They want to scare us. They want us to make a mistake. They will probably block the main access road and perhaps they’ll send more planes, but I think we have a least a couple of weeks before they make their move. They want the kids alive. They won’t be rash.” Fiori was full off confidence.

Yuki came back with Ashe.

“What did I miss?” Ashe cheerfully blurted.

“Not much really: Hardi sold us out, planes came to scout our location and evacuating would be a bad idea, so we decided to stay here and wait for them,” Doran explained in one breath.

“Ah! Well… I was really enjoying all this free time. You know… sleeping… eating… enjoying life.”

“I don’t know about enjoying life and eating, but I can assure you that once you die, you’ll have all the time in the world to sleep.”

On this, Doran and Ashe both laughed.

Their jovialness was a dim attempt at lowering the tension: the planes had reminded all of us of our precarious state.

I risked myself: “So, we stay here. Then what?”

All eyes turned to Evian. He frowned and started biting his lower lips. I smirked. Fiori saw it too.

“Hana never told us her end game. What’s yours Evian?” I bluntly asked.

“Take back what is ours!” he answered without any hesitation.

“Take what back?” I questioned.

“This! All this: our lives, this orphanage, this continent…. We are going to take it back. We are going to take it all back and finish our parent’s work.”

“Finish Shan Li’s work? How? Nova Terra was destroyed. Ortus University was obliterated and with it, all of your father’s work,” Meyer pointed out.

“Shan Li wasn’t the only one conducting important research. There has to be….”

“And what if I don’t want to support species reunification?” I interrupted him. “What if I want to blow up Antarticum and say to hell with it? Why not leave this damned continent? Why not just go live somewhere else?” I defied my brother.

“And where would you go? There is nothing left outside of Antarticum. Ruins. Perhaps a few settlements. But humans, in their pure form, are an endangered species. Cities have been burned to the ground or crushed and swallowed up by the rising oceans. There is no life worth living left out there. There is no hope, no future either. This is it. Take a good hard look around you. This is what we have left. This is what we must defend. This is home. Our home. And Aethereusians are humanity’s best chance at survival.”

“So, what do you propose we do then, concretely?” said Eli to Evian.

“We stay here. We get stronger. We train your Heighten Characteristics. We take a stand…and we win.”

He didn’t convince anyone. Yuki was shaking their head, while Doran looked perplexed at best; Ashe whispered something to Eli.

“They are just trying to scare us. Those planes were sent to alarm us. To make us do something stupid. They want us to panic. They want us to make the first move, but we won’t. If they could come and attack us, they would have done it already. Something is stopping them. Maybe it’s the weather, or maybe they’re afraid… either way, we are not going to fall into their trap,” pleaded Evian.

“He’s right.”

All eyes turned to Fiori.

“He’s right,” Fiori repeated a second time with an undisputable assertiveness. “We won’t make the first move. We won’t fall into their trap! We won’t leave Antarticum until we take what is ours to take!”

“But you’ve been out there! You’re from the scorched continent! How can you agree with him! How can you say there is no life worth living out there!” I grilled him.

“Out there? I killed Jefferson to put him out of his misery, when in fact, I should have done it to the entire planet. There is nothing left out there Fenn. Unless it is death you seek. Because if that is what you want, then…”

He pulled a pistol and aimed it straight at me.

He was serious.

There was nothing left for me to say.

Yuki stepped in. They put their hand on the weapon and lowered it gently.

“Enough,” they said.

Fiori tittered and holstered his gun.

I was done.

Without a word, I turned around and headed for my tent. It was unsettling. I had a lot to think about and not much courage to act on.