MAY 7, 2017

Boone Windsore had left them.

Zoey All was eleven years old, and her father had gone away three years ago.

The girl held her mother's hand as they stalked through the hall, invisible.

Zoey's mother wore an invisibility bracelet.

The girl didn't.

Piles of Freeman belongings littered the black space station's hangar. They had left that room. Zoey and her mother hadn't killed the Freemans in the massive hangar, but whoever had done it might become their ally.

Zoey and her mother needed a friend.

They had spotted a Soynite spaceship in the hangar. Their huge Soynite spaceship was in that room, the spacecraft smaller than the hangar.

It waited for its crew in all its beauty.

Zoey All. She was the spaceship's youngest crew member. Like her mother, her hair was brown and so were her eyes. Unlike the woman, the girl didn't own an invisibility bracelet. She owned hope.

What had happened to the man who owned the largest Soynite spaceship? Zoey didn't know. Maybe someone else did.

"Move around this pile," Zoey's mother said. She tugged, walking to Zoey's left.

The tall woman and the girl moved around a pile of Freeman belongings, neither one bothering to take the sword out its scabbard.

No guns.

It wouldn't be smart to fire a laser gun inside a space station.

Someone could use the Freeman sword weapon to hurt another person, but Zoey's invisible mother wouldn't use it to harm or kill her only daughter.

With her free hand, Zoey rubbed her cheek. It had been sore.

The slap her mother had given her earlier had been a result of her mentioning Boris Endman. Minutes after the slap, the lady had kissed the cheek when it was still sore. She had used a Soynite healing glass to make Zoey's pain vanish. The woman had apologized. And the preteen had seen her shed tears filled with guilt and remorse, because she had hated slapping her daughter.

The girl had earned the pain.

Her mother had regretted hurting her, and that proved she was not a monster who enjoyed hurting her only child.

Zoey was four-feet eight.

Her mother was six feet tall.

Maybe the girl in the hall would become as tall as the unseen lady walking next to her.

Zoey's mother wore black. A black shirt. Black pants. Black shoes covered her feet.

Zoey wore a blue backpack, gray sweatpants, and a white shirt. Displayed on the front of the shirt was Theo Majestic's head, the man signifying hope.

Theo. Zoey's favorite former High, a good man, a missing man.

Zoey's father had informed her mother about the fact his biological daughter had become a High and all the former Highs were no longer Highs. The man on Zoey's short-sleeved shirt had lost his authority, but the girl loved him anyway.

Did Theo have children?

Lilly Majestic had vanished from the Soynite public multiple times. A smart person would assume Theo had gotten his wife pregnant. More than once, at least.

If Theo had children, Zoey wouldn't be surprised if Theo himself told her it was the truth.

The eleven-year-old had a tough and skilled woman for a mother.

"Zoey," the girl's mother said.

"Yes, Mother?" Zoey said.

"I'm still sorry for slapping you," the woman said. Warmth from her soft hand mixed with Zoey's. "What I did was a necessary punishment. You know that, right?"

The girl did know it.

"I know," Zoey said. She leaned against the parent she couldn't see. The parent who was invisible but present, at least. Zoey couldn't see Boone Windsore. "I love you, Mother."

"And I love you, Zoey," her mother said. Her black shoes moved against the dark floor.

Love.

Zoey had loved her mother for so long. The kid didn't have friends, but she had a mother. Even before the invasion, Zoey hadn't gained friends. She had never gone to school. Her mother was her teacher. They had spent years traveling through outer space before the attack. Much to their dismay, the Freemans had attacked Soy when they were visiting their home on the planet.

The girl's father was absent. He would be back in her life. The man would. Boone couldn't stay missing forever. Zoey's mother didn't go into deep detail about what had happened to that wonderful man.

"Look at what someone painted on the wall," Zoey said.

On the wall ahead was a sentence. Someone had used red paint to put Soynite text on the wall's darkness.

Planet Still isn't good.

"I see it," Zoey's mother said. "We aren't the only Soynites here. The dead Freemans are proof, and so is that writing. You might make some new friends. Soon, baby."

Zoey grinned.

Footsteps. Heavy. The footsteps were heavy and urgent, their owner moving fast.

Zoey turned. A Freeman rushed toward her, his body nearing her as he wielded a dagger. The light coming from above reflected off its red blade. The Freeman kept running.

Unseen, Zoey's mother tugged. She guided Zoey closer to a wall.

A yell sounded, coursing with obvious agony. It came from a different hall, Zoey assumed. The running Freeman warrior moved past the girl and the woman, and he rushed into a neighboring hall.

A relieved sigh left Zoey.

The girl couldn't see her mother. Her mother couldn't see the kid. The Freemans couldn't see them.

"Let's follow him," Zoey's mother said, speaking to her invisible daughter.

Zoey and her mother spoke Soynite to each other. It was the language they were most comfortable with talking in.

The mother and her daughter moved into the hall the Freeman had run into.

Zoey and her mother stopped walking.

They watched as a man sliced off the Freeman's head with a sword. He was as tall as the enemy, the Soynite man standing at a height of seven feet.

The man had used a great slice to take off a pale head. No blood came from him. He wasn't hurt.

After the big man backed away, he observed.

A pile of Freeman belongings sat on the black floor. The headless Freeman collapsed onto the pile. His head had eyes.

They blinked.

After they stilled, the head and the headless body morphed into smoke.

Good. Good. Good.

Red blood remained on the floor. It contrasted with the black. But it didn't turn into smoke, and the tall man didn't bleed.

A door was open. No one moved through it and no one left whatever space it led to.

The huge Soynite man lifted his head. He roared.

"Hello!" Zoey's mother said. The man glanced around the hall, saw no one. "It's okay. We're just like you. I'm a Soynite. I'm an invisible one. I have an invisibility bracelet."

The man aimed his eyes at the woman, but he couldn't see her. He couldn't see Zoey.

"I'm going to take my bracelet off," Zoey said. "I'm going to put it in my pocket. I have to stop holding my daughter's hand, though. Don't hurt her."

Zoey's mother stopped holding her child's hand.

Visible, Zoey took a step back. She rubbed her thin arms with her hands.

"It's okay, baby," Zoey's mother said. Then she became visible. Zoey shook. She moved behind her mother, clung to her black shirt, peeked her head out. The man didn't say anything. "You're scaring my daughter. Can you talk?"

Zoey's mother took steps closer to the menacing man. Zoey clung to her dark shirt as she did so, using her mother as a Soynite shield.

The man slashed the wall.

Zoey flinched. Her mother didn't. They stepped back, increasing the distance between themselves and the towering man.

"Mother, I don't like this!" Zoey said.

As she remained aware she had tightened her grip on the black shirt, the girl shook harder.

The man had slaughtered two Freemans, and he could kill a woman and her child. He hadn't dropped his weapon.

"If you want to kill me, that's not going to happen," the woman said. "I'm good at killing. You are, too, but I'm better at it than you are."

"ARE YOU A CHILD OF STILL?!" the man roared.

A noise shot out Zoey's mouth, and she wished her mother would pick her up and take her away from the man and the space station.

The man had used the English phrase for "Child of," but someone had painted the phrase on the wall in Soynite. Still was a planet. Still was a proper noun. Zoey's mother had taught her about nouns a long time ago.

"No," Zoey's mother said. "I don't even know what that is."

The man aimed his sword at the lady.

"Mother!" Zoey said.

"Explain yourself!" the man said. He lowered the sword.

"My name is Misty Windsore," Zoey's mother said. "The girl behind me is my daughter, Zoey All. She's eleven. Are you cruel enough to kill an eleven-year-old girl?"

"If that eleven-year-old girl is a Child of Still, yes," the man said, using the English phrase for "Child of," again.

"She isn't," Zoey's mother said. "She's just a kid."

The man examined Zoey's face. Zoey didn't run, but the urge to spread through her body.

"I won't kill her," the man said. "I won't kill you."

"Thank you," Zoey's mother said. "What's your name? My name is still Misty Windsore."

"I'm Crammer Cole," the man said. "And you and Zoey should leave."

He turned.

Crammer Cole took steps toward the hall's end, his huge body moving, the big man going toward wherever he planned on heading to.

Where did the man plan on going?

The light moved against Crammer's black hair and his muscular body. He was tall. He had aimed his brown eyes at the Freemans he had killed. It was great. Maybe he would slaughter more pale enemies. If he was a lucky man, he would.

"You need help!" Zoey's mother said. "You have Freemans to deal with, Crammer Cole! Also, have you seen Boris Endman?!"

Refusing to answer Zoey's mother, Crammer kept walking.

Mentioning Boris Endman was the reason why Zoey's mother had slapped her. Zoey had talked to the woman about her wish to fly with Boris Endman. Her mother had slapped her cheek.

That man called Crammer was big. He was as tall as those two Freemans had been. The Soynite had turned them into smoke. Zoey doubted she would reach seven feet tall in height, but she would grow. She would grow, and her breasts would grow, and her optimism would grow. After putting distance between herself and the Freeman space station, she would develop more hope.

Away from the space station was a wasteland.

That land belonged to Soy, the planet Zoey, her mother, and the huge Crammer were far from. Their planet.

Crammer hadn't opened Zoey's throat with his red sword.

Just like Zoey and the woman she had come with, Crammer wasn't human. He was far from his home planet. Soy. It had been such a wonderful place, and it would become wonderful. The Freemans had ruined it. But beauty would come back to Zoey's place of birth.

She didn't know Misty Windsore was her kidnapper.

But she was aware Crammer hadn't killed her. He hadn't murdered her mother.

Zoey had clung to her mother's shirt and shown fear. Instead of slapping the girl, Misty hadn't scolded her. The Freemans wouldn't show Zoey any sweet mercy.

She wanted to show Lovely mercy.

Zoey's stepfather's biological daughter was real. She was as real as the dark ceiling above Zoey's brown hair, and the girl had to see her. She had to meet her and hug her and love her.

Boone had told the girl his daughter was orange-haired and green-eyed. Lovely would be eleven years old now. Like Zoey. They were stepsisters, but they had never met. They would. Zoey believed that as much as she believed her mother would talk to Crammer again.

"You should stop walking," Zoey's mother said.

Yes!

Zoey would meet Lovely.

Crammer didn't stop walking. He headed into a different hall, armed. The man had ignored the lady with the kid, and he might go on to kill more Freemans.

"What are we going to do, Mother?" Zoey said.

"We're going to follow-" the mother started saying.

A hand grabbed Zoey's backpack from behind, yanked. The girl screamed as someone pulled her through an open door.

"Mother!" she said, her voice shaking.

The person released the backpack, and they shoved Zoey against a bookshelf. She yelped.

Blood dripped, coming from the spot where the man's arm should be. He was tall, but he wasn't Crammer. The Freeman with a missing arm stared. He took a step closer.

Zoey grabbed a book and launched it. The object slammed against the injured Freeman's broad chest. He took another step, swaying.

"Help me," he said.

A sword entered him.

"Get away from my daughter!" Zoey's mother said. She stood behind the one-armed Freeman, wielding the red sword.

Blood soaked the blade sticking out the enemy's big chest. His situation was bad. Because a woman he had never spoken to had impaled him, the Freeman would die.

The brown-haired woman pulled the weapon free, stepped aside.

The Freeman backed away. He dropped, stopped breathing.

Good. Good. Good.

Zoey's mother had made the Freeman unable to hurt or kill. No matter how many Soynites the Freeman had killed, he was dead. A Soynite had turned him into a corpse.

His lifeless body became smoke, and it rose toward the black ceiling.

The blood in the room had changed into smoke. Zoey assumed the blood she had seen in the hall had belonged to the Freeman. The kid didn't doubt Crammer had wounded the Freeman and the pale warrior had escaped from him.

The Freeman had wanted Zoey's help.

But he had been an enemy. The preteen's mother had killed him and that was good.

Zoey's mother grabbed the girl's hand and they left the room together.

Crammer stood in the hall.

"Is the kid okay?" he said.

"She's fine," Zoey's mother said. "I killed the Freeman who grabbed her. He was missing an arm. I assume you had something to do with that."

Crammer turned his back on the woman, and he moved toward the other hall.

"You were going to help my daughter," Zoey's mother said. "I like that, Crammer. If you stay with me and Zoey, you'll be able to see her a lot more. You'll be able to see me a lot more."

Crammer kept walking.

"You and Zoey should leave," the man said, as he moved.

"Mother, I'm going to get the book I threw," Zoey said.

The girl needed more reading material. Thanks to her ability to read the Freeman language, she could read the book she had used as a weapon.

"I'll go with you," Zoey's mother said.

In the room with the single bookshelf, Zoey moved onto her knees. The book she had thrown sat on the floor, its back side resting against the floor's darkness. On the cover were images of different species found on planet Free.

Zoey read the book's title.

Information About Planet Free's Wildlife

The girl could afford to learn more about planet Free's wildlife.

A red sofa sat in the room, against the wall. No one sat on it. Even though a Freeman had grabbed her backpack and scared her, Zoey didn't take a seat.

She took off her backpack, unzipped its largest pouch, and she put the book into it. She zipped the backpack. Ready, the girl put it on again.

She stood.

"The Freemans aren't the only things we have to worry about," Zoey's mother said. "I hate that they have animals they can use. We don't."

Zoey hated bellmas and the other creatures that came from planet Free.

"I don't like them either," Zoey said. "I don't want to get eaten alive."

A bellma flock didn't swarm Zoey, but bellmas were real. They had sharp horns and sharp teeth, and they would love to bite into Soynite flesh.

"You won't," Zoey's mother said. "I'm going to protect you. I always will. You had the right to be angry at me earlier, and I have the right to kill anyone who hurts you."

Like her daughter, the great woman knew killing was necessary sometimes, and Zoey's mother had taken Freeman lives in the past.

"Tell me what you think about Boris Endman," Zoey's mother said.

Zoey took a step back, as if her mother wished to sacrifice her.

"But you'll get angry," Zoey said. "You don't like it when people say his name. You'll want to hurt them, and I don't want to be hurt again, Mother. I'm sorry."

Zoey's mother shook her head.

"I'm giving you permission," the woman said. "Tell me what you think about Boris Endman."

Zoey took a breath. She looked at the red sofa, which former High Boris Endman didn't sit on. No one sat on it.

"You won't be hurt," Zoey's mother said. "I promise."

"I want to fly with Boris," Zoey said. "I want him to carry me as he flies in the air with me. I like him. I like Theo Majestic, too, but I also like Boris. He reminds me of myself."

Zoey's mother made a face, as if the one-armed Freeman she had killed had cut her.

"Okay," the tall lady said. "Thanks for telling me what you think about that man."

"Are we going to turn invisible again?" Zoey said.

"If we do, we can't fight," her mother said. She looked at the red sword she held. "I don't want to cut you by accident."

A cut by a Freeman sword would spill blood, and the girl in the reading room would rather keep her blood inside her.

Zoey didn't want her mother to cut her by accident.

After that earlier slap, the girl had experienced enough pain for today.

Zoey could fight. She could kill Freemans. Her mother and the big Crammer had made Freemans die. The kid could do the same.

"I can fight," Zoey said.

The girl would rather kill a Freeman than rescue one. That one-armed enemy had earned what Zoey's mother had given him.

"You can't get close to the Freemans," Zoey's mother said. "You'll lose. You have to keep your distance. We can't use guns in this place, so we'll have to find throwing knives for you."

The woman in the room with Zoey hadn't left her. She had given her advice, so the girl could stay alive for as long as possible.

Good.

Zoey's mother was a good parent.

The kid couldn't complain about not having a good mother. But she could complain about not having a father in her life.

Zoey wanted to hug Boone, but that couldn't happen. She wanted to hug Boone's daughter, Lovely. That couldn't happen, either, and Zoey was away from those Soynites.

Another girl who was away from certain people was Alice Endman. Someone horrible, a person who wasn't like Zoey's mother, had kidnapped Alice. The girl had been a baby when it happened. Like Zoey, she was eleven.

Where was she? Where was Alice Endman?

Zoey stood in a room with a bookshelf.

Her mother stood nearby. She wasn't Holly Endman or Archer Endman. Zoey's mother was Misty Windsore. The girl's father, her stepfather, was Boone Windsore.

The man had married Zoey's mother, and she had taken his last name.

Boone was gone.

His biological child had gone into an evacuation spaceship. The man himself had gone into the spaceship Zoey and her mother lived in, and Boone had resided with them.

Zoey's father had the power to create fire. Pyrokinesis was his Save, his only Save.

As for Zoey, she didn't have a Save. She didn't have powers that could help her kill Freemans. They were people who would love to murder her, but they could bleed. They could die.

Crammer had killed Freemans. He had made them die in the hall. Plus, that Soynite man had made fear attack Zoey.

The girl had never killed a Soynite. If it became necessary to end the life of one, would Zoey do it?

Maybe Crammer had killed a Soynite.

He had met Zoey. That man was not a stranger to Misty's daughter. He knew Zoey's name and Zoey knew his name.

They were acquaintances.

Zoey hadn't forgotten Crammer's name. The man hadn't forgotten her name.

They had met.

How many people would Zoey meet in her lifetime?

Away from the space station were people. Soynites. Humans. Zoey wasn't close to humans, but she was near the Soynite who had raised her. Zoey's mother had taken care of her for eleven years, and she was too great to hate.

The Freemans had attacked Soy eleven years ago, and Zoey wanted Theo Majestic to kill every Freeman. That would be good. Lock Tannis and other Freemans had made pain and sadness charge to the Soynite people.

The invasion was over, but Soynites suffered. Still.

But their suffering would end, and the bad Freemans would die. Every single one.

Zoey's mother kneeled close to the pile of Freeman belongings. She grabbed a blade's handle, pulled the weapon free.

A throwing knife.

Zoey looked at its dangerous red.

She could use the weapon as a tool to bring death. Her mother and Crammer had used swords to kill Freemans, and Zoey could use the throwing knife to bring a Freeman their death.

Freemans had to die. They had to get killed.

Crammer. He was huge, armed, Soynite. If Zoey could help him fight, then she had to do that.

The Freemans' ruler, Lock Tannis, had multiple different powers. He wasn't a Soynite. That man wasn't like Zoey, her mother, and their new acquaintance.

Killing a normal Freeman warrior would be easier than taking Lock Tannis's life, Zoey knew.

She and her mother were in enemy territory. They hadn't seen Lock, but what if he had gone into the space station the mother and daughter stood in?

Zoey could kill a Freeman. Even though she was more optimistic than anyone nearby, the girl doubted she could kill Lock. She was too weak. Lock was too strong.

"Here," Zoey's mother said. She gave the girl the throwing knife. "Don't try to be a foolish hero. Being brave doesn't mean you have to be stupid. Remember that."

"I know, Mother," Zoey said. "Thank you."

The woman moved her free hand toward the girl's cheek. Zoey flinched.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Zoey's mother said. She rubbed the cheek she had slapped earlier. "We are going to fight as mother and daughter."

Noise came into the room from the hall. Crammer yelled.

"Come on!" Zoey's mother said.

She headed into the hall, wielding the Freeman sword. Zoey went with her.

Crammer thrusted his sword into a Freeman's chest, creating a great noise while the blade broke through bone. The Soynite pulled the weapon free. He dodged. A red sword cut the empty space he had stood in.

Zoey's mother confronted the Freeman. She swung. The red blade reflected light as it hurried toward the enemy's pale neck. The sword made contact and the Freeman's head came off.

It was gross. But goodness filled the moment.

A headless Freeman was a satisfying sight, and Zoey didn't forget.

The Freemans dropped onto the black floor, dead. They would never succeed in killing Zoey, or her mother, or Crammer.

Dead men can't kill the living.

Even the Freemans, who had destroyed a planet in a few hours, could bleed and die.

The lifeless Freemans changed into smoke, just like the members of their species did after dying.

Footsteps approached.

Zoey turned, sent the throwing knife flying. It slipped into a pale forehead. The Freeman staggered, fell onto his back, and he stopped breathing. His lifeless body became smoke.

"Good girl!" Zoey's mother said.

The girl, the good girl, smiled. She had killed the Freeman, and that meant Lock Tannis had one less warrior to help him destroy the Soynite population. Zoey had done something great.

So great.

If Zoey and the other Soynites killed all the Freemans, peace would come. It would go into their lives and they would be happy as the Freemans would be gone.

Zoey's mother grinned and faced Crammer.

"Crammer, I love killing with you," the woman said. She pointed at the huge man. "You understand. You understand that some people need to be killed in order to bring peace. And some people need to be hurt. That's the way it is."

She wasn't wrong.

"You don't understand me, woman," Crammer said.

"I do," Zoey's mother said. "I know you know a Child of Still. Whatever that is. And they've made you upset."

"Be quiet," Crammer said. He took a step closer to Zoey's mother, armed with a sword he had used to kill Freemans.

The eleven-year-old's heart beat fast. Too fast.

Crammer had made black Freeman clothing drop against the black floor. Would he kill the mother? Would he make a girl and her blue backpack drop?

"Mother," Zoey said.

If Crammer killed Misty Windsore, the girl would lose the most important person in her life.

"It's okay," Zoey's mother said. The girl clung to the woman's dark shirt. "Good. Just grab onto my shirt. Stay close to me."

"If you stay here, you will see a dead body," Crammer said. "It won't be a Freeman's."

He tapped his sword's red against blackness. The wall next to him was hard and dark, and Crammer was tough and menacing.

"Are you going to try to kill my daughter?" Zoey's mother said.

The girl's legs shook in her gray sweatpants.

Scared, she wished she and her mother had never met the tall man with a red sword.

If she died, she would never see her father again. If Crammer murdered her, the girl would never hug her stepsister, Lovely.

"You don't understand me, woman," Crammer said. "You and Zoey should leave."

He left the hall.

The big man made Zoey's urge to be back inside her spaceship bigger. She had to be in her bed, not in the black place with Freemans and a seven-foot tall Soynite man who didn't like her mother.

Crammer was too weird.

With black surrounding her and her mother, Zoey wished Crammer would stop being so strange.

"What are we going to do?" Zoey said. She didn't stop holding onto her mother's shirt. "Are we going to follow him?"

"No," the girl's mother said. "We're going to catch up to Crammer later. For now, though, let's go back into the room with the books."

They went back into the room with the books.

Zoey, no longer grabbing a dark shirt, sighed. She rubbed her arms with her hands.

"Crammer is weird," Zoey said.

"That's not nice, Zoey," her mother said. "The man you just called weird was going to save you. That Freeman with one arm grabbed you and Crammer heard you scream."

The one-armed Freeman had wanted Zoey to help him. If she had helped the pale man, would he have murdered her anyway?

Zoey assumed he would have.

The one-armed Freeman had grabbed her backpack. He had forced the kid into the room, but he hadn't murdered her. Maybe he would've.

Zoey's mother went near the bookshelf. She sliced its wood with her Freeman sword.

"You can't fight fate, Zoey," the woman said. "Maybe it's our destiny to become friends with Crammer."

"But I don't want to be friends with him," Zoey said. She gripped her backpack's straps. "He's so strange. He's weird, Mother. And he said that we're going to see a dead body if we stay here. What did he mean by that? Why did he say that? And what's a Child of Still?"

Planet Still.

That was one of the last places a Soynite would go to on their own free will. If Zoey wanted to keep her sanity, it would be smart if she never made a trip to Still. That planet was almost as bad as Free, which had Freemans and other monsters. Planet Still wasn't good. The valuable objects found on it were great tools, but the planet itself would make the average person frown.

"I don't know," Zoey's mother said. "It has something to do with the planet Still, obviously. But I just don't know. I'm as ignorant about this as you are."

"I want to go home," Zoey said.

Home was a big spaceship containing Zoey's other clothes, her mother's bedroom, which Zoey wasn't allowed in, and so much else. It was home.

That was where Zoey would rather be.

At this moment, the girl stood in a room within a black space station.

The space station, the place Zoey and her mother had gone into, it was enemy turf. The kid knew it. Her mother knew it.

The blond man on Zoey's shirt was Lock Tannis's enemy. Theo had turned Zoey's stepsister into a High, but he had never met Zoey. Maybe he never would. The girl's father had told her about the fact Theo had teleported away after making six children into Highs.

Where had he gone?

"You will go home," Zoey's mother said. She touched her own long brown hair. "We will go home, but we need a friend. You know that. You saw how tough that big man out there is. Your father is gone, Zoey. We need another strong person to help us. The more people we have on our side, the better."

Nervousness covered Zoey like a thick comforter. She thought about the big man with the sharp sword. Her unease grew.

"You want Crammer to live with us?" Zoey said.

"Yes," her mother said. "I didn't see a vision of me and that man hugging, but me and him are going to be best friends."

Maybe Crammer would die before becoming Misty Windsore's friend.