“Amber?”
Her head swung around. “Remy! Thank God!”
I stood back while Devon rushed to Amber’s side and set down Linette.
“Rem, come wrap this wound,” Amber said, motioning to the gauze in her hand as she peered down at Linette’s still form.
I set down Kelsey and ran over to grab the gauze. I didn’t recognize the soldier with the bleeding arm, but he nodded at me, gritting his teeth, and I nodded back before getting to work.
Amber was able to quickly dig the bullet out of Linette’s shoulder.
“She is so fucking lucky,” Amber murmured. “Shot just under her collarbone. Missed her heart and main arteries.” She poured something on the wound, I was guessing to sterilize it, and Linette gasped out a croak, her eyes shooting open. Devon had to hold her down as she cursed from the pain.
“Good to see you haven’t lost your fire,” Amber said.
“Oh, it’s you.” Linette closed her eyes and leaned back against Devon, her forehead pinched with pain. “How bad is it?”
“I was just saying how lucky you are. It’s going to take a couple months to heal, but you’ll be good to go.”
Linette cracked open a single eye and looked right at me. “Thanks.”
I shrugged, feeling an unfamiliar sense of pride. Amber shot me a questioning look.
Linette closed her eye and grunted. “She saved my life. Killed the alien bitch.”
Amber’s eyes widened and she smiled. I had so much to tell her.
As soon as she shot Linette up with morphine, she started working on the next guy, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I threw my arms around her neck. She couldn’t hug me back, but her voice got thick.
“Shit, now I can’t see,” she said, trying to wipe her eyes against her shoulders. I pulled up the skirt of my dress and dabbed her eyes while she laughed.
“I thought we were besties now, Remy,” Linette said, eyes still closed. Amber scoffed, but I had to smile.
“I can never have too many friends.”
Kelsey slunk over to my side and leaned against me, needing to be close. I put an arm around her.
“You’re okay, sweetie. This is my friend, Amber. Amb, this is Kelsey.”
“Hi,” Amber said, giving her a quick smile. Kelsey stared down at the injured soldier while Amber finished wrapping.
“You’re a doctor,” Kelsey said. “My mommy was a doctor.”
Amber and I both smiled at her. I rubbed Kelsey’s back, then looked toward the door at Josh. “Have you seen Tater?”
“Yeah, he’s over at the warehouse. Amber got the worm out of him.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Is he okay?”
“He looked rough, but wanted to fight.” Josh glanced over at the warehouse. “Looks like it’s almost over. Some of our guys pulled out the kids.”
I stood and went to the door. A female soldier was running our way with my girls. I embraced each of them as they came in.
“I’m Carmen,” said the woman.
“Hi. Remy.”
She nodded. “Heard all about you.”
“What’s going on over there?” Josh asked her.
“They won’t stand down, even though they’re surrounded. They’re using humans as shields and guards. But we’ve sniped the majority and only three are left. Top is ready to ambush.”
“Showdown,” Josh said. “How about the rest of the area?”
“Far as I know, clear.”
Devon stood. “I’m going back out.” He left us to help the others, and I shouted at his back.
“Be careful!”
Everything outside was eerily quiet. I stood near the door so I could see to the warehouse at the end of the clearing. I had to squint. After a few minutes, a rush of soldiers burst through the doors and I covered my mouth as rapid firing rang out. We all watched, holding our breath.
Amber finished and came to my side, watching with us. We immediately grabbed hands. After several minutes of firing and shouting, a cheer filled the air.
“Hell, yeah!” Josh said. Everyone in our room cheered too.
Then voices began shouting, “Medic!”
My stomach dropped. Who was hurt? I tried to think of who all would’ve been over there: Top, Devon, Tex, Tater. I grabbed ahold of a bed rail to steady myself against a wave of dread.
Amber rushed over for her bag. She, the other medic, and I ran toward the warehouse. I halted when we reached the entrance. Someone had turned on the light and it was a bloody mess. Bodies everywhere, mostly Baelese, but a handful of humans too. And a bunch of our men were standing in a circle over one body in particular.
Amber pushed her way into the fray and yelled in a trembling voice, “Top!” I saw Devon, Tater, and Tex crouching over him. My tummy fluttered with happy relief to see that they were fine, and then nausea at the sight of Top splayed out, so still. Tater looked up with mournful eyes and shook his head as Amber fell to her knees and took Top’s pulse. Then her head fell and a cry broke through my lips. I’d always respected the First Sergeant, who we first met as “Dog Balls,” but I knew Amber loved him. He’d treated her like a daughter, and kind of reminded me of her real dad.
All around us, soldiers began to file in, surrounding Top in a circle of remorse. “He’s gone,” people whispered. “Top didn’t make it.” And one word reverberated in my mind as I looked around at the reverence on everyone’s faces.
Hero.
Amber
Taking back Nellis Air Force Base had been a textbook mission, by all accounts, but it was a huge loss for me. We’d lost a few more soldiers than expected, worst of all our fearless leader, because extra Baelese personnel happened to be at the encampment for a punishment. We hadn’t been expecting that. It was good that we’d gotten there when we did, though. Remy’s account of what had been about to happen gave me chills.
There would be no rest that night. At sun up, we immediately took stock of the base and what was left, making sure no straggler aliens remained. Unfortunately, a good portion of the amazing Baelese communications equipment had been in the obnoxious palace they’d built. But Matt and the other tech guys were busy in the older buildings getting us back online to communicate with our people in Alaska, and other allies around the world.
It was strange not to have Top in control. Colonel Latham was good at planning the overall picture, but it felt a little like we were flailing as we tried to prepare the small details. Thankfully, Officer Sean rose to the occasion and had natural, even-keeled leadership qualities. I stuck close to Rylen, not wanting him out of my sight. He hadn’t had to battle anyone in the Nellis takeover, but what was to come was a mystery. We had no idea if the Baelese ships would just be traveling vessels, or if they would have firing capabilities.
“Look at this,” Sean said, leaning over an area map. I wasn’t good at reading maps, but it looked like he was pointing at a place outside of the base lines.
“Area 51,” said Rylen. He squinted and leaned in. “They’ve got it marked as an underground weapons silo.”
“For years they’ve said there’s nothing out there,” Sean said. “That they use it for weapon testing and nothing else.”
Matt crossed his arms. “Well, let’s check it out.”
I was shocked when they let me pile into the vehicle with them. The drive through the dusty desert should have felt peaceful, but we were all edgy. Maybe we always would be, even after whatever was to come was over. No peace for our generation.
We slowed when we got to the middle of nowhere, and noticed the glimmering shine of a manmade surface on the ground, painted the same color as the dirt. A massive square. Was it a landing area?
Matt found a cellar door at the corner and opened it, whispering when he peered in. “Holy shit.”
Sean and Devon followed him down, followed by Rylen and me. We went down about three flights of stairs in the darkness until Matt found light switches. What I saw made me grasp Rylen’s hand hard enough to cut off his ci
rculation.
A spaceship. It was rounded with a domelike top, just like pictures often depicted of UFOs. The whole thing was sleek. It looked light and airy, not heavy like one of our spaceships. I was frozen to the spot and freaked out.
“Just like the one at Dugway,” Rylen murmured. He gently tugged me forward, mesmerized.
“Let’s get inside it,” Sean said.
My fight-or-flight instinct was screaming for me to take flight, as in, run. I didn’t want to be near this creepy thing.
“It’s all right, Pepper,” Rylen said, urging me to come with him. He knew exactly what place to touch on the bottom of the vessel to make a set of steps whoosh down.
“What if aliens are in it?” I hissed.
Everyone took out their guns to appease me. I took mine out, too, and followed them up the stupid steps. When we got inside, it was like something at Epcot center. For a second, I went slack and just stared around.
“How old is this thing?” I whispered.
“Roswell era,” Rylen said.
“Been on Earth eighty to a hundred years,” Sean whispered.
Matt stared at a wall panel of buttons and screens in awe. “Who knows how long it was made before that, and how long it traveled to get here.”
So freaking weird. This ship was practically ancient, and it looked like futuristic technology.
“Okay, this is cool and all,” I said. “But does this thing have weapons? And does anyone know how to work it? Otherwise, I feel like we’re wasting our time.”
“Amber,” Rylen said from what appeared to be the pilot seat. “This thing is their equivalent of a comfort fighter jet. And yes . . .” He looked at me and my heart dropped. “In theory, I know how to fly it.”
In theory.
I crossed my arms and grumbled the entire way back to base. The Baelese mother ships were coming tomorrow and my husband was like a kid with a big, dangerous, unknown toy. It was going to be hard enough with him in a fighter jet with missiles and high powered guns. To think of him on an alien ship that he kinda sorta maybe knew how to operate made me want to vomit.
Remy found me the second we got back, and the two of us walked off together to find something to eat.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I told her, and the look of dismay on her face told me I wasn’t being crazy in my worry. We sat in a corner of the mess hall with two bowls of canned chicken and rice soup.
“I barely escaped Linette,” Remy said, taking a sip. “It’s so weird. She legit wants to hang with me, and I keep waiting for her to make fun of me. It’s hard to take her friendliness seriously.”
“Who knew,” I said. “That the way to win her over was to kill for her?”
Remy laughed and rolled her eyes. “It was a lucky shot in the dark.”
“Doesn’t matter. And you shouldn’t underestimate yourself.”
She swirled her spoon around in the soup. “I’m glad she’s alive. The friendship thing is just going to take some getting used to.”
As I ate, she kept staring down at her soup, stirring, lost in thought. I wondered what all she’d been through in that camp. She definitely seemed . . . off. Not herself. She told me she’d been a teacher to the alien children, and I knew Remy. I knew her heart always got involved.
I braced myself to ask her. “Do you miss the, uh, Baelese kids?”
She sucked her bottom lip in and set down the spoon, holding her hands in her lap and staring away. My heart ached. I rubbed her back, and Remy flinched.
I dropped my hand. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” Her voice shook. “I’m sorry. We weren’t allowed to touch. Ever.”
“What else happened in there?” Remy wouldn’t look at me. “I won’t tell anyone.”
She looked at me now, and the remorse in her eyes gutted me. “Senator Navis made me his liaison to the humans.”
“Okay,” I said.
Remy looked down again, and realization smacked me with an open hand.
“He liked you, didn’t he?” I shuddered with a gasp. “And you . . .” She hunched, and I couldn’t help myself. I put a hand on her back again, and she let me. “It’s okay, Remy.”
“No, it’s not.” She shook her head. “I’m, like, a traitor. Linette told me to get out of there, so I knew something was about to happen, and I wanted to save him and the kids. I wanted to get them to safety. I tried, and then—” She choked up, bringing her fingertips to her lips.
Remy’s heart had always been big and soft. She saw gray, malleable space where other people saw rigid black and white.
“You’re not a traitor,” I said in a firm voice. “Don’t ever say that again, and don’t think it for a second longer. You’re a good person with a tender heart, and you got to see a side of the enemy that nobody else did.”
Her shoulders remained slumped, jaw quivering, and I knew there was more to the story than she was letting on. Remy usually told me everything, so if she was holding back, it had to be huge. Maybe she’d confide in me someday, but I wouldn’t press her. Instead, I twined my fingers with hers and made her look at me.
“Eat, okay?”
She nodded and picked up her spoon. At that moment, Tater and New York Josh walked into the room. Something electric seemed to stretch across the space as my brother and Remy made eye contact. Tater stopped mid-step to stare at her, making Josh go around him.
For too long there had been games between Remy and Tater. Things left unsaid. I’d come to expect it. So imagine my surprise when Remy stood without looking back and went straight to him, sliding her arms around his neck. His went around her waist and his eyes closed as he pulled her close. And right there in front of everyone, they held each other.
Amber
Remy didn’t want to watch the final battle. She opted to go to the safety of a bomb shelter with other civilians. They were given food, weapons, and several vehicles to try and escape and fend for themselves if things went south. It surprised me that she didn’t want to stay with me, but knowing she’d come to feel compassion for some of the Baelese, maybe it would be too hard to watch thousands of them extinguished. Maybe it felt like genocide to her. And perhaps it was.
I wanted to be more like Remy. I wanted to be able to give the benefit of the doubt and work together with our alien neighbors, but after everything that had happened, we couldn’t trust them as a whole. They’d killed almost our entire population. Something told me they wouldn’t be happy as our “equals.” As sad as it was, and a massive waste of intelligent life, we couldn’t take the chance. Everyone on those ships was under the impression that Earth was theirs, and that the humans who were left could be used as slaves.
Not happening.
Our soldiers had worked straight through the day and night, allowing each other one-hour cat naps in shifts. They had stockpiled all weapons, gotten every missile, bomb, and other flying deadly things pointed upward, gassed up the jets, and had passenger planes ready to go if we lost and needed to escape. According to Matt, the three enormous ships had entered Earth’s orbit during the night. But they’d surprised us by going three different directions.
One seemed to be headed for France. The other for Russia. And the last for Nevada. Everyone around the world was ready, and as far as we could tell, the Baelese had no idea what was about to greet them.
I joined Matt and Officer Sean with the tech-comm crew at the top of a nearby mountain. We had a great view for miles, and clear signal radius. Our jets were lined up, and allied forces from around the U.S. had shown up mere hours before with jets of their own. But Rylen was not in one of them.
During his cat nap, I’d joined him in a room. He fell asleep the instant his head hit my lap. I ran my fingers through his short, blond hair, gently scratching his scalp. Ry slept like a rock as I ran a finger over the lines of his jaw and face. His breath hit my inner thigh, and I let myself stare at him. I loved him so much, it ached, because I knew tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed. And there could never
be another for me.
Now, he was on his way to Area 51. He’d spent hours there yesterday, and reassured me all was well. This ship, unlike the one at Dugway, had not been damaged, and was an earlier model, therefore easier to maneuver. Still, when he left two hours ago, I dry heaved, thankful I hadn’t eaten anything yet.
His parting words still filled my ears. “I’ll see you soon, Pepper.”
I was holding him to it.
Our lookout place reminded me of the watch tower at Dugway, only much, much higher. I looked out through the glass with high-powered binoculars. Even early in the morning, as soon as the sun came up, the air became hazy with heat. The land on the horizon shimmered like a mirage. I stared out at the sky, heart in my throat, but so far nothing happened.
Waiting was the worst. At least I thought it was. And then Officer Sean said, “It’s time,” and I realized that was the worst.
Tension crystalized in the warm air, making our breaths brittle as all of us stared out, standing. Before I could spot anything in the air, all of our jets lifted off and shot up, the sound splitting the air. Where was it? And then Matt cursed low and I swung my binoculars toward the horizon. I would never, ever forget what I saw. The stuff of nightmares.
It came slowly, blocking the sun like a turtle shell stretching across a huge expanse of the horizon. As it moved into view, I couldn’t even breathe. That thing . . . it was too big. Humans could not even fathom putting something like that into the air, something the size of a freaking town. How the hell was it hovering?
Our guys didn’t waste any time. I jumped and let out a small yelp as the jets flew by, hitting both sides of the mother vessel. Orange fireballs lit up, but when they subsided, nothing was there. No damage. Our flyers were nothing more than mosquitos on a horse.