Among them there is one real
mountain that had been a passageway between the domes, whose caves still
lead down into the underworld of the machinery levels.
It is in that direction that
the grass is bent down. It is there she must have gone.
Myles follows her. Another
figure, hidden in the tree line, follows him.
On the porch, only Karu smiles
when the TriSenate officers pay the family their blood money. Meanwhile,
the mercenaries and officers confront each other, argue jurisdiction and
search the area for Rayn. One catches sight of Myles and the other figure
sprinting towards the mountain.
Rayn reaches the caves and
keeps running through their narrow, mine shaft-like tunnels, breathless,
not daring to stop, to change her mind. Down into the darkness lit only
by the occasional red emergency light. Down to where the air grows hot
and close. Down to where the cave mouth opens into a vast internal cavern,
a faultline. Metal pipes, ledges, maintenance walkways, and Servicer runways
crisscross the ravine. Rayn steps gingerly out onto a ledge then halfway
across a walkway. She looks down. Waves of hot steam from the channeled
lava far below break over her face. Fans capturing the steam’s energy still
beat all around her, throbbing. She grows light-headed.
"Stop!" Myles yells from
the cave mouth.
She grabs the walkway’s rail,
"No, stay back! It’s the only way!"
"Giving up is never the only
way!" Then Myles pulls out his weapon. "You?"
Again she follows his gaze.
At the other end of the walkway, Rozar, his weapon pointed back at Myles.
Roz grins accusingly, "Are
you saying all this because you promised to hand her over to your mercenaries
alive?"
Myles, enraged, "Me? You
followed us here! I bet you were sent to kill her! Weren’t you? Tell us!
Tell her!"
Quietly now. "All right.
Yes, I was."
"Stop it!" Rayn screams,
her grip bloodless-tight on the rail. "Growing up, I thought I couldn’t
trust anyone. Now I find I was right. I can’t live like that anymore --
like this!
Weapons’ fire. Above. They’re
coming for her. Myles, confused by the echoes thinks Rozar is firing at
her. He shoots at Rozar, Rozar fires back. The shots ricochet. Rocks avalanche
on either side. They hit the walkway, it tips. She falls. All three scream.
But with one of the leather
strips from her belt she whips and snags some pipes and swings across to
slow herself before falling flat onto another set of pipes far below.
Rozar, still screaming, fires
until the walls around Myles cave-in. He then jumps and climbs down from
causeway to pipeline to walkway to where Rayn lies face down on a line
of pipes.
He hears her weak sobbing.
Through steam, sweat and tears, she looks up.
"It wasn’t worth this. I
was never worth any of this!"
From Roz’s angle it almost
looks as if she’s pulling herself to the pipes’ edge. He moves closer.
He uses his deepest, most soothing tones and talks to her.
"All your life you’ve wondered
why, why you survived that first attack and your family didn’t. Why you,
not them. You’ve fought since then to make it up to them, using every one
of your days for them or someone else, never for you. You’ve never even
lived yet, how can you be ready to die?"
She is closer to the
edge.
"Leave me alone!"
"They saved you for a reason!
The gods, goddess, fate, universe, whatever saved you for a reason!"
She’s at the edge. She pulls
herself halfway up.
"It’s the right thing to
do."
He’s almost there.
"And that’s Rayn, isn’t it?
Has to do the right thing no matter what the cost. Well, the right thing
to do is survive."
Weary. "I owe it to myself
right?"
"No, you just owe it. To
everyone and everything that’s brought you this far."
He jumps down next to her.
"You know I’m right, or you
wouldn’t’ve let me get this close."
They’re both weak and about
to pass out from the heat. She turns to him.
"You were sent to kill me!
Why don’t you just do it?!"
"Because why I was sent and
why I came . . . are two different things." He reaches out his hand. "Come
on, don’t you wanna see what happens next?"
Slowly, she takes his hand.
The mercenary predators enter
the cavern. Rayn and Rozar exchange fire with them and run. The prey make
their way outside and through the rain and growing darkness to a lone,
small cave hidden low on the far side of the mountain. Shivering, they
build a fire with their lasers. Roz finally breaks the silence.
"Aren’t you going to ask
me?"
"All right. How do I know
you’re
not doing all this to keep some promise to the Peacekeepers to bring me
back alive?"
"Because they want you dead."
"You could always auction
me off to the highest bidder."
He looks away. "No bid would
be high enough for me."
She moves in front of him,
shaking her head, "Why?"
He sits. His green fire eyes
warming the room as much as the flames.
"I’ve never been able to
talk to anyone like I was able to talk to you since that first night. My
family was always militant. All causes, orders. That was my whole world.
When my older brother died in the early weeks of war, I was expected to
take his place. To do everything he would have done and do it just as well.
That’s my life, living up to what I thought everyone wanted. Doing it for
so long I don’t know who else I could’ve been."
"Maybe this is just who you
are." Who we are.
"Maybe."
"So." She sighs, "You do
want something from me?"
"Well . . . if they were
close enough to create this in you, then immortality is coming to us sooner
or later. If you live, we can make sure it comes to everyone."
"Not just the rich. Not just
the powerful."
"You do see! We just have
to keep you out of their hands."
She smiles slightly. "And
in yours?"
He stirs the fire.
The two hunting parties of
mercenaries and officers click on their night vision and scour the mountain.
Myles makes his way back
to Meena’s with word of the betrayals. Kindra and Noma are there as well
with intercepted news that more hunters are coming. Meena turns to them,
her pale face blotched with emotion.
"I don’t know which of us
can be trusted. But we must try to save her!"
Having dug out and arranged
semi-comfortable places, they sit together against the cave wall behind
the fire. Rozar tends it.
"Two separate hunting parties
are out there. Someone else must’ve betrayed you besides Krachi and Karu.
Who do you think it was?"
"Don’t know."
"Why do you think the Council
-- Onar, or whoever wanted immortality so badly that they planned all this
-- did it?"
"Don’t know."
"Why did your mother--?"
"She didn’t."
"Okay."
"Not on purpose anyway. I
have to believe that. And some day I’ll find out the truth about everything
and prove it."
"If that’s what you need.
But I hope you realize it isn’t all you need." He tries to look into her
evasive eyes. "People like us. There aren’t that many. We need each other."
He moves closer. She backs
away.
"Afraid?"
She stops.
"I told you before. I’m not
afraid of anything!"
His full lips smile.
"Prove it."
She looks at him long and
hard. Then with a deep breath she leans forward. They kiss. She breathes
in his ear.
"We haven’t even lived yet."
They embrace and slide slowly
down before the fire.
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