Kingdom Gone

TAKE BACK THE NIGHT

"I swear to God if anyone's in here I'll shoot your fucking shins off!"

I just get my own echo in response from the large room, computers lining the walls of the space, a deck of monitors clustered in the center. I weave between the clutter of technology and turn on the largest screen. After a second, it lights up, displaying boxes of information and infographics. But the GPS is obvious, over a dozen red blips with serial numbers under them inching across a green and brown map of the area. I determine that the blue diamond is the control center, and memorize the position of the closest AFV, number 2353.

A hair raising howl motivates me, and I vault over the closest computer and dash down the structure connecting to the garages, an enormous space with tubes and cables snaking across the floor to where the AFVs must come to recharge and refuel.

I jog across the space, looking around frantically for a mode of transportation, and that's when I see it, in all its glory.

"Hell. Yes."

* * *

"Hurry before she wakes up!"

Disoriented, lost in her groggy consciousness, Circe felt something lock around her wrists.

She felt disconnected from her body, floating around in a sea of noise. But suddenly everything came back to her at once; the militia, the monster, Jason, everything.

"Lock her up!"

Locked up. Like she had been her whole life. Caged, hidden, put away, wished that she didn't exist. Well not anymore.

Circe opened her eyes, and held up her bonded hands, a bolt of lightning, yes lightning, erupted from her palms and struck the closest soldier, arcing between him and his comrades, blasting them away with raw electricity.

* * *

Thunder booms in the distance, the rain not letting up.

"There." I say, looking down at the gleaming blue canister I attached to the engine compartment of the golf cart, "N2O" painted on the side. I hear the doors of the control room burst open, followed by a roar and quickly shut the hood and hop in the driver's seat, turning on the engine and hitting the gas just as the monster reaches the garage.

"Peace bitch!" The plate-sized wheels screech as the nitrous oxide enters the engine, combusting into its raw elements, the horsepower of the tiny engine tripling.

I power out of the garage and turn north, plowing down corn stalks, trying to keep the mental image of the GPS map in my head.

* * *

Circe ran down the main road.

The damage had been done to Arcadia, by Jason and her both. They needed to get out of this town, but her escort was off battling a giant beast somewhere, and the militia were bound to regroup any second.

Circe sprinted past a few citizens running in the streets, locking themselves in their homes. She felt the first drops of rain hit her forehead, thunder rumbling in the distance.

She didn't have much time. She had to find Jason.

The door of the temple burst open, half a dozen militia charging out, guns raised.

Circe didn't even give it a second thought. She raised her arm and tensed, focusing her powers not inward but outward, lancing a spider-webby arm of lightning at the structure. Militia soldiers were tossed from the porch as it erupted in a white explosion, wood and metal flying through the air.