Kingdom Gone

SUBWAY SANDS

He's a fool.

I mean I didn't give a shit, let the fucker go. But he was a damn fool for just deciding to leave us. I mean, leave Sam.

After Jason dismissed his giant monster poodle, we jacked a Corvette from one of the mansions nearby, and I could feel the desert sands flashing as we tore through the desert.

Jason suddenly looked at me in the passenger seat, and I heard his heartbeat increase a little. "Nijah, what's the date?"

I sighed, pulling out my phone. I couldn't see what was on the screen, because of the whole blind thing, but Sam beefed my cell with haptic hardware that let me "feel" what's displayed. I opened my clock app and felt the buzzes. "The 28th."

I heard his breath catch in his throat. "We were in there for 3 weeks?"

I put my phone away. "Yeah, prison does that to you."

Circe leaned forward from the back seat. "We only have four days to find the schematics and get to the Lift?"

Jason flashed her a reassuring smile in the rearview mirror. "We got this, Sweetheart. Don't worry."

Suddenly I sensed something huge and grabbed Jason's arm. "Stop!"

He slammed down on the brakes, the car skidding another ten feet in the sand. We all piled out.

I could feel the cool night air all over my body, glad we didn't escape during the day. I also felt something else though.

"Your arm wouldn't happen to have a dump truck-sized shovel attachment would it?" I asked Sam, who, like all the others, were scanning the desert.

"No, sorry I left it at home."

"Why? Did you find the tunnel?" Jason asked.

I knelt down, hands in the sand. "Maybe, it's hard to get a read though. Usually I'd be able to feel the vibrations in the ground and sense the seismic waves bouncing off of objects, and everything's hazy 'cause it's all constantly shifting sand. But there's definitely something buried under there. Way under."

Jason rubbed his face, walking around in a small circle. "We have to dig."

I stood. "We have four days, not four months."

"Not to mention the military base we escaped from is just a few hours away. They'll retaliate soon." Circe added.

He turned to Sam. "Can you blast the sand?"

"You know my plasma cannon will just turn it all to glass."

"But if it were hot enough, it would sublimate."

"Sublimate?" Circe said, confused.

I sighed, staring in the direction I think the moon is. "Sublimation is when you heat a solid hot enough, fast enough, that it turns straight into a gas. But your little boyfriend here forgets that we don't have a nuke, or a star that could do that."

Sam looked at me. "I mean, my arm could theoretically create a focused beam the temperature of the surface of the sun, but it would need a very, very large and practically limitless source of energy to power it."

I was about to rub my science skills in Jason's face some more when Circe grabbed Sam's arm. "Let's try it."

* * *

We drive about a quarter of a mile away, and park on a high sand dune.

"I'm just going to go bury my head in the sand to muffle the shockwave. My hyper sensitive ears ain't got time for that." Nijah says, sitting against the Corvette.

Circe and Sam sit on the the peak of the mountain of sand, Circe gripping her metal arm as hard as she could.

"Ready?" Sam asks, an trace of fake confidence mixed with an underlying excitement in her voice.

Circe nods, closing her eyes, probably summoning all her power, then lets it all go.

Sam's arm dances with lightning, illuminating the darkness around us. She activates the Plasma Cannon, the end growing brighter and brighter, so much energy held within. Suddenly it all fires out in an unbelievably bright beam that turns the night sky to day. The loud and continuous hum from the thing vibrates my whole body, and in the distance where the end of it touches the sand, a cloud of milky white gas rises into the air. After just 4 seconds, Sam reaches over and taps Circe's shoulder, signaling her to kill it. The zap between her hands and the arm is almost as bright as the beam, pushing her back a few feet. The laser slowly dies, the darkness surrounding us once more.

* * *

It was a subway car.

It stood out among the bedrock, it's visible end sheared clean off, revealing the old and rusted interior. Nijah climbed inside and stood in the aisle, listening. After a few moments, she turned to them and smiled. "It leads into a tunnel."

Without another word, Jason, Sam, and Circe climbed along after her, scuttling deeper into the train car. Circe looked over her shoulder one last time, glancing at the artificial sky before following her friends. Next time she'd see it again, it would be in the Tenth Kingdom.

Back home.