Constellations' Child

26

"Fall back! Fall back!" Gen. Sagitta's voice explodes from Carina's radio, gunfire crackling in the background. "Location is hot! Addicted are pouring in from the underground entrance ramp! Repeat. Location hot! Do not come this way! Over."

Carina looks to Leo, radio in hand ready to relay information. "Emergency exits?"

"One in the mess hall and one next to the simulator room," he replies in the calm, focused manner of someone who has experience with life-or-death situations.

"Gen. Sagitta," Carina yells into her radio. "Emergency exit located next to simulator room. Meet us at that location. Over."

Several seconds pass before Gen. Sagitta replies with only a brief and garbled, "copy."

"Let's move!" Carina yells. We pour back into the main corridor, which is even crazier than before. Everyone is running in the opposite direction than they were just a few minutes ago. Nobody is holding any belongings. The same screaming baby who had been carried by her father moments ago is now in the arms of her mother. The older child runs beside them, but the father is nowhere in sight.

Countless screams reverberate off the walls of the cramped underground hallway. Terrified screams from people who've come face to face with an evil they've been running from their whole lives. An unforgiving evil that consumes your soul, turning you into the very thing that's terrorized you and your family for as long as you can remember.

Joining the fast, panicked current of humanity sprinting down the hallway, we make our way toward the exit near the simulator room. The flash of the underground's orange emergency lights illuminate the mayhem intermittently.

I look back and see Leo having a hard time keeping up with us.

"You keep running, Edwin! That's an order," he yells.

We turn the corner and the hallway opens up to an even greater swirl of people making their way to the exits as fast as possible. Standing out among the crowd are Alliance soldiers, firmly in position with guns drawn, facing the direction where they know Addicted fighters will be coming through any second. We all instinctively weave around them.

I see the door to the simulator room up ahead, and the pace of the crowd begins to slow as we near the emergency exit, which is basically a large retractable door that opens up directly to the dark tunnels of the underground Alliance network. Soldiers hand out flashlights as people exit, turning them into tiny points of light in a sea of darkness, like the night sky.

We're nearing the exit when energy pulses soar into the crowd. The Addicted have caught up. Looking around at my friends to see if anyone's been hit, I see him on the ground. "Leo!"

He's been hit in the leg. I run to him, pushing people out of the way. Blood oozes through his fingers as he tries to cover the wound. "You have to keep going!" he insists as I try to get him on his feet.

Pyxis and I both place an arm around Leo despite his protests, bringing him up. More energy pulses impact the ground in front of us and fly out the exit. Alliance soldiers return fire, keeping the Addicted far enough away from the exit for people to continue making their way into the dark tunnel system.

"I know we're new here, but running out into the pitch-black underground doesn't seem like the best way to go," Pavo worries aloud.

He'd be right even under normal circumstances, but with Leo's wound there's no question. "We're not going to make it!" I yell to Carina.

She looks around, assessing the situation. "Any other options?" she yells over her shoulder while firing her weapon at the Addicted.

"Just leave me here and go!" Leo yells.

None of us pay him any attention; we're not leaving him to be killed or taken by the Addicted.

"The simulator room!" Vela yells.

"Yes!" Pyxis replies. "The door will serve as our defense."

"You're better off making your way through the tunnels!" Leo yells with a grimace.

"Sorry Leo," Crater says. "They're right; that steel door is our best bet. We'll wait out the Addicted in there."

"General Sagitta, do you copy?" Carina yells into her radio. Static. "If you can hear this, we're taking cover in the simulator room. Over!"

Without further protesting from Leo, we manage to get to the simulator room door as Alliance fighters continue to pin down the Addicted. Grus and Crater pull the massive door open just as the Addicted make a push through the location where they'd been under heavy fire. Swarming into the area, they hit several Alliance soldiers in rapid succession. With their powerful energy weapons, a firefight like this always has the same ending. We slam the simulator room door as quickly as possible.

"Did they seen us enter?" Pavo asks as we all catch our breath.

"We'll know soon enough," Carina replies, kneeling down next to Leo and wrapping a tourniquet around his leg. "This is going to hurt, but it'll save your life."

Leo lets out a painful grunt as Carina tightens it, slowing the bleeding.

The gunfire outside begins to subside, growing more and more sporadic before a few last shots ring out and it's eerily silent.

"They're not after anyone in particular," Crater whispers. "No reason for them to stay here and try to bust down this door when they've already cleared nearly everyone out."

As if on cue, a steady banging on the door begins. It's not a knock; the Addicted are using something heavy to try to knock it down.

"It'll hold!" Crater says.

"We can't take that chance!" Leo replies through the pain.

"What other option do we have?" Pavo asks.

Leo looks at the simulator. "That," he says.

"The simulator?" Pyxis replies. "It is of no use in this—"

"Everyone get in the simulator!" Leo yells. "Fire it up and it'll darken; the Addicted won't see you."

"The simulator can only be activated on the wall display, and we can't enter after the simulator starts," Pyxis points out.

"I know that," Leo replies. "Now help me over to the wall display."

The banging on the door grows more intense.

"No!" I yell. "We're not getting in there while you sit out here waiting for the Addicted to bust the door down!"

"I'm not asking you, Edwin, I'm ordering you on behalf of the EDP and the Constellations! If the Addicted kill you or turn you, this will all have been for nothing! You're the only one who can..." Leo pauses, then continues. "You're the one we've put our faith in to make it to the dark nucleus. If I have to die or become Addicted to make that happen, it's a small price to pay. Pyxis, Crater, get me to the wall display and all of you get in the simulator!"

The door hinges are loosening.

Reluctantly, I help Leo to his feet. "You stick to the plan, Edwin. You're going to make it," he says.

"You heard him," Crater says. "All of you get in the simulator."

"Let's move!" Carina yells.

In seconds, we're on the platform in the simulator. Crater and Pyxis join us moments later. Leo starts up the simulator and looks over to us. The steel door nearly knocked down, I remember that I'm holding my dive helmet. Putting it on, I speak. "Leo, can you hear me?"

The glass sphere begins to darken. "I hear you, Edwin."

"I just want to say thank you. Thank you for saving us, and for believing in me; I won't let you down."

"Your parents would be so proud, Edwin," he replies just before the sphere goes black and the steel door explodes off its hinges.