Colt came through the portal with Clay’s arm over his shoulder.
Clay’s boots dragged on the platform. His head hung forward. Blood from the gash on his forehead had dried in a dark line down his face.
“Easy.” Colt pulled him toward the bed. “Almost there.”
Kevin stood by the desk. His single eye tracked them across the room.
Colt lowered Clay onto the mattress. His brother groaned and closed his eyes. Blood had soaked through Clay’s shirt at the shoulder. The gash on his forehead was still seeping.
“He is injured,” Kevin said.
“No shit, look at him.” Colt stepped back. His hands were still shaking. “We ran into trouble.”
“What occurred?”
“Ninjas.” Colt looked at Kevin. “Same as the museum. We found the module and they showed up. Tore through the ceiling.”
“The one-eyed one,” Clay said from the bed. His voice was rough. “He was leadin’ ’em.”
Kevin’s eye dimmed, then brightened. “The same entity from Earth 447?”
“Yeah.” Colt’s jaw tightened. “Same bastard. Soon as I grabbed the module, they came.”
“That is unexpected.”
“Unexpected?” Clay pushed up on his elbows. “That’s all you got?”
“I do not have data on how they are tracking module retrievals.”
Colt reached into his satchel and pulled out the sphere. The violet glow had faded but warmth still came off it.
“This was inside somethin’,” Colt said. “Big metal thing. Looked like the thing Toyahdoh showed me. The ones that flew up past the clouds.”
Kevin’s eye blinked four times.
“Spacecraft,” Kevin said. “Designed for travel beyond planetary atmosphere.”
“Space.” Clay stared at the ceiling. “Past the clouds.”
“Affirmative.”
Colt turned the sphere over. “It was in the middle of the ship. Floatin’ there. Some engine room I guess.”
“The Displacement Drive serves as a spacecraft propulsion system,” Kevin said. “It enables instantaneous travel across vast distances.”
“So that ship could just… jump? Like the portals?”
“Affirmative. The module allows traversal between points in space without conventional travel time.”
Colt stared at the sphere.
“There was big metal men lined up down there too. A mech or somethin’. Cannons on their shoulders. One came on when I got inside.”
“Mechanized combat units. Designed for warfare.”
“Nothin’ worked down there either.” Colt set the sphere on the table and looked at Kevin. “None of it. Dead Eye wouldn’t work. Couldn’t open a portal. Kept gettin’ words. Insufficient clearance.”
Kevin’s eye flickered.
“The facility contained electromagnetic shielding,” Kevin said. “A structure that blocks external signals.”
Colt frowned. “Talk plain.”
“Consider a metal box. Inside the box, signals from outside cannot reach you. Your system requires connection to function. The shielding severed that connection.”
“So I was cut off.” Colt’s gut tightened. If he’d been trapped down there without Dead Eye, without portals… If that mech didn’t have enough power to kill those ninjas.
“Affirmative.”
Clay sat up and pointed at Kevin. “From now on, Kev. You tell us everything before we go somewhere. All of it. No more surprises.”
Kevin’s head turned toward Clay.
“Affirmative.”
Colt looked at his brother. Blood still ran from the gash on Clay’s forehead. His shirt was dark with it where his shoulder had bled through.
“You need to get cleaned up,” Colt said.
“I’m fine.”
“You ain’t fine. You got a hole in your head.”
Clay touched his forehead and his fingers came away red. He looked at them like he’d forgotten he was bleeding.
“Kevin,” Colt said. “You got anythin’ for this?”
Kevin’s eye turned toward the wall. A panel slid open and a small box sat inside.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Medical supplies. Basic wound treatment.”
Colt walked over and pulled the box out. Inside were white strips of cloth, a bottle of clear liquid, and something that looked like a sewing kit.
He brought it to the bed and set it down. “Shirt off.”
Clay pulled his shirt over his head and winced. There was a wound on his shoulder, it was deep but clean. Metal had torn through but missed anything important.
Colt opened the bottle and poured some of the liquid on one of the cloth strips. It smelled sharp.
“This is gonna hurt.”
“Just do it.”
Colt pressed the cloth to Clay’s shoulder. Clay flinched.
“You did good Colt, getting’ us outta there, getting’ us home.”
Colt looked around the HUB, home. He thought about Pa, and the cabin. His real home.
Colt wrapped a clean strip of cloth around Clay’s shoulder and tied it tight. Then he moved to the gash on his forehead. The cut wasn’t as bad as it looked. Head wounds just bled more.
He cleaned it the same way and pressed another cloth against it.
“Hold that,” Colt said.
Clay reached up and held the cloth in place. His eyes were heavy.
“You should sleep,” Colt said.
“What about you?”
“I’ll sleep in a minute.”
Clay lay back on the bed. His breathing slowed after a few seconds.
Colt sat on the floor with his back against the wall. His body ached. His shoulders. His legs from climbing. His hands from gripping the controls.
He closed his eyes.
The one-eyed ninja standing on the cliff. Just watching them.
Why?
That thing could’ve come down. Could’ve finished it. But it didn’t.
Was it afraid?
Colt’s jaw tightened. Next time he saw that bastard, he’d put a bullet through its skull.
His thoughts started to blur. The HUB’s hum faded.
He slipped under.
***
The lab came into focus.
Colt floated in the vat. Tubes ran into his arms. His chest. The liquid around him was warm.
Dr. Isapa stood on the other side of the glass. He held something and his fingers moved across it. Looked like the screen on the table but smaller.
Colt tried to move but his body wouldn’t respond.
The door to the lab opened.
Another man walked in. He wore the same white coat as Dr. Isapa. He was older with gray hair.
He walked up beside Isapa and looked at the vat. At Colt.
His face was calm.
The man’s mouth moved. The words came through muffled.
Isapa didn’t look up from his screen. He said something back.
The man’s voice stayed level. He pointed at the vat. At Colt. Then at the other vats lined up along the wall. Each one had a label. Earth numbers.
Isapa set the screen down and turned to face him. His face was hard.
The man spoke calm and slow.
Isapa shook his head. He stepped closer. His hand went to the man’s chest and pushed.
The man stumbled back.
Isapa’s face twisted. He was yelling now. The sound came through broken and distorted but Colt could feel the anger in it.
The man said one word.
Isapa stared at him. Then he turned and walked toward the door. His shoulders were tight. His fists clenched.
He stopped at the door and looked back. Said something else.
The man didn’t answer.
Isapa left. The door slid shut behind him.
The man stood there for a moment. Then he turned back to Colt’s vat.
He leaned in close. His eyes met Colt’s through the glass.
His face was concerned now. Worried.
The name on his coat: Dr. Esa
He said something soft. Then he looked back at the door where Isapa had left.
***
Colt’s eyes snapped open.
He was on the floor of the HUB. His back against the wall. His heart pounding.
He sucked in air and wiped his face with his hand.
Clay was still asleep on the bed. His chest rose and fell steady.
Kevin stood by the desk, unmoving.
Colt stayed where he was. His hands were shaking again.
Dr. Esa.
The Father. The one who made the first Earth. The one who created Colt as a weapon.
He wasn’t a god. He was a man in a white coat.
And Isapa wasn’t his enemy. They’d worked together.
Colt pressed his palms against his eyes.
He didn’t know what any of it meant. But the dream felt real. Different from the stories Toyahdoh had told him.
He looked at Clay again. His brother didn’t need to know about this. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Colt pushed himself to his feet. His legs felt weak but he stayed up.
He walked to the desk and picked up the sphere. The warmth still came off it.
He opened his interface.
MODULE BAY:
Module Inventory: 4
2/3 Gear Equipped
He focused on the Displacement Drive.
EQUIP TO MODULE BAY?
“Yes.”
The sphere flashed and disappeared from his palm.
DISPLACEMENT DRIVE MK-I EQUIPPED
Colt looked at his empty hand. The warmth was gone. He flexed his fingers.
Kevin stood in the corner with his light off.
He closed the menu and opened it again. His eyes went to the bottom.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.10
Stats
Status
Map
Armory
Module Bay
Skills
Help
?????
?????
?????
“Hey Kev. What are those question marks?”
Kevin’s eye lit up and turned to Colt.
“Locked features. They unlock at designated software milestones.”
“When’s the next one?”
“Version one point one five.”
Colt opened Status.
STATUS:
Shinki: 1
Puha: 134.2
Software: v1.10
Class: Spirit Weaver
Lineage: 3 (1 Primary, 1 Secondary, 1 Tertiary)
Next Upgrade: v1.11 — 81.4 Puha
Effects: Cleansing Breath (Passive)
“I wanna upgrade,” Colt said.
“You have sufficient reserves. Do you wish to proceed?”
“Yeah.”
Colt sat down at the table and the plug rose up. He grabbed it and shoved it into his wrist, then opened status.
UPGRADE TO VERSION 1.11 — 81.4 PUHA?
“Yes.”
The number dropped. His vision flickered. That cool sensation spread through his chest and down into his limbs. Like drinking cold water on a hot day. His muscles loosened. Everything went black and that thin bar formed on the bottom. It started to fill.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.11
Shinki: 1
Puha: 52.8
“Kev, how much to get to one point one five?”
“Approximately three hundred sixty-nine Puha.”
“Shit.” Colt rubbed his face. “That’s a lot.”
He looked at Clay. His brother was pale, eyes closed.
“Is there an Earth where I can harvest a lot of Puha?” Colt asked. “Without fightin’ ninjas every time?”
Kevin was quiet for a moment.
“Earth 612. High concentration of harvestable Puha. Minimal organized resistance.”
“What’s the catch?”
“The dominant threat is corrupted humans.”
Colt frowned. “Corrupted how?”
“Reanimated dead. When Puha is forcibly extracted from living beings, residual corruption remains. This corruption reanimates the deceased.”
Clay’s eyes opened. “Dead folks walkin’ around.”
“Affirmative.”
Colt thought about Jeff and Earl in the woods. Their violet eyes. Henry in that tree, still reaching for him.
“I’ve seen ’em before,” Colt said.
“Then you understand the threat. They are slow. They lack tactical awareness. But they do not tire. They do not stop.”
Colt looked at the Status screen. 52.8 Puha. He needed 369 more.
“How many of ’em are on this Earth?”
Kevin’s eye flickered.
“Thousands.”
“Jesus.”
