The Soldiers of Halla

Chapter 22

I don’t know what was more stunning: finding the vast army of dados, knowing that we had been discovered and were in for a fight, or seeing Elli with a rifle on her hip after having blown away a dado.

I think it was Elli.

“Move!” she barked.

Mark and I both jumped to the side of the narrow walkway as Elli unloaded again. She shot from the hip, literally. She held the weapon at waist level, the butt against her hip. The rifle let out another dull wump as it discharged. For a fleeting instant I thought I sensed the charged particle as it shot past us. Maybe I’m crazy, but I could swear the hair went up on the back of my neck, as if I had been brushed by static electricity. A second later another dado was blown off its feet. It landed square on its back on the metal walkway. Dead. Done. Lights out. Whatever.

Farther ahead on the catwalk, more dados in red Ravinian outfits appeared and sprinted toward us.

“Back to the roof,” I commanded.

We turned to run back the way we had come. Elli led the way, her rifle out and ready to fire again. Who knew? We got as far as the doorway that led back into the helicopter section of the factory when Elli pulled up.

“They must have seen us on the roof,” she gasped.

Sure enough, on the far side of the chopper factory, a dozen dados came flooding down the same ladder we had used to get down from the roof. We were trapped between two groups who were closing fast.

“Twenty-eight shots left,” Mark said coolly.

“What if there’s twenty-nine of them?” I asked.

“There’s twenty-nine thousand of them!” Mark exclaimed.

“Climb down,” Elli announced.

Without waiting for our opinions, Elli scrambled for a ladder no more than ten feet ahead of us that led down to the factory floor. She swung the rifle over her shoulder as if she had done it a thousand times before and quickly made her way down the ladder.

Mark looked at me with surprise, as if to ask, “Who woke her up?”

I shot past Mark and went for the ladder. The catwalk was high over the factory floor. The narrow ladder ran straight down with nothing around it but air. If we hadn’t been on the run, I’m not so sure I’d have been able to climb down as quickly as I was. One slip and it would be over. As much as I didn’t want to look down, this time I had to. We had to know if any bad boys were arriving below. I looked out over the sea of dados and my stomach flipped. It was like descending into a tank of piranhas. There were thousands of them. It was insanity. We were running away from a handful of dados toward an entire army. At least the army hadn’t been activated. I hoped that they were no more dangerous than statues.

My foot slipped off a rung. I had to clutch the sides of the thin, metal ladder or I would have fallen through. It was a dumb mistake. I was more worried about what we would find on the floor than about getting there safely. I had to force myself to look ahead and concentrate on my footing. One step at a time. Don’t worry about the dados. There would be time for that soon enough.

I met Elli on the ground, followed shortly after by Mark. We all had our guns out and ready. But ready for what?

“They’re coming down,” Mark announced.

A quick look up showed that the dados from the roof had reached the ladder and were coming after us. The dados already on the catwalk were getting closer. I was happy to see that they didn’t have weapons. At least they couldn’t take shots at us from the high ground.

“Are you okay?” Elli asked me. She was focused and in control.

“I’m fine,” I said, a little embarrassed. It made me realize that Elli wasn’t the frail old lady I thought she was. What’s that saying? “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”? Well, Elli was on her way.

“We’ve gotta find another way out of here,” Mark announced.

The two groups of dados were about to join up and descend on us. I looked around but there wasn’t an obvious way out. It became very clear, very fast, that there was only one thing to do.

“Needle in a haystack,” I declared.

Mark looked at the sea of dados and smiled. He got it. “Right.”

“What does that mean?” Elli asked.

“We’ll get lost in the dados,” I said. “C’mon.”

The three of us ran for the army. They may have been dados, but they looked like people. And there were thousands of them. Some even looked like Mark. My hope was to get far enough into the ranks so that the dados who were after us wouldn’t know which way we had gone. It seemed like the best way to buy a little time until we could find a way out of that factory. The three of us plunged into the line of robots, barely grazing them as we moved as quickly and quietly as we could without knocking any of them over. We all knew enough not to speak. That would have defeated the purpose and given us away. Without planning it, we relied on hand signals.

Mark was on my right. Elli on my left. I took the lead and motioned for Mark to start moving diagonally toward the right. We made our way along, one dado width apart from one another. We didn’t even have to duck down, because the dados were all at least a few inches taller than I was, and I was the tallest of the three of us. Still, I crouched a little, just in case. In seconds we were deep among the dados. I looked back to see if we were being followed. I was sure that we were, but they would have no way of tracking us. I didn’t relax, but we had bought a little breathing room.

Moving through the field of dados was one of the eeriest things I’d ever done. Dados weren’t human, but they sure looked like it. They were inactive, but looked as if they could spring to life at any second. I tried not to look at them too closely. I pretended they were statues and we were running through a museum. A really twisted museum where the exhibits might suddenly jump us.

Sheesh. Thinking like that wasn’t helpful.

We kept moving quickly, putting as much space between us and our pursuers as possible. Every so often I motioned for everyone to change direction slightly, so we weren’t moving in a straight line. The idea was to make it as tough as possible to track us. When I felt as if we were roughly in the middle of the dado sea, I motioned for the others to stop. I put my fingers to my lips to be sure they stayed quiet. We stood stock-still and listened. I wanted to know where the pursuing dados were. Strangely, we didn’t hear anything. Had they stopped chasing us? From where we were, we could see up to the catwalk. It was empty. They were definitely on the factory floor. But where?

I got paranoid. Our plan was to hide ourselves among the dados, but it worked both ways. If the robots chasing us got close, we wouldn’t see them until they were almost on us. They could be anywhere. They could be hiding from us as much as we were hiding from them, and we might not know they were on top of us until it was too late. We may have been like needles in a haystack, but they were like needles… in a stack of needles.

I scanned around, looking for any sign of movement. There was nothing. I motioned for the others to keep moving, but slowly. After a few more zigzagging steps, we came upon an open space where no dados were lined up. It looked to me like the spot where the dados first came off the assembly line. There was a conveyor belt that led down and under the floor to somewhere else. The space was ringed by silent dados who wore the dark green uniforms of the dados from Quillan, complete with golden helmets. They circled the open area, all facing the center. Pointed at us. It made my skin crawl.

When Mark saw the conveyor belt, he smiled. He was thinking the same thing I was. We might be able to follow the belt out of there. Wherever it would take us, it would be better than where we were, since we couldn’t hide from the dados forever.

I got Elli’s attention and pointed to the belt. She nodded. That was our way out. We made our move for the opening that led down below, when I quickly held my hand up, stopping everyone again. I had sensed something. Some movement. I did a three-sixty and saw nothing but the ring of inactive, mute dados. But I knew I had sensed something. It was fleeting, and I had only caught it out of the corner of my eye, but it was real. My Mooraj training was telling me so. Something was there. But where? Were there dados just outside this clearing, stalking us, getting ready to pounce? I stood stock-still. I wasn’t looking for anything, so much as trying to sense something.

It happened again. This time I was ready for it. The movement wasn’t on the floor. It was above us. I looked up quickly to see what looked to be a control room that hung down from the ceiling. It was an octagon, with glass windows surrounding it. It would be easy to see the entire dado-factory floor from up there, and that’s exactly what the person inside was doing.

There was a dark figure inside, looking down on us. I couldn’t tell who or what it was, but it was definitely active, and I had no doubt that it was looking right at us. Mark and Elli saw where I was looking and looked up as well. We all froze. What was this guy going to do? Sound an alarm? Direct the pursuing dados to our position? I didn’t want to stick around to find out.

“Let’s go,” I commanded.

The need for secrecy was over. We ran for the conveyor belt and the hole that would take us below. We didn’t make it.

No sooner did we start to run than the lights in the control room came on. I guess he didn’t feel the need for secrecy anymore either. He also didn’t feel the need to tell the few dados who were chasing us where we were. That was because he had plenty more to take their place.

All around us, the green-suited dados came to life. One second they were standing like statues. The next their heads slowly turned… and looked at us.

“It’s the dado control room,” Mark gasped. “He’s turning them on.”

The horrible truth of those words took a second to sink in. Whoever was up in that control tower was doing just that. Controlling. It was Dado Central. He had the ability to activate the dados. There were thousands of them, and all we had left were twenty-eight shots.

The dados closed in.

And we opened fire.

“Go for the ones near the conveyor,” I ordered. Wump! Wump! Wump!

All three of us let loose. The kick was a lot stronger than I expected. Each time I pulled the trigger, the gun bucked and punched me in the hip. The air instantly felt charged with electricity. Dados crumpled, one after the other. Elli was just as aggressive as Mark and I. She kept her rifle close to her hip and her eyes on her quarry… which wasn’t hard, because there were plenty of them.

“Keep moving!” Mark shouted.

The dados weren’t armed. If they had been, it would have been over in seconds. Even without weapons, our only hope was to keep them off of us long enough to escape down into the hole. Mark and Elli concentrated on the dados near the conveyor. I spun around and fired at those who were creeping up from behind.

Wump! Wump!

They fell, one after another. No sooner did one fall than two more came to life, turned, and moved toward us. It was like something out of Night of the Living Dead, except the dados weren’t going to eat us. At least I didn’t think they were.

We were moving closer to the conveyor tunnel, but not by much.

“If you can travel, get out of here!” Mark shouted at us.

No way that would happen. I couldn’t leave Mark to the wolves. But Elli didn’t need to be there.

“Go,” I said to Elli. “Back to Solara.”

Elli ignored me and kept firing. It was like she was possessed. She had a steely look in her eye that reminded me of her daughter. She was scared, no doubt, but it also seemed like she was taking some pleasure in blowing the dados away. She had been through a lot. Maybe she was taking some small measure of revenge. Whatever it was, she wasn’t leaving.

“Elli! Go!”

She gave me a quick look and shouted, “We’re almost there.”

She backed toward the opening in the floor, firing as she went. There wasn’t time to argue. Dados were closing in on her from the other side of the conveyor belt. I spun and fired to keep them back. Aim wasn’t all that important. The charged particles that these weapons fired seemed to fan out like buckshot. Close was close enough. I dropped a dado with one shot, and saw a second fall at the same time. I fired again and dropped two more. But we were running out of ammunition, and time.

Elli’s gun emptied first. Without hesitation she dropped the weapon, turned to jump into the hole…

And was blown off her feet by a shot from another weapon that was fired from somewhere else. She let out a sharp gasp, as if she had been punched in the stomach. She hurtled backward and hit the floor, hard, square on her back. I think she was unconscious before she landed. I had the brief feeling of relief that she hadn’t been turned to cinder. Whatever hit her, it wasn’t the same kind of charge that we had seen from the silver weapons in the Taj Mahal. But where had it come from?

I glanced up to the control tower to see someone inside with a rifle up and on his shoulder, leaning out of an open window like a sniper. No doubt he was the guy who shot Elli, and he was swinging the rifle toward me. I lifted my own weapon quickly and fired off three quick shots. I didn’t worry about aim. The sight of Elli being so violently thrown by a shot from that guy made me lose it. I wanted him to suffer.

One of the windows of the control tower exploded from my first shot. The second hit the guy and knocked him back into the control room. The third blasted out a second window.

As I ran to help Ellie, I yelled to Mark, “Jump in the hole!”

Mark was out of ammunition. He fired two more times with no result, then threw his rifle at the approaching dados. No sooner did it leave his hands than he was knocked off his feet by another shot. I looked back up to the control tower to see another sniper leaning out of one of the windows I had shattered. Unlike his pal, he didn’t hesitate to admire his marksmanship. By the time I looked up, he was already aiming at me. I was staring square into the barrel of one of those black weapons.

I lifted my own.

Wump.

I never fired. I didn’t get the chance. My entire body went rigid. It felt like being Tasered by the Ravinian guards when Alder and I arrived at the Sherwood mansion on Second Earth. I’m sure I hit the floor, but I don’t remember it, because an instant after feeling the jolt, I was unconscious.

Waking up from being rudely separated from consciousness is never easy. I should know. It’s happened to me often enough. There’s that initial feeling of disconnection, followed by the pain of whatever event caused the lights to go out, followed by the desperate need to understand exactly where I had landed and what situation I’d have to deal with. This time was no different. Once I started becoming aware of my surroundings, the first thing I realized was that I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move. Not a pinkie. I didn’t panic. I hadn’t pulled far enough away from the land of the unconscious to feel as if it were anything permanent. I had been through this enough times to know I had to bring my brain back online before I could expect it to control my body.

One thing was clear. I may have been the illusion that Saint Dane said I was, but at that moment my body felt all too real. I hurt every bit as much as if I had been born in Stony Brook, Connecticut, instead of in some alternate universe filled with spirits. At that moment I kind of wished I was a little more spirit like and a little less humanlike.

I opened my eyes and tried to focus. There wasn’t a dado in sight, which meant I was no longer in that factory. I was flat on my back and looking up at a ceiling covered with white tiles. Was this a hospital? It didn’t seem like a prison. I moved my head, which meant I wasn’t paralyzed.

At least not from the neck up, anyway. Mark was lying next to me, still unconscious. Someone had covered us with dark green blankets. I saw that we were lying on thin mats and not directly on the floor. That was good. At least we were being treated semi-okay.

I felt control slowly returning. I twisted my head around to see that we were in a large, empty room. Windows were set high near the ceiling. There would be no way to get out that way. The walls were covered with ornate tiles that created mosaic patterns. If this was a prison, it was a fancy one. I rolled my head the other way and saw that someone was standing by the only door.

Nevva Winter.

“You’ll be fine,” she said without compassion. “The effects are temporary, which is better than what those weapons do to the dados. Where did you get them, by the way?”

Nevva wore a dark outfit that kind of reminded me of Saint Dane’s black suit. But not quite as severe looking. She had a cloth belt that tied at the waist and an open collar. It looked more like a dark warm-up suit. Her hair was tied back too, which was different from the way she’d worn it on Quillan. This was more casual and made her look almost human. Still, she had those piercing eyes that made me remember just how cold and calculating she could be.

“Water?” she asked.

Elli. Where was Elli? I forced myself up to my elbows and scanned the room. Another body was lying against a far wall. Her face was covered, but I saw the end of Elli’s gray ponytail poking out from beneath the blanket that was over her. She was here, but still unconscious. I hoped that the effects of the blast hadn’t hurt her.

“No,” I answered.

Nevva walked toward me. “Why did you come back?”

I put on my best smile. “I missed you.”

Nevva didn’t appreciate the sarcasm. She glared at me. “It’s over, Pendragon,” she said with a touch of impatience. “Halla has fallen. Anything that you and the Travelers do now is futile.”

“So then you won’t mind that we hang around a little longer,” I replied.

“You can do whatever you like, but why would you bring Mark here and put him in jeopardy? That’s just irresponsible. He’s your friend.”

I gave her a surprised look and said, “Wow. Do you really care?”

Nevva grimaced and turned away. It struck me that she hadn’t said anything about Elli. Did she even know that her mother was lying only a few feet away? It didn’t seem like it.

“Leave, Pendragon,” Nevva said. “Take your friends with you and find someplace safe for them to live.”

She said “your friends.” She didn’t know that Elli was one of them. I had to figure out a way to use that to our advantage. I also had to figure out a way to learn what Nevva knew about the exiles.

“Sorry,” I said. “Monkeying with Saint Dane is a hard habit to break. I think I’ll keep at it.”

“But it’s over!” she repeated with a touch of frustration. “Surely you understand that. You’re fighting a war that has ended. The territories are no longer. Every world in Halla has been cleansed. There’s nothing left to do now but rebuild.”

I sat up. “Cleansed? Is that what you call it? What you mean is that the people Saint Dane considers worthy are living the life, and everybody else has either been killed or will be soon.”

“We have rewarded excellence,” Nevva said patiently. “That has been the vision from the beginning. Nothing has happened to the rest of the people of Halla that they didn’t bring about themselves.”

“You’re kidding, right? Saint Dane manipulated the people of seven worlds into making decisions that led to their own destruction, and you’re saying it’s their fault? That’s like pushing a puppy out into traffic and saying it was his own fault that he got hit by a car. Give me a break!”

Nevva took a breath. She was trying to control her emotions. “I know you don’t feel that a guided future is right. You believe that people should be free to choose their own destiny. But time and again the people of Halla have chosen poorly. And not just where Saint Dane was involved. The people of Halla were flawed, and I have no doubt that if Saint Dane never intervened, their destruction would have occurred anyway. This way, we have separated those who are worthy of rebuilding Halla and protected them from those who are not. I know, the worlds of Halla are in shambles, but it was necessary. This is only the beginning. We are going to make it right this time, Pendragon. We are going to create Utopia.”

I stood up. My head hurt and my legs weren’t working that well, but I didn’t want to be sitting on the floor to have this discussion. I wanted to be on Nevva’s level.

“What about the dado attack on Ibara?” I asked. “Did the people of Ibara bring that on themselves?”

Nevva blinked. She didn’t answer right away. I had struck a chord.

“They created the situation that allowed for it to happen,” she finally answered.

“No, they didn’t!” I shot right back. “They saw that their society was in trouble, looked ahead, and did exactly the kind of thing that you’re talking about. They created Ibara as a way to save Veelox. And they were going to succeed, until Saint Dane convinced the Flighters to attack and destroy the pilgrim ships, and then invaded the island with dados. Where was his grand vision there? The dado attack was sent as a conquering army. Plain and simple. It wasn’t the people of Veelox who let that happen. It was all Saint Dane. How do you explain that?”

For the first time since I’d known her, Nevva looked unsure of herself. “It… it was about you, Pendragon. It was intended to put you to the test, and you failed.”

“So what if I did? I’m not even from Halla! What was I being tested for?”

“The ends justified the means,” she complained.

“No!” I shouted back at her. “You can’t tell me this is all about doing what is best for Halla. Maybe at one time that’s what Saint Dane thought. Maybe on some philosophical level he was right. Who knows? But it’s not about that anymore. It’s about his own selfish goals. He wants to be king, Nevva. No, he wants to be a god. He wants to create his own Halla. It’s the ultimate power play. He’s living in a palace. He likes being human. Look how he’s changed himself. He’s developed vanity. He wants to look good. Don’t you see that? That’s why he sent conquering armies, and that’s why he’s built another army of dados to do it again. Whatever noble thoughts he may have had at one time have been corrupted. If you think he’s got any other goal than to be a god, you’re kidding yourself.”

Nevva looked stunned. I couldn’t believe that my words had hit her that strongly. No way. She was too firmly committed to her mission to let a little argument like this change her mind. But something I had said got through, and shook her.

“What do you mean, ‘he’s built another army’?” she asked tentatively.

“Oh, please,” I shot back. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?”

“We saw the factory, Nevva. Where do you think we got shot by the dados?”

“You were found in the helicopter plant.”

“Yeah, the helicopter plant that also happens to be building about eighty thousand dados. What do you think they’re for? Washing windows and doing all the little chores you Ravinians think are beneath you? I’m not an idiot.”

Nevva was shaken. Really shaken. I didn’t think she was a good enough actor to fake that. And why would she want to? As far as she was concerned, the battle was over.

“Are you serious?” I asked without sarcasm. “You didn’t know about the new army of dados out there, all polished up and ready to go?”

Nevva’s eyes told the story. She really didn’t know. It was a total surprise to her. She was about to get another one.

“Nevva,” came a thin voice.

Nevva didn’t look at first. She kept looking at me, but I saw the change in her eyes. She had heard a voice from the past. One I’m sure she never expected to hear again, and certainly not in a dim room on Third Earth. She held my gaze, silently asking if what she had heard was real. I motioned for her to look. Nevva had trouble turning away from me. It was as if she were fighting the pull of a magnet that wouldn’t let her turn. But she had to.

Slowly Nevva turned to face her mother.

Elli was on her feet. She stood across from Nevva, tall and straight. Mother and daughter. It was like looking at the same person, though one was several years older. They locked eyes. Nevva opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Elli looked strong. Stronger than I’d ever seen her. As tough as it must have been to be reunited with her daughter this way, Elli was up to it. I was proud of her. My fears about her not being able to handle the situation were gone. Elli didn’t say another word. I think she wanted Nevva to speak first.

Nevva was finally able to croak out, “Why are you here, Mother?”

Elli’s answer was to haul off and slap her daughter across the face.

It was totally unexpected. And totally awesome.

I wanted to bottle the moment to remember it forever. Unfortunately, something happened that made the sweetness short-lived. We heard a voice come from the doorway. A tall man with long dark hair stood in the frame.

“My,” Saint Dane said with mock dismay. “Not exactly a touching reunion.”