Alpha

Chapter Thirty-four

Athena is tasting her own blood, salty and warm and wrong. It’s running from her lip, and she wipes at her mouth with the back of her hand, sees it bright red on her skin.

They’ve stopped, and she’s not sure why, just stopped all of a sudden in the middle of this tunnel. The one who hit her, Vladimir, he’s standing to her right, keeps looking from the direction they were heading in to the direction they came from, looking at the man who was dressed as Pooch. That one, the one who made Vladimir stop hitting her, he’s a little closer to her left, looking back the same way as well. The stairs they came down, maybe fifty feet away, and Athena can’t see anyone there. But the man who was dressed as Pooch, his chin is raised slightly, and the gun in his hands is pointing down a little bit, and she knows he’s listening to something.

The look on his face makes her think he’s going to cry.

Vladimir keeps looking back at them. Keeps looking back at him, really, only ever barely looks at her, and when he does, she can tell he doesn’t think she’s worth the trouble at all. She can tell he wants to kill her, that he’s thinking about doing it. Her chest hurts, and her head, and it’s not just from being hit.

She saw Uncle Freddie and Uncle Jorge and she saw Dad, and none of them came to get her.

She understands that she is going to die, maybe die right here, and the terror of it makes it hard to stand. It takes the strength from Athena’s legs, and makes her sink against the cool concrete wall of the tunnel. Opposite her, there’s a painting of Gordo, grinning and happy, pointing in both directions, the way they came and the way Vladimir is supposed to be looking when he’s not looking back at the other man.

Gordo looks so happy, Athena thinks, and it’s so a lie. All of it is a lie, everything WilsonVille is a lie. Friends and fun and sun and rides, and Mr. Howe died right in front of her, she saw his brains. Joel on his side, shaking and crying, maybe dying, too, and all the other people, the bodies. Her mom, they took her mom away, and she can feel the tears trying to get out again, and she hates that, she’s fighting that. She doesn’t want to cry. But they took her mom, and for the first time, Athena thinks that means she’s dead.

And now Athena is going to die, too.

And she is so scared.

She knows she was angry before, wonders when that left. Was it when Vladimir hit her, and hit her again, and then hit her again, and wanted to keep doing it? Was it when he picked her up and made her come with them? Was it when Uncle Jorge fell down, and she was sure he had been shot?

Or was it when she saw her dad, and he didn’t save her?

The man who was dressed as Pooch moves, takes a half step in the direction of the stairs. She wishes she knew what he’s hearing, what Vladimir is hearing. Now Vladimir is looking back at him again, then to her, just for a second, then down the tunnel once more. His shoulders shift, rise slightly, then fall.

Suddenly, Athena understands the phone call she saw Vladimir make back in Hendar’s Lair. She understands the words she read on his lips, and understands that she was wrong about them. Maybe whoever he was talking to, maybe he was telling Vladimir to kill her and Dana and the others. But it is more than that, and she can see what Vladimir is about to do before he does it, the start of the movement.

She doesn’t want to die.

Athena screams, uses the last of the strength in her legs to throw herself at the big man, throws herself off the wall and into him, trying to hit and bite and everything at once. He’s bringing his gun up, starting to turn, and she’s not large enough and she’s not strong enough to move him more than a step or two back, but it’s enough. She feels the vibration of the world, the feeling of gunfire, and Athena is clawing at him, clinging to him, hanging on that arm with the gun. He hits at her, and a flare of light and heat crosses her vision, blinds her, and she feels him hit her again, and she’s losing her grip. Then she’s falling back, flailing. Her back collides with someone, the man who wore the Pooch suit, she thinks, and she knows it’s over, that Vladimir is raising his gun and will kill them both.

She feels the air shake with gunshots, and her vision resolves, and Vladimir is standing in front of her, only a half dozen steps away. Pointing his gun at them, just as she knew he would be.

The top of his head is missing.

Vladimir falls down, and Penny Starr is standing there with a gun in her hands. The man who was Pooch pulls Athena against him, and she sees his gun come up, and Penny Starr is shouting. Athena feels something hot and hard hitting her cheek, spitting from the side of the man’s gun, feels the vibration in the air one more time.

Penny Starr falls to her knees. Her mouth is open, but she’s not making words that Athena can read.

Then the man who was Pooch is shoving Athena away from him, and he’s running, running away, down the long tunnel, and Athena’s legs finally abandon the last of their strength, and she falls to her knees, too. Penny Starr is trying to get up again, but she can’t do it, leans against the wall instead. Athena pulls herself to her, sees that the woman’s eyes look flat, like they’re cooling.

Penny Starr opens her mouth, and bright red blood runs out of it. She’s trying to tell her something, but Athena can’t read it. Shakes her head at the woman. Penny Starr tries again, then points past Athena’s shoulder.

Athena looks, sees what Penny Starr wants her to see. Understands the word she was saying.

Dad.