The Fate of Ten

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“HOLD ON!” LEXA SHOUTS OVER HER SHOULDER from the pilot’s chair, and the ship rocks violently to the side. Blaster fire sizzles through the air outside, close to hitting us. She takes another evasive maneuver and banks us hard to the right.

The Anubis chases us, unloading its energy cannons anytime it has anything close to a clear shot. I have faith that Lexa will get us clear, though. Our ship is smaller, faster, and she’s a damn good pilot.

“What’s going on back there?” she yells, sweat dripping down her face as she dips us lower to the jungle, using trees for cover. “Six? Talk to me, Six!”

I can’t talk.

Across the aisle from me, Ella sits with her back against the wall, her knees drawn up tight to her chest. She hugs herself and rocks back and forth, crying. Her face is smeared with that oil-like garbage, but at least it has stopped flowing out of her. There’s still the occasional crackle of Loric energy around her head.

“I warned him,” she whispers to herself over and over again. “I warned you all what would happen.”

Marina lies on a cot towards the back of the ship, unconscious and in a bad way, her body strapped down so as not to be jostled during our hurried escape flight. I don’t even want to guess how many of her bones are broken, or if she’ll ever wake up again.

That doesn’t stop Mark, desperate and crying, from violently shaking her by the shoulders.

“Wake up!” he yells in her face. “You’re the healer, goddamn you! You have to wake up and heal her!”

Adam lunges at him. The Mogadorian slams Mark hard against the wall of the ship and presses his forearm right up against his throat. Mark struggles against him, so Adam just slams him against the wall until he stops.

“Stop! You could kill her, shaking her like that,” Adam growls.

“I have to—” Mark pleads. Adam shakes his head firmly.

“There’s nothing you can do,” he says, trying not to sound cold.

Mark presses his forehead against Adam’s and screams, “We never should have come here!”

All the chaos doesn’t seem to bother Sarah. She looks up at me and smiles peacefully. She’s paler than I’ve ever seen her. A second ago, I gave her my satellite phone to call John.

“John . . . Listen, I don’t have much time,” she says, her voice thin and weak.

My hands are covered in Sarah’s blood. I’m doing my best to stop the bleeding, but the wound is huge. I don’t even know what hit her exactly, there were so many objects flying through the air. Something jagged and large. It tore right through her side, above the hip and out. Took a big part of her midsection with it. I took some bad shots during that exchange with Setrákus Ra, but I’m going to make it.

Without Marina, Sarah doesn’t have long.

She dragged me away from the landing strip when I was still stunned. I don’t know how she did it, bleeding so much. Adrenaline? Her strength faltered when we hit the jungle. I had to carry her the rest of the way to Lexa’s ship.

The floor is covered in her blood. So are my clothes. It’s all over my hands, in more ways than one.

This happened because of me. Because she wouldn’t leave me to face Setrákus Ra alone.

Stupid girl. She probably saved my life.

“Please, John, don’t talk, just listen . . . ,” Sarah says. “You have to know, from the moment I saw you outside Paradise High, I knew. I knew we were going to fall in love. And I’ve never regretted even a second of it. Not even now. I love you with all my heart, John. I always will. It was . . . it was all worth it.”

The ship banks hard to the left. If I killed Setrákus Ra back there, it hasn’t stopped the Anubis from trying to chase us down. How am I going to explain this to John? How am I going to live with it?

It should’ve been me.

“I wish . . . I wish I could’ve seen you one more time,” Sarah says quietly, tears welling up in her eyes. “Maybe I still will. I’ll be waiting for you, John, wherever is next. Maybe it’ll be . . . it’ll be like Lorien. Or like Paradise.”

Bernie Kosar lies down next to Sarah. He whines and licks her cheek. She actually laughs a little.

“BK is here,” she tells John, sounding increasingly distant, out of it. “He says hi.”

Sarah gasps. Coughs. Blood leaks from the corners of her mouth, coming from inside her. I see her try to fight it. She’s trying so hard to stay.

“Promise me, John . . . promise me you’ll keep fighting. Promise you’ll win. Don’t let it all be for nothing, my love. Please, just remember, I love you, John. I always . . .”

Sarah stops talking. Her mouth keeps moving for another second, no sound coming out, and then it stops. I keep one hand braced against her stomach and press the other to her neck, even though I already know.

She’s gone.