Episode-27: The Break of Dawn

Date: November 26, 3008
Time: 06:30
Location: Henesys

~Russ~

As the sun began to creep away from the black horizon, everything was frozen.

No rain fell upon the three of them. The wind ceased to exist, bringing an unusually cold chill running down his spine. Russ opened his eyes, and everything around him seemed to be frozen in space.

And that’s when he realized Nova had cast a cyan colored force field around them, a protective dome that seemed to repel the legions of the undead. He could not believe it: it was actually working. But Russ saw Nova’s strength falter, and knew she could not hold out for long.

“Mikhail!” Russ pleaded into the communicator, desperately hoping for an answer, “Mikhail, we need extraction! Please sir, we can’t hold out for much longer!” Russ eyed Nova; her emerald eyes were leaking tears that made streaks down the sides of her cheeks. But nonetheless, her eyes were fixed dead ahead, unfaltering as they strained enormously to force the zombies back.

And then, Russ’s heart jumped ecstatically as he heard his communicator crackle with the hearty voice of his commander, “Hang on, Russ, help is on the way!”

Then, over the roaring wind and thunder, Russ’s ears pricked up at another sound. Something was whirring, or humming towards them, growing louder by the second. Suddenly, a great bright light flooded the intersection, and in the distance, Russ could finally make out the Silver Talon bearing down on final approach.

The sleek black hulled made contact with the decayed hairs of the zombies underneath it for a nanosecond, then crushed them all into oblivion. It smashed furiously into the ground, sending a wave of water and broken concrete surging into the hordes ahead. The roar if the dropship’s engines drowned out the zombies’ desperate cries as they were instantly smashed to death. As it finally skidded to a halt right in front of Nova’s force field, Russ’s communicator crackled on again, “Hop in, son!” The three of them sprinted towards the downing ramp, through the water mingled with tainted blood.

Nova’s shield had broken, unable to stem the tide of the undead any longer. As the ramp hissed back up and the dropship lifted off of its landing pad of flesh and bones, Nova collapsed onto all fours, her eyes sliding out of focus. Russ rushed to her side and checked her neck. Her pulse was faint and erratic, making his brows furl in bewilderment. Never before had he seen such mental capabilities from a body with such a weak heart.

Suddenly, he knew Nova did not have a weak heart. Russ felt a tingling sensation spread from her skin to his, and then it was as if his whole hand was on fire. Gritting his teeth to suppress himself from crying out, Russ closed his eyes and tried to heal her, but as soon as his mind connected with hers, everything was gone.

“I… I don’t know. Something is wrong with me,” I replied uncertainly.

“Like what? You gotta be more specific here, sis,” he stated with a hint of annoyance.

“I dunno, here, let me show you.” I touched his arm and suddenly felt all of his memories rush in and mingle with mine. Immediately, I let go, for a piercing shot of pain tore through my skull. I blinked for a few moments, trying to regain my composure. My brother’s eyes were fixed on me like I was crazy; he had not felt a thing.

We strolled through the garden. A cool wind blew through, ruffling my blonde hair. The air was crisp and clean up here in the clouds of Orbis. It was the perfect day, and I let my mind wander as we walked. What if I did have a boyfriend? We could sit together by the lake and just soak up this brilliant sun. It was a perfect day. If only I had someone to share it with.

And that’s when I realized my brother was feeling the same thing. I suddenly felt stupid. I had that very guy standing right beside me. It didn’t have to be a boyfriend, but just my brother, the guy I would always love the most.

Then, without warning, I felt a jolt of energy run through my mind, tearing my eyes up. “Wait,” I whispered, and my brother stopped. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hands, trying to get rid of the tears, but another shock ran through my skull. I heard footsteps echo in my brain, and knew something was wrong. “Come on!” I pulled my brother with me as I sprinted back into the house.

“Alright,” the man roared, “Who’s next?” he casually waved the rifle around as if it were a toy.

“You bast****!” my father suddenly roared out, his voice reverberating off of the ceiling like a god’s, “You’ll all pay for this. Mark my words, you will p…” The house was suddenly bereft of its commanding voice, replaced by a sharp crack that will forever haunt my memory. I knew I screamed, but I couldn’t hear it at all. All I saw, all I knew, was that my father was crumpling to the ground with a single shot to the skull. He was gone.

The world exploded. I don’t know what happened next, but everything suddenly became piercingly white. I knew I was dead, yet I was still alive. All around me, cries of pain and agony rushed into my ears. I tried to cover them, but to no avail. Then, I heard my brother’s voice cry out my name, one last time, and then disappear forever. Everything became pitch black, and I heard nothing anymore, my final memory of a long forgotten past.

Russ’s mouth hung agape for a few seconds, unable to cope with what he had just felt. Then, he noticed that he himself was crying. Nova’s mental capabilities were too great for him to comprehend. All he saw inside of her were memories of pain and suffering, of loss and hopelessness. Such despair from a Shadow could boost her MP, but it made her dangerously unstable. Russ’s mind still pounded in agony as he tried to clear himself of Nova’s past.

Leaving Damiver and the others to tend to Nova, Russ scaled the ladder up into the cockpit where Mikhail was fiddling with the controls. “What do we do now sir, the whole world’s going to be infected at this rate. First Lith Harbor, then Henesys, my bet is if the Maple Army can’t hold them off, Kerning City, Perion, and Ellinia will be gone by the end of the week.”

“Yea,” Mikhail replied in a hushed tone. The hair on the back of Russ’s neck pricked up uncomfortably at Mikhail’s death-like mood. Never before had he seen his commander so down and out of it like now. “Looks like all hope in hell is lost.”

“Then where are we going?” Russ stuttered. The cockpit had gotten unusually cold. He could almost feel frost gathering around his fingertips as he grasped the back of Mikhail’s seat.

A faint flicker of a smile flashed about Mikhail’s face when he replied, “Where we should have gone a long time ago…”

Mikhail brought the control up, making the entire ship climb upwards in altitude. Now he knew why he was so cold: they were just on the borderline between the planet and space itself. Wondering if the old space ship could take spaceflight, Russ yelled out in surprise as his feet lifted off of the ground. Gravity was no longer with them.

It was like being a part of a videogame, floating around in midair with no form of support whatsoever. Yet Russ had a morbid feeling about it as something loomed up ahead. It was dark and pitch black, shaped like a semi-sphere floating in space. The vastness of the structure had actually pulled small fragments of space rock into an orbit around its outer hull. As the sun appeared around the edge of the planet, The Academy was lit up in a pale, ghostlike aura.

“At least we know this place isn’t infested,” Russ muttered under his breath, his eyes still fixated upon the massive space station. They cruised underneath it, the Silver Talon temporarily shadowed by the understructures jutting out into space. Russ could see a long shaft where nuclear missiles were sent out. Though it had laid dormant for a year, there was still something ominous and threatening about it.

Circling around to the other side, Mikhail piloted the dropship through the Academy’s still functional air shield. Instantly, Russ fell back down to the ground with a thud as The Academy’s artificial gravity came into play. He thought he heard Mikhail chuckle briefly, but there was no doubt of a smile that spread across his face.

The landing pads of the ship extended with a mechanical whir and touched down, grunting a little under the weight of the dropship. Russ and Mikhail jumped down the ladder to the drop deck. As the ramp lowered, Russ finally caught the full view of The Academy.

All of the lights were off, for it had been decommissioned shortly after the fall of the Dominion of Nexon. The building itself resembled an enormous mansion, with numerous balconies jutting majestically off of the substructure. As they walked forwards towards the massive main double doors, Russ looked behind him. The Silver Talon looked so insignificant against this place.

Striding up to the door handles, Mikhail gave a grunt of effort and wrenched them open. A blast of cold air swept onto the landing pads, chilling Russ to the bone. It was pitch black. One by one, the lights mounted underneath the barrels of their weapons lit up, revealing piece by piece the interior.

A giant grand stairwell lay before them, rising a couple of steps before branching off in two opposite directions to the second level. There was no reception desk, nor anything else resembling an actual school of any sort. The whole place was a mansion.

Russ put a foot into the darkness, but then felt a surge of energy slam into his head. Wincing at the sudden intake, he whipped around, and saw Nova shaking from head to foot, breathing erratically, and squeezing Damiver’s hand so hard that he was gritting his teeth to compensate. Russ could feel Nova’s hesitation and anxiety, and understood fully. Who in the world would want to go back to a place that had tormented them for two and a half years?

But she would not budge. As the rest of the group advanced into the main hall, Nova stood rooted to the spot, firmly refusing to go inside. Her telepathy was going haywire, and Russ could see Damiver’s own mind start to fail against hers. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to her and grabber her other hand, “Come on, Nova, we have to go.” Her grip was vice like in his hand; Russ was amazed at how strong she was.

“Nova, there’s no one in here except us,” Damiver whispered in a soothing tone, “Nothing can harm you here anymore.”

“Yea, all we have to do is find out whatever the hell Mikhail is doing, and then we’ll leave. No one will ever know we were here.” Russ added on. In his mind, he suddenly realized he had no earthly idea what they were doing here either. This whole mission seemed so out of whack and irrational. What the hell were they doing?

“Damiver,” Nova stated without warning, making Russ flinch in shock, “Damiver promise me one thing.” Her voice was nothing more than a whisper. Nova’s emerald eyes stared forwards, unwavering into the infinite darkness that stretched before her. Her beautiful face was pale and cold, but there was a fire that burned in her eyes, a flame that could never be put out. “Damiver, say you love me, and that you promise never to let me go.”

Russ gave a quizzical look to Damiver, but he did not return the favor. Instead, Damiver turned and wrapped his arms around Nova’s waist. He stared deeply into her eyes for a moment, then replied firmly, “November Alice Zerra, I love you with all my heart, and I will never, ever let you go.”