“Wake up, kid.”

  Evan stirred awake.

  Vihn knelt over him and whispered, “Let’s go.”

  This was it. One last push to make up for all the mistakes Evan had made. His life for everyone else. He grabbed his brown jacket, slipped on his backpack, tightened his watch, and strode past the greyish figures of the crew that slept on the floor. He and Vihn made it out through the tunnel before the Sun could breach the sky. He tugged his coat closer to shield against the morning cold.

  They slunk into the trees. It had rained the night before, covering the grass in a glistening coat, rising with a musky odor.

  It didn’t take long for them to reach the Jeep covered under blankets of overgrowth. The plants peeled back with a swipe of Vihn’s hand. He popped the door open and ignited the engine.

  “Are you sure you’re ok driving?” Evan asked.

  Vihn frowned. “Huh?”

  “You know…”

  “Evan. There’s nothing I could do with two arms that I can’t do with one. Getting in or what?”

  “Your eyes.”

  Vihn waved his hand over his face. “I can see the grass and trees well enough; I’ve driven drunker than this before.”

  “Vihn,” Evan said.

  The old stranger sighed. “Alright, get in.”

  Evan gladly took the driver’s seat. He’d driven a few times – enough to keep from crashing, he was sure.

  “Get the tablet from my bag and hook it up to the dash.” Vihn tilted his head to the backseat.

  Evan did as he was asked. With some guidance, he was able to get the GPS working. It displayed as a small blue dot, their destination a much larger white one; Joseph Krow’s flagship.

  Vihn’s voice was like gravel as he said, “It hasn’t been that long since your dad left Alpha base, and Krow’s ship seems like it’s been in the area ever since the attack. There’s a good chance that your father is still with Krow.”

  “I know,” Evan said.

  “So, if the Governor and Krow are working together, he’ll have to go too.”

  Evan clenched his jaw. “I know.” A fresh breeze spirited them forward as he accelerated the Jeep.

  Vihn nodded.

  There had been no shortage of people trying to use Evan – and he was quite aware that he’d tried to use others all the same. Now it was time to layout his hand. Reveal the cards. No more secrets, no more conspiracies; just the closing of the game. He rolled Andrea’s vision back and forth in his mind, the bumpy terrain of the forest marginally rattling the mental ball. What a perfect lie it would have been for Andrea to show him a vision about his father betraying them. It’d be easy to dismiss, if not for that interview of his dad working with the Feds. Yet, false propaganda wasn’t a fantasy either. The facts were that his father had orchestrated Evan to go to Dogma Isle, there Shwood and Krow attacked, and then thousands of rebels and Ken were killed. Plain. No more denials. No more running. No more failures.

  “What a pretty day,” Blink said, who was suddenly sitting in the back seat with her feet on the middle armrest.

  Vihn swore.

  Evan swerved, then swerved the other way, narrowly crashing the Jeep into a tree. “How’d you find us?” he asked. She shouldn’t have come; she shouldn’t be risking her life. Not anymore. She’d done more than enough in Evan’s eyes.

  She deepened her voice and wafted her fingers through the air. “I can see all things, for my powers can sense the life forces of every being I’ve touched.”

  “Really?”

  “No, you just stepped on my hand when trying to sneak out and I followed you. It’s ok, I forgive you for not inviting me… and stepping on me,” she upturned her nose in mock disappointment.

  “I’m sorry… for stepping on your hand.” How was he going to get rid of her?

  “Ah, it’s ok. I don’t need ‘em anyway.” She joked, but her shriveled hand was a perfect example of why Evan had set out on his own.

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  Vihn said, “You’re not coming with us.”

  Blink scoffed. “Too late, man. You go back, and the rest of the team is gonna hold you down and tie you to the ship.”

  Evan stopped the Jeep and twisted to face Blink’s eyes. “We have to do this on our own.”

  “Do what?”

  He paused, uncertain if he should confess.

  Blink pulled her legs down to a crisscross, propped up her elbows on the center armrest (face very close to Evan’s), then rested her chin on her hands. “Is this some sort of revenge kick? Some dramatic justice? Mr. Vigilante, lone wolf, ‘kill the bad guy before your loved ones get hurt,’ kinda deal?”

  His cheeks reddened. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of my crap. We’re going to find Krow and kill him.” He tensed when he confessed the last part. He couldn’t imagine she’d understand. She’d forgiven the drug dealer that had abused her. What forgiveness could Evan conjure up for the men who killed his family and allies?

  She bobbed her head like she was mulling the flavor of a wine. She dropped her feet down. “So, we drive until we find Krow, kick butt and figure out the truth, kick some more butt while being chased out of his ship – narrowly dodging bullets and explosions – until we dive into the sea, never to be seen again. But – then we crawl on to shore alive and unscathed. Mission accomplished?”

  “Uh… I guess.”

  She nodded. “It’ll require some improvisation, but thankfully you have a friend who can teleport through things. I can get us in and out, covert ops, super spy junk,” she flashed that classic smile.

  He was surprised by the mischievous energy. “You still want to go with me after what I said?”

  “Yes,” she affirmed.

  “Why?”

  She shrugged. “I’ll never let someone I love do something stupid on his own.”

  “What about your brother? The rest of your team? Aren’t you leaving them?”

  “They aren’t the ones who need me right now. Besides, if this works, it’ll help them out more than anything else.”

  He shook with disbelief. “How can you say you love me? What do I have that’s worth loving?”

  “You care about people. You carry everyone’s pain and suffering on your shoulders. You blame yourself every time someone close to you gets hurt. Heck, you’d blame yourself even if someone you’ve never met got stung by a bee. Like, you’re willing to go on this suicide mission to help save the rest of my family. Sure, there’s a bit of selfish idiocrasy in it, but it comes from that part of you that wants to see people succeed and be safe. You want people to live, you want all of this hell to be defeated, and how in the world could I not admire that about you, Evan?”

  He couldn’t someone could show such faith in him like she did. He didn’t think he deserved it. Thank you that she exists, he prayed. He took in a deep breath, straightened himself in his chair, and said, “Alright. Let’s do it.”

  “Yes!” She clapped.

  “But buckle your seatbelt at least!”

  “Sir, yes sir.” She snapped the buckle into place.

  Vihn scowled. “Blink… we may not be coming back from this.”

  “Sheesh, you’re a real dark fellow, you know?” Blink rolled her eyes. “How did you plan on getting into the flying fortress full of guns, anyway?”

  He shook his head.

  “She’s right, Vihn,” Evan said.

  “Fine.”

  Blink giggled. “I have an idea. It’s a stupid plan, are you sure you want to do it?”

  Evan smiled. “I trust you.”

  She smiled back. “That’s sweet of you. I think my plan might get us killed. Isn’t that exciting?”

  *****

  The flagship ruptured the air with its great engines. Like an old zeppelin, it’s almond shaped hull glided across the sky with waves of heat like a cloud of metal. It was a whale, dominating the blue sea, a leviathan compared to the rest of the fish in the seaweed forest below. But Evan, Vihn, and Blink were no ordinary fish. They were killer whales, here to devour the great monstrosity. They simply needed to make their ascent.

  “Yeah, I’m not sure about my plan anymore, that’s a bit higher than I expected,” Blink said as she squinted up at the ship passing in front of the Sun. She brushed against Evan as she leaned over the seats. He liked the feeling, but pulled back, trying to act like a normal person. Everything that’s happened, and you still get all weird around your friend just because she’s a girl, and genuinely wonderful person?

  Evan ground his front teeth. “Well,” he sighed, “it has to land eventually to refuel, right?”

  Vihn shook his head. “If it did, it’d probably be somewhere high profile, and certainly better guarded. The thing’s basically an aircraft carrier, and they’ve equipped it to be able to stay afloat for a while before refueling.”

  “So, what was your original plan?” Blink asked.

  “I was going to get us captured, and we’d sneak aboard. It wasn’t like we could take Ad Astra; it’d be shot down before it ever got close enough.”

  Her face squelched up. “Yeah? And what would you do after they handcuffed you? Or shot you on the spot?”

  “I’m going to ignore that comment about the handcuffs.” Vihn chuckled. Was that an attempt at humor? “Ok then, just teleport us up there already.”

  “I could… But without knowing where I’m going, we could all end up materializing inside a wall, or inside a person.”

  “Gross,” Evan muttered.

  “Kinda.”

  “You’ve done it before,” Vihn said impatiently.

  Blink nodded. “Yeah, that didn’t go so well. We ended up in the middle of a group of enforcers.”

  “Then it’s my plan,” Vihn prepared one of his plant vials

  “Wait,” Evan said as he leaned against the windshield and pointed up at a small hovercraft that departed from the flagship. “Let’s just take one of those. We can use it to get up to the flagship.” Evan directed his finger to another hovercraft as it descended to a landing pad further down the hill. Several crew and soldiers left the craft and entered a building, leaving it mostly unguarded.

  Vihn bobbed his head. “After you, kid.”

  “I’m with you, Evan,” Blink said.

  Evan took a deep breath. “Ok, let’s go.” He plunged out of the Jeep. He would have tumbled down the hill, but Blink grabbed his arm and Vihn’s and teleported them behind a small rock formation a few feet away from the checkpoint. It was easy enough to wait for an opening and sneak aboard the ship, but the real problem was evident when they approached the controls; the keys were nowhere to be seen.

  “Can’t you do some hotwire thing?” Evan asked Vihn.

  “This isn’t the Jeep. If we had Rowic…” Vihn cocked his head up.

  “Then we wait,” Evan said.

  The hid in the storage space below the floor grating until the pilots and crew finally returned hunched over with crates. The boxes clunked as they were set on the floor above Evan and his companions.

  The ship rumbled and swayed, taking them up into the heavens.

  MARCH 21st at 10:02am CST.

  REMINDER - These chapters were written a long time ago, but never fit into the main story.

  Interlude release schedule:

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