The Last of the Firsts Read online

  Yuna climbed the rest of the way to the crest of the hill and stood beside Ethan. For a moment the only sound was the wind whistling between the narrow gap that separated them. “Are you sure you’re ready for this, Ethan?”

  “I’m sure I’m not ready,” sighed Ethan, “but I’m also sure that we have to do this now. If we leave it too long, this whole area will become too dangerous.”

  Memories of the creatures that had invaded the underground city flooded back into Yuna’s mind, and she imagined them swarming around the walls of the settlement. ‘too dangerous’ suddenly seemed liked a huge understatement, she realized. She looked back at Forest Gate and searched for less depressing thoughts. “It’s a beautiful settlement, I really like it.” She managed to sound cheerful despite the dark images swirling in her head.

  Ethan smiled. “Yes, I really like it too.”

  Seeing Forest Gate again made Ethan realize how much he had missed it, and how wrong he had been to assume it was just a collection of rocks and wood that meant nothing – a point he had once argued to Summer. It was more than his home; it was a part of who he was, and he needed it to be part of his future too, despite the heartbreaking events that had occurred inside its walls. Ethan’s expression darkened as he remembered how Elijah and Katie had been murdered at the hands of the coward, General James Kurren. He hated that his mind became so occupied with other matters that the memory of Elijah and Katie could so easily slip away, and guilt stabbed his gut. He didn’t want to forget, not even for a second. Losing Elijah and Katie had been like having a limb torn from his body. The pain of knowing he would never get to tell them he loved them, or that he was sorry for abandoning them, gnawed at his insides. General Kurren had been beaten before Ethan had even learned of his crimes, and so he had been robbed of the chance to confront him, or make him pay for what he had done. Not that he sought vengeance, not in the way that Summer and Maria had done, but facing Kurren would at least have given him a focus for his anger and grief. Instead, he was left with a crushing absence; a void into which his torment flowed. The least he could do was reclaim the one place that still connected him to his nephew and sister, and hope that in time this helped his wounds to heal.

  Summer had continued to blame herself for their deaths, and she had desperately wanted Ethan to blame her and to be angry with her too. She wanted Ethan to punish her and to push her away, but he was too consumed with his own guilt to be angry at Summer for her proud refusal to leave the settlement. Had she evacuated with the others, Elijah and Katie may still be alive, but nothing changed the fact that it had been Ethan that brought the UEC into all their lives and everything that had happened since could be traced back to his actions then, and his selfish choices. But all that was in the past. Elijah and Katie were dead and nothing would change that. He had to move forward, if not for his own sake then for the sake of the unborn child that Summer was carrying, and for the near three hundred children that Maria had rescued before the GPS space station was destroyed.

  “You’re not alone, you know,” said Yuna. “We’re going to do this together.”

  Ethan smiled at the young scientist, putting the settlement to his back. “I know, and I’m glad you’re here. I’m well aware that you didn’t have to help me.”

  “I’m glad to be here, to do my part,” said Yuna. “Though, I wish I’d brought a thicker coat!”

  Ethan laughed, but then noticed Yuna’s sister, Zoie, getting out of the crawler with Summer, while the skittish engineer, Tyler, remained inside. Tyler had extensively modified the vehicle with armor and even weaponry, which was the only reason he had reluctantly agreed to join the party.

  “I’m not sure that Tyler is quite so happy to be out here,” said Ethan.

  Yuna had already noticed that Tyler was conspicuous by his absence. Despite his strong objection at being assigned to the team, his expertise was essential to Ethan’s plan, and so the other eleven scientists and engineers, all of whom had been born and lived in seclusion deep inside their mountain complex, had pressured him into conceding.

  “He’ll be fine,” said Yuna, smiling. “It will do him good to get out a bit.” A device on Yuna’s wrist bleeped, and she checked it. It was similar to the Personal Vital Signs Monitor, or PVSM, that Maria had worn, but more rudimentary.

  “Are you okay, do you need to get back inside the crawler?” said Ethan, concerned.

  “No, it’s okay, it’s just a regular test,” said Yuna. “My mother managed to sample the anti-toxicity meds that Maria had on her before she and Page left for the moon base, and combined them with her own concoctions. This new formula is much more effective, so I’m good for at least a few hours.”

  Ethan nodded, satisfied with the answer. “Hopefully, the blood sample I gave to Gaia will allow her to cook up something that can make the effect permanent.”

  “Here’s hoping!” Yuna’s brightness seemed almost to lift the chill from the air. “We’d better get moving, we have a settlement to capture.”

  They walked briskly back to the crawler, which had also been fitted with an enclosed canopy and air filtration system, making it a cocoon where the scientists could temporarily be safe from the planet’s toxic environment. Having been born in the protected environment of the underground complex, they lacked Ethan’s natural immunity to the radiation that caused the Maddening. Attached to the back of the crawler was a trailer, loaded with machines that Tyler had called Construction and Engineering Automatons, or CAEAs. The engineer had explained that they would help repair the settlement, and Ethan was eager to see them in action.

  Yuna and Zoie climbed into the trailer and started the activation sequence for the two GARD combat drones they had brought with them specifically to deal with any unwanted visitors that may still have been lurking inside Forest Gate. Their scans from the top of the hill had picked up some life signs inside the walls, and the plan was for the GARDs to pick these off before they entered into the settlement square through the smashed gate. However, it was always possible that others could be lurking inside buildings or in dark corners; the maddened were known to remain motionless in this way for months or perhaps even years; no-one knew for sure.

  Ethan left them to it and joined Summer. The breeze had picked up again and was toying with her vivid red hair, blowing it across her face. Over her shoulder rested a short-bow and a quiver of arrows. She was looking out towards the city, with the same fierce ‘could care less’ expression that she often wore, and had he not known better, he would have said it was the same Summer that he had always known. But this was not the same woman who had defiantly declared that she would remain to defend Forest Gate against the swarm of maddened creatures that were hemorrhaging from the city, and then had to watch as her adopted sister and nephew were murdered in front of her eyes. That Summer was gone, perhaps forever.

  Convincing Summer to return had not been easy, and even after conceding, she had made it clear at every opportunity that she wanted no part of Ethan’s plan. But he knew that if he left Summer in the engineering complex, she would simply close herself off, and sink deeper into the dark place that she now occupied. She had always been a warrior and she had never run from a fight, or lost one, but Elijah’s death had dealt her a blow that was far more powerful than any a roamer or UEC soldier could ever strike her with. It had broken her spirit. Ethan knew she would always blame herself for Elijah’s death, despite anything he said to convince her otherwise, and if he left her to face it alone, he feared what she might do in order to escape her pain and guilt.

  The truth was there was no turning back for either of them. If they holed up inside the mountain with Yuna and the others, the maddened would eventually spread and destroy all twenty-seven settlements, and they would simply become parasites, clinging to an existence that had no possible future. But, more than this, hiding would merely allow their pain and guilt to gestate and rot them from the inside out.

  “It will be okay, Summer,” said Ethan, firmly, but with tende
rness. “I’ll be there with you, all the way.”

  “You shouldn’t have brought me back,” said Summer, still watching the horizon with cold eyes. “There’s nothing here now but death and misery.”

  Ethan gritted his teeth. He wanted to believe that the fighter was still in there somewhere, but he was struggling to keep his patience with Summer’s relentless hostility. “Perhaps, you’re right. Perhaps that is all we’ll find down there. But it’s still our home.”

  “Your home, maybe, not mine.”

  “It’s our home, Summer. You, me, and the baby,” Ethan hit back, unable to mask his frustration. Summer looked away at the mention of the baby, which only angered Ethan more. “And I’m going to fight for it, even if you won’t.”

  He left her and returned to the crawler, just as the two GARDs slowly hummed into the bitter morning air and glided towards the settlement.

  Chapter 3

  Ethan sat with Yuna and Tyler in the front of the reinforced crawler, watching the holo images from the cameras mounted in the two GARDs as they circled Forest Gate, scanning for signs of life. Though it wasn’t really life that they were looking for, not in the strictest sense of the word. Roamers were still recognizably people, even if they no longer recognized themselves, but the maddened were different. The severity of the damage to their genetic structure had perverted them into creatures that existed somewhere between life and death. No longer recognizably human, and incapable of even the most basic of human emotions, they were driven by rage and acted purely on instinct. They were very hard to kill. Ethan wondered if the GARD’s vital signs sensors could detect their electrical impulses or heartbeats, if their hearts still beat at all.

  “There… adjust the sensitivity and increase the scanning output,” said Tyler, who was studying a screen full of numbers and ignoring the visual holos entirely.

  Yuna nodded and started tapping away at the console. “Set it to scan for lower temperature variances too – these creatures are cold, almost dead cold.” The use of the words ‘dead cold’ to describe the maddened made Tyler shudder.

  Ethan was fixed on the two holo images from the GARDs, not so much because he was keeping a watch out for signs of movement, but because the view they presented of the settlement was unique; a new perspective on a place he thought he knew inside and out. He continued to watch as Yuna and Tyler chatted and tapped at various consoles, and then as the GARDs swept around the front of the gate, he caught a glimpse of something unusual, like a flickering outline.

  “Wait, go back!” called Ethan. “The first one, move it back to the gate.”

  Yuna picked up a small control device with two sticks, which were like miniature versions of the control yokes on the UEC shuttle, and began to manually pilot the GARD.

  “Stop, there! Do you see it?” They all squinted at the holo, and Ethan thrust a finger into the ethereal display, tracing the outline of the shape.

  Yuna’s eyes widened. “Yes, I see it. Tyler, focus on that sector and let’s see if we can enhance.”

  Tyler worked away and gradually, over a period of perhaps ten to twenty seconds, the faint outline resolved into something solid, something with two arms and two legs, hunched over and completely motionless, crouched in the shadows beneath the collapsed remains of a section of the East Wall.

  “Could it be a survivor?” asked Tyler.

  “No,” replied Ethan, without hesitation. “There is no-one still alive in there, no humans at any rate.” Tyler swallowed so hard that everyone in the crawler heard the saliva being forced down his throat.

  “Okay, now that we know what to scan for, I’m going to pull them both back a little,” said Yuna. “Let’s see how many of them we’re dealing with.”

  The two GARDs gained altitude and swept around the perimeter of the settlement, and the display that had initially only showed one ominous blue silhouette now showed ten, all similar to the first, all tucked away in dark recesses so anyone walking around the settlement grounds would never spot them, until it was too late.

  “Not quite as deserted as we thought, after all,” said Yuna. Ethan acknowledged her comment with a slight raising of his eyebrows. Then Yuna tapped a sequence of controls and added, “Let’s see what we can do about that…” as the words, ARMED... ENGAGING… flashed up on the holos. The two GARDs, which had been circling serenely around the settlement like birds of prey, suddenly dove down and launched searing bolts of blue energy at the concealed creatures at point-blank range. Two of the blue silhouettes vanished from the holo feed. Without pause the GARDs sped back into the air in unison and then dove down again; the holos flashed white as the bolts seared the air. The deadly ballet then repeated again and again, the GARDs moving with such ferocious speed and precision that Ethan began to feel nauseous as he tried to the follow the action on the holos. He closed his eyes and picked up a garble of faint roars, like distant thunder, mixed with sharp, electronic pulses floating up to them from the settlement.

  “Power levels are holding,” said Tyler, who was still studying a panel full of numbers, “Eight down… nine… That’s it, they’re gone.”

  As suddenly as they had started, the GARDs returned to a sweeping, circular orbit of the settlement, as if they had never deviated from their graceful trajectory. But the ten humanoid silhouettes that were previously visible in the holo feeds had disappeared.

  Yuna reached forward and pressed a circular red button to start the crawler’s engine, which whirred into life beneath them, and placed her hands on the control column. “Let’s get started!” she said, with infectious enthusiasm, as the crawler surged forward and down the hill towards the settlement. Ethan gripped the hand rail on the door next to him, having flashbacks of the wild crawler ride he had shared with Maria when they went searching for the old hermit. Yuna’s piloting made even Maria’s spirited driving seem tame in comparison. They reached the open gates to the settlement far sooner than should have been physically possible, and Yuna finally throttled back and entered the settlement at a more reasonable velocity.

  “We still need to be cautious,” said Ethan, as Yuna parked the crawler in the middle of the settlement square. “In case your GARDs missed anything.”

  Tyler scoffed. “My scans were meticulous.”

  “I don’t doubt that, Tyler, but I don’t want to take any chances,” Ethan replied, then he had a devious thought; a way to test Tyler’s confidence. “But, if you’re so sure then you can get out first, and we’ll follow…”

  Tyler’s face fell. “Oh, I think it’s probably better if I monitor from here,” he said, hurriedly. “I need to, erm, bring the GARDs in for recharging, yes.” He looked pleased to have come up with a plausible excuse on the hoof.

  Yuna shot Ethan a knowing look and then smiled. “Okay, we stick together and bring the bolt-throwers, just in case.” Then to Tyler, she added, “Can you get the CAEAs up and running, while we check things out inside?”

  Tyler nodded. “Yes, I can do that from in here too. Good idea. Yuna.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes, and then grabbed the bolt-thrower that he’d stowed on the floor in front of his seat. He nodded to Yuna and then grabbed the door release; there was a hiss as the filtered air inside the cabin bled out, and then he slid off the seat and stepped onto the hard dirt of the settlement square, hearing the familiar crunch underfoot. He turned back into the cabin, noticing that Tyler had pulled his jacket over his mouth as some sort of improvised face mask, and then helped Yuna out. Zoie, who was in the rear cabin with Summer, jumped out next, but Summer remained inside, looking jittery.

  “Are you coming, Summer?” asked Ethan, trying to make sure the question didn’t sound like an accusation.

  For a moment Summer didn’t respond, but then she grabbed the bow from the seat beside her and swung out, crunching onto the dirt beside Ethan. The door closed and hissed again as the cabin sealed and pressurized. She met Ethan’s eyes, and if looks could inflict pain, Ethan would have been in agony.

  “I
hope you know what you’re doing,” said Summer, icily. She drew an arrow from her quiver, nocked it loosely in the bow, and then stepped away to join Zoie.

  “She’ll come round,” said Yuna, softly. “It’s just hard for her to be back here, you know?”

  “I know, I’m sure you’re right,” said Ethan, still watching Summer. But he was beginning to think it had been a mistake to have brought her back to Forest Gate so soon.

  Zoie caught Ethan’s concerned look. “Why don’t we split up into pairs? Summer and I can take the council chamber and surrounding huts, while you and Yuna can work your way around the perimeter?”

  Ethan was about to protest, but Yuna had fathomed her sister’s implied meaning, which was, ‘Let’s give Summer some space’, and spoke first. “Okay, good idea. Come on Ethan, why don’t you show me around?”

  Reluctantly, Ethan led Yuna away, heading first towards the ranger hut, near to the gate. As they approached it, they heard the hum of the GARDs as they glided down from their orbit and docked on top of the crawler to re-charge. Almost at the same time, the trailer compartment popped open and the CAEAs deployed and set to work on their various pre-programmed tasks of repairing and reinforcing the settlement.

  Ethan and Yuna reached the ranger hut. The door was swinging slightly in the breeze, creaking open and then banging gently shut again in a way that made Ethan feel uneasy. He raised the bolt-thrower and stepped onto the veranda; it groaned under his weight, which only added to Ethan’s growing sense of disquiet. He paused, listening for any indication of movement from inside, then waited for the breeze to catch the door and blow it open again.

  “Ethan, what’s up?” Yuna called out in a low voice, but Ethan just raised his hand to silence her, and continued watching the door. The breeze picked up again, pushing the door gently open with another long, aching creak and Ethan darted forward, swinging the barrel of the bolt-thrower inside. He scanned the corners of the large, open-plan space, looking for anything unusual, then pressed forward. He heard the porch creak behind him and spun around to see Yuna.