The Big Sleep (Duology)

Chapter Nineteen - Roll Downhill

Before the dust settled, the grand hall churned with life once more. The Regressives surged forward through the hall, shouting out barely discernible, definitely inexecutable orders as the countless cousins scrambled to the foot of a particularly high pile of stone that sat where the cave entrance and the Speaker had stood moments before, trying to convince Dr. Farrah not to betray us all. She hadn't listened.

"Get him out!" they shouted. "Move the rocks now!"

"Back," Orion said, holding one hand up to his cousins and placing the other against the pile. "I'll get him."

The other Regressives stepped back, giving Orion the space requested. The bulky man kneeled on the ground, one hand on the rock, the other hanging at his side. For a moment, he sat still, as if resting to catch his breath in the midst of a long hike, then his shoulders hunched forward, pulled towards his ears as he arched his back up, his spine curving impossibly. Soft but dreadful, a moan escaped his slightly parted lips. Sweat poured suddenly from his brow.

Icarus jumped forward, pulling Orion's hand from the rocks and slamming him to the ground. At the same time, the Regressives released a mournful sob as one. "Father," they cried.

Icarus climbed off of Orion's back and rounded on the rest of us. "It's over," he said, gesturing at the rocks where the Sanctuary's entrance used to sit. "Your Speaker is dead. Do you understand? It isn't safe here anymore. We have now sacrificed everything for you people and it doesn't even matter. It never mattered. Your doctor will bring the Masters. It's over."

The back of my throat went cotton dry as Beth let out a quiet sob, holding my father close. He stared at the rocks, eyes unfocused as he patted Beth's back as if to console her.

The Speaker had crushed himself to stop the escape, but I saw Dr. Farrah flee through the dust. Icarus was right; he had died for nothing. We would all be killed or turned to Greymen--Greyed--when the doctor brought the Masters and it was our own fault for trusting her. I felt tears on my cheeks and blinked hard, turning to assess the damage.

"How long until they're here?" I asked.

Icarus shrugged. "Are you not listening? I told you: it's over."

Orion, still splayed on the ground, propped himself up on an elbow. "No. It's not over yet."

Icarus scoffed. "There is nothing left to do, Orion. We are all dead. Our only choice is one without hope or honor: run and hide and pray we are not found. We cannot stay here. They will destroy us all!"

"No. We cannot run! Icarus, you are right. We have sacrificed everything. But it is not for nothing." He waved a hand over the grand hall. "Two hundred men, women, and children have come here for the safety we promised to provide. Nearly one hundred Regressives are still standing. We can fight, Icarus."

"We can't win."

"Maybe not."

"No, Orion. We will lose. We will all die. If we run, there's at least a chance--"

"If we run, this was for nothing." My father pulled himself from Beth's arms and stepped out of the crowd. "The Speaker never abandoned a cause. He would want us to fight. His death means something; it needs to mean something. We stay. We stay and we stand together."

Icarus shrugged. "We're dead either way."

Orion placed a consoling hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Our deaths can mean something, too." He turned to my father. "We will stand with you. You are right; our father would never want us to give up. But he would also never turn a human. You understand? We have weapons you may use, and we can make more if you need, but we will not make you Masters."

My father nodded. "I understand."

"I don't know if you do," Icarus said. "The Masters are coming here, now. No matter how we arm you, against them, your weapons may as well be pebbles and twigs. They will kill us all," he gestured at his fellow Regressives, "but you, your family, your neighbors. They won't kill you. They'll take you. Change you. Grey you. Your souls will be destroyed. Gone. There is nothing but horror in that future. It means nothing."

My father took a step closer to Icarus and nodded again. "I understand," he said again, his voice hard.

***

"You stay in the dorms," my father said, pulling on the armor the Regressives had provided him and cocooning himself in the dark, hardened leather-like material that covered every inch of his skin, including his head. Only a small hole left his eyes and nose exposed. "All three of you."

All at once, Kayle, Beth, and I erupted in objections.

"You're not the only one who she betrayed. We can fight. We deserve our revenge, too," Kayle said.

"There's no safe place to hide. You know that," Beth said.

"You aren't stopping me this time. If you go--if Billy goes--we go," I said.

"They're right," Billy said. He looked almost commanding in his own dark armor. "We need all the help we can get. We did just lose one of our best tacticians, after all." He laughed, though with none of his signature buoyancy, then cleared his throat.

"I can't lose you. I need to protect you."

"We can protect each other," Beth said, pulling three sets of armor from the pile. She handed one to me, one to Kayle, and stepped into one herself. The armor shaped to our bodies as we pulled it on, perfectly fitted as though it had been custom made for each of us.

My father stood, staring at his children in our fighting gear, laughable weapons at our sides. "No. Your mother thought we could protect each other. Thought her Greyman would protect her. If she could have trusted me, you would have been raised by two parents instead of one."

"Mom would fight," I said.

He clenched his jaw, released. "Exactly. It's that kind of riskiness that took her from us. I suppose it's time that I told you: your mother died in the dream world while she was out on one of many inane and dangerous adventures with her Greyman. She trusted that beast like no one else and... I won't lose you, too."

"How can you keep us safe? There is no Green City here, Dad," Beth said as she secured the final strap of her suit. "No safe training grounds. This is what the Speaker was training us for. Kayle, Billy, Rain, me, Jacob... We were too young to train, but he did it anyway because he knew. He knew this was coming all along and he knew we would probably have to fight before the end. You can accept our help or not, but you can't stop us. We're coming. We will all stand together."  

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