57

Kai Zhou

July 11, 2045. Mapleton, Utah.

“There they are.” Luis pointed at the horizon, where tufts of white smoke rose toward the sky. Kai had been expecting mushroom clouds, like the ones he’d seen in pictures of Hiroshima, but these were thinner, maybe because they were tactical nukes rather than big bombs.

No one said anything as they cruised along Route 89, elbow to elbow in the back of the open troop transport. Even if Kai felt like cheering the deaths of tens of thousands of defenders despite all the human lives that were being snuffed out at the same time, someone within earshot might have loved ones living in Los Angeles.

Kai wondered what he would have done if, when they were informed yesterday about the nuclear strikes, Atlanta had been one of the targets. Would he still be here, willing to fight? No. Not a chance. There would have been nothing he could do to save Errol, but he wouldn’t be carrying a rifle now.

He understood that it was necessary. It was still a terrible thing to do.

Kai fingered the plastic sack holding the radiation shield he’d been issued. They’ll help, Sergeant Schiller had said as they lined up to get one, but there’s no guarantee you won’t get sick. I’m not going to lie to you: You probably will get sick. But with the shields, you’ll live. How comforting. In an ideal situation, they would have twenty thousand big, expensive radiation hazmat suits to hand out, but this was not an ideal situation.

The convoy pulled off the highway at the next exit. They passed a shopping center with a Target, an Applebee’s, CVS, Golden Dragon Chinese. A little farther along they passed a strip mall. Just beyond it, they turned into a neighborhood, past a big sign that read WINDMILL PLANTATION.

It was one of those endless suburban neighborhoods. The expansive lawns, now nothing but neck-high weeds, must have needed constant watering during the hot summers. Most of the residents had probably worked in Salt Lake City, commuting an hour to work every day. It was long deserted. Everyone had fled during the Luyten War (either that, or the Luyten had killed them), and afterward none of the survivors of the war had reason to return and claim a free house in neighborhoods like this one. There was nothing here, no point in living here. There were plenty of free, fully furnished houses closer to the cities.

“Four to a house,” Sergeant Schiller called as the transport ground to a stop.

Kai followed Luis, Shoelace, and Tina toward a big beige house sitting on what must have been two acres. Tina reached the door first, pushed it open, and jumped back with a shriek.

“It’s a nest.”

Kai joined Luis and Shoelace at the door to take a look. Sure enough, some Luyten had made itself at home. Fabric stretched all over, cutting the room into weird semi-enclosed chambers. He’d seen videos of Luyten nests, but he’d never seen one for real. He stepped past the others and went inside.

“You’re sick,” Shoelace said. “Seriously ill.”

“What?” Kai glanced back at Shoelace. “You afraid a few starfish stayed behind? Maybe one’s still hiding out in here?” He ran his fingers over the fabric. It was tight as a drum, and softer than it looked.

“Let’s just find a place to sleep,” Shoelace said.

Sleep. That was the magic word. Kai followed Shoelace and the others down the driveway, toward the next house. He was so tired. When was the last time he’d gotten even five hours’ sleep at once? During basic training? Had they gotten five hours a night during basic? He couldn’t remember. And in the morning they were going into a city that had just been nuked. Yes, he needed some sleep.

The next house was fine. Without a word they split up, located bedrooms, and dragged mattresses—still in dusty sixteen-year-old bedding—into the living room.

As Kai lay down, his thoughts immediately turned to Errol and Lila, as they always did, and he felt the now-familiar stab of pain and panic. Were they all right? Kai knew Lila’s aunt Ina would protect Errol with her life, but the defenders had overrun Atlanta. Bombs and bullets had flown. Kai had no way to know if they’d survived, and what was happening to them if they had. He was tortured over his decision to report for military service.

Lots of his comrades had young kids, though; that’s why they were here, to fight for those kids, for their future.

“Do you ever wonder what would happen if the defenders won?” Tina asked from the mattress to Kai’s left.

“Come on, shut up. That’s the last thing we need to think about,” Luis said. He was sitting on the couch, thumbing through a tattered book of comic strips he’d found in one of the rooms.

“I’m just asking. I’m not saying they’re gonna. But if they did, what would they do? Would they just be in charge? Like, they get to be the presidents of all the countries, and we don’t get to vote?” Tina sounded almost relaxed. All of these people, his friends, seemed to be taking it in stride. Kai could barely stand it; each moment of being here, in this strange house in a strange town, missing his family, filthy, tired beyond anything he’d ever imagined, was torture. The defenders didn’t sleep, but people needed sleep or they’d just break down.

Kai was breaking down. He wiped a tear as it rolled to the bridge of his nose. He’d always thought of himself as tough, like steel, forged in the streets of D.C. during the Luyten War. He didn’t feel tough now. He felt like that twelve-year-old kid hiding in a bathroom, lost, cold, scared, ready to accept help from anyone, even a starfish.

“I just want to understand what we’re fighting for,” Tina went on. “They can’t put us all in prison camps like we did with the Luyten. There are too many of us. How would they feed us if we were all in prison camps?”

“Would you shut up?” Luis said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Yeah, they’re going to build a prison camp the size of Texas and put us all in it.”

“Then what are they gonna do? That’s what I’m asking?”

“I don’t know. Nobody knows.” Luis spit on the carpet, studied the glob of spit for a moment before rubbing his boot over it. He stabbed at his temple with one finger. “They’re crazy. They’re psycho. There’s no telling what they’d do.”

The front door swung open. Sergeant Noonan stuck his head inside. “Everybody outside. One minute. Let’s go.” Then he was gone.

“Oh shit.” Tina fumbled with the zipper on her pack, stuffing the things she’d just set out by the mattress back inside.

As Kai lifted his pack and slung it on his back, he wondered, what now? What fresh new hell was coming their way?

They joined their squad outside. Kai watched some of the latecomers, crashing out through front doors and sprinting down driveways so they wouldn’t be late.

When everyone was assembled in a loose line on the sidewalk, Sergeant Schiller raised his voice and said, “The stilts are coming. They’re making an all-out siege, from both coasts.”

Kai exchanged a Holy shit look with Shoelace.

“Their bombers are on the way, supported by a fighter squadron. After that, in all likelihood one airborne division, possibly two, will parachute into the area. They’re trying to take Salt Lake City and the surrounding area as a jumping-off point for an overland siege of our center of gravity in the Cheyenne Mountain bunker.”

“How many will be coming by land after the paratroopers?” someone down the line asked.

“All of them,” the sergeant answered.

That got the whole division buzzing. The sergeant waited, hands clasped behind his back, letting the chatter die down naturally.

“So this is it. We must stop them here. Two additional reinforced divisions will be setting up to the north and south of our position. The rest of our western forces are scrambling to intercept the ground forces before they get here. We have a lot to do before they get here, and not much time.”

Kai looked out over the neighborhood. It was teeming with activity. Bulldozers were pushing vehicles into piles to form barriers; the few engineer soldiers they had were setting land mines in the road. Tanks and artillery were spreading out, finding protected spots. Soldiers were dispersing, seeking cover in houses, strip malls, wooded areas. Many wore tan camo, but most were dressed in jeans, stained sweatshirts, work boots, sneakers—whatever clothes they didn’t mind getting dirty, or bloody. Many had nothing but a pistol. They hadn’t been through even the cursory basic training Kai and his comrades had received. Shoot at their faces was probably the full extent of their training.

“We shouldn’t have dropped those nukes. It just pissed them off worse.” Tina was watching the horizon, where smoke rose from a copse of scrub pines that had been torched to improve sight distance, but her eyes were glassy, unfocused.

She had a star-shaped scar on her temple. Kai wondered how she’d gotten it; he was aware that the thought was bizarre, given the situation, and probably a sign that he was losing his grip.

“It just sped up their timetable,” Shoelace said. “They were coming one way or another.”

“At least we would have lived a few more weeks,” Tina replied. She sounded listless, more depressed than afraid.

Kai waited for someone to contradict her, but Shoelace went on cleaning his rifle, leaning up against the side of the house. Luis was listening to music with earbuds, his head bobbing, eyes closed.

A group of eight or nine terrified people was standing in the weeds nearby. They might have been an extended family—men and women, ranging in age from early teens to their sixties. More volunteers kept arriving all the time, answering a desperate last-minute call.

“When the sergeant said, ‘This is it,’ he didn’t mean the war’s over after this, did he?” Tina asked, stubbing out a cigarette on the house’s foundation.

“If the defenders overrun our center of gravity and kill the president, drive a wedge through the middle of the country, and meet in the middle…” Kai shrugged. “It’s over for the United States, that’s for sure.”

Tina considered this.

Kai had been watching the recently arrived group out of the corner of his eye. Now two of them broke off and approached: a stocky guy in his forties, and an Asian woman Kai guessed was his wife.

“Excuse me,” the stocky guy said. “We’re sorry to bother you, but we’re not clear about our role here. The officer who briefed us didn’t tell us what we’re supposed to do.”

“Shoot at their faces,” Tina said without looking at them, as smoke trailed out of her nostrils.

Kai rose. “Come on.” He put a hand on each of the newcomers’ shoulders and led them back in the direction of their group. “First, find an empty house, a drainage ditch, some cover to fight from. We’re facing a superior force, so we spread out, make them come to us one group at a time.” He let them absorb this for a moment before continuing. It was a lot to take in. “The first thing that’s going to happen is, you’re going to see our fighter planes overhead. That means their bombers are close.” The two newcomers nodded, looking grateful, and so utterly lost and out of their element. Kai knew the feeling; four months ago he hadn’t known a howitzer from a supply truck. “The defenders will have fighters to protect their bombers, and their fighters are more advanced than ours, so that might not go well, depending on how many planes they have and how many we have.” Kai pointed at each of the newcomers in turn. “Don’t shoot at the planes. You’re just wasting ammunition. Stay down.”

The woman looked up, blinking rapidly, trying not to cry. He knew that feeling, too. There was that moment when you realized this was real, that the defenders really were coming, and they were coming to kill you. Kai gave the woman a moment to get hold of herself, then he went on.

“Soon after that, more planes will come, and defenders will parachute out of them. When you see the defenders coming, that’s when you start shooting.”

“Go for their faces,” the stocky guy said.

“That’s right.” Defenders were hard to bring down with bullets designed to kill humans, especially given the extensive body armor they wore. Your best bet was a face shot; that way you knew they wouldn’t get back up. They were fast. So fucking fast. “Don’t move around; movement draws attention to you. Stay put.”

Kai raised his eyebrows, waiting for any questions.

“Thank you.” The guy held out his hand. “I’m Jaden, by the way.” Kai shook Jaden’s hand, then shook the woman’s hand. Her name was Julie. Jaden and Julie. He wished them luck.

As he walked back toward his friends, Kai heard the fighter jets’ engines coming from the east. A moment later they shot past overhead, going to intercept the defenders’ aircraft west of their position.

“I’m not as limber as I once was,” Shoelace said to Kai as he rejoined his friends. Kai raised an eyebrow, not sure what Shoelace was getting at.

“I’d like to kiss my ass goodbye, but I don’t think I can reach it anymore.”

Kai burst out laughing, and Shoelace joined in. Kai gave him a hug, and they clapped each other on the back.

They could hear the aerial battle, but couldn’t see it. Kai had seen enough of them to know what was happening. The defender fighters were big, almost twice the size of the human model. The defender model looked a lot like the Alliance’s YF-23, and what it lacked in maneuverability, it made up for in speed and firepower.

A half hour later, they heard the rumble of bombers. Kai and his friends headed inside the house they’d chosen, to ride out the initial bombing. It was a nondescript house near the center of the development; there was no reason it should be targeted over thousands of others spread over dozens of square miles, but some of them were going to get hit. It was all about odds, an oversized game of Russian roulette.

Slinking over, looking almost apologetic, Jaden and Julie’s clan came up behind them.

Tina waved them on. “Come on in, if you’re coming.”

Anyone who wasn’t terrified by the sight of defender bombers on the horizon was afraid of nothing. They were so big, and flew in such tight formation, that it was like a steel storm cloud blanketing the sky. As the air vibrated with the sound of their engines, Kai did what he’d always done in these situations: He closed his eyes and played poker in his mind. He found he could enter a trancelike state if he concentrated hard enough. It didn’t eliminate his terror, but it gave him distance from it.

The bombs began to fall. Mobile antiaircraft guns boomed. The newcomers huddled on the floor behind the couch. Lisa was thumbing through a coffee-table book of dog breeds. Luis listened to his music.

Somewhere down the street, a house took a direct hit. Kai heard pieces of wood and concrete thunking on their roof. He drew the five of clubs and the eight of hearts, and waited to see the bet. Maybe he would bluff. He did more bluffing in imaginary games, because imagining others playing out a hand wasn’t as absorbing as playing the hand himself.

Unbidden thoughts of Lila broke into his game. Kai saw her as she’d been the first time they met, at a genetic engineering conference Oliver had taken him to. Kai had asked to go only because it was in Miami, in February. When Kai saw Lila, trailing behind his dad’s friend, Dominique Wiewall, he’d ditched his plans to go to the beach and, to Oliver’s confusion and surprise, sat through an utterly incomprehensible presentation just so he could be near Lila. She’d been so wonderfully not what he associated with academic types. Dyed blond hair in dreadlocks, too much eye makeup, her expression daring you, just daring you, to piss her off and see what happened. That night, he’d convinced her to go with him to a poker game.

The silence startled him out of his semi-dream state. He lifted his head, went to look out the windows with the others, at the ruined houses, the leaning mailboxes, the scorched and battered ground. Smoke acted like a thick fog, making it difficult to see more than a few hundred yards, but he could see enough damage to get a sense of where they stood.

“Ninety minutes,” Luis said. “I figured they’d be at it until nightfall, at least.”

“I think they’re in a hurry,” Kai said. “It shook them, when we bombed our own people to get them. They thought they knew what to expect from us.”

“Yeah, well, they forgot they ain’t starfish.” Luis pointed at his temple.

Something was unsettling Kai. For a moment he didn’t know what it was, then the sound registered. The low rumble of aircraft.

“Oh, come on,” Luis said, crying up at the ceiling. “Can’t you give us a few hours first?”

“You talking to God, or the stilts?” Shoelace asked.

“Anyone who’ll listen.”

Shoelace tilted his head to one side and smiled grimly. “Then you’re talking to no one.”

They filed onto the back porch and watched the distant transport planes spit defenders. The paratroopers dropped feetfirst, their sky-blue parachutes not deploying until they were close to the ground. Heavy artillery pieces dropped out of one of the planes, their larger parachutes deploying almost immediately.

Kai eyed the tank at the top of the hill, nestled behind the blockade of vehicles the dozers had constructed. Its presence was somewhat comforting.

Shoelace turned to Jaden. “I don’t want to be rude, but a dozen shooters in one location is a waste. How about you take your people and set up a few houses down the road?”

When they were gone, Luis and Tina took up positions in upstairs windows. Kai took the back door. Shoelace chose a window facing the front and knocked out the glass with the butt of his rifle. Kai pulled the sliding glass door open; he left the screen closed, figuring it provided a bit of extra camouflage.

“I’d like to say today is a good day to die, but I’m not feeling it,” Shoelace said. “Today would be a shitty day to die.”

“I’m with you there.”

Soon they heard gunfire. It was distant at first, coming from the north. It grew closer.

Then it was everywhere. A thousand battles, going on simultaneously. That was the way you wanted it if you were facing a superior force—harass the enemy, slow them down.

Before he’d stepped into line the day he’d volunteered to fight the defenders, Kai had zero interest in military strategy. Now it was the only thing that did interest him, besides poker and his family. He figured he had better odds of staying alive if he knew what was going on, and why.

Kai scanned the backyard, watching for movement. There was an in-ground pool back there, the water murky and greenish brown, and a shed too small for a defender to use as effective cover. Beyond that was a line of pine trees, then the backyards of houses facing the other way.

At any minute, the first defenders would appear. They’d likely come along the road in front, but they might come through the back.

“You know what I’m craving right now?” Shoelace asked.

Gunfire erupted from the street in front of the house.

“Do you see anything?” Kai called.

“No.”

Kai ran to join Shoelace at the front windows.

The face of a defender appeared over a rooftop across the street. It had climbed onto the roof. One of its eyes closed, the other sighted down a rocket launcher. Kai ducked away from the window as an explosion shook the house. It must have hit the house next door.

Kai went back to the window. Another defender had joined the first, peering from the roof. Everyone in Kai’s house held their fire. Shooting at them from this distance would only serve to get the rocket launcher pointed in their direction.

Three defenders broke from between two houses up the street.

The tank at the top of the hill boomed; the roof of the house across the street exploded, shooting wood and black tile into the air.

Kai sprang up, took aim, but the three defenders who’d been on the move were already gone. He ran to the back door and spotted human soldiers in the backyard, running. They passed out of sight. A moment later two defenders appeared in pursuit. Kai raised his rifle, squeezed off a few tight bursts that missed. Then they were gone. They were so fast.

Upstairs, Tina and Luis were firing at something in the street.

Shoelace opened fire, then paused. Cursing, he dove away from the window. Defender bullets ripped through the window, shredding the wall beyond in a wide arc.

Two or three more defenders opened fire on them, their bullets thumping into the front of the house, shattering windows. Kai heard shouted orders outside, then a roar. Outside, the air suddenly grew bright orange.

Smoke poured in through the windows.

“They torched us,” Shoelace said as Luis and Tina barreled down the stairs.

“Down,” Kai said.

They huddled near the floor by the back door as the room filled with smoke. Kai coughed. His eyes burned. The defenders would pick them off as soon as they stepped outside, but they couldn’t stay inside. Kai glanced over his shoulder: The curtains and window frames were burning, the flames climbing the wall.

Luis held up a set of keys on a yin-and-yang key chain. “I found these upstairs. Maybe there’s a car in the garage.”

It was a chance, at least. They followed Luis, who pulled open a door leading to the garage. Thick, black smoke poured out. Kai yanked up his shirt, covered his mouth and nose, and followed the others, stumbling down wooden steps, blinded by the smoke, coughing uncontrollably, hoping the car was in the garage.

Then it occurred to him: The car had been sitting in the garage, untouched, for fifteen years. There was no way it was going to start. They’d panicked; they hadn’t thought it through. He tried to shout to the others, but nothing came except racking coughs.

Crawling on hands and knees, he turned and headed back up the stairs into the kitchen. Dragging himself onto the porch, he curled up in a ball, coughing uncontrollably in the cool air. There was a defender out back, watching the house. The smoke must have covered Kai’s exit. He tried to stay perfectly still, hoping the roar of the flames and the crackle of burning wood would muffle his cough, because he couldn’t hold it in.

In the kitchen, Kai heard someone else coughing. Keeping low, he ducked inside. Shoelace was sprawled on the blackened linoleum. Kai grabbed his hand and dragged him partially outside.

Through the porch’s slatted wood floor, Kai saw that the inner supports beneath the porch were on fire. The porch would go up in a minute or so.

He heard a shout. The defender watching the back of the house hefted his rifle and trotted off. They were moving on.

“We have to go,” Kai said, barely recognizing the voice coming from his singed throat. “You ready?”

Coughing furiously, Shoelace nodded once. Kai staggered down the porch steps with Shoelace right behind. They got clear of the fire and dropped to their knees in the grass, still coughing.

“Hold still,” Shoelace croaked. “You’re on fire.” Shoelace smacked at the cuff of Kai’s pant leg, extinguishing the flame.

Lifting his head, he looked past Kai. “Oh, shit.”

Kai followed Shoelace’s gaze. Half a dozen defenders were heading their way. He looked around for somewhere to hide. If they ran, they’d be spotted for sure. The shed was too far, the storage bin for pool supplies too small.

The pool. “Come on.”

They crawled through the gate, stashed their weapons along the fence, and slipped into the warm, swampy water.

When the defenders drew close, Kai whispered, “Under,” took a deep breath, and ducked underwater.

He couldn’t see anything but green silt floating in brackish water. Because good soldiers don’t do much talking in the midst of battle, he couldn’t count on hearing the defenders pass. His best bet was to hold his breath as long as possible, though not so long that he surfaced gasping for air.

Tina and Luis were dead. It was the first moment he’d had to register that. They were still in the garage. How had all four of them been so stupid? When Kai saw that key in Luis’s hand, he’d instantly formed an image of the four of them bursting through the garage door, careening down the street and out of harm’s way. In a car that hadn’t been started in fifteen years.

Stupid, stupid.

Kai’s damaged lungs began to ache. He guessed they’d been under no more than thirty or forty seconds, probably not long enough for the defenders to pass. Worse, he needed to cough. His lungs were twitching, his throat tingling madly.

If he was going to cough, better to do it underwater, where the sound wouldn’t carry. He let it go, expelling most of the air from his lungs, then held on a few more seconds before gently lifting his face above the water.

A defender was standing directly over him. Kai took a deep, slow breath through his nose as Shoelace’s face surfaced beside him. The defender looked left and right, then moved on.

Two more came into view. Like the first, these two were focused on threats from nearby houses and other areas that provided potential cover; none thought to look in an old swimming pool.

When they were out of sight, Kai and Shoelace pulled themselves out of the pool and retrieved their rifles.

“We should touch base with HQ, find out where we’re supposed to rendezvous,” Shoelace said as water dripped off him and pattered to the concrete.

Kai took a deep, sighing breath, then looked off at the smoking wreckage. The thought of heading back into that insanity made him want to cry. If they went, they would die. He was certain of that. Kai didn’t want to die. He wanted to see his son again, his wife.

It was time to fold, he realized. Time to collect what chips he had left and leave the table. He looked at Shoelace and said, “I think we should find a house that’s still standing and crash there until this thing is over.”

Shoelace chuckled, but Kai gave him a level look. “No, I’m serious.” This war was so big, so complicated, no one would miss two soldiers. “We can get some sleep, read a book.”

Shoelace gave Kai a pained look. “Kai, I can’t do that. Like the sergeant said, if we don’t stop them now, we’re not going to.”

“We’re not going to,” Kai said. “We both know that.”

“We at least have to try.” When Kai didn’t respond, Shoelace shook his head, then took a few steps toward the house, which was now nothing but a big bonfire on a concrete foundation. “You know what these stilts are like. You know that better than I do.”

“I don’t want my son to grow up an orphan the way I did.”

“I have four kids!” Shoelace shouted. “I’m afraid they won’t get to grow up at all.” Suddenly his face just fell. He looked at Kai, shook his head slowly, ponderously, then held out his hand.

Kai shook it. “See you again sometime.”

“Sure. You know, if the defenders take the area, you’ll be caught behind enemy lines.”

Kai shrugged. “They won’t bother me if I keep my head down.”

Shoelace headed in the direction the defenders had gone. Kai watched him walk for a moment, then he went in the opposite direction. He had about two days before the full defender ground force would arrive. By then he needed to be stocked up with food and supplies, and to be in a basement somewhere.

His stomach was a knot of guilt, more for letting Shoelace down than anything else. The rest of them would fare about as well with or without him. As far as he was concerned, he didn’t owe them anything.

A half mile away Kai found Jaden, Julie, and their family. There was a stream running under a little bridge on the access road that led into the housing development. They’d taken a position under the bridge. Not a bad move, all in all.

They were all dead.