21. Rue

Rue

Had the Day of Shambala come? Was today Day 2 of the new golden age?

No. It couldn't be. We were still alive. Silence was looking to remake the world with only a handful of living left there. A select few monsters, hand picked by a bunch of assholes with a god complex. There was one really specific thing on everyone's mind; one thought that hung over us like the shadow of the Grim Reaper:

We were next.

Currently, we sat in the HP conference room where we'd gathered the day I arrived and I told them about my father. It felt like so long ago at this point. So much had happened. Nearly the entire world had been destroyed.

And Silence hadn't lifted their finger. They were likely sitting back and watching the same news channels we were. Watching the humans covering their own extinction.

Then again, we hadn't done anything either. With each new death sentence Silence issued to the world, the weight of the fact that we did nothing to stop it weighed heavily. I knew, realistically, even if every single living body within Base Six fought back, we would still be outmatched and outmaneuvered .

Between the beasts and the hybrids—both of which moved as if they weren't living but automatons, not feeling pain or slowing down regardless of what kind of blow they took unless it literally killed them—there wasn't any logical way to fight back. There just… wasn't. Not with the tools we had at our disposal.

Which, simply put, were generations out of date compared to theirs.

My family was sitting at a table alone. To my right was Calix, then Koa followed by Javan. Koa was wearing his headphones with the cat ears, humming softly as he colored. I knew he could hear us; if we said his name, he'd look up. If we asked him a question, he responded. But generally speaking, it was as if he wasn't surrounded by eighty people discussing the extermination of the human race.

A death that took less than two weeks to serve.

To my left was Bryn. His chair was pushed against mine and I leaned into his side as I listened to those around us talk. It wasn't that I didn't have any thoughts on the matter, but listening to them made me realize how much I hadn't thought of.

That was probably why they met in such a big group.

"Where are we in relation to the nearest… graveyard?"

I huffed quietly. The entire world was a graveyard at this point. Which was probably what the question was really about—how close were we to the nearest mass grave that had once been a town or city or village? Hell, even a farm homestead miles from the nearest town.

"Not close," Torin said. I always appreciated it when someone whose name I knew spoke. It made me feel like I wasn't a stranger here. "I moved the compound so we're far removed from an area where we were likely to breathe the contaminated air. I assumed my husband would like to come out of solitary confinement at some point this century."

We glanced at the big monitor that looked in on the clean room complex where the humans were being kept safe. It wasn't just a room as it had been described. There were a series of rooms like a large apartment.

Currently, they were gathered in front of the camera, which I assumed was also a screen looking into our room.

"We would," one of the men in the room responded. "Thanks for not forgetting about us."

"Of course, we haven't. We just?—"

"Wait, you moved the compound?" He looked at the guy he just interrupted. "Sorry. I just realized what Torin said."

Torin nodded. "Yes. Overnight. We're somewhere in the desert of Africa, far from where humans lived. My thought was that if there weren't humans around to infect, maybe the pathogen wasn't here. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Are you okay?"

Torin stared at whoever this guy was. Was it too much to ask for everyone to wear a nametag for a while? Or maybe just say their name before they talk. "Hi, I'm Jack. What the fuck did you just say?" The thought made me smile absently.

"Yes, why?" he asked, frowning.

"You moved an entire compound . This is not a small area."

Torin sighed. "Ah. Rest assured, my magic is fine. I'm fine. Magic is still mostly bound to the laws of physics—it can't be created or destroyed. Just moved and changed. That's all I did."

"You're not a witch. You're a physicist who has the ability to control matter."

"I'm not sure that makes sense. But… thanks?"

I smirked.

They continued to talk about this and what it took to move the compound when a thought occurred to me. I sat up. "How often can you move the compound?"

The room fell silent.

"As often as I want. I've moved it twice now. I think I located a spot in the mountains for the next move, but it's kind of cold up there."

"Why?" Javan asked me .

I glanced to my right. Javan and Calix were looking at me now. Koa was still humming away quietly to whatever it was that he was listening to. Bryn's hand tightened briefly on my hip.

"This isn't a fully formed thought. But our previous plan is no longer going to work. The only place they're going to send their army next is here."

"We can build a decoy," someone suggested. "Then it'll still work."

"Hold on. Let Rue finish."

"If we can move the compound, we can all go to the Silence facilities together. They're not close together, right? That means some of the plan can stay in place—we close down the use of the portals so they can't send backup and the portals between the worlds so they can't escape to the human world. Then we take them out one by one. One right after another."

"Ohh," someone said. "I love this. We're all on their ‘families too dangerous to live' list. Which in itself is a confidence boost, I must say. But if they stupidly put together a list of the strongest families as target practice and now those families have banded together because obviously we're stronger in larger numbers… they just wrote their own death sentence."

"Don't get too carried away—though I'm not against this plan—we need to think it through."

"With all due respect, Iker, we spend a lot of time talking. Time is up."

The man identified as Iker frowned.

"We need to choose a plan today. One with the highest probability of success. While I'd really like to add success and survival, I think right now success is the top priority. Then we need to think of every little stupid detail we can and act. In like twenty-four hours."

"Why twenty-four hours?"

"Their pattern has been every six days they launch their next attack. We need to move before then. We're on day three since death by breathing was launched. With most of the humans dead, those left will likely die off in the harsh, unfamiliar world. That means we're their last target. Their only target."

"Do you suppose that they thought death by breathing would kill all the monsters too?" someone mused.

"No. It was definitely designed for humans. Though I'm still trying to find the connection between the monsters it did affect."

I wasn't the only one who glanced at Calix. He gave us a wry smile, but didn't speak. His arm lay relaxed along the back of Koa's chair, his hand resting on Javan's shoulder. I snuggled further into Bryn's side.

"Speaking of humans, how are we going to protect ours? I know they're currently safe, but I'm not the only one unwilling to let my wife remain locked away for the rest of her life. I'm sure they'd all agree, that's not living."

"We'll get to that. If nothing else, we leave them there while we deal with Silence. It can be rigged to open after a set number of days or whatever in case we're all… unsuccessful so they don't die in there."

"While I appreciate the contingency plan, I'd rather act like we're going to win and not talk about morbid outcomes. I'd like to see my husband again."

"We also need to think of the kids."

"I'm going to give an unpopular suggestion," Iker said. "I know that chronologically they're still children, but we shouldn't lock them up. I'm not suggesting taking them out of the compound, but I am suggesting letting them stay in the open. They can defend themselves better than we can."

"You don't think they're going to accept staying behind, do you? For many of the children here, these are the people who bred them. Abused them. Forced them to kill or be killed. They have seen every abuse imaginable and things that I've never imagined. We've been hunted, yes. But these kids are the victims. I know more than a hundred that would love to take a swing back. "

My heart stopped as my eyes went wide. What the fuck was this? Ice ran over my body. Holy fuck. I looked at Javan and then Bryn.

"Orphans," Bryn murmured. "I told you that you really didn't want to know."

"There are horrors beyond your wildest dreams," someone behind me whispered. "I almost envy you not knowing them all."

I glanced back. The woman gave me a sad smile.

"Let's revisit that."

"We can't revisit everything."

"No. But we need the foundation of a plan before we build the walls and get this war machine going. Rue's plan is viable if Torin can move us around without causing himself any injury. And—not to sound cold—but we also need his magic, so he can't be compromised if there's a long recovery time."

"Even if that's Torin's only job, it's a huge job. There are other witches here. He's the strongest and will have the easiest success rate in the shortest time for everything, but the others can pick up where he is absent if need be."

"Does it bother you that they're talking about you as if you're a pawn and not here?" someone asked Torin.

Torin shrugged. "Normally, I'd answer yes. But I agree with Bastian. We need the foundation of a plan that's our best possible success. Whatever job I'm most needed at, I'll do. For the record, I don't need a rest after. My magic doesn't waver."

"Ours does," one of the women sitting next to him said. "We're going to be better used for treating magical injury as Torin did with Calix than we are at offense. Just putting that out there."

"Noted. Thank you."

"So the question is—Torin, can you move the compound six different times in a day? Or in two days? Without injury."

Torin grinned. "Yes."

"Then is this the best option? Is this the plan we should move forward with? Does anyone have any others to put out there?"

"This isn't another suggestion, but I don't want to forget to bring this up. I know we know of six facilities but there might be more. We also need to figure out where they're holding the beasts. Maybe that's our first stop."

"Ideally, our first stop is somehow finding their fucking mainframe and tying in so we can block all communication between them. If we can do that, then we don't need to worry about the hybrids or the beasts because all of their communication will be down. We'll have cut off their control and they'll be mindless machines not moving as they await an order."

I shuddered at that thought.

"What about the ORKA line that came to life? I don't know how relevant that is now, but in case it is…"

Koa's humming stopped, and his crayon hovered over his page. Calix leaned in and kissed his temple, whispered something. Then Koa took a breath and began humming again. His coloring resumed.

"There has been no change. We're running on the assumption that it was accidental by humans or intentional by humans but… that doesn't truly matter anymore."

Because the humans are dead.

"We're still listening to it. It might have just been a fluke. The entire system sat silent for two years, unused. Maybe a rodent was chewing through wires and tripped the system back to life. Whatever the cause, it's unimportant."

"Speaking of ORKA. Are we still certain that there's no tie between them?"

"Not to be rude, but if there was, it doesn't matter at this point. Not only did they kill everyone involved but they killed everyone so… while we'd love to know for the sake of knowing, it's irrelevant at this point."

"My question was definitely on the line of knowing for the sake of knowing. I hate when there's an answer left at the end of the day."

"Unless we find something on Silence's end, we're probably just not going to know for certain. I think we're convinced that ORKA was a completely separate entity, one that monsters everywhere knew about, but considered unimportant and a non-threat. When they became more than just a nuisance, like we did, Silence started paying attention. I really do think that Silence looked at the fact that we are their biggest obstacle to accomplishing their goals. So after Ady was taken and while rescuing her we found their cells filled with monsters they'd been experimenting on for years , we turned our attention to fighting back against them. Then Silence saw an opportunity to exploit ORKA for their own gain as a means to keep our attention and efforts split."

"By handing them new weapons?"

"Yes. And by planting the seed of curiosity as to how and why the two organizations were connected. I'm quite confident in stating that they weren't connected. By all accounts, ORKA was run by humans killing monsters. Do you really think Silence, who is not only run by monsters but thinks of humans as tools and a means to an end, would actually support them?"

"Maybe that's the real reason they killed the humans off. Not just ORKA, but all of them. Even with none left, it's like they were sending the message—this is comeuppance for hunting monsters."

"They're like older siblings—I can beat the fuck out of my brother, but if you so much as give him the side eye, I'm going to wreck your shit!"

"Exactly. They wanted mass numbers of monsters dead, but were incredibly offended that these humans were actually killing us."

"Which begs two questions—why give them weapons to do so and then why exterminate the organization? What prompted that change? "

"We're just assuming that Silence gave them weapons since it seems the only logical explanation. However, if you consider the fact that the weapons they were given are not weapons that Silence ever used… there's a chance that idea falls short, too."

"These unknowns are killing me," someone muttered.

Javan snorted.

The door opened and we all looked, twisting in our seats to see the newcomers. My family was a few tables from the door, so I got a good look at the men and woman who walked in. Before I could ask if my husbands knew who they were, someone was on his feet and rushing through the tables.

He threw his arms around the man with teal hair. "Iska!"

Teal-haired guy who was apparently named Iska hugged him fiercely.

"Does this mean Iano survived?" someone asked one of the others.

"Meh," he answered, waggling his hand in the air. "Those that attacked didn't know about the labyrinth under the volcano. I think we were able to save half the island's population."

"Did you kill the beasts that attacked, or did they retreat?"

"We drowned them. Honestly, attacking an island that's home to a massive population of water monsters with beasts who can't swim wasn't their best idea."

"They can't swim," someone murmured. "That's good to note."

"You being here—though we'll come back to how you found us—is hope that there are others who survived."

"That's a conversation for another day. Kallans—you ready for war?"

"Yes," the entire family said. Including Iska who hadn't let go of the man who raced to him yet.