{Earth}

Pushed.

No.

Dragged in. Thrown in. Jumped in.

“Stop!” Andrew railed against his nacre glass restraints and screamed.

They won and killed all the Icari.

They lost. The Icari enslaved humanity.

No one won. The Tantamount detonated and plunged Earth into volcanic winter—

“Help. Me.”

“What do you see?” Lynn asked as she gingerly entered the padded cell. Traitor. Best friend. Wife. Dead.

Andrew twisted until he moaned in his pillow. “Make it stop.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The dead/not-dead woman stepped closer. Her voice sounded distressed and pitying all at once, “I can get you a sedative.”

Her intentions blared at him. Help him. Hold his hand. We both could use a friend.

He nodded as fresh tears poured down his scalding face. By now, the tears blistered the corners of his eyes. How could he stop crying? Every other second he lost a friend that wasn’t dead. Then they resurrected before his very eyes. Everyone wanted to help, but looking at them hurt. So many others echoed beyond them in shadows of unlived existence.

This was what madness felt like. Not exactly what Andrew read in the brochure.

The needle filled with experimental tranquilizers punctured his skin and plunged home. Lynn slipped a bandage on it and kissed it almost on reflex. It healed within minutes, but the tenderness soothed hours of the confusing mess in his chest.

“Thank. You.”

“Shh… They’re busy with the Imminent guy.” Lynn pressed a cool cloth to his face, and the relief almost brought more tears to Andrew’s eyes. The sedatives kicked in, and he barely followed the rest of her explanation, “They targeted us. Deliberately. Driven crazy to weaken a position we hold. When you wake up next, keep that in mind. Think on it. And then tell me. Why us?”

Andrew stared at her face as his vision blurred and blackness swallowed it away. For a second, a different Lynn sat there. Confused and reluctant. But she was dead now, wasn’t she? Or was she?

Analyze the attacks. Find the pattern. And answer the important question.

Why them?