Chapter Seventy-Five

Without saying another word, Azid took his shot, sending the deafening blast from the high caliber weapon ringing through Viktoriya’s ears, pulling her out of the numbness. She blinked. The feeling of warm blood rolled down her forehead from where she had struck her head against the pavement.

The Argosys assassin standing next to Azid twitched his trigger finger, jumping from the thunderous boom—jolting from the blast of Azid’s high caliber shot. He unintentionally pulled the trigger on his weapon, firing at her mom.

“Shit!” he yelled.

Everything slowed for Viktoriya.

The bullets had indeed been fired, but they were yet to strike her parents.

Overcome with emotion, the shots still ringing in her ears, she was enraged and overpowered by her desire to protect her parents at any cost.

She felt herself slipping into Spectrum time. The familiar vortex of Spectrum colors immediately engulfing her, sending unending waves of euphoria and focus pulsing throughout her being.

She vibrantly glowed much more than she ever had before, becoming engulfed with the Spectrum aura.

“He, he shot my dad! And he, that guy, shot my mom! And, and there are the. Those are the bullets; they are, they’re heading toward them both!”

“I see them! There they are!

“I need; I can’t go over there and be back here.

“There… and here?

“At the same time?”

She started sobbing, gasping as she began to sprint, the feeling of the constraints of the universe bearing down on her, fixating her to a certain time and space from which she must escape at all costs, no matter what.

“I’m just a girl. I, I can’t be everything—”

“But I can, I must! I have to! I will! I must do this, somehow!” she yelled.

“I can do this, because I believe I can do this!”

Her body glowed brighter, wrapped in the twisting, translucent plasma vortex. She rapidly shook back and forth as she ran. The intense shaking then developed into a rhythmic hum, a growing crescendo of the most intense vibration imaginable.

Viktoriya began to separate from herself—vibrating, dividing into two unique entities as she rushed to save her dad while she simultaneously ran to rescue her mom.

The stress on her body was unbearable, as the stress on her mind was a hundred-fold.

“I’mmmm… uggghhh, I.”

“I can’t. I have to push through this, no matter what!”

She reached her glowing hands out to shove her father from the path of the bullet, to push him away with all her strength. He left a vapor trail behind as she propelled him out of the way.

Looking to her mom, not knowing exactly what she was going to do when she got there, she instinctively sprinted toward her. Vapor trails and blurred instances of herself vibrated everywhere she moved. Faint images of where her body was a moment ago lingered in the air as she saw the second instance of herself, leaving where she stood next to her father.

“Oh, shit! That’s me?” she yelled. As she noticed herself, she was then back near her dad, still pushing him out of the bullet’s path. As soon as she saw he was moving away, she found herself sprinting toward her mom, close behind the thug who had shot at her.

“Hey, wait, that’s—that’s me too! Over there with my dad! And then, I’m over; I’m over here too!

“I am, I’m? I’m we, I’m us!”

The round destined for her mom had long cleared the barrel and was within a meter of her mother.

She thought to herself, I can’t get to her before it’s gonna hit her. I know! As she leaped into the air toward the assassin directly from behind, landing with both feet firmly on his back.

Then, with as much force as she could muster, she kicked him toward her mom.

He flew directly toward her mother, along the same path as the bullet he had just fired.

He caught up and overtook the round he fired, struck by his own bullet as it went through his chest.

Colliding against her mom, knocking them both to the ground, he killed himself by taking the round he unintentionally fired.

Time snapped back to the universe’s cadence, second by second, once again, as the two Viktoriyas snapped back together with a deafening crackle, merging into one entity. She trembled uncontrollably as she stood amid her family and friends, impacted so profoundly by her superposition experience.

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“What the hell just happened?” Azid shouted.

Still shaking, she said, “Well, I have just saved both of my parents. I killed your buddy, and you’re next. I would let you go, like, if you said that you are sorry. Something like in all my childhood movies when the bad guy realizes what a terrible mistake they have made and what an awful person they have become at the end of the show, and then everyone is happy. But you’re a monster that will never stop, and you must end today!”

“It’s bad enough that these dark aliens are breathing down our necks trying to end us all for no reason, but you… you are much, much worse.”

“You’re a bad man!” she screamed as loud as she could.

She sprinted toward him, glowing hands outreached. He fired a round, but whether it even left his gun, no one could tell, as she screamed, now crying out, “You are a bad man! You are darkness! You are destruction! And I’m ending you now!”

She leaped through the air at Azid and struck him in the chest with both fists, the force of the Spectrum ejecting the very life from his body as he collapsed dead to the parking lot asphalt.

“He… He had the dark-green aura! It’s the man! I saw him at the museum!” she exclaimed as she saw his dead soul leaving, fading, and floating above his body, then dissipating.

Still trembling, she surveyed the surrounding area but saw no more dangers left to confront. She became unsteady and dropped to one knee. Her CyberArm clanked against the pavement, keeping her from collapsing to the cold, hard parking lot.

Her mom and dad ran to her side and fell to the ground, kneeling beside her.

The blaring of sirens filled the air. Cars were speeding toward them, police dropships descending from the sky.

The authorities had shown up and began processing the scene, tagging evidence, and carrying the dead off in body bags.

Aura walked to her and said, “Vik, you brave, brave, wonderful girl… You’ve done a glorious thing here today, you—You have saved us all!”

“Vik, I don’t know what I just saw. I, I can’t believe my eyes. What just happened?” Choe asked.

Rosa and Evata just stared at each other, kneeling next to her. They should have been dead, but there they both were, very much alive thanks to their daughter.

A few minutes ago, the last thing they had heard was the blast of the guns, and they could have sworn they felt the very life leave their bodies. But there was a man, lying dead in front of Eva, somehow shoved from behind into his own bullet. And the other man lying flat on his back, no life left in him at all.

They could not believe it. Bizarre things had been continually happening recently, but this was the apex of something her parents could not even hope to comprehend.

The only thing they could even do, their only option, however confusing, was accepting these things as a new reality they were a part of with their daughter.

They both helped her stand as the shaking had subsided, and she became more composed.

CLEFF came to her, as he was now fully functional, and said, “Viktori-Ya, you are the bad-ass! I also see you paid attention in karate training!”

She stared at him for a moment, then looked around at the scene.

She said quietly, “I still want to ride the train. One last time. That’s why I came here, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

They all agreed with her. They would all take the train together.

Military clearance to resume the terminal’s operation came at the commander’s request so that she could make her trip.

Mike stepped over to her and asked, “Miss Viktoriya, may I speak with you for just a moment?”

She nervously stared at him, wondering if he was about to rail on her for causing the death of two of his men.

“Mhmm, yes, Mike.”

“Vik, we lost a couple of good, dedicated people today. They were the best of the best. Each of them had requested to be put on your security detail, protecting you and your parents. They were honored to serve you and protect you as you save us from the end of ourselves. And I’d like you to understand something very important. You have done nothing wrong. It’s okay to be a girl wanting to ride a train, keep a memory, or even to be sad that we’re leaving our planet behind. But it’s not okay when evil men try to stamp their boot on the face of humankind forever, for their selfish gains. You’ve done a great thing here today. Never doubt that, my dear.”

“Thank you, Mike. It’s, It’s difficult for me to understand why some people are so bad. I don’t want anyone to suffer or die. But it seems that is just the case anyway, when they are willingly in darkness. Like, when a bad person is doing something bad, they can still smile and be happy about it. It’s like—It’s like the light within them is actually darkness. I’m sorry about our friends that died today. I wish I knew how; I wish I knew a way to make it better.”

Once the security checks were complete and the service became operational again, they all boarded the next train. Viktoriya shed a tear but then smiled as she looked out the window. She then turned to her group and said, “Choe, will you play something for us? Please?”

“I’ll… I’ll try.”

Choe shakily, still overcoming the trauma of what they had all just been through, removed her violin from its tattered, old case and began to play the most elegant, beautiful song she had created for Viktoriya.

Viktoriya’s emotions caught up with and overcame her as she began sobbing, turned to her parents, and fell into her mom and dad’s embrace, then said quietly, “I love you both… I will always love you. Forever!”

She paused for a moment and looked at the people she loved, those sitting with her in the train’s passenger car as it slowly clacked along the rail, lumbering away from the station.

Trembling a bit and crying, she explained, “I do know what love is, and I can love. And I do love. I love everybody, everyone.”

She looked at each of her friends and continued, “Every one of us here on this Earth!”

“Mom, Dad… I love us enough to do whatever, anything that it takes to save us all, every last one of us.”

She sat on the warm blue seat as the train noisily gained speed and tracked through the ice, but slowly enough for her to enjoy the embrace of her parents, the gentle music, and the smiles of Choe and Aura, as well as the ever-rigid but endearing presence of CLEFF.

Slow enough to cherish this feeling of love and life. And even though her life might now be somewhat longer by some strange metamorphosis she had undergone to stop aging, she thought about her parents. Sadly, they did not have this same gift and someday would also become just a memory of her most precious moments.

Sitting between her mom and dad, resting on her mother’s shoulder in her arm’s embrace, she took a deep breath, then allowed her eyes to close—finally giving in to the exhaustion taking over, removing her from this place and time.

The low, rhythmic throng of the train going along the rail became a lullaby to a tired, depleted soul, one that longed for a simple place to rest and have comfort.

Perhaps now, Viktoriya’s wishes, hopes, and dreams had magically transformed into the most elegant, gliding horses, and she was now joyfully, excitedly riding onward, upward through the clouds to her destiny with her spirit whole, as bold as love.

END

Book II is coming…

S a i l A w a y