Five Moons of Pluto Read online

  “What are you doing?” he asks. “Leave before they find you.”

  “I’m not gonna leave one of my brothers behind,” Sonya says as she climbs to stand on

  top of the desk. She reaches up and works the key into the first lock. It unlatches easily. Then she wraps her legs around Janovsky’s waist, so she can reach higher up. Her arms squeeze tightly around his bare chest as they swing from side to side. She reaches for the last lock and fits the key in.

  “All right, here we go,” she says.

  She twists the key and just like the first, it unlocks. They both fall to the ground. She’s sure someone had to have heard them this time. She quickly gets to her feet and grabs Janovsky.

  “Come on. No time to sleep now, soldier. We got to find the others.”

  With the little strength she has left, she pulls Janovsky up and props him next to her with his arm over her shoulder.

  Janovsky holds his head down, not sure how he should tell or how she would react. “Sit me on the chair over there, Sonya,” he says.

  She’s not sure why but she follows his instructions. He sits in the chair and takes in the moment of how good it feels. He looks at Sonya and breaks the news.

  “They’re all dead. I overheard them talking...they were saving you for last.”

  It takes all of her strength not to burst into tears. Her brothers, the men she spent so much of her time with laughing, training, and killing, are now gone. This was not the way she pictured it. Sure, if you're a part of a Sentinel squad, death is a lot closer than you think. But dying in the hands of a Vulture is considered a curse; your soul never rests and it wanders around the nether realms until your murderer dies. Sonya never believed in this superstition but her brothers did.

  “We have to find a way out of here,” she says, looking around the room.

  “There is a loose board on the window. You can get out from there.”

  “I’m not leaving you, Janovsky. I—”

  “We’ll both die if you try to save me. Gimme your sidearm. I’ll stall them long enough for you to escape.”

  Sonya hands him the sidearm. He checks the clip and loads a round into the chamber.

  The wooden guard comes off with little effort. Snowflakes enter and dance in the air before melting. She sticks her head out the window. Snow has covered the ground and for once the world looks much like the old one. She is three stories high.

  She turns around and sees Janovsky has found a piece of lumber and uses it as a crutch. She watches as he awkwardly walks to the door.

  She takes one end of the chain and secures it onto the pulley, then throws the other end out of the window.

  He turns to her as she inspects the strength of the chain. “Sonya.”

  She stops.

  “Your father was a brave man.” He exits the room before she can say anything. For Sonya, that was enough.

  She climbs out of the window and scales down the building. Gunshots ring out. She scales down a few feet more and releases the chain.

  Sonya lands on her feet and quickly crouches down behind a bush. A Vulture patrol car pulls up to the side entrance. Vultures exit the car and rush inside the school.

  This is her chance thanks to Janovsky. She rushes to the car and enters. She puts the gear in reverse and smashes the pedal. The car whips around the correct way and speeds off. Sonya looks into the rearview mirror just when an explosion erupts from one of the classrooms.

  As she drives down the snowy road, the wind begins to howl and she’s pretty sure it was speaking to her, saying, “Avenge us.”

  ****

  Sonya wakes up to the sweet smell of ginger and honey. Joseph walks in the room with a cup of tea and a little bowl with herbs in it.

  She sits up but her body is a little numb after whatever Joseph did to her. She also discovers that she is not tied up and has her clothes on now, which is the biggest relief of all.

  He holds out the tea cup in front of her. “Here, drink this,” he tells her. “You will recover more quickly.”

  Sonya looks at the cup then at him, not knowing if she can trust him, but if he wanted to kill her he could’ve done it while she was unconscious. Then again, there’s no telling what he did while she was unconscious. She takes the tea cup from him and carefully takes a sip. The soothing taste of ginger and bitter tea leaves tickles her tongue.

  Joseph lights the herbs in the bowl on fire and places it on the nightstand next to her. He waits until the fire is has burned most of the herbs, then he smothers the fire with another small bowl. He takes the bowl from the top and smoke rises from the ashes of the herbs.

  “Inhale,” he says.

  Sonya takes a deep breath and obliges. She feels the smoke traveling slowly through her body, untying the knots in her muscles.

  “What did you do to me?” she says as she inhales the smoke.

  “It’s a very old spell handed down from my ancestors.” He sits down in a chair in the corner. “The tea and the incense will help you recover. I’m sure by now you have many questions.”

  “Am I your prisoner?” she asks.

  “Not unless your brother returns what he stole from us.”

  Us? Is there more of his kind here in Zone Gamma? She wonders. Isaac has never stolen anything in his life, as far as she knows.

  Sonya takes another sip of the tea. “What did he steal from you?”

  “He stole a very precious statue from my village and we need it back or else many will die.”

  “Well before we get into this whole statue and stealing thing, tell me how you know my brother in the first place?”

  Joseph searches his pocket and pulls out a picture, then he hands it to Sonya. She sees Isaac with Joseph, and there’s a beautiful woman holding Isaac’s hand.

  “Five years ago, a few of my kin and I were scouting the land for supplies when we saw a Vulture leaving and area which they had just finished raiding. We decided to search for survivors and found your brother barely alive.” Joseph stands up and pours more hot water into her cup. She didn’t realize she had almost finished it. Then he continues. “My sister, Rahna, treated his wounds until he was well. Isaac taught our children and us about medicine and technology and in return my father taught him how to enchant. He was a natural, as if it was in his blood. Rahna

  fell in love with Isaac and they married. But years later she and a few others died from the cursed earth disease. Isaac became cold and dark toward the others. He searched many of our old manuscripts and found something that could bring my sister back from the dead which involves the sacred statue, Chenewa.”

  Sonya looks at the picture again, noticing how happy he looks with Rahna. The pieces are begging to fit to the puzzle. He never wanted to be found. In the many years that she knew Isaac, he was finally happy. She feels glad that he never came back.

  “I’m sorry to hear about your sister,” she says, handing the photo back to Joseph. “Let me talk to him so I can get it back for you.

  Joseph shakes his head. “Isaac will not listen to anyone at this point. My father and I pleaded with him to stop before he would sink deeper into his madness.” Joseph pauses, looking at the photo. “He is like a brother to me... I can't allow him to hurt any more people.”

  Sonya looks at him, not believing his last statement. She knows Isaac couldn’t hurt anyone, even if he wanted to. He was bullied in school, which Sonya had to defend constantly, and he is very shy. But somehow he has changed for the better from what she saw in the picture. He would’ve never had the courage to talk to a girl, especially by himself.

  She stares back up at Joseph. “What do you mean, anymore? Isaac hurt someone?”

  Joseph leans forward in his chair, capturing Sonya’s undivided attention.

  “The incident in Zone Phi was caused by Isaac.”

  ****

  Sonya looks out at people from the window as Joseph drives. All those people. Husbands. Wives. Brothers and sisters. Isaac took so many innocent lives just to try a
nd save one. How could he even cope with such a thing? Sonya tries to imagine. Now she sits in a van with a guy who knocked her out just by chanting and waving his hands, trying to convince Isaac to stop his quest before more lives are lost.

  She touches her sidearm, thinking, why did she bring it and is she really going to need it? Boston always told her, “Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.” They were words spoken by true soldier, words that have saved her life.

  The van pulls into an abandoned parking lot and circles up to the third level. It pulls into a parking spot near the exit ramp. Now, they wait.

  “So this Chenewa Statue can really bring back the dead?” Sonya asks, reclining back in her seat.

  “The statue is only a part of the many items needed to conjure the most complicated spells. Isaac somehow acquired the other items, but yes, with the statue it is possible to bring the dead to life.”

  “He must have really loved her to go through all this trouble. Can’t really fault the guy for trying.”

  Joseph locks eyes with Sonya. “Yes, I can. Even if he found another way to bring her back to life without the statue, I would say it’s wrong.”

  Sonya sits up. “I’m not saying what he’s doing is right. He loved her and couldn’t live without her. It’s the first time Isaac experienced true love.” She reclines back again in her seat. “Give him a break,” she continues. “Haven’t you ever been in love?”

  She waits for an answer.

  “I have...and I left her buried where she belongs.” Then a car pulls up and parks at the other end of the parking lot. “He’s here,” Joseph says.

  Sonya sits up, anxious to see what her brother looks like after so many years.

  He steps out of the driver’s seat of the car. His soft brown eyes peer at the van. He walks forward with confidence that demands respect which Sonya has never seen before now. She smiles softly, seeing how much he has grown. He’s handsome without an ounce of age on his face and hair. She notices some sort of charm bracelet on his right hand with a long chain. She’s pretty sure there’s a small pendant on the end of it but she can’t tell from her distance.

  “Stay here and be patient.”

  Sonya nods.

  Joseph gets out of the car and stands a few feet in front of the van. Sonya catches a few words as they talk but can’t piece it all together. Joseph’s hands move around and point at Isaac, who just stands there listening and waiting.

  Then Isaac quickly waves his hand across Joseph’s face and Joseph flies into a concrete pillar. He brings his hands together as if he is crushing an imaginary object, but he is crushing something for real. The metal of the van begins to twist and bend. The glass of the windows shatters. The tires explode. Sonya calls out to her lost brother.

  “Stop, Isaac!” she screams.

  Then passenger and driver doors begin to bend. Sonya hops out of her seat and into the back. The driver and passenger side implodes along with the front of the van. She pushes the button to unlock the back door but it doesn’t open. Then she pulls out her sidearm and shoots the area where the locking mechanism is located. She kicks open the door and jumps out.

  Just then, the van implodes into a crushed metal ball the size of a golf cart. Sonya aims her sidearm at Isaac. He’s calm yet saddened. It’s obvious to Sonya that it took him little effort to crush that van but now she wonders how she’s going to stop him.

  “Willis sent you here to stop me, too?” Isaac says.

  “No. I came by myself. They thought you were dead.” She lowers her sidearm. ”I’m here to bring back home, Isaac.”

  “You shouldn't have come, Sonya. Go home.”

  “You're the only family I have left. It’s not home without you,” she says as tears run down her face. “Everyone important to me is dead... I can’t lose you too.”

  “Then you understand and know why I need to do this.” He walks closer to her. “If I can bring back Rahna, I can bring back anyone you want. Your friends, our father.”

  His words sink deep into her soul. The thought alone of having her loved ones back brings her joy and pleasure. Then she remembers the citizens of Zone Phi. Innocent people that did not asked to be sacrificed for a woman they don’t know. People with their own lives with loved ones they have lost.

  “Don’t listen to him, Sonya.” Joseph stands armed with his bow and arrow aiming at Isaac. She doesn’t remember him taking it with him when he exited the car.

  Sonya points her sidearm at Joseph.

  “Sonya, what are you doing?” Joseph says, looking at her through just the corner of his eye.

  “Sonya, we can bring them back all of them!” Isaac yells. “They don’t have to die!”

  Sonya shakes her head. Her eyes fill with tears. “Not at the price of people’s lives,” she tells him.

  “People die all the time. Wars. Famine. Disease. How is it any different from what I’m doing?”

  “You’ve taken the right to live away from those people, Isaac,” Joseph says, his bow and arrow still aimed at Isaac. “Everyone has a right to live and you blatantly disregard it for your own dreams.”

  Isaac then turns his hatred towards Joseph. “Those people were going to die anyway,” he says. “It was only a matter of time. I just expedited their deaths to serve a higher purpose.”

  “No more deaths, Isaac... You’re not God.” Joseph draws back the arrow.

  “No, but I can be one.”

  Then Joseph lets loose the arrow. Sonya fires her sidearm at Joseph, hitting him in the chest. He falls over the railing and onto the ground. Sonya looks at Isaac as he walks towards her with the arrow in his hand. He drops it and hugs her tightly. She hesitates a moment then hugs him back.

  ****

  Sonya rides the elevator up, wishing she would have eaten more at dinner. But who could eat knowing that thousands of people are going to die? The elevator stops at the twentieth floor. She steps out and into a new world created by Isaac.

  The lab is full of mystic writings on the walls, ceilings, and floors. Candles and incense burn around the room. And in the middle of the room is the woman from the photo. Rahna. Her body shows no trace of decay or rot. Mystic writings cover her body as well. She’s beautiful, surrounded by various plants that Sonya has never seen before.

  “How was dinner?” Isaac asks.

  The words startle Sonya. She looks up at the voice and sees that Isaac is standing on a platform of a lift. His hands are covered in what appears to be blood. He’s shirtless with writings on his chest and arms.

  “It was okay,” Sonya says looking around the room at the writings.

  “Sorry I couldn’t join you. I had to finish the incantation.” He pushes a button which lowers the lift and grabs a long sleeve shirt. She watches as he walks a few feet in the air above the writings, then towards her.

  “Come. I want to show you something.” He puts on the shirt.

  Sonya takes a step and feels the solid ground underneath her foot and discovers that it’s glass, not magic.

  “I know you may have doubts about whether this will work or not.” Isaac turns back and studies her expression. “Let me lay to rest your doubts.”

  They stop at a door. He pushes a button and it slides open. They enter a room with toys lying all around the room. Isaac picks up an action figure so he doesn’t step on it.

  “Noel, you have to be careful where you place your toys,” he says.

  A young boy walks out from another small room—most likely his bedroom—with two small toy rocket ships in his hands. He’s pretending he’s in a space battle. He has very short hair with blue eyes. He runs to Isaac and hugs him.

  “Daddy,” the little boy says.

  Sonya’s body goes numb. This doesn’t make sense.

  Isaac kneels down to Noel’s level. “I want you to meet a very special person to me.” They both look at Sonya, and then he continues. “This is daddy’s younger sister, Sonya. She is your aunt.”

  Noel looks
at Isaac smiling. “So we’re a family now, Daddy?”

  “Yes we are,” Isaac says, rubbing Noel’s head.

  Noel breaks free and hugs Sonya’s leg. Sonya gently pushes him away, then she kneels down and hugs him tight. Tears slowly appear from her eyes. She notices a scar going around his neck.

  “Nice to meet you, Auntie Sonya.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Noel.”

  “Run along and get ready for bed,” Isaac tells him sweetly. “I’ll be there soon.”

  Noel lets go and runs toward his room.

  “You resurrected him from Zone Phi,” Sonya says, looking up at Isaac.

  “Yes. I had to be sure the spell would work.” Isaac then pushes the button on the door.

  They exit the room and walk down the hallway together.

  “Does he remember his past life?”

  “No. I changed the spell to erase his past memories. As far as he knows I'm his father and soon he will have a mother, too”

  “How did he…?”

  “Vultures murdered him and his family while traveling to Zone Zeta.”

  They stop at another room. The door slides open after Isaac pushes the button and they enter. Several monitors are in front of the room showing various locations of the lab, Noel’s room, and other locations of lesser importance.

  “You can stay here and observe while I prepare incantation.”

  “How long will it take?” Sonya says.

  “Not long. It all depends on how powerful the caster is. It took me thirty minutes to resurrect Noel.”

  Sonya takes a seat and observes the monitors.

  “It’s very important that nothing disturbs me while I'm casting the spell.”

  “If you need me, I'll be right here watching you.”

  Isaac looks back at her and smiles. “Thank you, Sonya,” he says. “After this is over we can work on resurrecting—”

  “Just bring back your wife, Isaac.”

  He nods. “Okay.”