Lance jerked awake, searching through the darkness wildly. His body was drenched in sweat, and his breathing came in quick gulps. His heart raced.
“Mom!” he yelled. His voice echoed off the walls. Walls? He didn’t remember any walls.
Lance stood shakily and tried to find light. He was surrounded by utter darkness and silence. Silence except—was that snoring?
Lance began to remember the events of that night. They had come by boat to a secret place. A secret tunnel that Hiroki and his master called a ‘subway.’ They said that no one else knew about it.
Lance, exhausted, fell back onto the soft bedding he had been provided. For the first time in weeks, he could sleep. He slowly drifted off…
He was wrenched awake by the sound of a man screaming. From somewhere in the labyrinth of tunnels and tracks, quick footsteps echoed.Other footsteps followed close behind. Lance thought he could hear labored breathing.
He leaped up and joined a small clump of men holding lams. They muttered to each other, fear on their faces. Most of the women and children of the community huddled in crumbled areas of the tunnel. Some women, dressed in rough tunics, joined the men.
No one moved toward the noises.
“Shouldn’t we help the man in trouble?” Lance asked, sliding his hand into one of his pockets nervously.
The men eyed Lance oddly.
After several seconds, one of the men spoke up in a raspy voice. “No point.”
“Why not?”
“Creatures,” the man said simply.
The other men reacted in various ways to the word. Most crossed themselves, others fingered crude clubs at their belts. Some whimpered or touched scars.
The man being chased screamed again. He sounded further away.
“I’m going to help him,” Lance said, squaring his shoulders.
The master spoke up. “We did not save your life just to have you throw it away.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“So,” the master continued, “you should take Hiroki. He is very skilled at stick fighting, hand fighting, and even head fighting.”
Lance nodded and began jogging toward the sounds, and Hiroki followed reluctantly, grabbing a leather pouch first.
“Wait!” the man with the raspy voice said. “You’ll need this.” He threw a lantern at Lance, and Lance caught it.
“Thanks.”
“And this,” a woman said. She handed him a long stick with sharp, metal scraps sticking out the end.
Lance nodded his appreciation and broke into a sprint.
The Creatures were not hard to find. Following the sound of screams and strangled roars, Lance and Hiroki made good time. They could tell the Creatures were close by the rancid smell of pus and ammonia.
The victim screamed again, but this time his scream was cut short. The Creatures—it sounded as if there were four or five—screamed victory with bloodcurdling cries. Lance’s hairs stood up on end, and he ran faster. Here he was, worried that the Rebels or the Empire was going to kill him, and yet he was running straight into an apparently hopeless situation.
Hiroki and Lance rounded the corner. Hiroki wasn’t even breathing quickly, but his eyes darted nervously as they came into the tunnel. Four monsters looked up.
The monsters were twisted. They looked as if they had been made by Dr. Frankenstein’s apprentice: multiple arms that stuck out at random. Huge, green eyes that bulged out of the head that looked like a tumor. Bloody claws crusted from many feasts.
Lance screamed and charged, Hiroki following close behind. Hiroki also yelled.
Lance raised his weapon and passed a small intersection in the tunnels. He thought he caught a blur of movement to his right, but he was too focused on saving the severely wounded man. Was the man dead already?
Lifting his weapon high over his head, Lance ignored the shooting pain in his shoulder. He began to bring the weapon down in a powerful arc, but before he could smash it into the head of a creature, something ran into him from behind.
Strong claws tore into Lance. He spun in the air as he fell, propelled by the Creature’s strong claws. The movement to his side—the four monsters—
The fifth monster reached for his head, but before it could grab hold, Hiroki stabbed it in the back with his own stick. The Creature’s eyes bulged, and its breathing stuck for a moment. Just as Lance was about to turn toward the other monsters again, the Creature straightened and whipped out at Hiroki. Lance started forward to help, but he found himself surrounded by the other four monsters.
Rattling in its throat, the largest of the monsters opened its mouth wide, revealing sharp black teeth. Bits of red glistened on them in the light of the lamp which lay cracked on the cement. The man behind it whimpered.
Lance reached into his pocket again, but there were no more Numes, and he was far too exhausted to do one in his head. The largest monster lunged, reaching out with long claws, but Lance stood still. He was trembling. At the last moment, he dropped to the floor. The monster flew over him, scraping him with its feet. Leaping up, a stream of blood coming from his forehead, Lance faced the others.
Hiroki’s monster wailed and hit the ground in a cloud of dust, but Lance barely noticed. He stood on the balls of his feet, and watched everything as if it were on the Tube.
One monster leaped. Another lunged. The others followed, surrounding Lance from all directions. He breathed in. He breathed out.
Lance deflected the first monster to lunge and was battered backward by the force. The next creature grabbed hold of his arm with its jaws, and dragged him to the ground. He barely felt the pain, and he barely noticed that time was passing. It all felt unreal.
The things piled onto him. He could smell their panting breath, could feel their claws biting into his skin, could feel one getting closer with its unnaturally humanoid face, getting into a position to bite his neck. Lance struggled, but he could not move.
The monster that wanted to bite his neck struck out with his mouth, but before his teeth made contact, he flew backwards. The creatures lunged at someone else, but in a matter of seconds, all of them were whimpering and running away.
Lance realized he had wet his pants. Shaking, paralyzed with fear, he stared up at the ceiling. Hiroki crouched next to him, looking at his eyes.
“He’s in shock,” he mumbled.
“T-they were going to kill me,” Lance said in a halting voice. He slowly reached up and rubbed his neck. “They almost had me.”
“They prey on the weak and inexperienced,” Hiroki said, shrugging. He took the leather pouch from his belt and pulled out some gray leaves. “Eat these.”
Lance pinched them, but they quickly fell from his grasp.
“Too shaky,” Hiroki said to himself. “Alright, open your mouth.”
Lance did so, and Hiroki dropped the leaves in. Lance gagged and tried to cough them up, but they turned into syrup in his mouth and dribbled down his throat. He doubled over and threw up, but only a portion of the syrup came out.
“Feeling better yet?” Hiroki asked.
Lance stood, wobbling slightly, and nodded. “Let’s check up on the man.”
He started forward but stopped when he saw the man moving. The man propped himself up painfully and looked straight at Lance.
“Boy, come closer,” the bloody man said in a weak voice.
Lance stepped forward and knelt respectfully. The man appeared to be in his fifties. His dark hair was peppered with white and flecked with red. He wore the coat of a scientist, but that had been dirtied and nearly ripped to shreds.
“I’ve been looking for someone like you,” the man choked, pointing a crooked finger at Lance. “And you,” he coughed, this time looking at Hiroki. “I have minutes left before I leave this miserable world, and I want you both to listen.”
Lance nodded and saw Hiroki do the same.
“I am an Astronomer—or I was.”
Lance’s expression was blank, and the man noticed it.
“I study the stars,” he explained, “and distant planets. I used to hate the Empire, I used to want to kill the Emperor myself, but I was too weak and cowardly. But now I love the Empire.”
“Love the Empire?” Lance said, his fists clenching.
The man lifted his head to look Lance directly in the eyes. “I love the Empire,” he said, “because its much better than what’s coming from the stars.” His head collapsed onto the ground again. “You must promise me something. Do not fight against the Empire. Prepare to fight the incoming threat.”
“But if we don’t fight the Empire,” Lance said, “then the world will stay the same.”
“Good,” the man croaked.
“Millions are murdered by the Emperor every few years! And you say I shouldn’t fight against it?”
The man looked saddened. He closed his eyes, and for awhile, Lance thought he was dead. Finally he opened them again, and tears glistened in the corner. “You don’t have to believe me,” he said at last. “But take this.”
He slid an odd sphere with glassy spikes protruding out of its surface from one of his lab coat pockets. He pressed it into Lance’s hands.
“You may fight against the Empire now,” the man said, “but you will soon see your error. Then, in those days, you will long to have the Empire back. When that time comes, it is up to you to save the world. You are the ones with the Exponent; you are the only ones who stand a chance.”
He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.
“Wait!” Lance said, grabbing hold of the man’s hand. “What does it do?”
The man exhaled, and his hand went limp.
Hiroki and Lance knelt near the old man for a long time. His body went cold, and his face became pinched and pale.
“We should take him back to the community,” Hiroki said, standing, brushing the dust from his tunic. “He needs a proper burial.”
Lance nodded absently and picked himself up off the ground. He didn’t bother to brush of the dust.
What is an Exponent?
He shrugged, sliding the device into his pocket. It pressed against his leg, cold and warm at the same time. It felt good and bad—completely balanced.
“Help me pick him up,” Hiroki ordered.
Lance nodded again and helped Hiroki pick him up. Together, they dragged him back to the community.
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