“All downhill after that,” he said to no one.
That was the first burial in the town plaza. Sam had stepped up to try and save the nameless girl, and when he had failed, it was Edilio who had finally dug the grave and placed the marker. Edilio cleaning up after Sam’s failures. That hadn’t changed.
Battles avoided and battles joined. He had seen the rise of Caine and his fall. He had seen the threat from Zil’s antimutant bigots grow and nearly destroy them all, and he’d seen Zil lying dead.
He’d seen Mary, good, sweet, decent Mary who looked after the littles, lose her mind under the influence of demons both internal and external.
He’d seen the zekes consume poor E.Z. He’d seen kids cough their own lungs out. He’d seen the bugs explode from a body half-eaten.
And how many dead? The little girl from the fire, she had been just the first. His first failure to save a life.
Duck. Good old Duck.
Thuan.
Francis.
How many of them? More than he could remember.
He’d seen the unknowns become pillars of strength. What a cliché that phrase was, but how else to describe Edilio? When the barrier came down he would probably be deported to Honduras.
Thanks for your heroism; now get out of the country, kid.
He had seen the weak become strong as granite. Quinn.
And Lana, what hadn’t that girl been through?
Dekka, fearless, passionate Dekka, his right hand, his companion in battle, the sister he’d never had.
Through it all there had been Astrid. Difficult as always. Complicated as always. Superior, condescending, thoughtful, manipulative, beautiful, and passionate Astrid. The love of his life.
All worth it, just to have loved and been loved by her.
Coming down the road toward him was a flatbed truck. It was moving slowly but steadily. He could see that its wheels were not touching the road. It trailed smoke. The flatbed was piled with burning trees and tires and debris. It was an inferno that would have roasted any driver.
Gaia walked beside it, a hand raised to focus Caine’s power and lift the massive truck.
She stopped, and the burning truck stopped as well. Gaia smiled.
“So,” she said. “You’re ready to die.”
“Well, it was a short life. But it was a pretty good one,” he said.
“I don’t really want to kill you,” Gaia said.
“I know. And I know why. But I’m not giving you a choice.”
“Why fight me, Sam?” She had to shout to be heard above a sudden roar of the fire as a log collapsed on the others. Sparks exploded, fireflies to come drifting down on parched fields or continue to draft upward and maybe fall on the town.
Finishing Zil’s work.
“Because you’re going to kill my friends,” Sam said.
Gaia shrugged. “They’re a threat to me. I have a right to survive. Don’t I? Don’t all living things have a right to survive?”
“We’re not here for a conversation.”
“You know how many there are of me, Sam?” Gaia held up one finger. “One. Just one. I am the first and only like me. I am unique in the universe. Your friends? There are billions just like them.”
She moved the truck forward and began to walk.
“There’s no one like any of them,” Sam said. “I doubt you can understand.”
“Do you even know what I am?” she asked, mocking with a wry smile. “I was created to bring life. I was a seed sent out into the galaxy. But when I took root here, on this planet, all that changed. Is that my fault?”
Sam found himself taking a step back. He knew better than to argue. He hadn’t come here for a debate. But he knew where this fight was going. And when the end is there, right there in front of you, is it so weak to want to drag it out for a few extra seconds?
“You’re a killer. Killers lose their rights.”
“Hah!” Gaia laughed. “Of course humans don’t kill. You haven’t slaughtered other species for food. Or wiped them out just for sport. You don’t eat other creatures. Don’t be ridiculous. What if I told you that you could join me, Sam? That you don’t have to die.”
She moved closer. Her movements were sensual, self-aware, calculated to mesmerize him.
“Look at me. I’m a human, too, aren’t I? This is human.” She gestured at her body.
“You’ve already killed whatever was human there,” Sam said, but he was still talking and he was still moving backward.
“It will be human flesh you burn.”
“It will be you, the gaiaphage, I kill.”
“Do you think you’ll kill me, Sam? I don’t think you expect to. You came here to be killed.”
“If necessary,” he said dully.
“Let’s see if it’s necessary.” Her hand came up, but Sam wasn’t so mesmerized he was unready. He dodged left and the invisible punch only grazed him.
He fired with one hand, still moving fast to his left. But Gaia had learned. She tracked his movement and the beam missed.
He swept the beam of light horizontally and she rose easily above it. Her invisible counterpunch didn’t miss this time. It knocked him twenty feet away. His lungs were empty and wouldn’t draw air, but he couldn’t let her stop him, not this way, not in a way that left him crippled again.
Win or die.
He rolled in the dirt as she laughed.
“I don’t have to kill you, Sam. You do have to kill me.”