Only Shadows Ahead

Chapter Twenty

They walked underground for half the day, cold and shivering. Linka gripped Wheeler's hand tightly for part of the journey, refusing to let go.

He was still tense, and seemed detached from the conversation going on around him. A nod here, a glance there. For the most part, he kept his eyes trained on the ground as she tugged him onwards. In all honesty, she was so thrilled to see him that she was willing to push aside the fact that he seemed emotionally distant. Aloof.

She found herself babbling incessantly, overcompensating for the fact that he was too damn quiet. He'd hardly spoken since she'd first laid eyes on him in the drain. She continually glanced upwards, gazing at his profile. Overjoyed to see him and longing for something from him. Something familiar — anything that demonstrated comfort and concern and affection and kindness, his usual traits that she was so desperately craving.

But she was met with stony silence. Eventually, he withdrew from her grip entirely and walked on ahead, catching up with Kwame. They walked side by side, talking in quiet voices and leaving Linka and Ma-Ti trailing behind.

Linka's face reflected the complete bewilderment she was feeling and she lowered her gaze. Her face flushed despite the cold and she wrapped her arms around herself, feeling Ma-Ti's arm settle around her shoulders.

Kwame seemed to have a plan. They passed over into the disused sewer pipes and exited via an underground concourse. Weaving their way up the ramp, Linka found herself in a recreation area, once no doubt a bustling park filled with the sounds of excited children.

She glanced at the swings; slides and picnic tables laying overturned in the long grass. A covered barbecue area was nearby — the cooktops ripped out and abandoned under a copse of elm trees. It was an eerie sight.

Another few hours above-ground. Linka was having to force herself to lift her feet, for fear of tripping over her toes. Energy levels depleted — she was exhausted. Blisters had formed due to the ill-fitting shoes she was wearing but she soldiered on regardless.

The sun had just set and Kwame seemed in a hurry. They picked up the pace, staying close to the sidewalk and practically running to catch up with him. Linka could hear Bleak breathing heavily just in front of her, looking as completely out of his depth as she was.

"San Fernando," Kwame said, urging them to stay close. They were in what seemed like a wealthy area. Linka took in the eight foot fences, overgrown hedging and imposing homes as she passed. "We have several houses across the state set up as safe-points for our supply runs. No one wants to be stuck out in the open after the sun goes down. Too dangerous."

"Christ," Bleak said, annoyed. "Woulda' been nice to know that earlier."

"My heart bleeds for ya, Bleak," Wheeler muttered and Linka looked up, eyes wide and gazing at the back of the American's head with a growing sense of unease.

"Here," Kwame said, motioning towards a driveway to their left. He snapped off some dry foliage from the shrubs bordering the fence line. Pushing the hedge aside, they took turns passing through a hidden hole cut into the fence. They emerged within what would once have been carefully, manicured grounds. The grass now was up to their waists and they waded through it towards the house.

Shit," Bleak cried out, stumbling as his foot struck a bird bath hidden within. He hobbled onwards, continuing to curse under his breath.

Linka stopped beside Gi, folding her arms against the chill and watching as Kwame slid a basement window open. He swung a leg over and climbed inside, followed closely by the others.

They headed to the lowest point. The sun had long since set and Linka pressed her hands against the walls, descending blindly. She gripped onto Gi's shoulders tightly. After a moment a small flame flickered and Kwame's face lit up.

"The house has an underground bunker built in. We'll be safe. The owners were survivalists, so they were well stocked."

"Owner's aren't here, though," Bleak commented drily. "All that planning didn't end up gettin' 'em anywhere."

Kwame grunted. He leaned forward, dragging a metal canister over and dropped the kindling inside. Using the small flame he'd struck upon entry, he started stoking the fire as Gi approached Wheeler.

"Missed your face, Pyro," she whispered, winding her arms around Wheeler and embracing him tightly. There were tears in her eyes and she dashed them away hastily. "It's been too long."

"Yeah," he said, drawing the word out slowly. A flare of hot jealousy swept through Linka as she watched them; heads close together and speaking to one another in hushed tones. He returned the hug briefly before she patted his cheek and wandered away, tutting quietly at Kwame and dragging him away from the fire and towards a plastic chair.

Wheeler sunk to the floor, propped against a stack of newspapers. Linka could see the dark circles under his eyes and his face looked worn and hagged in the firelight. Regardless of his discomfort from earlier, she took a seat beside him, intent on keeping him close. "What now?" she asked softly.

"We will head back in a few days," Kwame replied. "Lay low, until we figure out what we are going to do."

"I had my ring, Kwame," Linka said sharply. "I could have —"

"One element with the rest of us defenceless, Linka," Kwame replied. He sighed, leaning back in his chair and regarding her with tired eyes. "Remaining underground with plenty of people for Lambert to use as bargaining chips — to draw you out. I made a decision and I am standing by it."

Linka glanced nervously at Ma-Ti, remembering the sound of the bullet impacting on his younger-self's leg. She bit her lip, flushing pink.

"I have told Tyreece that we will wait it out until they can regain control," Kwame said. He shrugged out of his jacket, wincing as Gi fussed about him.

"If they regain control," Gi said.

"We've done it before," he replied tiredly. He swatted away Gi's hand. "Ow, Gi. Enough."

"Quit grumblin'," she replied, scrutinising the swollen skin carefully. "You're lucky you didn't lose your eye."

"I nearly did," he lamented, evidently angry with himself. "I was jumped by three of Blight's men. They would have taken me out if Wheeler hadn't have turned up when he did."

"Was Blight there?" Gi asked and Linka glanced up from her position on the floor.

"I do not think so. I did not see her," Kwame spoke. He nodded towards Linka. "She rarely shows her face."

"There's a reason for that," Bleak replied, hidden away in the corner. "Ugly all day. You guys gonna fill us in on what the fuck happened here?"

"Tomorrow." Kwame slumped back in the chair and closed his eyes. "I think that is enough excitement for one day."

Linka pulled her sweatshirt off, stripping down to her singlet as she watched Gi settle herself beside the fire. Ma-Ti positioned himself beside the door.

She twisted, intent on tucking herself under Wheeler's arm but her plan had already been thwarted. He lay stretched out on the floor, curled up with his back to her. His breathing was slow and steady.

With a disappointed glance in his direction, Linka dropped down onto her side and rested her head against the damp sweatshirt.

They had all slept quite late after their fifteen mile hike the day before. Linka stirred, hearing conversation going on around her and she rolled onto her back, rubbing her eyes. Stomach rumbling, her mouth was also quite dry due to dehydration.

"Found this place by accident," Kwame said in hushed tones to Ma-Ti. "We were venturing out a little further every month and this was our second trip into San Fernando. A few of the guys ran into some trouble and managed to scale the fence. Broke inside to hide and found the bunker wide open and fully stocked."

"You didn't take the supplies back with you?" Ma-Ti asked.

Kwame shook his head, digging into a box on a high shelf and tossing something to Ma-Ti. "No. We use this place as a stopover point. Handy to keep it stocked for that reason. Linka?"

She pushed herself up into a sitting position, hair falling over her face as she blinked sleepily. "Da?"

"Catch."

"What —" She recoiled as a plastic packet was tossed in her direction. She turned it over, spotting the tell-tale granola bar wrapping. "Oh."

"Some stuff is a little past the expiry date but without the benefit of hindsight, we did not have time to pack anything."

A water bottle was rolled in her direction and Linka grabbed for it, twisting the cap of and downing it within minutes. She sighed, feeling replenished.

The boys soon dragged a few pieces of furniture downstairs and Linka and Gi squeezed themselves into a large armchair; limbs overlapping and sharing a packet of ramen noodles. Tinned tuna and white rice also seemed to be in heavy supply.

"Waitin' for armageddon," Bleak commented in wonder, running his hands over the contents of the shelves along the side wall, stored neatly in plastic boxes for a situation the owners were never able to take advantage of.

"Something like that," Ma-Ti said. He clutched his fork and scooped out the tuna, grimacing at the taste. "Ugh. Oily."

"What happened here?" Linka asked. Her eyes settled on Kwame, silently pleading for answers. "Eleven years and everything has fallen apart," she said softly, motioning around her. "What happened?"

Kwame nodded. He dropped his can into the basket and settled himself into the plastic chair, glancing at the others.

"We knew this day would eventually come. We were warned three years ago that Blight would try to bring you here."

"How did you know? Why am I here? What has —"

"All right," Kwame sighed, defeated. "I guess the easiest way to explain all of this is to start at the beginning and move forward from there."

"All right." Linka folded her arms and settled back, watching him expectantly. "I am waiting."

He gave her a tight smile, rolling his eyes at her bull-dogged persistence. "I've mentioned before that there was never any time travel in the past we have experienced. You never disappeared. Blight never even got her technology off the ground."

Linka nodded.

"You mentioned that your last mission was with Sludge and the oil-syphoning occurring in Alaska?"

"Da," she said slowly.

"We also experienced this, but you never disappeared afterwards. In our timeline, you found a file."

"Da. I located this file too. SAIP one point something or other…" Linka trailed off, noticing Wheelers eyes widen in shock.

"Have you done anything with it," he asked sharply. "Tinkered with the program?"

"Nyet," she said, perplexed. "I never got the chance. MAL communicated with me the next day and I managed to track down her location. We… I mean my past colleagues and I, headed out there the same morning to see if I could access MAL's mainframe."

"We never found out where Blight's main compound was," Kwame said. "I think there is a distinct possibility that your Blight left you enough clues online to ensure you would turn up. You walked right into a trap."

The more she thought about it, the more the assumption made sense. "All right. If I never disappeared, never went through the portal, then what have I been doing? I mean future me? Why am I not here with you?"

Kwame nodded. "Okay. I will fill you in on the events we have experienced in the correct sequence." He rubbed his forehead, glancing ahead at the others. "Feel free to add or correct anything."

Ma-Ti gave him the thumbs up, and Kwame continued. "After the Alaska trip, the five of us became a lot busier. We rarely had any down time. We were constantly on the move. It became very…"

"Stressful," Gi finished for him.

"I was going to say crazy," Ma-Ti added. "Seriously through, it was one thing after another. Plunder and Sludge were the least of our problems after Alaska. Once the SAIP program was available for purchase, we found that there was so much damage being inflicted with simply a touch of a button."

"This was my concern when I first looked through the coding," Linka explained. "It was frightening."

"Our Linka was frightened by it too," Kwame said. "SAIP stands for Sentinel Artificial Intelligence Program. The original version you would have seen was quite tame. After about six months, the program allowed purchasers to physically manipulate servers, therefore removing or transferring things that should never be accessible to the public. It allowed access to restricted areas and dangerous items."

"Then it got really bad," Gi said. "That was when we started losing Gaia. The balance was shifting."

"What happened?" Linka gently prodded.

"We had several incidents about a year after Alaska," Kwame said. "Nuclear warheads were transferred into the possession of a very wealthy man from Europe. He then purchased the launch codes… and attempted to sell both to the highest bidder."

"Don't forget the guy who accessed a military armoury and escaped with a truck-load of semi-automatic weapons," Gi said flatly.

"Drugs," Ma-Ti added. "Databases with the personal information of agents in the field. Gold bullion disappeared from the federal reserve."

"Judges. Police. Any secure information was now available through the program. Our work became less about the environment and more about just keeping a lid on things," Gi explained.

"There were more and more people coming out of the woodwork." Ma-Ti sighed, twirling his fork around in his fingers. "The usual suspects like Plunder and Greedly just sort of faded into the background."

"Except Blight," Wheeler muttered. He leant back against the wall, raising his knees to his chest and glowering at Bleak. "She revelled in it. Your lap-dog of a boss had been funding her all along."

"Hey, don't look at me," Bleak snapped. "I had nothing to do with that."

"Oh yeah," Wheeler bit back. "You were just there for the food and witty conversation, I suppose."

"Hey, don't lecture me, ya two-bit —"

"Oh, spare me the sermon, asshole — "

"Anyway," Kwame said pointedly as he levelled a warning look at Wheeler. "It was becoming out of control. By then, the Department of Defence and the CIA had become involved. They were in a panic."

Linka raised her eyebrows as Ma-Ti pointed his fork towards her. "About eighteen months after Alaska, you started freelancing for the government. You knew Blight, you were familiar with MAL's programming and you had been the first one to discover the SAIP file. The CIA were desperate to put an end to the SAIP program and wanted your help."

"So I helped them?" Linka asked.

"Yeah," Wheeler said softly. He refused to meet her eyes, concentrating on running his index finger around the sharp edge of an opened tin of food. Her expression softened as she watched the circular motions.

You are going to cut yourself, Yankee.

She kept the thought to herself. "Did I… was I successful?"

"In a manner of speaking," Ma-Ti spoke. He rubbed his forehead tiredly. "MAL was heavily embedded within the SAIP program. The only way to destroy SAIP was to erase MAL."

"And I eventually did it?"

"After six months, a virus was developed. By then, you were hesitant to upload it. Worried about the consequences. But they went ahead anyway."

"Did it work?"

"Kind of," Gi said.

Linka's eye's narrowed. "What do you mean, 'kind of'?"

"MAL was destroyed. The SAIP program was no longer viable, but we'll get into that later. Besides, another complication developed that was far more concerning."

"What?"

Kwame sighed, running his finger over a crack in the arm rest of his chair. "First and foremost — Blight knew you had a hand in destroying MAL. She was devastated. Inconsolable and incredibly angry. It tipped her over the edge. She blamed you."

"Oh God," she murmured, ready with another question but Kwame held out his hand.

"We got word that she was after you. Looking for revenge. Blight made it her mission to hunt you down. She held you responsible. You had no choice but to go into hiding."

"We refused to continue on without you," Ma-Ti added. "With Wheeler getting shot a few weeks earlier, we really had no other option. Our lives were at risk, now. We felt enough was enough."

Kwame nodded. "So Gaia assembled us for the last time about two years after Alaska. The state of things on Earth had weakened her. We retained our rings but gave up our powers. Gaia was still in the background but Captain Planet took over from there. And we all scattered."

"Bozhe moy," Linka breathed, scarcely believing what she was hearing. "And I returned to Russia to hide?"

Gi wiped a tear away, settling an arm around Linka's shoulders and glancing somewhat nervously at the others. "Not straight away. You were moved around a lot during the first few years. You were given a new identity. All the paperwork."

"Did I get to see you all anymore?" she asked. Her voice was small and unsteady, unable to imagine a scenario where living without her best friends was an option. "Was I alone?"

"We tried to catch up somewhere — anywhere — after you left, but it was hard to..." Gi shrugged helplessly. There were tears in her eyes and she wiped them away as Linka sat bewildered beside her. "The last time we saw you was three years ago."

"Which was when I returned to Russia," Linka surmised, thinking out loud. "I am guessing the transport systems broke down soon after and I was stuck?"

"No," Gi whispered. She shook her head, pressing her temple against Linka's arm and it was at this point that Kwame took over.

"No, Linka," he repeated softly. "Please understand, we wanted to wait until we were all together. To fill you in. We made a promise."

"Am I in Russia or not?" The frustration was mounting and she found herself wanting to shake him. "For goodness sake, Kwame —"

"Yes, you are in Russia, Linka," Kwame said, clearly uncomfortable and ill at ease.

"Why did —"

"You were interred into the family vault in Novgorod three years ago, alongside your mother and father. Despite your best attempts to keep hidden, Blight still managed to find you."

A heartbeat passed. Silence descended over the group, save for the sound of their breathing. All eyes were on Linka — whose face had turned an ashen grey, her mouth moving soundlessly. Her green eyes scanned the room desperately, panic welling within the pit of her stomach.

Ma-Ti was regarding her with concern while Gi sat sniffling quietly beside her. Even Bleak looked totally nonplussed, twisting the end of his moustache and staring at Linka.

"That was the last time we saw you." Gi shuddered, squeezing the hand laying limply within her lap. Her voice was husky. "We sent your body back to Russia — to your brother, as per the instructions set out in your will."

Linka barely heard. Her gaze settled on Wheeler. He sat with his shoulders hunched, his jaw tense; staring out the window and resolute in his efforts to remain disconnected from this train-wreck of a revelation.

"I am dead?" Linka's face tightened, her lips numb. "I… Blight killed me?"

"I am so, so sorry, my friend," Kwame murmured. He rubbed a hand over his face. "There is more, but perhaps…"

He didn't get to finish. Unable to take the stares any longer, Linka suddenly scrambled to her feet and dashed from the room, ignoring Gi's frightened pleas ringing out behind her.

She fled upstairs — tears obstructing her vision and her breathing shallow and ragged, seeking the solace and comfort found in silence.