Paralysis, p.1
Paralysis, page 1
PARALYSIS
DARK LIGHT SERIES
BOOK 2
D.J. HOSKINS
COPYRIGHT
PARALYSIS
Copyright © 2020 by D.J. Hoskins
ISBN: 9780463407738
All rights reserved.
Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
D. J. Hoskins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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CONTENTS
Also by D.J. Hoskins
1. Desert Adversary
2. Dome
3. The Coga
4. Titus
5. Loss
6. Submerged
7. Grey Room
8. Example
9. Flight
10. Resistance
11. Toxic Skies
12. Cold
13. Affinity
Sequel to Paralysis
Meet the Author
Acknowledgments
ALSO BY D.J. HOSKINS
Dark Light Series
Paragon
Paralysis
Panic
Crown of Dust Series
Draconian
Chess
20 King Pawn Endgames Explained, Vol 1
20 Knight Pawn Endgames Explained, Vol 1
20 Bishop Pawn Endgames Explained, Vol 1
Short Stories Collection
Dreams of Nostalgia: A Collection of Short Stories
Sealed Silence: A Collection of Short Stories, Vol 2
Short Essays Collection
Of Solemnity: A Collection of Short Essays, Vol 1
Promise of Nightshade: A Collection of Short Essays, Vol 2
Hollows of Time: A Collection of Short Essays, Vol 3
Heartbeat Embers: Poetry Collection, Vol 4
Poetry
Amber Butterfly: Poetry Collection, Vol 1
Teardrop Illusions: Poetry Collection, Vol 2
Autumn Rain: Poetry Collection, Vol 3
Stand Alone
War Mice
My Life As Death
The Embodiment of Irrationality
1
DESERT ADVERSARY
—MELISSA—
“The Paragon is in one of those?” Akane asked. The hood of her billowing red robe flapped in the desert’s arid wind like a flag against her slender frame. Sand buffeted the dunes a hundred feet below. Beside her floated a bald black-cloaked man, whose milky white gaze followed a string of automated cars escorted by a large military convoy as closely as her own.
“The hell-spawn is in the transport of the cars,” the man said coolly. “Eliminate her retinue and send her spirit to Vitate for judgment.” He looked at Akane with blind eyes. “She shouldn’t be alive.”
The woman bowed her head. “Understood.” Crossing her arms over her body, Akane unsheathed her katanas—long curved swords from their scabbards at her sides and brandished them before her. A blood-red glow flared along her hands and stretched onto the blades. “What a shame,” she said. Her titus burst into flames along the polar-steel. “Vargas, they brought a convoy of bodies.”
“Such is the fate of those who worship Paragons,” the man said. Closing his eyes, he placed his hands together and like a ghost, vanished into the wind. Akane fixed her gaze onto the plasma copter heading towards her and crossed her swords.
“May you return to the Vitate and the source,” she said. “Your ashes will not make it to a funeral.” She swept the swords behind her and, using their flames, shot through the air like a rocket.
Staring out the dark window of the automated car, Melissa fidgeted with the issued ear protection in her hands. In the distance, beyond the sound-proof glass, a plasma-copter flew, drifting along the sky’s clear blue as lazily as a whale did the sea. It was, however, much smaller than the marine beasts of the ocean. In comparison, it was more the size of a seal with the white flares of its turbines trailing it in a hazy streak, not unlike underwater bubbles.
Below it stretched the sandy wasteland of the Narfobi Desert. Relatively flat and pockmarked by weeds, the land had a stark beauty with its rolling copper sands and vast emptiness. Seemingly devoid of life, it was a place without shelter, the merest drop of water, or food of any kind. It was a harsh environment, renown for its fast winds, unpredictable sandstorms, and years between rainfall, it was the hottest place in the kingdom with temperatures escalating beyond the mid-hundreds.
However, contrary to its appearance beneath the blazing sun, it was Kaiga’s treasure and strongest asset. More productive than the largest factories and more coveted than the deepest gold mines, it was a precious resource closely guarded. A farm of thousands of solar panels glittered over the horizon as well as the hundreds of cyper-tanks in a military installation for its security. Absorbing the light titus of the sun, the panels converted the overabundance of solar power into a splurge of condensed, endless energy.
Two cyper-tanks rolled along Melissa’s side of the military convoy, their transparent tracks turning over the terrain as smoothly as a boat sailed through water. On the opposite side, two other tanks matched them in speed and formation. Five of the ten soldiers of the elite squad were mounted across each set of the dual tanks. The elites rode atop the vehicles standing up as normally as one did the ground. Locked in place by the gravity function of their lift boots, they were protected from the blazing heat and sun’s adverse glare by solar gear.
Melissa turned from the window in a huff. She gave Principal Leptin a pointed look beside her. “Is all of this really necessary?”
“It is.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“But, are you really, sure?” Melissa asked. She gestured at the overkill of a convoy. “Because this…is ridiculous.”
“Your safety is paramount, Melissa,” Kevin said. He looked up from the seat across her. “Stop asking.”
“It’s not like we’re going to war,” she muttered.
“The Victashia would beg to differ,” Leptin said. He scrolled through virtual reports with a bored expression.
“Why couldn’t we have just flown?” she complained. “Nothing is happening.”
“Nothing is supposed to happen,” Kevin countered.
“It’s cramped.”
“It’s a land-car,” he said.
“It’s stuffy.”
“Then roll down your window.”
“You’re not helping Kevin. My butt hurts.”
He gave her a dour look. “Then go to sleep.”
She crossed her arms and turned her gaze out of the window. “We’ve already been on the road for an hour.”
“And you’ve already started complaining.”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Because if we’d flown, we would’ve been at Corpus by now.”
“True,” a grey-haired man said from the seat across Leptin. A full bird colonel, his solar gear was thinner, more lightweight, and of better quality than his soldiers. His pale green eyes reflected in the dark tint of his window. “It seems like it’ll go on forever, doesn’t it?”
“Don’t change the subject, Pele,” Melissa said, omitting the rank from his name.
He offered her a smile, ignoring the blatant disrespect, a humorous twinkle behind his eyes. “The probability of you being shot out of the sky is higher than traveling by—”
“Nope,” Melissa said and turned her face to her window. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“Then stop talking about it,” Leptin said.
She snapped her face to him with a stare. “I will talk about it because it’s stupid.”
“The desert isn’t endless, girl,” the headmaster retorted. “We will eventually arrive at the point of transition. You’ll see the green of Corpus Academy soon enough.”
Melissa gave him a withering look. “And how soon is that?”
“Another three or so hours according to—”
“Ugh, why?” Melissa whined and pressed her head against the window. “Screw my life.”
Harbored within the second to last car in the row of six unmanned vehicles, they raced across the open road at breakneck speeds. Inside, the inertia was mitigated, and vibration controlled to the point that it seemed they moved nowhere at all. Desert passed into more desert sand into more sand. Even with the visual of passing through the environment, Melissa felt neither here nor there.
“When we get to near Corpus, we’ll visit one of its beaches before your reception. How’s that, Melissa?” Kevin asked. “It’s on the coast of the Insie Sea in the Province of Kiko so we should—”
“And if we get there too late?” she asked, bitter, “You’ll just dump me in my new school.”
“Melissa—”
“Whatever,” she said, putting her chin on her hands. “I just wish it we were there.”
“Wishing won’t get us there any faster,” said Leptin.
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Obviously… Can’t we take a break? I’m sore.”
Paragon, Shadow said in her head. Its tone carried a strange sense of urgency. Something’s here.
Melissa sighed. Save m e your jokes, Shadow. No one’s—
Something… powerful. It continued.
She looked at Leptin as he stared at her.
What do you mean? She thought back. What—
“What direction?” Leptin demanded, putting a hand on Melissa’s arm.
Kevin looked at them, alarmed. “What’s going on?”
The Colonel also watched them.
It’s already here. Shadow said darkly.
“Who?” Leptin asked, his dark gaze penetrating. “Victashia?” He gave Colonel Pele a sharp look. “Alert your units.”
Melissa felt Shadow shake a head it didn’t have. Its aura is heavy, it said and paused. We may not survive. The purple-eyed blonde plastered her face to the window as the commander wired his units.
“Code blue to convoy,” Colonel Pele called into a cabled hardline radio. “We’re in red for an adversary suspected on radar. Be on alert. I repeat—”
“There!” Melissa shouted, smudging her finger to the glass. Beyond it, in the distance, two dark figures floated in the air against the light of the blazing sun. A moment later, one vanished, while the other blasted towards a plasma-copter trailed by flames. Leptin shoved her head down as the figure disappeared behind the military craft.
“Victashia’s made their move!” He yelled and looking Colonel, he touched his nano-computer. “Put me through to central,” he said into it. “Connect me with a Keeper.” Melissa looked toward him and glanced up at the window.
The Victashia… she thought. Are they here for me?
“Code Blue to Convoy,” the Colonel shouted into the radio. “Enemy sighted, prepare to engage. I repeat—”
Skidding, the car turned. Flipping from the backlash of an explosion, glass shattered and the roof caved in as the car ramped up and careened off the road. The radio left the Colonel’s hand as shards of glass flew into his eyes. His blood splattered onto Kevin’s face, and body went down in a spasm that spelled the end of his life. The smell of smoke rose into the air as fire and metal rained from the sky. A burning shell of what was once a plasma-copter descended from the sky like a falling bird. Looking down at it from where it had flown, floated the figure.
2
DOME
—MELISSA—
Melissa groaned as Leptin pulled her out from the hot metal of the land-car. Aerodynamic and fuel-efficient, it was a vehicle built for speed, not battle. Blood flowed freely over her eyes from a cut on her forehead. It clotted in her ears from the aftermath of the blast. The headmaster patted her face with more urgency than concern.
“Come on, girl,” he said, shaking her by the shoulder. “Get yourself together.” Opening her eyes with a cough, she leaned against Leptin’s knee, dazed.
“What?” she said. “Where…?” She winced and touched her ears. She stared at the blood on her fingers. For a moment, it didn’t register. Watching, she heard nothing but a loud ringing as the plasma-copter hit the earth. The desert took it in with a cloud of dust, spraying sand in a multitude of directions.
Melissa closed her eyes against the wind that followed. Pellets of sand nicked her exposed arms and coated her lips. Coughing, she wiped her face. Leptin was saying something but not to her.
Who? She wondered and thought back to their last moments in the car. Is it the Keepers?
She looked back as Kevin stepped out from the side of the car. He wore a grim expression. His eyes were no less hardened when they found hers. She reached for him impulsively, and he went to her side like a father did a child.
“Kevin take her,” Leptin said and stepped away.
“Understood.” Taking a knee beside her, Kevin lent Melissa his shoulder. She winced as the ringing in her ears intensified and cried out. Her fingers came back wet with blood as she put her hands to her ears. Seeing it, Kevin cursed and looked at Leptin. “I’m going back for her ear protection.”
“Where’s the Colonel?” the headmaster asked.
Kevin gave him a dark look and turned away. “His eyes got shot with glass. He’s done, it must’ve gone to his brain. He didn’t have a pulse.” Kevin ducked back into the vehicle.
“Damn.” Leptin shook his head. “What a pathetic way to go out.”
Watching him crawl into the shattered glass of a window, Melissa’s lip quivered. Is this what I get for being a paragon? A life where people only die around me?
She grimaced as a sharp pain, fiercer than the last shot through her ears. Her hands shook as she felt the blood seep through her fingers. Unlike her, Kevin and Leptin wore their ear protection. They’d never took them off.
Retrieving the fallen headphones in the car, Kevin returned to Melissa.
A sudden movement caught her eyes, and she watched as five soldiers soared into the air and shot into the aftermath of the thinning smoke. The glint of metal flashed amongst the cloud of dust as the same figure which had downed the plasma-copter, engaged them. Seemingly all at once, their bodies began to fall.
Watching also, Leptin ran a hand through his hair. “Damn it. What the hell’s going on?” He pulled out a radio strapped to his side and pressed its button. “Command to Convoy. Report.”
“Alpha Fire to Command,” a deep voice replied on the other line. “Captain Holor, sir. Blue Wing is down. The confirmed target has executed half of the Elite Troop. My plasma-copter is routing to engage, and ground-unit, Delta-One is charging to fire.”
A boom split the air as a ball of blue energy left the cannon of a cyper-tank. Its backlash sent a rippling cloud of dust rolling back, raining sand down upon them from a wave over fifty feet away.
Melissa screamed. Holding her ears in agony, she curled into a ball. Blood dripped from her ears, and her vision blurred in starts and fits. The entire world seemed to have flipped. Up felt down. She couldn’t tell her right from her left, but it was her hearing which truly felt gone. She felt as if someone had jabbed her in the ears with a knife.
“Kevin take care of your charge!” Leptin barked. “We don’t have time for this.”
A little disorientated from the blast himself, Kevin staggered out of the car with Melissa’s ear protection. Putting a hand on her shoulder to steady her, he fitted the headphones over her ears.
“You’re okay,” he said. “Do you hear me, Melissa?” He squeezed her arm. “You’re just fine.” Pulling out a pill capsule, he popped it into her mouth and clamped a hand over her lips as she gagged, coughing. “Don’t spit it out.” His look was stern. “Swallow.” She did, and he stroked her hair. “Good.”
After a moment, her disorientation and nausea faded. The ringing in her ear dulled and pain accompanying it, numbed to a faint throb. Pulling her up by the arm, Kevin helped her to her feet. “Now, let’s move.”
“Command to Convoy,” Leptin said. “Code Blue is down.” He referred to the Colonel. “The Black Train has been compromised. Engage the enemy until Priority One is back in route. We need immediate cover. How copy?”
“Copy,” a multitude of voices replied in quick succession.
“Alpha Fire to Command,” Captain Holor said. “Is backup from standby units affirmative?”
“They’ve been notified,” Leptin said. “Do your job and hold it down.”
“Copy.”
The headmaster released a breath and lowered the radio. He gave Melissa a heavy look and strapped the radio back to his side as the five remaining elite soldiers of the former ten dropped from the air to land before them. One, a soldier with a lieutenant’s insignia marking his lapels, stepped forward. He saluted Leptin, his soldiers behind him snapping to attention.
“Lieutenant Lin reporting, sir,” he said, his young voice muffled by a mask.
