Chapter Four: That Night

1 week later

After that,  the war still waged on. The Veltekkens were angry that we didn’t stop the assassination of Ke’Le. I wonder how Safe Haven didn’t detect whoever that robot was beforehand, but it doesn’t matter. The Veltekkens view the robots as extensions of humanity, not as separate beings. So, we’re to blame.

I stare out the window of The Arch’s main lobby and look into the night sky. Every news outlet is covering me and my Arch armor. If that title of Architect annoyed me at the peace signing, it was gonna follow me everywhere now. That was my official military title now. Every time I’ve turned on the TV, my name is on it. It grows tiring after a while.

I hear a door open behind me, and see Henry enter the room with a wrapped box. He sits down next to me, and I look at him.

“How are you holding up?” He asks. I stay silent. I don’t even know the answer to the question. How am I supposed to feel about being one of the most famous people in the sector right now? “I got you something.”

He hands me the box and I stare at it for a moment. It’s heavy, but familiar. I slowly open the box, and find the Arch Armor inside.

“It’s yours.” He says. “Higher ups say that they’re making more of them, but that you should keep the original.”

I know that’s a lie. He stole it. But, after all, who’s going to say no to a Tremor?

“Thank you.” I say. Henry’s face flushes after that, and he stammers before saying he should go to bed. I sit at the window for a few moments before pulling the armor out of its box completely and finding a note at the bottom. It was a note from Jennifer. A note that was thanking me for what I did.

Dear, Architect Williams

Thank you, for your bravery, but you were reckless and risked getting our precious armor damaged. You are to be sent home for a temporary two week probation. Afterwards, you are to report to camp #11 on Veltekk for immediate action. But, the reason I am sending you this letter through Sargeant Tremor, if you want something more exciting, come see me instead.

Present day

Kenny looks at me expectantly, and I sigh.

“That’s how I got my armor.” I say. “Now, if we’re gonna talk about your mom- I mean Ellie.”

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He says. I appreciate his concern, but move forward. He asked for this story, he’s gonna get it. He deserves it. I need to talk about it too. It hurts too much to hold on to.

26 years ago

It was a cold night, like most in the winter. Ellie had invited me over and I guess I was lonely enough to make the trek through the cold city streets. I had my Arch Armor underneath my thick coat, so it wasn’t that cold to me.

The dark Domovoy streets scared most people, not me. The war ended eight years ago, and I’ve seen a lot of things. This Arch Armor’s gotten me through so much, gunshots, stabs, and other things Veltekkens can throw at you.

I walk by dark alleyways when I hear a snickering voice. I look around and see a spectre standing in one of the alleyways, the lights of its face the only source of light. The lights formed a twisted smile, the spectre forever smiling to the mortal eye.

“Time was not kind to you.” It says. I scoff before trying to move forward, but I hear the distinct click of a gun. “Did I say you could go?”

“What does a piece of scrap like you want?” I ask, the spectre laughs. I see it isn’t taking me seriously so I walk towards it, wanting to end this as fast as possible. It aims the gun and my world goes into slow motion again. Henry explained to me years ago it’s something that he built into the suit, to help me in combat. The suit injects me with a type of substance called Energin that accelerates my reaction time and enhances my senses.

My hand quickly outstretches and a small shield is created that the bullet is hopelessly blocked by. The spectre lets out a “belly laugh”.

“Same old tricks, same old Architect.” It says. I wonder if I’ve ever met the thing before, but it quickly ends my questioning. “I was the sniper that day. The one who caused the war to go on longer than it should’ve.”

“How are you still functioning?” I ask. It shrugs in response.

“Guess Safe Haven didn’t want to kill the spectres it hired.” My eyes widened at that. Safe Haven would never do that. They wanted the war to end just as badly as anyone.

“Lies won’t get you anywhere with me.” I say, and the spectre laughs again.

“Really? Guess I should get straight to the point.” It says. It reaches into its pocket and reveals a small sphere. “Know what this is?”

“A cryo-grenade.” I responded. The Veltekkens got their hands on those during the war, and it was a nightmare. They freeze the air around them rapidly, creating sharp spikes of ice or freezing you to instant death on impact. “What are you doing with it?”

“Not the question you should be asking.” He said. “The question is: How’s your sister?” I roll my eyes at him, because Ellie’s fine. I’m on my way to see her right now, in fact, I’m only two minutes away from her. What does the cryo-grenade have to do with-? I realize too slow.

“Ellie?!” I scream out into the cold winter night. I race to her house, leaving behind the spectre. My suit slows down the world to me whenever I’m in distress, I wish it didn’t do it that night. I wish it sped it up, because it didn’t feel like I was running fast enough.

I see her house and race up the stairs, but the door is busted open, and I can see the living room massacred by ice. I race into it to hear crying. Kenny’s crying. I speed through the house and make it into Ellie and Leroy’s room.

When I open the door, I see Leroy and Ellie on the floor stabbed through the chest by ice spikes. Leroy was pierced through the chest, neck, and head. Already gone. Ellie was lucky enough to have just been pierced through the chest, but it was clear she was dying here, and I raced to her side. She was holding a sobbing baby Kenny, whose right foot lay about a foot away.

“Ellie?! Ellie!” I say as I kneel down next to her. Her glossy, distant eyes looked at me and she slowly handed a bleeding Kenny to me.

“Please.” She whispers. I try to protest, but she’s already slipping away from me, so I race out of the door with a bleeding baby and towards the nearest hospital. I cry all of the way as I think about how I failed at my one objective: keep Ellie safe.