The Deathless Trilogy

3.14. Red

I'm at the helm of the Immortal. The only person in the world who I imagine is crazy enough to believe in this plan of mine is Declan, so together, we take charge. He and I were always the same kind of crazy, and with our earlier argument behind us, Declan and I are a team again.

I make a wide turn with the Immortal and manage to get behind the Prowlers, and face the tank back toward camp. As I do this, Declan shouts through the walkie for the driver of the Beast to move it out of the way, and makes an announcement over the loudspeakers. "Attention! Move out of the way of the Collector Droids! I repeat, move out of the way!"

There aren't many soldiers left, most of them have already left to fight at camp where a swarm of drones hover. The ones who remain scatter, and I line up the Immortal to crash right into the Prowlers. I hold my foot on the gas petal—Go faster, faster—until finally, I hit the first Prowler. There goes ⅓ of Gunther's message: I will. It topples over as the Immortal's first speed bump, and Declan and I cheer. Eleanor appears in the doorway. "Isla," she says in her stern voice, "why is the Immortal moving?"

"I'm bulldozing the Prowlers," I say, laughing maniacally as I drive toward the second one. My laugh doesn't even sound like mine anymore, but someone else's. Nina's. It reminds me of Nina's laugh as she destroyed Gunther's secret office. I swallow away the sadness, when I realize, maybe she's here with us. Maybe she's outside in the wind, guiding us.

The Immortal knocks over the second Prowler, and with a little bump, crushes it beneath us, destroying another third of Gunther's message: always.

The third Prowler, however, has moved out of the Immortal's line of collision, and the tank is too big to turn sharply enough to hit it. Now the Prowler stands at the end of the Beast, swatting at the back of the small tank's body.

"Can we back up in this thing?" I ask Declan.

"Of course," he says with apparent enjoyment. He joins me at the console, pulls a lever back, and steps on the pedal.

"Not too much," Eleanor reminds us. "The pods are still behind us."

Declan steps off the pedal and returns the lever to its original position. "That should do it," he says.

I turn the Immortal to face the Prowler when I see Daniel climbing onto the roof of the Beast. The Immortal stops with my breath.

"Why did you stop?" Declan asks.

"Daniel's on the roof."

I watch as his assistant hands him a large, metallic object. A magnet. Daniel stretches his right leg behind him, and leans forward with his left, preparing to run. He hugs the magnet to his chest, as the Prowler hits against the Beast once more. Daniel's stance keeps him balanced, and as soon as the tank stops shaking, Daniel darts forward, his legs propelling him forward. Faster and faster he runs, and we all watch on in silence.

Finally, Daniel is almost at the end of the tank, and just before he would run off its edge, he turns toward the Prowler and leaps off the tank. His momentum allows him to fly through the air, across the distance between the Prowler and the Beast, and he raises the magnet up over his head.

As his arc of motion falls toward the Prowler's top, Daniel lowers the magnet, and with its force, he is yanked from the air and thrust against the Prowler's metal body. It shakes in malfunction, and falls backward, into the Immortal's path. Daniel leaps from the body before it collapses to the ground, and then runs toward the Immortal's ground level entrance. A light appears on the console to show me that the door is open, then turns off.

"He's in," the soldier says, so I push my foot against the floor, turning the Immortal back toward camp, and manage to run over the third Prowler's top. With that, Gunther's message is completely destroyed. I will always find you.