Roberts' crew lands today. More precisely, it lands within a few minutes. The spacecraft lights the sky as it re-enters our atmosphere.
Our armies stand in a half circle around the tree line behind where all the leaders—Mom, Jacob, Raviv, Declan, a Nomad taking Carmine's place as leader, and I—stand with white flags. If the crew doesn't accept our show of peace, they will be met with the force of our armies, including Dad, Daniel, Ava, and Celia who wait slightly closer to us than the rest of our soldiers. Just in case.
As the craft nears earth, it appears more and more like a star, glowing and growing as it tumbles toward us, and finally, the light breaks and I can see the white nose of the spacecraft. Parachutes spring out behind it, slowing its descent.
This is it: the moment everyone from Deathless to Original to Roberts and Cooper to the Middle Eastern Alliance has been waiting for. The spacecraft touches down, sending a wave of air and heat over the yard. It nearly knocks me over, but I catch my balance. I hold the white flag steady.
With a loud whoosh, the spacecraft comes to a stop. It's a lot smaller than I imagined it would be, but then again, I have also been living on a massive tank and in a giant estate for the past few months. As the craft stops, smoke rises from its sides. I can't imagine how hot it must be from re-entry.
I press my fingers to the voice box at my throat. "Hold steady," I say to our soldiers behind me.
We wait. For a full minute, nothing happens, and a creeping fear snakes through my veins. What if they're preparing for an attack? After all we've survived, what if this is the end?
Then the spacecraft door opens with a hiss as the pressure lock is unsealed. "Steady," I remind our soldiers. From out of the smoke, a figure emerges and stands still in the doorway. Then another, and another. They begin to spill out of the spacecraft, and I realize: They are all teenagers like me, and they all look confused as hell.
They examine the entire yard and step cautiously, like the ground may collapse beneath them. I step forward, my brows furrowed, reflecting their confusion.
"Hello," I call to them, and they turn toward us, holding their hands to their eyes to block the sun.
"Hello," one of them, a girl with braided hair, replies.
"My name is Isla Blume," I say.
The teenagers' confusion turns to panic. A tall boy with pale skin says, "I don't think I have a name. I don't know where I am."
"Me either."
"Me either," the responses echo through their crowd.
What the hell? "We would like to approach you in peace," I say. "Please reveal all weapons you may be carrying."
The boy pulls a pen from his pocket, but the others pat themselves down, finding nothing. "Are we supposed to have weapons?" the braided-haired girl asks.
"I don't have anything," another girl tells her.
"Hands in the air," Raviv orders them. He isn't convinced, and honestly, after all the games Gunther played, I'm not either.
They hold their arms into the sky.
"Lie down face forward on the ground," Raviv orders, and once again, they do without question.
We approach them, and pat them down ourselves. Nothing. They weren't lying.
"You have no idea what your name is?" I ask the boy I pat down, a boy with glasses and long hair.
"I don't think I have one," he replies.
I lift his sleeves to check for hidden knives, when I see the glowing blue panel on his arm. I let out a sigh of frustration.
"Look at their arms," I say. "Do they all have the blue panels?"
"Yes," Mom replies after inspecting a few.
"Mine too," Jacob says. "What does that mean?"
"It means they're implanted," I say. "If Gunther and Mitchell created a virus to bring the ship back, they could have wiped their brains too."
"Check the spaceship," Raviv tells me. "Our answers may be there."
I nod, and press my fingers to the voice box. "Subjects appear to be confused, but be ready in case this is a trap," I say, and I hear guns loading around the yard. "Daniel, Ava, and Celia: Follow me into the craft to cover me."
They split from the others and run toward me, as does Declan. "I'm coming with you," he says. "If Mitchell and Gunther had anything to do with this, maybe I can figure out what they did."
We enter the spacecraft armed, in case Roberts has something up his sleeve, but as we scan the command room, the dining room, the bathroom, the bedrooms, the research labs, we find nothing. Until Declan points out a room marked "ROBERTS."
"Guys," he whispers, and we hold our weapons up as he unlatches the door. "It's unlocked." Then, with a deep breath, he swings the door open. We're all ready to fire, but what we find is not what I imagined.
"What is that?" I ask.
"A flash drive," Declan says.
I lower my weapon and touch my voice box. "All clear. We found Roberts, but he's... a computer flash drive," I say.
The room is more like a closet, and directly in front of us is a stand up computer, above which is a tall switchboard of controls. Beside the computer on its own stand and inside a glass case, is a black flash drive with a white sticker label that reads, "William Roberts." The flash drive is plugged into the stand, which must connect to the computer.
"Is this a joke?" Ava asks.
"Probably not," Daniel replies. "Cooper was really old. The only reason he was still alive was because he was engineered to live longer. My guess is Roberts died with the implant in his brain, and they uploaded his information here."
"Like Nate," Celia says.
"What?" Ava asks.
"The message he left us was on his hard drive," I say.
"Let's check, shall we?" Declan asks, and when no one objects, he presses a button on the front of the computer. It lights up, but instead of turning on to a desktop screen like the computers on the Immortal, the screen remains black and only white text appears.
"All drives have been restored to their original settings," the message reads. "Used Storage: 0 TB. Unused Storage: 150,000 TB."
"Wow," Declan says.
"What?"
"150,000 terabytes is a lot of storage. They probably had all of their brains on this. Plus, like, everything from the internet before the world ended. And someone wiped it all away."
"One guess who," Ava says.
"Yep... decades of advancements, centuries of history and information, all gone because of one jerk's plan to take over the world." Declan shakes his head, and holds the power button to turn the computer off. "We'll take this all back to the Immortal. Maybe Julian can help restore some of the information, or at least give those people back what he can of their identities."
"That's assuming they weren't loyal to Roberts and Cooper," I say.
"Roberts was a computer. I'm sure those kids out there were just normal teenagers," Declan says.
"Who grew up in a spaceship with apparently no other adults," Ava adds.
"Right. Maybe Julian can figure out what happened to the adults too," Declan says, "but my guess? Based on how Roberts and Cooper treat their minions, I'd say they were killed or experimented on or something crazy like that."
"Let's just get out of here," Celia says, shivering. "This place is creepy."
I reach into the case in which Roberts' flash drive is plugged and I pull it out.
"What are you doing?" Declan asks.
"We can take the computer to Julian, but the flash drive? It has Roberts' name on it, and there's no reason any one should ever have to have any reminder of Roberts and Cooper. I say we throw it into the pit and bury it with Gunther and the rest of their monsters."
Declan thinks it over, unconvinced.
"She's right," Ava tells him, and steals the drive from my hand. "Now let's go. The sooner we're done here, the sooner I can leave with the Alliance and see Ian."
She walks out and Celia follows. Daniel waits for me as I stand with Declan, who leans against the computer in frustration. "Go ahead," I tell Daniel. "I'll meet you out there. Tell them to start burying it."
"Okay," Daniel says, shifting his gaze between me and Declan.
Once Declan and I are alone, I turn to him and ask, "What's going on?"
He shakes his head.
"No, tell me."
He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I killed Gunther. He should be gone, and yet... here we are, faced with one of the most powerful computers left in the world, and it's completely blank... because of him. And he's not even here anymore. I'm sick of him ruining every good thing in this world."
"He didn't ruin you," I say. "And he didn't ruin me. He tried, but he didn't. At least we're okay."
"I don't know about that," Declan mumbles.
I'm not sure how to respond, so I shift the conversation. "You know what Gunther said to me before you killed him?"
"That he was the all-time greatest and you were worthless?"
"Well, yeah, I guess so," I say. "But that's not what I was going to talk about. I was going to tell you that Gunther said he didn't want you to kill him. He didn't want to face the fact that he drove Hugh to death by keeping him from you, and he knew you would remind him of that. He knew that he ruined things, but... he also knew that you were a savior to the only thing he ever loved."
A tear leaks down Declan's cheek. "He did not say that," he says.
"Yeah, he did. He got real sappy in his last moments," I joke, and Declan sneaks a smile. "Gunther was a monster, and the world is better without him. But he wasn't dumb. He knew what he'd done. So let's focus on the things he couldn't ruin. On the people who rebelled against his torture, like you and me. Like Alexander and Phoebe. Like Hugh."
Declan smiles freely now. "It's not weird, so I'll say it: I love you, Isla. You're my best friend."
I tossle his hair so that he looks like he did the first day I met him. "Love you too, Dec," I say.
He rolls his eyes. "I thought we discussed this. No 'Dec.' That actually is weird."
"Aw, c'mon Dec, don't be so stiff," I joke, and we leave the spacecraft.
"I'm not stiff, I'm your right hand man. Get it, because I lost my right hand and yours was stabbed."
I shoot him a tired look. "Too soon, Dec. Too soon."