“I don’t see nothin’,” Clay said.
“Me neither,” Colt said.
They were both peeking out the window, scanning the yard and the tree line beyond it. Nothing moved. The woods looked empty, but empty didn’t mean safe anymore.
Colt stepped back from the window. He grabbed a blanket off the chair by the fireplace and walked to Pa.
He stood there a second, looking down at him. Then he draped the blanket over the body, covering his face last.
“Let’s go,” Colt said.
Clay moved toward the door. “We tryin’ to sneak up to the tree line? Or we runnin’?”
“We runnin’.”
Colt hit the door and sprinted. Clay followed. Their boots tore across the yard, arms pumping, breath coming hard. The tree line rushed up and swallowed them. They made it to the forest and pressed their backs against a thick pine, chests heaving.
Colt looked around. Clay did the same.
Clay whispered. “Colt.” He pointed through the brush. “Ninja.”
Colt saw it. A body in black, crumpled in the dirt about twenty yards out.
He crouch-walked toward it, staying low. When he got there he rolled the body over and found the base of the skull. The crystal sat half-buried in the skin, glowing faint violet.
He pulled out his bowie, worked the blade under the edge, and pried.
Pop.
The crystal came free. Colt grabbed it.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.01
Shinki: 3/50
He looked to his left. Another dead ninja, maybe thirty feet away.
He moved to it. Blade under. Pry. Pop.
Shinki: 4/50
He looked around. Clay did too. No more bodies in sight.
“Let’s split up,” Colt said, keeping his voice low. “Stay quiet.”
“Yeah.” Clay didn’t sound sure about it.
“Meet back here in an hour.”
Colt took off into the trees.
Behind him, Clay whisper-yelled. “Colt, wait—”
He was already gone.
Colt moved through the woods alone, collecting from ninjas here and there.
One near a creek bed.
Shinki: 5/50
One tangled in some brush.
Shinki: 6/50
Two more in a clearing where the grass was torn up and bloody.
Shinki: 7/50
Shinki: 8/50
He kept moving. Kept hunting. Kept prying crystals out of skulls and dropping them in the satchel.
9/50
10/50
11/50
Then he came to one that was different.
The ninja lay on his back, arms spread. But the base of his skull was already torn open. No crystal. Just a ragged hole where it should have been.
“What?” Colt muttered. “Somebody took it already.”
He looked around. Didn’t see anything. The trees were still.
He started moving toward where the black wolf had fought those ninjas earlier.
He got close and saw motion up ahead.
Colt dropped behind a tree and pressed his back against the bark. He leaned around it just enough to see.
Ninjas. Three of them, crouched over the bodies, working at the skulls.
They were harvesting the shinki.
“Fuck,” Colt breathed.
He waited. Watched them work. They finished and walked off through the trees, heading east.
Colt stayed behind the trunk until he couldn’t hear them anymore.
Then he headed back to Clay.
Colt waited at the meeting spot.
He leaned against the pine where they’d split up, scanning the trees. The light was starting to fade.
Where is he, Colt thought. It’s gotta be an hour by now.
Then a shotgun blast echoed through the woods.
“Shit.”
He ran toward it.
Another shot.
“Clay!”
He crashed through the brush and saw his brother bent over a body.
“Clay, what happened?”
Clay stood up. He was holding a shinki.
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Smiling.
“Ain’t no dodgin’ 12 gauge buck,” Clay said.
Colt let out a breath and smiled back. “How many did you get?”
“Eleven.” Clay reached into his coat. “But look at this.”
He pulled out a crystal three times the size of the others. It glowed brighter, heavier in his palm.
“Took this off a big fucker,” Clay said. “Had to be nine foot tall.”
Colt stared at it. “Holy shit. Where at?”
“’Bout a mile east.”
“How many you get?” Clay asked.
“Fifteen. But I saw some more ninjas. They were takin’ the crystals out of their own dead too.”
Clay’s smile faded a little. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” Colt opened his satchel.
“Take these. How many we got now?” Clay dumped his crystals into the bag. They clinked against the ones already there.
Colt looked at the count in the corner of his vision.
Shinki: 35/50
“That big one must’ve been more,” Colt said. “Like four shinki.”
Clay nodded. “Makes sense.” Then he laughed. “Actually. None of this shit makes any sense.”
“Yeah, well, wait till you get to the HUB. That’s gonna blow your mind.”
“HUB?” Clay said. “What’s a HUB?”
“It’s a little room. Lots of high tech gadgets. And that’s where Kevin is.” Colt paused. “Not the dog. Kevin’s a little metal man. ’Bout four feet tall. Talks funny.”
Clay put a finger over his lips. “Shhh.”
Colt tensed. They pressed their backs against a tree.
Through the brush, maybe fifty yards out, a grizzly stood over a body. Massive. Brown fur matted with blood. Its head was down, jaws working at something on the ground.
A ninja. What was left of one.
“Damn it,” Colt whispered. “He’s gonna eat the shinki.”
Clay leaned close. “We can track him. Get it from his shit.”
“Nah, man.” Colt shook his head. “I don’t want no shit shinki.”
Clay covered his mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
They waited until the grizzly moved off, then circled wide around it and kept hunting.
They snuck through the woods for another hour, working their way from body to body. Some were easy to find, sprawled in the open where the wolves had torn through them. Others were half-buried in brush or slumped against trees.
Colt pried crystals out and dropped them in the satchel. The count climbed.
40/50
43/50
47/50
49/50
He found one more near a fallen log, blade under, pry, pop.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.01
Shinki: 50/50
“That’s it, Clay.” Colt held up the crystal. “I got fifty.”
Clay walked over. “Now what?”
“I don’t know. Let’s head back to the cabin. I’ll look at the menu.”
Clay didn’t even ask any more questions. He just followed Colt through the trees, shaking his head.
They snuck their way back to the cabin, moving slow, staying low. The door was still hanging off one hinge. They slipped inside.
Clay posted up by the window, shotgun across his lap, eyes on the tree line.
Colt walked to the middle of the room and opened the satchel. He turned it over and dumped the shinki out in a pile on the floor. The crystals clinked against each other, violet light catching the dim room.
He stared at the pile.
“So,” Clay said from the window. “What now? What’s the plan, Colt?”
Colt took a breath. He focused on the words in the corner of his vision.
“Yes.”
The main menu dropped into his sight.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.01
Stats
Status
Map
Armory
Module Bay: LOCKED
Skills: LOCKED
Help
?????
?????
?????
He looked at Map. It lit up.
The menu shifted and Earth 265 appeared. Colt focused on the designation and thought about Earth 145. The map flashed.
EARTH 145
The HUB showed on the screen. One room. The bed. The table. Kevin’s spot marked near the center.
Colt looked at Travel, It lit up.
Insufficient Shinki: 0/50
He stared at it.
“What the fuck,” Colt said. He looked at the corner of his vision.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.01
Shinki: 50/50
“I got fifty shinki, man. Says it right there.”
“Where?” Clay looked over from the window.
Colt didn’t answer. He backed out of the map and went to Help.
Help:
FAQ
Tutorial
Report a Bug
Troubleshooting
Contact
Settings: LOCKED
Advanced Settings: LOCKED
He scanned the list. “Hmmm.”
Contact, huh.
He opened it.
Contact: Kevin
“No shit.”
He selected it.
A box opened up in front of him, floating in his vision like a window. Inside it, Kevin’s face appeared, that smooth metal head with the single glowing eye, staring straight at him like he was looking through a pane of glass.
“Oh shit, Kev. Hey.”
Colt glanced back at Clay. “This is Clay. Wait. You can’t see him, can you?”
“No, I can not.”
“How do I use this shinki? I got fifty of ’em, just like it said I needed. But I tried to come back and it still says I need fifty shinki.”
“You must absorb the shinki to use it.”
“How the hell do I do that?”
“Pick a shinki up and hold it in your hand and absorb it.”
Colt stared at the pile of crystals on the floor.
“I was already holdin’ them and nothin’ happened.”
“You must actively want to absorb the shinki.”
“Okay. We’ll see you soon, bye Kev.”
“We? You can not—“
Colt closed the box and looked over at Clay.
Clay’s face was white. His mouth hung open a little. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.
“You’ll see, Clay. You’ll see soon. I’m not crazy.”
“You’re just lucky all this crazy shit’s happenin’,” Clay said. “Otherwise I’d smack you upside yer damn head.” He shook his head. “But do I think you’re crazy? Sure fuckin’ do. Been thinkin’ that for the last eighteen years.” He smiled a little.
Colt laughed. “Yeah, Clay, I love you too.”
Clay huffs, “Yer just over there having a whole ass conversation with the air, that’s all.”
Colt crouched down and picked up a shinki. Looked at it. The violet glow pulsed faint in his palm.
He closed his hand around it and shut his eyes.
Guess I just…
The shinki flared bright. A warm rush shot up his arm and settled in his chest. Colt jumped up and started shaking his body, arms flapping.
“Where’d it go?” Clay said.
“Oh damn.” Colt patted his chest. “That was wild.”
A new message appeared.
1 Shinki absorbed
1 Shinki in Power Bank
He grabbed another one. Closed his hand. Absorbed it.
2 Shinki in Power Bank
3 Shinki in Power Bank
By the third one the feeling wasn’t as bad. His body just vibrated each time, a hum that ran through his bones and faded quick.
“This shit’s gonna take forever.” He stood up and looked at Clay.
Clay was watching him with wide eyes.
“C’mon, Clay, keep watch, man. We don’t need no ninjas sneakin’ up on us.”
Clay turned back to the window, shaking his head.
Colt picked up a handful of crystals and started absorbing them in bunches.
8 Shinki in Power Bank
15 Shinki in Power Bank
27 Shinki in Power Bank
38 Shinki in Power Bank
50 Shinki in Power Bank
Then five minutes later…
“Alright.” Colt stood up. “We’re good now.”
He looked at Clay. “Come here, Clay.”
Clay walked over from the window.
Colt crouched beside Pa. The blanket was still over him. Colt reached under it and took Pa’s hand.
It was already cold.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Damn it, Pa.” Then he looked to Clay.
“Gimme your hand, Clay.”
“This ain’t no time to be holdin’ hands, Colt.”
“Just gimme your damn hand, Clay.”
Clay rolled his eyes and grabbed Colt’s hand.
Colt opened the main menu. Map. Earth 145. Travel.
The air in front of them split.
It started as a line, thin and bright, hovering vertical in the middle of the cabin. Then it widened, the edges peeling back like someone was tearing a hole in the world. Light spilled out, blue and white, swirling in on itself. The center of it churned, a spinning vortex that looked like water going down a drain, except it went nowhere and everywhere at once.
Wind kicked up from nothing. Dust lifted off the floor and swirled toward the opening.
Colt stared at it.
Clay jumped back, nearly ripping his hand out of Colt’s grip. “Holy mother of Christ!” His voice cracked. “What is that?”
He squeezed Colt’s hand so hard his knuckles went white.
“It’s like a doorway, I guess.” Colt nodded at Pa. “Help me get him.”
Clay tore his hand away. “Why the hell did you make me hold your hand?”
“I didn’t know. Last time I was just kind of… taken there.” Colt said while throwing his hands up.
They crouched down and lifted Pa together. Clay’s arms shook. His breath came fast.
Colt knew Clay wanted to break down the second he saw Pa’s body. But like always, he stayed tough for Colt. And Colt stayed tough for Clay.
“Alright, Clay.” Colt shifted Pa’s weight. “Count your mole-cues.” He winked at Clay.
“My what?”
“Let’s go.”
Clay hesitated at the edge of the portal. The light played across his face, blue and white, swirling.
Then they stepped in.
The pull hit immediately. Colt felt his fingers go numb, then his arms, then his chest. The world stretched in front of him, colors bleeding into lines, everything elongating toward that spinning center.
He looked down.
His hands were coming apart.
Not falling off. Dissolving. Breaking into pieces so small they looked like dust, streaming forward into the vortex.
Clay saw it too.
“Whoa.” Clay’s voice came out thin. “Colt. My arms.” He lifted them in front of his face and watched his fingers scatter into light. “Oh shit. Oh shit.”
His legs went next, then his chest, his body unraveling from the edges in.
“OH SHIT! OH SHI—“
Then the portal sucked them through.
