Mistrunner 2 - Chapter 70 - A New Tomorrow (Patreon)

To my ruin, I overestimated Mira’s capacity for empathy. Or maybe she did care about all those people. I don’t know. But she refused to veer off her chosen path just because a few innocent people were going to die. It was only in the moments before my death that it became clear that she truly had become Jeremiah’s successor.

Nora Lancaster

Panic gripped my mind as tremors shook the city. I’d never been in an earthquake, but I suspect that what I felt in that moment was something similar. It was only due to the increased proprioception that came with [Acrobatics] that I was able to maintain my footing. Still, I took a brief moment to look down at Nora’s corpse. In death, she looked much smaller than she had in life.

Was that the effect of the sabotaged bio-enhancers? Or just the lack of her big personality? I would never know.

I should have been elated. Happy. Or at least satisfied. But I wasn’t. Looking down on Nora’s body, all I felt was a mountain of regret. Not that I’d killed her – that was always inevitable and necessary. Instead, I regretted that she’d chosen such a doomed path. If she’d simply maintained her loyalty to my uncle, she might have had decades more to live. But now, her life had ended before she’d managed to accomplish anything of note.

Another tremor put the lie to that thought. Bringing down a city the size of Nova had to count as noteworthy, right? Perhaps that was the point. Even in death, she’d chosen the selfish route.

But was I any different? I’d wrapped my actions in pretty justifications, but at the end of the day, I’d chosen my needs over the lives of everyone left in the city. I couldn’t rightly call that anything but selfish.

That wasn’t anything new. Not for me, and not for the rest of humanity. That was the one lesson I’d learned better than any other. Nobody ever really worked for the greater good. They don’t want to make the world a better place. Instead, everyone just wants to progress – whether it was in the realm of wealth, power, or influence – so that the injustices inherent in any society no longer applied to them.

And I was a shining example of that philosophy.

I hadn’t set out to achieve that dubious distinction. It was just a byproduct of human nature. At the end of the day, I just didn’t care about anyone else the way I cared about myself or my goals. I wanted to be different. I wanted to choose a different path. But when the time came, I made the only decision that made sense to me.

My goals versus the lives of everyone in Nova City.

I hadn’t even hesitated before killing Nora. Not really. And that said more about me than anything else I’d ever done. If my mind had been laid bare by that spider’s mental attack, then killing Nora had stripped my soul of any pretenses.

I was not a good person.

Perhaps I wasn’t evil. Not really – because I’d never set out to cause needless harm. But in the back of my mind, crowded by all the other thoughts I didn’t want to acknowledge, I had to wonder if that distinction really mattered. After all, how many people really set out to become villains? There were bound to be a few, but the vast majority of evil boiled down to simple selfishness. They wanted something so much that they just didn’t care about the cost. In that way, maybe I really had willingly descended into that realm.

Of course, I didn’t think I’d live to regret it. After all, with every passing second, the intensity of the tremors increased. Soon enough, whatever reinforcement the Mist provided would be overcome, and everything would tumble down to the ground.

It really was fitting. I’d worked so hard, I’d sacrificed so many – it only made sense that my moment of triumph, as grim as the cost was, would turn out to be a double-edged sword that cut both ways.

For a moment, I considered simply surrendering. I’d gotten what I wanted, and no matter what plans I’d made, I really had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. And besides, I hadn’t forgotten about the impending doom that rode on the shoulders of the aliens’ upcoming arrival. Once they landed, everything would change, and not for the better. Perhaps it was better if I simply gave in and let the consequences of my actions sweep over me.

Maybe that would be the noble thing to do. The selfless thing. Wherever I went, chaos and destruction followed. I was a walking calamity, and I had no doubts that the world would be a safer place without me in it.

But then, the selfishness reared its ugly head once again, and I realized that I could no more wait for my death than I could simply choose to stop breathing. It was antithetical to everything I was.

So, I started in on a plan.

First, get out of the megabuilding. Second, get to the edge of the platform. Third, jump.

As far as plans went, it was a simple one, but I didn’t have time to come up with anything more complicated. Once, I’d survived a fall of a few hundred feet, so I had some hope of making it out alive. Of course, there was a marked difference between a plunge of a few hundred feet and one of a couple thousand, and I’d have to somehow avoid the falling platforms, but I wasn’t exactly bursting with options.

Not if I wanted to survive.

With that in mind, I started moving. I covered the distance to the door of the penthouse in a few short steps, and by the time I hit the corridor, I’d accelerated to a limping sprint that took me all the way to the elevator. Without hesitation, I leaped into the shaft, slowing my fall by periodically gripping the ledges I’d used during my climb. I never paused for more than an instant, but it was enough to keep me from splatting against the roof of the elevator car.

I slipped into the elevator car, surprising a couple of Operators. I stopped only long enough to end their lives with two quick strokes from my nano-bladed sword, and then I was once again on my way.

I dashed through the halls and to the front door, pushing myself to run ever faster. My passage didn’t go unnoticed, and a hail of gunfire – first, from the Operators who’d been stationed on the ground floor of the megabuilding, then from the Enforcers who’d gathered outside – followed in my wake. However, I was moving so quickly, and I’d arrived so suddenly that I broke free completely unscathed.

Perhaps the increasingly powerful tremors helped a little, too.

I had no idea what all the others thought was happening, but I didn’t think they knew that the entire city would soon fall. If they had, they wouldn’t have been worried about me at all. Instead, they’d have been running right alongside me, desperate to find some way of preserving their lives.

I couldn’t be bothered with thoughts of their fate, though.

Instead, I continued my sprint until I had enough space to summon my Cutter. Once I’d straddled my hoverbike, I felt marginally better about my chances. I was fast, but even I couldn’t sprint quickly enough to reach the edge of the platform before everything fell. But with the hoverbike, I had a chance, which was all I could hope for.

I raced through the streets, taking the quickest path to the ramp that would lead down to Algiers. I’d considered simply going to the edge of the Garden, but in an attempt at safety, the platform was ringed by tall buildings, without a gap in sight. In the past, I’d considered it a good thing, keeping people from inadvertently falling to their deaths, but as I sped through the Garden, I couldn’t help but wish the city’s founders were a little less cognizant of their citizens’ safety.

In any case, it severely limited my options, and I had no choice but to head to one of Algiers’ gates. That had the unexpected bonus of helping me avoid the other falling platforms.

I glanced back the way I’d come, and what I saw nearly made me lose control of the hoverbike. In the distance and far above me, the King’s Row platform loomed. But even without flaring Observation, I could see the thick fissures spreading across the pillars that supported it. In addition, a cloud of small ships, looking like a swarm of insects because of the distance, had erupted from the surface and into the air.

The aristocrats had begun their evacuation.

Pity, that. I might’ve lamented the deaths of the remaining citizens of the Garden, Algiers, or even Bywater, but I’d never be caught shedding a tear for the fates of the rich and powerful who called the higher platforms home. I could only hope that the majority didn’t possess the means to escape the upcoming catastrophe. If so, then maybe there would be a silver lining to my selfish choice to sacrifice the city on the altar of my vengeance.

After that quick glance, I refocused on keeping the bike under control and at top speed. As I tore through the Garden, I passed more than a few groups of Operators. Some saw me coming, and took that opportunity to take pot shots at me; universally, they underestimated my speed, but I still picked up a couple of flesh wounds to add to my tally of injuries.

There was a part of me that desperately wanted to stop and make them pay for attacking me, but it wasn’t difficult to suppress that urge with the knowledge that I was running out of time.

Almost as soon as that thought flitted across my mind, a huge shudder rocked the platform. I could barely keep the bike under control as a second tremor followed. And then another. Before I could go more than a few feet, the entire platform had begun to tilt to the side.

Even as I kept going, buildings started to fall apart. The megabuildings were reinforced, so they remained intact, but the others – they weren’t so lucky. All around me the city began to crumble. I dodged back and forth as I continued to pour on the speed, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough. The city’s pillars were failing far sooner than I’d hoped.

But I had no choice but to keep going. Even if there’d been other options, I’d gone well past the point of turning back and trying something else. I was committed, and I could only do my best to avoid the obstacles in my way.

A three-story building near the edge of the platform teetered, then fell across the street in front of me. With my Mind attribute, I was able to make the minute adjustments necessary to take me down a side street where I could avoid the worst of falling rubble, but the same couldn’t be said for a group of Operators who’d set up a checkpoint directly in its path.

I didn’t see them crushed, but I didn’t need to, either.

Like everyone else in the city, they’d been doomed the moment I’d chosen to kill Nora.

I turned again, putting myself back on the proper path, and soon enough, I reached my destination – only to find that the spiraling ramp that led down to Algiers had already started to fall.

I kept going.

However, the moment I started circling the spiral ramp, I began to regret it. Above me, the concrete had already begun to crumble, and by the third revolution of the spiral, a couple of huge chunks fell free. I jerked the bike to the side, narrowly avoiding the first, then put on a little additional speed to outrun the second. Both thudded into the ramp, sending huge cracks arcing from the points of impact.

But it held.

Barely.

I leaned forward, eking every ounce of speed I could out of the bike. The centrifugal force pressed against me, making my already-injured organs feel like they’d been mashed into jelly, but I had no choice but to go faster. So, I did.

My body did not thank me for it, but I managed to shoot out the other side of the ramp just in time to avoid falling along with the entire structure. Behind me, the sound of the failing structure filled my ears, followed by a deep rumble that could only have been one of the pillars finally giving out.

I couldn’t spare the attention to check for sure.

Instead, I raced through the familiar streets of Algiers. Thankfully, it was almost entirely deserted, but there was still a sizable population of homeless people, addicts, and the poorest of the poor. None of them could afford to leave the city. Likely, some of them hadn’t even climbed out of their stupors long enough to know that everyone else had fled.

Was it a mercy, that they would soon die? That they would be spared a slow death?

Maybe.

Probably not.

Either way, I could do nothing to change their fates. Even without the city falling all around them, most would have died within a few months anyway. Transience and drug addiction made for a short life.

I raced along, barely outpacing the destruction.

And then, suddenly, the street in front of me fell away, replaced by a yawning abyss I could never hope to bridge. I skidded to a stop, barely maintaining my seat. A hundred yards of open air stood before me, followed by the rest of the district. I hadn’t even gotten close to the gate that had been my destination.

I didn’t remain stationary for long. I didn’t have that luxury. Instead, I turned around and found a side street, hoping to take a different route. However, I soon discovered that the way was blocked on all sides.

Except back the way I’d come, but that wasn’t option.

Sitting on my Cutter, I sighed. So close, and yet, so far away. I’d almost escaped. All around me, the city continued to rumble and rock, but I paid it little attention. I’d reached the end of my rope. I was out of options. The only way I could hope to survive was to jump now and hope I somehow avoided the thousand – or maybe millions – of tons of falling concrete that had once been the Algiers District.

A slim hope indeed.

But who was I kidding? My chances of survival had always been slim. I wasn’t going to live through a fall of thousands of feet. I’d progressed a long way, but there were limits to everything. And I’d reached mine.

Still, I couldn’t surrender.

I couldn’t just give up.

If there was one characteristic that I could point to as integral to the very core of who I was, it was my stubbornness. At times, I’d thought of it as endurance. Other times, I’d dressed it up with prettier words. But at the end of the day, I was just too stubborn to stop.

So, with a deep breath, I dismissed my Cutter and stepped up to the huge rent in the platform and peeked over the edge. The swamp was down there. It barely looked real from so far away. I knew I didn’t have a choice but to leap, but still, my insides twisted into painful knots as I thought about doing just that.

As I had done so often in the past, I put one foot in front of the other. Then another. And on the third step, my foot found nothing but air.

I fell.

To my likely death.

And as I tumbled into the open air, my thoughts didn’t settle on selfish desires. I didn’t think about my future or my goals. Instead, I thought about Patrick. I hoped he’d gotten out. I’d sent him a message before my assault on the megabuilding, telling him to get out of the city as soon as he got back from the Bazaar, but I wasn’t even sure it had gone through.

Still, I hoped it had. I hoped he could find a way to survive and make a life for himself. It was probably better this way.

In that moment, I closed my eyes and accepted my inevitable death. If I was lucky, I’d die on impact, but I suspected that wouldn’t be the case. No – I’d survive, at least for a few minutes, but I’d probably be broken to the point of incapacitation. Then, unable to move, I’d be incapable of escaping the falling rubble of the city.

That’s when I would die, buried under tons of rock and –

I jerked to a sudden stop as I smacked into something. I didn’t even have a chance to open my eyes before I heard Patrick’s voice over our secure connection say, “Hold on! It’s going to be close!”

I opened my eyes to see that I’d landed on a sleek piece of metal, and it took an embarrassingly long couple of seconds before I realized that I was on top of a ship. “W-what…how…”

“Kind of busy!” he shouted. “Explain in a minute!”

Then, the ship accelerated, and it was all I could do to grab hold of a ridge to keep from falling off. A moment later, we had found open air. It was just in time, too. I looked back the way we’d come, and I saw that the pillars had finally given in to inevitability, and their crumbling announced the beginning of Nova City’s fall.

The ship continued to speed along until we were miles away. Without the extra grip strength of the Hand of God, I probably couldn’t have managed to stay in place, but with it, I barely maintained my position until, at last, we began our descent. Finally, we landed in a clearing.

As we settled down, I looked back and saw the giant platforms of Nova City plummet into the swamp. Even miles away, the ground shook. I couldn’t look away until, minutes later, the entire city had fallen.

“Uh…you want to come inside? I don’t want to be here much longer,” Patrick said through our connection. “I can stay under the radar for a while, but there are a lot of ships in the air right now.”

Numbly, I pushed myself to my feet and looked down at the surface of the ship. Its hull was black with gold trim, reminding me of Patrick’s pistol, but I couldn’t really see much more than the general color scheme. Not that I was in any sort of state to appreciate it anyway.

After all, I was wrung out, both mentally and physically exhausted, and more injured than I’d been at any time other than when I’d fought the mutated wildlings. And I didn’t have a friendly Templar around to heal me this time.

Awkwardly, I slid down from my perch to see that Patrick had already exited the ship and was looking up at me. I could tell from his wince that I didn’t look great. And no matter my appearance, I was sure I felt even worse.

“You don’t look so great,” he said, helping me down.

“Don’t feel so hot, either,” I admitted. “How did you find me?”

“The secure connection,” he said. “Kind of a misnomer, honestly, because that thing isn’t even close to secure. I used the equipment in the ship to home in on your location. When I saw your altitude decreasing, I kind of figured you jumped. Because of course you would jump.”

“Why didn’t you contact me?” I asked.

“Believe me, I tried,” he said. “But with all those explosions, the Mist went wild. Too much interference for communication until I got close.”

“You saved me.”

“I did.”

“Again.”

“And I always will, Mira,” he said. “I know you hate not being in control, but –”

I didn’t let him finish. Instead, I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his chest. That’s when the tears came – from both of us. He muttered something about not being able to lose me. I tried to muster a response, but I couldn’t get anything out between the sobs. But neither of us really needed to say anything.

Actions spoke louder than any words could ever hope to match. And when it came down to it, Patrick had proven that he would always be there for me.

After far too long, I pulled away and looked up into his eyes. Then, I said, “Come on. Let’s…let’s get out of here.”

“Where to?” he asked.

“I don’t care. Just away from here,” I answered. “I’ve had enough of this place.”