My Husband and Son Gave My Escape Pod to the Prophet

I lunged forward, grabbing Marcus by the wrist before he could pull his hand away. My fingers dug into his skin, searching for the silver access badge he had just pressed into Seraphina's palm.

"You don't get to give my life away," I said, my voice cutting through the wail of the evacuation sirens.

Marcus wrenched his arm free. "It is already done, Evelyn."

I reached for Seraphina. She flinched, clutching the badge to her chest.

A body slammed into my shoulder, shoving me back.

I stumbled, my boots skidding across the metal grating. I caught myself on the railing and looked up.

Caleb stood between me and Seraphina. My son.

He held his hands up, a faint green glow illuminating his pale, sweat-slicked face. "Mom, stop."

"Move, Caleb," I ordered. "He just gave her my seat."

"She needs it," Caleb said. He did not lower his hands. His jaw set in a stubborn line. "Sera's prophecies can save the remaining settlements. We need her."

I stared at him. The boy I had raised, the boy I had bled for, was shielding the woman stealing my only way out.

"I am your mother," I said.

Caleb swallowed hard. He refused to meet my eyes. "And you are the strongest fighter in Haven-7. Mom, you are so strong. You can survive out there. Sera can't."

His words hit me harder than Marcus's physical shove. My son was using my resilience as the excuse to leave me behind.

"I survive because I have to," I snapped, stepping toward him. "Because if I don't, who protects you?"

"I don't need protection anymore," Caleb argued, his voice cracking. "I have my healing light. I am a soldier now."

I looked at the soft green light radiating from his palms. My chest tightened until it felt like my ribs might snap.

Exactly one year ago, I had handed Marcus that very same silver access badge. I traded my command rank to secure a private isolation ward for Caleb. Before that, the base scientists strapped my boy to a metal table every morning, draining his blood to synthesize their healing serums. I gave up everything to stop them from treating him like a human battery.

"You think you are a soldier?" I asked, my tone dropping to a whisper. "You are alive because I bought your life with my blood."

"And now you are being selfish!" Caleb yelled. He finally looked at me, his eyes wide and frantic. "You have your spatial vault. You can hide. Sera has nothing but her visions. If she stays, humanity loses its only guide."

"Humanity?" I laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "You are sacrificing your mother for a stranger."

"I am doing what is right," Caleb said.

Marcus shoved the transfer panel toward him. "Then authorize the reassignment."

Caleb hesitated for one terrible second before pressing his glowing palm to the scanner. A green confirmation bar swept across the screen.

Pod Three access transferred: Evelyn Vale to Seraphina.

A deafening boom shook the platform. The titanium blast doors buckled inward, the thick metal groaning under immense pressure.

"Warning. Ninety seconds to launch," the automated voice blared over the intercom.

Black sludge spewed through the widened cracks, hissing as it melted the steel floor. The Black Tide was inside. Noxious smoke poured into the room, smelling of melting copper and rotting meat.

"Get to the pods!" Marcus yelled. He grabbed Caleb's shoulder, pushing him toward the launch track.

A guard by the melting door screamed. A thick tendril of black ooze whipped through the smoke, wrapping tightly around the man's ankle. The soldier fired his rifle blindly into the expanding mass, the muzzle flash illuminating the writhing horror of the swarm.

"Hold the line!" the guard shrieked, clawing at the grating as the sludge dragged him toward the breach.

Caleb turned. His hands flared with bright green healing energy. "I can burn it off him!"

He took a step toward the doomed soldier.

"Don't waste your strength," Seraphina said.

She reached out and clamped her fingers around Caleb's wrist.

Caleb jerked. His boot slipped on a patch of slick oil leaking from a ruptured pipe. He crashed hard to his knees, his chin striking the metal floor.

The green light in his palms sputtered and died.

"Help me!" the guard screamed one last time.

Without Caleb's healing light to repel the sludge, the black tendril yanked the guard backward with terrifying speed. He vanished into the writhing mass of the Tide. The wet crunch of breaking bones echoed over the blaring sirens.

I rushed forward, reaching for Caleb.

Seraphina looked up from my son. She met my gaze.

For a fraction of a second, a thin, jagged red line flashed across her irises. It glowed with a sickening, unnatural light.

My blood ran cold. I stopped dead in my tracks.

That was not the mark of an Oracle. The seers of the resistance possessed eyes of pure white when they channeled the future. Red meant something else entirely. Red meant infection. Red meant the Tide.

"Get away from him," I warned, summoning a shimmering spatial blade into my right hand. The weapon hummed with blue energy.

Seraphina released Caleb's wrist and took a quick step back, hiding behind Marcus. "She is going to attack me."

"Evelyn, stand down!" Marcus ordered. He hauled Caleb to his feet by the collar of his jacket.

"Look at her eyes, Marcus!" I pointed the blade at Seraphina. "She is infected."

"You are losing your mind," Marcus spat. He shoved Caleb toward the first pod. "Get in, now."

Caleb stumbled into Pod One. He did not look back at me. The hydraulic canopy hissed shut, sealing him inside.

"Warning. Sixty seconds to launch," the intercom announced.

The Black Tide surged forward, devouring the last of the blast doors. A wave of black sludge rolled across the platform, melting the remaining guards into screaming puddles of liquid.

"Marcus, she manipulated him," I pleaded, keeping my weapon raised. "She made Caleb fall. She killed that guard."

"She is terrified, Evelyn," Marcus said. He backed away, shielding Seraphina with his body. "This is exactly why I could not trust you. You are too volatile. You let your emotions cloud your judgment."

"My judgment is the only reason you are still breathing," I said.

"Goodbye, Evelyn," Marcus replied.

He jumped into Pod Two. The heavy glass canopy slammed down, locking into place.

Seraphina stepped up to Pod Three. My pod.

The emergency strobes painted her face in harsh crimson shadows. She paused on the threshold, her hands resting on the metal frame.

The swarm roared behind me, the heat of the melting platform singeing the back of my jacket. I raised my spatial blade, preparing to cut the pod's control panel. If I could not leave, neither could she.

Seraphina leaned out of the pod.

She fixed her eyes on mine. The red jagged line pulsed in her pupils, bright and undeniable.

"You won't die," she whispered, her voice slicing clearly through the chaos. "But they will forget you hurt."