My Husband and Son Gave My Escape Pod to the Prophet

The wall of searing white fire slammed into my chest.

The shockwave tore the breath from my lungs and lifted me entirely off my boots. The massive infected creature mid-leap evaporated into a cloud of gray ash as the Ark Pod thrusters hit maximum burn. I flew backward, crashing hard against the grated metal floor.

I slid across the scorched steel, jagged edges tearing at my jacket, until my boots dangled over the cracked edge of the evacuation platform.

Below me, the base’s lower levels burned in a sea of violent orange flames.

Above, the three Ark Pods tore through the reinforced ceiling, rocketing toward the atmosphere.

"Mom! Mom, are you there?"

Caleb’s voice blasted through my wrist console, frantic and shrill over the static of the open frequency.

I grabbed the mangled railing beside me and hauled myself up to my knees.

The horde of infected swarmed over the scorched launch track. The thruster fire had bought me ten seconds of clear air, but the Black Tide was already surging forward again. Their elongated claws clicked against the melting steel, their glowing red eyes fixed on my position.

"Evelyn, report," Marcus ordered over the comms. His tone held the same flat, mechanical authority he used on his foot soldiers. "Did you secure a bunker?"

I didn't answer him. I reached my left hand toward the ceiling, accessing my spatial pocket.

I bypassed the crates of plasma charges and grabbed three industrial fuel barrels, along with a heavy spool of reinforced iron mesh. I hurled the steel drums directly into the center of the charging horde. The mesh followed, unspooling in mid-air to tangle around their thrashing, rotting limbs.

I raised my plasma pistol, aimed at the center barrel, and squeezed the trigger.

The explosion deafened me.

A shockwave of fire and jagged iron ripped through the front lines of the infected. Black sludge rained down from the ceiling, hissing violently as it met the spreading flames. A temporary wall of fire roared to life, separating me from the horde.

"Mom, answer me!" Caleb yelled, his voice cracking. "Did she get on the landing struts? Is she outside the pod?"

"Negative, Caleb," Marcus replied smoothly. "The exterior sensors are clear. She is not on the hull."

"We have to go back!" Caleb screamed. I heard the sound of a fist pounding against thick glass. "Turn it around, Dad! She can't fight them all!"

"She will find a way," Marcus said.

I stared at the blinking green light on my wrist console.

*She will find a way.*

He delivered the words casually. An offhand dismissal of the woman who had kept him alive for five years. He wasn't offering hope. He was washing his hands of me.

I dropped my gaze to my left arm.

The sleeve of my jacket hung in burning tatters. Beneath the scorched fabric, three deep gouges tore through my skin.

I hadn't even felt the strike during the chaos of the thruster blast.

Thick, viscous black veins crawled up my forearm, branching out from the open wounds. The infection dug into my flesh, pulsing in time with my racing heart. The skin around the scratches turned a sickly, necrotic gray.

The Black Tide was in my blood.

"Dad, the platform is melting!" Caleb sobbed over the radio. "She's going to die down there! We left her to die!"

"Your mother is a survivor," Marcus said, his voice dropping to a stern reprimand. "She knows the protocols. Focus on the ascent, Caleb. We have a species to save."

A violent tremor shook my skull.

I looked up. The spatial rift hovering above the platform flickered rapidly. The edges of the dimensional pocket blurred, losing their sharp blue glow.

Half-empty medical kits, steel combat knives, and spare plasma cartridges tumbled out of the void. They didn't fall to the floor. They vibrated in mid-air, caught in a chaotic anti-gravity field.

My control was slipping. The infection was eating away at my neural link to the dimension.

"Sera, tell him!" Caleb begged, his voice shifting away from the microphone. "Tell Dad to turn around! Use your visions! Tell him Mom survives if we go back!"

"I see only darkness below, Caleb," Seraphina whispered over the comms, her tone dripping with rehearsed sympathy. "The future requires sacrifice. We must look to the light."

My jaw tightened. I pressed my thumb against the jagged scratch on my arm, welcoming the sharp sting of physical pain. It anchored my fading focus.

"Mom, please!" Caleb cried out, raw and desperate. "Say something! Tell me you're coming!"

I raised my wrist to my mouth.

"I am not coming, Caleb," I said, my voice steady over the roar of the flames.

"Mom!"

"Evelyn, do not incite panic in this cabin," Marcus barked. "Hold your position and wait for..."

I pressed the red button on the side of the console.

The channel died.

The silence that followed felt absolute, broken only by the crackle of the fire and the shrieks of the monsters beyond it.

I didn't throw the radio away. I just let my arm drop to my side.

For two years, every tactical decision I made revolved around their voices. Marcus’s orders. Caleb’s needs. Their hesitation had constantly dragged me down, chaining me to a base that took my blood and gave nothing in return.

Not anymore.

I severed the connection. I was done being their shield.

The wall of fire began to die down. The iron mesh glowed cherry red, snapping and melting under the corrosive sludge spat by the infected.

A massive creature, its jaw unhinged and dripping black ooze, burst through the dying flames. It locked its glowing red eyes on me and lunged, crossing the distance in a single, terrifying bound.

I raised my plasma pistol, but the spatial rift above me violently shuddered.

The blue light vanished.

The tear in the air turned pitch black, expanding rapidly until it eclipsed the ceiling.

Before I could pull the trigger, the dark void surged forward and swallowed the leaping infected whole.