Chapter 2 – Anathema

I blinked as a square message appeared with vivid clarity in the center of my vision. The message read itself in a screaming chorus of a dozen discordant voices that made my skin crawl. A second later, the alarms in the mall went off in the loud droning of what sounded like air-raid sirens. The sound made a primal dread rise in me, a hollow chill spreading through my body that sent goosebumps rising on my skin. Briefly, the memory of every Anathema Emergence drill we’d done in school flashed through my head.

Everyone in the food court winced as the next message bloomed, the mall’s magitech warning system sending the message to every person’s head simultaneously. As the message read itself, I recoiled in horror as voices read the final number.

Ten minutes!? Arcadia was one of the seven most advanced island cities in the world created by the Zenith themselves! The early warning system was supposed to give a minimum of thirty minutes before an attack! I looked at Lily in shock as the warning alarms continued crying out only to find her earlier expression replaced with fear.

Below us, motes of ethereal green light formed into arrows along the floor beneath various groups of people, pointing towards promised safety.

There was a paralyzed few seconds of stillness in the food court where everyone seemed too shocked to move. Then, almost at the same time, people began to panic. Chairs were knocked over as people threw themselves to their feet, shouting as they pushed their way forward. People began to push, yelling as bottlenecks in the miniature hedge maze formed. Somebody screamed, and I stared at the chaos, unable to shake the utter, debilitating terror I felt.

I’d never been caught in an Anathema Usurpation before. Even in Arcadia, with all the fancy magitech shielding crystals, they still happened, but there was always plenty of prior warning. Normally the area was easily evacuated, quarantined, and then cleaned up by MGs and the magical soldiers who dedicated themselves to killing Anathema. Some MGs even livestreamed their fights. Sure, Usurpations weren’t a daily occurrence, but a half-dozen every month were to be expected.

But now I was in the middle of one, and for all the drills we’d done at school, none of it helped with the fear. It was so thick inside me I could feel it coiling through my rib cage and wrapping teeth around my heart. Every racing pulse pushed into those knife points, teasing my chest with sharp pin-pricks of terror. My lungs suddenly felt tight, and I struggled to make myself breathe.

“Mai!”

I snapped back to reality as Lily shook me, leaning in close with a worried look on her face. I sucked in a deep, quivering breath, giving her a shaky nod. She responded with a reassuring smile, but her eyes were alert, snapping back and forth as she watched the chaos around us. She gave me a gentle pull, and I pushed myself up from my seat, grabbing my backpack and shouldering it as an afterthought.

“Don’t worry, we’re actually not in as much danger as it seems,” Lily said after a moment, flashing me a quick grin. “Just follow my lead, okay? This isn’t my first Usurpation.”

I snapped a look at her in shock, but she just chuckled.

“Another time. For now, we wait for our arrows to appear and- ah, there we go!”

As if on cue, glowing arrows of light bloomed beneath our feet along the ground. Grabbing my arm, Lily began pulling me along as we began running along the path the arrows created. It surprised me how quickly the food court had begun to empty out, but there were still people like us just getting to their feet and following their own arrows as they appeared.

The arrows were a form of magitech, made to help with evacuations. They were like an active GPS, creating a constantly updating path to the nearest available shelter. Each group of people got their own customized pathways in an attempt to avoid bottlenecks between fleeing people. So long as the arrows were green, we were on track to make it before the Usurpation took full effect. While it made it look like everyone was running around in a panic, it would hopefully stop people from getting trampled and shelters from overflowing.

We sprinted past stores, turning in seemingly random directions as we trusted the arrows with our lives. Lily could easily have outpaced me, but she stuck by my side even if she did let go of my arm after a minute. As far as I could tell, we were making good time. My mental map wasn’t perfect, but I did remember the general location of the shelters in the building from when I looked up the floorplans the previous night.

We’ll be fine. Ten minutes isn’t much time, but the shelter isn’t far. At most it’ll take a few minutes to get there at full speed, even following this indirect path. Even if the shelter is at capacity, the stairs are nearby, and we could get to the ground floor’s mega shelter entrance. We’re fine. Everything’s going to be-

“Brian!” the voice of a young girl shrieked, the cry broken by sobs.

Lily and I stumbled and came skidding to a stop. Then another wail cried out, and Lily burst into motion down a path towards the sound. I followed after her blindly as we took a turn the arrows weren’t pointing to. Lily moved quickly, faster than I’d ever seen her move before. I did my best to follow her but lost ground in a matter of moments.

We took another turn in the sleek mall and found ourselves in front of a store selling stuffed animals. A young, elementary-aged girl stood there whimpering, looking around. When she spotted us, she practically collapsed, clutching a stuffed bear to her chest. Lily slowed down as she got there, crouching down to the girl’s level. I caught up to her seconds later, breathing heavily.

“Hey there sweetie,” Lily gave a reassuring smile. “What’s wrong? What are you doing here all alone?”

The girl sniffled and wiped snot from her nose, her lower lip quivering.

“Mommy and Daddy told us to wait on the bench with the nice store lady while they got food, but then the alien alarm went off! Everyone started running around and the lady ran too! Nobody would stop to help me!”

She looked to be on the verge of tears again, and Lily reached out her hand, offering it.

“That’s alright, how about we help you? We’ll take you to the shelter. Your mommy and daddy are probably waiting for you there. Come on, we can go together, and you can tell me all about the cute teddy bear you have.”

The girl hesitated, looking between the two of us.

“What about Brian? Who’s going to help Brian?”

“Brian?” Lily tilted her head. “Who’s Brian?”

“He’s my brother!” she whimpered. “He was supposed to wait on the bench with me and the lady, but he wanted to go to the store with the footballs and baseballs! I told him not to go, but he snuck off and-”

“Shh, it’s alright honey,” Lily reassured the girl, rubbing her shoulder gently. “Do you know where the store is? We can go get him together.”

“We had to cross the place with all the food and the pretty fountain,” she said, looking up at Lily as she shook slightly. “It was crowded, and Mommy wanted to eat somewhere quieter.”

Quickly, I reached into my pocket, pulling at my phone. The internet was out, as it always was during an Usurpation, but I still had the third floor’s map pulled up. I scanned over it, looking for our location based on our path so far. I found us quickly, and then started looking through the different stores on the other side of the food court.

“Found it!” I said after a moment, and Lily looked up at me in surprise. “There’s a sporting goods store across the food court. That must be the one.”

Lily gave me a wide grin, and I saw something warm but unfamiliar flash across her face.

“Nice job, Mai! Alright, sweetie, how about you come with us? We’ll pick up your brother, and-”

“Wait!” I interrupted without thinking, my heart leaping into my throat. Lily turned and gave me a questioning look. I bit my lip as I studied the map again, thinking about what the “system message” had said. To my surprise, it popped back into my mind, showing the remaining time. Eight minutes, thirty-two seconds. Below our feet, I could see new arrows had formed, but the previous green had gained a yellowish hue.

As the alarm continued to wail, cold logic began to form in my head at a furious rate. Doubling back, finding the girl’s brother, then running to the shelter… there wouldn’t be enough time, not if we dragged the girl with us. She wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace. Maybe one of us could make it to the store, find Brian, and then run to the shelter, but it would be cutting it close. The only way it was possible would be taking a straight-line route from location to location, relying on everyone else to already have cleared out. The problem was that the person who went would have to know the mall’s map well enough to get straight to the store.

Which meant…

The realization hit me as I considered our options. I ran it through my head once more, but came back to the same conclusion. Swallowing, my legs felt shaky as I forced myself to meet Lily’s searching look. There was only one option if we wanted to save both of the kids.

And I was not about to abandon a little boy to the Anathema.

“We won’t make it if we take her with us,” I finally breathed out. “She wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pace we’d have to go.”

Lily’s eyes widened at my words as she glanced back at the girl. She seemed to think about it for a moment, then gave a simple nod to herself. Looking back to me, I could see the determination on her face.

“Alright, here’s what we’ll do,” she said quickly, her voice a little breathless. “Mai, you’ll take our little pumpkin to the shelter, and I’ll-”

I shook my head quickly, and she stopped.

“Lily, you can’t even navigate in video games with a mini-map that shows your location,” I pointed out, trying to keep my voice from quavering. “You’d only get lost. I… I’ll do it. I’m the one who always ends up navigating for us in games. I can get there and back to the shelter in time.”

She opened her mouth to argue, and I held up a hand.

“Seven minutes, fifty-five seconds,” I pushed. “We don’t have time to discuss this. It has to be me. Just… wish me luck.”

“Mai!” Lily hissed out. She searched my face for something, but after a faltering moment, she simply got up and wrapped me in a tight hug. I squeezed her back, hoping she couldn’t feel my body shaking.

“He might not even be there,” she whispered in my ear.

“But we have to try,” I murmured back. “When you get to the shelter, can you make sure they don’t panic and activate the emergency shield? I’ve… heard horror stories.”

“Over my dead body,” she promised, hugging me so tight it was painful.

Lily pulled away from me after another quick second, giving my shoulders a tight squeeze before she reached into the pocket of the blazer still tied about her waist. She pulled something small out and pushed it into my hands.

“Here. Take this. And no matter what, promise me that if you see the arrows turn orange, you turn back. No. Matter. What.”

I looked back into her eyes as she stared into my own. My stomach turned as I realized she meant I should leave the kid if I couldn’t find him in time. I kept her gaze, ignoring the clenching in my chest.

“I promise,” I lied.

For another breath, neither of us moved, and I swallowed the bitterness in my throat. Then, I turned on my heel and sprinted away from my friend, praying I wouldn’t have to betray her.

I followed my mental map, twisting through the maze until I reached a main pathway, and then I beelined it to the food court. As I did, I looked at the object Lily had pushed into my hand. I almost tripped when I realized it was a switchblade in matte black. I quickly regained my balance and pocketed the knife into my blazer.

Why did she have a knife with her? For that matter, were switchblades even legal in Arcadia? I considered it for another moment, decided it definitely didn’t matter at the moment, and kept moving. I’d just have to ask Lily later.

If there is a later.

I ignored the chill that thought brought along as I entered the food court proper. It was eerie seeing it empty, tipped over tables and half eaten meals littered around. I ignored the feeling and started sprinting through, taking the most direct route I could see. It didn’t take me long to make it through now that there weren’t people adding to the confusion of the area.

By the time I got to the store, I was out of breath. Quickly, I brought back the message telling me the time remaining with a focused thought. Five minutes, twenty-seven seconds. The arrows were orange now, but I ignored them as I kept moving. Hopefully Lily could forgive me.

Please be here and just come out immediately.

I rushed inside the shop, taking a quick look around. The store itself was a medium sized, all-purpose sporting goods type, offering miscellaneous things for a variety of sports. Rows of shelves held everything from footballs to rock climbing gear. I started looking through the aisles quickly, trying to slow my breathing enough to speak.

“Brian?” I called out. “Are you here? Brian, your sister sent me! Come on out, you’re not in trouble, but we have to go! I’ll take you to your parents, so please, just come out!”

Nothing happened for an excruciating few seconds. Then I heard a shuffling sound, and from underneath a clothing rack containing football jerseys, a small boy pulled himself out. He was sniffling, and he looked up at me with a scared, uncertain face. He was cute with his messy swath of blond hair, and he had on a simple blue shirt with stripes and cargo shorts. I felt my heart soar seeing him safe, and I gave him a relieved smile, holding out my hand in an offering.

“There you are! Now come on, I’ll take you somewhere safe and-”

Brian rushed over to me and gave me a tight hug around my legs. I blinked in surprise, then quickly moved to comfort him, giving his back a gentle rub.

“It was so scary!” he sniffled. “And the sirens are so loud! I want Mommy!”

“I know,” I hushed him softly, gently pushing him away to look in his eyes. “So how about we go find her, okay? We can even run the whole way as long as you hold my hand. How about that?”

I saw his face light up, and he gave me a big smile missing a few teeth. I grinned back, offering my hand. He took it, and we went to the store entrance where I stopped and waited. Sure enough, arrows appeared along the floor. They were a dark orange hovering on red now, but that still meant we could make it as long as we hurried at our best speed. The message in my head told me we had four minutes, two seconds left. My heart was going a mile a minute, but I felt a fierce satisfaction as I opened my mouth to tell Brian we were going to start running.

Then the alarms stopped.

A moment later, the lights in the mall flickered off, and the arrows beneath us disappeared, leaving us in darkness.

As the alien message popped into my head, emergency lights switched on, illuminating the area in dim, crimson light. Sweat formed on the back of my neck, and my hands were suddenly clammy. Desperately, I thought of the message with the time limit, trying to see how much time we had left, but nothing appeared. Brian whimpered, huddling closer to my side.

The sound of a brief and intense static crackle rippled out without warning, scratching at my bones. I snapped my head to look at the source of the noise and saw that in the middle of the air above the food court were trembling lines of inky shadow spider-webbing out from a single point. It looked like glass cracking, but somehow the cracks reached out in all directions and not along a flat plane. The void black cracks wavered unnaturally, and as I watched they began to spread and branch off with more of the staticky bursts.

My throat went dry. I started backing up into the store, pulling Brian along with me. Another crack formed in the area above the food court, and as I watched, the cracks seemed to pull open at their origin point, opening it into a jagged hole that peered into nothing. From that dark space, a dark shape fell, landing on the floor of the food court with a dull thump.

I quickly turned, pulling Brian with me to the very back of the store, behind the counter with the cash register. I crouched down, moving Brian into the corner as my pulse pounded in my head. He opened his mouth to say something, and I quickly covered it, putting a finger in front of my lips in a “shushing” gesture. He stared at me with wide, quivering eyes and nodded. I slowly removed my hand from his mouth, furiously trying to think.