Circle of Ruins

The fugitive stood near the edge of the glacier, looking into the distance. Until now, she had managed to stay a step ahead of her pursuers but crossing this part of the Alps on foot had been a mistake. Some distance away a large chunk of glacial ice broke off with a sharp report, sounding almost like the boom of a canon shot. The sun glowed deep red on the western horizon, long rays of orange and gold stabbing through a layer of stratocumulus clouds. Overhead the blue of the sky was deepening into purple and behind her the purple darkening into black. No one had expected the nuclear exchange between East and West to result in decades of spectacular sunsets. Nor had anyone foreseen the cascade of genetic mutations creating powers such as hers in just a few generations. Reaching into her jacket, she pulled something out and glanced at it briefly in her palm before returning it.

Moments later five soldiers stepped out of the woods near the glacier. Led by an officer they walked out onto the snow-covered ice, treading carefully, approaching her from behind.

“It’s beautiful up here,” she said over her shoulder.

“Like a painting,” one said. She knew that voice. His voice. If this was going to be the end at least it would be someone she knew. She turned and saw the other four were aiming rifles at her. He simply had his hands by his side, a grin on his face, chuckling.

“What’s so funny,” she asked.

“How we’re dressed.” His boots and trench coat were black, and she had dressed all in white to better conceal herself traveling the snowfields above the tree line.

“Like chess pieces,” she said. They had first met as teenagers at a chess competition, more than a decade before her anomalous abilities began to manifest. She was from a wealthy family; he was not. She was a prodigy; he was not. He was gregarious; she was a loner. In spite that—or because of it—they kept in touch in the years that followed, meeting for the occasional friendly game. He joined the military; she became a scientist. Then, just like that, it was gone. The government had come for her as it did for everyone showing telekinetic and other abilities, keeping her in isolation at a research lab, giving her combat training and running experiments to harness her powers, which grew exponentially. Three weeks ago, she had destroyed the lab and escaped into the forested mountains to the south.

“I was never in your league,” he said. His style of play was predictable, plodding, while hers was always clever and full of misdirection.

“Don’t patronize, you won as often as you lost.”

“I suppose I did. And this game is over.”

“Not until I’m dead. Kill me, and dump my body into one of these,” she said, gesturing to a number of brilliant blue holes, moulins, in the ice.

“Don’t be ridiculous. It doesn’t have to end here. You can go back to a research lab.”

“Doing what—learning new ways to slaughter people? Then back into a cell until the next day, when I repeat it all again? No. I’d rather die.”

“My orders prohibit me killing you, except as a last resort. In that case I’m to bring the body back for study. Anomalies like you are too valuable.”

“You’d better, because if you can’t kill me I’m going to kill all of you.”

“Just get your hands in the air and we’ll escort you back to civilization.”

“You don’t understand. I’m not giving you a choice,” she said. She swept her hand in an arc. A cascade of frozen shards erupted upwards out of the glacier, impaling all four of the enlisted soldiers pointing rifles at her. Their lifeless bodies fell to the ice. He leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding the same fate. Instinctively he put his hand on his holster and struggled with the flap.

“Stop this!” he shouted.

She stretched her right hand out. A perfectly formed javelin of ice rose up vertically from the glacier and into her grasp.

“Don’t be fooled,” she warned him. “I’ve modified the molecules to make this far denser than ordinary ice.” She raised the weapon parallel to her head and hurled it straight at his chest. He dropped into a crouch and the missile passed overhead. She created a second javelin and threw it. As he began to roll sideways it pierced the bottom of his trench coat and stuck fast into the glacier. He struggled frantically with the coat’s belt as she calmly formed yet another ice javelin. He cast the coat off himself and staggered backwards at the last instant, avoiding what would have been certain death.

She knelt down and put her hands to the glacier. The ice formed around her hands into a pair of wickedly curved daggers with knuckle guards. Standing up she began to take a number of practice swings, getting a feel for them.

“Now that you understand I’m completely serious,” she told him, “you had better not hold back.” Then she charged at him. The setting sun remained to her back, and in his eyes. She wasn’t leaving him time to do anything but react, to avoid her frenetic attacks. For an instant his mind flashed back to their chess matches. She never let up once she had the advantage.

She stopped from time to time to touch the ice and create fissures around him, forcing him to break eye contact in order to leap clear of them. Then she would close and attack while he was vulnerable. He kept retreating, dodging and ducking. Running on pure adrenaline his lungs began to ache. Any second now, he was going to make a mental mistake, or slip on the ice, and it would be over for him. Her swings were so violent they were leaving her slightly off balance with each miss. It would be risky but he had to do something, and quickly. He timed one miss well enough to give her a shove and create enough time and space between them to draw his service pistol from its holster. He leveled the weapon at her and fired. The bullet hit her left arm between the wrist and the elbow. She let out a cry of pain and frustration before composing herself. Thick rivulets of blood flowed down her arm, over her hand, and began to drip off the point of the ice dagger. She lifted the blade to her lips and ran her tongue over the blood, never breaking eye contact with him.

“Your heart still isn’t in this. You shot me there deliberately,” she said. They slowly began to circle each other.

“You don’t understand. I can’t kill you,” he insisted. As if to prove his point, he lowered his weapon.

“Why? Don’t tell me you love me. You were fond of me, yes, but you were never in love. Someone with your humble origins wasn’t going very far unless you married someone with connections, someone with the right family name and wealth to go with it. You were using me to advance your career. I didn’t mind, I was the one in love.”

She was gradually closing the distance between them, stalking him as she spoke.

“But that person is gone; she died in that lab explosion. What walked out of the destruction wasn’t me, just a simulacrum. There’s nothing left of my heart. It’s a circle of ruins, as lifeless as this glacier.”

“I don’t believe that,” he said.

He knew she was going to attack again at any moment, but he wanted to view her up close, to see if there was some trace of her that he could reason with. He did not see any. Her eyes shone dark like someone intent on killing.

“You have to let me go. Live, be happy.”

“Don’t make me do this,” he pleaded.

“Fine. I’ll tell you what happens after I’m finished with you. I’m going to find your camp and kill everyone I find. It doesn’t matter how many there are, they’ll all die. After I’ve dealt with them, I’ll return to civilization and create such havoc and chaos the whole country will descend into civil war. The eastern barbarians will overrun and subjugate whatever’s left; a dark age that will last a thousand years.”

“That’s insane, inhuman. I can’t let you,” he said.

“I’m glad you finally understand,” she sneered. “This is the end.”

She flung herself at him, raising both blades above her head. He had only an instant to react. Drawing on reflexes honed by years of military service, he fired without thinking, or even aiming. The round went through her chest and out her back. The shock of the impact broke her concentration at the last instant, the blades of ice disintegrating as they struck his chest. She looked down at her clenched fists and then up at him, an astonished look on her face, only now comprehending what had just happened.

“Checkmate,” she gasped. Her legs started to crumple underneath her. He dropped the pistol and helped her to remain standing.

“Hold on, I can get you back to the camp,” he said.

“There’s no time,” she said. Her legs gave out completely and he had to lay her on the ground. The ice immediately began staining red underneath her. She saw how pained his expression was. She fumbled inside her jacket with her hand. He felt something pressed into his palm. It was a heart shaped locket. He recognized it; he had given it to her. She had refused to wear it and he had assumed it long ago discarded.

“Keep it for me,” she said. This was all right. She wasn’t alone, and the sky was so beautiful. With the last of her strength, she pulled him down with her hand, lifted her head, and kissed him. Laying her head back her eyes slowly closed. With all his years of military service he was no stranger to death, having seen it on the battlefield many times. Yet even now, at the end, she surprised him. Her last moment sounded less like a death rattle and more like a sigh of relief. Her hand was still gripping his uniform. He removed it and set her arm down, then stood up and retrieved his trench coat, draping it over her. He pondered what he should do. There was no sound save that of glacial meltwater entering the nearby moulins. Off in the distance another portion of the glacier broke off with a loud crash.