I shake my head.
“Yes,” he continues, “you do.”
“No,” I stammer, taking a step back with the gun still aimed at his face. “You’re trying to make me remember things that didn’t happen…”
“You don’t really believe that,” he says with a smile. “I came to the island so I could find you and take you back to the world. I couldn’t admit that, of course. I had to lie and trick my way into a deal that’d let me travel here. Your town was the eighth we destroyed over the past four years. Eight towns, can you imagine that? Humans really seem to want to clump together, even when they’re supposedly out here to be free. Must be something in our nature, huh?” He pauses, still watching me intently. “The others had no idea. They thought I wanted nothing more than to kill and destroy. Maybe that’s my fault, maybe I enjoyed my work too much, but the war left me with certain… bad habits. Ben, Leanne and Walter believed in the cause. The world never seems to run out of useful idiots, does it? Still, at least they were useful, for a while. So few people even manage that in their miserable lives. But Asher, you and I—”
He steps closer.
“Stop!” I shout, still holding the gun in my trembling hand. “You’re just—”
Before I can finish, the helicopter swoops low and fast over us, racing back out to sea and then starting to turn around.
“I wonder what my friends make of this,” Harold continues, as his smile grows. Behind him, the helicopter is already heading back this way. “When they see me on the beach, with a gun pointed at me, I’m sure they understand the situation. And they’ll help me test that you haven’t lost that old fighting edge that I remember so well. You have no idea how much I’ve missed seeing you in combat. It’s almost an art-form, Asher.”
I open my mouth to reply, but suddenly I see something moving beneath the helicopter. In a flash, I realize it’s a gun assembly.
Suddenly Harold ducks out of the way. I turn and run, just as the helicopter opens fire. Energy blasts crash into the sand all around me, but I manage to throw myself past the tree-line and into the forest as the helicopter flashes overhead. With my heart pounding, I stumble to my feet and look up, watching as the helicopter turns around and heads back this way. I start to run, desperately trying to get further into the forest so I won’t be seen, but the helicopter opens fire and I dive for cover as blasts crash into the trees all around me. Fortunately I don’t take any direct hits, although one shot hits a dirt bank just a few feet away. As the helicopter turns and starts coming around for another attack, I get to my feet and race between the trees, but seconds later the air is once again filled with blasts, and this time one of them glances against my waist. I pull away and slam into a tree, which sends me dropping to the ground. Breathless and desperately trying not to panic, I look up and—
Something crashes into the back of my head, knocking me to the ground. Dazed, I turn just in time to see Harold standing over me, and he quickly slams the heel of his boot against my face.
“You have to learn to take your chances when you get them,” he grunts, grabbing my arms and starting to haul me back through the forest.
I try to twist free, but I’m in too much pain and I can barely even stay conscious.
“If you came to find me,” I gasp, “why do you keep trying to kill me?”
“To test you,” he replies, dragging me to the edge of the tree-line and then down onto the beach. “I had to make sure that you were still you, but you passed every test with flying colors. You’ve survived everything I’ve thrown at you, and that’s proof that the real, old Asher is still alive. We just have to get you home and help you recover the rest of your memories. And then we’ll make our move against the monsters who sent us off to war in the first place. One by one, we’ll make them pay for everything they did to us!”
Dropping me onto the sand, he turns and waves at the helicopter, which starts to descend above us, getting closer and closer as its blade whip the air into a frenzy.
“It’s time to get out of here, Asher!” Harold shouts, so I can hear him above the sound of the engines. “You’ll thank me later, I promise. I’m rescuing you from the pit of your own oblivion. I mean, seriously, were you seriously trying to run an entire town? I understand that you needed to divert your mind to some practical project, but I think you went a little too far. What was that place called again? Starfall? Sadfall?”
“Steadfall,” I murmur, struggling to stay conscious as I feel Harold picking me up. Before I can react, I feel myself being loaded onto the helicopter and pushed across the cold metal floor. I reach out, but my hands are too weak to grab hold of anything. “It’s called… Steadfall…”
“This reminds me of our great escape from Talton V,” he tells me. “You don’t remember that yet, but you will. It was one of our finest moments during the war. We were heroes, Asher, but they stole that away from us. They had their drugs and their needles, and they made us forget everything that happened!” He turns toward the helicopter’s two pilots. “Get us out of here!”
“No,” I stammer, trying to roll back out, but I’m shoved further on-board and all I can do is watch helplessly as Harold climbs in to join me. I reach over toward the door, just as he slides it shut. When I try to grab the handle to pull the door back open, Harold shoves me further across the floor.
“You don’t belong on the island, Asher!” he continues. “I understand why you ran away, but it’s time to go back and face those bastards! Phillips, Logan, Montreath and all the others, I’ve tracked them down. One by one we’re going to make them pay for how they treated all of us, all the soldiers who were used in that war and then tossed aside! And when we’re done with them, we’ll move up and deal with the real hypocrites, the people in power! The revolution’s finally coming, Asher, and we’re going to be right at the eye of the storm!””
Again I reach for the door, as the helicopter rises from the ground. I see the tops of the trees far below us, and I quickly realize that we’re about to head back over the island and then toward the mainland. For a moment, everything starts fading to black, but I force myself to sit up just as the helicopter swings out toward the sea and then dips, turning fast so it can speed back across the island.
“I’m going to need to get this checked out,” Harold mutters, wincing as he examines the wound on his shoulder. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re such a good shot, since—”
Turning, I slam my weight against the glass partition that separates us from the two pilots in the front of the helicopter. The glass holds, however, and I simply slump back down, but somehow I find the strength to try again and again, finally letting out a grunt of pain as I fall to the floor for the fourth or fifth time.
“There’s no point fighting this,” Harold continues. “Be smart, Asher. I’m sure you had fun on the island, maybe it was even therapeutic for you in some crazy way, but those days are over now. I couldn’t let you rot there for the rest of your life, that would have been obscene. The people of the world need us to make a stand and change things!”
Forcing myself to sit up, I look around, hoping desperately that I’ll spot some kind of weapon that has been just tossed aside. There’s nothing, of course, but after a moment I see a fire extinguisher tucked under one of the seats. It’s big, it’s heavy, and it’s better than nothing.
“Asher—”
Grabbing the extinguisher, I’m about to pull out the pin when I realize that the main nozzle arm might be more useful. Using all my remaining strength, I twist the nozzle free, and sure enough the broken end is sharp enough to use as a weapon.