Five Moons of Pluto Read Free Page B

real? Please…let this be a dream , he thinks.
    “Your weakness is now broken.” Thal’s words pierce Orin’s heart.
    Filled with hate, Orin manages to break free from the soldiers; they try to stop him but are hopelessly outmatched by his strength and agility. Combined with the adrenaline coursing through him, Orin takes them apart one by one. He moves with speed and strikes with accuracy. He rushes toward Thal, but Vina kicks him square in the face and Orin crashes to the ground. He gets up quickly and begins to throw his most forceful combos. Vina returns his attempts with a smile, effortlessly dodging every blow. She counters one of his oncoming punches with a fierce four-hit combo of her own, knocking him down again. Orin wipes the blood from his mouth, while Vina takes out a piece of cloth and dabs the blood from her shirt.
    “This is Armani!” she yells at him, then she rushes toward him. Orin braces himself for what’s to come as Vina pummels violently into him. She stops short of killing him, her breath heavy, and stares at him as he lies in a pool of blood on the ground. He is at peace.
    “That’s enough, Vina,” Thal says. “You made your point.”
    “I’m not finished, sir .”
    Thal shakes his head. “If you attack him again, you will lose.”
    Vina turns to face Thal in disbelief. “I’m the one standing, sir.”
    “Look at him!”
    Vina turns back to Orin. “And just what am I looking at, sir?”
     
     
    Then Thal walks toward to her. ”There’s a reason why Orin is the best Phantom. He got to you; he wants you to think you can win. You can’t. You wasted all of your energy trying to put him down while he stored his up and absorbed your blows. Phantoms are good at concealing pain and making their opponents believe they can win.”
    Vina’s mouth twists in anger. “Bullshit!” she screams as she stands to her feet and faces Thal.
    Orin takes advantage of the open shot; he sweeps her foot out from under her, knocking her to the ground. Then he smashes his elbow against her throat, and a spray of blood flies from her mouth. Orin stares at Vina as she slowly chokes on her own blood, and then she dies.
    He stands up, steady on his feet. F our soldiers run up to him and are about to engage, but Thal waves them all to stop.
    “What now, Orin?” Thal says. “Hmm? What now! Everyone you loved is gone. Sahra is dead…again. You couldn’t save her, and you couldn’t—“ he points up to the sky— “save her . You lost everything! But…” Thal takes a pistol from the nearest soldier and points it at Orin. “You got us back home. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
    He pulls the trigger, sending three bullets straight into Orin’s chest, and Orin collapses. He struggles to get up, but manages, then he walks toward the edge of the roof. Thal knows Orin can do nothing to harm him. He watches as Orin awkwardly kneels down and picks up of the necklace he had given to Sahra. He closes his eyes and holds it tightly to his blood-stained chest.
    “No regrets,” Orin whispers.
    Three more bullets enter and exit his body, and Orin falls to the ground for the last time. A soldier hands back Thal’s hat. Thal puts it back on and returns the pistol. 
    “Give him a proper burial.”
    Without delay, two soldiers approach Orin’s body. A third soldier walks up to Thal.
    “ The council will want a report about this,” the soldier says. “What will we say?”
    Thal looks over at Orin’s body as it’s being carried away.
    “ Tell them our savior has died.”
     
    THE END
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    RED EARTH
     
                  Sonya awakens to a faint beeping sound. She jumps out of bed, still wrapped in her sheets, and runs to the closet. It slides open automatically as she approaches. Sonya reaches into a metal box in the closet and picks up a device the size of a tablet. She studies the map on the screen and slides her finger over it, zooming in on a blinking