by Fletcher, MJ
“Thanks for being there for her,” I whispered.
“She’s family,” he said and I squeezed him harder for that.
“I missed you,” I said and he patted me on the back like a tolerant parent and I let him go. “Val missed you too. She’s been a wreck about you.”
“It wasn’t too bad, kind of like a summer camp run by psychopaths.” He smiled and I laughed in spite of myself.
Jess approached us. “Declan and Mary are ready to move the HVO out of here.”
Her hair was pulled back and her outfit was covered in dirt and blood, none of which was hers. I was more impressed with my cousin every time something happened. Besides being the most beautiful woman I knew, she sure could kick ass with the best of them.
“Are we ready?” I motioned toward the others.
“We’re good,” Jess said. “I think we can move out once all the HVO and prisoners working with us are moved along.”
“Good, I want to hit this hard and fast and get the hell out of here.”
Nightshade and Slade walked up talking to one another. Slade handed a small controller to him.
“What’s that?” I pointed to the odd little device.
“The controller to the Gremlin Collar. Slade says it’s still active meaning our little beastie is still alive and kicking. So I hit the homing beacon to get it to come our way. I figured we might be able to use his help.”
“I think you just like having a seven foot monster at your beck and call.” I smirked and he winked at me.
“What can I say I attract the crazies.”
I punched his shoulder playfully and I caught Jess hiding a smile behind her hand.
“We’re ready to go,” Mary said as she approached us. “We’ve started the evacuation. Declan thinks we can have everyone clear in about twenty minutes.”
“That’ll work,” I nodded at her. ”Tell him to stay to the timetable I gave him.”
“Chloe, I just wanted to say thank you.” Mary lifted her chin a little higher as she spoke.
“For what?” I shook my head.
“For helping me escape them.” She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “I also wanted to say I’m sorry for anything I did that hurt you or your friends.” She waved her hands around at everyone and paused on Edgar.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Edgar said.
“You were under their control. Don’t ever apologize for what they made you do. It wasn’t you; it was them, and they’ll pay for it,” I promised with a snap of my jaw.
“Thank you for everything.” She smiled at me, and then rushed off to help finish evacuating the HVO.
“I think she has a crush on you.” Jess laughed and knocked into my shoulder with her own.
“She’s happy to be free, and I’m betting a lot of other people are as well.” I thought about the Memory Room and all of the Forget Me Nots I had destroyed. I was wondering just how many people were thinking for themselves for the first time in a very long time. If we can cut off the remaining First Kind here, we really might be able to cripple them.
Edgar tapped at the Impossible Engineer device on his arm. “Time to go.”
He was right. We needed to move and move quickly to make this work. If the First Kind had any idea what we were up too, this could all back fire on us badly.
“Let’s finish this war before it ever gets started,” I said.
We walked from the room down the hall, my friends at my side ready to fight and defeat the First Kind.
Chapter 40
Status: Lockdown.
Declan and his people had been able to secure a stairwell and were using it for their escape. We took it to make it to the level in the Tower where, according to the Maps, the failsafe was located.
“Remember we need enough time to get out of the prison section of Storm Reach otherwise we won’t be able to open a portal,” Jess reminded everyone, though she glanced at me.
I knew she had worried that I might attempt some heroic act, but that wasn’t necessary anymore. I wasn’t planning on sticking around for when the Lockdown affected the entire dimension.
“Where are we headed, Edgar?” I stopped at a cross hallway and turned to find him on his knees, bent over a map, and his face pushed into it inspecting the page.
“We’re going to the right.”
I turned to the right and started down the hallway. The others followed after me.
This section of the prison was used for high profile or dangerous criminals. And it certainly looked like it, the walls as thick as stone. Every several yards there were metal doors, now unlocked and sitting open. It certainly was an impenetrable area.
The hallway came to an end at a stone wall and we stopped with nowhere else to go. Edgar on the other hand kept walking and smacked right into the wall. He stumbled back and looked at it as if it didn’t belong there.
“Well, that’s wrong,” he said scratching his head.
“Yeah, Edgar, you’re supposed to stop before you hit the wall.” Nightshade laughed and leaned up against a closed metal door.
The closed door struck me as odd since all of the other doors were unlocked and open.
“That’s the thing, that wall shouldn’t exist.” Edgar walked toward it and stretched his index finger out and poked at the stone, as if by touch it would evaporate. When it didn’t, he yanked his map out again. Without another word he sat cross-legged on the floor and poured over his map trying to figure out what was wrong.
“Now what?” Slade asked and all I could do was shrug in response.
I stepped up to the wall and reached out with my senses. Placing my hand against the cool stone, I reached out searching and connecting with the flow of the universe. The stone gave off nothing. It was an empty chasm. I didn’t even feel the energy off the wall itself. I pushed out into the hallway trying to connect to anything in the vicinity. That’s when I realized, this whole area was a dead zone. There was however an energy signature coming from behind Nightshade, through the closed doorway he was leaning against.
I pointed to the closed door. “There’s something in there.”
Nightshade glanced over his shoulder looking it over. He raised his Key and crimson tendrils slipped around the door. Sparks of golden light suddenly shot out.
“That’s odd,” he said.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The room is Time Locked.”
A Time Lock was an extremely powerful tool. I had only seen it used once by the Council. It slowed the passage of time in one area while everything around it aged normally.
“Why would they Time Lock a cell?” My senses were screaming at me that it was something important, though I didn’t know what. There was a signature behind the Time Lock that I couldn’t place, but was somehow familiar. Most vessels or people gave off a unique signature, but this one seemed to be a mix of both.
An explosion rocked the Tower and threw me off my feet. Jess caught me before my head bashed into the wall and helped me to stand.
“What the hell was that?” Slade yanked his wrench off his back and held it tightly ready for anything.
“I think the First Kind decided to go on offense.” Nightshade glanced in my direction.
I knew just what he was thinking and it made me smile.
“Edgar, we need to hurry this up now.” I knelt beside him and placed my hand on his shoulder. He glanced across with a look of surprise like he hadn’t expected to see me there.
“Um, okay I’m just not sure why the failsafe isn’t here. This map is slightly older but it’s still correct. There should be a door here leading into the failsafe room. I don’t understand.” He shook his head.
“When I touched the stones, I didn’t feel anything.” I looked at the wall as perplexed as Edgar.
“If Edgar, says there’s a door there, then there’s a door.” Slade stepped forward and swung his wrench like a batter at home plate. It crashed into the wall with a solid thunk, one of the stones splitting under
the strength of the blow. He brought the wrench around for another hit, and several stones cracked and began falling away. Slade made quick work of the rest of them. One swing after another and soon there was a hole large enough to look through.
Slade stepped aside and I leaned forward activating my Doorknob and holding it up to the dark hole. The emptiness was illuminated and a further section of hallway was visible with a doorway sitting at the far end of it.
“It’s there.” I stepped back and Slade went to work on the remaining parts of the wall, disassembling it with force and speed. By disassembling, I of course, mean he bashed the stones into tiny little pieces like an asteroid smashing into Earth. When enough of an opening was cleared, I slipped through and the others quickly followed.
We hurried down to the end of the hallway. I stopped just short of the doorknob, my hand hovering over it. My stomach turned, alerting me that it was a booby trap. I twisted my wrist around it, reaching out with my abilities and trying to figure out a way around the trap.
“What is it?” Jess asked.
“The doorknob is rigged.”
“Oh great,” she sighed.
The Tower shook again, but this time a new noise drifted toward us. “Oh crap,” I said as I realized voices echoed down the hallway.
I kept my focus on the doorknob as Jess and Nightshade both headed back out the opening that Slade had made. I gritted my teeth as the sounds of fighting erupted behind me. The First Kind had obviously found us.
“Go help them.” I gestured to Slade and he nodded and ran after our friends.
“Can you break the trap?” Edgar asked.
“Yes,” I lied, though I had no idea if I could but I wasn’t about to give up now.
I closed my eyes and could see the doorknob in my mind’s eye. It was old and made of brass, with scrollwork all around its edges. It was well-worn and the craftsmanship was dated and very complex. But beneath all of that I could sense something else, another signature. Inside were gears of varying sizes that turned and clicked and did as they were supposed to. But in the center of its workings was a small Silver Star. That was the trap if someone other than an HVO tried to access the doorknob. It would lock them to the door and not let them go, a nasty little trap for sure.
I was pretty damn good at dealing with traps. I reached deeper down into my abilities and encircled the Silver Star with my power. It began to activate but I engulfed it, overloading it with signatures from every one of my abilities until it snuffed it out completely.
I snapped my hand out, grabbing the knob, and twisted it open. I swung the door open and glanced back to see my friends further down the hall fighting against members of the First Kind.
“Let’s go.” I grabbed Edgar and dragged him in with me. The only thing I could do to help them was follow the plan.
As we crossed the threshold I almost stumbled, the power sapped from me as we entered a true dead zone. No portals or powers could be activated in this room.
The room was circular and in its center a podium jutted out of the floor. Two thick levers rested on either side of the podium and were attached to a series of gears that ran down into the floor. Hanging from the walls were tapestries that from the look of them showed different scenes of HVO history.
I walked around the podium taking it all in. The levers connected to the gears into the floor which I imagined connected to a larger machine below. The design was obviously created by the Impossible Engineers. It was covered in cobwebs and dust. I stopped in front of it and blew on the top of the podium, webs and dust flew off in all directions. I brushed more off revealing the controls to the system.
The control knobs and levers were all labeled, making the machine a very straight forward device. A small series of numbers on a wheel acted as a countdown clock. I slid my thumb over them turning it till it reached fifteen minutes. I hoped that would give us enough time to get out of here.
“You think it’ll work in here?” Edgar looked around the room as he stood next to me.
What he meant was how could an Old Kind device be placed in a dead zone and work. I looked down and smiled. “The device isn’t in here; it’s underneath us. By putting this in a dead zone, they made it so that anyone could activate it, a true fail safe that anyone from any Society could use to lock down the dimension. Think about it, if a riot or something bad happened they would need to throw the switch and get out of dodge.” It made sense to me I just hoped that I was right.
The room shook and I glanced over my shoulder to see that Nightshade’s Gremlin had joined the fight and had knocked a hole in one of the hallway walls.
“We better hurry.” Edgar checked his timepiece. “The HVO are gone by now and we need to do this fast.” He pointed at the levers and we both stepped forward.
I reached out with my good hand wrapping it around the handle as Edgar did the same on his side. I pulled the grip tight and we both yanked the levers. Metal ground against metal, and I struggled to push the lever to its full capacity. The gears in the floor churned and came to life turning slowly at first and then faster.
Slivers of light glowed from underneath the gears illuminating the room. A shiver ran up my spine as something powerful enough to lockdown a dimension rippled across even a dead zone.
I shot a glance at Edgar. “Time to go.”
“Agreed.” He nodded rapidly and we both ran from the room.
My abilities flowed as soon as we exited the room and entered the hallway. I jumped through the hole Slade had created and was faced with a First Kind rushing toward me with a glowing crimson dagger in his hand.
Jess pivoted on one leg kicking her foot up high and caught him on the chin flipping him over before he could reach me. She smiled at me and turned to fight off another attacker.
“We need to leave!” I shouted over the sounds of battle.
“Kind of busy here, Masters,” Nightshade yelled back as he took a punch to the gut, doubling over with a grunt. The First Kind moved in but was greeted with a quick and unexpected uppercut.
“There are too many of them to break through,” Slade called out, forcing two First Kind members up against the wall with his wrench. He head-butted one and brought his elbow across the other’s cheek, dropping them both to the ground.
The hall was exploding with chaos, the First Kind going as far back as the eye could see. Slade was right; we were stuck here and the Lockdown was already counting down.
This was not good. I had no idea if we could even stop the countdown not to mention that wouldn’t stop our problem of getting passed the plethora of First Kind.
The Gremlin stepped out of the hole it had made in a side wall and let out a scathing howl. It ran and jumped into the row of First Kind making its way toward us and knocking them aside like a bowling ball hitting a strike.
“New plan?” Jess wiped her brow and pushed aside strands of her blonde hair that was still caked with blood. Her breathing was coming in quick, short gasps and I knew it was only a matter of time before First Kind overwhelmed us.
“We need a new exit.” I looked around and noticed the hole the Gremlin had made was right beside the closed door I had noticed earlier. “With me,” I called out.
The Time Lock that had been used on the room was now destroyed from the battle and I hopped through the opening, Jess and Edgar following me.
The room was dark and dank, a musty smell permeating the air. A small barred window sat open, wind and rain whipping in from the storm outside. A single bed lay against the far wall, the broken form of a First Kind lay sprawled where the Gremlin had left him.
“What is this place?” Jess sniffed and raised her hand to her face covering her nose.
“My home.” The voice was more like the growl of an animal than a man.
I flicked out my energy whip, prepared to confront the prisoner.
A man leaned against the wall behind us, long scraggily hair hanging down past his shoulders and around his bowed head concealing his face. He wa
s thin and wore nothing more than a pair of loose cotton pants covered in dirt. He raised his head; his face was gaunt, the lower half covered by a thick beard. His eyes were a piercing gold color, and focused intently on me, almost as if he looked straight through me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“A prisoner like most.” He lifted his arms, elbows to wrists covered with thick manacles. “And you are most certainly not HVO.”
“No we’re not.”
“You’re not First Kind either.” He tilted his head, continuing to stare at me.
A tingle rippled up my spine from him probing me with his powers, trying to figure out what I was.
“No, I’m not, but you know about the First Kind, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. When they took over, they wanted me to join their crusade. I declined.” He smirked.
“Do you know another way out of here?”
“If I did, I would have taken it long ago.” He laughed.
I glanced around the room again. Lightning flashed outside the window, and I stepped up to the wall and ran my hand along it. It was stone. I grinned and rushed from the room. “Slade, need you!” I yelled out.
“Coming,” he called back as he swung his wrench taking out a First Kind.
“Nightshade, can you hold them?” I asked and the prisoner flinched at his name. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t have time to ask why either.
“I’ve got this, just get us out of here,” he replied with a smile and activated his curved crimson blade and spun it around in his hand.
A couple of First Kind in front of him rushed forward and quickly fell in a flash of red. The Gremlin roared and rushed to Nightshade’s side and the two stood facing off against the horde of First Kind inching forward.
“What do you need?” Slade joined us in the room. He gave a glance at the prisoner, but ignored him as I pointed to the window.
“Remember how we got out of the Wheel of the Impossible Engineers?” I asked.
He nodded and walked to the wall looking it over.
“We need a bigger window.” He smiled, reared back and swung his wrench. It glowed green as it shattered stone. Slade extended his powers and the wrench divided into six pincers and he jammed it into the opening he had created. He flicked a button and it began to spin pushing the wall outward. It finally fell out into the darkness, rain and wind rushing in through the newly created opening.