Flight

by J. A. Huss

  I crawl over the hole and continue down the shaft until I reach the corner. I listen, then peek my head around and go around quickly, my knees aching from all this crawling on concrete, even through the thick armor.

  This part of the shaft is short and ends at a small door that is obviously an access point because it has a latch. I try it but it doesn't budge. My SEAR comes out and I thrust it into the steel and begin the slow cut to make myself a door. The fumes coming up out of the steel suffocate me and I have to move back around the corner and drop down into a lower passageway a few times to stop the burning of my eyes and lungs.

  When the plasma loop finally makes its way back to the start I power it off and begin thrashing at the cut-out with a two-footed kick. It gives a little with each impact and finally goes careening to the floor on the other side where it smashes into the biggest nightdog I've ever seen.

  The thing yelps and scurries away towards its pack and I'm frozen in place for a fraction as the sound in my world dies down to battle decibels while my senses gather information so quick, the seconds stretch out like minutes.

  I jump down and power the SEAR back up.

  These are not Slightdogs but I'm not a scared little girl out on the prairie anymore, either. I put my weapon away and laugh. "Fuck you, dogs!" I swing the plasma around and blast the pack back into the wall until they are nothing but a pile of charred remains. The sprinklers come on and drench me with water, but fuck it. It's not like we're in stealth mode anymore. I slosh through the puddles, pass the dogs and turn the corner.

  A mini-mutant Junco slams straight into me and falls to the ground where it clamps its teeth down on my leg like something out of the zombie apocalypse. My hand has the SEAR out and the mutant's head is spinning through the air before it takes out a hunk of flesh. I reach down and rub my hand over my leg. Fuck! It actually tore my armor!

  For the first time I look around and notice I'm in the kennel, which explains the dogs. I put my plasma at low ready and take a cautious look around. A little late, since I already made a huge commotion with the dogs, but fuck it. Habits.

  Nothing, just these dogs and that one mutant.

  Not likely.

  My rifle tracks in each direction as I pivot, then back up towards the door. My heel is just touching it when I hear the hissing coming from the dark kennels. Just one at first, but as the seconds pass more and more join in until there is a chorus of hissing so loud it overtakes the sprinkler system.

  I wait for it, but they don't advance.

  My right hand is on the weapon as my left feels for the door latch behind me.

  It clicks and I feel the lock disengage. A barrage of force meets me as the door begins to open and I crash forward into the shallow water pooling on the floor. I recover just in time to watch the toddler Juncos fly into the room and start writhing mid-air. The screaming permeates my inner ear and travels all the way up to my brain in a wave of pain.

  I train the plasma up and start blasting them on full stream until they begin to drop from above like they're getting sucked into heavy-G or something.

  I open the door wider but no more fly in. When I peek around they are still there, but they refuse to enter.

  My vision screen scans them for several seconds and a smile erupts on my face when I realize their issue. There are flame-retardant chemicals in the sprinkler system and they have a problem with this. I spray plasma fire until the sprinklers in the next room erupt, disorienting the little mutants, and then I get busy burning them with plasma fire.

  I push them back this way through several more rooms, their numbers thinning but not nearly enough for comfort. Finally we reach the end of the line and the mutants scurry off into a motorpool hangar.

  I fire the plasma up at the high ceiling but this time there is either no sprinkler system or the plasma is not powerful enough to trigger it.

  The sprinklers in this room spray down, drenching my wings and making them heavy as I try to think of a way to get from this door to the next without being eaten alive by things that might be related to me. I find the controls for the far door and slam my hand against the activation switch and count the seconds until the door closes.

  Ten. That's pretty fucking quick for such a large door. I slam the button again and count back. A flurry of mutants flies out of the door as it opens, maybe afraid of getting trapped in there.

  Ten again. At least it's consistent.

  I take a deep breath, check my ammo belt to see the status of my plasma cartridges, and then bounce my hand on the button one more time as I step out in the hangar.

  The ground shakes from hellfire somewhere outside and they come at me from all sides. I blast them as I pivot and count in my head. My world slows down and the fractions drag on as I step and shoot my way across the shop floor.

  The door is one quarter way down when a mutant gets through my plasma perimeter. I continue shooting with my right hand and my left goes for my weapon and has it powered up just as the little fucker sinks its teeth into my leg. I fist the SEAR rod and stab at the mutant while jetting a spray of plasma stream up into a pack that decided this was the opportunity of a lifetime.

  I kick the little body off my leg and takes several more steps as I log the status of the door that is still several yards off.

  Ten feet, halfway down.

  I whirl and spray with one hand while cutting and dragging with the other.

  Another little Junco latches on to my wing and I realize I'm vulnerable. I stretch them out and flap, taking myself upward, then whirl and spin the plasma and the SEAR at the same time.

  Five feet, three quarters of the way down.

  I thrust hard and dive down, praying I'll make it under the door before it slams shut and cuts my body in half. Another mutant grabs me by the feathers and slows my progress but I flap harder and then streamline my body into a bullet shape and put my arms out in front of me like I'm diving into water and not across concrete trying to outrun things that might want to eat me alive.

  I slide under the door dragging the mini-mutant with me. The door crashes hard on my wing, leaving that thing crushed underneath. I scream out in pain as I jerk back and break off the two blood-filled primary flight feathers that were almost grown out after the third Fledge fight, plus almost a dozen more.

  The blood shoots out of a dozen fractured feather shafts and I almost faint as buckets of scarlet pool around me. The pain coming from my wings has me writhing on the hard concrete floor as I try to catch my breath.

  Shit. Sometimes being just Junco is not all that fucking awesome.

  Stop the bleeding, Junco. Right now.

  I shove my hand into my pockets and pull out the mapolina wrapper, praying the little starch packet is still inside of it.

  It is. I rip it open with my teeth and the fine powder spills out. I bring my wing around and squeeze the outermost shaft together, stifling down the pain. My hands are shaking badly as I dunk the first blood squirting shaft into the little packet of starch. It sticks to the blood and hardens almost immediately so I repeat the process until all of the feathers are capped off.

  I lie back and breathe hard.

  I'm not gonna be able to fly.

  That's not a good place to be when you're alone on a mission.

  I drag myself to my feet, my armor dripping in sticky blood, and look around. I'm in a motorpool filled with grav bikes. I search the walls for a door release and then spy the sensor on the sides of the exit. It must be coded to the bikes as they leave. Which means I need one to work in order to get the fuck out of here.

  I search for keys, for cards, and for cubes, but find none of these things.

  I stumble over to a bike and take a closer look. The handlebars are biometric pads. I put my hand on one and it chirps to life.

  My hand pulls away and I stare at my palm as it glows fluorescent green in the dim light. Layla's words from my last medical exam come back to me. "… eavesdropping in on people's coms? Hacking into databases? Stealin
g money from accounts? You have a very bright future, and I mean that literally, in stealth circuit ops."

  Huh.

  Uncle Dale's summer camp for mutants. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

  I slide onto the bike and palm the pads on both sides and the drive spins up and lifts me off the ground. I back up, weaving with the weight of it at first, then point it at the door and hope for the best.

  The sensors flash red as I approach and I have a moment of panic, but then a chime of acceptance rings out and they turn green as the doors begin a slow and cumbersome slide, revealing the exterior of the mountain valley to me for the first time.

  It's on fire. Soldiers are screaming and avians are fighting from above. My bike slides into the wake of explosive air currents as I try and figure out what to do.

  Junco? Junco?

  Isten! Holy shit, I got separated from Tier and–

  Yeah, they're here already, where are you?

  I just came out of the core building motorpool on a grav bike, my helmet burned up and I don't have coms.

  Come straight across the compound, building H1-11. Don't stop, Rikan is at the door, he'll wait for you.

  The bike slips in the air as more explosions ring out from above. I look up and see the She's All Mine. She's So Fucking Close is what she should be called. The ship is way too big to be down here over this little valley. I watch as columns of blue light pick up and deposit avians around the compound.

  I look back down and only have a fraction to bank my bike hard and slip off, careening in a series of airborne flips before slamming into a Humvee filled with Runout soldiers who are just about to take a shot at a small avian warrior.

  I fish down into a pocket and find a grenade canister, pull the top and lob it under the vehicle. Then I swoop in, dipping and flailing from my missing flight feathers, and grab the lone warrior and half-fly, half-run towards the side of a granite building.

  The force from the explosion catches up with us and we tumble over each other until we smack into the wall. The warrior jumps on top of my exposed head and covers me with avian body armor as the flames coat us with heat.

  The heat and flames recede and the warrior gets up and releases the visor on the helmet. "This place is fucking crazy, Junco! They've got copies of you everywhere!" Lili's face is flushed red with adrenaline and her eyes are wild as they survey the area around us.

  I let out a breath and pull myself up. "Yeah, I just killed a bunch of mini-mutants back in the coms building and something tells me there's a lot more where they came from." I peek around a corner and come face to face with the little bitches, my plasma rifle mowing them down before they can even bare their teeth at me. "Come on, Lili, we need to get across the valley."

  She follows me and we haul ass until we come to another building. We stalk along the perimeter until we get to the corner and I lean out to take a peek.

  A bolt of plasma almost takes my head off and I hear the whine of Lili's visor descending and look back at her just long enough to see her flicker out of existence with the engagement of the slick silver. The left-over ripple steps out away from the wall. "Follow me, Junco. I've got this one."

  Lili really is my new favorite.

  Her plasma streams out and connects a whole line of mutants and they scream like starlings. I wince as I watch my face, distorted and unholy, yet still undeniably mine, writhe in pain and horror as their skin melts off their bones from the plasma burns.

  She flickers back and starts running.

  I follow, turning around every few seconds to shoot at anything that might be trying to get at us from behind.

  We stop again at another building. "Junco, my internal map says that's the building over there."

  I squint and my vision refocuses and zooms in on the doorway. "I see Rikan, that's it."

  She turns to say something to me when the boltblaster hits her in the shoulder. She goes down, kicking out like a fiend. I turn and aim my plasma at her attacker and step back in shock.

  It's me.

  And not a mutant me, either. It's just plain me.

  My finger squeezes a fraction too late and she's got the 9mv charge coursing through my body as well. I fall to my knees, then crumple forward on my face and go inside myself as she takes her first step towards me. I reach down into synaptic centers and prohibit the shock from taking effect on my neurons, then access the master circuit that controls my body and stimulate it until my heart rhythms are normalized. The girl is on her second step when my hand slips under my shirt and on her third step when I roll over and scramble back up on my feet.

  She stops, but does not flinch. "Welcome home, Junco."

  "Wrong, bitch." I power up the SEAR and swipe at her, but her membranous wings unfurl and she's high above me before I make contact. I try and follow her, but only succeed in flailing around with the loss of all the primary flight feathers on my wing.

  She pulls out her own SEAR and laughs at me. "You're not coded for this one, Junco. Just like I'm not coded for that one. So, if you want to take your chances with your fucked-up wing and knowing what you know about how well-trained I might be, then let's do it."

  I nod. "Let's do it." I squeeze the trigger on my plasma but she darts out of the way, then changes direction and swoops down at me like a bullet. He talons grab at my SEAR handle and I let it go, then grab her foot with my other hand and yank her back down to earth. My SEAR bounces out of my hand as I slam her into the ground. She loses hold of her SEAR as well and it powers down. We both scramble for it and I kick it away, desperately looking around for my own weapon.

  I see it a few paces off and dive for it, power it up, and follow through on the tumble, bouncing back up on my feet just as she's ready to cut my head off. I tackle her legs and she falls backward, her SEAR flailing around so close to my ear I can feel the heat of it. I chop her in the wrist and she loses hold once more, then I head-butt her so hard I have to lean over and puke as I drag my SEAR knife through her neck.

  I run back to Lili and pull her up. "Fuck, Lili. I can't carry you, snap out of it!"

  Her eyes flutter back to the present and then open. "Just stand me up, Junco. I can walk."

  I let out a little laugh and stand her up. She teeters there for a fraction, then shakes her head and looks off in the distance. "Let's go."

  We get about a dozen paces off before the next horde of Juncos is upon us. This time I throw a grenade canister and we dive sideways. Lili pulls me to my feet and we haul ass towards our target building before the explosion is even finished. I see the door open and Rikan's body emerge as he spots us, then Braun is there with a rocket launcher and the Juncos behind never have a chance for recovery, because they only exist as molecules in the atmosphere.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  "Follow Rikan, Junco. I've got the door!" Braun's teeth clench a cigar as he reloads his rocket launcher. The ground shakes as he empties it out into the valley.

  I do as I'm told and follow Rikan through a maze of corridors lit up with emergency spotlights, making long shadows across the floor and walls. We come to a biometric door and it opens to reveal Ashur. "Fuck, Junco! Where the hell–"

  "I got trapped in the core and had to find another way out. Where's Gid and Tier?"

  "Back there, trying to talk the Siblings into leaving their prisons."

  I look up at him. "What?"

  "Go help, they've got the keys and they're refusing to come out." He reaches out for Lili as she makes to follow me. "Not you, Lili. You stay here with us and man the doors."

  I don't look to see what she says, just follow the hallway towards the sound of voices.

  The hallway opens up to a round room that has several entrances around the perimeter and all I can think of is how fucked-up this room will be to defend once those things get in the building.

  "Junco!" Tier's voice makes me smile and I let out a breath of relief. "Fuck, what happened back there?"

  "I dunno, I think Sera did it on purpose becaus
e Gideon told me to finish."

  "That bitch, I'll fucking kill–"

  "She saved me after, so we're even."

  He takes me by the arm and half drags me over to a series of cylinder tubes, each one holding a person within. Three of them are pacing the floor inside their prisons, looking out at us with wild eyes, but the fourth is sprawled out on the ground in front of Moju.

  Soli. My sister. She's not looking good, either. I can feel their agitation and fear and to my surprise, it hurts. I jog over to Moju and put my hand on his shoulder. "What can we do?"

  He looks up and I can feel his sadness. "They have to open the cylinders from the inside, Junco. And as soon as they do, they trigger a death sequence. Soli tried to leave and this is what happened to her. Now the others are too afraid to open up."

  I look over to Tier and repeat myself, trying to be the objective perspective in this situation so Moju is free to feel. "What can we do?"

  "We're waiting on Ryse and Layla, Junco. She's prepping the tanks for them so Ryse can snatch them up as soon as they deactivate the field. If they open up at all, that is. I'm not convinced they will."

  "And Soli can't open her tube, so she can't even get out."

  The words that come out of Moju's mouth so laced with sadness I am taken back for a moment. I knee down next to him as he gazes at Soli through her prison. This is how I'd feel if Gideon was lying next to me dying. I hug him and lean my head into his ear to whisper. "We'll get her out, Moj. We're not leaving without her and we're not going to let her die, that's dumb. The whole mission is a bust without her."

  He gets to his feet and walks off.

  "Got any ideas?" I am looking up at Tier, but Gideon answers.

  "You can open them, Junco."

  "How?" Tier and I say it at the same time as I turn to look at Gid.

  "With your SEAR. Just swipe it across."

  Moju is up in Gid's face. "No! You said earlier that she can't do that, Gideon! You said it will kill them!"

  Gideon pushes him away and Moju goes flying backward. "I know what I fucking said, Moju. But this is it! We've got a few minutes before they break in here so what the fuck is your goddamn plan?"