by Amanda Churi
People were enslaved; some weren’t even people anymore. No one had any hope left—no one besides Kaitlyn and those who stood by her, who would lay down their lives to set things right. The difference between their resistance and ours was that we were forced into it; we were reluctant heroes. But things were so bad here that people were willing to sacrifice themselves without a second thought if it meant getting rid of the antagonist.
That itself made me believe that they had a slight margin of a chance to succeed, regardless that I still did not know all circumstances surrounding the war. How could you win a war if people already saw themselves as dead and did not mind losing their lives? In normal war, it is kill the enemy before they kill you, but if your opponent had already accepted death and did not mind dying to bring you down with them… You were as good as dead already.
The only difference was that they were not fighting the Nobles. The Proxez made the Nobles look like toddlers in a sandbox bashing one another over the head with a pail.
“How could I have let this happen…?” I said out loud in dejection, closing my eyes and shaking my head. “It didn’t matter what I did… I was always meant to ruin this world, wasn’t I?”
Kaitlyn cocked her head, thoroughly confused. “What are you babbling about? This isn’t your fault.”
I raised my head, opening my eyes and squaring off Kaitlyn with a face that held no sympathy. My eyes flashed gold in the dark, Kaitlyn immediately lurching back. “Guess you have a lot to catch up on as well,” I muttered under my breath.
Kaitlyn said nothing; I don’t think she could judging by what she saw.
“THERE SHE IS! GET HER!”
The aggressive, unknown voice jolted me where I sat, extinguishing my churning emotions and causing my eyes to fall dark. Mabel immediately regained consciousness when her sixth sense kicked in, rolling off of me and perching on her knees, staring at the bare doorframe that led to the outside world.
All attention was fixated on the dark night. The only one who did not hear the commotion was Laelia, remaining submerged in slumber.
“Call for reinforcements! She’s not getting away this time!”
I could hear the commotion brewing in the streets even though I could not see anything—the sounds of feet echoing through the tight alleyways and the high-pitched buzz of electricity as the air began to build with static.
Kaitlyn stood up, briskly making her way over to the archway. She pressed her body against the wall, peering into the alleyway while holding a finger out to us, indicating that we stay where we were.
“What’s going on?” Mabel whispered, looking up at me for guidance.
“I don’t know,” I responded stiffly.
“Haha, screw you, suckers!” someone laughed hysterically, Kaitlyn’s eyes widening as she quickly whipped her head back in the doorway just as an unidentifiable figure raced by. After they were gone, a mere second later, an intense sheet of white light began creeping across the crumbling walls of the alley, warning of an encroaching presence. Cries of outrage permeated the air, a roar of crunching ice and heavy, enraged steps drawing closer before a wave of soldiers in black, electrified, and translucent armor raced by our hideout in hot pursuit of their victim.
Haxors, I thought bitterly.
“You stupid girl…!” Kaitlyn hissed with gritted teeth, her eyes turning into slits. She snapped her head in our direction. “Get up! We’ve got to go!”
“W-what about curfew?” Griffin stammered, shoving the blanket off of his body and hurriedly getting to his feet, trying to awaken Laelia, though her mind could not escape her dreams. Mabel and I were up within a second or so, fearful as to what caused such a sudden shift in Kaitlyn’s mood.
“Forget it!” Kaitlyn screamed wildly, racing over to Laelia and scooping up her unresponsive body. “We have to go now!”
Kaitlyn flung Laelia over her shoulder before she turned and ran into the street, sharply swinging her body in the direction of the vanishing army.
The three of us raced after her, following obediently and coming to a halt in the frigid passage behind Kaitlyn to await her next command. She stood still for a moment, evaluating the current path of the enemy as well as her surroundings before urgently looking at Mabel.
“Hold her!” Kaitlyn demanded, Mabel hardly having enough time to recognize the request before Kaitlyn dumped the sleeping child into her arms.
“This way!” she ordered harshly, bolting towards the stone wall of a house and leaping into the air. Her hands locked around the metal edge of a roof approximately ten feet off of the ground, the sheets of steel diving into her skin and slicing her flesh as she held on. She grunted strenuously, locking her teeth to suppress the pain before pulling herself up in one swift motion.
She crouched on top of the roof, the eerie environment clashing against her body so that all I could see was a silhouette of our ally. She went to her knees, extending her blood washed hands. “Give me the girl,” she said in a rushed, panicky voice.
Mabel nodded, waddling forward and holding Laelia as high as she could. Kaitlyn leaned down, transferring the comatose teen to her own arms before roughly throwing her limp body to the side, my spine cringing painfully as I heard her thud against the metal.
Mabel held her breath, slamming her eyes shut and throwing her hands up towards Kaitlyn to await her own gift of flight. Immediately, Kaitlyn grabbed her around her wrists, ignoring her fearful shriek as she hurled Mabel up onto the rooftops with her. When Mabel was situated, Kaitlyn lowered her hands once more so that we could also get to safety.
A motor rumbled intensely through the barren maze, heavily intermingled with the loud, furious voices of Haxors. We didn’t have time to lay out the options. We had to leave now, or we would be slaughtered.
Griffin knew the risks too. He grabbed Kaitlyn without a word, dragged to safety by her massive strength. I was the next to go.
I took her hands, looking to my side and glaring down the alleyway as a spark of white light caught my eye. My heart nearly exploded when I recognized the armor and silver gloves, both screaming as the electricity built up within the confinements and threatened to break free at any given moment. Several Haxors lurked in the distance, staring us down through their black visors; large assault rifles were clenched tightly in their hands, the lightning from the gloves swirling around the barrel and empowering the weaponry.
One soldier did not even care to get a clear hold on the situation. He raised his artillery without hesitating, pulling the trigger as a branching, twisting, and cracking bolt of white electricity was shot from the barrel in my direction.
Kaitlyn pulled me away in the nick of time. I slammed down onto the metal roof on my stomach, grunting as the lightning collided with a pile of crumbling stone instead of my body. A hot surge of air flew up under me, the atmosphere hissing and causing my hair to stand on edge. This was crazy!
“Let’s go!” Kaitlyn badgered, leaning down and picking up Laelia once more as I struggled to get to my feet. Mabel took my quaking hand, pulling me in her direction as an incentive to get moving. Without wasting another second, Kaitlyn initiated our escape as the four of us began to sprint across the rooftops.
The night sky was an icky gray-black from this angle, mixed with a hint of tainted green. The rooftops appeared only as an ebony outline, stretching far across the horizon in one large mass and providing us with limited visibility as we ran on. The roofs were made out of thin, rusted, and terribly abrasive metal. Each stride I took ripped some skin off of my feet, stripping them raw as we crossed the unknown; my legs could hardly even keep up with how fast Kaitlyn urged us along, only adding to my pain.
A figure veiled in black against the creepy sky suddenly caught my attention, racing across a line of rooftops parallel to us. “Kaitlyn!” I screamed urgently. “We’ve got company!”
Kaitlyn did not take my warning lightly, abruptly whisking her head in the direction of the imposing threat. A growl brewed in her throat, her gr
ip on Laelia tightening. “Rebel!” she barked ferociously.
They must have been oblivious to our presence until that moment. The figure turned their head to us in surprise, a flash of bright neon purple glistening in the night. They changed direction, allowing their path to slowly begin merging with ours to catch up with our group. The closer they got, the more I could make out about them, though it wasn’t much. Whoever they were, they were shielded by torn, gray robes, and they bore an indistinct purple item.
“UP THERE!”
Like a geyser, a web of electricity shot straight up into the air from the alleyways crisscrossing the land below. Mabel shrieked frightfully, Griffin and I grunting in surprise as well, though Kaitlyn and “Rebel” were unshaken. Kaitlyn did not even register the rising threat; the only thing she cared about was moving us along before things could get worse.
They quickly did. After the first surge of power, as we raced across the close rooftops, electricity began to shoot up all around us. Some beams shot straight up, and others were aimed at an angle to try and hit us from the side. The three of us panted with fear, our bodies shaking and hearts racing as our eyes darted to every spiraling surge of energy launched from the earth. There was so much electricity present that, eventually, the entire vicinity became lit with a harsh white glow. The lightning strikes that failed to find a target zoomed into the air, clashing with one another in the dreary sky and creating deafening electrical surges similar to fireworks.
“Jump!” Kaitlyn screamed.
My legs reacted without the consent of my conscience, the four of us flying across a gap between two buildings while Rebel leaped towards us at a diagonal. My eyes broadened with terror as we crossed the rift, staring down at a swarm of soldiers who were racing relentlessly through the dark passageways below.
We landed on the other roof safely, Rebel grounding herself next to Kaitlyn. They shared one brief glance as they kneeled there, Rebel smiling.
She was a female with long black hair tied into a pony-tail. In her long bangs, which covered a single eye, was a streak of purple that rippled and glittered beautifully in the night like a current of magic. A gray scarf was tied tightly around her neck to match her wardrobe, all while her black eyes reflected Kaitlyn’s annoyed expression.
“You imbecile,” Kaitlyn growled, saying no more before standing up and continuing to run. Rebel stared at her with a large, ravenous smile, quickly looking over her shoulder at us before following Kaitlyn. We didn’t stay still either. I frankly didn’t care who she was right now so long as she didn’t plunge a knife through our throats.
“Nice to see you too, Spear!” Rebel piped up in an annoying, high-pitched voice that teemed with mockery.
“Shut up,” Kaitlyn mumbled.
“No, really! Been too long since we’ve been on a mission together!”
“You are not on a mission!” Kaitlyn quipped. “You’re just being a menace, as usual! You never can do what you’re asked, can you?!”
The rev of a motor echoed her words—the same blaring motor that I had heard at the beginning of this flee, only now becoming aware of it once more.
“What’s that?” I cried above the deafening noise.
Kaitlyn and Rebel looked over at me, puzzled. Their eyes bulged, their legs giving way to an extra burst of adrenaline.
I followed their line of sight, unable to believe what I saw.
It looked like some form of a jet ski though much more advanced. The vehicle was cast out of black metal, swarming with electricity that ran through the material in the same way that it did on the Haxors. There were no wheels, yet it moved across the choppy roofs without resistance. The headlight in the front did not project a strong beam of light; it only emitted a dull blue hue on the outside ring of the bulb. There was a black hole in the center instead of glass, and from there, a blizzard was being created inside of the machine’s confinements. Ice and snow raged on in front of the beam of blue light as the object pushed the storm out of its interior, creating a slick, solid sheet of ice on the surface it dared to travel which it could then ride smoothly across. A Haxor sat on the seat, revving the motor with one hand while holding an electrified pistol in the other.
“What is that thing?!” I screamed as the soldier gave the machine more juice, quickly gaining ground on us. Even the semi-large gap we had jumped across was no problem for him; the blizzard formed within the machine created a bridge of slick ice that joined the two buildings, miraculously holding the Haxor’s weight and allowing him to continue his pursuit.
“An ice tracker!” Kaitlyn answered hastily. “Don’t let him catch us!”
The Haxor aimed his pistol in our direction, firing. The electricity struck the rooftop right at our heels, so close that I felt the heat through my clothes. I grunted with shock, forcing my body to the limit. No… We had to keep going!
“Come on, Eero!” Mabel encouraged, forcing herself to crack a reassuring smile in hopes to keep my drive high. Through a hefty pant, I looked down at her running beside me, straining myself to smile back.
An explosion of electricity erupted against the back of my skull as my attention was diverted, sinking through my skin and plummeting into my brain. I screamed in agony, my sight abandoning me as my knees buckled, and I stumbled, crashing down onto my stomach and sliding forward as the skin was ripped from my face and hands.
I lost all feeling throughout my body; I could hardly even tell that blood was gushing down my face. Strings of white electricity raced across my eyes, igniting my blood and causing my heart to throb uncontrollably as a familiar surge of power arose within my body. My bones swelled, my muscles contracted uncontrollably, and the demons began dancing within my brain, cackling devilishly as the influx of energy renewed their strength.
“Eero!” Mabel screamed, kneeling down beside me and holding my face in her hands, though her voice was extremely muffled and could hardly be heard over the commotion inside of me.
I had no control over my twitching body, allowing her to tilt my head how she pleased. I couldn’t look anywhere but at her; I could not even speak, my inner voice screaming at Mabel and telling her to run instead of wasting valuable time that she could use escaping.
While looking at me, her face of fear morphed into one chiseled by pure rue and vengeance. Her cheeks and eyelids began to twitch, her crimson eyes flaring up in recognition to her frustration. She whipped her head to the incoming Haxor, who raised his pistol once more, preparing for a second strike.
“Leave him alone!” she screamed defiantly, a layer of unforgiving, red-orange flames breaking free of her skin. The heat was repulsively strong, though I could not move to avoid it as her second half took over. Her hair was consumed by magic, flames taking its place as her skin radiated an inferno so bright that she looked like a fallen sun. I didn’t understand what I was looking at. Her… Her powers. She activated them somehow.
Screaming as she was overshadowed, a strong wave of fire exploded from Mabel’s chest. It shot off from her body, hissing and yowling like a flare as a straight line of defensive flames tore across the rooftops and propelled themselves towards the tracker.
The soldier hardly even had the chance to catch his breath before the flames collided violently with his machinery, the strong energy from both parties clashing furiously as the tracker was blown to smithereens, along with its rider.
Realizing the threat was gone, Mabel’s powers were quickly extinguished, though now her face was not etched with hatred; pure fear had overthrown her act of rage, her flickering eyes one with her hands as she watched her remaining embers be recalled through her fingers. Breathless, she turned her attention back to me, clearing her throat and shaking her head as she desperately tried to focus on the more urgent matter. Trembling, she wrapped an arm under my back and across my chest, forcing me to sit up.
My muscles screamed in protest, though somehow, she managed to get me to my feet; that didn’t mean that I could walk, however. I stood still, gasping for air
as the blood continued to race down my face. She brushed the blood away from my eyes, giving me a quick, gentle kiss on my stunned lips before pulling me forward. “Don’t you be thinking about me,” she pressed anxiously. “Just… You focus on yourself.”
That was easy enough—hardly able to think in the first place, Mabel led me along the rooftops in the direction of the others, who were paralyzed in shock. The threat of being shot by lightning was no more after the explosion, the sounds of ringing static and warring energy now replaced by dreadful screams.
“Eero…?” Griffin tried, staring at me with wide eyes.
“Don’t say it,” Mabel mumbled as we passed by.
Don’t say what? I wondered, still unable to speak.
“You’re strong, Eero,” Kaitlyn commended me, “but we can’t slow down. Mabel, can you carry him?”
She groaned in distress. “I used to be able to. He’s stronger now, though; I can’t.”
Kaitlyn huffed loudly, shifting her eyes to Rebel next, whose mouth was gaped open in awe upon staring at me. “Can you?” she asked, a hint of hostility present.
Rebel smiled. “Of course!”
She sprinted over to Mabel, stealing me and throwing my body into her own arms, not gentle in the slightest. I whimpered in misery, feeling my brain split and my spine cry out.
“Careful with him!” Mabel scolded.
Rebel stared down at me, her eyes glistening in fascination. “Whoa, I can’t believe it…!” she whispered whimsically. “This is awesome!”
WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!
“Let’s go!” Kaitlyn declared. “We’re right there!”
Our group of Glitches continued on for only a few minutes more, Rebel staring down at me with wide, amazed eyes, while Mabel glared at her from the side. I didn’t know what it was, but already, I could see that Mabel did not trust her.
And with Mabel’s hunch being spot on as of late when it came to trouble, I was instantly very wary about just who held my life in their hands.