More piercing caws come from behind us as two more of the creatures have come up behind us, catching us off guard. Taking up the back, Nate and Xander turn to face them, take aim, and begin raining bullets on the two mutated birds while pushing back against us to keep moving. Both hawk-like creatures, begin flapping their wings. Their combined flapping pinions stretch so long, they cover the width of the rear of the crumbled house. Watching the attacking birds try to take flight, I see them up close for the first time since the attack began. The lightning continues to light the sky spotlighting these sleek flying attackers; their wings spanning the length of a large truck. The recognition of the blackened eyes filling the sockets of this sinister birds is immediate.
Jake yells out, “These things are occupied by Dwellers!”
Everyone that has a gun, unleashes ammunition on the two creatures sending them back up into the air. Ira roars painfully, startling all of us, “No!”
As I look after him, his mouth is gaping, his roar muted, but face still bearing the pain. His eyes are locked on something he sees around the side of the house in the open yard. Taking a few steps to see his line of sight, I see Errol’s lying on the ground grabbing his chest, his hands reddened from the gash across his chest. The hawk creature is hovering over his form, flapping its wings, watching its prey. Errol’s head is turned toward Ira. He opens his mouth to try and speak. Instead he releases a gurgle and mixture of blood and saliva from his mouth. Ira thunders toward him and my immediate reaction is go with him, but Ezra grabs my arm, “No! Leave them!”
Leave them? Is he crazy! They have been protecting us! Now one of the brothers is dying! I turn on Ezra’s grasp yell over the shower of bullets, “We can’t leave them!”
I’m about to run to help when I remember I have Tessa in my arms.
As Ezra pulls me back toward the woods, I watch Ira crumble to the ground next to his brother ignoring the bird-like predator standing over them both.
Nate suddenly yells, “Xander, cover me!”
Before I realize what is happening, Nate is running toward Ira and Errol with Xander behind him showering bullets on the predator hunched over Ira and Errol. Jake and Nick both follow Xander, pouring ammo into the sky at the hawk-like creatures hovering.
I watch Ira pull Errol into his arms as he cries out for his other brothers. “Cale, Lathan, Seth!”
They don’t acknowledge his call as they try to fight off the attacking bird beast. Seth has wrangled one to the ground. He is setting atop its back and pulling up on its neck until the deep crack of its neck leaves the hawk lifeless in his arms. The raw Dweller begins detaching from the mutated hawk just as Seth grasps the slithery mass and rips it in half. Cale and Lathan are holding their own, trying to keep from the deadly wings that have taken down Errol.
I watch Ira put his head down to his brother’s chest, listening for life. Suddenly, another winged predator’s screech comes blaring down on us. Monica and Ezra fire on it, but the hawk comes at Monica with stealthy speed and takes her in its talons lifting her off the ground and into the sky. All of us yell as soon as she is taken as Daniel, Sebastian, and the other guardians hold their fire from fear of hitting Monica. The hawk’s screeching caw doesn’t beat out Monica’s painful scream. Even though the creature has captured her, its talons buried deep into the flesh of her shoulders, she manages to lift her rifle, rest it at the base of the birdlike beak, and fire. Feathers explode from the beast’s body as it tailspins to the ground with Monica in its clutches.
Ezra takes Daniel by the shirt and yells, “We need to go after her!”
Another screech warns us before a hawk-beast drops from the sky, swooping down on us. We all rush into the overgrowth before it can take hold of any of us.
Ezra and Daniel are arguing about going after Monica, while I am watching Nate try to pull Ira from Errol’s still body. Xander, Nick, and Jake hail bullets into the air sporadically to hold back the Dweller occupied hawklike birds. Seth, Cale, and Lathan have moved in closer to Ira and their fallen brother, but are still trying to swat off the winged beasts. The sky opens suddenly, releasing the rain that has been threatening. The sky continues to light up with heaving lightning and deafening thunder as the ground quickly saturates, but the winged Dweller beasts don’t relent.
Elisha comes by my side and says breathlessly, “Here, give her to me.”
I look into her eyes, questioning why she is taking her from me. I see the fear she holds in her eyes for Nick; she loves him.
She whispers to me, “Get them out of there.”
Her simple words light a fire in me. I hand Tessa to her and run out into the open. I hear Ezra and Sebastian yelling for me to come back, but I ignore them, only focused on Ira, Errol, the other guardians and Rephaim. I slide to Ira’s side and rest my hands over his as they lay upon his brother’s bloodied chest. “Ira, he is gone! Please, come with us!” I yell.
In a flash, Ezra is at my side yelling at me, “You stupid, stupid girl! It is you they want! Go back with the others! ”
I meet Ezra’s angry eyes and yell at him, “No! I will not leave them!”
I wedge my face in between Ira’s gaze and Errol, “Ira! I need you to get up!”
Ira shakes his head from side to side slowly. The screech of two more hawks diving for prey pound my ears with their deafening sound. One has swooped down and buzzes Ira, Ezra, and me. I hear Cale cry out behind me and wheel around to see the other hawk’s talon’s wrapped partially around one of his swollen biceps, blood trickling down his arm. Cale has grabbed hold of the flying beast’s beak to keep it from administering a deadly strike, but he can’t hold on for long. Nate, Xander, and Jake are holding their fire on Cale, aiming for the other beast that is diving in for Ira’s mourning form.
Without a second thought, I let my pooled up anger build within and force the energy from me straight at the creature. With the sound of a sonic boom, a wave of light shoots straight from my body into the hovering beast, forcing it to release Cale with a hard thud to the ground. The storm of bullets track the Dweller hawk as it rises swiftly into the darkened sky. My Qi, is back! Is it back for good?
The screech caw of the birdlike Dwellers prepares me for another strike as the creature heads straight for me.
Ezra yells, “Jesca! Get down!”
Again, I focus all of my energy into the center of my core, let is spiral and build, then will it out from me directly to the flying Dweller. The strike deflects the attack and the beast’s wings take it higher into the sky.
Ezra is there just in time to catch me by the shoulder as the drain from using my Qi kicks in. He yells, “You have used too much energy. You can’t keep this up! It is taking too much out of you, Jes!”
Lazily, I look at Nate and Xander sporadically firing into the sky to keep the beasts at bay. To my right, Seth, Cale, and Lathan are standing guard for any other attacking beasts. Ira is still hunched over Errol’s unmoved body, staring at his blood soaked chest.
Ezra is yelling at all of them, “We need to pull back!” He tries to move Ira. “Ira! You have to help us get my daughter to the mounds! Get up!” he bellows.
He isn’t listening to him. I move away from Ezra and close in to Ira, getting a good angle on him. I ball up my fist and swing with all my might at Ira’s face. I make full contact with his jaw and he barely flinches as I yell at him, “Ira, help me!”
I come at him with my other balled up fist now, again putting all of my remaining energy into it. Ira flinches from the hit this time, detecting my assault.
I yell at him, rain soaked and swatting the water falling in my eyes. “Please get up! We need to get out of here!”
Ira blinks a few times then looks up at me. Ezra is yelling for me and the others to pull back, but I don’t move, not without Ira.
Suddenly, he does something unexpected. Ira lays his head down on his brother’s chest and closes his eyes. Jake yells, “What the hell is he doing? Ira, get up!”
Ira lifts his head
swiftly and looks at me, wide-eyed. “It is dull, but there is a pulse!”
Seth yells back at Ira. “We can’t save him brother!”
Appearing to ignore Seth’s words, Ira continues to kneel before his brother and says, “We can try!”
Jake looks down at Ira, then at Errol’s expansive chest covered with his blood and the evidence of the filleted gash by the Dweller hawk’s razor sharp wings. “We have no supplies! No way of helping him!” yells Jake.
Nate comes to kneel across from Ira and yells over the roaring thunder, “I can try to heal him!”
No! He can’t.
Xander and Ezra scold him at the same time, “No!”
Ira looks at Nate and shakes his head. “I will not let you.”
Ezra fires two more shots into the sky then looks down at Errol as he says, “Do you see the size of him! If you try to heal him, it will drain every ounce of energy from you! Energy that you will need!”
Ira agrees, “I will not let you use your ability, Nate!”
Nate shakes his head and looks down at Errol, “You all have risked your lives for us Ira! It is my choice!”
All of a sudden, Ira shakes his head and pulls his dagger from its sheath. Nate scrambles to his feet and moves away from Ira, not sure of his intentions with the blade. Ira makes them known as he raises the dagger over his head, stares down at his brother’s body and yells, “It is my choice!”
The sharp, crackle of thunder shakes the earth beneath us just as Ira strikes down in one swift motion, burying his blade deep in Errol’s chest. Ira’s head hangs between his arms, his hands glued to the shaft of the blade. Nate, Xander, Jake, and Ezra have stopped firing their weapons and are looking at Ira, shocked by his decision.
I can’t keep the tears from streaming from my eyes as I watch rain hammer Ira’s body splayed across his brother now. Tessa! She can’t see this! I survey the woods and hope that someone has shielded her from seeing the scene I just witnessed. I can’t see anyone through the rain and heavy trees.
I feel Ira’s body move next to me and turn to see him rise from his brother’s body, his dagger hanging from his hand as he looks up into the sky above. The hawk creatures are circling above us, again coming lower and lower, preparing for another attack. With the shadows of light and dark dancing between lighting strikes, I can’t get a good count on how many hawk Dwellers remain. Even with the guardians and Rephaim having killed three, the numbers are still too many if they descend upon us now.
The drain in my body has taken its toll. I can stand on my own two feet, but I can feel my body trembling from the exertion and I don’t think I could pull enough energy again if I needed to, not this soon.
I yell at all of them urgently over a roar of thunder, “We have to get into the woods!”
Ira bends over to lift his brother into his arms just as a feathered Dweller swoops down toward us. Seeing it coming and unable to muster any energy to save him, I brace for the worst when a blaze of fire assaults the sinister Dweller beast. The blaze is coming from two distinct directions, two guardians... Jake and Nick are using their Pyrokenesis.
Without missing a beat, Ezra, Xander and Nate continue to assault the descending bird with bullets until it glides over us in flames. The Dweller ridden mutation slides into the side of the destroyed house that was once our safe house.
The beast flails in flames catching the entire structure on fire.
I look up into the sky and see the hawklike Dwellers rising farther above us, still circling, planning their next attack.
Ezra bellows, “The house is going to blow!”
Ira leaves Errol’s body and we all pull back with our eye both on the sky and on the billowing smoke and flames soaring from the house. Ira strides toward the heavy brush as I run along side of him. As we get closer to the overgrowth, the guardians come into view and Ms. Olivia rushes to me. “Come, you have used too much of your energy.”
She leads me under the canopy of trees and deeper into the woods. Ezra continues to yell at all of us, “Move deeper into the woods! It is going to blow!”
Just as he gets the words out, the house explodes, shaking the ground below us and sending the guardians to the ground. Waves of fire and smoke, blossom into the sky, shrouding the hawklike creatures from sight. I catch sight of Shiva’s silvery coat as she runs ahead of Ms. Olivia and me.
The rumble of the explosion dies, but the quaking and kindling fire continues, falling farther and farther behind us. I angle my head to make sure everyone is following behind us. Sebastian is escorting Elizabeth and she doesn’t look well, wheezing, barely catching her breath. Nick is at Elisha’s side, holding her close. The remaining Rephaim are behind the rest of us as we come to an opening in the woods. I look above us to make sure we are covered enough to keep the remaining mutated bird Dwellers out if the explosion hadn’t warded them off already.
The rain has not slowed, but the heavy canopy of trees we are under is shielding us from the heaviest of it. Everyone huddles into the small meadow.
Ezra looks up into the canopy of trees and says, “The rain might keep the creatures away. Their feathers will get too wet and they will have to perch.” Ezra brushes the rain from his face angrily and gnarls, “Giant, mutated, Dweller birds! I thought animals couldn’t survive Daniel!”
Daniel doesn’t take well to Ezra’s attack. “We have not seen wild life in one year, Ezra!”
Ezra paces then yells bitingly, “Now! Of course it is now!”
He moves toward the edge of the meadow continuing his nervous pacing, “We need to find her. We have to find Monica.”
Daniel walks over to him. “Ezra, she is gone. We don’t even know where to look.”
Ezra holds his gun up, looks away from Daniel angrily and narrows his eyes on the Rephaim, “Lathan, come with me.”
He turns to leave with Ezra, when I charge over to block him from walking any further. “Stop, Ezra!”
Ezra’s eyes narrow on me and widen. “She could be alive out there!”
I remember the talons’ grasp on her before it crashed into the woods. She couldn’t have survived both the pressure of the carcass falling on her and the vice grip the talons had on her shoulder. I shake my head. “She isn’t alive. You know as well as I she couldn’t have survived.”
Ezra’s eyes have glazed over; he is thinking about her. Monica’s death has made him think about Ana’s. Ezra’s head shakes and his voice trembles, “I have to know for sure. We can’t leave her.”
I see Lathan look at Ira, then move toward Ezra and me.
He walks past us both into the woods and calls, “I will sweep the woods for her.”
In a blur, he disappears into the woods. All of a sudden Ezra side steps me and runs into the woods behind him. Nate and Xander are both on me instantly, grabbing both of my arms keeping me from going after him.
“No! He can’t go out there alone!”
Nate yells, “He isn’t alone! Lathan is with him!”
I continue to struggle, yanking my arms from them.
Having escaped their clutches, Xander growls, “Jesca!”
All of a sudden, a gun discharges in the same direction Lathan and Ezra just disappeared, sending my heart into my throat. The gun discharges again and I sprint through the woods only focused on getting to my father with the vague sound of Nate and the other guardians yelling for me to stop.
I hear her choking and it spurs my urgency to get to her quicker before it is too late; before the Dweller has a chance to take her. I come up on the enormous creature first, it’s body splayed out on its side and its heavy head caved in on itself. Monica coughs, then whimpers breathily, drawing my attention to the lower half of the hawk-like creature. She is laying against the underside of the bird, still clutched by the ridged talons of the beast. I rush to her and prop her head up in my lap, instantly relieving the blockage of blood that has gathered and pooled in her throat.
Her eyes widen when she sees that it is me. Her lips begin to
tremble and a small moan resonates from her lips as her eyes narrow concentrating on getting out what she is trying to say.
I look closer to her and see that the lower half of her legs is under the body of the carcass. Pinching my eyes shut tightly, I feel a cold sweat wash over me at as I see the image of Ana struggling for breath as her life fell away that fateful night in the cabin. I wipe my dampened face with the sleeve of my arm and whisper, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”
In the midst of my breaking point, I hear her voice, my Ana. “You can’t save her. It is alright, Ezra. You need to let her go. You know what you need to do.”
A cold clammy hand clamps down on my arm, drawing me from the sound of Ana’s voice. Urgently, I look down at Monica and see that her eyes have gone pure black, pure darkness consuming her. I pull away from her just as her upper body begins to convulse and writhe from the Dweller now controlling her body. The only thing keeping her from reaching me is the fact that her legs are trapped underneath the beast.
As Monica writhes and convulses the Dweller that is consuming her tries to take hold of me one again. I groan loudly as I pull my gun from the holster, knowing what I need to do and resenting these final moments with her. I take a deep breath, aim it at Monica’s head, and choke out, “I’m sorry,” before pulling the trigger twice.
I release my breath before I open my eyes.
I should have kept them closed.
Paralyzed, the gun drops from my hand as I divert my eyes. My only comfort at the moment is knowing that I can hear Ana again. In my darkest moment, I can hear her again and she remains the light.
I spot Lathan first. He is standing behind Ezra who is standing in front of the beasts carcass with a body at his feet, Monica. I don’t look too long, just long enough to see the blood. When my stomach summersaults, I look away. The rest of the guardians and Rephaim run up on me, Shiva heeling at my side. Again, I worry about Tessa seeing this scene. I’m scanning the guardians, looking for her when my eyes stop on her small form wrapped in Xander’s arms. He is holding her to his chest with her face tucked over his shoulder, looking away from the scene. Xander is swaying side to side, hushing her, and smoothing her hair. I am so thankful he has scooped her up and shielded her.
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