by C Lee Tocci
“The Director is calling in the snipers from the grounds.” Jeff said, eyes on the phone. “We’d better move fast.”
Lilibit pushed the door to the stairwell and held it open as Todd and Jeff helped Donny through.
They froze as a click from below signaled someone else entering the stairwell. Todd was still breathing heavily, not only from his injuries, but also from supporting Donny’s weight. Yet even above the sound of his panting, he could hear the sound of furtive steps echoing up the landing.
Leaving Donny to lean against Jeff, Todd tiptoed down the stairs, Keotak-se’s staff held at the ready. Peeking over the railing, he caught a glimpse of a small brown hand grasping a railing below.
“Marla?” Todd whispered, still not entirely sure it was her.
Marla’s frightened face leaned out into the shaft and looked up. “Todd!” She said too loudly. She immediately dropped her voice to ask, “Are you okay?”
“Still breathing,” Todd said as Marla scampered up the stairs.
Marla stopped in front of him and narrowed her eyes. “Not by much; you look horrible.”
“Doing better than Donny.” Todd nodded his head up the stairs to where Jeff and Lilibit still stood, supporting Donny.
“Lilibit!” Marla barely glanced at Donny before focusing on Lilibit. “Are you okay?”
Lilibit nodded, her eyes downcast.
Marla’s delight was short-lived. She punched her hands onto her hips and scowled. “You are in such trouble---”
“Not now.” Todd interrupted. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
Marla snorted indignantly but stopped scolding. With Todd supporting Donny, the five of them started down the stairs.
“How’s Ulex doing?” asked Todd.
“The Elders made good time.” Marla reported. “They’ve already got to the Sienna Sentries and right now, Ulex is carrying Keotak-se into Kiva. After he’s dropped him off, he’s going to morph into a wolf and see if he can get back here faster that way.”
Todd nodded but hoped that they’d be clear of this place long before Ulex returned. They’d reached the door on the ground floor and Todd waved the others to halt. Donny was a little stronger, but he still needed to lean against the wall when Todd pulled away his support.
“Wait here,” Todd whispered. With the staff at the ready, he pushed open the door a few inches.
A battery of rapid-fire gunshots sprayed the opening. Bullets ripped channels through the metal door and frame, ricocheting into the stairwell. Todd slammed the door shut.
“We’re just kids!” Marla cried, grey-faced. “Don’t they know we’re just kids?”
“Like they care,” Jeff replied, rubbing his sleeve where a deflected bullet had missed him by a hair, ripping his shirt and burning his arm. “They’re mercenaries. They’d shoot their mothers for a buck.”
“Any other way out?” Todd felt his heart beating as if the gunshots were still bouncing around inside his chest.
“Nope,” Jeff answered, “No other way out.”
“How long, do you think, ‘til Ulex can make it back?” Todd asked Marla.
“Best guess?” Marla answered. “Maybe ten hours.”
Todd doubted the snipers would wait that long before closing in. Biting his lip, he placed one hand on the door handle and with the other, tapped Keotak-se’s staff on the ground, three times.
The tremors that ran up the shaft seemed stronger than he’d remembered from the last time he’d tried this. That time, he had struck the ground instinctively, not knowing what power the staff, when combined with the power of his stone, could do. This time, however, he thought he knew what to expect.
But he didn’t. Not even close.
Just like the last time, a white ball of energy built up at the top of the staff. It pulsed in waves that crackled like electricity. Fingers of power inched their way down the shaft to grab at his hand. But this time, the wave of light didn’t just ride along the staff; it spread up his arm to swathe his entire body. The pulsing glow was very warm, almost hot, but it didn’t burn him. It throbbed and crackled; tiny drops of glittering flecks spat in all directions. Turning towards the others, he saw his own amazement in their faces. Afraid now that, whatever power was enveloping him might endanger his friends, Todd acted on impulse.
He pushed open the door and stumbled into the garage.
Still glowing with power, he didn’t even have a second to catch his balance before the automatic weapons opened up on him. The blasts from a dozen assault weapons sounded like one long deafening roar as he was pummeled with bullets. Still clutching the staff, he was hurled back against the wall, pinned by gunfire.
He ached as if he’d been struck by a dozen trucks all at once, but when he looked down at his body, he saw that none of the bullets had penetrated. On the cold grey concrete floor lay the shattered and half-melted remains of hundreds of bullets. But he was still standing, bruised but unscratched.
The quasar at the apex of the staff pulsed once again and Todd, not knowing what else to do, pointed it at the row of gaping snipers. The flare shot straight out in a brilliant stream of white before splitting into dozens of smaller beams, each one skewering a mercenary. They fell to the ground and lay unmoving.
A movement behind one of the sedans caught his eye, so Todd, still glowing, walked over to the cars.
The Duke and Mr. Terrance were crouched behind a towncar; the tops of their heads were all that could be seen. They looked at Todd as if he were some kind of monster. Todd looked down at himself, wondering if he’d changed that much, but he still looked like a normal kid, just shimmering with a throbbing light. He shrugged.
Looking at the two men, he waved both hands high, made a stupid scary face and yelled “Boo!” The Duke and Mr. Terrance both let out high pitched screams and scrambled on their hands and knees over to the elevator door. The door opened immediately as they pushed the button, but he could hear their hiccups of fear as the doors slowly closed.
Todd chuckled smugly.
He did a quick search around the other vehicles and found nothing. The corpses lay scattered in front of the exit and Todd wondered if one of them might be the one Jeff said was called “The Director of Security.” He didn’t think so, these guys were all seedy looking and dressed in black fatigues. He wondered where the Director might be; if he wasn’t still in the building, then was he outside, putting together another attack?
Todd tapped the staff lightly on the ground, one rap, and the white energy ebbed back into the staff before disappearing all together. Taking another quick look around the lobby, Todd began dragging the bodies behind one of the hummers.
The others were all freaked out enough, he thought. They didn’t need to face this.
But perhaps what Todd himself didn’t want to face was that he’d just killed for the first time. It had been self-defense; it was either him or them, but it still didn’t make it any easier.
Chapter Forty-Seven
By The Skin Of Their Teeth
“Clear!” Todd called out as he pushed open the door to the stairwell.
Lilibit came out first wide-eyed, checking out the garage before asking Todd, “You okay?”
Todd nodded but didn’t meet her eyes. He passed her to give Jeff a hand with Donny while Marla stared at the mangled bullets scattered over the floor. She stooped to pick one up, fingering it as she stared at Todd with awe.
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Todd said, answering her unasked question.
Walking unsteadily on his own, Donny shrugged off Todd’s help.
“Who’s left?” Jeff asked as he cautiously checked out the vacant offices.
“Your Dad and the Duke went up the elevator,” Todd indicated the elevator door with a nod of his head.
“Whoa!” Jeff said as he wandered behind the hummer and found the corpses. “Nice job!”
“Whatever.” Todd didn’t think it was something to be proud of.
“How ‘bout Syxx?” Jeff asked.
“Don’t know.” Todd started at the overhead door. “Haven’t seen him or that Director guy, whoever he is.”
Jeff stared at the elevator door, a weird look on his face, then he shrugged, his cockiness returning as fingered the phone. “It looks like this Director guy is pulling in the snipers. There’s about forty of them and he’s got them in formation, aimed at the entrance.”
Todd didn’t know if he went out there again with Keotak-se’s staff flaring if he could cover the others as they escaped. And he didn’t know if the staff would kill all the snipers. It didn’t seem like it was something he could control. It was like the staff did everything itself. He kept telling himself that he wasn’t the one doing the killing; it was the staff. Or maybe it was whatever power was inside the staff; or maybe it was the Earth Stone. But there was one thing for sure: he didn’t want to think that it was he that had just killed a dozen people. And that he might have to kill even more.
“How ‘bout Syxx?” Todd asked. “Can you tell if he’s out there?”
“No,” Jeff frowned as he checked it again. “What’s weird is that there’s no mention of Syxx anywhere in the system. If I hadn’t seen him myself, I’d say he didn’t exist.”
“So he might be out there and you just can’t see him,” said Todd.
“And?” Jeff bristled.
“Don’t get defensive,” Todd replied. “We just need to be prepared.”
“They’re bringing out the dogs as backup.” Jeff reported, turning back to his computer. “They’re releasing them around the perimeter in case we find another way out. They’re also trying to get snipers on the roof, but they’re having trouble getting them up there.”
“We need to move now,” said Todd, “before they get the snipers up there. It’ll be tough enough without having them come at us from two directions.”
“Dogs can help.” Donny said.
Todd was surprised that Donny had been able to follow their conversation. “Help? How?”
“They don’t like the gun men.” Donny said somberly. “They can bite them.”
“You can hear the dogs from in here?”
Donny nodded. “They want to help. They want to bite the men with guns.”
A plan came to Todd.
Okay,” Todd spoke quickly, “We need to time this carefully to give the dogs a fighting chance. Donny, you talk to the dogs and get them ready, but don’t have them start biting the gun men until the lights go out. Jeff, can you kill all the exterior lights? Even the ones in the guard shack?”
Jeff nodded. “Just give me the word.”
“I’ll go out first and draw their fire. Give me five seconds, then kill all the lights. At the same time the lights go out, Donny, you have the dogs bite the gun men. Do you understand? When Jeff tells you he’s turned off the lights, you tell the dogs to start biting.”
Donny nodded. “The dogs are ready now, but they’ll wait until Jeff says so.”
“Good,” Todd rubbed his sweaty palms against his jeans. “Five seconds after the lights go out, the rest of you morph into birds and come out. I’ll cover you. Fly straight up, as high as you can go, then head south. Stick together. When you’re clear, I’ll morph and join you. If I don’t meet up with you within two minutes, you head back to Kiva. Jeff’s in charge. Understand?”
They all nodded. Todd ran the plan through his head one more time, hoping he hadn’t missed anything and praying that it would work. He was about to rap the staff on the ground when a set of arms wrapped around his chest.
“Don’t get hurt.” Lilibit whispered, her cheek pressed into his back. “Okay?”
Todd gave her half a smile as he removed her hands from his chest. “Okay. Just ‘cause you asked me not to.”
He took a moment to ruffle her hair before he set her back from him a few feet. He didn’t know if the energy from the staff would hurt her, and this wasn’t the time to find out. He tapped the staff three times, hoping that what had happened before would happen again.
It did. The staff trembled and the energy pulsed from the apex before running down the shaft and engulfing his body with light. Motioning the others away from the door, he whispered to Jeff. “Open it.”
The door clattered up. There was no other sound. It rattled to a stop and an eerie silence settled on the compound.
Todd stepped out into the opening.
A tsunami of bullets nearly pushed him back into the building. Fighting against the barrage was like walking neck deep against a roaring river. He leaned forward and planted one foot at a time, ignoring the stinging bullets as they struck him and bounced away.
The shooting faltered as the snipers stared at Todd, stunned. Todd could hear the wheezing of the dogs pulling at their leashes as the gunshots faded. Todd, still glowing white, ran a dozen yards from the building, hoping that all their attention, and their gunfire, would follow him.
He was still running when several things happened almost simultaneously.
A voice called out “Release the dogs!” at the same time that all the lights went out, the halogen lamps extinguishing with an audible woosh.
As the light from the halogen bulbs slowly faded, Todd’s glowing aura seemed to grow brighter. Another flurry of gunshots pounded him but then died out. He could hear the dogs clawing gravel as his eyes adjusted to the gloom.
The dogs leapt toward him, circling him, and then stopped, their voiceless growls breaking off as they cocked their ears as if listening to a command only they could hear. Then, with a chorus of bays, they spun around and rushed the snipers.
Disappearing into the darkness, all Todd could hear were the sounds of dogs snapping, teeth ripping and men screaming. He looked back towards the building. If he hadn’t been watching for it, he never would have caught the flutter of wings coming out the door. Todd turned and sprinted north, in the opposite direction he had told the others to escape to. A few more shots bounced off him. He ran around the corner of the building and pressed himself flat against the wall. Still glowing, he crouched down and was listening to the sounds of carnage when a tiny ball of feathers fluttered around his head.
“Lilibit!” Todd hissed, recognizing the hummingbird. “Get out of here! Get going!”
The bird flitted out of reach as he swatted at her. Realizing that she probably wouldn’t leave without him, he spat out the words “Kissy-face!”
He fell toward the ground but caught himself before he hit. Flapping his black wings, he started upward. Unlike Lilibit, who could turn on a dime, he had to take off at an angle, the tips of his feathers skimming the gravel until he’d gained speed and height.
Lilibit flitted below him. He tried to maneuver himself so that she was above him and he could mask her from the snipers, but everytime he moved, she’d adjust herself so she was always beneath him. Furious, he led her upward and southward, away from the turmoil.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Forbidden Refuge
They caught up with the others who were flying circles, probably trying to find Lilibit. Jeff the bluejay dove at her, almost crashing into her. Todd knew how he felt. It was so aggravating to try to protect Lilibit when she wouldn’t cooperate. Marla’s hawk-form batted her wings at the hummingbird but Lilibit seemed to ignore it; she flittered joyfully, buzzing away from their reprimands.
As wolves, it had been easier to hear the rest of the clan, but flying as birds, it was eerily silent. Todd wondered if they had all been the same species, if they could have heard each other, or perhaps all birds were solitary.
As they headed south, Todd began to slow their pace. Lilibit was faltering, her flitting becoming erratic; occasionally her wings would stop all together and she’d fall for a few yards before starting up again. They were all exhausted, but she seemed to be fading the fastest. Todd knew they’d need to stop soon and rest.
It was that time of the early morning when you could begin to see the faint outlines of the world, but all Todd could see for miles was flat, dead earth with the o
ccasional oil derrick cropping up. There wasn’t much else to offer them cover, so he led them toward one of the derricks, landing on the gravel near a rusting support.
Todd crouched low as he changed back into himself and the others, as they landed, did the same. Lilibit dropped like a stone, changing back into her girl-form only seconds before hitting the ground. She sat with a flop and yawned hugely.
“What’s with you?” Todd asked, worried. They all looked a little beat, but Lilibit looked wilted.
“Tired,” she said between yawns. “And hungry. I get hungry fast when I’m a hummingbird.”
Todd thought about that and nodded. As cool as flying as a bird was, it was hard to hold that shape. It was more draining than holding the wolf-form. He turned to Jeff, who was already plugging away with on the phone. “We need a place to crash and some food,” he asked Jeff. “Any ideas?”
Jeff didn’t answer for a moment, but then he smiled and nodded. “About eight miles southwest of here is a vacant house. The owners are on vacation for two weeks and they’ve stopped the mail at the post office. Nearest neighbors are a quarter of a mile away. We could head there.”
“Eight miles?” Todd thought out loud. “We’ll run as wolves. Do you think you can make it that far, Lilibit?”
Lilibit looked up, startled, as if surprised that he even wondered if she could handle it. She jiggled her entire body as if to wake herself up and then nodded. “Yeah, I think so.” But then she asked, “you don’t have anything to eat, do you?”
When Todd shook his head, no, Lilibit shrugged and pulled herself to her feet. After one last stretch, she mumbled, “Stupid Nov’m!” and fell onto all four limbs as a small black wolf.
She looked more alert as a wolf than she had as a girl or a bird, so Todd quickly morphed as well. A chorus of “Stupid Nov’ms!” and they all changed, except Jeff, who still fiddled with his palmputer.
“One second,” he muttered, checking out a few last details before putting the device into his pocket and morphing himself.
Which way, Jeff? Todd asked. Communicating was so much easier as a wolf.