by Saxon Andrew
Tyler pulled the release chord on the glider pack he was wearing and ran off the edge of the platform into the wind blowing toward the cliff. The warriors in front of him ducked but his glider caught the wind and he rose quickly into the air. He spiraled upward and in a few moments they saw him land on top of the cliff. He waited until everyone was watching him and he released the glider again. Tyler prayed he wouldn’t foul this up. He had practiced on his own for more than twelve hours the previous day and he had the bruises to prove it. The warriors watched him fall in a steep path along the wall of the cliff and then suddenly turn directly toward one of the circles painted on the ground. He came in from directly above it and at the last moment, he pushed the nose of the glider up and stalled it. He retracted the glider and fell three feet to land on his feet. Tyler breathed a huge sigh of relief as the warriors, to a man, stood and cheered. Tyler dropped his glider pack in the circle and walked back to the platform. He didn’t want to admit his knees were so shaky that he couldn’t carry the pack.
He sat down on the platform and said, “You are going to have to dive into the wind to land in a tree. You’ll stall the glider, hopefully, a few feet above the tree, and fall into the upper branches where you’ll catch yourself.” Tyler pointed at the circles. “That is where you’ll practice the skills needed to make it happen. I would suggest you first land without retracting your glider until you get a feel for it. Then, and only then, will you retract your glider. If you can’t land in a circle, you won’t be able to fall on one. There are two hundred circles on the beach and they are each numbered sequentially starting with one through two hundred. On top of the cliff is painted numbers one through two hundred. Whatever number you launch from is the circle you’ll attempt to land in. Practice starts in thirty minutes. For those of you who had enough foresight to bring your gliders with you, you may begin now.”
The gathering broke up faster than cockroaches caught out in the light. Tyler shook his head and lifted the handboard with all the names of the volunteers. How was he going to be able to keep track of everyone?”
“I think you could use some help.” Tyler looked behind him and saw Olivia. “Why don’t I go with you and take notes while you watch what they’re doing.”
Tyler grinned and said, “Thank you, I can use the help.”
“Just call out the name of the ones you want me to make a note of.”
Tyler walked out toward the circles and Olivia followed him. Olivia said, “I’m sorry about your girlfriend.”
“Don’t be. It was for the best. Get ready, the first group has launched.”
“What about this. If what they do is passable, call out their name and an S. Failure is an F, and…”
“Outstanding is an O.”
“Something like that.”
• • •
Mindy sat on top of the wall and wanted to kick herself. She should have thought of helping Tyler but that twit beat her to it. She kicked her feet and watched the fliers leaping off the cliff.
• • •
Tyler looked at Olivia and said, “I won’t be giving them a rating today.”
“Oh, why not?”
“Everyone should have some time to practice before it counts. However, I do want to know those that are good at it.”
“Just call out their name.” Olivia walked with Tyler and he seemed to never tire. She was weary but he watched every effort and shouted approval at those that were successful and encouragement for those that weren’t. Olivia noticed that even the older fliers were determined to get their young Commander’s approval. She knew that Tyler didn’t know she would be going with them and that he was going to have to find a way to get her there, but that was something to worry about in the future. He didn’t need that distraction now.
The fliers took breaks when they were tired but Tyler and Olivia were there for every landing and at the end of the day when Tyler had dismissed them, he started practicing his own landings. Many of the weary fliers watched him and their respect for him increased tremendously. Those that had doubts were no longer concerned about the mettle of the young warrior. Many that had not landed in the circles stayed and practiced with him. He offered suggestions and many of them discovered they could do it. Olivia sat on the platform and glanced up at the top of the wall where Mindy was sitting. Her feet were killing her and she rubbed them vigorously. She sighed, Mindy was not out of the picture…yet.
• • •
By the end of the third day, the list had been reduced to twenty nine hundred. When the week had ended, the list had been narrowed down to twenty five hundred. Tyler met the survivors at the platform and said, “Your training will continue outside the north wall. Follow me.” He walked around the southern walls and exited the northern gate. The fliers arrived outside the cursor pens and saw numerous objects jutting out of the sand ahead of them. As they grew closer, they saw that the objects were the tops of trees that had been cut and transported to the sand. They were about twenty feet tall and they were all planted in the sand close to each other. Just like the circles, the trees had a large number painted in the sand in front of them. Tyler reached into his glider pack and pulled out what looked like a pair of metal gloves. “Everyone take a seat.” The warriors sat down as Tyler buckled the gloves around his wrist. He held up his hand and said, “Notice that these metal pads on the back of my hands look like a flat piece of metal.” Tyler lifted a hand and pushed on the back of it. Five long claws shot out and extended beyond his fingertips. “This is a pair of claws that you will use to grip the tree when you land in it.” Tyler pointed to a table set up outside the cursor pen, “You’ll find your pair on the table and you should practice extending the claws before attempting to use them. This week you will practice landing in your selected tree.”
Tyler walked away from the group and ran up the beach. He released the glider and he rose as the wings caught the breeze. He arrived at the top of the cliff and waited, until everyone was watching, and then he jumped off the cliff. He descended at a fast speed and once again stalled the glider three feet above the tree. He retracted the glider and fell into the top of the tree. He hooked a branch with one of the hooks and slammed the second hook into the trunk. He slid a few feet as the tree swayed back and forth. He wrapped his feet around the trunk and slowly moved down the small trunk until he arrived at a sturdy branch where he pulled a rope out of the glider pack and tied himself to the tree. The warriors walked over to the tree and he yelled, “This is what you’re going to have to do to go on this mission.” Tyler untied the rope and used the hooks to climb down the tree.
He arrived at the bottom and smiled, “I didn’t have the hooks when I did this the first time. They really make a difference. Do you have any questions?”
Olivia watched Tyler answer their questions and was once again impressed with Tyler’s genuine concern for his warriors. He treated them with respect and took as long as necessary to answer their concerns.
Finally, Tyler said, “Remember, you have to be wearing your archer uniform under the camouflage uniform. Tree branches won’t penetrate it and you won’t be injured from punctures. Alright, group one move to the top of the cliff.” Tyler looked at Olivia, “Are you ready?”
“Just call it out.”
Tyler stared at her for a moment and smiled, “Please plan to take a few minutes after the session to speak with me.” Olivia nodded and watched the first group arrive at the top of the cliff. For their first two days, they would jump individually until they mastered the landing. The third day, they would jump as a group.
By the end of the day, more than fifty warriors had sustained injuries severe enough to be removed from the training but the vast majority had successfully landed in the trees. The training at the circles had paid off. By the end of the second day, five hundred more warriors were eliminated and Tyler knew that of the two thousand remaining, all of them were capable of making the jump into a tree. That’s when things really got difficult.
; • • •
At the end of the day, Tyler walked Olivia back to her home. He looked at her and said, “I think my warriors have come to like you a lot.”
“And I like them as well. What about their Commander?”
Tyler looked at her with his brow furrowed, “What?”
“How does their Commander like me?”
Tyler stared at her and softly smiled, “I believe he likes you very much.”
Olivia went up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “I feel the same way.” Olivia saw Ophelia ahead waiting her to arrive for supper and she ran toward her. Tyler watched her go and shook his head. She was so…so…genuine.
“I was hoping I could catch you alone.”
Tyler turned and saw Mindy standing behind him. His expression turned sour and she stepped forward and put her arms around his neck, “Oh Tyler, I made a huge mistake. I discovered afterwards that I really missed you.”
Olivia arrived at her home and turned around to see Mindy with her arms around Tyler’s neck. Her heart went into her throat and she stood like a statue staring at them.
Tyler reached up and pulled Mindy’s arms from around his neck. Mindy started crying and Tyler said, “That’s not going to work Mindy.”
“But it’s true Tyler. I need you back.”
“Mindy, you want the rank not the person.”
“That’s not true.”
“Tell me how you could ever prove it?” Mindy stared at Tyler for a long moment. Tyler lowered his eyes and stared at her, “I saw into your heart when you rejected me and I didn’t like what I saw. I trusted you with my life and my love but you discarded both of them as casually as a dirty shirt. I don’t trust you anymore and once you lose trust, it’s impossible to regain it. Go and find the one that meets your needs. I am not that person.” Tyler turned and walked away. Mindy’s tears immediately stopped and she stomped her feet. If he thought she was giving up easily, he was wrong.
Olivia watched what happened and knew Mindy wasn’t done. But Tyler was. She gathered her heart and went inside smiling.
• • •
“Today, you will jump as a team. Instead of jumping off the cliff, your team will fly from the north, turn when you arrive at the top of the cliff and will then move into the trees numbered one through fifty. The flier leading your team will land in tree one and those behind him will land in each tree after him.”
Joel looked at Tyler, “Do you have any suggestions on how to do this?”
“It would be best if you have enough spacing between you so that the first glider heads in before the second arrives at the cliff. That way, you shouldn’t hit each other on the way down.”
“How much spacing do we need?”
Tyler smiled, “That’s what we’re here to find out. I think too much is better than not enough.” Tyler watched the first group huddle and most of the members turned to Joel. Tyler whispered to Olivia, “Joel and Terry.” Olivia nodded and made a mark on the hand board.
The first group landed with some difficulty. Six of the fliers almost hit another flier as they dove in toward the trees and eleven of them ended up sharing a tree with another flier. The second group gathered and Tyler watched them closely. He called out two names to Olivia and she wrote notations beside them. The second group had a much larger gap between the fliers and only two ended up in the same tree. Jose walked over to Tyler and said, “I notice that the problems happen because different fliers dive at different speeds.” Tyler nodded. “Is it possible that you’ve kept notes on the speeds that the members of my group use to land?”
Olivia said, “Line your group up in front of me.” The third group came over while the other groups watched what was happening. “Alright, when I call your name, move out and take the first position. Everyone else line up next to the person in line. Jose, you’re first.”
Tyler watched as the fliers listened for their name and all of them had nothing but smiles for Olivia. She had become an accepted member of the team. When all of them were in place, Olivia said, “If you come in that order, the faster fliers will be down before the slower ones start their dive.”
Jose smiled, “Thank you. Alright everyone, now you know what order we go in, please don’t forget it.”
The group moved out and Olivia said, “Jose and Michael.”
“How did you come up with Michael?”
“Am I right?”
“Yes you are but how did you know?”
“It was Michael that suggested Jose come and ask. He respects Jose highly and will follow his lead but the rest of the group looks to Michael for approval.”
“Very good, Olivia. Please pick the leaders for the other groups while I work with the Warriors after they land.”
“Wait a minute.”
“You can do it…probably better than I can. I missed seeing the group looking to Michael for approval. Don’t stress out, I’ll go over the list with you later and make sure we haven’t missed anything.” Olivia smiled and lined up the fourth group.
Olivia started lining up the fourth group and as soon as she called the first name she saw the members of the group became agitated. She looked at them and said, “What’s bothering you?”
One of the fliers shrugged and said, “I’d feel better if Lance would go first.” Olivia saw other members nod their agreement. Olivia looked at Lance’s time and he was middle of the pack. She looked at Lance, “Can you dive faster?”
“I can.”
“Then why haven’t you?”
“I thought the idea was to just do it. However, I can do it much faster than I have.”
“You were watching other members of your group while you dove, weren’t you?”
Lance turned red and nodded, “I want to make sure all of them make the cut.”
Olivia said, “Lance, take the first position.” The group cheered and it was clear who the leader of team four was going to be.
Choosing leaders after that was easy. The teams told her who they wanted to go first and they were only overruled once. Bob told his group that the process of fastest to slowest was the best way to do it safely and he wasn’t going to jeopardize the group by trying to do something he wasn’t sure of doing. They followed his advice. Olivia smiled. No one said the leader would be at the front of the line.
By the end of the day, the groups were coming in so smoothly that they looked like they had been doing it for years. By the end of the week, Tyler had four groups going in together. By the end of the fourth week, every group flew in and landed in a long row of trees in the forest. They were ready. Now it was time to tell Tyler.
• • •
Andy sat in the Holy Cave along with the Leadership Council. Tyler had filled them in on his progress and told them that he had nineteen hundred warriors that had passed the training and eliminating four hundred of them to get down to fifteen hundred was going to extremely difficult.
Andy smiled, “Fifteen hundred was an arbitrary number. We didn’t think we could get more than that ready for the mission. You can, and should, take them all.”
“There are another hundred that have been injured that can also perform. It would mean a lot to them to be included.”
Andy nodded, “Will they be healed in time?”
“When will we be going?”
“Within another six weeks when the wind shifts from out of the west.”
“They’ll be ready.”
“We need to discuss what we going to need your group to do.” Tyler nodded and listened as the four senior members told him. He nodded at each new revelation and knew there was a lot more training needed. Then he saw Olivia enter the cave and he smiled. He saw she was nervous and his smile evaporated. He heard Melody say, “There is another objective we want you to do once you’ve removed the guns.”
Tyler looked at her, “Is it to get out of there before the other fliers arrive and beam the place to hell?”
Melody smiled, “Not exactly.”
Tyler looked at
Olivia, “Does this objective have something to do with her?”
“It does.”
Tyler looked at Olivia, “Did you know about this?”
Melody said, “We told her not to tell you until it was determined that your Group was going to be able to do what was asked of it.”
Tyler kept his eyes on Olivia and she said, “I didn’t want you to be distracted getting your warriors ready.”
Tyler stared at her and said, “They want me to take you in with us.” Olivia looked him in the eyes and nodded. Tyler looked at Melody, “I won’t do it.”
Andy looked at Tyler and said, “Then we won’t ask you to.” Tyler jerked his head toward Andy and was surprised at his answer. Melody looked at Andy with a frown and Andy said, “I wouldn’t take you in there. How can I make him do it?”
Melody smiled and slowly shook her head, “I think you would under these circumstances.”
Andy blew out a quick breath and Tyler said, “What circumstances?”
Melody looked at Tyler, “The Destroyers place all their infants and babies in a centralized care center when the city is attacked. We want to try and save the babies.”
Tyler stared at Melody and said, “Just tell us where it’s located. She doesn’t have to go.”
Olivia looked at Tyler and lowered her head, “Do you remember the center of the city when you flew in?” Tyler nodded. “It’s located in the center of those buildings among hundreds of other buildings that look just like it.”
Tyler put his hand on his forehead and lowered his face as he rubbed it. He sighed and said, “It would be impossible to find unless you know its exact location.”