Queen of Avalon

by Jamie Davis

  Winnie whispered, “Push,” reaching out with one hand, palm outward.

  The guard’s eyes widened, then he was swept from the tower by a force he couldn’t see or comprehend. He toppled over the railing and tumbled twenty feet to the ground below.

  Not waiting to see him land, Winnie turned to the next tower, then the ones after that, repeating her spell until each tower was neutralized.

  Emerging from her fugue, she turned to see Danny and Cricket standing next to her.

  “Anyone hit?” she asked Danny. He was to cover communications while Cricket watched her back. Right now, he was looking for targets.

  Danny’s voice over the headset: “Any casualties, Morgan?”

  A moment’s pause, then Morgan’s voice came over the channel. “Everyone’s good. All teams are moving in on primary targets now.”

  Winnie turned to Danny and Cricket. “Let’s get in and out, fast. Cricket, take the section two gate lock while I watch for any guards we might’ve missed. Danny, you get ready to grab my mom when we reach her building. Don’t let her argue. Carry her if you have to.”

  “Got it,” Danny said. Cricket winked. Then the three of them ran for the smaller gate to section two.

  It was locked with a chain and padlock. Cricket was directing needle-like flows before he’d even reached it. The lock clicked open as he grabbed it. He unthreaded the heavy chain holding the gate closed and swung it open.

  Winnie and Danny ran past him, through the gate. Her mother was in the second building in the row of three long barracks. She headed straight for it.

  ———

  Cait’s van passed, then Winnie’s pulled out in front of them.

  Tris pointed forward. Rich, her driver, pulled out, following the second van over the hill. She looked back over her shoulder at her team. It was the largest, with herself, the four other techs, Rich, and two other members of their charm running crew for security.

  Their van was packed, rocking down the dirt and gravel towards camp. They needed the extra bodies. No one knew what the overnight staff would be like in the central building. They figured there’d be at least a few Red Leg guards and several technicians running the machinery and Harvester control panels. There could be many more.

  The van rolled over the collapsed main gate, then Rich drove right to the giant radio tower. Winnie was right. Even in the darkness, it dominated the camp. And she knew what the terror could do.

  Rich slammed on the brakes. They slid to a stop outside the central building around the tower’s base. Tris turned towards the back and pulled on her door handle. “Go!”

  She was already out and the sliding door was open, but the other techs were swimming in mud.

  “Come on people. This isn’t the time to dawdle. You’re not in the break room. MOVE IT!”

  The first shots rang out. Bullets kicked dirt at their feet.

  “They’re shooting at us!” Katie started to climb back in the van.

  Tris grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back out. She pointed to the tower. “There’s no going back. If we don’t get in there and shut that thing down, we’ll all die. You’ve got to open the door for us. You know locks, Katie. It’s up to you.”

  Katie looked around, fear like a flame in her eyes, then turned and sprinted towards central control’s main door.

  They all remained crouched by the van, but the shooting had stopped. Winnie must have gotten all the tower guards.

  “We’re in!” Katie shouted.

  Tris motioned for the other two other charm runners. They came running, then joined Rich, who had peeked briefly around the open doorframe before darting inside.

  She looked at the four remaining techs. “James, you go with Katie as planned. Find the main control room. Shut it down, by whatever means necessary. Morgan can guide you there if you need it. The rest of you come with me. Let’s find those kids, destroy the Harvester, and get the hell out of here.”

  “Tris, give me a report,” Morgan asked in her ear. “Everyone alright in your team?”

  “We took some gunfire, but it’s stopped. We’re going inside.”

  “Got it. Good luck.” The comm went silent. Morgan was gone.

  The first stages of this crazy rescue had gone off as planned. But that couldn’t last. She wondered what would go wrong first — something always did.

  CHAPTER 28

  Elaine couldn’t sleep. Pain was a constant torture.

  She was in a bunk room with about fifty other women, bunks stacked three high, with only inches between them. Contorting her arthritis-stricken body to get in and out of the bed was an art of agony. The guards had refused to retrieve her medicine from the cabinet when they took her into custody in Baltimore, and now her body was screaming.

  Her joints throbbed. She’d convinced one guard to give her a few pain pills, but they didn’t do much or even last long. Elaine had spent most of her time inside the barracks, playing cards with her bunk mates or discussing the sort of random gossip that spread surprisingly fast inside camp.

  There was a commotion by the window — noises outside that sounded like firecrackers.

  “Oh my God!” A teenaged girl pointed out the window. “The tower guards are shooting at something over by the main gate.”

  Another woman rushed over and looked out. “Do you think someone is trying to break out of here?”

  “I don’t know,” said the girl. “I can’t see what they’re shooting at. The guard must’ve been shot. He just fell out of the tower. He’s lying on the ground.”

  Elaine tried to prop herself up and look towards the window. This wouldn’t be good for any of them. The guards had treated them decently enough, considering they were in a prison camp. They’d made a point, though, of emphasizing how that could change if anyone acted up or tried to escape. Now, they would all suffer for someone’s stupidity.

  Gripping the sides of her bunk, Elaine struggled to swing her legs over the edge. The single window was already crowded, people craning to see outside.

  Elaine went to the hallway. Maybe she could see what was happening better in the large common room. She levered herself up and shuffled towards the door, every move lancing agony through her knees and ankles.

  Elaine kept pushing through. She reached the door and saw several others standing in the hallway, looking confused by the commotion. She could hear people in other rooms shouting about some sort of breakout and wondered if they were speculating, or if they could actually see what was going on from their windows better than the people in her room.

  One of Elaine’s neighbors from the old apartment in Baltimore ran by. She called out. “Marian, what’s going on out there? I don’t hear any shooting anymore.”

  The woman stopped and saw Elaine supporting herself on the door frame. “Someone said a bunch of rescuers in white vans just rammed the gates down. It’s a rescue, Elaine. Someone’s come to help us break out!”

  “Rescue all of us in three vans? There are thousands of people in here. It’ll take a hundred buses or more to ferry everyone out, just like how we got here.”

  Marian looked injured. She was in her thirties and flighty.

  “I’m sorry, Marian. I was just talking out loud. Don’t listen to an old woman moaning about stuff she knows nothing about.”

  “It’s alright, Miss Elaine,” Marian smiled. “Here, let me help you. We can find out together.”

  The younger woman helped Elaine stand, supporting her as she shuffled down the hallway towards the common room. Others ran past, dodging them in both directions.

  Speculation buzzed, with stories ranging from an army coup to overthrow the Red Legs to a rescue by charm runners coming to free their crews from captivity. The last idea made Elaine laugh out loud.

  Marian looked worried. “What’s so funny?”

  “How funny would it be if my Winnie was out there?”

  “I think it’s a fight between the Red Legs,” Marian speculated. “A friend of mine said they all d
on’t get along. Some are jealous of the guards who get to live in the central control building instead of the barracks.”

  Elaine shook her head. No need to waste the breath on an argument. But Red Legs didn’t fight other Red Legs. She knew that much.

  Elaine looked up as they reached the common room. She pointed to one of the many long benches, then Marian helped her to sit.

  There was a shout by the barracks entrance. Someone said to stand back.

  The door burst inward and three people in black rushed into the room.

  She recognized the nearest one instantly — that Barber boy. If he was here, then Winnie was, too. Elaine shifted on the bench, leaning forward to get a better view of the other two black-clad people by the door.

  She saw Winnie. Her eyes were wild like when she’d quelled the fires. She’d clearly taken hold of vast amounts of magical energy.

  The trio advanced through the crowded room towards the hallway.

  Elaine met her daughter’s eyes. Winnie looked relieved, rushing forward and sweeping her mother into her arms. Elaine grunted at being lifted from the bench, before relaxing into the embrace.

  “Winnie, what are you doing?” Elaine asked after overcoming his surprise.

  “I came for you,” Winnie said, as if it wasn’t obvious.

  She looked around, skittish. “What were you thinking? You could’ve been killed. I heard the gunfire. There are Red Legs everywhere. You have to get out of here.”

  “Come on, Mom. We have to go.” Winnie turned to Danny and the small, strange man beside him. “Cricket, check the door and make sure we don’t have any visitors coming. Danny, take Mom to the van. Drive it to the central building so we can pick up anyone freed by Tris. Cricket will head there directly, soon as we get you to through the gate.”

  Elaine was confused. If they came for her, what was going on with Tristan over at the central building? She tried to stop Winnie from ushering her towards the door. “Winnie, what are you doing here, really? You didn’t just come for me. If Tristan is here then Cait must be, too. What are the three of you involved with now?”

  “I’ll tell you everything later. Right now, you have to go with Danny. We need to move fast and not waste time. Winnie stopped and touched her ear. She looked like she was listening. Then, “Got it, Morgan. Tell her to keep trying. I’ll be right there.”

  “Morgan? So, you have your sister mixed up in this, too! Who else have you dragged into this mess, Winnie?”

  Elaine opened her mouth for another round, but some invisible force hit her like a wave of cement before she could get a single word out.

  She collapsed to the floor at Winnie’s feet. Elaine looked up. Winnie was straining, too.

  So was everyone in the room.

  Except for Danny. He looked around the room, confused as everyone bowed beneath the invisible weight. “Winnie, what’s going on? What’s happening to everyone?”

  Winnie fought for breath, forcing herself to stand upright. “It’s the Harvester,” she said through gritted teeth. “Tris can’t get into the control room, and the techs must have activated the failsafe. We’ve got to get over there.” Winnie turned to the door, fighting through the pain quickly. She looked over her shoulder at Danny and Elaine. “Get my mom to the van. No matter what else happens, get her out of here.”

  “I’m not leaving you.” Danny argued.

  “There’s no way around it, Danny. If you get the chance to get away, you take it, whether I make it out of the control room or not. Don’t stay here and get caught with the rest of us.” Winnie gestured to Cricket. “Come on. We might need your talent with locks.”

  “Got it, Boss,” the man said.

  Why was this man calling her Boss, and what was the Harvester?

  Danny leaned over and picked her up from the floor as if she weighed nothing.

  “Can I come, too?” Elaine heard Marian’s voice from behind her. She turned to look at her former neighbor, her gaze moving from Elaine to Danny and back again.

  “She’s been helping me,” Elaine said.

  “Fine. I don’t care if she comes or not, but I can’t carry her,” Danny said to them both “She’ll have to make her own way to the van.”

  Elaine forced a smile and nodded to Marian. It was getting harder to breathe, and she was growing weaker and weaker. It was a good thing Danny had picked her up. She would never have made it far without his help.

  Marian struggled to keep up. Danny jogged past all the slumped people huddled towards the door. Winnie and Cricket had already left, headed, she guessed, to the central building beside the tower.

  Elaine closed her eyes as she walked, whispering a prayer for Winnie’s safety.

  CHAPTER 29

  Tris beat her fists on the thick, reinforced glass wall between her and the control room.

  “I don’t care how we do it, but we’ve got to get in there,” she said to no one in particular.

  James stood next to her, alongside Katie and Rich. He shrugged. “I don’t know how we’re going to do it. The door was locked tight before we got here. They must’ve seen us coming on those monitors in there.”

  “We’ve got to think of something. They’ve turned up the Harvester. We must be shielded in here, but everyone in the camp will be dead in ten minutes if we don’t do something fast. Come on, we need ideas.”

  Tris looked around at the assembled techs. The best of the best. She’d chosen them for this raid on purpose and here they were shuffling around like puppies in the pound.

  “People are dying out there! Our friends are dying. We have to do something! Remember, we can’t leave this building until we shut that thing off. Or we’ll die, too.”

  Katie raised her hand.

  “Just tell me your idea, Katie,” Tris said. “You don’t have to raise your freaking hand.”

  “We could disrupt the power supply. We just have to find the junction box where it enters the building. It should be on this level. If we can find that, then we can probably locate the coupler that creates a magical field along with the electricity. If we direct our combined power against that and overload the system, that should shut the control room entirely down.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Tris said. “James, you stay here with me. We’ll keep trying to get inside. The rest of you go with Katie and find that junction box. You’ve got less than five minutes to find disable it. Go.”

  Tris watched her team leave, then turned back to the control room window, drew in her magic, and directed another blast against the glass. Even if she knew it wouldn’t work, Winnie had to try.

  A small voice said, “Uh, lady?”

  Startled, Tris turned to see the two kids standing behind her. She’d forgotten all about the twins. “Oh, I forgot about you two. Stay out of the way and we’ll get you out of here soon.”

  “But don’t you want to get into that room?” The boy pointed at the window.

  His sister nodded.

  “I do, but this is grown-up work, so you two stay over there and let me work.”

  “But, lady, don’t you need some sort of bomb to get inside?”

  Tris was getting annoyed. His curiosity wasn’t helping. “Look, of course I’d like some explosives, but my friend Winnie is coming. She’s much stronger than me, and she can probably force her way inside. We’ll have to wait until she gets here if my other friend’s plan falls short.”

  “You could just use this.” The boy held out his hand. Tris’s eyes went wide at the block of white clay or putty, wires jutting out every which way.

  “What’s that?”

  “A bomb,” the girl said.

  Her brother nodded.

  “But … ” Tris started.

  “Sometimes, when we think of something, it just sort of appears.” The boy shrugged. “We thought you might need a bomb, so now it’s here. It is the right kind?”

  Tris smiled, eyeing the item. If it was plastic explosive, a block that size would be plenty big. If she could get
another two or three like it, she wouldn’t have to use the other techs to disable the control panels. She could blow the whole system to memory.

  “I don’t suppose you could wish me up three or four more?” Tris asked.

  “It doesn’t work that way.” The girl shook her head. “It only happens when we don’t try. We ask for toys all the time, but they never come.”

  “Then this will have to do,” Tris said. “James, take them down the hallway towards the exit — far as you can get without going outside. I’m right behind you.”

  Her companion nodded, then took the kids by the hand, leading them from the room. She turned and waved at the middling technicians. She raised the bomb, pointing to it, grinning ear to ear as she took in their shocked looks.

  It was time to crack this room open.

  ———

  “Winnie, get up! You have to keep going. You’re almost there. Please, Winnie.”

  Winnie heard the familiar voice, pleading with her to keep moving. But she was so tired.

  Winnie tried to remember where she was, what she was doing. She had to be lying on the ground. Gravel bit her skin. She wanted to let the exhaustion claim her.

  “Winnie, dammit, get up.”

  She recognized the voice now. “I can’t, Morgan. I don’t want to keep fighting. Leave me alone.”

  “You’re almost there. Open your eyes and look up. You’ll see. The door is right in front of you. A few more steps. You can do it.”

  “I don’t think I can,” Winnie muttered.

  She opened her eyes and saw a gray metal door. It was close, but when she tried pushing with her toes to gain purchase on the gravel, her feet slid out from beneath her.

  She inched closer.

  “That’s it,” Morgan said. “I can see you. Do that again. Push with your feet.”

  Winnie dug in with her toes again, pushing forward, feeling herself slide another few inches across the dirt and gravel. She drew up her feet and pushed again, then again, watching the door come closer until the cool metal kissed her face.