The creaking wings were right above them now. Hailey spared a glance up, seeing only a canopy of green.
And then they appeared.
Vulture-sized birds made of metal cut through the trees.
Stymphalian birds!
The birds hovered for a second before a shower of feather daggers shot from their wings. Hailey threw her hands over her head and waited for stabbing pain. The students running behind her rammed into her back, knocking her to the ground and landing on top of her, acting as human shields.
Hailey grimaced against the screams that encircled the forest as daggers found their targets, and the students on top of her shrieked, rolling to the side. Hailey flipped onto her back, expecting to see more daggers raining down. What she saw was much worse.
The birds swooped, diving for the students with their glinting metal claws and beaks. Gunfire exploded from the soldiers’ guns. Ping. Ping. Ping. The bullets bounced straight off the birds’ metal skin.
Fireball after fireball zoomed towards the creatures. Hailey watched one fireball slam straight into a bird. She expected it to melt into a lump of goo, but the flames didn’t even singe it.
‘Try everything!’ one of the soldiers barked.
The PET members hit the glowing blue, red, purple, white, and yellow buttons on their guns, and a second later laser beams, jets of ice, and electricity streamed into the air. But the birds kept coming.
Screams engulfed the forest again as the birds’ claws dug into the soldiers and students. A bird squawked near Hailey, and she lifted her eyes in time to see one zooming towards her, its talons extended like razors.
She pressed her hands against her face. Pain sliced through her stomach when the bird landed on her, its talons sinking into her skin, and its weight making her feel as though someone had dropped a box of stones onto her.
Hailey bit down against the explosion of pain in her hands as the bird began tearing away strips of her flesh. She tried rolling to the side in an attempt to knock the bird off, but its weight kept her pinned.
The pain in her hands intensified to the point she was certain there was no flesh left on them. She cried out, her screams lost among the other students’. Tears streamed from her eyes, and she balled her hands into fists, fighting the urge to tear them away from the bird and expose her eyes.
She heard a squawk followed by a thud, and the heaviness lifted from her chest.
‘It’s okay, Hailey.’
Hailey lowered her arms and focused her teary eyes on Alec. ‘Thank you.’
Alec helped her up, being careful not to touch her hands, which looked as though she’d shoved them into a blender, with her skin all carved up. The bird lay unconscious, its metal beak smeared with her blood.
She gazed around, nausea tightening her stomach and throat. Students moaned on the ground, covered in claw marks and feather daggers. Others screamed as birds tore at their skin.
‘I have to help the others,’ Alec said. ‘I’ll come back.’
Hailey watched him run to the nearest bird, drawing his fist back and punching it in the head with a clank.
Other students were using their powers against the birds too. A bird dropped through the air towards Tanzy, its talons stretching out to claw her face. Click. The bird’s head vanished, leaving its lifeless body to thud to the ground. Gold dust sprayed from Tahlia’s mouth, engulfing a bird biting a boy’s leg, sending the creature into a deep slumber. Not far from her, a bird squawked as a tree snatched it up mid-flight, Demi coercing the trees’ branches to wrap around it like claws.
‘It’s okay. They can’t get through.’
Hailey’s head snapped towards Aaron’s voice. His hands were raised above his head, his force field stretching over at least two dozen students like a shield as birds clawed and bit at his force field, which daggers littered. He must have used his powers to protect as many students as he could from the shower of knives, Hailey realised.
About two yards from him, she spotted Venus and the twins hiding behind a group of boys who had empty eyes. Claw marks oozing blood covered the boys, but Venus and the twins didn’t seem the least bit fazed by their screaming. Cowards, Hailey thought with disgust, horrified the evil trio would use their powers to create a human shield.
‘Get away from them!’ Master Anderson roared, blowing a gust of wind at the birds attacking the boys, the wind so strong it smacked the birds into a tree, shattering them into pieces of metal.
Clank. Clank. Clank. A soldier beat the butt of her gun into a bird’s head again and again, until the creature dropped. A soldier next to her did the same, with PET finally realising that their weapons didn’t work against the metal birds.
Hailey redirected her gaze to the sky. She needed to get rid of these damn creatures. If she created a tornado, she could blow them away, but the tornado would also take some of the students with it. And her hands were ruined; she wasn’t sure she could fight past the aching pain in them to use her powers.
‘I can heal those for you.’
Hailey gasped, eyes growing wide when she saw Kora; half-healed gashes covered her face and arms, and her clothes dripped blood. She looked like a zombie. ‘Medusa, Kora, you look like you’ve been trampled by a centaur.’
‘My body is healing all the injuries.’ Hailey noticed how the long cut down Kora’s neck was gradually vanishing, with the skin knitting itself back together. ‘Give me your hands.’
Hailey didn’t want to. Kora might be an Asclepius, but that didn’t mean she could keep absorbing injuries without risk. ‘No, they’re fine.’
‘Liar.’ She gently took Hailey’s bleeding hands.
Hailey would have risked excruciating pain and torn them back from Kora’s grasp, but the moment Kora touched her, the pain ebbed and the throbbing diminished. It was ecstasy. New skin grew back over her hands, knitting her flesh together and not leaving so much as a scar.
‘Thank you so much.’ Hailey grimaced when she saw Kora’s bleeding hands, feeling horrible that she now had to suffer through Hailey’s injury. ‘Will you be okay?’
Kora looked pale and on the verges of passing out, but she nodded, her eyes drooping a little. ‘I’ll take a quick break. Go and help. I’ll be fine.’
Hailey hesitated, watching Kora half-sit, half-collapse against a tree. ‘Go. You can’t do anything for me.’
‘Okay, but make sure you take a decent break.’ Hailey turned back to the gruesome scene. Using her powers was out, since there was no way to attack the birds without hurting the students too. But she didn’t need her powers to help.
She sprinted towards a bird attacking a girl a few feet away, and kicked her leg forward.
The bird took flight before her foot connected, and Hailey lost her balance, thumping to the ground. What the…? The birds had all taken flight, the creaking sound of their metal wings engulfing the forest. Why are they leaving?
The tingling in Hailey’s fingertips intensified.
A tremor shot through the ground. And then another. And another. Each one growing stronger.
‘What in Tartarus is that?’ Demi appeared beside Hailey.
Hailey stood back up. ‘I don’t know.’
A tree creaked in the distance and snapped. Another soon followed. Hailey’s blood froze. A voice in her head yelled at her to run, but she couldn’t. Her legs were rooted to the ground, and she was pretty sure that’s how everyone else felt because no one else moved.
The moment of paralysis passed in two heartbeats and the stampede of fleeing students began again, everyone bolting in the opposite direction of the falling trees. Hailey figured that was a pretty good idea. ‘Run!’ she yelled at Demi, sprinting with the other students.
A tree snapped right behind them, but Hailey didn’t look back. Something whistled overhead, and then the ground shook with the strength of an earthquake. Students screamed as the stampede halted, their path barred by a fallen tree. It reminded Hailey of the falling trees in the obstacle course. But here there
were no safety measures. Nothing to prevent her and the other students from dying.
Another two trees crashed down on either side, trapping everyone. Hailey whipped around to face their attacker. Students near her did the same, most screaming and some even fainting. Pure icy terror pumped through Hailey’s body, sending her heart racing.
‘Is t-that what I think i-it is?’ Hailey had never heard Demi’s voice tremble. Ever. Not even when they’d faced Hades and the Erinyes.
A burly woman the height of the trees towered before them. One big black eye peered from the centre of her forehead. ‘It’s a cyclops.’ The words slipped from Hailey’s lips without her even realising. A cyclops, she thought with disbelief; they were one of the most feared monsters in the world, because of their enormous height and strength—not to mention their irascible temper. Very few people had ever come across a cyclops and survived to tell their friends.
‘Climb the trees!’ Madam Grayson yelled at the students, while she launched towards the monster with Master Anderson and PET. The soldiers opened fire. Bbbbbrrrrrttttt. Streams of bullets zoomed towards the cyclops.
Hailey knew she should be running, but she couldn’t look away. Besides, students were practically fighting each other trying to reach the trees. And she figured the soldiers would kill the monster.
The bullets pummelled into the cyclops… and bounced straight off its skin. The monster roared and lunged forward, reaching for PET.
Master Anderson exhaled a gust of wind before it could lay a single finger on them. The trees caught in the wind creaked and bent backwards so far that Hailey was sure they’d snap. The cyclops stumbled back a few steps and then lurched forward, flinging a hand out.
This time it connected.
Madam Grayson, Master Anderson, and the soldiers cried out, flying up towards the canopy of green and vanishing.
Hailey’s breath caught, and she waited for her teachers and PET to come plummeting back to the ground. But they were gone.
‘Medusa!’ Demi exclaimed.
Oh crap, we’re going to die! would probably have been more accurate in Hailey’s opinion. The other students were too busy clawing their way up the trees to notice no one was protecting them anymore.
A slow wicked smile stretched across the cyclops’s face, revealing yellow rotted teeth. It lunged. Time slowed down. Hailey saw the monster coming for her, but couldn’t do anything to stop it. There wasn’t enough time to create a tornado, and Master Anderson had proven wind was no match for it.
‘EVERYONE RUN!’ Hailey shouted.
The screaming started again, and the students bolted in different directions, hiding behind trees and bushes as they watched to see what would happen next. A group of students stood frozen in front of the monster, their terror gluing their legs in place. The cyclops’s hand snaked out to grab them, but hit something. It dragged its empty hand back, staring at it, dumbfounded. It reached out again, but still couldn’t grab the students. Hailey spotted Aaron at the front of the group, his palms outstretched. The cyclops rammed a fist against his force field; it rippled but stayed strong.
‘I can’t hold it back for long,’ Aaron said, his face red.
‘I have an idea,’ Hailey heard Lexa say from somewhere, but her attention was drawn towards the cyclops, who flicked its hand at Aaron’s force field. Aaron grunted. The monster flicked the force field again, and it shattered like glass.
Aaron slumped forward, exhausted.
‘Aaron, watch out!’ Hailey cried as the cyclops lunged towards him.
Lexa levitated up in front of the monster, making it jolt to a stop as she hovered in front of its face like a fly. Tahlia dangled from her legs and blew a mouthful of sleep dust into the cyclops’s face before the monster could swat her and Lexa away. It inhaled a deep breath, as if it were about to yawn, and Hailey waited for it to slam on the ground.
Instead it sneezed.
A shower of thick green snot rained down on the students and sent Lexa soaring backwards with Tahlia. The pair crashed into a tree before dropping to the ground, unconscious. Kora rushed over to help them, while Aaron lurched back to his feet and raised his palms, summoning his force field again.
‘Come with me.’ Hailey wiped away the glob of slimy snot that had landed on her cheek and whirled around. Brennan was holding a hand towards her, and his other towards Demi. ‘I’ve been taking people to the beach. Come on, hurry.’
‘No.’ Hailey shook her head. ‘I need to help my friend.’
‘Yeah, we can’t let the cyclops squash Aaron,’ Demi agreed.
‘Help the others,’ Hailey instructed Brennan and sprinted to Aaron’s side with Demi. Jayden and Alec joined them a second later.
Hailey had no idea what the five of them could possibly do to stop the cyclops, but if it meant Brennan could rescue a few more students, then she’d do whatever it took to keep the monster distracted.
The cyclops rammed a fist into Aaron’s force field, and he grunted, sweat pouring from his brow. ‘Get out of here,’ he said through clenched teeth.
‘We’re not leaving you,’ Demi told him.
‘What’s the plan?’ Jayden asked when the cyclops rammed the force field again.
‘Hailey,’ Alec said.
‘Me?’
‘You can hit it with a lightning strike—like the griffin.’
Hailey remembered how much strength and power that had taken. She wasn’t sure she could do it again. But she had to try. ‘Okay. But I need a few seconds to create the storm.’ She lifted her arms to the canopy of green, focusing on the patches of sky she could see peeking through the trees’ branches. Storm clouds flooded in, and lightning sparked across the black sky.
The cyclops rammed its fist against the force field again. Aaron cried out and dropped to his knees. Things happened quickly from there. Alec rushed forward, kicking his leg out. Crack. His foot collided with the cyclops’s shin before he darted between the monster’s legs.
The cyclops howled and whipped around to face Alec, who turned deathly white. Its hand lunged towards him, just as the trees released a creaking moan and leaned over, blocking Alec from the monster’s reach.
‘Hurry, Hailey,’ Demi cried, her hands extended towards the trees concealing Alec.
The cyclops roared in frustration and whirled back to the four of them.
Hailey focused on forming her powers into a ball of electricity. Thunder rumbled around her, and a gale of wind swept through the forest, swaying the trees and sending loose leaves scattering down. Hailey’s hands shot forward at the cyclops, and she imagined the ball of energy she’d formed shooting towards it.
A blinding streak of lightning blasted through the trees and struck the monster’s shoulder, burning a hole through its flesh. A CRACK tore through the forest, and the cyclops hit the ground, which shook so violently Hailey lost her balance and stumbled to the dirt.
Hailey lurched up, her head woozy. ‘We did it. We actually did it.’
Cheers erupted from behind her, which quickly turned to gasps.
The cyclops was moving.
‘Are you kidding me?!’ Demi exclaimed.
‘RUN!’ Jayden yelled.
They hurtled past the cyclops towards Alec, who was already running for his life. Hailey didn’t dare turn around. But judging by the trembling ground and thundering steps, the cyclops was chasing them.
Trees snapped behind them as the monster barged its way through the forest. Hailey ploughed through a thicket of trees and almost came to a stop as dread curdled her blood. Her and her friends had burst into an open clearing. Another thicket of trees loomed twenty yards in front of them. Their only chance for survival was to make it there, to conceal themselves again in the greenery.
The footsteps kept thundering. Keep running, Hailey told herself. We can make it to the trees. The footsteps were closer now, and Hailey fought the urge to turn and see how close the monster was. Keep going, she told her legs, which were ready to buckle with fear.
The cyclops’s bounding footsteps were drawing closer and closer. Even if we make it to the trees, how will we get rid of this thing?
Brennan materialised a few yards in front of Hailey, extending his arm out.
Thank the Tyches. ‘Everyone – join up,’ Hailey puffed out, grabbing Demi’s hand. She reached her free hand to Brennan, only a yard away now.
Brennan’s eyes widened.
A gigantic hand scooped up Hailey and her friends, fingers the length of Hailey’s arm wrapping around them and lifting them into the air. Hailey squirmed, trying to free herself, but the cyclops’s grasp tightened, making her feel as though a boa constrictor were strangling her.
It brought them to its face, its hot rancid breath washing over them and reminding Hailey of rotting meat. Pieces of flesh were wedged between the monster’s yellow teeth. Hailey’s stomach clenched, ready to vomit.
A smile of pure malice curved the cyclops’s greasy lips. Hailey tensed, waiting for it to toss them into its mouth. Instead, the monster drew its hand back and flung them forward, letting Hailey and her friends fly free.
13
Dinner Time
Hailey would have screamed, but terror snatched the air from her lungs. She soared over the trees, which rose up at her and her friends as they plummeted through the air. Hailey thought about how in the movies falling through trees usually slowed a person’s descent enough that they survived. But in reality, she was pretty sure the trees would turn her into a shish kebab—or her bones would shatter when she hit the ground.
Poseidon's Academy and the Deadly Disease Page 14