“What happened?” asked my brother, shaken, ashen even in the dim light. His face made dirty from snot and bloated from crying.
“I’ll tell you later,” I said gruffly, pushing my way into the room.
“Is she okay, Eff?” he queried regarding Flavia.
I nodded and glanced around. The others were bunched at the far corner of the room their heads swinging back and forth as they moved from window to window. They were an unorganized chorus of movement. Their eyes were glued to the scene outside.
Tirza saw me first, since she was the smallest of us, she had hung back, fully aware she wasn’t about to get a good look outside. She rushed toward me and my unconscious step-sister. “Is she hurt?” The dismay in her voice was thick enough to eat.
“The explosion knocked her out,” I explained, then I pointed vaguely in the direction of the outside with my chin. “Are we trapped?”
“I don’t think so,” she replied quietly.
“Really?” I blurted, surprised to hear such news.
She dipped her head up and down. “Yeah, whatever that explosion was, right after it happened, all the rest of the guys standing around ran inside the house.”
“Can you watch her?” I asked her, indicating Flavia.
“Sure,” she said and waved me to the bed.
I quickly placed Flavia at the foot of it and made my way through the throng by the windows, coming next to Sandy. “Is the way clear?” I wondered aloud.
“I think so,” she answered, uncaring if I’d been talking to her or not.
“Any helicopters?”
She shook her head “no”.
I bit my lip thinking. We were running out of time. We had to get out of the house, otherwise we’d be sitting ducks. The NIA troopers weren’t going to hold back too long, regardless of what Katie had done. They’d marshal their forces, regroup, re-strategize and come flying in after us, hell-bent on killing us all, especially after we’d bloodied them a bit. Who knew what had kept them this long. Maybe they were waiting for air-cover to arrive or maybe Katie had blasted the stairs to shit. Who knew? We didn’t have the time to stand around and figure it out.
“We’re going out, down the escape ladder like we planned, and we’re going now.” I had made my decision. I was all about action. I didn’t even care how I would manage to get Flavia down the emergency fire escape. I would manage somehow.
With Johan’s help, we quickly opened the window with the reinforce sill, unlatched the fireproof, metal box containing the ladder and pulled it forth, tossing it outside. It unrolled all the way to the ground. To my relief, it didn’t bang against the side of the house.
I turned to gather Flavia and found her sitting up on the bed whispering to Tirza, whimpering.
“Can you climb down the ladder?” I asked her as I approached.
“Y-yes, I think so.” Her voice cracked.
“Okay, good, come on,” I said and motioned for her to take my hand. “I’ll go first, then come right after.” She mouthed “ok” and took my hand.
I didn’t say anything to anyone. I climbed out the window and as quickly as I could methodically manage. I made my way down a few rungs and stopped waiting for Flavia. She got onto the metal and nylon ladder, a bit wobbly at first, but, within a few moments, she began to gain the usual confidence she had possessed during one of the many practice runs. My parents had made us use the ladder at least once a month. They had wanted to make sure we all knew how to operate and use it should a fire break out in the house.
We all made it to the ground without mishap. We gathered between the fence facing the street and a large storage shed my dad had installed against the side of the house. I punched the combination into the keypad lock latched to the wooden gate. It opened with a low-pitched click, making us all cringe. Nothing happened, so I disengaged the lock and opened the gate. I stuck my head through it and saw…
…No one. Tirza had been correct. The street was deserted.
We swiftly made our way through the portal and were tip-toeing across the lawn, regrouping under the only tree on that side of the property when I heard the first helicopter. It sounded like whoever was flying the fucken thing was in a mad rush to get to the house. Its engines were screaming in protest.
I motioned for them to follow me and stepped from the cover of the tree, into the open just as an NIA soldier came around the garage, saw me, stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth open with shock. “Hey!” he yelled and raised his machine gun and fired.
I felt my heart sink to my shoes when the bullets took Tirza directly in the face and she was thrown to the ground.
Oh god, not Teezee, not Teezee! I screamed inside as the other Estefan burst forth from his prison and consumed me in an instant. My vision turned red and I made to charge to trooper.
“I said fuuuuuck youuuu!” bellowed Katie and the stuff made of stars burst forth from her mouth, taking the troop in the chest.
I stopped.
He stood no chance, exploding with a sickening squish against the garage doors. The whole area where he’d been standing was scorched and steaming.
“Estefan let’s go,” said I a small voice at my side.
I was shocked to see Tirza, tugging at my shirt, unscathed.
She’s like you, you buffoon. Bullets only tickle her.
Everyone was stunned and, for a while, we didn’t move until sounds coming from inside the house increased. They had heard us. They were coming.
We bolted for the sidewalk, shooting around the fence marking the boundary of my parents’ property, bullets smacking into the heavy, wooden structure, showering us with splinters. Someone screamed, but I didn’t know who. We angled across the street, Sandy’s car was a block and a half down the street. She had faced it away from my house, so it was parked on the other side of the road.
I glanced back and saw Jolene clutching at her shoulder, blood running between her fingers.
“Johan!” I hollered. It was a beseeching bellow.
He looked at me, his girlfriend firmly in his grasp. “She’s ok, took a splinter of wood to the arm! Run!” He waved for me to continue.
Ahead of me, I saw Katie reach the sidewalk on the opposite side. Suddenly, she spun around, facing me, though she was peering beyond us. I could at least three sets of booted feet chasing us.
Then, “Leave us aloooonnne!” The stuff of the stars shot from her mouth again, in four super-fast pulses.
From behind, I heard, then felt four more explosions, but I kept running. The others never turned either. They ran passed her as she kept her vigil upon our “six”.
“Katie, come on!” I called after my cousin, but she was already striding after me.
Less than twenty seconds later, we were all at the car. Sandy was savagely rummaging through her ring of keys when something straight out of hell swooped down from the sky, so close to the ground, I swore it was missing the telephone poles by mere inches.
Sandy found the correct key and disengaged the alarm and unlocked the doors at the same time. My companions began to hurtle themselves into the car, but not me. I was waiting for Katie. She was still about four car lengths down the road.
From a block away the airborne beast began to shoot. It was a modified Apache Longbow and its M230 chain gun was hurtling 30mm rounds, at the rate of six hundred twenty-five rounds per minute, directly for us.
“Hurry up!” yelled Johan, still in the car, but his upper body was sticking out of the window, because he was standing inside of it.
The pilot must’ve seen Katie, because the heavy gun swiveled in her direction. That’s thing with the Apache targeting systems, they point wherever the pilots’ head is positioned, so when I saw the gun turn, I knew he had beforehand.
He shot at Katie.
I watched in horror as the tracers and live rounds alike zigzagged across the street, tearing up huge portions of the pavement, cutting through cars and trees and bushes – everything. They could’ve been made out of cheese for
all I knew.
Then, weirdest thing happened next. The gun began to shoot erratically, haphazardly, as if something had malfunctioned. But, the helicopter itself began to slow, then list to one side. It planed horribly to the right. Its chain gun was still firing, only now it was tearing up the houses on the other side of the street, cutting the telephone poles in half, laying waste to everything.
Screams began to fill my ears. It was the screams of the innocent.
I started when I felt Leda come up to my side. I stared at her, dumbfounded, my expression locked in place.
She never glanced at me. She was staring at the raptor in the sky. Her eyes were twin shards of ice, ancient and deep blue. I could tell, because they burned with just enough light, I could discern color. Her hair was wafting in the wind, though I was certain there was no breeze, not even the slightest movement of the air.
“Leave us aloooonnne!” shrieked Katie as a beam of star light shot from her mouth.
The heavily armored Apache Longbow - one of the deadliest close-quarter, aerial combat platforms to have menaced the battlefields of the modern world - vanished into a titanic conflagration.
My ears popped. I was blinded.
Both Leda and I ducked as the bits and pieces of fuselage, body parts, and shrapnel rained down about us and the neighborhood in a half a mile radius. The great bulk of the helicopter’s remaining fuselage smashed into the houses on our other side of the street. It set off secondary and tertiary explosions that lit up the night sky, casting long shadows in all directions.
My entire neighborhood was on fire now. I could hear the people I had lived beside for so many years screaming and wailing for help.
More families were being destroyed.
More lives were being ruined.
I had to block it out or I’d go insane. I had to force myself to not think about broken bones, deep lacerations and burning flesh. I had to ignore the smell, not hear the agonizing shrieks, the shredding of vocal cords, the grotesque pop and sizzle of charring, human meat. It was all around me. It assaulted all of my senses. I had to get away, but there was one thing I needed to have before I could go. I needed her.
“Katie” I called for my cousin, but she wasn’t hearing me.
She marched from the sidewalk and into the torn up street, her hands balled into fists, muttering furiously to herself.
What I saw beyond her, made me break into a sprint.
The remaining contingent of troopers we’d left back at my house had saddled up and was racing down the road in their black vehicles. The lead was an armored personnel carrier, the one with the .50 cal. heavy machine gun. The gunner already had my cousin in his sights.
She was faster. She didn’t have to try and aim while being jostled this way and that in a bouncing vehicle. She didn’t have to cock her gun.
She yelled, “Diiiiie!”
He did. The entire vehicle was vaporized.
When one behind it swerved and came into view, she took that one out as well.
When the following one did the same, she dealt with them.
Two more drove onto the front lawns of people’s homes, but it mattered little. Katie blasted them with a scream of “Fuuuuuck!” for the first one, and a “Youuuu!” for the second.
Three more remained, but they had stopped, engines idling, trying to make up their minds if they should or shouldn’t take on the petite, copper haired Muto, standing in the middle of the street, wearing only her Pj’s and sneakers. Her eyes and mouth dripped with liquid fire. She looked like a demon, straight from the deepest pit of hell.
And, I was in love with her. There was no doubt.
Katie, my cousin, my life, my savior.
Four seconds later, their tires squealed as they jammed their vehicles in reverse, then made amazing backwards three-point turns and drove away.
I came up to my beautiful cousin and hugged her from behind. She knew it was me by the hardness of my skin, and leaned into me. “You scare me sometimes,” I told her, so relieved that she was still alive.
Mama, Lucia, Martín, and my loveable step-dad weren’t…
“You scare me too.” I frowned. “I saw you take off a grown man’s head with a single swipe of your hand and… he had a helmet on.”
“I did that?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“Fuck me.”
She reached around and cupped the side of my face. “I’m a little tired right now, but after some sleep, I’ll put a smile on those lips.”
I smiled, grateful for her ability to make me feel good, even in the worst times. We held hands as we walked briskly back to Sandy’s car. Leda beckoned for us to hurry. By the time Katie and I stuffed ourselves into the front seat, the tears had returned.
I could hear Flavia and Johan weeping as well. Now that things were calming down, the reality of what had just happened began to sink in.
Katie turned in my lap and held onto me as Sandy drove. All I could do was cry like a baby in those wonderful arms of hers.
Then I felt Ramona’s hand, then Leda’s and finally Tirza’s tiny palm – all of them upon my shoulders. Sandy kept both hands of the wheel and both eyes riveted to the road before her.
We were on the run now.
We were outlaw Muto’s trying to outlive the efforts of an international government agency that wanted us all dead, no matter the cost.
It was the end of many things for us. But, it was the beginning of many things as well, because when the worst of my weeping passed. I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and looked deep into my beloved cousins eyes.
“I’m going to kill them all,” I said with as much conviction I could apply to a beaten and bruised voice box. The pampered, bored, sex-fiend I had been died in the wee hours of that morning, and, truthfully, I don’t think I’ve ever been the same since.
Katie Lorraine Chaz held my head in her hands. “And I’m going to help you.” Then she kissed me so gently, for so long, I lost track of time, because I could think of one thing – how much I loved her. I was crying again, quieter, a deeper, more personal sort of weeping came from me. It was for mama – for my step-dad – for Martín – for Lucia.
In the driver’s seat next to us, after a few minutes, I heard from Sandy. “I will help you too, Effy.”
Then, “I will follow you anywhere,” from Leda.
“You and me, Babes, I will always be by your side.” Ramona.
Finally, Tirza, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil… For thou art with me…,” said this. I knew how blasphemous her statement was, especially for her. She’d supplanted God for me, and she’d meant it. The others didn’t understand the double meaning. I guess you have to go to church for a spell in order to really get the gist of how hard it was for her to say.
The Aegis Synod…
…Katie…
…And Ramona...
…And Tirza…
…And Leda…
…And Sandy…
…With Johan, Flavia, Jolene, Jacob… and my Uncles…
…Had all just declared war on the NIA.
It would prove to be a bloody one.
[He terminates the Delving program.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Chapter 71 ~
(Earth Summer – 2385)
Pain, Past and Present
Estefan sat there, staring at nothing, masochistically reliving the agony and sorrow he had felt that night, so many years ago. Though the years seemed countless, he still remembered Lucia’s cherubic face, her elven giggle and the way her whole face lit up at the sight of him. Every time - whether it was a long time or a short couple of hours since he’d seen her last - she always had a huge smile and dazzling eyes for him. She never failed him. She had made him happy regardless of his day.
Martín’s was there too, crystal clear, in his memory. He could see his big brown eyes, his broad face, his course, straight hair that couldn’t be styled. His baby brother,
with his inability to be anything other than ornery, who loved practical jokes and playing tricks, was etched permanently in his mind. Though he would sometimes forget to think about him for years on end, his recollections of him never faded. They were as vivid as they day he’d witnessed them.
His mother and his step-father were different in his mind’s eye. Rather than perfectly preserved, frozen notions of the past, they were a conglomeration of thought, feelings and actions. He had amalgamated their existence into a series of musings, he played in his head like a movie, like snippets in time all spliced together.
He could see himself at the beach when his family had consisted of only him and Johan, and their mother. They were running on small feet, through the sand, little boys, but his mother’s age kept changing. Her face was young, then older, like when she’d already given birth to Martín and Lucia, and then even younger when she seemed so big, so warm. He remembered thinking she was the most beautiful creature on the planet.
He could see his step-father in the front seat of the family car, calling for his mother to get back inside. She had screamed at the man to stop the vehicle a minute before. He had slowed and she had jumped out, angry, bristling with frustration. She was walking briskly, ignoring his step-father’s pleas. He, Johan and Flavia sat in the backseat, unaware they were holding hands, not knowing why they were scared. He recalled he had prayed then, hoping his mother and his step-father weren’t going to break-up. They hadn’t.
He had never seen what they had done to any of their bodies after he and the founding members of the Aegis Synod had fled into the night. All four of them had been shot to death in cold blood, murdered. His baby brother and sister slaughtered like animals…
All he could recall was the rage - his rage, Katie’s rage and the all-consuming sense of revenge.
Katie had brought the light of the stars down on their enemies and had set his house ablaze. He had killed for the first time. Leda had killed. They had destroyed his entire neighborhood in the process.
Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten Page 77