The Mountain

by Kevin George

  The test subject stumbled off Quentin’s chest. Quentin breathed deeply and scurried to his feet, backpedaling toward the door while watching the test subject sway on his feet, hobbling toward the darkened corner of the room, his squawks weaker and pained, his massive body shrinking by the moment. Other Board members snapped out of their trances and rushed toward the door with cries of escape, but Quentin pushed them all back, regardless of them being legacy members and him being prohibited from ever laying a hand on them. Standing a few feet beside him, Ms. Van Horn remained in place, staring at the failed test subject.

  “No,” Quentin snapped at them all. “Something’s wrong with him; something’s wrong with the Blast you forced me to strengthen. You need to see what happens when we try to push too hard, too soon.”

  With the eyes of all Sky People focused on Irving in the darkened corner, Liv took her son’s hand and tried to ease him toward the door. She didn’t take two steps before the tall female leader flitted her eyes in their direction and shook her head. Either way, Oliver couldn’t or wouldn’t turn away from Irving, who continued snapping weakly at those watching him. Each squawk was weaker than the one before; each time he flapped his shrinking wings, they moved a little less, though feathers continued to detach from his body, a small pile forming around him.

  By the time Irving withered to a size smaller than he’d been before the injection, he collapsed to all fours, barely able to lift his head and his oddly feature-less face. It was impossible to tell if his next noise was a gasp or a chirp, but Olly could’ve sworn he recognized two words.

  “Help me.”

  In an instant, Olly no longer thought about how he’d been burned and nearly buried alive during Irving’s escape in the tunnel. He only saw one of his final allies wilting in front of him, collapsing flat while the others watched in silence.

  “Somebody, help him,” Olly snapped, surprised by the way his voice cracked. “Somebody, do something.”

  But if anything, the Sky People only inched farther away from Irving. Olly pulled free of his mother’s grasp and hurried toward the old Tunneler, ignoring the hissing and snapping of feathered freaks around him. By the time he kneeled beside Irving, the old man’s convulsions had stopped. He barely had the strength for a few sporadic twitches. Olly wanted to do anything to help but knew there was nothing to be done. As the Sky People continued muttering to one another about “the Blast not working,” Irving turned his head just enough for Olly to see blood coming out of his mouth and eyes and nostrils. Olly wasn’t surprised—and was even slightly relieved—when Irving took a final, rattling breath before dying.

  Olly sighed. He closed his eyes, not wanting to look at Irving’s deformed face or at the grotesque Sky People.

  “We have to start all over,” Quentin said. Though the failed experiment was dead, the knot in Quentin’s stomach remained tight. He hoped the rest of the Aviaries would finally listen to reason. “Next time, we’ll start off adding a few drops of blood to the Blast instead of an entire sample.”

  “Who says you know best?” asked one of the Board.

  “Who says any one of us knows best?” another squawked.

  “We’ll figure it out,” Ms. Van Horn said, her voice tinged with a hint of shakiness. “We have no other choice.”

  “The scientists captured in the hangar,” Quentin said. “Maybe we give them a chance, at least gauge their knowledge. If they’re of no use, we’ll know for future test subjects.”

  He expected the same resistance he always faced from the Board but instead received a majority of nods, the others undoubtedly following Ms. Van Horn’s lead.

  “Another blood donation will be needed immediately,” she said.

  “Love won’t like that,” Quentin said.

  “If he tries to stop us, we’ll destroy him,” a Board member said, leading to a few squawks rising out of the group’s collective silence.

  Appalled by the thought, Quentin snickered and looked to Ms. Van Horn to quell such a suggestion. She continued to nod slowly.

  “I’ll deal with Love and the blood sample,” Quentin said. “The rest of you retrieve the scientist family and we’ll meet in the lab.”

  Ms. Van Horn finally snapped out of her reverie as she reached for the door handle. She no sooner opened the door than the younger human made a break from across the room. He came nowhere close to the door before half a dozen Aviaries cut him off, snapping and hissing at him. The older female human grabbed him and pulled him back into a corner.

  “Get off me,” Olly said, pulling free from his mother’s grasp.

  “Please, don’t,” Liv begged.

  Anger coursed through him, adrenaline exploding in a way he hadn’t felt for a long time. Even though his body felt like it could fight off every misshapen monster in the room, a small voice in the back of his mind told him the Sky People could overwhelm and destroy with ease. You can’t let them do that, a part of Olly tried telling himself. Not while Paige and the kids are still out there.

  As much as he hated to follow Irving’s advice—especially as he looked down at the man’s amorphous, bloodied face—Olly knew his only chance to survive was by being a good prisoner and waiting for the right moment to escape. This clearly wasn’t that moment. The female Sky Person was the first one out the door but not before she issued an order to her followers.

  “Take the body,” she said. “Take it to the labs.”

  Olly tensed as the Sky People approached Irving, but he looked at his mother and shook his head when she began to reach for him. Liv frowned and nodded, staying back as she and her son watched Irving’s body dragged away, leaving a trail of blood and feathers behind. When the door slammed shut and they were alone, Liv felt tears welling.

  “He did that for us,” she said. “He stepped forward and sacrificed himself so you and I could stay together, so neither one of us was chosen.”

  Olly shook his head. “Or he saw it as the opportunity he was waiting for.”

  Liv frowned. “Either way, we’re still here, together. It’ll be more important than ever that we watch out for each other while those—”

  The door swung open and a trio of Sky People, joined by a small platoon of human guards, swarmed into the room. The Sky People pointed to Liv and squawked wildly. The guards—all of them wearing matching frowns—pushed forward and grabbed Liv, physically separating mother from son, even as they begged to stay together.

  “They must not stay together any longer,” said a Sky Person. “The younger one remains. He’s the stronger potential subject and nothing must hinder our next test.”

  Olly’s eyes found his mother’s. In that instant, he understood the pain and panic staring back at him. They both fought to get to one another, pushing and wriggling their way through the guards, several of whom became rougher as their captives fought back. As Olly got closer to his mother, they reached out for one another, their fingertips brushing before ultimately being pried apart, their cries for each other ignored by guard and Sky Person alike. A guard eventually shoved Olly hard against the wall, knocking the breath out of him, causing him to slump to the floor.

  “Careful with him or you’ll be the next test subject,” a Sky Person snapped at the guard.

  Liv continued to call for her son as she was dragged out of the room. By the time Olly caught his breath and struggled back to his feet, the Sky People, the guards and Liv were gone. The door slammed in his face before he reached it, his mother’s voice barely audible from the hallway before fading into the distance, leaving Olly completely alone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  When Emma felt the first moment of lightheadedness, she slowed to a stroll but didn’t stop all the way, instead taking a deep breath in the hope of feeling stronger. It didn’t work. Her vision swirled and the ground suddenly felt like it disappeared beneath her feet. Love saw her stumble and offered a hand. Instinctively, she pulled away but quickly thought better of it. His hand was warm in hers, strong and steady. In an instan
t, her dizziness cleared and strength returned in her legs. Still, she held onto his hand for a few extra moments, surprised by how protected she felt despite the great unknown of her situation.

  “Still woozy,” she said. Emma felt herself blushing and turned away, pulling her hand from his a bit too quickly. “Guess I deserve this after hitting you in the ISU.”

  Love chirped a tiny, high-pitched laugh. “Suppose I deserved that as well,” he said. “In truth, your will to survive has been nothing short of admirable from the moment I first saw you.” The grin faded from his face as he looked from one end of the bleak hallway to the other. “I’m sorry for bringing you here.”

  “But I’m the Descendant, this is my rightful place,” she said with a snicker.

  She’d meant it as a joke, but Love’s few forehead feathers shifted even more as his brow creased deeply. “Maybe more food would make you feel stronger?”

  Emma shook her head slowly, careful not to disorient herself again. “It’s just fatigue, I’m sure. It’s been a long day.”

  Love nodded. “I’ll bring you to your room right away.”

  “It’s okay, really,” Emma said, barely able to stifle a yawn. “Show me more of The Mountain.”

  “Don’t grow too attached to this place or anyone in it,” Love warned, lowering his voice. “The Board may have treated you well so far, but I promise they’re more dangerous than they’ve seemed. The things they’ve done to create a viable version of the Aviary Blast. . .”

  He stopped and stared down the hallway. Emma looked in the same direction and saw nothing. When she turned back to Love, she realized he was looking at something from another time and another place.

  “They’ve been. . . terrible,” Love said, followed by a singsong peep that was equal parts musical and mournful. “I’m afraid those bad things aren’t over yet.”

  Emma reached for his hand, but Love nodded ahead and led her farther down the hall. Dim lighting and rocky surroundings made the facility feel cold and impersonal, but Emma failed to see the danger about which Love was so worried.

  “I know you don’t wanna hear this, but I understand why they’d do whatever necessary to turn what they are into what you are,” she said. When Love glanced at her, Emma smiled, but he did not return it. “Look, we’ve both seen the White Nothingness; we’ve both seen the cold emptiness. Evolving into you might be the only chance humans have to survive this world. The freedom that you have to fly, and survive the weather, and go wherever you please. . . well, it seems amazing.”

  Emma didn’t expect the snort from Love. He shook his head.

  “I’ve never had freedom,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “I’ve always been bound to this place by a need to protect other children of experiments. My existence—me turning into this—convinced the Board they could create others like me. If I hadn’t turned out this way, or if I’d splattered against the rocks the first time they tested my flight skills, they might’ve stopped with the experiments a long time ago. My existence has doomed so many.”

  Emma circled around him, stopping so Love had to look down at her.

  “It seems to me you’ve given hope to the Board, given hope to everyone in The Mountain,” she said. “Turning out this way allowed you to rescue me, to bring me here to potentially save everyone.”

  “At what cost? Because I ended up a proper Aviary, the Board pushed for more women to become pregnant, for more children to be injected with versions of the Blast while in the womb. Do you know how many women died during those procedures? How many children died while still inside their mothers? Do you know how many couldn’t fly the way I could?”

  His words came quicker, angrier, the feathers bristling around his neck. He avoided Emma’s gaze, his eyes flitting around every part of the hallway.

  “All because I was born with this freedom,” he said. “Believe me, my life has been little more than a curse.”

  “None of that’s your fault,” Emma said, failing to sound as comforting as she’d wanted. “I wish you’d found me earlier, but at least the Board said they put a stop to those experiments.”

  Love huffed. “I’ve seen none of the host wombs since returning. . . I mean none of the women. . . the mothers. Maybe they’re being kept somewhere else; maybe we got back too late. Either way, there are plenty of male guards but few women remaining to help continue the human line.”

  “Which makes it even more important that my blood helps them,” Emma said. “And makes it more important that it helps me.”

  “Even if the fools manage to recreate a perfect version of Aviary Blast, and even if they grant your request for an injection, they won’t give you your freedom,” Love said. When Emma began to shake her head, Love’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t care what they’ve told you. You’re too valuable to them to be allowed to leave. They’ll find some way to use you. But. . .”—Love circled in front of her, looking down both ends of the hallway to make sure nobody was in hearing range—“. . . it doesn’t need to be that way. I could bring you somewhere safe, somewhere far from here. I’ve already saved so many kids and brought them there; I could do the same for you. I have no doubt the Board is having us watched, but they’re distracted with your blood sample right now. We might not have a better time to fight our way out.”

  Emma’s brow furrowed. Though Love appeared to be better-formed than the other Sky People, Emma wondered if he suffered the same mental issues as they did. It didn’t help that Love refused to look at her longer than a few seconds without his eyes flitting from one side of the hallway to the other.

  “You want to take me away after everything we both endured to get me here?” she asked.

  Love’s eyes settled on her and he frowned. “I’m sorry. I. . . I thought it was the right thing to do; now that we’re here. . . I realize it wasn’t. We should try to leave.”

  Her stomach was filled with food and a blood donation wasn’t nearly as painful as she’d expected. Emma had just begun to think this Mountain situation wouldn’t be so bad. At the very least, she had plenty to distract her from the thinking about what had happened to everyone she knew in the City Below, a thought always on the edge of her mind, threatening to drag her into a dark hole of depression. If they left The Mountain now, if she didn’t help create something good for the few survivors left in the world, she had no clue what life might hold for her.

  Emma shook her head. “I want to see this through. I believe your doubts about the people in charge here; I believe your concerns about the danger. But I know a thing or two about living under the rule of dangerous people. I also understand the importance of helping people in desperate situations. I want to help others if I can, even if that means putting myself at risk.”

  Love’s eyes creased, but he forced a smile. “The Descendant is truly everything we hoped she would be.”

  “And considering your bravery and those you’ve risked yourself to save, that means a lot,” Emma said. “With that said, I’d. . .”—she swallowed hard—“. . . completely understand if you choose to leave and return to your friends, wherever they might be.”

  Love didn’t hesitate to shake his head. “I made a promise to stay by your side and keep you safe. I intend to fulfill that promise until I’m no longer able to,” he said.

  Emma stared into his eyes and Love immediately looked away, turning forward. Her eyes wandered to his hand. She felt an overwhelming desire to hold it, to feel his warmth and strength. The thought left her head swirling again, though it was a different kind of lightheadedness this time.

  You’re still married to Olly, she told herself, a small, annoying voice in the back of her mind. The fact that her husband was probably dead, swallowed by lava, made Emma feel no less guilty about her racing emotions for Love.

  Love’s eyes narrowed as he looked into the distance, where a pair of guards rushed through the hallway. Emma braced herself as they approached, but the two humans ran right by, the inaudible crackle of their walkie-talkies fading
down the hall. When they reached another stairwell and walked up another level, they heard even more echoes of excited human voices.

  “Something else doesn’t feel quite right,” Love said.

  He stopped in front of the door to the next level, the only door so far that was marked with a yellow and black sign warning of restricted access. Emma was curious about what that level might hold, but not so curious that it stopped her from heading toward the next set of stairs. Love, however, tried the handle and found it unlocked, pulling open the door to glance into another empty hallway.

  “There may not be a better time,” he said.

  “Better time for what?” Emma asked, tightly clutching the railing.

  “To see Him,” he said. “This way.”

  Before Emma could object—or seek more information about the mysterious Him—Love scurried through the door, holding it open for her to follow. Emma didn’t know what he had in mind but had a feeling it was against the Board’s rules. She sighed deeply and followed, entering another dimly-lit level that didn’t look altogether different from every other part of The Mountain so far. Still, she noticed an immediate difference in Love’s demeanor. He stood upright, his shoulders back, his body tense, his head flitting from one side to the other. As if she wasn’t nervous enough, seeing Love anything less than calm and collected sent her pulse racing.

  “Why are you so nervous?” she finally asked, her voice seeming to boom down the empty corridor.

  “I’ve actually spent little time in The Mountain during the last few years. I was always out searching for you,” he whispered. “When I was here, I was given free reign of The Mountain, except for the inner labs and this level. The Board’s never spoken to me about it, and very few humans are brave enough to mention it, but I’ve heard whispers over the years that He is located on this level.”