The Mountain

by Kevin George

  “Who is. . . He?” Emma asked.

  A shiver coursed through her.

  “He might be nothing, or He might be everything,” Love said cryptically. “Either way, His importance is one of the only things the Board and human guards have agreed about for years. Every occupant of The Mountain seems to agree that He can make everything right, but only once you were brought here and your blood created the proper Aviary Blast.”

  Emma stopped for a moment, the thought causing her to freeze. By the time she started walking again and caught up to Love, she was certain this hallway was chilly. Not as freezing as the Nothingness or even the City Below’s Fifth, but definitely colder than the rest of The Mountain. The temperatures seemed to drop as they approached a large metallic door unlike any they’d seen so far. Beside the door was a glowing keypad, the sight of which caused Love to frown.

  “What’s wrong?” Emma asked.

  “The whispered stories said access to Him was based on DNA, but this looks like every other normal keypad,” Love said. “I thought that since you’re the Descendant, that you might be able to. . .”

  As Emma stared at the door, she sensed something very strange—something she wanted nothing to do with—waited behind in the restricted room. She exhaled deeply and thought she saw the slightest swirl of steam escaping her lips. She shook her head and backed away.

  “We should leave,” she said nervously, “especially if we aren’t supposed to—”

  An armed guard raced toward them from down the hallway. Emma wanted to run but stopped when she felt Love’s warm hand gripping her arm.

  “You aren’t supposed to be here,” snapped the breathless human.

  Upon closer inspection, Emma saw a severely malnourished man wearing ill-fitting clothes hanging loosely off his body. His cheeks were sunken and his eyes hollow, but his mouth hung open as he looked from Love to Emma. He immediately lowered his weapon and bowed his head.

  “The Descendant,” he whispered.

  He reminded Emma of how Thirders appeared soon after she’d returned to rule her home section. Emma wanted to offer this man words of solace, or words of comfort, or words of encouragement, but Love beat her to it.

  “I’m showing the Descendant around, as The Board has allowed,” he said, standing taller, looming over the shorter human. “I’d expect you to treat the Descendant with more respect considering what her presence means.”

  The weapon shook in the guard’s hand, but it remained lowered, which was exactly what the guard’s head did as he bowed deeply.

  “My sincerest apologies, truly,” he said. “The Descendant gracing us is the greatest arrival any of us could’ve ever imagined.” The man raised his head slowly, meeting Emma’s eyes for a second before glancing toward the metallic door. “Well, maybe the second greatest. I’m sorry for snapping, but Quentin Bowie is the only one I’ve seen go inside. He said I should discourage anyone else from getting too close.”

  When the guard turned toward Love and Emma, his face bloomed bright red and he glanced toward the floor.

  “I’ve been told nobody is allowed inside,” Love said, “not even Quentin.”

  The guard frowned. “I’ve already said more than I should have. Please, Descendant, accept my warmest greetings to The Mountain, but I must insist the two of you move along.”

  Love puffed his chest and took a step closer to the guard, ultimately relenting when Emma took his hand and pulled him away from the door. She didn’t know if it was Love’s touch that warmed her or walking away from the mysterious room, but a palpable sense of foreboding melted from her shoulders. As they near the end of the hall, the door to another stairwell burst open. Love quickly stepped in front of Emma but not quickly enough to stop her from seeing a familiar Board member, whose eyes widened in surprise when he saw them.

  “Quentin,” Love said.

  “Love, Descendant,” Quentin said, stepping aside to glance around Love. “I’ve been looking everywhere for the two of you. Why are you on the restricted level?”

  Gone was the friendly tone he’d used when greeting Emma and introducing her to the Board. His voice oozed with agitation. Emma opened her mouth to apologize, but Love stood straighter and released Emma’s hand, taking a step toward his fellow Aviary.

  “You mean the restricted level with the locked room that nobody is allowed to enter?” Love asked.

  Quentin’s eyes narrowed and he took a step back. The hostility faded from his expression and he managed a guilty smirk. Love snorted.

  “I was giving Emma a tour of her new home and saw no guards on this level, which was certainly a first,” Love said.

  “Busy day,” Quentin said. “The humans were called for duties elsewhere, though it was an oversight to leave this area unprotected.”

  “So, why exactly does this area need such protection?” Love asked. “Why has it always been such a mystery?”

  Quentin exhaled deeply. “I sometimes forget how hard you’ve worked for so long, that you haven’t spent as much time in The Mountain as the rest of us. This section has been around since the original founders. I’ve heard stories that it was meant to be expanded, but the outside world turned to ice and snow too quickly, and construction here was never finished.”

  Emma peered around Love and expected Quentin to look at her, but the strange Sky Person seemed to stare off into nothing as he spoke.

  “I wonder how different life would’ve ended up for all of us had the original founders completed this area as intended,” Quentin said wistfully.

  “Well?” Love snapped, his feathers ruffling with impatience. “Are you going to tell us what’s in the actual room? Does it really have to do with Him?”

  Quentin blinked hard. “Nobody knows,” he said a bit too quickly. “Nobody can access the room.”

  “Why so many guards for a room that can’t be accessed?” Love asked.

  Quentin shrugged. “I wish I knew more, but the Board isn’t forthcoming with information for me. Remember, I was a guard for so long—I was a human for so long—that the Board still doesn’t trust me, regardless of them injecting me with the best Aviary Blast at our disposal, at least the best version before the Descendant’s arrival.

  “Speaking of which,” Quentin said slowly, shifting aside for a clearer view of Emma, “I’m glad to see you are appear to be regaining your strength. I hope you had plenty to eat and drink?”

  Emma nodded. Quentin smiled, but Emma had no doubt it was disingenuous. Her stomach sank at the sight of him.

  “The Board would like to thank you again for your donation,” he said, his words slowing as he seemed to choose them with greater care. “We’d hoped only one blood donation would be needed, but due to a miscalculation by the Board in creating a newer, perfected version of Aviary Blast, it’s been determined that—”

  “No,” Love snapped. “The Board doesn’t know what it’s doing, nor does it understand the consequences of testing the Aviary Blast. Look at what happened when they injected themselves—and when they injected you—with Blast mixed with my blood, despite knowing of the less than ideal results. And as you just said, you were a guard for many years, yet now you’re taking blood and running scientific tests? It’s clear the Board can’t produce a version of Aviary Blast the way they think, and I refuse to let Emma be poked and prodded and drained of blood while you try to figure it out.”

  Emma’s heart raced. She glanced behind them, expecting guards to show up or more Board members to swarm their way. But the hallway was clear and when she turned back to Quentin, she saw him frowning.

  “I agree. I’m certainly not qualified for this type of research, nor is the Board or anyone else I’ve known from The Mountain,” he admitted. “But the Board has been wise enough to place the next step of Aviary Blast creation in the hands of real scientists, men brought here from far away, men with intimate knowledge of how the Aviary Blast was made in the past.”

  Love stood straighter. “Brought from where?” he aske
d, making no attempt to hide his suspicion. “Who are they? What knowledge do they possess?”

  “I don’t have all those answers,” Quentin said. “Ms. Van Horn and other Board members went to address these new scientists, while I was sent to find the Descendant and request another small blood withdrawal. The Board is quite anxious to continue with Aviary research so they can start producing Blast for those that want it.”

  “I’ll go,” Emma said, causing Love and Quentin to turn to her at the same time. “As long as it’s safe.”

  Love shook his head and puffed out his chest, unleashing an angry squawk that echoed down the hall. Quentin’s feathers stood on end and he squawked as well, his head snapping in Love’s direction. Just when Emma was certain a fight would break out, Quentin slowly backed away.

  “The Board does not have the same patience I do,” he warned.

  “Then you’d better convince them to learn it,” Love said. “Remember, nothing is done to Emma unless she agrees to it and I’m with her.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  At first, the sound of rushing wind—despite being muffled within her helmet—was deafening to Carli Ellison. She’d been unable to hear herself think, an unexpected relief after the terrible things she’d witnessed in Snow City. But it wasn’t long before she barely noticed the noise speeding through the sky. She was blown from side to side by gusting winds, zipping among the falling snow, soaring through low clouds, only catching rare glimpses of the endless miles of white hundreds of feet below. With every passing minute and every passing mile, doubt grew in her mind, but the jetpack engine purred softly on her back, continuing to propel her into the great unknown.

  She kept her head up most of the flight, focusing on the blur of movement slashing through clouds ahead of her. Wyatt Bell soared ahead, never once looking back toward Snow City or his parents they’d left behind. His apparent confidence helped a small part of Carli feel better, but she still didn’t like that he was in complete control, leading the way with the GPS device strapped to his wrist, hopefully heading toward the other survivors’ beacon.

  When Carli glanced down again, she almost didn’t believe her eyes upon spotting movement among the snowy whiteness. Her helmet’s visor was speckled with dots of thawed snowflakes, making it hard to focus on anything small. She might’ve convinced herself nothing was really there had it not been for seeing Wyatt pointing toward the ground. Carli shook her head and called out that they should ignore it, but she barely heard her own voice and knew Wyatt was too far to catch anything she’d said. Before she could cut him off, he swooped down through the clouds, heading for the ground. Carli considered remaining airborne, but the only thought more frightening than facing what was on the ground was facing the world ahead all alone.

  Thankfully, Wyatt flew a wide berth around whatever awaited them below, landing far enough away to give them a chance to talk. Carli yanked off her helmet but was promptly hit in the face with swirling snow. Wyatt peered into the distance, stepping through deep snow in the direction of the movement.

  “Could be other survivors,” he called out over howling winds. “Or people coming to meet us. We’ll only find out if we approach them.”

  Carli rushed toward him so quickly she nearly tripped in the snow. “Or it could be descendants of the fallen HASS stations, or those. . . people from Snow City that were trying to kill us. Either way, we can’t risk them stealing our jetpacks.”

  Carli couldn’t tell if Wyatt’s frown was because he thought she was wrong or knew she was right. Either way, he continued to watch the snowy horizon as the group turned and appeared to travel in their direction. There were several dozen dots in total, and though they resembled human forms from afar, Carli wasn’t certain if any of them were too misshapen to be actual people. She was almost too afraid to ask what else they might be.

  “Is this area where your GPS told us to stop?” she asked.

  Wyatt brushed the snow off the device on his wrist showing an arrow pointing in the opposite direction. He shook his head.

  “I don’t know where we’re going or what we’ll find there, but can we really take the risk of trusting anyone else before we get there?” Carli asked.

  “I always swore that when I left the HASS, I would see more of the world and learn about every possible survivor,” he said, still staring longingly at the group coming their way. “But you’re right. That will have to wait until later, and so will these people.”

  Without another word, he placed his helmet back on and pressed his jetpack’s power button. Carli took another glance at the group before doing the same, shooting skyward in a matter of seconds. It wasn’t long before the group was little more than a speck in the distance behind them.

  The passage of time was difficult to gauge while flying, but it didn’t feel like long before Wyatt pointed into the distance. Afraid he’d spotted more people, Carli’s stomach swirled until she saw a massive shadow looming through the snowy clouds ahead. She’d heard stories her entire life about a place where other human survivors lived on the surface. If Snow City and the rest of the emptiness was any indication of humankind’s chance for survival, Carli knew this Mountain might be their only chance to find someone.

  Wyatt slowed and dipped beneath the clouds, leading them closer to The Mountain. They flew around it in a wide circle, seeing sections with steep cliff faces and other areas sloped gently with broken rocks. No matter where they looked, though, everything was covered in snow, leaving Carli to wonder how any human could’ve survived inside. For that matter, she wondered if this was the wrong mountain, though Wyatt continued pointing to it as though it was the right one. For nearly an hour they flew lazy circles around it until Wyatt gestured to a section a hundred feet above ground level.

  Carli descended behind him, worried Wyatt was looking for any excuse to land. But as Carli got closer to the ground, she saw Wyatt touch down beside a concrete structure hidden beneath snowy whiteness. Some sort of battlement was there, one accessible to the ground by snow-covered stairs cut directly into the rocky mountain walls. As Carli landed with a thud, she watched Wyatt enter the embankment’s small opening only to emerge moments later.

  “Empty,” he said, squeezing past her and heading toward the steps. He pointed at the snow covering them. “Do those look like footprints to you?”

  Carli squinted, uncertain whether small indentation in the snow had been caused by another person or by swirling winds. She wasn’t sure which option she hoped for. As she was staring at the snow, Wyatt looked through the blizzard and pointed toward several strange shapes parked in the middle of the nothingness.

  “Vehicles?” Wyatt asked. “They don’t appear to be moving.”

  “Maybe they got stuck?” Carli wondered. “Maybe it has to do with those small bumps littering the ground around them?”

  “I don’t know,” Wyatt said, turning to stare at the steep slopes above and below them. “But this is definitely where the GPS says we should be. And this structure isn’t here by accident. The Mountain would’ve been built with protective measures, and there certainly wouldn’t have been a big welcome sign for all to see.”

  “If this place was so important, shouldn’t someone be out here protecting it?” Carli asked.

  Wyatt frowned. “Don’t know, but we can’t expect finding a way in to be easy. We’ll need to keep searching.”

  “And once we’re inside? What if we’re greeted the same way here that we were in Snow City? What if those people, or whoever they were, live here, too?” Carli asked.

  Wyatt shook his head. “We can only hope they aren’t. You heard the same stories as a kid that I did. We have to believe the tales of survival arks working together for humankind will end up being true. I know you’re nervous about who and what we’re going to find. I’m nervous, too. But we haven’t come this far, we haven’t endured this much, just to fail now.”

  Carli glanced up, but it wasn’t the top of The Mountain she most wanted to see. She sta
red into the clouds, praying to see the familiar outline of a HASS, but knowing how unlikely that would be. She exhaled deeply, a wisp of steam escaping her lips, forcing a smile toward the only person left in her life.

  “Should we check higher up or closer to the ground for an entrance?” she asked.

  Wyatt forced a smile in return. “The steps lead down, so it makes more sense for access to be down there. But you’re right, we shouldn’t be in such a rush. It’s better to keep flying around, keep familiarizing ourselves with The Mountain and what we’re getting into. Maybe we missed something.” Wyatt raised the button to his jetpack but hesitated before pressing it. “Thank you for being here with me. I don’t think I could’ve done this without you.”

  Carli only managed a nod. As Wyatt took off to keep exploring The Mountain’s exterior, Carli stood and watched him. She was about to follow when she spotted a blur of movement among the clouds. Shielding her eyes from falling snow, she squinted to see better, but the blur was gone, no other sign of it as she stood in place for several seconds. She tried telling herself it was nothing—that the swirling snow had played a trick on her eyes—but this wasn’t the first time she’d seen something that probably shouldn’t have been there.

  I can’t ignore it like I did the last time, she told herself, her insides flipping at the thought of Wyatt’s parents somehow fixing the other jetpacks and flying here. She slammed her helmet’s visor down and mashed the power button, feeling her stomach sink to her feet as her body rocketed skyward. She lost sight of Wyatt at first but spotted him higher than expected. For a moment, she wondered if he’d spotted the movement as well, if he was on his way to intercept his parents or whoever else might be—

  Carli banked to the left, twisting her body as hard as she could, missing a rocky protrusion by inches. Her pulse and heartrate exploded though she’d avoided disaster. It took her a moment to regain her bearings and locate Wyatt within the low hanging clouds. She accelerated toward him, her body shaking as surging adrenaline made it impossible to keep her hands steady. She scanned the sky for any sign of what she’d spotted earlier, but Wyatt soon circled around a section of Mountain near the top and Carli had to focus on not losing where he’d gone.