The Mountain

by Kevin George

  She followed him around The Mountain, finding another snow-covered area that looked like the rest. But she spotted Wyatt as he neared a large, rocky outcropping near the top. Carli slowed and landed beside him, slipping on the slick snow, nearly falling off the outcropping. Wyatt lunged forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her back to safety. Standing near the highest part of The Mountain, the teens turned in a slow circle, admiring the incredible view, most of which was distorted by clouds beneath them and heavy snow falling from above. Still, they could see countless miles in all directions, countless miles of barren, white landscape, the same as they’d seen during their long flight.

  Wind whipped around them, threatening to fling Carli off the outcropping. She kept her thumb atop the jetpack’s power button in case she needed to take off suddenly. Her hand continued to shake, this time caused by unbearable temperatures. Not even insulated clothing could keep out the cold, and she was reminded how she’d often felt when standing on the observation platform of the Main HASS. . .

  “Why did you land up here?” she called out.

  If Wyatt heard her question, he gave no indication. While Carli had been preoccupied with their view of the sky and endless white below, Wyatt stared down at his feet. Carli was about to repeat her question when Wyatt stood tall, lifted his foot and stomped down onto the thin layer of snow beneath them. Before Carli could wonder what he was doing, a strange sound cut through the howling wind, a metallic ping. Wyatt’s and Carli’s eyes met, both of them wide with surprise. Without a word needed between them, both dropped to their knees and scraped away a section of snow.

  “I didn’t think this outcropping looked natural,” Wyatt said as they finished clearing off a small area of metal. A few moments later, they cleared off a section large enough to show that the metal was part of some sort of door. “This has to lead somewhere.”

  Carli stood back up, watching as Wyatt tried to pry it open to no avail. Despite Wyatt’s frustration of not being able to gain access, Carli let out a deep, albeit quiet sigh of relief, unable to shake the feeling that she wanted no part of whatever awaited inside The Mountain.

  Chad stared at the control panel on the wall near the hangar bay door. He was fairly certain which button to press to close the door, but he hesitated to do so. His eyes drifted outside, toward the embankments on both sides of the path leading into the hangar, toward the falling snow and blowing wind and empty white world beyond. The White Nothingness had nearly killed him on several occasions, but it still didn’t make him as nervous as what waited deeper in The Mountain.

  His eyes darted to the stairs and the elevator, worried someone would eventually discover his ruse. But he was beginning to understand that the guard he impersonated was left alone most of the time, which allowed him to scurry around the hangar in search of a map or blueprint of the facility, any clue that could help him locate Sally. He searched the guard’s small living space but found nothing to help. A supply closet held mostly empty shelves and a door riddled with dents and dings; Chad tried not to think about who’d tried to smash it down in the past.

  He approached the bottom of the stairs a dozen times but never climbed more than a few of them. He stared up the darkened stairwell, unable to see much of anything, imagining the labs and cells and communication room he’d heard mentioned by other guards, yet without an idea as to where Sally might be held, if she were being held captive. Part of him wanted to charge up the stairs and start looking everywhere, but the guard he impersonated seemed to have a good role in the hangar. Not only did he have dozens of vehicles at his disposal but also a clear path out of the place. Climbing the staircase might take all of that away.

  Still, he couldn’t help feeling a sense of cowardice each time he hesitated to rush to Sally’s rescue. You’ve spent months thinking about getting to her, he told himself. Now that you’re here, now that you’re close, you can’t rush into danger, you can’t rush into getting caught if there’s a smarter way to find her. Sally is strong, she’s a survivor; if she’s here, she can survive a little longer until you figure out how to get to her. Stay patient, and the right opportunity will—

  Chad’s heart skipped a beat when a burst of static interrupted the silence, cutting through the distant whistling of outside wind. Chad needed a moment to realize it was coming from the dead guard’s walkie-talkie, which he’d left near the blast door’s control panel. Chad’s relief at still being alone was short-lived.

  “Moretti, come in,” ordered an urgent voice. “Moretti, are you there?”

  It took Chad a few seconds to realize the guard he’d killed was Moretti, that he was now Moretti, that the call was for him. Instinct told him to ignore it and hope the person on the other end would leave him alone. But common sense told him that straying from the guard’s status quo would not end well. He rushed across the hangar, fumbling the walkie with shaky hands before pressing the TRANSMIT button. Several awkward seconds passed as he struggled to find words that made sense.

  “I’m. . . I’m here,” Chad stuttered, shaking his head at his foolishness, certain he’d outed himself as an imposter. Suddenly, he recalled overhearing the dead guard’s abrasive attitude and was glad he hadn’t let go of the walkie’s button. “What do you want?”

  “This is Elias,” the guard said. “You need to close the outer door. Command’s computer systems are going nuts with warnings about tampering near the outer flight door for the drones. On top of that, The Mountain is on high alert from the earlier intrusions. We can’t risk leaving the hangar’s outer door open; I assumed you would’ve been the first one to ensure no more strangers showing up.”

  The guard’s voice oozed with derision, but Chad was too focused on what the man meant by ‘outer flight doors’ and ‘drones’ to focus on anything else. He desperately wanted to ask more questions and learn more but ultimately answered with a single word spoken in a gruff voice.

  “Understood.”

  When the walkie went silent, Chad stared outside again, not wanting to close the door and his escape route. He tried to see if others were out there, if Prince Oliver and his supposedly dead mother and Irving had brought others with them. Chad wondered if more people showing up to The Mountain might actually help him, if such a distraction was exactly what he needed to search the upper levels and find where Sally was being held. Unless any new arrivals think I’m part of The Mountain and deem me the enemy. . .

  Still, he didn’t know how anyone from the City Below and its tunnels could’ve gotten here. Though he’d hoped to never see Oliver again, he wished he’d managed a few minutes alone with the evil prince to question him about his journey through the Nothingness. If nothing else, it would’ve been nice to learn the fates of his parents and Emma, though he wondered if such answers would’ve made it easier or harder to concentrate on his task at hand. Chad wandered a few steps outside, his feet sinking into deep snow piled up between the two embankments beyond the door. The storm had eased, allowing a farther view into the distance than before. He still saw nothing.

  The weather might not get any clearer than this, he thought, glancing back to the covered vehicles, afraid he’d never have a better opportunity to get as far from The Mountain as possible. As if someone were reading his mind about escaping, he heard the crackle of the walkie again and a different, yet familiar voice.

  “I order you to close the outer door immediately,” the voice snapped.

  Chad pulled the walkie from his pocket and stared at it, realizing it was the same woman he’d overheard in the hangar earlier. Chad didn’t know her name or her exact role in The Mountain, but she’d left no doubt that her job was one of great importance. The tone with which she radioed him seemed to enforce that dominance.

  “I. . . I did,” Chad said, shielding the walkie from transmitting any sound of wind.

  “I received reports from the computers stating otherwise,” the woman said. “You gonna try telling me the computers are wrong but you’re right?”

  “We
ll, I meant to say I’m closing the outer door now,” Chad said.

  Terror suddenly gripped his chest. If this woman knew the door was still open, what else might she know? Did she have a way of seeing into the hangar? Chad fought the urge to search for any sign of cameras.

  “I just. . . I wanted to check outside first. . . in case any more trouble was coming our way,” he said.

  “You wouldn’t be able to stop trouble alone,” she snapped. “Keeping that door open keeps us open to danger, especially since we don’t know what’s happening near the drones’ access door. For all we know, that problem could make its way down to you, too. I know you think you can handle potential danger, but that’s not a risk I’m willing to take. I don’t care anymore who your father used to be, or what your family name meant to Mountain security once upon a time. If you don’t follow my command and follow it immediately, I’ll send a squadron of guards down to close the door after they toss you out first.”

  “I’ll close it right away,” Chad said.

  He started to hurry inside but suddenly felt the urge to stop and look up. A blur of movement—no, there’s two of them, he thought—descended through the clouds and seemed to fly directly toward him. Chad didn’t know who—or what—the twin blurs might be, but he was certain they weren’t from the City Below. He scampered inside, heading straight for the hangar door’s control panel. With one hand, he pushed any and every button that might close off the outside world; with his other hand, he pushed the walkie’s TRANSMIT button.

  “I see something out there flying around,” he reported, like the helpful Mountain guard he needed to be.

  Carli spotted the opening between the two embankments just as Wyatt pointed at the base of The Mountain. She also spotted that the opening was shrinking by the second, a massive door sliding toward the snowy ground. Knowing they’d never reach it in time, Carli slowed and watched, shaking her head.Wyatt sped up, streaking toward the ground at breakneck speed, landing between the embankments moments later. He tumbled in the snow, scurrying to his feet to wave his arms. Carli touched down gently beside him, joining in his frantic yells, spotting a single person standing just inside The Mountain opening as the door slid closed completely.

  Wyatt hurried to the heavy metallic door, banging his fists on it. Though Carli knew it was senseless to do so, Wyatt’s desperation when he glanced back convinced her to knock on the door as well. Their combined knocking effort barely caused a muted thud. Carli gave up well before Wyatt did.

  “Let us in!” Wyatt yelled, his voice only slightly louder than the wind swirling around them. “Please!”

  He repeated the same thing over and over, his voice growing weaker each time, his breath coming in greater heaves. When he finally stopped and hung his head, Carli placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “Maybe we should leave the door alone,” she said.

  “But this is the right place,” Wyatt said, his voice heavy with hopelessness. “You saw it; someone is in there. They can let us in if they want to.”

  “It’s pretty obvious they don’t want to,” Carli said. Her voice held more of an edge than she’d intended. Wyatt took a small step back, his eyebrows lowering. “We need to be smart before it’s too late. Maybe it’s time we think about heading back.”

  “To Snow City?” Wyatt asked incredulously.

  Carli frowned, her eyes instinctively turning away from his. “To the Comm HASS, or the group of downed HASSes. Or. . . or maybe we try finding the Main HASS and the others still in the sky. We can tell them everything we’ve found, everything we’ve learned about the surface.”

  Wyatt’s gaze turned skyward. His eyes softened for a moment until his face tightened and he shook his head. He pounded his fists on the door again, this time creating a louder thud.

  “I’ve dreamed about finding this place since I first heard stories about other survivors, about all of us working together to save humankind. I’m not about to give up now that I’ve found it,” he said with a final slam against the door. “There can’t just be this door and that one at the top. We must’ve missed something.”

  Wyatt hurried between the embankments, skipping through deep snow until he was clear of rocky protrusions. Without another word, he pressed his jetpack’s power button and shot into the sky. With a shake of the head, Carli lowered her visor and took off as well, refusing to separate from him again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “I’ll do nothing while my brothers and sister remain imprisoned.”

  Billy crossed his arms over his white lab coat, which was streaked with dirt from his journey through the underground tunnels. Still, his lab coat wasn’t as filthy as those worn by the group sitting around the table in front of him. As if the Aviary-Blasted Board members weren’t grotesque enough to look at, the young scientist’s insolence caused many to leap from their seats and make a variety of hisses and squawks. Some were more misshapen than others; some appeared more threatening than others. But Billy didn’t care, at least until the female leader at the head of the table turned in his direction.

  “If you were wise,” she said, her voice silencing the others, “you would do as you were told. You would use your so-called wisdom and create a version of Blast you claim to know how to make. If you refuse for any reason, how would we know what you do or don’t know? We’ll have to assume you’re impersonating scientists and treat you as we would any other intruders. The two of you might make worthy test subjects.”

  When Billy looked into her eyes, the young scientist felt a chill rush through him. But he quickly looked away and crossed his arms, shrugging.

  “Do whatever you want with the Peters kid for all I care,” Billy said. “But if you do the same with my father and I, you’ll end up looking the way you do for the rest of your. . . peculiar lives. Tell me, how would you feel knowing our expertise could’ve easily solved your problem?”

  More gasps escaped the Aviaries than squawks of anger. Nobody had ever heard someone speak to Ms. Van Horn in such a manner. All eyes turned to her to see how she’d respond. Some expected yelling, others expected threats; nobody expected her to smile, the effort causing her lips to curl back over a mouthful of sharpened teeth.

  “Anyone who’d help turn us into the Aviaries we were meant to be would be well compensated for their efforts,” Ms. Van Horn said slowly, seeming to choose each word with precision. “The Mountain can be a very welcoming place, at least for those who deserve it.”

  Billy stood up a bit straighter, one side of his mouth curling. “I’m not sure why we should help when we’ve been tossed into a cell with the rest of The Mountain’s trash.”

  The Board exploded into squawks and flutters again, stray feathers whipping around the large table. Billy’s father finally pushed his way in front of his son.

  “Not that those women in our cell are trash,” Will said. “We’re not sure why they’re being treated so poorly, but—”

  “Because they no longer serve a purpose,” a Board member snapped, standing so suddenly that his chair fell over behind him. “We can’t risk them fleeing in case the new Blast doesn’t work and we have to return to our old ways.”

  Another Board member stood, followed by another and then another. In less than a minute, all eyes looked down upon the two scientists, including Ms. Van Horn’s, as she stood a foot taller than both humans.

  “And your family?” she asked. “Would the two younger boys in your family respond well to the same injections that turned us into what we’ve become? Or possibly the same injection that just killed another intruder to The Mountain?”

  Grotesque smiles encircled the table, as did several excitable chirps. Will shook his head and opened his mouth to object, but Billy took his father’s arm, giving him a squeeze of reassurance.

  “They need us,” he whispered, his voice barely heard over the cacophony of Board member noises.

  Ms. Van Horn raised a hand to quiet her followers. “And the girl. . . your daughter,” she said, loc
king eyes with the older scientist. “Perhaps when our new injections fail on the two boys, and then on the two of you, we’ll use her womb first to continue impregnating humans with Blasted embryos.”

  Will pulled his arm from his son’s grasp and bent to a knee in front of Ms. Van Horn.

  “Please, we’ll do as you wish. Just promise not to harm my children,” he said, glancing back to Billy. “Please don’t hurt any of my children.”

  “You have my word,” Ms. Van Horn said, reaching a hooked hand to Will to help him stand. “As long as the two of you figure out how to correctly add the Descendant’s blood to our current version of Aviary, you and your family will become exalted guests.”

  Will turned to his son, who avoided eye contact until his father grabbed him by the arm. “Go ahead, tell them.”

  Billy sighed. “You want immediate results?”

  The squawks and bristling feathers were more than enough answer, but Ms. Van Horn nodded nonetheless, struggling to keep herself calm. “That would be. . . preferable.”

  Billy smirked, though his top lip curled in disgust as he looked around the table. “Figured,” he said. “The only way to do that will be with bone marrow; it’s much more powerful. Extract that instead of blood from your precious Descendant. It’ll make things much faster.”

  His father shook his head. “It’ll make things much more dangerous, maybe deadly for whoever has to donate that much marrow,” Will said, receiving a shrug in response from his son. He turned to the Board leader. “Given enough time, I’m fully confident we could take the test subject’s blood in smaller increments in order to—”

  “He’s right,” said a solitary voice away from the table. “We need to learn our lesson after rushing the last time.”