by Kevin George
In his periphery, Billy felt his father’s eyes turn to him. Billy didn’t need to look at him to know his father wanted to take Quentin up on the offer. Instead, Billy glanced down at Emma.
“We’re not leaving anyone behind, no matter what,” he said before finally turning to his father. “Keep carrying him!”
Billy let go of Quentin’s arm and leapt down several steps at a time, finding Emma struggling to pull herself up by the railing. He draped her arm around his shoulder and wrapped his arm around her waist, apologizing as she winced in pain. They caught up to Will and Quentin within minutes, but the foursome quickly grew tired. When it became obvious they would lose the race, Quentin suggested ducking into one of the nearby hallways to hide.
“And if they’re headed up to harm the prisoners?” Billy asked, shaking his head. “No. If Quentin was willing to stay here and fight, that’s what all of us should do.”
Will stopped and lowered Quentin to the floor, the Aviary leaning against the stairwell wall. Billy tried to do the same with Emma, but she refused to sit.
“If you fight, I fight,” she muttered weakly.
Billy looked at her and frowned. He wanted to apologize for what he’d done to her but couldn’t find the words. Instead, he stood on one side of Emma and his father stood on the other, the three of them looking down at the flashes of movement now only several levels below, the echo of footsteps, heavy breathing and muted voices getting closer and closer. Emma’s heart pounded so rapidly that she felt light-headed. She hoped that whatever battle was about to happen would ensure she’d never be tortured by the Board or their savior again.
When the group of pursuers turned the corner to head up the final flight of steps, Emma stood perched on the edge of the stairs, ready to fling herself at them in a last-ditch attempt to fight for her freedom and her life. She tensed her legs to spring, but her muscles seemed to melt away when she looked at the face of the first person leading the charge.
“Isaac?” she asked.
Her de facto brother from The Third stopped, his mouth slightly agape at the sight of her. As if seeing him wasn’t unlikely enough, spotting Love behind him was equally surprising. But it was the next face she saw—and then the face she saw a moment later—that made her legs so weak that she had to sit down.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
When the gunshots and squawking and fighting came to a halt, dozens of dead guards, Tunnelers, Swarmers and Board members lie sprawled about the hangar bay floor, all bleeding the same red. Several Board members—along with the guards that had joined them—lined up in front of the open hangar door, blocking any type of escape. Ms. Van Horn led another line blocking the stairwell. The rest of the newcomers—as well as Elias Kim and fewer of his followers than he’d had before—jumbled together in the middle.
Sally remained close to Lump, whose good wing dripped blood but was still wrapped protectively around Mia and Baby Ryo. Other Swarmers knelt beside their dead or bunched together, shrieking in physical and emotional agony. The Wellers stood nearby, William calling for a ceasefire and peace among both sides, Martha trying to gather their people into defensive position.
Ms. Van Horn pointed a feathered finger at two of her fellow Aviaries. “You and you, go to Martin LeRoque. Tell him what happened down here, that we tried to show His mercy but the intruders had friends and attacked us. But tell Him not to worry, that we’ve eliminated the threat. . . completely.” Her pronouncement led to bloodthirsty squawks from the Board and frightened chirps from the Swarm. “A few others escaped up the stairs during the fighting. Find them and kill them on your way.”
The two Board members nodded and flocked up the stairwell, leaving Ms. Van Horn to focus her attention on the enemies.
“Mothers,” Lump said within the group of survivors. “We just want mothers.”
Other Swarmers repeated the word ‘mothers,’ quietly at first but with greater intensity each time. Lump finally unfurled his wing from Mia, who rushed to Sally’s side. Lump stepped forward, chanting ‘mothers’ louder and louder, but BabyDoll grabbed his hand and held him back. When Lump looked at her, she shook her head a single time, not only stopping him but also quieting him. Another Swarmer from the far side of the group stepped forward in protest, but only had the chance to squawk ‘mother’ once before Ms. Van Horn raised her gun and shot him dead.
Gasps replaced chants and silence followed. Despite more guns being aimed in their direction, a few more Swarmers stepped forward to kneel beside their fallen friend. A human teenager hobbled forward, his head lowered in deference, his hands raised in surrender.
“My name is Henry Jonas,” the young man said. “My father was leader of the Dome of Life, my uncle king of the City Below. From what I understand, the lineage of my family makes me very important to—”
Ms. Van Horn fired again, striking Henry directly in the chest. The surprised boy looked down slowly and saw the blood, his eyes widening before his legs gave out and he collapsed, dead before hitting the floor.
“What are you doing?” shouted a guard seemingly aligned with the Board. “He said he was a Jonas, possibly like the Descendant. What if his blood—”
“What if?” Ms. Van Horn shrieked at the human. “What if he could’ve helped us create more Aviary Blast? What if he could’ve ensured everyone in The Mountain received an injection?” Ms. Van Horn’s head flitted from side to side. “Humans were never going to be given the same power we have. Never. The sooner the rest of you accept that, the better your chance to not end up like. . .”—she pointed to Henry’s body, resting motionless in a spreading puddle of his own blood—“. . . him.”
“But we helped you,” the guard argued. “We helped you subdue the intruders. We helped you protect the Descendant. We let you experiment on our women and—”
Ms. Van Horn nodded to two nearby Board members, who swooped toward the guard and tackled him to the floor, the man’s screams only interrupted by the tearing of his flesh. Several other humans on both sides of the hangar suddenly realized they’d chosen the wrong side. As Tunnelers and Swarmers remained in the middle, Board members turned on guards and attacked, wiping out those that would oppose them in a matter of seconds.
The guards that didn’t resist backed away and lowered their weapons, raising their hands whenever a Board member got too close. When Elias Kim called out to them from the middle of the hangar, accusing them of cowardice and treachery to their own kind, a guard still following Ms. Van Horn’s orders spoke for the others.
“I’d rather live the rest of my life as a human with His return than die for what was always just a dream of becoming Aviary.”
“Smart human,” Ms. Van Horn said, nodding to the other Board members, who returned to their places in line. “Unlike the rest of you, who should’ve done your duty and helped eliminate the newcomers. Now, you’ll all suffer the same consequences. Weapons raised!”
The rest of the Board raised their guns without hesitation, ignoring the pleas for mercy from their fellow Aviaries in the Swarm. The Tunnelers remained quietly stoic, standing upright as they faced their feathered executioners. Only William Weller kneeled over the toddler in his arms, shielding the small boy, a gesture Sally mimicked while trying to protect Mia and the baby. It was only the guards remaining with the Board that failed to follow their commands immediately, though a glance from Ms. Van Horn and her feathered followers convinced those humans to slowly raise their weapons.
“This ends now!” Ms. Van Horn screamed.
Before a shot could be fired, a deep echo rumbled through the hangar, a noise that froze everyone—human and Aviary alike—in his or her place, a noise nobody in the hangar could’ve made. In unison, everyone turned toward the open hangar door, where a trio of white blurs emerged from the blizzard, grunting and growling and sprinting on four legs toward the line of Board members guarding the entrance. The Board managed to shriek in fright, but that only gave the three beasts the first of their targets. Very few people i
nside the hangar had time to spot the woman riding one of the beasts before the beasts plowed into the nearest Board members and started to rip them apart. . .
“Olly?” Emma asked, shocked to see him alive, but not as shocked as she was to see a face from farther in her past. “Chad?”
Olly and Chad stared at Emma before turning to each other, both waiting to see if the other would move first. Finally, they rushed up the steps at the same time, but neither moved quicker than Isaac or Love.
“Descendant,” Love said, his voice filled with relief as he flapped up the final set of steps and helped her stand. “How did you escape?”
Emma glanced back at Billy and Will, both of them staring at the others in confusion. Countless questions could’ve been asked, but once the shock of seeing everyone wore off, Emma’s eyes returned to the first person she’d spotted among the group, the one person she hadn’t seen for the longest period of time.
“Isaac,” she said, the threat of tears making her choke on his name. He was the closest thing she had left to family, which made what she had to tell him so difficult that her throat felt like it was squeezing shut. She finally coughed to clear a path for her words. “I’m sorry, but my parents. . . they’re gone. They have been for a long time. I think Edmond did something to them.”
Isaac’s eyebrows dipped and he shook his head. “That’s not true. They’re down below, in the hangar.”
Emma’s heart skipped a beat, but she felt a burst of anger, shaking her head as she pulled away from Isaac’s grasp. “You’re lying to me.”
“He’s not lying,” Olly said from several steps down.
Chad glared at him, shifting a few feet over to block the prince’s view of Emma. “They’re both right. Your mother and father are below, safe. I don’t know how they ended up here, but it’s true.”
Emma brushed past Love and Isaac, nearly stumbling as she descended the first few steps. “We have to go to them.”
“No,” Carli said from farther down the steps.
It was the first time Emma noticed the wide-eyed girl, who appeared to be a few years younger than Olly. She stood beside the sixth person in their group, a middle-aged man that Emma had never seen before yet instantly made her feel uncomfortable.
“We’re all in danger,” Carli continued, “us and those still in the hangar. Nobody will survive unless we figure out the purpose of The Mountain.”
“What purpose?” Emma asked.
A voice farther up the stairs answered, a weak voice they barely heard.
“You must go to the restricted room.”
Carli leapt the steps three at a time, brushing past the others until kneeling beside Quentin. His face was twisted in a perpetual grimace and several small puddles of blood had pooled around him, but he fought to stay conscious.
“Is that where we’ll find the real savior?”
“Is that who. . . the other room. . . how did you know?” Quentin muttered, his words growing weaker.
“If we’re going up, we need to save Artie first,” Emma said, bounding up the stairs.
“Artie?” three voices asked in unison.
Chad, Olly and Isaac took turns looking at each other, all three surprised that the others had spoken Artie’s name.
“You mustn’t waste time going after your friend,” Quentin pleaded. “You have to go. . . the scanner. . . maybe it’s only meant for the true Descendant to open. . .”
“We’ll go to the upper level and help your friend while freeing my other children,” Will told Emma.
He looked to his son for confirmation of his plan, but Billy quickly turned away, offering little more than a nod. It was an unlikely voice that spoke up next and put Emma’s mind at ease.
“I’ll go with them, show them the way,” Love said. “My friends, my Swarm, they’re here to save their mothers. I will do that for them.”
The group of ten climbed the stairs together, Love carrying one side of Quentin the entire time, the other side being manned at different times by Isaac, Chad, Billy and Emma. When Quentin pointed out that they’d reached the proper floor, the two groups split up, but not before Emma thanked Love as well as the father and son scientists who’d given her freedom. Their farewell was short-lived, as Will hurried his son and Love up the stairwell.
The larger group slowed after Love handed over Quentin, who was significantly taller and heavier than any person helping to carry him. He’d grown weaker and briefly lost consciousness several times, making the process of dragging him even slower. Though a few others rushed ahead down the hall, Carli always stayed within a few feet of Quentin, constantly reminding him to stay strong, constantly pleading with him to stay awake so he could help them find what—or who—they were looking for.
“This has to be it,” James called, farther ahead than anyone else.
Quentin’s eyes snapped open, but he had trouble focusing. “The door. . . the scanner. . . it has to be the savior. . . the true. . .”
His eyes fluttered closed again but didn’t stay that way for long. Crazed squawking reverberated from somewhere behind them, and the group looked back to see a pair of Board members entering from the stairwell. Isaac and Chad struggled to keep Quentin upright, but when Emma and Olly tried to help support more of the Aviary’s weight, the four humans practically tripped over one another, the extra help more of a hinderance.
“Someone else take him,” Isaac grunted. “I’ll stay behind and fight, slow them down.”
“You certainly will not,” Emma snapped at him. “If you stay, I stay, and I can’t stay because I’m the Descendant.”
“She’s right,” Quentin moaned. “She’s the only one. . . for the scanner. . .”
Quentin tapped into a reserve of strength and shuffled his feet. The squawks and threats from the Board members grew louder as they approached. By the time Quentin reached the metallic security door, the humans had gathered around the keypad, furiously inputting numbers, failing to access it.
“They’re getting closer,” James said, glancing at the Aviaries speeding toward them.
Isaac stepped in front of the group. “We’re going to have to fight them.”
Quentin shook his head, momentarily losing his balance as he reached for the keypad, his vision swirling while trying to focus on the glowing numbers. In a moment of panic, his mind went blank and blackness crept in from the corners of his eyes. As much as he wanted the Descendant to open the other door in the secret room—and hopefully unleash the true savior—a part of Quentin knew he would not survive long enough to see it happen. An even bigger part of him knew it would never happen unless he focused now.
He squinted and reached a shaky hand for the pad, slowly typing in the sequence of numbers as the rest of his lifelong memories faded from his mind, never to return again. Around him, he heard male voices and female voices, panicked voices and angry voices, as well as squawks coming closer and closer. But the moment he pushed the final button and watched the keypad turn green, he heard the most wonderful sound of all: the click of an unlocking door and the hiss of cold cloudiness escaping into the hallway. He knew he’d done his part.
“Inside,” he snapped at the humans. “Quickly.”
James opened the door first, rushing into the cold vapor without looking back. Carli followed next before Chad and Olly both tried to pull Emma inside. Emma reached for Quentin but only went when the Aviary promised to come next. Quentin leaned against the wall, his head lolling toward the side of Isaac and the speeding Board members. Isaac didn’t look back to the door until he heard Emma’s voice calling him from the restricted room.
“Quickly, Isaac, you have to help him!”
Isaac frowned, his fists clenching as he looked from the strange room to the Board members, uncertain which he wanted to face. It was only Emma calling out to him a second time that ultimately made up his mind. Isaac grabbed Quentin by the arm as he hurried toward the door, but Quentin resisted, showing surprising strength despite barely feeling his legs
beneath him. He looked Isaac in the eyes and shook his head. Isaac opened his mouth to ask why but didn’t bother. Instead, he gave Quentin an appreciative squeeze and rushed into the cloudiness, slamming the door shut behind him.
A blast of cold engulfed Isaac and his eyes needed a moment to acclimate to the vapor filling the room. He sensed those from his traveling party around him but could only tell who Emma was since she remained closest to the door.
“Where’s the Aviary?” she asked, her voice filled with sadness since she already knew the answer. As if there was any doubt, a thump against the door was followed by the muffled sound of shrieking coming from the other side.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
The Board Aviaries and guards lined up near the open hangar door had zero chance. The trio of beasts laid waste to them in a mess of blood and feathers and screaming, little more than a few wayward bullets fired by those being slaughtered. When the beasts finished with them, Tunnelers and Swarmers began to scream and screech and scatter, especially once the beasts turned in their direction.
“Attack them, you bloody fools!” Ms. Van Horn yelled at the guards near her and the remaining Board members.
A few guards raised their weapons and raced toward the beasts; most of them dropped their weapons, fell to their knees and cowered with hands over their heads. Ms. Van Horn hissed at the cowards but not for long. She led the rest of the Board toward the stairs, shooting any humans or Swarmers that tried to follow. Within seconds of the bloody massacre, Ms. Van Horn was gone and no guardly threat remained, yet The Mountain’s newcomers faced danger unlike any they ever could’ve imagined.
During the chaos, William Weller attempted to hide among the covered vehicles, going so far as to lift one of the tarps and start to climb beneath with the toddler squirming in his grasp. Martha grabbed his arm, though, yanking him toward the stairwell, glancing back to see the beasts turning from one panicked group to another. Martha wanted to help but instead pulled her husband up the steps, quietly hissing at him to hurry up before the beasts spotted them, then quietly hissing for him to slow down so they wouldn’t catch up to the Board members racing up the stairs above them.