by Kevin George
The group headed into the hallway, where they found that Love had coaxed the mothers to come back. Some mothers remained jumpy at the sight of newcomers, but the others followed the group out of the cell. Together, everyone turned toward the stairwell. Before anyone took a single step, the stairwell door exploded open, smashing back against the wall so hard it fell from its hinges. The mothers gasped as a single massive Aviary ducked through the doorway and stepped into the hall, his long white hair tinged red in the back, a pained look on his face as the tip of one of his massive wings rubbed the back of his head.
Martin LeRoque unleashed a squawk so loud and shrill that it sent most of the mothers rushing back into their cell.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Martin LeRoque stomped forward, his hooked feet clicking against the rocky floor, the feathers on his massive wings bristling behind him. When he spotted Emma near the front of the group, he stopped and pointed at her.
“The Descendant comes with me.”
Chad and Olly bumped one another trying to rush in front of Emma, though neither hurried to step in front of Isaac at the head of the group. Love spread his wings to shield the mothers that hadn’t rushed off. Artie stayed back, taking Emma’s hand again, relieved when she didn’t resist. She shook her head, craning her neck to look the Aviary leader in the eye.
“I’d rather die than let you drain me,” she said.
Martin squawked again, his thin lips curling into half a smile. “I can make that happen,” he said.
“Not unless you got through all of us first,” Chad said.
“You might take out a few of us, but there’s only one of you and lots of us,” Olly added.
Martin’s half-smile turned into a sneer, his wings lowering just an inch as he looked from one human to the next, trying to figure out if there were enough of them to stop him from reaching the Descendant. Before he could decide, Martin felt a strange tingling and his feathers stood on end. When the echo of clicking approached through the open stairwell door behind him, he didn’t need to look back to see who was coming. Within seconds, Ms. Van Horn and the remainder of the Board arrived, the Aviaries taking their place on either side of their new leader.
“The humans betrayed us in the hangar,” Ms. Van Horn reported. “More outsiders appeared and destroyed most of us.”
Martin LeRoque screeched at the news but did not turn his eyes away from the Descendant and her protectors.
“No need to worry about humans,” Martin said, “as long as we destroy everyone up here and return the Descendant to me.”
All the remaining Board members hobbled forward but one. Ms. Van Horn stood in place, turning to her new superior. “You mean return the Descendant to the Board?”
Martin turned, his eyes narrowing on the smaller female Aviary foolish enough to question him. Before he could respond or react, a commotion among the humans grabbed his and Ms. Van Horn’s attention. The older scientist’s face was puffy and eyes were glassy but also filled with anger. Will pointed to Martin while looking from one Board member to the next.
“You’d all be fools to follow him,” Will said, showing no fear as he stepped closer to the massive Aviary. “He planned to drain all of Emma’s marrow, make as much Aviary Blast with it as he could and then keep it all for himself. He didn’t plan on sharing Blast with anyone in The Mountain, humans or the lot of you.”
One by one, the Board members turned to look at Martin, but their new leader kept his eyes forward the entire time, his eyes filled with hatred despite a smile crossing his lips. Without warning, he flapped his wings and shot forward, colliding with Will before anyone in the crowd could so much as gasp. The snap of Will’s shattering old bones filled the hallway, as did the sound of tearing flesh and gurgling blood as Martin ripped out the old man’s throat with a single bite.
Billy’s brother and sister tried to rush forward to help, but Billy held them back, knowing it was too late. Emma pushed her way to the front, dragging Artie along with her, bumping into the back of Olly and Chad, both of whom backed away.
“You might kill me, but you aren’t going to use me!” Emma screamed maniacally.
But Emma’s reaction to rush toward danger wasn’t the only one, nor was it the most surprising one. Her sentiments were echoed by several women prisoners, those that had protected Artie as well as those that had fled in fear earlier. Gone were their blank stares of shock, their eyes filling with fire and rage.
“You won’t ever use us again!”
The rush of malnourished women streamed past Emma and her friends, slamming into Martin LeRoque, Ms. Van Horn and the few remaining Board members. Love was in the center of the women, simultaneously trying to protect them and attack their enemies. A symphony of squawks and screams filled the air, feathers and blood soon joining the mix. When Emma tried to join the fray, she was held back by not just Artie but Olly and Chad as well, the three still barely able to contain her. Billy didn’t bother stopping his brother and sister from the battle, following what remained of his family into danger, the three of them becoming inundated with flailing bodies of humans and Aviaries.
“We have to help them!” Emma said.
“No!” James yelled from the back of the pack. “We have to keep you and Peters safe.”
Emma and Chad shot him with similar glares, but Carli stepped forward and nodded.
“I hate to say it, but he’s right,” the girl said. “We have to get back to the restricted room!”
“How can we possibly do that?” Emma yelled, gesturing to the mass of fighting humanity blocking the only entrance to the stairwell.
Initially, Love and the women knocked down several Board members, while causing Martin and Ms. Van Horn to retreat a few steps toward the stairwell door. But their surprise attack only lasted so long before the larger Aviaries held their ground and began to push forward, slashing down woman after woman, firing bullet after bullet at anyone close enough. Every time a human fell, Love squawked wildly and attacked, slashing the throats of several Board members in the process, but his size and strength were no match for Martin and the Board.
A voice suddenly echoed in the distance, loudly enough to quiet the fighters and bring the battle to a momentary ceasefire. The voice called out a single word over and over, and though several people turned to look deeper down the hallway, it soon became clear the sound was coming from the stairwell.
“Mothers!”
Lump rushed through the doorway, coming face to face with the tall female leader of the Board. Ms. Van Horn raised her gun but not quickly enough, allowing Lump to crash into her and knock the weapon from her hand. Swarmers streamed in after him, as did Tunnelers and human guards, not a single one of whom sided with the Board or Him anymore. Even as Lump found himself entangled with Ms. Van Horn, he kept repeating his battle cry of ‘Mothers!’ to spur on the Swarm.
BabyDoll refused to stay safely out of the mix. She fluttered her tiny wings and hovered among the chaos, staying low enough to avoid any fighting. Her heart skipped a beat upon seeing the first host womb—the first mother, she reminded herself—and she soon found herself scanning from one face to the next, growing increasingly worried that her own mother hadn’t survived or that—
“Mother!” she shrieked when she spotted the same face she’d seen so often in her dreams. Though several women stopped to look at BabyDoll, her mother’s eyes met hers and all fighting spirit seemed to fade from her face.
“My little BabyDoll!” the woman cried in delight.
BabyDoll’s mother rushed through the crowd, paying no attention as she bumped into friend and foe alike. BabyDoll spread her arms, ready to feel her mother’s embrace for the first time since being ripped from her grasp and tossed off the ledge. But before they reached each other, BabyDoll’s mother turned away from the little girl, her eyes going wide as she looked off to the side. BabyDoll turned in time to see the shadow of a giant Aviary rushing toward her, his massive wing flapping out to knock the little girl aside
.
BabyDoll crashed into the wall with a thud and collapsed to the floor, her vision suddenly spinning, the fighting noises and voice of her screaming mother sounding far in the distance. Martin LeRoque stood over the tiny Aviary, his eyes alight with blood lust, drawing his lips back to show his razor sharp teeth.
“Please, no,” BabyDoll said.
“Just let her go!” her mother yelled, though she was blocked from reaching her daughter by a pair of Board Aviaries.
BabyDoll managed to pull herself up but immediately backed against the rocky wall, nowhere else to go. As Martin lunged forward with his mouth wide open, BabyDoll closed her eyes, frightened by what was about to happen, but at least relieved to have seen her mother a final time. But the last thing she saw wasn’t a killer Aviary; her mind needed a moment to register the speeding blur of white racing toward her. BabyDoll heard a thud and a crunch, followed soon after by a groan that wasn’t her own. When she opened her eyes, she saw Martin and Lump’s entangled bodies knocking over several people nearby. Lump may have ended up on top, but his neck was in Martin’s jaws and his body had gone limp.
BabyDoll shook her head. She tried to get to Lump, but her vision still swirled and she wobbled on her feet. When she flapped her tiny wings, pain exploded in her back from where she’d crashed into the wall. BabyDoll would’ve fallen to the floor had a strong pair of arms not caught her. She looked up at Sally’s scarred face, which was now scrunched in anguish as she watched Martin crunch down and release Lump’s limp body. Martin stood tall and took aim for the little Aviary again, smiling as Lump’s blood dripped from the edges of his lips. Martin opened his mouth and squawked, but the sound only lasted a split second before Love crashed into him, sending both of them barreling through the crowd.
Sally begged BabyDoll to find a safe place to hide, but the tiny Aviary dragged Sally through the fighting, both of them barely avoiding more violence. When they reached Lump, his eyes still blinked, though his broad chest rose and fell with short, ragged breaths growing weaker with each moment. Still, Lump managed a smile when his eyes found BabyDoll.
“Sister, don’t cry,” he said weakly. He tried to reach for her tears, but his hand fell limply to the side. “This is only good. . . bye. . .”
His eyes remained fixed on her but Lump no longer saw a thing in this world. BabyDoll buried her face against the feathers of his unmoving chest. Sally stayed huddled over her, constantly looking from one side to the other, waiting to protect her from any sign of danger. When a woman emerged from the group and rushed toward them, she practically knocked Sally out of the way to put an arm around BabyDoll’s tiny shoulders.
Nearby, Love attacked Martin with rage unlike any he’d ever felt. He stabbed at Martin with his sharpened mouth, digging into Martin’s hardened flesh, tasting the giant Aviary’s blood. The taste of blood was intoxicating to Love, who momentarily felt shame for enjoying it so much but ultimately used the thought for motivation to attack and stab over and over. Martin shrieked in pain but eventually flapped his wings with such force that he knocked Love off him.
“Love!” Emma yelled among the chaos.
The sound of her voice immediately gained Martin’s attention, the large Aviary turning toward Emma, stomping forward despite Isaac, Olly and Chad forming a wall in front of her. Martin spread his wings, readying to flap toward them, when Love crashed into him again. During the struggle, Love’s eyes found Emma’s for a split second.
“Go! Save the Descendant!” Love squawked before focusing every fiber of his being on holding back Martin.
Emma hesitated to leave him; the others did not. James managed to slink through the crowd of fighting and grab Artie’s arm, pulling him and Emma deeper into the chaotic fighting. Isaac, Olly and Chad followed, knocking aside friend and foe alike, narrowly avoiding Board members snapping at them. Luckily, enough Swarmers and Tunnelers and guards had arrived to occupy Ms. Van Horn and the rest of the Board, who soon found themselves overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Emma was the only one to look back as the group forced its way through the open stairwell doorway. Carli stumbled her way behind them, her forehead bleeding from a gash but otherwise unhurt. As the group reached the first section of steps leading down, Emma caught a final glimpse of the fighting, Martin still in Love’s grasp but thrashing wildly, frantically screeching a single word.
“Descendant!”
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
The group hurried down the uppermost levels of stairs, leaping down two and three steps at a time, the hollow echoes of battle spurring them to move quicker and quicker. But as the distant noise faded and their collective adrenaline died down, each of them began to slow, whether it be from exhaustion or injuries. Emma, in particular, hobbled from the pain in her hip, though she refused offers of help from all three boys fawning over her.
“If she’s telling you to back off,” Isaac told Chad, Olly and Artie, “then believe me, you’ll want to back off. Nothing changes Emma’s mind when it’s made.”
Emma glared at Isaac, who flashed her a brotherly smirk and chuckled to himself. But the three boys followed Isaac’s advice, with Chad and Olly pushing to the front of the group while Artie stayed farther back. Artie ended up walking next to the other girl in the group, as well as the middle-aged man, both of whom openly stared at him.
“I’m glad you made it through intact,” James told him.
“I don’t understand,” Artie said. “What is it I’m so important for?”
James launched into a brief history lesson about One Corp. and the role played by the Peters family in the past.
“The link between the Jonas family and Peters family goes back hundreds of years, to a time before the White Nothingness,” James explained. “Hopefully, it’s that same link that will save us all today.”
“Yes, for most of my life, my father also believed in the importance of the Jonas family,” Artie said loudly enough for those in front to hear.
“And for a good reason,” Olly said, his eyes turning toward the ground. “The Peters family was always loyal, even when we didn’t deserve it.”
Chad snickered. “Now you’ll have us believe you regret what happened to Artie’s family? What you did to Artie’s family?”
Olly nodded. “I do regret it,” he said, finally making eye contact with Artie. Artie was surprised to see sincerity in the prince’s eyes. “I will until the day I die.”
For a moment, Artie felt the instinct to forgive; that was a quality his mother had taught him. But thinking of his mother—thinking of what that monster had forced her to do—made every part of his body tense with rage. If it wasn’t for Emma standing between them, Artie may have felt the urge to launch himself down the few stairs separating him and the prince.
“Yeah,” Chad said with a snort of sarcasm, “or at least until you find the first opportunity to kill us, too.”
Olly shook his head but didn’t have a chance to defend himself before someone else came to his aid.
“He’s different now,” Emma said, looking from Artie to Chad. “I know, unlikely as it seems, but he changed after the two of you left.”
Olly nodded his appreciation to her, but Emma was too busy watching Artie look at her with shock and then betrayal. Carli looked from one older teen to the next and couldn’t help but snicker as she thought about someone far away from this chaos.
“My sister would’ve fit right in with all you,” Carli said, recalling her sister’s penchant for dramatics. Still, the thought of her family brought with it a sadness she couldn’t focus on at the moment.
“What section of city were you from?” Artie asked the girl.
“None,” Carli answered. “I’m from a place much farther away.”
“Is anyone going to tell me how you all got here?” he asked, frustration creeping into his voice.
“I don’t know about your friends, but I have a feeling their stories are as long as mine,” Carli said. “But we’ll never have a chance to tell
them unless we release the real Mountain savior.”
Down several flights of stairs, Isaac reached the proper level and called up that they’d arrived. A surge of excitement propelled the others to pick up the pace, and they soon found themselves racing toward a familiar hallway. But their excitement didn’t last long. As soon as Isaac opened the door, they heard a high-pitched shriek echoing above, a shriek that sounded far too close for comfort. As if there was any confusion about who’d made the sound, the echo of a single word followed the shrieking.
“Descendant!”
“The false savior,” Carli told the group.
“But I saw him fighting when we escaped,” Emma said, her voice more foreboding than frightened. “If he’s coming, then what happened to Love?”
Emma turned from person to person, hoping one of them could come up with a reasonable explanation. Nobody did. Instead, their hopeless glances told her exactly what they were thinking. As if their silence wasn’t bad enough, Martin’s threats became louder and clearer, coming closer as one by one they rushed through the door that Isaac held open.
“I’ll take your marrow even if I have to rip out your bones and crack them open!”
Isaac entered the hallway last, pushing the door closed behind him. The others ran down the hallway ahead of him, but only Emma realized someone was missing. When she glanced back, she saw Isaac standing in place, leaning his weight against the door. She didn’t need to ask what he was doing.
“We all wouldn’t get there in time,” he said. “I’ll hold him up.” She opened her mouth to argue with him, but his eyes filled with fire. “Go!”
Emma hesitated, but Artie grabbed her arm and pulled her farther down the hallway. Pain exploded in Emma’s hip. She hobbled the first few steps, but Artie didn’t slow even when Emma stumbled and groaned. She glanced back just in time to see the door explode open, Isaac’s body easily knocked aside. Martin stepped into the hallway, spatters of red clear to see even from afar. He screeched and spread his wings but didn’t make a move forward before Isaac recovered and leapt at him.