“Come on down my little mouse,” said Nevaeh limping towards me.
I pushed off with my feet and dived toward the center of the courtyard. “Now!” I yelled into my earpiece. I rolled out my landing, but my blood on the ground made me slip to the side. I stopped right at the border of the overhanging courtyard.
Electricity rained down from all of the electrodes at once. Sparks flew up, down, and sideways as the arcs made contact with Nevaeh and her clones. They jolted back and forth in jerked movements as if they were malfunctioning robots. Jamie and Aedan cowered down on the ground, covering their heads with their hands. The electrical show subsided, and my enemies collapsed to the ground. I collapsed as well, weak from blood loss and exhaustion.
Jamie dove at me, “Coyle!” She pulled off her camisole, leaving her undershirt, and pressed it against my face to slow the bleeding. “Coyle, how do we get outta here?”
“You got company, Coyle. Coming in fast. I’ll lock the doors, but it’s only a matter of time,” said Angelfire.
My mind wouldn’t focus; it seemed content with slipping into a comfortable haze. I had to make a tremendous effort just to speak, “Above, we go through.”
Jamie looked up. “And how do we do that? Coyle, you’re so out of it, you can’t even stand.”
I pointed to Nevaeh and her clones. “Use them. Hurry.”
Her eyes widened when she realized what I implied. “Even with them we’ll still have ten or fifteen feet to go,” she explained, pointing upwards. My mind didn’t feel like explaining.
“Aedan, help stack them up,” I managed to get out.
“Uh, OK. Mr. Collins, can you help?”
“Of course,” he said and shuffled over to the unconscious clones.
While they dragged the girls over near the pillar, I searched for the bleeding artery in my face. Muscle, fat, and skin hung down off my cheek, and still dripped onto the floor. The warm pulse of blood led my fingers right to the artery, and I pinched it off for a few seconds. The bleeding stopped, and I could feel my blood volume restoring. “Aedan, hit me up with the juice.”
“You sure? You lost a lot of blood man.”
“It’s almost back. Just give it to me.”
He pulled out the syringe and needle and injected it slowly into my arm. The same rush of energy as before surged through me. Lights, sounds, and all my senses went into overdrive. My fists clenched reflexively, my fingernails cutting slits in my palms. I jumped up to my feet and flexed all my muscles to release energy. If I didn’t, it felt as if I would explode. Aedan stepped back with eyes wide at the sight of my beastness coming out.
“Let’s do this,” I said and leaped over to the growing pile of unconscious clones. I picked up Nevaeh and placed her on the top.
“Ready?” I said and climbed to the top of the tower. The pile compressed just a bit as I reached the summit. I widened my stance on Nevaeh’s limp shoulders.
“Aedan, get up here. I’m gonna have to throw you up.”
“Throw me?”
“Dude, you’ll go straight up to that railing. If you don’t get it, I’ll catch you, I promise.” There I go again, making promises and putting my friends in harm’s way.
He climbed the pile gingerly, careful not to step on their faces, instead placing his feet on hips, backs and shoulders.
“All right, how do you want me?” I analyzed the compression of the human pile, Aedan’s composition and weight distribution, and the height he needed to reach. My mind formulated the answer.
“Step right in front of me. I’m gonna grab your hips, but don’t get all embarrassed on me. Jump while I push you up.”
“Just get me outta here, dude.” He looked straight up, judging the flight to the ledge.
I grabbed just under his hips and counted. “One, two, three.” Aedan jumped up, and I thrust him into the air. He sailed straight as an arrow up to the ledge. One hand gripped the side, but the other flailed out. He swung violently to the side, banging against the wall. A few fingers slipped off, but the remaining two kept purchase, and he reached up with the other.
“Pull up time!” I yelled up to him, hoping his strength had returned.
He struggled, his arms shaking and head arched back, but managed to swing his leg up onto the ledge and inch himself over.
“What do I do now?” he said, perched on the ledge and tapping on the glass above.
“Hang tight and help Jamie up. I’ll break through when I get up there.” I turned to Jamie. “Your turn.”
A blast rang out from outside the room. Angelfire came over my earpiece, “Problem, my friend. They’re blowing up their own doors, looks like they have explosives on hand. Not much I can do about it. The electrical defense will take another five minutes to charge. So, you’d better hurry; they’re two rooms away.”
“Crap. Jamie c’mon, we have less than a minute.”
Jamie looked up at me and then at the heap of clones. “Uh…” She hesitated.
“Jamie, remember they are just like me. They’ll heal and be as terrible as ever. They can take this.”
She shook her head as if to shake out the thought that she was about to climb a pile of bodies. She extended her hand, and I pulled her up next to me on Nevaeh’s shoulders. Unsteadily, she stood up and looked up towards Aedan.
“Stay straight as a board, like a cheerleader.”
“I don’t like cheerleaders,” she said but still moved into position in front of me. I grabbed her hips and lifted her with ease. I threw her up and caught her feet, pressing her up. She extended her arms up and just barely managed to grip Aedan’s hands. I went to my toes to help make up the gap. Aedan managed to lift her onto the ledge.
“Mr. Collins, it’s your turn.”
Another blast came from the hallway, this one stronger, rattling the glass doors. Mr. Collins stepped back from the human pile.
“No, Coyle. You go; I’ll just be a burden. I’m going to die soon anyway.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it! You’re coming.” I jumped down to him, slung him over my shoulder and began climbing again.
BOOM. The door to the courtyard exploded in a fury of smoke and fire. Shrapnel shot through the air shattering the glass doors and embedding into the walls. The door had shot to the other side of the room and slammed onto the ground next to us.
“You OK?” I asked Mr. Collins.
“I feel intact,” he said while palpating his chest.
“Good! Up you go.” I tossed him up, but instead of going straight up like Aedan and Jamie, he flailed out, his arms and legs swinging wildly.
“Grab him!” I yelled to Aedan and Jamie. Both of them reached out to grasp him, but his arms and legs swung like windmills. Aedan grabbed one of his legs while Jamie wrapped under his armpit. His weight nearly pulled Jamie off the ledge, but Aedan made up the difference, pulling him up.
Without warning, bullets tore through the smoke from the explosion. The bullets came in an arch, from side to side, obviously from someone who couldn’t see inside. The shots stayed low, at the level of a person and many of them hit the clones I stood on.
“Get up here, Coyle!” yelled Aedan.
I pushed off the unconscious human pile and soared up to the ledge, catching Aedan’s grasp with one hand and the edge with the other. I pulled myself up into the small space next to my friends.
“Dude, this glass, or whatever it is, is freakin’ thick.” Aedan tapped on the reinforced glass.
I tapped on it as well, then hit it with a moderate force. I felt the little give and listened to the reverberation. I couldn’t break it with my bare hands. My heart rate picked up, as did my friends’. A two-inch pane of glass trapped us.
The smoke began to clear and a whole stream of men in tactical gear filed into the room, although they stayed close to the door in formation.
“Get down and stay down,” I whispered to my friends. They inched toward the glass on the ledge and out of direct sight of the men. The men with automat
ic rifles focused on nearly all directions. I looked at the bullet holes in the wall. A few extended clean through the pillars and struck the walls behind. I scooted a few feet away from my friends and over towards the corner.
“Hey! Up here!” I yelled at the Somatotech goons. They instantly, in perfect unison, turned on me and sent a stream of bullets my way. I dropped down and inched towards the glass just as it came shattering down on me while bullets ripped through the small ledge. The glass also shattered near Jamie and Aedan, opening up a gaping hole rimmed by jagged glass.
“Get out, now!” I said with the perfect volume level, just loud enough for my friends to hear.
“Angelfire, call the police, now,” I whispered.
“What? Why?”
“We need a diversion and protection when we get outta here.”
“All right Coyle. Never thought I’d call the police on my own people.”
Jamie crawled through the gap in the glass, followed by Aedan. As Aedan made it through his foot hit some of the remaining glass, which cracked off and fell to the ground below. The Somatotech men turned from me and focused their fire on my friend’s location. Aedan and Jaime dove down onto the roof as the bullets ripped through the remaining glass. Mr. Collins hunkered down, laying flat on the ledge.
“Over here!” I yelled, hoping they would direct the fire at me once again. They didn’t. Mr. Collins groaned, and I knew a shot had made contact. I jumped out the broken glass onto the roof, and spider-ran over to the opening near Mr. Collins. Bullets showered the area, so I stayed plastered to the roof.
“They’re on the roof, send beta squad,” one of the men from below spoke into his radio.
I reached through the glass and touched Mr. Collins’ chest. He was still breathing, and his heart raced.
“Dude, we gotta get outta here!” yelled Aedan from a few yards behind me.
“We’re not leaving him, they’ll kill him.”
“He’s one of them, Coyle!” he yelled. He may be one of them but he’s not with them, I thought.
There was a short break in the fire, so I yanked Mr. Collins by the shirt, pulling him through the now wide-open courtyard glass. The men below fired as I did, and one shot ripped through Mr. Collins’ right forearm. I laid him down on the roof out of harm’s way and inspected him. Blood seeped from the right side of his abdomen and streamed heavily from his arm.
“Coyle, leave me here. I’ll just slow you down,” he said, his face wincing from the pain.
“Not gonna happen, Mr. Collins, I’m getting you outta here.”
“I die if I stay and I die if I go, young protégé.”
“I’d rather you die with us than them.” I ripped off his sleeve and wrapped it around his arm. I couldn’t do much for his other wound, so I hefted him onto my shoulder.
Sirens rang out from about two miles away, coming fast from the south. We sprinted over to the ledge and searched for a way down.
“Over here, Coyle. There’s a ladder,” said Jamie, who had already started the climb down.
“Wait!” I yelled before she could go down any farther.
I looked around trying to make sure we didn’t drop into the training field that nearly killed me before, the one with the sound- and heat-seeking turret. Smoke from the explosions below filled the outer perimeter of the building and clouded my view.
“Mr. Collins, which side are we on?” He didn’t respond. I felt his chest rise and fall, but he had passed out. A metal door opened at the backside of the building, and I heard a group of men come out of the building about two hundred yards away.
“We’ve gotta chance it. Angelfire, I’m gonna have to hang up on ya. Thanks for your help.”
“Always here to help in your craziness, Coyle.”
I realized I had no idea how to hang up this ear canal phone. “Uh, AG, could you hang up on me?”
Click. The dial tone returned, and I started going through the numbers I’d memorized.
“Coyle! Where are you?” asked Stefan as the call connected.
“You’re alive!” I said, surprised.
“It’d take a lot more than a little accident to kill me. Now, where are you?”
“I’m not sure, there’s smoke everywhere.”
“Can you make a signal?”
I spun around, searching anything that I could throw to signal to him. As I did, I noticed the smoke swirl up behind me. An idea came to me.
“Look for a tornado.”
“Wha?”
“You’ll see.”
A ventilation pipe stuck out of the roof in the corner. I grabbed on with one and hand began swinging around to confused stares from my friends. My speed increased until I hand to hold on with both hands and my legs lifted off the ground. The smoke swirled violently upwards in a vortex, extending a football field distance up. Jamie and Aedan shielded their faces with their hands as debris on the roof shot out. My grip began to slip, so I slowed down and put my legs back down on the roof.
“Catch that?”
“Hard to miss it. You’re at the northwest corner, but the police are coming in quick, Coyle. I’m not sure I can get to you out in time.”
“Get over here; I’ll take care of the police.” And the Somatotech clones, I thought. I still didn’t know if we were about to descend to our doom in the turret field. I ran over to the ladder where Jamie and Aedan waited.
“I’ll go first with Mr. Collins. If I yell, run to a different corner of the building. Do not come down.”
With Mr. Collins slung over my shoulder, I slid down the ladder, slowing my descent near the bottom by pressing inward on the rails with my shoes. A blast shot out around the corner of the building, and I knew they’d be on us in just a few moments.
“Stefan, where are you?”
“Coming in hot,” he said and honked the horn. I could hear the engine roaring loudly as he closed in on our position.
“Do you see a turret?”
“A what?”
“A tower with a huge gun on it?”
“No, nothing. But there’s so much smoke!”
We didn’t have time to belabor it any further. “Come on down guys!” I yelled to Aedan and Jamie. “Hurry!”
Jamie made it down just as Stefan arrived with the car. I opened the door and pushed Jamie in and then plopped Mr. Collins on the back seat next to her.
“Hurry Aedan!” I yelled just as a group of Somatotech clones, well at least their shadows in the smoke, rounded the corner about fifty yards away. Aedan’s arms and legs shook out of fear as he reached the middle of the ladder, still above the smoke. He was a sitting duck. I yelled out, hoping the goons would target me again. They pointed their guns toward the easy target, Aedan.
My best friend was about to die.
38 Reunion
I couldn’t let it happen, I wouldn’t. Aedan couldn’t die because of me. The thought of losing him after he’d demonstrated such loyalty flipped a switch in my mind. I let the rage consume me and envelop me in its power. Time slowed as if seconds dragged out into minutes. This was different, the rage felt centered in my heart and perfectly placed. That’s when it dawned on me; this rage came from love. Love for my best friend, with the urge to save him rather than provocation from hate.
I lunged forward at the goons but quickly realized I couldn’t make it in time. The quick flick of their fingers and my friend would die. I had to control these clones just as I controlled Coyle’s clones. I balled up the rage and drove it into my mind. A perfect clarity developed, and I could see each clone’s mind. I pushed away their mental blocks with a simple swipe of mental power and forced their arms down. All of their guns now pointed to the grass.
“Down Aedan, now!” I yelled through gritted teeth as I struggled to maintain my hold on the clones’ minds.
Blood began to stream out of my nose, and stabbing pain grew behind my eyes. I held them there, frozen in place while Aedan jumped in the car.
“Coyle, get in!” Jamie yelled from wit
hin the car.
I could try to escape with them, but these clones would surely follow and kill us all. Besides, I could draw the police to me and allow my friends to escape. I had to stay for my friends to live.
“GO! Go now! I’ll take care of them.” I glanced back a Jamie. Tears streamed down her face, and she screamed something unintelligible at the sight of me. Stefan rammed down the gas pedal and sped off into the smoke. I returned to the clones. My control over them had weakened, and some of them had managed to raise their guns. I pushed back with all my mental force, and their guns returned to the ground. Police sirens rang out from just inside the compound gate. I couldn’t see Stefan and the car, but I hoped they’d made it out before the cops arrived. If they hadn’t, I’d needed to provide a diversion. I forced the clones’ arms up and paused momentarily with all the guns aimed at each of their heads. I could end them all, they were all slaves anyway, mindless drones without souls. I wouldn’t be ending productive lives. “Do not be the aggressor,” the pastor’s words rang clearly in my mind. Instead of putting bullets in their heads, I raised the guns to the sky and pulled the triggers. Hundreds of shots rang out into the air until all of the magazines had emptied. The sirens didn’t come any closer. Instead, they stayed by the gate. My diversion hadn’t worked. I had to dispose of the clones and help my friends.
I forced the men to throw their weapons out into the field. The blood continued to flow steadily from my nose, so much now that I’d started to grow lightheaded. Their mental faculties began to recover as my strength faded. I forced them into a circle and placed their arms up and around the neck of the nearest clone. With one last burst of mental power, I squeezed each hand, cutting off the blood to their clone brains. Their hands held strong and within thirty seconds, they collapsed to the ground in a heap. The connection broke with their unconscious state, and I sprinted off to join my friends in the cover of the haze.
A police car had wedged itself into the opening of the gate, preventing Stefan from escaping. The policeman had his gun drawn and hunkered down behind the far side of the car. He kept his eyes fixed on Stefan, who had raised his hands out the driver’s side window. I skirted around the field in a wide arc through the smoke, so he wouldn’t see me approach.
Reverse Page 32
