"Oh, no!" cried Gem. "You are not the bad one. They were wrong, in what they did with you..."
The tiny boy sighed, reached his arms out, and up toward them. Mirroring tears filled Gem's own eyes, as she picked him up, and folded him against her.
She fitted him with a mask, before she made to place him in the wagon. As Gem leaned forward, the small boy patted questioningly at the bump inside her pouch.
My...little girl.
He grinned broadly, and allowed her to set him down. When she placed the sleeping, smaller, black boy in his arms, he was quite willing to hold him tightly to keep him safe.
As they passed a shelving unit, Loni grabbed a handful of surgical face protectors. Both he and Gem began fitting the smaller ones with the masks, The two young ones, Gem's baby, and the black child, were already quite lethargic.
The little blue-skinned boy seemed to understand the reasoning behind their actions; he had submitted willingly to the imprisoning of his nose and mouth.
As Loni finished securing the mask to the second boy, Gem forced another into his hand for himself. He quickly donned it, then, took the handle to pull the wagon.
****
With the wagon full of the two toddlers, and both Loni and Gem burdened down with loaded backpacks, Gem carrying her baby, as well, they knew they could not go straight down the ladders. They had to find another way out, so they travelled parallel, out along the corridors, through the lounge area of the holding quarters for the waiting pregnant women.
To Gem's dismay, even here, the air was thick with smoke and fumes.
"What is causing all the smoke in the air? Why doesn't the ventilation system filter it away?"
Loni answered her questions direct to her mind, as was their usual way of communication.
"Da started a fire, as a distraction; that's gotten out of hand. It was a chemical fire, and you know the firefighters have been nonexistent since our unit flooded. There is no one who knows how to fight this."
"But shouldn't the system take care of that on its own?"
"It's trying, but...I think instead of thinning the concoction, it spread the vapors all through these upper floors. It's gone from room to room, filling the air with poison..."
"My gosh, Loni! That will kill everyone! Especially the infants, back there in the cribs..."
"We can only carry so many, right now," Loni reasoned. "Maybe we can come back a second time...get some more..."
"They'll all be dead by then...does Da realize what he did in here?"
"Not likely; won't help to scold; he's too simple to understand."
They entered a delivery room, and Gem realized why they had not been challenged so far. The fumes had incapacitated the adults, already.
Slumped across his patient, a surgeon was out cold. So was the mother, and...the child she had just recently delivered. Gem thought they were merely unconscious; they would survive.
But, Loni disagreed with her observation.
"They are not simply unconscious," he stated in silent regret. "All are dead..."
Gem shuddered, and hurried past the scene at a run. The wagon, Loni pulled, complaining violently all the way.
Why does this thing have to make so much noise? It grates on my nerves...
In another room, they found women in various stages of pregnancy. Some had been walking off their labor pains, and had slumped lifeless against the wall, then slid to the floor. Others lay on sofas, but all had their eyes closed, no longer breathing.
"Dear lord! What could be that deadly?" Gemma demanded. "What did Da use? Where did he get something that lethal?"
"From the janitorial cupboard...he threw everything together..."
"We need to get down from here...out of here! Now! Or we'll save none of them."
Loni agreed with her urgent assessment.
"You take the handle," he ordered. "I'll lift from the back end. We'll be able to go faster."
Switching positions, they quickly found a ladder going down.
****
The next room Da and Lydia entered was a second nursery, for those under a year. Each crib held a tiny sleeping boy, and the room was empty of adults.
At first glance, the infants appeared to be sleeping, but the room was so filled with smoke you could barely see, and Lydia quickly realized the small boys were asphyxiating, some were coughing hoarsely in their sleep.
Horrified, Lydia ran to a shelf, caught up a snuggly, similar to the one in which she carried her child, moved quickly to Da, and tied it to his chest. For only a moment did she hesitate, then grabbing up a small Asian child, enclosed him securely down deep in the carrier at Da's front.
Da caught the idea of what she was attempting. First he grabbed surgical face masks, then one at a time, he put the shielding on two small dark haired boys, raised one in each arm, and turned.
In the mean time, Lydia had caught up a fourth infant, holding it against the swell of her entombed baby girl on her chest. Regrettably, she forgot to take the time to fasten a facemask on the child in her arms, even though he was gasping and choking for breath.
Together, the two adults, with their burden of infants, ran for a nearby down ladder. Two adults were only able to rescue these five small ones, as Da carried a pack of foodstuffs on his back, and Lydia didn't take the time to grab another snuggly.
The other occupants of the room, unhappily, were left to die.
****
Gem was trembling visibly, as she inched down the sewer that led past the slaughter house. Loni watched her memory plague her; thoughts of the atrocities she had suffered at the hands of Galar...
Loni pushed the wagon forward, forcing her to hurry more rapidly.
A chicken fluttered by.
Vaguely, he wondered where all the live animals beside them had come from, and how they had gotten free. Other thoughts puzzled him also...
What has become of Da? Has he found Lydia?
Loni had no time to search for their minds.
A pig and a goat moved along with the wagon.
What became of Scar?
Is Scar responsible for setting these cattle free? If so...why?
Always, Loni was suspicious of the one armed man's motives.
What possible purpose could be served, to send all these livestock to their deaths? It will attract the Hydra...is that it? So we can't get to the above settlement?
When they reached the first shelf, at the bottom of the sewer drain, they met up with Da and Lydia. It was obvious they had also been in the infant dorms.
Chapter 38
In his opinion, Da had way too much to carry. Before they went along the ridge, Loni decided to distribute the loads more evenly.
He and Gem, each, had been trying to carry one end of the wagon, but every once in a while, they had to set it down. The wheels were unstable, and squealed atrociously; it was pointless to take the thing further, besides, they couldn't lift it up the ladder all the way to the above world.
Gem caught up the small black boy, and that left Loni with only the two year old blue-skinned toddler.
Loni felt he was stronger than Da, so he had the other man remove both the backpack, and the snuggly. Loni donned the second backpack over his chest, and fitted the second snuggly, and child to Lydia's back. That freed Da to carry the two boys he still had. Lydia now carried two infants each in a snuggly, one at her front; the other in back, and one small boy in her arm.
Gem had enough with a backpack of infant supplies, her infant, and the small black child in her arm. Now, Loni was the one over burdened: two loaded backpacks, and a two year old.
Balancing carefully, they sidestepped across the ridge until they got to the ladder going upward. Here Loni separated the pairs. He sent Lydia up first. She didn't know the way, but was willing, when she understood it would be all straight up.
Next, Loni put Gem. He felt, if nothing else, the women would escape with some of the children. He sent Da next.
Da was having a hard tim
e, with two little boys, who had come awake, and were squirming in his arms. He inched upward slowly, Loni following behind.
****
Lydia made the mistake of looking back. There, silently hovering above Da was a creature out of a nightmare. Snake-like, with many a long slender neck, dripping jaws, and frightful red eyes, the many headed creature wove to and fro, just waiting a chance to grab a small morsel from an inattentive adult rescuer.
Lydia screamed, loud and long...and let go of the small boy in her arms.
Below her, Gem looked up toward the sound, noticed the falling infant...and then, the Hydra.
She was quick, but not as swift as the beast. One snake-like head, on a long skinny neck, reached out. The jaws opened, and deftly caught the infant in freefall, but...it only snared the edge of the blanket wrapped around him, not any part of the actual child, and so...he hung there in mid air, suspended, waiting...to drop, again.
A red beam of light shot out from Gem's eyes. Like an errant laser, it sought its mark. When it found the throat, like a sharp knife, it cut away the head of the beast. But there were many other heads swaying behind the injured neck. The jaws of the severed head opened, releasing the boy, his wrap came undone. Both detached head, and naked baby went plummeting down, seemingly in slow motion.
Loni, beneath Gem, came into play. From his eyes, he shot forth a beam of blue light, toward the falling infant. Surrounded in blue haze, its fall stopped; for a second, he remained suspended, then slowly floated toward Loni's arms. The two year old already there, opened his arms, as if he knew exactly what the adults meant to accomplish. He caught the smaller boy, and held tight.
"Move Da!" Loni shouted to Da mentally. And the others, also, heard the thought command. "Get to the top, before someone else is taken! We can't fight it continually."
Moaning, her screams silenced, Lydia started to obey; Gem hesitating a mere second before following. Both Da, and Loni were too exposed. She didn't want to leave them unprotected.
And the Hydra wasn't finished. It was both angry, and cheated of a meal.
As Lydia made it over the top ridge, the beast struck again.
Da was the target, and this time, the monster dove for his legs. The two wriggling infants in his arms made the rising difficult. One skinny neck moved past his face, but it was merely to distract. A second head swept across his knees, and suddenly, Da hung there, one arm clinging to the ladder rung, the other trying to hold both the squirming boys. Da felt nothing...but, from the knees down, his feet were already missing.
He couldn't go up or down; one effort to grab the next rung, and all would fall.
Gem had gained the top of the ladder, but there was no lightening her load. She still had the sack of supplies at her back. She carefully lay the tiny black infant, from her arms, on the rock shelf, and rolled him toward Lydia. The woman quickly caught up the child, and cuddled him close.
But Gem still carried her own infant in the snuggly, which was not easily unfastened. Gem decided to keep it so, and peering over the edge, lying on her side, she did her best to help those below.
Da's grip was slackening; his strength giving way. From his extremities, he was bleeding profusely, and beginning to feel the pain. The Hydra had backed off to swallow the tidbit it had acquired.
Gem knew there was no hope for Da; he was as good as dead. Her beam shot out again, but this time in blue. From Da's arm, she snatched the first dark haired infant, levitating him upward toward her. And as she was occupied, the Hydra returned.
****
Loni was certain he had no future; with what was happening above him, he was powerless to help. Da was already lifeless; the second child would go with him, unless...
Loni's arms were full; he was loaded with full backpacks, front and back; couldn't even slip them off. His energy was fading, as well.
Loni rolled to the side, the children in his arms against the rock. He shot a red beam to the eyes of the nearest snake head, hoping merely to distract. He could do little more. And as Da fell past him, Loni switched to the blue levitation beam, encompassing the last infant in Da's arm. Just at that moment, the Hydra dropped to dive for the body of Da.
The second dark haired boy hung suspended, but Loni's energy quickly gave out. Regretfully, the man let the child go, and it fell, slowly revolving, over and over, as it plunged into the chasm below. Loni moaned aloud at the loss, but he had no more mental energy; he couldn't have held him, and levitated him to Gem...and she was busy saving the other.
He looked up, and saw, all the rest were safe.
****
Just as Loni made it over the top of the ladder on to the ridge, off in the distance, a loud detonation shook the ground. As he lay there, gasping for breath, exhausted, trying to puzzle out the cause for the noise, a second blast rent the air, causing the earth beneath his feet to shiver and shake; rocks to tumble; the whole ledge to move.
Horrified, Loni realized what was happening.
"We have to get off of here," he projected in panic to the others resting about him. "The whole underground is exploding. Someone has set off a charge. Get across the bridge."
As exhausted as he, Gem rolled to her side, and sat up. The pack was still attached, so was her baby, and she had the rescued dark haired child, as well. She could no longer carry the little black infant.
Lydia solved that. With her own in the snuggly, and another infant at her back, she lifted the small black boy, and started across the bridge to the first storage shed.
Gem followed; Loni after, running as fast as he could, with two packs, and two boys in his arms. The ground shook beneath their feet; a third explosion...and then, the unthinkable...the Hydra had slipped through the sewer to the outer ledge...and was back.
Chapter 39
Loni never realized what had happened until later. The blue skinned two year old was looking over his shoulder one minute; he stiffened, and shortly after went limp.
Behind, the little boy had seen the Hydra rise; he tensed. He had watched the minds of the adults, as they both had used the levitation beam and the defense, and like those of his kind, learned quickly. But being as young as he was, his power was limited.
From his young eyes, he shot his first defense beam. The red laser-like weapon found its mark; the eyes of the furious monster behind. Not expecting a challenge from the fleeing prey, it was surprised, halted, blinded immediately. It had backed off, and dropped back to its den in retreat.
****
Loni wondered, in all the fighting, if unnoticed by him, the small boy he held, had somehow been injured. However, as he labored across the bridge behind Gem, he had other things to worry about. The slats and rails were quickly giving way beneath his feet.
"Keep going! Keep going," he ordered telepathically. "We can't stay here!"
But though the damage stopped at the first tree dome, all of them ran on.
Until, that is, they came to the last dome house on the distant horizon.
The women stopped short, and Loni ran into them.
"What's wrong?" he probed from Gem.
Panting, she answered him.
"Listen! Oh, you can't hear..." Gem pointed to their destination.
Scar, Da, and Loni had built a village in the tree tops; twelve units in all. The outer core was mostly filled with storage; the farther away ones, in the center, were meant for family units. Lydia had followed the path, the bridges joining each, to the very outer empty dome.
And as Loni listened in, with the ears of the others, he now heard the most god awfully clamor imaginable. Goats were bleating, pigs squealing and grunting; chickens squawking...as if the shed was a farmyard full of a living menagerie.
Loni laughed. In that instant, he knew, he had found Scar.
Epilogue:
Gem called this upper world Azure Blue. It would never do to call it Earth! She hoped it would never come to that: rape, and greed, and always warring.
It was night now, as she rocked her small girl in
her arms, nursing her. Across, in a second chair, Lydia slept, grieving still for Da, but content, with her own infant in her arms.
They had managed to get all the boys to sleep, and it was calming to cuddle quietly, now, with their girls.
They had lost one other small boy...besides Da, and the baby boy, that had died in the attack by the Hydra. Only six children remained: two tiny girls; four boys, three under the age of one, and...one two year old.
That blue skinned boy had finally opened his eyes a couple hours after they were settled in. His memories had enlightened them as to how he had tried to save Loni. As small as he was, so very young, he had discovered the purpose of a male defender. Always afterward, in the future, would he protect those younger, smaller, and weaker than he.
The other little soul they had lost, the one Lydia had forgotten to mask, had breathed his last, just after they had finally found sanctuary. Both she, and Loni, had been too exhausted to heal him. It was grievous, but each must go on again. Now, they had the task to minister to those still living.
Gem couldn't deny it was a miracle they had all come through it. Surely there was a God who had governed their paths; He'd reached down and taken care of each of them. Anyone who said it wasn't so was blind. The timing was too perfect...even the supplies taken out, and the number who had survived, right down to Scar and his meat supply.
At this moment, the men were making a barrier of thorn bushes, and lowering the noisy little creatures to the surface, to keep them away from the living quarters of the children, and adults, that both the milk and meat supply, and the humans who fed upon them, would be safe from predators.
For now, the chickens would remain with the rest, but next order of business was to give each separate pens.
And soon, they would plant the fruit trees, and the gardens...
In the future, they would have eggs, pork, goat meat, milk, fruit and vegetables. Already, they had found edible fruit growing. The men would hunt, set traps...they first had to make weapons.
Monsters Among Us (Deception Series Book 1) Page 17
