Ghosts of Koa, The First Book of Ezekiel
Page 51
"Eject in T-minus five, four-- ACK!"
His countdown was cut down as bullets slammed through his windshield from the right, spattering his head into mush. Zeika screamed as the glider lurched out of control, but her body sprang into action, and she pulled the ejection handles, throwing herself sideways out of the glider, the airship only thirty feet below her. Her downed glider spiraled away, breaking apart in the wind.
Visions of death crowded her mind, but as her ejection seat flew through the sky, all her instincts kicked in, cutting across her fear. She had to make it onto the airship.
She pushed her chair away and deployed her parachute. As she floated down to the airship, Koan fighters pulled up around her, providing cover and the few precious seconds she'd need. The crests of missiles whistled through the air, and the pilots did all they could to draw off the Alchemist jets and take them down.
Zeika put a shield around her and the chute to kill any wayward metal, and she forced her eyes from the pilots trying to protect her. She looked down, ready to turn any part of the airship into cloth so she could drop in.
In the distance a fighter jet exploded beneath the hammering of bullets, and a blowback wind, sudden and gusty, howled against her body, forcing her sideways, slightly off course of the airship.
She was still dropping, but she was going to short it.
Shit!
Forcing herself to ignore the airship rushing up to meet her, Zeika tensed her muscles, changing her clothes into pure bronze. She could hear the parachute slap closed beneath the pull, rippling in the air behind her as she fell. Thirty seconds to impact. The metal's density fought against the push of the wind, and she began to fall straighter. Twenty seconds. She reached out with her powers. Only certain plates of the ship fell away while others stayed as they were-- and she saw that by some miracle, she had pulled the door off a hatch, a loading dock with a protruding walkway. Ten seconds!
In full free fall, she reached, ready to de-metallize and grab the lip of the hatch at the right moment--
Come on, come on--
She changed her clothes back, and her arms were nearly wrenched out of their sockets as the lip of the hatch came into her grasp. She swung herself up onto the hatch platform and rolled onto her back, her heart slamming against her ribs. She made it.
To the Six Wisewomen (and Wiseman) in my life: Mom, Lael, Tonia, Marjorie, Gina, Regine, and Q... thanks for understanding when I fell down my rabbit hole of wonder, and er-- left my cellphone topside. Love you!
Props to my AMAZING team: Michael J. Carr, Nathan Crandall, Eric Quigley, and JD Smith, who whipped me and "Ghosts of Koa" into beautiful shape! Hugs to you!
And to Jeff Schmitz, my cheerleader in baggy pants!