The Culling (Book 2): The Hollow:

by Bell, A. C.

  Suddenly, Peter could feel someone watching him. He bristled and moved back against the trunk of a tree, crouching low. Wind tousled the branches of the trees around him and he could faintly hear voices coming from the factory yard, but no snow crunched nearby and no bushes rustled. Where were they hiding? Was he imagining it? All of a sudden, a shadowy figure plummeted to the ground in front of him. Peter pressed his back to the tree in alarm until he realized it was Kendra. She landed in a crouch, clad all in black and with a rifle strapped to her back.

  “It’s about time you guys got here.”

  “H-how did you do that? I couldn’t even hear you up there,” he stammered.

  Kendra smirked as she straightened, offering a hand to help him up. He took it. The others came out of their hiding places.

  “More importantly, how did you get out?” Slade asked, coming up behind her.

  Her hair, tied in a braid, whipped around when she turned to look at him. “Apparently we have a mole inside.” She didn’t expand. Instead, she lifted the rifle from her shoulders and tossed it at him. Slade’s eyes bugged in surprise, but he caught it. Kendra moved around Peter and watched the factory. “I’ve been spying on them until you arrived. The door we need is on the east side. That hanger is where they get large deliveries. There’s a huge lift that goes down to the hanger.”

  “Did your mole tell you that?” Slade asked skeptically. “What if this is a trap?”

  Wynona scowled at him with her arms folded grumpily over her chest. “It’s Michelle, she’s the mole. We’ve been working on this for years now and she’s breaking her cover to get your friend out. Show some gratitude.”

  Wyatt screwed up his face. “You mean Raiden’s sister?”

  “Enough talking,” Nikki interrupted. “My best friend’s life is in danger. How do we get—”

  A sudden booming force shook the ground, cutting her off. Kendra cursed. She spun and darted into the underbrush. Peter hurried after her. Their company sprinted through the woods and looped around the chain-link fence that surrounded the building to the east side. Armed men were moving in that direction at high alert toward the source of the explosion. Peter followed Kendra’s now noisier trek and found her crouched at a duffel bag. Through the fence here, Peter saw a large hangar door across a landing zone with a helicopter parked on it. She hoisted the strap of another rifle around her shoulder and another strap over her other shoulder, this one sporting something that made Peter much more nervous.

  Peter frowned. “Do we really need those?”

  The hangar door began to lift up and Kendra pulled one of the grenades off the belt. “Yep. Alright witch girl, give me a hand.” She prepared to chuck it over the fence when Nikki caught her arm.

  “Wait!” She pointed through the fence and looked to Peter with wide eyes.

  He followed her finger. Marcus stepped through the rising door flanked by a dozen security guys. For a second, Peter thought he was a prisoner, but his hands weren’t bound and the other men were floating in the air, grabbing at their necks as if something had a hold of them. Marcus did, he realized. The men running for the door stopped and raised their guns, commanding him to drop them.

  “Now,” Kendra barked.

  She chucked it into the air in the direction of the door, but would of course not get there without help. Nikki thrust an arm forward and a strong gust of wind propelled the explosive further. It landed and rolled beneath the helicopter. Peter and the others ducked behind trees and he clamped his hands over his ears.

  ***

  Michelle wove a hand at the door and it shimmered. “To keep it locked,” She explained. “Amelia keeps some spare clothes in her closet.”

  She magically unlocked a hidden compartment in the wall and a little closet opened up. I padded over to it on my not-so-bare metal feet and she tossed me a pair of black workout leggings.

  “These’ll move well,” she said with a shrug.

  I nodded my approval but shook my head when she lifted a shirt as well. My sports bra covered plenty without giving my opponents something easy to grab like the fabric of a shirt. As I pulled the leggings on, I turned my attention to the security cameras. “What’s been going on?”

  She hurried over to the screens, beginning to scour them. “I set a series of explosives around the facility to confuse them. Being hit from both outside and inside, they’re utterly confused. I just hope we’re not too late.”

  “Outside? Who’s outside?” Raiden asked, standing a good distance from Michelle.

  She didn’t seem to hear him as she scanned the screens, looking for something. One of them switched to a view of a large concrete room full of storage shelves. At the center, a large rectangle had been painted on the face of the concrete ground. A group of people were huddled inside, one of which was distinguishably a large, shaggy creature. My mouth fell open.

  “Is that Peter? How did they find us?”

  Michelle was in motion before I finished, heading for Amelia’s desk while muttering, “I hope they haven’t been waiting long,” to herself. She let herself into Amelia’s computer and typed a command. After a few moments, a large motor hummed to life outside the glass wall behind the desk. Raiden and I sprinted over to look out into the hanger. A platform was descending from the ceiling with seven people on board and among them, I found a face I hadn’t expected to see again.

  “Kendra!” I exclaimed. I looked to Michelle in bewilderment. “You?” She nodded and I pulled her into a hug. “Thank you.”

  “What about the guards?” Raiden asked.

  I looked back out and spotted trails of armed guards flocking into the room from side passages like lines of organized ants emerging from their hole. They took up positions around the room, guns at the ready. Michelle held her hands toward the window and shattered it with an incantation. My friends all looked our way in surprise. I moved to jump through the window frame, but Raiden caught my hand to tell me to wait.

  Marcus reached up to his lapels and slipped the suit jacket from his shoulders and let it fall to the floor. He gave his hands a shake and the buttons of his sleeves flew off to give him free reign. He then held out his hands with his fingers splayed as if he were a pianist preparing to perform a masterpiece. His fingers pulsed and a wave of force radiated out and every guard fell forward to the floor. As they tried to rise, I realized they were trying to pry their guns from the floor. They were too heavy.

  I took this as my chance and leaped through the window.

  ***

  Peter shook his head as Adeline leapt from an exposed room at least twenty feet above the floor. He would have scolded her recklessness if every inch of her skin didn’t look like it was made of metal. When had she learned to do that? The impact of her heavy form cracked the concrete below her and she pulled a baton from a utility belt around her waist. A handful of guards had noticed her and had forgone retrieving their bewitched guns. Adeline lifted the first contender over her head and tossed him into a group of others.

  “Yes!”

  Peter flinched at the unnecessary loudness of Wyatt’s cheer beside him. The man watched with a look of pride as Adeline brawled her way through a line of men. He beat his metal fists together and then leaped from their platform. Kendra and Slade used the vantage point to pick people off with their guns. It was then that he noticed Wynona was absent. Peter did a double take when Raiden and his sister began levitating down from the room Adeline had jumped from. Peter paced the edge of their platform, eager to follow Wyatt down to help.

  A small hand touched his flank. Nikki smiled up at him. “Alright, let’s go.”

  Peter scooped her up and leaped from the platform, trusting her to catch him with her magic. She did, and eased them to the ground. He set her down and turned on the nearest guard. The man made a fearful sound and stumbled back, falling onto his rump. Beside him, Nikki formed a small bubble shield around herself and used telekinesis to fling men around. Peter charged the nearest group, most of whom bravely fa
ced him with nothing but their fists. Peter grabbed the one who tried to run and swung him at the others. Several men tackled him from the side and knocked him to the ground. Peter ripped them off of him and threw them to the sides, then pushed back to his feet. Someone grabbed his tail and gave a harsh pull. Peter yipped and thrust his foot back into the man’s chest.

  The wail of an alarm abruptly blared through the room and the guards all stopped. Peter looked around, confused. It was a little late to announce the invasion, wasn’t it? Large double doors on the left side of the room began to slide open into the walls, though the hallway beyond was empty. The guards began to flee the room, setting Peter’s teeth and fur on edge.

  “Here!” A female voice bellowed above the alarm. She stood up in the room Adeline had jumped from. It didn’t take a genius to deduce that she was related to Adeline and Wyatt since her body was made of gleaming metal. “I thought I’d return this to you.” She lifted a man by his throat, dangling him over the edge. His body was limp, unresisting.

  “Let him go!” Adeline demanded.

  Peter grunted at her choice of words and began immediately bounding toward the room. Doing as Adeline said, the woman dropped her load out the window. Peter kicked off the floor with powerful legs and propelled himself toward the unconscious man. He wrapped lanky arms around the still form and then kicked off the wall, falling safely to the ground with his catch. He set the poor guy down. Then he saw the man’s face. He stepped back with a jolt of surprise and turned to Adeline in confusion. Her attention, however, was on the woman above. Peter craned his neck up and could just barely see her from this angle.

  “I see I’ve been too trusting. I won’t make that mistake next time. I can’t take my pets with me, so enjoy playing with them.”

  “Amelia!” Wyatt shouted. She ignored him and disappeared inside.

  Peter looked to Adeline again to see if she knew what this ‘Amelia’ meant. Adeline’s eyes were wide and afraid and she spun to face the doors that had opened. The alarm turned off and the hallway plunged into darkness. Finally, he could hear it. A cacophony if wild, animalistic wails of excitement echoed out of it.

  Adeline bolted toward the hallway and Peter leaped after her. His long strides propelled him faster than her. He could hear something drawing nearer in the hallway, claws raking the floor within. A rancid stench of feces burned his nose, so he switched to breathing through his mouth. He had no clue what to expect when the first grotesque form darted into the room. Its limbs were long and lanky and the creature was so emaciated that he could see the shape of its skeleton. A hole in its chest had been stitched closed. Pity nearly gave him pause, but the creature came straight for him, charging to tackle him with a head topped with gnarled antlers.

  Peter reared up and grabbed hold of the antlers before they could impale him, but the monster’s power surprised him and knocked him flat on his back. He landed poorly on his tail and gave a yipe, but held the creature’s head back by the antlers. It couldn’t have bitten him, anyway. Its bottom jaw sagged loosely. A string of spittle dribbled from between its sharp teeth into Peter’s fur and a loud piercing wail blasted from its throat. Peter reaffirmed his grip on the antlers and gave a sharp twist of the monster’s head and its neck snapped loudly. He rolled the thing away and rose to see what else had come out.

  Adeline punched a vaguely hyena looking creature with enough force to snap its neck and it, too, went still, but her back was facing the doorway and a smaller creature hopped onto her shoulders. It tried to bite her head but couldn’t get through her metal barrier. Peter moved around her as she plucked it off her head and threw it. The next contender turned Peter’s blood cold. He stopped. Bulky muscles slowed its sprint and its face resembled that of a bear, its proportions mutated. Many scars could be seen through its greyish fur, especially the bright pink one on its nose. The wulver charged Peter in its crazed and confused state and Peter couldn’t make himself move. This could have been him.

  Several gunshots rang out and bullets pierced its skull, offering a quick death. It fell in a heap at Peter’s feet. He turned gratefully to Slade and Kendra and Slade dipped his head in a nod of understanding. Silence followed. Had that been all of them, Peter wondered? That’s when the sobs started. He turned again and saw a woman around the corner at the end of the hall. She held her hands to her face and her frail shoulders shook as she cried. Peter retracted in repulsion and horror.

  “Is that a banshee?” Raiden asked incredulously.

  Slade lifted his rifle to take her out when darkness flooded the hall behind her. It enveloped her and she erupted into impossibly loud screams. Pain seared Peter’s skull and everyone else cried out behind him as well. Peter gripped his head as if doing so could hold his brain together. Abruptly, the cry stopped. A domed barrier had been placed around the door, cutting off the sound. The darkness surged down the hall until it met the glass-like barricade. Shadowy tendrils of smoke licked the walls around the door like dark flames and eagerly beat against the shield. Once it realized it could not break it, the creature settled for writhing against the smooth surface.

  “What even is that?” Slade asked.

  “Amelia called it a baubas,” Adeline explained.

  Marcus shook his head. “Then Amelia and her people were wrong. That’s not a baubas. A baubas can’t take any kind of form and this one’s taken the appearance of smoke, though I suppose it could be related to the baubas—”

  Kendra groaned. “Who cares what it’s called? How do we kill it?”

  Just then, a fire erupted within the barrier. The sprawling flames licked up the invisible wall just as the not-a-baubas had, engulfing its dark ethereal tendrils in a purging flame. After only a short time, the flames dissipated. The shadows were gone. Peter stared in wonder.

  “Wynona!” Michelle exclaimed. She sprinted to the barrier and Marcus let it fade.

  Suddenly, Peter could hear Wynona’s ragged breathing as she knelt to the floor. She let out a wail of rage and struck the white tiles with her fist, letting out a small burst of flame from her knuckles. Michelle knelt in front of her friend and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “I had to let her go to save you,” he heard Wynona say in her strange voice.

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Raiden,” Peter heard Adeline mutter. She took his hand and pulled him away from the group, over toward Ian, the pair talking quietly.

  Curious, Peter tugged at the pack on Kendra’s back. She slipped it from her shoulders and pulled his clothes out. He started changing back, pulling his jeans on as soon as his legs were thin enough, before his fur receded too much. He trotted barefoot over to Adeline and Raiden, the concrete floor feeling even colder than normal against his feet, his skin warm from the change. Adeline and Raiden were knelt beside Ian. Raiden pressed his fingers against Ian’s neck, checking for a pulse. He nodded.

  “Not much. Only enough to keep him from dying,” Adeline was whispering earnestly as Peter got close enough to hear.

  Raiden held her gaze uncertainty. “Are you sure?”

  She hesitated half a second, but nodded. His green eyes flicked briefly to Peter’s approach before shifting back to Ian. He held his hands above Ian’s chest. A golden light illuminated beneath his palms. There was an odd, almost squishy sound as Ian’s broken ribs moved back into place beneath his shirt, moving the soft tissue about. Peter gaped.

  “I knew there was something weird about you!” he declared. Adeline shot him a look, but Raiden smirked and finished his work.

  “Alright, if everyone is finished, can we get out of here?” Kendra demanded.

  Adeline and Raiden lifted Ian and everyone filed back to the platform.

  Charade

  Warm sunlight streamed through the Manor window, setting my cool skin ablaze. It felt wonderful. I frowned down at my knees, subtly pressing my fingertips to the underside of my wrist. My pulse was slow, but it was there. I redirected my selfish attention to Ian where he lay in one of th
e Manor’s infirmary beds, sleeping soundly. Raiden had only healed Ian enough to keep him alive as we’d agreed. It had been a week since we'd returned and Hemway had taken Ian out of his induced coma now that he'd had time to heal Ian's most painful injuries himself. Ian would be waking up soon.

  “He risked his life for mine.” I folded my arms defensively over my chest, partly out of stubbornness, but also because defending Ian still made my stomach crawl, regardless of what he’d done for me. Slade and Peter stood by the door, arms crossed over their chests and looking all around grumpy. Nikki, across from me, sat with her chair pushed away from the bed, her disapproval quieter than theirs. Raiden, at least, was continuing to back my play. “We can’t just hand him back over. They’ll kill him for helping us!”

  “How do we really know the SAU is working with the Hunters? Just because Morrison thought so, doesn’t make it true.” Slade asked.

  “You have to admit that it’s suspicious,” Raiden argued lightly.

  I didn’t answer and instead glanced at the clock on the wall. 1:15. Michelle was late. I started biting the tip of my thumb in an attempt to abate the nervousness that caused my chest to tighten.

  “Adeline, he’s a fugitive,” Peter scolded, leaning forward to draw my attention to him. “We can’t ask Renenet and Hemway to hide him.”

  I shifted uncomfortably. “I know, I just…I don’t know what to do.”

  Raiden reached over and put his hand over mine. “They have cells here, down in the basement. Just because they keep him here, doesn’t mean they have to let him free.”

  “Nor would I want them to.” Ian spoke quietly, his voice groggy. His lids flicked open and then squinted shut again at the obtrusive sunlight. “What I did was wrong. I’ve made my peace with that.”