by Amy Braun
Not that I was having much difficulty on my own. Old warnings were shoved into the back of my mind as I sent my black smoke into Bacillus. It turned into writhing tentacles, like over grown maggots struggling to get out of a corpse. Each tendril of smoke sought out Plagued flesh, corroding or bursting functioning organs and cells inside of the dead. Some choked or gagged as they were poisoned. Others bled from their eyes and ears as their brain cells erupted. The rest dropped dead from the simplest aneurisms.
I was letting it all go, releasing every ounce of disease and poison inside of me. At my core, that’s what I was. A virus, capable of infecting and destroying anything I wanted to. I didn’t care how much power I was losing. I wanted my enemy to look out of his safehouse and see I was here. Let him see what I was capable of, and know what a huge mistake he had made.
This was what it felt like to be unstoppable.
Bacillus brayed and kicked, knocking away the Plagued choking around him. He wasn’t afraid, because I wasn’t. I sat above him, slashing at the Plagued who’d avoided the tendrils of disease leeching off of my Horse and me. Heads were split or severed, dead blood splattering onto Bacillus’s stark white coat in thick, coagulated chunks.
Pulling my eyes up from the carnage, I looked at the hangar across from me. A dozen Soulless stood outside the garage door, staring with wide, bloodshot eyes as they saw what we were truly capable of. A couple of them turned and ran back into the hanger, likely to tell Ciaran that we were here.
While I didn’t really care if he knew about our grand entrance, I did care about Maddy’s safety. Knowing we’d found him so soon would force him to accelerate his plans, and shorten the lives of every human in the compound.
I had to get in there. Now.
“Kade!” I shouted over the moaning corpses. “We need to get inside!”
“Then go!” he yelled back. “I’m making a record here!”
Part of me wanted to shout at Kade that I needed him to come with us, but then I realized we’d have to get a significant number of humans out of the hangar. They’d never make it past all the Plagued. While disposing of the Plagued wasn’t something he wanted to spend his time doing, he was facing thousands of them. My brother liked a challenge, no matter how shallow it was.
I had no doubt that when Kade was satisfied with his work, he’d come running into the hangar looking for bigger game to hunt.
Trusting he wouldn’t let any Plagued near us, I sliced my machete through the head of a Plagued reaching for my leg, then looked at my other brother.
“Simon! Come on!”
He looked at me, then nodded. We both kicked our Horses’ flanks, charging the front gates of the hangar. Simon loosed arrows as he rode, taking down Soulless that weren’t fast enough to dodge his shots. While he used his arrows, I drew on more power. It exploded off me in a sharp burst, and I concentrated on narrowing the particles until my locusts could be formed. Once I had a wall of them, I shot them forward like a swarm of killer wasps.
The locusts drove into the barbed wire cage, consuming it with their corrosive mouths. Other locusts slipped through the open squares of the barbed wire net, hunting down the Soulless. They tried to turn and run, but my swarm descended upon them. Their screams were lost in the black haze that devoured them whole.
By the time Simon and I reached the netted wire fence, there was enough space for us to get through. I went in first, dragging my locusts with me so they couldn’t hurt Simon or Esuries. I jumped off Bacillus, who immediately kicked and screamed at any Soulless stupid enough to get near him. I pulled the locusts back into me, no longer needing any power and knowing I had to conserve whatever I had left. It wasn’t much, but there were only two Soulless were left standing.
They stared at us with angry, bloodshot eyes, rushing us as soon as the locusts were gone. I waited for one of them to rush forward until he was almost on me, then quickly stepped to the side and slashed the machete across the back of his neck. His head hit the ground before his body did.
A shriek sounded behind me. I lashed out with my foot, kicking a female Soulless in the chest before she could sink her claws into me. She staggered directly into the path of Simon’s arrow. It thunked into the side of her head, dropping her dead.
My brother and I turned to our Horses, who were still going wild from the excitement. I held up a calming hand to Bacillus until he stopped stamping his hooves. I rubbed my hand up and down his muzzle.
“Stay here,” I told him. “Don’t let anyone but Kade or Mars past.”
Bacillus huffed and dipped his head, butting it against mine. He was telling me to be safe. Luckily I didn’t have to ask him to do the same.
I left my Horse and looked at Simon, who had just stepped back from Esuries. My brother nocked another black arrow into his bow and started for the side door of the hanger. I followed him, gripping the machete tightly. Simon pressed his back to the wall, seeing the door was left slightly ajar. He looked at me and I nodded. I stood on the other side of the wall, then kicked it in as hard as I could.
As it flew inside, Simon turned off the wall. He fired an arrow into the hanger, then drew and launched another one. He nodded to me, and I turned into the hangar. As soon as I set my foot inside, the door I’d kicked was shoved back in my direction. I swung out of its path, though Simon was locked on the other side.
The Soulless, who must have been hiding behind the door when I kicked it, leaped angrily at me. He snarled and slashed his oily black claws at me, forcing me to back up so I wouldn’t get ripped to shreds. I didn’t know where I was or how close any other Soulless were, so I decided to get rid of the problem in front of me.
I let the Soulless swing his claws at me in a wide arc, then stepped in so he couldn’t bring his hand back. I shoved the machete into his throat, feeling it crunch and scrape against his spinal cord. Hisses and heavy footsteps approached my back. I pulled my machete free and grabbed a knife from my belt. I spun on my heel, readying my throw, when the hissing Soulless slammed into me.
I was knocked off my feet, landing on the hard concrete floor. The Soulless snarled and opened his mouth, showing me rows of razor sharp teeth. He crunched down, eager to sink those teeth into my throat. I twisted my head to the side, letting him slam headfirst into the concrete. Once he was dazed, I curled my arm up and plunged the knife into the back of his neck. It dug in between his vertebrae, slicing his nerves and paralyzing him. I twisted the blade to immobilize him further, then took the knife back. I rolled us both, then stabbed the serrated blade through his right eye. There was nothing he could do to stop me.
More hisses came from around me as the three hidden Soulless made themselves known. But the front door opened, and Simon stalked through. He shot one with a movement I could barely register, letting it drive straight through the Soulless’ eyes and out the back of his skull. A second Soulless woman raced along the edges of the hangar as her ally fell, jumping on stacked wooden crates and speeding to his left. Simon heard the racket she was making and turned in her direction, drawing another arrow right as she pounced.
He stepped aside just as the arrow stabbed into her heart. The Soulless landed flat on her face pushing the arrow through her back.
By then, a third Soulless that had a good seven inches of height on Simon was in front of him. He swung his claws down in a deadly arc, and I was certain that Simon wouldn’t be able to dodge.
At the last second, my brother twirled around the Soulless, letting him stumble past and expose his back. Simon drew an arrow over his shoulder, drew it against the string, and fired the bolt into the back of the Soulless’ skull. The tip of the arrow punched through the Soulless’ mouth, killing him instantly.
Simon took another arrow out and rested it on the bowstring, ready to pull back if anything else leaped out of the shadows. I was already on my feet and walking toward him, holding my machete at my side.
Nothing emerged. The grey walled hangar, doused in pale light from the dusty skylights overhea
d, was vacant except for unmarked crates shoved against the walls. Directly across from us was the remainder of the hanger, which likely held offices, locker rooms, and a kitchen or something.
“We need to find the survivors first,” Simon said.
I looked at him, reluctantly understanding what he was saying.
Think about the bigger picture. Save as many as you can. Put your emotions away for now.
The problem with that was obvious, though. If anything happened to Maddy while I was saving other humans I didn’t know or care so strongly about, I would never forgive myself.
But then again, she was the kind of girl who would want others saved before her.
Selflessness. It was a weird thing.
Holstering my knife and nodding my agreement to Simon, we jogged toward the office door at the back of the hangar. We watched the support columns spread throughout the hangar until we were sure there weren’t any Soulless lurking behind them. When we reached the office door, we stood by the walls and repeated the same tactic we used when we first entered the hangar. This time, nothing jumped out at us.
And the office was a dead end.
There was a cheap metal desk, a plastic and faux leather chair with tears in the fabric, a dented metal cabinet, and papers carpeting the floor. There were no other doors or windows. Nothing to indicate that this was anything other than an abandoned air hangar.
But it had a barbwire net surrounding it. There were Soulless guards inside and thousands of Plagued trying to get in. Bacillus led us here, and I trusted him. I had not come all this way for nothing.
I stalked through the tiny office, shoving the chair aside, kicking the papers, and forcing the desk to the side of the wall, not caring how loud it shrieked as metal dragged across metal. As I was pushing the desk, I felt it bump into something. I stopped moving, looking at the floor where it was stuck. I pushed it again to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.
There was definitely something striking the table leg.
Simon beat me to the blockage, kneeling down and using one hand to hold his bow while the other brushed aside the papers.
A metal hoop was stuck on the floor. I rushed to his side, helping him push away more of the papers. Soon we saw it, the door that led underground. My heart leaped to my throat. They had to be down there. They had to be.
Simon stood up and nocked an arrow, letting me grab the metal hoop and pull. It jerked, but didn’t open. I tried again. And again. And again. Nothing happened.
“It must be locked from the other side,” I said, dropping the hoop against the floor. “My locusts are going to have to open it.”
“Then you might want to step back and let them do that.”
I looked at Simon. He rolled his eyes like I was an idiot. “If that’s the entrance to Ciaran’s hideout, do you really think he’ll leave it unguarded? If there aren’t any Soulless waiting down there, I’m willing to bet there’s some kind of trap. So stand the hell back and do whatever you have to do.”
Simon was right, and I was glad he was here to talk sense into me. Getting myself blown to smithereens would seriously ruin this rescue operation.
I stood up and backed away from the trap door with my brother, who was still keeping an arrow nocked in his bow.
I rolled my shoulders and shook out my hands, then called up the power resting inside of me.
Even as it manifested out of my skin, I could feel how much weaker it had become. I was still able to harden the poison into the locusts, and command them to devour the metal trap door, but it was taking too long. New beads of sweat dribbled down my temples, and it became hard to breathe.
My power was at less than half capacity now. That wasn’t going to be nearly enough to fight Ciaran.
Pushing that ugly thought to the back of my mind, I focused on getting the locusts to devour the door–
The trap door crunched and burst open with a small jet of flame. I raised my arm to cover my face and yanked my locusts back into me, wanting my power as far from the explosion as possible. Simon covered his face the same way I did.
The dust and burning papers began to settle, and we lowered our arms, watching the blasted door to see if anything would jump through it. When nothing did, Simon tossed me an obstinate look.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I drawled. “You told me so. Give yourself a fucking gold star and let’s go.”
I marched to the open door and peered down. A ladder that had been gnarled in the explosion led down to a catwalk I could barely see in the dark. The ladder was still within reach, however, so I dropped through the open door and caught myself on the rungs.
The impact jolted through my arms and legs, but didn’t keep me from climbing down. Simon stayed where he was until I arrived at the end of the ladder and dropped onto the catwalk. The sound of my boots striking the tightly woven metal echoed through the basement, but nothing erupted from the shadows and attacked me. I stood where I was, keeping the machete raised, and looked along the catwalk. Assured I was the only person on it, I walked to the ledge and looked down.
We had entered some kind of boiler room. Twisted pipes attached to rounded water tanks. Dented generators held up powerless circuit breakers and rusted cooling fans. Heavy and useless boilers and chillers sat in the corners. Oil drums filled with burning fires sat in the middle of the floor below me, casting the walls in a menacing, orange glow. The air was thick and humid, and tasted like copper.
Looked like we were getting closer to Hell after all.
I waved Simon down without pausing to glance back at him. I moved along the catwalk until I found another set of stairs to hurry down. I made it to the bottom floor without anything jumping out at me, but I had a feeling that would change soon. I did set off an explosion, after all.
Like the room overhead, there was only one door in front of me. It looked securely bolted to the wall, but there was give when I tugged on the handle. I glanced at Simon over my shoulder. He stood behind me with a ready arrow. I pulled open the door, and stared down a narrow cement corridor.
I followed it all the way down, sensing Simon walking behind me. The further down we went, the more echoes we heard. Murmurs, sobs, and cries followed by shouts the occasional harsh laugh. I scurried down the hallway, seeing a thick beam of light pushing against the far right wall. An open door that would lead me to the humans, barely thirty feet away.
It was a huge effort to control myself, to not stampede through the hallway and throw myself into the heat of battle. Catching the Soulless by surprise would probably keep more humans alive, and hopefully wouldn’t rush Ciaran’s little ceremony even more.
I was less than five feet away when one of the Soulless turned out of the room and stood in the light. I skidded to a stop, as stunned to see him as he was to see me. He opened his mouth to call for help, but got an arrow in his throat for the trouble.
His blood squirted only the front of my shirt as he gasped and gagged. I finished him off with a quick slash of my machete through his face. His jaw flopped down to his chest before his bloodshot eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the floor.
I didn’t have time to move back even one step before the other Soulless turned out of the room, hissing and spitting angrily. Simon’s arrows flew over my head, and shoulders, but missed their marks because I was in the way. The cluster of four Soulless reached for me. I leaned back and hacked down with the machete, taking off at least one clawed hand that was reaching for my stomach. I lunged with the machete again, but the dark haired Soulless I was looking to attack pressed against the wall and missed the blade.
