Flight

by J. A. Huss

  The fight continues on the other side, but the little bodies scuttle into the crevices and disappear.

  "Full speed, now. Turn right at the intersection and start climbing."

  We see more as we travel but they hide again, the hissing becoming stronger as we progress towards the turnoff. When we get there the door is once again closed, but Arel and Sera have it worked out now and they open it a crack to let everyone through after Tier, Ashur, and Mish go forward and scout it out.

  When the door close behind us we don't even take stock of the Subs we lost, we just haul ass up the mountain.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The tunnel morphs as we push west up the mountain. It begins dank and dark but as we press on the smell of mold and dead things that make their way through the filters dissipates. The suffocating stillness of the atmosphere fills with currents from unknown places that cause my helmet screen to blink with random wind speed readings. The barest glow of light seeps out from previously unseen flood grates near the floor, and my sensors go crazy trying to figure out the source.

  I shiver and Isten's hand sweeps back to pat my helmet. Eyes peeled, Snowbird. They're here.

  Gideon is off to my left, keeping back from Isten just enough to be level with me, and Moju is standing, a full-sized plasma in each arm and propped against his stomach, ready for attack.

  But there is no attack.

  Just the thrumming of grav bikes, the scuttling of small rodents across the now dry tunnel floor, and the hissing that comes out from the dark cracks, faceless creatures that find a place in my memory and that will haunt me in nightmares for the rest of my life.

  The incline is steep and for a moment I feel myself in my Goat, going up the midway hill towards the Stag to meet my fate, the moment before my life changed.

  We reach the first blast door but we don't stop. There's no need – that fucker is wide open. As we pass, still cruising at our regular pace, I watch the children and shudder involuntarily. They scurry out from the shadows and chatter in a language that sounds a little too much like a flock of starlings over winter.

  Moju catches my attention. "I see them, Juncs. Just stay alert and don't waste time on that sniper rifle, just fucking blast those things if they come at us."

  "Yeah." I swing the 50 cal rifle to the side and cradle my rapid-fire in my right arm while slinging the plasma over my left shoulder. "I'd dual-wield it along with ya, Moj, but I'd never hit anything that way so, fuck–"

  I'm reeling from the pain of the smack and falling off the bike as the last word leaves my mouth. My wings unfurl and soar into the air currents as I catch myself and fly back up. Plasma fire erupts above me and my attacker falls past as I get back on the bike. The Subs are so strung out they fire on the dead thing for several seconds before Tier gets them back under control.

  "What the fuck was–"

  The screams erupt around us and the attackers are swatting people off bikes. Isten takes a thump on the temple of his helmet and I hear him cry out inside as his razors appear and slash the head off a small and furious shadow.

  My SEAR cuts the next one down and then I'm in the air, flying and twisting, cutting the little fucking things into pieces as they swarm around us. The tunnel is nothing but screams as the Subs are dragged from their bikes and hauled down to the ground. I fly down to one guy who's not dead and start slicing away a rage of whirling teeth as they come at me.

  Braun is next to me, flinging them one at a time into the walls with such force I can hear bones cracking and the plasma fire lights up the tunnel for tens of yards out as we battle the melee of toddler-sized demons.

  Tier is in my face. "Fly the fuck up, Junco, NOW!"

  The brawl has died down and I watch the children hustle it back into their cracks.

  Braun and I grab the Sub I just saved and haul his ass up. "Hold on, don't let go." We drop him on the closest bike missing a shooter and I go back over to my bike.

  Tier's eyes are raging green as he flies up next to me. "Don't you fucking do that again, or I swear you'll go on ship, goddammit."

  "I'm here to fight, Tier, I'm no fucking tag-along."

  He seethes anger. "Yer whatever I tell ya to be, Junco. And don't fucking forget it. I told ya, you and Isten are ta stay together, did ya not hear me?"

  "I heard ya."

  Tier looks over at Isten. He's got his helmet off and is looking at the blood coming off his fingers after swiping them down the side of his head. How the fuck?

  I feel his confusion. The warm blood is dripping down my chin inside my helmet as well. How'd they do that, Isten?

  He shrugs and finally turns his attention to Tier's smoldering stare and reacts. "What the fuck you want me to do, Tier, I'm driving. Make her drive if you want me to take over here."

  Tier looks over at me, the green not even close to dying down. "Switch. Now."

  I cringe at the flowing stream of scarlet running down Isten's head as he gets up and I slip into the seat and take the hand grips. The bike dips a little as he settles and I adjust the controls for my own preferences, trying to ignore Tier for as long as possible.

  "Forward, every shoot is on high alert." He points at shooters as he passes them. "You cover up, you cover down, you're up, you're down…" He continues that way until everyone knows where to look and shoot as we fly farther up the mountain.

  The second fully open blast door is coming up fast but even from the back of the procession I can see something's wrong.

  "Halt, right now!" Ashur calls it and everyone stops short as the wall of black Yukichi membrane blocks the way. One Sub loses control of his bike and slams into the flexible sheeting, the top edge of the curtain that is a full five stories high, reaching up into the roof.

  The membrane reaches out to greet the bike, a wiggle from the top, then a shimmer of silver as the fibers rearrange themselves and the bike is engulfed. The soldiers scream, wails that reverberate through my ears as Braun launches a rocket into the mass. Rikan is pumping grenades, and every other shoot in front is blasting with plasma.

  "Coming up from behind, Juncs, get ready!" The bike sways as Isten stands, rapid-firing projectiles from the hip and his mini-plasma with his spare hand. I glance back at Moju for a second and watch him launch a quick succession of canisters.

  I smell the chemicals as soon as they hit, hear the propellant hissing out from the fire bombs, and feel the heat as the entire tunnel behind us burns.

  My attention goes back to the wavering curtain in front of me. The soldiers have been spat out with the bike from the forward fire, but they aren't even remotely identifiable. What's left of their skin sags from their bones, some of which have been picked clean. Faces showing more teeth than they should with the missing flesh are strung out in a final scream of agony.

  Braun launches another rocket and Arel streams it with liquid fire. The Yukichi falls like a guillotine and chops the bike and remains of the Sub soldiers in half as it puddles against the floor.

  "Everyone – forward now!"

  I gun it and feel Isten grab for me as he loses his balance, but I don't look back. Hell, he's got wings, if he can't keep his ass in the seat he can catch up with me himself.

  Tier waves us on and brings up the rear, Arel firing canisters filled with more chemicals that cloud the air behind us. I stop and turn sideways so we can cover them and watch as Arel opens the access panel and deftly fingers the wires until the blast doors begin to close. Isten and Moju fire back, trying to keep as many of the little mutants as they can on the far side.

  Ashur stops and orders everyone towards the door to pick off any mutants that make it through before the panels slide together.

  Braun, Arel, and Rikan jump off their bikes and fly around the perimeter looking for holes and cracks where the mutants might hide as Isten and Moju fly down and cover them from above. They spray liquid fire into the crevices they find and off in the distance I can hear squealing.

  My stomach has a moment of instability but I
push it down.

  We move forward with a little more confidence that the mutants won't sneak up behind us again, but we've lost half of the Subjectives already and we're not even to the fucking extraction point.

  It's clear that the tunnels from this point on are occupied pretty regularly. There's trash lining the sides and there's writing painted on the walls, like gang tagging in the cities.

  Except it's not in any language I've ever seen. I look over at Gideon. "Can you read that, Gid?"

  He nods and the external com crackles as he speaks. "It says:

  Seven siblings of the wide heavens,

  Seven siblings of the broad earth,

  Seven robber-gods are they.

  Seven evil gods,

  Seven evil demons,

  Seven to break heaven and earth,

  The Seventh acting as the pawn,

  Burning one into extinction."

  I laugh, because I should know better, right? "That's so awesome."

  "Junco, that's enough."

  Tier's bike has made its way back to me and I look over at him, getting more pissed off with each passing fraction. "You better stop telling me to shut up, Tier, I'm not in the fucking mood. And don't bother threatening me with Ryse. He can't get me down here, I know that for sure."

  Moju speaks up. "Tier, it's not about you. It's about us, so you really have no say." He stands up in his seat, like he means it. "This is about us. You're just a fucking passenger."

  Tier stops his bike and Gideon and I pull up short with him as the others continue on. "We're not here to decipher old myths, we're here to collect the Seven and take ya back to Amelia. End of mission. I don't give a shit what the walls say about evil demons, I don't give a shit what ya think of me right now, I'm trying to get us all back alive, so shut the fuck up, Junco, and do what yer told."

  "Don't growl at me–"

  The demonic screams cut off my words, but they're not coming from the mutants, they're coming from our team up front. Arel, Isten, and Moju fire up at the bat-like wings of mutants, but these are no toddler children.

  They are teenagers.

  Girls.

  Who look just like me.

  If I had a pie-hole full of little razor teeth that spiraled in towards my throat and wings like a bat instead of a bird, that is.

  "Holy fucking shit! Shoot them, Isten, kill them!"

  I whip out my SEAR and flip the bike on hover as I swipe at the diving girls, their lips pulled back and their juices leaking out and dripping down their faces.

  One knocks into our bike and Isten and I tumble out and take flight as it crashes down below, taking my sniper rifles with it. A Yukichi sheet rises up and swallows it down like it's nothing, then begins to rise upward towards us, grabbing mutant Juncos and pulling them apart as it ascends.

  I whirl around and face my demonic self. "Come on, bitch, let's do it!"

  She lunges at me, screaming in another language, and I cut her head off and watch it splat into the sheet and disappear into the black.

  A slew of Juncos attack me from all sides then, but Moju and Gideon are there. We back up together, leaving enough room to swipe and shoot, and start our killing.

  Moju flies into a rage that would put Tier to shame. His razors come out and he starts decapitating everything that moves. The orange light in his eyes turns to a deep scarlet red as his anger explodes.

  I swing out away from Gideon so I don't nick him by mistake and then spin, letting the SEAR do its thing as I drag it through the air with my hurling body. I don't chop their heads off, but the slash across their various body parts is enough.

  Turns out, clones of Junco are not quite Junco enough to prevent the Alloantigen Repressor from fucking up their collagen matrix. They begin to melt and I move on, slicing as many limbs as I can, cutting their heads off when in range, or just dragging my weapon lightly across their flesh to let the bioware finish the job for me.

  Legions of Juncos appear from down the tunnel and I have a panic attack. Gideon yells for Moju to follow and grabs my hand, dragging me upward.

  The coms scream to life and suddenly Gideon is in charge. "Tier, take your team up top, there's ventilation shafts, look for a keypad every twelfth panel, code in 998998 and shut the fucking door. We'll meet up after."

  "Got it." Tier's voice is calm and I look over trying to find my team on the opposite side of the massive tunnel. Braun and Rikan are hurling grenade canisters, while the unwanted shower the clones with plasma. I retract my SEAR and watch Arel key the code and they start filing in.

  Gideon's bike crashes to the ground as he climbs in our vent and then Moju's hands are on me, shoving me in after Gideon and firing at the clone girls as he slips in last.

  Gideon grabs my arm and pulls me out of the way as Moju seals up the door and I hear the locks engage.

  I flip off my helmet and scream. "Holy shit!" Isten? Isten, can you hear me?

  I hear ya, Snowbird. We're OK. You guys OK?

  "Are we OK?"

  Gideon smiles and then he's in my head. We're all OK, Isten. Start walking west. I'll let ya know when we can cross back over.

  I count up my weapons and come up short on sniper gear. Big Boy is gone, crashed with the 50 cal on the bike. I have my rapid-fire and my full-size and mini-plasma. About a dozen cartridges are attached to my ammo belt along with about two hundred rounds of projectiles.

  "All we have are water packets. And a few ration packets in my pocket. You guys have water and food?"

  Moju nods. "Yeah, I got about that much too."

  "We're not gonna be in here long, Junco. So don't worry about it. Only temporary."

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  "Where the fuck is here, Gideon? You seem to have a lot more information about this mission than you should. How the hell did you have the codes to get in here?"

  "Think about it, Junco. How the fuck do you think I'd have the codes? Ya know, I'm not interested in playing with you. Use your fucking brain for once. I have the goddamn codes because this was part of the plan."

  "Whose plan?" I'm glad Moju asks. That way he can't say I'm the only clueless one.

  "Subjack's." He says it like we should've known that.

  "OK, so you're gonna do what with me now?"

  His eyes narrow as he stares down at me. "We're going to get the Siblings, Junco. I'm taking you there. OK?"

  "Then why does he need his own plan, Gid? Why not just include Tier? Why all this secret shit?"

  He exhales as if he's irritated. "Because you've got a lot of enemies. I'm here to make sure you come out the other end alive, all right? You OK with that?"

  I look over at Moju and he shrugs. "Look, Juncs – I've known Gideon my entire life, so he's not out to get ya. Just trust him."

  "Do you know what he's doing?"

  He looks away, out through a dark doorway. "No, but he's not the enemy." He turns back to me and his eyes glow orange. "And that's that." He puts a hand on my shoulder and pulls me towards the doorway. "Come on, Junco. I need to get to Soli. She's not doing well, OK? We need to get her out of here."

  I look up in his eyes and see his fear. Not for himself, but for her. For Soli, the Two. His two, apparently.

  "All right, let's go."

  Gideon leads and we follow him out into the corridor. It's not very wide and we have to walk single file, but even then I have only a few inches on either side of me. Gideon and Moju are so much wider, I wonder if they are brushing against the walls, that's how tight it is.

  My night vision tints everything green, which should be fine, but it just isn't. The darkness creeps up against me and I start breathing a little harder than I should. I look straight ahead, past Gid's body, and my heart begins to race.

  "You OK, Junco?" Moju has a hand on my back and he's pushing me forward, but with each step my feet begin to resist more and more.

  "I feel strange, I don't know – it's dark."

  "You have night vision, Junco, so knock it off."

 
Gideon's voice almost snaps me back, but I see movement in the distance. "There's something up there," I say.

  Both guys turn and I watch Moju squint in the distance. "Just a rat, Junco. Come on." He's pulling on me again but my heels dig in.

  "No." I shrug him off and start backing up. "I can't go that way. It's way too dark."

  I turn but Gideon has my arm and he pulls me back. "I said that's enough, Junco."

  My heart flutters as I begin to panic and I pull away. His grip stays firm and pulls harder and then I'm thrashing against him, trying to untangle myself from his hands.

  "Stop, Gideon, I'm not going that way. No!"

  He grabs my shoulders and shakes me hard. "Stop it, Junco!"

  "What the fuck is going on over there?" Isten's voice comes through the coms on my helmet that is now rolling across the floor. "Junco?"

  I scream. "I can't go that way, Isten, it's too small. It's dark, there's things up there!"

  What things, Junco? What things?

  "It's nothing, Isten – she's having a fucking panic attack over the passageway. Just let me handle it."

  My breathing is so erratic I begin to hyperventilate and Moju bends me over and pushes me down to the floor. I know Gideon is still talking to Isten but I can't hear him anymore, my heavy breath blocks out all his words.

  Moju leans down under my swaying hair and looks up at my face. "You OK, Junco?"

  I'm still gasping for air, trying to calm down. "What's wrong with me?"

  "Stuff, Juncs. Old stuff. Coming back up. It hits ya sometimes."

  "I don't want it, Moju."

  He laughs and takes a seat next to me, his long legs stretch towards the other side of the small passageway, his boots flat against one wall and his back against the other. "Yeah, I can relate, Snowbird. But it's gotta come up sometime. Ya can't run forever."

  He pauses and looks over at Gideon and I follow his gaze as I try to get myself together. Gid has his helmet on so I can't hear what he's saying. I scramble backward down the passageway and grab my helmet and stick it on before Moju can panic at my sudden movement.