by C. M. Owens
Good point.
I just nod instead of agreeing with him, and he squints into the sandstorm growing more vicious ahead of us.
“Tell the others to hold the fuck on and fasten themselves anyway they can,” Hale murmurs to the driver.
“Yes, Sir.”
I pull my seatbelt on tighter just as Brazen sticks his head in. The sky has been tinted by nature now, so he doesn’t have to worry about flames consuming him.
“Where the fuck did this come from?” he growls.
“I don’t know, but it’s stage five. We’re going to have to ram the gates, so you might want to hold onto something,” Hale murmurs while fastening his own seatbelt.
“A little wreck isn’t going to kill me,” Brazen says casually while pulling out a rifle from overhead.
“No, but it’s sure as hell going to hurt, and we’ll have to move quick once we get inside,” Hale counters, and I can feel the exhaustion of the engine from his hellacious driving as it whines for mercy.
“I’ll give you a little less resistance,” Brazen says while opening the door.
A suffocating burst of sand fills the front. The small grains scratch against my eyes and accumulate in disgusting heaps in my mouth, ears, and nose. I grab a mask to wrap over my face, and then I pull one over Hale’s as well to help free him from the grainy assault. He coughs on the fresh air once I turn on the filter, and then I plop back down to pull my seatbelt back into place.
My head moves so I can see Brazen lining up the shot into the cloud of dust destroying all views to anything in front of us. His eyes can’t be that damn good. I’d sure as hell be impressed if they were.
More and more shit begins surging to the sky as the funnel continues to grow. It’ll have a fifteen mile stretch in less than five minutes at this rate. It’ll have all the power of a black hole as it tries to turn the world inside out, mercilessly carrying away all the souls it can collect.
I hear the shot ring out from behind me, stinging my ears from the close, unguarded proximity, and then I hear the snapping of a chain I can’t see. Well, I’m impressed. I hear another shot and another snap before Brazen reappears in the front with us.
“I collapsed the exposed chains holding it shut, so you should be able to break through without it breaking this thing too badly.”
“Thanks, now buckle up because it can’t be far away.”
“You can’t see?” Brazen gasps.
“This damn dust is every-fucking-where.”
Brazen pulls me out of my seatbelt while lifting me just enough for him to shimmy underneath me. His cold touch presses against my back, and then I feel the seatbelt snapping around us, forcing my body even closer to his.
Hale starts to scold him for his crude maneuver, but Brazen’s eyes scour the land in front of us instead of me.
“You need to go five clicks east,” Brazen instructs, making Hale realize why he’s sitting up front instead of in the back.
Hale does as he says, blindly trusting the full blood he can’t stand.
“Brace yourselves,” Brazen warns - his arms protectively drawing me closer to his body.
I feel the forceful impact trying to snap my neck off my shoulders as it jolts me forward. My head spins as the large, beast of a vehicle climbs onto its side, and I hear the snapping of wood and metal clashing as we barrel through the sand-wrapped gate. My head thuds against breaking glass as we skid into the compound, my breath catching against the heated base of the mask.
Brazen’s arms tighten around my waist when more glass shatters around us, the shards relentlessly trying to cut through our resistant skin. The dust surges in with more ferocity now that it has too many points of access. All visibility has disappeared, except for the swirling wonder of a storm in the sky that is pulling the dead land into it. The red lightening crashes with more grace and beauty than the erratic bolts of blue that come with the other stage storms. The vibrant drops of crimson rain litter the ground with the same elegance of blood dripping from a vein. It all becomes more nature’s ballet rather its demon child. It’s hypnotic, entrancing actually, and though I’ve seen them before, I’ve never felt like this about one. I almost feel connected to it in some strange way - as though it’s trying to tell me something about… myself? It’s the strangest feeling I’ve ever had to deal with, leaving me bemused in the face of a crisis rather than alert or even functioning.
The suctioning feel of death’s grip promising to capture us if we linger for too long finally prompts me to snap out of my mesmerized trance.
“Damn it, Araya, what the hell?” Hale screams, as though I’ve been tuning him out for a while.
He grabs my hand, the seatbelt snapping free from my waist, and he rushes us through the doors to follow behind the others. My feet try to leave the ground just before I see a hint of a stone building hiding behind the swirls of sand rising between us and sanctuary. Hale’s arms fasten around me, pulling me into the safety of his embrace as he forces his feet to stay grounded. We run blindly through the storm, and I feel Brazen’s touch instructing us where to go as we rush into the safety of the walls in the center of the compound.
The sound of sniffling noses, falling tears, and restrained whimpers rattle around in my ears as I rip free from the mask. With the filter full, I had run out of air to breathe. My first fresh breath almost hurts as I gulp it down too hard. My eyes receive more of a shock than my lungs, though, as they fall upon the horrid sights sitting in the halls of the shaking building.
I gasp when I see several humans gashed up, their lacerations being stitched up due to their inability to heal any faster way. Their lips quiver in fear, and their fragile bodies convulse from the pain of the sustained wounds being too severe for them to handle without the help of something to numb them.
My gaze then shifts to the full bloods and hybrids drinking blood to heal their injuries - their own blood still dripping from the gaping wounds that could have only been caused by a gifted or uranium.
“What happened?” Hale prompts.
“One of the gusts picked up a truck and launched it into the arsenal before we could secure it,” a man answers. “Uranium tipped weapons sprung out everywhere.”
“We’ve still got people trapped in the tunnels below. They’ll bleed out if we don’t get to them,” a woman cries.
Hale, Brazen, and Clay exchange a look. They dart off without saying a word, intentionally excluding me from the private conversation. I start to follow them when crying sounds strike my ears.
They’re distant, but the terror in them is unmistakable. Only the forgotten can carry guilt in their screams, for only they can feel guilty for needing help.
“Where are the hybrid children?” I screech while whirling around to face the shriveling cowards on the floor.
“They’re trapped in the school,” a woman whimpers out, her eyes casting shame on the floor.
“No one is getting them out?” I scream.
“The captain said to leave them. It’s not safe for us to go out there,” she says, keeping her eyes steady on the ground beneath her.
“You’re a hybrid,” I snarl. “How could you?”
Her eyes finally look up, regret and guilt swimming tirelessly in the watering edges of her hybrid blue irises.
“If I disobeyed our captain, it wouldn’t me he punished. The children… worse would happen to them later.”
Her eyes lower once more at the end of her emotionally choking words. I narrow my eyes at her, wishing I could just knock the hell out of her cowardly face. These children need people to stand up for them, not sniveling cowards willing to comply because they’re too afraid to do anything else.
I blur away from her before I let my gift go rogue and shred her to pieces. The savage threatens to creep up, and I quickly inject myself with the olophine that subdues me within a breath. Satisfied the beast has been tamed, I start rifling through the closets of the great hall.
“What are you going to do?” Alex asks, a wor
ried tone gurgling in the back of her throat.
“I’m going to find ground treaders, and then I’m going to go sit out this storm with the kids that are over there alone and terrified.”
“Ground treaders? What the hell are you going to do with them?”
The sound of the steel roof threatening to be sucked free hinders the conversation. We’re both forced to duck as fans and other ceiling ornaments crash to the ground. The roof holds steady, though continuing to creak and groan against the torrential winds picking up with more deadly force. My eyes catch a small glimpse of something I hadn’t noticed earlier. The small mirror hiding in the back of the closet gives me a peek of the eyes I almost don’t recognize.
A few violet, vein-like slithers run along the sides to step in closer to my pupils. They almost look to be glowing, a secret emerging in their subtle, narrow lines no one else has seemed to notice - not even the two men claiming to love me.
I shake free from the momentary distraction as I bring my focus back to the crisis at hand.
“I’m going to shoot them into the ground, and walk my way out there.”
“That’s not what they’re for. They’re meant to shoot ropes into the ground to tie shit off with. They won’t hold you.”
“They’ll go seven feet into the ground, and unless I’ve gained a couple hundred pounds, that should be enough to hold me until I can get the next one shot.”
I finally find the damn ground treader guns, and I grab a row of stakes to attach to each of my legs. My head calculates the math for the timing and execution I’ll need to make this work. I rip a new mask off the wall and strap it to my face while pulling on a set of goggles as well.
“Araya, you could be killed.”
“I don’t expect you to understand, but I’m not leaving those kids out there to feel as though they weren’t important enough for someone to come for them. Now move out of my fucking way,” I blare, my voice a little muffled by the enclosed mask, and then I kick the door open to the outside hell dropping from the sky instead of rising from the ground.
The hollow whistling rushes into a roaring threat as the hellacious winds drag the ground to the sky into the center of the gaping hole created by the funnel acting like a big ass vacuum. It’s in full swing now, and its even more beautiful.
Shit. What the hell is wrong with me?
I feel my body being pulled, invited into the sky, and I shoot the first stake into the ground just as my feet jerk free from their unstable hold on the earth. My whole body flips upside down until I’m staring at the ground that has forsaken me.
I steady my breaths while quickly grabbing the second gun to shoot the next stake in. As soon as it connects, I press the button that cuts the rope to the first gun, and I slap the gun to my leg to load the next stake to continue the process of walking upside down.
I grunt as the suctioning force tries to rip me in half, and then my stupid, stupid gun jams just before I reach the door. Fucking shit.
I drop it to the ground just in time to dodge a flying sheet of metal, the corner of it scraping me with its uranium burn. I can feel the rope pulling free from the ground, warning me of my impending fate if I don’t think a little quicker. I grit my teeth and take a deep breath as I press the clip button on my still working piece.
The winds grab me, jerking me into the spinning vortex of oblivion, but within a blink, I find the next stake, load it, and then I shoot it into the ground just in front of the door before I get too far out of range.
I can feel it slipping almost immediately - more distance than my other shots has gathered between me and the ground this time, making the depth of my shot so much less. I pull against it to climb downward very quickly but cautiously. The wind slaps me in the face, ripping my mask free with its long, deft fingers.
The sand rushes my nose, eyes, and mouth, leaving me squinting and fighting blindly against the storm while struggling to breathe. I grab a hold of the doorframe just as the rope is violently sucked from the ground, and I use my telekinesis to knock the door open.
Come on, damn it. Almost there.
Using every ounce of my strength, I pull myself into the opening before forcing the door shut. A set of lockers catches my eye from my peripheral, and I use my gift to slide them in front of the door to help hold it shut. Shaking my head free of the excess dust, I start running through the halls.
I finally hear the crying sound again when glass shatters, and I see the kids huddled in a corner of an oversized closet area behind a classroom.
I force the lockers behind me into the room to block the windows long enough for me to run by. I slide into the closeted area just as the force of the storm proves to be stronger than me, ripping the lockers free from the room. I force the desk against the door of the room, and a little girl trembles as I scoop her up off the ground.
“Why aren’t you in the basement?” I ask one of the older ones.
“The basement caved in during the blast. We couldn’t find everyone, and we wouldn’t leave until we did. By the time we were all accounted for, the storm was too bad to go outside,” he answers, his voice trembling and tears filling his eyes.
My own eyes water as I stare at the scared, forgotten left behind. They’re sticking together the way we had to.
“You came for… us?” a girl asks in shocked bemusement.
“Of course I did,” I say soothingly as my fingers strum the tears from her eyes.
Then the lesser structured roof on the school starts to pull free from the foundation. The twisting groans of the metal ring out louder, warning me of the inevitable bound to happen any second now.
“Fuck,” I spew while staring at the roof lifting higher, and the children start screaming as dust fills the room.
I hold my hands up toward the retreating tin cover to pull it back to base. A boy gasps when he sees my show of power, and he runs over to hold onto my leg. He can’t be more than five. His soft hybrid eyes stare up into mine with such adoration and need - as though he’s just seen an angel instead of a hybrid. He clings to me like I’m the protector he’s been needing his whole life.
“You’re gifted,” a girl gushes. “You’re hybrid… like us.”
Apparently they can’t read the eyes yet.
“I am, now get down. I can’t do this for too long or something really bad will happen,” I strain out. “Is all of the basement caved in?”
“The east half may not be,” an older boy asserts, and then suddenly I hear an explosion rattling against the lockers I had planted against the front door.
“Araya!” Hale screams.
“I’m in here,” I shout back.
I move the desk out of the way as he and Brazen rush into the room - clawing and fighting their way past the suctioning force of the first one. I actually have to use some of my gift to keep them from being pulled out before they fully reach safety and return the desk to block the door.
“You came for us too?” the boy on my leg gushes while staring at the two men who probably want to choke me for running off without them.
“They came for her,” a girl tries to whisper.
“We came for both,” Brazen interjects, and he scoops a child up off the floor.
“I can’t hold this for much longer before all hell breaks loose. The east wing’s basement might not be collapsed, but it’ll take too long to get there with this many injured. Can you clear a path on this end?” I ask Hale.
“I just injected myself with the beast taming meds before I attempted this, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Start getting them out, and I’ll hold it from here until I feel it’s safe to start moving.”
They both do as I ask, but the small boy clinging to me refuses to move. Hale starts to pull him off me, but the boy starts screaming as he holds on all the tighter.
“Go, I’ll carry him with me,” I strain out, and the walls begin rattling when the storm threatens to tear them to shreds.
“Hurry up,” Hale say
s, and then he scoops up three smaller children before running toward the back door of the closet leading into another hallway.
I hear the explosion that signals me, letting me know Hale has cleared a path. I scoop the boy up before barreling down the hall behind them, keeping the roof attached the best I can until I’m too far away to feel connected. It starts ripping off like the lid on a can being peeled back, and I dash into the opening before slamming a hunk of wood against it.
I sit the small boy down while Hale and Brazen shove poles against the wood to wedge it into place in order to relieve me from using my gift. I barely stopped in time, but the explosive devil inside hasn’t been provoked. Hale walks in front of us to another blocked off area, and he winks at me as the debris explodes and sizzles into nothing.
The structure remains intact, and his lips find mine as Brazen leads the way into the pitch black area below.
“You know what using my gift does to me,” Hale whispers into my ear.
“You know what it does to me when you use it too,” I seduce, and he grabs my ass for a second before Brazen finds an emergency generator to power on the lights.
“We can duck out down here until it subsides,” he murmurs softly while rocking a small girl in his arms to soothe her trembles.
Hale sits down on the ground, and two little ones join him in his lap. He smiles at the endearing action. The small boy that was attached to me rejoins me once more, and his head rests on my shoulder as he curls in my lap.
“Who are you?” an older child asks.
“They’re superheroes,” a young one giggles out.
Brazen chuckles lightly before responding, “We’re members of the United.”
“Are you a hybrid?” a little girl asks.
“I’m a full blood.”
They all shiver slightly, and I see his eyes wince upon seeing their terror-stricken reaction.
“And you came to help us?” she gasps in disbelief.
He frowns a little, and his eyes catch mine when he gets a glimpse of the fact the treatment of hybrid children hasn’t gotten better in all compounds. He always thought I was too sensitive, but now he sees it with his own eyes. Of course, I never shared with him the true horrors I endured growing up. He only knows the kid-friendly version.
