City of Twilight Part II: The Fallen (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 2)
Page 18
“I just asked Medea; she said they are. It took some time, but they started before we’d even begun the fight.”
“Well, let’s go,” Damaine shouted.
Xeno-James landed in front of them from a gap he had found in their blasts. He stood before them and straightened his stance. He had heard them, and was watching them suspiciously. He didn’t attack them, instead stared at them. His sharp voice was frighteningly beast-like.
“What are you talking about?” he asked them. His intelligence and ability to reason surprised Wolfgang. He then realized that he shared James’s mind, and so he had the same intelligence of James. Too bad really. Wolfgang grinned at it.
“We’re tearing this building down,” Wolfgang said, “to kill you.” Xeno-James looked at them in disbelief. Suddenly both Wolfgang and Damaine held up their arms and sent telekinetic blasts all around the floor underneath him and the ceiling above him. After half a second, metal beams and debris from all directions began flying at the creature from another of their attacks. He deflected a few of them with his arm, but many more came at him. The sound of metal hitting metal rang loud as the beams struck him, crashing against his body.
He was flailing his arm and body about, trying to stop the objects flying at him, but it was too much. In a short amount of time the floor had cracked below him, and he fell through with all the rubble falling on top of him. They continued to pile more over him until they knew he wouldn’t be able to move, for at least a few minutes. Wolfgang and Damaine both ran towards the nearest window and one of them broke the glass through with telekinesis. They both leapt out, using their abilities to land on the street below without harm.
James was motionless below the mass of rubble, and suddenly he was his own mind again. Where am I? What happened? He felt the strong pain in his entire body, and realized he was covered in a heavy amount of metal and debris. I need to get out from here. Where his right arm used to be throbbed again, and he felt faint. He tried to stay conscious as he tried to find a way to break free.
85
Christina and the rebel soldiers led by detective Garrett and William of the fallen had made it to the bottom floor, but on the way they’d taken several steps to make sure they weren’t caught again. They were all disguised in soldier uniforms, including Christina. William had somehow even disguised himself, appearing as a low ranking Civic Protection soldier. They’d instructed Christina to follow them in their line as they exited the building.
They left through the front doors of the capital along with several other groups of soldiers. None questioned Garrett’s ranking as he led them away. They’d no idea what was happening with James, although they could feel the rumbling from the stairwell as they climbed down. Apparently the fight had left the building, and had moved on to somewhere else.
The actions of Civic Protection confused them, and Garrett grabbed one of the low ranking soldiers running by.
“Soldier,” Garrett said, “what’s going on?” The young man stopped and looked at them surprised.
“The Hunter is in that building fighting some of the fallen,” the soldier said, pointing to the building across the street, “and we’re about to collapse it.”
“Collapse the building?”
“They designed some sort of controlled demolition. It’ll collapse that building, but won’t hurt any of the others around it. I guess with the exception of a little smoke and dust.” Garrett looked for a second, and told the soldier to carry on.
He stood for a moment, wondering what to do. He turned to Christina, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do.” She was still shocked by what she’d just heard. She was about to say something when there was a loud rumble, and they saw the bottom three floors of the building light up next to the capital. It shook for a moment, and then started to collapse inward on itself. Christina yelled, but her scream was muffled by the loud rumble of the building collapsing.
As a wall of smoke and dust approached them, Garrett motioned to the others, and they grabbed Christina and pulled her away. They started running; until they reached a van Garrett had left parked there earlier that day. They pushed her in quickly, although she fought them. She had turned pale as she still looked back, seeing the building completely leveled. The dust was all around them, but was settling fast. They all entered the van after two men restrained her enough that she could calm down and no longer fight them, and Garrett quickly started the vehicle. William stood outside, and hesitated for a moment. He then climbed in with the rest of them. Christina was still in shock.
“James, you left me. Again,” she said. Garret turned to her, then to William.
“We need to get her out of here and to the underground base.” William nodded, glancing at Christina and then at the collapsed building. He shook his head slightly, not sure what to say to comfort her.
86
It was early morning, and several hours had gone by since the building had collapsed on top of James. Christina was sitting in the underground facility, in the cafeteria. Garrett had reintroduced himself as Sean Garrett, formerly a Civic Protection detective. She ended up taking the whole group to the underground facility. She verified that he was a part of the resistance, and they let him in. Khaleel was currently discussing strategies with him on how they could effectively fight Civic Protection. Neither believed James was really dead.
Elsewhere in the base, as well as in all the resistance outposts, people were preparing for battle. Resistance members were giving out weapons and ammunition, forming squads, and trying to develop strategies as to how they could survive Civic Protection. Word had already come that Civic Protection was gathering their forces around the capital, as well as the outer edges of the city along the wall. They were planning on sweeping the city, to root out all members of the resistance.
Christina sat in silence staring at the table in front of her. Alicia sat next to her, holding her hand. They were both quiet. Alicia looked at Christina with sadness in her eyes.
“I can’t see him anywhere,” Alicia said. Christina knew instantly the girl was referring to her sixth sense, what James had referred to as the mind’s eye. They sat quietly, until Christina impulsively stood up. She held Alicia’s hand, and she moved slowly out of the cafeteria, into the hallway and lobby. They were surrounded by people, but everything felt like a blur to her. She felt alone. Everyone was moving except for her.
In another region of the city, the armies of the Civic Protection were preparing for war. Soldiers were taking rifles off racks, and covering their chests with body armor. There were helmets being issued and some gear that looked like modified riot gear. Loading and maintenance docks for tanks and gunships were being used to equip and ready their vehicles. Pilots and drivers were being briefed and prepared as well.
Dante stood on one of those docks, watching everything quietly with his arms crossed. Medea stood next to him, talking on her phone. They were both somewhat relaxed, despite the day’s planned events. Dante still had a look of concern on his face, thinking about James Vanguard. He pushed his doubts aside however, telling himself that there was no way anyone could have survived a building collapsing like that. Of course, no one could have survived it the first time he crawled out of a building’s rubble.
The view of Dante and Medea faded out, as the top of the Civic Protection headquarters building was seen. Higher above that building was the skyline of Capital District, where it met with Lower District. The heights of the buildings were clearly visible the closer the sky came to him. He could see higher than the capital building and higher than any building in all of Dirge. Soon he was passing by clouds, and the view above him came into focus. There was a holographic gleam, the illusion of a sky. Beyond that was layer upon layer of metal plates, forming a giant metal dome above the city; a ceiling above Dirge creating a sky no lighter than the twilight hours of the day. Beyond that dome was a clear, blue sky.
Suddenly
James opened his eyes, and he knew the truth.