“This way!” Robert called for the others.
The girls didn’t hesitate after that, and came crawling down the gutters as Rob pushed from the back.
Dave gave me a stern look. “Really?”
“What?” I shrugged.
“You pushed an Untrained out the window.”
“Yep,” I said plainly.
“I can’t possibly jump!” Ilke pleaded, her brown eyes dark with dread.
“Go down the steel pipe now, or I’ll push you, too,” I said brusquely.
One by one, the girls made it down, whimpering all the way. Renatha caught my glare and refused to break eye contact as she cluttered down the drainage system. I kept my eyes on hers, knowing she’d hated heights once, but couldn’t remember why. I smiled as her feet hit the ground, trying to comfort the little humanity she still held. Down below, pupils scattered, yelling in the street. I saw the red bike from the hangar parked across the dirt road, next to the wall bordering the boys’ dorms. I felt him even before our eyes met, his proximity to me had kept me composed all this time. Robert grabbed Sam and jumped down, landing like a cat with a ball of fur between his arms. Dave gave me the go-ahead and reached over to Sage. I jumped from the window, bending my knees as I hit the ground in a low crouch. I got odd stares from the girls as I landed perfectly on a small patch of grass.
“What’s happening?” I heard one of the girls ask.
I looked up at the apartment block, the back of the dormitory roof was one solid flame, tearing at the blackness of a starless night.
“What’s going on?” I yelled to Robert.
“An attack,” he murmured.
“Who?” Ilke wiped tears. “Why would they do this to us?”
I guess it took near death to bring out a few human emotions in some of the girls, which was sad, really. Robert was about to blurt it all out, but I silenced him with a cold, hard stare. I didn’t think any of them were in the right mental state to acknowledge that we were all pawns in a much bigger war. Mutant soldiers created to win wars over humans. Then it hit me. I now knew where I had seen that symbol Sage had pushed into my head earlier. The burning eye of the Illuminates. Mom’s code from her diaries filtered into my vision like before. Symbols and letters scattered over two diaries, throughout many pages. Inscriptions formed in blue, radiant words before me. A Devine weapon. The fall. Mutant army. Cure. Earth. Death of all mankind. There was one little word that faded before I could register a feeling of losing the most important piece to the puzzle. Sam took my hand as it all fell away before I could gather it back up.
“Stand back,” Troy yelled from the other side of the garden wall. With a loud bang, the bricked barrier shook and it all started falling. Dave and I immediately ran for the wall, simultaneously kicking to assist the downfall, yelling loudly as the wall came down on the other side. Swiftly, Troy pulled girls through the gaping hole in the wall and onto the street, far away from the flames. As Robert guided girls over the collapsed wall, I looked into lost faces and for some reason, all thought and action had drained from their minds as fear gripped them while they followed blindly along. We could have pushed them right into the flames, and they would not have cared at that moment. It was as if the brain could not make sense of the danger; there was no connection between fear and action for those who had been under the Council’s meds for too long. But for others, I had seen them experience fear for the first time, but had no idea how to act on it.
“This way girls! Follow Greg,” Troy called to the others scattered around blindly, seeking some direction.
To my surprise, Sonya thanked me for saving her with a brief nod, limping over broken bricks and scattered chunks of wall. Like senseless flock of sheep, girls ran over and into the street, neurotically looking around for any sign of the invaders. I went back for my boots, which were still hidden underneath the bush. Hastily, I slipped them on and ran over the bricks, stone and glass littering the street, frantically searching for Sam and Sage with the feeling that the attack was not over yet. Troy whistled for me from across the street, his bike roaring to life. I ran as fast as I could, and threw my arms around his neck as he leaned on the bike casually. At the touch of our skin, my body exploded with everything I should have felt earlier. The heat of the fire, the burn, the cuts and the strain on my muscles as I jumped down from the second story window. As much as it ached, it was a good feeling to own.
“Are you okay?” Troy asked, while holding me.
It never crossed my mind that they could all see me – alive! I looked around, noticing how off-guard everyone had been caught. It was way past curfew, so most were wearing standard issue sleep gear. I grabbed on to Troy’s bare chest as I slid onto the bike behind him, my hand shamelessly gliding over every ripple of his naked torso. I bit down on my lower lip as I took in all of his bare skin, feeling all kinds of strange, yet welcoming, sensations ignite within me. My other hand glided over the top of his low-riding denims, looking for a firm grip before we sped off. I turned one last time, looking for my friends, and there stood Sam. Our eyes locked. She had a feral look about her, all wrapped up in Robert’s arms as they started making their way out of the city. I placed the look on her face – possessiveness. Military boys were quickly streaming through the streets, gathering kids into a protective formation. I yelled for Sam, needing to keep her close, because there was something familiar about her behavior I couldn’t place just yet.
“Troy. I can’t leave Sam,” I yelled to him through all the clamor, trying to get off the bike.
“Ava, you go, I’ll be fine!” I heard her shout over the crowd, but all I could see was her red hair and Sage’s gray vest beside her through the mob of people being escorted away from the danger.
“We need to go,” Troy insisted, grabbing my thigh lightly.
More explosive shots and flames rumbled through our small city. Almost a physical pang hit me as I felt myself being torn away from my best friend again. We sped off, wheels screeching, dust meeting smoke.
“Hold on tight!” his voice boomed, as we took off with a jerk.
My body threatened to peel away from his when he accelerated. Tucking myself neatly behind him, I registered blasts rupturing through the city, shaking the ground, bringing the walls down around us. Staring at the reflection of flames on the red, shiny paint of the bike’s tank, I felt the claws of dread take hold. As we sped past the main wall separating the park and dormitories from our school, my eyes fell on a group of Keepers staring blankly at the chaos unfolding in our city. My eyes caught Kim’s, then shifted to Vice President Vermaak standing beside her. Wiping my hair from my face, I kept a hurtful glare, enforcing the blame I felt toward her for everything that had transpired. The fist of remorse dug its way deep into my stomach as I turned, watching dark shadows and orange flames flicker and flare in my vision. With my body curled around Troy’s, I jerked at his sudden yell. That’s when I caught sight of cyborgs crashing through walls and trees, running right for us, mechanical eyes honed onto their targets.
“Troy!”
“I see them,” he assured me, looking back. “Robert and Dave have too, so don’t worry.”
“What’s going on?”
“They are here for you, Ava!”
“How come?”
“What?” he shouted.
“Why?” I felt my hands bunch into his robust flesh as the anger took over in flustering waves. I didn’t want to acknowledge that I already knew they had come for me, but the feel of him kept the blood-shift at bay, and with it answers to my connection to the robotic beasts. Before he could answer, we ducked under a flying comet of flames. I turned in the direction it had come from, staring into the face, or lack thereof, of one of the androids as we sped past. My hair clung to my face as my head turned back into the safety of Troy’s body shielding mine. I closed my eyes feeling the horror of his existence churn inside of me – that was no cyborg, because that would imply he would be half human. I could tell the human element was entire
ly absent from the creature. He was part of the newly bred Shadow army. I felt the burn in my veins as my anger flared toward the cruelty that had brought them to be. It’s long, bionic, golden arm extended a gloomy gray light, flames reared around his canon arm and with the softest swoosh, another ball of fire came careening our way. Then, another ball turned, coming back to finish the job. Two enchanted fireballs were closing the narrow distance between life and death. I screamed as we swerved to the left, the balls crossed over and whirled past us as we frantically looked around for more danger. But, both balls bent the very air and came back for us again, their fiery talons reflecting off the glass of the city market’s windows as we sped past.
“Go, go, go!” I shouted.
Unbelievably, another ball of fire came from an entirely new direction, this time through the trees. More androids came spilling out of the forest in groups. I looked in both directions; calculated that there were about four balls of fiery death honed in on us.
“Heat sensors!” Troy confirmed. “When I say jump…”
“Jump!” I yelled as the blazing balls materialized right before my face, singeing the tiny hairs on my arms as they neared. Pulling Troy from his bike by the belt hooks on his denims, I swung my body off, taking him with me. Troy had no choice but to kick the bike away from us, his arm hooking around my waist, pulling me underneath him. We rolled a few times through the dirt. A ball of dark fire exploded onto the bike, and another followed the heat of the explosion to ensure no escape for its target. We caught a glimpse of the bike as it crashed right through the café’s wall. Not being able to stop, we kept tumbling down the sloping ground, scraping knees, elbows and anything else unlucky enough not to be tucked into our little embraced orb. Scared to let each other go, we took the punishment of rolling over sharp pieces of debris and stones. Even though it felt like we were about to fall apart, I had never felt as safe inside the circle of his arms as our bodies came to a slow standstill. I cringed, because I had felt each gutting bump, each rip in my flesh and ache into my bones. This was the one time I was not happy I could feel. I lay beneath him, looking up as he wiped my hair from my face, and then our eyes shot to the spot where the bike had crashed.
He shouted out of anger as he stood, his fist a white ball of rage, staring at the very spot the bike had been. Not even so much as a metal frame remained. The café was engulfed in flames, the trees around us blackened, little cinders of red lingered, flickering in the night. The crackling of fire drowned out the thunder, but soon lightning cut across dark skies reminding me of the looming storm. The first storm since the season had changed. Smoke penetrated the night with its acidic taste. I stared at the dissipating clouds of smolder and fire, searching for signs of life. Not only had the bike been obliterated, the fire had eaten through the metal and glass which had made up the side of the café. I turned when I heard the hum of droids as they kept advancing, a droning noise of metal on metal as they accelerated toward us. In an instant, we were surrounded by three of those humanless forms. I grabbed one of the helmets that had fallen from the bike, and flung it at the droids. It had almost no, if any, impact as it hit one of them on the side of the head. What a waste of a shot, I thought.
“Let’s get out of here,” Troy said with bitter distaste.
He cocked his head in the direction of a nearby branch hanging low over the building of what was once our café. Only three walls and a warped roof held the remains from complete ruin. We stood, staring the droids down as they slowly continued making their way toward us. Ever so gently, Troy let go of my hip, slipping out enchanted star shaped blades from his denim pockets. The stormy clouds and smoke reflected off the bright, glinting metal. I pushed my sleeves to my elbows, ready to jump, grab hold of the branch and swing my body up and onto it. Troy threw his enchanted star-shaped blades through the air, metal sparked blue as the blades continued their flight. Thunder growled and tore through dark skies above. A smidgen of slight relief welcoming as the rain started falling; it would kill the fire – eventually. But at that moment, strong winds were pushing the starved fire through our city and the fact that Poseidon was very rich in oxygen, gave the flames the push they needed to eat through anything in its path.
“Go!” he shouted, flinging blades into the droids. I leapt, grabbing on to anything and everything to lift myself from the ground, jumped onto what was left of the wall, hurled myself over the roof and caught the branches. From above, I stared at the locked, metal gate that cut off the city to the Minoan footpath, realizing everyone was trapped inside the walls of the city. I looked back, but Troy was already at my side. Two of those animated machines crashed down face first into the dust and smoke below.
“Good shooting!” I grinned.
I pulled a star blade from his hand and threw it, so it would slice and then explode on the gate’s lock.
“Just go!” he shouted, and pushed me toward a branch and then another. I grabbed and pulled and swung my way into the forest. I got my chance to see my gymnastic training in action as my arms pulled and my body swung, legs hauling my frame over numerous branches. Troy was right behind my every move, his warm hands gently steering me forward, our bodies synched, as if we were simply dancing our way out of the danger, balls of flames scraping past us. At one point, Troy’s denims caught alight and we stopped to pat the remaining flames to death. I looked beneath us, a droid had his shooting arm at the ready, taking aim. Looking back, more droids smashed through the wall and iron gate like they weren’t even there. Flames hit a branch nearby. The star blade that had embedded itself in the gate exploded, taking out a droid’s leg. Two birds with one shot!
“That was too close! We need to go faster,” Troy warned.
Grabbing on to Troy’s wrist as he held a blade, I flicked it and he let go, the silver star sparkled through the air hitting the android in the face. On impact, his face was replaced by a dirty, golden, metal frame; he bled a black, ink-like substance, and some kind of gas leaked out of what I imagined to be his mouth. It then smashed to the ground, the earth quacking beneath the trees at the force of his fall. The tree creaked and moaned as it took stress under the android’s weight. The drone of what sounded like a thousand metal aliens vibrated through the air. We were surrounded once again. Panic stricken, I looked around. Troy pulled me closer to him as we stood on a thick branch peering down. We were at the edge of the forest with no more trees before us to make our escape. A trail of droids littered any other escape route. They stood staring at me like I was something they needed to obtain in order to keep them alive – I was catching on.
Troy let out a heavy breath. “Over my dead body!” he yelled and jumped down, leaving me panicking on the branch by myself, a shower of blades raining down on the androids as he descended. I wondered if he had bottomless pockets where he stored them all. Unfortunately, only a few went down. Some of them got back up, somehow having adapted to the enchantments. They kept coming, even as the star blades melted into their metal bodies. Troy kept at it, kicking, punching and slashing his way through the pack of voracious androids. Their only weakness being that they were slow. But I knew in that moment that if we continued to run, they would keep coming, destroying our city and endangering everyone I knew until they got what they’d come for – me! So, I jumped from the treetop, putting my life and that of the prophecy at risk once more.
“Get back up there! You are too important…”
“Stop that!” I cut him off. One life over another made no sense to me, especially if an innocent life could be spared. Focusing my frustration, adverse energy and my fury toward them, I closed my eyes and let emotions flood and overwhelm me. This is how I knew to trigger the instinct of the mind-shift. It was all a play of emotions. I pulled on all the overpowering feelings from every corner of my mind and body, once more acting like an instrument – automatically, powerfully and somewhat accurately acknowledging their weakness. As my hand hit the ground, a wave of electricity violently tore through my body and into the earth b
eneath my feet. As a result of the overflow, a shockwave exploded into the ground as lightning tore through the sky above me, mirroring the pulse I had released.
“Jump!” I managed to force the words out through the insane pain erupting inside me. My organs felt incinerated, but still my skin remained frozen. Troy jumped as the ground seemed to light up with a purple bolt of lightning, striking the androids down with a loud crackle, followed by a giant pop. I collapsed the instant the current left me. When Troy grabbed me, the pain was blinding. I wanted to tell him to get off, to release me, so that I could just feel numb until the pain was no more. But feeling him, feeling pain, was better than not feeling anything at all.
“Are you…”
“On fire, my skin is on fire,” I said, swallowing hard at the scalded taste in my mouth.
“There was no need to do that,” he replied, pulling me into him.
At his touch, the threatening shift left and the emotions drained from me. Grateful I was finally able to do something right, I turned to see a few of the droids go up in iridescent, green- sparked flames. The star blades exploding from within their metal bodies.
“You forgot they were enchanted blades, you just needed some patience. Sometimes, all it takes is a little time.” He kissed me on my forehead.
I closed my eyes, trying to regain a sense of myself, to feel him beside me without the pain, every moment with him felt like the very last. Tears soaked my face from the agony inside, as much as the outside.
At that precise moment, a handful of droids seemed to come alive, jerking and staggering.
“Just as I suspected.” I tensed, then swore.
“Let’s get out of here,” Troy said, moving my hair from my face with his left hand and with his right hand holding mine, he turned.
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