He gasped. His face was whiter, lips going blue.
"Andrés! Stay with me!" Drips from my hair landed on his face as I leaned over him. I tried not to scream. "It'll be ok. I'm going to get you out of here. Your bees need you."
His lips moved, the effort of forming words apparent. "And your Bee needs you. Keep her safe, Kaitlyn."
And then Andrés went still. My chest gave way to burning, as though I had a lungful of water. Perhaps I hadn't survived the flood after all. Maybe I had yet to realize I was dead. But if that was the case, it meant Bee was dead too. And that was unacceptable.
I rose to my feet, adjusting my headlamp, and began walking in the direction of the water, passing more limp bodies along the way.
When I emerged from the caves, I shielded my eyes from the bright sun. As my pupils adjusted, a lone form took shape.
"Natasha?" I recognized her as the Water on Brandt's team.
Out of breath, she leaned on a large boulder.
"What happened? Where's Brandt?"
I walked toward her slowly, attempting to catch my own breath as her chest still heaved in and out. I looked closer at her uniform.
Torn in several places, it looked as though she had been crawling through the dirt. "He's…he's…dead, I think."
I stopped walking.
Tears streamed down her face. "It was Nina – she turned on us. Everything we accomplished; all of our plans – she probably told One Less."
Natasha pushed herself off the rock and moved behind it. The sound of her emptying the contents of her stomach could barely be heard above the roar in my ears.
My stomach dropped, and the pain forming in my chest filled the hole.
Natasha came out from behind the rock, wiping her mouth. She tried not to look at me. "We found Shawn, and I was about to type in the coordinates, when she attacked. I just ran. I'm so sorry – I couldn't save him." Her face crumpled. "There were too many."
I forced myself to move. The effort of lifting my arm to wipe dirt from her cheek was monumental. "I have to get there – do you remember which way?"
Natasha looked back through the forest, desperation lighting her eyes. She began to shake. "I was zigzagging, trying to lose them."
"It's okay," I put my hand on her shoulder, spinning her back around. "We'll find some other way."
Footsteps stumbling over rock echoed behind us.
I turned, and there stood Susan at the entrance to the cave. She was still dressed in her elbow and kneepads; a full harness gripped her waist– carabineers hanging off.
I ran to her, wrapping my arms around her neck as tight as I could. "Susan – thank God!"
She stood eerily still.
I sniffed into her shoulder. "Brandt, he…they killed him. There was a traitor." Cold seeped through my still damp clothes; Susan was soaking wet. I released her and took a step back. "What happened? Where's your team?"
Susan finally looked down at me, face white. "We found Shawn's intel hub. Before we destroyed it I sent half the team back out."
Faces of those disappearing into the cave with Susan after we dropped them off from the van flashed through my head. "Zola?"
Susan's lips went tight, turning them almost as white as her face. "She didn't make it."
Susan put a cold, round, metallic object in my hand. The lid from the jar of dirt I had given Zola, marked with the same spiral of life symbol that adorned the back of our jackets. A small piece of glass still stuck out from underneath.
Brandt, Zola, Uri, Andrés, Jose from Galapagos, Vayu and Cato on Heard and McDonald Islands, my parents…how many more would we lose before it was over?
I didn't feel the same sinking feeling in my chest for Zola as I did for Brandt's death. Now there was only numbness.
"What do we do now?" Natasha asked, stepping up beside us.
"Now," I said, "we do something drastic."
Chapter 65
Plays with Fire
The two Fires crept into the clearing after making a full loop, scouting out the entire area. No one else was there. They approached the bundle of blankets on the ground of the forest path, leaves and twigs crunching underfoot. The bundle moved.
"Oh my God, it's a baby," one man said.
"Shawn didn't say anything about babies," commented the other.
"What's that wrapped around the blankets?" The first man nudged the baby with the boot of his toe.
"Don't touch it!" hissed the other. He rolled his eyes and squat down to inspect. "Charms – beaded on a necklace."
"Well – what do we do with it?"
"Shawn said—"
"I know what Shawn said, but he doesn't pay us enough to be baby killers!"
"Oh really, Evan? And just how high have you set your price?"
"I don't know, man." Evan shrugged. "Like, maybe triple."
The two fell silent, staring down at the baby, squirming and kicking at the blankets.
"Ok." Evan nodded. "Couldn't hurt to ask." He pulled out his radio. "Fire team six to Papa Bird. Come in Papa Bird."
They waited in silence a full minute.
"He could be underground, out of range."
Evan put the radio to his mouth again, walking away from the baby. "Fire team six to Papa Bird. Come in Papa Bird."
This time, he was answered with sporadic crackling.
"Shawn?"
"Yeah – go ahead Fire team six," Shawn's grumpy voice shot through the clearing.
"Um." Evan glanced at his partner, who nodded his encouragement. "There is a baby here. What do we do with it?"
Shawn began yelling, but his tirade was going in and out, the connection succumbing to the volatile atmosphere between them. The only intelligible words that came through were no help.
"What's he saying?"
"A lot of curse words, man. He's mad." Evan put the radio to his mouth again. "We did—" His voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again, "We do not read you, Papa Bird. Say again, over."
More crackling, another curse word, and the airways went silent. Dead silent.
Evan lowered the radio to his side and the two approached the baby again. It played with a golden leaf. "Sometimes, I've learned…it's better to ask for forgiveness that to ask for permission. I'm sure he'll take into consideration the magnitude of what we've done and give us a bonus or something. Besides, if Operation Solar Flare does happen today like Alexia said, it might not survive anyway."
The other nodded, forcing himself to believe the reasoning. "Okay, but we do this together – and no mention of it afterward to anyone, except Shawn."
The pair stepped back until the rosy-cheeked face was obscured by the blankets. They held out their hands, palms up, and called to their element. Evan looked away, the other turned his head, eyeing the target briefly.
As they moved their fireballs in unison, up and behind their backs for the throw, Evan said, "Wait – what's that?"
An eerie glow took a dome-like shape over the baby. Bits of sunlight filtered through the tree canopy above, glinting off the dome in waves of gold. Inside, the baby still played with the leaf. The blankets had been completed kicked off by now. The pair studied the swirly symbol on the chest of the white sleep suit, their elements still raging in their hands.
"What does that mean?"
The baby bent one leg, planting its foot firmly on the ground, and jerked – rolling over. The two peered down at the words on its back; Plays with Fire.
A glance at each other, a step back, and their Fire grew hotter as they took aim again. A noise caused both their heads to snap up.
A woman stood just at the edge of the clearing, face obscured by shadows. She was dressed in a dark, camouflaged uniform.
A park ranger? Evan wondered. "Who are you?"
She stepped into the clearing. The long gold and brown curls hanging off her head were eerily still as she moved forward. The two men involuntarily stepped back at her approach. She stopped on the other side of the bundle. "I am the mother."<
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The fire in their palms grew, but not at their command. The flames licked at their faces, turning against them. They leaned away, quickly extinguishing their element. A block of air, condensed so tight it felt like a wall of bricks, hit them from the side.
Evan found himself on the ground. He lifted up onto his elbows to find his partner next to him, unconscious. He scrambled to his feet as the woman approached, now with the baby in her arms. Two other women, both dressed in the same uniform, flanked her.
"You…you're the Gaia," Evan stuttered.
"Like I said."
Evan was lifted into the air, the breath knocked from his lungs by an unseen force, only to be replaced by water rolling in, drawn from the atmosphere around him. Suspended above the women, his legs kicked frantically as he clawed at his throat.
He dropped, hard onto the ground. His limbs went still as he watched the perpendicular view of six pairs of tan boots walking away.
Chapter 66
The Commute from Hell
My boots pounded the ground of the forest, sidestepping tree roots, taking firm bounds from solid rock where they could. I ditched Bee's blanket but wrapped the necklace three times around her ankle as I ran. It had literally worked like a charm. My shield was almost as strong as when Micah had helped. I just didn't know how long it would last.
Susan and Natasha kept up. I heard the reassuring fall of each of their steps close behind. Susan was carrying the empty baby backpack with her. Our forward progress came to an abrupt stop as three Fires stepped out onto the path. Behind us emerged three more, each holding a fireball in their open palms. It was group training, then. Designed like a martial art with the same starting stance to be followed by predictable, synchronized movements. Easy to train the masses, but did not play on the individual's strengths.
I set Bee down on the ground, silently wishing I still had the blankets. The three of us circled Bee, then turned to face the group of Fires.
Half of them threw their element. The other half disappeared into the forest. Susan and Natasha spun a thin wall of water quicker than I could. I used air to help shape it. When the fireballs hit it, nothing but steam came through, blasting us in the face.
Good for the pores.
I pushed the wall of water out, drenching the Fires. Suddenly, they didn't look so tough. I put the shield up around Bee, solid and strong. Crunching leaves gave away the position of the other Fires, just before their onslaught.
I spun a second shield large enough to cover the three of us, albeit weaker.
I glanced over my shoulder. "Natasha –" I threw my iPad at her. "Try sending Shawn's location to the other teams. Let them know his call sign, too." Setting Bee out as bait gave us more than his call sign. It gave us one of their radios and allowed us to pinpoint Shawn's signal, triangulating his position when he answered their call. I didn't have too much trepidation about doing it; her grandmother was standing guard, and still was.
My shield held back the fire; bits of flames dropped to the ground, burning out its own energy. They hadn’t exhausted their power – I could feel what they were capable of. I shifted the field out from around the three of us, condensing its strength into one, solid dome over Natasha. Before it was complete, two Fires closest to her targeted her with a combined, solid blast of flame.
I stumbled back, shielding my face from the heat. Fire crept up under the bottom, licking at Natasha’s boots. I managed to complete the shield as she glanced at me, eyebrows raised. I gestured for her to continue and she leaned over, typing away on her iPad, crouched down.
Bee's protection still held.
Thank you, mother.
Behind me, I felt Susan's water fend off another attack. We couldn't continue to play defense. It was just a matter of time before our energy was depleted.
"Okay!" Natasha shouted from underneath the shield. I closed my eyes to concentrate on the frequency of the rapidly drying air. Weaving a net, I pushed it out from me, scooping up the two attacking Natasha, catching their fire on the way. They went flying back into the trees, tightly wound up in their own deadly element. Each slammed head first into a tree and dropped ten feet to the ground. One began to roll, smothering his flames. The other lay unconscious as his element ate away at his shirt and pants.
Flickering out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. Bee's shield was failing. The three of us moved back into position around her. I stepped back over her; intent on protecting Bee with my own body should her shield fail.
The Fires paused in their attack. There were only four of them now. Some stood tall, assuming their initial fighting stance with a ball of fire in their hand. Another was bent over, still trying to catch his breath. Susan and I exchanged glances. I saw the silent desperation in her face; time to attack.
Susan wove an orb of water above her palm. I looked at Natasha; she had already done the same. They needed to start shoving their element down people's throats. But drowning took time. I was not sure how else water could kill.
Air wasn't much better, the sound of cracking skulls against trees was beginning to sicken me. I took a deep breath, lowering my energy frequency to match the pitch of the earth below us. It rumbled in response. Pockets of air and water in the caves below altered its reaction, making it hard to control.
"Hold on," I told my Waters. "It's gonna get shaky. Susan – pick one and stay with him until he's done. We'll hold off the others."
She nodded as the Fires attacked. Natasha sent up a shield of water this time. I felt Susan using particles from the shield, directing them toward the closest Fire. He gagged, trying to close his throat to the element, but within seconds it would be in his lungs. I continued to concentrate on earth, encouraging movement. It was a slow but steady magic – maybe not the best choice in a firefight.
Bits of flaming debris hit my shoulder. I brushed it off and glanced at Natasha's water wall. Through it came another ball of matter – also on fire. It hit my leg. Flaming mud balls. Natasha released her wall. I yanked on Susan's shoulder and the three of us ducked as the next round went flying over our heads. Susan's man was on his knees now.
Come on, water – do your worst. Do your worst faster.
As we straightened, I wove air, sending the man in front of me flying back into the trees. His midsection absorbed the blow, and he hit the ground, gasping for air. I deprived him, pulling the oxygen back away from his open mouth. As I stepped forward, aiming for the next man, Natasha stepped back – covering Bee with her own leg. When she dove to dodge another fireball, Susan stepped back – until I could resume my place. Bee's shield barely held.
Finally, the soft thud of body on ground told us Susan was successful. Now we were evenly matched – three against three. The victory was short lived. Another sound from above drew my attention. The three remaining fires were creating their own shield over our entire field of battle. They kept their energy steady until just before their element was created. It was heat, but not flame. The atmosphere around us crackled as it grew dry and brittle.
"What is that?" Natasha looked around wildly. They couldn't see it, but there was no denying the sudden depletion of their element. A fireball flew straight for her.
My scream was too late. Natasha turned, but only had time to throw her arm in front of her face to absorb the blow. Her entire arm, from wrist to bicep, went up in flame. She screamed, waving her arm in frantic jerks. Bee began to cry, shield now nonexistent.
I tackled Natasha, sending her – flaming limb first – into the ground. A yelp from behind had me back on my feet quicker than I cared to be. A Fire had Susan by the hair, dragging her away. The crackling whoosh of a fireball flew past my ear, missing me by inches. The shaking ground was at least throwing off their aim, but not their forward progress. A Fire marched toward me, fists balled, ready for a fight. I dodged his first punch.
"Fucking symbol it up, Susan!" I yelled over my shoulder.
"Oh, right." She removed the large chalice from her belt and swung h
er arm up before the Fire knew what she was doing. I heard the clang from where I stood. I swept my foot just below my opponent's knees and risked a glance at Susan. Blood streamed down her attacker's face. She took another swipe that hit him at the temple. He went down to one knee but wasn't out. In a purely physical fight, Susan was going to lose.
I dodged another punch, and countered with my own. He caught my fist midair. I swung my head back, then forward again, connecting with his nose. Another Fire came in from the woods, holding his side.
Damn, outnumbered again.
Large hands closed around my throat, spinning me and pushing me back – away from my team, and away from Bee. Natasha, holding her injured arm, scooted back into the woods, defending an onslaught of now two Fires with what moisture she could.
Another small group of Fires ran into the mix.
Where is our backup?
Oh right, we never called for any. We sent them to Shawn, instead. I tried planting my feet, holding firm. It only resulted in us both going down, him on top. He straddled me, keeping a steady, squeezing noose around my neck.
I resorted to clawing at his hands as desperation set in. Sounds of the battle began to drown out. Only Bees cry rang loud and clear in my head.
My grip loosened over his hands. Through teary eyes, I watched two Fires approach Bee with the same uncertainty of the last two in the clearing. That wouldn't have turned out well. I tried to yell out, but the burning in my lungs was morphing into an eerie numbness.
A fuzzy, dark shadow crept into my vision.
Oh, God – this is it. I'm dying.
But the shadow moved with human fluidity, disappearing behind my opponent's head. The shot rang out, cutting through all the heavy grunts and screams of pain like a call to arms.
I stared at the exit hole on the side of my attacker's forehead. A wisp of smoke floated out from the red and gray mess. A strong arm pulled me to the side as the dead man fell forward.
Fire Page 24
