Ballistic: Icarus Series, Book Two (35 page)

“All clear,” Zander said, staring out the small square of wired safety glass at the top of the emergency exit’s heavy metal door. “The swarm must have moved on.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Ty said. “Been pretty quiet out there for the last half hour, or so.”

“Thank God,” Tessa shuddered. “The big-uglies I can handle, but if I never see another one of them wiry little, hellhound-looking sons-a-bitches again, it’ll be too soon.”

Zander grabbed my hand and lowered his voice, so only I could hear. “I don’t feel
them
, Liv, but we are definitely not alone.”

“I know,” I whispered, sliding on the shades Riley had given me.

Since having my ribs bound, the pain had ebbed just enough for me to notice that familiar ache in the center of my chest. It was dull, for now, but it was definitely there. We pressed the door open, side-by-side, and stepped out into the blaring sun. The heat filled the concrete stairwell like a brick oven, pressing us down into the ground.

When I was little, I used to love playing in the sun. I fed off its warm rays like a flower blooming in the spring. Nothing made me happier than lying in the grass on a sunny day, staring up at a cloudless blue sky.

That simple joy had been swallowed up in the wake of the solar storm. My blue skies were awash in a sea of muddy orange that was littered with smoke and angry patches of angry green-gray clouds that did little to shelter us from the blinding rays that filled our atmosphere.

The sun was no longer a magical, life-giving thing. It was just another one of Icarus’s monsters. One that made it nearly as difficult to breathe as was to have hope.

“Christ on a cracker,” Ty groaned, shielding his eyes as we crested the top of the stairs. With a sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the sunglasses Jake had given him before we left. “As if I didn’t miss my Stetson enough already.”

“Www-what’s a sssstetson?” Devon asked, quickly sliding his own shades down from his forehead.

The poor guy was gripping his weapon so tightly his knuckles had gone pale. In his mind, the sharpened hockey stick in his hands was a rope dangling him over a pit of lava. Tessa patted him on the shoulder and hefted the fire ax to hers as she walked past him.

“Alright, Ballard, Ty, you two go and grab the bikes and head that way,” Tessa pointed across the lot. “Stick to the residential streets with the marked houses and go straight to the overpass, just like I said. You should have a clear view from behind the blue truck at the top near the buckle in the concrete. Go slowly and, for the love of God, be careful. There’s no telling how much longer that structure will hold up. I don’t want it caving in on your two while you are up there. Got me?”

“Got it,” Ballard nodded and squared his shoulders. “We’ll meet you back at F in a few hours.”

“Good man,” Tessa clapped his shoulder.

Ty smiled at me, tipped his invisible hat, then spun on his heel and took off with Ballard, across the empty airstrip. My chest tightened as I watched him get farther away. Tessa was at my side a moment later, her voice barely audible.

“Well?” She nudged me with the handle of her ax and peered over the tops of her dark lenses at me.

“Well, what?” I said, scanning the open lot, my saw-bat at the ready in my hands.

“This ain’t my first day of school, kid,” Tessa whispered shooting me a sideways glance as we ducked around the back corner of the main building. “Story time was great, don’t get me wrong, but you and your boyfriend know a hell of a lot more than what you are willing to say out loud. I get that you gotta protect your own, but seeing as how Devon and I are putting our lives on the line to help you, seems only fair that you be willing to share with the rest of the class.”

Chapter 31

Raid and Recon

“So, let me see if I have this all straight,” Tessa said, pointing her ax at the blackened windows of a red SUV as we walked past it. “
That
was a person?”

“Yep.”

“Jesus,” Tessa scrunched up her nose.

“N-n-nasty way to g-go,” Devon said, covering his mouth and nose in his collar.

“Better than going lurker,” Tessa shrugged poking at the hardened black splatter with her ax. “Speaking of which, how exactly did the two of you dodge that bullet?”

“We got lucky,” I shrugged.

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Zander said. “Liv found medicine that saved us, and almost got herself killed in the process.”

“Where is the medicine, now?” Tessa asked, grabbing my arm.

“There was only enough for one person, and now it’s gone,” I said.

“Right,” Tessa’s face fell.

“I just hope we weren’t too late,” I said.

“Are you—?” Tessa froze, pulling both of us to a stop in the middle of the bridge. “Wait, are you saying what I think you are saying?”

“There’s no guarantee it will work, but yes,” I said. “It could be hours before we know for sure, but Tessa, if it doesn’t work, you have to be prepared for the possibility—”

“Don’t,” Tessa pulled me into a tight hug. “Please, don’t say another word. Just let me have this. Let me
hope
, okay?”

I nodded against her shoulder and stood there until she finally pulled away. She patted my back, and then wiped a single tear from her cheek. The smile that stretched across her face made her hideous scar nearly impossible to see. Devon’s gaze never left the ground, but even his step seemed lighter, now.

“You guys, come and take a look at this.” Zander waved us over to the guardrail, and we ran to his side.

“Jesus,” Tessa said backing away from the side.

“It’s gone,” I said staring down into the pit of cracked soil that rested below the Beltline Bridge. “The water is gone.”

“I th-th-hink I know w-w-where it w-went,” Devon stared wide-eyed up into the sky.

The patchy field of darkened vapor that had been looming over our heads for the last few days had morphed into something much more sinister. The cluster of wedge-shaped wall clouds now dotted the sky for miles in either direction like of a fleet of alien warships; poised and ready to attack.

“We should move,” I said, clutching my ribs and picking up the pace to a steady jog.

The impact of every footfall was like a fresh blow to my midsection. The pain was agonizing, but the closer we got to the end of the bridge the less I noticed it. When we reached the opposite intersection a couple of minutes later, the pull in my chest was a scream compared to the whisper of my broken ribs. As we cleared the stoplight and made our way around the gas station to the back lot, I couldn’t take it anymore. My feet ground to a halt, sliding across the loosely pebbled concrete.

“Tessa, stop,” I shouted grabbing her by the wrist as she flew past me. Her momentum spun her back around to face me. Her boot skidded across the gravel, and a loose stone pegged me in the shin. I stumbled back, releasing her arm as the edges of my vision blurred.

“What the hell are you doing? The plane is right there,” she huffed, pointing across the field of debris. “We have to keep going.”

“They’re close,” Zander said stepping in front of Tessa.

The chords in his neck stretched tight, and his shoulders tensed. He turned sharply toward the wreckage in the field past the filling station. His eyes narrowed and a low groan rumbled in his chest. His weapon whooshed through the air as he raised it in front of him and slowly rocked it in his hands. The razor-sharp edges of the cleavers sliced through the air with ease, gleaming like a pair of hungry eyes.

“Who?” Tessa gripped her ax and spun in a circle, searching the area. “Who is here? Where the hell are they?”

“I—I don’t know,” I said slowly standing upright. My head was spinning with the effort.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Tessa began.

“Christ, just give me a second,” I said, pressing my hand against my chest.

My vision began to darken around the edges, so I closed my eyes. Every breath felt like molten lava dripping into my lungs. I bent at the waist and braced myself on the butt of my bat, determined not to black out. The blade sunk effortlessly into the ground, the dry soil crumbling like stale pastry beneath the sharpened metal teeth.

The knotted set of his jaw told me Zander felt them too, but unfortunately, his sensitivities seemed to be limited to their presence. I was the only one who seemed to be able to track them. As painful as the process was, I had already learned it was best not to resist the pull of my own kind. Especially the ones that wished me harm.

While I didn’t yet know where the monsters were hiding, I knew I would find them. I could feel their animosity like individual threads of white-hot electricity burning through my body. I stumbled forward a couple of steps. The intensity of their combined presence nearly knocked me off my feet. They were close, and I had a feeling we were outnumbered.

“Leeches,” I muttered.

“We need to get these weapons and get back before this storm hits.” Tessa’s voice was tense.

“Just wait,” Zander growled low in his chest, his defensive instincts barely in check.

“For what?” Tessa scowled, gesturing toward the field. “There’s nothing here.”

“I can find them,” I turned to Tessa, my eyes pleading.

“How?” Her brows knitted in confusion, and she bit her lip, her gaze darting back and forth between the wreckage and me. After a moment of internal debate, she closed her eyes and sighed. “Fine, but hurry the hell up.”

I focused on my breathing and the weight of the weapon in my hand. I let the mid-day heat seep into my skin and yielded to the pressure in the atmosphere as it churned around me. I listened to the sounds of my own shallow breaths as they rushed in and out of my lungs. I tuned into the echo of my own muddled thoughts and slowly barricaded myself from the outside world.

The tug in the center of my chest surged and faded like a tidal wave lapping against the shoreline. The swell grew with each pass until finally it crested. When it finally hit me, it was like a sledgehammer to the chest. I opened my eyes, and my body surged forward toward the field of debris.

“Are you okay?” Tessa shouted at my back.

“This way,” I said.

I covered my mouth as I stumbled forth so I wouldn’t vomit. I was dizzy, disoriented, and every cell in my body was screaming in agony as the chord stretched tight in my chest. The pain was all consuming and nearly unbearable, but the worst part about this whole nightmare was having no control over any of it.

It was like waking up at the bottom of the ocean. All I could do was scramble, swim, and hope I was headed toward the surface. Regardless of the new abilities that accompanied my condition, I felt completely powerless, and I was sick of it.

I broke into a run desperate to ease the burning sensation in my chest. Zander was at my heels in the span of a breath, his weapon drawn and ready to slice through any foe we might encounter.

The smoke from the fires at the crash site had begun to dwindle, but the area was still a murky gray. The air around us was laden with soot and the lingering stench of jet fuel. My sunglasses protected my eyes from the dust, but nothing could prevent the taste of burning fuel from filling my mouth.

Dregs of twisted metal and remnants of luggage and clothing littered the ground. The mess created an obstacle course of detritus between myself, and the source of my agony. I pivoted and juked my way among the gnarled debris and slid to a stop next to a propeller that had embedded itself in the ground at a near-perfect ninety-degree angle.

“There,” I said, pointing straight ahead. “The bastards are in there.”

“Of course they are,” Tessa groaned, kicking a broken bottle that lay on the ground near her foot. It flew through the air and shattered against the side of the plane.

“Tessa,” I said, my voice brittle, “there’s a lot of them in there, and they are…agitated.”

Something heavy slammed against the inside of the plane, followed by a series of high-pitched guttural shrieks. Tessa flinched at the noise, shoving Devon protectively behind her. Zander’s grip tightened on his weapon and a low rumble echoed from deep in his chest.

The beasts trapped inside the plane began thrashing, rocking the small craft from side to side. Rabid hostility radiated towards me in waves, the pressure of it clawing at my insides. They knew we were here, and they were hungry.

“W-w-what do w-we do n-now?” Devon asked. His eyes darted back and forth from the plane full of eaters to the weapon clutched in his trembling hand.

“Now,” Tessa said gripping her ax with both hands, “we meet this cousin of yours.”

“W-what?” Devon stepped back, his eyes wide in shock. “You can’t be s-s-serious. W-we can’t g-go in the-there w-with those thuh-things. The’ll kuh-huh-kuh-kuh…” Devon banged his palm against his chest to free his protest. “W-we’ll die.”

“We’re not going in there, Dev,” Tessa said. “That would be suicide.”

“Th-thank g-god,” Devon sighed, pressing his eyes shut.

“We’re going to let them out,” Tessa said squaring her shoulders.

“W-what?” Devon shrieked, his hands shaking so badly he dropped his weapon. “T-t-tessa, n-no.”

“Sorry, but there are no shortcuts to redemption, son,” Tessa said jabbing him in the chest with her finger. “You wanted a do-over. This is it. Now, man up."

Chapter 32

Cornered

(Lucas)

“Put the boy on the table,” a shrill woman said as she yanked a curtain across the room.

Lucas pressed his eyes closed and did his best to play dead—well, semi-conscious anyway, but the guard was less than gentle when he dropped him onto the examination table. Lucas’s head banged against the cold metal surface with a thud. For a moment, he saw stars. It took everything in his power not to cry out.