Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (32 page)

             
Runnels of wind ran down the hallway and a series of lights flickered across the little boy’s face as fiery explosions came from the open area, and dust fell from around his cell. 

             
As more gunfire erupted, two more boys stood up.

             
“That’s ‘cause he defends the honor of his lady and his family!”

             
The screams of the High-Born were now louder than the gunfire. 

             
The little boy was just grinning fiercely as a group of High-Born ran into the hallway and stopped in front of his cell.  The soldiers pointed their guns at several of the cells, training them on many of the children.

             
“We will kill them all!” the lead High-Born shouted as he looked down the hallway back into the open area.  “Stay where you are!”

             
The muzzle of a rail gun was now right in the blonde boy’s face, and all of the boys in the cell were now standing.

             
The little blonde boy looked through his blackened eye at the monstrous giant pointing the gun at his head, and continued grinning as tears streamed down his face.  And he grabbed the bars, leaping and shouting at the High-Born, just as a powerful gust of wind stirred up dust and whipped his hair across his face.

             
“That’s ‘cause with all of his heart and soul, he fights the battles that others cannot ‘cause that is the destiny of his power!”

             
All of the High-Born rose from the ground, seized by an invisible force, and The Blazing Knight thundered in the center of the soldiers, spinning and slashing so quickly that his movements were impossible to track, and their guns fell in pieces as their lifeless bodies dropped all around him.  As they crumpled to the floor, the knight looked back and forth, blue and red flames racing over him, orange eyes glowing from within his darkened helmet, and flaming sword held up to his shoulder.  The little boy turned to the other little boys who all had silent tears in their eyes.

             
He threw up his arms and said, “I told y’all couldn’t nothin’ stop him!  That’s ‘cause he’s, Sir Harold, The Fiery Fire-Man!”

             
The knight spun, swung his sword through the lock and the door rattled open.  Then he walked down the hall, boots clanking against the concrete.  Cage after cage fell before his flaming blade.  Down the hall from him was Aireon and she just gave a light flick of her finger at each of the cages, and the doors seemed to open by themselves. 

             
The knight doused his flames and slid his sword into his scabbard.  He watched as a little girl and boy ran out to Aireon and she knelt down to them, and picked them up.  They hugged her tightly.  He took off his helmet and looked at Ollie who was holding Maggie’s little hand.  He watched her for a moment, and then she saw him.  Ollie stopped and stared at him, her eyes wide and full of belief.  Then, she let go of Maggie’s hand and sprinted towards him.  Harold knelt and scooped her up.

             
“I knew you would come for me,” she said as she hugged him.  “Cooper and Scott said you would and told everyone that you were comin’ for us.  I told everybody how nobody was strong as you and I told them how you caught that snake and burned him up.”

             
Harold walked to Maggie who was looking around at all of the wandering children.  As his boots clanked against the floor, she turned her head.  When she saw him, she ran towards him with her arms reaching for him.  He squatted and caught her with his other arm and he lifted her up.

             
“I’m so gwad ‘dat eww are hewe, Hawold,” she said as she hugged him.  “I was ‘cared.”

             
Cooper and Scott were standing by each other, both proudly sticking out their chests.  They were telling the other little boys about how Harold was in their secret club, and how they could get in it if they wanted.  Harold smiled and shook his head, because the other little boys were all lining up to become members.  Harold walked up to Aireon, who was smiling and talking to a group of boys and girls that had gathered around her.  Harold realized that he didn’t know any of those children.

             
“There are way more young ‘uns here than I thought there would be,” he said.  “I heard the High-Born talking, and there are going to be more of them here in less than an hour.  There may still be some around, because I never saw Colonel Foxx.  We need to get the kids somewhere other than here.  And we need to do it fast.”

             
She nodded in agreement, “But where are we going to take them?”

             
“I don’t know yet,” Harold put down Maggie and Ollie.  “Cooper, Scott, help me get everyone into two lines.”

             
Scott wasted no time, and began pointing out people, “You, you, you, and you get right here.”

             
Cooper began pulling on people to line them up where Scott said to stand.

             
“Deanna and Christie,” Gabby shouted to a dark-haired girl and a black girl with puffy pig tails.  “You two bring up the rear of the lines.  Make sure to keep the little ones in front of you.”

             
The two girls nodded their heads and quickly began doing as she said.

             
“I’ll go ahead and make sure it’s clear,” Harold said to Gabby.  “Bring them up to the big room on the second basement level.”

             
“Right behind you,” she grinned and winked.

             
Harold raised his eyebrows and put on his helmet, drew his sword and quickly walked toward the large open area.  He looked around at the wrecked machinery and nearly a hundred dead High-Born littered across the room.  He turned and walked back into the hall.

             
“Get the bigger kids to cover the little ones’ eyes so they don’t see all of the bodies out there”

             
“Already on it,” Gabby said.  “But where are we going to take them?”

             
“I saw a big lake on my way here,” he replied.  “It’ll give us a water source.”

             
“It’ll have to do,” she answered.

             
Harold nodded and then air-burned to the door that Gabby had blown down with a blast of air when they had stormed the holding area.  He looked at the damaged elevator inside.  Harold wasn’t an expert on elevators, but he doubted that it was fit to carry anything up to the next level.  He stepped inside, and looked at the top, and found something that looked like a small door.  He could tell that it was made for a High-Born to fit through. 

             
After a moment, he figured out how to open it, and he crawled into the shaft above it.  To his relief, he saw a ladder.  He climbed up it just to test it and it was firmly anchored to the wall.  He then air-burned into the large room where he had fought Aireon.  He scouted the room for a few moments and everything seemed to be clear of threats.  Then he flashed back down the basement level below him.

             
When he appeared, he could see that the children were already making their way across the room.  Apparently, Aireon had somehow cleared a large trail through the smoking wreckage and the kids were walking down it in two lines.  Cooper and Scott were at the front of the lines, and Harold could see Gabby bringing up the rear.  Harold noticed that the kids behind Cooper and Scott had wrapped their hands around their faces and were covering their eyes.  Every child in the line had their hands covering the eyes of the child in front of them, and Gabby covered Deanna and Christie’s eyes herself while calling out directions to Cooper and Scott.

             
After about a minute, they made it to Harold.  Then he showed Cooper and Scott the ladder, and had them stand at the bottom of the elevator and help the others up into the shaft.  After the first two people went up the ladder, Harold realized that it was going to take far too long.  He walked to Gabby.

             
“I’m going to start taking some of the bigger kids up with my air-burns,” he said.

             
“Air-burns?” she asked.

             
“That thing I do when I disappear and reappear,” he answered.  “I can carry a few things with me when I go.”

             
She raised her eyebrows, “Fine with me.  The quicker, the better.  Go ahead and take these two.  They help me all the time back home.”

             
Harold looked at the two girls.  They were probably a little older than Cooper and Scott, and though they were not sickly looking, a few more meals would have done them some good.

             
“Okay, ladies,” Harold smiled as he knelt down to them.  “This is gonna’ feel weird, but I’m not going to hurt you.”

             
They both looked at Gabby.  She smiled and tenderly rubbed their heads.

             
“He’s like me,” she said.  “But different.  He’s good.  He won’t hurt you.”

             
They turned back to Harold and smiled nervously.  He touched their shoulders and disappeared.  All three of them emerged from the air just in front of the elevator shaft that the first of the children were now coming through.

             
“You girls keep everyone in lines and help the little ones, okay?” he said.

             
“When can we do that again?” Christie asked, her puffy pig tails bouncing.

             
“Pretty soon,” he said and winked his eye and then flashed from sight.

             
He brought the kids up in pairs as quickly as he thought was safe, and in just a few minutes, he was able to bring up Scott and Cooper.  Gabby climbed up the ladder while he led the children to the large door.  He looked around and found what he thought to be the controls.  He fumbled with them for a moment and then he felt a gentle, but strong hand push him out of the way.  Gabby quickly fidgeted with it, and soon the massive door began opening.  As it slowly opened from the sides, an area easily large enough for two gunships came into view.  It was plain to see that it was a gigantic elevator with a control box on either side.

             
“You better check it out before we take them up,” she said.

             
Harold air-burned to the center of the pad and looked up.  About twenty or twenty-five feet above him he could see another gigantic door.  Some of the children pointed at him as he called to the flames.  The knight then aimed for the upper side of the door, and flashed out of their sight.

             
When he appeared, he was outside of the compound.  The sun was bright in the mid-morning sky and he looked around.  Behind him was the flaming and smoking wreckage of the gunship and that he had crashed into the building.  He could only see the eastern side of the building, but he could tell that the other side had been devastated by something. 

             
He could only assume that Aireon had completely wrecked it. 

             
He was nearly in the center of the eastern landing pad, and he found it strange, but it seemed very empty.  Everything was almost a little too quiet.  He enhanced his hearing and searched the sky for signs of cloaked High-Born gunships.  He couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary, but the sound of the fires on the other side of the building could’ve been covering anything that would’ve alerted him.  Then, he scanned the area on the landing pad for nearly another minute, and nothing roused his suspicion. 

             
He flashed from sight.

             
And reappeared at the far end of the repair room where he knew no one would be standing.  Gabby saw him nearly immediately and he gave her a thumb’s up.  She motioned for the children to moving onto the large elevator.  The kids quickly followed her orders, as he made his way to Gabby.

             
“How does it look?” she asked as she continued waving the children into the elevator.

             
“It looks clear,” he replied.  “But looks can be deceiving.”

             
“That’s true,” she said.  “After I activate the elevator, you take us both up to the top and we’ll set up a guard.”

             
Then they walked to the control in the center of the elevator.  Gabby began fidgeting with it, and the door above them began sliding back to reveal an ever-increasing ray of light as it opened.

             
“We’ll see all of you in just a minute,” Gabby shouted to the onlooking children.

             
Then, Harold and Gabby flamed out of sight.