Children of the Void: Book One of the Aionian Saga (29 page)

Gideon took it as a good sign that he’d interrogated all of them. Had one of them slipped up, he assumed Devereux would have let them know. He prayed that Alexia would say the same thing. His stomach lurched when Devereux dragged her back and held her in front of them after only a few moments of interrogation. She looked terrified, and Devereux had a wicked grin on his face.

“Pretty clever, Killdeer,” he said. “Almost all your friends picked up on your little fib.” He grabbed a fistful of Alexia’s hair and forced her down on her knees. “Ms. Uritumbo here couldn’t get it quite right, however.” He drew his sidearm and pressed it against her temple. Joseph nearly broke the grip holding him down as he screamed and cursed at Devereux.

There was panic as all the prisoners protested at once. Gideon fought to stand up, but the grip on his shoulder tightened until tears ran down his cheeks. “Enough!” shouted Devereux. “I don’t think you all appreciate how serious I am. Somebody tell me where the others are, or I’ll put a bullet in her brain.”

“Stop,” pleaded Joseph, “I’ll tell you. Please don’t hurt her.”

“I’m listening,” said Devereux.

Joseph swallowed, trying to control his sobbing. “They went north,” he said. “The rest of us were exhausted, so they went on to scout ahead. They were going to come back for us in the morning.”

Devereux stared at Joseph for what seemed like an eternity without saying a word. “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph,” he said finally, shaking his head. He walked over to Joseph and whipped him viciously with the pistol. “Stop lying to me!” he said, bending over and spitting the words in Joseph’s bleeding ear.
 

Then, before anyone could react, he turned, took three steps toward Alexia, put the gun to her forehead, and pulled the trigger.

Gideon jumped at the sound of the gunshot. Deafening silence followed, interrupted only by the sound of Alexia’s lifeless body slumping to the ground. The blood drained from Gideon’s face as he watched her limbs twitching in the mud.

Joseph screamed and threw himself forward with such violence that the soldier holding him lost his footing and fell. Before Devereux could even turn around, Joseph had crossed the distance between them and tackled him. In a blur of arms and legs, Gideon caught sight of terror on Devereux’s face.

Momentarily stunned, the other soldiers rushed forward to help their leader. They grabbed Joseph and ripped him off of Devereux, but not before the latter cried out in pain. Joseph came up with blood dripping from his mouth. Devereux stayed on the ground, clutching the side of his head, blood oozing out from between his fingers.

Before the soldiers had a chance to do anything else, a new sound froze them where they stood. From the edge of the forest, not fifty yards away, something made a terrifying, alien bellow that vibrated all the way to Gideon’s bones. As they turned their heads in the direction of the roar, a great black mass exploded out of the trees.
 

The only thing more frightening than the size of the creature was its speed. It was another pesadilla, smaller than the one they’d killed, a juvenile, maybe, but at fifteen meters tall, that didn’t make much of a difference. It crossed the gap between the forest and the shuttle so quickly, no one had time to react before it was on them. It lunged at them on all six of its legs, each one ending in claws nearly a meter long. In the twilight, all Gideon could make out of the features on its black head were rows and rows of dagger-like teeth.

The men holding Joseph scattered, taking full advantage of their Sentinel Armor. Still holding a hand to his bloody head, Devereux raced to join them. Without armor, the rest of them were no match for the creature’s speed. Tawny stood and tried to run, but the creature caught up to her before she’d taken three steps. It knocked her to the ground with a swipe from its clawed hand. She rolled over and screamed as the jaws engulfed her.

Gideon grabbed Takomi’s arm and yanked her to her feet. She didn’t resist, even when he ran directly at the beast. “To the shuttle!” he yelled over the pandemonium. “Get into the shuttle, quick.”

The creature seemed momentarily confused by all the people running around below it in every direction. Gideon and Takomi ran right beneath its belly, saved only by the fact that the beast was too large to maneuver quickly. It snorted and pawed at the dirt, sending chunks of sod flying as Gideon and Takomi dove into the shuttle’s rear hatch.
 

Gideon turned to see Sophia scrambling between the creature and the shuttle, nearly to the door. The monster didn’t seem to notice her, and Gideon could see why. It had spotted Alexia’s lifeless body, and had bent down to sniff it.

Joseph darted forward to protect his mother’s remains, but Gideon grabbed him, slowing him down just enough to save his life. The creature opened its jaws and ate Alexia in one bite.
 

It was over so fast that it didn’t seem real. Gideon stood frozen, eyes wide, until the creature turned its head to look back at him. Its stare was somehow more terrifying since it had no visible eyes, and Gideon suddenly found the use of his limbs. He fell backward into the shuttle’s holding area, yanking Joseph in with him.
 

The shuttle’s engines roared to life, then it shuddered and lifted off the ground. The creature roared and sprang forward. As the shuttle accelerated, Gideon slipped back out toward the opening. He flailed, desperately trying to catch his fall, when a hand closed around his wrist. Sophia leaned out the door, gripping him with both hands.

The creature came forward and banged its nose on the back of the shuttle. The vehicle shook and jerked violently, but they stayed in the air. Soon they gained altitude, and Gideon crawled back into the shuttle as the rear hatch closed.

Takomi had taken the helm. Joseph was crumpled in a corner, shaking with unbridled sobs. Waves of emotion pummeled Gideon. He didn’t know what to do, so he did the only thing he could think of. He walked over to Joseph and kneeled down, then leaned in to hug him as best he could in that awkward position.

Joseph shoved Gideon away. “Get off of me!” he yelled, voice cracking.

“Joe, I’m so sorry. I...” He could think of nothing else to say.

“You’re sorry? You’re sorry?” Joseph buried his head in his hands and continued sobbing. Gideon moved toward him again, but Sophia’s hand on his shoulder pulled him back. He took one last look at Joseph and moved to the opposite side of the shuttle.

“What now?” asked Takomi as she looked back over her shoulder from the pilot’s chair. Gideon was amazed at how calm she was, and not for the first time. He was beginning to understand that Takomi was at her best when things were at their worst.

Sophia went forward into the cockpit, wiping tears from her cheeks. “I guess the silver lining is that we now have wings,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “The question is, what do we do with them?”

The girls looked back to see Gideon and Joseph sitting on either side of the vessel. Gideon walked forward to stand between Takomi and Sophia in the cockpit. “I guess the best thing to do is find the others. They’ll hide from the shuttle though.”

Sophia sat in the copilot’s chair next to Takomi. “It’s getting dark. We can take turns piloting the shuttle while one of us searches the forest in infrared. The other two can get some rest until it’s their turn.”

It was the only sensible thing to do. Takomi and Sophia took the first shift, so Gideon tried to make the most of this time by curling up on the floor and trying to get some rest. He stole a glance at Joseph, who had stopped crying, and now stared straight forward with fire in his eyes. The blood on his chin and all over the front of his chest made him look absolutely savage. Gideon looked away, knowing his friend would never be the same again.

I
N
THE
MORNING
, Gideon was stiff from sleeping on the floor of the shuttle. Yet for the first time in ages, he felt rested. The shuttle had a supply of fresh clothes and some food. His spirits were improving, until he saw Joseph sitting at the back of the shuttle gazing out the window. A lump formed in Gideon’s throat as he got dressed and ate breakfast in silence.

The sun’s fingers were just crawling through the trees when they finished their meal. He had slept too long, but no one said anything about it. Gideon felt guilty for the indulgence, given that their friends were still in danger.
 

Now that the sun was up, their plan was to search for the place where Connor, Vincent, and Padre had separated from them the day before. They’d land the shuttle and continue on foot in the direction they had last seen them go. It was a long shot, but it was the best they could come up with.

The simple plan turned out to be nearly impossible. After an hour, they had still not found the spot they were looking for, though they had found dozens that looked just like it. It was frustrating trying to pinpoint a spot from the air that they had only known from the ground. After each false alarm, tempers would simmer a bit closer to the surface.
 

They debated alternatives. Gideon and Sophia thought they should go back to the tundra and retrace their steps, but Takomi thought it would be dangerous, considering that Devereux and his men were still out there. Joseph stayed in the corner of the shuttle, staring out the window in silence. Gideon was considering talking to him when a beep at the console interrupted their discussion.

Takomi breathed a curse.
 

“What is it?” asked Gideon from the back seat.

“Radar,” whispered Sophia.

“I can tell it’s the radar, but what is it picking up?” said Gideon, louder than he had intended.
 

“I don’t know,” said Takomi, staring at the screen. “Four objects, coming from the southeast, but...”
 

“But what?” said Gideon and Joseph at once.

“They’re coming fast, and they’re way too big to be shuttles,” said Sophia, eyes glued to the console.

Gideon unbuckled his safety harness, picked up a pair of binoculars, and moved to the front of the cockpit. At the edge of the horizon, he could just make out several brown blobs. He lifted the binoculars, trying to find them in the telescopic lenses. He swung past them, then back over them again. Finally, he steadied himself against the console. As the binoculars auto-focused, he could see the objects clearly. Four ships, shaped like spiked teardrops, and they were heading right for them. The last time Gideon had seen those particular ships, they were chasing the Luzariai ship down to the surface of the planet.
 

That was right before their mother ship had destroyed the
Leviathan
.
 

Gideon dropped the binoculars. They clattered to the floor as he lunged for the controls. “Go! Go! Go!” he yelled, seizing the throttle and shoving it all the way forward. The sudden acceleration threw him back into the cargo hold. Joseph snatched his arm, saving him from cracking his head open on the hull. Takomi swung the shuttle around to the north. It was all Gideon could do to stay on his feet.
 

As she leveled out, he slammed into the opposite bulkhead. The side of his head made contact with the hull, causing bright stars to flash in his vision. He crumpled to the ground, feeling sick. Joseph grabbed him and pulled him to his feet, but then a deafening crack rocked the shuttle, sending Gideon skidding out of Joseph’s grip.
 

Gideon couldn’t tell if the bells he heard were coming from the cockpit or from inside his head. He managed to grab onto some webbing as the shuttle lurched back and forth. Takomi was taking evasive maneuvers, oblivious to Gideon’s plight from the cargo hold. He flew up into the air as the shuttle dove. The webbing slipped through his fingers, and he slammed into the ceiling, only to crash back down a second later.

Stunned, he managed to find the webbing again. He slid his arms through it and wrapped them around several times. Blood trickled into his eyes, and he started losing consciousness. Takomi and Sophia shouted to each other, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. The sound of shouting and alarms assaulted his ears. At one point, the ground outside the window seemed to be above the shuttle. He wondered if he was imagining things.

Something exploded, and the hull ripped open inches from Gideon. Wind and debris buffeted him, pulling him out of the shuttle. Inertia tried to rip his arms out of their sockets as the world below spun faster and faster. His right hand lost its grip, and the webbing slipped through his left hand as he fumbled for something else to hold onto. But before he found it, the last of the webbing tore free from his fingers, hurling him out into open air. The wind in his eyes blinded him as he spun around and around. He sensed, rather than saw, the ground coming up to meet him.

The impact took his breath away. His back exploded with pain as it made contact. Cold and darkness engulfed him. He wondered for a moment if his consciousness had been ripped from his body, and he was now dead. But no, the pain was too intense for him to be dead.
 

He reached toward a shaft of shifting light he spotted in the distance and could see his hand in front of his face, shimmering like it was underwater. He was sinking, thrashing upward with all his strength, clawing for the surface. Pain surged through him, but the panic overcame the pain. He struggled to move up and up, but the surface seemed to stay just out of his reach, and he had to fight the burning in his chest, the urge to inhale.
 

 
Then his head broke through, and he could suddenly breathe again. He continued to kick and thrash, the water tying to pull him back down. Something brushed up against his arm, and he reached for it. A vine.

He was in a river. The swift current was threatening to sweep him under.
 

With his last ounce of strength, he gripped the vine. The current slowly released its grip as he pulled himself hand over hand. Closer to the bank, the water slowed down. He could see that the vine originated from a strange plant that looked like an upside-down mop. More vines spread out across the water and into the current like tentacles from a sea monster.