A ravens plight, p.10
A Raven's Plight, page 10
Both Tony and Richard raised their eyebrows in surprise. “That detail was left out,” they said together, instantly looking annoyed at the other.
“Even if there was an option to turn and run back, I would refuse it. I would only go back if Ayla’s life depended upon it.” He looked nervously over at the sleeping girl, knowing full well that an infection would spell disaster. He got the sense that the other two understood his meaning.
“Fair enough,” said Tony, sighing as he stood and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s time for everyone to get some rest. Richard and I checked the perimeter of the forest before entering. The groundhouse is on lockdown, along with 8th street, but no one has made any attempt to breach the border. I’m not going to count on that for long, so we,” he was referring to himself and Richard, “are going to go out and set up some alarms to warn us if anyone is coming down any of the paths. Might as well let her rest a few more minutes before looking at that wound. You get some rest too, Jacob. Here,” he grabbed a pillow and some wool blankets, setting them up near Ayla (but not too close). “Watch over her. If there’s trouble, call and we’ll come.”
Jacob watched as the two men grabbed dim flashlights and headed down the hatch with a bag of supplies, before easing onto the floor near Ayla. What a day. He looked over at the girl beside him, and knew without a doubt that she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, even half drained of blood, and sick. “I love you,” he whispered gently, brushing some of the hair from her face. “I’m sorry I’m too much of a coward to say that to you while you’re awake. Someday, maybe, but now is not the time. Good night.” He leaned up and blew out the candle, plunging the house into darkness.
Chapter
Five
The room in which Officer Jenkin’s sat was kept uncomfortably cool, something that was starkly contrasted by bright overhead lights. It was a small office with two blank white walls, another of which had a door in it, while the fourth wall had a one way mirror. He glanced for a moment at that mirror, seeing only his reflection, but knowing that someone on the other side could easily be staring back. He’d been in plenty of these rooms over the course of his career, and had grown quite accustomed to being under scrutiny. However, as he opened his binder and reviewed his notes, a cool trickle of sweat carved a path down the side of his face.
What should have been a simple apprehension had turned into a dangerous pursuit, all in the course of half a day. This should never have happened. The girl’s father flew out of town on business during the first day of school. His agents had waited until dark, giving Tony and Richard Warrender plenty of time to be settled at their hotel in Skycity29, nearly 8 hours away, before moving in to apprehend his daughter. It came as a shock when his agents forced their way into the Warrender home late the night before, only to find that the two teens hadn’t returned. Had they stayed the night with a friend? Jenkin’s didn’t know. What he did know was that wherever the teens had bunked, they left their backpacks and holo-disks behind, which meant they’d have to return in the morning.
It was shortly after dawn the next day when Jenkin’s agent reported that the Warrender boy dropped by for their backpacks, but not the girl. Wanting to avoid as much collateral as possible, the choice was made not to interfere with the boy, and they would attempt to apprehend the girl at school. After all, the high school principle was already working with them, and further cooperation was expected.
Officer Jenkins ran a hand over his face, trying not to irritate the follicles as stiff newgrowth pushed through . Normally he shaved every morning, but he’d hardly even had time to sleep since two days prior. Indeed, his eyes felt heavy and dry with fatigue, and he reflexively reached for his coffee cup, disappointed to find he’d already emptied it. What a mess. When his agents had arrived at the school the previous day, they were met with a very cooperative, if not disorganized, secretary, who anxiously fumbled through her papers to assist them. It was at this moment that a student slipped from the office, something that footage would later reveal was of significance. That student went and promptly warned Jenken’s target that she was being asked after, at which point, she and three other teens quickly left, including the girl’s cousin. But why did she run? Students are taught to trust the Hegemony. Why the fear? Jenkins could only assume that there was something monumental in the whole situation that he was missing. Or that somebody wasn’t telling him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to sit and try and figure it out. If they didn’t get that girl soon, the consequences would be disastrous.
She and her friends had fled to the world-renowned Mason mansion, owned by none other than Caspian, head of the sky-anchor industry. It was from his garage that they acquired four hybrid bikes (Something he’d have to address later with Caspian), and slipped away from his agents yet again. At one point, they were certain they’d cornered the girl, but she recovered before they could safely apprehend her, and then recklessly turned her hoverbike off and free fell to her escape. At that point, a city officer tried to pull her over for speeding, she lost control of her vehicle, collided with a wall, and… Well, he wasn’t sure what happened after, but he needed to find out, and soon.
Once again, his eyes flicked to the one way mirror before they returned to his notes. What’s taking so long? As it turned out, the individuals who initially contacted the Monarch about the girl were not the only ones who were after her (or at least someone who matched her description.) Apparently there were warring factions after her, and those whom he had been working with up until this point seemed relatively peaceable, albeit imposing. Unfortunately, just as the girl disappeared, the second faction contacted the Monarch, and they were unquestionably hostile, and very powerful. His hands were tied, and for the first time in his life, he, the puppeteer, had become the puppet.
Finally the thick wooden door opened, and a handsome young man in his early twenties entered. He was of average height, with dusty brown hair, amber-flecked brown eyes, and a strong jawline. A bandage circled his head, and a scrape ran down the length of the left side of his face, but he seemed in relatively good spirits as he approached the table. “Officer Windsor,” Jenkins said by way of greeting, standing and shaking the young man’s hand. “Come, sit. I apologize for the lack of comfort in this room. I also apologize for so hasty an interview after your injury, but time is of the essence.”
“I understand, Sir,” he replied as he sat down. “I will do the best I can.” The young man seemed sharp despite having sustained a concussion.
“I need you to tell me everything in as much detail leading up to when you were attacked as you can. Where you were, how fast you were going, whether it was raining, no amount of detail is too much. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.” Officer Windsor dutifully described how he had been speed trapping on the 37th level of the skycity when the girl raced past, how he tailed her, and lost her for a short time, before descending below the level of the clouds. By then, she had already lost control and crashed into the wall. He explained that when he called the medic, he actually anticipated that the girl hadn’t survived, and was beyond shocked to see her stand up and attempt to walk away. She had white hair, was tall and slim, with dark skin, green eyes, and ‘quite pretty, actually’, despite being battered and scorched from the crash. Lastly, he admitted with some degree of shame that he didn’t rush in to help her right away because he sensed some sort of danger. It wasn’t until after the attack that he realized she was being chased, and he certainly didn’t realize that she was being pursued by officers of the Hegemony. When he finally did move to assist her, he was struck from behind, and his last memory was seeing a pair of boots running toward the forest after the girl. After a brief description of the boots, Jenkins was fairly certain they belonged to the girl’s cousin, though he didn’t tell that to the young officer.
“Toward the forest?” Jenkins asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes. I thought that maybe she was delusional from the accident. Whoever struck me, I assumed that they were running in the same direction as the girl so that they could grab her. Is there no footage of the area?”
Jenkins bristled at having a question directed at him, especially since he was still smarting from the fact that the answer to Windsor’s question was ‘no’. “All the cameras in that area have been tampered with, and it appears to have been that way for a while. My guess is that since it is a very low trafficked area, it was not first on the DOT’s list of repairs. Someone, obviously, didn’t want that location being watched.” He sighed, tapping his fingers for a moment on the table, as the young man across from him looked suddenly nervous. “In fact,” Jenkins continued, “We have noted seven such locations across the entire North side of Skycity62, and do you know what they all have in common? They are on the ground level, and are supposed to survey the forest borders. No need to fret, Officer Windsor, this is not your responsibility, and the appropriate people will be contacted. I’m telling this to you because I want to ask you again; do you think it possible that the girl was running into the forest?”
The young man took a deep breath, considering his answer for a moment. “If I were certain the girl was in her sound mind, which I’m not, I would say there was no question about her intended direction. She was running straight for the fence at the end of the street as if she intended to jump it, crazy as that may sound.”
“Indeed. Tell me now about her injuries.”
“Quite a few obviously superficial wounds across her body. She had at least a few cuts on her head, easy to see against her hair color. I can’t say whether or not she had any internal injuries, and nothing seemed to be broken when she stood up to walk. But she did have a pretty bad cut on her leg, and it was bleeding heavily. I… it might have nicked an artery, but it wasn’t a heavy enough bleed to be a full sever.”
Jenkins felt his stomach twisting, and tried to maintain his demeanor. If the girl died, then all hell would break loose. “Thank you, Officer Windsor, that will be all for now.” He stood up and shook hands, seeing the other man out, before turning to the window. “Get me a team of men and women who aren’t afraid to die. We need to search the forest.” He shook his head as he stepped from the room.
Time for another cup of coffee.
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Ayla’s eyes snapped open, and she sat bolt upright in the darkened kitchen. A glance around the space revealed she was completely alone, and the house was spotless. She cast aside the blankets and looked down at her legs, both of which were completely unmarred. Was it all a dream? Why am I sleeping on the floor? She pushed off the ground to her feet, and leaned against the kitchen counter as her head swam and throbbed. At least she knew that much was real.
“Dad?” She called, stumbling to the back rooms, which were also empty. In fact, everything looked tidy and untouched, as if they’d just left it for the week. I shouldn’t be here. As the thought crossed her mind, the air suddenly grew cold, goose bumps popping up across her skin. Ayla rubbed her arms as she moved to the window and looked outside, where pre-dawn light was just beginning to illuminate the sky. Wait… It wasn’t dawn. No, something else gave light to the clouds. Red light! In an instant, beams of red light were shooting down below the canopy, and Ayla leapt back from the window.
From where she stood huddled against the wall, she could see the lights dropping to the ground, and bouncing back up again, almost like sound waves. But I can’t see sound… This is all wrong. Her leg gave a throb, and she looked down to see blood soaking through her pants.
The lights grew closer, and the air seemed to go from cold to frigid. Ayla could see her breath in front of her face. She began to shiver as she grabbed the wool blanket off her bed, intending to run back into the kitchen, when she saw the first ray of light pierce through the roof into the hallway, blocking her path. She grabbed for the small oil lamp on her nightstand, before returning her hand under the blanket. What good would a lamp do against light? This is just a nightmare… Just a nightmare. Wake up, and you’ll be… safe?
No, she couldn’t be sure. Ayla ducked through the hallway as more beams of light shot down, searching for something. She rolled into the kitchen, lifted the hatch, and dropped to the ground below. She hit the ground in a roll, and sprinted for the deep woods. Her breath fogged, and she expected to see frost covering the ground like a blanket of white, but even in the darkness, she could see that everything was lush and dry… like it was still mid-summer. There wasn’t time to think on it, she had to keep moving.
Suddenly the red beams were above her, shooting down all around her, until one took her in the shoulder. Ayla tried to fight the weight of it as it crushed her to the ground, another one taking her in the back as she fell. They found me...
Gasping, Ayla’s eyes snapped open, her pupils dilating to accommodate the darkness. Her leg burned, her head throbbed, but she could move. She was alive. Beside her, Jacob stirred slightly in his sleep, and she quickly took note of Uncle Richard and her father sleeping nearby as well. It was still dark, but not long before sunrise. From somewhere above, she could hear a faint thrumming. She didn’t know how, but she knew it was them. Who they were exactly, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that they had found her, and that they weren’t the same people who’d chased her through the skies on bikes. No, these were the people who’s ship had disappeared from her APS. These people were dangerous.
Abruptly she pushed herself to her feet, fighting against the headrush that came with losing too much blood, and the fiery ache in her leg. “Wake up,” she said firmly, with enough force that it would pull the others from their sleep.
Her father was the first to react, leaping up from the floor and rushing to his daughter. “Ayla, you shouldn’t be standing, lay down. You need to rest.”
“We need to go,” she countered, utterly certain.
He continued to encourage her back to the ground, but she pulled her arm away and shook her hand. “No dad, we need to leave. Now. They’re coming.”
“Who, Ayla? Who is coming?” By now, the rest of the house was stirring. Jacob had sat up beside her, looking with a certain degree of confusion at them, while Richard was already at the door readying bags. At least someone seemed to be taking her seriously. She hoped. From the back room, a very tired looking Gaige came forward, followed by Belle, who had spent at least half the night crying, by the look of it.
“They are,” she repeated, not sure how to explain it. “All of them. Someone… is waiting up there.” She flicked her eyes up at the sky, where she thought she could sense some unseen foe. “We need to go, we aren’t safe here.”
“Honey, how could you know? Your uncle and I set up traps, no one can sneak up within a half mile of this house without setting off an alarm.”
She felt her head swim for a moment, throbbing forcefully. The faint thrumming continued from somewhere up above, and she could almost envision that red beams of light were shooting into the house as they spoke. Why couldn’t anyone else feel them? It was excruciating.
Ayla limped away from where she’d been standing, testing her ability to walk, and briefly escaping the onslaught of energy. But it followed her. Maybe I’m going insane. No, don’t think like that.
Her father and uncle’s alarms might not have sounded yet, but adrenaline was coursing through her veins as her body was on full alert. “Whether or not you believe me, dad… I can’t,” she fought the urge to sag in fatigue, quickly straightening herself. “I can’t stay here.” Plastering a look of determination to her face, that may have been nearer to a scowl, Ayla walked to her Uncle Richard and took a pack, securing it to her back and glaring over at her father. She’s made a lot of mistakes in the last 24 hours, but this wasn’t one of them. She had to go.
Jacob was beside her a moment later. He poorly hid the concern in his steel gray eyes, but picked up a pack nonetheless. “I don’t think this is a good idea, Ayla,” he whispered so the others couldn’t hear.
Suddenly, the panicked hooting of an owl sounded off in the distance, followed by several more animal calls. To the inexperienced, they were convincingly real, but those in the treehouse knew otherwise. Her uncle and father exchanged glances, their faces both going pale.
“No more time to waste,” Ayla said almost flippantly, pulling the hatch up and dropping into the darkness.
She didn’t have to wait long on the ground below before the others joined her. Everyone wore a backpack, filled with food, water, some small cooking supplies, and hunting tools. Only the essentials would be coming with them, and they would have to move quickly through the woods. There were plenty of trails leading from the city to the safehouse, but that’s where the easy trekking ended.
“We’ll go to the caves at the base of the mountains,” her father whispered quickly, pulling out a compass and flashlight to help steer them in the darkness. “It’s two days of difficult uphill hiking if we make a steady pace, but with your leg…” He trailed off as Ayla swiped the compass from his hand, a flashlight in the other, and plunged into the dense foliage of the Northern forest. There wasn’t time for coddling. The pain of her injuries were drowned out by adrenaline, but it still felt too cold outside.
“I will tell you when I need a break,” she said, forcing as much assertiveness into her voice as she could. They had to believe she felt strong. They couldn’t afford to move slowly. “Come on.” She powered ahead, her leg growing a little more limber as she warmed up. Pushing low-hanging branches out of the way, climbing over fallen logs and tall brush helped keep her focus off of the pain. The stitches seemed to be holding for the time being, but if she had to move much faster, there was no guarantee. I shouldn’t be able to walk at all, she admitted in the quiet of her thoughts. The amount of blood she lost, the force of the trauma her body underwent, a concussion, and who knows what else. The human body was capable of performing amazing feats under pressure with the assistance of adrenaline, but somewhere in the back of her mind, Ayla knew that she had crossed the line of what should have been possible.
