Flight (29 page)

"You OK, Junco?" Moju has a hand on my back and he's pushing me forward, but with each step my feet begin to resist more and more.

"I feel strange, I don't know – it's dark."

"You have night vision, Junco, so knock it off."

Gideon's voice almost snaps me back, but I see movement in the distance. "There's something up there," I say.

Both guys turn and I watch Moju squint in the distance. "Just a rat, Junco. Come on." He's pulling on me again but my heels dig in.

"No." I shrug him off and start backing up. "I can't go that way. It's way too dark."

I turn but Gideon has my arm and he pulls me back. "I said that's enough, Junco."

My heart flutters as I begin to panic and I pull away. His grip stays firm and pulls harder and then I'm thrashing against him, trying to untangle myself from his hands.

"Stop, Gideon, I'm not going that way. No!"

He grabs my shoulders and shakes me hard. "Stop it, Junco!"

"What the fuck is going on over there?" Isten's voice comes through the coms on my helmet that is now rolling across the floor. "Junco?"

I scream. "I can't go that way, Isten, it's too small. It's dark, there's things up there!"

What things, Junco? What things?

"It's nothing, Isten – she's having a fucking panic attack over the passageway. Just let me handle it."

My breathing is so erratic I begin to hyperventilate and Moju bends me over and pushes me down to the floor. I know Gideon is still talking to Isten but I can't hear him anymore, my heavy breath blocks out all his words.

Moju leans down under my swaying hair and looks up at my face. "You OK, Junco?"

I'm still gasping for air, trying to calm down. "What's wrong with me?"

"Stuff, Juncs. Old stuff. Coming back up. It hits ya sometimes."

"I don't want it, Moju."

He laughs and takes a seat next to me, his long legs stretch towards the other side of the small passageway, his boots flat against one wall and his back against the other. "Yeah, I can relate, Snowbird. But it's gotta come up sometime. Ya can't run forever."

He pauses and looks over at Gideon and I follow his gaze as I try to get myself together. Gid has his helmet on so I can't hear what he's saying. I scramble backward down the passageway and grab my helmet and stick it on before Moju can panic at my sudden movement.

"– from the tunnels in the Stag."

"So, they did–"

"Stop, she's listening to us."

"Junco?"

It's Tier. I activate my mic and breathe. "Yeah."

"Ya OK, darlin'?"

"No. It's dark."

"It was dark out in the big tunnels too, Juncs. It's no different. In fact, it's safer, OK? There's no mutants in here from what we can tell. It's better this way."

"It's small, Tier." The words come out a whisper and they make me feel small too.

"Nah, it's just the right size. We could have ta crawl, now that would suck. But we can stand and walk just fine. Right?"

Moju pulls me to my feet and we walk over towards Gideon.

"Moju's got ya, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, ya know he'll never let anything hurt ya, Junco. Never."

I take a deep breath and want to cry, but I don't. Can't. "Right."

"Remember the swim we had, Junco?"

The tears slip out, I can't help it. "Yeah."

"And ya were so worried. But we came through and what was on the other side?"

"A nightdog."

He laughs. "Nah,
who
was on the other side, ya crazy little shit, after we made our escape?"

I look up at my brother. "Moju."

"And he's there with ya right now, too. Yer gonna be fine. We're gonna meet up in a few miles, so the quicker we hoof it up the mountain the sooner we'll all be back together, OK?"

I nod. "OK."

"Are ya walking?"

"Yeah."

"OK, then I'll be here if ya need me. But hurry, Junco. I miss ya already."

I smile at that.

Gideon leads and Moju pushes me forward by the shoulders for the first several minutes. My breathing comes back from the brink and I feel the fear leave as easily as it appeared.

"Sorry about that."

Moju just squeezes my arm, but Gid turns and answers me. "That's why I'm here, Junco. So don't sweat it." He smiles and it brightens me up.

The walk gets more difficult as the incline increases and the passageway becomes a series of tall terraces with ladders to climb. Our boots clang against the metal rungs as we get into a pattern of climbing, then walking a half mile or so, and climbing again.

We've done this about thirty times when my muscles begin to burn. "Can we stop? Or do we have to keep going?"

"Do you need to stop, Junco?" Moju looks down at me with a slight panic in his eyes. "We can stop, but Soli, she–"

"That's OK, I can go longer."

"Ya sure, Juncs? We can stop if you need to."

"No, I can keep going."

Sera?
I type it out on the vision screen so Gideon can't spy on me.

I'm still with Arel, Junco. What do you need?

Something to help me keep going?

I can't, Junco, no hormones if you're pregnant. I'm sorry. I could burn some fat calories and shunt them to your major muscle groups, but you really don't have a lot to spare. Tell them you need to stop and eat.

Never mind.

We push on and the climb gets harder with each terrace level and finally my legs are shaking so bad I have to say something. "OK, I have to stop. I'm sorry. I have to eat."

Moju takes a deep breath and looks down the passageway, but to his credit, he stays silent.

Gideon walks back over to me, turns his back and bends his knees a little. "There's a place up ahead, Junco. Hop on and I'll carry you until we get there. Then we can rest."

I do.

And he does. Like I'm a bag of feathers and weigh nothing. Which might almost be true under normal circumstances, but I'm wearing at least sixty pounds of weapons, ammo and supplies and so is he.

He grabs hold of my legs and I have my arms around his neck as we walk, then he lets go to climb the ladders and this becomes our new pattern. I bury my face in his back and smell him. My cheeks go hot with embarrassment as I catch myself. Hopefully Isten didn't feel that.

Finally Gideon drops me and walks over to an access room that leads out to the tunnels. "Stay here, I'm going to go take a look outside and see what's there."

I have no desire to revisit those fucking things so I stay with Moju, but he's antsy and pacing around.

"Can you feel her, Moj?"

He looks over to me. "Yeah, she's in a lot of pain." He chews on his thumb for a second, then resumes his pacing.

"Can she hear you? Can you talk to her?"

He shakes his head. "Nah, we're not like you and Isten," he looks over towards the open doorway, "or Gideon. We just feel each other. I can feel them all, but I know Soli, personally, right? So, I feel her the most."

"Did you grow up with her?" I study his face and use my words to calm him, like he was doing for me earlier.

He takes a deep breath and smiles. "Yeah, we had each other for most of our childhood. Then they sent her to the Eastern Utopias."

"That's where Esta was, did they know each other?"

"No, Tier had already taken Esta. That's why they had to send Soli over there."

"Oh. Well, that must've pissed you off, huh?"

He smiles. "You have no idea, Junco."

"I can eat and walk–"

"No, I can't make you do that, Juncs. It's OK. She'll be OK. I know she will. We talked to Layla and she's fucking good at that genetics shit, I know she can help her."

"She helped me, and I was all fucked up. I'm sure Layla can take care of her."

He resumes his pacing and I take out a ration packet from my pocket. I squint down at the label and wrinkle my nose.

"Let me guess, blueberry pancakes?" Gideon is back and he's looking down at me with an amused grin.

I stick my tongue out. "No, it's mapolina." I empty my pockets and start reading labels. They're all mapolina. I push them away. "Moj, what kind of food ya got?"

Both he and Gideon search their pockets and Moj comes up with chicken and rice.

"Give it here!"

Moju smiles at me. "What, that avian shit food hasn't grown on you yet?"

I laugh. "Are you kidding me? I spent the first month eating cookies unless forced to do otherwise, and right before I left I had Lucan get me a cheeseburger and fries. I still don't know how he got them, but I only eat mapolina if I'm seconds from death."

I pull the heat tab on the chicken and rice packet and wait until my palm is just the right temperature and then open the seal and start squeezing it in my mouth. Fucking chicken and rice is one of the best field rations on Earth. I moan a little and Gideon throws me another ration and a water packet. I open the filter seal on the water and blow until it's inflated, then push the the water tablet through and wait for the pouch to fill up.

The nutrition does wonders for my muscles, but it also makes me severely sleepy and I doze for a few seconds as Gid and Moju talk with the 039 over the coms.

OK. Junco. I'm back.

That's nice, Sera. I'm tired now.

It's almost time.

Almost time for what?

To take me where I need to go.

I sit up and look over to Gideon and he nods.

Where do you need to go?

The valley is only another two miles, but the Siblings and where I need to go are on the opposite sides of the compound. So we'll have to go over to the communications building while everyone else waits for you to come back.

Maybe we should do it all at once? We'll go drop you off and they can grab the Siblings.

No, Junco. It is mandatory for you to be there at extraction.

Why?

Because if you're not, all your friends will die.

I look over at Gideon. "Did you get all that?"

He nods. "Yeah. Everyone already knows, Junco. But we're gonna rest first. You can't fight like this."

Moju shakes his head and sighs. "I'm not waiting around, dammit. Soli is gonna–"

"Moju, knock it off. It's no good being an asshole. We need Junco to get them out. And right now she's too tired to do anything, so she needs to rest."

"Juncs, I get it, I'm not mad at you, but I can't just sit here and–"

"So go fucking scout it out ahead, why don't you? But I swear, Moju, if you blow this because you can't control yourself, I'll fuck you up."

Moju looks over to me. "Do you care if I go ahead and take a look?"

I shake my head. "No, go ahead."

"OK, I'll go up to the valley and see if they have anything we need to know about. Hey Sera," Moju calls out to the air, "come with me, in case they have security."

She appears in the tunnel, looking like some fantasy soldier from a porn screen, and follows him off in the dark.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Come in here, Junco. It's safer," Gid points to the access room as he looks down at me, "and not so closed in."

The air flow is better in there too, so I plop down on the floor and lean against one wall. "Can I sleep?"

"Yeah, sure." He takes a seat opposite me, leaning up against the other wall.

I lie down and put my helmet close to my ear so I can hear if the team calls and then close my eyes. My thoughts go to Moju and his relationship with Soli. How lucky he is to have her and know that he's had her the whole time.

"I was on your side, Junco."

I open my eyes and look over at Gid. "What are you talking about?"

He smiles, but it's forced. "In the camp. I was always on your side."

"I really don't remember you, Gideon."

"Yeah, all right." He sighs and stretches his legs out. They are almost long enough to cross the distance between us.

"Sorry, I just don't have those memories yet." I feel guilty, but fuck. How is it my fault I have no recollection of him?

"Don't worry about it, OK? It's not your fault, I don't blame you."

"You can tell me, if you want. Maybe I'll remember something?"

He laughs but it's as forced as his smile was. "Nah, I'm not gonna be the one to tell you what happened back there. Fuck that."

"So it's OK for you to keep these secrets and not make me listen, but when Lucan and Tier want to do the same thing, they're what? The evil avians?"

He sighs. "The shit they keep from you is about your future, not your past."