Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure) (34 page)

“C’mon man, hurry that shit up!” Maxen shouted.

“Just give me a second,” replied Adam calmly as the flying monsters approached.

“And…i
t's open!” Adam shouted and Miles grabbed one of the thick steel doors and pulled it as hard as he could until it slid open. “Come on!” he yelled, Maxen and Adam rushed inside and Miles quickly ducked in the door as well, closing it behind them. The sound of rabid thrashwings could be heard as they clawed fruitlessly at the thick steel door. ‘That was fucking close’ Miles thought as he doubled over, gasping for breath with his hands on his knees. The interior of the dome structure was filled with old computer terminals and was intermittently illuminated by a flashing red light. One of the terminals displayed an error message as it showed a three dimensional model of an elevator, another of the monitors was showing a similar error, this time displaying the tower's expulsion mechanism. There were two doors, one on either side of the structure, leading to the other two domes. From the diagram Miles studied back at the house, he knew that only one of the domes, the largest of the three, allowed access to the elevator. After taking a moment to recover from all the running, Adam led the way towards the door on the right which was locked via a keypad system much like the one at the entrance. Adam entered another four digit code, after which a loud rattling sound could be heard followed by a satisfying click. Adam pulled the door open and gestured for Miles and Maxen to follow him inside.

“Well, there it is
,” said Adam, pointing at the elevator door in the centre of the wall on the opposite side of the room they had just entered. The second room resembled the first only it was a little bigger and with more terminals displaying yet more error messages. Miles rushed over to the elevator to examine it.

“Maxen, I think I'm going to need your help with this
,” he said after he found that the door was jammed.

“What do ya need me to do?” Maxen asked, walking over to join Miles near the elevator door.

“Well...” Miles simply gestured towards the unmoving elevator door and Maxen knew what needed to be done.

“Heh, leave it to me
,” chuckled Maxen as he returned his mechanical arm to its primary form. He extended his robotic fingers, pulled back his arm and thrust them into the centre of the door, forcing his hand between the two sides, he then placed his organic hand on the wall beside the elevator, widened his stance and began to pull open the heavy steel door. It shifted slowly at first but after a few seconds, Maxen gave it one last heave and pulled the malfunctioning door open with such force that he made a deep dent in the frame of the elevator. As Maxen finished attending to the door situation, Miles began double checking the supplies in the backpack that he had been carrying. Two long ropes with grappling hooks securely attached to the ends, harnesses to fasten the ropes to Miles and Maxen, a box of various tools that might be necessary to repair the malfunctioning mechanism at the peak and two heavy steel boxes with leather straps attached to them which Adam had explained were advanced, compact parachutes that he had designed himself. Maxen took a step inside the unlit elevator and looked up at the service hatch.

“Alright, when we're ready, I'll bust that hatch open
,” he said, returning to the main room to prepare for the ascent with Miles. 

“Hope you boys can handle
this,” Adam anticipated as he pulled two radios from his small satchel. “I'll wait down here, radio me when you reach the top and I'll guide you through the repairs,” he handed Miles one of the two radios and explained to him and Maxen how they work. These were a long obsolete method of communication on Carthage but Miles had seen them in plenty of old films so he had a pretty good understanding of how to use them.

“Anything else we should know about?” Miles asked as he took the radio from Adam and tucked it under his belt.

“Yeah,” said Adam, taking a seat on one of the rotating chairs that sat by each terminal, “watch out for the queen.” Those last ominous words from Adam made Miles stop what he was doing and gulp, his face turned pale and his heart began to pound rapidly. ‘The queen? You tell us that now?! I’m not even going to ask, somehow I think we’ll know her when we see her.’ Bracing himself, he finished strapping the harness to his torso while Maxen did the same.

“We ready?” Maxen asked.
Miles looked at his equipment once more, making absolutely sure that he had everything before replying nervously, “I-I guess so.”

Maxen stepped back inside the elevator, this time followed by Miles. He attempted to lift the service hatch but finding it
lodged in place he pulled back his steel arm and threw a powerful punch straight up at the hatch causing the heavy lid to shoot several feet up the elevator shaft. Both Maxen and Miles took a step back in case the lid of the hatch came crashing back down in to the elevator but upon hearing it land hard on the elevator roof Maxen took another look at the now open service hatch before pulling himself up. Miles followed, and soon they were both standing on the roof of the elevator, inside the exposed shaft of the Wilhelm station's four hundred and eighty seven meter high tower. Miles looked up at the climb ahead, the cables of the elevator looked to have been severed roughly one hundred and fifty meters up, clearly the work of one of the highly destructive thrashwings, as there was a large hole in the chain link covering beside the damaged cables.

“Well, this is gonna be fun,” Maxen said with a hint of sarcasm
, “guess we should get to it then,” he added, taking hold of his rope around thirty inches from the grappling hook and beginning to swing it in a circular motion. Miles waited for Maxen to throw his grapple before attempting it himself. After picking up enough momentum, Maxen released the rope and sent the grappling hook soaring up the shaft of the elevator and then becoming lodged on one of the many steel girders above, he tugged it hard, making sure it was secure, and began to scale the side of the shaft. Miles prepared to throw his hook as the thrashwings were once again alerted to the presence of the two men. He tried his best to copy Maxen's technique, swinging the rope around before tossing it as hard as he could into the air. The hook reached nearly half the height of Maxen's before failing to latch onto anything and falling back down the shaft. Miles began to panic as the heavy grappling hook plummeted back towards them.

“Maxen watch ou...” Before Miles could finish the sentence, he heard the loud sound of metal against metal and looked over to see Maxen's mechanical hand wrapped tightly around the hook.

“You really should be more careful Miles,” said Maxen with a look halfway between irritation and amusement at Miles' embarrassing failure before launching the hook up the elevator shaft himself, this time fastening it successfully to a girder on the opposite side.

“Thanks...” Miles said, almost blushing.
‘Show off…’ After testing the rope, Miles began to ascend the elevator shaft opposite Maxen as the tower shook and the chain link covering rattled with the impact of thrashwings high above. Miles could already feel his arms beginning to grow tired upon reaching the top of the first throw. He and Maxen decided to rest for a couple of minutes on a horizontal girder before continuing onward. There didn't appear to be any immediate danger from the thrashwings but the sound of them pounding against the tower a hundred meters up was still unnerving.

“Okay, let's keep moving
,” suggested Miles after taking another drink from his canteen which was now half empty. Maxen nodded and took his grappling hook from the girder beside him and skilfully tossed it up the elevator shaft once again. Miles was more careful with his throw this time, clinging tight to the large girder with his left hand and using his right to retrieve the hook, he gave a quick look back to Maxen who was watching him cautiously. Miles took a moment to focus before throwing the heavy steel hook up a second time, he watched anxiously as the grapple continued to rise before successfully catching between a girder and the outer covering of the shaft.

“Hah, I did it!”
he celebrated, looking over at Maxen with a sense of pride.

“Hmm, not bad
,” Maxen acknowledged, mildly impressed before scaling the side of the shaft once more. Miles' hook had only travelled about four meters up the tower but at least it had latched on properly this time.

Almost an hour had passed since the two men began their ascent and they had only just passed the severed elevator cables. The thrashwings were beginning to become more aware of their presence and
were circling around the elevator shaft, screeching menacingly.

“Better keep an eye out,” Maxen said, turning to face Miles
, “looks like these fuckers are startin' to take an interest in us.” The great flying beasts grew more intimidating the closer they got to them, and Miles could now make out the sharp, axe like blades on the ends of their long tails and the colourful patterns on their scaly backs and wings. Miles and Maxen cautiously made their way up the tower as they watched the skies for any sign of danger and it wasn't long before Miles heard a loud crash directly behind him. He turned quickly with a fright to see that a terrifying blue scaled thrashwing had attached itself to the chain links of the outer cover with its large talons and was now face to face with Maxen. It was bearing a set of razor sharp teeth in its long pointed mouth and seemed to be staring straight at Maxen with nightmarish, blank white reptilian eyes. Maxen remained motionless as he stared back at the creature and Miles too tried to remain as still as he possibly could so as not to startle the monster into attacking. The thrashwing began to slowly make its way along the side of the shaft, settling in front of Miles and staring him down much like it did with Maxen. ‘Just stay calm Miles, no sudden movements…’ Miles pulse began to race as he looked into the horrifying, dead eyes of the beast only inches from his face, silently begging it not to strike, all the while the beast’s rancid breath blew forcefully against his face. After several seconds of closely examining its potential prey, sniffing at the terrified Miles and making all manner of strange squeaks and cackles, the blue monster threw open its giant wings and kicked hard against the side of the tower, launching itself back into the skies. A strong gust of wind from the wings of the beast almost made Miles lose his grip on the rope but he held tight and let out a great sigh of relief as he watched the creature soar into the distance to re-join its circling pack.

“Woah...”
said Maxen, taking a deep breath, both of them took a wordless moment to calm down before continuing up the tower. As they carefully made their way to the peak, several more thrashwings had flown by within inches of the tower but none of them had made contact. Miles knew however that it most likely wouldn't be long before one of them decided to charge.

They had made it half way up the tower
when they took another short break. Miles looked down at the marvellous view below. The dark green jungle spread out for many kilometres on one side, on the other side were great grassy plains that stretched to the horizon, mountains rising up on either side and the stream they waded through became a raging river a few kilometres away. In the far distance, beyond the jungle, he could just about make out Adam’s homestead. If not for the ever present threat of the thrashwing nest it would have been a serene and beautiful moment.

“Isn’t this incredible Maxen? If not for those damn
ugly oversized birds I could sit here for hours.”

“I know what you mean man, I spent my whole life in the Yellow Districts, I ain’t never seen anything like this. Its beautiful man, I wish I could show Jenny, she always wanted to see a real forest.”

Aware of the need to get moving the two men continued on with their mission. Every now and then the night cycle kicked in turning everything completely black, stars were visible above and the only light came from the glow of Carthage as it hung there weightlessly. Thankfully these moments didn’t last too long, and for the majority of the time the faulty station provided Miles and Maxen with daylight hours. Sometimes it would feel like dawn, and a moment later the sun would be setting in the sky. After another few minutes of climbing Miles heard a loud, piercing screech from his right, he turned just in time to see a large thrashwing speeding towards the shaft.

“Maxen!” he shouted, pointing to the creature. The thrashwing showed no signs of slowing down and Maxen quickly shifted his arm into its cannon form. The flying creature with red and black scales hit the tower
forcefully, causing it to shake wildly. Without hesitation, the thrashwing began violently tearing apart the outer covering with its claws and teeth. Maxen wasted no time, he aimed his cannon at the beast’s chest and fired, expelling another devastating sphere of energy which ripped through both the thrashwing and the tower. Warm reptilian blood now covered a large portion of the elevator shaft, drenching Miles and Maxen as what little was left of the red and black thrashwing plummeted to the ground. The commotion attracted the unwanted attention of numerous other beasts as they broke out of their circular flying pattern and prepared to attack.

“Shit, we gotta move!”
said Maxen picking up the pace and climbing the rope as fast as he could. Miles did the same while watching the mad thrashwings soar wildly through the air toward them. Powerful crashing noises were heard and both Miles and Maxen, looking down, saw a smaller thrashwing scramble through the hole made by Maxen's cannon. It quickly squeezed its way into the elevator shaft and launched itself upwards at Maxen who lifted his mechanical limb in front of his face to block the sharp claws of the creature. Miles looked on in horror as the thrashwing clung tightly to Maxen's arm and, with a deafening screech, opened its jaws. He pulled his revolver from his trousers and pointed it at the beast, but was unable to fire in case he hit Maxen. As the thrashwing clung on tight, Maxen instinctively spun himself around and slammed the creature against one of the hard metal girders, trapping it between his arm and the wall. The small thrashwing frantically pounded its wings and attempted to bite Maxen but the only part of him that it could reach was his impenetrable steel arm. ‘Die you fuckin’ lizard freak!’ Maxen growled and pushed his arm violently against the monster’s throat, immobilising it until it finally stopped moving. Satisfied that the creature was dead he released his hold, letting the limp body of the thrashwing spiral down the shaft, hitting the sides as it fell.