D. MacHale - The Pilgrims of Rayne

The small girl was pulled to the ground and dragged across the debris-strewn street by a group of Flighters. We finally found them. Or maybe I should say they found us. They were on the attack. There were lots of them too. Way too many for us to battle.

“Help!” she screamed in terror.

The swish sounds were made by ropes. Lassos. The Flighters were throwing ropes to snare us. They reeled Twig in like a helpless fish. Loque dove for her, sprawling across her body and preventing her from being pulled any farther. I jumped to yank off the rope, but felt the quick tightening of a lasso that snapped around my neck so fast I didn’t have time to react. I was jerked forward and pulled to the ground. The rope tightened, choking me. All I could do was grab it and pull back. Hard. The Flighter attached to the other end must not have expected that, because I pulled him off his feet. Idiot. He should have let go. It gave me time to loosen the rope and slip it off.

The Flighters were grouped together, looking like a bunch of zombies, fresh from the grave, complete with rotted clothing. They had the same vacant, emotionless looks as the Flighters I had seen on Rayne. On Ibara. The island. Not the territory. I was on Veelox! They wound up their ropes, ready to try and snare us again. I was ready to charge them, but more kept showing up. They flooded from a building like rampaging rats after ripe garbage. We wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight.

Loque freed Twig. Siry knelt by me, bringing his blowgun up to his lips.

“Don’t bother,” I shouted. “Run.”

I didn’t have to tell him twice. He helped me to my feet and the four of us took off, back the way we had come. It was a mad sprint to get away from our attackers and back to the ship.

We didn’t get far. A handful of Flighters appeared ahead of us, climbing up and over a pile of rubble. We ran right into them. I pulled out the wooden blowgun and held it low, ready to whack the first Flighter who got within whacking range. I expected to get pounced on by a gang, but only one of them came at me. The guy wasn’t a fighter, but he was fearless. He charged with no regard for his own safety, swinging his arms wildly, hoping to land a lucky punch. I backed off, easily blocking everything he threw. He drove his head into my chest and pumped his legs, driving me backward like a tackling dummy.

I had no trouble pivoting and using his own energy to throw him over my hip. The Flighters were relentless, but they didn’t know how to fight. I looked quickly toward the others and saw both Siry and Loque fighting one Flighter each. That didn’t make sense. I saw at least ten of them jump off the pile of rubble. Why were they coming at us one at a time? I sprinted toward Siry and launched myself at his attacker, driving both my feet into his rib age. The Flighter grunted and dropped away.

“Twig!” Siry shouted with such fear it made my heart clutch.

The next few seconds were painful. The Flighters’ plan came clear. They weren’t as clueless as I’d thought. Siry and Loque and I were attacked by one each because the rest had jumped Twig. They were going to take us out one at a time. Poor Twig was the first target.

“Siry!” she shouted desperately. “Help!”

She was swarmed by several Flighters who dragged her back toward… somewhere.

I had to make a snap decision. It was one of the toughest things I’d ever done. Siry made a move to help her… and I stopped him.

“No!” I shouted. “You can’t help her.”

“Pendragon!” he protested desperately.

“Look!” I said, pointing beyond the group that was dragging poor Twig away. The mass of Flighters that had first attacked us was growing. There must have been fifty of them headed our way. If we went after Twig, it would be over. For all of us. Siry understood. It didn’t make it any less painful, but he understood. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of horror on Twig’s face as she was dragged away from us. I could only hope she’d survive the ordeal and we’d get another chance to save her.

“We’ll help her, but not now,” I said to Siry.

The look on his face was gut-wrenching. This was way more than he bargained for when he set out on a grand adventure with his friends to explore Ibara.

No, to explore Veelox.

“C’mon!” I shouted to get him moving.

Siry reluctantly backed away. We both turned to run. Loque had shaken the Flighter who had attacked him and ran with us. We were down to three. Who would be the next target? Ahead of us to our right, more Flighters poured from another building, cutting off the street and our route back to the ship.

“This way!” Loque shouted, and turned left, headed toward one of the derelict buildings.

It was a dangerous move. There were three of us and dozens of them. If we were clever, and lucky, we might be able to lose them inside one of the empty buildings. If we weren’t lucky, the building would collapse on our heads. If we stayed in the street, they’d have us. Jumping into a building was the only move we had. Loque knew it. Siry and I weren’t far behind. We followed the blond thief through the first door we came to. Inside was a mess of crushed furniture and broken shelves. It might have been a store at one time. It might have been an office. It might have been a zoo for all I cared. All I wanted was to get through and shake the mass of Flighters. I quickly realized I was with the right guys. They may not have been warriors, but they knew how to dodge the authorities. They had plenty of practice running from the security force in Rayne. To them, running through the twisted labyrinth inside this building was no different than blasting through the dense tropical jungle near their home. I had trouble keeping up with them as they jumped over piles of junk while always looking ahead for the best route.

The Flighters had even more trouble keeping up. There were too many of them. Being only three was definitely an advantage. Loque led us through several rooms of debris. It was almost as if he knew where he was going. Finally he blasted through a doorway that led to a huge, empty atrium. After running through a maze of dark, junky rooms, it was a breathtaking surprise to suddenly land in such a huge space.

It was a giant, glass building. The ceiling and two of the walls were made of colorful stained glass. At one time it might have been some kind of cathedral. The spectacular mosaic pattern was a seascape, complete with schools of fish, coral, whales, and vibrant plant life. The colors were incredibly vivid, made more so because the sun shone through to make them come alive. The whole mosaic was amazingly intact, though there were hundreds of places where sections had fallen out to let unfiltered sun shine in, creating laserlike beams of white light that crisscrossed the entire space. The three of us stood beneath this spectacular glass dome, staring up in awe, trying to catch our breath. It was an awesome sight that I would have appreciated a whole lot more if we hadn’t been running for our lives.

“We’ve got to go back,” Siry said, gulping air. “They’ve got Twig.”

“And they’ll get us, too,” I said. “We’ll go back, but on our terms.”

“I shouldn’t have brought her,” Siry cried. “I shouldn’t have brought anyone!”

“It was our choice,” Loque said. “There were plenty of chances to back out.”

“Guys, not the time to second guess,” I cautioned. “You can beat yourselves up all you want later. Let’s shake those goons first.”

Crash!

The sound came from the room we had just run through. The Flighters were smashing their way through. I did a quick scan of the immense atrium, looking for the best escape route.

“We won’t make it across this space in time,” I concluded. “I say we dig in somewhere and hope they miss us.”