“I imagine we’ll find out for certain upon reading the notice; there’s little point in conjecture.”
“What he said,” agreed Josef as he ambled over. Jakon was with him.
So we were all together again, and none the worse for wear. “How’d your reports go?” I asked, keeping one eye on the screen as it listed team assignments.
They all made general nods or noises of the “fine” variation, except J/O. I was all set to get irritated at him for being sullen when he spoke up.
“I didn’t have to make a report, since they just recorded from my memory banks.” He sounded smug. I was definitely going to have to watch my temper with him right now.
“Well, good on you,” Jakon commented, and I could tell she was a little miffed by his attitude, too. Josef glanced at me.
“Heard you got in trouble with Jernan.”
I made a face. “Yeah. He was pretty pissed at me for losing a disk.” I glanced at Jo. “Don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell him I was trying to save your life?”
Jo shook her head. “You’re on your own,” she said, though she was smiling.
“You’re all very supportive,” I told my team.
“There we are.” Josef pointed to the screen, which had all of our names down one column and six names listed opposite us. I perked up a little; it was Jerzy’s team. The quick-witted bird boy had been one of the first people I’d actually gotten along with here, before we’d officially been assigned to teams.
“We’re against Joliette.” Jakon glanced at Jo, who looked annoyed. Joliette, while not an actual vampire, was nevertheless the closest thing most of us had ever encountered. She had pointed canines and pale skin, and while she didn’t bite necks or have an aversion to crosses, blood was a healthy part of her diet. As vampires had actually existed in the world Jo came from, Jo and Joliette had a mostly friendly rivalry going. The rest of us were amused at the dichotomy: Jo’s white wings made her look angelic, while Joliette had a darker persona, and we liked to pit them against each other whenever possible.
“And Jenoh,” Jo retorted. Jakon bared her teeth excitedly. Jenoh was more catlike than wolfish, but the two had a friendly rivalry, as well. I wondered if the Old Man had set us against this team on purpose; I wouldn’t have put it past him.
I looked back to the screen. It was us versus Jerzy, Joliette, Jaya, Jenoh, Jorensen, and—
“Afternoon, rivals-to-be.” Joaquim gave us a small smile as he wandered over, Joliette beside him. “Anything in particular I should know about this?”
“You’re gonna lose,” I teased him.
“We’ll see,” said Joliette, before Joaquim could say anything. “Hey, Jo. How’s the wing?”
“Fine, except I can’t fly and it hurts.”
“Guess we’re all on even ground, then.”
I glanced at Jo. Despite her quick retorts, she seemed…off. Her tone was a little duller, her wings drooping, her skin a shade paler. I worried for about half a second, then realized they wouldn’t have let her out of the infirmary if she wasn’t up to this. And speaking of being up to this…
“They’re sending you out already?” I asked Joaquim. “I was in training for weeks before I even left Base.”
“I was sitting in that room for hours before you guys found me. Gave me some time to get used to the whole thing, and, believe me, I’d rather be here than there. I want to get started,” he said, looking uncomfortable but determined. “I want to start helping.”
“I know the feeling,” said Jerzy, who’d just woven through the crowd to stand beside us. “I couldn’t wait to get out on my first mission after I was picked up by InterWorld.”
Jorensen nodded at Jai, who gave his own nod of greeting back. They were the two senior Walkers on this mission, which struck me as somewhat funny; Jorensen was as taciturn as Jai was verbose.
“Where’s Hue?”
I turned to see Jenoh, who was smiling at me in a manner both cute and feral. While most of the Walkers viewed Hue with uncertainty or suspicion, some had made friends with him. Jenoh was one of them, though I suspected it was mostly due to her catlike nature and Hue’s occasional resemblance to a ball of string.
“Dunno,” I said. “He pops in and out. Haven’t seen him since last night.”
Jenoh pouted cutely and made a noncommittal sound of acceptance. We were almost to the port room now, and more of Jorensen’s group was falling in with us. Soon the only one missing was Jaya, who showed up right as we reached the door.
“Hey,” I greeted her. She gave a sweet smile in return, her red-gold hair falling over her shoulders in waves.
“Hey, Joey.” Her voice sounded a lot like mine, as everyone’s did, but far more melodic—it had such a sweet tone to it that I didn’t mind the nickname. “Do we have everyone, Jorensen?” The officer gave a nod, gesturing for his team to step sideways, over by one of the doors.
They all filed over, as the team before us vanished through the port. “Proceed through in single file,” said the familiar ship voice, “and please watch your step.”
“We’ll give you a head start,” I tossed out, earning a snort from Jerzy and a grateful glance from Joaquim before he realized I was kidding.
“We won’t need it,” Jorensen’s deep, good-natured voice came from next to me. I was glad I wasn’t the only one participating in the banter.
Jorensen’s team went through, single file as instructed, then it was our turn. “Get ready, guys,” I told my team. “Once we go out there, all bets are off.”
They nodded, and I stepped through.
Going through a port is kind of like misjudging how many steps there are before you reach the bottom. You start to bring your foot down, ready to take another step, and the ground meets you just a little bit sooner than you expect. No matter how careful you are, it sends a jolt up your leg, sometimes rattling your teeth. It’s even more unnerving because you’re never exactly sure where you’re stepping, since you can’t see the ground.
This time the jolt wasn’t as bad, though that was just because my foot landed in a muddy puddle about three inches deep. We’d ported into the middle of a lush, green forest, and it looked like it had just rained. “Mud,” I cautioned, turning to the others as they appeared behind me. “All right, Jai. Where’re we going?”
“Down!” he yelled, and I immediately obliged. When Jai only uses one syllable, it’s serious. Something hurtled over my head, and as I rolled to my feet, getting mud all over me, I realized it was Jenoh. It was my turn to yell.
“What’s the big idea?”
“We’re allowed to sabotage each other, remember?” she responded sweetly, already back in pouncing position. She and Jakon squared off, a growl starting in the wolf girl’s throat.
I looked at Jai, who nodded to the left of me. Okay, then, left it was. I made eye contact with the rest of my team, except for Jakon, and we all took off before Jenoh could try to stop us again. We sprinted through the trees, occasionally squelching in pockets of mud, the mostly playful growls and hisses of Jenoh and Jakon fading behind us.
“J/O, scan for the others!” I half expected him to protest or ignore me, but the bionic boy gave a nod and fixed his cybernetic gaze on the scenery around us.
“Joliette is up ahead, twenty yards northeast.”
“Jo, you want her?” The winged girl nodded, splitting off from us to come from a different angle. I was willing to bet she wouldn’t have cared had Joliette not made the comment about her wing earlier.
“How far are we from the flag, Jai?”
“The device does not indicate precise proximity.”
“Just direction?”
“Affirmative.”
I squinted off into the distance. Through the trees, I could see the sky, the clouds, the sparkle of something that may have been a lake but could just be an optical illusion, and the top of what looked like a very tall mountain.
“I bet it’s up there,” I said as we paused near the edge of the
tree line. Jai squinted as well.
“You may be correct.”
“There’s Jerzy!” Josef pointed. About a hundred yards from us, Jerzy’s bright red feather tips were visible against the lush green grass.
“I love that guy’s head,” I said, which made Jai laugh.
“It does enable us to locate him more easily in this locale,” he agreed.
“Let’s go,” Josef said eagerly, but I paused.
“I bet they’ve got something planned. If we run out there, we’re gonna get ambushed. Jai, can I have the locator?” He handed it to me, looking curious.
“Can you do your ‘we’re not here’ trick on us when we break cover?” He hesitated, then nodded. I knew it was difficult to do on moving targets, but there were only three of us. “You don’t have to hold it for long. Just give us a start toward the mountain.” The little disk was warm in my hand; I felt fairly confident that the mountain was, in fact, where we needed to go.
Jai took a breath, then closed his eyes and motioned to the air around us. “Proceed.”
We broke from the trees, Josef, J/O, and I, running for all we were worth for the base of the mountain. The back of my neck tingled; I expected something to attack me at any moment, but it was the fun kind of adrenaline, like when you’re a kid sneaking around playing hide-and-seek.
An energy pulse hit the ground a few feet away from us; someone was using a blaster gun on stun. We were out in the middle of the plain—there was nowhere to hide, which probably meant they also had an invisi-shield up. I berated myself for not thinking to snag some helpful gadgets on the way out, then remembered Jernan, the quartermaster, was still mad at me and I likely would have been out of luck anyway. Somehow, that made me feel better about my lack of foresight.
Jorensen was revealed a second later, which meant Jai had discovered him and fritzed his invisi-shield—which also meant he’d dropped our “we’re not here” spell. I could still see Jerzy headed for the mountain off in the distance, but Joaquim and Jaya were still unaccounted for.
“J/O, you sense anything?”
“Jakon’s caught up with Jo, and Joliette’s on her way back.”
“That’s great, but do you sense anything up ahead?” He turned his attention to the terrain in front of us as we ran. I didn’t know why he’d even been bothering to look behind us in the first place.
Jakon must have beat Jenoh, but Joliette was on her way back? Jo didn’t usually lose to her. She’d been at InterWorld longer and was quicker in a fight. She had seemed a little low energy, though. I wondered if she was on pain medication for her wing.
“No,” J/O answered simply, and if I hadn’t been trying to conserve breath at that point I might have told him he could stand to be a little more helpful.
We were almost to the rocks now, but I’d lost sight of Jerzy. It was harder to see him against the brown stone, especially with the sun setting behind us and casting a bright red light over everything. The little disk in my hand was pulsing steady warmth—we were definitely getting closer.
“This was actually pretty straightforward,” I commented to my team as we reached the base of the mountain.
“I think the real challenge is getting up there,” Josef rumbled. J/O didn’t say anything.
I stood with my back to Josef, keeping an eye out for Jerzy, Joaquim, or Jaya. Or Joliette, for that matter, since I didn’t know how long it would take her to get here.
“Well, at least we know none of them can fly up.”
“Neither can any of us, with Jo’s wing busted.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, and then I had an idea. “Jai can hover. If he makes himself light, can you throw him?” Josef nodded. “That’d get us a head start, at least. Jakon’s a climber, too. Throw her and Jai up, when they get here. As high as you can. J/O and I will start climbing.”
Josef nodded again, seeming perfectly happy to not climb the mountain himself. He was a pretty big, heavy guy, and I bet he didn’t relish the thought of finding out which rocks were loose the hard way.
“C’mon, J/O!” I tried for cheerful, but I was still getting a wall where there used to be a person. I wondered if he was mad at me.
“You come on,” he retorted. “You know I can outclimb you.” That was a little more like his usual, competitive self, but I still had the feeling something was off with him.
“Hey, is there a problem?” I asked as soon as we were out of earshot of Josef. The mountain had something akin to a trail for the first few steps, but after those first few, it was a matter of scrambling up over rocks to various naturally formed platforms that were getting both smaller and steeper.
“No.” J/O looked at me oddly, sidelong. “Why would there be?”
I didn’t get a chance to respond, since he abruptly turned his head to look up the mountain. “Jaya is ahead,” he informed me.
“Huh. Why don’t you go first. You’re immune to her siren trick, aren’t you?” He nodded, and continued to climb without another word. I waited until I heard Jaya’s voice, singing the first few notes of the most beautiful song I’d ever heard—anything Jaya sang would make you think that—and then silence. I was far enough away that it didn’t affect me too much, but I was still sorry to hear it stop.
I started climbing again, feeling the little disk in my pocket pulse faster. I was nowhere near the top yet, but it looked like there were some caves scattered around the outside. Instead of being at the very top, the flag could be hidden in one of those.
I considered a moment; I didn’t want to give away my position, but J/O had already neutralized Jaya—how, I wasn’t sure, but she’d obviously stopped singing—and he didn’t know where the flag was. “J/O?” I called. Silence.
I pulled myself up onto a large, mostly flat rock. I’d been right: There was a small cave, not much bigger than I was, nestled between two rocks. I could see from where I stood that it was empty, but a natural path wound up around it off to the right, looking like it could take me higher. I started forward—and my senses screamed at me to duck. Jerzy’s slow kick whooshed over my head as he stepped out from behind an outcropping of rock.
“Took you long enough.” His hair feathers ruffled as he settled back into a defensive stance.
“I said we’d give you a head start,” I retorted, lashing out with a fist. He dodged easily, dancing around in a semicircle.
I bounced a little on my toes, adrenaline starting to pump through me. I’d always enjoyed sparring with Jerzy; he was light and quick, about my size, and always had a retort or comeback ready with his punches. He didn’t take things personally, he just enjoyed the test of strength and ability.
“You sent the new kid to get the flag for you?” I teased, ducking under another kick and crouching to sweep him.
“His idea.” Jerzy jumped agilely, landing slightly to my left. “Pretty eager to prove himself since he had to be rescued, I think. Reminds me of someone…”
“Hey, I did my fair share of rescuing in the end.” I dodged, blocked, struck, dodged, and blocked again as Jerzy put me on the defensive, finally ducking out of the way as I felt the rock wall at my back.
“After you got kicked out,” he teased me. I didn’t mind, especially because I got a shot in at that moment: a solid punch to the jaw. Jerzy shook his head and laughed, bringing a knee up into my side. We were pulling our blows some, but it still hurt. I laughed, rolling away from him.
“Yeah, and I was back within a week. I’d have that flag by now, too—he’s slow.”
Jerzy danced back at that, glancing up toward the mountain. I didn’t press the advantage; a slight frown crossed his face at my comment, and he lowered his guard a little. “I believe that, actually. Hey, Joaquim!” he called up, cupping one hand around his mouth. “Hurry up! They’re coming!”
I turned to glance over my shoulder at that; Jerzy was on a slightly higher vantage point than I was, and had seen the rest of my team before I did. Joliette was climbing up the way I’d come, Jo not far behind her,
and Jai was making his way toward the mountain while the air around him rippled as Jorensen’s stunner pinged off the force field. Josef waved at me, then boosted Jakon up onto the mountain one-handed, The other hand was holding a struggling, hissing Jenoh aloft by the back of her shirt.
“My team’s here,” I tossed back at Jerzy.
He turned to look at me, that frown still on his face. He opened his mouth—and something exploded.
We both looked up at the same time, as another explosion went off, then another—a series of small pops sounding almost like fireworks, one after the other. There were five or six of them total, but the popping was soon replaced by a rumbling, and it began to rain pebbles and dust.
“What’s—” I started, but I couldn’t even hear myself over the sound of falling rocks. I stared up at the cloud of dust and earth, thoughts going through me as calmly as if it were happening to someone else. Avalanche. There’s nowhere to go, no cover. The mountainside won’t protect us, and we’re too far up to jump. Those rocks are huge—
Jerzy moved first, launching himself toward me and tugging me over to the edge. Jumping was our only option—
The cave. I planted my feet, tugging back on Jerzy’s arm. A boulder the size of my dad’s car slammed into the rock we stood on, splitting it in two. I stumbled sideways, losing my grip on Jerzy. I couldn’t see anything—the dust in the air was so thick now I couldn’t breathe, but I stubbornly forced my eyes open, trying to find him, to pull him toward the cave.
Another rock fell just beside me, clipping my left shoulder on the way down. It hurt like hell, and I stumbled back—just in time, as another one landed where I’d been standing. I just kept backpedaling, instinct taking over as it grew darker; the avalanche was literally blocking out the sun.
Not even able to keep my feet anymore, I scrambled backward until I felt the rocks at my side, felt along them until I found the depression of the cave. I crawled into it, praying I’d find Jerzy already there.