HMS Valediction

Chapter 35.3

Civilians clog the hallways. They dash around screaming, pointing out the window as enormous fireballs race toward them.

Sirens blare. Their shrill rings shake the marble pillars lining the extensive corridors. An authoritative male voice rises above the clamor and demands we seek shelter. He repeats the message every minute.

"Brace for impact. Brace for impact. Brace for impact," the recorded voice commands.

ARC10's debris charges their mountain home.

I push my way through the raging crowd. When they touch me, I shove them out of the way.

Over the tops of their heads, I spot Juno. She towers above them. They part for her, allowing her easy access to a new corridor of the ship I can't see. Surrounded by golden helmets and the tips of golden spears, her escorts guide her around a corner.

I follow.

We have impact.

I'm thrown sideways against a cold column.

People scream.

The first of the rogue fireballs and speeding chunks of broken ARC10 crash into Olympi's enormous side. The lights flicker. Sirens wail louder. Civilians scream as if they were directly struck by the fire themselves. But as seconds pass, we right ourselves and return to the thick panic from seconds before.

When I turn the corner Juno had ventured down, a line of soldiers barricades me. Dead in the eyes, completely vacant of any life, they stand sentry. She must have ordered them to do this—only under her complete control would anyone be able to become as lifeless and rigid as this.

I raise my pistol and attempt to blast them away, but it's as if they're a row of upright corpses. They don't react when I pull the trigger and discharge my electric current through their exposed skin. Their bodies have turned to stone. I can't move them. I can't move around them. When I try to climb their bodies, they forcefully shove me off. I can't see Juno anymore.

This will not be how I lose my  son.

If I had Moon's strength, I could vault over them. If I had his bones, I could plow through them like a bulldozer. If I had any of the enhancements he boasts, this would be as simple as throwing my body into my obstacles. I see it now. I see why he never stopped adding to his catalog of bizarre super powers.

But look at what good it's done for him. His dead heart and his living skin have kept him suffering in his eternal hell despite having all the potential to become the greatest hero that ever lived.

I will never change my body. Not like that. Not for something as fleeting as strength.

Standing off against the wall of gold and flesh, I evaluate my next course of action. If I can't get through, I need to go around.

Pressing my fingers between my lips, I whistle loud enough to wake the dead. I hope this works.

Through the confusion and screams, the most welcomed sound in the universe tiks its way into existence. John, limping but still alive, reaches my side. He's battered, broken in many places, and shuddering as he moves, but he is here, looking exactly how I feel.

He doesn't even stop. When he passes, I grab onto his legs as he launches himself onto the wall and over the line of Guildeds' heads. When we land on the other side, the soldiers don't move. It's as if we were never there before them.

Together, we race on.

At the end of a darkened, empty hall, with garish strobes blinking shadows across Juno's hasty exit, I spot them. Hunched over an escape pod's initiation panel, she clicks in the code to activate the tiny ship.