Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter (29 page)

“Coming back to this is a good reason?”

“Sally, I know as much as you about what’s going on.”

“I wonder about that.” She looked away.

“What are you trying to say?!” he shouted as he stepped up to her.

She touched his chest. “Nothing. Forget it. I’m tired and scared, so I’ll say anything. I’m just a girl, remember?” She smiled at him.

He grunted. “Yeah, okay. Can we just go now?”

“Yes, but let me do something first.” And without another word she closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they were glowing a solid white.

Ray groaned as he stared at her prone body. He knew what she was doing

Oslo let out the mainsail and unfurled the spinnaker. The winds were coming from behind him and increasing with intensity.

He set his nav-station for a southeastern course. He would follow the island chains until breaking out into the open Atlanteanic for the western shores of Northern Afrika. From there, he would follow the coastline past the ravaged lands of Europa and up to Scandinavia.

His mind began to wander as he thought about Kera and Excort’s words. Perhaps they were right in that he should go to Raza and make his peace with her and live out his life with someone who cared about him.

He grimaced as he swallowed hard.
No, it’s been so long. She must have moved on. And how could I return without Nina?

Nina. Her name was more like a stab to his heart than a source of comfort. He looked up at the sky and lamented never being able to reach out to his daughter. He closed his eyes and let his memories drift back.

Nina was born on the island in the days when Bram was projecting out into space during their experiments. He remembered that time as the greatest in his life despite the chaos that roiled the world as he and Raza had fallen in love and were married. The ceremony was administered by the Captain and Bram was his best man. The men were suited in their finest uniforms, and Raza was dressed in a flowing white gown.

Nina was born soon after and like her parents, was also a paranormal who took to the water like a fish, stunning them with her ability to stay underwater for an incredible amount of time.

But the aftermath of the purge forced them all into retirement as the Elephim consolidated their power and were dismantling the military in order to create one of their own. Perihelion was to be shut down and all personnel dismissed as the clandestine attempts to discover the secrets of the Elephim in order to defeat them, was coming to an end. Oslo and Raza resisted, but it was pointless. By then, Bram was lost as he never returned to his body after what was supposed to be his last expedition to Helena, the alleged homeworld of the Elephim. He lived, but there was no registering of his soul or his essence. He lay in a comatose state with only machines to keep his body alive.

Arrangements were made for Excort and his wife, Mila, to stay behind and administer the decommissioning of Perihelion. Oslo pleaded with the Captain to let them all stay, but he had the look of defeated man.

Disperse
, the Captain said, o
ur time is up. Let us age gracefully and retreat with the sunset
.

He shook his head as he remembered those words. The days of the Helios were over. The age of heroes, gone. Though he and Raza, as well as other dedicated personnel, disobeyed orders and stayed behind to try and save paranormal children from across the globe, and bring them to Perihelion for refuge, that plan also ended in defeat and Perihelion was abandoned once and for all, with only Mila and Excort staying behind on the island, now shrouded by a fog that Oslo erected to keep the island, along with all of the secrets that it possessed, out of the hands of the Elephim.

She is better off staying here
, he thought to himself as his mind drifted back to the present. He couldn’t deal with the heartbreak of seeing her hurt, or worse, taken away from him. He began to wonder if that was the reason why he tried to revive Perihelion. Was he really trying to fight the unseen forces that had taken over the world, or did he have an ulterior motive? By gathering the students he had found, perhaps it was an attempt to give his daughter a childhood she had never known. There would be life again on the island filled with young people full of hope and promise and they would become playmates and companions for his daughter. And perhaps in the future, even a mate.

He smiled ruefully and shook his head. Breeze and the others had lives of their own before he came blustering into them. Let them return home as reviving any attempt to create a new generation of Helios was foolish at best. All that was accomplished was that he ran the risk of stirring the Elephim, the unforgiving observers from above. He could only hope that perhaps they had truly become dormant and no longer possessed the grip over the Earth as they once did.

I hope the three of them managed to slip back to their homelands unnoticed. Let peace reign across the land.

The hairs on his arms and neck stood on end. He looked behind and was greeted by a green wave of energy that hurled itself out of the clouds and slammed into his sailboat.

He cried out as he was flung out of his vessel and sent careening through the air. He hit the ocean surface and sank like a stone.

Too stunned at first to register what had happened, he ingested a mouth full of salt water that snapped him to his senses. He gagged and choked as he thrashed his way to the surface.

He broke through and threw his head back, spitting out the salt water that clogged his lungs as he gasped for air. He treaded water and watched as his vessel burned to the waterline in the distance, the flames casting a hypnotic effect over him

His trance was broken by twin black streaks shooting across the sky combined with the sound of static.

Elephim
, he thought as a plunging despair consumed him. He had truly stirred the hornet’s nest. There was no turning back.

He had never forgotten when he first encountered them. He was with Raza and Nina as they traveled from Appalachia to Perihelion. Nina had fallen ill and was close to death, and only the facilities on Perihelion could save her, but the Elephim ambushed the transport he was piloting and forced them to land. He vividly remembered their jet black bodies and expressionless faces as they tried to break into the ship and take his daughter. It was also the last time he saw Raza.

Oslo twisted in the water to track their progress. They circled above him like hawks waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Suddenly, one of them plunged toward what was left of the burning sailboat with its stern sinking into the water and the bow pointing straight up into the sky. The mast had snapped off, leaving only a crude stump behind.

The Elephim hovered above the ship briefly before hurling a bolt of energy at it, sending the remains of the vessel to the bottom. As the sailboat disappeared beneath the waves, both Elephim turned their attention away from it and flew towards him.

Oslo took a deep breath and slipped beneath the waves.

Breeze hurtled down the sheer face of the mountain, gritting his teeth and squinting while the cold air blasted his face. His arms were stretched out before him as he tried to suppress his fears as the canyon floor rapidly approached.

He surrendered himself to the reality that he was going to die. He thought about his father and wondered what he would think of his death when a brief image of his mother floated through his mind. She looked sad, even when she smiled. She dissipated when he heard the laughter of a child.

He felt a surge of power rush through him as his shield rose. He leveled out in time and narrowly escaped impacting with the canyon floor.

He skimmed across the surface and focused on his steering when he was slammed from the side. He lost control and bounced off the walls of the narrow canyon, flinging rock and debris everywhere.

Relieved that the shield held up and protected him, he quickly looked over his shoulder to find the source of the attack and saw a black clad figure hurling a boulder at him.

He grunted as he poured on the power and raced through the canyon with a sonic boom trailing behind him, triggering a rock slide with massive boulders pouring down the sides of the canyon.

His shield was struck repeatedly from the raining debris of rocks and boulders. He tried to dodge and weave through them, but the rock slide came down too fast for him to maneuver through.

He looked up just as a shadow descended upon him. He had enough time to see a massive boulder trailed by several smaller ones hit him, sending him in a downward trajectory to the canyon floor.

He impacted the ground hard and plowed a trench, coming to a stop when he slammed into the base of the mountain. He laid huddled in a fetal position as rocks rained down on him. His shield stayed up and protected him from the torrential rock slide as dirt and boulders piled upon it, plunging him into darkness.

The rock slide eventually ended, followed by an eerie silence. He closed his eyes as they ached from straining to focus in the dark. He calmed himself down, knowing that should he lose his concentration the shield would collapse and the tons of rock above him would crush him to death.

The air inside the shield was turning foul and beginning to buckle as he struggled for fresh air.

Beneath him, he felt dampness as his impact exposed an underground river. Water began filtering through the shield, yet he didn’t resist as it filled the interior and immersed him. It reminded him of the first time he met Nina at the bottom of the cove. He convulsed as water filled his lungs and caused the shield to waver, and then surrendered himself as his breathing relaxed and he slipped into a peaceful oblivion.

Sally drifted in her astral form across the burning city as she tried to get her bearings. She could feel her body back at the mountain being caressed by the hot air heated by the fires as it blew across the valley. She looked back upon the trail of light that connected her astral form to her physical body. She knew she would need to follow it to return.

She stopped to hover over the center of the valley. Below, flames and smoke enveloped the city. She scanned the streets hoping to find anyone, but the city was a corpse except for the sound of an explosion or the collapse of another building succumbing to the ravages of the fires.

She steeled her nerves as she drifted across the destruction, telling herself over and over again that this was just a dream, and she would wake up any moment in the safety of her home.

Home, where was it?
She thought as she spun slowly, hoping to find some landmark that would lead her to it when she saw a twin spire tower on the horizon. It was the same one she had always seen from her bedroom window and just beyond it was her neighborhood.

She glided over to the tower, surprised to find it wasn’t on fire or damaged, nor the surrounding structures attached to it. She continued traveling, leaving behind the burning city and into the surrounding suburbs when she reached the district of her neighborhood where it too seemed to have escaped the ravages of the flames. She cautiously flew over the darkened streets with only the distant glow of the fires behind her to light the way. The homes below were left untouched from the fire and destruction. Everything was perfectly intact.

She recognized her street and glided past each of the stately homes on it until she reached hers, and instead found a smoldering crater in the ground.

She felt her heart crush as she descended.
It couldn’t be! Every home is untouched, except mine!

Fear crept up within her as she thought of parents.
Mother, father, where are you?

She hovered over the horrible gash in the earth where her home once stood and looked at the houses across the street. They were in perfect condition. She saw through the trees that Ray’s family home next door was intact.

She turned to look back at the crater and gasped as a figure stepped out of it. It was jet black with a featureless face. An Elephim. It walked the perimeter of the crater shaking its head.

Sally could feel the terror course through her as the sound of static began to build. She carefully floated away when the Elephim looked in her direction, then leapt across the expanse of the crater and landed a few feet from her, leaning forward as it looked through the darkness; searching. Its face swirled with pinpoints of lights as the hiss of static grew stronger.

Sally put her hands to her mouth as she dared herself not to breathe.

Back at the mountain, Ray watched as Sally’s body trembled and shook as it mimicked the actions of her astral form. He saw her hands go to her mouth as her eyes glowed an intense, searing white.

He leaned into her face and said loudly, “Sally, come back.”

At the crater, Sally continued floating away from the creature as Ray’s voice was barely heard above the hiss of static. Every time she moved, the Elephim seemed to sense her presence but was hesitant and cautious as if it knew a sudden move on its part would send her flying away.

She looked behind and saw her trail of light was diminishing. A wave of panic swept over her as she felt her energy draining as the static built in intensity.

She looked back at the Elephim. It was gone.

She turned around and it was right before her, reaching out and groping with its hands as it tried to find her in the darkness.

She screamed as she felt the light trail sweep her off her feet and drag her back. She saw the landscape below as nothing more than a blur of fire and smoke as she rapidly approached the cliff and slammed back into her body. She skidded across the ground and rammed into the landing gear of the ship, where she laid still in a crumpled heap.

Ray rushed over and gently rolled her to face him.

She was comatose.

Oslo held his breath underwater as he watched the pair of Elephim above the surface. One hovered over him as the other circled like a vulture.

In a flash, the Elephim that hovered pierced the water and angled towards him.

Oslo closed his eyes and forced himself to focus. He would have to make a jump if he wanted to escape. His paranormal ability was never fully refined, and nobody knew how to instruct him of his powers and how to achieve his full potential. He was only able to leap forward a few seconds at most, folding space around him, which created the impression he could move quickly.