Paintshark (36 page)

Elias screamed from the bottom of his soul, a cry of utter despair and suffering. With no ship they were all doomed; their fate was to burn with the rest of the prison.

“NAYAN, WHERE ARE YOU?” Elias cried. Even in the intense heat Elias was shivering with disappointment more than fear. “I’VE LET YOU ALL DOWN,” he said to the group and then had a coughing fit. Prisoner Hoult stepped over and patted him on the back and began coughing also. “You’ve let nobody down, we all had a choice and we chose freedom, we chose to come with you.”

“But we’ve lost good men today, for what?”

Hoult rubbed the ash from his eyes. “I believe we’ll see them soon.”

Elias mouthed ‘sorry’ to him.

Sympathising with his anguish and despair, he gave him ‘thumbs up’.

The platform the men were standing on began to quake and everyone knew death was inevitable.

“Let’s get in to a huddle,” Jago said. “If we fall or if we burn…we will be together and die together.”

Terrified cries were now replaced with silence as the remaining prisoners bunched together waiting for death to come. Hoult raised his head from the huddle and cupped his head in his hands, removing his fingers slowly his eyes bulged in their sockets at what he saw.

“LOOK!” he screamed.

Another ship flew into view at the other side of the platform with less debris falling from the explosions on that side it hovered with the entrance ramp open.

Elias took a step back in shock and then the huddle disbanded. “COME ON,” Elias roared.

He put Jago on the ship first, and then he made sure everyone got on before him and then the platform gave way and fell in on itself, so the ship was right to move. Elias just about managed to hold on to the landing ramp for dear life, remembering Mente’s fate moments before.

“HOLD ON!” screamed Hoult, pulling frantically on Elias’s sleeve.

He pulled with all his might on the man who stood tall in the arena and the man who gave them the chance of freedom at Gommerstall, the man who taught him to stand tall in the face of danger. He would not die now, with one almighty heave, Hoult pulled Elias in through the top of the entrance ramp, pressing the button that closed the hatch and turned to whoever was flying the craft.

“WE’RE IN…WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?”

Everybody turned to see who had grabbed Hoult’s attention and as Elias got to his feet, he did a double take at the person behind the controls.

“KAY? KAY, IS THAT YOU?”

Elias’s younger sister who left him a year ago to go travelling around the world, was now at the helm of the cockpit. Kay wiped her sunken red eyes, she had been crying from the moment she had seen her brother and the other prisoners on the monitor, but couldn’t leave her seat until they were well away from danger; Elias could see she was having trouble in keeping the ship steady.

The ship swayed, making Elias’s run to his sister even shorter, his arm snaked behind her neck and held her tight.

“Where did you go?” he asked, his head rested on her shoulder as the ship’s hull rumbled.

The makeshift pilot had words, her eyes now fixed on the fires outside.

“Well Bruv, I
did
go the airport, but my plane was delayed for hours, so as everybody waited in the departure lounge the television screens were showing the game show and that’s when I saw you being dragged around that arena–”

She started to lose herself with emotion and wiped her eyes and quickly regained control of the wheel.

“Those sick bastards…so I left and headed to the arena but when I got there it was in ruins and nobody would tell me anything, so that’s when I stated travelling the country trying to find you.”

An image flashed into his head. “GEMMA, WHAT ABOUT GEMMA, WHY ISN’T SHE WITH YOU? HAVE YOU SEEN HER?”

Kay looked at her brother for the first time and noticed the scars. “Your face–”

“I’m fine… but what about Gemma …Kay, where is she?”

“Well obviously I couldn’t bring her along with me, so when she’s not with me she’s with a foster family.”

Elias snapped. “YOU HAD HER FOSTERED?”

“WHAT COULD I DO? I’M ALL OVER THE PLACE TRYING TO FIND YOU, GEMMA NEEDS STABILITY, SHE NEEDS A HOME…SHE NEEDS A FATHER FIGURE, everyone thinks you’re dead, including Gemma. But we’re going home now so it doesn’t matter.”

Elias remembered to ask her the obvious question. “How did you find me?”

“I’ve been trying to find you for a year, travelling to Big Man’s hangouts and prisons, nobody knew you existed, nobody was speaking.”

You can’t get flights to Morremkos, so I stole a ship from Spizer Airport and flew myself here, and picked up a few waifs and strays along the way.”

“So what was that first ship?” Jago asked.

“That must have been the unmanned supply ship, we were lucky to miss it.” Kay wasn’t finished. “Hangar doors won’t open and I don’t know how to use the main guns on this war ship, I can’t get through that debris from the supply ship so we’re going to have to go back the way you came, through the prison.”

The engines roared and the ship shot forward, throwing everyone off their feet as it raced through the burning prison chambers, it was going to be tight as burning debris fell hard on to the ship’s body as it sailed through the prison and then turned around.

“What are you doing?” asked Hoult.

“We’re going through the hangar doors,” said Kay. “HOLD ONTO SOMETHING.”

With a tremendous lurch, the ship regained its composure and began to surge forward. Elias rolled around on the floor, too tired to hold on but knowing he was safe within the confides of the ship, his eyes focused on the many passenger compartments in the ship and noticed that they were all full. Nayan must have done it and released all the prisoners in that section, but he couldn’t find the man himself.

The thrusters kicked in on full power and the prison supply ship hurtled towards the hangar doors with flames trailing close behind. If all else failed, all Elias wanted was a quick death.

“HERE WE GO,” yelled pilot Kay. She steadied herself in her harness as the ship hit the hangar doors, a blast of orange flame hit them from behind them, propelling them through to the other side.

“YEHAHHH!” Kay punched the air and raucous laughter came from the prisoners behind.

Elias was weakened by the fires and his rescue on the landing ramp, he held onto the support ropes hanging from the ceiling as the ship moved away from the burning docking bay.

“DON’T FORGET THE KIDS, KAY.”

He slumped to the floor and whispered, “Don’t forget the kids.”

As the ship spun around and headed back towards the mountain the unconscious body of Hammersmith lay partly buried by rocks caused by itself, probably still beneath him lay the body of Apollo. The Giant Cyclops unsteadily rose to its feet.

Felcey and Kimberley had powered down and come out from their hiding place, carrying a tired Cassandra who too had returned to her human form, whilst Faris helped Aubrey to his feet.

They watched Hammersmith and were uncomfortable standing too close to it, Hammersmith roared to the sky and sank to the ground, shrinking and bellowing in pain, the green scales had disappeared only to reveal white skin, the howls turned into wet, rasping breathing, until a teenage naked girl stood in the reptile’s place.

It was Sabrina, the scales on her arm that she received long ago at the nightclub had mutated and her new form was a grotesque beast of a giant. She too was beaten by Apollo and the guards and remained in her reptilian form during her time in Gommerstall.

As she wobbled on her feet, Apollo shook his head as he picked himself up from beneath the rocks.

Her eyes focused hard on his and she started to gasp in fear, her chest ached and her nose flared.

The punch she threw struck Apollo hard on his jaw, knocking him off his feet, Apollo had walked away from having a mountain land on top of him, but the punch from an enslaved girl with a whole year of rage built up was too much, he didn’t move again.

“Bastard,” she muttered.

A few more prisoners who had also been knocked out were wide and awake and eager to leave.

The ship hovered over them and let down some rope ladders for them, Sabrina now included. As Elias looked down he felt a big hand on his shoulder, he turned around to see Nayan standing with an almighty grin behind him, Elias looked deep into his smile and hugged him and squeezed with all his worth in his friend’s arms, he then broke his hold and stepped back.

“You made it,” Elias said.

“We made it,” Nayan corrected him.

As one by one the young teachers entered the ship, Nayan called to Kay, still trying to find his way at the controls.

“IS THE COURSE STILL SET FOR OLYMPIA, KAY?

An unconvincing reply came from Kay. “Yeah I think so, just hope the Navicom is still functional.”

“THEN LET’S NOT HESITATE A MOMENT LONGER.”

He turned to look at all his brothers, and promised to mourn the ones they lost on return to Olympia.

He put his hand back on Elias’s shoulder. “Does that sound good to you?”

Elias nodded. “It’s a good start.”

“Well let’s–”

Nayan didn’t have time to finish as the war ship was thrown to one side, it tried to pull forward but something wasn’t letting it, pressing for more altitude Kay eased off the control stick.

“SOMETHING’S HAPPENING, WE’RE NOT MOVING.”

The young pilot fumbled with the controls and pressed buttons in hope and desperation but to no avail, banging the control panel with her fists, she turned around. “WHAT’S GOING ON?”

The ship was being rocked from left to right and the passengers found it hard to control the insides of their stomachs, struggling with effort to stay on her feet Kimberley after the last ship jolt, managed to cling on to one of the frames of a window to look outside, and screamed a scream that echoed around the ship.

Gigantic vines, bigger than before had sprung from the cracks in the earth and had wrapped themselves around the ship, stopping it from taking off and they were beginning to tear the ship apart.

“How many are there?” asked Felcey.

“All of them I think,” said Faris.

“We have to break free or they’ll tear this ship apart, is Cassandra awake? Maybe we could use her dragon power?” pondered Elias.

“No, she’s completely out of it again; the fight with Apollo must have taken more out of her than we’d thought,” said Felcey.

Kimberley cradled her friend to keep safe and to calm herself down from the terror outside, Kimberley thought back to the Leviathan squid, the Chimera, the vines in the tunnel, Hammersmith and now the king of all horror vines…she thought she’d never ever be safe again and she pulled Cassandra closer to her and rocked herself back and forth like a frightened child…which she indeed was, she was a teenager who had spent the last year asleep in a prison…she was still a little girl deep down.

She looked at all the prisoners in the ship panicking just like she was, desperate for ideas. Even Elias was struggling.

“WHAT ABOUT THE LOWER THRUSTERS?” he asked in Kay in desperation.

“THEY’RE ON MAXIMUM LEVEL POWER, ANY MORE WILL TEAR THIS SHIP APART, THE VINES ARE TOO STRONG.”

The vines began to crush harder down on the ship and now everyone knew that if before they had been lucky, it was now coming to an end.

“I think these vines are the true and final guardians of Gommerstall,” said a very solemn Nayan, his words struggling to sound straight. “I don’t think there’s any escape for us this time.”

Felcey hit back, “We defeated one guardian so I’m damn sure we could beat another one.”

Nayan pulled him up. “This is no ordinary guardian, lad.”

“AND WE AREN’T ORDINARY PEOPLE, NAYAN, I WAS AFRAID BEFORE BUT I’M NOT AFRAID ANYMORE.” His voice trailed off. “I’m going to jump down and free us.”

“What can you do?” Nayan asked, who obviously hadn’t seen Felcey in his clay form.

“NO, IT’S TOO DANGEROUS,” Elias cut in. “We’ve lost too many men today and I don’t want to lose anymore.”

“SO WHAT DO WE DO?”

Elias shook his head with little expression. “I don’t know, I honestly don’t know.”

The supply ship wasn’t going to withstand much more as the gigantic, terrible vines battered its body.

As Kimberley gazed at the men shouting and banging their fists against the walls of the ship, she closed her eyes and concentrated, she breathed out and tried again until her hands glowed white.

She let out a squeal of concentration and her cheeks turned white also. The realisation of her transformation took her breath away and she carried on, her whole body shook as she concentrated building and storing the energy in her.

One by one the others noticed her changing and the brightness emitting from her tiny frame. Elias stepped up.

“Kimberley, what are you doing?”

It was a question she didn’t want to answer, her eyes were wide open but the pupils were black, she was shining bright like a young star that had fallen from the heavens, very bright now and the others shielded their eyes, she had always liked the way Mr Glaucas explained things at school and how to solve problems. He had always made things so easy and he was her favourite teacher; she was going to miss him but it was her turn to solve a problem, she sent him her final charmed smile.

“I can stop this thing, sir; I’m the only one who can.”

Elias had to shield his eyes from the powerful glow whilst trying in vain to keep eye contact.

“What do you mean?”

Kimberley gently placed the still unconscious Cassandra into a free chair and strapped her in tightly; she kissed her on the forehead and made the motion of wiping away a tear. “I haven’t felt safe for a long time, sir, bad things keep happening to me.”

The ship jerked violently to the left. “You see that? I have the power to stop that, I have the power to make things right for all of you.”

Felcey pushed his way forward.

“Kimberley, please don’t do this, don’t leave me, I left you once, I won’t do it again…I need you.”

Tears began to sting her eyes. “I saw what you did today, that was so brave of you…well now it’s my turn to be brave.”