Air Born | Generation Icarus #1

Tui - Running Riot

Suddenly, Tyler or Hawk or whoever he was, dropped out of the sky like a freakin' guardian angel. He landed right on the gunman. The man crumpled, smacking his head on the roof and his gun dropped to the street below.

"Shot, bro!" I yelled.

Tyler/Hawk grinned. But just when things were looking up, I stumbled and started heading down. As I slid towards the gutter, H's hand grabbed my wing and yanked me backwards. It hurt like hell but only until I imagined how bad I'd be feeling if he hadn't got me in time. I crashed into him and we both hit the roof on our sides.

In a scared huddle, the seven of us watched the soldiers in black spread out around the building, blocking all our exits. But, amazingly, they were outnumbered by the Angelists, who swarmed on them. And the TV crews were right in the thick of it, getting every word on camera.

"Go! Go, Angels!" a woman screamed. "We will hold them!"

"Who the hell is that?" I demanded.

Kestrel took Miguel's hand and scrambled to her feet. "Reverend Carter's deputy, I think. She's nuts."

"Who cares? They're keeping the Evolutionaries busy. Let's go!" said the Hawk/Tyler guy.

One by one we jumped, climbed and glided off the roof and then staggered through the no-man's land that the Angelists had created for us.

We had just reached the edge of the riot, when three people moved into our path — a tall, grey-haired, bearded man, and two women. They were all dressed in white.

I saw fear in Kestrel's face, and my own heart rate accelerated. But then the tall man bowed, his hands clasped in front of his chest.

"We will stop them, O Angels. We will wait for you. We will be ready."

He stepped out of the way, and they lowered their heads.

"Thank you, Reverend," Miguel said, and we ran like hell.

"So where are we going?" I asked, panting. "I'm Tui, by the way."

Kestrel frowned. "Too ee?"

"It's Māori. I'm from New Zealand."

"Are you serious?"

"Do we have time for this?" the Tyler/Hawk guy demanded.

I turned to him, feeling my long braid swing behind me. "Prob'ly not, but you still haven't told me where exactly we're going, bro!"

"We have a pickup, but we won't all fit in it," Miguel said.

H jogged to a halt at the next intersection, peering carefully around the corner. "I have a truck too. It's parked that way."

"I have a car," Marcus said. Hawk, Kestrel and Miguel were all visibly surprised at the sound of his deep South African voice.

"Okay," Hawk said. "So you and ..." He stared at Raven, possibly noticing the tiny Chinese girl for the first time. She was a full third shorter than him.

"Raven," the guy rumbled. "I am Marcus."

"Great." Hawk snapped himself out of it. "You and Raven and Tui—"

H interrupted. "Tui's coming with me."

"It's okay, H," I said but Hawk interrupted.

"No, it's fine, Tui, you go with ... H?"

"Yep."

"Okay. Tui goes with H. Having three cars will make us harder to follow anyway, we can split up if we have to."

H nodded sharply. "Where are we going to rendezvous?"

Hawk pointed. "That road. We'll have to cut through the forest and hope like hell the Evos haven't thought about blocking it off. We'll meet by the town sign."

I grabbed H's hand. "See you there in five."

We dashed through the streets, H threatening extreme bodily harm on anyone who had touched his truck. But it was exactly where we'd left it on the edge of town, with all our stuff inside.

As H put the proverbial pedal to the metal, I wound down the window and listened.

"I can't hear much," I said, still nervous.

"Those freaky soldier guys were shooting tranquilizer darts," H said darkly. "They've probably put the whole town to sleep to get them out of the way."

"Drive faster, bro," I said, and H gunned the engine.

Soon we'd left the town behind and were speeding up the hill toward the sprawling forest. I peered anxiously through the front window as we passed the town's sign.

"Where are the others?"

"There's Marcus and Raven," H said, pointing ahead to a battered white sedan disappearing around the corner.

"What about the new guys? Kestrel and Miguel, and Tyler. Hawk. Whatever."

"Right behind us," H said, glancing in the rear-view mirror. "And they're not alone."