Sky Forever

Chapter 27: The Machine

Amber fell into my arms, weeping. We sat, entangled, next to Ryder's body. We barely noticed the battle around us.

"Amber..." I said.

"Yeah?" She replied, wiping tears on my dusty, blood-stained shirt.

"We need to find Homunculus."

She sat up, sniffing "You're right. Now we have another reason to kill him."

I spotted a large figure in my peripheral vision. It was Janey.

"What happened?" She asked as she reached us.

"He's gone." I replied.

"Oh..." Janey said, "I'm sorry."

"Janey, can you take his body somewhere?" Amber asked, "Keep him safe until the war is finished."

"Of course." She replied.

She scooped up Ryder's body and lumbered off.

Amber stood up.

"Okay then." She said, "We need to get to the tower!"

"Agreed." I said, standing up.

Then I realised that neither of us had a weapon. So, I ran back to where the Immortal Guard was buried and picked up the sword I had used to kill him. The sword that he had used to kill Ryder.

"Let's go." I said.

We started running between the buildings to get back to the main road leading to the tower. The battle was still raging on. As we ran, a Wasp Man jumped in front of us, but I immediatly sliced his leg with the sword and he fell.

I heard an explosion somewhere near the road, but assumed it was just another building going up in flames.

We made it to the road and turned right towards the Beehive. I could barely see the giant doors through all the smoke and ash in the air. I ran in front to strike down any Wasp Men in our way. We were so close now.

Suddenly, something exploded in front of us. I was blown back into Amber and we tumbled to the floor. There was black smoke billowing up around us. I started coughing and spluttering as it entered my lungs. I peered back to see Amber getting up. She reached for my hand and I took it. She dragged me to my feet.

"What happened?!" She yelled.

"I don't know!" I replied. I couldn't see anything around us, the smoke was too dark.

I decided to just start walking in a direction. Amber followed. After a couple of seconds, the smoke thinned and I saw a colossal shape in front of us. I had no idea what it was. It seemed to be made of metal. The smoke cleared and I got a good look at it.

"What the hell is that?!" Amber exclaimed.

 It was some kind of machine, like a ship. But it wasn't a ship, it was on the ground and it had wheels. Over the wheels it had some kind of track and there was a huge cylinder sticking out the front.

Suddenly, the cylinder started to glow orange. I had a feeling what was about to happen.

"Get down!" I shouted, pushing Amber aside.

We landed on the edge of the road as a huge ball of fire was shot out of the cylinder. It collided with some houses, which resulted in them shattering to thousands of pieces all over the people around them.

"I'm not sure what it is," I said, "But it's dangerous!"

"Is someone controlling it?" Amber asked.

As soon as she asked it, a hole opened up on the top of the machine. The head and shoulders of a man popped out. He looked around until he spotted Amber and I.

"There you are!" He shouted.

He disappeared into the hole again and the entire machine started turning around until the cylinder was facing us.

"Run!" I yelled.

We sprinted out of its way just as more houses exploded behind us. We headed for the door to the tower, but as I looked back I saw the machine turning for us again.

"We need to make a detour." I annouced, dragging Amber to the right and running between some more huts.

"Why is it after us?" Amber asked.

"Maybe Homunculus has seen us, from wherever he is and he's sent it out to kill us." I answered.

"That blasted coward!" Amber exclaimed.

We ran left again, more houses exploded.

"We need to move in a zigzag so it can't hit us!" I explained.

"Good thinking!" Amber replied.

We kept changing direction as we headed towards the tower doors, dodging explosions everywhere. Each blast left a huge cloud of black smoke in its wake.

We reached the road to the left of the tower doors when, suddenly, one of them blew off its hinges. The machine had shot it.

"Now's our chance!" Amber exclaimed.

We sprinted to the door, praying it wouldn't have time to fire again. I looked back. It was facing us but it wasn't firing.

"If it keeps firing it'll destroy the tower!" I realised, "Homunculus won't want that!"

But, I found out I was wrong as the brick and woodwork erupted around us and we were buried in ash and debris.