Air Born | Generation Icarus #1

Tui - Rescued ... Almost

The weirdos in the long white robes went crazy, and on the other side of the police line, all the guys in black uniforms raised these long, thin guns and starting firing at Tyler. But instead of gunshots they made a hard popping noise.

Putting my hands over my ears, I backed away from the window. "I can't handle this," I said to H. He was shaking as he reached out to me. On the other side of the room, Marcus and Raven stood wide-eyed and silent.

Then we heard something else. And it was bloody close.

Tap tap tap.

We all spun round like idiots.

I gasped.

A girl was hanging upside down outside the back window.

Even Marcus looked shocked. I took two steps to the window and threw it open, narrowly missing her head.

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded. Then I saw her golden wings flexing behind her.

"I'm Kestrel. My friend up here is Miguel. We're like you. Do you want to get out of here?"

"Well, duh."

On the other side of the building, a couple of real gunshots cracked and rebounded along the street followed by genuine screams of terror.

I turned back to Kestrel. "What's the plan?"

"Hawk's distracting the—"

"Who?"

"It's Tyler, he's Hawk now and — you know what, I'll explain later. Just get your wings out and use them to help push yourself up." Kestrel reached down, and I heard a male voice from further above her. She twisted to look up at the roof. "Just a bit more, Miguel, hold on!"

"Wasn't planning to let go!" the voice replied.

Kestrel held her arms out. "Come on!"

"Go, Tui." H pushed me toward her. "I'm right behind you."

Sliding H's hoodie off my folded wings, I tied the arms around my waist. Then I backed onto the window sill, awkwardly flexing my wings. While H held one of my arms, I reached out with the other for Kestrel. Her hand locked onto my elbow, and my hand grabbed her arm. There was a whole lot of nothing between me and the hard ground. Two storeys of emptiness yawned beneath me.

"And the other one." Kestrel gestured.

H gave me a nod, and let go.

I grabbed Kestrel's other arm, and she yelled. "Now, Miguel!"

Kicking off the window sill, I swung out past the gutter, flapping my wings as hard as I could, my breath scraping in and out. Kestrel's arms hauled on mine, and suddenly I shot up and over the edge of the roof.

Kestrel fell backwards and I crashed onto the tiles next to her. My dark brown hair fell loose from the knot on top of my head, and I flicked the plait out of the way.

"How many still inside?" a black-winged guy demanded.

"Three," I gasped, staggering to my feet on the shallow slope of the roof.

"Going down," Kestrel said, and dropped her head over the side.

The guy — Miguel — and I grabbed her legs. When she yelled, we pulled, and Raven appeared over the side of the roof. Then Miguel pushed forward to take his turn at being a human rope, and all three of us girls hauled on his legs to help haul up first H and then Marcus. Kestrel's eyes flickered between all four of us like she was having a hard time believing we were real. I knew how she felt.

"Quick!" she said, waving for us to follow her as she and Miguel turned to dash along the flattened roof of the row of shops. But before we could move, someone in the street looked up and saw us. They shouted, pointed, and a whole platoon of black uniforms took aim at us with their guns.

"Run!" Kestrel screamed, grabbing Raven's arm.

Marcus seized her other arm, and the three of them ran ahead. A couple more shots rang out, and I broke into a sprint, fighting to stay upright on the uneven surface. "Not far, let's go!" Miguel shouted, running next to me and H.

Something whistled by my head and cracked into the roof in front of me. I shrieked, but kept running.

I thought we were going to make it. I could see where we could safely drop off the roof into another street, away from the chaos.

And then a guy in black climbed up onto the roof. He had a gun, and he was pointing it at us.