Heaven Bent (14 page)

*****

 

Chapter
10

Teeth gleaming in the moonlight, the creature bellowed and lunged. I flung myself to one side, barely rolling out of the way in time.

As the beast came down hard on a mouthful of dirt, I finally got a look at more than its teeth. It was some kind of giant shark thing with a rubbery black hide, mounted on hyper-muscular Tyrannosaurus Rex-style legs.

Adrenaline blazing through my bloodstream, I scrambled to my feet and whipped around to run away. But I only managed to take two steps before the ground shook from another distant blast. I tumbled awkwardly off my feet, ending up in a tangled pile of limbs.

Then, I heard the shark-thing's familiar bellow and looked up to see it charging toward me. There was another explosion from the direction of the domes, the biggest yet, but I paid no attention; all I could focus on at that moment was the massive, toothy maw hurtling toward me. I hadn't been dead when I'd first come to Heaven, but it looked like I was finally going to get that way.

Then, suddenly, a camera tripod came swinging over my head and crashed into the creature's snout. The shark-thing wailed and stumbled backward, wobbling on its Tyrannosaurus legs.

Looking back, I saw who'd swung the tripod. It was Byzantine, and he wasn't done with the fight. Without a word or a look in my direction, he darted around me after the shark-thing, which was weaving around unsteadily.

The creature turned at his approach, flashing its teeth, and Byzantine clocked him in the snout again. As the shark-thing howled in pain, Byzantine cranked the tripod back and lashed it forward for yet another strike.

One more blow, and the shark-thing spun and ran back into its pen. As soon as the ebon monstrosity crossed the threshold, Byzantine dropped the tripod and sprinted over to slam the gate shut. He jammed the handle down hard, and the bolt of the lock banged home.

By then, Lillian had run to my side and was helping me up. "Are you okay?" Her voice was full of concern--a major change from the angry silent treatment she'd been doling out earlier.

"I'm fine." I nodded and dusted myself off. "Thanks to Byzantine."

"I guess now we're even." Byzantine wasn't laughing when he said it. He scowled as he marched toward us. "Or are we?"

Just then, another boom echoed through the night. The ground quaked underfoot, but not hard enough to knock me down.

Byzantine stomped over and stopped just inches away. His blue eyes glared down with steely glints, locking on to my gaze.

At that moment, the loopy surfer dude was nowhere to be seen. Byzantine was all business.

"Quite a coincidence, Stag." His voice was icy, not the slightest bit friendly. "You drag me all the way out here just as the city comes under attack."

I didn't say a word. I felt Lillian's hand squeezing my arm, but I didn't dare break Byzantine's stare.

Reaching out, Byzantine placed a fingertip under my chin. "Here I thought you'd seen the light. After the way you saved my life, I thought we could be friends." Suddenly, he yanked his hand away and slapped me hard across the face, jolting my head to one side. "So much for friendship." He slapped me again, throwing my head in the other direction. "So much for your time among the angels."

Two more blasts resounded in the night. The beasts in their pens howled and screamed around us with terrified abandon.

"I didn't know this was going to happen." I nodded toward the domes when I said it. "I swear to you, I had no idea."

Byzantine slipped into his goofy surfer dude grin. "Of
course
you didn't, bro. That just isn't part of your
character
, is it?" The goofy grin vanished as swiftly as it had appeared. "Well, you better come up with a
new
one, because I see a fatal
plot twist
in your future." He shoved me back and spat on the ground at my feet.

At that instant, a titanic blast erupted from the domes, and the sky flared with incandescent white light. Everyone ducked their heads and shielded their eyes until the flare extinguished.

As I blinked away the spots, I saw a shadow pass over me and felt a gust of wind. Looking up, I glimpsed a welcome sight gliding by overhead, a furry figure held aloft by the beating of enormous, leathery wings.

Thundercloud
.

As she banked and came back around, I saw that M.J. was riding on her back, leaning low and clutching the fur at the base of her neck. He kicked her sides with his sparkly shoes, and she nosed downward, picking up speed. Scimitar-like claws extended, she aimed herself straight at Byzantine.

He saw she was coming, but he stood his ground. "Come on then!" He planted his hands on his hips, squared his shoulders, and waited. "Let's see what you've got, you duckbilled reject!"

As the giant platypus soared closer to Heaven's top dog, I felt the impulse to do something. If Thundercloud hit Byzantine, she'd shred him with her claws. Did he deserve it? Maybe. Probably. But could I stand by and watch as it happened? Even if Byzantine was planning to kill me if he walked away from the encounter?

My heart pounded as I watched Thundercloud swoop toward him. Torn between choices, I tensed, ready to move but not sure if I should.

A series of booms and bangs like fireworks going off punched through the night. The sky strobed with flashes of bright light, making Thundercloud seem to stutter through the air as she approached.

"Son of a bitch." Yet again, I realized I couldn't just stand there as someone died, no matter how much of a jerk they might be. I started to run toward Byzantine...

But Lillian bolted over and tackled me to the ground before I could reach him.

From that point on, it was too late. Thundercloud was almost there, her razor-sharp claws driving toward Byzantine.

Then, with a sound like screeching metal, the claws veered around him. Throwing sparks, they skidded through the air around him as if they were skating along the surface of an invisible bubble.

The body of the giant platypus followed, cruising around Byzantine without coming any closer than four feet from his body.

The whole time Thundercloud swept around him and flapped her way back into the heights, I held my breath. Not because I was worried or caught up in the action...but because I suddenly realized something.

Byzantine could not be touched. He had never been in any real danger from the speeding car on the movie set. I'd never really saved his life; "Stag Lincoln Day" had been a total charade.

"Just as I thought," Byzantine shouted after Thundercloud. "All
quack
and no
bite
."

Suddenly, another boom in the distance got his attention. He looked up at Thundercloud, then down at me, then gazed in the direction of the explosion.

And then he sighed. "Too bad I can't stay here and play." He shot me a special glare. "
Seriously
. But I gots to go save Heaven, yo." Spinning on his heel, he marched off...then stopped and whirled to point a finger at me. "But as soon as this mess is all over, I'm
comin'
for you. FYI, bro." Laughing, he spun back around and resumed his exit, gathering his camera crew along the way.

But he didn't get far. When he and the crew were halfway to their golden hover-bus, Thundercloud roared and swooped down at them. The crew scattered, dropping equipment right and left as they scurried out of her flight-path.

Only Byzantine stayed put. Head bowed, eyes seething, he faced his onrushing attacker without the slightest indication of fear or hesitation.

As before, Thundercloud struck the invisible shield around him--but this time, she didn't skate around it. Flapping furiously, she clung to the barrier, grinding her claws against it.

Could she dig her way through? Byzantine didn't seem worried. He never flinched as she roared and slashed at his invisible wall again and again, sending up sparks with each fresh strike.

Whatever happened next, I didn't want to be around to see it. I knew I was on Byzantine's shit list, and M.J., who'd tricked me to get Byzantine out of the domes, was firmly on mine.

Whirling, I grabbed Lillian's arm. "Let's get out of here."

Her gaze flicked from Byzantine and Thundercloud to me. "And go where?" Her eyes were wide and wild, her voice frantic. "And do what?"

Good questions.
Looking around, I could see that the exit was blocked by the man-vs.-platypus battle. "Do you know another way out of here?"

She pushed her fingers through her hair and nodded. "But where could we possibly
go
?" She sounded like she was on the verge of hysteria.

Another boom rang out in the distance, briefly overpowering Thundercloud's roars and the cries of the beasts in the pens. Another flare exploded in the sky, turning the world to daylight.

Standing there in that unearthly moment, I felt everything rushing around me. Breathless, I took it all in at once, like the funnel cloud of a cyclone spinning out of control. My life had been like this since I'd arrived, sweeping me along in the eye of a storm. It had been one thing after another, right from the start, tearing me off my feet and forcing me to go in this direction or that.

But finally, as the ground shook and night turned to day and the monsters of the Bestiary howled, I figured out what I was going to do.

As the flare of light faded and the boom died away to a rumble, I took hold of Lillian's shoulders. "Trust me," I told her. "Get us out of this place, and I'll take it from there."

Lillian frowned. "But how?" She looked shaken, confused, tormented, not at all like the self-assured woman who'd been showing me around Heaven all this time. "Will you take us to the rebels?"

I bobbed my head toward M.J. and Thundercloud. "If I wanted that, over there's all the further we'd have to go."

Her frown stayed in place. "Then where? The domes?"

I shook my head. "I've got someplace else in mind." I squeezed her shoulders. "You'll just have to trust me."

"I don't understand." Lillian stared at me like she'd never seen me before. "Who are you working for?"

More blasts echoed in the distance, and the ground rumbled beneath us. "Nobody," I told her. "Now where the hell's the back door, Lillian?"

*****

Once we'd cleared the secret back exit of the Bestiary, we didn't stop moving for a while. We kept pushing inland through the jungle, our path dimly lit by moonlight and occasional flares from the fighting at the domes.

But eventually, we stopped by a stream. I figured we both needed to catch our breath--and I wanted to get a fix on where we were headed. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, but I couldn't get a good view of our relative location from under the dense jungle canopy.

"Doing okay?" I asked Lillian, though she clearly wasn't.

Lillian shrugged. Her hair was tangled, her striped lipstick smeared, her white clothes splattered with mud. For the first time since we'd met, she looked utterly lost and strung out.

"Well, at least we got away from
those
idiots." I hiked a thumb over my shoulder, indicating Byzantine and M.J. back at the Bestiary. "That's a bonus."

Lillian cleared her throat. "Where are we going?" She reached up to fix her hair, then abruptly snapped her hand away. "No, strike that. I don't care." Her hand was shaking as she placed it over her mouth and started to sob.

I took a step toward her, reaching out--then stopped when she backed away from me.

"You're not my
father
, you know!" She blurted out the words between sobs.

I nodded. I'd known ever since my future self had dropped a hint during his last visit. "So what?"

"So you don't
get
to wreck my life," said Lillian. "Nobody gave you the
right
."

It was time to throw my cards on the table. "You're wrong." No use holding anything back at this point, not with her. "The
Rapture Program
gave me the right."

Lillian's eyes widened. "Y-you
know
...?"

"I was brought here against my
will
," I said. "The way I see it, that gives me the right to do whatever I
need
to do to get
home
." I gestured in the general direction of the domes. "Same goes for all
those
people. Every last
one
of them."

Lillian stopping sobbing and grew quiet. The sounds of the trickling stream and the chirping insects rose up around us, punctuated by distant booms.

"So you're with
them
?" she said finally. "The Heaven Liberation Front?"

"I already told you, I'm not with anybody." I shook my head, and then I smiled. "Except you, I suppose. If you'll have me."

Lillian stared at me as if she thought I'd lost my mind. "Are you
serious
?"

I kicked a pebble into the stream, and it splashed. "I could use the company."

"But I
lied
to you." She looked down, and her voice softened. "I helped Byzantine and the others
use
you."

"Story of my life." I chuckled and stuck my hands in my pockets. "Did you
enjoy
it?"

Lillian sniffled. "No." She wiped her nose on the back of her hand. "It's been bothering me. A lot."

"I know." I met her gaze. "I could tell."

A little frown creased her brow. "I still don't see why you'd want me along after I lied to you." She narrowed her eyes and tipped her head to one side. "You know you can't use me as leverage with the leadership, right? I'm a lackey. A nobody." Her eyes flicked away from me, then back. "You do realize they won't give you anything to get me back?"

"That's not my concern." Slowly, I approached her. "And you are
not
a nobody." Reaching out, I took her hands. "You're a good person. I've known that from the start. That's all that matters to me." I squeezed her hands gently and nodded. "That's all I need right now."

Lillian blinked away tears. "What
is
it with you?" She blew out her breath, puffing up a few strands of her long, dark hair. "They
said
you were important, you know. They just never told me
why
."

"When you figure it out, let me know, will ya'?" I grinned.

Finally, a smile broke through on her face. "You win. I'll come with you. Now can you tell me where we're going?"

I nodded. "The silver spire."

Suddenly, her features clouded over. "Silver spire?" She frowned and shook her head. "What the hell is the silver spire?"