Raging Sea (31 page)

He hangs up and turns to face us. “The Rusalka moved closer to shore last night, as did the Undine. They’re trying to give us a one-two punch, hurt us with the angler people, then kill us with the squids. We have to act now if we’re going to have any chance at all,” Kita says. “The plan is to take out the first punch and deal with the second when it arrives. We’re going to do it by putting the squeeze on the Rusalka, dropping you and your team in the ocean behind them. You’re going to drive them forward to the shore, where the rest of your team and my soldiers will take them apart. You attack from your end, and we’ll attack from ours. It’s a classic vise move.”

“We’re going into the water?” Tess asks.

“You can do this, kid,” he says confidently, then turns to me. “You need strong swimmers and good fighters, and do any of you have experience with concussion bombs?”

I almost laugh at his question until I notice that all the children raise their hands.

“Good. You’re leaving in five minutes!”

I look out over all the faces and feel dread creeping up my throat. I try to remember what Fathom said to me. These kids are our only hope, but all I can see is how young they look.

Riley steps forward as if he’s able to hear my uncertainty.

“Tess and Emma, Harrison, Finn, Jonas, Georgia, Eric, Ryan—”

“I am going,” Arcade interrupts.

“That make sense to you?” Riley asks me.

I nod, though I’m not even sure what just happened.

“Yes, that’s fine,” I stammer.

“Good! When we get into the water, we need to focus on the Rusalka who are wearing Oracles. If we can stop them first, the rest will be easier to beat,” Riley says. “You are going to have to kill them. Can you do that?”

Everyone nods.

“Good, because if you don’t, they will kill you. Arcade, will you lead the attack?”

She nods like the answer is obvious.

“Keep an eye on yourselves and the rest of the team. Remember, we stick together,” he says.

“Lyric, get your team into the helicopter!” Jackson shouts to us.

“I need you here with the other team,” I tell Riley.

He shakes his head emphatically. “Finn will stay and direct everyone.”

He gestures for the kids to board the chopper. I watch them trudge through the sand, eager to join the fray.

My mother and father look on, with Bex at their side.

“Jackson is having us taken to a safer spot,” my dad says.

Riley is still hovering. “Give me your gun,” I say.

He takes it out of his pocket and hands it to me. I put it in my father’s hand.

“Make sure you get there,” I say to him.

He nods and slips the weapon into his jacket.

“Don’t die,” Bex demands. “’Cause there’s going to be a lot of cats at our place, and I can’t take care of them all.”

I press my forehead to hers. “I’ll come back. I won’t abandon you, again. I love you, Bex. We’re sisters now.”

She pulls back and stares at me for a long moment as if locking what I’ve said into some sort of puzzle, one she’s never been able to solve until just now.

“Sisters,” she says in agreement.

I give my parents hugs and promise to be safe. Jackson shouts for me to board again. This time he’s angry.

“I’ve gotta go,” I say apologetically, and I turn and run to the helicopter.

Chloe runs to the helicopter as I step inside and find a seat.

“I don’t want to be separated,” she says.

“I’m giving you a very special job, Chloe. I need you to look after my family,” I say, pointing to where they stand. “You need to make sure the soldiers get them to safety, and I want you to go with them.”

Bex rushes forward and takes the girl’s hand.

“We’ll stick together,” Bex says.

“I’ll come back, Chloe. I promise.”

Jackson closes the door, and I wave to everyone. The pilot flips switches and pulls back on the throttle. A moment later we rise into the air, and I watch everyone grow smaller. Chloe’s sad face shrinks into the scenery.

Jackson sits in the front with the pilot and shouts information about our mission into the speakers in our helmets.

“Each one of you is going to detonate a concussion bomb when you reach the drop zone,” he says.

“Heads-up: I sort of skipped concussion bombs in public school,” I confess.

“I’ll show you,” Riley offers.

“They’re simple. Don’t worry,” Jackson assures me. “They don’t do much more than make a lot of noise, but try not to get too close, because they will rattle your brain. Loud noises spook them so it should send the Rusalka swimming for the beach. They told me you can breathe underwater?”

I nod.

“Can you talk?”

I shake my head.

“That’s unfortunate,” Jackson shouts. “Stay close together, then.”

The beach disappears into the horizon, replaced by a threatening purple sky. The water below looks like a vast black drain. The children see it the way I do, suddenly losing their eagerness to fight. They are silent and wary, watching the waves with anxious eyes. I know Riley would like me to say something to inspire them, but I’m not feeling all that inspiring right now. Fathom says I’m a raging sea. Right now I feel like I’m going to pee my pants.

About a mile offshore, the helicopter slows and Jackson reaches back and opens the door.

“We’re here!”

We take off our helmets, then our boots.

“Good luck!” the pilot shouts to us.

“Wait! Aren’t you going any lower?” I say, looking out at the water. It’s a good fifty feet below.

“A Rusalka can jump out of the water pretty high,” he says. “This is about as low as we dare.”

Before I can argue, Arcade pushes past me and leaps out of the chopper. I watch her body plummet and then disappear into the waves. If I do the same thing, I’m going to smack into the water. It’s going to feel like pavement.

“You’re not afraid of heights, are you, Lyric?” Georgia teases.

“It’s really what’s at the bottom that bothers me,” I say.

“You’re so funny,” she says as she powers up her glove. A moment later a spout of water rises up until it’s parallel with the helicopter. Georgia jumps out into it, and I watch her body sink down into the ocean below. It’s a pretty cool trick. Eric and Ryan are next, then Emma, Tess, Harrison, and Jonas, until it’s just Riley and me.

“Let’s go, Walker!” Jackson shouts as he shoves a canvas bag into my hands. Inside are ten metal canisters as big as softballs. Each has a single red button on its side. “Here are the explosives. Get as close to those ugly things as you can and push the button. After that, just hold your ears.”

My heart is racing. My head feels like it might pop off. This is so stupid. I am not a soldier. Can’t anyone see that? Why is Jackson shouting for me to jump?

Riley reaches over and gives my shoulder a squeeze.

“You can do this,” he promises, offering me his hand.

Fathom would probably think I was being weak, but I take it nonetheless, and together Riley and I leap out into nothing. When we hit the spout, my whole body locks up. The water is icy cold and it steals my breath, even as my gills appear to take over the job of breathing. We drop downward until we splash into the murky ocean unharmed. Riley is still holding my hand. The scales on his face and hands are silver and blue. He’s beautiful.

He says something to me, but it comes out as bubbles and nonsense. He’s grinning. I think he’s flirting with me. I think he’s telling me I’m beautiful too.

Arcade finds us and points us toward the others. Once we are gathered, I hand out the bombs. Arcade gestures for us to follow her and takes off swimming. Her speed is incredible. Like the rest of my team, I have to depend on the glove to propel me forward, but once we get going, we take off like a shot.

The team slices through the water using the dim light from the surface to keep us together. It isn’t long before Arcade comes to a halt. She points first at our concussion bombs, then just ahead of us. She makes a monster face. It’s ridiculous, but it gets the point across. The Rusalka are near.

I press the button on my canister, then use my glove to send it torpedoing in the direction Arcade has pointed. I watch it zip away into the darkness, then watch my team mimic my actions. Eight more bombs shoot ahead and vanish into the pitch-black. I turn to Riley to see if he might be able to tell me how long it will take before the explosion, only to be knocked backwards by an ear-shattering boom.

It jars every bone in my body and knocks me about. I spin in a dozen directions, so that I can’t tell which way is up. When I finally right myself, I search for my team. Most of them flailed out of control as well, but none of us have been injured.

Arcade waves at us frantically and swims furiously toward the explosion. The Rusalka are on the move, racing toward the shore. Kita’s plan is working! Arcade doesn’t hesitate. She charges after the creatures, slashing their backs and their legs with her blades. They scream in agony, and black blood pours out of them. It makes the water smell coppery, and I nearly gag knowing it is in my lungs. I shake it off. I can be sick about this later. Right now I have a job to do.

I wave to the team, showing them how to pull debris off the ocean floor. I mix it into sharp shapes, then fire it into the fleeing Rusalka. The children give chase, each one mimicking my trick, launching spears into the fleeing beasts.

Our attacks have ferocity. The children channel whatever it is they’ve bottled up since they were taken to Tempest. Most of what they still believe about their mothers and fathers is a lie, but they have a cause I will not steal from them. Whatever gives them the courage to fight is good enough today. I have my own passion to fuel me. I fire one deadly rocket after another, watching them cut the Rusalka down.

“Show me which ones have the gloves,” I beg the water.

Magically, I can sense them all, as if we are linked together. They are spread out so many miles away, but there are a hundred close enough to be targets. If I can destroy them, the soldiers and my team waiting on the beach might actually have a chance. I reach out, concentrating on what is in the water. There is so much debris at the bottom, remains of Coney Island dragged out when the water crushed it to death. There are nails and pieces of glass and car parts and jagged planks of wood. I stop and focus on it all, pulling up as much as I can. It swirls around me in a whirlpool of filth, and the water seizes each deadly piece, turning it toward the fleeing mob and shooting it in one massive assault.

I watch the pieces zip forward, catching monsters in the back. Bodies heave, then sink; and glowing blue gloves fall like stars into the deep. The kids are following my lead, creating their own shrapnel attacks. There’s too much agitation in the water to know how many we have killed.

Suddenly, the chase comes to a screeching halt. We’ve reached the beach. It’s up to the soldiers and Finn’s team to do their part.

Riley swims close and grabs my arm. He points toward the surface. There’s a rush, and suddenly he and I are soaring out of the water and into open air, riding the crest of a spout. The other children do the same, and soon we are all looking out over the battle zone. Despite the carnage we inflicted, there are still so many Rusalka that they have melted into a single black and purple mass tumbling onto the shore. The soldiers spray them with gunfire. Finn shouts orders at the children, and several rockets crash into the water, ripping dozens of our enemies apart in fiery explosions.

But in this grotesque mess are five Rusalka who survived my attacks and have gloves like mine. I can see their glow from high above, and each monster is slobbering with fury. Together they lift their gloves skyward, and I hear a sound like the earth has cracked in two. Riley and I turn to find a swell rising higher and higher in the distance. It grows into a tower of liquid that is ten feet, twenty feet, fifty feet. It’s twice as big as the one that destroyed my home, and it’s coming right for us. It will kill everything when it arrives, charging through our numbers and crushing our bodies. It’s an act of desperation. These creatures are willing to be torn limb from limb if they can take us with them.

“I will stop this,” Arcade shouts, leaping off of Harrison’s spout. He tries to hold on to her, but she wrenches free and leaps down into the throng of Rusalka in a falling arc, She swings wildly, dismembering everything nearby. I have never seen such violence. She is killing and killing and killing, moving closer and closer to the last five who can destroy us all. I hope the Great Abyss has answered her prayers today, but she may not reach them in time.

“We have to push it back!” I shout to the children. The power needed to make it happen is all-consuming. We tumble out of the sky and land in the shallows. I feel my ankle wrench, and a burn rolls up my leg. I may have broken it. Emma and Harrison look hurt as well. I can deal with it later, if I live.

“Hold hands!” I shout.

The children link to one another, and the wave trembles. It knows we’re in its path of destruction and we plan on stopping it.

“You are all giants!” I shout at the children. “You are all five hundred feet tall. You have to believe me. We can stop this, but you have to believe that you are a force of nature.”

“I believe it!” Riley shouts, and then each of the children says the same.

“All right, bear down,” I instruct. “Don’t let it move forward another inch.”

There are ten of us against an angry ocean, and the nosebleeds begin. Harrison is first, then Tess. I’m too exhausted to know if it’s happening to me. Georgia is shaking like she’s having a seizure, and the others are screaming from the intensity.

“They’re breaking through!” someone shouts.

I turn my head to see Rusalka storming onto the beach. Breanne is attacked and cut open. She falls to the ground, clenching her belly. Without her defenses, a dozen more Rusalka charge forward. They cut down Suzi, and a boy named Tucker, and Priscilla, leaving them bloody and in shock. Tucker can’t stop looking at the wound on his arm. He’s set upon by others. I hear his screams over the gunfire. The Rusalka leap forward, cutting five soldiers in half. One snatches up a loose rifle and accidentally shoots itself in the face.