Riser (Teen Horror/Science Fiction) (Book #1 in The Riser Saga) ((Volume 1)) (37 page)

SHUUUNK!

The elevator doors smashed shut.

We could still hear the cries of terror through the wall.

“I’ll keep the rats on them as long as possible. Let’s get out of here,” I said and found it awkward to walk over to the ladder and control the rats at the same time. I could feel their tiny teeth tear into the fabric of the soldier’s uniforms. I wanted to keep them occupied, but I didn’t want to do any serious damage. The soldiers were only doing their jobs even if they were working for pure evil.

Ryan and I started our long climb up, me in front, Ryan in back. After doing the math, we had to climb about ten stories. I hoped I could keep the rodent onslaught going that long.

The elevator whizzed up and down next to us giving a little extra cover just in case the guards decided they wanted to fight with rat corpses as their new uniform.

I tried to pin point Turner’s location, give him an extra bite or two in the face (see how he explains that on holo), but I couldn’t differentiate between the men down below. I could only see the tiny swirling black masses of the rats. Just keep them fighting. It was taking all my energy to climb and control and I was draining fast. We still had eight floors to go and I was breathing heavily like I had already run a marathon.

Up ahead I could barely see Nancy and the others. They were almost to freedom. I needed to give Ryan and I a few more floors before I could let go of my hold on the rats. I just didn’t know if I could do it. I had just been released from the hospital! What was I thinking?

“Ryan,” I barely croaked out. Wow. I was fading quicker than I thought.

Ryan climbed up beside me faster than I could think. “What is it? Are you okay?” His face was full of concern.

“I’m keeping the connection, but climbing… both… too hard… I don’t know if I can make it,” I sputtered.

He just nodded. “Climb on my back. You keep the rats up, I’ll take
you
up.”

I didn’t have the strength to argue. I limply crawled onto Ryan, piggy-back style, until I rested comfortably. Much better. It was still a difficult task using all the energy I had left to keep the rodents attacking the soldiers, but manageable. I leaned my head on his shoulder. I knew being six foot three Ryan could easily carry me, but climbing seven more floors with an extra hundred and ten pounds on your back had to take it’s toll at some point. I did my part. I kept my connection to the rats. And feeling Ryan’s muscles expanding and contracting as he climbed up the ladder was somehow more comforting than a hug. Although I could have used one of those, too.

Still no alarms, which I found extremely odd. Turner must truly want to keep everything hidden under the rug. It made me wonder where exactly I was on his priority list. The scope of my grandfather’s empire left me breathless. I was just a flea on a Great Dane. How important was I in the grand scheme of things? He could already raise the dead, so aside from a personal vendetta, why did he even care about me? That look in his eyes, in Roberta’s eyes. That was my answer, I guess. They were insane with grief and anger and I was the living representation of it all. Although, Roberta looked genuinely crazy, anger or not. Maybe it was her cat-like face, with that frozen rubbery skin. I’m not usually one to judge on how someone looks, but seeing her face up close like that, with the stretching and the shining. Ick.

My eyes felt so heavy... I lost my power over at least half of the rats. I could connect to them, I just couldn’t seem to make them move. Hopefully, the little guys I did control could still keep the guards occupied. I glanced up. The others were already on the surface. Ryan was sweating from the exertion of climbing with the weight of two people, but we were only two floors away from freedom.

“Almost there,” I heard myself say though it sounded like it came from someone else.

And then my arms slipped from Ryan’s neck.

I would have fallen all the way to the bottom if it weren’t for Ryan’s quick reflexes. He caught my wrist before I plunged to my death.

That woke me up.

I climbed back up to Ryan’s back with as much effort as I could muster.

The elevator doors cranked open down below and soldiers began to flow through. They were rodent-free and moving up the ladder faster than I could imagine.

The near fall jolted me out of keeping the rats active, and my exhaustion made me forget to reconnect.

“Don’t worry about the rats, just hold on.” Ryan began climbing like a mad man.

One more floor.

The first soldier was only two floors away from us. Man they were quick.

I tried to get a good look at the guard closest to us. His clothes were shredded and he was sporting quite a few scratches and bites. He looked severely pissed.

Ryan reached the opened grate. Hands reached down and lifted us to the surface.

“Are you okay?” Nancy was all over me. I must have looked really bad.

I could hear Jason and Bill slamming the grate shut from the outside.

No matter how hard I tried, my eye lids were made of lead. We were on the outskirts of the building about a few hundred feet from the parking lot. “I’m fine. Just tired.”

“Not too tired, I hope?”

My eyes flew open from Turner’s voice.

We all turned to see my grandpa standing with a few guards. He didn’t have one scratch on him! Not even a nibble. He must have escaped as soon as he saw the rats coming. Or something else? I knew so little about my grandpa, his powers, his capabilities, it was frustrating. And worst of all, it was dangerous. Not knowing your opponent could mean fatal consequences.

Turner nodded to one of his soldiers.

The obedient man walked over to the metal grating and opened it for the climbing soldiers to exit. They started to file out one at a time forming a circle around our party. Ryan held me close as if he alone could protect me. The guards from below were shredded from head to toe. Maybe I went a little crazy with the rats. Bill and Nancy on the other hand looked extremely impressed.

Nancy whispered in my ear with a hint of amazement, “Did you do that?”

I nodded and tried to make myself smile, but it just ended up being some sort of grimace.

Turner walked boldly up to Jason. “Give it to me.”

“Give what to you?” Jason smiled that half-smirk that used to be the basis of my crush on him.

“Now.” Turner wasn’t in the mood for Jason or any of us for that matter.

We weren’t going to make it out of here alive.

Jason reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the holo-chip. He reluctantly handed it over to Turner’s aged hands.

“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” Jason said off-handed.

“Yes, I can.” Turner handed the holo-chip to one of his guards. “Search him, make sure he didn’t make a switch.”

The soldier patted Jason down thoroughly, searching every pocket, nook and cranny on his body. “Nothing.”

Turner nodded. “Good. Destroy it.”

The guard placed the holo-chip on the ground and used his stun club on it. The holo-chip sparked and fizzled until it went completely dead, a charred black fleck on the cement.

Jason’s face stayed in that half-smirk, frozen in time, as if he couldn’t decide if it would help or hurt his cause to act scared.

Turner turned to me. “You’re free to go.”

What?

“What?” I realized I hadn’t said that out loud.

“You look exhausted. Get some rest.” Turner’s face revealed nothing.

What was going on?

“That’s it?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Maybe I was asleep already and this was all a dream.

“You came here with a mission and you failed. Now go,” he said way too calmly.

We started to walk away toward the parking lot and sure enough the soldiers stepped aside to let us through.

“Wait,” came Grandpa’s voice from behind.

Here we go.

“You guys get to the car. Don’t wait for me,” I said and shoved them away.

“Yeah right,” Nancy, Bill and Ryan all said at once. I did notice that Jason had no arguments.

I turned to face my grandfather.

“Yes?” I asked, waiting for the worst.

“I’ll send a car for you tomorrow at Nancy’s. Three o’clock. You’ll be safe, I assure you. We need to discuss a few… matters,” Turner said as if we had been colleagues for decades.

And with that, he turned and left with all his guards. They headed toward a private entrance not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to their tattered state. Within seconds Turner was gone. The five of us alone in the parking lot, exactly where we started out at the beginning of this trip.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jason said with some urgency. I don’t think he felt that Turner was on the up and up.

We all walked toward the lot.

“You’re not really going to meet him, are you?” Bill said with a boomingly over-protective tone.

“Yes, I am.” I thought I hadn’t made up my mind yet, but when asked directly I knew the answer had to be yes. If I didn’t settle this with Turner, it would just continue on and on until one or both of us was dead, or worse, someone I cared about. “And don’t try and talk me out of it.” I knew the protesting would ensue.

“You’re way too tired to listen to reason anyway. We’ll argue with you tomorrow,” Nancy said.

We all arrived at Bill’s hover-car.

“Where’s your car?” I asked Jason.

“I’m going with you guys. I’ll have an intern pick up my car later.” Jason said, and I could tell he was trying to hide some of his fear. “No worries, I’ll ride bitch.”

No one had the energy to argue. We all piled into the hover-car, Jason sitting between Ryan and I in the back seat. Uggh! I’m sure there was some other way to arrange everyone so we could all be happy, but we were so ready to get out of there no one said anything.

Bill whizzed away from the monstrous structure and it felt like we were flying away from a funeral. We were all silent. No one wanted to re-live what we just went through, or maybe they didn’t want
me
to have to, and I was grateful. I wanted to lean against Ryan and go to sleep, but Jason separated us. He was fidgeting like a crazy person.

“Would you stop that?” Ryan had apparently had enough of Jason’s squirming.

“No. Let’s get to Nancy’s as fast as this hover-car will hover.” Jason’s knee wouldn’t stop shaking.

Something was up and it wasn’t just escaping Turner’s grasp. Jason was hiding it from all of us and he wanted to be under the blanket of George’s magic-red-orb-of-silence to tell us.

“Sure.” Bill read between the same lines I had. We picked up some speed and flew to Nancy’s house in no time.

Bill landed the car and George and Vianne came out to greet us.

Jason went straight to George before he could hug his daughter. I stayed close to him, not wanting to miss anything. “Your info-blocker still in tact?”

George was all business. “Had to make a few adjustments, Turner’s guys have been trying to break it daily.”

Vianne had done all the hugging for George and looked over at Jason and I with curiosity.

“Let’s get inside.” George nodded to his wife and she nodded back.

We all headed inside Nancy’s house.

I grabbed Ryan’s hand as we sat down on the couch. I didn’t want to be separated from him any longer than I had to. He was becoming a continual source of calm for me lately and I wanted to be the same for him. I could tell seeing those kids really shook him up. His life would have been a comatose state of imprisonment if he hadn’t got away. His hand was shaking slightly and I leaned in close feeling him physically relax. At least I could be some help however small it was.