AWAKENED

CHAPTER 21 - Escape From Hell

As the earthquake intensifies, I stumble down the central corridor between the Animal Barn enclosures. When I pass through the garden area, the skylight cracks and splinters, the ground rising as the habitat sinks, the river flooding into the passage behind me.

With a sense of urgency, I dash into the maintenance bay and hit the button on the wall to activate the garage door. As it rises, the earth outside heaves upward, thrusting a rhino-bear into the air before that same ground falls away, swallowing the creature whole. A wolf becomes the next victim as the area where it stands breaks away into nothing. Farther away, a giant condor lands on top of my upturned tracer, only to plunge into a hole along with the aircraft. The earthquake is the most violent one I've experienced by far.

The forest rumbles, clashing with the rushing river, rocked by the super volcano, deafening my ears.

After the condor fell into the hole with the tracer craft, it reappears, swooping up to escape, only for a fiery tendril to splash up and sear through its wing. The bird spirals toward me as I race away from it, aiming for the rear of the maintenance bay. This leads me toward the trigger release Jinx had told me about.

As I run, a storage crate skids across the floor and knocks my feet out from under me. Behind me, the condor crashes inside the maintenance bay, its body careening toward me as I scramble to crawl out of the way.

I watch in horror, my breath stolen and my heart pounding as the creature's sharpened beak slides toward me, screeching across the floor, halting inches from my side. Its twisted neck is grotesque and shocking, having snapped upon impact.

With the vibrations urging me on, I struggle to my feet and sprint toward the false wall in the back of the room. Behind a control panel, I find the release and press it, and a moment later, a section moves out of the way, opening the tracer's secret hangar. I glance behind me, craning to see the open bay door as it sinks further into the ground, lava licking at the sides. If I don't get out of here, the volcano will swallow the entire habitat... with me in it.

The tracer rocks against the straps that anchor it to the floor. I assume they had to secure the aircraft for the habitat's descent to Earth. The straps are an obstacle to overcome.

Down on my knees, I crank back on the ratchet pulley, loosening a thick band until it's free from an anchor point on the tracer's wing. I repeat the process with the other wing, and then again with the vertical stabilizer at the rear of the craft. The entire time, the hab shakes like it's about to blast into orbit.

Steeling my nerves, I climb up into the cabin and belt myself in. My fingers fly over the dashboard's touchscreen, powering up the turbine engines on each wing. The internal blades sound off with a whomp, spiraling around a central core. Wind bursts from each thruster, gusting off the back wall, edging the tracer out of the secret room and into the hangar, toward the bay doors.

They designed the craft to take off like a helicopter, not a plane, but this situation doesn't allow for a vertical liftoff. The undercarriage scrapes along the floor until I tilt the turbines up at a slight angle to add lift to the forward thrust.

As I glide toward the shrinking exit, the tracer hits the condor carcass, riding up over it, bumping along until I'm clear. The earth continues to shake as tools and equipment jostle off the slanting floor and slam against the transparent fuselage. Wrenches and screwdrivers bounce off the polycarbonate sphere, clanging in various directions. Heavier items, like a chainsaw and a spare generator, smack the tracer with enough force to knock me off course. The latter leaves a blurry scar on the starboard side below the door.

I can't hang around anymore.

In front of the exit passage, the lava spews up in a sporadic geyser.

I shove the throttle forward, creating a sudden power boost, lifting the tracer up and out of the closing mouth of the open bay. The craft shoots out of the habitat, missing a spray of liquid fire by mere inches. As I fly forward, swiveling the turbines to gain more vertical lift, I watch in horror as the top of the tree line races toward me. I feel the G-forces straining against me as the tracer struggles to rise above the tip-top of the forest's edge.