Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 26 - Monsters - V

  "Heads up," Hailey called out, swooping back around to meet them. "We've got trouble."

  "What's going on?" Alden asked. Mabel Walsh was ambling along behind him, as fast as her old legs could carry her. Behind them was Hector—whom they'd found weeping outside the burning, shattered wreckage of his exploded store—Collins McCreary, Neffie Bowman, and the president of the University, Christina Albrecht. Jessica brought up the rear, a blue ball of flame at the ready.

  They'd been picking up anyone they found as they made their way across town. There was no sign of the mob from earlier. Collins had a broken leg from a collapsed crossbeam, while the President and Neffie Bowman sported cuts from blown-out windows, so they made slow progress to the one remaining door open at the Kettle and Bones. From the look on Hailey's face as she rejoined them, though, it was about to get much harder.

  "Golems. And they're attacking everyone." Hailey flew a small circle to turn around and stopped in mid-air, fluttering slightly as her invisible wings kept her aloft. "We're about to get into a fight if we go around that corner."

  Alden didn't hesitate. "So let's go fight them." The moment he spoke, a shout of alarm from Jessica at the rear had them all turning around.

  A golem had just sprouted from the ground behind the group. Jessica was trying to push it away with a wall of force, since she couldn't use her fire. Hector fled—despite Neffie calling out for him—and disappeared into the swiftly falling twilight. Hailey swooped forward and hurled wind at the golem, pushing it back even further.

  "Now would be a great time for some of that lightning!" Neffie shouted.

  "We never learned how to make lightning!" Hailey called back.

  "How do you make any of this?" asked Christina. "Electricity is just electrons moving around. Can't you do that?"

  "You explain that to the dumb girl," Collins snapped.

  "We're all faster than it, right?" Alden pointed out. "If we can't beat it, we can just outrun it."

  "That's not a permanent solution," said Neffie.

  "Anything's better than staying here until Hailey collapses."

  "If you take the path by Dan's place, you could probably get to the tavern okay," Hailey called out. "I didn't see anything that way."

  "Okay then," Alden said firmly. "Hailey, can you hold it off without Jessica?" She nodded. Alden tapped Jessica on the shoulder. He pointed at Hailey, then at the golem with a flat palm. He made a circle in midair to indicate the group on the ground, then jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the path Hailey had mentioned. Jessica nodded. She stood up straight and took a few deep breaths.

  They set off while Hailey held back the golem as much as possible. It managed to advance even in the wake of the massive gale Hailey was unleashing, but it was so slow that a single inch took a minute or more. Alden wasn't too concerned, until he heard another cry of alarm from the front of the group.

  He rushed back forward to find Jessica hurling a ball of fire across the street. A middle-aged man stood there, with short brown hair and a mess of unshaven stubble on his face, holding a thin black obsidian rod. At the last possible moment, a golem managed to intercept the blast of fire about to strike him.

  Brian Hendricks stood firm behind the fiery pillar of his golem servant. "Mabel, I expected better of you," he called out.

  "And I thought you were a decent man," Mabel shouted back. "Looks like we're both disappointed."