"Is she…?" Sean began, but the question caught in his throat as his eyes landed on the faint rise and fall of her torso, the barest sign of life still lingering.
"She just started breathing again," I managed, emotions crashing in waves beneath the surface. “But she’s slowly freezing to death.” I swallowed hard, my hands tightening around her. The cold radiating from her skin felt like a ticking clock, a reminder of how little time we had left.
Sean’s jaw clenched as he scanned her face quickly. Without saying another word, he shrugged off his thick coat and placed it over her, covering as much of her small frame as he could.
“We need to get her warmed up, fast,” he muttered, his tone shifting into full command mode. “If we don’t, breathing won’t be enough to save her.”
I nodded, scarcely able to think straight, my mind running a hundred miles an hour while my body felt like it was moving in slow motion. Emma stirred faintly in my arms, her lips still too bluish for comfort.
Sean grabbed my shoulder, snapping me out of my panic. “Caden, listen to me. We’re going to get her out of here. Ye hear me? She’s going to be okay. But we have to move out, now.”
“Then let’s get her out of here.”
I jumped to my feet, adjusting Emma in my arms, cradling her close to me.
“I’ve got a chopper nearby.” Sean’s words were clear, his mind already on the next step.
He moved toward the warhead on the far side of our cage, its core still casting an eerie light on the frozen ground. Reaching out, he paused only for a second before grabbing it. “I’ll handle this.”
“Be careful,” I warned, casting a wary glance at the ominous glow. “No translation. You know what it does.”
Sean didn’t even blink, his resolve unshakable. He grabbed the weapon with both hands, grunting under the strain. “This thing’s heavier than it looks,” he muttered, muscles tensing as he lifted it. “But we’ve got bigger problems than its weight if we don’t get moving.”
He then led the way back through the path he’d carved, the machine’s trail of destruction a welcome sight in the midst of this nightmare.
Emma was still so cold, so fragile, and every second felt like a countdown I couldn’t afford to lose. Holding her as gently as I could, I followed, my heart pounding in time with each step.
The ground was slick with melting snow, but I didn’t falter. Each breath cut through me like glass, but none of it touched the real pain: the dread I might be too late. I might lose her. I might’ve already failed her.
As we burst out into the open air, the chopper was there, waiting, its rotors already spinning, kicking up gusts of white mist as it readied for takeoff. The sight of it, ready to fly us away from this hell, was a fucking lifeline.
“Get her inside!” Sean yelled, barely cutting through the roar of the blades.
I rushed forward, carefully but swiftly carrying Emma in. I laid her in one of the seats, as gently as I could with my hands shaking, then strapped her in tightly. The sound of the rotors pounding above us, the wind whipping around us, everything blurred as my focus tunneled solely on her.
Before shutting the door behind me, I took a seat next to her, not willing to leave her side for a second. Sean followed on the other side, dragging the heavy load with him, securing it inside with a grunt as the door slammed shut.
“Go, go go!” I shouted in a hurried voice, after noticing a swarm of black dots gathering at the foot of the mountain.
As the helicopter lifted off the ground, I looked down at Emma’s pale face, my heart still pounding in my chest.
“We’re not out of the woods yet!” Sean shouted over the roar of the blades, his voice grim, though I could see a flicker of hope in his eyes—the same hope that had begun to ignite inside me.
“How do you plan on destroying the Amplifier?” I yelled back, struggling to be heard above the deafening whir.
“I’m not! We’re heading to Oman Deep. We’ll bury it in the ocean.”
What? That was his plan?
“It’s been activated!” I snapped, hardly keeping it together after these past few hours. “We can’t just throw it out there! It could still cause catastrophic damage if we’re not careful!”
Sean shot me a sharp look, his grip tightening on the controls, knuckles white against the strain of both flying and the enormity of what we were facing. “You got a better idea?” he barked, his attention briefly shifting to glare at me.
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to think. My mind raced through possibilities, scrambling for a solution that wouldn’t involve more risk than we were already taking. “Maybe,” I muttered, an idea forming in the back of my mind. “How far is the nearest airport?”
Sean glanced at the gauges, his brow furrowed. “About a half-hour flight in this thing.”
“Then drop me off with the Amplifier,” I demanded. “You get as much distance between us as possible, then portal out the second you’re in the clear. Get Emma to a Healer, and I’ll deal with neutralizing this fucking monstrosity.”
