Page 7 of Aviatrix

A blast erupts overhead. White light tears the sky. Something hot splatters to our right. Metal, maybe. Bone.

Gary staggers.

I don’t look.

I can’t.

The tower rises ahead. Salvation or a snare. I don’t care which. We need in.

I vault over wreckage. Duck low as another blast shakes the earth. Steel rains like hail.

Eli’s just ahead, breath ragged, pace relentless.

We’re crossing a death zone. Open asphalt. Nothing but sky and fire above.

Fear floods my system. But I don’t slow. If I die, I’m dying in motion. Trying.

“We’re almost there!” Eli yells.

I dig deeper. Pull harder. The tower looms.

I skid.

The door is locked.

Eli slams his boot once, twice, crack. It bursts open.

He laughs, breathless. “Didn’t think that would work.”

“No time to be impressed,” I insist as I bolt inside.

Smoke chases us in.

I don’t know if Gary made it, but I can’t stop. We hit the stairs hard. My legs burn. My pulse hammers in my ears.

“Hurry!” Gary bellows from below.

I exhale sharply. He’s alive. Thank God.

We reach the command room. Eli heads straight for the launcher controls.

“I’ll get these up,” he says. “You’re calling for backup?”

“Lark probably already did,” I mutter, dropping into the chair and flipping on the radio.

“Yeah.” Eli scoffs. “The guy who got caught with his pants down? Totally dependable in a crisis.”

I ignore him. I don't have time for this.

“So, he cheated on you?” he presses, voice low beneath the alarms.

I freeze for half a second. “This is really not the time,” I say. Not when he showed up seconds before an invasion. A little too convenient, if you ask me.

“Never is,” he mutters, bending over the console.

Gary arrives, out of breath, and red in the face. “Damn aliens,” he growls before he hobbles over to the backup power and begins fiddling with it. “I told you, Nova. I told you it was coming.”

Eli shoots me a strange look, but I ignore it. I ignore both of them.