Floyd backed up.
“No. You can’t do that.” He looked over at Valerie and tilted his head. He was within striking distance of the door now. So that was the plan. Bailiff Clay started forward. Valerie stepped between them.
“You will un-happen!” She stared the Bailiff down. “Keep us here too long, everything you’ve ever done, ever known, ever loved, all of it will be gone!”
At her last word, Floyd banged a hole right next to the door’s latch. He rushed out of the room backwards, and Valerie ran out after him. He swept up behind her and she laid flat on his back. The hallways were better, but Floyd was right about the height clearance. She didn’t dare look up for fear of crashing her head on a beam. Floyd was trying to avoid that, but it wouldn’t take much for an accident.
“Fly low, and tuck your legs!” She shouted. It must have been a good idea because Floyd tried it out. They sped down the corridor, and stopped sharply at the front door. Floyd’s ears turned, trying to pick up the sound of being pursued.
“They really should’ve been right behind us.” The words were barely out of his mouth before the alarm started to blare. Floyd sidled over to the door, which stopped halfway, leaving only enough room for them to squeeze through. Floyd did his best not to smush Valerie.
“We have to let them shoot us now!” He made his way to the center, and started to turn back toward the entrance. He half-passed, hoping that it would look like he was getting ready to take off. He rocked his way across the front lot, moving forward and sideways at once.
“You do dressage?”
“It’s our Zumba!” The security folk started to swarm out of the door.
“Hang on tight! You’ll feel a shock!”
Multiple streams of light rushed their way toward them. As painful as it was for the electricity to surge through her veins, she knew Floyd was shielding her from the worst of it. Taking the power and channeling it into the travel device was apparently a quick and dirty process. Or maybe it was a show for the guards. She couldn’t see when Floyd shot up into the sky.
But she stayed close and held on tight. She didn’t know if it would work, if it wasn’t working, or what would happen if it didn’t. She counted out the 5 seconds in her mind.
The wind was forcing its way through them, and Valerie couldn’t hear a thing. Then she felt the pressure on her body ease. There was a familiar smell, like… the ocean! They were back.
Valerie opened her eyes just in time to see an enormous Orca breech up – or down – right in front of them. Floyd maneuvered closer to the water and timed the whale’s fall for when they were clear. Valerie spat water from the splash out of the way of her mouth.
“How does she fall up?”
“Gravity filter!” Floyd shouted. As if that explained anything. “There’s about to be a major disruption, though. We’ve got to get down Challenger Deep before it does so we can reprogram the water. Otherwise, there will be mass flooding everywhere because it will take too long to drain!”
Valerie hadn’t considered that. And she didn’t have much time to do so before Floyd dove straight down. She took in a big gulp of air and braced for the ear-popping descent. The wormhole, the whale strike scare, and everything that happened before this mad dash to the surface was beginning to be too much for her. Adrenaline wasn’t enough anymore. Exhaustion was setting in.
She pitched forward, and tried to hang on, but her legs had nothing to hold anymore. She held on to Floyd’s mane, but the sweat of her palms didn’t help as her body weight pulled her down. She yanked Floyd off course, and her face took the strike of one of his wings. She didn’t realize she was freefalling until she opened her eyes. She saw Floyd flying away.
Did he seriously not know she was gone? He should be able to see that she wasn’t on his back anymore, if he couldn’t feel it. She was on her own.
She had some vague idea of angling her body to slow her descent. She didn’t know if she was succeeding or not. She was panicking too much.
Death by flying. It would only be worse if she were aimed at a dump filled entirely with used needles.
Should she even try to slow herself? Would it be better to speed up the inevitable? Or would she have a heart attack first?
She saw Floyd’s shape in the distance, and opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The sound probably wouldn’t even carry. The faded light from the sun, filtered by the ocean, kept everything dark, in an endless twilight. She could barely see anything but the nightmares her imagination taunted her with. Conjured up by her imagination.
Moira was in trouble. And Valerie had left her. To save the world, yes, but still. They might not be close anymore, but she was still Valerie’s best friend. What kind of friend was she?
Valerie felt something hit her forehead. It felt like she had hit a bird. Poor thing. Then the sky seemed to slow everything down. She had the sensation of being lowered onto a horse’s back for the first time, when the ground seems so very far away. And then it stopped. She had stopped falling. She would have thought she was almost dead if she wasn’t still trembling.
“We’re going home now.” Floyd’s voice was a familiar welcome. She focused on staying balanced. It was odd, how considerate Floyd was being. She must have passed out and started dreaming. To die in a dream world, it seemed like mercy.
“Val?” She heard Moira’s voice, and someone shaking her shoulder.
“VAL!”
Valerie had the feeling of falling again, and opened her eyes. Her body jerked upwards so she had the feeling of hitting the mattress.
“What?” Valerie opened her eyes. She was in the cabin, and Moira was looking at her. Valerie tried sitting up, but her elbow slipped, and Moira caught her. She got back up and looked across the room at the window. Floyd’s face was pushing through the window as far as his eyes went. His nostrils flared, and for a moment, he seemed like an average horse. Valerie had half a second where she wondered just how much she had dreamed. Were they still huddled in the barn, sheltering from the storm?
There was no storm. And Floyd shattered the illusion by speaking.
“It turns out there was a glitch in my equipment, and we got here a day earlier than I thought. We have time to rest.”
“Did you realize that before, or after I fell?”
Floyd snorted and narrowed his eyes. “After, of course.”
“Oh.” Valerie covered her mouth. “I said that last part out loud.”
“Apology accepted.” Floyd started to back his head out of the window. “I’m drawing up a battle plan. Having an extra day is awesome! Just call me Phileas Fogg Floyd!”
“What?” Moira looked at her.
“Jules Verne. A book.”
“Right, Floyd likes his books.”
“How long has it been since I left you here?” Valerie robbed her eyes in an attempt to hide the shame she felt for doing that to her.
“About a day.” Moira was thinking. Trying to work out what was in Valerie’s head.
“Feeling any better?”
“About 20 minutes ago, it got worse. I got a text from Glenn. He figured out we paid a trip to the office, and he’s tracked my phone here. ‘Warpath’ doesn’t cover it.”
Valerie considered her words. Forget ocean in the sky. Glenn would be insisting on his way if she had time to deal with this or not. After seeing those bruises, there was no way she was going to leave Moira to face that alone.
She swung her legs off the bed and leaned forward, waiting for her head to stop spinning.
“Floyd!” She called out. “How much time do we have?”
“About 3 hours.”
“How long was I asleep?” Valerie started walking to the door before Moira could answer. “Nevermind!”
“I heard about Glenn.” Floyd said as she reached the porch’s last step. In the exterior lighting, Floyd had drawn an indecipherable diagram in the dirt. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”
