Chapter 59: Volume II: Chapter 26: The Maze

The sheer number of Neons lit the corridor to the point where Chleo could see almost everything. Her mom and Dai worked as a team, spearing through the mass of enemies. The stunner in her mom’s hands took down as many as it could, Dai’s blades dealing with the rest.

Merk ran at their side, his hornet buzzing through the air. He bashed his stunner into anyone who fell within swinging distance, brutal and unnecessary, but effective. His opponents started edging away to keep their distance only to fall to one of Dai’s blades.

Eelock took down anyone who made it past, stealing stunners and weapons as needed. He cut through them with a ruthless grace, movements as fluid as the stream pouring into their group.

They pushed the Umbra Neons back to the juncture. Chleo’s dad and Lexy hurried her and Will across the open ground while the others created a wall. Will’s hornet flew into the crowd, dropping an orange Neon sneaking up on Merk’s flank. He waited a step and whistled. The orb jumped from the fallen orange to a yellow in its path on the way back. Dai sent him a grateful smile before blocking an enemy bee with her blade. He whistled again and it hopped back to his hand.

Chleo grabbed a few enemy glows and cast them down the passage. The void lit until the next juncture before it petered out. She heard a worried rumble rush through the Umbra Neons as they noticed their friends’ glows dim.

“Clear ahead,” she said, releasing them.

Merk fell back to the front anyway, banking his hornet off the walls to hit his targets.

“You tell me the second anything pops up, yeah?” he ordered before whistling. The blue and black orb jumped through their group into his hand.

“Of course.”

At the next junction, she forced the enemy glows down both passages.

“Dead end to the right.” They went left. At the next they went right.

“Uh, Chleo?” Merk asked. They broke into a corridor, widened to branch into six paths.

She cursed. “It’ll take a second.”

“We’ll hold them as long as we can. Work quickly,” Eelock said as her dad tucked her in a corner out of the line of fire.

She grabbed as many glows as she could trying to tether them together, dirty, quick, and inelegant.

“Will?” she asked while she worked.

“Yeah?” he wheezed. The wall held him up while his mom checked his wound. They needed to get him to a med bay.

“How did Soro get out?”

“What?” he asked, grunting when his mom’s hand ghosted over the gauze keeping him from bleeding out.

“When we were in the vents, you said Soro found a way out of a maze, and we would, too. How did she do it?”

“Oh.” He sighed, leaning his forehead against the cool stone wall. His hornet hung limply in his hand. Chleo pushed as much of the glow as she could into the first passage. “She made a map. The story’s about patience and learning from failure,” he slurred.

Chleo swallowed. He needed a bed and meds. She checked the other passages, pushing it as far as she dared.

“The two to the right are dead ends. The rest stretch farther than I can see. The first and third look like they’ve been traveled recently, footprints and broken cobwebs.”

“Merk, your call,” Eelock said, between stunner blasts.

“Lucky number three,” he chose with a shrug.

They ran forward, following Merk into the tunnel. Chleo couldn’t remember how long they’d been running. The blocker room felt like a lifetime ago. More sparks joined the group at their backs.

Wait… blocker… they blew the blocker.

She ducked under a bee that ricocheted off the wall.

“Does anyone have a comm?” she asked over the shouts and stunner blasts. The Umbra Neons had backed off, losing too many of their numbers in a straight on assault. It was left to her mom to pick them off when they popped out to shoot off a few bees.

“What?” the queen asked.

“Of course,” her dad said, realizing what she did, “Mic’s on the ship.” He tapped his ear, switching his comm on. “Mic? Mic, are you there, come in.”

Eelock, Dai, and Merk reached up to do the same. Chleo listened to the one sided conversation, watching for any sparks appearing in front of them instead of behind.

“Yeah, so here’s the thing. We’re a bit lost. Any chance you can send a bird?”

Merk lifted a pigeon, letting it cling to his collar. The only indication was a small stain, easily overlooked if a person didn’t pay attention.

“Merk activated one of his pigeon’s homing beacons.”

“Same frequency as Luna,” Merk added.

They turned another corner. Merk’s brow furrowed. “Something happened,” he said. “We lost him. Looks like he got the info off first though,” he added, turning his attention to his wristlet.

Chleo almost missed it. A shift in the void. She reacted before fully understanding what she sensed. The tether she’d made from her dad and Dais’ glows whipped forward. She sharpened the kite’s blades on the way, hardening them as they passed Merk. It ripped through a shadow as it sprung into Merk’s glow.

“Merk,” she shouted, as more shifts spread along the edges of her view. He cursed, nearly tripping over the body she’d dropped.

“Looks like one of Jones’s,” he said.

“There are more,” she warned, flinging the tether to drop another. It was almost like having her watch back. At least her training didn’t go to waste.

“How many?” he shouted bashing one with the butt of his stunner.

“I-I don’t know. I can’t see them.” She swallowed at the amount of shifts she felt. It felt like moving toward a wave, the air sucking back before it crashed.

“Switch,” Merk shouted.

“Dai, Melody, go,” Eelock ordered flicking a few stray bees back at the Neons. They sped to the front, relieving Merk. He moved to cover Eelock. An enemy bee hit him on the way. He dropped to a knee, letting the spasm pass before limping forward. Angry, he banked his hornet around the corner. A Neon fell into the corridor before his friends pulled him back behind cover.

“That’s ten laps.” Dai smirked back, eyes peeled waiting for more of Jones’s men to spring a trap. Merk pulled his wristlet up, pounding a finger into the screen.

“At the next juncture go left,” he growled, ignoring her.

“Sep, Sen,” she sang back. Merk flung his hornet back at the group following them dropping another. Chleo caught Eelock trying to cover a chuckle.

Chleo froze when they came to the split.

“That’s where they are,” she warned, feeling the wave buzz somewhere in the distance.

“Still, can’t tell where?” Dai asked. Chleo shook her head. Dai shared a look with her mom. “Once more unto the breach?”

“Oh fine, but I have to warn you, I wasn’t made in England, I don’t know any Harrys, and my George certainly wasn’t a saint.”

Chleo watched Dai blink. “You realize I never actually did the reading?”

The shadow of her mom’s head snapped in Dai’s direction. “You said you would do it if I covered for you. It was Shakespeare, Dai, one of the greats.”

“One of your greats, maybe,” Dai muttered under her breath. She stalked forward.

“You promised,” her mom complained. “You’re reading it when we get out of here.” She followed.

The trap sprang. Chleo heard the arrows nock before she felt the shifts zooming toward their group. She grabbed Dai’s glow and hardened it. The arrows clattered to the ground outside her view.

She wanted to sling her feeler at them but didn’t know where to aim. After a few meters, something pulled under her skin. Her heart pounded. Breathing became a labor. She let the glow soften and the feeling eased.

“You ok?” her dad asked.

“Yeah,” she shot him a tired smile. “Just found my limit, I think.”

“Don’t push it too far,” he said, concern pulling his face.

She felt another volley of arrows shift down the hall. The glow hardened at her touch. The arrows clattered. She dropped her hold with a breath, leaning into her dad.

“You never were one to listen, were you?” he said pressing a kiss to her temple.

“I listen just fine,” she smiled into his shoulder. “I’m still standing, aren’t I? Wasn’t too far.”

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“Mhm.” He didn’t sound convinced.

They worked their way forward, following Merk’s directions. Jones’s crew stayed along the fringes of Chleo’s view stealing most of her attention. For every volley of arrows she blocked in the front, a hive of bees flew from the back. Eelock swatted most of them away using a borrowed stunner, while Merk returned fire, switching to bees when he didn’t have a sure shot with his hornet.

The exertion was taking a toll. Chleo could feel her shield weakening with every attempt. The last one let an arrow through. She saw the shadow pass inches from her mom’s shoulder. Her dad was taking on more and more of her weight.

“We’re close,” Merk said from the back. Chleo sagged in relief.

Another volley caught her off guard. She threw a hasty shield up, only hardening the glow in front of her mom and Dai. A cheer rose from the corridor’s depths as arrows clicked off the walls inside their group. Chleo didn’t know how many more she could block.

She checked on Will. His shadow slumped on his mother’s. She couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. If the queen wasn’t carrying him yet, it looked like she would need to soon.

They took another turn. The ceiling began to rise. The floor turned to concrete, leaving dirt and stone behind. Another turn. Another volley. More arrows broke through, missing their targets.

A bee hit Chleo’s dad from behind. He stumbled, his spasming arms hugging her tight. Merk covered him.

“You good?”

“Lucky as Lux,” her dad quipped. “Guess I’ll be running those laps with you.”

Merk rolled his eyes nudging him forward. “You’re fine.”

They turned a corner. Chleo started in surprise. Doors lined the hall. It looked like… she slid her feeler through a crack, letting the kite piece dissolve into something like smoke, drifting and expanding until it hit the walls… cells, Tilly’s cells, like the one Shoke led them from during the attack.

At the end of the corridor, Merk rushed toward a control panel while Eelock laid down cover fire. He tapped it with his wristlet. Nothing happened. He grumbled something about ancient pieces of kraka, before he pulled a spike from his pack and jamming it into the console. The door slid open.

They piled in, slamming it shut behind them to one last volley of arrows and bees. Chleo relaxed against her dad’s shoulder. She reached to squeeze Will’s hand. He didn’t squeeze back. Her heart stuttered.

Another door stood at the end of a small hallway. The Neons’ glows gave her a good view, splotching the room in different colors. It was empty, a small walkway to cut off an important room in case of emergency… in case of intruders.

Lux alive, it was a trap.

“Merk, no,” she shouted.

He looked up… too late. The door slid open. Chleo pushed Merk’s glow into the hangar. She couldn’t reach the whole area, but she didn’t need to. Shadow’s dotted the space outside the door, outlined in lab coats.

On guard after her warning, Merk charged through the door. Dai and her mom followed. Chleo watched them drift around the figures, dropping them as quickly as they appeared. Eelock prowled out to join them.

She watched her friends fight, their glows separating through the hanger giving her a spotty view. Merk fell first, seconds before Dai and her mom. Chleo’s only comforts were the steady glows coming from their skin and the guards pinning them to the floor. If they needed guards, they were alive and conscious.

Eelock didn’t submit easily, but he fell next, his glow brushing the edge of Mic’s ship. They were so close. Her hand reached for Will’s. The med bay was right there.

“Chleo, my dear.” Her heart thudded in her chest. Ice cut through her veins. “I must thank you. The data you provided during your… escape… was invaluable.”

The arm holding her up stiffened. Her dad shoved her behind him. A figure appeared in his green glow. Chleo studied the features already knowing who she would find.

“Johnson,” she said, her voice sounding calmer than she felt, “how kind of you to see us off.”

He chuckled moving closer. Chleo wondered why her dad didn’t flick a bee at him. More shadows entered his glow and she had her answer. The queen’s stunner clanked to the ground.

“Please, come join us,” Johnson invited.

A guard stepped forward ramming his stunner in her dad’s gut. He wheezed, falling to his knees. The guard pressed his stunner to the side of his head and pulled the trigger.

“No,” she protested too late.

Her dad fell. His glow flickered then steadied.

“You didn’t need to do that,” the queen said, cool and calm despite the rage simmering in her tone.

“My guards need the stimulation.” Johnson shrugged. “Go on, Lexy. Join your friends. I might even let you save your son.”

Chleo watched her hesitate. “You will address me as Your Majesty… and they were your friends once, too,” she said before threading between the shadows and through the door.

The guard reached down and started to drag her dad in the same direction. She moved to follow.

“No,” Johnson’s hand landed on her shoulder. She stumbled, her exhaustion making her legs wobble. He held her up. “Not you.”

Chleo couldn’t stop her shoulders from trembling. She hoped he didn’t notice. Her dad’s glow bled from the space around her, slinking closer to the door. Heart stalling, she stood in the void watching her only source of light abandon her.

Her breath caught. It was the first time since the blocker’s chamber that she was without a Neon’s glow. She focused on the the hanger, her friends and family still close enough to be more than a spark even if they couldn’t light the room.

The door slid closed cutting them off. She froze. Her body refused to move. Her skin prickled. Her hair rose.

The void swallowed her. She was alone in the dark.

Chleo focused on her feet. The floor pressed against the bottom of her boots. Gravity pulled her down. The opposite was up. Her hand crossed her stomach, anything in front was forward. Anything behind was back. The door was forward. Her friends and family were forward.

She swallowed.

She willed her skin to glow. It didn’t. She searched for her tether. Dai and her dad were out of reach.

“Walk,” Johnson’s voice cut through her controlled panic.

“What?” Her heart pounded. Blood rushed in her ears.

“Walk,” he repeated as if speaking to a child. “If you find the door, I’ll let you out.”

She took a breath. Her senses searched the void as wildly as her eyes did when she lost her sight. She forced another breath. Forward, she repeated, the door was forward. Her hand tightened on her stomach.

She took a tentative step forward. The void tilted. She kept her balance. Her other foot scraped forward, afraid to lose the ground. Then another. More confident, she shuffled another step, straight into a body. It was like walking into a wall. Superior strength or not, she bounced off and sprawled across the floor. She sucked in a breath.

Chleo clambered to her knees, using her hands to find the guard’s legs. The door was behind him. She started to crawl around him.

“Fascinating,” Johnson said by her ear. She jerked back in surprise. “You can’t see anything can you?”

She didn’t answer.

“Open the door,” he ordered.

She sighed in relief when light jumped back to life in the void.

“Find the door,” Johnson told her. “Find it, and I’ll let you out,” he repeated.

Surprised, she turned to her left. Her trajectory was off after her fall. Still unable to see her surroundings she crawled forward, using her hands to search for obstacles. She tried to reach for her tether. Dai and her dad were in reach again. It flew toward her, anchored off their skin.

Sweat trickled down her forehead. Her breaths came in pants. Her heart raced. A familiar feeling pulled under her skin. Her head swam, her dad telling her not to push things too far echoing in her mind. She released the feeler and tried to catch her breath.

“What did you just try?” Johnson asked, excitement swimming through his voice.

“Nothing,” she said between breaths, sliding toward the door.

She rammed into a leg. “Don’t lie to me,” Johnson’s voice came from above her. His leg then. She wished her skin would spark. This close she would be able to stab him with even her short gasps of a glow. It sputtered, but didn’t light. She sent her skin a mental glare.

“I’m not,” she bit back. “Did it occur to you that I’ve had an exhausting few days, and you just took away the person who was helping me walk?”

He hummed over her. After a moment, his leg moved. She continued toward the light, running into two more guards, then the wall. Merk was closest to the door. She moved along the wall toward his red blob. Her hand slid along stone until it fell through a gap. The door. She scrambled out of it.

“Chleo,” she heard her mom shout. Blue light outlined the guard struggling to keep her held to the floor.

A guard held Dai by the hair, a stunner to her temple, Merk and Eelock in similar positions. Chleo’s dad lay crumpled in a corner. She couldn’t even see Will and his mom.

Chleo heard Johnson’s shoes click on the floor behind her. They came to rest at her back. She sat on her knees ignoring the way the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

They made it out of the maze. Now what?

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