The hairs along my arms rise and I brace myself, rising up onto my knees to create a solid foundation. An invisible blast erupts from the palms of my hands. Wisps of hair flying about my face are blown back as the wall before me shudders and then implodes from within with a terrible splintering of stone. Carleon doubles over to protect his neck and head with his hands as a rain of fist-sized rubble assails us from above. A few seconds pass before he raises his head, blinking with confusion.
“You didn’t really think I was going to let all of that hit us, did you?” I smirk and lower my hands. A cloud of thick, gray dust hangs in the air before us, making it difficult to see how big the hole is that I carved from the wall. The ground all around us is littered with varying sizes of stone fragments, sharp enough to slice open our hands if we aren’t careful as we move forward.
“You could’ve at least warned me,” he grumbles as he rubs out the blush rising along his neck.
“And miss the look on your face? Not a chance.” I swat damp muck from my pants and then crawl forward, shoving aside thick reeds growing along the perimeter. A low fog hovers over the ground, concealing our final approach. The night air is cold against my skin, but the water squishing up between my fingers still clings to trace amounts of warmth from the day’s sun.
I crouch and duck my head to sneak through the crudely cut hole in the fence and then drop to my stomach to wiggle my way through the thick concrete wall. My ribs protest as I drag myself through the uneven hole and then emerge on the other side, powdered with gray dust.
Once free of the hole, I call back to Carleon to follow. Above his loud grunts, I hear the scraping of his laser gun across the stone. I bend low and reach in as far as I can to grasp it. A series of muttered curses floats my way as I hear fabric tear. “You okay in there?”
I glance back over my shoulder, worried we are running out of time. Someone will surely come soon to check the perimeter. “I’m stuck.”
“Seriously?”
“No, I’m just overly fond of tight spaces.” His voice echoes from within the dark tunnel. “Of course I’m serious!”
“Well, you don’t have to get snippy about it.” I set his gun to the side and raise my hands in front of me, trying to concentrate despite the sound of his grunting and the explosions to the south. “Just hold on. I’ll get you out.”
“Hey, Illyria?”
“Yeah?” I hesitate, feeling the energy swirl in the palms of my hands.
“Just remember I’m in here. No bringing the whole wall down on top of me, okay?”
I grit my teeth and close my eyes, slowly turning my hands around in a circle to carve out the edges of the hole to accommodate Carleon’s broad shoulders. I hear him breathe a sigh of relief and jerk my hands back a bit too fast. The exit of the tunnel collapses in a pile of rock.
“Dang it,” I grumble as I shake out my hands and grab for the first rock, chucking it aside. By the time I have the space cleared, Carleon is ready to emerge. His hair is dusted gray and his face ashen. “Are you okay?”
“I’m pretty sure I wet myself back there,” he mutters as he pulls his feet free at last and rolls onto his back, gulping great breaths of fresh air.
I stay low beside him, searching the shadows for movement, but see none. “You good to move out? We don’t want to be around when those soldiers arrive.”
Carleon nods and rises, grasping my hand tightly as he darts away from the tunnel. We keep our heads ducked low as we cling to the wall, melding seamlessly with the shadows as we search for a place to hide out until we get a lay of the land.
The compound is larger than I had originally thought, dotted with single-story hut-like buildings. Sparse grass sprouts up from the ground, evidence of training drills in the yard where the earth has been packed down. One long row building across the yard peeks out from being a towering, and slightly off kilter, three-story block building. I can see at least three doors running along its length and assume there are probably more.
I point it out to Carleon. “I think that may be the armory. Let’s head that way.”
With a silent nod, he leads me, weaving confidently through the staggered buildings that dot the landscape. Many of the windows are broken, chips of jagged glass rising from empty frames. I try to peer in as we pass, but it is too dark to see anything.
This entire section of the base seems eerily vacant. “Where is everyone?” I whisper in a hushed tone and Carleon holds up a hand to signal a stop. He pokes his head out, peering toward our destination.
“They’re probably all at the front gate fighting.”