“Here, here!” We skidded to a halt. He looked at me wide eyed as the tower came crashing down. I ducked reflexively, dropping to my knees, and covered my head. I couldn't see much, but I heard the screaming, the spray of metal meeting metal, concrete, and wood. I could feel the tremor beneath my feet and a quick gust of wind as the tower struck ground.
We weren't dead. I wasn't injured. Kyle straightened up first. He was okay too. Like curtains that dropped down for a scene change at a play, I drew my arms away from my face. Jagged metal shards surrounded us, plunged deep into the ground like a cruel garden. A pony dressed in carriage rigging galloped madly, terrified by the broken trace and coach tongue that dragged behind it. The tower lay across the lawn . Trees and carriages lay crushed beneath the colossal wreckage, as did Loraine... and Eddie Elm.
The road was chaos. The air was filled with the stench of burned metal and the sounds of terrified people crying for help. I could never have imagined this kind of destruction in Haven, but here it was.
“Gravity,” came a low voice beside Kyle. It was my dad, and there wasn't a scratch on him. Thankfully the tower hadn't fallen on the weather station. A dozen people worked inside that building every day. My dad had been spared.
I looked for the bench I had been sitting on so recently. Half of it had been smashed. Torn contract papers tumbled lazily in the gentle evening breeze.
“What do we do now?” Kyle asked staring at the wreckage. His question rang in my ears long after he spoke the words.
Chapter 6: Familiar Face
Sunlight speared through the towering thunderheads, transforming the glistening sea into a vibrant medley of aquamarine and navy. Birds with sharply pointed wings and tails hung above me, soaring without moving. There was salt on the air, I could taste it.
Breakwater lay outstretched below me. The dull green roof tiles and olive stonework were just as I had remembered. The streets still coursed with life, slow moving automobiles and horse carts. Cottages crowded the outskirts of the city, encircling the storefronts, civic buildings, schools, workshops, and the single clock tower. Tiny boats dotted the bay. Away to the left, beyond three quiet farms, was the crumbling ruin of the installment fortress. It hunched like a dark blot of disease on the otherwise healthy landscape.
From my perch on the crest of a golden grass hill, beside a lonely autumn tree, I could see it all. It was like looking into the eyes of an old friend, or just as easily, a cruel enemy.
My heart hammered in my chest with fear and hope. I had returned to the outside. Something about it was right. I couldn’t expect logic to explain it. The moment I sank into the dry water pool that would transport me beyond Haven's mountains, I knew I'd made the right decision by coming alone. I didn't need a team to find my mother, the agent known as Paperglass To Be. The fewer Haven citizens to be caught, the better.
A hiking bag with food, water, paper, a pen, and, of course, the officer's leather satchel, hung from my shoulders. I didn't bother with a lantern this time. I wore my pair of binocular night vision goggles around my neck. Beneath the tree, I took a quick moment to open the satchel, unstop the little bottle of liquid and put a drop in each eye. It stung and made my vision blurry for a moment, but once it cleared, my eyes were brown.
Ready as I would ever be, I took a final glance behind me at the way I'd come. A pack of dog-bodied, eel-headed Lurchers were watching me from the brush, a stone's throw away. They jostled their vaguely striped hound bodies against one another, tilting their eel heads to get a better view of me. I was safer in their company. This time, I had probably seen a hundred of the organic constructs. Intelligent and deadly, they were the one force stopping the Prince's army from finding the cave that led to Haven.
Looking
We weren't dead. I wasn't injured. Kyle straightened up first. He was okay too. Like curtains that dropped down for a scene change at a play, I drew my arms away from my face. Jagged metal shards surrounded us, plunged deep into the ground like a cruel garden. A pony dressed in carriage rigging galloped madly, terrified by the broken trace and coach tongue that dragged behind it. The tower lay across the lawn . Trees and carriages lay crushed beneath the colossal wreckage, as did Loraine... and Eddie Elm.
The road was chaos. The air was filled with the stench of burned metal and the sounds of terrified people crying for help. I could never have imagined this kind of destruction in Haven, but here it was.
“Gravity,” came a low voice beside Kyle. It was my dad, and there wasn't a scratch on him. Thankfully the tower hadn't fallen on the weather station. A dozen people worked inside that building every day. My dad had been spared.
I looked for the bench I had been sitting on so recently. Half of it had been smashed. Torn contract papers tumbled lazily in the gentle evening breeze.
“What do we do now?” Kyle asked staring at the wreckage. His question rang in my ears long after he spoke the words.
Chapter 6: Familiar Face
Sunlight speared through the towering thunderheads, transforming the glistening sea into a vibrant medley of aquamarine and navy. Birds with sharply pointed wings and tails hung above me, soaring without moving. There was salt on the air, I could taste it.
Breakwater lay outstretched below me. The dull green roof tiles and olive stonework were just as I had remembered. The streets still coursed with life, slow moving automobiles and horse carts. Cottages crowded the outskirts of the city, encircling the storefronts, civic buildings, schools, workshops, and the single clock tower. Tiny boats dotted the bay. Away to the left, beyond three quiet farms, was the crumbling ruin of the installment fortress. It hunched like a dark blot of disease on the otherwise healthy landscape.
From my perch on the crest of a golden grass hill, beside a lonely autumn tree, I could see it all. It was like looking into the eyes of an old friend, or just as easily, a cruel enemy.
My heart hammered in my chest with fear and hope. I had returned to the outside. Something about it was right. I couldn’t expect logic to explain it. The moment I sank into the dry water pool that would transport me beyond Haven's mountains, I knew I'd made the right decision by coming alone. I didn't need a team to find my mother, the agent known as Paperglass To Be. The fewer Haven citizens to be caught, the better.
A hiking bag with food, water, paper, a pen, and, of course, the officer's leather satchel, hung from my shoulders. I didn't bother with a lantern this time. I wore my pair of binocular night vision goggles around my neck. Beneath the tree, I took a quick moment to open the satchel, unstop the little bottle of liquid and put a drop in each eye. It stung and made my vision blurry for a moment, but once it cleared, my eyes were brown.
Ready as I would ever be, I took a final glance behind me at the way I'd come. A pack of dog-bodied, eel-headed Lurchers were watching me from the brush, a stone's throw away. They jostled their vaguely striped hound bodies against one another, tilting their eel heads to get a better view of me. I was safer in their company. This time, I had probably seen a hundred of the organic constructs. Intelligent and deadly, they were the one force stopping the Prince's army from finding the cave that led to Haven.
Looking
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