An excerpt

Friday, January 25, 2008

An excerpt


………………
I pushed the unmute button on my communicator.

"Ok, FINE MR. Nikalaren, we'll do it your way." We rounded the corner, and started down the steps towards the Hyperblade court. "Breakfast, then the opening assembly, THEN new student orientation. Taerana apparently likes your version better than mine." Out of the corner of my eye I saw her give me a thumbs up sign. I laughed and shook my head.

"Awesome!" I could hear Meraconi talking in the background. And suddenly I wasn't concentrating on anything anymore. Taerana started laughing, and took the communicator out of my hand. My sight went out, and I was seeing flashes of something. Nothing coherent at first, but I had that internal sense the something was wrong. I stopped walking. There was a face, I couldn't tell who. A flash of blonde. She ...fell.. somewhere. WHY COULDN'T THE STUPID VISIONS EVER TELL ME WHAT I NEEDED TO KNOW!? My internal sensors started recording Taerana's conversation, and I was listening to it in the back of my head.

"Nik, something's wrong with Laura, she's not moving, and she’s not responding either." Instantly, Nik was in my head, attempting to grab and understand whatever was causing my problem. His face flashed through my head, and I saw his eyes, and instantly I knew who was in trouble.

*Nik!* The way I telepathically screamed that probably felt like some kind of mental punch. *Where is Sayvannah?* His sister's face was floating in front of me, she was dying. But I couldn't tell where yet. I couldn’t let him see that image. I closed that part of my mind and turned my attention to the location rather than who.

*She's at that breakfast thing with my mom. Down by the fire pits. The one she set up with your President Dude, and the Akerian staff. Why?* I turned around and started running back up the stairs. Taerana followed, with a confused look.

*You need to get to her now! She's hurt, or going to be. You're closer. RUN!* Taerana was asking me what’s wrong, and speaking into the communicator. I ignored her. I didn’t have time to explain myself. I reached the top of the stairs and took off down the sidewalk. I caught a flash of green skin, and knew that Taerana was following close behind.

I could feel the slayer change begin, my body preparing for a fight that may or may not exist. I saw my reflection as I ran, and my eyes were glowing their soft purple. Several people saw me running and got out of the way, but others still had no clue. I was running flat out, and someone moved in my way. Too quickly for me to compensate. I tripped trying to move out of his way, and landed on my ankle weirdly. I heard something snap, and I fell to the ground. I was in serious pain. I think I either snapped my leg in half, or broke my ankle. I didn’t care which, and was up and running again, each step causing me massive pain. I was almost there. Nik was still in my head and he was sending me mental images as he rounded the corner towards the amphitheater near the fire pits.

(possibly describe what the amphitheater looks like. Description may make more sense)
There were lots of tables, and everyone was eating. My people were on one side, and the Akerians were on the other, and there was a long table at the front where his mom, President Raines, the Chinese ambassador, and Magistrate Drol, and Master Keyarin. He was looking around. I didn’t see Sayvannah, and I know he didn’t either. Everyone stopped what they were doing as Nik ran right into the center of everything and up to the main table.

“WHERE’s SAYVANNAH?!” he was shouting to his mom. I rounded one of the last corners, my vision bluring with pain. He had everyone’s attention now. Mrs. G stood up and replied saying she didn’t know where Sayvannah was.

Ok, if I didn’t see her in the main area, maybe she had wandered off, or maybe…. I saw the pits, and the idea came to me. I switched on my scanners, and the UI came up over my vision. I started scanning for lifesigns, and was horrified at what I saw. There was a lifesign coming from the pit. No specific place, they were in the pits. Before anyone could say anything, I ran and dove into the pits.

The oil was thick and warm, but not hot because they hadn’t turned on the fireshow yet. I was having difficulty moving. It was dark, and I couldn’t sense anything. My hands reached, and didn’t find anything. I needed to find her, TIME WAS RUNNING OUT!

I rose to the surface, gunk running down my face, took a deep breath and dove again. Niks presence in my mind was distracting me. I shoved him back out as I began my search anew. WHERE WAS SHE?! THERE! I saw something on the heat signature. It was not very strong, as I was already immersed with heat anyway. I grabbed her and dragged her to the surface. Nik was already running around to help me get her out. Dripping and with gunk in my eyes, I started doing CPR. I felt Nik’s confusion before I heard it come out of his mouth.

“What are you doing?!”

“Trust me, I need you to get the liquid out of her lungs. Keep her heart beating.” I activated a different scanner and pulled up diagrams of her brain and lungs and heart.

1…2…3… felt for a pulse, tipped her head up, and started blowing air into her lungs. There was a gurgling noise, and liquid came up out of her mouth. I looked at Nik. He was frustrated.

“ I can’t grab the liquid. I can do some, but not a lot. You’d need someone like Meraconi to get it out of there.”

1…2…3…, I glanced over at her brain chart. There was still no brain activity.

“Laura, you’re the slayer, can’t you just like.. heal her? You fixed the Magistrate that way.”

Pinch nose, Breath in.

“You know it doesn’t work that way..”

1…2…3…

Merconi came running into the theater. “Medics are on their way.”

Pinch Nose, Breath in. Sudden alarms on my monitors. BRAIN ACTIVITY. She started breathing on her own. Her eyes opened for a minute and then closed again. But she was breathing. She gurgled as she breathed. I wiped the gunk from my eyes, and shut my display down. I looked up at Meraconi who flinched as he saw my eyes. All of a sudden, all the pain came shooting back to me. I looked at my foot. It was all out of whack, and you could tell it was internally bleeding. I leaned backwards just to rest. The Magistrate was right behind me and caught me as I leaned backwards. His black eyes bore into mine.

“What the heck happened?”

“She ran halfway here with a broken foot. That’s what happened.’ Taerana commented as she ran up to us panting.

The medics arrived and hooked Sayvannah up to a monitor and put her on a lifter.

“I’m alright, just give me a second to heal.”

Taerana shook her head, her tentacles swishing back and forth. “No, let me look at it.” She knelt down next to my foot and lightly touched it with her fingers. “I’m not strong enough to heal this all the way, but I can at least get rid of the pain.” She concentrated, and instantly all the pain disappeared. My foot felt weird though. Suddenly I felt warm and my foot was surrounded in the light purplish glow. I looked up at Drol, and noticed his eyes were glowing too.

“I can help too…. Slayers can heal other slayers. Remember?” He gave me a pointed look.

………………

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