Paintshark (38 page)

“NOW GET BACK…ALL OF YOU…like I said, it’s all part of the game, you and those freak students of yours have made an entire season’s worth of viewing figures out of a handful of games. Big Man was impressed, kept you in prison, kept you in stasis…kept you alive as I watched over you as he prepared you for his next step.”

Elias lowered his voice. “Which is what?”

Jago pointed the gun at Kay.

“Season Two.”

He fired the gun at her and Kay’s hand shattered from the blast, she screamed as her blood and bone hit the windscreen of the plane, Kay looked at the bleeding stump where here hand had been and screamed again, with her only hand she released the clip to her harness and fell to the floor.

Before the others could react Jago ran to the Entrance ramp. With his still smoking gun aimed head high, Elias went to his fallen sister, and held her in his arms.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!”

“Not today, my friend.”

Jago switched hands with the gun and pulled out something else from the bag, a small hand grenade and wedged it under the door latch. Elias muttered under his breath. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

Elias stayed quiet for a few more seconds, he looked up at Jago, his betrayal evident to everybody, he seethed with anger.

“Do me a favour, Jago.”

“What’s that?”

“Stay alive long enough for me to kill you.”

Before Jago could answer the grenade exploded, taking out a major part of the plane.

Jago was sucked out of the craft and high into the sky, he struggled for a moment in the air until the true purpose of his backpack was revealed, the parachute flung opened from his back and he sailed away into the distance.

Hoult was the next to leave through the gap, his wife Joanne screamed as he slipped through her fingers, wishing that the chain that bonded them together in the Olympian prison still held them tight.

He was followed by Dex the footballer, his footballing skills useless to him as he fell through the sky.

Other teachers went through the hole as the plane lost altitude.

There was no one at the controls as Kay rocked unconscious on the deck, Elias desperately tried to hold on to her as he yelled to the other teachers. “GRAB THE KIDS AND HOLD ON TO THEM, HOLD ON TO ANYTHING.”

Fire warning lights flashed on the main panel as the war plane went into a flat spin.

Felcey clung tight to Aubrey, Sabrina cried as her fingernails dug deep into the skin of Faris. Ansell had a hold of Cassandra, and he held her tight…even when they were swept screaming out of the hole.

“NOOOOOOOO!” Elias wailed.

It had happened again, he had lost another of his students in the most cruel and horrifying way.

Ansell and Cassandra were separated moments after leaving the plane, Ansell screamed hysterically as Cassandra left his grasp and spun a different direction in the cold.

She was finding it hard to breathe and her vision was going cloudy, but she could see the man spinning away from her, she remembered him, he was the one who gave her his top when she was naked, he was a nice teacher from her school and she was going to save him.

Thunder shook the skies as Cassandra tried hard to change forms, the ground was approaching fast and she had to make this count, with a supreme effort she changed into her full dragon.

But she was still plummeting to the ground, at a faster rate now due to her increased bulk, utterly exhausted she tried flapping her wings, but the force of the wind was too harsh and she continued to free-fall.

Ansell was lost to her now, his fate had been sealed the moment he’d been sucked from the war plane, Cassandra had tried to reach out to him, but the winds were too great, she released a shrill cry as Ansell sailed further away from her.

She turned and blew flames from her mouth in desperation, she frantically started to wave her front paws to stop her from falling.

Cassandra had her eyes closed as she fell to the ground further, she cautiously opened them as she hit the ground.

Her wings broke instantly as they connected with the rocks, flipping her upside down, her stomach wasn’t protected with armour like the rest of her body and it was sliced open as she hit the ground hard.

The dragon, like a human, did have tear ducts and they opened as she rolled along the rocks, tumbling along as she headed closer to a massive canyon.

Another cry of pain came from Cassandra as the ground lacerated her feet, she couldn’t open her wings for balance.

More shrieks came from the terrified dragon’s gaping mouth, her head thrashing wildly, her arms and legs flailing as the stones dug deeper into her unprotected belly, Cassandra reached the foot of the canyon before she knew it.

There was nothing the dragon could do to stop herself from falling over, with a sickening lurch she toppled over the edge. Her body sailed over and was like a freight train coming to the end of unfinished track on a mountaintop railway.

Cassandra’s roars were quickly followed by a high-pitched frenzied shriek as she neared the bottom. Then there was silence.

The plane continued to spin out of control. The cliffs loomed into sight and were approaching frighteningly quick. Elias held his sister close, panic had been and gone, his heart had been racing but he was not afraid and he now trusted no one, only his sister and daughter were on his mind. Death would be instant as soon as they hit the mountainside. Aubrey spoke through gritted teeth. “Never rains but it pours, eh?”

Elias didn’t answer, he continued to look at his sister’s breathing.

Felcey was thrown through the air and hit the control panel; righting himself immediately, he began tugging at the flight stick.

“NOTHING’S WORKING, I CAN’T CONTROL IT!” he screamed.

The control weren’t the only thing that didn’t respond, all the teachers remained silent, their impending doom almost upon them. The war plane had righted itself now, Felcey’s attempt to manoeuvre them out of danger had done something and it now was nose-diving towards the mountain bases, the very long valley where Cassandra ended up was now where the war plane was heading, Felcey pulled hard on the control lever trying to stabilise the aircraft.

They were a few hundred feet from the ground as the entire crew braced themselves for impact and moments later it happened – the impact was hard.

As the plane crashed into the ground, the windscreen shattered, showering Felcey with glass. Teachers who weren’t strapped in were hurled from where they cowered and hit the interior walls with supreme force. Crunching metal sounds were joined by the screams of the passengers.

Some slid along the floor unsuccessfully trying to hold onto anything, whilst others were flung like stones from a catapult. The hull buckled and wires hung loose, Faris tried scrambling to his feet but, but came back down with force, his arms swinging wildly as he also slid, crashing into a fire extinguisher. He lay still and prayed for a quick death.

Something outside exploded, part of the plane had gone up in flames while the interior floor was littered with teachers, their terrified screams flooded the entire craft, until finally it came to a halt.

The ones who were able to, slowly got to their feet. Blood gushed from the hole in Elias’s head and his nose was broken, he checked the pulse on his sister. She was still out cold but alive at least, he turned with great effort to check on the others.

“IS EVERYBODY OK?”

A few groans was the only reply he got. Clutching his chest in pain, Elias tenderly lay his sister’s hand back by her side. His movements were restricted by the throbbing in his chest so he walked slowly, he saw Faris laying outstretched on the deck.

“You ok, man?” Elias asked.

Faris coughed loudly. “I think I’m gonna puke.”

“We’re not out of danger yet,” Elias said, staring at the fumes and smoke around the craft and then his words trailed off as he heard a noise from outside, a low rumbling sound becoming increasingly louder. Elias looked to the top of the craft, he had time to mouth one word. “NO.”

The impact the war plane had on the base of the mountain had triggered a rockslide, boulders came hurtling down the side of the mountain and were relentless. They rained down upon the war plane, and it rocked ferociously. The sounds of the rocks burying the plane drowned out the screams of the teachers inside and after the rockslide was complete their cries faded away into nothingness.

Aphrodite walked straight up to her father’s tower, strolling past Miss Atkins on Reception she walked straight through to his office, her slender frame adorned with a brand new fur coat.

The year that had passed since her classmates and teacher were imprisoned had not shown her emotionally or physically she was still a beautiful and manipulative young woman.

“Hello ‘Big Man’, you wanted to see me?”

Shaking his head Big Man looked up at his daughter and sighed. “I wish you wouldn’t call me that.”

“Sorry, ‘Daddy’ what do you want?”

Big Man turned around on his chair. “Did you see a little dog on your way up here?” Aphrodite shook her head instantly, rolling her eyes, making sure she did not make eye contact with her dad. “Why do you ask?” she said, rubbing her arms nervously.

“Well there’s a dog that’s been coming in here over the past few weeks, scruffy looking sod, you should see it, coming in here scratching himself and licking his arse, quite cute.”

Aphrodite put her hand to her mouth and almost retched.

“You ok, honey?” he asked.

She nodded. “Just something I ate.”

Big Man finally noticed the fur coat on her. “Where did you get that from?”

Aphrodite twirled around, proudly showing it off. “Do you like it? It was a gift from mother.”

“What she do? Shave her back?”

Aphrodite frowned. “That’s not very nice, Daddy.”

“Well she’s not a nice person. She had an affair and left me for another man, sweetheart, have you any idea what that feels like?”

She shook her head. “So your mum’s still not letting me see her?”

“Daddy, you know what would happen if I took you to their house? You’ll probably kill her and definitely kill him.”

Big Man shrugged. “Whatever.”

Aphrodite walked to the window, her back facing her father. “What is it you wanted anyway?”

“The monsters were a mistake.”

She turned round. “Excuse me?”

“The ‘taking the creatures from the jungle and doing experiments on them’ was a mistake, we gave those kids powers to fight them and it back-fired royally, we lost the studios, the creatures…and more importantly we lost the viewers, I’m not going to let that happen again, flesh is a waste of time.”

Aphrodite opened the window and felt a cool wind hit her face, the rain had stopped.

“What are you talking about, Daddy.”

Elias Glaucas is the only person to stand up to me and that’s why I need him back in Olympia, we stuck him in Gommerstall for a year while we got the ball rolling with my next plan.”

She leaned into the wind, not really paying attention. “Plan, Daddy?”

“Elias and the teachers have escaped from Gommerstall and were on their way here.”

Now he had her attention.

“
Were
on their way here? What happened?”

“I had a ‘mole’ in the group and he’s…how do you say it, incapacitated their escape craft, it will be a while before they get back here, giving me time to continue working on my new project, OPERATION ABOLISH AND DOMINATE.”

Aphrodite looked to him and turned back to the window, the sun was desperately trying to break through the clouds.

“So what are you going to do, Daddy?”

“We put that serum in the sprinklers in that rave ages ago and only a handful of kids have powers? No, there must be more and I’m going to find them and when I do they’ll fight my new monsters, metal ones, none of that flesh crap, that’s what I’m working on now, I’m going to start a war, Aphrodite, Mutations vs. Metal and that will be the greatest game show of them all…A WAR….every TV station likes to watch a war and that’s what we’ll give them.”

Shuddering slightly, Aphrodite then pulled a confused face. “So how does that involve Elias Glaucas then?”

The sky began to cry again as raindrops started to appear on the window, forcing Aphrodite to close it and walk closer to her father.

“Well Daddy?”

Big Man rubbed his hands and smiled. “Because I have an ace up my sleeve.”

The intercom light flashed and Big Man pressed the button to listen to Miss Atkins’s voice.

“The adoption people are here to see you, sir.”

Aphrodite raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Adoption? What’s going on, Daddy?

Big Man leaned back and smiled. “Just watch.”

Two adults, a man and a woman looking very official, walked into the room.

They stood side by side each carrying a clipboard and matching suits, the man spoke in a very deep voice, slow and sombre.

“Your application for adoption was successful, sir, as you’re aware we’ve been monitoring you for the last year and are satisfied that this will be a suitable environment to raise a child.”

Aphrodite blinked, uncomprehending.

“Suitable environment? It’s an office block?”

Big Man shushed her up, waving his hand. “Just ignore her? Where is she?”

The woman spoke next. “She’s outside, do you have something for us?”

Big Man stood up and picked up a briefcase from under his desk, walking over to the pair he handed the case to the woman. “Pleasure doing business with you.” The woman smiled. “Likewise.”

The pair turned to leave and walked out the office, the woman stopped to bend down to talk to someone around the corner before heading off. Big Man went to Aphrodite and put her arms around her and then slowly moved her forward.

“You can come in now,” he said quietly.

A young girl nervously entered the room, she looked about ten years old with a small suitcase which she dragged behind her. She was neatly dressed and her hair was short and brown. Through small brown eyes she cautiously studied Big Man, who spoke to her in a soft and kind voice that Aphrodite hadn’t heard in years.

“Hello there, you’re looking very smart. What’s your name then?”