KALE, Juli and Emil moved quickly through the darkened corridors of the base. They entered one of the junction areas with a larger chamber and other corridors heading off in different directions from it. It contained a service hall that normally would have had people eating inside, but the place was abandoned at the moment.
Emil's foot bumped into something as they made their way through the area. He lowered his ignited blade and saw the upper portion of a woman's body lying on the ground at his feet. He stepped back in disgust; her lower body was nowhere to be found.
Juli screamed up ahead, next to Kale. It was another grisly discovery. As he joined them where more clusters of emergency lighting pods made the visibility better, Emil could see that there was a great many more people slain in the area.
"It smells terrible in here," said Juli.
"Yeah, unfortunately we've smelled it before," said Emil.
Then they all heard screeching echoing down the corridors. It was hard to tell which direction the noise was coming from, but it was getting louder.
They were standing next to a large fountain with a base and a tabletop style edge. The water was no longer flowing due to the lack of power. Kale led Juli over to it and said, "Get down here under the edge."
"What's happening, Kale?!" asked Juli fearfully as she crawled down beneath the marble top and scooted in next to the base.
Kale squeezed her hand and said, "Trust me. I won't let anything harm you."
The screeching seemed to come from all directions and then the aerogores were in the chamber with them. Kale and Emil brought their backs together. "Keep safe, my brother," said Emil.
"And you don't take any chances," said Kale.
They each leapt away as chemical fire came down on their position. Juli screamed from beneath the fountain pedestal. She couldn't see what had happened to the boys when the flame came down where they had been standing.
An aerogore came down near the fountain and spotted her under the pedestal. It screeched and rushed for the girl. Kale came across over the fountain's bowl of water and swiped his ignited blade across the top of the aerogore's head. He landed behind the beast as its legs folded under its body and it skidded dead across the floor under its previous momentum. A quick glance at Juli reassured them both that the other was still alive.
There was more screeching and Emil sailed through the air behind him dispatching another one of the reptilian predators in flight. Kale leapt away again as the boys took the fight to the creatures. The two warriors were deftly moving back and forth across the room trying to disorient the attackers and disorganize their pack-like patterns of killing.
Kale landed on the ledge of the fountain and an aerogore surprised him. The beast snapped at him as he sliced across its face. It reflexively knocked him away with a heavy paw as it felt the sting from Kale's weapon across its mandible. The blow sent him flying back into the water. The aerogore jumped up on the ledge with its upper body and let go of a chemical spray that ignited in the air on its way toward Kale. His thoughts brought the majority of the fountain's water volume up to shield him from the fiery blast, and then he sent the water into the aerogore, carrying the predator away in the flood across the floor. Emil came down on the beast as it washed up near him.
Another one of the aerogores shot down at Emil from the sky. He seized it in flight with his mind and sent it reeling away through the glass wall of the service hall. As the creature recovered, Emil pulled up the glass shards and pieces of steel supports with his mind and sent them as deadly projectiles at the aerogore.
Kale's kemstick flew into another of the beasts heading for Emil and pierced its breast. When it fell to the ground dead, the boys realized they were alone in the area again.
Kale recovered his weapon and walked back through the aerogore bodies to retrieve Juli from her hiding spot. When he knelt down to where she was, he found her shaking uncontrollably with her hands over her ears to drown out the screeching of the aerogores. She jumped when he touched her, but she practically leapt out from under the fountain ledge to reach him when she opened her eyes and realized it was over.
Juli wrapped her arms around Kale and kissed his face, happy to see him. Tears were running down her cheeks-she was scared to death.
"Are they all dead?" she asked through trembling lips.
"At least the ones in here," said Emil.
Kale asked Juli, "Are you alright?"
She nodded, but the experience was traumatizing her.
"We had better get moving toward the med-lab," said Emil. "We've still got to get Ramah and your mother out of here."
Another quick glance at the damage they had done and the trio headed away through the adjoining corridor leading to the medical facility.