Chapter 35 - I’m Going To Try

  I felt very impressed with myself as I came to a stop just a few feet away from Alex. It had taken me a bit, but I was finally starting to get good at this sort of motion. Each leap would carry me five or six yards in my direction of travel, and I could keep jumping pretty much indefinitely, thanks to my Stamina. It was way faster than trying to sprint my way around the city.

  "You got them all here! That's awesome, Alex! Holy shit, that must have been hard," I said.

  "It was," Alex replied, his voice dry. "Speaking of which, where were you?"

  I felt bad, and winced. "Sorry about that. Ran into more than a little trouble of my own. I'm glad you were able to get everyone through, though."

  “What kind of trouble?” Alex asked.

  "Well, for starters, that army of lobsters we ran into?" I asked. Alex nodded. "They weren't alone. That wasn't even half their fighting force. Most of them came in from different landing spots all along the eastern side of the city. They're working their way west."

  "You'd better give me all the details," Alex said. "But we should do this inside. Those big birds are getting bad out here."

  We wended our way through what was left of the crowd, which was steadily flowing into the MGH building. I spotted a few hospital security over there, ushering folks through. At least the crowd would be somewhere safe for the moment, but the whole hospital would need to be evacuated before the enemy reached it.

  I followed him back into my old apartment building, where Sebastian, one of the building's doormen, greeted us. “Alex, Cameron, good to see you both. We've got our people going door to door through the building warning people about what's going on."

  I turned toward Alex. "You warned them?"

  Alex nodded. "I thought you'd appreciate that."

  "I do. Very much so. Thanks, Alex," I said.

  Now that we were someplace relatively secure, I filled Alex in on everything I'd seen. I told him about how the police had gotten themselves organized and were fighting together as a single unit, about the massive lobster and crab army ripping its way through the city, and about my meeting with Captain MacGregor. He listened as I talked, nodding every once in a while. I got the impression nothing I said surprised him very much.

  "They are ordering a full retreat, then?" Alex asked.

  I nodded. "Yeah. Across the bridge, and west out of the city along the major thoroughfares."

  We were interrupted by a rush of people coming out through the stairwell doors. Some of them I knew, others I didn't. But they had all been warned about the danger thanks to Alex's actions. I felt a rush of gratitude toward the man. Rescuing him hadn't been the easiest thing in the world, but it might have been one of the best decisions I'd ever made.

  All at once, a little tornado of energy shot out of the crowd, running toward me. "Mr. Castle!" Emmy called out.

  I braced myself as she collided with me, wrapping her arms around my waist. I reached down and ruffled her hair gently with my hand. "Good to see you, too!"

  “It’s been so scary!” Emmy said.

  “Got a barnacle, do you Castle?” Alex asked, grinning. “I’m going to check in with Sebastian a moment.” He wandered off, leaving me to Emmy’s tender mercies.

  "How have you been? Everything going okay?" I asked. I glanced around, looking for her parents. I didn't spot them, which worried me. But then I saw her older sister step out of the stairwell. What was her name again? I couldn't remember, but I knew she was attending one of the local colleges. She was a lot older than Emmy, living at home with her folks to save money on board, or something along those lines.

  "Emmy! Get back here right now!” the sister called out.

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  I grinned down at Emmy and ruffled her hair again. "Better listen to your sister."

  Emmy made a face and stuck her tongue out at me. "She's not my mom."

  The sister came running up and took Emmy's hand. "Sorry about that."

  "No worries. I know how hard it can be to keep track of Emmy when she's in full energy mode!" I said.

  Emmy glared at both of us equally. The baleful glare of a middle school kid is terrible to behold, let me tell you.

  "Mom went out this morning to look for Dad, and they haven't come back yet, so it's just the two of us right now," the sister told me. I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was trying not to cry while she said it.

  I winced inwardly, but tried hard not to let it show on my face. Obviously, she was trying to keep a stiff upper lip for Emmy's sake, and I didn't want to blow it for her. If her mom was out there in the city somewhere, with everything else that was going on…the odds weren’t great.

  "I understand. Listen, I know you two probably want to wait for your parents to get back, but there isn't time. There's a bunch of very nasty critters headed straight this way. They'll be here before long, so we need to get everyone away from here as quickly as possible."

  The sister nodded. "That's what they said when they knocked on our door. I threw some stuff into two backpacks and set out right away. I've been outside, just for a little while, but it was enough. It's bad out there, huh?"

  I just nodded. What else was there to say? Yeah, things were very bad out there. Getting worse, too. I couldn't imagine them getting any better anytime soon, either. "From here, the safest route out is going to be over the bridge. If you take Emmy through MGH, you should be able to get out safely. Stay away from the MGH T stop. There's the biggest spider you've ever seen hanging out in there."

  "Great. Just what I always wanted," the sister said, shuddering. She reached out a hand, and I shook it. "My name's Maggie. I know you helped get Emmy home. Thanks so much for that."

  "My name's Cameron, but my friends call me Cam, and I was glad to help out with your sister. Amanda and I were in charge of the kids," I said, trying not to let it show how much it hurt to say her name. God, every reminder of her just brought the pain back full force. "Keeping them safe is part of the job."

  "Keeping them safe when they cross the street, sure. But what you did was a lot more than that, from what Emmy told me," Maggie replied.

  I blushed, I admit it. What was I supposed to say to that, anyway? When Emmy was captured by those bugs, I'd seriously considered just moving on. I could have just left her to die and saved the kids I had with me. That probably would have been the smart thing to do, under the circumstances. We were lucky it had worked out as well as it had. It could easily have gone the other way.

  "Let's get you two moving," I said, pushing aside the dark thoughts. "There isn't a lot of time to waste."

  “Through MGH you said, right?” Maggie asked.

  “Yeah. Just follow the crowd.”

  “We will. Thanks again.”

  They set out through the doors, joining the rest of the people fleeing our building. It was just a quick hop across the street, but I kept one eye on them as they moved with the flow anyway. Emmy was a good kid. I didn’t want anything to happen to her.

  Alex came back over. “What’s next for us?”

  “MacGregor wanted us to come help them, if you’re willing. They’re desperately short on people with more than a couple of crystals. I was by far the strongest fighter we had on our side. The rest of them were holding their own okay against the lobsters, but they couldn’t do anything to the big crabs.”

  “Of course, I’ll help,” Alex said. “We’ll head over together. Between your fists and my spells, we’ll send the lobsters packing.”

  I wasn’t so sure of that. Alex hadn’t seen the size of the attacking force. It was bigger than even we could deal with. What we could do was hold the line a little longer, though. Every minute we gave the people of the city meant more people would escape the immediate danger. It wasn’t worth pointing out, though. Alex would see what we were up against soon enough.

  A flash of white outside caught my attention. One of the rocs was dive-bombing the crowd. I was moving before I could even think about it, rushing for the doors. What I thought I was going to do, I didn’t know. Maybe jump into the air and punch the thing in the beak, or something. But the crowd of people leaving our building slowed me down just enough that by the time I was outside, it was already airborne again, carrying a screaming victim skyward in its claws.

  “Emmy!” Maggie screamed, and suddenly I realized who the bird had grabbed.

  It was flying north, headed in the general direction of the bridge where Alex and I saw so many of them building nests earlier. Emmy was still alive. I heard her screaming for help as the roc flew off with her.

  I turned toward Alex, my eyes wide. “Alex…!”

  He rolled his eyes. “Go. Save her. It’s what you do, Castle. I know better than to fight you on that. I’ll go help the police as best I can. Come save my ass as soon as possible, okay?”

  I reached out and shook his hand. “I’ll be there.”

  Maggie was there next to me. “Can you? Save her?”

  I didn’t know the answer to that. Not really. The roc might drop her into the river, or onto the bridge. Or it could kill her as soon as it got back to the nest. The logical thing to do would be to give up on the kid.

  But screw logic.

  “I dunno, but I’m going to try,” I said.

  Then I bunched my legs and leaped skyward, the jump carrying me six meters down the road. The second I landed, I bounded forward again, and then again, each leap carrying me forward faster than the last. There was no time for anything but my best, no time to be slow, careful, or cautious. There was a little girl’s life hanging in the balance, and I’d be damned if I didn’t put everything I had into saving her.