Chapter 49 - A Special Airlift

  I set down in a little courtyard tucked into the center of several MGH buildings, the same place where they'd been burning bodies of the dead, and the spot where the giant ant nest had erupted.

  Things have changed a little bit since the last time I saw the place. Tom and his security people had obviously taken measures to get a handle on their ant problem. They'd pulled a massive metal door off its hinges from somewhere and laid it across the top of the anthill.

  On the surface, it was good thinking. Ants can't burrow through metal, right? Even magical giant ants probably shouldn't be able to do that.

  The problem was, if you've ever actually covered up the opening to an ant nest, you know what happens. They just dig a new entrance, and the same thing had happened here. The ants had opened up a new access tunnel three feet away from the giant steel plate burying their old entrance. Dozens of ants scuttled about the courtyard, but the biggest pile up of the monsters was directly in front of the doors into one of the buildings.

  As soon as I landed, the horde of ants turned its attention on me. I let them come.

  At this point, I was faster, stronger, and more able to take damage than any of them. A casual glance told me the strongest ant rushing my way was tier three. That one tried to bite down on my calf, and it didn't even tickle. There was no pain. I kicked the thing with my free leg, sending it flying across the courtyard to splatter against one of the walls. There was an abandoned chunk of rebar lying on the ground, which was exactly what the doctor ordered. I snapped it up and swung it around me in a quick circle, obliterating five of the ants.

  More of them kept coming, but they were no real threat. I crushed them as quickly as they came. When it was over, every ant in the courtyard was a shattered husk. Crushed carapace lay everywhere, along with plenty of ant goop, but I was the only being still walking around there.

  And in spite of the carnage, I’d still barely begun working through the anger and frustration I was feeling.

  As I went around picking up the crystals from the dead monsters, the doors the ants had been trying to get through opened up and a familiar face stepped out into the moonlight. It was Tom!

  I blinked, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

  "This is where I work. Worked, anyway. I should be asking you that question," Tom replied.

  Even after everything that had happened, this guy was still being a pissy jerk? I didn't have time for that. Not tonight. I was there to finish what I started with those ants.

  "You fly now, too, huh?" Tom asked.

  I just nodded. "And a lot of other things. You should go. They're evacuating downtown, sending people north into Cambridge or west toward Fenway. Any place is going to be better than downtown. There’s an invasion going on out there.”

  "I can't leave," Tom replied.

  That surprised me. "Why the hell not?"

  "There are still patients here," Tom replied. "The doctors are all gone. The hospital ethics board declared it okay to leave because there was no other choice. Or something like that. I don't remember all the details."

  But he had stayed. When Tom and I last parted, it hadn't been on good terms. All the same, a little part of me was impressed. The guy felt like he had a duty to protect the patients at the hospital, so he'd stuck around even after everyone else left? It was more than a little nuts, but it was the kind of nuts that I could get behind.

  "How many patients are we talking about, anyway?" I asked.

  "There's six left," Tom replied. "Most of the really critically ill patients died when the power went out. No power meant we didn't have any of our equipment or machinery. But there were a few who were really sick and managed to hang on, anyway. These last six are too ill to move, but healthy enough that they're hanging on. I couldn't in good conscience just leave them here, just waiting for something to wander by and eat them…”

  Now that, I understood. That sort of thinking? It was right in line with my own feelings. All the frustration I'd felt earlier, listening to the cries for help and screams in the distance? Every time I turned away from something like that, it felt like a little part of me died inside. I couldn't fault Tom for feeling the same way.

  "Maybe I can help?" I asked.

  "How?" Tom's voice carried a mixture of disbelief, despair, and just the tiniest bit of hope.

  I felt like it was my job to kindle that spark of hope into a flame. Not just here, for Tom, but everywhere. For everyone.

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  "Tom, I'm not the same person you met. You saw that I can fly, now. I'm also a hell of a lot stronger. I ought to be able to fly your victims out of here. Want to give it a shot?"

  That was all it took. I watched that spark kindle to life in his eyes, and it was what I wanted to have all the time, every day. Of course, now I had to back up my promises!

  "How strong are we talking?" Tom asked. "Two of my patients are confined to their beds. And hospital beds are not light."

  "At this point, I think I'm strong enough to bench press a tank. I picked up a couple of those giant crabs during the fighting downtown and flew them around. I'm very confident that I can handle a couple of hospital beds."

  He looked skeptical, but agreed to give it a shot. We got to work right away. First, the two of us went to the patients and told them what we were up to. Four of them were conscious and able to talk. They were thrilled with the idea of getting the heck out of that place.

  Tom and I wheeled the beds of the two unconscious patients out into the courtyard. I left him out there with them, to keep them safe. The last thing we wanted was for a bunch of ants to show up and attack! Then I went back inside and carried the other patients out, one at a time. It was complicated because a couple of them had IV lines still hooked up. With no electricity, there were no pumps. I had to make sure the IV remained above them so that it kept dripping.

  Together, we got it done. While I brought the patients out into the courtyard, Tom rigged the two hospital beds so that they were connected to one another. He'd come up with a pile of zip ties from somewhere and used them to fix the sides of the bed to each other. Then, he'd slid half a dozen chunks of rebar and four long boards between the two beds, using rope and more ties to attach them to the frames.

  The whole mess looked very thrown together, but Tom assured me that it would hold, at least for a short flight.

  "You sure you can lift all this?" Tom asks.

  "Yeah, I'm sure. You sure it's going to stay together?"

  Tom nodded. “I put enough zip ties and rope in there to hold for long enough. And these straps you’ll use to lift the beds, I found them in supply. They’re meant for attaching something to the underside of a helicopter. What we’re doing isn't quite the same thing, but I figure it’s close enough they should work."

  I took a look at the straps, but had no idea how I was supposed to attach them to the beds. They looked strong enough, but only if the attachment points held. I pointed that out.

  Tom wasn't worried. "I used to be army, back in the day. Don't worry about rigging it up. I can handle that part."

  I stood guard while Tom did his thing. True to his word, he seemed like he was an old hand at this sort of thing. He had the straps all connected to the beds in less than half an hour. After that, there was nothing left but to test it out and hope it would work.

  "All right, all aboard," I said.

  Tom and I assisted the patients onto the beds. He pulled up the side rails, to help make sure no one fell out. Then, he hopped on himself. His job was to keep an eye on his patients during what could end up being a very rough flight.

  Mine was to carry them all to safety while making sure none of us were eaten by monsters.

  I grabbed the large steel ring the straps were connected to and took off, flying slowly until I was directly above the bed. None of the patients had seen me fly yet. They gasped, and one of the kids clapped, which made me smile.

  "Everyone set?" I asked.

  "Let's do this," Tom replied.

  I flew higher, slowly inching my way skyward. If this contraption was going to fail, it would be best that it failed close to the ground. But the straps held, as did all of the crap Tom had pieced together to connect those two beds. How, I had no idea. Apparently, jerry-rigged engineering was one of Tom’s superpowers.

  We flew higher, the bed slowly rising. Soon, the bed had cleared the MGH buildings. We were out in the open, now, which meant we were visible for any flying predators nearby. I kept my eyes open for potential attacks.

  I figured that most of the local giant bird population had learned that I was bad news, but if there's one thing I had learned over the last few days, it was to expect the unexpected. Who knew what other creatures might be out there? If we were attacked, I'd need to get the beds to the ground as quickly as possible, so once we were back out over the street, I reduced our altitude. By the time we hit the Longfellow Bridge, we were gliding by only twenty feet above the ground.

  "I forgot to ask, where are you taking us?" Tom shouted up to me over the rushing wind.

  "Harvard!" I called back. "I've been told that's a good rallying point right now."

  Tom nodded. He seemed to approve of the idea, which was a plus. This wasn't how I had intended to spend my night, but I didn't mind. I was doing some real good here. We soared through the night air, leaving the battlefield far behind. I kept us away from the Charles River as much as possible, not trusting what might be lurking beneath those waves. We'd already had fish jumping out of the water to attack people on the bridge, and I didn't want to risk anything lunging up to snatch at the fragile beds. That meant the trip took a little bit longer, but it was worth it for the extra bit of safety.

  I was stunned to see the area around Harvard all lit up as we approached. How is that even possible? For a moment, it looked like they had somehow gotten the power back on. That made me question everything I thought I'd known about the Event.

  But it wasn't electricity. The lights were from fires, lots of them. It looked like the people of Cambridge had gone all out in their effort to keep things well lit, but the biggest concentration of light was coming from the stadium, so I angled that way. I flew over a footbridge to get back across the river to the south side, then headed directly toward the massive structure.

  I don't know if you've ever seen Harvard's football stadium, but the thing is huge. There are arches, reminiscent of Roman architecture, stretching all the way around the thing. Most of those had been at least partially filled in. The defenders had piled up sandbags, boards, steel fences, and anything else they could get their hands on to plug those gaps. Once, this place had been somewhere for people to play sports. Now? It more closely resembled a medieval castle. It was a lot of work for just a couple of days. I was impressed.

  As we drew nearer, shouts rose from the people below. We’d been seen. I flew over the stadium wall and glided in toward a landing on the turf in the middle of the field. People rushed out from the sides to meet us as I descended.

  As I set the hospital beds down, two dozen armed men and women rushed forward and quickly surrounded it. For a few seconds I thought we were going to have a problem, but then Tom called out who we were. Once they realized what they had in front of them, things changed in an instant. An immediate cry went out for medics and doctors, and medical personnel came rushing over to assist. I landed next to the bed, worn out from the trip, but feeling pretty good about it.