Chiron Academy

Chapter 31 Part 2: Why Fall For Someone When You Can Fall With Them?

Wyatt was pulled out of his reverie as the mass of Omnis behind him began to charge forward. 

Swinging himself up and over the windowsill, he landed with a loud clang on the loose fire escape. Beneath him, he could hear more Omnis climbing up the metal structure.

He was seconds away from being dragged off to meet Palmer Sanchez. A meeting he likely wouldn't survive. One he'd rather avoid.

Looking around the small area within the fire escape, he could see that between the iron railings and the stair to the next level and the level above him, there wouldn't quite be space to summon his wings. Not to mention the fact that he had absolutely no momentum, it would be very difficult to get off the ground even if he did have room to sprout his wings.

Wyatt hated blind dives. Summoning his wings after a jump and then going into actual sustained flight was very tricky to pull off. It left a lot to chance. You could never be sure about what the conditions in the air would be until you were already in it. There might be a downward draft of wind just as likely as an updraft and, considering the exact nature of the maneuver, those kinds of unknowns just raised the already considerable skill required. 

He could try and glide down the street but that left him vulnerable to whatever horde of Omnis were swarming towards the building.

That left up. 

Seizing the icy steel of the stair railing, he ran up the steps. Beneath him, he could hear the Omnis beneath him rattling up the metallic structure.

BOOM. BOOM.

Two more thunderous gunshots filled the air. Wyatt heard again heard the shattering ceramic sound: another Omni clone destroyed. He wanted to turn and look, but he didn't dare distract himself. Not when the Omnis were right behind him.

Were all of the Omnis hollow like that, made of the plasticy clay stuff? And if they were, maybe Mariah hadn't really killed that one back there that had pulled him through the broken window. He landed roughly, clanking down on the hard iron of the fire escape. Despite his rough trip though the window, he still managed to maintain his grip. Did cracking open an Omni count as murder?

And had Mariah known that that would happen? How could she have? Wyatt had at least read a police file about him. How could Mariah have known anything about him? Was this the sort of person that Mariah was?

Wyatt's breath steamed as he rounded onto the next level.

Wyatt's senses were sent reeling as a hand shattered through the glass of the window pane and grabbed Wyatt's arm. It was difficult to see but even in the monochromatic moonlight, Wyatt could see the deep tan of Omni's hand. Wyatt grasped the Omni's arm in both hands and pulled him through the broken window. He landed roughly, clanking down on the hard iron of the fire escape. Despite his rough trip through the window, he still managed to maintain his grip on Wyatt's arm. Wyatt looked at the hand that would normally show the telltale glass damage that one would normally receive from putting a hand through a glass window, but the wound showed no blood, only deep cracks where the glass shards were still lodged deep into its flesh. Or at least what passed as its flesh.

Wyatt kicked the crumpled Omni, its hand still grasped around Wyatt's forearm. He kicked again, his mind filling with panic as he thought of the other Omnis using each second to inch closer and closer. He kicked again, harder this time, only to hear a cracking noise. Wyatt kicked again and the whole form of the man seemed to disintegrate before his eyes. 

Wyatt was dimly aware of the sound of gunfire coming from Mariah's silhouette on the building across the street. He might be dead if she hadn't come for him. But how did she know where he was? And how did she know about Omni?