A Circuit of Time: Book Two of Spark (A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Six

Khione grabbed its back and frost immediately started spreading on the creature. The hollow screamed in pain and let go of the ymbryne. Ethan ran at the creature, but its tongue knocked him away. Then the hollow pulled Khione away with its tongue and hurled her across the room.

"Don't kill it!" Miss Bittern warned, "We need it to operate the panloopticon."

Emma and Caroline fired at it, but it was too fast. None of their bullets hit their mark, instead, they just left holes on the wall. Olive and Edmund tried to shoot the hollow as well, but they couldn't hit it either. The hollowed wrapped its tongue on the light on the ceiling, pulled itself onto the wall, and then lunged down on Caroline, sinking its teeth deep into her neck.

"No!" someone screamed.

Emma smote the hollow's head with her gun repeatedly, but it didn't let go. So she put down her gun and grabbed its neck with her burning hands, until it finally let go of Caroline.

The creature shook Emma off her back and turned around to face her. Emma slowly backed toward the chamber, her gun just out of reach.

"Get her out of here!" she said.

John and Blanche came forward to drag Caroline away from the creature.

Emma summoned two balls of flames on both hands. But she knew it probably wouldn't make a difference: the creature will bite down on her neck or strangle her with its tongues. It's always one of those methods.

At least I can take it to hell with me, Emma thought. The flames on her hands grew brighter and hotter.

But it didn't attack her.

It just stared at Emma, as if frozen by the sight of her.

Then a woman in white robe injected some green liquid into its neck, and it collapsed immediately.

Sharon pulled himself up and nodded to the woman. "Thank you, Marion." Then he turned to Ethan, "Can you help me get this monster back to its chamber? We still need to get this machine back online as fast as possible."

The rest of them gathered by Caroline's side. But no one said anything.

Marion kneeled down to check her breath. "I'm sorry. She's gone."

Olive nodded. "We will lament her death later. Right now we need to help Sharon get this machine to work."

*

After the hollows went loose, ten armored personnel carriers emerged from Greenwood Hospital's gate, followed by more tanks, while the quilt still deflected anything the resistance threw at them.

"We need reinforcement from Talon Base," an officer said, "Our forces are too scattered and most of our large-caliber artilleries are destroyed."

"We can't leave Talon Base empty." Albiar disapproved.

"But if—"

Albiar shushed him. "Listen."

A low guttural rumble coming just outside their walls.

The soldiers around him pulled out their guns.

The first one came in through the window and instantly ripped open the throat of the soldier nearest to it.

Before they could react, the second one entered through the holes on the ceiling, followed by the third.

The soldiers fired at the monsters, but they moved with unnatural speed and dismembered several of their attackers before they could land a hit.

One of the creatures lunged at Albiar. The creature collided into him, which knocked the gun out of his hand. He grabbed on the frame of what used to be a door and pulled himself away. But the creature followed and lunged again. He threw himself aside to dodge it, then punched at the creature's abdomen as the creature bit down on where his head was a second ago. The creature howled and bit down on him again, but the moment his fist touched the creature he knew what it was going to do, so he dodged to the other side and put his whole weight on its leg. The creature toppled over.