Air Born | Generation Icarus #1

Tyler - The Fall

Freefall exploded in my gut and fizzed through my entire body. As I tumbled, I caught a glimpse of the tiny red plane soaring above, but it was whipped away by the spinning horizon. I screamed pure adrenaline as a river of air battered my face.

The training kicked in and my limbs shot out. My fall stabilized. I was looking down through ten thousand feet of nothing to the clouds below. Amazingly, I could pick out the still-falling dots of other skydivers as easily as the parachutes that had already opened. One canopy vanished into the white fluff of cloud layer. The buzz of freefall faded as gravity pulled on my body, but adrenaline was sending me higher the faster I fell.

"YEEHAH!" I yelled. But the sound tore away from me before I could hear myself. Every cell in my body was buzzing. The air was freezing but each breath made me feel incredibly alive.

As blood pounded through my arteries at full speed, I was hit by an insane urge to start flapping my arms. But that urge was immediately obliterated by an excruciating back spasm.

Something inside me, something inside the lump, was trying to claw its way out. As soon as that image flashed through my mind, I was gripped by pure terror. Pain blinded me.

I was falling through the sky and yet the claustrophobia was overwhelming. My arms seemed straightjacketed to my body. I had to break free!

As my sight flickered back, I heard the unmistakable sound of tearing. Claws sank into my ribcage and tried to split me in two, lifting me skyward and flipping me sideways. Panicking, I instinctively ripped the drogue from the bottom of my pack and let it go. But the chute didn't engage. A hard yank on the reserve seemed to help as I was pulled up from the other side, but instead of straightening and stabilizing, I started tumbling out of control.

The other skydivers yelled as I dropped past them. Nico was bellowing my name, Hayley was shrieking. As the world flashed around me, I screamed in absolute agony and fear.

In that instant, I knew I was going to die. The spinning sky was now more white than blue. The thing hauled on my body like it was trying to wrench my arm from its socket. I tried to turn and see what the hell had got me.

A dark shadow lunged, and then jerked away as I completed another turn. Weirdly, I could feel it moving, like a point of rotating pressure in my shoulder blade. As the air spun me and the shadow lunged again, I saw details. A spray of blood. A ragged fluttering edge. Dark mottled colours. A familiar shape.

A wing.

As if reading my thoughts, the wing jerked again.

Holy crap, a wing.

It's a WING.

And it's coming out of me!

Fighting the force of the tumble, I tried to look over my other shoulder, but it hurt too much to twist. I sobbed.

A thousand tiny specks began stinging my face and hands. Clouds.

My family would see me fall to my death right in front of their eyes.

No!

Panting, I screwed my eyes shut against the hypnotic spinning and concentrated.

There was something else. I could feel another wing curled up on the left side of my back. I imagined it moving, flexing — and it began to stir. The pain intensified, only now it was like the good pain of a hundredth push-up. But the wing was trapped by the harness straps which curled around it like a giant's fingers. I roared with pain and effort, and the wing-arm jerked. With every last atom of strength I pushed sideways, the pressure making my eyes and eardrums bulge until I thought I would burst.