Fliers Read online

  “Told you I’d see you again, sweetheart. And I see you brought a friend. Even better.”

  Willow turned her head to the girls with a look of desperation on her face. But she pulled herself together quickly and used all her strength to get him out. Willow was easily twice the size of Harold and pushed him out by kneeing him the stomach. As she was able to get him back onto the porch with his friends and take control of the door again, she yelled.

  “I said get the hell off my porch, asshole!” She proceeded to kick him in the groin as hard as she could. Harold hurled his upper body over his legs in pain and stomped his feet hard. Willow stood waiting for them to leave, and when they stood their ground, Sydona knew she had to do something. Harold was not going to give up easily, especially since he knew two fliers were within his reach. She glanced over at the slightly open closet door and remembered the guns inside. She focused and took the shotgun into her hands.

  “It’s gon’ take a lot more for me ta leave than--” Harold froze as he looked back up at Willow. To his surprise, Sydona stood next to her, pointing a gun fiercely at him. She glared at him with the butt end of the gun pressed against her left shoulder. Harold stood up slowly, moving his eyes back and forth between the gun and Sydona.

  “If you think this is my first time using a shotgun, you’d be dead wrong. Willow said leave,” Sydona threatened with a steady voice.

  His arms finally left his groin and went up in the air in surrender. But then, he bravely took a step toward the women, not yet convinced anything would happen. Sydona pumped the shotgun and readjusted the end to his head. It was all Harold needed to finally leave the porch. His lackeys followed behind with a look of surrender and drove off in a hurry.

  Willow slammed the door so hard the walls shook and almost knocked her knick-knacks to the floor. She rested one hand on the door while locking all the locks with the other. Sydona handed Willow the shotgun. The women only nodded at each other.

  “What was that guy’s problem?” Raoul said as he and Giovonna joined them in the main room.

  “Yeah, you seem like you have some history with him,” Sydona said.

  Willow stared at the floor and grinned, while trying to calm herself down. “Oh, yeah. Me and Harold go way back. We’re neighbors, if you can believe it. But of course, he’s part of the National Fliers Association, and I’m part of the Sparrows.” Sydona perked up at the mentioning of the Sparrows, and Willow continued. “You ain’t the first fliers I had here that he’s tried gettin’ from me.”

  Wanting to know more information on this organization, Sydona asked, “What have the Sparrows done to help us?”

  “Well,” Willow started, “there was a family in Oregon who was captured by the NFA a few months back, and we had a team track them down. Ended up hijacking the van they were being transported in and let them escape. We tied up the agents, and the family got away.”

  “Oregon, huh?” Sydona asked. “You have people all the way out there?”

  “Oh yeah, honey! We’re all over the place. But we try to stay off the radar. The NFA don’t want the people to know they can’t get what they call ‘shipments’ to the camps. So they don’t mention it anywhere in the papers,” she paused, “but we are everywhere. You may have seen us around.”

  She approached them, removed her robe, and pulled down the sleeve around her shoulder that exposed a small tattoo: a small wing with a circle around it.

  “I’ve seen this before.” Sydona examined her tattoo carefully. “It was graffitied in my city on a wall a few days ago. I had never seen it before then. It looked pretty fresh.”

  “I’ve seen it, too, in my library. It was drawn on a bathroom stall,” Giovonna said.

  “How come we’ve never heard of you?” Raoul asked.

  “Well, a while back, a newspaper did an article, and one of our Sparrows forced himself to write this piece, and it was so convincin’ that everyone believed it was just a gang called ‘Angel Wings’. No one looked into it since that. Made up some pretty good photos to hide it all up. Mainly, people stay away from the symbol when they see it now. But if you know what it is, it’s a sign of hope. We joke sometimes and call ourselves the Angel Wings, too. It makes sense, I guess.”

  Sydona and Giovonna both smiled at each other briefly. Still, Sydona wasn’t entirely convinced; she wanted to know more.

  “How long have they been around?”

  “A long time. They actually had done this before, back in the forties. Rounding up fliers and takin’ them to a big lab. The species wasn’t that well known back then, but some folks were real upset that they were being treated like second class citizens. I’m not sure exactly when the Sparrows officially grouped up, but it was when I had just joined the U.S. Army. When you travel as much as we did and talked to the people we did, news got around quick. Then the winged symbol started appearing randomly. It made folks curious, and then eventually, it took off.”

  “Why have I never seen this symbol before?” Sydona furrowed her brows, trying to understand.

  “I dunno. But we are all over the country and even across seas. Could just be that you missed it. Or that the NFA was trying to suppress it. They quickly caught on, once labs and camps were bein’ ambushed.”

  “So why is that Eagle Lake is being put in the spotlight now? If this has been going on for all these years? Why haven’t the Sparrows taken it over yet?”

  Willow snorted. “You sure ask a lotta questions…” She paused and waited for Sydona to do something. When Sydona didn’t move a muscle, she continued on with a sigh.

  “Because Eagle Lake is new, from what I gather. It’s a tricky operation and is the biggest group that exists. Also, the first one that is out in the open. Most of the labs are underground or in secret facilities. Sparrows are wary of it and wondering why it’s so different than most.”

  “What do you mean it’s new?” Sydona leaned in closer to Willow, hungry for more.

  “It’s common for these operations to move around. Some intel will get word that we are

  plannin’ on ambushin’ it and will move in only a day. We may have a lot of people in the resistance, but they have more. They will always have more…” Willow shook her head.

  “Where did it move from?” Sydona stared intently at her, wondering if it was from anywhere in California where she grew up.

  “I wish I knew. But these things move around so much, sometimes never stay in one place more than twenty-four hours. I know one place it was for a while was Nevada, but that was years ago.”

  “How do you know it’s the same one?”

  “Usually by the guy runnin’ it. Dr Malik is the son of the big wig of the NFA. Guess he’s kinda crazy, which is why we haven’t done anything yet. We don’t even know what he’s doin’.

  “Why aren’t you there now?” Sydona asked with anger in her voice

  “‘Cause it’s in Oregon. Do you know where we are? It’s not my territory, and I haven’t been called to help out there,” Willow answered with sadness in her voice.

  Sydona sat on the bed after grilling Willow and tried to process the load of information. She might not be alone in this after all. The vision of her parents kept popping up in her head, and she imagined them escaping a lab with Sparrows taking out the NFA. A wave of uncertainty cramped her stomach as she realized they might not even be at the camp. There had been hundreds of labs and camps over the years. Why would they be at this one? The odds were not in her favor. They could be sitting in Hawaii, sipping Mai-Tais and eating lobster. As great as that sounded for her parents, she still hoped that she could see them. Going to Eagle Lake was the best chance she had to possibly reunite with them.

  “Welp! Who’s hungry? I know I am!” Raoul broke the intense silence and yawned. He flew into the kitchen. Sydona shook her head, feeling as if she was the only one taking things seriously.

  “Good idea!” Willow slapped her leg and happily headed to the kitchen. “How does bacon and eggs sound?”

&nbs
p; Giovonna’s eyes lit up. “Ooh! Yes please!” She ran to the table and sat down quickly.

  Sydona rolled her eyes and slowly strolled over to the table as well with much less enthusiasm and a look of disgust on her face. She envied Giovonna and Raoul’s sudden excitement after everything Willow just said. A dark cloud hovered above her head, and she knew it would not be going away anytime soon. Food seemed so petty in a time like this, but the thought of eating something made her mouth salivate. She realized it had been a while since she ate anything. As Willow began to cook the bacon, the strong smell filled the house and made Sydona’s face scrunch up.

  Giovonna glanced over at her. “What’s wrong?”

  “Bacon.” Sydona flopped down on the chair.

  Raoul sat down on the windowsill overlooking the small kitchen. “Oh, right. Sydona isn’t a meat eater, Willow.”

  “What?!” Willow exclaimed, almost dropping the carton of eggs on the battered wooden floor. “How do you not eat meat?! It’s human nature to eat innocent animals and sprinkle it with delicious seasonin’s!”

  Sydona twirled her blonde hair around her index finger. “I don’t know. It’s just easier to grow veggies and fruit. I haven’t had meat since…” She stared off into space. A brief memory came back to her with the smell of bacon wafting against her nose. Sundays were usually family days when both her parents were off from work. They always made an elaborate breakfast with bacon, eggs, pancakes, fresh fruit, and the like. The memory made her smile, but the sound of Raoul shoveling eggs into his mouth made Sydona come back to earth. Willow had joined them at the table while she spaced off.

  “You alright there, princess?” Willow asked as she salted her food. “Thought we lost ya.”

  Sydona looked down at her big plate of fried eggs and an apple Willow had cut up for her. “I’m fine. Thank you though.”

  Everyone quietly ate their meal. Once finished, Sydona stood up and placed her dishes in the ceramic sink.

  “I think it’s time for us to go now,” Sydona announced to everyone and walked back into the other room to gather up her belongings. Giovonna was sad to be leaving and moved very sloth-like as she scraped her plate off and grabbed her stuff.

  “Here! You may need some food for the road.” Willow handed some snacks and goodies to Giovonna and Sydona.

  “Thanks.” Sydona nodded. She organized her tote and backpack to be able to fit everything. After getting it all settled, she strapped her backpack securely on her back and headed out the front door. The sun shone brightly between the tree branches, and Sydona took a brief second to breathe in deeply. Pine needles littered the ground, and the smell filled the air like an air freshener. Walking away from Willow’s cabin, she quickly noticed Giovonna was not next to her. Neither was Raoul. She turned to see Willow standing in the doorway with her arms crossed while Giovonna and Raoul whispered to each other on the wooden stairs. Sydona sighed. She could feel a speech coming on. Trying her best to avoid this, she started walking farther away from the cabin, making it obvious how she felt.

  “Syd, wait!” Giovonna called out finally.

  Sydona heard this but kept walking. There was no time to argue about having Willow come along. Which is exactly what she knew they were talking about. Giovonna and Raoul caught up to her.

  “Syd, stop. We need to discuss this,” Raoul said shortly. His tone surprised her, and she halted.

  “We should ask Willow to come with us,” Giovonna said.

  “Absolutely not.”

  “She has a car, Syd!” Raoul threw his arms up.

  “I don’t care! I don’t know her.”

  “Come on. Be rational here. You didn’t know me either. And now you do!” Giovonna grinned.

  “Because you were going to come with me whether I wanted you to or not,” Sydona retorted, making Giovonna’s smile dissipate. “Plus, you’re a flier. We stick up for each other and protect each other. Willow isn’t a flier. I can’t trust her.”

  Despite the fact that Willow was in a resistance group that protected people like her, her mother’s last words rang in her mind. She couldn’t trust humans. Although, she made an exception for some, it didn’t matter anymore. And Willow could just have easily made all of that up, especially with all the knowledge she had about the NFA. It could be her tactic in order to get fliers to trust her. And once they had their backs turned, she scooped them up and turned them in. Or whatever it was they did. The information Willow gave her was enough to go off of for now.

  “That’s crappy. You knew Annie pretty well,” said Raoul.

  “I had to. She sold food that I needed. Not to mention that food was fruit that I kindly paid for you and your entire family to eat.”

  Raoul shook his head with disappointment and paused as he let her cold statement sink in. Once he let it roll off his back, he said, “You guys were friends. I know you were.”

  “Yes, we were. But you know how long it took me to really open up and talk to her? Three years. We don’t have that kind of time with Willow.” Sydona crossed her arms angrily.

  “Well, just speed it up a little. Annie was obviously a good person, even after she found out what you were.” Raoul threw his hands up again.

  Sydona stayed quiet, not wanting to admit that he was right. She could argue with them until her face turned blue, but she had a feeling she was not going to win.

  Giovonna spoke up. “Look. I don’t know much about you, but I can tell you have serious trust issues. But does it help that Raoul trusts Willow, and you’ve known him for like, ever, I’m guessing? That has to say something. And I like her. I think she would be good to have around. She’s also part of the Sparrows. People dedicated to helping us.”

  Sydona stared down at her boots, trying to come up with another reason to leave Willow behind. When she couldn’t think of anything, she looked back at Willow who waved at them. Another breath of air escaped her lungs in defeat. She reluctantly nodded her head with approval.

  “If she does one thing--one little thing, I will not hesitate to--” Sydona gritted her teeth.

  “I know, I know. Lighten up, wouldja?” Giovonna whispered back.

  Giovonna happily ran back up to Willow to tell her the good news. Sydona was left clenching her jaw, hoping that she would not regret it. She pivoted back to the cabin and joined her friends. As she approached the cabin door, Sydona leered at Willow as she gathered her things. She filled an oversized camouflage bag with some food, medical supplies, water bottles, ammo, rope, and a little pistol to put in her ankle holster. The outside of the bag also had a rolled up sleeping bag and a tent. Willow hunched under the weight of the bag; it was half her size. Sydona secretly applauded her for being so prepared, especially with a tent and everything. But she made no acknowledgement and walked down the steps to join her friends.

  Willow walked around the cabin, making sure she had everything she needed while everyone else waited next to a white SUV. The SUV was so obnoxiously large that it could easily fit a small classroom inside. In the daytime, it was much easier to see how cluttered her place was. She had a shed to the left of her cabin filled with enough items to have a neighborhood garage sale. The cabin seemed empty compared to the amount of stuff shoved into the shed, even with all the animal heads hanging up.

  Willow opened the back hatch of her car and loaded it up as the girls followed suit. Sydona kept her green tote strapped across her body.

  “Come’ere. Got something to show ya.” Willow motioned at Giovonna who was handing Sydona her yellow backpack.

  Giovonna perked up and dropped her backpack on the ground, leaving Sydona to deal with it. She excitedly followed Willow behind the cabin to the shed. A knot suddenly formed in Sydona’s throat as Giovonna disappeared into the darkness. What could Willow be showing her that she needed to be alone for? Her feet slowly made their way back to the shed, and her gaze narrowed in on the slightly opened door. Subconsciously, her right hand made its way down to her dagger, and she gripped it tightly. As she go
t closer, she heard their voices and then a squeal from Giovonna. Her heart gasped and pulse raced through her body. Sydona kicked the door open, almost shattering the window. She had her dagger out and ready.

  “Gia--”

  “Look, Syd! It’s a crossbow!” Giovonna exclaimed with a huge smile.

  Sydona dropped her arm holding the knife and then dropped her head. Resheathing her dagger, on her hip, she sighed deeply and stormed out of the shed. Her face felt hot from embarrassment and thinking something much worse was going on. Conflict over why she felt she needed to save the teenage girl ate at her.

  Giovonna ran up beside her, still holding the bow like a prize she had just won at the fair.

  “What’s going on?” Giovonna asked with a small voice.

  Sydona clenched her jaw. “Why did she give you that?”

  Giovonna shrugged. “I dunno. She just did.”

  Sydona heard footsteps from behind her and knew they were Willow’s, so she ceased the conversation.

  “Y’all ready?” Willow called up to the car.

  “Shotgun!” Giovonna cried out so loud birds flew out of the trees.

  Sydona flinched as she yelled because she was standing right beside her. Giovonna glanced at her with an apologetic look. Sydona tried to smile, knowing that she wasn’t being obnoxious on purpose, but being stuck with a teenager was still new to her. At least at home, Sydona didn’t have to be around the adolescent fairies all the time. Their parents were usually around to keep them in line, though.

  Sydona was glad to sit in the backseat because she wanted to be further away from Willow. Still, she sat on the opposite side to keep an eye on her. As Giovonna put her new crossbow in the back, she raved about it with Raoul. Raoul was just as excited as her, and it was like listening to two giddy schoolgirls. Sydona always admired Raoul and his ability to open himself up to strangers. Ever since they grew up together, they went through a lot of the same things, but Raoul always had more of an optimistic outlook. Not many people knew he existed, and he relished the moments he could talk to someone other than Sydona or his family.