Page 18 of Alien Peacock
Small pieces of trash and rubble start to slide along the ceiling I’m standing on.
“Watch out!” I yell as I start to feel the sideways pull myself, but it’s too late. The gravity changes again and we both slide, then fall to the side. It’s a shorter fall this time, and we end up in the corner, on one of the walls.
This time I don’t land on Arelion, but I wish I had. The wall is hard, and I’m going to get a bunch of bruises if this goes on much longer. Pieces of glass, sand, and trash pummel me.
“It’s an experiment gone awry,” Arelion growls as he gets up on hands and knees. “Rotating gravity.”
I start sliding again, clawing uselessly at the wall that’s quickly becoming the ceiling. I look across the room. The other wall is really far away, and while the gravity is not as strong as on Earth, I will still be going really fast when I hit it. “Arelioooon!”
I plummet through the room in a cloud of dust and debris and garbage. The wall rushes up at me, looking really hard.
I close my eyes, knowing I’ll break every bone in my body.
There’s a rustle of feathers, and something grabs me hard under my arms, halting me in mid-air. The flashlight drops out of itslittle pocket and is smashed to pieces on the wall three feet in front of my face. Then I’m carried away, feeling like I’m going ‘up’.
Arelion has a good grip on me as he flaps his powerful wings and we hover in the middle of the room. “This room is lethal.”
“An insane experiment,” I agree, my voice shaking.
The gravity shifts again, and he has to do a quick loop in the air to keep us right side up.
He uses the short moment of weightlessness to adjust his grip on me and bring me up to his chest. “We have to get out of here.”
Despite the danger, I can’t help noticing his scent filling my nose, dry and fresh and mysterious. His slow heartbeat echoes through me, and all his massive muscles flex with the movement of his wings. I cling to him as he keeps us from slamming into any wall or floor or ceiling. I’m sure I must make it harder for him to fly, but he manages to keep us airborne. And I should try to be useful, as well.
“I think that’s another door,” I tell him and nod towards the far wall. “It’s glass, too. We have to break through it.”
Arelion does his best to move with the gravity changes, but I sense him struggling more and more.
“The gravity is getting stronger,” he seethes as we fall towards the wall before he can drag us away from it with hard, strong beats of his wings. “We need one cycle of gravity towards that other door, but if it won’t open on its own, we may be in serious trouble.”
My hair is starting to feel heavy, and my clothing is pulling at my body. In the dim light, I spot my fighting stick falling andslamming into the wall that’s quickly becoming the floor. We’re falling after it, but Arelion beats his wings mightily and just prevents us from hitting the hard surface. Debris hailstorms on us, and I have to close my eyes to not get them full of glass dust and small pieces of metal.
As the gravity shifts once more, I keep my eyes on the stick and snatch it out of the air when it passes. The normally light metal tube is now so heavy that I have to hold it with both hands.
“We’re falling to the door,” Arelion hisses, breathing hard. “This is our only chance.”
“Can you use this?” I ask, showing him the stick.
He doesn’t reply, too busy fighting the insane gravity.
We’re falling so fast that the air is whistling past us. Arelion struggles hard to slow us down, his wings beating furiously, but even with all his might, we hit the wall hard.
I let go of him. We’re right on top of the glass door, but the gravity is pulling me so hard towards it that I can barely breathe.
Arelion hits the door release pad, but nothing happens. I hold the stick out for him, having to use both hands and gritting my teeth with the effort. “Break it!”
He grabs the stick, and with all his muscles flexing and tendons standing out of his skin, he lifts it over his head and slams it down on the glass. The whole door shatters with a bang like a gunshot and I fall into the room behind, landing on my back.
Arelion falls on top of me, but he takes his own weight on his arms and doesn’t crush me flat. For a moment we stay like that, face to face, both of us breathing hard, his yellow eyes boring into me.
I’m hyper conscious of his heat and the touch of his body above me, and I don’t dislike it nearly as much as I should. He could pin me down really hard, and I don’t think I’d mind.
We stay like that for a moment, and my eyes widen when I feel something hard poke my thigh.
“This should be a better place,” he finally growls and rolls off me. “The gravity seems normal.”
We get to our feet. My knees are a little wobbly, but I have enough pride to not reach out to steady myself on the alien peacock. “I did wonder if you could fly with those things.”