Apocalypse: Fairy System by Macronomicon (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

her. Every thought was expanded, as though she’d been thinking inside the confines of a sippy cup, and now her ideas swam out into the ocean and came back with little baby ideas of their own. It gave her the confidence she needed to believe they could escape.

The plan was simple: Now that they all had enough Body to climb like nobody’s business, they were going to leave the castle via the rooftop. In the middle of the night, when the people watching them were least on guard, they’d climb out through the dead girl’s doorway and over the roof, jump across to the eastern wall, then scale down.

Once they were on open ground, they would run as fast as they could for deeper in the city and aim for the Barnes & Noble. Colt would know what to do then. As far as they could tell, any adult alien they came across had a fair chance of being involved, and human grown-ups didn’t really have the ability to help them.

They had to help themselves.

Last day. Just gotta squeak out another level. Just one more, she thought as she plunged a spear into the barrel over and over, trying to end the creature’s suffering as quick as possible.

That extra point in Nerve could mean the difference between hearing an enemy approaching or not.

Speaking of which, Nancy thought, cocking her head to the side. She heard the sound of Mr. Surpey’s carriage approaching, but something sounded…wrong. The clattering was wilder, and the approach was much faster than what was typical.

“Something’s wrong,” Nancy said, straightening and stepping away from the thrashing barrel of bloody water.

“What?”

“I don’t know, the carriage is faster than it should be.”

“And that means?” Ryan asked, raising a brow.

The carriage clattered through the main gate and came to a rapid halt to the sound of banging from the inside. The melas driver cast an icy gaze at the assembled children, causing them to take a step back, but it was Mr. Surpey’s expression as he climbed out of the carriage that struck a chord of fear in their hearts.

His eyes were bloodshot, his mannerisms shaky and wild, and he was looking at them like a desperate animal looks at its own trapped leg. Like a rabzi in a cage, about to be speared to death.

“Children, we need to have a talk,” Mr. Surpey said, his foot landing on the ground.

“That means run.”

“What?” Ryan glanced at her with a frown.

“RUN!” Nancy shouted, pointing toward the door into the inner castle, activating her Ability.

Direct Attention.

Every child within earshot was compelled to look at exactly what she was pointing at, the initial Ability of her Class, the Mascot. This allowed the children to move with a unity of motion that rivaled that of a swarm of starlings as they broke into a sprint, every single one aiming for the exact same door.

Mr. Surpey wordlessly growled and Nancy heard the sound of steel ringing as their captor’s sword was set loose. The tall keegan broke into a sprint, and the young girl was terrified to see that despite all their Body, he was much faster than they were.

“There!” Nancy shouted, pointing to the left of Mr. Surpey, throwing her spear with the other hand.

Mr. Surpey’s eyes involuntarily flickered in the direction she pointed, nearly missing the spear entirely. He brought his blade up and swept the flying weapon aside, barely in time to stop it from causing harm.

Darn, Nancy thought with a scowl, mimicking Mommy’s frustrated expression.

Their captor’s legs stumbled for the next two seconds, as he was left off balance after deflecting the spear.

Two seconds was plenty of time. Ryan grabbed her by the back of her shirt and dragged her at full speed through the door before slamming the massive bolt home. They were the last of the children to make it through.

A fraction of a second later, Mr. Surpey’s sword cut through the thick wood like Styrofoam, slicing a cut into Nancy’s shoulder. Her eyes watered as pain unlike anything she’d ever imagined shot through her body, making her legs go weak. Ryan tugged her away from the door.

“You’ve been keeping secrets from me, Nancy.” The frightened children heard the keegan’s voice coming through the door, muffled at first, but increasingly clear as the sword began to crack through the wood, cutting a hole. “That’s going to make this more difficult than I hoped.”

“Keep going!” Ryan shouted, throwing Nancy over his shoulder.

“Where, though?”

“Mommy!”

“I wanna go home!”

“Stick to the plan,” Nancy said, pointing up toward the staircase that led to their room. If they got to their room, they could follow the passage to the roof.

As one, they turned and ran away from the door that was rapidly succumbing to their captor.

Out in the courtyard, unseen by the children or their captor, a mangy rat with bleach-white exposed ribs stared at the tableau with pale eyes, its dim thought processes ticking ever so slowly. It reviewed its instructions.

Pick and follow one of the people leaving the courtroom. Check.

If that person talks about themselves killing children, wait until they stop, then blow yourself up.

If following that person leads to a bunch of small humans, then…

Oh, right.

The rat, without a thought for its own un-life, detonated itself in a blast of raw necrotic energy.

***Jeb***

“This is stupid,” Jeb muttered to himself.

The point of shaking the tree was following up on whatever fell out of it. If Jeb was busy getting murdered by an angry judge, he couldn’t exactly follow up, could he?

Standing in front of him was a wrinklier-than-average keegan droning on about the rules of the duel in ye-olde speech.

The highlights were thus: Since Jeb was a non-Citizen, he didn’t really have an option but to accept the duel or