Masters of the Sky

Chapter 36 Going Down With the Thunder

The rush of air felt like freedom. Here, falling from the highest point in the city, there was no need for pretences or calculating. There was only survival instinct. Celia counted to three as they plummeted down, followed by fearful shouts from the guards leaning over the balcony with their eyes wide. And then she pulled on the ignition mechanism. The engine in the jetpack coughed and died.

Celia cursed and pulled again, but nothing happened while they plunged, gaining speed towards a more expanded lower platform. Now Celia desperately tugged on the ignition, trying to bring the engine to life. She felt the stranger pushing on her, slightly changing the direction of their dive, and they narrowly missed the roof's edge of the building on the lower platform. The metal wing clipped a few of the brown terracotta tiles. It turned out that even without his wings, the man had much better coordination in the air than Celia.

But then the jetpack finally came to life with a roar, pushing them into an uncontrollable spiral away from the platforms and towards the open sea. They rotated with crazy speed, and the stranger screamed, but Celia laughed. Her heart was racing, and it's been a long while since she felt such a wild rush of adrenaline and a taste of salty sea breeze on her lips.

After a couple of seconds, they managed to stop their rotation and smooth their glide. They were still diving down, but the wings allowed them to slide at a less severe angle, and Celia truly enjoyed the ride for a moment. She looked at the Iron Shore, a metal monstrosity reaching impossible heights with everything crammed together, hoping it would hold together. But for how long? They should never let that go on for so long, living with the danger of collapse every day.

When they reached lower levels, Celia spotted a bunch of young people, probably drunk, shouting and pointing their fingers at them. She grinned and made a barrel in the air, earning loud applause and whistles. The stranger called something angrily to her ear.

"I know, I know! I've got everything under control!" she shouted, although she knew she didn't. The winged jetpack was still working by some miracle, but they both felt they were approaching sea level too fast. There was no way they could lose all that velocity in time to land safely. But Celia knew it would be the issue, so she planned accordingly.

She directed them towards the port, where all the ships were moored, although they were still too far and wouldn't reach them before losing all their altitude. But they only needed to get close enough.

"Hold on tight!" she shouted to her companion, and when they were just a few yards away from the third level, she grabbed the straps fastening the jetpack to her back, and with one strong tug, she pulled them free. A sudden weight was taken from her shoulders, and the machine whizzed away from them, spiralling uncontrollably towards the sea below.

As they plummeted without wings, Celia pulled out her hook gun and fired toward the second platform. Luckily, the blade anchored itself somewhere because their plunge abruptly stopped. However, due to the high speed of their fall, the tug was so violent, Ceilia's shoulder exploded with sudden pain, and she could no longer feel her fingers. She was sure they would fall to their death as she lost a grip on the only thing that tethered them to the platform above, but when the painful haze withdrew, giving her her sight back, she discovered they were slowly swaying on the wind a few yards above the lower platform. Surprised, she looked up.

The stranger held on to her gun, his muscles tensed, and his jaw clenched.

"Thanks, Lady Luck, you have quick reflexes," she huffed with a strained laugh. Her right shoulder was pulsing with excruciating pain and stuck out on a weird angle, so it looked like she had dislocated it. She gave herself time to take a few deep breaths and then reached with her left hand toward the gun. "Keep your hold on it, would you?" she said through her gritted teeth while her hand slowly made her way over the stranger's hand, and she found the right button. The rope started to extend slowly, lowering them down towards the littered narrow alleyway below.