by Martha Carr
Shaking the whole scenario out of her head, the halfling decided she’d follow up later. Right now, she wanted to know if anything had popped up about Durg, the broken-tusked bastard who’d put a bullet through her best friend.
Cheyenne checked every entry point on her VPN server, which was airtight after whoever it was had taken over her desktop. She logged onto the dark web and found her way to the Borderlands forum hidden under the title Third Quarter Projections.
The first three thread titles at the top of the forum told her more than she needed to know. Things were out of control.
“A chick can’t disappear for five days anymore without the whole world losing their magical freakin’ minds.”
Chapter Eleven
“This is insane.” Cheyenne clicked on the first new topic. Before she had a chance to take a peek at the explosive comments on that engaging subject, she got a private message in the corner of her screen. It was gu@rdi@n104, one of the forum admins, and the only one she’d had any communication with. So far.
gu@rdi@n104: Look who decided to show up again. You’re one of those fashionably late kinda people, huh?
Cheyenne blew some strands of wayward hair off her forehead and settled back in her chair to think of a quick, flippant response.
ShyHand71: Wouldn’t it be the best if we didn’t have shit to do IRL?
gu@rdi@n104: Looks like RL kept you busy for a while. The hive mind’s been pretty busy over here too. Had a chance to look yet?
ShyHand71: Not yet. It’s like you were poised and waiting for me to come back online.
gu@rdi@n104: Maybe I was. You’ll never know. Another reminder from your favorite forum admin that your 48 hours of silence are up. And then some, am I right? Comments and posting new threads are officially open to you now. Welcome to the club.
ShyHand71: Great. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Thanks.
Cheyenne grinned. “If the guy can’t pick up on virtual sarcasm, he can try to figure that one out all he wants.”
gu@rdi@n104: Glad to hear it. Let me suggest a quick peek into Topic #1742 by OP FerrisMedals82. You might find something interesting in there. If you have any questions, lmk.
ShyHand71: Got it.
The admin sent her a thumbs-up emoji, and Cheyenne exited the private chat. She still had no idea what she’d done to give gu@rdi@n104 the impression she was this drow Berserker resource everyone had been posting shout-outs to on the message board last week. “Maybe he’s as good at guessing as I am.”
With a shrug, she steeled herself to read the rest of the comments on the thread she’d clicked into before she went anywhere else.
AlpacaLipsMeow: Anyone have any news on the secret fight that went down on Thursday? A buddy of mine in the area said he’d heard it was F-Force, but the guy’s a chronic liar. Trying to double-check here. TIA.
FerrisMedals82: Maybe your buddy’s onto something. My cousin owns a bagel shop downtown. Said the assholes who’ve been pressing him under their thumb up and disappeared. Missed their last weekly round on Friday. Maybe D had something to do with it?
PWNpalACE420: It was a raid. I live two blocks away from the event center and saw F-Force with my own eyes. Black Hum-Vees and everything. Fell weapons. The whole deal. If D had something to do with it, he probably got popped during the raid. Or turned. And there’s nothing any of us can do about it after that.
AlpacaLipsMeow: @PWNpalACE420 I saw your original thread post from Thursday. If you saw F-Force out in the middle of the street by your house, how the hell did you miss seeing D? Nobody lives two blocks away from the event center, smartass. We might be on the dark web, but Google still works.
KlausTalker: @AlpacaLipsMeow Looks like your chronic liar of a cousin sent one of his friends to troll your thread. Sorry, @PWNpalACE420, but I have a hard time believing the D resource we heard about last week marched right into an F-Force raid on a whim. D’s been looking out for the little guy. All of us. Why would he think he needed to be a part of an F-Force raid? The guy’s obviously not an idiot. @FerrisMedals82 I want to hear more about your cousin’s shop and the inexplicable pause in the shakedowns. Maybe put up a new topic?
PWNpalACE420: @AlpacaLipsMeow Okay, asshole. You wanna make this real? I have no problem settling it in a fighting pit like back home. O’gúl-style. If your balls are big enough to take this out from behind the safe little square of your tiny keyboard in your mom’s basement, I’m all yours.
AlpacaLipsMeow: @FerrisMedals82 @KlausTalker I’d jump on a new thread about whoever’s gone missing after Thursday, F-Force or no F-Force. Nice to know when the lowlifes on this side get taken out. It would be totally cool if D were a part of it, wherever he is. He probably wasn’t, though. Still, our people catching a little bit of a break can’t be a bad thing.
AlpacaLipsMeow: @PWNpalACE420 Come at me, bro.
Cheyenne clicked out of the thread and let out a chuckle of disbelief. “These guys have way too much time on their hands. And they think I’m a dude. Of course, they do. Like eight-year-olds learning JavaScript.”
She scrolled to the top of the message board, where two new topic threads had been opened in the few minutes since she’d entered the Borderlands forum. Ignoring them both, she went to the topic that had previously been at the top and was now third in line. Topic #1742, OP FerrisMedals82: I Got 99 Problems but an Orc Trying to Strongarm Me Ain’t One.
“Geez, are these people for real?” Cheyenne forced herself to take a break and raid her kitchen for anything worth eating. Five days out cold with nothing but IV fluids meant the plate of FRoE-issue mush hadn’t made a dent in the giant hole her stomach had become.
“Groceries. I need groceries.” She grabbed the last box of all-natural fruit gummies and dumped out the last hand-sized package before tossing the empty box on the counter. “Mom would have a fit if she saw what I’m eating. Bet she’s never cracked open one of these.”
Smiling and chewing on the first few pieces, the halfling went back to her computer to enter the 99 Problems thread. She scanned the first ten comments before the rest of the thread turned into a speculation fest. “At least they got the major points right. Mostly.”
Seven different businesses owned and operated by magicals in the city and on the closest Border reservation had found it odd their regularly scheduled shakedowns hadn’t taken place, all of which would have gone down between Friday and today. Although nobody, including PWNpalACE420, could prove there had been an F-Force raid, all these magicals were under the correct impression that whatever had happened Thursday night was responsible for getting the thugs off their backs.
“Nobody has proof it was a FRoE operation, and nobody has proof I was there. That’s a start.”
The next thing she wanted to check out was the supposed call board for the Borderland forum’s new D Resource, which gu@rdi@n104 had named Cheyenne when he’d started the topic last week. It had some calls on it after the recent “big news” about the alleged raid, but none of them caught her attention. The one about a troll’s pet cat getting stuck between the fence and the protective siding running along the bottom of the porch made her laugh. “I’m half-drow, not half-firefighter. Nothing that needs my kinda help right away.”
She considered her options, which were limited to pretty much one. “Guess I might as well give it a shot since I’m officially allowed to ask questions.”
Clicking on the link to post a new topic, Cheyenne took a minute to think about how she wanted to phrase this.
If any of Ember’s halfling friends are on here and make the connection, I might be able to find them too. Then I can ask them why they didn’t have the guts to get her to a hospital instead of leaving her for dead.
Cheyenne’s fist clenched beside the keyboard. She forced herself to stay calm and not think about how she wanted to pound that Trevor guy’s head against the wall. “Friends don’t let friends bleed out in skateparks.”
Before she started typing, her phone rang. Cheyenne pushed her o
ffice chair away from the desk and scanned her apartment. “Not the burner phone. This one’s mine.”
She limped to her backpack on the floor beside the kitchen counter. A quick jerk on the zipper, and she’d snagged the phone from the front pocket. It was an 804 area code, which could have been anybody in Richmond. It couldn’t hurt to answer. She’d missed enough calls over the last five days as it was. Cheyenne accepted the call and pressed her phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Hey, Cheyenne.” The young woman’s voice was tired, weak, and more than a little dry, but it made sense when that young woman had been unconscious for at least three days.
Cheyenne probably would have shouted if it weren’t for the lump in her throat. “Ember.”
Chapter Twelve
Rushing through the hallway at VCU Medical Center wasn’t easy to do with a healing bullet wound in her hip, but Cheyenne made the best of that painful situation. Ember had repeated herself twice before Cheyenne thought to type the information into her phone so it wouldn’t slip out of her head again. Now, the drow halfling’s heart hammered in her chest as she reached Room 317 in the Inpatient Recovery ward. The door was closed, and she hesitated.
If she didn’t want me to come, she wouldn’t have called.
After a polite knock, Cheyenne opened the door and strode into the room. It was brighter than the last room they’d kept Ember in. The curtains were pulled open, letting the evening sunlight in to light up the otherwise dreary and not-quite-cozy hospital room. The head of Ember’s bed was raised, and she sat up, eating a bowl of Jell-O and stared at the muted TV mounted across the room.
“Look who’s up.” The halfling went to her friend’s bedside.
Ember’s blonde hair was matted, but she looked and smelled like she’d had a shower. Cheyenne pictured her friend bloody and unconscious with a bullet through her spine when she’d carried her into the ER a week ago. Seeing her here and clean made her smile. Ember returned it with a weak half-smile of her own. “Don’t freak out or anything, but your phone number’s the only one I have memorized.”
With a laugh, the half-drow leaned down and wrapped Ember in a gentle hug. They both winced, but Cheyenne ignored her issues since her best friend was awake enough to hug her in the first place. “Doesn’t freak me out. It means I’m the first person who gets to see you.”
When she pulled away, Ember released a tired sigh and sat back in the propped-up hospital bed. “And I’m glad to see you.”
Cheyenne ran a hand over her friend’s still-damp hair. “How long have you… I mean, when did you wake up?”
“A bunch of times, apparently. At least, that’s what the doctor told me when we had our first conversation. But fully awake? Yesterday, I think. Today’s Tuesday, right?”
“Right.”
“Okay, then yesterday.” Ember’s small smile faded, and she nodded toward the chair beside the bed. “You might wanna sit.”
“I’m good.”
“Cheyenne, seriously. Sit down. I…” Ember took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I gotta tell you something.”
She’s trying to let me down easy. The halfling couldn’t deny the request, though, so she walked around the bed toward the window and pulled the uncomfortable armchair up to the hospital bed’s railing. She sat and pulled her legs up to cross them beneath her, then placed her hands in her lap. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty shitty, honestly.” Ember gave a pained little chuckle and grimaced. “I mean, they have me on serious painkillers, so that’s nice. But it doesn’t get down deep to everything, you know?”
“That sucks.”
“Yep.”
Cheyenne licked her lips. When Ember took a breath to make the big reveal, the drow halfling cut her off. “I already know.”
“Uh, well, I just found out, so I’m not sure that’s possible.” Ember gave another small, tired laugh, then her eyes widened when she saw how serious Cheyenne was.
“I wanted to be here when they told you. You know, for moral support and stuff.”
“So, you know.”
“About your legs? Yeah.” Cheyenne rubbed the back of her head and wrinkled her nose. “I was here every day until…well, I guess Friday. Asking about you. I think I wore that doctor down, ‘cause he confirmed what I already knew.”
“How’d you get a doctor to tell you about my…about what happened to me? They’re not allowed to talk to anyone who isn’t family, and I definitely didn’t sign any forms for them to tell you.”
“Yeah, I kinda…” Cheyenne lowered her voice to a whisper, “hacked into your patient file after you went through surgery.”
Ember snorted. “Of course, you did.”
“I hope you’re not mad.”
“Why would I be mad at you for being who you are?”
For a moment, Cheyenne couldn’t bring herself to meet her friend’s gaze. But she has a lot of reasons to be mad at me for not being myself. For not standing up and accepting what I am in the first place. “I’m so sorry, Ember.”
“Eh, these things happen, I guess. Not to everyone, but I got lucky.” They both let out dry laughs, because the alternative would’ve made things too painful for both of them. “The doctor says he wants to keep me here for a few more days. I’ve got three or four left until my insurance won’t cover me anymore.”
Cheyenne nodded. “How long does he want you to stay?”
“Three, I think. It kinda worked out perfectly, because I wouldn’t have been able to stay any longer out of pocket.” Ember rolled her eyes and reached for the plastic cup of water on the rolling tray by the bed.
Cheyenne grabbed it and handed it over with the bent straw.
“Thanks.”
“You need anything else right now? Food, clothes, anything?”
Ember finished sipping through the straw and settled the cup in her lap. “Got an extra Android charger? Apparently, no one in this hospital has an Android.”
Cheyenne bit her lower lip to keep from laughing. “Neither do I.”
“Awesome.”
“I’ll go by your place and grab yours and some clothes and whatever else you need.”
“That’d be great. I think, uh, yeah, they put my clothes over there on the weird desk-dresser thing.” Ember pointed across the room, and the drow halfling almost leaped off the chair to head over there. It was a small pile of stuff—Ember’s purse, dead cell phone, keys, wallet. Her torn, blood-soaked clothes weren’t here, which was a lot better than if the hospital had thought to save Ember’s ruined outfit while they were working to put what they could of her spine back together.
“I’ll go by your place after I leave here.” Cheyenne snatched up the keys and stuffed them into her pocket. “You need something else to wear.”
“Are you kidding me?” Ember glanced down and pulled the pale-pink hospital gown away from her body. “These things are comfy. I wasn’t a big fan of the mint-green one they had me in when I woke up, but this is better.”
“Pink’s a good color on you.”
“Too bad they don’t have one in black.”
Cheyenne returned to the chair. “Okay, so I have to clear the air about something.”
“Wow.”
“What?”
Ember gave her a sheepish little smile. “I realized how frustrating it is when you know more than me. You got to burst my bubble by already knowing what the doctor told me about…well, whether I’ll walk again.” She scratched her arm and shrugged. “But I have no idea what you’re about to tell me, so I don’t get to interrupt you and call it.”
“Ha. Feel free to interrupt anyway if it’ll make you feel better.”
The halfling’s friend waved her off with a playful huff. “Don’t worry. It takes me about three seconds to know if what you’re about to say is gonna be the most boring thing ever. So go ahead.”
Cheyenne knew the other woman was joking, but it didn’t make her feel any better. We already had this conversation once, only she was still
unconscious. I get to do the whole thing over again. Okay, not the whole thing, but the part she most needs to know. “When I said I was sorry—”
“Hey, you didn’t do this to me. And you don’t wear pity very well, so don’t try.”
The drow halfling blinked. Oh, great. She is pissed at me.
Ember held her deadpan stare for a moment, then a laugh bubbled up her throat. “Cheyenne, I’m kidding.”
“What?”
“I mean, I’m not kidding. Both those things are true, and you know it.” The woman picked up on her friend’s surprise and sat up a little straighter in the bed with another laugh. “Oh, I’m…I’m sorry. I was—” She laughed and shrugged.
“Oh.” The small amount of laughter was contagious and subdued enough to not make it weird. Cheyenne nodded slowly. “You were interrupting me.”
“You told me to.”
“I sure did.”
Ember hid her smile behind her hand and held Cheyenne’s gaze. “I couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry. That was bad timing.”
“It was perfect timing.” The halfling grinned. “You got me. Okay, quit giving points to the girl sitting in the hospital bed because she’s hooked up to a bunch of machines. I got shot, Cheyenne. I’m not gonna break.”
“Yeah, obviously.” After another dry laugh, Cheyenne cleared her throat. “So, when I said I’m sorry, I wasn’t talking about you being here right now. I mean, yeah, this sucks, but I mean, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you at Gnarly’s that night. I’m sorry I tried to hide what I am, and I didn’t listen to you or see things your way or help you out with your…friends.”
She doesn’t know they left her there.
“Well, you made up for it by carrying me all the way to the hospital.”
Cheyenne flicked her gaze to meet Ember’s blue eyes. “You remember that?”
“Definitely not. I remember a bunch of—” Ember shot a glance at the nearly-shut door and lowered her voice. “A bunch of spells thrown around and a gunshot. And the next thing I know, I’m waking up in the hospital. But Dr. Minkert told me you’d been in a lot to check on me, and he hinted you were the one who brought me in.”
