by Ann Aguirre
Nobody made a sound.
“Good. Let’s move. Remember, we’re not trying to practice good woodcraft. We’re leaving a trail for them to follow. More than likely, we’ll see some combat before we get home.”
The word sent a pang through me. I’d just started feeling like I might belong in Salvation when Caroline Bigwater decided I was a plague sent from heaven, whatever that meant, and that the only way the town could be saved was by sacrificing me. For obvious reasons, I wasn’t on board with that plan, so I’d gone for help in accordance with her husband’s wishes. Now Salvation smoldered behind me, nothing but charred wood and piles of ash. I could trace this moment all the way back to the night the Freaks stole fire from the outpost; I’d known even then that the theft meant nothing good.
“I can’t wait.” Tully patted the giant knife strapped to her thigh, and from the shape of the sheath, it had a wicked curve, perfect for disemboweling Freaks. “Those Muties better bring an army because I’m pretty pissed off, after what they did here.”
“They were good neighbors,” Spence agreed.
I hesitated, then decided I wanted to get acquainted with the first female warrior I’d run into since coming Topside. “I’ve never seen that kind of weapon before.”
As greetings went, it was rough, but the woman’s face lit with enthusiasm. “It’s a crossbow. I’ve been shooting since I was younger than you. I make the quarrels myself.”
“She’s amazing,” Spence put in.
I’d come to that conclusion myself, but before I could ask about the quarrels, which I took to mean the projectiles in the container on her back, Thornton snapped, “Enough. Let’s move.”
As I fell into formation beside Fade, I refused to think about the hunting party—one hundred Freaks, Stalker had said—and though my math skills weren’t the best, even I could figure that those were bad odds. The horde was way bigger, a number so huge I lacked the skill to calculate it. If you added up all the souls in Salvation, plus those who lived in Soldier’s Pond, I didn’t think you’d end up with that many humans total, let alone ones who could fight.
The first Freak hunting party found us some distance from the Salvation ruins. I counted more than twenty in the split second I had to assess our foe before the carnage began. As they charged us from behind, Tully whirled and drew the strange weapon on her back. She was fast with it, releasing four projectiles, one right after the other. Three Freaks died. She was a good shot, particularly in uncertain light on moving targets. Then they were on us, a mass of snarling monsters. I slashed with grim determination, my knives a blur in my hands. Like the old days, Fade fought at my back and he was death itself, dispatching the Freaks with complete efficiency.
The others battled around us; as I’d thought, Thornton was a brawler. He lashed out with weighted fists, smashed his way through three Freaks before I realized he was crushing their skulls with brute force. That roused my admiration even as Spence waded in at Tully’s side. The redhead used shooting irons even close-up, a fighting style I’d never seen before. He was adept at knocking a Freak back with the butt, then he shot it in the chest at close range, and he used elbows and feet to boot. As for Morrow, he favored a slender blade, longer than any dagger I’d ever seen. He was elegant and willowy as he fought, his face a study in concentration. Dennis used shorter knives and he guarded Morrow’s flank; I could tell they had fought together for a while, which spoke to how good Dennis was despite his age.
Two Freaks rushed me. Fade took the one on the left with a vicious jab through the neck, and his blow contained enough ferocity that he nearly took off its head. I dodged low and wheeled around to cut the creature across the back of the knees. It went down and I finished it with cold steel straight through the heart. The clearing reeked of blood, the grass damp with dew and worse, slick underfoot. I slid toward another, as Thornton was surrounded, and I didn’t like his chances. No matter his strength, he still needed help.
Tully and Spence seemed to be all right. So were Morrow and Dennis. I stabbed a Freak in the spine, and was rewarded with an unearthly shriek of pain. The monster whirled, slashing with blood-tipped claws, but when I danced back, it couldn’t follow. I had paralyzed it with that cut and Thornton finished the beast with a heavy stomp of his boot. Two Freaks tried to run, which unnerved me. What did they intend? Survival or something more, like carrying a message? Tully shot one in the back, the sleek shaft of the missile lodged in its hide. Spence took the other in a clean kill, but the noise made me wonder how soon we’d see more of these.
There were bodies everywhere, so much death. The corpses lay in pairs and triads, bones protruding, thickening blood pooled around fatal wounds. I couldn’t forget that I’d seen these creatures going about their lives, much as human beings did—eating and chattering to each other. There had been no savagery in that Freak village, no monsters attacking one another. That lent another layer of menace to their enmity; they no longer killed indiscriminately out of endless hunger, which meant this was more than conflict over territory.
This was war.
“Everyone in one piece?” Thornton demanded.
I took stock in a glance. We were all lightly wounded, scrapes and bites here and there, but nothing serious or life-threatening. Dennis bound up a slash on his arm with calm competence. The rest of us could go without treatment until we hit Soldier’s Pond.
“Good enough,” Morrow said.
Thornton made a get-going gesture. “Then let’s move out. We don’t want to be here when another hunting party finds the corpses. They’ll take it personal.”
Which made me think Thornton knew about the change in Freak behavior. Maybe the colonel had shared some of her theories and observations with him. Our leader didn’t look interested in entertaining questions, however, and that made me miss Longshot even more. This wasn’t the time to try to figure things out, though. Too much rode on our diversion—too many innocent lives—for me to get distracted.
Unlike the progress to Salvation, we were noisy. Since it was our goal to attract hostiles and keep them from stumbling on the injured refugees, I stomped my feet like an angry child. With a puckish grin, Morrow got out his pipes. Thornton sighed over that, but he nodded his approval, then a merry melody echoed across the field. If the lilting tune didn’t draw more Freaks down on us, then they simply weren’t roving the area.
It was an odd procession through the woods. By the music that accompanied us, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a party and not the most dire of circumstances. I kept my weapons handy, listening at each crack of branches, each rustle of tall grass, but if the monsters were following us, they wouldn’t be subtle about it, surely. They had the numerical advantage and didn’t need to practice stealth or woodcraft.
Unless they’re following you to Soldier’s Pond.
Fade and I had thought that was why they didn’t attack the outpost initially; they were waiting for us to lead them to more humans. The silence as we moved along the river unnerved me. Distant trees swayed in the light breeze, limbs shifting like skeletal fingers. Each step I took I expected the horde to descend on us, but it wasn’t fear I felt so much as anticipation. Here, I was in my element, protecting those who needed me. Down below, I never expected to live long. As long as I went down fighting, I could be content.
We marched into the morning; as the sunlight brightened, Morrow played on. Soon enough his pipes drew down the next wave of monsters. They heard it from across the river, shallow enough to ford, and came loping across wet stones with fangs bared and claws extended. Tully drew her crossbow and loosed a quarrel to nail the closest one in the chest. I couldn’t hear the impact over the rush of the water, but the creature went down and the current bore it away, the water frothing pink as it carried the body over the rocks.
When the rest drew closer, Spence unloaded, shooting first with one gun, then the other. He dropped two, then Tully killed her second and third. By my count, that left ten, a smaller band than we’d faced b
efore. There’s a group of one hundred hunting us. Or maybe not. It was possible they’d split up to cover more ground.
Please let the others have gotten away from Salvation.
Then there was no time for such thoughts. The monsters rushed up the riverbank and the battle was joined. I lashed out with my blades in crossing strikes that opened the Freak’s torso. Blood spattered from Spence’s next shot, and Morrow fought beside Dennis, his longer reach repelling the creatures from the younger man’s back. They were all fierce and solid fighters, worthy to be Hunters. Fade was savage in his determination, his movements so graceful they looked like dancing. As he wheeled, I waded in, and we traded blocks and parries, slices and slashes with a natural elegance that moved me to my core.
All’s not lost. We still have this.
With anyone else, I would have feared a misplaced blade, but Fade always knew precisely where I was. I never flinched, even when his dagger cut through the air, narrowly missing my arm and embedded in the Freak lunging toward me. He twisted the blade to widen the wound, and the strange stink hung heavy in the air, overwhelming the clean spray of the river and the crushed green scent of grass trampled underfoot. The birds were quiet in the reeds, and I heard no insects chirping, only the roar of my heart as I defended with all my skill.
A second wave hit us as we battled the first. Ten was easy; twenty became chaotic. Spence fired ferociously, keeping them off Tully, and Morrow’s blade sliced through a beast charging straight at Dennis. Two more pushed through his guard, and I raised my knife to throw it. Too slow. Dennis went down beneath their combined weight, and by the time Morrow and I finished them, he was clutching his torn stomach, blood burbling out of his mouth.
The rest of us surrounded our injured cohort in a protective circle. I fought near Fade and Morrow, determinedly cutting down the monsters as they charged. Likely it was exhaustion, but the numbers seemed endless. My motions became clumsy as I blocked, letting a Freak push me back a step. Fortunately the others were enraged by their comrade’s condition, and they fought like a hundred men.
Thornton broke the last one’s neck and then kicked it for good measure. Breathing hard, I went down to the water to rinse my blades and then my hands. I wished Tegan was here. Maybe she could help Dennis.
“How bad is it?” I asked, kneeling beside Morrow.
“He won’t make it.” There was an awful finality in his voice.
Thornton dropped to his knees. “How do you want to play it, son?”
For a few seconds, I thought he was talking to Morrow, but the older man gazed down at Dennis, their eyes locked. “Make it quick, Pa.”
“Aye,” Thornton said.
In a dreadful, tender gesture, he scooped Dennis into his arms and carried him to the river. There, he held the boy’s head in the water until he stopped struggling. When Thornton drew up the body, it was all limp limbs and bloody shirt. The older man’s expression, as he cradled the young one, hurt me to witness, so I looked away.
“That was his last boy,” Tully whispered.
Dennis was actually his son … like Rex and Edmund. It became clear to me just how grave a sacrifice I had asked of Soldier’s Pond.
“What do you want to do about a funeral?” Morrow asked when Thornton returned.
“Gather as many stones as you can find. We don’t have time to do a proper job.”
We worked in grim silence, building a pile of rocks over Dennis’s body. Any moment I expected more Freaks to set upon us, but it remained quiet. Thornton bowed his head and whispered some words I didn’t catch. My heart squeezed.
The last thing the older man did was pull a hand ax out of his pack. In a fierce, furious motion, he beheaded the Freak that had killed his son. Since the monster was already dead, I didn’t see the point, but I hoped it made him feel better. At last, Thornton ordered us onward. Over time I got tired of him belting orders, but since he was smart and I felt sorry for him, I put aside my irritation. We survived the first day, moving slow as we were, and we killed a lot of Freaks. By nightfall, I was exhausted and hungry, but I kept in mind that the longer we stayed alive, fighting and drawing the monsters, the better chance the other groups had of making it to Soldier’s Pond. Since those people were all that was left from Salvation, including my family, I’d fight until the knives dropped out of my dead hands to make sure they were all right.
Yet we couldn’t go without rest indefinitely. We paused beside the river at dusk with light falling like ripe plums, heavy with purple, so that it lent Fade a bruised aspect. All of us were tired; it seemed like months since I lay in a bed. There was bread, meat, and cheese from Soldier’s Pond. Thornton divided it up brusquely, and we ate without the cheer of Morrow’s pipes.
“Do you think they’re all right?” I asked Fade softly.
I wasn’t worried about Stalker; he had a way of surviving what the world threw at him. But Tegan, Momma Oaks, Edmund, and Rex? Yes, I couldn’t help fearing for them.
“It’s the best chance they have.” I respected Fade for telling the truth, but his words offered no comfort.
I couldn’t bring myself to say more so we finished our meal in silence. In the old days, he would’ve slung an arm around my shoulders, using his body to convey a sense of warmth. Until right then, I didn’t realize how much I looked forward to those little moments, but they were gone like the last glimmer of sun below the horizon. The shadows lengthened, a chill setting in. Nibbling my bread, I wished I could touch his shoulder, his cheek, his hair. That didn’t give Fade pleasure anymore, though, and such moments as when he put his head in my lap had to wait until his reaction changed.
Spence and Tully joined us, midway into the meal. His red hair was shorn so close I could see pink scalp. He wasn’t big, but he was quick with his weapons, enough to keep up with Tully, which I took as a commendation. She stood four inches taller, ten years older too. But their body language made me think they came as a set.
“You both fight well,” Tully said.
I nodded. “We were trained down below.”
It wasn’t until after I spoke that I realized they might have no idea what that meant. We were awfully far from Gotham, and maybe their stories didn’t include survivors in the ruins.
Spence proved this guess to be true when he said, “Down where?”
With a glance at Fade, who nodded, I explained in as few words as possible. By the time I finished, both Spence and Tully were looking at us strangely.
“You really lived underground?” she asked dubiously. “That doesn’t seem very healthy.”
There was no point in explaining our culture: the fish pools and the mushrooms and the way Breeder women provided milk and cheese for the brats, or how we’d hunted creatures in the tunnels, kept them clear of Freaks. The life I’d known in the enclave seemed as if it belonged to someone else.
“It wasn’t. We didn’t live long,” I said softly. “Not like people do up here.”
“Tully.” Spence evidently noted my discomfort with the topic. “Less talking, more eating. Thornton won’t let us sit idle.”
He was right about that. Just as soon as the last bite vanished, our leader barked, “On your feet, soldiers. There are more battles ahead.”
Along with the others, I struggled upright. My stomach was full, but the rest of me ached. And I’d thought Silk was tough.
Sanctuary
An endless night of combat and bloodshed followed. At its end, my knives were crusted with dried blood, my fingers sore on the hilts. I had three new wounds in addition to my scars, and two of them needed attention from Tegan. The light of Soldier’s Pond glimmered in the distance, a promise of sanctuary after the torment of the last few days.
My eyes burned as I picked up the pace without waiting for Thornton to give the word. For the first time in my life, I had no fight left in me. I had to know whether the refugees had arrived safely. The others caught my urgency, and soon we were all running, footfalls thudding over damp ground. I heard Freaks s
narling in the distance behind us, but they were too far; they wouldn’t find us before we reached the town perimeter.
As we approached, Thornton shouted the password and the guards went to work disarming the traps. In the moonlight I glimpsed spikes and weights, all manner of death waiting for unwary Freaks to charge. The fence wasn’t solid like the one in Salvation. Instead, this one was made of metal, rusted, but still functional, and you could see right through the gate with a ramp leading to the town’s heart. This had been a different kind of town once, clean and homey like Salvation, but the fortifications took away all the charm, making it clear the people who lived here were ready to fight for their lives. The people of Soldier’s Pond understood the stakes and the penalty for failure.
“We made it,” Fade breathed beside me.
He looked as tired as I felt. Breathing hard from that last burst, I followed the others into town and then the guards on duty secured the entry again. They all had rifles and other weapons, some of which I’d never seen before. Before I could ask about the others, our leader did.
“Status on the rest of the groups?”
“The scouts came in hours ago,” the man on duty said.
“And the refugees?”
“Made it an hour past. Some of them are in bad shape. The colonel has set up a med center in the old granary at the edge of town.”
“Where’s that?” I cut in.
I didn’t care if it was impolite; I needed to see Tegan and my family. Though Thornton offered me a sharp look, he did give me directions. I jogged off. I’d gone a good distance when I realized Fade was behind me, but I didn’t stop to question him. It was enough that he didn’t want me running off alone. I have your back. Not when it’s easy. All the time. At least those words still held true. Everything else could be rebuilt with time and patience.
Here, houses were constructed of uniformly sawed timbers with faded, peeling whitewash, addendums to the odd uniform structures in the center of town. The granary was a long, raised building made of old stones. From the outside, I couldn’t tell that it was being used for anything until I drew closer. Lights glimmered in the windows. I rapped twice, not wanting to alarm the occupants within. Momma Oaks flung the door open at once and I could tell by her expression that she had been waiting for me.
