The rumbling grew loud enough that Neena thought she’d died.
And then it faded.
Neena raised her head, spitting and choking, frantically fighting her way out of the sand. Smearing off her goggles, she looked where Raj had been. To her immense relief, he was there, sitting up and spitting fiercely.
Together, they looked behind them, finding a gaping trench where Tanya had been.
Tanya was gone.
Chapter 78: Kai
Looking around the hovel at the scared and injured people, Kai said, “We have to do something.”
All around him, the survivors tended the wounded, or dusted off their goggles and clothes, while sand pelted the walls. The door shuddered under the incessant wind.
“The rest of our people are out there,” Kai kept on, to anyone who would listen. “And so are Bryan’s men. We have to make sure the rest of our comrades are safe.”
“How will we find anyone?” Maria asked in frustration. “We can barely see. We have no idea where they might be. For all we know, the rest of our Right Cavers might be hiding already.”
“Or they might be lying on the ground, wounded, like Salvador,” Kai argued. “More might die without our help.”
He pointed through at Salvador, who gritted his teeth in pain, clutching his ankle. Guilt crossed people’s faces as they looked at him. Going outside in the storm seemed like a fool’s choice, but Kai couldn’t help envisioning Neena and Raj lying somewhere near the Comm Building, wounded and screaming. If he did nothing, their final moments would haunt him forever.
“For all we know, our people are a few breaths from death. We need to find them,” Kai insisted. “We need to head back out there.”
The people in the hovel fought the terror in their hearts. Of course, they were worried about their relatives and friends. But they were afraid of dying, too.
Fear froze their feet.
Summoning his courage, hoping to inspire them, he said, “The storm will cover our movements. We’ll protect each other, and watch for the monster. If it gets too dangerous, we’ll come back.”
Showing his resolve, Kai stepped toward the rattling door, prepared to open it.
“Our people need us.”
Whether it was guilt or duty, a handful of people moved by his side. Among them—to Kai’s surprise—was Roberto.
“Let’s go,” Roberto said.
“What about your eyes?” Kai asked.
Wiping the last bit of crusted sand from his face, Roberto said, “They still sting, but I think I got rid of most of the sand. I’m ready to help.”
He donned some goggles. His bravery inspired a few others to move for the door. With Roberto, Maria, and twelve others by his side, Kai nodded gratefully.
“We’ll be back soon,” Kai told those who were staying behind.
Before he could question his decision, he opened the door. A blast of wind nearly bowled them over, but he led his Right Cavers through the door, moving cautiously through the sand.
Chapter 79: Kai
A distant rumble rose and faded.
The Right Cavers looked about nervously, grasping their spears.
Falling into the pattern on which they had decided, they kept in three rows of five, spreading out, covering more distance while keeping an ear out for danger.
The gusting wind rippled their clothes. The swirling sand limited their view. Kai used the hovels for guidance, navigating to the end of the alley, heading for the main path. Maybe what the others said was true, and he’d encounter some of the people who’d fled this way. If not, they could always backtrack to the Comm Building, where some of the injured were likely to be.
At each hovel, they detoured inside, checking for survivors.
After an unproductive search, they reached the main path.
Kai looked left and right.
Dusty clouds kicked up everywhere, concealing too much of their surroundings. And then something in the distance caught his eye.
He tensed and held up a hand, signaling his party to halt.
Through the hazy clouds, on the main path, something came their way. He clutched his spear defensively. For a moment, Kai feared that the monster had detected them. But it wasn’t the monster, because he could hear its sounds of destruction further away.
His heart beat faster as the moving objects solidified into figures carrying spears. More survivors than he’d ever expected to find in one place marched up the path and toward them, their shawls billowing behind them in the wind.
Kai and the Right Cavers held out their spears defensively.
A recognizable shout cut through the storm.
“Kai?”
Careful footsteps turned to hurried ones. A person broke from the approaching formation, running toward Kai and the Right Cavers. Kai couldn’t believe who he saw.
“Samara!” he cried, lowering his weapon and hugging her.
Tears wet her eyes. She leaned back, inspecting him through her goggles as if he were a ghost, or a mirage.
The other dozen figures halted.
Letting go of Samara, Kai leaned back and asked, “Who’s with you?”
“Some of The Watchers,” Samara said, motioning to the people behind her. “They’re going to help us.”
Kai looked past her to the group of a dozen, rigid men. Goggles adorned their faces; spears adorned their hands. He tensed.
“They mean us no harm,” Samara assured him.
Slowly, a man broke from the group and greeted him. Kai kept his spear close, searching for something in the man’s posture that signaled danger. At a closer distance, he recognized one of Bryan’s men, Isaiah.
Drawing up in front of Kai, Isaiah called over the wind, “We are not here for trouble.”
Kai studied the man’s face for deceit, but he seemed honest.
“Too much has happened since you came to the Comm Building,” Isaiah said. “But we’ll have plenty of time to discuss that later, if we live.”
Kai nodded. Something in the man’s words told him he spoke the truth. “Where are you headed?”
“To fight the monster,” Isaiah said. “How about you?”
“To find our comrades,” Kai answered.
“Let’s go together,” Isaiah said. “Maybe we can help find your people, before we plan an attack.”
Chapter 80: Neena
Neena staggered to her feet, searching the edges of the wide, gaping trench. Her effort was fruitless. Tanya was gone. A tear slid down her cheek as she studied the black hole, and the whipping, sliding sand at its edges.
A rumble ripped her attention away.
A growing seam returned in their direction.
With a cry, Neena turned and ran, clutching her weapon and her brother. They had no time to mourn Tanya further.
It was move or die.
The bedlam from the beast was like a sharp blade, scraping their nerves, pushing their feet faster. They fled in the opposite direction, fighting the chaotic storm while squeezing each other’s hands. Neena waited for the beast’s ugly jaws to clamp on their feet, pulling them under, or its massive bulk to crash into them.
Looking over her shoulder, she glimpsed the creature’s dark, scaled back. The thing was nearly on top of them.
A spray of sand blasted their right sides.
Neena raised her hands, warding off the pummeling debris.
She looked to her right, at Raj, who was still standing.
Somehow, it had missed them.
Somehow, they were alive.
Noises under the surface of the sand told them the beast wasn’t done. Neena felt like a wounded animal, waiting for a predator’s last strike. She stopped and spun, seeing nothing but sand in all directions. The storm blocked too much of their visibility.
As one, Neena and Raj looked down at the weapon in her hands.
Letting go of Raj, Neena placed two hands on it, remembering what he had shown her. Finding the small piece of metal she needed to press, she aimed the weapo
n in the last direction where she’d seen the beast.
If they stayed still, maybe the wind would mask their location.
Of course, she’d have to contend with that wind while using the device.
Her boots shook on the sand, as the creature started another swooping pass, tunneling parallel to them. She adjusted her aim, until its bulky body rose above the sand’s surface. Its dark scales and long, round curvature resembled an enormous, wriggling snake. Maybe if she landed the right shot, she’d—
Fire, Neena!
She pressed the metal, bracing for the recoil, and doing her best to account for the wind.
Through the storm, she saw the spear discharge and fly, striking its target on the top of its scales, sticking.
Black blood sprayed the air.
A guttural screech echoed from underground. The beast writhed, veering diagonally somewhere that they couldn’t see.
She’d hit it!
For the first time in too long, hope washed over Neena.
“You got it, Neena!” Raj yelled over the wind, grabbing his sister’s arm with excitement. “The weapon worked!”
She allowed that hope to overtake her. Somewhere out of sight, they heard the beast continue tunneling away. She listened for signs that it was slowing down. Perhaps its screech would come again, as its pain deepened. Or maybe it would disappear for a while, leaving the colony and heading back into the desert.
She prayed for a miracle.
Maybe its injury would lead to its death.
The rumbling increased in volume.
Neena clenched her eyes shut.
Dammit.
It wasn’t slowing.
It was getting faster.
Despair filled Neena’s stomach, as she and Raj listened to it erratically moving away, knocking down more buildings.
She let go of her foolish hope, as reality took over.
It would take more than a surface wound to stop a horrible monster.
Maybe they’d never had a chance at defeating it, after all.
Chapter 81: Kai
Together with Samara, fifteen Right Cavers, and a dozen Watchers, Kai walked north up the main path of the colony, walking in tight rows, scouring the desert. The irony of marching with Isaiah and his Watchers wasn’t lost on Kai. Every so often, he glanced at Isaiah, still accepting their new alliance.
At the same time, he understood it.
A larger foe threatened them all.
Everyone knew it.
On the way up the path, Isaiah explained to Kai what they had done to their spears, and how they’d hoped to use them. The idea inspired Kai, but he wasn’t depending on it. At the moment, finding the survivors—finding Neena and Raj—was more important than killing the monster.
They scanned the path quickly and quietly, looking for evidence of life, even though any boot prints were gone.
Tracking anyone felt like a lost hope.
They were operating on faith, and faith alone.
They kept precariously on, circling around holes that occupied the path, getting closer to the colony and listening to the rumbles. It sounded like they were changing course.
Not just changing course, Kai thought suddenly. Growing louder.
“Do you hear that?” Samara asked, grabbing his arm.
Everyone did.
The group stopped, staring intently up the main path. They uttered a collective gasp.
The monster tore up the path, coming toward them.
Of course, they’d been heading to fight it, but no one expected to see it so soon, and so unexpectedly. A tidal wave of sand lifted up the center of the path, revealing the creature’s body, half in an out of the sand. It weaved wildly back and forth, tunneling toward them, apparently in some kind of craze.
“Watch out!” Kai screamed.
People shouted and scattered, clenching their spears. Kai fled west, past some buildings, continuing several dozen steps into the safety of the alley before daring to turn.
Shock hit him at what he saw.
A few brave or foolish Watchers had stopped at the edge of the main path, rearing back their modified spears. They waited for the beast to get close before flinging them. Through the storm, Kai saw the weapons stick in the beast’s topside, creating splatters of black blood.
The men shouted in victory.
Their celebration didn’t last long.
A blast of sand from the beast hit them, launching them high into the air and farther down the path. With screams of agony, the men fell to the ground.
“Everyone stay back!” Isaiah yelled.
The beast kept going without slowing.
And then the creature was elsewhere, and Isaiah’s men were rushing toward their wounded.
Chapter 82: Neena
Neena clung to Raj, staring at the place where they’d made their fruitless stand. Deep trenches cut the ground. The creature’s black blood stained the sand. Bleeding or not, the creature was still tunneling farther away. The device hadn’t stopped it. The storm blew and blew, adding to her sense of futility.
Shivering from fear and emotionally drained, she peered through her goggles at Raj.
Fear colored his face.
She’d already reloaded the weapon, but what good would it do? They were two people in the storm. Their device had done little to stop the horrid beast. For all she knew, their spear had given it the equivalent of a scratch.
In all likelihood, the rest of their people were gone.
Kai was probably dead, and so was Samara, and Roberto, and Salvador…
Emptiness followed.
Maybe they were better off retreating.
Neena closed her eyes beneath her goggles, riding a wave of despair and reliving too many regrets.
And then she heard something.
Screams.
She looked over at Raj, but he’d already noticed, too.
Other people were alive!
Chapter 83: Neena
Neena and Raj hurried in the direction of the noise, following the commotion. The knowledge that someone else had survived propelled their feet. Neena knew that heading toward the monster was risky, but they weren’t stopping.
Treading carefully around the trenches, they heard the sound of distant buildings crashing.
The screaming ceased.
It sounded like the creature was now in the northwest part of the colony.
Still, the original cries had come from this direction.
After traveling a while, they came across the remains of a hovel. The sight of something other than sand gave Neena a glimmer of hope. They continued past it, shielding their faces, finding the wreckage of several other houses, and shortly after, the end of a row.
The main path!
In the center was a large, caving trench.
Alarmed, Neena and Raj stuck to the outskirts, following the small, intact strip of sand between the depression and the houses at the ends of the alleys.
A flurry of movement in the distance dispelled her fear that the screams had meant death.
Neena cleaned away her goggles.
She slowed her pace, trying to believe what she was seeing. People moved about in the storm. Not just a few.
More than a handful!
“Over there!” Raj cried in surprise.
Unable to believe what felt like an impossible discovery, Neena and Raj rushed down the path. Raj’s cry had reached the ears of a few of the survivors, who dashed toward them, toting their spears. Neena studied the blurry shapes through the storm.
She recognized a familiar person’s stride.
Neena couldn’t believe her eyes, or her heart.
She didn’t allow herself to, until she was in Kai’s arms.
Neena crashed into Kai, holding him so tightly that she barely felt the pain of her scrapes and bruises. They embraced for a long moment, cherishing a time neither had expected, before leaning back.
“Neena…” he exclaimed.
“Kai!” Her ey
es welled up with tears. They hugged again, overtaken by emotion. After letting go, Neena surveyed the others near him.
She couldn’t believe Samara and Roberto were alive! Overwhelmed with joy, she hugged them, before doing the same with the others, including a woman named Maria that she didn’t know as well, who was also from the Right Cave.
“Where’s Salvador?” she asked, noticing someone missing.
“He’s in a hovel not far from here with some others. He’s injured, but he’ll be okay,” Kai explained.
“Thank the heavens!” Neena said with relief.
Her relief lasted until she saw a dozen more people appear through the haze.
Watchers!
“Kai!” she cried, voicing a confused warning.
“They’re with us,” Kai explained, quickly.
“With you?”
Pointing over his shoulder to the dozen emerging men, two of whom were limping, he said, “They’ve been helping us search for survivors.”
Neena looked around in bewilderment.
Sensing her uneasiness, one of The Watchers, Isaiah, came toward her. With a curt nod, he said, “I’m glad you and your brother are alive.”
She searched his face for animosity, but found none.
In her confusion, Neena fumbled for words.
Isaiah drew a long breath. Looking behind him at his men, he glanced back at her. “I know that Bryan wronged your people. I understand you’re angry. I don’t blame you for trying to get your brother back.” Isaiah lowered his head. “I wish we could change the past, but we can’t.”
Neena held on to her multitude of thoughts.
“All of us heard what Bryan did to Darius, back there,” Isaiah elaborated, biting his lip. “The way he killed your friend was horrific and cowardly. We had no part in it. Had we known what he was planning, we might’ve acted differently. Of course, it is too late for that.”
Neena nodded. Emotion struck her, at the mention of their lost comrade.
“We can’t change the past, but maybe we can find a way forward,” Isaiah said. “Perhaps we can all work together.”
Neena watched him for a long moment, judging him, but he certainly seemed genuine. She looked at Kai, who nodded. Their vindication was bittersweet. “It is what we’ve wanted, all along.”
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