by Celeste Raye
That was just one more reason not to stray far from her side, wasn’t it? Marik said, “I intend to stay close to her. I will take care of her.”
Talon opened his mouth to say something else but shut his lips abruptly. His head nodded, and he said, “Well, let’s go then. There’s a sort of hospital set up near the center of the city, but it’s a hard fight to get there.”
Jenny asked, “What do you mean?”
Talon did not try to soften the blow for her. “They are still fighting here. They’re fighting each other now more than anything else. If they think you have something that they can use here, then they may go after you. Unfortunately, it’s not just those who lived above ground who are desperate to regain the system that used to be in place. A lot of those from Below are equally determined not to have the system back in place, and they are fighting for their very lives. Then there are rovers.”
Marik’s head lifted. His eyes went to Jenny and then back to Talon. “Rovers? Here?”
Talon said yes, “Human Rovers but Rovers. That’s what we’ve taken to calling them because that is precisely how they behave. They don’t care whose side you’re on. They don’t have a side either. They just take advantage of anyone and everything they can. They will shoot first and ask questions later. We are carrying a lot of valuables. That medication is incredibly valuable. So are the food supplies. If we are attacked by Rovers, all of us will have to fight.”
Marik looked at Jenny. “Stay very near me.”
Her face held a look of sheer terror. She said, “I will.”
They set off. The streets appeared to be deserted, but Marik’s senses told him that they were not. Sure enough, they had only gone a few dozen paces when he spotted a male human sliding around the side of a building, shrinking away from them. Talon, right beside him, muttered, “Look up, but carefully.”
Marik’s eyes went upward and then back down in a seemingly casual sweep of the terrain. It was not casual. He had seen exactly what Talon had wanted to show him. There were people up on a roof of a building far down from where they were walking. Again, not a good sign.
Marik asked, under his breath, “Rovers?”
Jessica, walking behind him and right beside Jenny who was flanked on the other side by a very large crew member loaded down with weapons, said, “It looks like it.”
Talon said, “Keep walking, but be cautious.”
Marik did keep walking, but his eyes were continually moving. He spotted several more people huddled in the burned out shell of a hovercraft that had crashed onto a street, one wing still pointing skyward.
The whole place was blasted and broken. Rubble crunched underfoot. He could hear the sound of voices coming from somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. The broken buildings and the heavy wind that had picked up and had begun to whip along the destroyed cityscape made sound distort and sharpen all at the same time.
The grit, blown about by the wind, stung his exposed skin. His eyes watered when a particularly nasty little chunk whizzed by and scraped across his eyelid. If he had not closed his eye in time, it would’ve gone right across the surface of his eye, and he knew it.
He made a mental note to try to find some goggles or some other kind of eye protection before he had to go out on the streets again.
They made it past the buildings, but Marik knew better than to be relieved. Rovers often traveled in large packs that broke off in two small hunting parties. If these humans were behaving like Rovers, the ones that had been on the buildings that they had already passed were just the flanking section. A flanking section that would eventually come back around and circle them from another side, and probably while they were engaged in battle with another part of their pack.
Talon said, “We have to take this street.”
The street was in less disrepair than the others but the buildings, what remained of them, stood silent and haunted. The air of abandonment and desperation hung over everything.
The door of one of the buildings burst open and a woman, very disheveled and clearly distraught, rushed out onto the street. Immediately weapons were pulled and pointed in her direction. She fell to her knees, her hands up in the air. Her hair, long and a solid gray color, flowed over her shoulders and back and her face, shockingly unlined and a striking contrast against her hair, looked up at them. Her face was dirty, but her tears had cut clean channels down her cheeks. Talon spoke, not unkindly. “You should not be on the streets right now.”
The woman screamed out, “They have destroyed my home! My husband is dead, and the government has fallen! The Federation said they would help, but they have not come back! They have abandoned us here and those… Those creatures from Below… Those unworthy… Things! They are everywhere! I ordered someone to bring me food earlier, but nobody has come. They ignore me and laugh at me and disregard my station!”
Marik sighed. It was clear that the woman had always lived in the above ground and was used to having servants and having everything done for her. She was shocked to the point of insanity at the moment.
Talon said, “Go back to your home. Go back. We cannot stop to help you now; we have other things to do. Somebody will come.”
Marik did not have to look around to see the bitterness coming from some of those on Talon’s crew. Jessica and Jenny were both from the Below. Several of his crewmembers had come from the Below; they had signed on during the rebellion and had proven themselves to be good at the tasks that Talon had set for them.
Their simmering resentment against this woman, who was clearly confused and upset and frightened, was understandable but it was also dangerous at the moment. They were all heavily armed and on edge because of the Rovers that were probably stalking them.
The woman clambered to her feet. Her eyes, a faded blue, went from face to face. “Are you from the Federation? If so, I demand, I absolutely demand, that my house be stockpiled with food and water. That my building be repaired immediately. That you give me new servants to replace those who either ran off or died and that you do it immediately. I am the wife of the All-High Commander Marks.”
To Marik’s shock, it was Jenny who spoke. Her voice held no rancor, but it also held no compassion. “We are not from the Federation. You must go back into your home now. If you don’t, you will die. There are those who would absolutely kill you if they knew that’s who you are. Go on now. Your time of ordering people to do things is done. If you need something, you’re going to have to figure out how to get it for yourself right now.”
The woman stared at them and then she screamed, a furious and wavering scream that threatened to burst Marik’s eardrums. Her hands balled up, and her fists and her feet began to stomp. Dust flew up all around her, and she whirled like a dervish. She finally stopped screaming, but her next words were even more vicious than the words she had used before.
“Those things that live below us were never worthy of being anything more than our slaves. We gave them everything they needed for life, and this is how they treated us.”
She stormed away, back into the house. Jessica said, “Even now…”
Jenny said, “It doesn’t matter. We need to go.”
Talon said, “She’s right. Move.”
They continued onward. Every step he took was another step into a hellish landscape. The dead, and there were so many of them, were piled in front of large outdoor furnaces. Jenny let out a low cry of distress as she watched several people pick up a body and toss it into the fiery maw of one furnace.
He wanted to comfort her but she was behind him, and he was walking ahead with good reason. They had formed a kind of phalanx with the medication and other supplies in the center. The best warriors were on the edges, and those who were skilled but not quite as skilled as those on the front lines formed the secondary layer of protection for those in the very center. Jenny was not in that center, which bothered him. She was not a fighter, and she should’ve been back, closer to the medications and the chests of food and supplies.
Past the death furnaces stood high machines that were busy swinging heavy round balls made of some immutable material into the sides of buildings that were mostly already fallen. Marik assumed that the humans were hoping that if they tore down the buildings most in danger of falling over, they would stop them from falling on their heads.
The wind picked up yet again. Now that they were past the death furnaces and the large groups of humans who had gathered along that street, they found themselves at a small intersection. They went left. Marik’s forehead puckered as he heard a soft, slow whistle from somewhere overhead. His eyes drifted upward, but he saw no winged creatures flying on those unfriendly skies. His eyes slid over to Talon. Talon’s jaw was clenched and his shoulders rigid.
Marik said nothing. He didn’t have to. The mood of the group had become noticeably charged and tense. They too had heard that whistle. That whistle was undoubtedly a signal, probably one Rover letting the rest of his pack know where they were.
Jenny asked, “How much further?”
Talon said, “About a mile. Just keep walking.”
Again Marik wanted to comfort her. He wanted to reach back and squeeze her hand and give her some silent reassurance, but he couldn’t. The stink of charred flesh rose on the air; not even the mask could keep that smell out. He had to squint his eyes against the thick banks of smoke from the furnaces and the grit being blown about by the wind.
They walked faster. Talon and Marik were picking up the pace and the others following. It was a hard pace to keep, and he knew it, but they had to go as fast as possible. Those who had been stoking the furnaces with the dead were unlikely to be of any assistance if the Rovers had attacked them back there. That the Rovers had not attacked them back there meant nothing. They were probably simply not willing to share whatever they thought they could take off the group with the people who had been back by the furnaces and tearing down the buildings.
Talon said, “To your left. Third window from the very top.”
Marik looked and then looked away. To the casual observer, it would’ve seemed as if he had just looked upward for a minute and then away without ever registering a single thing. The casual observer would’ve been wrong. He had seen very clearly a human outlined against the window, a weapon drawn and resting on the sill. The barrel had been pointed down toward the group, and that meant that at any moment either that sniper would begin firing, or the Rovers would attack from the ground.
Jessica said, “There’s no clear space. We don’t know which of the buildings are safe and which ones hold Rovers.”
Marik understood then what she was saying was that they could not separate those who were carrying the supplies from the group and let the group fight while the others got away. She had a good point, but his heart sank anyway.
The first blast of weapon fire went right past his head. If he had not turned his head to look back at Jenny, he would’ve been missing his entire head.
Jenny screamed. The sound, high and sharp, carried on the air. Her hands came up and smacked together in a round of involuntary applause. If things had not been so dire, he might’ve actually laughed at that. Instead, he grabbed her by her upper arm and shouted, “Run!”
They did. They stayed in their formation, all of them running fast as possible. Those bringing up the rear pushed those in the center forward while those upfront set the pace. More weapon fire rattled down.
Talon panted out, “It’s a good damn thing they have archaic weapons with very little accuracy. If not, we would all be dead by now. They’d be picking us off one by one.”
Marik was not reassured by that. If the Rovers could not pick them off from above, then their plan must be to separate them. “We must stay together. There are either trying to make us cluster or make us break apart. I’m not sure which.”
At that moment, there was a short distance between him and Talon and Jenny’s voice floated up from behind them. “No! You can’t go that way! That is the tunnel mouth!”
Marik’s eyes went ahead of them. Talon shouted, “Dammit! She’s right! That’s covered it but you can just see the trap! Go right!”
They all broke to the right, streaming around the side of a building like fish in a school. They fetched up in an alley and pelted down it, the narrowness of it forcing them to break their formation finally.
Jessica shouted, “I know where we are; let me lead!”
Marik fell back and she raced past him and slightly ahead of Talon. She lifted one hand above her head, two fingers up in the air hooked and pointing toward the left. They all followed her because there was no choice, and because she was their best chance.
Jenny fell. Marik caught her fall from the corner of his eye and his feet slowed. His long arm reached backward and he gripped her hand and pulled her forward.
It was clear she could not keep the pace.
She had been weak and sick when they had taken over the wrecker ship and her strength had come back to her slowly—too slowly. On top of that, he had given her an implant that had, no doubt, sapped her strength as well.
Not even thinking about it, he swung her up in his arms and then over his shoulder. Her head bumped against the long curve of his spine and her diaphragm rested on his strong shoulder. He pulled one arm up and over her, holding her waist and her arms went around his waist as she cried out, “I’m okay! Just go!”
He did. He raced along behind the others as they came out under a building whose upper floors hung out so far over the lowers that it provided a sort of shelter. Jessica leaned against the wall, breathing hard. They all took a moment to catch their breath and Marik lowered Jenny to her feet. How long they had been running he did not know, but there were a soreness and a tightness in his arm that he had had curled over her body during the run.
Jessica wiped her face with one sleeve and said, “We have to go down into the tunnels. You will not like this.”
Talon groaned. “No, we won’t. Is there no other way?”
One of the crew members who had been nearest the back panted out, “No. I saw at least three dozen of them coming. And I heard more.”
They all stood there, their hands on their knees and inhaling as much of the tainted air as they could get into their lungs. Marik’s ears, more finely tuned than that of humans, caught the rattle and beat of a great many footsteps. His eyes met Talon’s. Talon nodded. Marik said, “I hear at least fifty, or maybe even sixty.”
Jessica panted out, “I really need your guys’ hearing. It doesn’t matter even if I don’t have it, I guess. I do know that we’re pretty well screwed if we don’t do something, and now. The tunnels are our only chance. They either won’t know about them, or they won’t risk them.”
Marik had no idea why the tunnels were so terrible but if they were so terrible that a Rover would not risk them, he was pretty sure that taking the tunnels would be no less lethal than the Rovers.
Either way, they were facing death.
They probably stood little to no chance against the Rovers and more of a chance in the tunnels.
Chapter 5
Jenny was too busy running for her life to be afraid. She knew, of course, about the tunnels. Most people who lived Below knew about the creatures that lived there. The Terrra-rats that could kill and eat a human being in a matter of seconds, depending on how large the swarm was.
Whatever was behind them, if they were worse than the rats, then she would take the tunnels.
Besides, Jessica seemed to know what she was doing.
Not for the first time since she had met Jessica aboard that slave ship masquerading as a bride ship, Jenny found herself wishing that she could be more like the other woman.
When Marik and his brothers had taken the ship, it had been Jessica and several others who had fought back, clawing and kicking and punching, but it had been clear that it was Jessica who had the most combat skills even then. As for herself? Well, she had cowered in a corner, praying that this would not be the end of her life. That she would some
how manage to make it back to her home planet and find Ben.
As they reached the entrance to the tunnel and then went down, it hit her that that dream had come true.
She was back. Now what she had to do was find Ben.
Those thoughts drifted apart as they carefully made their way over a series of upper bridges made of rotting rope and rusting steel. Every step could be the last one that she took, and she knew that. The rats were below, their long teeth flashing in the dimness and their stinking bodies slunk low toward the trash-strewn floors.
Some piles of garbage were so high that the rats could scamper up the sides of it, and they did, climbing those piles as if they were hills that they were used to strolling. Marik hissed in a breath and yanked her forward just as one particularly vicious and brave Terra rat launched itself off the top of a pile. Talon drew his weapon and blasted it.
A thick and disgusting stink filled the air. The rat fell backward, quite dead. It landed on the floor, and its fellows ran to it. The sound of their feasting on the dead thing made her stomach churn.
What had happened in her absence? Everything, obviously. War had come, and open rebellion had begun. The rebellion had been between those who lived Below and those who lived above ground, but that rebellion had ended when the Federation traitors and the parasitic race known as the Gorlites had come streaking out of the skies, intent on destroying the planet and the humans upon it so that the parasitic race could take it over.
Everything was ruined and wrecked. Her heart ached at the sight of so much destruction. She had never seen the above ground, but from what she always heard, it was beautiful.
Maybe it had been then, but it was nothing but devastation now.
Marik’s words to her aboard the ship came back to her. Maybe it could be beautiful again once things healed.
That thought gave her hope and a slight sense of courage as she raced across yet another rickety and dangerous rope bridge slung high above the trash piles and the rats. The rats continued to stalk them, and those who were carrying the chest were in the greatest danger simply because they were weighed down so heavily. Her heart pounded and thumped with every step, and she knew that she was not the only one who was afraid.
