Cain jogged past me over to the dune’s edge and peered into the sun. I didn’t follow. Michael was trying without much success to get up. Every time he sat up, more sand dislodged and he sank back down again. I walked toward him, untroubled… That is until I realized the sand wasn't shifting. Cain hadn’t tripped him after all. He was sinking.
“Michael,” I yelled. “Stop moving! That’s-”
“Quicksand!” he yelped, now coming to the same conclusion I had. “What do I do?! Help me!”
“Pretend like you’re swimming. Try to float on your back,” I yelled, pulling out my right blade and poking the ground in front of me. It was safe. I was safe, but he wasn't. And he wasn’t listening. Instead he was panicking, thrashing, and rapidly sinking. “Please, dear Lord - Cain, get some rope!”
Cain and I had been exceedingly lucky that we both hadn’t stepped in a sinkhole, I now realized. I edged forward, yelling back, “Michael, get a grip! Do as you're told!”
But he was past hearing. The more he struggled, the lower he sank. I groaned knowing what I was going to have to do. I was going to have to get in with him and force him to pay attention. I knew how to beat the stuff. He didn’t.
I launched myself across the sand running, taking two running steps before abruptly sinking into another pool of slipping sand. I automatically slowly rolled onto my back to try and float, but it wasn’t working. I was sinking even faster than Michael was. I yanked off the straps to my blades and threw them off to the non-sinking side to lessen the weight. It helped a little but I still kept drifting. This stuff was defying all of the rules I had been taught to survive in this situation. By all means I shouldn’t have been being dragged down so fast.
I heard shouts to my right and looked up. Cain was running toward me with the other men hot on his heels. They had only one rope in hand.
“Stop! Walk slowly to test the ground and-” I glanced back at the now barely visible Michael. “Help him first! I’ve had this happen before. I’ve got this.”
I shouted similar instructions in the other language and Tiranshyck’s men turned to Michael. But Cain did not. He kept advancing toward me determinedly. I shot him a warning look. He was coming dangerously close to the edge of where the sand began. But before I could tell him to stop, his extended boot hit the edge and sank in. He set his weight back on solid ground.
He stared out at me with frustration. I was too far away for him to get to. I pumped my arms and legs harder, acting as if the muck was water. It didn't do too much good. What kind of stuff was this? Quicksand didn't act like this. It was sucking me down three times as fast as it should. I was already up to my chest.
He got down on his hands and knees and leopard-crawled toward me, evenly distributing his weight. I opened my mouth to tell him to go back, but he forestalled me with a warning of his own. “Don't start with me, Rain. Despite your doing this before, you’re still sinking!”
“I don't know why it’s not working. Quicksand doesn't behave this way! You’re going to-” I could see his front starting to submerge in the mud. I shook my head frantically and cried out, “Cain, no!”
He looked to his left and saw my discarded blades. He shimmied toward them, grabbed one, and held it out to me with both hands. “Grab on.”
I did as I was told. He managed to pull me about a foot before the sheath slipped off and he sank a few more centimeters into the sand. I threw the sheath out of the way, lifting my head up to keep my chin above ground. “This is not working. It’s only going to result in both of us dying-”
“I do not accept failure!” he bellowed, desperation starting to show in his eyes. He looked at the scabbard I had just thrown past him and then down at the blade he held. He turned it around and held the blade out to me. “Grab it!”
I hesitated when I saw him holding the sharp end but knew better than to argue. I grabbed the handle before I could stop myself. Cut palms were a good tradeoff for living past this. He pulled me along with surprising speed and wrapped his arm around my waist when I got close enough. He wiggled backward, dragging me along with him.
Finally we both reached solid ground. He rolled onto his back, never letting me go. We both tried to catch our breaths together. I thanked God, still amazed that I was somehow alive. And I had Cain to thank for that, too. I could feel his breath raggedly going in and out against my side. He let out a groan and then a huff, patting my stomach where his hand had fallen.
I looked off to the side, still worried. The men were slowly hauling Michael out, but they had the situation in hand. I groaned. “You’re crazy.”
“If it wasn't official before... I fucking hate the desert,” he muttered. “First a freak rainstorm, and now this shit.”
All I could do was nod in agreement at this point. I was beginning to not like it either. I sat up slowly and unfolded his hand which had encased mine. My palms were covered in blood which could only indicate the state of his.
I reached down to tear off a strip of my tunic to bandage it and gasped. Large parts of the fabric had been eaten away. I was covered in holes; many in compromising places. I looked back at his and saw the front of his shirt had the same. I still tore off a large strip of my dress.
“Your hands are a mess,” I muttered, shifting off of him. “You’re a fool.”
I gently grasped his hand and started winding the cloth around it. He opened his eyes and smiled faintly at me. “Don't knock it. I’m a very happy fool; a lucky one, too. Don’t yell at me, woman. You’re alive. Shut up already.”
“This isn’t normal quicksand,” I murmured, starting on the second hand. “It didn't behave like the natural elements would. I think there are chemicals at play. Our clothes are burned right through with holes. Someone has been dumping chemical waste out here.”
He sat up quickly, bringing his other hand up to my mouth and covering it.
“You’re welcome,” he said cockily, removing his hand. Then he glanced down at my clothes, opened his mouth and then shut it. I looked down, too, wondering just what was on display and only saw my undergarments peeking through. Cain quickly shrugged off his outer jacket and handed it to me. “My eyes only. Michael doesn’t need a show.”
“I hate this place!” the party in question growled as he stalked past us, breathing heavily. “I want to go home and that really is saying something!”
“No arguments there,” Cain called back. He chuckled as I attempted to examine his hands again. He tugged them free and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Quit fussing over me. There’s someone coming, remember?”
I grumbled, trying to shift back into game mode. I shook my head, stood, and went to gather my blades. I stopped and stared at them as his blood dripped off them. I felt insanely guilty. I shook my head and cleaned them.
Sheathing them, I turned back. Cain was still dusting himself off. I openly stared, considering everything. He had saved my life again, putting his own at risk. It was completely illogical. Maybe he was telling the truth. Perhaps he did like me. But that seemed completely ridiculous.
He caught me looking and grinned. I offered a small smile back. He was about to say something further when the roar of a motorbike came to our ears. A black motor trike crashed over the top of the dune and skidded to a halt in front of him, only leaving a few inches between his knee caps and the back of the bike.
I was very displeased as I rose from my defensive crouch. Michael and the others seemed similarly inclined. I didn't even bother to check Cain's reaction. Dantenn’s reappearance was likely not going to be appreciated.
Dantenn openly smirked at me, pleased as always when he managed to pull off an impressive trick with his bike. “Didn't know you were into mud baths.”
I ground my teeth together. “What are you doing here?”
“Hello to you, too. In answer to your question, Master has ordered me to come on a reconnaissance mission,” he said gravely, pulling off his helmet. “Dad has decided he has had enough. Hearing that you keep spontaneously drop
ping dead and reincarnating has finally gotten to him. You are coming home, marrying me, and he’s insisted upon eight grandchildren. And I simply couldn't find it in me to refuse.”
That I believed, but somehow I very much doubted that Master had sent him at all. The reconnaissance perhaps had been commissioned. The marriage part, definitely not. Master had always humored his son’s infatuation with me, but always hinted it would not work out. I believed it. Jackass, however, still rode the stubborn belief that I would come around someday.
Cain seemed likewise inclined toward disbelief, scowling down at the inch separating his kneecaps from the back wheel. “Eight? You sure you’re capable of even producing one?”
The jackass in question ignored him as Michael attempted to turn his laugh into a cough and failed miserably. “Anyway, you are all just going to have to find the nuke yourselves. Master has declared Rain to be our ambassador and in such, unprosecutable. So-”
I saw it coming before he made any move. I feigned to the side and avoided his attempt to grab me. “I take it back. I’ll take Cain’s absurdity. At least he’s not deluded as well as crazy.”
My thinly-veiled insult hit its mark as I ducked behind the man in question. Dantenn’s humor blackened as Cain openly smirked. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You are coming home whether you like it or not.”
“Tell you what? Why don't we all find the damned bomb so we all can go back to MoiRai?” Michael said, trying to diffuse the tension.
“Yeah,” Cain added. “So long as you stick around, Rain will use me as a buffer between the two of you. And unlike most, I have no prejudice against being used.”
This was going over the line. Now I was going to have to dodge the two of them, the three of them if I counted Michael. Wait. Michael. There was my out. Stick with him and I could avoid the two buffoons.
“I like his idea,” I said, slipping behind him. He eyed me with amusement as the two other big babies watched. “We’ll go and settle this later.”
Both took it with ill grace. Cain snorted loudly. “Thanks, Dintenn. Now she’s going to use him as a shield from me and now you. Wonderful.”
“It’s Dantenn!”
“Alright!” I yelled. “Quit it! We have a nuclear bomb to find. We-”
Another great amount of calling garnered my attention. An even bigger cloud of dust that seemed like a great cavalry of camels came running over the hills. There were men on them, men with swords and shotguns waving about. They flew only one flag and it had me turning pale. Tiranshyck was dead, so why was his brigade coming over the dunes? And why were the men with us whooping like a bunch of idiots? “Uh, oh.”
There was a great deal of swearing as all three of my companions came to the same conclusion I had. Only one of them had the sense to grab me as they scrambled for their trikes. I didn't fight as Michael took off for his transport, dragging me along. I jumped on behind him and, much to my disgust, I looked down to see that the rotors had been jammed. No amount of kickstarting them would get us anywhere. “The rotors are jammed!”
I launched myself off, noting that all bikes except Dantenn’s were now malfunctioning. The men who had come with us were making no attempts to help us either. A few of them were smiling at our misfortune. I guess I knew who had done the dirty deed.
Cain, too, jumped off of his. He looked both ways and then his eyes settled on me. His eyes then darted to Michael who was trying to yank a nasty looking barb out of the engine. I was about to say something when Dantenn roared up next to me. “Get on.”
“I can't leave them!” I protested.
But my protests were in vain. He grabbed the back of my pack and hauled me over backwards. I reached out and tried to grab Cain’s arm, but Cain shrugged out of the way. “If they are indeed Tianshyck’s men, they’ll take us back to Nacin to collect the bounty. You and Dantenn track down the bomb. Go.”
The rational part of my brain had to agree with him, but the emotional part of my brain overpowered it. I hesitated, ignoring the logic in play, horrified by what was happening. This was new to me. I had never been so torn before. Never before had I had people I cared enough to stay for. Cain gestured for me to go, but I still didn’t move. I couldn’t.
“Look out!”
Bullets started flying and Dantenn gunned the engine. I took one last look at Cain who had all but thrown himself under the cover of the nearest bike. Michael had done the same. Torn, I hopped on. No use in all of us being captured, but it still put a bitter taste in my mouth.
As soon as my feet were off the ground, we were flying away. I clung on as Dantenn jumped the bike off the end of the dune and the sands disappeared under us. My stomach dropped as we flew through the air, rolling nauseatingly. Upon landing, I forced myself to remain calm. The shots flying around soon faded into the distance and I looked back with fearful concern.
I could see the cavalry come to the top of the rise and surround the two bikes in the distance. But then they were gone to the swirling blue sands of the desert and we were lost to the dark.
Chapter Eighteen 03:21:53:24 to potential nuclear explosion
Damn friendship.
Dantenn was still sitting on the end of the bike watching me pace. He worriedly regarded me while my equally worried mind was elsewhere. It didn't help that I felt tremendously guilty. I knew he was planning on taking me back to MoiRai but I had no intention of going. My friends were in danger and that was gnawing fiercely on my nerves.
We had stopped when it had gotten too dark to carry on further. Now we waited for dawn. Or I should say he was waiting. I avidly cursed the darkness and was raring to go. I felt like the moonlight was mocking me, making it just light enough to see but not to travel.
I knew what likely was happening to Michael and Cain right about now. After being dragged into Chernobial, the pits of hell then, and after being interrogated they would likely be put on the auction block.
My hands trembled as I thought about it. I had been on the block as a child. It was terrifying. I remembered the crowds, the auctioneer, the other slaves huddled around fearfully. I could almost feel the chains that had been around my hands and feet even now. They had weighed heavily on me, knocking my seven-year old body to the ground. I had been dragged up by the hair by the auctioneer, and pulled up to my feet as Tiranshyck had cast the winning bid. And I had wondered when my mother would come for me. When she would protect me.
I didn’t want to leave Michael and Cain wondering if I would come and rescue them like I had wondered about my mother. She never came back for me. But I sure as hell wouldn’t leave them to be bought like she had me.
“Stressing yourself out is not going to help anyone,” Dantenn chided after a half hour of my relentless pacing.
I wanted to choke him. I had a bad feeling that the band of miscreants had trailed him from MoiRai and found us that way. Either that or they had gotten insanely lucky. I forced my hands to unclench. “Don't talk to me.”
“What do you want me to do? Manually move the sun into the sky? You know I would do anything for you, but there is only so much a human is capable of.”
I rounded on him, hearing his forced sarcasm. “That’s a bunch of horse droppings! We both know there is a limit to what you are willing to do. You’re just sulking because you think I chose him over you!”
“And have you?”
His raw pain and curiosity ripped through me. I sighed. “No. But I can’t leave them.”
He crossed his arms. “Why not? You had no qualms about abandoning me before setting out to damn yourself.”
“Dantenn!” I screeched, kicking the sand in frustration, having abruptly reached my limit. “There is a distinct difference. You were not in any mortal danger and if you will remember, I said if you wanted me that badly, you were free to come. But no, that wasn’t enough! You stayed home and sulked for an entire decade!”
He had the decency to look a little ashamed. “You didn’t love me then and you still don't now. T
hat’s the difference and why I didn’t go. But I see you have somewhat opened yourself up to the idea of being with someone, so I figure now I’ve got a shot. You’re still as bristly as a cactus, but you’ve softened a bit, which I find odd. How one goes to war and comes back a woman, I don’t get.”
I ignored the blatant sexism and focused on his pigheadedness. “I didn’t come back!”
“Tell me about it,” he growled. “You’ve always been ridiculously convinced that nobody loved you. I’m here to prove you wrong. I’ve always been here.”
That left me floundering around for something to say. I knew he meant it, too, just by his tone. He had never openly said these things to me before. I just wished they were enough to stir something other than hurt in my twisted soul.
I sighed in frustration. He just had to choose this moment to talk things out. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I know. I know my father loved me. He found me years ago, but I still turned him away, just like I did you. Has it ever occurred to you that I also left to make sure I didn’t hurt anyone else? You insist upon trying to change me and chase me down. Why won’t you let up? You just won’t let go!”
“And why should I?” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. “You seem to think that it’s something I can just get rid of and dump like a stray cat at a shelter. It’s not that I want to feel this way. I’m not even sure that I like you, but still I love you. Why can't you accept that?”
He sounded so sad that I wanted to hug him, but I knew that would be a bad idea. I sat down with a huff on the sand at a loss for what to do. “I accept it. I’m just not sure what to do with it.”
“I.e., ‘I have no idea how to let you down easy.’ I’m not asking you to do anything other than just try to entertain the idea.”
He was tempting me right now to break down. I had been avoiding this for well over a decade. “If I do that, it would mean I am encouraging you to continue the behavior.”
“I am not a dog for God's sake! Let me make my own decisions!”
War Machine: Book One in the Destiny In the Shadows Series Page 23
