Page 82 of Feast

“Ika!” he said. “Are you okay?”

She blinked and nodded up at him breathlessly.

More gunfire shrieked past and rocked the ground around them. The crashed vehicle was a few yards away on its side giving off dark plumes of smoke. Gunnar rushed for it, using his body to shield Ika’s and together they took shelter behind the wreck.

A moment later, the other three ukkur joined them. Everyone was dirty and badly bruised, but otherwise unharmed. Most of all, they were happy to see that Ika was safe.

But that was in danger of changing very quickly.

Yet more rifle fire was pinging off the other side of the vehicle that was shielding them. When Gunnar peeked around the edge, he saw that the rows of nith guards were advancing on them. Thusar and Muk had managed to hang on to their weapons during the crash, and they snapped off a few quick shots around the corners of the vehicle. But there were too many nith, and they were trapped out in the open with nowhere to run and no means of escape.

“Gunnar, you’re the smart one,” Thusar growled. “Please tell me you’ve got a plan to get us out of this.”

Gunnar scanned his eyes all around the landscape. Aside from the crashed vehicle that they were hiding behind, there was absolutely no place to hide from the withering fire of the nith guns.

They were rotted. Well and truly rotted.

“Sorry boss,” Gunnar grunted, “but I’ve got nothing.”

He looked sadly at Ika, who was crouching beside him. He didn’t care if he lost his own life, but the thought of losing her filled him with all kinds of negative emotions. Rage. Fear. Hopelessness.

“We’re gonna need a miracle,” he said under his breath.

No sooner had the words left his mouth, than an earth-shuddering roar rolled across the land. Gunnar’s first thought was thunder, but the sky wasn’t cloudy enough for that.

What the rot was that?

“Look!” Muk shouted, pointing toward a ridge in the east where the land rose slightly.

There were figures gathered there, tiny in the distance. There were hundreds of them lined up in rows. Some of them were standing, but others appeared to be mounted on other creatures.

“Nith?” Thusar asked.

“I don’t think so,” Muk said. The young ukkur shaded his eyes and squinted. Suddenly a huge grin spread across his face. “Ukkur! B’gods, they’re all ukkur! Hundreds of ’em!”

CHAPTER 26

There was a sound of a hundred voices roaring in unison, then the ukkur army began charging down the snow-covered slope like a living avalanche. Their feet shook the ground like an earthquake.

Peering over the side of the wrecked vehicle, Ika could hardly believe what she was seeing. Until a few days ago, the only ukkur she had really known was Rolf. She had caught glimpses here and there of the other ukkur who would pass through their territory, and now she had gotten to know the four brutal and dominant ukkur who had captured and protected her over these last days. But she had never seen anything like this.

An entire army of ukkur.

Hundreds of them.

The warriors were clad in furs just like Ika and her companions. Most of them were charging on foot, but a few were mounted on two-legged reptilian animals called skriks that Ika had never seen before except in Rolf’s cave drawings. Some of the ukkur were armed with primitive weapons such as spears, bows, and slings while others carried energy rifles that must have been stolen from the nith in other battles. They put all of these weapons to good use, raining death and destruction on the rows of nith lined up outside of the slaughterhouse facility.

“Gods,” Thusar growled. “It’s them! The army of ukkur from the southern territories.”

Ika’s heart lifted.

Just seconds before, it had seemed that all hope was lost. They were outgunned and pinned down by the nith, and their death had seemed like a certainty. Now, however, the army of ukkur were cutting the nith to ribbons. The enemy was scattering and retreating in a panic.

“Let’s help them!” Ika shouted.

There was a rifle embedded in the snow by her feet. It had fallen from the vehicle during the wreck. She took it up now and charged out from behind the shelter.

“Ika,” Thusar bellowed. “Get back here!”