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.
