Chapter 16 #2
“My feet hurt. Is it normal for them to hurt this much?” Jin rotated until his back was against the trunk of a tree.
“It depends. Is it a dull ache or more of a sharp sting?”
One was muscle related. The other could be caused by blisters.
Not that there was much to do except endure in either instance. Kira wasn’t in any shape to carry him and the rest of their party needed to remain alert in the event of an ambush.
“I don’t even know anymore. I hurt too much to tell.”
Kira regarded him with a tired amusement. “All those years of heckling others and this is how you end up.”
The place Bez had chosen as their rest stop looked to be ruins of some kind. Stones that might have once been walls poked out of the ground. Trees now grew out of half demolished buildings, their roots displacing former pathways.
A plant very similar to ivy covered the crumbling remains of a tower.
With an experienced eye, Kira picked out what she thought might be other towers. Vines covered them as well. A carpet of green and brown from which massive lumps rose.
Jin massaged his thighs. “I want my old body back.”
“Too bad. So sad. It’s gone,” Kira murmured in a preoccupied voice.
She might have been crazy, but she thought she detected a Tuann influence on these ruins. It was hard to describe. More of a feeling than something she could put into words.
“Your support is overwhelming,” Jin shot at her.
At that, Kira glanced at him with a sly smirk. “Face it—we come from the school of tough love.”
She doubted he’d know what to do with an understanding and empathetic Kira.
Jin gave his thighs one last squeeze before straightening to look around. “What do you think happened here?”
Kira shook her head. “No idea.”
But she was betting it had happened a long time ago. Long enough that whatever remained had crumbled into obscurity.
She doubted they’d ever know the details. Just one more mystery on a planet filled with them.
Finn signaled for silence.
For one breathless second, the world quieted. The only sounds the creaking of tree branches and the wind through the ruins.
Kira found herself holding her breath, the pain from her wounds easing as she waited for whoever or whatever to burst out of the forest like an old time horror film.
Adrenaline filled her veins. An old, familiar friend that reminded her of just how she’d survived all these years.
By staying alert and engaged.
The moment lengthened.
Then finally a storm of sound and light.
Kira dove for Jin, knocking him down and rolling them behind the remnants of a wall.
Pye was caught off guard, taking two bullets in his shoulder and abdomen.
“Take cover!” Raider shouted, laying down suppressive fire.
“Stay down,” she urged Jin, huddling over him as best she could.
Jin listened, curling in on himself and covering his ears.
“Shh. Shh,” she soothed as he made whimpering sounds. “I’ve got you.”
Kira looked around to take stock of the situation. Raider was still returning fire with his zuipi/rifle hybrid.
Bez had dragged an injured Pye behind another wall.
She didn’t know what had happened to the rest.
“How we doing, Raider?” Kira called.
“Could be better. Five at my one, two and three o’clock. Three more at ten and eleven.”
A minimum of eight total then. Kira couldn’t discount the possibility of a second team already moving to flank them. Finn and Dylan probably had the same thought and had already moved to counter.
The situation was difficult but not impossible.
Then everything changed.
“They have a Jericho,” Raider screamed.
There was a mad scramble before he fell over the wall next to them, landing hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs.
In the next second, Kira heard a whoosh and then a boom. Heat washed over them. She covered Jin with her body as dirt and rock rained down.
Raider tucked himself against the wall, getting as close as possible to ensure none of his body was exposed. “How the hell did they get one of those? That’s a military grade weapon.”
“They probably smuggled it.”
Not that the “how” mattered so much as the fact they had it in the first place.
Raider sent a spray of bullets over the wall before relaxing back into his seated position. “How you doing, Tin Can? Hanging in there?”
Jin huddled against Kira’s side, his body trembling now and then. His pupils were wide and terrified as he peeked around her arm. “Never better, Meat Sack.”
A grin flashed over Raider’s face. “Glad to hear it. Wouldn’t want you to lock up during your first engagement.”
Jin covered his ears and cowered as they fired the Jericho again.
Afterward, Kira patted Jin soothingly. “That was a lot closer than last time. We probably shouldn’t let them get off another round.”
There was a cry from the trees. The sharp, pained sound was prematurely cut off.
Raider crouched and tried to get a look over the wall. “I think we’re down a few hostiles.”
“Must be Finn or Dylan’s work,” Kira muttered.
It felt weird knowing they were out there, slowly and methodically disposing of their enemies. Usually, that was her job.
Raider gave her sidelong look. “Want to give them a hand?”
Kira smirk was slow. “Finn is going to kill you for that suggestion.”
“Only if we survive, Nixxy.”
Kira shrugged. “I’m game if you are.”
Passively sitting around was getting boring anyway.
Jin was quick to grab her arm as she shifted away. “Wait. You’re still injured.”
Kira put her hand over his. “Stay put. I’ll be right back.”
Jin pouted. “I really dislike this new paradigm of ours.”
She tousled his hair. “So, you’ve already said.”
Jin didn’t look happy as she shifted into a crouch. She sent Raider a quick glance. “Ready?”
He burst into a sprint, arrowing away from the wall at an angle and drawing fire.
“Asshole,” Kira spat, taking off a second later.
He could have at least gone on three.
Kira did her best to duck and weave between the trees, her movements hampered somewhat by her wounds.
Pain blazed up her thigh and in her shoulder for the first few moments before gradually numbing under the onslaught of adrenaline.
I’m up. He sees me. I’m down, Kira mentally whispered.
She dove behind the nearest tree, wincing as the movement sent a new lance of agony shooting through her body.
Bark flew as they locked on her position.
Kira controlled her racing heart, taking tiny sips of air while waiting for the next break in their barrage.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Raider break cover.
The bombardment that had pinned her down faded as the pirates’ switched targets.
“Good enough for me,” Kira groaned.
By the Mea’Ave, she didn’t want to do this again.
This time Kira chose a direction that was perpendicular to her earlier one in hopes that she’d be able to circle back to deliver a little justice of her own.
Why should Finn and Dylan get to have all the fun?
There were considerably fewer weapons being fired in her direction this time, allowing her to make a beeline to one of the positions Raider had identified earlier.
She nearly tripped over a body when she arrived.
The human—because it was a human, she could tell by the round tips of their ears—lay face down. Someone had buried a sharp, bladed instrument in their back, going up between their ribs to stab their heart.
Kira whistled silently, admiring the handiwork. She didn’t think she could have done a better job herself.
On silent feet, she slipped through woods that had suddenly gone eerily silent.
There was something about the unnatural hush of a forest. It spoke to the hind brain.
That remnant of evolution from eons ago when the first people huddled around campfires in hopes its light would keep away the monsters.
That part of her knew what waited in forests like this.
Ones where the cries of the dead and dying were swallowed so thoroughly that it was like they had never been uttered in the first place.
Kira resisted the sense of dread that tried to creep over her. She forced herself to move, reaching for the akieri at her waist before remembering that it was useless without her soul’s breath.
Cursing softly, she switched to the short dagger she’d packed as a replacement.
Up ahead, the shadows swirled.
Kira stopped, the muscles in her legs tightening. A stab of pain deep in her thigh reminded her that she wasn’t in the best condition and that maybe, just maybe, this hadn’t been her best idea.
The creak of the trees and the breath of the forest wrapped around her as she waited. Each moment more tense than the one before.
It felt almost anticlimactic when Roderick stepped out of the trees, his flat expression showing confusion to find her standing there brandishing a blade. “What happened to you?” He scanned her body, noting her various wounds with a deep frown. “Does your oshota not do his job?”
Kira partially lowered her weapon. “Roderick, what are you doing here?”
“I was scouting when I heard weapons fire.” Roderick eyed the dagger she was still kind of pointing at him. “Is there a reason you’re threatening me with that?”
“Still a little jumpy,” Kira lied.
She lowered her arm, the dagger now pointed at the ground but still clutched in her hand.
Roderick watched her carefully. Kira didn’t know what it was, but something about the look in his eyes was tweaking her paranoia.
She chanced a quick glance at the trees he’d come through. “Find anything interesting out there?”
“Nothing of note.”
Kira thought he was a little too quick with that answer. Combined with the very aggressive eye contact and she couldn’t help but think he was hiding something.
“It sounds like the attack has drawn to an end,” Roderick said. “We should probably rejoin the rest of the group.”
Kira glanced at the trees one last time. “Of course. Lead the way.”
Roderick wavered, looking like he hadn’t expected her easy capitulation. His forehead crinkled before his expression smoothed out.