A white wall, like a churning white cloud, swallowed the horizon and was heading toward us.
“It’s a dust cloud,” I said. “We need to find shelter.”
Her eyes were wide, frantic. “Shelter? What kind of shelter?”
She had a point. We were out in the middle of the dunes. It wasn’t as though there were any buildings nearby.
A wave of helplessness washed over me. “I don’t know.”
The dust cloud would swallow us. It wasn’t like the windy whipping of the sand during the sandstorm. This was caused by the heat of the sun after the storm, drawing all the dust into the air but trapping it beneath the solar layer. While it wouldn’t skin us like the sandstorm might have done, it would be impossible to breathe once it surrounded us.
“What happens if it reaches us?” Tara asked in alarm.
“We lose all sense of direction and will struggle to breathe. The dust will fill our lungs. We won’t hear anything or see anything, and before we’re able to make it out again, we’ll most likely die.”
“Laird!” Diarus exclaimed. “You’re frightening her!”
“Tara needs to know. She’s not a child!”
“Yes.” She nodded in agreement. “I need to know.”
Diarus took several steps to the east, his hand shading his eyes as he squinted into the distance.
“This way!” he called out. “I think I can see something.”
I tugged on Tara’s hand. “Come on, we need to keep going!”
We didn’t have time to stand around and discuss this.
We moved faster now, pushing aching limbs and wheezing lungs forward. The going had been tough before, but now we had death to worry about.
Chapter Ten
I’d never seen anything like it.
The wall of dust cloud heading toward us grew wider and taller with every passing second. We ran and ran hard, Nad’s hand clutched around mine, Miko pressing at my back, and Diarus leading the way. I wasn’t sure what Diarus thought he’d seen, but I was praying it was some kind of building where we could get inside and shut all the windows and doors. It occurred to me that he might have spotted the facility, but we were heading in the wrong direction now. If he had seen the facility, I doubted we’d be able to get inside.
The air scorched my lungs as I heaved for breath. My throat burned, and I was desperate for a drink of cold water, though I knew we didn’t have time to stop. Grit lined my gullet and the inside of my mouth and crunched between my teeth. I could even feel it under my eyelids, and I found myself wishing we’d taken the facility in either of the other two locations. I was sure the others were facing challenges of their own, but surely, they would be nothing like this.
I didn’t want to die. I especially didn’t want to die by suffocating to death inside a giant dust cloud. At least we’d all be together in our final moments, but right now that didn’t feel like much of a positive spin.
I stumbled in the thick sand, but Nad held me up, and Miko propelled me forward from behind.
“We’re almost there!” Diarus shouted.
I finally saw what he’d spotted. The dunes had come to an end and rose in a craggy rock cliffside.
The Athion glanced over his shoulder at us. “There has to be somewhere we can take shelter.”
We ran alongside the steep, rocky edge, searching for a crack or a crevasse big enough to hide us.
I dared to look back at the cloud.
I couldn’t see anything other than a wall of white in that direction. The miles of sand dunes had completely vanished.
“It’s almost on us!” I cried, panic clutching my heart.
“Here! Miko yelled.
He grabbed my hand and dragged me from the sight of the cloud. A second later, I found myself inside a cave. It wasn’t big by any means, but was tall enough for the Trads not to need to bow their heads. The cave was only shallow, and we reached the back wall within seconds. I prayed it would be enough.
“Tara and Diarus,” Nad said. “You both get to the back, Miko and I will try to block the worst with our bodies.”
I wanted to argue with him, but it seemed like the best plan. At least with their bulk, they could keep the cave free from dust, where my small stature wouldn’t be much use.
I pressed myself as far to the back of the cave as possible, my spine against the cool, jagged rock. Diarus moved in beside me and I allowed him to put his arms around me and pull me against his body. I was trembling from fear and exertion, still struggling to catch my breath. Beyond the two Trads, I caught sight of the cave’s entrance and the muted, red glow of the sunlight beyond. The light was only present for a moment, however, as seconds later, a white cloud drifted across the opening.
Nad and Miko turned their backs to the cave entrance. With their arms around each other’s shoulders, they created a barrier between us and the cloud. It rolled past like a giant ghost, white and silent. We lost what little sunlight we’d had, and the cave was plunged into an eerie glow, like moonlight.
We huddled in closer together. Some of the dust cloud drifted in the entrance, much as the sand had done back in the tunnel, but whatever created its forward motion also served to keep it out of the cave.
I didn’t want to hope too soon, but it seemed we were going to be okay.
“It’s going past,” I breathed out in relief. I slumped against Diarus’s side, adrenaline seeping from my veins now the immediate danger was gone.
We shared a canister of water between us, each taking sips and passing it to the next. The technology within the canister meant the water stayed cold, no matter how long it stayed in there for—like a portable refrigeration—and I was grateful for that now. My trembling had abated, though I was still fearful of the cloud entering the cave and smothering us. If it did, we had nowhere to go, and we would die.
“It’s going to be okay,” Nad soothed me. “We’re gong to get out of this.”
Of course, he had no way of knowing that for sure, but he did make me feel better. He always had that way about him—fierce and determined, as though not even a dust cloud would dare to defy him. He seemed so strong, and I drew from that strength now, wrapping my fingers around his well-muscled forearm and just willing the minutes to pass.
It felt as though the cloud would never end, but finally the light changed again, warmth diffusing through the white.
Diarus exhaled a slow breath. “It’s over. It’s gone.”
He was right. We’d survived another thing the desert had thrown at us. I prayed it would be the last.
“Do you think we’ve missed the timings?” Miko asked Nad. “We’ve been delayed by too much.”
Nad shook his head. “No, not yet. We can still reach the facility on time but we have to hurry.”
I peered anxiously toward the entrance of the cave. “Do you think it’s safe now?”
He grimaced. “As safe as it’s ever going to be.”
We stepped back out of the cave and into the hazy sunlight. It wasn’t quite yet sundown. We still had time.
Just like before, we kept going, though now each of us was alert for any other signs of danger. I was exhausted and I was sure the others all felt the same way. My thigh muscles burned, and I didn’t even want to give thought to the fact that once we’d reached the facility, we would still have to turn around and go all the way back again.
“We’re almost there,” Nad said from over his shoulder.
This part of the dunes was on an incline, and we fought for every step. When we got to the top, we paused on the edge of the sand dune and stared down into the valley beyond.
“My God,” I breathed.
Below us sat the facility.
It was huge. The main structure of the building looked almost identical to the one I’d been housed in before the guys had rescued me. It was made up of flat-roofed, square blocks. Smooth concrete walls, no windows—that I could see from here, anyway—and large metal, shutter-style doors.
I assumed there w
ouldn’t be the same tunnels beneath the building, leading to the city, since the city was several days’ walk away, and to create those kinds of connections would have been an unbelievable task. Plus, if there had been, we wouldn’t need to have just crossed the dunes on foot.
If this was only one of the facilities, I couldn’t imagine the sort of numbers of human women Borys had planned for, especially since this was only one region of Tradrych. Were these things all over the planet? If so, there would surely be enough to abduct every woman of a childbearing age in America and bring them here. I suddenly understood why it was so important that the rebels take out these buildings. It might not fully stop the abductions, but it would certainly put a dent in the government’s plans. There was no way they’d be able to continue bringing women to Tradrych without these facilities.
There was one main difference that set this building apart from the one I’d been housed at, however. I recognized the structure instantly from the time I’d spent at the Las Vegas Observatory back on Earth.
“Is that a launch pad?” I asked in awe.
The pad was empty for the moment, no sign of any ship carrying pregnant, kidnapped women. But how long would that last? When the Trads decided they had filled their ships enough to bring the women here, then the facilities would finally be up and running. In my mind’s eye, I remembered how it had been when we’d first arrived on Tradrych, all the screaming and crying, and women quite literally losing their minds at waking up from cryostasis to discover themselves heavily pregnant with an alien child. Our abductors had been forced to sedate us again in order to transport us from wherever it was they’d landed, to the facility where we’d been held. Here, they would simply be able to land, cuff the new arrivals, and take them directly to the pods that would become their homes until they gave birth. Would they even need to move the women from here after they’d given birth? Or was there a part of this facility that would house the women who needed to be impregnated again, cuffed, perhaps, to other pods, naked and with their legs spread for the next Trad to come along and ejaculate his eggs deep inside her?
This was why they weren’t concerned about the facilities being inaccessible from the city. Once they had staff out here, they would be staying here, and the women, I assumed, would only be moved in blocks, like herds of cattle.
“Are you okay?” Diarus asked me, lightly placing his fingers to my forearm. “You’ve gone pale.”
I sucked in a breath and nodded. “Yes, sorry. I was just picturing the number of women they’d be able to bring here.”
“Then let’s put an end to it,” Nad said, lifting his chin. “Let’s make sure Borys and his followers will never put this facility to use.”
Miko glanced at the horizon. “How long have we got?”
Nad frowned. “Not long. Less than an hour. And we need to get the device as far into the center of the building as possible.”
“We’re never going to be able to get inside,” Diarus said. “It looks fully locked down.”
He had a point. The shutters were all closed, and I doubted we’d be able to just walk up to the building and roll them up again.
Movement came from beside the facility. Two Trad guards, walking side by side, turned the corner.
“Velos!” Nad exclaimed.
We all ducked. It was stupid to think this place wasn’t going to be patrolled. How many more guards were there?
Chapter Eleven
Miko
“WE NEED TO TAKE THEM out and we need to do it fast,” Nad whispered. “If they get word back to the other facilities, or Borys, we’re going to put the other teams in danger.”
I replied with a short, sharp nod. I had no problem doing whatever we needed.
Seeing the expression of horror on Tara’s face when she was faced with the new facility had strengthened my resolve to take these damned places down like nothing else. It sickened me to my core that my kind had done this to her, and so many like her. What right did we have to tear others from their homes and families and force them to procreate for us?
We waited for the guards to round the corner. Up here, on the top of the dune, we were at our most exposed. If they were on this side of the building when we attacked, they’d see us coming in an instant. We had to hope there weren’t cameras on the outside of the building that were being manned, or some kind of infrared technology that would set off an alarm at our approach. So many unknowns.
I opened my mouth to tell Tara to wait on top of the dunes.
“I’m not staying here,” Tara hissed at me, predicting what I was about to say before I’d uttered a word.
“Fine.” I pressed a weapon into her hand. “You know how to use one of these?”
She glanced down at the laser. “I assume I point and press the red button.”
I grinned at her. “Got it in one.”
“We need to move,” Nad said, his tone curt.
Time was running out.
“Ready?” Nad nodded at us.
“Ready.”
Keeping at a low crouch—more to keep our balance, and not go pinwheeling down the side of the sand dune than anything else—we ran as a group, two in front, two at the back, toward the facility. The guards were out of sight, but we didn’t know if things would stay that way, or if there were more around. I found it hard to believe someone wouldn’t have eyes on this place remotely, though they were unlikely to be able to watch every corner at once.
We reached the side of the building and pressed our backs to it, waiting for a moment to ensure we hadn’t been spotted. Leading the way, I leaned out, around the corner, in the direction the guards had gone.
Neither of the guards were paying attention, walking casually, side by side, with their backs exposed to us.
They were too far away to ensure a clean hit if I tried to shoot from here, and with every passing second, they were getting farther away. I had no choice but to go after them.
I silently pointed to myself and then toward the guards, to let the others know what I had planned. Nad nodded and stabbed his finger in the direction of the guards as well. I guessed we were all going.
I thought I was moving quietly, my feet treading lightly on the sand, but one of the guards must have heard something, or simply sensed my presence, as he glanced over his shoulder.
“Velos!” he exclaimed, spinning to face me.
I launched toward him, knowing I had to act.
The guard on the left pulled his laser. I lashed out with my tail, struck his arm, but not before he’d managed to fire. I darted back but kept hold of him, yanking him toward me. Swiftly, I brought up my fist and connected it with his jaw. I released him from my tail and lifted my laser and fired. The electricity hit him in the chest and sent him flying. He struck the ground hard and didn’t move again.
From behind me, Diarus moved fast—faster than any of us Trads—with the skills of a natural fighter, though of course I knew he’d been trained. He leaped forward with a kick, almost as though gravity wasn’t affecting him. The sole of his boot met with the side of the other Trad’s head, sending him rocking backward.
Diarus landed but didn’t pause. Instead, he spun on his heel and kicked again, but this time low, taking out the Trad’s ankles. The Trad landed heavily on his back. Forks of light snapped through the air as he managed to squeeze off a shot from his laser, but it only hit the sandy ground, missing all of us.
Nad calmly leaned over and placed his own weapon to the side of the Trad’s throat and depressed the button that incapacitated rather than killed. The guard stiffened, arms and legs flailing out, before he fell still again, slumped to the ground, eyes closed.
Sensibly, rather than fearfully, Tara had remained back, aware that despite all her bravery, this was a situation she was better off letting us handle. I didn’t doubt for a moment that she wouldn’t shoot if she needed, but we were more physically matched for fighting than she was.
“Let’s try to get in,” Nad instructed.
&nbs
p; With the guards incapacitated, we tried some doors, each of us running to the rolled down shutters and trying to find a way inside.
“Everything’s locked tight,” I shouted.
“I’ll have to get onto the roof,” Nad said. “There’s no other way. I’ll get the device as central as possible and set it to detonate.”
I jerked my head in a nod. “Okay, go.” Through the haze, the sun was almost touching the horizon. “We’re running out of time.”
Chapter Twelve
Nad climbed the side of the building, scaling a metal ladder that took him to the flat roof. He clutched the device in his palm. He would set it, then we needed to run, putting enough distance between ourselves and the device for us not to be vaporized together with the facility.
He paused when he reached the roof and leaned back over. “Go to the top of the dunes. I’ll meet you there when I’m done.”
I shook my head. “No way are we leaving you behind.”
He glared at me, thick eyebrows raised. “Just go! We’ll only have so much time to get away after the device is set.”
“She’s right,” Miko said from beside me, arms folded resolutely across his chest. “We’re waiting right here.”
Nad thinned his lips and shot daggers at us both, but then clearly deciding we weren’t going to go anywhere, he turned and ran, vanishing from view.
We waited anxiously. Nad was right when he’d said it wasn’t going to be easy getting up the sand dunes, but we’d do whatever we had to. Leaving someone behind wasn’t an option.
Each second that passed felt like a minute, but finally movement came from above and Nad’s head popped out over the precipice. “It’s set. I’m coming down. We need to get the hell out of here!”
He didn’t bother with the ladder and instead took a couple of steps back and jumped. He landed on the ground beside me, sand flying up from where his feet and tail hit.
“Hey, you there!”
The shout came from our left, and two more guards appeared from around the corner.
The Tradrych Strain- The Complete Series Page 31