A group of men to the far right started arguing.
“You’re stupid to say that,” the first man said.
“Well, I’d rather be stupid than lost. You don’t even know where you are.” The second man gave the first man’s shoulder a hard shove.
Soon simple pushing and shoving between the two men broke into a full-scale fight with punches and bloody lips. Bodhi jumped in and managed to get the two combatants separated, but their behavior seemed contagious. A nearby group of men erupted in a quarrel that quickly devolved to blows being thrown and a writhing mass of arms and legs.
Selah thought about using a thrust on them, but she wasn’t confident enough of her ability to control how much force she exerted. So she signaled Mojica and Taraji, and they waded into the group of flying fists to break up the melee. Mari furiously tapped out new codes. Mojica and Taraji separated the agitated combatants just as one of Mari’s men arrived.
“We’ve got movement on the east side,” the man said, breathless from running.
“Get another squad of men out here to help fight.” Mari pointed at the disorganized group. “And get these civilians inside our perimeter now!”
Mari’s men herded people toward the trees. Fearful voices punctuated the evening air as the panicked people were pushed toward the unknown, gunfire ricocheting from the hills around them.
“I’m not sure that’s the best decision,” Mojica said. Her eyes still looked odd to Selah. Mari clearly hadn’t hit on the right combination yet.
“Yes it is,” Selah said. “I’ve been here before. It’s safe in the woods. The sound waves of their security system are affecting your judgment right now.”
Gunfire sounded around the bend, too close for comfort. Selah ducked from instinct but quickly recovered. “I think we should all get inside the perimeter.”
“We have to defend the AirWagons. If they make off with them, we’re stuck here,” Taraji said as she herded stragglers to the pass in the trees.
Selah dashed for Treva and grabbed her by the hand. “They can’t fire up an AirWagon without navigator handprints.”
“In TicCity there were rumblings in the last few weeks that blood hunters had gotten their hands on imaging technology that will clone the start system to override the navigator. We can’t be sure this isn’t a test of that technology,” Taraji said.
Selah knew blood hunters had been chasing her since the beginning, so the lengths they’d go to were no surprise. But she didn’t want to alarm Pasha and Dane any more than they already were. They’d understand soon enough. “You need to go inside. Follow the others.” She motioned Dane and Pasha toward the trees and handed off Treva to them. Selah worried that Treva was still moving in a daze. What would it take to bring her out of it?
Taraji pulled out her laser dart, but poor reflexes made her fumble. Selah knew the SensiNet was affecting her brain waves. Selah showed Pasha where to go and turned back to Mari. “How long before you level their patterns?”
“There is so little variance between some of them that I’ve had to manually adjust each signal. I’ve never seen activity like this. There’s something strange at work here,” Mari said.
Selah ran to Mojica, who held out a weapon to her. She unlocked the load and checked her charge before raising the pulse rifle toward the road. The weapons fire came closer.
Swarms of men poured around the bend. The bandits pushed Mari’s men back toward the meadow entrance to WoodHaven, which unfortunately brought them all right to the vehicles.
“Maybe we should just pilot the AirWagons out of here until they leave the area,” Selah said.
“My latest intel says they came because they heard you’d be here,” Mari answered.
Selah’s head snapped in her direction. “But we just got here. How does this happen?”
“They must have been camped nearby, waiting for me to return with you or be able to lead them to you. After all, you were here several days ago, and I know there’s a mole in WoodHaven.” Mari labored to correct each brain-wave signal of the group. “I just never caught on to who it was, and now I won’t be around to care.”
Taraji pivoted and fired over Mari’s head, causing her to dart away just as a bullet whizzed by where she had been standing. Mari ducked behind the AirWagon to finish her work.
Shots came like a swarm of bees. Bullets pinged from the metal-composite AirWagons, deflected from rocks, and peppered the ground and trees. Selah’s heightened senses picked up the faintest whiff of sulfur. It reminded her of something evil, making her shiver. She hurried to take up a position behind several large trees next to her AirWagon. She homed in on three different combatants and knocked off each of the offending bandits with ease, enjoying her newfound visual accuracy.
Bodhi rushed to Selah’s side. She fired her pulse rifle to the right, and a bandit fell from a tree on the other side of the road.
“Even though Taraji wants to protect the vehicles, maybe we should retreat inside and let them have the AirWagons,” Bodhi said.
“They’re not here for the AirWagons. They came for me,” Selah said. Using the sight on her pulse rifle, she tracked another man running behind the tree line on the other side of the road. Calculating the wind from the opposite direction, she waited until her aim was just on his leading edge. She fired and he dropped.
Bodhi turned to watch Selah. “Do you know how many that is for you?”
“No, I wasn’t keeping count—but I didn’t miss any,” Selah said. Conscious that Bodhi was staring at her, she turned to him. “What? What’s the problem? We have an enemy knocking at the door here.”
“I’m just amazed—”
A shot deflected from a nearby boulder, ricocheted off the AirWagon, and planted itself at Bodhi’s feet. He jumped back and pivoted to take aim. Selah fired around him and dropped the assailant. Bodhi glared at her, but a barrage of shots dropped both of them to the ground to seek cover. They rolled in opposite directions.
Selah scampered under the side panel of the AirWagon and around to the back, stumbling over the body of one of Taraji’s tactical squad. She squatted to feel for a pulse and keyed her communicator to alert Taraji. The signal seemed to be blocked. These bandits were using technology. This group wasn’t the one she’d run into the last time she came this way, because they hadn’t seemed to want anything to do with tech. There were two separate groups at work here, and that bothered her.
She glanced around for Bodhi, firing off another pulse in the process. Another bandit down. How many of them were there? And who were they?
A thought crossed her mind and she frowned.
Mari snuck around the AirWagon from behind. “The signals are calibrated. Everyone should be fine.”
“What if some of the signals you calibrated belonged to the splinters?” Selah fired off a pulse and another bandit was silenced. First his rifle fell from the tree, then his body dropped with a resounding thud.
“I just assumed every signal in this area belonged to Taraji or Mojica’s people.” Mari’s face paled. “They drop off the grid when I align them. I can’t undo it unless I reset the system, and you’ll all be in a lot of pain. Remember Jaenen’s reaction.”
“I’m worried that they’re starting to utilize technology,” Selah said. “Is this battle just a smoke screen for something more sinister?”
“You make a good point. I’ve decided we can’t stay here overnight. I just want to gather my things and Glade’s technology, and we’re out of here. I think the ultimate purpose Glade had for the SensiNet was to protect you.”
“I don’t understand how Glade was able to orchestrate so many events to work together over such a long period of time,” Selah said. Her last word was punctuated by a shot and an ever-increasing red spot on the sleeve of her tunic.
Mari gasped. Selah stared at the spot as it expanded.
“Funny. I thought it would hurt more.” Selah’s head felt like cotton, and the sounds around her ran together—all except Mari scre
aming for Bodhi.
3
Selah awoke slowly. With her eyes barely open, she inhaled deeply to clear her head. The earthy aroma of moss and clay filled her nostrils. Mari’s treehouse. She sat up quickly. The sharply expanding and contracting visuals created a buzz in her head and slammed her back to the pillow with dizzying swiftness. Where is everyone?
Selah tried to speak, but her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. She needed water. “Mother? Bodhi?”
Footsteps wandered into the room and over to the couch. Dane put his face down close to hers. “Are you awake yet?”
She opened her eyes further.
Dane’s eyes grew wide. “Mom! She’s awake!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
Selah wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Her family was safe, and everyone else must be too if she was up here.
Mari and Pasha sauntered into the room with a mug of savory-smelling broth and crusty bread. “Well, sleepyhead. Let’s get something in you to build up your strength,” Pasha said.
“How long have I been out?” She stretched her neck muscles and tested the wounded arm. It was one big aching halo of movement. She had to peek. Selah lifted the corner of the bandage wrapping her upper arm. The wound had already healed to a minor skin blemish. The accelerated healing she enjoyed as a novarium never ceased to amaze even her. It created a certain feeling of invincibility, but she dismissed the thought because it made her reckless. She began to unwind the bandage with Mari’s help.
“About two and a half hours longer than I expected. I gave you a mushroom sedative so I could take the bullet out with no pain, and your physiology had a strange reaction to the compound,” Mari said.
Selah glanced around the room. Panic welled up. “Where’s Bodhi?”
“It’ll be dark soon. He’s with Mojica helping our people bury the dead before the bodies draw animals,” Mari said.
“Who’s watching the AirWagons?”
“We only kept one behind, and I have friends protecting it for us,” Mari said.
“Don’t let her fool you,” Pasha said. “Mari sold all her property in WoodHaven to ensure your safety while we’re here.”
Selah’s jaw slackened. She had no words for that kind of sacrifice.
“It’s not that big of a situation.” Mari leaned forward. “We’re never coming back this way, so we might as well get something out of it.”
Selah nodded. Fearful of the answer, she whispered, “How many died?”
“We killed at least thirty bandits,” Mari said.
“How many WoodHaven people?”
Mari grimaced. “None. For the most part they’ve been less than helpful and a little hostile.”
Selah remembered the animosity she’d faced last time. Struggling to sit upright, she winced at the pain in her shoulder and slumped back to the couch. “How many of ours?”
Mari lowered her eyes, and Pasha scooted Dane out of the room before hurrying back. “Taraji lost nine, and Mojica lost six of her tactical fighters and two young men who were sons of one of them.” Mari shook her head slowly. “They left the compound to help their father.”
Selah gulped back the rising lump in her throat. She remembered the two boys from the depot when they’d exited the Mountain. They were her age and one of the last families to leave because the wife wouldn’t exit the Mountain until she saw her husband leaving. He was the navigator who’d shuttled Selah and her people out.
Guilt welled up. If he hadn’t been required to bring her group out, he might have been in one of the other caravans and not come this way. Only a few Mountain tacticals had chosen to come to TicCity . . .
Selah tried to rise again. “Where’s Taraji and Treva?” This time she made it to a sitting position. The room swayed sideways but then righted itself. Note to self—no more mushroom sedatives.
“They left with the injured tacticals and civilians—”
“They’re gone?” Two of the closest people in her life had left her behind. This smelled like a lie.
“You were in no condition to leave, and our dead needed proper burial. WoodHaven would have left them for the wolves,” Pasha said, visibly agitated.
Selah felt part of a thought float through her consciousness. Jumbled words. She shook it away. Maybe the sedative was still muddling her head. “Why did both of them have to leave?”
“The wounded tactical fighters needed immediate care that my community refused to provide. Treva jumped in to care for them as best she could, and then the civilians refused to be left behind after the way my people acted,” Mari said.
“You’ve only been gone a couple days. Why would your people treat you like this?” Selah tried to process too many questions at one time, like grain flowing from a wide funnel to the confines of a tiny chute.
“It’s been building for a while now. Even in a community as closed as ours, there are opposing factors at work. We’ve got those who’ve fallen in league with splinters and their outside marauder schemes, and those who are hyper-vigilant against letting outsiders in. And unfortunately it came together today to create a perfect storm surge,” Mari said.
“These people were not exactly friendly when we arrived, and they’re still agitated about you being around,” Pasha said.
“We need to leave as soon as Bodhi and Mojica get back.” Selah fought an overwhelming urge to flee this place.
“Mom!” Dane yelled from the porch that wrapped around the treehouse. “Mom!”
Pasha squeezed her eyes tight at his yelling. “Dane, lower your voice and come in here to talk.”
“You better come out here. The angry people at the bottom of the tree look like they went and got weapons,” Dane said.
Mari and Pasha darted to the door. Mindful of the mushroom effect, Selah rose slowly to test her legs. Angry shouts drew her to the open doorway.
Dusk was just taking hold. As Selah looked over the railing at the agitated men thirty feet below, the WoodHaven night lights began to glow, bathing the area in soft, twinkling pinpoints of light as far as she could see. Such peace—if she trained her sights on the distance and not on those below.
The tree shuddered. Selah grabbed the rail at the same moment Pasha screamed. Mari keyed her communicator. “Bodhi, Mojica, Selah’s awake. We need to get out of here now. My men aren’t going to be able to hold this mob back for long.”
Selah looked around. “Where’s my equipment?”
Dane ran into the house and right back out with her communicator and pack.
Selah slung on the pack and inserted the earpiece in time to hear Bodhi say, “We’ve just finished the last two graves. We’ll be there in less than five minutes.”
Another shudder to the tree. Selah grabbed the rail again, wondering how they’d get through the mob safely with her little brother in tow. “How are they doing that?”
“Sonic percussion. We use it to judge the internal health of a tree, but not with anybody in it.” Mari gathered up several packs. “It’s more psychological than physical.”
Selah let out a nervous laugh. “Well, it’s working on me. I’m ready to leave.”
Mari lifted the communicator from the wall inside the door and said into it, “I need you back here to give us an exit.” She hung up.
“Bring them down!” a man below shouted. “We know that novarium is up there. Send her down!”
“You need to go on home and mind your business, Zeke,” Mari yelled down. “That’s right. I know who you are.”
“You’ve brought the outside into our midst. Poisoning our land with the likes of one of those people our security system is designed to keep out!”
“Yeah,” a second man said. “We want her out of here.”
Mari leaned over the railing and pointed at Zeke. “He doesn’t want her out of here. He wants to sell her to a splinter group for a bounty payment! He’s using all of you to get the payment, and he’s not going to share any of it with you.”
The other men turned in the direction
of Zeke and his crew, and they argued back and forth. Angry words turned to pushing and shoving and brawling fists.
Several sets of footsteps charged up the circular stairs next to the tree. Selah and Mari peered over the railing. Bodhi, Mojica, and two of Mari’s men came into view. Bodhi and Mojica continued up while Mari’s men stayed as a buffer against the advancing mob.
“It looks like these folks want us to stay awhile,” Mojica said with a crooked smile.
Bodhi hugged Selah and kissed her on the forehead. “How’s your arm? Have you healed yet?”
She leaned into his shoulder. “Yes, just sore. Good thing. I may need that arm to thrust our way out of here.”
The sounds of shouting and a scuffle migrated up the stairs. Mari leaned over the railing. “They’re not going to be able to hold it.” She worked some levers on the porch wall and looked back over the rail. “Chaelen, Raif, get off the stairs.”
The two men plowed their way through the crowd and cleared the area as the throng rushed the stairs.
Selah heard a snap, then creaking and a long sliding and slapping sound. She watched in horror as the stairs collapsed around the pole that had anchored them to the tree. “What did you do?” she said. “We have no way down.”
Mari smirked. “Well, they have no way to get up here, so it’s all good.”
Selah felt her stomach drop. “And how do you propose we get out of here?”
Mari opened a panel on the side of the porch and pulled out one of the tall bins.
A whooshing sound followed by a loud thunk sounded overhead. Everyone ducked and ran except Mari.
“That’s how we’re getting out of here.” She pointed up to the metal-like line that had just embedded itself—by way of a large, lethal-looking hook—into the trunk of the tree above the house.
“Woo-hoo!” Dane yelled. Pasha pulled him close. He squirmed free and danced around.
Pasha closed her eyes for a few seconds, then cocked her head. “How do we do this?”
Selah stood rooted to the porch. She’d seen this done in the woods on her way north. They were going to fly through the air on a skinny wire. She figured if she was supposed to fly, she’d have sprouted wings during one of her changes. But in her mind she knew no one would accept her logic. She shuddered and heaved a sigh. She’d have to do this.
Surge: A Stone Braide Chronicles Story Page 2