“I am receiving nothing in reply when I ping their armor.” MK sounded stunned too. “They are—they are both gone.”
Chris and Wash were dead.
Keira was stunned to her core. A terrible wave of grief mixed with guilt washed over her. She had not had the chance to take back those accusing words back in the stairwell. She knew when she had said them, they had wounded Chris. And now, at this moment, they rang in her mind as clear as day. That’s all it was … all I ever was to you, something of value, nothing more.
She wished she had never uttered those words, for they had been unjust, ungrateful, and had been said in the heat of the moment. They would haunt her for the rest of her days. There was no taking them back, ever, not now.
“Oh god, no,” Vex breathed in pure horror. “Not my Wash. Oh god, please no.”
Keira felt tears running down her face. Steadily she was losing everything that was dear to her. Her mother, her father, Lee, and now both Chris and Wash. Her heart broke into a million pieces and she gave an agonized sob.
“Fuck you,” Vex suddenly screamed in rage and hate. She leaned around the corner of the building, her rifle coming to her shoulder. It barked twice in rapid succession. “Bastards.”
The rifle cracked again and again. Incoming fire peppered the ground and building around where the marine was shooting at the enemy.
MK moved forward and physically grabbed Vex by the shoulders and dragged her, struggling, back into cover. The rounds kept hammering the corner and in greater volume.
“What are you doing?” Vex fought against the machine. “Let me go.”
“Vex,” MK said in a tone laced heavily with sadness. “I will not let you go until you calm down. We still have a mission to complete, a job to do. The gunny and Wash would wish us to see it through.”
“No,” Vex screamed as she struggled mightily against the mech’s hold, which seemed unbreakable. One of her booted feet lashed out and put a solid hole through the wall of the building. Her powered armor strained with the effort, and still she could not break free from the mech’s grip. “I want to kill them all. I will kill them. Let me go!”
“I grieve for your loss,” MK said, almost gently. “Both the gunny and Wash were my friends. I count you as one, and I do not like losing friends. It makes me sad.” The mech fell silent for a heartbeat. “We need to get Keira to safety. Do not let their deaths be in vain.” The mech paused again. “Please, Vex, do not go to your death. I could not stand losing another friend.”
The marine suddenly stopped struggling and seemed to deflate. MK released her a heartbeat later. Vex fell to her knees. In the struggle Vex had dropped her rifle. She gave an agonizing sob filled with what could only be described as an inconsolable grief.
“My poor Wash,” Vex whispered and then, after a moment, the marine sucked in a deep breath that shuddered. She slowly stood back up, turned, and regarded MK for a long moment. There was a look of despair upon Vex’s face, with tears streaming freely down her cheeks. Then she reached out and hugged the mech. “I don’t want to lose you either. I couldn’t bear it.” Vex gave a sob. “I didn’t want them to go so soon.”
“I know,” MK said, and patted Vex on the back gently, as if she was not wearing powered armor. “Neither did I. Now, Vex, we need to complete the mission. That must be our focus. The time for vengeance can come later.”
Vex drew back, her gaze hardening into a steel mask of control. The tears, as if controlled by a mechanical device, stopped coming.
“If it’s the last thing I do,” Vex said to Keira with steel in her tone, “we’re going to get you to the Seri. Then I am going to come back and murder every one of those motherfuckers that killed my Wash or had a hand in it.”
The marine turned to look back out onto the smoking street, where Chris and Wash had met their end. She stared for several heartbeats, as if committing the scene to memory, then turned away.
“We’re very close to the rendezvous point.” Vex’s tone was gruff. “Come on, let’s go.”
She started forward down the alley. Keira looked back out into the smoking street. The wind gusted strongly, kicking sand and dust into the air. Flames and smoke still poured through the hole where the Beast had been.
“I’m sorry,” Keira breathed, “so sorry.”
Her anger sparked again. It grew into a burning inferno like the street before her. She too wanted to make them pay, to get her revenge. Keira turned to follow Vex and found MK had not moved. The mech was staring at her. His head was tilted to the side. He had lost too, just as they had. A lump formed in her throat.
“Hurry the fuck up and let’s go,” Vex called almost savagely from farther down the alley. “They’re gonna start wondering why we’re not shooting back at them and come investigate.”
Keira spared one more look out onto the street, gave a nod, and then hurried to catch up to Vex. She glanced back at the mech, only to see him hesitate, gazing almost forlornly back out into the street too. Then MK turned and followed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Grenade,” Vex called the warning out.
In the close confines of the street, Keira threw herself to the side and into an alcove with a closed door. There was a moment of resistance as she impacted the door, then it gave way and splintered apart under her momentum and weight. She landed on the floor inside the building, which was covered in an age of old sand and dust, with pieces of the rotten door scattered around her.
There was a deafening blast outside.
Weapon’s fire followed.
Hacking from the dust, Keira pulled herself to her feet. She was still holding onto the rifle. She peeked around the corner. Vex was on a knee out in the street, just outside the door. Her rifle was to her shoulder, aimed back down the way they had come. She fired a single shot. MK was on the other side of the street as well, shooting.
The street was narrow. The buildings that lined it were old, crumbling, and crowded in upon one another. Judging from the room she found herself in, it was also thoroughly abandoned and had a decayed feel to it.
“Stay inside.” Vex called, aiming once again and pulling the trigger. Her rifle barked. “I got him. He’s down.”
“That was a fine shot,” MK said appreciatively.
“Go check to make sure the other’s been put down as well,” Vex told MK. She looked over at Keira as the mech moved down the street. “Keira, is there a way out the back of that building? We may have to use it if there are more regulators down this street.”
“I’ll check,” Keira said. She turned around and scanned the room. The windows had long ago been broken. There were remnants of furniture scattered about, much of it buried under a thick layer of sand and dust. She had no idea what the place had once been. Keira passed a set of stairs. She could see sky overhead, as most of the roof from the second floor was missing. Keira crossed the room and stepped through an open doorway and into a backroom.
This room looked like it had once been used for storage, but she could not be certain. A handful of rusted shelving units remained shoved up against two of the walls. Beyond that, there was nothing of value left. It had been stripped of anything even remotely of use.
There was a door ahead. She tried it. It swung easily and opened to another room, which turned out to be a foyer with another door, one that clearly led to the outside at the other end. The tiled floor in the foyer was relatively free of sand and dust. The tiles made geometric patterns that Keira thought quite pretty.
She moved forward to check the street. As she put her hand on the knob, the door burst open. Keira was thrown backward. She bounced into the side wall and lost her footing. As she landed, her rifle slipped from her grasp.
A soldier wearing the black unpowered armor of the regulators stood framed in the doorway. Through his helmeted visor, he seemed just as surprised as she was. That did not last long. He raised his rifle, an R-95M, pointing the business end at her, then carefully entered the room. His eyes never left Keira
as he moved deeper into the foyer.
“Look what I found, Corporal,” the soldier called. He grinned at her. Another regulator followed him in several heartbeats later. “Going somewhere, sweetie?”
“Hot damn. She’s the one we want,” the other regulator, a woman, said. Her voice was hard and unforgiving. She too held a rifle, the same model as her companion. It also was pointed at Keira’s chest. “She matches the picture that was passed about. Crecee’s gonna be pleased, and I mean really pleased. He was expecting to bring her in dead.”
Keira scooted back and away from them. She wanted to call out to Vex and MK. Her voice would not come. The woman slung her rifle over a shoulder and stepped forward, kicking Keira’s rifle away. With a gloved hand, she grabbed Keira’s hair and yanked her roughly to her feet. Keira cried out in pain. The corporal slammed her up against the wall. The blow was almost enough to force the wind from Keira’s lungs.
“That’s for making us come out right before a major storm.” She hammered Keira into the wall again. “Why could you have not done things the easy way and just turned yourself in? Stupid bitch, this is Asherho. There’s nowhere to hide from us. We’d have found you eventually.”
“Screw you,” Keira said and spat on the corporal’s visor.
“Not only are you stupid, but you’re a troublesome bitch.” The corporal leaned close. “If you cause me any problems as we take you in, there’s gonna be pain.” She slammed Keira against the wall again. “I hear two militia companies were decimated going after you and your pals. And here you just fall into our hands, easy-like. How lucky for us.” The corporal turned back to the other soldier as she pulled out a pair of plastic zip ties. “Call it in. Tell the sergeant he can bring up the rest of the troops. We’ve got what we came for.”
The other soldier looked up. “Say … where are her companions?”
“Right here,” Vex said, seeming to literally materialize in the doorway that had led Keira to the foyer. The marine’s rifle roared in the small space. The soldier was blown backward by the blast and partially out onto the street. He lay there twitching.
Without even thinking, as her tormentor was distracted, Keira drew her gravity blade. In her hand, it hummed to life a heartbeat before she plunged it deep into the woman’s stomach, cutting easily through the layers of reinforced armor. The regulator screamed in agony as the blade went deep. She tried to back away, but Keira held on tight to the other’s shoulder. She felt blood pour down her knife arm, soaking the sweats as the woman’s stomach opened. Keira gave the blade a savage twist. Her opponent gagged in agony.
“Screw you,” Keira spat again, “and screw that sick, sadistic bastard Crecee, too.”
Keira stabbed the corporal again and then again for good measure. After Chris and Wash’s death, it felt good to take some revenge, to even the slate. Each time the blade went in, the corporal gave a hard grunt. Her struggles against Keira’s hold became weaker. Enraged, Keira stabbed her another time.
There was no grunt.
“I think she’s had enough,” Vex said in a hard tone.
That snapped Keira out of the blood rage. Keira released the corporal, who was unmoving in her grasp. The regulator slumped down to the deck in a heap at her feet. Her intestines spilled out through the gap in the armor Keira had carved. They lay in a small, steaming pile to the side of the body. The smell of blood was strong on the air. Keira could taste the coppery tang as she breathed. She stared down in horror at what she had done.
“Remind me not to piss you off,” Vex said, then stepped forward to peek around the corner and out into the street. “We’re not going that way. There are regulators down there at the far end of the street. They’re not coming this way. For some reason, they are just standing there.” Vex grabbed the man’s legs, which were still inside the doorway, and dragged him in and off the street. She knelt next to him and pulled two grenades off his harness, which she attached to her own armor. The marine stood and jerked her head at the two. “These and the others we came across back there were likely advance scouts. With luck, we got them all. Come on, back out the front door before the main body decides to move up.”
Vex led Keira back to the front. MK had returned. He eyed Keira’s blood-stained sweatshirt, almost warily.
“Did you run into a problem?” MK asked.
“No,” Vex replied, “not at all … why do you ask?”
“Keira is covered in blood,” MK said. “I do not believe it is hers.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you are a master of observation?” Vex said, glancing out onto the street. “Now report.”
“The street is clear,” MK reported. “I have terminated three enemy sheltering in a building twenty meters that way.” He pointed. “I did not find any more.”
“That’s good news,” Vex said. “We’re going to cross the street as quick as we can and go through that door there.” She pointed to the other side of the street.
Part of the building Vex indicated had collapsed. Through the windows, Keira could see another street beyond.
“If it’s clear,” Vex continued, “we move up the next street about two hundred meters. Then we will come to a large park. The resort is across from the park. Actually, all of these streets should lead to that park. We just need to avoid the regulators.”
“The resort?” Keira asked.
“Yeah,” Vex said. “That’s the rendezvous point. Come on.”
She stepped through the doorway and dashed to the other side of the street. Keira followed. As she made the sprint, she kept expecting the harsh crack of rifle fire. It did not come.
Kicking the door open, Vex entered the next building. It had been an old shop. The plate glass composite display windows had long since been broken. The remains lay under a layer of sand and crunched under Keira’s feet as she entered. No furniture remained, other than a few fixed display cases, which were empty. Rifle butt to her shoulder, Vex was already moving into the back room. MK entered right behind them.
Keira followed the marine into the room, which, despite a centimeter or two of sand, was empty as well. A short hallway led to a back door that was missing, as was the rest of the building that lay in rubble all around. Vex peered out into the street, looking quickly left and then right.
“It’s clear, let’s go.”
The street behind the shops was small and narrow, almost claustrophobic. It likely had been used as a service road. Another set of buildings was on the other side of the street and looked like they’d once been apartments and homes. All appeared half wrecked. Most of the structures were missing their roofs. With the continual storms that raged across the surface of Asherho, this was not an uncommon occurrence.
Moving quickly, they made their way down the street, with MK following. The mech kept watching behind them as they hurried toward their destination.
“The resort,” Keira asked. “What was it?”
“There used to be a large lake in these parts,” Vex said, “back before the cracking of the planet. It was around two hundred kilometers around. People used to come from all over for swimming, fishing, boating—recreational-type stuff.” Vex paused at an alley to their right. She looked down it, then, satisfied there was no threat, continued onward. “I’ve seen pictures from before the cracking and it looked quite nice. Now the lake’s gone. It’s only a bed of sand. The safe house is buried under the dry lake.”
That was news to Keira.
“What’s fishing?”
Vex paused and glanced back at her, with a sad expression. “Fish are animals that live in the water. People eat them. Me, I’ve never much enjoyed the taste. It can be fun trying to catch them though.”
Keira had difficulty picturing it in her head. She didn’t even know what a fish was, other than some sort of aquatic animal.
“Are they dangerous?”
“What?” Vex asked. “Are fish dangerous? Some can be. Most are harmless though.”
“Huh.”
“If
we survive this,” Vex said, continuing down the street, “I’ll be sure to show you pictures and video. The Seri has an immersion simulator that feels like the real thing. You can experience fishing yourself. You might even enjoy it. Some of my fellow marines over the years were really fond of it. Honestly, I think they enjoyed the drinking and bullshitting that goes along with the sport more than the actual fishing.”
A muffled shout rang out somewhere behind them. Vex immediately ducked into a building on the left and motioned them in. When they were safely inside, she peered back down the service road.
“Regulators,” Vex said. “They’re still a ways off, but they’re headed in our direction. It looks like they’re clearing each building as they come up, which is good for us. It buys us time.”
The building they were in was no more than a shell. Whatever it had been, Keira could no longer tell. Vex turned away from the door and led them through the building to the other side, where they found a main avenue covered in sand. Abandoned vehicles, stripped remnants of their former selves, were parked along its length. Vex stepped outside and turned to the right. Keira glanced back as she continued forward but didn’t see anyone down the street’s length.
Ahead, the street curved to the right. Everything around them was still, seemingly lifeless. They continued around the bend and Keira saw it ended thirty meters ahead. There was a large open space there, with what looked like a defunct decorative fountain in the center. The central feature of the fountain, some sort of statue, had been worn down by the continual sandstorms to an indistinct lump. At the far end of the park was a long row of what had clearly once been an impressive set of buildings.
“That’s it,” Vex said as they reached the end of the street. She took a knee and pointed. Keira stopped behind her. “There’s the resort.”
She had never seen a resort before. The centermost building was multistoried and larger than the others. It had been constructed of stone blocks. The blowing sands had eaten away at the blocks and removed whatever paint had once been applied. Still, the building looked more ornate than the rest, with sweeping columns and a raised walkway that ran around it.
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