by Shéa MacLeod
She pulled the dog tags out of her jeans pocket and laid them gently on top the bookshelf. They glinted in the soft light from the lantern. Sutter would tease her mercilessly if he ever found out she was being such a sentimental idiot.
She kicked off her boots and propped her feet up on the well-worn footrest. She’d found it in a huge building belonging to someone called Ethan All. She didn’t know who Ethan All was, but she figured he wouldn’t mind since the building had obviously been abandoned for years. Not to mention, the man had owned an awful lot of furniture.
Her head told her to forget Micah Caine. The man had been dead over two and a half decades, after all. Her heart was another matter. Or maybe it was the thing Padre Pedro called intuition. Whatever it was called, it was screaming at her that something wasn’t right about the death of Micah Caine. There was more to be discovered.
But how? She couldn’t very well go bang on the door of the local Marine base and demand to know the truth of what happened all those years ago. They probably wouldn’t know anyway. Most of them were younger than she was, and if Rain couldn’t remember anything about Before, how were they supposed to remember? They’d probably lock her up for crazy. Or worse.
Rain frowned. There had to be a way. She’d found his files. By accident, but still. Of course, there was nothing in those files dated after 2012, but the files had survived the War, so why couldn’t there be someone left who remembered Caine?
She sighed and tilted her head back against the chair. Why did she care anyway? Surely there were more important things to worry about than a dead man. Or rather, the missing bones of a dead man.
She almost jumped out of her skin as the shriek of the alarm shattered the quiet of the compound. “Oh, no,” she whispered to herself as she yanked on her boots. “Please, no.”
Three
RAIN DASHED INTO THE hall and almost collided with Sutter. His face was gray, eyes wide as saucers. “Shit, Rain. What’s happening?”
“No idea. Come on.”
They pelted up the stairs toward the first watch tower, their assigned station any time the alarm sounded. They ran past a couple of older women herding the children down into the safety of the underground compound.
At the top of the first flight of stairs they passed the armory where Elan was overseeing the distribution of weapons with the help of young Joey Turrow. The brothers didn’t even look at each other as Sutter and Rain snatched up rifles and a grenade each before they hit the stairs again. Six more flights and they finally reached Tower One.
“Shit!”
Rain couldn’t have said it better herself. This was no drill, they were under attack.
A storage shed near the compound gates went up in flames as a fireball hit the side. A triumphant scream split the air and Rain’s blood ran cold as a second scream answered from the other side of the compound. She’d know the cry of dragons anywhere.
“Sutter,” she could barely breathe as fear squeezed her chest tight, “there are two of them.”
They could maybe fight off one dragon, but two? They’d never survive two. Not without an entire platoon of Marines. Or one Dragon Warrior. The Marines were over a day’s journey away. They’d never get to the compound on time, even if they wanted to. Dragon Warriors might as well be a myth, they were so rare.
“Shit,” Sutter swore. “How’d they find us? Did they follow us?”
“No way. There is no way they followed us. We traveled by daylight.” Dragons were night creatures. Daylight blinded them, leaving them vulnerable, and their hides, normally impenetrable, were ultra-sensitive to the UVs.
Rain’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the two mighty beasts. They were big mothers, full grown and deadly, their huge outlines illuminated by the compound torches. “Someone must have led them here and it wasn’t us.”
Sutter’s eyes widened. “Who would do that?”
“No idea. But if we survive this, you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to find out. And then I’m going to find the fuckers. Come on.” Rain led the way over to the narrow catwalk circling the compound.
Their feet pounded over the uneven boards of the catwalk as they ran toward the next tower. “Shit, Rain! Look out!” Sutter reached out and yanked her down flat onto the boards just as the larger dragon hit the building with a fire ball, singeing the wall where they’d been standing. The railing burst into flame, the old wood burning fast and hot.
Rain scrambled to her feet, taking off down the catwalk again, Sutter hot on her heels. She took the narrow metal stairs to the tower two at a time.
“God damn,” Sutter wheezed behind her. “Those mothers are huge. No way we’re going to take them out with a few rifles.”
“Grenade might to it.” Rain figured she might as well look on the bright side.
“Yeah, if we can get them to eat the things,” Sutter’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
Rain raised an eyebrow. “Now there’s an idea.”
Sutter snorted. “You plan on volunteering?”
“Maybe. Maybe.” She tugged at her lower lip, thinking furiously. “There’s got to be a way to get those monsters to eat a couple grenades.”
“Other than death by dismemberment, you mean.”
“Yeah, other than that.” Rain scanned the compound. There wasn’t much to it; half a dozen ramshackle buildings and a couple of scraggly vegetable gardens surrounded by a cyclone fence that was nearly rusted into nothing.
They’d reinforced the fence a dozen times with scrap metal they scavenged, but they were fighting a losing battle against time. Fortunately, most of the compound was underground, providing some measure of protection from the beasts.
“I guess we could shove one of those grenades down a goat or a cow or something and get the drags to eat it.”
Rain rolled her eyes. “And where are we going to get a goat or cow, let alone feed the thing a grenade without it blowing up?”
He lifted his cap to scratch his scalp. “No idea. But we’ve got to do something.”
“I’ve got an idea. How’s that arm of yours?”
Sutter stared down at his right arm. “Uh, what?”
“Look, I’m going down there. Get one of those things to chase me, right? Then when it tries to eat me, I’ll toss the grenade in its mouth.”
“That’s a stupid fucking idea, Rain.”
She shrugged. “It’s what we’ve got. I’ll take the big one, you take the little one.” Little being a relative term, of course.
“Shit, Rain, you are going to get us killed.”
She grinned. “Only if you don’t run fast enough.”
FROM WITHIN THE SHADOWS of the old parking bay, Rain watched the two dragons hit the compound with blast after blast of fire. The catwalk ringing the wall was gone. Tower Two was gone and Tower One was burning. Padre Pedro had rounded up a couple of the older kids and was trying to keep the fire from spreading further into the compound.
Elan and the rest of the guard were putting the guns she and Sutter had brought back through their paces, but the bullets were useless against dragon hide. She really, really didn’t want to leave the relative safety of the bay, but if she didn’t move now, there wouldn’t be much of a compound left.
She closed her eyes a minute and breathed in deeply through her nose before blowing her breath out through her mouth. The air tasted of sulfur and hot metal.
Rain pulled an egg-shaped grenade out of her pocket, flipped up the lever and stuck her thumb through the ring. A quick tug and the pin would be out. Then she could toss the thing down the dragon’s throat.
If all went well. If not, she was drag food.
She poked her head around the corner of the building. Across the scorched courtyard she could see Sutter crouched behind an old rusted out dumpster. He nodded. She nodded back. It was now or never.
Rain dashed out into the open at the very same time Sutter darted into the courtyard from the opposite direction. The smaller drag caught the movement, its screaming cry almo
st joyful as it wheeled in the air and dove straight at its prey: Sutter.
She didn’t have time to focus on Sutter, though. She could feel the heat of dragon breath on her own back. She risked a glance behind.
The second dragon, golden green scales gleaming dully in firelight, was inches behind her. Rain could smell its breath, rank with the scent of decayed meat. She fought down the urge to vomit at the stench. Hurling up her dinner would be a very bad idea right now.
She pelted across the courtyard, willing her legs to move faster. She was halfway across the open space when a rock under her foot shifted, twisting her to the side and sending her tumbling through the dust. Rain managed to roll to her feet, but something was wrong.
It was like a thousand red hot knives stabbing into her ankle. It gave way and she was back down on the ground, agony shooting through her body.
Flipping to her back, she realized the drag was closer than she’d thought. A lot closer. Its head darted at her, mouth wide, jagged teeth dripping saliva.
Rain rolled desperately to one side, very narrowly avoiding the drag’s sharp teeth as it snapped its powerful jaws shut. Screaming in rage, it darted at her again, but this time she was ready.
Ignoring the pain screaming through her ankle, she rolled forward onto her knees. As the drag’s head came down, jaws open wide, in one fluid movement she flipped out the pin with her thumb and lobbed the grenade down the drag’s throat. With hardly a pause she tumbled forward, somersaulting under the huge body before scrambling to her feet and limping as fast as she could toward Tower One.
With a flying leap, Rain threw herself behind the apron wall around the base of Tower One. She didn’t even have a chance to check on Sutter as the world exploded in white hot light.
Four
“SUTTER! SUTTER!” RAIN’S ears felt like they were stuffed with rags. Everything was muffled, sound fading in and out like Padre Pedro’s old ham radio. Sticky wetness trickled down the right side of her face, dripping salty liquid into her mouth. She spat. Blood.
In some vague corner of her brain, Rain realized she was injured. She had no idea how badly and, frankly, she didn’t give a damn. Sutter was out there. Somewhere. Right in the path of the blast.
“Sut...,” she choked back a sob. The explosion had been bigger than anything she could have predicted. There was no way Sutter ...
She shoved that thought out of her mind. Sutter was fine. He was fine. “Sutter! goddammit, Sutter, answer me!”
She staggered toward the last place she’d seen Sutter, her feet stirring the dust of the arid courtyard. Charred bits of the dragon still smoked, the stink of burning flesh singeing her nostrils. She couldn’t tell if the second dragon had been caught in the blast, but if it hadn’t it was gone, at least.
And then she saw him. Or what was left of him.
Rain sank to her knees, tears falling unchecked down her face. She placed a trembling hand over her mouth, trying to hold back a sob. “Oh, Sutter.”
His body was burned so badly it was unrecognizable. If they hadn’t been the only two people down in the courtyard, she might have been able to convince herself it was someone else.
“Rain.” Footsteps behind her. “It’s not. It can’t be ... “Elan’s voice was tight and harsh, as though he could barely breathe.
Rain hauled herself to her feet and managed to stagger a short way from Sutter’s body before losing what little was in her stomach. Pain lodged itself just under her breastbone. She could hardly believe Sutter was gone.
Elan was still standing over his brother’s body, his face a mask. He swallowed hard. “He’s dead.”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes. “How could he be dead?”
“I’m sorry, El. I didn’t mean ... I didn’t ...” She couldn’t get the words out past the lump in her throat. She swiped at her cheeks, but the tears kept falling.
“The second dragon got away,” Elan said.
Rain blinked. She didn’t care about the second drag. Her best friend was dead. “Sutter’s dead, Elan.”
“Yes, I know.” He turned toward her. “There’s nothing either of us can do about that, is there? We need to focus on what’s important. Protecting the compound.”
She bit back a sharp retort. Grief. It had to be grief. Surely Elan wasn’t so cold. Despite their differences, they were brothers. Had been brothers. The grief of losing his twin must be tearing Elan apart. “We should bury him.”
“There’s no time. We need,” he broke off as a sound hit their ears. The low rumbling was unusual and completely unique. “Marines.”
“Shit.” Rain ran to the gate of the compound and peered out. Sure enough, two Humvees bounced their way over the uneven terrain toward the compound. “Where were they when we needed them?” Before Sutter was killed.
She whirled around and signaled to the other citizens of Sanctuary. They quickly vanished underground, slipping into the secret caverns and storerooms built for just such occasions. This wasn’t the first time the Marines had come calling.
The Humvees pulled up in front of the gates and men in desert camouflage spilled out, weapons at the ready. One of them sauntered toward Rain and Elan. There was a light swagger to his walk as though he thought himself just a little better than anyone else. Rain disliked him instantly.
“Major Smith, at your service. Heard you folks had some dragon problems.” His voice was low and harsh, his eyes icy.
“You’re a little late. We could have used your service an hour ago,” Rain snapped.
“Well, ma’am,” Major Smith tugged at his cap and gave Rain a once over, “we do have more important things than protecting your little compound. Besides, looks like you did a good enough job yourselves. Wonder where you got the ordinance, hmmm?”
Rain glared and crossed her arms over her chest. So, that was what the Marines wanted. They weren’t there to help. They were there to take. Typical.
She glanced at Elan. He just stood there, face remote, eyes locked on the distance. Shit.
“Molotov cocktails,” she lied without batting an eyelash. “Easy enough to make if you’ve got some home brew.”
Smith narrowed his eyes. “Molotovs are useless against dragon hide.”
“We didn’t throw them at the dragons,” she said tartly. “We threw them in the dragons.”
“Dragon.”
“What?”
“There are only enough parts for one dragon here.” Smith indicated the still smoking body parts.
Rain tried to ignore her roiling stomach and shrugged. “The other one got away.”
Smith stepped toward Sutter’s body. “Looks like you got one of your own while you were at it.”
Rain ground her teeth. Bastard. Like she didn’t know her actions had brought about Sutter’s death. She’d never forgive herself for it, either.
“Well, we’ll take the body along with some of that home brew.”
“Excuse me?” She stared at Smith, aghast. “You aren’t taking Sutter’s body. We’re burying him.”
Smith stepped right up into her personal space. “That’s where you’re wrong. According to the Articles of Military Law, we have a right to take anything we want.” He gave her a long look up and down, a smirk crossing his face. “Just be thankful a dead body and some liquor is all we’re taking.”
Rain glanced over at Elan. As head of the compound, he should be dealing with the jackass. Unfortunately, Elan appeared to be in complete shock. He stood there motionless, eyes averted from his brother’s body.
“I don’t think so.” She clenched her fists. “You’ve been taking from us long enough.”
Smith grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head back. “Who’s going to stop us? Huh? You?” He burst out laughing, his men joining him.
She knew it was stupid to battle the Marine, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. Rain hauled off and kneed Major Smith right in the junk. He went down like a ton of bricks.
Unfortunately, his men were
extremely well trained. Before Rain could blink, one of them had a gun pressed up under her chin. “You want I should blow her brains out, sir?”
Smith staggered to his feet, still clutching himself. He waved for the Marine to lower his gun. The minute the gun was down, he slammed his fist into Rain’s cheek, sending her tumbling to the ground.
“No,” Smith said. “No, we don’t want to kill her. She’ll come in handy next time we need a little entertainment at the base.” He crouched down next to Rain and gave her a pleasant smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Now, I’m going to take what I came for, and you’re going to stay here and behave like a good little girl. Do I make myself clear?”
“Fine,” she hissed at the Major. “I can’t stop you.” Not now, anyway but she’d be damned if he was going to get away with stealing her friend’s body.
The smile he gave her wasn’t pretty. “Glad we understand each other.”
Rain staggered to her feet and tucked her arm through Elan’s as the two of them watched the Marines shove what was left of Sutter into a body bag. Then they tossed him into the back of one of the humvees. Rain held back a wince, anger snaking through her at the disrespect. Elan didn’t even blink.
“The booze?” Smith not-so-subtly caressed his gun.
“This way.” Rain led Smith and the rest of the Marines to one of the brick buildings at the edge of the compound. Two large, blue plastic drums were tucked up against the far wall. In front of them sat a couple of crates. Rain pointed at the barrels. “There.”
“That’s it?” Smith frowned, obviously displeased by the pittance.
“We’re lucky we got that much. It was supposed to last through the winter,” she snapped.
“What’s in the crates?”
Rain clenched her jaw and crossed her arms over her chest. “Some canned food we scavenged. It’s our winter stock. You take that and we’re going to starve.”
Smith leered at her. “Too bad. Guess if you get hungry, you can stop by my place. Maybe we can work something out.”