Guns and Dust

Adina climbed up out of the cupola onto the top of the bearcat where Asher was scanning the horizon with binoculars. He looked like some kind of black clad statue silhouetted against the burning bright landscape and blue sky.

The faded and dingy white of the longhunter emblem on his pauldrons stood out starkly in the bright sun. The helmet with crossed pistol and sword beneath, all bracketed between wings seemed to almost burn against his dark armored shoulder.

“Anything?”

Asher dropped his hands but continued to stare out across the dusty, empty expanse. “Nothing,” he answered sourly. When he turned to her, his face was like a mask; hard, thoughtful, his expression locked in concern and concentration. Adina could feel the anger that lay just beneath it. His expression had barely changed since they’d left the camp two days ago searching for Nat.

Just as the boy Teppi had said, faint tracks led from the camp in a direction no one from the camp would normally go.

It felt like weeks had passed since they stood on the quarry camp’s outskirts and Asher had stopped Omar when the big man began organizing a search party.

“We’ll follow the tracks,” he’d told Omar. “We’re better suited to deal with it if something’s happened.” Asher held Omar’s eyes. “Search the camp. Make sure he’s not here.” It was a kind expression, not a command.

Omar stewed angrily for a few moments before Priav approached and laid her hand on his arm. Adina remembered thinking Priav’s red brown complexion framed within the curtain of her grey and white braids seemed especially striking in that moment.

Priav looked up into Omar’s face, holding his hand in hers. “We need to make certain he isn’t here, that something hasn’t happened to him in camp.” She watched Omar’s eyes and nodded to Asher without looking away. “He’s right. Let them do what they do. You do what you are her to do.” She squeezed his hands. “Protecting our camp.”

Omar looked no happier. His jaw cabled, the damaged muscles in the right side of his face sagging and pulling. He nodded his head, then turned to Asher.

“Find who did this, Myrmidon.” Omar’s words were bitten off and harsh. Adina could see Omar didn’t believe Nat was anywhere in camp. Omar watched Asher’s lapis blue eyes for a moment, then turned away. Priav lingered watching Omar as he walked away. She didn’t say anything, she just turned and watched Asher with old eyes, her expression neutral, but Adina could feel the resigned tension behind it.

She doesn’t think Nat is in camp either.

Priav turned and raised her arms shepherding those who’d gathered back toward the rest of the camp. “We must search the camp! Nat may be here!” Priav looked to someone pointed. “Put your swimmers into the quarry! If something has happened and he is there, we need to know!”

Adina’s heart crashed to rocky bottom, the image of Nat floating face down in the quarry’s beautiful waters was like a dagger stabbing her in the chest.

Asher had all but pulled her along by her elbow as he strode back to the bearcat.

“He isn’t here.” And in those three words she could hear everything; anger, heartbreak, fear.

Less than an hour after Teppi had found them at the bluff, Adina was sitting in the driver’s seat of the bearcat as they rolled out of camp. Asher leaned out of the passenger door, following the faint trail. It ended in a ravine half a mile away that was empty save for the remains of a small fire and set of tire tracks heading west.

“Why take Nat?” she’d asked as Asher squatted studying the tire tracks.

He shook his head. “Just a slave maybe. Maybe someone that could tell them about the camp’s defenses.” He glared westward, then he got up and walked back to the bearcat. “We need to go. They have at least a whole night’s head start on us.”

Standing on top of the bearcat, Adina wrapped a hand around Asher’s leather clad, armored sleeve. “We’ll find him.”

He finally turned his eyes to her. They were so hard it hurt her heart. The severe cut of his short cropped white hair and beard only intensified the effect. He just watched her eyes, then put a hand gently on her cheek. “I hope so. But you need to be prepared. Even if we do find him.” He looked in the direction they had been heading. “It could be bad.”

Adina kissed his dusty sleeve. “But we’re going to find him. No matter what,” she told him with absolute certainty. He didn’t look back at her and she could hear his emotion in the way he swallowed hard. He nodded.

Adina hadn’t realized how fond Asher was of Nat until the boy went missing. It might have just been that Nat was a child. The image of Asher’s joyous face as he played with the children at the water’s edge was a bitter irony compared to the harshness of his expression now. But Asher’s reaction had been so sudden and extreme. He was genuinely fond of Nat.

After that Asher had closed up on her like a door slamming shut. He’d barely talked to her since they’d left. She tugged on his arm slightly to try and get him to look at her. When he didn’t, she reached up and put a hand on his cheek and turned his face to hers.

“Please don’t shut me out, Asher.” She watched his eyes. “I can feel how upset you are. But we’re in this together.” She leaned up and gave him a kiss. Then just watched his eyes. “Alright?”

He swallowed again and nodded. “We should get moving.” He climbed down into the cupola leaving her standing alone on top of the bearcat staring out in the sun scorched, empty plain.

They drove for another day and it was fully dark when she turned to Asher from where she sat in the passenger’s seat. “We need to stop, Asher.” She leaned across the console and put a hand on his arm. We haven’t stopped to rest in three days.”

The only sleep they’d gotten was napping in the passenger seat as the other person drove and she could barely move from exhaustion. “We need to stop and rest.” She pointed out the windows. “You’re not going to see anything in this.”

Adina wasn’t sure exactly what he was following. She couldn’t see a thing. But he seemed certain. Every now and then they stopped, and he hopped out, squatting down and looking at some clue or standing and gazing into the distance at some other inscrutable sign.

Asher didn’t answer her. She squeezed his arm, more insistently. “We need to sleep – real sleep, if only for a few hours.” He didn’t look at her, but the bearcat slowed. His head sagged and he nodded in agreement.

The anguished gesture was heartbreaking. Of everything she’d seen of his many emotional states up to now, this was new. She stepped around the console and wrapped her arms around him, leaning her head against his. “Shhh… It’s alright.” Tears rolled from her eyes, her heart feeling like it was being dragged downward by a hook in her chest.

Asher put a hand on her and firmly squeezed her arm. “He’s just a kid.”

Adina kissed his hair and pulled herself tightly against him. “I know.”

They settled down on the mattress, Asher’s heavy, armored coat hanging from one of the shelves. Adina’s head rose and fell with his breathing and she pulled herself tightly to him, everything inside her a confused tumult of fear for Nat, anxiety, and helplessness. She kissed Asher’s chest and climbed on top of him. Her lapis flecked hazel eyes watched his as her long dark hair streamed over one shoulder in her loose ponytail. Adina ran her hands across his strong chest, then leaned down and put her lips on his. It was like kissing a stone at first as she lightly laid her lips on his. Then she kissed him with more urgency and his hands moved, his arms wrapping around her. He kissed her back and she put her hands on the sides of his face, her elbows on his chest, stroking his white bearded cheeks.

“I love you, Asher.” She whispered it, kissing him more and caressing his cheeks. “I love how strong you are.” She stopped and watched his eyes. “And how much you care.” She kissed him more, becoming more and more aroused.

Asher took hold of her shirt and tugged it up, not hard, but insistently. She sat up and let him pull her shirt off over her head, holding her arms up and displaying herself for him. As he put her shirt aside, she took his hands and put them on her breasts. He cupped them, squeezing gently, his fingers playing over her nipples. The thrill that ran through her arched her back, pressing her breasts into his hands.

“Ohhh… yes, Asher.”

Part of Adina wanted to find a way to help ease his pain, but another part simply missed his hands on her. Since they’d met, this was the longest they’d gone without having sex and her body ached for him.

She pulled his shirt up and as soon as it was off, kissed his chest. He pushed her upright, his mouth finding her breasts, sucking each nipple. She hissed at the feel of his tongue and lips on her hard, sensitive buds. Her breath caught and her legs clenched closed a little as the smoldering ache inside her blew into sudden flames. He pulled her long, dark hair out of the ponytail so that her hair fell loosely around her shoulders and ran a hand over her hair and where it lay over her breasts. Adina’s breath came fast as she reached down and opened his pants, then slid her hand inside and wrapped her fingers around his hard penis.

“Ohhh… yes…” she whispered.

Adina hung onto the shelf with one hand, her head thrown back, breathing hard, the tail of Asher’s coat brushing her face as he thrust into her from behind. She was on her knees on the mattress, lost in the ecstatic sensation of him inside her. The ache of her wanting him had turned into building tension. Adina groaned at him filling her so completely. She could feel every sensation as he slowly pushed in and then withdrew, their lovemaking slow and intense.

“It’s so deep!” she moaned, already so tight inside, each push of his cock a thrill that drove her closer and closer to the edge as she pushed back against it. Her other hand was on his, holding it firmly, his thumb pushed into her ass. Adina bit her lip, her hips rolling as everything inside her tummy clenched. She gripped his hand hard feeling her nails on his skin, squeezing her eyes shut.

“Keep going! Just like that!”

He kept his movements rhythmic and certain, and the slow build was tormenting, her legs shook, and her hand on the shelf failed. She fell face down onto the mattress, clinging to his hand, her other hand grasping at the shelf with no coordination as he continued the inexorable, slow driving rhythm. The sudden, sharp pleasure pain of her body giving way made her yelp as her orgasm tore through her. Her feet kicked in uncontrolled spasms, everything inside her feeling like it was clenched around his cock. Even as her body shuddered and bucked, he held her tightly, his thumb still in her ass, driving into her, pushing her through her orgasm. Her whole body locked, and she felt the sudden flood down her legs. Everything was spinning.

Adina was twitching and trembling helplessly, sagged onto the mattress when she felt him pull out of her. A relaxed moan rose up from somewhere deep inside her. “I’ve missed you,” she panted into the mattress.

Asher wrapped an arm around her, and the strong arm pulled her easily against him. Adina turned and settled her head on his chest, luxuriating in how relaxed she felt after her shaking orgasm.

Once her breathing had slowed, Asher carefully rolled her onto her back and got between her legs, looking down at her. His expression had softened, but the crease between his eyebrows was still there. She ran a hand over his scarred, tattooed chest as he pushed his cock along her labia and clit, making her twitch all over again. She smiled, watching him watch her, arching her back and rolling her hips to meet his movement. He stroked strands of her long dark hair out of her face, then bent and kissed her. It was a long, gentle thing. Adina wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his back pulling herself up against him, smashing her breasts against his chest. “I want you so bad,” she whispered in his ear.

Asher started gently but their lovemaking quickly grew into violent animalistic mating. Adina was streaming with sweat, her body arching and collapsing, nothing but a rag doll in his powerful arms as he mercilessly driving his cock into her. He only rested for a moment after his first orgasm before rolling her onto all fours and taking her again. She was so exhausted, she’d come over and over, thrown into fits of primal ecstasy by his wildness, taking what he wanted from her as she moaned and cried, her body responding instinctively.

She’d felt his hot rush of semen a third time before he finally collapsed down on top of her, sweat soaked and panting. Adina had no idea how many times she’d cum or if she’d just been in a constant ebb and flow of one for… however long it had been.

She didn’t care. She just lay there feeling him on top of her, both of them heaving in ecstatic exhaustion.

He finally rolled off of her and pulled her against his chest again. She watched his belly rise and fall rapidly as he caught his breath. She was sore. She had to let her breathing calm again before she could say anything. She kissed his chest, tasting his salty sweat again.

“Are you alright?” She asked between deep breaths. “You’ve never… done anything like that to me before.” She glanced up at his face.

He nodded, still breathing hard as he rolled his head to kiss her sweat matted hair. He turned lapis blue eyes to hers. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

She shook her head and kissed his chest again. “No. You’ve just never been that way before.” A shadow seemed to pass over his expression. She set her chin on his chest, holding his eyes firmly. “You did not hurt me, Asher. I’m fine.” She raised an eyebrow at him and kissed his chest playfully again to ease what felt like sudden tension. “I’m going to be sore… I’m already sore. And I’m going to walk funny,” she grinned at him. “But you didn’t hurt me.” She slid up and took his face between her hands kissing him deeply. He drew her onto his sweaty chest returning her kisses. She pulled back and watched his expression. He pushed hair out of her face again with a gentle finger. “You’re never going to hurt me, Asher.” She ran a hand over a shaved side of his head, cocking her head and taking in his white hair, the curve of his beard. She ran a finger lightly over his lips. “I’ve never been able to say that about anyone else in my life. She kissed him again. “That’s why I love you.”

Adina grimaced at a sudden muscle spasm in her tummy, dropping her head against his chest and laughing. “But I think I need a break!”

Half a day later, Adina was still having aches from their intense sex. She just grinned when it happened. It brought her right back to the feelings and his amazing expression of release when he finished the last time. It was only in looking back that she realized how amazing it was. She was too caught in the sensations at the moment to really understand what was happening. A blush suddenly ran up her neck as she thought about being so completely lost in it.

She looked out into the unending sameness, the images of their hard sex running through her head when a long vertical line in the distance off to their right drew her attention. She sat up in the passenger seat and squinted, the thoughts of she and Asher fading. It wasn’t a dust devil. It was too dark. She grabbed the binoculars

“What do you see?” Asher asked from the driver’s seat.

Adina pointed. “What’s that? Is that smoke?”

The bearcat rolled to a stop and Asher looked across her. “Yeah, it sure looks like it.” He climbed out of the driver’s seat and pushed hanging things out of the way pulling the big sniper rifle from its storage place, then climbed up the ladder to the top of the bearcat. As Adina put her head up through the cupola a moment later, Asher was on his belly on the top of the truck. “Stay low. We don’t know what they might be able to see. We already stick up pretty high.” Adina laid down next to him looking through the binoculars as he popped out the bipod on the rifle and looked down the large scope.

It was a streamer of smoke, but it looked like it was a long way away. In the glaring sun it was hard to tell. It came and went in the heat shimmers.

“Yeah, that’s smoke,” Asher confirmed, watching carefully. “But it’s a long way away – miles.” His cheek was laying against the rifle stock as he glanced away from the scope to get a good look around, then looked through the scope again. “With the heat haze it’s hard to tell how far away it is.” Asher got up on his knees and folded the bipod closed, snapping the covers over the ends of the scope again. “But that’s got to be it, a camp of some kind. That much smoke isn’t from just a few people.” He settled onto his knees. “Now we just need to figure out how to approach it.”

Adina stared at the smoke through the binoculars. She’d envisioned catching up to the single vehicle. The idea they would encounter a whole camp hadn’t crossed her mind. She rolled to look up at him. “What are we going to do?”

Asher let out a long breath, watching the streamer for a moment before answering. “I don’t know yet. We need to see what we’re dealing with.” He looked down at her. “But no matter what, we’re in for a fight. Do you feel ready for that?”

Adina’s heart climbed into her throat. The feeling of rough cord being tied around her wrists was suddenly there again, raw and terrifying. The pain of the punches, the kicks in the stomach, being dragged when she couldn’t breathe. When she could barely stand. And their leering eyes, their laughter…

Suddenly Nat was there in her mind’s eye. His small wrists were red and raw from the rough cord. He was so small compared to them as they punch, kicked, laughed and leered at him. The image clattered against the memory of him at the edge of the quarry; so joyous as he helped the little girl out of the water.

And another kind of heat suddenly blossomed in Adina.

Not again…

Adina’s teeth clamped together so hard it made her head ache. She nodded at Asher, unsure if she could get words out past the sudden fierce emotions. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “We’re…” Adina ground her teeth together and looked straight into his eyes, swallowing again. “We’re going to get him home.”

Asher nodded, watching the intensity in her eyes.

The camp was much further away than Adina had imagined. It had taken more than three hours of cautious driving for them to reach a place where they could safely see it and not be seen. The sun was just setting as she and Asher crawled up to the top of a rocky hill. They’d left the bearcat in a low depression not far away. As soon as Adina pushed her head up enough to see the camp, she felt the spasm in her chest and her heartbeat was suddenly thundering in her ears. The camp was much larger than she’d expected.

There were the typical shade shelters, just cloth strung up between poles or over shoddy structures. But there were also rows of metal cages with dozens of people in them. And half a dozen vehicles were parked around the camp’s perimeter.

“I thought you said there was no one out here!” she whispered fiercely.

Asher shook his head, carefully bringing the sniper rifle up. “Well, there aren’t supposed to be!” He settled the big rifle, scanning the camp through the scope. “Priav and Rafi were right. There’s a lot of empty space out here. We must have just missed whatever is out here on our patrols.” He was quiet for a moment, observing the camp half a mile away. “It isn’t really surprising, I guess. We like to think we’re more efficient than this. Obviously, we’re not.”

Adina searched the camp through the binoculars, but they were too far away for her to see any real details. “Can you see Nat?”

“No, we’re too far away. But those are ghost eyes, that’s certain.” He pointed to a tattered banner flying and other rotting hangings that showed two stylized white eyes within a pair of joined circles, like an infinity symbol.

“There has to be a large community or communities somewhere nearby for there to be that many prisoners.” Adina tried to get an idea of how many people were packed into the cages. “How many ghost eyes do you think are down there?”

“Based on vehicles, I’m guessing no more than twenty.” He pointed to what looked like a structure. “That’s two large vehicles with shades thrown over them.” He slid away from the rifle stock and held it so she could look through the much more powerful scope. “Probably some kind of flatbeds that those cages are carried on.” Asher scanned the camp with the binoculars. “This looks like some kind of satellite camp. Those cages had to be built somewhere and they had to be brought out here. This is just a part of a much bigger operation.”

As Adina scanned the cages through the rifle scope, she could count the people in them. “There have to be fifty or sixty people in those cages.” She counted raiders. “I only count eight ghost eyes down there.”

Asher took the rifle back assessing the camp. “I counted ten, the rest are probably inside the tents.” He blew out a breath. Adina couldn’t tell if it was frustration or resignation. “This is a much bigger fight than we’re geared for. If we can figure out where Nat is, we can probably sneak in and grab him.”

“What about all the people in those cages?”

Asher made a growling sort of noise in his throat. “Yeah, I thought you were going to ask…” He looked at her, lowering the rifle stock to the dirt. “Freeing those people means most likely having to fight every raider down there.” He nodded toward the camp. “That’s a lot of fighting. Even if we could do it and not get killed, it means using a lot of resources – bullets that we can’t necessarily replace.”

Adina acknowledge him with a nod of her own. The thought of fighting an unknown number of Ghost Eyes was terrifying. But the dagger stabbed her in the heart again as she imagined Nat, tied, bruised and left to their mercy. “One of those Ghost Eyes took Nat. That means they know where the quarry is.”

Asher blew out another breath, his expression becoming resigned as he watched her eyes for a moment, then turned back to watch the camp through the scope. “We need to wait until the camp is asleep and grab one of their sentries.”

They’d been able to move the bearcat to within a hundred yards of the camp by carefully maneuvering along the bottom of a gully. The noise of the rest of the camp had covered bearcat’s engine noise. Since then, it had been long, tense hours while they waited for activity in the camp to quiet. From their hidden place they couldn’t see much of the slave cages. If Nat was there, they couldn’t see him.

At this range the stench of the camp was everywhere. Unwashed bodies, the open sewer smell of human waste and other odors made Adina want to throw up.

It was pitch dark, the sky a blanket of stars beyond the brightness of the half-moon as Adina crept behind Asher following him into the camp. Asher was in his helmet and mask again and Adina wore a makeshift equivalent as they settled next to a draped awning that hid them from the rest of the camp.

Asher turned to her whispering just loudly enough to be heart through his mask. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Adina’s heart was hammering, and she was having to consciously take slower breaths. She just nodded and adjusted her grip on Asher’s small, secondary pistol with the silencer on it. Asher had taught her how a silencer worked, but she hadn’t trained with it.

“It’s going to make it barrel heavy and throw off your accuracy,” he’d told her, making sure she took time to get used to the unbalanced weight. “Only use it if you have to. And you’ll want to be close.” He was carrying his short semiautomatic rifle, also silenced, but had it slung, leaving his hands free.

As they’d watched the camp, he’d pointed out the sentry’s patterns. There were only four on watch, three on the perimeter of the camp and one that wandered through it, specifically checking the slave cages. They were going to grab him and learn about the rest of the camp from him.

Asher slid from the shadows, quietly coming around the awning. Like everything else about him, Adina was surprised how quietly moved for such a big man. They slipped from one shadow to another along the back of some of the slave cages. The slaves were asleep or remained unmoving as they quietly passed.

Suddenly the flap of a tent a few yards away was pulled open. Asher pushed them back into the shadows, the length of thick cord he intended to use to capture the sentry held between his hands. A tall Ghost Eye stepped out of the tent, silhouetted by the lantern from inside.

Adina could hear snores from the other side of the fabric of the tent they were backed up against.

The white paint around the raider’s eyes made him look wide-eyed and insane. He was tall, not as tall as Asher, nor as broad. But his scars and the rough, ugly tattoos on his arms and chest were intimidating. Light colored body paint was smeared across his torso to look like ribs. He stretched and approached the slave cages.

The Ghost Eye looked into the cages, eyeing the slaves inside, then stopped. He took out a set of keys. The slaves in the cage and those adjacent to it were instantly awake. Their anguished sound was awful as they reacted to him unlocking the cage, a mix of pitiful moans, crying and fearful pleading.

The Ghost Eye pulled the cage open and stepped inside, grabbing a young woman in a dirty dress. She shrieked and fought, the other slaves cowering in fear.

Adina felt Asher’s hand on her and turned to him. His eyes were intense behind the lenses of his mask. He held up the hand on her and whispered, “Wait.”

The young woman was her age. And as she struggled against the much larger raider’s hands, Adina felt everything inside her suddenly tumble. The feeling of rough cord wrapped around her wrists was there again. She shuddered at the memory of the raider’s hands pawing her.

A voice suddenly rang out from one of the adjacent cages. A black woman threw herself against the bars. “Takin’ a girl ’cause you’re afraid anyone else would laugh at your tiny little limp dick!?” The woman barked fiercely. Even filthy in the stinking cage, she was ferocious. She pressed her face against the bars. “A tiny little limp dick dirt fucker,” she taunted. “That’s what you are! Can’t get it up for a real woman, huh!?” She let out a harsh barking laugh. “You pathetic, clown painted, half man!” she taunted, rattling the cage as she threw herself at the bars again.

The snores on the other side of the cloth inside the tent next to them stopped. There were grunts and complaints and Adina could hear bodies moving. Asher put his hand up again, mimicking shushing her, then pointed.

Adina followed his finger and saw eyes on them. A pair of wide, terrified eyes stared from inside one of the cages. Adina put a finger to where her lips were inside the mask, watching the slave. The slave stayed silent, but suddenly there were other faces turned to them.

She heard Asher’s quiet, “Shit.”

Adina listened carefully over the roar of her heartbeat for the sound of people getting up in the tent next to them as the Ghost Eye dragged the screaming girl from the cage. The girl kicked and fought but he was so much bigger and stronger than she was – it was useless.

Adina heard a quiet hiss from the adjacent cage. One of the slaves drew the fierce black woman’s attention, indicated she and Asher with a point of her chin. Without turning her head, the black woman glanced in their direction. She watched them for a moment. Then with effort Adina could see in the black woman’s cabled jaw and suddenly clenching fists, she moved back from the bars to one side of the cage. She squatted, watching them for only an instant longer then looked back to the Ghost Eye. She grabbed the woman’s face and turned it away from them to not give away their location.

The Ghost Eye closed the cage door and locked it.

“Decided to have some fun, Bulla?” a voice asked from somewhere. Adina froze. The sound was from the far side of the tent. She heard boots on gravel.

“Shut the fuck up!” came from inside the tent.

The black woman craned her neck and pointed in the direction the voice had come from. She raised a single finger indicating one person and mouthed the word ‘sword’ and put her hand on her left hip. She then made subtle pistol shape with her fingers and put them at her back where a belt would be.

“Don’t make me come in there and crack your skull,” the big Ghost Eye, Bulla snarled, lifting the thrashing girl and dragging her toward his tent. She clawed at his face, but he just leaned back and pushed her hands out of the way. The sentry Ghost Eye appeared where the slave had pointed.

The sentry leered at the screaming girl. She was crying and pleading, beating uselessly at Bulla. “She’ll be fun.” He turned and smacked the cage with a long, thick stick he was carrying and pointed it at the black woman who was now huddled quietly with all the others. “I’m looking forward to seeing you chained for breeding, bitch!” The black woman didn’t move, she just glared at him from the dimness inside the cage.

Anger that had been a quiet undercurrent in Adina suddenly ignited with a feeling like fire roaring up inside her, burning away her fear. She shifted her feet, readying herself. Asher shook his head ‘no’ and put his hand on her. “Wait until I take down the sentry,” he whispered, then nodded to her belt. “Take him with the knife – quietly.” Asher’s eyes bored into hers, harsh and demanding.

Adina heard another grunt from inside the tent.

Bulla disappeared into his tent with the girl and Adina’s heart felt like it was going to explode. A moment later the girl started screaming.

Asher kept his hand on her, holding her there, waiting, watching the sentry.

Adina felt tears of fury and anguish roll down her cheeks inside her mask. Her whole body was shaking as she drew her knife, straining against Asher’s hand. She shoved the pistol with its long silencer into the back of her belt.

The sentry turned to the sounds of the struggle going on inside the tent. Asher gripped her arm to get her attention. “Wait until he’s on the ground.” Then he let her go and slipped along the back of the slave cage. He only paused for a moment at the end of the cage before lunging out. In a single fluid motion, the threw the cord over the sentry’s head and drove his knee into the back of the sentry’s. The sentry toppled back, and Asher dragged him back into the shadows, pulling him down, his head tight against the sentry’s as he twisted the cord tight around his throat. The sentry kicked and struggled unable to make any other sound; the sounds of his kicking feet masked by the girl screaming. Hands reached out of the slave cage and grabbed the sentry, holding him fast, faces filled with rage and hate moving in and out of the shadows as the sentry fought.

Adina raced from the shadows the knife gripped in her hand. She paused only long enough to peak past the tent flap before she was in motion again. The young woman was naked on her back on a filthy mattress, trying to cover herself, her torn dress thrown aside. The Ghost Eye was forcing her legs open.

Everything went foggy around Adina, except the girl’s panicked, terrified expression and the Ghost Eye called Bulla. He was crystal clear, like a snapshot cut out from everything around him.

Adina lunged to him and planted her left foot outside his left leg, straddling his kneeling legs as she grabbed his forehead and pulled his head back hard against her chest. His eyes had barely registered she was there, staring into her mask when she drove the point of her knife into the side of his neck the way Asher had shown her, paralyzing his vocal cords. She glared into his eyes watching the panic register there before she slashed away from herself. Her blade cut veins, arteries and his windpipe in a single vicious motion, opening his neck completely from his spine forward.

The young woman screamed anew as the Ghost Eye’s blood sprayed her naked body. Adina held him with grim strength born of her fury. He tried to rise but she pulled him back, her knee in his back and forced him back onto his knees. He clawed at his cut throat while the whistling, gurgling sound of his attempts to breathe were covered by the girl’s screams. Adina watched the color drain from his face as the blood poured from his neck. It only took seconds for his arms to drop and his eyes to go static, staring at her. Adina stepped back, letting his body tumble over. She stared down at him, her bloody knife a strange artifact at the edge of her vision. She couldn’t really feel it in her hand. She knelt and picked up the young woman’s torn dress and handed it to her. The motion felt mechanical. The young woman’s eyes were wide. She’d stopped screaming, staring from Adina to the corpse and back again in confusion and shock.

“Keep screaming,” Adina instructed her quietly as she stood again. Adina’s heart was still hammering, but now she was shot through with a strange sense of calm.

The young woman just stared at her. Adina drew her pistol with her other hand. “Scream to cover the noise.”

The young woman looked at the pistol and through her fear, Adina saw understanding. The young woman began screaming again.

Adina knelt at the body and took his keys, then stepped out of the tent. Asher was trussing the unconscious sentry, whispering quietly to the slaves holding him. A million emotions seemed to crash through Adina in a confusing rush as she walked to him. She put the keys into one of the slave’s hands and turned to the tent she and Asher had hidden against.

She quietly pushed the flap open. There were six Ghost Eyes sleeping inside. She stepped quietly between them, everything suddenly, utterly crystal clear. There was no fear. The pistol jumped in Adina’s hand; the strange little pop of the silencer sounded odd, somehow unsatisfying as she put a bullet into each of their heads. The last raider roused, only a bit, enough to open his eyes and look at her before she shot him.

Adina stepped out of the tent and Asher was watching her. He glanced past her into the tent as the slaves opened their cage and passed the keys to the slaves in the next cage. The fierce, tall, dark-skinned woman appeared and looked from Asher to Adina, then to the bloody knife and pistol in Adina’s hands. She didn’t say a word. She just stepped past Adina into the tent and emerged a moment later carrying weapons from the Ghost Eyes.

Asher watched the woman hand weapons to other able-bodied slaves, then turned and watched Adina’s eyes for a moment, registering the grim set of her mouth. “Alright then.” He turned back to the black woman. “We’re looking for a little boy. Twelve years old, dark hair. He should have arrived yesterday.”

The woman shook her head. “I don’t know. We don’t see much.”

Another of the slaves, a young woman, stepped to Adina. “Crida?” Adina pointed into the tent and leaned close, whispering. “She’s alright. I stopped him before it happened. Keep her screaming to cover the noise. The young woman disappeared into the tent.

Asher looked at the tall black woman. “How many raiders?”

“Twenty or twenty-five.” She crouched and led them toward the center of the camp. “This way.” Adina heard the sound of many feet following them and the creak and groan of metal hinges as cages were opened.

Many of the Ghost Eyes died in their sleep, completely unaware of what was happening. A dozen slaves were with them now, led by the fierce black woman. But now the whole camp was awake, filled with hoarse shouts, the clatter of weapons and claps of gunfire. Slaves both freed and still in cages roared as the fighting raged. Several of the tents were in flames.

Adina was trying to see one of the Ghost Eyes who was tucked in against a vehicle when quick movement drew her attention. A vehicle suddenly appeared from behind a set of tents, accelerating away from the camp.

Adina pointed to where the man was. “He’s right there!”

The tall black woman looked where she pointed, and Adina turned and sprinted for the bearcat. Faces of Ghost Eyes she’d killed before they had a chance to wake up swam in Adina’s mind with those of fierce slaves, whose rage matched her own. When she turned back over her shoulder, the raider vehicle had disappeared into the darkness.

Adina slid down the embankment on a hip, ignoring the scrape of rough rocks and gravel through her pants, then clambered up into the bearcat. She could see the flashes where Asher and the slaves were fighting in her peripheral vision, but her attention was fixed on dust cloud left by the other vehicle.

She’d barely gotten the door closed before she threw the bearcat in motion, turning the heavy vehicle to climb up the gully’s sloped side. She stomped on the accelerator and felt the wheels claw the parched, rocky soil as she roared up it. The bearcat came off the slope like a ramp, airborne for a moment, the engine howling as the wheels freed themselves from the ground. Then it slammed down hard, the impact nearly throwing her out of her seat. She jammed the accelerator to the floor again, the bearcat tearing up the parched earth, hurling rocks and gravel skyward. There was a moon, so even if she couldn’t see the raider vehicle, the dust cloud it left was easy to follow. She plowed over one or the Ghost Eye’s tents as she turned to follow it.

The helpless naked girl, screaming as the Ghost Eye was about to rape her filled her mind. The remembered pain in her ribs from being kicked and punched were there again.

No more!

She reached to the center console and pulled a lever as she broke out into open barren ground. The demonic howl of the air siren pitched higher as she gained speed matching the howl inside her. The threw a second lever. She heard and felt the loud metallic clang as the armored wheel covers came down.

Not again…

She caught a glimpse of the other vehicle. It was lighter and faster than the bearcat, opening distance away from her. She would never catch it. Adina slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the driver’s seat. She grabbed the sniper rifle from its storage bay and hauled it up onto the bearcat’s top. After the last time, she’d had Asher show her how to use the it without hurting herself. She laid down behind it and yanked back the bolt, chambering one of the huge rounds. She pulled it tightly against her shoulder and braced herself. Even with the rifle’s optics she could barely make out the vehicle for the dust cloud and the darkness. Adina took a deep breath, slowly letting it out, every part of her feeling like it was reaching out through the scope. The raider appeared from the dust for an instant and the rifle went off as if someone else had squeezed the trigger. The recoil was a whole-body shock and the concussion wave threw up a dust cloud from the top of the bearcat. But she knew how to absorb the blow this time. The raider vehicle veered, suddenly visible as it swung, struggling, dragging. Adina had no idea what she’d hit. It didn’t matter.

She climbed back down and stowed the rifle, then leapt into the driver’s seat again.

There was no way for them to get away now.

The air siren howled again as she tore through the dark after the wounded vehicle. It felt like only seconds passed before she heard the snap and ping of bullets ricocheting off the bearcat’s thick skin. Two of the Ghost Eyes were hanging from the outside of the vehicle, firing at her. The vehicle turned, suddenly obscured by a thick dust cloud, made bright in the moonlight.