?Stay here,? Nikanj said. It stood up and grasped Tino with all four arms. ?Protect the children.? It shook him once for emphasis, then ran into the forest. Ahajas and Dichaan followed. Oankali were much less likely to be killed even if the shouting Humans made a serious effort.
Our Human parents gathered us together and drew us into thicker forest, where we could see and resisters could not. Lilith and Tino had been modified so that, like us, they could see by infrared light?by heat. For us all, the living forest was full of light.
And the air was full of scents. Humans coming. Not close yet, but coming. Several of them. Eight, nine of them. Males.
Lilith and Tino freed their machetes and backed us farther into the forest.
?Do nothing unless they come after us,? Lilith said. ?If they do come, run. If they catch you, kill.?
She sounded like Nikanj. But from Nikanj, the words had sounded like cries of pain. From her they were cries of fear. She feared for us. I could not remember ever seeing her afraid for herself. Years before, concealed high in a tree, I watched her fight off three male resisters who wanted to rape her. She hadn?t been afraid once she saw that they weren?t aware of me. She even managed not to hurt them much. They ran away, believing she was a construct.
The resisters who were hunting us now would not run from us, and both Lilith and Tino knew it. They watched as the resisters discovered the camp, tried to tear down the hammocks, tried to burn them. But Lo cloth would not burn, and no normal Human could cut or tear it.
They stole Lilith?s and Tino?s packs, hacked down the smaller trees we?d tied our hammocks to, ground exposed food into the dirt, and set fire to the trees. They looked for us in the light of the fire, but they were afraid to venture too far into the forest, afraid to scatter too much yet, afraid to seem to huddle together. Perhaps they knew what would happen to them if they found us. Perhaps destroying our belongings would be enough?though they did have guns.
They had not gotten the pack Lilith had made for me. While she and Tino were gathering my siblings, I had grabbed my pack and run with it. I meant to help if there was fighting. I wouldn?t run with my younger siblings. But I also meant to keep what might be my last bit of Lo. No one would steal it.
The fire spread slowly, and the resisters had to leave our campsite. They went back into the trees the way they?d come. We stayed where we were, knowing that the river was nearby. We would run for that if we had to.
But the fire did not spread far. It singed a few standing trees and consumed the few that had been cut. My Oankali parents came back wounded and already healing, carrying a living burden.
The danger seemed past. We smelled nothing except smoke, heard nothing except the crackling of the dying fire and natural sounds. We went out to meet the three Oankali.
As I stepped into the open, into the firelight, I was in front of my Human parents and my siblings. That was good because as an ooloi, I was theoretically more able to survive gunshot wounds than any of them. Now I would find out whether that was true.
I was shot three times. The first two shots came from slightly different directions at almost the same instant. To me, they were a single blow, slamming into me, spinning me all the way around. The first two shots hit me in the left shoulder and left lower back. The third hit me in the chest as I spun. It knocked me down.
I rolled and came to my feet just in time to see my Oankali parents go after the resisters. The resisters stopped firing abruptly and scattered. I could hear them?nine males fleeing in nine directions, knowing that three Oankali could not catch them all.
Nikanj and Dichaan each caught one of them. Ahajas, larger, and apparently unwounded, caught two. Each of those caught had fired their rifles. They smelled of the powder they used to shoot. They also smelled terrified. They were being held by the people they feared most. They struggled desperately. One of them wept and cursed and stank more than the others. This was one of those held by Ahajas.
Silently Nikanj took that one from Ahajas and passed her the one he?d caught. The male who had been given to Nikanj began to scream. Blood spilled out of his nose, though no one had touched his face.
Nikanj touched his neck with a sensory tentacle and injected calmness.
The male shouted, ?No, no, no, no.? But the last ?no? was a whimper. He drew a deep breath, choked on his own blood, and coughed several times. After a while, he was quiet and calm. Nikanj let him wipe his nose on the cloth of his shirt at the shoulder. Nikanj touched his neck once more and the male smiled. Nikanj took him to a large tree and made him sit down against it.
?Stay there,? Nikanj said.
The male looked at it, smiled, and nodded. Even in the leaping fire shadows, he looked peaceful, relaxed.
?Run!? one of his companions shouted to him.
The male put his head back against the tree and closed his eyes. He wasn?t unconscious. He was just too comfortable, too relaxed to worry about anything.
Nikanj went to each prisoner and gave comfort and calmness. When there was no need for anyone to hold them, it came to examine me.
I had sat down against a tree myself, glad for the support it gave. I was having a lot of pain, but I had already expelled the two bullets that hadn?t gone all the way through me and I had stopped the bleeding. By the time Nikanj reached me, I was slowly, carefully encouraging my body to repair itself. I had never been injured this badly before, but my body seemed to be handling it. Here was its chance to grow tissue quickly to fulfill need rather than to cause trouble.
?Good,? Nikanj said. ?You don?t need me right now.? It stood back from me. ?Is anyone else hurt??
No one was except the Human woman my Oankali parents had rescued. I could have used some help with my pain, but Nikanj had perceived that and ignored it. It wanted to see what I could do on my own.
Nikanj went to the bloody, unconscious Human woman and lay down beside her.
The woman had been beaten about the face, and from her scent, two males had recently had sex with her. I
