H124 watched from a distance as Rowan advanced on one of the last two soldiers, ducking and rolling as he fired off a shot that hit one squarely in the chest. She saw Astoria running along the perimeter of the camp. Leaping on the car the last soldier hid behind, Astoria brandished a vicious-looking knife with a serrated edge and crashed down on him. The car blocked what happened next, but H124 saw the blade appear again, slashing downward.
A round of cheers roared up from the Badlanders. They all rose and came back down from their remote positions, raising their firearms in the air. Byron slumped down on the ground, grinning. “Can’t believe we sent them packing.”
She heard Astoria calling out in the darkness. “Dirk?”
“Here!” came a voice. Her brother staggered out of the shadows into the firelight, face battered and bleeding. Shrapnel protruded from both of his legs, and he collapsed. She rushed over to him, hugging him and rubbing an affectionate fist on his dreadlocks. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Fighting!” he replied.
She went to work on his wounds at once.
Rowan came into the clearing, holstering his gun. “H!”
She stood up. “Here! I’m with Byron.”
Rowan jogged over to her. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Saved my ass,” Byron said.
Rowan grinned. “She does have a habit of doing that.”
As everyone gathered in the center of camp, H124 heard something in the air. At first it was a dull, throbbing sound, a distant thunder she couldn’t quite place. It grew louder. “What is that?” she asked.
Everyone quieted to listen.
The thrumming grew, so low and powerful she could feel it vibrating in her chest.
“What the—” Byron began.
Then Rowan pointed to the sky. “Airship!”
Everyone scattered into the darkness.
“Take cover!” Rowan yelled. He pulled her with him, heading back toward the solar car. “C’mon, Byron! Move your ass!”
Byron ran alongside them, leaping over mounds of dirt and smoking debris much to his discomfort. “What is it?” she asked between gasps.
“We’re dead if that thing sees us.”
Strange lights appeared on the horizon behind them. Beams flashed out, piercing the night.
“It’s coming!” Byron screamed.
At last they reached the car. Rowan wrenched open the driver’s door, sliding in. Byron hurried into the back, and she was the last to enter. As she closed the passenger door, she stared up into the sky. A massive airship appeared, a metal monstrosity thundering across the sky. Tremendous exhaust ports in its underbelly shot out columns of heated gusts, making the air shimmer. The engines thrummed so loudly now that it rattled her ears.
Rowan peeled out, keeping the headlights off. Dazzling searchlights trolled the ground, finding the dead PPC soldiers and the overturned cars of the Badlanders.
As they sped away, the airship gyred in a wider circle. She watched in horror as the light fell on a group of fleeing Badlanders. The low thrumming started to climb in tone, and then a brilliant flash erupted from the ship’s bow. The light took out half the hillside, incinerating the three Badlanders; one second they’d been there, running, and the next they were columns of ash blowing in the wind.
H124 covered her mouth with her hand.
“Oh, gods,” Byron said, staring out.
Another blinding flash from the ship lit up a different patch of landscape, instantly vaporizing two more Badlanders who had been escaping in a jeep.
“Get us the hell out of here, man,” Byron shouted from the back seat. Rowan whipped the car around. Then Byron spun in his seat. “No, wait! I see Dirk. He’s not going to make it!” Before either of them could say anything, Byron threw open the back door and rolled out.
She watched him race away, limping slightly.
“Are you crazy?” Rowan shouted after him.
H124 couldn’t even see Dirk in the chaos.
“Just get her the hell out of here!” Byron yelled back over his shoulder. Suddenly she saw Dirk just as Byron reached him. He was crawling on his belly, trying to make it up a hill.
“Damn it!” Rowan cursed. He spun the car around, tearing off in their direction.
Byron grabbed Dirk’s arms, half dragging him up the rise. Above them the airship wheeled in the sky, heading toward them. As Byron and Dirk crested the rise, almost near the car, a deafening boom cracked through the sky. H124 slapped her hands to her ears as the whole hill lit up, the white searing into her eyes. Rowan screeched the car to a halt.
The light faded, and she stared out, her retinas so burned she could only see a bright circle. She blinked, and the circle turned from silver to blue to green. Then all she could see were the silhouettes of Byron and Dirk, the latter hanging off his friend’s shoulder, seemingly unconscious. They were still too far away. Rowan threw the car in gear, ready to close the distance.
From the other side of the rise, a jeep roared up. “Get in!” the driver yelled to Byron. H124 recognized Astoria at the wheel. Byron hefted Dirk into the back seat of the jeep, then jumped in himself. And like that, they were roaring off in another direction.
Keeping the headlights off, Rowan turned the car and sped back down the hill, weaving it over an old, dirt-packed road. They jostled and bumped along, hitting rocks so hard she expected the axle to crack in half.
The ship turned slowly, sending the beams of light in their direction. If it saw them, one blast would end their lives, their mission, and the world. For a brief second, she thought of that immense asteroid out there, hurtling toward them in the dark of space, and of the devastating impact it would have on the entire planet. Then she thought on the trifling war the PPC waged quietly on its citizens, as well as the overt one it waged on the Badlanders. If only they knew, if only they could all see the big picture, work together—
A blast from the airship hit the ground
