“You’re out,” Bardain said.
Rhea glanced toward the source of the attack, only to see Bardain standing there, no longer in ghost form.
“Take cover when you fight, no matter how unnecessary it might seem,” Bardain said. “Combat always attracts third parties in the Outlands. Not only are other bioweapons drawn to firefights, but bandits, too.”
She frowned as the bioweapons vanished.
“Even if I’d taken cover, you would’ve still had a clean shot from your angle,” she complained to Bardain.
“That’s not the point,” Bardain said. “Take cover.”
“Fine,” she said.
The Kargs came again. She ducked immediately this time, like Will and Horatio, and that seemed to please Bardain. Still, she kept an eye on him, and when he remained in non-ghost form, she fired her pistol at him for good measure, and he turned white.
“Hey!” Bardain said. “That was uncalled for.”
“Was it?” she asked. “You sure you weren’t going to shoot me again, and say something like, ‘trust no one?’”
She didn’t wait for an answer, and instead turned her attention to the stampeding Kargs, firing at their dangling tentacles with Horatio and Will.
Most of the Kargs turned away, but the strikes only made one of the Kargs dash toward them even faster. When one of its tentacles tore clean off, it screamed, seemingly enraged, and increased its speed even further.
“It’s not stopping!” Rhea shouted.
“It happens,” Will said. “Run!”
Horatio and Will rose from cover and hurried away.
Rhea remained where she was.
Will glanced over his shoulder at her. “Rhea!”
“I got this,” she transmitted.
She low-crawled across the ground, keeping low, using the virtual boulders for cover while Horatio and Will drew the Karg after them. She positioned herself behind a small boulder directly in the bioweapon’s path. She lay on her back but kept her pistol close to her chest—there wasn’t enough room to raise it without exposing herself.
The Karg was suddenly leaping over the boulder.
She raised her arm with inhuman speed. Pistol and hand became a blur as she squeezed the trigger and let off three quick shots that struck the Karg between the tentacles, drilling into its underbelly. She had actually intended to fire five times, but the pistol’s recharge interval hadn’t been able to keep up with her.
The Karg screamed in midair. It landed on the other side of the boulder, stumbled forward a few paces, and then collapsed.
“Nicely done,” Will said, coming to her side. “But risky. If those shots hadn’t killed it, the creature would have come back for you. We would have been too far away to help you.”
Bardain put them through various bioweapon exercises for the rest of that day, and as usual, Rhea took care to readjust her hood so that her face remained concealed, as necessary.
The tactics for fighting against the creatures in a group weren’t all that different from battling them alone. When upwind, and the creatures hadn’t noticed you, the best tactic was to remain stock-still until they passed. When downwind, and the foes were manageable, you were better off pressing the attack; if there were too many, running and hiding was the preferred option, with the goal of attaining the high ground so that you could strike from a more advantageous position.
They trained until the late evening, when the light levels began to dim, denoting the coming of night.
“Well, you’re as ready for the Outlands as I can make you,” Bardain announced. He dismissed the AR overlays, so that the boulders vanished, and the vaulted ceiling vanished from the sky.
“She’s actually pretty good for someone who has had only three days of training,” Will commented.
“It’s her mind-machine interface,” Horatio stated. “Accelerates her learning process. Gives her an unfair advantage.”
Bardain studied her. “I don’t know. Maybe. If her aim wasn’t so poor, I’d almost think she had previous fighting experience. Then again, could also be beginner’s luck. Either way, be careful out there.”
“I will,” Rhea said. She revoked Bardain’s access to her HUD. “So, what next? You’ll join us for a graduation supper?”
Bardain laughed. “Oh no! Unless you’re buying?” He glanced at Will, who shook his head. “He’s not paying me enough to host a supper for you, unfortunately. All you receive is a pat on the back from me, I’m afraid. Remember what I told you. And I don’t mind repeating it in front of Will: once you’ve repaid your debt, get out.”
10
Rhea sifted through the unstable ruins of a mid-rise apartment. The building had collapsed at some point, its constituent parts fanning across the broken street. Will had given her a list of salvage to look for, in order of descending value: prescriptions or other medicines; power cells; and lastly machine parts, especially intact servomotors or entire limbs. Metals also had some resale value, but because it was so low, Will instructed her to ignore most pieces. That was why whenever she founded a crushed robotic limb, or a pair of shattered AR goggles for example, she simply tossed them. Best to leave room in her pack for the more valuable items on the list. It was a long way to the next settlement after all—there would be ample opportunities to find better items.
Because medicines and prescriptions were the most valuable, Rhea had suggested visiting former hospitals and pharmacies, but Will had only laughed. “Those places were the first to be looted. As in utterly stripped. We’re better off picking random buildings and doing spot checks on the way out. We do occasionally find the overlooked gem now and then, doing that.”
Spread out beside her, Will and Horatio sifted through the same collapse. The
