I’d been so lost in my thoughts I didn’t realize we were to the lake until it popped up over the horizon. Big, green, and beautiful.
But for the creatures lurking underneath its depths…
The skids were a thing of nightmares, and after jostling and ripping the bed sheet, I realized we’d have to land. I wasn’t going to be able to do a flyover like I’d hoped. The tub and sheet were too janky. I was going to try and plug the hole in the bucket with my hand until Dawn could drink it down past the leak spot. That way she’d have two days’ worth, and hopefully then I’d be cleared by Ronnie to try and get us home. The throbbing at the base of my skull had gotten worse since we left, so I knew I needed some relaxation time on Skyhome as well.
Something stirred at the far edge of the lake, so I instructed Clyde to land me at the opposite end. I could not afford another injury right now. Once we set down about ten feet from the lake, I pulled my gun and did a full 360. No breeders, no creepy mind messages. They’d gone radio silent and it made me nervous.
‘You fill up. I don’t want to come back here unless we have to,’ I told Clyde.
He nodded, and together we walked slowly to the edge of the thick green liquid surface. It was such a bright hyper-color that you couldn’t see through it. It reminded me of thick engine coolant. I needed to be in and out. No issues.
Bending down, I let my semi-automatic rifle hang around my neck from the strap; that way I could grab it easily if needed. Clyde dipped his head in to drink, and I held my palm flat against the hole, ready to plug it for the entire flight home. As I was reaching in to scoop the fluid into my tub, I heard footsteps.
“Don’t fucking move,” a male human voice sounded behind me.
Oh shit.
Nine
I froze. What the hell was it now?
“She has a rifle!” a female voice shouted, joining the male’s that had just told me not to move.
“My name is Commander Kit Steele, I’m—” A fist tangled in my hair and yanked me backward, cutting me off.
All of a sudden I was looking up into the face of a scared old man. I’d seen that look before. He was terrified, unarmed, and in fear of losing his family, which I now saw stood just behind him holding helpless little sharpened sticks.
‘Kit needs help? Clyde can breathe fire, but close to lake might go boom.’
I tried to calm Clyde so we didn’t go boom: ‘Kit is fine. They’re just raiders. They steal to survive.’
Normally, if my entire crew were here, I wouldn’t have let them get the drop on me, but raiders coming up on a single woman, I was in a spot of trouble. I didn’t want to hurt them. They were just acting on their survival instinct.
“What do you want?” I asked the old man, my eyes flicking to a stirring at the water’s surface.
‘Step back, something is in there,’ I told Clyde, and he slowly did as I asked, causing the grandpa to flick his eyes in the Galadria’s direction. I could have taken him then, thrown him over my shoulder and knocked him out. But something in me felt bad for him.
“I need your gun!” He pulled my hair tighter, and then I did have half a mind to throw him over my shoulder and into the water.
“Let go of my hair and I’ll give it to you,” I growled, losing my patience. “Otherwise I’m going to break your kneecap and toss you in the water.”
“Just grab it, Grandpa!” the younger teenager yelled.
His fingers loosened in my hair and I used that opportunity to spin around and push him backward on his ass.
He fell down hard, but he looked sturdy, so I wasn’t too worried. This wasn’t your average bingo-playing gramp. This guy was cut with muscle and full of scars. He’d had a rough life.
“We have no more weapons!” the teenager pleaded with me. “They figured out how to take all metal. We come in nearly naked now. Any clothing with metal, like jeans or underwire bra is gone.” She sobbed.
What the hell? Is that why the breeders had gone silent? They’d finally figured out how to copy us in without weapons?
That meant people with hip replacements and pacemakers… I couldn’t think about that.
The man was looking up at me from the ground, his eyes pleading.
I was probably going to regret this. But I had Clyde and Skyhome and he didn’t.
Pulling the gun over my head, I handed it to him.
“Start rounding up old ammo and weapons and make a cache. Bury them and mark them with a stack of stones. Spread the word to others and try to find the caches when you enter the Dream War.”
He stood, gripping the gun like a life raft. “I will. Thank y—look out!”
Before the warning had fully left his mouth, I felt the razor-sharp tentacle wrap around my ankle and pull. I’d told Clyde to back up and I’d pushed the guy away from me so there was literally nothing to grab on to. Within two seconds I was fully plunged into the green fluid and being dragged to the bottom of the lake.
I’d barely gotten a full breath in before I’d hit the liquid and went under. Now I was holding my breath while searching my pant leg for my knife. No one was going to get me out of this one; it was all me. I kicked and thrashed against the beast dragging me, trying to dislodge him, but really only served to tighten his hold on my ankle.
There! My fingers wrapped around my pocketknife and relief flooded through me.
