As exhausted as he, Gem rolled to her side, and sat up. The pack was still attached, so was her baby, and she had the rescued dark haired child, as well. She could no longer carry the little black infant.
Lydia solved that. With her own in the snuggly, and another infant at her back, she lifted the small black boy, and started across the bridge to the first storage shed.
Gem followed; Loni after, running as fast as he could, with two packs, and two boys in his arms. The ground shook beneath their feet; a third explosion...and then, the unthinkable...the Hydra had slipped through the sewer to the outer ledge...and was back.
Chapter 39
Loni never realized what had happened until later. The blue skinned two year old was looking over his shoulder one minute; he stiffened, and shortly after went limp.
Behind, the little boy had seen the Hydra rise; he tensed. He had watched the minds of the adults, as they both had used the levitation beam and the defense, and like those of his kind, learned quickly. But being as young as he was, his power was limited.
From his young eyes, he shot his first defense beam. The red laser-like weapon found its mark; the eyes of the furious monster behind. Not expecting a challenge from the fleeing prey, it was surprised, halted, blinded immediately. It had backed off, and dropped back to its den in retreat.
****
Loni wondered, in all the fighting, if unnoticed by him, the small boy he held, had somehow been injured. However, as he labored across the bridge behind Gem, he had other things to worry about. The slats and rails were quickly giving way beneath his feet.
"Keep going! Keep going," he ordered telepathically. "We can't stay here!"
But though the damage stopped at the first tree dome, all of them ran on.
Until, that is, they came to the last dome house on the distant horizon.
The women stopped short, and Loni ran into them.
"What's wrong?" he probed from Gem.
Panting, she answered him.
"Listen! Oh, you can't hear..." Gem pointed to their destination.
Scar, Da, and Loni had built a village in the tree tops; twelve units in all. The outer core was mostly filled with storage; the farther away ones, in the center, were meant for family units. Lydia had followed the path, the bridges joining each, to the very outer empty dome.
And as Loni listened in, with the ears of the others, he now heard the most god awfully clamor imaginable. Goats were bleating, pigs squealing and grunting; chickens squawking...as if the shed was a farmyard full of a living menagerie.
Loni laughed. In that instant, he knew, he had found Scar.
Epilogue:
Gem called this upper world Azure Blue. It would never do to call it Earth! She hoped it would never come to that: rape, and greed, and always warring.
It was night now, as she rocked her small girl in her arms, nursing her. Across, in a second chair, Lydia slept, grieving still for Da, but content, with her own infant in her arms.
They had managed to get all the boys to sleep, and it was calming to cuddle quietly, now, with their girls.
They had lost one other small boy...besides Da, and the baby boy, that had died in the attack by the Hydra. Only six children remained: two tiny girls; four boys, three under the age of one, and...one two year old.
That blue skinned boy had finally opened his eyes a couple hours after they were settled in. His memories had enlightened them as to how he had tried to save Loni. As small as he was, so very young, he had discovered the purpose of a male defender. Always afterward, in the future, would he protect those younger, smaller, and weaker than he.
The other little soul they had lost, the one Lydia had forgotten to mask, had breathed his last, just after they had finally found sanctuary. Both she, and Loni, had been too exhausted to heal him. It was grievous, but each must go on again. Now, they had the task to minister to those still living.
Gem couldn't deny it was a miracle they had all come through it. Surely there was a God who had governed their paths; He'd reached down and taken care of each of them. Anyone who said it wasn't so was blind. The timing was too perfect...even the supplies taken out, and the number who had survived, right down to Scar and his meat supply.
At this moment, the men were making a barrier of thorn bushes, and lowering the noisy little creatures to the surface, to keep them away from the living quarters of the children, and adults, that both the milk and meat supply, and the humans who fed upon them, would be safe from predators.
For now, the chickens would remain with the rest, but next order of business was to give each separate pens.
And soon, they would plant the fruit trees, and the gardens...
In the future, they would have eggs, pork, goat meat, milk, fruit and vegetables. Already, they had found edible fruit growing. The men would hunt, set traps...they first had to make weapons.
But, they would survive!
It should all be ready, when the young ones were old enough.
Gem could hear the dinosaurs in the distance, the large cats, and wolves, calling to, or threatening, each other. She was glad that Loni, and the other men had so prepared ahead. They were above ground, and safe.
The Hydra had vanished, unable to get to them, for the sewer ended at the cliff. Off in the distance, when it was light, you could see the many mountain peaks, each the head of a
