Rain frowned. There had to be a way. She’d found his files. By accident, but still. Of course, there was nothing in those files dated after 2012, but the files had survived the War, so why couldn’t there be someone left who remembered Caine?
She sighed and tilted her head back against the chair. Why did she care anyway? Surely there were more important things to worry about than a dead man. Or rather, the missing bones of a dead man.
She almost jumped out of her skin as the shriek of the alarm shattered the quiet of the compound. “Oh, no,” she whispered to herself as she yanked on her boots. “Please, no.”
Three
RAIN DASHED INTO THE hall and almost collided with Sutter. His face was gray, eyes wide as saucers. “Shit, Rain. What’s happening?”
“No idea. Come on.”
They pelted up the stairs toward the first watch tower, their assigned station any time the alarm sounded. They ran past a couple of older women herding the children down into the safety of the underground compound.
At the top of the first flight of stairs they passed the armory where Elan was overseeing the distribution of weapons with the help of young Joey Turrow. The brothers didn’t even look at each other as Sutter and Rain snatched up rifles and a grenade each before they hit the stairs again. Six more flights and they finally reached Tower One.
“Shit!”
Rain couldn’t have said it better herself. This was no drill, they were under attack.
A storage shed near the compound gates went up in flames as a fireball hit the side. A triumphant scream split the air and Rain’s blood ran cold as a second scream answered from the other side of the compound. She’d know the cry of dragons anywhere.
“Sutter,” she could barely breathe as fear squeezed her chest tight, “there are two of them.”
They could maybe fight off one dragon, but two? They’d never survive two. Not without an entire platoon of Marines. Or one Dragon Warrior. The Marines were over a day’s journey away. They’d never get to the compound on time, even if they wanted to. Dragon Warriors might as well be a myth, they were so rare.
“Shit,” Sutter swore. “How’d they find us? Did they follow us?”
“No way. There is no way they followed us. We traveled by daylight.” Dragons were night creatures. Daylight blinded them, leaving them vulnerable, and their hides, normally impenetrable, were ultra-sensitive to the UVs.
Rain’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the two mighty beasts. They were big mothers, full grown and deadly, their huge outlines illuminated by the compound torches. “Someone must have led them here and it wasn’t us.”
Sutter’s eyes widened. “Who would do that?”
“No idea. But if we survive this, you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to find out. And then I’m going to find the fuckers. Come on.” Rain led the way over to the narrow catwalk circling the compound.
Their feet pounded over the uneven boards of the catwalk as they ran toward the next tower. “Shit, Rain! Look out!” Sutter reached out and yanked her down flat onto the boards just as the larger dragon hit the building with a fire ball, singeing the wall where they’d been standing. The railing burst into flame, the old wood burning fast and hot.
Rain scrambled to her feet, taking off down the catwalk again, Sutter hot on her heels. She took the narrow metal stairs to the tower two at a time.
“God damn,” Sutter wheezed behind her. “Those mothers are huge. No way we’re going to take them out with a few rifles.”
“Grenade might to it.” Rain figured she might as well look on the bright side.
“Yeah, if we can get them to eat the things,” Sutter’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
Rain raised an eyebrow. “Now there’s an idea.”
Sutter snorted. “You plan on volunteering?”
“Maybe. Maybe.” She tugged at her lower lip, thinking furiously. “There’s got to be a way to get those monsters to eat a couple grenades.”
“Other than death by dismemberment, you mean.”
“Yeah, other than that.” Rain scanned the compound. There wasn’t much to it; half a dozen ramshackle buildings and a couple of scraggly vegetable gardens surrounded by a cyclone fence that was nearly rusted into nothing.
They’d reinforced the fence a dozen times with scrap metal they scavenged, but they were fighting a losing battle against time. Fortunately, most of the compound was underground, providing some measure of protection from the beasts.
“I guess we could shove one of those grenades down a goat or a cow or something and get the drags to eat it.”
Rain rolled her eyes. “And where are we going to get a goat or cow, let alone feed the thing a grenade without it blowing up?”
He lifted his cap to scratch his scalp. “No idea. But we’ve got to do something.”
“I’ve got an idea. How’s that arm of yours?”
Sutter stared down at his right arm. “Uh, what?”
“Look, I’m going down there. Get one of those things to chase me, right? Then when it tries to eat me, I’ll toss the grenade in its mouth.”
“That’s a stupid fucking idea, Rain.”
She shrugged. “It’s what we’ve got. I’ll take the big one, you take the little one.” Little being a relative term, of course.
“Shit, Rain, you are going to get us killed.”
She grinned. “Only if you don’t run fast enough.”
FROM WITHIN THE SHADOWS of the old parking bay, Rain watched the two dragons hit the compound with blast after blast of fire. The catwalk ringing the wall was gone. Tower Two was gone and Tower One was burning. Padre Pedro had rounded up a couple of the older kids and was trying to keep the fire from spreading further into the compound.
Elan and the rest of the guard were putting the guns she and Sutter had brought back through their paces, but the bullets
