“Gun! Gun! Gun!” I shouted, and shoved Mack towards one of the trees bordering the path.
The bullet meant for him caught me, instead. Well, of course it did. It hit me in the back and punched through the body armor. I stumbled, and would have hit the ground, if Mack hadn’t wound an arm around me, and dragged me with him into the shelter of the trees.
This was where the teleport was supposed to wrap around us, and take us to the safety of the ship. Surely, it was, I thought, but Mack kept dragging me through the trees to where we’d left the shuttle parked by the verge. I glanced back towards the pod, and saw it was being taken off the path and around the other side of Shelock’s monument.
The bag was being dragged after it. I guess they still wanted to make sure Blaedergil was dead, even if they didn’t intend to pay up on their promised bonus. We made it to the side of the shuttle, and that’s when things went from bad to worse. I felt Mack jerk, and he spun us both around to face the way we’d come.
“Damn,” I breathed, aware of the burning numbness spreading from my back through my torso.
“Lock ‘em down,” Mack growled, “and send the team. We’re both hit.”
Hit? I thought. We’ll be lucky if they don’t blow the car!
I was rewarded by Mack glancing down at me.
“You have a nasty turn of mind,” he said.
I shrugged. No matter what he’d thought, my turn of mind hadn’t been nasty enough to see this coming.
I wrapped an arm around Mack’s waist, and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
“We need to get away from the car,” I said, and he grunted an affirmative.
Somewhere in my implant, I could hear Doc Oskar shouting that we both needed to sit our asses down and wait for him to get there. Pretty sure, we both started laughing at that, but it hurt too much, and the world was refusing to stay steady.
I leant hard on Mack, and he leant on me. We must have looked like a pair of drunks. Drunks who’d been in a serious fight at the bar.
We hit the low, stone wall encircling the park, and fell over it. The blast from the car hit us like a very large, hot fist in the back, and threw us further than we’d been about to fall. Landing was a bitch, but at least Mack hit the ground not too far away.
I tried to gather my scattered thoughts, but I wasn’t having much luck.
“I need a regen tank,” I muttered, and hoped I could get to one in time.
That wasn’t looking promising. Costral was a rural world. From what I’d seen, the beanstalk was their only concession to off-world trade. I lay where I’d fallen, all too aware of Mack sprawled a few feet distant. Sirens sounded in the distance, but I could hear footsteps from somewhere nearby.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to get to my hands and knees. The pressure of the band around my wrist was a concern, although I was having trouble remembering why. I did know that I needed to be a hell of a lot closer to Mack before I felt safe—and that wasn’t because he was in any condition to protect me. It was because of the fancy, flashing bracelet.
I got my hands under me, and tried to convince my legs to work. There was pain, but I managed to get onto my knees, and push close enough to hit the ground at Mack’s side.
“This is bad,” I said, curling up next to him.
He coughed an agreement, and the arm closest me twitched.
Great.
Man chose now to go weak on me.
I heard him cough, again, and realized he was laughing.
“Smart arse,” but his voice was weak, even inside my head.
Hurry up, Doc, I thought, and closed my eyes.
And then I opened them, again, although it was a fight.
Something had moved amongst the trees, and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t my eyes playing tricks. The Stars knew the rest of the world was doing funny things. Maybe I had just imagined it. Maybe it was my entire head playing tricks. The voice that followed that thought seemed real enough.
“Well, must be our lucky day,” it said, as a shadow fell across me.
The toe of a boot nudged me in the ribs, and I gasped. Mack must have copped the same treatment, because he groaned, shortly after. The shadow grew darker, and wider, and I figured I really was seeing three sets of legs. I stared at them, and then tried to turn my head, so I could see the rest of the people I hoped were attached.
One of them saved me the trouble, stooping to take a better look at my face.
“They’re alive.”
Well, Hells, yes, we were! What were they? Blind?
“Like I said, lucky.”
“They need medical.”
I rolled my eyes, felt Mack tense, and knew one of us needed to find the words to warn them.
“Hand,” I said, trying to get their attention, but they didn’t get it.
Warmth swept down around us as another vehicle arrived. I wanted to sit up. I even tried to talk, but I couldn’t get my body to obey me. I tried to speak, but my tongue wouldn’t cooperate, and my throat locked up.
Shadows moved at the edge of my vision, and the silver side of a med box drifted past. It was followed by a second box, which was set down beside it. I watched as the legs came back into view, and another face looked down into mine.
“We’re going to put you in a stasis box,” said the first voice I’d heard, and I swallowed hard, trying to get my voice to work, even as my brain
