We have not engaged them. For the past week, it's been so quiet on the plain below that we've wondered if they decided to move on in search of other meat.
"Think they'll be back?"
Rehana shrugs. "If they ran out of nourishment packs already, that makes us the only meal in town."
"Couldn't they have just...asked us for more packs? Why did they have to—?" My voice falters.
"They're not like us, Daiyna. You know what Mother Lairen calls them."
"Daemons."
She chuckles. "Well, don't try to figure them out. They're not human anymore." She punches me playfully in the arm. "So we can't carry their spawn. Right? Human and daemon DNA aren't compatible." Her eyes become dead serious as she gazes out into the night. "We won't be their cows. And we won't be their dinner. We should kill every one of them."
"Then you'll need this." I toss her my spear and turn to enter the cave. My shift is over. I need sleep, not talk.
"You know I'm right, Daiyna."
I don't want to hear this again from her. More of us will die if we confront the daemons. Mother Lairen has advised defense only—keeping hidden. In any kind of offensive action, we wouldn't stand a chance against their weapons and vehicles.
"Three of us have died already. You really think we should risk more?"
"What did you study?" Rehana raises an eyebrow. "When we were below."
"Biology and genetics—the sciences." Since most of us were sent to the bunker before we finished our secondary education, we were given multi-terabyte databanks and thirty consoles to help us complete our studies. They functioned well enough until All-Clear, providing us with a wealth of knowledge about a world that no longer existed. But what did that have to do with killing the daemons? "Why?"
"Science. Natural selection, right?"
I nod, already guessing where this is going.
"The whole animal kingdom's gone. All that survival of the fittest stuff—we're it. We're all that's left. Kill or be killed. We can't keep hiding and hope they'll go away. That's not how it works." She grips the spear with both hands and jerks it toward the darkness below us. "We've got to wipe out those bastards!"
She may be right. If they're still prowling around these mountains, it'll be only a matter of time before they find a way into the caves through some unguarded cleft in the rock. Then more of us will die.
Perhaps even more than if we'd taken the offensive in the first place.
"You should tell Mother Lairen your concerns."
A small rock hits my shoulder from above. My muscles tense. I reach for the dagger at my belt and scan the night for movement.
"What was that?" Rehana is at my side, spear ready as she watches the area above the cave's yawning mouth.
I kneel to pick up the stone.
"Just a rock?" Rehana hisses. "If a daemon's up there, he's going to hell tonight!"
"If it's a daemon, he would've shot us already." I squeeze the rock, smooth and cool in my palm. It's a survivor, like us; but it survived on the surface while we hid below. What horrors did it witness? "It's nothing." I let it fall to the ground. "I'm going to bed. Don't get yourself killed out here."
She gives me the finger before a stone hits her square between the eyes. She curses, doubled over. The rock lands beside the one I dropped. They look identical.
"What the—!" She touches the bridge of her nose gingerly and groans. "Show yourself!" She brandishes the spear. "You cowards!"
"Keep it down."
"Somebody threw that at me!"
"No one's up there. It must have slid down on its own, like the other one." There's no movement above us. "You all right?"
"I'll live." She holds her spear in a defensive posture, facing the cave. "I'm smacking the next one to the moon."
"Have fun." Determined to get to bed, I break into a jog—
"Daiyna. Take a look at this."
Something about the tone of her voice makes me stop and turn back. She's no longer looking above the cave. Now the ground at her feet holds her undivided attention. She stares, frozen, at where the two rocks lie.
One deliberate step at a time, I return. I don't join her side. From where I stand, I can already see what she's looking at: the rocks are scraping across the ground, turning slowly, revolving around a central point in the dust.
"Daiyna?" She licks her lips and takes a hesitant step away, her gaze transfixed. "What's your scientific explanation for this?"
I don't have one. The muscles in my stomach tighten, and the back of my neck tingles. Is this fear—or dread? The stones spin faster, whirling like the hands of a clock gone awry. The ledge trembles beneath our feet.
"Rehana..." I hold out my hand, beckoning to her as I back into the cave.
"Yeah, maybe I should—"
The gravel and dust launch upward, hiding her behind a screen of rushing sand. She screams, and the head of her spear swings outward only to be broken off by the power of surging earth. I call out her name, my voice drowned by an avalanche of rocks descending from the slope above, falling in a haphazard pile just outside the cave entrance.
Gritting my teeth, I lunge forward and thrust my hand through the rushing wall of sand. The friction burns, shredding my flesh, and I cry out. But I clutch onto Rehana's forearm, and she clasps mine. I pull with all my strength, and she releases a guttural scream as she passes through the screen. Dodging a shower of rock that plummets straight for us, I yank her to the side, then shove her ahead of me. We clamber up over the growing
