Moving slowly so as to avoid making any distinguishable noises, I selected the most gruesome corpse as Alora continued to chow down on the meaty section of the bird's thigh. The breeze blowing through the branches was providing enough cover sound until the club separated from the freshly killed Peggy when I lifted him. Thump, thump, it bounced on the floor of our treehouse. All eyes were on me when I revealed my upper half to the growing crowd below.
I urgently tossed the corpse over the wall and watched as it hit the ground where it could clearly be seen. Panic ensued when the condition of their friend became obvious. Some ran off to what they considered a safe distance. Others screamed and jumped up and down like furious chimpanzees. But their leader maintained his composure much better. After a few seconds he raised his pistol in my direction, holding it sideways like a true gangster from my time.
I ducked down behind cover quickly, but the metal slug came right through the wall to graze my shoulder. I stared at the wound in shock, expecting to see frost as the frigid cold tightened up my muscles. Instead I saw blood begin to flow, then slowly stop as it coagulated before my eyes.
The discomfort and confusion that had accompanied the icy chill on the first few occasions was no longer present. I felt calm, cool and collected. There was just the one gun apparently. And it had to have limited ammunition. I didn't want to assume that all bullet wounds I took would begin healing this fast. What if I got shot in the eye?
I scrambled to grab another corpse and hoist it over the short wall without revealing myself this time. Two more bullets fired, both striking parts of the tree above me. There was no reason to hold onto the last dead Peggy, so I sent him over too. No shots this time. Did that mean that the shooter was out of ammo?
I moved two meters to the left and peeked again. The leader pivoted and fired another shot. This one went through the wall but missed me. Not out of bullets then.
What were my options? Stay in the tree and let them attack? I managed to kill the first three that way. How many would they send up here? If it were me, after seeing my three dead friends land before me, I'd send at least seven. Could I win against a group that big? And protect Alora at the same time? That would be the real challenge. Failing to keep her safe wouldn’t make the effort worthwhile.
She should flee. However, I didn’t believe that she would be able to get away from them. She was too weak to outrun them and probably wouldn't be able to at full strength anyway.
My close combat tactics might be better suited for the ground below, but not directly under the tree where they could attack me from above. I would need to get out in the open. Doing that certainly would expose me to the shooter and risk a more severe injury. And what about Alora then? She’d have to fend for herself.
In my mind, there was no way that I could win this fight and protect her at the same time.
"What do you want?" I yelled down to the gang as the sound of panic had reduced. I knew what they wanted. I was just trying to stall, and maybe pick up on some clues to help me in the battle that was about to happen.
"The girl!" someone shouted. A few of the others repeated those words like a chant.
Was I supposed to believe that they would leave me alone after what I had done to their friends? I didn't know of any human gang that would. Revealing the corpses secured my place in this situation. There was no bailing out on the innocent Peggy girl now.
I glanced over at Alora. She had stopped eating and slowly wiped the blood of the bird from her lips. The fear in her eyes said that she thought I was going to give her up. Maybe I was thinking about it before, for a split second. Just rolling through my options, not really considering it.
"I can pay you the money that you would have made off of her," I answered. "Let her go and you will be rich faster this way. You can even keep the money for yourselves instead of taking it back to your boss."
There was a lot of chatter after that. I had successfully appealed to their greed. I didn't think that it would actually work when I said it. Maybe it wouldn't, but it might buy me some more time. Then their conversation changed noticeably. I tried to listen carefully but they were speaking in their own language. I glanced back to Alora to see if she could interpret.
"There is another human," she whispered to me. "A woman."
Lin? Nancy? Was I going to have to protect them now too? This was getting worse instead of better. Then I realized that they would have a weapon. We were encouraged to carry them openly on Pegillas. Only I hadn't done so because I was mentally distraught when I left the ship.
I didn't know for sure that it was one of my wives, but I hadn't seen another human for quite a while when I walked this far from town. If I could wait for the gang to engage whoever was approaching, I could drop down and do some damage while Alora remained in the tree. Separating from her was taking a chance, but
