Rodger fired off a burst, the crack echoing off the containers.
“Fuck you!” he yelled.
Ton and Victor brought up their shields, ready to move. The remaining Barracudas moved to the sides of the containers and down on their bellies.
“Go, Immortal!” Mac yelled.
X clearly didn’t want to move, but Ton and Victor urged him on. Magnolia and Rodger followed them out into the field, keeping low. They kept to the path Felipe had swept for mines on the way in.
It was hard to follow the tracks in the ash, especially while under fire.
Ton went down with a muffled cry. X helped him back up and Magnolia noticed Ton was bleeding from his shoulder.
“Come on!” Rodger yelled, running ahead to take point.
Victor picked up Ton’s shield and took rear guard, using both shields to cover their retreat. The thick metal deflected the lower-velocity bullets, but some of the bigger-jacketed rounds punched through. One hit Victor in the arm.
He cried out, dropping one shield but keeping the other up.
Magnolia was focused on the ground, looking for mines, when Rodger vanished in an explosion. The blast knocked the entire team down, and something stung like a hot needle in her side.
Ears ringing, she lay in the ash for a moment. Lightning tendrils forked across the skyline. Smoke drifted away from a crater ahead of her.
She tried to yell for Rodger, but all that came out was a gasp.
Someone grabbed her and helped her up.
She could hear distant wails of pain. They sounded familiar.
“Mags,” said a gruff voice.
X stood over her, searching. Rodger was curled up on the ground not far from the crater.
Victor helped Ton to his feet. Both men raised their shields and moved to protect X and Magnolia.
“Rodger,” she managed to say.
X helped her up, and they stumbled over to him. His right foot was mangled. The armor was dented in places but appeared to have saved his limbs.
“Grab him!” X shouted. “We have to get out of here!”
Victor grabbed Rodger under the arms, and Magnolia lifted his knees. X wrapped Ton’s arm over his shoulder, and the group continued toward the turbines, following the tracks from earlier.
Moments later, they reached the huge turbine blade that stabbed the earth like a giant’s arrow. The ringing in Magnolia’s ears faded, replaced by the sound of gunfire. Mac and his men held back the skinwalkers, but it wouldn’t be long before they were overrun.
Magnolia bent down next to Rodger and grabbed his hand.
“I can still fight,” he growled, trying to sit up.
“Rodger, hold still.” She pushed down on his chest, but too late—he saw his foot.
“My toes!” he said. “My toes are gone!”
Victor had a medical kit out, and X was unwrapping a dressing. Ton gripped his shoulder, blood dripping between his fingers.
“Mags,” Rodger said.
She looked back down at him. “It’s okay, Rodge. You’re going to be okay.”
“You have to kill her for me if I can’t do it,” he said. “Promise me.”
“I promise. Now, try and relax. You need to be still.”
He tried to look down at his feet again, but she blocked his view.
“I love you, Rodge,” she said to distract him.
It worked. His helmet turned upward, and she bumped her visor against his.
A massive explosion bloomed out on the horizon. She saw it mirrored in Rodger’s visor. She turned toward it, her heart skipping a beat.
A message broke radio silence over the comms in her helmet.
“Renegade has been hit!” someone yelled.
X got to his feet and shouted in a crazed voice that didn’t sound like his.
“miles!” he screamed.
The sailboat rocked in sloppy seas. Ada sat at the control panel in the cabin, keeping an eye on the radar. She had shadowed the ship for a day now, keeping her distance. She still didn’t know who was on it, but one thing was certain: it was heading for the Vanguard Islands.
The chances of this being another ghost ship were slim, and while she couldn’t see it yet, she had a feeling there were Cazadores aboard. Who else could it be?
Luckily, her boat hadn’t attracted their attention. Yet.
Ada yawned and took a sip of water. She wasn’t sure how long it had been since she slept for more than an hour straight. She slapped her face twice and blinked her heavy eyelids.
Her new little friend slept peacefully on her lap, and she stroked its bristly hair. Jo-Jo had clung to her since she came back inside from the storm.
But she must go back out there soon. They were only four to five hours away from the boundary of the Vanguard Islands. If this was an enemy warship, it was her duty to warn King Xavier.
But it was more likely just another Cazador vessel like the Lion, and if that was the case, she would just keep her distance and follow them in.
But something told her she was sailing back to a war. She just hoped she wasn’t too late to help her people.
Waves slapped the starboard hull of her craft. She checked the skyline through the portholes. Lightning blasted the clouds, though she couldn’t hear the thunder over the breaking waves. The storm was closing in.
“We’re going to have to sail through that, Jo-Jo,” Ada said.
The monkey opened one big black eye.
Ada leaned forward to check the dashboard monitor. The sailboat was gaining some distance on the ship she tracked—too much distance, she realized.
She studied the radar to see whether the ship had changed its heading at all, but if it had detected her, it didn’t appear to be acting on it. It was still on the same course for the Vanguard Islands.
As the sailboat drew closer to both the ship and the home of her people, Ada felt her heart thump a little faster. After so long at sea, she couldn’t wait.
“You ready to see sunshine?” Ada said.
The monkey sighed and went back to sleep.
It amazed Ada that a creature that could survive in the wastes was so dependent. Anything born into this harsh new world would need natural survival skills.
Then again, she herself didn’t have many survival skills, and she was still breathing despite many things that had almost killed her.
Ada just watched for a few minutes, taking comfort in the innocence of the miracle she had found in the wastes.
Growing up, she had always wondered what the Hell Divers encountered on the surface, but they never spoke about it. She couldn’t help but think they had come across many creatures that weren’t hostile. Her journey had taught her that many forms of life had found a way after the apocalypse, and they weren’t all dangerous.
Ada put her helmet back on, then grabbed her gear and headed topside. She could operate the sails from inside the cabin, but she needed to see better.
Light rain pattered on her suit. The wind gusted, though without its earlier ferocity. Still, it was just enough to power the sailboat through the water faster than the ship she was chasing.
Unlocking the wheel was trickier this time and took some fiddling. When it was free, she steered toward the northeast, hoping to avoid the brunt of the storm.
For the next hour, she stood there, her excitement growing as she drew closer to the Vanguard Islands.
The sky opened up, and thunder boomed closer now as the lightning illuminated the way back to the islands.
A half hour later, she spotted something through the rain. At first glance, the ship was far larger than the Cazador warships like the Lion. Even bigger than their largest, Elysium.
Curious, Ada pulled out the binoculars and waited for the next lighting bolt.