Aerin wrenches her arm, ducks sideways, and elbows one of the guards in the gut. He doubles over with a grunt but quickly regains himself and smacks her across the face.
Both Aerin and Jennifer begin to yell, but my focus is solely on the guard as I draw out my knives. I walk briskly and with purpose, not bothering to hide myself or my intentions as I brandish the knives and close the gap between us.
Aerin sees me first, and her bright eyes drive me forward. I’m on the first guard before he even notices my approach.
Jennifer screams as I stab the man in the kidney, and he drops to the ground. The other guard goes for his weapon, but I’m far too close for his gun to be effective. I swing at him, and he uses his arm to block me, dropping the gun in the process. Aerin stumbles backward and falls on her ass as the guard and I dance around each other.
I swing again, then jab. I nick his arm, but he’s faster than I expect. His fist comes out in a wide arc, and I don’t duck fast enough. His punch lands on my cheek, and I reel backward.
The transport looms into view. It’s a huge machine with caterpillar tracks instead of wheels, rolling over the gravel road and spewing ash everywhere. Jennifer holds her hands up in the air, waving it down.
The guard jumps into the air, tackling me to the ground. He punches me again and again before I manage to get my feet up against his sides and throw him off of me. I stand unsteadily as he looks at me with wild, violent eyes.
The guard dives at me, assuming he has the upper hand. I spin and duck, thrusting my knife into his side. He screams, and I use the other knife to penetrate his neck. Blood pulses out of his carotid, covering his shoulder and my arm. I withdraw the knife, and he drops to the ground.
Jennifer screams again before running toward the transport. As I pull Aerin to her feet, her mother jumps on the side of the vehicle and hangs onto the edge as it crawls farther down the road.
I cut the bindings off Aerin’s wrists, and she reaches up to wrap her arms around my neck.
“You have no idea how glad I am to see you!” she says.
“Likewise.”
A second later, gunfire erupts from the transport. I grab Aerin’s arm and pull her to the ground with me, diving behind a few rocks that offer very little shelter. I pull Ford’s gun from my pocket and fire back.
“Talen, no!” Aerin grabs for the weapon. “My mother!”
“What do you want me to do?” I yell back.
“We need to just run!” She takes my face in her hands and looks deeply into my eyes. “We need to leave. She’s my mother, Talen. Just let her go.”
I nod, and we keep low to the ground as we scamper away, shots ringing out behind us. One of them hits the back of my leg, and I stumble, but it doesn’t penetrate my skin. A moment later, we drop out of sight of the transport and return to the shaft entrance just as the ground starts to rumble.
“Did the generator blow?” I ask.
“If it did, you would know it,” Aerin says. “But I think Mom was right. The build-up of pressure is putting more strain on the plates, and it’s probably going to cause a massive quake.”
“We need to get out of here,” I say. “Now.”
“I’m with you,” Aerin says.
“We need to take the travois. This will all have been for nothing if we don’t return with the supplies.”
We throw our packs onto the tarp between the poles, and then Aerin grabs the end.
“We can move faster if you carry the back part,” she says.
Another quake knocks the end of the travois right out of my hands.
“If we don’t return at all, it won’t mean much, either,” Aerin says.
“We have to try.”
“Let’s move, then!”
We hurry as fast as we can down the mountainside, carrying the travois and trying not to slide right down the slope. Rocks tumble around us as the earth begins to shake beneath our feet. As we reach the base of the mountain, a loud explosion rocks the landscape and sends us flying forward.
The travois tumbles, spilling half the supplies all over the ground, and I land on a pile of rocks, striking my jaw and cutting my cheek. Aerin lands a few feet ahead of me.