Page 61 of Meat

It was Krogg.

The ukkur grunted. His muscles knotted. For a trembling moment, veins and tendons bulged along his arms.

Then, with a sickening crack, the hinge of the nith’s jaws broke. The top half of its head was ripped away, splitting its skull down the middle.

The hand on Alyx’s throat went slack and dropped away.

She was alive. Krogg had saved her.

“Told you stay inside,” Krogg growled. “Bad woman. Punish you later.”

That threat sent a prickle up Alyx’s back.

The sounds of fighting were dying around them. The battle was over as soon as it had started. The few remaining nith that had not been killed tried to flee on their hover bikes. A few well placed sling-stones put an end to their retreat.

Apparently the squadron of nith had thought that the element of surprise combined with their bikes and rifles would be enough to win the day, but they had been sorely mistaken. They had paid for their arrogance.

The camp was now eerily silent after the sudden storm of violence. Beneath the drift of smoke, bodies lay strewn about. Black clad nith bodies, all of them. Not one dead ukkur. Some ukkur had been wounded, but none fatally. At least none that Alyx could see.

But the tension in her muscles remained.

Her eyes scanned desperately through the war torn camp.

“Babies!” she rasped, clutching at Krogg’s muscles. “Ravnar. Babies. Where?”

“There.”

Krogg pointed across the drifting haze of smoke and Alyx saw them. Relief washed over her like a cool wave. Ravnar was there, limping slightly with the three littlest ones gathered in his arms. The others were clustered around his legs.

Alyx did a quick head-count.

Nine.

They were all there, all accounted for, alive and well. Shaken and crying, yes, but apparently uninjured.

Alyx broke away from Krogg and ran forward. She dropped her her knees in the grass, and the children ran to her, tears streaming down their little faces. They hugged around her, calling to her in their tiny frightened voices.

“Momma! Momma!”

Alyx was crying too. The emotion was overwhelming. All of them were alive. Her heart was overflowing with gratitude.

Ravnar reached the little cluster of bawling children. He stooped, and Alyx noticed the wound on his leg.

“Ravnar,” she gasped. “Your leg!”

“Okay,” he grunted. “No problem. Small hurt.”

Ravnar held the littlest three where Alyx could see that they were fine. She kissed them. Tears streamed down her face. Tears of relief and love and gratefulness that none of them had been harmed.

She felt Krogg come up from behind her and a moment later Jale appeared beside them too, breathing heavily from the battle. They all clustered together and hugged.

In that moment, Alyx knew what had to be done.

It wasn’t even a choice anymore. Her mind was made up.

“Krogg, Ravnar, Jale,” she said, looking at them each in turn. “We need talk. Something need tell you.”

CHAPTER 23