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At the bottom of a shallow hill, a throng of aphids corralled Tallis and Georges. They swung their rifles like swords, evidently out of bullets. Out of time.
Jesse slammed into my back, ripping my shirt to my neck. “Stop them.”
They were what…a thousand yards away? It would take another sixty seconds to cover the distance, and the bugs were out of range of bullets and arrows. Could I even telepathically reach that far?
I gave Jesse a weak nod and broadcasted Leave with every ounce of energy I could suck from him.
Standing outside of the cluster was one massive bug. It towered over the others, its scaly green back shimmering in the sunlight as it watched the swarm close in, shrinking the circle around Tallis and Georges. It produced a sound so foreign, so spine-tinglingly potent I felt it in my bones. My first thought was that it was left out, rejected from the group. Then it swung its pupil-less glare at me and cocked its head.
I couldn’t see it so much as feel it. Intelligence. Control. Authority.
I shivered. “Jesse.” My voice wavered, my stomach twisting with dread. “That’s their leader.” The commander of their army.
He pressed his chest against my back, our flesh sliding with sweat, his arms wrapping me in a skin cocoon.
White-hot energy jolted through me, and I frantically pulled on it, casting my order over and over, until it ripped from my throat. “Leave. Go. Run!”
A wave rippled through the swarm, and green bodies scattered in all directions. But not without their meal. Tallis and Georges went down, their arms flailing in wild panic. I watched, helpless and terrified, as mouthparts speared through their chests.
“Noooo!” Jesse shouted.
Instinctively, I broke away from his embrace, my heart pounding as fast as my feet. I bolted toward the hill, scrambling to get to them, stumbling and throwing myself forward again.
A hand grabbed the back of my shirt, and Jesse yanked me against him with a strength I couldn’t match.
“You can’t save them. You can’t…” His breaths labored, his voice low and pained. “It’s too late.”
I buckled at the waist, consumed with denial and horror, as Georges and Tallis’ bodies were dragged away.
“No,” I screamed, jerking against his arms. “We can still reach them.”
But we couldn’t. Two aphids slammed into each other, hissing and smacking claws as if fighting over Georges’ limp body. Tallis was already gone, carried into the woods in a frenzied feeding.
Bile burned through my chest, and my hands went to my mouth. I swallowed it back, drowning in helplessness. I failed them. I knew the distance was too far to command the mob. I should’ve run down there immediately, shooting and killing the old-fashioned way, the goddamned reliable way, instead of relying on my bullshit superpower.
“Jesse. I…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Shhh.” His arms tightened around me, his mouth pressing hard against my neck, letting me know he was there. When his breaths slowed, he said blankly, “The bugs know we’re here. They’ll be back.”
And Georges and Tallis would be with them. Mutated. Hungry. No longer human. They had been Jesse’s friends. Companions long before the virus. I knew what that loss felt like. It changed something in the brain, gnawing at hope and injecting a sickly kind of indifference. It made a person abandon her heart, trading it for apathy, to avoid future pain.
But Jesse still had connections to his prior life. He still had the Lakota, if and when we ever made it back to the mountains.
I pulled in a shuddering breath and turned in his arms. “Jesse, I’m… God, I’m so sorry. I’m here…whatever you need.” My throat closed up, my voice reedy and choked as I touched the taut lines of his face. “I… Just tell me what to do.”
His shoulders lifted in a barely noticeable shrug, his complexion pale, and his eyes a dull shade of copper as he stared at the macabre scene behind me. “We leave tonight.”
We didn’t leave that night. Shea had put up a brave front with her first aphid, but the walk there and the stress from seeing it resulted in fever, chills, and a headache so blinding she couldn’t open her eyes. As daylight faded into the horizon, Roark carried her to the animal clinic and tucked her into a swathe of blankets.
My heart did a little flip. The downturn in her health wasn’t something my heart should be flipping over, but it gave us a reason to stay. Jesse needed a full night’s rest, and I needed one more night of hope.
Hope that Michio would return.
After some persistence on my part and a few impatient glares from Roark, Shea reluctantly choked down three Vienna sausages.
Desperate times called for canned meats. It was an easy meal, already cooked and packed with protein, and Shea’s husband had collected a pantry full of dented, peeling cans of sausages, oysters, corned beef, tuna, and the ones missing labels? Canned surprise.
