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Josie steps out from behind me and looks down with a curious gaze.
“You shot him.”
“I did.”
“You just… shot him.”
“Yep.”
“Is that allowed? I mean, it sounded like he was going to do a monologue…”
“I’m an outlaw, Josie. I don’t have time for logs of any kind.”
She looks down at what remains of Atticus. “Wish I’d have done it,” she murmurs under her breath.
“Well, you can shoot the next bastard who destroys our plans for the future.”
Josie looks over at me, a little half-smile on her face. “Promise?”
“Promise,” I assure her.
She lets out a muted giggle, but I know she’s not truly happy. How can she be? This is not what she wanted. This was not the plan. Atticus managed to ruin everything we’d been working for before he died. This land is worthless now, and her father, if he was alive, probably isn’t now. She doesn’t seem to care to find out and I can’t say I’m sparing the old bastard more than a passing thought either.
“I’m not getting off this planet, am I?” She looks at me with a hint of tears in her eyes, though she’s still smiling. I get it. “Everything really has been ruined, hasn’t it.”
“Not everything,” I tell her, holding her close. It’s all I can do right now, but it’s not all I’m going to do. I swear by the blood of the coward in the dirt, I will make this right for her. “I’m going to get you what you want,”
“I can’t have what I want, because I want everything. I want freedom. I want you. I want off this planet. I never want to leave your side. I need you. I have to escape…” she’s crying a hundred different wishes, none of which go together. She’s torn between her desire to run, and her need to belong to me, but the truth is, it doesn’t matter.
Because this still isn’t over.
I’m busy comforting her, but suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. My senses have detected something I shouldn’t be able to sense, yet I do. There’s something coming from above. Not another bird. Something bigger. Something darker.
“We need to hide you,” I say. “Something is coming. Something more dangerous than anything you can imagine, and I don’t want you to be in harm’s way.”
“I don’t care if there’s another shoot out,” she sniffs, clinging to me with all her strength. I’m looking around, trying to see where I might stash her, but a burned out farm isn’t the best place to hide anything, let alone a girl who doesn’t want to be hidden.
“There won’t be another shoot out,” I tell her. “What’s coming doesn’t give a damn about lead.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she says. “I don’t care what’s coming.”
A tremor runs through me, starting in my mechanical arm and running through the rest of my body. It’s too late. There’s no time left for her to run.
The sun flares with a bright white light. I saw that light a long time ago. Hoped I’d never see it again, but I guess fate has brought it back to me. Seems that the moment I shot Atticus, the Imperium were summoned. I was planning on getting rid of him more elegantly, but elegance has gone out the window.
“What’s happening?”
“The Imperium,” I tell her. “They’re coming.”
“You mean,” she swallows. “The actual Imperium?”
“Uh huh.”
Right now, the ship is nothing more than a dark dot in the sky, but it’s coming down fast, getting bigger by the moment. Soon it’s close enough for us to see, a great black beast, sinking like a rock through water, all sharp edges and rough blades.
“What the…” Josie breathes out. I try and push her behind me, not that it will make any difference. There’s a serious difference between the Imperium down here on Cabbage Patch, simple men taking on a mantle of authority, and the Imperium soldiers who come from the stars themselves.
The beast lands, and the drawbridge of the ship sinks down into the dirt, sending up a cloud of dust and ash. Josie watches, wide-eyed as a tall, glowing centurion with a great red plume on his helmet and a shining breast plate covering his chest comes striding down, his black leather laced sandals incongruous against all this alien display.
“Just one?” She whispers to me. “They only sent one?”
“They only need one,” I tell her.
“Ave, citizen,” the man with the flashy feathers greets me. “It has come to my attention that you have slain the sheriff of this region.”
“I have,” I admit. No point lying. I know they saw everything.
“Humans,” he sighs. “Can’t stop killing one another for five minutes. We’re constantly bouncing from planet to planet, attempting to get you under control. You need babysitters, not sheriffs. Tell me you at least had a good reason…”
