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We left the cave, carrying our four sensors carefully, and turned towards the direction of the ship. It took a little bit of time for us to find our way out of the valley and back to flat land. The wind was horrible. It howled like some angry creature and threw dirt and grit at us. The clouds were still thick overhead, but the lightning seemed to have moved away from us. Julia and I exchanged hopeful looks when we left the rocky cliffs behind.
We both kept watchful eyes on the weather and terrain. After we walked for a while, we reached a place that felt familiar. A grove of gnarled, dried-up trees dusted with dirt sat to our left, and more sand dunes rose in front of us. I tried to dig up the willpower to climb some more, but it was hard. I stared at the dunes while I took a minute to gather some strength.
Julia didn’t seem to mind the pause. “Are we almost there?”
“I think so.”
There was a noise from the direction of the trees, and I turned just in time to see a figure charging at me. I retreated immediately, trying to put distance between us. Julia drew her gun and aimed it at him. She fired, catching him in the arm. I danced away to keep out of her line of fire while still putting distance between him and me. His appearance was enough of a distraction that we didn’t see a second man emerging from the trees. I caught the glint of a knife just as he reached Julia.
“Julia!”
She spun, but she wasn’t fast enough. She brought one of the sensors down on his wrist and the knife dropped below chest level, plunging into her abdomen instead. She screamed. I shoved the man rushing at me, knocked him to the ground, and ran towards Julia. The wind pushed at my back, urging me to move faster. Julia was already lunging back at her attacker with her own knife since her gun had fallen to the ground. She caught his forearm with the blade, though it was barely a cut. Her left hand was wrapped protectively around her side, trying to hold the sensors as well.
I rushed at her attacker from the side, catching him off-guard and knocking him to the ground. I managed to hit him in the face with my fists a few times before he threw me off. I rolled to my feet and glanced back at Julia. She was unsteady but hadn’t collapsed yet. The one she’d shot in the arm was back on his feet. He was approaching behind her with a murderous look in his eyes.
My instincts were telling me to run. Instead of attacking. I dodged away from my opponent. I scooped up the sensors on the ground, threw my arm around Julia, and pulled her away from both men, running in the direction of the ship. I heard them pursuing us, so I drew my gun and fired blindly behind me, trying to deter them. They shouted curses while I fired at them, but I didn’t look to see if I had done any serious damage.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw more men running at us from a different direction. My heart rate tripled, and I pulled on Julia, trying to encourage her to run faster. She was starting to lag, and I realized she didn’t have the strength to make it. We ran past another dune and the cave came into view. For the second time in two days, I lifted Julia into my arms. I dropped my gun in the process, though I was careful not to drop the sensors. I sped up as much as I could and ran full tilt towards the cave.
Gunfire rang out behind us. I didn’t dare stop or even dodge to the side. I ran straight for the cave. Men shouted behind me, and Julia groaned in pain, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. If I did, I knew we would die.
Once inside the cave, I still didn’t stop. I could see the ship and the shield still around it. My heart dropped into my stomach. I ran towards it anyway, trusting in Andy to be there for us. He would see us and drop the shield.
A gun went off again, and my right ear burned. I flinched and my stride faltered, but I didn’t stop. The shield suddenly disappeared, and I raced forward. I heard thezingas the shield went back up and I dropped to my knees and set Julia down carefully. I swallowed, gathered my courage, and stood up to face our pursuers.
Five men stood on the other side of the shield, guns still pointing at me, though they knew better than to waste their ammo by shooting the shield. A man with dark, hooded eyes took a step forward, scowling at me. A scar sat between his mouth and nose. He was obviously the man in charge. “Give us the cop.”
My eyes stole to Julia. She was in no condition to even stand up. She was still looking at me, though, with pain-filled eyes that said she was ready for anything. A fighter even when wounded.
I looked back at the leader. “And why would I do that?”
His scowl intensified. “Because we don’t want you. We want her.”
“You mean you want to kill her.”
He folded his arms. “That doesn’t mean we have to kill you. If you turn her over to us, we’ll let you walk away, unharmed.”
My eyes went back to Julia, and I saw fear in them—fear that I really would turn her over. She didn’t need to be afraid. I would never let them hurt her. They’d have to kill me first.
“Yeah, I don’t think so. I don’t believe you. Even if I did, I’m not handing her over to you. Walk away.”
That wasn’t the answer he wanted. He pulled out his own gun and lifted it until it was level with my head. I knew the shield would protect me and that he was just trying to scare me, but I still had to fight the urge to flinch. Even though it unnerved me, I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing his scare tactic work. I held my ground and didn’t look away.
“You are making a very stupid mistake.”
I snorted. “I don’t think so.”
He cursed at me. “You can’t get out of here! We know where you are. We will kill you and her, and all this bravado will have been for nothing!”
I took a step towards him. “Get out of here before I get another gun and shoot you!”
Fear flashed across a few of the faces of his men, but they didn’t move. We all knew I could shoot them from this side of the shield. If I had a gun handy, I would have already shot as many of them as I could.
The leader spat into the dirt. “You’re dead. Both of you.”
A rifle cocked behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see Andy standing at the door of the ship, gun aimed at the men below. “You heard Ethan. Please leave. Immediately.”
While I knew Andy wouldn’t shoot them, the men didn’t. That was all it took for them to turn and run. Their leader lingered a moment longer than the others and shot me a dirty look. “We’ll be back. And we’ll kill you all.”
