Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32

The fighting at the bunker between the Bandri and the Kimol had died down, and the Kimol must have won, because they were finally coming to investigate who was lurking among the rocks.

It had only been a matter of time, Rose thought. Although, if the Bandri had come out on top, they may not have seen everyone running across open ground to take cover amongst the stone formations and they would have been left alone.

As it was, the Kimol would have had to be blind not to notice all the back and forth they’d done.

The four Hasmarga who’d gone to retrieve some food weren’t back yet, and Rose wondered if they’d be caught and made prisoner again.

“How many Kimol are coming?” Dav called up to Nortega, who’d joined Ecdre up on the lookout rock.

Nortega wriggled to the edge to look down at them. “A team of eight.”

Dav signaled the other three team members to take up defensive positions and turned to Rose. “Hide.”

Rose didn’t even want to stand up, let alone fight, so she let Dav help her to her feet so she could find a place to hunker down, out of the way. As he handed her the spare helmet he’d brought for her, she gripped his forearm. “Be careful.”

She could see on his face he was in the cold, angry place he’d been in the last time they’d had a confrontation with a group of people behaving badly. He would not be careful.

He didn’t have quite the array of weapons he’d had the last time, but he had four fully trained soldiers with him. Last time, he’d been on his own.

She made her way over to one of the strangely shaped rocks. She gestured to Gerna as she went. “Want to share a rock with me?”

Gerna shook her head, pointing to the one adjacent.

Rose reached her hiding place and leaned against the cool stone, crouching low. She had already changed into the suit Dav had brought for her. She had found the tracking device in the old suit with Gerna’s help while they’d been sitting around the fire, and had thrown it in and burned it. But she had damaged the suit by cutting the tracker out so she was glad to have a new one, that was better fitting.

And, according to Dav, when the camouflage function was set, which hers was, the Fisone couldn’t see them.

She settled in to wait. From where she was crouched, she could just see the opening into their clearing and about half of the clearing itself.

It looked abandoned, with only the crackling fire to show that someone had been here recently. Everyone had faded into the background.

The first Kimol soldier came through the gap cautiously, slowing even more when he caught sight of the fire.

Behind him came the rest of his team, pouring into the clearing and spreading out. None of them looked up, and if they were communicating, it was via comms in their helmets, and Rose couldn’t hear them.

Shockgun fire suddenly bloomed from above and below, purple and bright, bringing everyone but the last soldier in to the ground. The last woman standing lifted her gaze upward, staggered back, and then ran, and although someone shot in her direction, she flung herself out of the clearing in time and disappeared.

“You’ll want their weapons,” Dav said, and Rose noticed Gerna had appeared from behind her rock. She gave a deep nod of her head and directed her warriors to take them.

Rose had come around the rock back to the clearing, and saw Nortega was standing tall on top of the rock, eyes shaded to look back toward the bunker.

“She’s not going to the bunker, she’d going to that ship that crashed,” Nortega said. “What’s the story there?”

“It was sent to fetch us and move us to another location. We think they had some warning about a Bandri attack and the Kimol were nervous they’d get their hands on us.” Rose threw a few more branches on the fire.

“They wanted to move you,” Gerna said. “I heard them say they wanted to hold the prize for the negotiation. They didn’t want the Bandri to have you. We were an afterthought.”

“We can’t wait here for them to round up a bigger team,” Dav said. “We need to move.”

“Agreed.” Ecdre dropped down from the rock. “We should go now.”

Going was the last thing Rose’s body felt like doing, but she couldn’t argue with their logic. They were sitting ducks here.

“Where to?” she asked.

Because that was the question.

There was nowhere to go.

Not when Gerna needed warmth, and she needed somewhere safe and comfortable to rest.

“To the drones.” Nortega dropped down beside Ecdre. “It seems like the fight between the Kimol and the Bandri is over, but the Bandri had to come from somewhere. In case they’ve gathered between here and the drones, we could head east and go around. We could be there in a couple of hours.”

Running for a couple of hours seemed impossible to her right now, but if not that—what? She couldn’t stay here much longer.

“How many drones?” she asked.

“Three, one for you and Dav, the other two for the rest of the team,” Mostert told her. Her gaze flicked to the Hasmarga. “We didn’t know about them.”

“Gerna, we have three small drones to take us back up to our ship. Hopefully, if you come with us, we can signal our ship from the comm systems in the drones, and ask our people to send down an explorer to pick you up.”

Gerna had been listening to them with unwavering focus. “It is the best option, although the chill is only growing worse as the sun sets.”

That was true. And they would be leaving the fire behind.

“This is a hard choice.” And there were many things that could go wrong on the way to the drones. There were no guarantees.

“If I stay, even for the warmth of the fire, I will be caught again. If I go with you, the young lives may expire. It is more than a hard choice.” Gerna rocked a little in place, then glanced at a warrior who stepped into the clearing and said something. “And the time is up. Vrdic says they come.”

“What will you do?” Rose didn’t know what decision she could make under the circumstances.

“I have to give the young lives the best chance to survive, so I will stay. Take two of my warriors with you, they will be able to follow my scent if you are able to come back for me.” She sat down beside the fire, and Ecdre took up a guard position behind her.

“Good luck, then. We will see you again.” Rose let Dav pull her away, through the rocks and out onto what looked like a stone-strewn landscape.

As Gerna had said, dusk was falling and the temperature was falling with it. She followed Nortega, who’d taken the lead, and saw Dav and Wangao were on either side of her.

Wangao was slightly taller than Dav, but they were physically well-matched, and the first time she stumbled, she realized what they were up to. Each man grabbed an elbow and lifted her up over the obstacle and set her back down.

The two Hasmarga who had been sent with them, Cri and Tanck, ranged as they ran, moving ahead then falling behind, in a pattern that Rose soon began to anticipate.

Mostert and Vunti took the rear position, looking back frequently.

“I want to say go ahead of me,” Rose said, as Wangao and Dav lifted her over the next rock, “but I’m aware I’m the reason you’re here.”

Dav slowed their pace. “You’re struggling?”

She felt a sudden wave of rage, shuddered, and slowed to a stop. She bent over, hands on knees, although, she could only just reach them, and breathed through the white hot anger.

It was a very stupid thing to say, but he was down here trying to rescue her. She reminded herself she may not be quite her usual self, and that if there was ever a time for her temper to be frayed, it was now.

“Rose?”

She turned to look at the man who was the love of her life. “I am pregnant. I am cold. I am tired. I am hungry and I am afraid. Yes. I am struggling.”

He blinked.

He maybe heard the razor sharp edge to her tone.

“We can carry her,” Cri said, making a sign to Tanck.

“Thank you.” Rose knew they were strong enough. Knew how the Hasmarga had carried her before. “That would solve a lot of problems.”

“We can do it.” Wangao sounded as if he thought his strength was being called into question.

“You didn’t notice how heavy I am when you lifted me those few times?” Rose asked him. “Because I weigh about the same as you do. Let the Hasmarga do it. They’ve carried me before, and it felt like they barely noticed.”

“We are able,” Tanck agreed. “Rose will not slow us down.”

“Rose.” Dav hesitated, then shook his head, turned to the Hasmarga. “Thank you for your help.”

They nodded, lifted her in a cradle made with their arms, and ran.