Tegan just whimpered and Fade shouldered her again, taking her from Stalker. I didn’t have the watch or any sense of where we were going now, so I simply followed the road and watched ahead for trouble.
Just before dawn, I smelled it.
More Freaks—their rot carried on the wind. I spun in all directions, scanning for them. They came from behind this time, which meant they were tracking us. Worse and worse. Dark words boiled up, full of fear and dread, but I swallowed them and kept my report practical.
“Put her someplace safe. We have another fight coming.”
Fade carried her off toward the trees and laid her down gently. “Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll make sure they don’t go for you, and if they do, I’ll stop them. Understand?”
She nodded, flattened herself against the ground, and went still. Playing dead? It might work as long as we occupied their attention. This time, we had twelve incoming and we were down one fighter. Not that Tegan was great on her best day, but she’d been deft enough at swatting them back. It kept them busy long enough for the rest of us to slice the monsters up.
“Four each,” Stalker said.
I nodded and planted my feet, despite the aching exhaustion that coursed through me. It would have to be daggers this time. Though I could use my club—Tegan didn’t need it—I no longer had the strength or stamina. The odds of winning were steeper this time, and the potential consequences of loss more grave.
As the Freaks charged us, I braced for the first wave. I didn’t expect to survive the fight, but the steel Silk had instilled in me wouldn’t let me roll over. I wheeled and cut one open. Its guts spilled out, slicking the ground. I danced backward, dodging an attack and leaping away from a snarling bite. These Freaks were angry—I saw it in their bloody eyes; they knew we’d killed their kin.
I caught a claw in the side. The pain astonished me, but before the Freak could fully rip into me, I stabbed it through the hand, and it wrenched back, worsening my wound. But not as bad it could’ve been. I still had my guts in place. I ignored the pain and sank my other knife deep into its chest. Punch and pull, as Silk had taught me. The monster fell, but two more took its place.
Tiring, I fell back, slipping in the blood and guts. They came at me from both sides, and I took them with twin downward slashes, just as Stalker had taught me. I had no doubt the extra training saved my life. I turned to see how they were faring, only to watch Stalker and Fade drop the last Freak, cutting into it in unison. They were fierce, beautiful, and oddly complementary, like the moon in the night sky. For a moment, I studied Fade’s darkness and the fair gleam of Stalker’s hair, and I ached.
I covered my injury with one hand as we stumbled toward Tegan’s hiding place. She sat up, her face tight with pain. “Did we make it?”
“Yes,” Fade said. “I don’t think another tracking party can catch up to us.”
I wasn’t so sure, especially now that we were all covered in blood, and two of us wounded. To make matters worse, we all desperately needed a rest, and if we stopped here, now, they’d pounce on us while we slept. But I recognized that Tegan needed reassurance. I let the lie stand, but when Fade’s eyes met mine, I called him on it silently. He lifted his shoulders in a quiet shrug of acknowledgment.
As the sky lightened, I dug in my bag for my sunglasses. I still couldn’t see as well as the others during the daytime; maybe I never would. I’d do my best to compensate with hearing and smell. My bloody fingers left smears on the sidepieces, and my hands trembled as they fell. I pressed the right one to my side again, hoping it wasn’t as bad as it felt. I remembered how the Wolf had died on the steps of the library. I didn’t want a quick and merciful death—what was more, I didn’t want to see how easy it would be for Stalker to do it.
Keep moving, I told myself. Just like the tunnels.
Stalker took the lead this time, and Fade swung Tegan into his arms. I stumbled after him, knowing both of us needed our wounds tended, but there was nothing but this dusty, silent road, leading endlessly into the distance. The fields around it stood empty and quiet, only the lone tree occasionally breaking the rise and fall of the land. It was green and lush and lovely, damp with what Stalker called morning dew, and I wondered if it would be the last dawn we ever saw.
Still, I walked on.
Despair
Stalker found us shelter in the overhang of a ravine. Despite the bandage, Tegan passed out, her skin taking on a pale and sickly sheen. When I checked the wound, I saw she had been bleeding; the fabric was soaked. If we didn’t get it stopped, she would die, no question. Bonesaw would’ve taken a needle and thread to it, but we had none. So I knew of only one thing we could do.
“Get some wood,” I told Stalker. “And build a fire.”
Though he must’ve been exhausted too, he rose and went to do as I asked, gathering the scrubby grasses, leaves, and fallen twigs he could find first, and then he ran off toward a distant tree. Breaking limbs would create a smoky blaze, but it couldn’t be helped.
Fade sat with her quietly, her head in his lap. I recognized in his nature the Hunter instinct; it drove him to be fierce and protective of those weaker than him. Maybe that was why she drew him. She needed that part of him because she had no matching instincts. In that sense Stalker was right; she was a Breeder, but I no longer thought that was a bad thing. If not for them, our world would not go on, even in its limping way.
I scraped one dagger clean as best I could. The flames would do the rest.
“You think this will work?” Fade asked. He knew what I was planning, of course.
“Don’t know. But if we don’t seal that wound—”
“I know.”
Before long, Stalker returned with his arms full of wood. I arranged it and then we started the fire, using the twigs and leaves first, and encouraged the green wood to burn. It caught slowly, but with continual attention it stoked up. The smoke would signal any Freaks in the area to our location, but sometimes you had to make the hard choice.
I cut away the fabric from Tegan’s thigh. “Water.”