In that moment Lain distracted her. The archer was vulnerable in close-range fighting, and right then her quiver was empty and the gangers were taking advantage of this.
Eva lurched to the left and took a few hurried steps to stand side-by-side with the archer. The ghosts drifted closer. They had been lingering in the background, but it seemed that Eva was a magnet for their kind. Her energy drew their energy and their distraction was not welcome right then.
Lain and Eva fought, their movements in sync. Lain pulled a short-bladed army knife from her leg sheath, and between the two of them they took down a few more gangers – including the loud-mouthed one from before. Of course, those males were soon replaced by three more. The gangers did not stop coming.
One or two of the girls had fallen, but none had been taken alive yet. Capture by the smugglers was a fate worse than death. You’d still die, but there’d be months of torture before that happened.
“What are they doing?” Kata had worked her way closer to Eva. “They’re trickling across in such small numbers, instead of taking us by force. It’s as if they’re simply distracting us … place-holding until something else arrives.”
Eva’s eyes scanned the surroundings again, trying to discern the ganger’s plan. “What do you think they’re waiting on?” she asked, her senses not able to detect anything out of the ordinary.
One of the closer Brawlers who hadn’t yet engaged with them must have heard her question. He grinned, showcasing his full set of nicotine-stained teeth. “We have something new that we were hoping to test out. Just our luck that we run into the very group which have been a stain on our existence for the past few years.”
The girls exchanged glances. He could be just talking shit, but there was every chance that they had stumbled their way into a trap. Either way, Eva was sick of listening to the words coming out of his mouth and, using her speed, she dashed forward and allowed Mortem to slice its way through more limbs. The Brawler fell to the ground in a screaming heap.
“Whoops,” Eva said, “although, your screams are more attractive than your words.”
She was just turning away when a loud boom shook the air. Everyone in the vicinity hit the ground as the already cracked and crumbling pavement started to break away even further beneath their feet. The noise continued to resonate in Eva’s head, and with a echoing ‘pop’ blood began pouring from her nostrils and ears. Managing to lift her head about an inch off the pavement, her blurry eyes focused just long enough to see that the gangers around her now wore some sort of weird, aluminum head gear.
Crappity crap. This wasn’t good. The vigiladies weren’t prepared for weapons like that. Something seemed familiar about the sonic boom she’d just heard. Memories sliced at her, warring with the pounding in her brain. She’d heard something like that once before. In her father’s lab, when he’d worked in the city. But his mock experiment had been to demonstrate a theoretical weapon only. Her father had been a complicated man, one of science, martial arts and farming. He had always told her to never let one thing define you.
Of his many successes, the one he was best known for was as the scientist who’d developed the EMP – electromagnetic pulse – back in the early twenty-first century. There had been talk of mutating it into a weapon to be used against humans, and not just in the way of knocking out pacemakers. Nope, they were hoping to interfere with the electric impulses inside the human body, specifically within their brains. Something which could be used to render a human being inert and vulnerable. It was touted as a weapon to end wars. Or stop terrorist attacks. A simple blast of energy could dismantle an entire army.
As far as Eva knew, the weapon had never moved past the theoretical stage. So how the hell had the gangers managed to find it? Technology today was fifty years behind what it used to be. They were practically in the Middle Ages; there should have been no way this could exist.
Eva’s vision wavered again, but she did notice that Lain was right beside her. She focused her blurry vision on the other girl. Those dark eyes were open and blank; there was no one home, but at least her chest still rose and fell.
Eva knew she had to get up; if she didn’t fight they would all die. She had to move. The ghosts were much closer now, warning her with their dead eyes. She had to get up.
Her nails cracked as she scraped her hands across the roughened ground. Blood spilled, but she barely even noticed. Mortem was close. She could feel its energy but not see it. She just had to get her hands on her sword.
At that moment a second boom rocked the world, and as the gangers shifted toward the females sprawled on the ground, Eva lost hold of her final slivers of consciousness. A surge of fear but also relief flooded her. As the darkness closed over her she hoped she didn’t wake in the hands of smugglers. Death meant she would be with her family. Finally free of the pain.
Chapter 2
Abigail