The movements of the Adlin stuck in the cave’s entrance got weaker, his strength seeming to drain as swiftly as his blood. His body jerked, shifting upward several inches, before he was torn from the entrance and a fierce, battle-scarred leathery face appeared. I jumped back, grabbed a gut buster, and fired. The pellets tore into the Adlin’s face, shredding his nose, cheeks, and mouth, and taking out one eye. But he didn’t move. He simply opened his broken, bloody mouth and screamed at me. His breath smelled like death. I aimed slightly higher and fired again. This time, the pellets took off the top of his head and much of his brain.
As his body fell toward me and half covered the entrance, claws slashed down from the left. I threw myself backward, but one claw snagged my boot and dug down into flesh. I swore and fired the gut buster; hair and skin flew, and bone was revealed, but again the Adlin didn’t seem to care. He simply dragged me forward and up. I swore, grabbed my knife with my left hand, and slashed awkwardly at the claws drawing me toward death. The glass blade was diamond bright in the shadows of our earth hollow, and it cut across the Adlin’s knuckles as swiftly and as easily as paper, separating its flesh and releasing me from its grip. The creature screamed and slashed with the remains of his hand, trying to hook me again. I scrambled backward, out of his reach and out of immediate sight.
The severed claw was still stuck in my leg, and though it hurt something fierce, I didn’t pull it out. I had no idea what damage it had done, but blood was filling my boot and I suspected it might get worse if I removed the claw. I tugged off my jacket, cut some more strips of material from it, and hastily wrapped my calf to immobilize the claw and stop it from causing further damage. The Adlin were now tearing at the tunnel opening, desperately trying to widen it. I reached across for my weapons and waited. I didn’t have the energy to do anything else.
Dust once again filled the air, and heavy chunks of earth littered the cave entrance. Maybe they were trying to bury us rather than eat us…. The thought died as another Adlin jumped into the hole. I raised the rifle and fired. The nitrate bullets killed him in an instant and his body filled the entrance, momentarily stopping the others. But it left me with only the knife, the gut busters, and my blaster. The latter was useless against the Adlin, but that’s not what I’d be using it for anyway.
There was no way I’d let either of us be taken alive by those things.
I briefly closed my eyes and tried to quell the fear—and the anger—that rose. Every Nightwatch member knew death was a possibility. I just hadn’t thought mine would find me facing the enemy alone out in the middle of the Tenterra wasteland.
The Adlin’s body was soon hauled from the widened entrance but another didn’t immediately fill its place. Maybe they’d finally learned what fate would befall them if they did. While they didn’t appear to have human intelligence, the Adlin certainly weren’t stupid. They were more than capable of creating primitive weapons, so they were certainly able to grasp the consequences of their actions—at least when the hunting rage wasn’t on them.
But that could be said about many a human, too.
A thumping sound began immediately above us, echoing lightly as dust floated down from the ceiling. As the thumping got louder—harder—I realized they were trying to bring the roof down. The heavy blanket of dust now swirling through the cave caught in my throat, making me cough. I hurriedly tore several strips off the bottom of my shirt to use as a filter then edged forward, wondering if it was possible to shoot any of them. The minute I moved, an arm swooped down through the trench and tried to grab me.
I resisted the impulse to fire at the questing claws and simply kept out of their reach. I had maybe a dozen rounds left in each of the gut busters; I couldn’t afford to waste them. Not if it was going to take at least two rounds to take out one of them.
The jumping continued and cracks appeared in the roof. I swore and reached for the wind. She stirred lightly around me then ran away, and for a minute, I thought I heard someone swearing. Which was stupid, because the wind, as much as she sometimes appeared to be playing games with me, wasn’t capable of any sort of emotion.
The cave’s roof cracked. As I looked up, a huge chunk of stone and soil came tumbling down. I leaned sideways to avoid it then pressed the earwig in frustration. “For freedom’s sake, is anyone out there? This is Nightwatch eight-three, about to become Adlin lunch if someone doesn’t get to us within the next couple of minutes.”
Unsurprisingly, static was my only reply. I cursed it and fate and anyone else who might be listening, then slid on my backside to the rear of our disintegrating shelter. I unlatched the blaster, counted the bullets in the chamber to ensure I kept two for Saska and myself, then gripped the gut busters and waited.
More and more chunks of soil came down, until a crack of blue sky was visible. Another thump, and then feet appeared. I unleashed the gut busters and just kept firing. There was little point in conserving bullets now.
Blood and bone and freedom only knew what else began to rain through the widening cracks above us. The Adlin didn’t seem to care about the damage I was inflicting on them; they just kept on jumping. The low-ammo light began to blink—a slow flashing that was little more than a countdown to our death.
The booming retort of the weapons echoed all around us, sounding like a dozen rather than merely two. One of the gut busters fell silent, but that odd echoing continued.
Imagination? Wishful thinking?
I cocked my head and listened. It was neither. There were other weapons being fired out there.
Hope surged but I clamped down on it, hard. Until every Adlin warrior was dead and I saw the evidence of salvation with my own eyes, I couldn’t allow myself to hope.
The heavy machine-gun fire continued for another few minutes, then silence fell. I waited. A few more minutes passed, then dust stirred, a heavy cloud that drifted into our broken shelter, making any sort of vision next to impossible.
“Nightwatch eight-three?” a deep voice said. “This is Blacklake Prime. How are you both faring down there?”
Blacklake Prime. Winterborne hadn’t just called out the regular troops; they’d sent the commander of the whole outpost. It made me wonder who the woman I’d rescued was, because they certainly wouldn’t have done it for me.
“I’m injured, and our witch is unconscious.”
“Is she hurt?”
“No.”
“Good. I’m sending a healer down. Don’t shoot him.”
A smile touched my lips. “I don’t know what you’ve heard about the Nightwatch, but we’re not inclined to shoot our rescuers.”
“I thought it best to mention, given the way you were spraying bullets around.” Amusement ran through the rich tone of his voice. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you had an armory down there.”
“No armory. I just decided it was better to go out in a blaze of glory.”
Feet appeared at the main entrance to our cave, then a brown-clad man dropped into the trench, his fingers briefly brushing the ground before he rose again. He was carrying a medikit and looked a whole lot younger than me, although that could merely be the impression given by his rather wild-looking red hair.
“I’m Mace Dien, chief healer at Blacklake.”
So, once again, not just any old healer, but the man in charge. Saska had to be someone of importance—maybe even someone from one of the ruling houses.
“Neve March.” I held out my good hand and, after a moment, he shook it. “Saska is unconscious, but I think it’s due more to overusing her abilities. I did run a scanner over her when I found her, and it came back negative for injuries.”
His gaze briefly scanned her then came back to me. “She’s not the one needing attention right now.”
I smile tugged my lips. “Perhaps, but she’s the reason you’re all here, is she not?”
He didn’t bother denying it, just moved inside our shelter and crouched down beside me. “Tell me if this hurts,” he said, and lightly placed a hand on my injured leg.
It felt like I was being touched by a hot iron, and it set off a wave of heat and pain so fierce it had a hiss escaping and sweat popping out across my brow.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” His gaze shifted to my left arm, and he made a “show me” motion with a couple of fingers.