CHAPTER 23

A digital howl came out of nowhere. The Nusies looked around. I looked around. It wouldn’t have surprised me if a gang of wraiths showed up to make everything worse. Suddenly, Kenji appeared, leaping through the air in front of Calhoun. The robo dog snatched the colonel’s snub-nosed rifle in its mouth and the other gun in its metal paws. Calhoun wailed, nearly falling off his saddle in confusion.

Kenji landed and ran off barking something harsh in Korean.

Brannigan looked up from the ground. “Was that my dog?”

“Look at that!” Tamerica pointed toward the road behind us.

Charging over the horizon, Cannon 15 and an assortment of different hover cars, trikes, and wheeled clunkers came barreling toward us with their headlights blaring in the dark. The cannon on the back of the truck rose and blasted a single, huge green wad of laser at Calhoun and Sitri.

The colonel yelled and pulled at his reins. Sitri leapt in time to dodge the blast and soared off roaring into the distance. The green Drake near Afu wasn’t so lucky. The cannon blast blew the scaly apart. Its guts covered Afu so plentifully I thought he might drown in them.

“Are you okay, baby?” Tamerica asked through the radio.

Afu spit something out. “Always so gross. Ah! Shit! I can’t walk.”

Far off, he lay pounding the ground and rocking from side to side on his back.

Cannon Truck 15 stopped in front of us. Lot poked his head out of the driver’s side window. “How’s that for a propellerhead?”

“Holy shit,” Tamerica said. “You’re supposed to be in–”

“I know,” said Lot. “But we ran into Bethany and her people coming this way, and we were closer to here than there, so we all decided, why not come kick a piece of Nusie ass.”

“Where’s my daughter?” Brannigan said.

“Up here, old man.” Bethany stood at the cannon controls, wearing a smoke eater power suit. She didn’t wear a helmet. Her dark curls moved with a passing gust of wind. She wore a cocky smirk that looked too much like Brannigan’s.

“What the hell!” Brannigan began chugging toward the truck. “Is that the broken suit I kept in the back of the shed?”

“Got to go,” Bethany said. “We saw them moving a bunch of people over that way. Lot, engage!”

The propellerhead laughed as he pushed his glasses higher onto his nose. He shifted into drive and sped the truck after Reynolds and her dragon.

“Brannigan, get Afu,” said Tamerica. “I’ll get Naveena.”

“But–” Brannigan started to say.

“Do it,” Tamerica said. “You’re stronger than I am.”

“All right, all right.” Brannigan took off toward Afu.

I looked over to Tamerica because she was the closest to me. “What do I do?”

Both she and Brannigan said it together. “Go after Calhoun.”

Reynolds and her Lung dragon were flapping above the oncoming calvary of carburetors. The Lung breathed its golden fire and caused the cars to split around the flames. One of the braver vehicles kept straight on, right through the fire. Like a clown car, droids began crawling out of every door. One fell out of the smoking trunk when the car hit a bump in the ground. It rolled across the ground, then got up and ran after the car. The other droids took turns leaping at the yellow dragon. Most of them fell and got run over by their own car, but one caught the tip of the Lung’s claws. The lone droid held on, dangling like an ugly earring as Reynolds steered the Lung to soar away.

“Don’t hurt that woman on the Lung,” I said into my radio. “She’s a friend.”

Brannigan spoke through my helmet. “Are you serious?”

“Your friend has been trying to kill us just like all the other Nusies,” Tamerica said.

I refrained from arguing about it. I couldn’t defend Reynolds, and I had a colonel to find. Raising my arms, I rose into the air to search for him. There was no moonlight, but it seemed my eyes were adjusting to the dark. To my left, I thought I saw a red scaly tail disappear into the middle of a cloud. I couldn’t be sure, but I had nothing else to go on. I flew into it. Puffy mist flowed past my face and I was soon out of it on the other side.

I made the mistake of looking down. Cannon 15 and the other vehicles looked like toys as they charged toward a cluster of spider tanks. The Nusies were guarding a group of people held inside a holo-cage. It had to be Yolanda and the other smoke eaters. The prisoners were packed close to each other in the center, avoiding the zap of the digital bars.

Bethany and everyone on our side with a weapon began shooting the same time the Nusies opened fire. If weapons weren’t fixed to their vehicles like Cannon 15, each car’s passengers held laser rifles out the window and squeezed off as many rounds as they could before return fire caused them to dip back into the car. The blind shots were surprisingly accurate, blowing chunks of metal off the spider tanks. Lasers from both sides lit the scene. Soldiers on foot stood behind and to the side of each spider tank. All of them advanced toward the fiery vehicle that had held all the droids. One of the spider tanks sped up and used its long legs to trample the car. But just as the tank was beginning to climb off, the droid car exploded, obliterating the front half of the spider tank.

The other spider tank rolled around and ejected two antennae from its sides.

“Oh no,” I said.

Wraiths – maybe five of them – erupted from the tank. Cannon 15 slowed and sped off to one side, but several of the other cars kept on. One of the wraiths entered through one of their windshields and the car zoomed off into one of the columns keeping the holo cage energized. The digital bars disappeared and the prisoners ran as fast as they could, away from the wraiths.

I almost forgot about Calhoun. Turning in midair, I searched the clouds around me. The movement made me feel queasy, especially when I bobbed like a fishing lure. Turning back the way I came, I looked down at my suit and said, “Please don’t run out of juice.”

Hot red fire blasted out of the cloud in front of me. It toasted the front of my suit and my face felt like it had been torn off, but since I’d been looking down, my helmet caught most of the fire. I fell backwards into a dive toward the ground.

“Armor failing,” the suit said.

I looked back. Calhoun and Sitri were in a freefall just behind me. With no other choice, I raised my weapon arm and fired.

I was answered with several empty clicks.

“Diverting power from weapon to maintain stability,” the suit said. “Get to safety.”

“What do you mean?” I shouted. I again tried to fire a laser disc, but all I got was more blank button pushes.

“Shit.” I looked back toward the ground and tensed. I could fight dragons a lot better than I could fight gravity. I could have flown up and given the scaly a big hug to send its brain back to normal, but I ran the enormous risk of having the suit fall to pieces or getting chomped by the Fafnir.

I didn’t have a weapon, but neither did Calhoun. When I was thirty feet from the ground, he screamed at the top of his lungs. A whoosh brought heat against my back. Sitri was breathing its fire after me. My suit felt looser, shaking against the wind.

Come on, come on.

When it looked safe enough, I hit my jump button and let myself fall.

Calhoun and Sitri flew over me, scorching a big line of flames into the ground as they went. Sitri cut to the right and they began to turn back.

A growl came from over my shoulder. I turned to my side. The Lung dragon hovered just above me.

Reynolds pulled on her reins and said, “Down.” The Lung lowered onto its feet.

“Sarah,” I said, backing away.

“No, you don’t get to call me that anymore,” she said.

I lifted my hands, straight up. Maybe I could fly away one last time.

“Power Hover disabled,” the suit said. “Please seek immediate repair.”

“Looks like you’re all out of tricks.” Reynolds smiled and kicked a heel into the side of her Lung. The dragon stepped forward, and I stumbled backward. Laughing, Reynolds pulled on her dragon to stop.

“Oh, I might have at least one surprise up my suit,” I said.

“Why are you scared to come close, Gilly?” she said. “Lucky won’t bite.”

“You named your dragon Lucky?”

She looked offended. “Yeah, why not?”

I shook my head. “Just give this up. The Nusies are done. You want to know why I couldn’t ever say that was my platoon? Because they’re bad people, Sarah. How long have they been torturing smoke eaters? You’re a medic, it goes against everything you’re about. You don’t have to stay with them anymore. You could come with me.”

She directed a hand to the wasteland around us. “Go with you where? The Army was the only thing going on. The only thing we had. You just gave it up. Now you’re trying to take it away from me. This world really belongs to the scalies now. What is wrong with you?”

“I’m trying to help you.”

The Lung roared, shutting me up.

“You never answered my question,” she said. “Why’d you tell me to stay away? Did your smoke eater friends strap a bomb inside your suit?”

I couldn’t tell her. She’d tell Calhoun. And I had no other way to either escape or fight back. “You’ll just have to trust me.”

The corner of Reynolds’ lips curled up. Then she frowned and moved the dragon forward. The Lung’s eyes turned red as it slithered its head from side to side. Its tendrils lifted. “You’re in no fucking position to ask for trust.”

The air shifted and dust flew into the air around me. Sitri dropped behind me with its big, red wings spread. The Fafnir hissed, filling the air with the smell of sulfur.

“Corporal,” Calhoun said, out of breath. His beret had flown off somewhere above us. “Shoot this traitor between the eyes.”

Something quick and fragile passed over Reynold’s face. Was it hesitation or regret? It was gone in a blink. She raised her rifle.

“At least you can die like a soldier,” Calhoun said.

I looked at Reynolds, silently asking her not to pull the trigger. When I saw the dark hole of her rifle’s barrel, I squeezed my eyes shut and thought of my family. I missed them. I would have given anything to see them again, but I wasn’t ready to go. I didn’t move, afraid it would make Reynolds shoot.

The sound of clanking footsteps distracted me. When I opened my eyes, a droid was walking up the Lung dragon’s back. Reynolds heard the sound a second after I did. It was a second too late. She turned in her saddle as the droid tackled her, pulling her to the ground. Fighting to pry her rifle out of the droid’s hands, Reynolds grunted and pulled, but the droid wouldn’t let go.

“Useless,” Calhoun shouted. Sitri’s steps shook the ground as the dragon stomped toward me. “I have to do everything myself.”

Reynolds let go of the rifle and drew a pistol holstered at her side. She blew a hole through the droid’s head, dropping it. Smoke rose from its metal skull as Reynolds retrieved her rifle.

Sitri roared and spread its jaws wide around me. I was inside its mouth, feeling the teeth close in. I screamed, but the scream kept going till I was out of breath. The dragon had stopped short of biting me in half. It just stood there.

“Kill him, bite him,” Calhoun was shouting. “Do it, you stupid fucking scaly!”

A gap between the Fafnir’s teeth was big enough for me to slip through. I made it out before Sitri began convulsing, shrieking, and thrashing around. Calhoun yelled as he tried to get control of the red dragon, but the scaly was bucking the colonel around like a ragdoll.

Reynolds was on the ground, running toward me with her pistol aimed at my head. But her Lung beat her there. It bent its head to nudge me, but it barely bumped its snout against my chest when it too began to twitch and rasp.

“Lucky!” Reynolds ran to her dragon.

“Sarah, stop,” I shouted. “Get away from it. You’re not in control anymore.”

She didn’t listen. She tried to climb into the saddle, but the Lung snatched her by the leg and threw her toward Sitri. The red Fafnir came out of its fit and bent its head to watch Reynolds crawl across the ground.

“Hold on, Sarah,” I said. “I’m coming.”

The Lung growled the sound of wind chimes. In response the Fafnir bent low, looking like a viper about to strike. Calhoun kicked at Sitri’s sides with his boots. Both dragons roared and circled each other. I dodged the Lung’s foot as it came down and nearly crushed me. The dragon was blocking my way to Reynolds. She was caught between them as they did their territorial scaly dance. I moved to run after her, but the Lung’s tail whipped into my path and knocked me back. I soared a few feet and landed. Everything hurt. I struggled just to lift my arm.

Both dueling dragons inhaled.

“No!” I shouted.

Reynolds got to her feet and tried to grab the reins dangling from the Lung’s neck. Light glowed at the back of both dragon throats. The fire rushed from their jaws. The Lung’s golden blaze covered Calhoun from sight while Sitiri’s dark red fire mixed against it and scorched Reynolds as she tried to run away.

The Nusies screamed. For a second.

“Reynolds,” I shouted.

She didn’t answer. When the fire cleared away and the dirt began to fly, as the dragons began clawing and biting each other, there was no sign of Reynolds anywhere. Sitri had a pile of ashes on its saddle. What looked like charred human legs crumbled onto the ground as the Fafnir lunged for Lucky’s neck.

The Lung dragon was quicker, though. It curled around and snatched the Fafnir’s neck in its teeth and twisted with a wet pop. A huge chunk of Sitri’s throat remained bleeding in the Lung’s mouth. As the Fafnir dropped dead, the Lung spit out the meat in its jaws and turned to me.

I was still lying on the ground. I didn’t think my suit was good for anything more than weighing me down at that point. But after the Lung took two inquisitive looks at me, blood coating its tendrils, it looked to the sky. With a single leap, Lucky flapped its wings to get higher. It glided away into the night. I never saw it again.

“Contreras,” Tamerica’s voice came through my helmet.

I lay there stunned, numb. I couldn’t speak. I realized how cold the air was when my breath made steam.

“Contreras,” Tamerica said again. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I croaked.

“Where’s Calhoun?”

“They’re… they’re all gone.” Sarah, too. “They’re dead.”

“We can’t stop yet,” Tamerica said. “Bethany and the others are having problems with some wraiths and a spider tank. We all need to head that way. Yolanda and the smokies are caught in the middle of them.”

“My suit is fried,” I said.

“I don’t have a wraith remote,” Brannigan chimed in. “Does anyone else?”

“No,” I said. I looked down at the smoking metal I was still in. My old suit had a remote, though.

“I’m on it,” Naveena said.

She leapt through the air and landed in front of a wraith flying after a silver coupe. Naveena pointed a remote at the ghost and sucked it up before running toward the next nearest wraith. I was in awe. I remembered why she’d always been my favorite and it was a pleasure to watch her work. How she could survive the torture the Nusies put her through, a dragon attack, the loss of her friends, and still keep going… it was beyond my understanding.

I lay my head back and closed my eyes.