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Dust and rocks spray behind our tires as we pull out of Agroth. After insisting that he drive, Sully races down the long, winding path, away from the Urthmen city and out onto the open road. The sun is high overhead. The woodlands that line the pavement blaze like firelight in midday sun, only instead of heartening me as it typically would, the sight is a painful reminder of all that I’ll miss, for once the Uganna attack we’ll all fall.
Balling my fists so tightly my fingernails leave small crescent-shaped marks on my palms, I huff. “I can’t believe what happened back there!” I turn in my seat and glare at Luc. “I can’t believe your cousin is willing to put his people’s best interest second and his image first.”
Luc shakes his head and presses his too-thin lips so closely they disappear completely.
“I know!” Sully agrees. I face him. “What the heck was that all about? He’s so worried about how he’ll look, what the popular opinion will be if he joins forces with humans. Makes perfect sense, right? Only not at all because everyone will be dead!” Sarcasm drips from his every word. His upper lip is curled and his eyes are narrowed. His expression mirrors exactly how I feel: annoyed, frustrated, and hopeless.
“We wasted an entire day going there to basically beg for his help and get rejected when we should’ve been at Cassowary preparing for the attack,” I fume and support what Sully has said.
“It’s true. Two entire cities are being evacuated. We should’ve been there overseeing that not pleading with a leader who doesn’t give a damn whether we’re wiped off the face of the earth.”
Luc, who up until now has been silent, sitting with his arms folded and his chin resting against his chest, lifts his head. “My cousin Dhaval was stubborn and foolish. He didn’t believe his people would approve of him deciding to fight alongside humans.”
“Yeah, and as a result, we’re going to die.” Sully doesn’t rein in his anger. He pounds his fist against the steering wheel.
“You’re both right to be mad,” Peter joins in. “Dhaval wasn’t putting the safety of his people first. Forget about the safety of humans. He was too busy worrying about his reputation, about how it would look that first, he ordered a truce of sorts, and then if he were to align themselves with humans to battle the Uganna, well, I’m sure he thought that’d send his image straight to the trash.”
“I understand all that,” I say as I twist in my seat once again. “But I still can’t wrap my mind around risking death to his people for the sake of his image.”
“It’s not like him, not at all,” Luc says.
“I’m sorry, Luc, but I don’t buy that for a second,” Sully grumbles. “Dhaval seemed more than comfortable rejecting us. In fact, he seemed like he could hardly hold down his breakfast just looking at us.”
“I’m sure whatever you perceived as dislike of you was little more than his bad mood after his run-in with Armarius.” Luc is adamant as he defends his cousin.
“He didn’t seem all that fond of you either, so maybe there’s some truth to what you’re saying.” Sully’s tone is neither argumentative nor mocking but I still can’t help but chuckle.
Luc lowers his head and I’m struck by a pang of guilt. “I suppose you’re right about that,” he says quietly.
Ordinarily, I’d be inclined to reach out to someone who’s feeling as he feels, but considering that a pack of tens of thousands of Uganna are prepping to storm our cities and kill us all, I hold off on the comforting him and focus my thoughts on how the heck we can stave off the beasts. “What’re we going to do?” I think aloud.
“I don’t know.” Sully shakes his head somberly and I watch as sunlight filters in through the driver’s side window, highlighting his profile and lightening the pale streaks in his sandy hair. My breathing catches for just a second before I return my attention to the road ahead. Rushing at me in a dizzying blur, the world beyond the windshield is a chaotic jumble of greens, golds and browns. Sully is testing the engine, trying to cover ground that was lost during our trip to Agroth to the point of being almost reckless. The time lost can never be regained. He knows that as well as I do. Still, he speeds, challenging the SUV along the open road. Ahead, a sharp curve waits. Jerking the wheel, Sully guides our vehicle, demanding that it navigate the sudden bend. Tires protest and as we round the bend, my breath catches in my chest a second time.
Inhaling harshly, I mutter, “Oh my gosh!”
Covering the road in a tide of terror, Uganna stretch as far as the eye can see. Panting and chuffing as their knuckles and feet take turns hitting the pavement, they move with deadly agility. The sound of their unified steps rolls like thunder, vibrating through the body of our SUV through me. They’re ahead of us, mobile and advancing toward Cassowary; of that I’m, certain.
“Dammit! What do I do?” Sully exclaims.
My eyes dart from left to right, searching desperately for a way to circumvent the beasts and make it to our city ahead of them. “There! There!” I point to a break in the dense tree line just a few hundred feet ahead. “Turn off there! It’s our only chance!”
Our vehicle is four-wheel drive. It’s designed to tackle rough terrain, but at the speed we’re traveling, I fear we’re in grave danger.
“Hold on!” Sully shouts as he jerks the steering wheel hard and to the left. No one has time to react to his warning though. The front end of the SUV dips, dropping dramatically and hitting the ground below hard before the tires encounter rocks and brush. Bumping and jerking, Luc cries out as his head hits the roof. “Buckle up back there!” Sully yells. Belted in as I am I hold tight to my seat, bracing myself for impact at any moment, or worse, being surrounded by a pack of Uganna.
Uganna do not circle us, however, and we drive deeper and deeper into the woods, dodging bushes and narrowly avoiding crashing headlong into trees until the foliage thins and a clearing becomes visible. Heather fronds in a rich shade of lavender reach and stretch for what seems like eternity, swaying in the crisp fall breeze. The sight would be breathtaking were we not racing against the Uganna and time itself to return home and warn our loved ones. We are at the cusp of the heather field, when I look to the road and see a set of eyes, darker and deeper than doom incarnate, lock on us. “Oh no,” I breathe just as the beast howls out and notifies those surrounding him. “He saw us.”
“What? Who? Who saw us?” Sully takes his eyes off the road for a split-second to look at me. When his eyes return to the road, I do not have to reply. He sees what I saw. “Oh my gosh!” he cries as a group breaks from the massive crowd and charges toward us, trying to head us off.
“We’re never going to make it!” Peter screams.
“Like heck we won’t,” Sully growls and doesn’t slow. Instead, he takes aim, directing the front end of the vehicle at the first Uganna he spots. Stomping down hard on the gas pedal, the SUV lurches forward, listing and shuddering over the lumpy landscape. Uganna cross our path but Sully doesn’t slow or stop. Instead, he slams into them. Thumps sound accompanied by groans and yelps, and blood splatters. Bodies are mangled, smashed beyond repair. But more keep coming.
Learning from their fallen brethren, the Uganna flank us on either side, ramming us on the right so that we lift onto two wheels.
“Oh my gosh!” I cry as we nearly tip.
“Hold on!” Sully shouts and yanks the steering wheel. The SUV rights itself and drives on four wheels once again. Sully veers left and right, hitting and injuring as many as he can before gunning the engine and launching us deeper in the field and farther from the Uganna until they are no longer visible. Fire shoots through my veins, pounding relentlessly through my blood. My heart maintains a frantic tempo, but as we put more and more distance between us and the Uganna, I begin to feel the faintest glimmer of hope. Hope that we might avoid another attack. Hope that we might make it to Cassowary to warn the others. I’m not sure what good warning them will do, other than delay the inevitable, but sometimes hope is all a person has in this world, and I’m clinging to it like a lifeline.
After a few more miles traveled, we begin making our way back toward the roadway. Uganna aren’t near, though I hear the thunderous clatter of their approach, even over the roar of the engine. We are ahead of the herd as we hurry to our city.
An hour passes, and then another before the towering spires of Cassowary’s walls come into view. The gate is opened and we are welcomed inside. Once within the protective walls, I see rows of trucks, cars and SUVs. Thousands of people mill about the pathways that connect buildings. It’s a welcome sight.
Once Sully brakes to a stop, I open my door and jump from my seat, racing up the spiral stone staircase to the top of the wall where Oliver waits. “Oliver!” I shout. He turns, drilling me with aquamarine eyes identical to his late brother’s. “How many more are we waiting for?” I ask referring to vehicles loaded with evacuees.
“This is it,” he replies as I draw closer.
“Thank goodness. We don’t have any time.” Breathless from nerves and from sprinting up the steps, I rush to the raised section of the wall where our warning bell waits. Using every ounce of my body weight, I pull with all my might on a length of rope attached to it. Within seconds, the long mournful toll begins, echoing through every inch of Cassowary, through the cavernous hollows of my being. Everyone filing out of vehicles and through town freezes at the sound, their eyes turning skyward to me. I wave frantically, urging the few that wait beyond the gate inside. “Get in! Everyone get in!” I turn to Oliver. “Round up every gun and every archer we have from all the cities. We need them on the wall now!”
“Yeah, they’re coming as we speak!” Sully is beside me. He grabs a pair of binoculars from his pocket and peers through them. “That was only one pack that we passed according to Luc and Peter. More will be coming and from all directions.”
Stomach bottoming out at the grimness of his words, I swallow back the bitter burn of fear rising in my throat. “We’ll be ready when they get here.” I speak the sentence with certainty I do not possess, yet I force myself to hold fast to hope. Hope is all I have.
I resolve to do what I’ve always done, to steel myself and fight. This is not a single battle of many to come. This is an epic clash that will determine the fate of my species. This is a battle for our future. The fate of humankind hangs in the balance, and if we fail to defend ourselves now, human beings will fall to extinction.
The outcome of this fight decides our destiny.