I heard nothing but gunfire.
Udans, Enu, and Zeba didn’t hear me, or they didn’t understand, I thought. Or they don’t care. And I’m going to die.
After a moment of stark terror, I decided maybe I wouldn’t die immediately. Maybe the Enforcers were shooting just to scare me, not to actually injure me, because none of the bullets hit my body, even as they pinged off rocks all around me. The gunfire continued, but I dared to turn my head and look toward the sky.
A rock sailed between me and the clouds.
“Thank you!” I screamed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you—”
The rocks kept flying. The gunfire got softer, as if there’d been four guns firing, and now there were only three. And then it was softer still—was it possible that now there were only one or two?
And then the gunfire ended, and all I could hear was the thudding of rocks.