25

14 Hours to Egress

Selah’s chair scraped back from the table at the same time everyone else’s did, creating a great screeching groan that vibrated through her feet to her very core. The biscuit turned to a lump of coal in her stomach.

“You children git on down to the cellar. First door on the right, the shelf with the canning jars swings away from the wall. Open the door and travel through the tunnel.” The old lady ushered them into the kitchen and through a doorway leading to her underground storage.

They scrambled down the stairs with Treva leading the way into the room. Mari pushed the shelf away, and Selah pulled the door open. Voices drifted through the wooden floorboard.

Selah stopped. “Wait! They’re in the house. They might hurt the old lady.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” Treva hissed. She tried to motion them to the tunnel, but Selah stood her ground, listening.

“There’ve been citizen reports that fugitives broke into your house,” a man’s voice said.

“Does it look like anyone has broken into my house? You’re the only one breaking anything, and that thing is my peace. Now be gone with you,” the old lady said in a stern voice.

“I think we still better have a look around,” another male voice said. Footsteps creaked the boards above their heads.

Selah clenched her fists, but her teeth chattered. If the guards touched the old lady, they would need to be ready to fight. Her glance darted around the room. The long oak handle of a push broom leaned in the corner where it guarded a pile of floor dirt. She stepped on the broom and unscrewed the handle.

“What are you doing?” Mari whispered loudly. “They’ve got a lot bigger weapons than a stick.” She grabbed Selah’s arm.

She shook her off. “We can’t leave that old lady to defend herself after she took us in.”

“It’s okay, listen!” Treva pointed up. Selah and Mari stopped to listen.

The old lady had apparently used a threat that worked. The guards were retreating. The last one’s boots cleared the doorway at about the same time the door slammed shut.

Selah ran along the side road between Treva and Mari. Her breathing had leveled off about a half mile ago, so she glided along with little effort. Treva held up a hand, and they ran in place to cool down. She called up their present coordinates on her ComTex and smiled.

Selah looked at the map. “We’re much closer than I thought.”

“Someone is on our side.” Treva nodded.

“I wouldn’t have thought so when we ran into that old lady’s cellar. Do I look like I’ve aged five years from the stress?” Selah asked, her heart thudding hard against her chest.

“I thought we were caught for sure. I had a vision of staring at a dozen lasers painting red and green dots on our faces.” Mari shook out her hands from running with her fists clenched.

“Do you think they came back to her house?” Selah frowned, thinking the woman may still come to harm for helping them.

“I seriously doubt it,” Treva said. “They were trying to flush us out onto the street. I glanced out her back window before we headed downstairs and could see armed security waiting on the outside of her other gate. When we didn’t come out the other side of the house, they probably figured it was a false lead.”

“We were lucky she had an escape route behind that wall rack. You seemed to know a lot about her, Treva. Was she a bandit or something when she was young?” Mari asked.

“No, you couldn’t find a more upstanding citizen. I’d always heard rumors that her house, being one of the originals in the first colony, had secret passages that led to multilevel underground operations even more secret than the Mountain’s projects.” Treva finished cooling down. She planted her feet and fisted her hands at her hips. “We’ve just found credible evidence to support that. Too bad we’ll never be able to explore the possibilities.”

“Why not? You could come back when all this settles down,” Mari said as she took the water flask Selah handed her.

Selah and Treva looked at each other. Treva shrugged.

Mari glanced at the two of them. “What am I missing?”

“We can’t come back. That’s why we needed to rescue you now,” Selah said.

“The Mountain colony is going to be inaccessible in about fifteen hours . . . forever,” Treva said.

Mari’s face first registered concern, then fear. “We need to get out of here now! I don’t want to stay in this smelly place forever. Which way gets us out the fastest?”

Selah realized Mari must smell the same odor she did. “We still have my family to find. Remember my brother Cleon? My mother and little brother are here too. They’ve been kidnapped by my stepfather, who is also responsible for bringing you here.”

“And I can’t leave without Cleon.” Treva’s voice hitched.

Selah gazed at her.

“Why are you staring at me?” Treva shoved the flask back in her belt holder.

“No reason.” Selah patted her shoulder. “We’ll get to them.” She was glad to see some emotion from Treva after worrying that she harbored resentment about her uncle and the rabbits, even though she’d said she didn’t.

“So you know where they are?” Mari looked relieved.

“We’re headed in that direction. We only had a few miles to go when we were at the old lady’s house,” Selah said.

“Was it my imagination, or did we come out of that tunnel about a mile from her house?” Mari asked, looking around at the scenery.

Treva looked at her with approval. “Very good. It was exactly a mile. How did you know that?”

Mari shrugged. “I’ve always been good with time and distance. When I was little, my father used to tell me I didn’t have an excuse for being late.”

Selah liked seeing the two of them get along. “Speaking of late, Bodhi will probably be giving Mojica fits because we’re so late.”

“I’d say we’re only about two miles from our point. The old lady’s tunnel brought us through Green in a straight line instead of zigzagging through the neighborhood roads.”

“Hey, what are you girls doing here?”

The three spun to face the soft baritone voice. A man in his late twenties with flat-top hair stood in the middle of the road. He did not look or sound like someone people could ignore. A well-toned chest filled his tight shirt, and the tattoo of an exotic bird with long tail feathers extended from the fingers of his right hand, up his arm, and under the rolled-up sleeve at his large bicep. He strode toward them with long purposeful steps.

Selah deliberated if they should run but decided there might be an advantage to being lost. “We seem to have lost our bearings on how to get to—”

Flat Top abruptly stopped toe-to-toe with Selah. His steel-gray eyes drilled into her. “Don’t talk. Just nod to what I say, and do what I tell you.”

Selah’s lip curled. “Excuse me, but why should we listen to you?”

“Hey, Conti, what’ve you got there? How come so many women for one man?”

The harsh voice spun the girls again. A large group of militant-looking young men exited the area the girls had been jogging toward. They were dressed in dark clothing and heavy boots, their chests crossed with leather strapping adorned with knife sheaths and looped lengths of chain. Two of them wore a large weapon bandolier slung over their shoulder, but many spaces for the cartridges were empty.

Selah tensed. The girls had almost walked into the middle of them.

“No, citizen, these are my sister’s friends. I was just asking them what they’re doing here when they should be on the next road over to get to our place.”

“We’re so sorry.” Selah pasted on a contrite look and raised a pained smile. “We started talking and just weren’t paying attention.”

The group of men surrounded them, taunting and looking them over. Selah shivered but planted her feet to keep from visibly trembling. She realized if Flat Top—Conti—hadn’t intervened, they’d be the prey right now. Treva moved in closer on her left and Mari on her right. Her heart thudded fiercely.

“Come on, girls, Teena is waiting for you.” Conti gestured back the way he came.

Two militants stepped in their way. Conti jerked to a stop before the one on his right. The guy wore a sadistic scowl and had an ear-to-ear scar across the front of his neck.

“Do you actually think you’d get out of my Trac if anything happened to someone under my protection?” Conti slid his hand to the knife hilt resting on his right hip. Selah hadn’t noticed the blade strapped to his leg. It ran from hip to knee.

“Do your best, Conti, but I know where most of your crew are defending your Trac at the moment, and I’m willing to bet that you don’t have the manpower to stop me.” A bearded guy with a green bandana drawn tight around his head grabbed Mari by the hair.

She turned into an angry cat. “Let me go, you tree borer!” Mari clawed at the hands gripping her hair.

Selah and Treva lunged to her rescue but were held back by the others.

Conti drew his knife. “Buck, let her go, or I’ll hunt you down myself.” He advanced, but the two in front of him blocked the way, brandishing their own knives.

Buck tried to kiss Mari on the neck. She head-butted him hard, and as he backed away she stomped on his foot, throwing him off balance. He skidded to a sitting position on the street.

Mari bounced around like a feline with its claws out, daring him to come closer.

All movement around her stopped. Selah watched transfixed as Mari challenged the guy.

Buck scrambled to his feet and pulled a long blade from a sheath draped across his shoulder. He had the same kind of sword tattooed on his right bicep, with a lightning bolt woven into it. “Now it’s time to mess up that pretty face so it matches your disposition.”

“Mari, don’t be foolish. That sword could slice you in half like a hot wire through wax,” Selah said. She didn’t expect Mari to listen. The look in her eyes was too intense, and Selah felt helpless to do anything but beg. Buck attacked. Selah gasped. Her breath turned to short, shallow draws, making her dizzy. Treva gripped Selah’s shoulder and moaned in fear.

Mari hopped to the side like a rabbit and swung around in time to kick him in the backside and send him sprawling again. She bounced back and forth on her feet, fists raised, and motioned to him again. “If you’ve had enough, you can just leave.”

Buck wasn’t completely steady on his feet, but he charged Mari with his head low like a bull. She stood her ground until the last second, spun away from him, and continued around, bringing both of her elbows down hard on his back. He collapsed to the ground. Mari jumped on his back, grabbed a handful of his hair, and slammed his head to the road. He stopped moving.

She rose and stepped over Buck’s unconscious body. No one had moved during her display. Conti stood with knife in hand. Treva remained motionless, gaping, and Selah wanted to clap and encourage Mari. But that wouldn’t help with the rest of the militants, so she too did nothing but stare.

A hand grabbed Selah’s arm and jerked her around.

“Nooo!” Selah screamed, thrusting out both palms.

The militant flew back four feet and skidded to the roadway. That broke the spell of Mari’s moment. The rest of the militants hurled obscenities as they grabbed their fallen ones and scurried back into the night.

“Selah, did you hear me?” Treva walked around in front of her. “You did it again!” Her eyes were wide.

“Did what?” Selah felt a tingling in her arms. Her eyes narrowed. She looked at her hands. So did Treva, Mari, and Conti.

“How can I learn to do that move?” Conti returned his blade to its sheath.

“Is that what you were telling me happened with the bandits?” Mari grinned. “I like that!”

Selah looked at Treva. “I don’t know how emotions make it happen. This time it was being startled that did it.”

“Remind me to never sneak up on you,” Treva said.

Selah smirked. “I just think it’s funny that I’ve been training in hand-to-hand combat for months, and now, when I figure out how to use it . . . I’ll have built-in hand-to-hand.”

“I think you ladies should follow me to my place on the next block.” Conti held up both hands. “No funny business. Promise.”

The girls agreed and trotted behind him down the road and over to the next street. Conti didn’t speak a word until he stopped in front of a sandstone single-story unit.

He wheeled around to face them. “What do you think you’re doing? Three women, real nice-looking women I might add, have no business walking around here this late in the evening unescorted.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Selah said. “We have to get to Duncan and Marrow.”

“Do you know how far that is from here? You’re just asking for trouble.” Conti paced in front of his doorway.

“It’s two miles, and we’re three hours late as it is. Now that it’s dark, I’m getting worried,” Treva said.

Conti threw his hands up. “Worried! You find the dark worrisome? So stay in my sister’s room until daylight. Do you know what could’ve happened if I hadn’t been leaving a friend’s place down the street? You almost got . . .”

“We almost got what? I think we handled ourselves pretty well,” Mari said.

Selah understood what he meant. They’d have to be more vigilant. She was surprised that living inside the Mountain mirrored the outside world. The only difference was the air in here stank.

“We understand. Thank you for coming to our rescue, but getting to our destination is more important at the moment,” Selah said.

“You don’t seem to understand,” Conti said. “Green Court is in a state of emergency. Our court security team is on its last legs. They took a big hit taking on Mountain security forces earlier this evening. But they did succeed in beating back a TF team trying to enter Green. The Mountain apparently panicked, and the Politicos are jamming all air communications in Green.”

Selah looked at Treva and frowned. “That’s probably why we have no communications with them.”

“We may not have a them to meet,” Treva said. “Conti, we’d be grateful if we could get a few weapons, though I don’t think we’ll ever have the opportunity to give them back.”

Conti frowned and then sucked air between his gleaming white teeth.

“We’d be even more grateful if you could point us in the shortest direction.” Selah’s hope had to stay on Bodhi. He said he’d be there when she got to the Green coordinates, and she believed him.

Selah strode along with the broad knife slapping the side of her leg. From hilt to tip it must have been twelve inches. All Conti could offer them were knives, and the girls were glad to get them, except now they resembled some of the scary people they were trying to avoid.

Treva looked at her ComTex. “I figure we’ll be there in about fifteen or twenty minutes—”

A yelling echoed between the buildings. Selah motioned Treva and Mari to a hedgerow in front of a multistory building. They watched a hooded figure loping down the road, then the noise started—the running feet of cursing men. Selah’s chest tightened. She recognized them, but there were only five this time. It sounded like they’d had too much mash.

“It’s them again. What should we do?” Treva whispered.

“We do nothing. Let them go by so the way ahead is clear for us,” Mari said.

Selah pressed her lips together. “We should—”

The hooded figure ran back up the road. Something about the way he ran . . . He turned his head to look back.

Cleon!

He kept running.

“Cleon!” Selah yelled as she darted from behind the bush, her legs pumping to catch her brother. Treva and Mari ran behind her.

“Selah, stop yelling. We’ll get caught,” Treva warned.

Selah continued to run. “Cleon, stop! It’s me, Selah.” Her voice echoed through the stone caverns the buildings created. The sound bounced three times before Cleon came to a complete stop.

Selah ran into his arms, crying. “Where are Mother and Dane?”

Treva piled on his other side. “How did you get away from Varro?”

“The guards watching me were distracted by their meal, and I took the opportunity to get away. We’re not far from there,” Cleon said.

Mari stood guard for the reunion. “People, I think it’s time to go,” she said. “We’ve got company coming.” She pointed down the road at the running group, but this time there were only four.

“Come on,” Cleon said. “I know the way back to where Mother and Dane are.”

They ran for a section and didn’t hear shouting or footfalls for a few minutes.

“Can we walk for a little?” Mari breathed heavily through her nose. “I’m not used to this strange air or this much running. In our woods the pace is slower.”

Selah pulled up beside her and slowed to a fast walk. “Cleon, talk to us. What’s going on?”

“Father brought Mother and Dane to the Mountain, and he hired Jaenen to grab Mari. Apparently he’d been trying to find her long before we showed up in TicCity, and had stopped in her woods many times but could not lure her to show herself.”

“And I came out for you and Selah,” Mari said.

Cleon ran his hand through his hair and nodded. “Yeah, because of us, you and your people were found.”

Treva put her arm on Mari’s shoulder. “Thank you for risking yourself for Cleon and Selah. They are my family.”

Selah felt her face flush. It hit her much deeper than she’d expected to hear those words from Treva. She rested her arm on Treva’s shoulder, and the three girls kept their arm-to-shoulder link for at least ten steps before laughter overtook them.

Out of nowhere they were surrounded by seven militants brandishing weapons—knives, clubs, and a pulse disruptor with a TF insignia. Selah swallowed hard but her mouth had gone dry. That weapon had come from one of Mojica’s TFs. Selah slipped her knife from its sheath.

The four of them stood in a square pattern—Mari positioned on Selah’s right, Treva at her back, and Cleon to her left, where he kept them moving toward the hideout.

“Selah, do you see the disruptor?” Treva asked.

“I sure do,” Selah said. “I think we have a bunch of Green Court security here.”

“Should they be out this late at night without their mothers?” Mari waved her knife slowly in front of her, as if carving patterns in the men’s chests.

“If you ladies wouldn’t mind,” Cleon said, “I don’t have a weapon. Let’s not agitate the already agitated sea slugs.”

Selah snorted, bringing a hand to her mouth to cover her smile. Maybe it was nervous laughter or she was really tickled because her brother used her favorite descriptive phrase for annoying people.

The men moved closer. They were not the men from before.

Mari bounced from her place and rolled under one of the militants. His head hit the road, knocking him out. She snatched up his knife and jabbed at the guy trying to cut her off from Treva and Selah.

Mari rejoined the square. “Here, now you have a weapon. I hope you know how to use a knife for more than skinning rabbits.” She handed it to Cleon.

“Thanks, I think,” Cleon said.

Five of the militants charged, while the one carrying the pulse disruptor stood guard. One man with a club swung at Selah. She dodged the swing and stomped on his Achilles tendon as he turned. The man roared in pain and crashed to the road, clutching his leg.

Selah, confident of Mari’s skills, turned to help Treva with the men holding knives. The man in front of Cleon had the other club. Selah thought about swinging around and trying to take that one out too, but it occurred to her . . . he was allowing them to move up the street.

Her pulse soared. “Stop! There has to be a trap up there. We fight here.”

The guy with the pulse disruptor was still just standing there, not joining the action. Wary of when he’d start firing, Selah thought of two ways to tackle him. At the moment she wanted the guy with the club gone. He had the least damaging weapon, so if she took it out they could fight in teams of two against the three knives they were fending off.

She came up beside Cleon. The guy with the club swung it. They easily avoided it. He moved swiftly enough the second time that Selah misjudged his bouncing distance, and he hit her in the hip with a huge swing and a solid thud. She screamed out in pain and crumpled to the road. Cleon threw down his knife and went crazy on the man, knocking the club from his hand and beating him with his fists. Throwing punches was an apt description of Cleon’s childhood.

Selah saw stars and felt lightning shoot from her head, down her torso, and out her toes. Fiery heat radiated from her hip. It felt like her pelvis had split in half. She pressed her hand to the pain, trying to will it away, begging her body to heal itself so she didn’t die here.

Cleon and the club man were still throwing punches and occasionally rolling around on the ground without the pulse disruptor man getting involved.

Selah tried to get up from the ground, but her leg refused to hold her weight. It felt like her hip had been dislocated. She turned to crawl toward Treva. Maybe she could trip the guy for her.

One of the knife men knocked Treva to the ground. The one helping him turned his attention on assisting the last militant as he took down Mari.

Treva struggled with the man and knocked the knife from his hand. He rolled her over and straddled her with his knees pressing her to the road. Holding both her hands with one of his, he sought the dropped knife with his free hand.

Selah dragged herself toward them, trying to reach the knife first. She slumped from the separating pain wracking her hip.

The man grabbed up the knife. He let go of Treva’s hands, clutched the knife in both hands, raised it over his head, and started to plunge it into Treva’s chest.

Selah screamed. An arrow zipped through the air and landed in the center of the man’s chest. His eyes widened. He looked down at the arrow protruding from his chest as though he didn’t believe it. The barest dribble of blood spread out in an ever-growing circle around the arrow. His eyes closed and he slumped to the side.

Treva scrambled from underneath him. Arrows thumped the ground all around the attackers. Another militant was shot through the arm by the arrows raining from the nearby buildings. The other men dodged arrows for only a couple of seconds before they promptly ran away and left their dead friend. The one carrying the pulse disruptor dropped it in his escape from the road.

Selah still had her hands up covering her head. Later she would realize how useless an exercise that was. Cleon and Mari ran over to her while Treva retrieved the pulse disruptor. She hurried back.

“They’re coming! I see a lot of people, guys and girls with crossbows coming out of those buildings over there,” Treva said.

Selah grabbed the pulse disruptor and aimed it at them as they strolled closer, crossbows slung over their shoulders. They casually walked right up to Selah despite her holding the weapon at the ready.

“Hello. Let me guess. You don’t belong in Green Court.” The girl talking was fit and tall, with about a yard of black hair. Her tattoo was identical to the bird Selah had seen on Conti.

“No, we don’t belong here. We’re passing through to—”

“Yeah, I know, Duncan and Marrow,” the girl said.

Selah and the others exchanged startled glances.

“I noticed your tattoo. Are you related to Conti?” Selah asked as she winced in pain. Just trying to move in any position caused the stabbing rush to consume her thoughts till she wanted to scream.

“Yes, you can say we’re related. He told us to get you to the station without incident. Our Trac ends right before your station but we’re always itching for a fight, so we wouldn’t be averse to taking on those boys for you if necessary. We were a little late catching up to you. Sorry you got hurt.” The girl leaned down and looked at Selah. “It looks like your hip is dislocated. I can put it back in, but it’s going to hurt like all get-out.”

Selah didn’t care about the pain. She needed to get to the rest of her family and find Bodhi. “Yes, please do it. Then it can heal,” she said.

The girl looked at her oddly for a second and then sat on the ground in front of her. “I need you to lie flat, and don’t fight the way I’m going to turn you.”

Selah nodded.

“Someone give her something to bite on,” the girl said.

“I don’t need anything.”

“Trust me, you do,” the girl said.

Cleon stripped off his jacket and gave her the rolled sleeve to bite on. Selah sniffed at the pungent aroma and made a face.

“Let’s go, people. We don’t have all night,” the girl said.

Selah held her nose and bit down on the sleeve. The girl positioned her feet on opposite sides of Selah’s left hip, cradling her leg in between. She grabbed Selah by the foot, made her stiffen her leg, and rotated it back and forth. Sweat beads broke out on Selah’s forehead as she moaned in pain.

Her hip clicked back in the socket with a sharp sound. Selah screamed a guttural cry that bounced from the buildings in such a fashion that the returning sound scared even her. She dropped her head to the ground in exhaustion. Bodhi.

Within fifteen minutes Selah’s body had healed enough that they could stand her on her feet.

The girl looked at her, uncertain. “Are you sure you’re ready to go? It usually takes a couple of days to feel strong enough to walk. We were going to litter-carry you if necessary.”

“I’m going to be fine, but we have to leave.” Selah tested her hip. It held her weight. It was quite sore, but she was standing. She bent and picked up the pulse disruptor.

“Oh, that won’t work for you,” the girl said.

“Why not?” Selah asked as she pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. She pulled it again. Nothing.

The girl smiled. “That’s why that idiot holding it didn’t use it. He could have done better using it as a club.”

“Why won’t it work?” Selah looked it over for any obvious damage but saw none.

“They’re keyed to TF technology. If you aren’t wearing a uniform or accessories with TF signatures, it won’t fire.”

“Give it here,” Treva said, motioning with her hand. Selah handed it to her.

Treva fired off four pulses at an evergreen bush, making it ever dead.

The girl’s mouth opened in a perfect circle. “How did you do that?” She looked genuinely excited at the prospect of firing the weapon.

Treva held out her ComTex. “TF technology. We’re supposed to meet our support team at Duncan and Marrow, but we heard TFs had a showdown with Green security. Do you know if it was a unit at Duncan?”

The girl thought for a second.

Selah’s pulse pounded in her throat. Please don’t let it be Bodhi who was hurt.