Jace moved silently through the rubble, Dani gripped tightly in his arms. He stopped every few steps to listen. The two remaining MPs, excluding Miles, were making enough noise between them to hide any moan Dani might make as she continued to recover. He passed by the base of the angled concrete slab and paused. The unconscious Warden Dani had defeated remained where she’d left him. She’d saved Miles’s life long enough so he could shoot her by mistake.
His warning to her this morning had not changed her fate. She’d still died by friendly fire, with a gun in her hand.
A new noise began in the distance. The rhythmic thumping grew louder, and Jace started moving again, this time with less heed for a quiet escape. His progress halted when he rounded a turn and found plasma pistols pointed at his head. He froze before the MPs.
“Don’t move,” the man said.
Jace’s eyes flicked between the MPs and his surroundings. He read the names on their uniforms. Coulson and Elmore.
Jace held Dani closer to his chest. “Please. My granddaughter was injured. I need to get her away from this building before more parts collapse.”
“How did you end up with a quake rifle?” Coulson asked.
“I picked it up off the ground,” Jace said.
“Where’s the Brigand woman?” Coulson asked.
Jace shrugged. “Dead, I guess. She was shot, and I saw her fall.”
“Give us the rifle,” Elmore said.
“I need it to trade for medical care for my granddaughter. Let us pass, and I’ll tell you where to find your injured MP. His uniform says Jackman on it.”
The female MP stepped closer to Jace, weapon still raised. “How do we know he’s still alive?”
“Because I didn’t kill him when I had the chance. He is injured, though, and will need your help to stay alive. Those were more Warden helos passing overhead a moment ago. Shoot us if you want, but I’m not staying here any longer to wait for their reinforcements to march through,” Jace said.
Coulson lowered her pistol, and Elmore did the same.
“Where’s Jackman?” Coulson asked.
Jace turned and nodded his head. “He’s lying on the other side of that slab. I suggest you find your man and leave while you can.”
“Come with us, and we’ll get your granddaughter the care she needs,” Coulson said.
“And be forced into the CNA army after? No thanks.” Jace walked forward and stepped between the officers. They didn’t try to stop him as he left. He glanced back and saw them jogging in Miles’s direction.
Daylight was waning and more Wardens were arriving as Jace made his way through the city. His body ached, and he was out of breath from carrying his sister for the last few hours. He had been in his mid-forties the last time he’d had to carry her. Now in his early sixties, his strength began to fail, exactly as he’d feared. He didn’t want her near anyone else while she recovered, but if he was to keep her alive, he needed help.
Going against his desire to remain hidden from all others, including Brigands, Jace carried his sister to an abandoned home west of Portland known for sheltering Brigands.
He traded the rifle for a private room for one night, five days of food and water, and two sets of child-size clothing. The quake rifle was worth more than any other weapon currency. He followed the woman managing the house to the rear of the structure. Brigands lined the stairs going to the upper level, and he stepped around and over people staying the night on the floor. Whatever they had traded in exchange for accommodations didn’t compare to a quake rifle.
Jace carried Dani to their room and placed her on the rumpled mattress on the floor as their host placed a sack on the floor containing the agreed-upon food, water, and clothes. “It’s not much space,” she said, “but it’s private. This used to be a walk-in closet off the master bedroom. Can you believe people once owned enough clothes they needed a closet to walk through to get to them all?”
“No. It seems impossible that life was ever like that.” Jace’s face flushed at this unexpected small talk with a stranger.
The woman smiled. “Don’t worry. We’re Echo-friendly here. Who is she? And don’t give me that granddaughter crap.”
“My sister.”
The woman nodded. “Need a hand getting her cleaned up and changed?”
“Yes!” Jace said, almost pleading. He reached for his bag. “I can pay you—”
“No need,” she said.
He helped her unwind the blanket from around Dani’s body. The woman left for a few minutes, and Jace removed Dani’s socks, now four sizes too big. He found a mostly clean rag in his bag and wiped at the smears of dried blood on her face. The woman returned with ragged cloths and a bowl full of water. Jace busied himself with the sack, moving the food and water to his own bag while the woman washed Dani. She hummed a song as she worked, and he groaned when he removed the impossibly small clothing from the sack.
“She’s lucky to have you,” the woman said as she took the clothes from Jace’s hands. She dressed Dani in a faded blue T-shirt and tattered jeans that were still too big for her ten-year-old frame.
Jace placed the extra set of clothes in his bag and pawed through the bloodstained adult clothing the woman had tossed to the floor after removing it from Dani’s tiny frame. He found a half-eaten food wafer in her pocket. He removed the empty knife sheath and water pouch from her belt. After stowing the water in his bag, he pulled her belt from her trousers. He rolled her pants, socks, and belt before putting them in his stuffed bag. He left the blood-soaked tee with a hole through the front. If she grew as quickly as she had in her former pre-teen years, she’d be back in the trousers and socks by the time she reached fifteen. Clothes were often harder to find than food these days.
The woman finished dressing Dani and gathered the T-shirt, rags, and bowl, now full of red-tinged water. “Where will you go?”
“I don’t know,” Jace said.
The woman nodded and left the room. Jace pulled his blanket over Dani’s small form and stared at her for a moment. He stepped out of the room and leaned his back against the door. Most of the Brigands staying in the house slept, but a group of three men and a woman huddled in a corner of the former master bedroom that had been turned into a communal floor space for sleeping. Jace listened as they talked.
“We’re going west,” one man said with a nod at the woman next to him.
“You can’t survive in the mountains long. You have no gear and the snow starts flying next month,” another man wearing a dark jacket said. “We’re going north, to Bangor.”
“Yep, north,” the third man said. “It’s too rural for the Wardens to care about. There are less than a hundred Commonwealth ground troops there. Some MPs in the mix, but the Brigands control much of the area.”
The woman frowned. “Until the Wardens arrive with their tech and blast everything to dust.”
“Nah. There isn’t anything of value in the north that the Commonwealth or Wardens want,” her companion said.
“You’re saying we should go to Bangor too?” the woman asked.
“It’s not the worst idea we’ve ever had.” He turned to the other man. “How are you getting there?”
“I have a man that can transport us as far north as Waterville. Three- to four-hour ride on back roads. It’s all walking after that.”
“How much is the transport?” Jace asked.
The Brigands turned to him at his question. “For you and the dead kid you carried through here?”
“She’s not dead, just injured during the fighting today. She only needs a little time to rest, and she’ll be fine,” Jace said. “How much?”
The man in the dark coat eyed him for a moment. “Got another quake rifle?”
“No, but I have another weapon I can trade.” He had two older plasma pistols stolen from Miles, a knife, and Dani’s revolver, but he was careful to only indicate that he had a single weapon. He had enough problems caring for a child; he didn’t need to set himself up to be robbed.
Jace grinned. “Nice try. In case you can’t tell by my gray hair, I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“We’re leaving mid-morning to meet my contact. Show me what you have then, and I’ll decide if you and the kid can come.”
Jace shrugged. “Fair enough.” He turned to go back into the room but paused when the woman who had helped him returned.
She handed him another small sack. “Socks, a fleece, and a jacket. The boots will be too big for her, hence two pairs of socks.”
Jace stared at the bag. He needed the clothes for Dani, but he also needed to trade for their transportation north.
“Don’t worry about paying for these,” she said. “I was about her age when my older sister was taken by the Wardens. I like to think my sister is still alive, but I can’t imagine the horror of surviving as an Echo under Warden rule. Can you?”
Jace shook his head. “Thank you, for everything.”
She nodded and left. Jace entered the room and barricaded the door with a chair. He placed the newest sack beside the mattress before sitting next to Dani. His shoulders sagged, and he stared at the floor. He perked up when a small hand emerged from the blanket, reaching for him.
Jace took Dani’s hand, and she gave him a sleepy smile.
“Don’t worry, Jason,” she said.
He gasped; she had never remembered him before following a regen.