Shuqba shoved the OmniScreen into her pocket and hoisted Graycie over her shoulder.
‘Quiet as a sniper now.’
Gunshots rang out behind them. She didn’t confirm that Nanzee and Tod were following. She had no loyalty to them. Let them have their firefight. The free-Neos may have had the right idea after all. If they waited long enough the Sapiens would destroy each other.
Shuqba moved swiftly and stealthily, taking the path they’d travelled earlier that day. She noted the marks she’d memorised – a bright spray of poisonous berries, an animal burrow that could turn an unwary ankle, the burnt-out husk of a tree rising up like an empty black cape – until she reached the fallen log covering a hatch that led to a cornucopia of weapons, tinned foods, water, blankets and other survival gear. The Rewilders’ insurance policy against times such as these.
Crashing noises came from the bush behind them. Tod and Nanzee were close. Now she’d helped them defeat their common enemy, they would dispose of her. All her life Shuqba had blindly accepted she was a soulless product created by the Sapiens for their use. Karain and Ferrassie had shown that Neos could be so much more than what was designated by the coding on their clone tattoos, and they’d been destroyed for it. Shuqba’s best chance of saving herself was to reach her cached assault rifle before the Rewilders caught up.
She heard a yell. The Rewilders weren’t even trying to be quiet. It wasn’t like those militants to be so careless. Something must have gone wrong. Whatever had happened didn’t change Shuqba’s mission. As soon as Alida arrived they would bug out. Shuqba lowered Graycie to the ground. The little girl’s eyes were wide with fear.
‘Are they coming for us?’
‘The SEM people didn’t even know we were there and they’ve got other problems to deal with now.’
‘But what about Ganya? She saw us.’
The pimp. ‘I’m sure she’s occupied now too.’
Graycie clung to Shuqba’s leg, the collar of her SunSuit wedged in her mouth. ‘Where’s Alida?’
‘She’ll be here soon.’ Shuqba removed Graycie from her leg and took a step towards the pile of rocks, only metres away, where she’d hidden the rifle after Tod and Nanzee fell asleep the night before.
Nanzee crashed out of the bush waving her handgun. ‘Dad’s been shot,’ she yelled. Her face was distorted and wet with tears.
She turned and shot once into the forest, her hands shaking too much to take any kind of useful aim. A second shot rang out almost immediately. Nanzee fell to the ground, hands on her chest. Blood soaked the greens and browns of her camo to a wet black. A lethal shot.
Graycie screamed and grabbed onto Shuqba. Shuqba held the girl’s face to her belly, covering her head with her arms too late to keep her from witnessing the slaughter.
Blood bubbled out of Nanzee’s mouth. Shuqba didn’t have time to consider her own safety or retrieve the rifle before the pimp strode out of the bush, the floral tattoos on her scalp alive with dappled sunlight. She held her handgun aloft and put a foot clad in sturdy knee-high boots on Nanzee’s chest, like a cloned-mammoth hunter posing for a photo.
‘Rewilder cockroaches. They drove us from one home – they won’t drive us from this one.’ She stooped, picked up Nanzee’s handgun and pushed it into the waistband of her skin-tight slacks. ‘Shame she ran. Freel would’ve liked her.’
Shuqba sidestepped, with Graycie clamped to the front of her, towards the rocks concealing her weapon.
‘Don’t move.’ The pimp pointed her handgun at Shuqba. ‘I checked your heat signatures loitering outside the mansion. Now, what I wanna know right now is what the hell’s going on here and what’s a Neo doing with my little mate Graycie?’
Graycie slid around Shuqba’s waist and breathed hot sobs right into the crack of Shuqba’s backside.
To their right the crunching of twigs and the shuffle of leaf litter underfoot broadcast the arrival of Rhea. She came around a tree, her hair dishevelled and her white overalls smeared with dirt.
‘Nanz!’ Rhea lurched towards her niece’s corpse.
The pimp kicked Rhea in the face and she fell back with her hands to her nose. Shuqba glanced towards the stashed rifle. She’d never be able to reach it and move the rocks away before the pimp shot her. She’d have to bide her time and hope the pimp’s connection to Alida and Graycie was enough to safeguard all their lives.
‘Who the holy heck do you think you are?’ Blood sprayed from Rhea’s mouth. ‘Alida told me you and those dipshits you came with are nothing but whoring Demi sinners.’
‘Alida’s here too?’ Ganya laughed. ‘Hectic. This is going to be a great story.’