A branch snagged Alida’s hair and ripped out a chunk. The whole left side of her body was scratched up because of the blind spot from her vision panel. And she’d lost Rhea. The jerk had bolted ahead. Every lost second messed up her chances of saving Shuqba even more. Although she had no clue what she could do against armed Rewilders. She wished she’d never got Shuqba tangled up in all this shit. And she should never have made an alliance with Rewilders.
A flashing red message maintained that Shuqba’s OmniScreen was offline and untraceable. She hadn’t even had a chance to give her a heads-up that the Rewilders wanted to kill her. Alida disconnected from her implant. It was worth shit-all right now.
The bush around her looked the same in every direction. There was no sound of Rhea’s movements or flash of her white threads in the dense bush. Why couldn’t the jerk just wait for her? She wasn’t that slow.
Two gunshots, one after the other, silenced the birds and insects. Then a scream – Graycie’s scream – hit Alida right in the guts. Not far away. Her breakfast rose up her throat. Had she just heard Shuqba’s death? Was she too late to do something, anything? Every survival instinct told her to run away from gunshots and screams, but Graycie was where the violence was and there was always the chance Shuqba was still alive.
Alida stepped as quietly as she could towards the voices. The going was slow. Shards of dried bark crunched beneath her shoes, branches brushed against her shoulders, and she slid on rocks and gumnuts. She was only a little less noisy than if she’d stomped through waving her arms about. How had Rhea done it so quietly?
The voices became clearer. One of them was Rhea, cracking the sads about something. She couldn’t hear Graycie or Shuqba. The other voice, calm and cocky, was bloody Ganya. What was she doing there? Didn’t she have a mansion to storm?
Alida pressed against the trunk of a large tree and peered around. She wiped sweat from her eyes. Only metres away, in a small clearing, Rhea’s niece lay on the ground with Ganya standing over her. Rhea was a crumpled mess, pissing blood out of her face and all over her white threads. Graycie and Shuqba were very much alive and clinging to each other. Alida muffled a sob in her hands. She needed to act. Ganya had her gun pointed at Shuqba and Graycie. She didn’t have time to come up with one of her useless plans. Maybe that was for the best.
Ganya was saying, ‘Alida’s here too? Hectic. This is going to be a great story.’ Ganya pulled another gun from behind her back and aimed it at Rhea. ‘Whoever you are behind that tree, I can see your heat signature. Throw down your weapons and come out with your hands in the air or I shoot the Rewilder and the Neo. I’m guessing at least one of them means something to you or you wouldn’t be sneaking around.’
Heat signature? Did all implants have that function? It would have been handy when Alida was trying to keep up with Rhea. She stepped forward hands in the air to show she wasn’t being cagey.
‘It’s me, Alida. I’m unarmed.’ Would Ganya take her back to Freel? Her pulse pounded in her head. There were so many ways this day could end badly. Gigging with Freel had got her through some tough times, and Mum’s gigs had given her as slick a childhood as you could expect in the Demi-Settlements, but the old way of life was shattered. Freel’s empire had died with the implant malfunction. Alida wanted a chance to see what her life could be once all the puppet strings were cut.
‘Alida, long time no see.’ Ganya grinned.
Graycie flew from Shuqba’s arms and climbed Alida like a possum up a tree. Alida buried her nose in Graycie’s neck between her ear and her shoulder and inhaled tomato sauce, stale mylk and gum leaves. She pulled Graycie’s SunSuit hood up over her head and murmured, ‘You’ll get sunstroke.’
‘So is everybody here now? No more surprises, I hope.’ Ganya put both of her guns down. ‘My arms are getting a bit tired here. I’m just going to trust none of you will do anything stupid. Let’s have a civilised conversation.’
‘Where’s my brother, you bitch?’ Rhea yelled.
‘For crying out loud. Could you wait your turn? I’m talking to Alida right now.’
Shuqba whispered to Alida while Ganya was distracted by Rhea. ‘Be ready to run when I attack Ganya.’
‘No. Let me talk to her first,’ Alida whispered back. An attack wouldn’t go well for Shuqba, not without a weapon of her own. She might get a couple of whacks in, but not even Neandertal strength could match a bullet.
‘Graycie and Shuqba and I are just gonna split. You won’t have any hassle from us. We’ll go far from here and never come back,’ Alida said to Ganya.
‘Nice plan, but you’re all coming with me. I’m sure Freel’ll find a use for you. Except the Neo. I should probably kill her. It’s not that I have a problem with Neos, but I can’t have a Neo with a grudge wandering the bush around my new home.’
Alida stepped in front of Shuqba. ‘No! Please, Ganya.’ Their only hope was Ganya’s mercy and the memory of Mum. Ganya was only human, after all. Alida had seen her kindness, more than once. ‘After everything that’s happened, everything that’s been lost, all I have left is these two. We just wanna leave. Mum worked hard all her life – you saw her. She didn’t want her littlies to have a life like hers.’
Rhea moved, trying to take advantage of the distraction. Ganya swung one of her guns up to face her. ‘Don’t move.’
Rhea raised her hands, muttering more of her prayers to God and Mother Nature.
Alida prayed silently too. Please, Mum. She was desperate enough to try anything. If you’re watching over us, now is the time to use your ghosty power to get us out of this. I’ll never ask you for anything again. I promise. Shuqba put her hands on Alida’s shoulders and she felt steadier.
‘Freel’s not that scaly,’ Ganya said. ‘He’ll look after you. It’s not safe out here – the SEM compound is self-sufficient and reasonably secure. You and Graycie’ll be better off with us.’
What were security and comfort if you had no control over your own body? If others just used you like a product for their own ends?
‘You know Freel will get Graycie gigging too, when she’s old enough. Mum would’ve hated that. Please, let us go. For Valerie.’
Ganya huffed. ‘Do you have to keep bringing your mum into it?’ Her eyes went blank for a moment. ‘Freel needs me back at the mansion. A couple of young heroes have holed themselves up in the SEM armoury. Fine. You three get out of here.’ She waved her gun at Rhea. ‘You, up. I can’t go back to Freel empty-handed.’
‘What in God’s name? I’m not going back,’ Rhea screeched. ‘I’m going with Alida.’
‘Does this Rewilder belong to you, Alida?’
Alida shook her head. Rhea had wanted Shuqba dead. Whatever happened to her now was her own fault.
Rhea got to her feet, swearing and snivelling. ‘I’ll kill you all in your sleep.’
‘Eish! Shut up or I shoot you through the skull right now.’
Ganya was going to have a cheery time sharing a mansion with Rhea. It wasn’t likely to last too long.
Ganya aimed a gun between Rhea’s shoulderblades and turned back to Alida. ‘Don’t come begging Freel and me for scraps when you’re out in the wilds starving. This was your one chance to join us.’ Ganya shoved Rhea forwards. ‘Come on, lady. Don’t you want to see what God did to your brother? He’s back near the mansion.’ They traipsed off through the bush.
Alida held tight to Graycie. Her knees wobbled and she staggered back into Shuqba’s arms. The three of them had a long, sweet hug.
‘Thank you, Mum,’ she whispered.
♦ ♦ ♦
Shuqba drove the van while Alida sat in the back with Graycie’s head in her lap. She stroked her little bird’s forehead and looked over her nearly invisible eyebrows and eyelashes, her thin pink lips and her bright blue eyes. She was healthier than she’d ever been and for some messed-up reason that made Alida squeeze out some tears.
Graycie lifted a dirty finger and nabbed a tear from Alida’s cheek. ‘Why are you crying?’
‘I dunno. Something dicey about my eyes today. Maybe the dust.’
Outside the window the bush had thinned to open paddocks spiked with twisted tree skeletons.
‘Tell me one of the stories about when I was little.’
‘Right now?’
Graycie nodded, her fine hair knotting against the coarse material of Alida’s overalls.
‘Okay. Um. You were naked and slurping rainwater out of a ditch the first time I ever spied you.’
‘I had a bare bum.’ Graycie giggled like she did every time she heard the story.
‘Yep. Mum and I reckoned you were only about two or three years old and cute as a button.’
Graycie watched her intently, waiting for the next part.
‘And you were tweeting like a bird. I had no clue why. Mum and I couldn’t figure it out. Took a while but it turned out you were saying to eat, to eat. You were a hungry little bird.’
‘Tweet! Tweet!’ Graycie laughed. ‘Tell another story about me.’
Alida gave an exaggerated eye roll. ‘One more and then you tell me some stories.’
Graycie wrinkled her nose.
‘Give me a second to think of one.’
Alida caught Shuqba’s gaze in the rear-view mirror and they smiled at each other. Shuqba had told her about a house, on the edge of civilisation, where there were heaps of fruit trees. That was where they would begin. Maybe she’d plant her own garden. She patted her pockets. They were full of packets of seeds she’d nabbed from the SEM greenhouse.
The world was a dangerous mess, but all they needed was grub, shelter, their health and each other. The three of them were a family now. Even if none of them were related by blood. Even if one of them was a different species. They’d work something out. They’d find other like-minded survivors, Neo and Sapien, and make a titchy corner of the new world worth living in. Things might just be okay. Maybe it was a foolish hope, maybe Mum’s spirit was shaking its head. Alida clutched at her foolish hope and held it gently in her fingertips.