Bethany's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

The gate shuddered under the first Vael body. Bethany backed away from it and turned into the yard. Elina was already climbing the ladder to the north tower, wings folded tight. The captured alien gun sat mounted at the top, its blue accents pulsing. Elina reached it, swung the barrel down over the wall, and fired. The first shots cut through the mass on the ridge. Bethany saw purple bodies drop. She saw others keep coming. Elina worked the gun in short bursts. Every burst took one or two. The line behind them did not thin. "Elina!" Bethany yelled up. "There's too many. Get in." Elina fired one more burst and swung down off the tower. She landed hard in the dust. Julius and Thomas dragged the gate bar into its slot. The wood shook. A tail slammed the seam. A claw punched through a gap near the hinge and tore back a strip of metal. "They're coming through," Riley called from the wall. Bethany ran for the yard's center where Virginia stood at a rack of makeshift weapons. Bethany had met her once, at the gate, when the older woman had waved them inside with a wrench still in her hand. Now Virginia was pulling spears off the rack and handing them out. Her glasses had slid down her nose. She did not push them up. "Take one," Virginia said. She pressed a spear into Bethany's hands. "Point end goes in them." "Virginia—" "Move." The gate split. Two Vael spilled through the gap, low and fast, tails whipping. A third came over the wall. One lunged at Bethany. She got the spear up in time. The point went into its chest and the weight of it drove her back a step. It shrieked and slid off the shaft. The second one hit Virginia before Bethany could turn. It took her down under it. Virginia did not scream. Her hand opened and a spear rolled away from her fingers. "No," Bethany said. She could not move for one breath. Then she moved. Julius was ten feet away, the heat-masking device still slung on his shoulder. His hand was on the switch. "Julius," Bethany said. "Turn it on. Turn it on now." He flipped it. The blue light flared. Every Vael in the yard jerked. Their heads swung. Their tails went stiff. The one on Virginia's body lifted its face and turned in a slow circle, searching for a signature that was no longer there. Riley shot it. Elina took the one at the gate with the sharp edge of her wing. Thomas drove a spear into the last. Bethany dropped beside Virginia. The older woman's glasses were cracked. Her chest did not move. Outside the wall, more Vael were coming. Bethany could hear them on the ridge. She stood up with the spear still in her hand.