Bethany's Arc

Chapter 6 of 6

Bethany stood in the yard and listened to the wind. The gun on the tower was cold now. Vael bodies lay in twisted piles by the archway. She counted the defenders still on their feet. There were not many. The shack door scraped open. Emmy stepped out with the shotgun held low against her leg. She saw Bethany and ran. Bethany caught her hard against her chest. Emmy didn't cry. She just held on. Elina walked over through the bodies, wings folded tight behind her. She looked at Emmy, then at Bethany. She waited. "Thomas didn't make it," Bethany said. Emmy's face did not change. She had already known. Elina gave a single short nod and did not try to fill the quiet. Boots crunched behind them. Riley came around the back of the water barrels, her makeshift gun slung low. Blood streaked her tank top. It was not hers. "Virginia didn't make it either," Riley said. She stopped a few feet off and did not come closer. "Took one at the gate." Tevin sat down on a crate and let the captured rifle rest across his knees. The blue shackles at his wrists still glowed. He looked at Bethany. "Well," he said. "You weren't wrong about the place being defendable." Harlen came in through the archway, the red rig on his face still hissing steam. He kicked a Vael body over and knelt to strip something off its belt. He did not speak. Julius stepped up beside Tevin. His device hung dark at his hip, dead since the middle of the fight. "Yes," Julius said. "But that's over. We can't stay." Bethany looked at the archway. The scrap-wood wall was split open in three places. The gate hung on one hinge. More Vael would come. They always came. Elina looked at each of them in turn. Emmy. Bethany. Riley. Tevin. Julius. Harlen. "He's right," Elina said. "Grab any supplies and weapons you can carry. We hit the road tonight." Nobody argued. Bethany let Emmy go, gentle. "Get your bag from the shack," she said. "Anything of your dad's you want. Small enough to carry." Emmy nodded and went. Riley moved to the store shed and started passing out cans and canteens. Harlen pulled a Vael blade free and wiped it on his pant leg. Tevin stood and shouldered the rifle. Julius climbed the north tower to see if the alien gun would come loose from its stand. Bethany stayed where she was a moment longer. She looked at the yard she had defended. The bodies of people she had not known. The shack where Thomas had died. The camp was gone. It had been gone the moment the wall broke. She turned and went to gather what she could carry.