Riley Vance's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Riley followed the stranger through the fence gap and out into the desert. Her ribs burned with each step. Behind them, the mine yard still rang with shouts and blaster fire. He kept low along a line of rocks and waved her after him. She went. They cleared the last of the camp lights before he spoke. "Tevin," he said. He tapped his own chest once. The broken blue shackles still hung from his wrists, dark now. "When the cages opened, I ran for their armory first." He pulled a short alien pistol from the back of his shorts and pressed it into her hand. It was warm. A green bead glowed on the side. "Point and squeeze," he said. "It kicks less than it looks." Riley closed her fingers around it. Her own gun was gone, left in the dirt by Urig's body. This one felt wrong in her hand, but it worked. That was enough. "Path out is up the slope," Tevin said. He pointed with the rifle. A thin trail cut between two ridges of red rock. "Scouts will sweep the flats first. We climb." They climbed. The sand slid under Riley's boots. Every breath scraped her ribs. Tevin stayed a step ahead, bare feet quiet on the stone. He did not look back to see if she kept up. He trusted she would. Halfway up they heard voices ahead. Two of them. Low and moving. Riley froze against the rock. Tevin dropped to a knee and raised the rifle. She lifted the alien pistol with both hands. The green bead pulsed. The path curved around a weathered stone arch, a natural tunnel cut clean through the rock. Whoever was there stood just on the other side. Riley heard boots. A cough. Something metal clicking against a belt. She stepped around the arch with the pistol up. Two figures stood in the trail. A woman with huge stained glass wings folded tight at her back, colored shards catching the last light. Beside her, a short man in dusty clothes, a red-lit Vael rig strapped across his mouth. Both had weapons raised. Both froze. "Don't shoot!" Riley shouted. "Don't shoot, don't shoot." The woman lowered her arm first. "Riley." Riley dropped the pistol into the sand and crossed the gap and threw her arms around Elina hard enough to knock the wind out of both of them. The glass edges of the wings pressed cold against her hands. She grabbed Harlen with the other arm and pulled him in too. He grunted through the mask. "Mendez," Elina said. Not a question. Riley shook her head against her shoulder. She could not say it. Elina held her a moment longer. Then she stepped back and looked past her at Tevin, at the shackles, at the rifle. "Who." "Tevin," Riley said. "He's with me." Elina nodded once. "Move. They'll come up this path next."