Tevin's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

Tevin ran three steps and stopped. The others kept going. Ambrose was already ten paces ahead, the black core clutched to his chest, blue seams pulsing through his fingers. "Wait," Tevin said. Then louder. "Wait!" Riley skidded in the mud. Harlen turned, the red rig on his mouth still hissing smoke. Elina dropped from a low glide and folded her wings. "The camp," Tevin said. He was breathing hard. He pointed back at the mountain, at the column of Vael coming down it. "They don't know where the camp is. They only know where we are. If we run home, we lead them right to it." Ambrose stopped. His goggles caught the sun, blue on blue. He looked at the core, then at Tevin. "He's right," Ambrose said. "Take it," Tevin said. "Go the long way. Around the ridge. We stay here and hold them." "You can't hold that many," Ambrose said. "We don't have to," Elina said. "We have to slow them." Ambrose looked at each of them once. Then he ran. The core glowed under his arm as he cut sideways across the flat, away from the direction of home. Riley was already scanning the ground. "There," she said. She pointed at a gap between two tall rocks maybe forty paces off. The gap was narrow. Two Vael wide, no more. "They funnel through that." They ran for it. Tevin got there first and pressed his back to the left rock. His shackles flared blue against the stone. He raised the alien gun. The first Vael came through at a sprint. Riley shot it in the chest. It fell and the next one tripped over it. Harlen stepped into the gap and opened his mouth. Fire rolled through the pinch. Two more went down screaming. A scout tried to climb the rock on the right. Elina jumped, snapped her left wing out, and the stained glass edge came across its throat. It fell inside the gap and blocked more of the opening. Tevin fired steady now. White bolts, one after another. A Vael got close enough that he saw its black eyes before Riley took it. Another lunged and Harlen burned it at arm's length. The rig on his mouth was glowing hotter than Tevin had ever seen it. It went on. Tevin lost count. His hands shook. His shackles were bright enough to hurt to look at. Then the gap was quiet. Bodies lay four deep in the pinch. The last of the column was retreating back up the slope. Riley sat down in the mud. Harlen shut off the rig. Steam came off his face. "We're all here," Elina said. She sounded surprised. Tevin looked at his three companions. Then at the retreating Vael. Ambrose was gone with the core. The camp was safe. He was still on the planet, still shackled. But for one breath, they had won.