Vael Scout's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The soldiers came fast. Six Vael warriors climbed out of a smoking hole in the road, then more from a second pit farther down. Their long bodies uncoiled onto the cracked asphalt. Blue light pulsed along the barrels of their guns. The scout dropped from the doorway and fell in behind them, tail low, claws tight on its own short blade. The jeep's dust trail hung above the rooftops to the east. The warriors ran on all fours, faster than the scout, and the scout struggled to keep pace. The broken road curved between shells of buildings and split around deep pits. Laser fire cracked out ahead. Blue bolts hissed past the jeep's tailgate and burned black holes in the hood. The jeep swerved hard. Riley leaned out the passenger side and fired back. Her makeshift gun barked twice. A warrior in front of the scout dropped, sand pouring from a hole in its chest. Mendez cut the wheel again and the jeep slammed into a heap of rubble at a dead end. Steam hissed from under the hood. Mendez and Riley bailed out on opposite sides. They put their backs to the wreck and fired into the closing ring. The scout crouched behind a low wall and watched them work. Mendez shot a warrior through the throat. Riley put two rounds into another's belly and it folded around itself. Four Vael down. Then five. But the warriors kept coming. One caught Riley's gun barrel with its tail and yanked it aside. Another slammed into Mendez and drove him against the jeep's fender. The scout heard the man grunt as the air went out of him. Riley swung her empty gun like a club and cracked it across a warrior's snout, then a claw closed on her wrist and she went down on her knees. "Get off her," Mendez shouted. "Get off—" A warrior struck him behind the ear. He sagged. Two more pinned his arms. The scout stepped out from behind the wall. The warriors saw the scout and stepped back, giving the kill to the one who had marked them. That was the rule. The scout looked at the two humans on their knees in the dust. The male bled from his scalp. The female stared up with hate in her eyes. Neither one spoke. The scout thought of Urig and of the cage wagon that would not hold the scout tonight. The prison cart rolled up behind the warriors, pulled by two of them on a heavy yoke. Dark wood banded in iron. Blue runes glowed along its curved sides. The scout swung the barred door open. The warriors dragged Mendez and Riley across the sand and shoved them inside. The scout latched the door and pressed a claw to the lock plate. The runes flared once and held. Two soft ones. Delivered. The scout climbed onto the yoke and the cart turned toward the sinkhole road.