Like wicked rain, gunfire cut down the men and women outside the barricades. Bright muzzle flashes illuminated the assailants behind each tree. It was clear then that the area was already surrounded.
Jessica and her friends dove behind the nearest barricade. Too many projectiles mounted into a deafening torrent as the Woodsmen returned fire. Enemy fire, meanwhile, persisted into magnificently lethal impacts. Alien energy-based weapons kindled wood, smoldered metal, and turned sand into glass; through and through, they pierced humans.
But the Woodsmen reprised the onslaught with everything at their disposal. Machine-guns pepper-sprayed the forest, successive rocket salvos splashed fire on the woodlands, and for every explosion, Asgard lost momentum. Such a hail manifested into hues of luminescent greens and deadly reds, both bright, both sinister in sound and impact. Coupled with the screech of rocket-propelled grenades, before long, the entire area was a kindling canvas.
It was the apex point in the nightmare from which she could not wake. Valerie was shouting something, but only brackets made it past the carnage and into Jessica's ears. When she finally peered from cover, she read her friend's lips.
"We have to get out of here, now!"
Shannon helped Jessica to her feet and kept their heads low. As more men and women fell around them, Jess relapsed into visceral flashbacks of Pine Rime—the hellfire that took everything in a sudden shockwave. She fell back to her knees. The psychological rupture shook her to the core and upscaled her mercy pleas with every explosion.
Raptor's face appeared, unfazed by the chaos. "Back to the car, double time!" he shouted, shaking her out of shock. Several seconds later, he carried Dexter's body away.
It was grueling, but Jessica eventually stood on her own two feet. In the city, in any other haven of technology, where bits reigned and hardware thrived, she could do something. Here amidst a desolate wilderness, helplessness defined her.
Every inch of her body weighed like iron. Contrarily, her mind moved a thousand miles an hour and twisted her gaze backward.
The airships had arrived, carrying many more black bodies. They dropped under the rim of a pale night sky, on cables. Black hands clung to the lines; black hands discharged their weapons in descent. They would land, and the airships would ascend once more as the Woodsmen desperately fought on.
Asgard advanced from the blazing treeline and formed up before the barricades. A selection of heavy gauntlets projected shields of intense blue, and from behind these tortoise formations, each squad fired and advanced in a pattern. Firing. Shields Up. Advancing. Firing. It was an energy wall the resistance failed to crack. Even when explosives bombarded the barriers, at most, they made the Azarean line stumble. Asgard did not break, and neither would the humans.
"You're slow!" said Dani. There she was, shoving Jessica into the trees that had yet to catch fire. The girl's stone face had returned, off of which ricocheted the chaos. The woodland girl shoved Jessica forward then fired her rifle backward. Ahead of them lay the untarnished grove; behind them, incessant thunder. Yet the decline of gunfire may as well have been the sound of bodies piling.
"You go to where you need to go!" Danielle shouted, reloading her clip. Another explosion smashed nearby when Jessica jumped out of Valerie's grasp.
"You can come with us!" she implored again. If a thousand more offers convinced Danielle to say yes, it would have been too few.
Dani's resolve almost collapsed with her frown. Only one side of her face was illuminated by volatile glints in the night, but the pale blue eyes fired an apology. She took Jessica in her arm and whispered something. Every drowned word was a gut punch.
Dani then pushed her back. Jessica fell into Valerie's arms, Valerie who wasted no time pulling her away from danger.
Jessica protested no more, vision clarified, and she regained the use of her legs. Valerie and Shannon's backs came into view, and then Raptor in the lead with Dexter. She spared a look back, watching as Danielle shot a flare into the sky. Up above the world, it sparked a bright green.
Every step of the retreat panged Jessica's joints. Asgard would decimate or capture those who resisted today, but the consequence of her own capture could have terrible consequences tomorrow. Reaching Sub Terra, sifting through the chaos of alien conspiracies, meant more in the long run. Much more. Elusive to thoughts of vengeance, she course-corrected toward the goal of humiliating them: Goliath, the government, Malvis, all of them. The mission would be her singular focus until finished or Dani's last words faded from memory.
"You would have been a good friend, Jess."
***
Loud, distant explosions persisted as their party hit a mound in the grove. Raptor began discarding the leaves, to unveil the hidden car underneath. Shannon ran to his aid and took Dexter off his shoulders while Jessica and Valerie helped uncover the vehicle.
"I have an idea where to go," said Raptor, taking the driver's seat.
Jessica stumbled her way to the front passenger seat, once Dexter was secure. She refrained from looking at him. Rather, she assumed the fetal position and gaped beyond the front windshield.
Feet inside, seatbelts fastened, Raptor touched the ignition and launched off the ground. The sea of silhouettes fell underneath, overtaken by a sea of stars. The rumbling sky, despite its static nature, despite its promise of peace, shrouded the shellshock.
"How is he?" asked Raptor, slurring.
"Alive," said Jessica, unwilling to check.
"Shit. He's not bleeding, and, since I'm not a doctor, that's all I can say," said Shannon.
"Silver linings..." Valerie muttered.
Jessica awaited a smart remark from Homegirl. When none came, she peered beyond. Her mind waded through too much black to see the bright side of things. "I saw him," she started, "the Azarean from before." Her fists tightened. "Malvis and Asgard knew where we were before we met the Woodsmen."
"For a second, I thought someone was on the inside," said Raptor. "I mean, we covered our tracks. Right, Lynx?"
A tinge of suspicion. Jessica glared at him and said, "Of course, we did. 'm untraceable, in case you were wondering."
Stress played in the rebel's eyes as he returned to their imaginary route in the sky.
"You said it yourself, their best invention is invisibility," Jessica continued. "So why go out of their way to rev a group who's never made waves?"
"I can't suddenly see them as the passive types when they've worked as hard as they have to suppress us. My brain doesn't come with a switch that can turn off experience. Underneath those cold, ostentatious, alien shells, there's brutality, Lynx."
Jessica flashed back to the forest: Malvis' face and that moment had vividly inscribed themselves into her memory. It brought bitterness, and her body shook until Beelz's words returned.
Maybe, you'll learn to hate Azareans as much as I do.
After a short silence, Raptor's glances became obvious. He tried to act casual, one hand on the steering wheel, but he was clearly riled. "Say the Azareans did know about the Woodsmen..." Every girl in the car faced the driver's seat. "How do you think they knew about us?"
Jessica tiredly turned from Raptor to the passenger window. The night sky had its own qualities. Its shroud could spill into the car, wrap around her heart and seal it off to wants. In a few hours, though, the sun would rise. The Sun.
"Goliath is after me, so they sent Malvis. If you're a hunter-killer, where else would you look? And they're not going to stop. Not until one of us is gone. even then..."
"That could be forever," Shannon moaned.
"Welcome to Sub Terra," Raptor said. "That's our reality until the regime successfully creates their own... or we stop them."
Jess guffawed. "Imagine it's like trying to take down the sun."
"That's over ninety percent of Goliath operations right there," Raptor sighed. "Of course, that would kill us all."
"Hmmm"
ns 15.158.61.20da2
