Ruins

“What do we do?” asked Marcus. “Scatter? They can’t chase all of us.”

“They can,” said Kira. “They’re everywhere, and there’s more of them, and they’re better at this. They can see better in the dark, they can coordinate through the link while we can barely even find each other in the snow—”

“I’m not giving up,” said Green.

Kira protested. “Neither am I—”

“Then stop talking like you are,” said Green, “and let’s do something.”

Kira nodded, struggling to think. “Tell them to go to ground,” she said. “If the Partial army’s in front of us now, there’s no sense moving forward—send the message for everyone to seek shelter, to stay dark, to stay quiet. We’ll lead the army away.”

“Whoa,” said Marcus. “Who’s ‘we’? You have to stay safe.”

“I have to protect these people,” said Kira. “If that means a blaze of glory, then . . . that’s what it means. I’ll lead them away, I’ll give the army their vengeance, and maybe the others can make it to the coast.”

“I’m coming with you,” said Marcus.

A burst of gunfire roared out of the snow behind them, and they dove for cover. “Get down!” shouted Kira. “Everyone get down!”

She heard a muted echo of unintelligible shouts, and checked her rifle with fingers she could barely feel. She was down to her last magazine. Feet crunched behind her in the snow, and she tried to burrow deeper. Link data drifted in, closer and closer, a chemical confusion she couldn’t sort through. Rifles and handguns fired in the darkness. A row of soldiers loomed over their snowbank, and Kira and Marcus and Green fired up at them, killing them or scaring them back into cover; she couldn’t tell which.

“I’m out,” said Marcus. “That was my last magazine.”

“Mine too,” said Green.

“I have maybe five shots left,” said Kira. She looked at the others, dim shapes in the darkness. “I’m sorry.”

“For having more bullets than us?” asked Marcus. “How dare you?”

“I mean for bringing you here,” said Kira. “I thought we could make it. I wouldn’t let us leave East Meadow without the rest of the refugees, and even before that I’m the one who dragged you both into this—”

“We came because we believed,” said Green. “If we die for something we believe in, that’s . . . more than the rest of my squad could say for themselves.”

A harsh voice drifted through the storm. “This is General Shon, acting leader of the entire Partial species. Those of you who have betrayed your race and joined the human terrorists are complicit in the bombing of White Plains and the death of hundreds of thousands of Partials. Surrender now and you will be forgiven; stay with the humans and we will exterminate you with the rest of the vermin.”

“We have to work together!” shouted Kira, but the only answer was another hail of bullets.

“Give me your rifle,” said Marcus. “You can run for it, and I’ll cover you—”

Another Partial soldier appeared above them, and Kira screamed and fired, desperate to protect her friends even if only for a moment, but more soldiers appeared, and more beside them, and Kira’s rifle was empty but she still kept pulling the trigger, screaming and crying her defiance—

—and the Partial soldiers were cut down by a wave of gunfire.

“Kira!” a voice shouted. “Fall back to our position! We have you covered, fall back!”

The voice was impossible to identify in the midst of the wind and gunfire, but they were desperate for any help they could get. Kira and Marcus scrambled to their feet, dragging Green between them and stumbling through the snow. Bullets howled through the air around them, slamming into snowbanks and ricocheting loudly off the dark hulks of cars, but the vague shapes in the storm kept beckoning them forward. She didn’t know who they were, but they were on the link, and she wondered how a group of friendly Partials had appeared out of nowhere from the west.

She felt something familiar and almost stopped in shock.

“Keep coming!” said the voice. “We can hold them here—fall back behind us!”

She dragged Green and Marcus forward, and then there he was, kneeling behind the protection of a snow-covered car, holding off the enemy.

“Samm?”

“Kira,” he said. “I told you I’d find you.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

“Where did you come from?” Kira demanded.

“West,” said Samm. He kept his eyes on the road to the east and fired another short, controlled burst from his rifle.

“But how?” asked Kira. “Why? What about the Preserve? I thought I’d . . . never see you again.”

“Go ahead and kiss him,” said Marcus, throwing himself down behind the same car for cover. “He saved our lives—if you don’t kiss him, I’m going to.”

“Questions later,” said Samm. “Do you have any ammo left?”

“We’re out,” said Kira.

“I have a pistol in my side holster,” said Samm, firing another quick burst. “Take it, and get your people to safety. I’ll hold this line to give you and Heron more time.”

Kira took the gun. “Heron’s here too?”

“Planting explosives,” said Samm. “There’s a bridge two blocks behind me.”