“Naz,” Rojan moaned. But it was too late. The street exploded into chaos as Naz grabbed another arrow from the quiver on her back.
She had no idea why she did it, because there was no point. She’d never kill them all. Maybe it was because she knew she’d never leave Rojan, but Rojan was going to leave her, because Rojan was going to die first. The only thing Naz had wanted to do her entire life, from the moment she became a big sister, was protect Rojan—and she had failed. There was nothing she could do to save them. Maybe she was just trying to speed it up, then, so it finally could be over. A shadowless went sailing, body jerked straight as the arrow punched into him, then fell. He didn’t get up.
“How do you like that,” Naz snarled. The rest of the shadowless had recovered from the initial shock, and all turned toward the sound. Their eyes locked on her. She reached back into her quiver as they began to move in, nocked another arrow, let it fly, too. Another. Another. It felt good to be doing it. The shadowless fell, but more replaced them. She kept shooting. Those familiar motions, the memory of the bow as strong in the muscles themselves as in her mind. Taking something back, before the end.
“Make a circle!” A man’s voice broke her aim suddenly. Naz faltered, jolted back into the moment. The shadowless spun around, hissing. Bodies ran back and forth. There was more shouting now, and then sounds of death. Someone else was fighting the shadowless for her, she realized. Many someones. An entire group had shown up and was beating her predators into retreat. “Face out! Back to back!”
Slowly it grew quiet and still again. The dust settled back onto the broken streets. Naz stood there, dazed, holding her bow, as she stared. Across the street, six people stood amid the shadowless corpses, panting. At the front, two men wielded pipes like baseball bats—one tall and dark-skinned, and the other pale, with a barrel chest and thinning brown hair. Both with shadows. No, all with shadows, she realized. All of them. Every. Single. Survivor.
When the pale, balding man turned toward Naz, everything came rushing back. What have I done? What the fuck have I done? She ducked back down behind the wall as quickly as she could, but it was too late. They know right where we are now.
“Are you all right?” he called.
“Careful,” his friend said.
“Malik, come on. She was in trouble.”
But the other couldn’t be swayed. “We don’t know her.”
And I don’t know you either, Naz agreed.
“You can come out,” the first finally continued, facing her direction again. “Are you injured?”
The one called Malik sighed in disgust, giving up. So the pale, balding one is the leader of their group, Naz observed. She knew who to aim at now, if need be.
“Gather those arrows up for her, so she can use them again,” another shouted, now that it was clear they weren’t about to be commanded to attack Naz, too. At least not yet. Naz watched them for signs of a ruse. The younger ones began to move toward the arrows and bodies shakily, still stunned from battle. “Careful when you pull them out.”
“Hon?” one of the women added across the rubble. “That was brave of you. To fight them.”
Naz didn’t move. People said nice things all the time, then killed you for your boots. Wright had done it. These strangers had saved her, but that still meant nothing. She didn’t know a thing about them.
“Really brave,” the leader added. “You don’t have to worry about us, though. We’re friendly. We’re not here to attack you.”
“Prove it,” Naz finally shouted over the wall.
“Prove it? Uh.” He turned and glanced awkwardly at the small group behind him. A teenaged girl reached into her backpack. She looked just like the one named Malik, Naz saw as she watched her. Same nose, same eyes. Both tall. Naz swallowed hard and did not let herself think about it. “Oh,” the leader said as the girl moved toward him, and then he turned back around. Naz’s fingers strained on the bowstring as she peeked over. He was holding something. “Here.”
It was a piece of jerky meat.
Where on this godforsaken earth had an idiot like that found meat and then managed to preserve it? There was nothing left here, anywhere, nothing at all.
Naz watched the man look around for a moment, likely for lurking shadowless who’d sniffed out the meal, and then set the tough meat down on a flat piece of rubble. “Here. A gesture of peace,” he called.
That was very convincing. People tried to take your food, not give it to you. “Back up,” Naz growled.
He put his arms up and walked a few steps back obligingly, and then with a flick of his hand, scooted the rest of the group even farther.
Naz didn’t move. Not yet. “What was all that?” she asked Malik.
“Just shadowless,” he answered. “That’s how they are here. In the downtown, they’re starting to roam together.”
“That’s different,” Naz said.
“It is different,” he agreed, troubled.