Only half the men behind them came up and out of the canyon. The other half must have followed the trail of Roddric and his men. Still, five well-trained Council guards were gaining on them, spurred on by the distance closing between them. Alex urged the girls on, passing Marissa back to Rose before pulling Lena and the agent from the camp aside as they ran.
“Why don’t they shoot at us?” she gasped out.
“The girls.” Alex answered. “They don’t want to accidentally kill the girls. They’re too valuable, too rare.”
“That’s good then, right? If we can beat them back to Mountain Home, we’ll be good.”
Alex shook his head. “We’re going back,” he told her, referring to himself and Jackson. “We’re going to take out this group while the two of you get the girls back and down to the train.”
“You’re not serious?” She almost stopped running.
Alex dragged her on.
“Let me do this. You take the girls.”
“Lena, don’t argue!” Jackson had appeared at her other shoulder. He’d never raised his voice before. She stared at him.
“I can do this better than—”
“You can keep them safe better than we can.” Alex interrupted.
“You wanted to rescue them,” Jackson added, “so rescue them. Don’t throw it all away. Let us do this.”
As soon as Lena nodded tightly, lips compressed, the two men fell back, and she ran on with the silent agent from the camp beside her. She swept forward with arms out to gather the girls together and keep them moving. She and Rose both glanced back, but the men had disappeared into the tall grass behind them, waiting for those who pursued. She looked back again, and the prison men were closer.
The next time, the men were engaged, moving together in a brutal dance. One of the Council men was down, but it was still her two against their four. Lena slowed, staring back at the battle. Blades glinted in the last light of sunset as men slashed and circled, coming together and swinging around in each other’s arms. Alex quickly disposed of one and immediately turned on another who had leaped in to take advantage of Alex’s turned back. Alex sent him to the ground, as well.
Jackson took his prison guard to the ground, sinking below the grass. She strained up, searching the gloom. Breath whooshed into her lungs when Jackson rose up again, he and Alex moving together to finish the final man.
In the half-light, Jackson’s man rose up behind them, wounded but not finished. He lifted a gun, lurching as he swung it toward the closest man—Alex. Lena gasped, a strangled cry half-caught in her throat.
She rose up on her toes and threw out her empty hands. The man froze, then slowly rose up on his own toes, gun falling to the ground as his back arched and mouth fell open, dark spittle frothing over his lips and chin.
“Is that you?” Fascination laced Rose’s question. “Are you doing that?” The girls were behind her, aware in a way none of the men of Fort Nevada had ever been.
Jackson turned. He flinched away from the man for only a second, glancing over the guard’s shoulder to the cluster of girls across the plain with Lena at their center and an agent hovering behind. Jackson shook his head, grim, and slipped across the short distance between them to finish the man himself.
He was angry. But Alex was alive to snap at him, as he was doing now.
The two men caught up with them before they’d reached the skeletons of the buildings. None of the adults mentioned what had happened out on the plain. Once they reached the scant cover of the ruined buildings, Alex stopped to crouch down.
“Okay, ladies. We’re going down to a safe place, but there’s scary stuff along the way. I need you to wear these blindfolds over your eyes, so you won’t be scared. And we’ll all hold hands as we go down. Once we’re clear, we’ll uncover you, okay?”
He reached into his pack and pulled out his blanket, flipping out a knife and cutting the blanket into strips. He called each girl to him and gently tied a strip of blanket around her eyes. When he finished with each, he set her next to the previous one and placed their small hands together until he had a chain of quiet little girls and two nervous teens sitting around him with clasped hands and blindfolds on their heads.
He took up the wide cloth and folded it double. He looked up then, his face set and uncompromising. He gestured for Rose to come closer.
She hung back, not trusting him. “I’m not a frightened little girl.”
“You want to come with us, fine. But you’re coming blind, or you’re never leaving. And I don’t mean just downstairs like the girls, either. You’ll keep it on all the way to the fort.” The tension in his voice told them he was dead serious. He cocked a finger at Rose.