The other machine gun was on fire. Its ammunition crates were right there. If they went up, if they got too hot, every round in those crates'thousands of bullets'would go off at once, firing in random directions, carving out bloody linear tracks through the living and the dead on the flatbed, all of the cultists clustered around it, everyone in range. Ayaan surged forward and was repulsed by a wave of fire that tore upwards on a gust of wind. She moved forward again and saw that the crates were already on fire. She had a split second before she was shot full of random holes. Without even thinking she gathered up energy and blasted the crates with her power.
Stupid'incredibly foolish'but it worked. Fire couldn't exist without fuel. The wooden crates disintegrated under her blast, the wood darkening, turning gray, turning to dust. Long belts of ammunition slithered out and slinked away across the flatbed or over the edge. It didn't matter'the fire was out.
Ayaan adjusted her footing as the flatbed went over a dip in the road surface. It was still moving. She shook her head and then she grabbed the green phantom's arm. 'We have to stop the column,' she shouted at him. He didn't respond fast enough for her. 'Let me in to see the Tsarevich. Let me talk to him.'
'Who are you?' he demanded. 'A month ago I punished you for trying to kill my master. Now you want to be his ally?'
She didn't have time for this. 'I do what I think is best.'
He crossed his arms across his robe. 'A dangerous policy in the best of times. You can't see him. He's already given me his orders and they are that the column must keep moving, at all costs.'
'There could be another attack'if it were me I would have an ambush waiting for us up ahead. Come on. I know you don't trust me. You called me a dog, once, a dog that had to be kept on a short leash. But trust me now. Please. So much is at stake.'
He shook his skull-like head. 'I have my instructions. Why don't you go and find Nilla? Make sure she's safe.'
Ayaan grunted in frustration and turned away from him. The green phantom was willing to give her something, though.
'My name is Enni Langstrom,' he said.
She turned around. He was squinting at her, his sunken eyes narrow, suspicious slits.
'My name was Enni Langstrom. Alright? I trust you enough to know my name.'
She nodded, understanding. He wanted her to feel like part of the Tsarevich's inner circle. He wanted to reward her allegiance. She was in.
Now she just needed to figure out where Sarah fit in. Please, she thought. Please, Sarah, just give up. Go home. She stared out at the trees that blanketed the mountain. Sarah had to be out there somewhere. Please, don't make me fight you.
Ayaan had always been willing to sacrifice her life for a true cause. She had always believed that one life was a small price to pay for the common good.
If it came to that, to firing a blast of her darkness into Sarah's body. If doing that meant preserving the Tsarevich and therefore the only chance the human race had left. If it came to that.
She nodded to herself. She would do it.
Monster Planet
Chapter Twelve
The valley formed a shallow bowl with a low ridge at the far end. There were buildings up there, and the weathered statues Sarah had seen before. They looked like stylized animals from the bottom of the valley.
Dead men and women stood at the edge of the valley. Not many'only three or four. They weren't doing anything. Just standing there. The closest of the standing ghouls'a really nasty looking guy with little skin left on his body and no arms at all'turned to glare at her with empty eye sockets but he didn't take a step toward her. After a moment he turned his face back toward the Source and his toothless jaw fell open. He wasn't doing a thing. None of the corpses in the valley were doing anything but then most of them were truly, finally dead. One motionless body lay not three feet from where Sarah first stepped down into the valley.
A human body, half-decomposed, and it wasn't even twitching. It had been a long time since Sarah saw that. She nudged it with the toe of her boot. She could see yellow ribs sticking out under its coat. She could see where the flesh had been torn away by teeth.
Nothing. No movement.