Botanicaust (43 page)

Thwok thwok thwok thwok
…
Dust and leaves pelted the camp from the op
posite direction of the wind.
Thwok thwok
…
He sat up. Above them, a beam of light wandered through the airborne debris, following the road.

“
Levi,
”
Tula clutched him beneath the blanket they shared. She struggled to sit up, weak and frail.

The beam meandered over the curve of the switchback and caught the edge of the yellow robe where the twins slept. The children clutched each other in terror, faces raised to the sky. The light wavered, halted, returned to focus on the helpless figures of the girls.

The unmistakable sound of a gunshot ricocheted through the air.

Levi lurched for the children, lifting each around the waist. He twisted and rolled into the ditch. Landing on his feet, he pelted down the ravine. Behind him, the searchlight panned over the camp again. He heard Tula shouting to the other woman. Where were they?

Glancing over his shoulder into the darkness, he yelled,
“
Tula!
”
The uneven ditch fell out beneath him, sending him flying. The girls tumbled from his grasp as his face slammed into the rock wall of the gully.

Blinking dirt from his eyes, he rolled onto his back. Heat rolled down his forehead into his eyes.
Blood
. Another shot echoed against the rocks. Behind him, a mere shadow in the ambient glow of the searchlight, Tula wavered at the edge of the drop into the gully.
“
Tula!
”
he screamed again, jack knifing forward.

The girls whimpered. Caught in the middle, he struggled to remember a word in Tula
’
s language.
“
Run! Run!
”
He hoped they understood.

Gaining his feet, he scrambled back up the cut, feet splashing in the runnel of water from the spring. Tula lay gasping at the edge. Was she shot?
“
Tula, get up. Come on! You have to move!
”
Beyond the camp, the searchlight tracked the other Blattvolk woman down the mountain path. As the helpless woman hobbled through the debris filled air, the sheer lab coat billowed out behind her like a ghost. Two quick blasts from the Fosselite craft and she dropped, rolling to a stop at a cluster of scrub oak. Levi
’
s racing heart dropped into his stomach. He and Tula were next.

He slung Tula over his shoulder. The light on the road left the fallen Blattvolk, wobbled, then strafed back toward the camp. Levi plunged into the ditch. This time he landed off balance and both knees nearly gave out. Arrows of fire pierced both legs as he charged down the cut. His breath tore his throat. Blinking away the blood dripping into his eyes, he tried to watch the ground, but the darkness was complete in the ditch
’
s depths.

The light circled the camp before sliding into the gully. He couldn
’
t outrun them. His legs slowed to a trembling stumble as he felt for footing.

“
Here! Stop!
”
He almost missed the words over his own ragged breathing. Small hands clawed at his ankles, nearly tripping him. He dropped to his knees. A tangle of tree roots and caked earth cascaded down the wall of the ravine. At the bottom, four small hands beckoned. Shoving Tula beneath the overhang, he shimmied in after her. Silt rained down on his head. For a brief second he worried their hideout might collapse.

The metallic scent of dry dirt filled his nostrils in the absolute blackness of the tiny cave. He hoped he was all the way inside. There was only room for him to curl his aching knees around the miscellaneous body parts already occupying the space.

Outside, the noise of pursuit grew
loud,
the percussions of the Fosselite craft sending shock waves of dirt raining down onto them. Motes of light filtered into their shelter through a few gaps in the roots. Levi saw he was curled in a semi-fetal position around the twins who sat with their backs to the wall. Small as they were, they had to duck their heads to fit beneath the sharp, sloping ceiling. Draped across their knees, Tula remained unconscious. They had their arms over her, pulling her close to make room for him.

As he lay barely able to breathe, each child reached over Tula and put a hand on him, including him in their knot of protection.

Limbs cramped and numb from a night of unnatural stillness, Levi rolled from the cave at the first light of morning. The Fosselite search had moved on some time ago, but none of the escapees seemed inclined to take any chances. Tula had awakened during the night, and assured him the Fosselites would not brave the sun. He hoped that was true; he could not remain in the stuffy cave any longer.

He sucked in mouthfuls of clear, cool air. After stretching to regain mobility in his limbs, he reached beneath the root wall and helped Tula emerge into the light. The twins were more resilient, scampering out like little mice darting from a hole in the barn wall. They crouched at the entrance, scanning the sky as well as up and down the gully.

Levi looked around and gasped. The ravine dropped off sharply a few steps from their shelter, plunging to a snaggle of rocks thirty feet below. He and Tula would have fallen to their deaths if not for the twins.

The children knelt at the stream and scooped water into their mouths. Frail green limbs, knobby spines, sparse, close-cropped hair. His people would see them as demons. He saw two starving little girls.
Girls who had risked their hiding place and their lives to save him and Tula.

On aching knees and bruised feet, he joined them at the trickling water. He knelt downstream and scooped a drink for himself. The girls watched him. Turning to them, he pointed to his chest.
“
Levi.
”

Glancing at each other, the children seemed to communicate without words. Then they each introduced themselves.
“
Eily.
”
“
Ana.
”

He pointed at Tula.
“
Tula.
”

They nodded, eyes on the woman sitting and clutching her knees at the cave entrance. Seeing that Tula had not moved, Levi crawled over. Her skin burned, yet goose pimples prickled her naked arms and legs.

“
Are you doing any better?
”
he asked.

She put on a smile and nodded, but he knew she only did to keep him from worrying. But she did manage to gain her feet, to drink from the stream, to croak out a
“
thank you
”
to the twins when they each hooked an arm to help her up the gully.

Levi watched them navigate the climb ahead. If one of them tripped and started to fall, he would be there to catch them.
Three Blattvolk who were not abominations.

Tula huddled beneath the yellow robe Levi draped about her, but couldn
’
t get warm. They
’
d spent most of the morning climbing to the camp. Her muscles burned by the time they reached the pipe, and a shivering rain had begun. The twins had pulled the microfiber blanket over their heads in a communal hood. Levi wore only the shorts and sleeveless top the Fosselites had given him. His feet were a wreck, the slippers in bloody shreds. Stripping them off, he donned the too-small sandals Tula had given him at the outset of the journey.

He shouldered the pack, and Tula was grateful the Fosselites hadn
’
t taken it last night. They still had water bottles, the knife, and whatever else Levi had procured from Dr. Kaneka. Her heart skipped a beat as she thought of the doctor, the bold red of his sclera as he
’
d looked down at her on the lab table with Vitus
’
s name on his lips.

She swayed a bit, and Levi was immediately at her side, arm around her waist, pulling her against him.
“
Can you go on?
”

“
We must.
”
She surveyed the zigzagging road behind them.
“
They look again tonight.
”

“
How far will they chase us?
”

With a shrug, she looked into his eyes. She had no idea what kind of range the Fosselites had. Her people always went to the mountain to trade, not the other way around. The Fosselites were limited to nighttime searches, but how determined were they to catch her?
“
They think I go back to Protectorate to say things they do. Bad things they want
…
not show.
“

He nodded.
“
A secret.
”

“
Secret.
”
She rolled the word around her tongue.
“
Yes. Dr. Kaneka
say
Vitus know.
How many know, I not sure.
People like me, never learn secret.
”

“
What were they doing to you? To all of you?
”
He glanced at the twins.

He seemed to have taken to them, and that made her happy. Almost as happy as being with him, no matter the circumstances. The chemical overload and untested fungi could kill her any time.

She thought of how to phrase the information from Dr. Kaneka into Levi
’
s language.
“
Is
…
like cannibal. Use us to make medicine. For Fosselite head crazy.
”

Levi shuddered and pulled her closer.
“
They are abominations.
”

Abominations. He
’
d used that word many times to describe the Haldanians. Her.
People who forced their ways upon others.
Now, she understood the meaning. She shuddered.

Together, they limped onto the road and stood in a line gazing down the incline. Where Greta had fallen, only a dark spot of earth remained. The girls were oblivious to what had happened, but halted when Levi stopped at the spot and folded his hands in prayer.
“
God, grant her mercy. Take her into your loving care. For yours
is
the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.
”