Page 74 of The Souls Harvest
A new shower of bullets rains down in the distance, and I scramble up, turning my back to the stranger, staring at the forest we’ve just left behind.
“Leave her be. She’s gone through a lot in the last few hours,” Tabitha’s familiar voice replies. Her tone is comforting before she shouts, “Walls up, Mack, now! We’re all in the clear—but you’re in trouble, boy.” Her stomping steps grow upset and worried as she walks away from me.
“Well, baby crow...” A hand lands on my shoulder and spins me around.
She’s probably my age but so much taller; the first thing I see is her chest wrapped in bullet belts and a couple of grenades attached to her waist. The young woman gives me a smirk, winks and jerks a thumb over her shoulder. “You’re still on your feet and looking better than poor Galen over there. A friend of Tabs’ who doesn’t need me to carry her like a damsel in distress is a friend of mine. Let’s go; we can save the introductions for later.”
I blink, stand on my toes and tilt my head to one side to see what she’s pointing at.
My nerves untangle. “We all made it,” I sigh when Galen waves at me from the other side of a square that looks like a landing spot.
He’s leaning heavily on Jyn’s left arm, but is finally standing on his own feet, while in the background, Tabitha is waving her hands in the air and pointing at the forest behind, seemingly arguing withanother person whose face is concealed by a black helmet.
I grab the girl’s hands and squeeze them with no shame. “He’s alive…I can still kick his butt without feeling guilty.” I throw another glance behind her, ignoring her increasingly puzzled look.
Midway between us and the rest of the party, the skeleton of what once must have been a majestic gate rests on the ground. Its partially melted rusty bars still show a ghost of their original gold coating.
I circle the girl for a better look at the place. “This is familiar…”
I hear the stranger huffing behind me, “All right, Miss Obvious, if you’re done describing every damn thing around you, I’d like to rejoin the others and leave.”
Even though I don’t object, she nudges me forward. She not only speaks like Tabitha, but she also acts like her.
Yet, I can’t stop thinking I know this place. Something is missing.
“Was there a fountain there?” I ask no one in particular, pointing to a hole in the ground, when I finally reach Tabitha and the others.
But everyone seems too busy securing Galen’s head and limbs with some sort of padded equipment to ignore my comment. When they’re done with him, the girl and the stranger with the helmet switch their attention to me.
“What is all this?” I ask, looking from the person in black to Galen and back. He seems at ease, even if still unstable. Jyn must have gotten here quickly because someone had the time to slap a massive square patch on Galen’s wound.
He smiles, nodding at the hole. “That’s for the descent.”
Whatever that is, it’s better than running away from bullets and voices demanding our death.
I glare at him, pursing my lips. “I take it you know these people, too?” I point at the young woman and the faceless stranger.
He shrugs, mouthing asorry,whichI decide to ignore.
Next to Galen, Tabitha is not taking her eyes off the eerie space behind me as she nervously beckons the woman closer. There’s a line between her brows as she stares at a square box in her hands, producing a low beep and flashing lights.
“Merya, can you see them? Are they still outside the perimeter? I can’t hear anything…” Tabitha scans the area as if waiting for an army of wild animals to emerge from the forest and devour us.
With all the thoughts swarming in my head, I've had no time to analyse each aspect of our escape. But I finally understand the worry behind Tabitha’s pressing questions. No bullets in the air, no voices in the distance. Whoever was after us has gone.
“They must have rushed to their transports when they sensed the barriers were going up. They lost a good number the last time they tried to break in. But I wouldn’t spend longer on the surface.” Merya rushes her words, patting Tabitha on the shoulder.
Tabitha nods, pinching her lips. “Airships?”
“Most likely. They must have sent a small group on foot after us to test their luck and take us down on the spot to make it quick.” Merya replies calmly as if talking about the weather. Her profile is such a mixture of features I can’t exactly give her an age. Her bigeyes scout the sky like a kid in awe despite her straight nose and confident stance.
“This doesn’t feel right,” Tabitha mumbles, picking at the dry skin of her lips. “Why are they letting us go so easily? The barriers can kill them, but they don’t stay up very long. Even theyknow that.”
“Perhaps they didn’t know exactly who they were after. Maybe they thought you were just some random rebels who ended up on the wrong side of the forest,” Merya shrugs.
Tabs nods, “Yeah, perhaps you’re right, but they never act erratically. If they wanted to inflict real damage, they could have. Those were scouts, and they never go back empty-handed.”
Merya chews on her cheek as if testing the implication of that statement and slices her eyes from the sky to Tabitha. After a quick exchange of knowing looks, the two nod at each other.
