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Barely noticing the surrounding devastation, I sped toward the cantina. Though the streets were unrecognizable, the hellsna’s shrill scream guided me truer than a compass.Please let him be okay.Seconds crept by as if sucked into a vacuum until I finally arrived on the main street.
I idled in the shelter of the hardware store. Or what remained of it. Waiting. Waiting for a break. Any kind of break. JayJay dodged and weaved around the head of a worm that stood four stories high.
Dark clouds appeared out of nowhere, rumbling across the sky, and the streets turned to rivers as a deluge of rain flooded them. A series of lightning bolts, the color of midnight laced with silver, shot through the sky.
The hellsna sank low, and I launched through the torrential rain, flashing like strobe lights, sensing what would happen next.
JayJay spiraled higher and higher, coaxing the beast away from the buildings it hadn’t yet destroyed. But as he surged over the beast, it uncoiled and sprang toward him, knocking him out of the sky with its tail.
“JayJay!” I yelled as he flew from his hoverbike, freefalling toward the hellsna’s snatching jaw.
On a hope and a prayer, I gunned the throttle and dove through the sliver of space separating them. A backward glance would leave me dead. I had no idea if JayJay had survived his fall, and if I took the time to think about it, I’d be nothing more than worm fodder. My chest heaved and my white-knuckled gripslipped over the wet handlebars, but I’d managed to grab the motherfucker’s attention.
“Come and get me, you stinking pile of shit!” I tore through the ravaged part of town, running on instinct.
Toward the wastelands, the ground lit up, electrified by the storm. What was left of an old skyscraper exploded. For a moment I flew, blinded by the light.
Driven by the vibration, the hellsna broke from tailing me, darting westward to pursue the explosion. Even from this distance, I could hear the ground rumbling and see debris hurtling through the air. The lightning must have hit something below ground to detonate like that.
Twisting my dripping hair out of my eyes, I flew back toward the main street, scanning for JayJay. The downpour dulled the siren’s warning, but the sound barely registered as I squinted in the dim light for the cantina. Where was he? At last, through thick sheets of rain, I spotted a boot and hiscus-dyed leather pants sticking out of an intact doorway.
Parking the hovercraft under an overhang, I prayed Tino kept his bike stocked with an emergency first aid kit. A quick search later I fumbled it free from the hatch, and raced toward the local drinking hole.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I knelt next to where he was lying in the entranceway and placed a trembling hand on his arm. JayJay’s eyes were closed, one leg bent at an awkward angle. His lips were pinched in a grimace and his mighty hand clutched his rib cage. But his chest rose and fell, and I forced back the tears of gratitude threatening to burst free. “JayJay?”
At the sound of my voice, JayJay’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, showing dilated pupils. “Ginger…” He coughed, clutching his ribs. His eyes tracked everywhere but never focused, before he sank back into unconsciousness. Afraid to move him—not that I could—I felt all around his body, carefulto avoid his leg. When I reached his head, my fingers came back smeared with blood.
“Damn it. Where’s Tino?” The sky lit up with another series of lightning bolts that I would’ve thought extraordinary on any other day, but at this moment I just thanked whoever was looking out for us for the light. I pulled a roll of gauze out of the first aid bag and slowly wrapped it around JayJay’s head.
Rock Dweller voices and footsteps splashing down the streets registered dimly as more lightning lit up the bar. Mounted on the wall were what looked like cricket bats, and I quickly pulled two down and was carefully splinting JayJay’s leg when Tino and Sannit ran in.
“Dr. Ten’s at the volcano. We need to get JayJay there.” Sannit crouched next to me in a sodden mess, inventorying JayJay’s injuries.
“He’s got a concussion, a broken leg and likely a few broken ribs.” I lifted my chin toward Tino. “Can you grab that bar table over there? I’m worried about his neck. I think we can strap him down to it.”
Minutes later we had him secured with the tavern’s curtains, and Tino and Sannit hoisted the table onto the trailer, which they’d backed up to the door.
“Sorry we took so long, Ginger.” Tino looked at me shyly, kicking his toe into a puddle. “It took forever to find the blanting trailer.”
The spring rainstorm had ended as quickly as it had come.
“Hey now, if anyone should be apologizing it’s me.” I squeezed Tino’s hand. “I’m sorry I stooped so low, but I knew you wouldn’t have let me go.”
Sannit’s gaze ping-ponged between us.
With a hopeful gaze, I prayed I hadn’t done any real damage. “Ummm…I didn’t mean anything by it. My heart is already spoken for.” I stepped closer to JayJay.
Tino grinned so widely I could see almost every tooth. “I know you’re with JayJay, but anytime you feel the need to deceive me with a kiss, the door’s wide open.”
“She kissed you?” Sannit looked at Tino, then back at me. “I knew I should’ve blanting volunteered for bathroom duty.”
My laughter was cut off by JayJay’s groan. I rushed toward the trailer, hopped up, and sat at his shoulder. “Let’s get to the Starry Volcano.”
“One moment.” Sannit dashed back into the cantina, returning with bottles of whiskey, and I shook my head at them.
“What? It’s medicinal,” Tino shouted over the hovercraft’s downdraft, a bottle of whiskey sticking out of the storage compartment beside him as we rose into the air.
Sannit waved us off, and as I forwarded directions to Tino’s wristport, I watched him jog back toward the shelter.
