Page 50 of Diamond

"I understand that, but I am injured. If we come across something more dangerous and I am killed, you will have to protect yourself. You cannot do that without a weapon."

She's still shaking her head and I remember how she looks at the blue beast. "Roshan needs protection, Nasrin. Use a weapon or you put him at risk."

She closes her eyes, then lets out a long breath. She scrambles over to the dead alien, like she has to move fast before she can change her mind.

After a retching sound, she pushes him over. "What?" she says, her voice confused. "He has agun, Kuret."

"A what?"

"Oh, that didn't translate," she tells me as she wipes green blood off of her hands, her face screwed up into an expression of what I assume is disgust. "It's a weapon that kills from afar by… well, that doesn't matter right now. It makes no sense why he was fighting you like he was. He could have killed you from way over there with this thing."

I look to where she is pointing, confused. He doesn't have a spear or bow.

It doesn't matter. "Whatever that is, you need it. Take that and the knife."

She turns to me, her eyes wide. She's shaking harder now. "Kuret… I'm… I can't. I'm afraid ofguns."

The need to comfort her rises up, but I push it back down. "Do you want Roshan to die, Nasrin?"

I don't let her continue with her argument as I lift myself up into a standing position and move toward the corpse. He has a dagger better suited to our hands than the ones I took from the genali hunters and I pluck it from his body and hand it to her.

"I will do my best to make sure you never need to use it," I promise her.

She gazes uncomfortably at the weapon before taking it from me and putting it away. "Alright then. Let's get out of here before something else shows up."

She pulls an odd-looking metal device toward her, treating it like a wild animal that is about to bite.

There's liquid building in her eyes now. I don't know what it means, but I know I have to keep pushing. I open my mouth to say more, but she starts speaking.

"You're right. If they havegunshere, then if we don't use them too, we're going to die. I can teach you how to use it, Kuret, though I hate them and would prefer to never even touch one."

"If we find another one, then yes, you can teach me. That one is yours. Also, I know you won't like that I say this, but you need to also learn how to use a knife. Not right now, I will need to heal a bit more first but consider it."

She swallows hard but doesn't argue with me and I take that as a good sign. With a grunt, I push myself to my feet again, sucking in air through my teeth in pain.

The wound isn't as bad as I expect, and there is less pain. Strange.

I strip the body of anything else useful, pleased to find another kit with the tools Ree showed me how to use, plus more of the disgusting rations. After hooking Roshan up to the cart, she fills up the empty bottles by the stream and loads them into the cart before climbing in herself.

It is slow progress, but we move toward another cave. As much as I would like to simply move quickly through the night back toward Ree, I don't think we will make it with me injured and Nasrin unable to defend herself.

26

Rin

The gun in my hand feels like a giant weight. Like I am becoming part of the very thing that I hate, but I remember the look in the alien's black eyes and it helps harden my resolve.

Roshan pulls us along. It is going to be difficult to push recent events out of my mind, but we don't have the time to waste dwelling on that now. Who knows if there are more on the way?

Kuret takes control of the reins as we move back into the clearing, his face extremely focused on the road.

I put the gun in a place it can't accidentally be fired, but keep the knife. I fiddle with the weapon in my lap, turning it every which way, and allow the events that just took place to play through my head.

He is taking an entirely different route than the one we had planned earlier and the forest has started to change. The most obvious difference is the abundance of what looks likemushrooms peppered here and there on the previously smooth barks of the trees we passed.

I still can't believe that we were attacked in our sleep like that. There truly is nowhere safe.

Kuret believed we were safe and by association, I did too, too exhausted to question anything. I'm sure that if Roshan had not stirred, I would have kept sleeping the entire way or gotten up when it was too late.

---