Page 19 of Senseless
“Go.” With that, he turned to Reaper. “Ride out to the hospital. Tell Dr. Brooks they need to send more medics.”
“Fuck, Mari’s out there.” Reaper brought two fists down on the table as he stood, stilling only when his father reached out to touch his forearm.
“Keep your head on straight. If they send more medics out, she’ll be able to come home. Dismissed, both of you.”
“If Blakeworth wants to be taken seriously as a territory, they won’t attack the medics,” I said to Reaper as I followed him out of the room. “Targeting medical staff has been a war crime for centuries. No one will want to ally with them if they pull that shit.”
“I don’t know if they care,” he answered with a shake of his head. “None of the rules apply anymore, Gun. If they didn’t make that clear when they kidnapped a governor’s daughter, they sure as hell did when they brought bombs to a gunfight.” Reaper paused next to his bike, releasing a sigh as he pulled riding gloves on. “I’m just worried about her, and even if she is okay, I know things are still gonna be shitty when she gets home.”
“You talked to her, though.” I sat astride my ride, pulling on my thickest jacket for the long journey to come. “That’s getting somewhere.”
Reaper shrugged, turning his engine over with a roar that leveled out to a rumbling purr. “Maybe. It didn’t feel like much changed. Her being away just makes it feel worse. Like…” His hand slapped his chest pocket in search of a cigarette. “Like she’s already left us.”
“I know, man.”
He wasn’t wrong. The house had felt even more empty the last couple of days, knowing she wasn’t at the hospital or hiding in Jandro’s room. Even the smallest traces of her presence were gone, like her coffee cup in the sink or the damp towel hanging in the bathroom after her shower. Of course I missed actually talking to her, seeing her, hearing my wife’s laugh and squeezing her in a hug, more than anything. But it was the absence of those little things that really made all the other stuff hurt.
That was what made it feel like we really lost her. That she was gone, and not ours anymore.
“We’ll get her back.” I raised my voice over the sound of our engines as we pulled out toward the street.We have to. Or I’m gonna go ballistic if we don’t fix this and she actually walks away.
“Be safe out there, Gun.” Reaper slipped into the flow of traffic and peeled out with a roar toward the hospital.
“Yeah you too, pres.” I made a wide left turn and headed in the opposite direction, picking up speed as I raced toward the second wave units’ camp. They would be ready to mobilize as soon as they saw me.
Hang on, guys. Hang on, Mari.I accelerated faster.We’ll be there soon. Just hang on for us.
A senseof dread settled like concrete in my stomach as we approached the battlefield. I’d seen the black smoke from twenty miles away, now the air was thick with it and tasted like gunpowder.
“Fan out to the north and south!” I yelled to the unit leaders. “Stay on the perimeter and close in from the outside! Alpha unit, with me!”
Jeeps and motorbikes split off to either side at my instructions, while I led my team straight through the middle.
“Don’t let me fall off, man,” I mumbled, aiming my bike straight ahead while I slipped into Horus’s point of view.
Oh…fuck.
So many dead and dying. Blakeworth’s ground units moved over the scorched landscape with rifles and daggers. They shot and stabbed anyone clinging to life, but it wasn’t mercy killing. One soldier tried to limp away on one good leg while the Blakeworth soldiers threw daggers at him. Another man crawling on the ground screamed as the enemy shot through his hands.
I returned to my own body, and the rage waiting for me there. My teeth ground like stones in my jaw, my grip painful as I accelerated my bike to its limit.
“Orders, sir!” the lieutenant yelled next to me, struggling to keep up with my speed.
I looked over my shoulder at him. “Protect the injured, respect the dead. And kill them all.”
An embankment with a steep upward incline loomed up ahead of me. I kept my speed the same, heading straight for it.
“Sir!”
I ignored those around me, riding up the densely packed dirt like a ramp until I reached the crest and launched into the air. The carnage I saw through my falcon was laid out beneath me, the details dulled through my human eyes, but no less horrific.
In midair, I pulled the rifle from the holster across my chest and started spraying bullets at the Blakeworth ground units. Some shots I missed and the foot soldiers took off running. Thankfully, the perimeter units were already in position and started picking them off.
I landed hard on the ground, my bike’s shocks protesting, but I managed to stay upright, shoot one Blakeworth coward in the back, and run him over.Thank you Jandro, for the all-weather tires, even if they are ugly.
My rear tire spraying up gravel and mud, I circled around and picked off more Blakeworth guys. They clustered together as they retreated, which was great for us. I did a quick check of all units through Horus before I grabbed the small radio clipped to my cut.
“Beta unit, this is Gunner. They’re coming toward you,” I said into the receiver. “You’ll have a visual in about thirty seconds.”
