Page 19 of Savagely Yours
[Bartow]: “This is why I don’t like going anywhere with you.”
Bartow sounded closer.
Too close.
I looked down the aisle and spotted his boots in front of the endcap.
[Bartow]: “I’m gonna go look for the ‘Employees Only’ door.”
[Troy]: “For what?”
[Bartow]: “Free will.”
I steadied my rifle just as an order came through one of their radios:
“This is Bravo-2. We’ve got unauthorized movement in Sector 5. Confirm orders.”
Cursing, they rushed from the store.
I sank to the floor, Bethany falling against my chest. Without any doubt, I would have dropped them both, especially if “Bartow” had made his way to where Larke was hiding. I trusted that she wasn’t simply standing in front of the door, waiting to be discovered, but a glimpse of her would have given me more than enough of a reason.
“Dez?” she quietly called. “Dez, the coast is clear. You can come out from wherever you’re hiding now.”
Laughing to myself, I stood. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“I peed.”
“On yourself?”
“No, no. I found the bathroom. I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
“Let’s give it a min?—”
Someone shouted.
Shattered glass punctuated the shouts.
“Was there a back door in there?” I asked, moving toward her.
She barely nodded before I grabbed her hand and barreled through the employee entrance, all the way to the back exit.
The door dropped us in the middle of a narrow alleyway filled with garbage bins spilling over with refuse, abandoned cars, and the stench of rotting trash. Waste collection operations had stopped entirely a few months ago. The local government had attempted to set up a schedule for different parts of the city to dispose of their trash in designated sectors, but the initiative barely got off the ground.
Now that Larke and I were outside, I managed to get a clearer sense of the commotion. From the sound of things, the civilians had decided to fight back. Either they’d figured out that the military hadn’t come to town solely to quarantine the capital, or they’d gotten tired of being cooped up in their homes, losingaccess to more and more basic necessities with each day that passed.
I released Larke’s hand. “Watch your step, Tapley. If you start to get tired, hold on to me. We can’t risk stopping. Not right now.”
We raced down the alley, and I tried to keep her directly in the path behind me. If there was something dangerous on the ground—glass, used needles, other sharp objects—staying right in front of her increased the odds that I would step on it first. The hiking shoes on her feet would protect her from the brunt of what was underfoot, but they weren’t foolproof enough for me.
A drone passed overhead.
“There’s a Metro station nearby,” I said. “At this point, if we’re going to make it out, we have to get underground.”
We paused at the alleyway opening, and I peeked around another building just as a military truck passed by on the far side, heading toward the mob. Assuming there was only one Reaper, it passed overhead again in the same direction.
“It’s counting,” I mumbled.
“Counting the people?” Larke asked. “Like…to kill them?”
