Page 15 of Camriel
Pondering whether to tell his leader about the event, Phul decided to keep quiet.He had no proof that anything had happened and he could end up looking like an idiot.For now, he would remain silent and see if anything like that happened again.
Rahab and Xathan began discussing how to approach the politician and bringing him beneath Rahab’s control.Phul’s attention wandered, as always.He was bored out of his mind within the first two minutes.
Chapter Nine
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VICTORIA WOKE UP BEFOREdawn, since she’d gone to bed so early.“I could eat a fudginghorse,” she complained when her stomach growled loudly.She raided the pantry again and ate breakfast before getting back on the road.
Her sneakers were expensive, but worth the price as she steadily jogged northward.The traffic jams of abandoned vehicles thinned out and the streets were eerily empty of people.She’d always had a strange ability to sense other beings.Now that she knew aliens existed, she was starting to wonder if other creatures were real as well.
“Maybe my mom was a werewolf and I’m half shifter, half alien,” she joked.Being a shapeshifter would explain her freakishly good eyesight and hearing.Not to mention her speed and strength.Straining with her mind, she occasionally sensed people hiding in their houses, or hunkering out of sight as she ran past.
Victoria could pass as a guy from a distance.Her bulky thermal gear made it hard to tell her gender and her short hair also helped disguise her.It was almost December and winter was settling in.The trees had shed their leaves, leaving their branches starkly bare.She felt as exposed as the leafless branches as she jogged along the sidewalks.
A sense of danger had her darting behind a car that was parked in a driveway.Her instincts were proven correct when a bullet slammed into the vehicle a second later.
“What the fudge?”she exclaimed, peering through the windows to see who was attacking her.
“Get him!”someone shouted.“He’s going to steal our stuff!”
“Clearly, I’m not,” Victoria refuted to herself, staying low as four men and their wives boiled out of the nearby houses.They all had weapons and were intent on murdering her.
Victoria debated about making a run for it, but she was annoyed now.She hadn’t done anything wrong and these lunatics were about to end her life, or try to anyway.
A discarded baseball bat lay on the driveway a few feet away.Victoria grabbed hold of it and moved to the back of the car.Two of the younger men rounded the vehicle, pointing their guns towards her.
“Bad move, shiz for brains,” Victoria told them, then lurched to her feet.She smashed the baseball bat into the man on the left, felling him and caving his head in.His friend fired his pistol, but she sidestepped the bullet with plenty of time to spare.It was easy to defeat her foes when she knew what they were going to do before they even did it.
The second man went down with his skull cracked open as well.His wife screamed when she saw his body crumple to the ground.“I’ll kill you!”she shrieked and began firing her pistol like a mad woman.
“Flank her!”the old man who’d given the order to rush her shouted.He’d realized the intruder was female rather than male.
Victoria ducked low and sprinted over to the house.She made it to the corner moments before the two remaining men opened fire.They were lucky they didn’t shoot each other, but it was a close call.
“Where is she?”the second old timer said in bewilderment.Their wives escorted the two younger women over to their deceased husbands.They were sobbing in grief and sank down to their knees next to the bodies.
