Barren

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Feeling terrible about Abbas, but with no time to grieve, Mackenzie, Bell and Jesse continued running through the twisting and turning pathway between the steep hills. They could hear the footsteps of the soldiers that pursued them. Mackenzie kept glancing over her shoulder, expecting to see them right behind her, but they managed to stay ahead, the bends in the terrain keeping them protected from gunfire.

  "The path is doubling back," Jesse suddenly said, looking up at the sky. "The sun was behind us, now we're heading towards it."

  "I thought the idea was to run away," Bell puffed.

  "We have to find a different path," Mackenzie said. "If we get caught, Abbas just died for nothing."

  As they ran, the sloping wall to their left vanished and Mackenzie found herself staring across the vast landscape of the desert to the horizon far in the distance, while the ground beside where she ran descended suddenly, forming a steep decline to the desert floor below. The ground on which they now ran was narrow and consisted of loose clay and dirt. As they ran, Mackenzie suddenly felt the ground give way beneath her foot and she stumbled to her knees. She gasped as she felt herself come dangerously close to the edge of the path, but fortunately the ground did not break any further. She stared down the steep hill as the shifted dirt rolled and bounced towards the bottom, far below.

  "Mackenzie!" Jesse cried, turning to see Mackenzie on her hands and knees. He and Bell both stopped in their tracks and turned back to help.

  "I'm fine," Mackenzie panted. "Keep going, I'm-"

  Suddenly, something came speeding down the hill to Mackenzie's right, sliding through the dirt and kicking up the sand. Mackenzie turned her head just in time to see Scylla leaping through the air at her, teeth bared like a pouncing tiger.

  Scylla tackled Mackenzie hard and the two of them, carried by Scylla's momentum, fell over the edge of the path and down the hill. Mackenzie could hear Jesse shouting her name, but his voice was fading fast.

  Mackenzie and Scylla were entwined as they rolled down the hill, skin scraping off of Mackenzie's arms as she slid through the sand, bouncing off rocks, crying out with every jarring strike against the ground. Scylla was clawing at Mackenzie, as if trying to scratch out her eyes, but the farther they tumbled, the harder it was for Scylla to aim her strikes, thrown off by each tumble, dizzy from the consistent rolling.

  Finally they reached the bottom of the hill. They struck a rock and Scylla tumbled away from Mackenzie, rolled a few more feet, then was still. Mackenzie lay on her back, panting heavily, pain throbbing through her entire body, sand and dirt sticking to the sweat and blood on her face and arms. Moving painfully, Mackenzie began to sit up, but no sooner had she lifted her head did Scylla suddenly reappear, diving on top of her and wrapping a hand around Mackenzie's throat.

  Mackenzie gasped in fright as she peered into Scylla's remorseless eyes, saw the furious sneer on her lips as Scylla glared down at her, one hand around her throat, her other hand holding a gun. Scylla lowered her face down towards Mackenzie, as if about to kiss her, but there was no desire in those eyes, save for the desire to kill Mackenzie then and there.

  "Give me the metric," Scylla hissed in Mackenzie's face. "Give it to me now and I promise, your death will be quick and painless."

  "Screw... you..." Mackenzie choked.

  Scylla tightened her grip on Mackenzie's throat and pressed the barrel of the gun into Mackenzie's ribs for emphasis.

  "I could shoot you," Scylla whispered. "I could shoot you right now. But not kill you, no. I can shoot you in the stomach, or the liver. That will be a slow and extremely painful death. You'll beg to die before long. So, you're going to get me that metric."

  Mackenzie tried to speak, but found Scylla's grip around her neck was preventing her from doing so. All she was able to manage was a strangled croak as she stared up into Scylla's cold eyes.

  Suddenly there was a loud gunshot that echoed off the sides of the hills. The ground two feet away puffed up dirt as something small and fast struck, causing Scylla to look up away from Mackenzie and towards the top of the hill they had just fallen down. Mackenzie followed her gaze to see what had distracted her.

  Jesse stood where Mackenzie had last seen him, a pistol in his hands, carefully aiming down the sights.

  He'll never hit Scylla from that far away, Mackenzie thought. Not with that gun.

  Jesse fired again and the bullet kicked up the dirt a little closer, but still nowhere near hitting Scylla. Mackenzie suspected Scylla knew she was unlikely to be hit from such a distance, because she just sneered up at Jesse like he was a particularly annoying fly that buzzed just out of her reach.

  Mackenzie suddenly realized Jesse wasn't trying to hit Scylla at all. He was only distracting her!

  Feeling blindly around, Mackenzie touched something nearby, something round and firm. Mackenzie wrapped her fingers around it, realized it was a stone, then swung it as hard as she could.

  The stone connected with Scylla's jaw, blood spitting out of her mouth as she instantly fell sideways off of Mackenzie. Free from the grip on her throat, Mackenzie gasped for air, then scrambled to her feet. Scylla was barely conscious, but the gun was still in her hand. Mackenzie quickly swooped down on it and snatched it away before Scylla could regain her senses. Then, standing over Scylla, Mackenzie held the gun in both hands and aimed it at Scylla's head.

  Still kneeling, Scylla slowly looked up at Mackenzie, keeping her hands slightly raised. Scylla didn't look afraid, though. Only a cold look of anger and disgust was visible in her eyes.

  Mackenzie wanted to pull the trigger, she felt as if she had to pull the trigger. But she stopped. Mackenzie simply kept the gun on Scylla, glaring down at her, unsure of what to do next.

  "Aren't you going to shoot me, Miller?" Scylla asked icily. "Isn't that what you want to do?"

  Mackenzie's hand quivered slightly, but she shook her head. "I don't want to kill anyone."

  "Tell that to Vasilii," Scylla leered, her lips curling into a nasty grin. "And Ileana."

  "Don't you talk about her!" Mackenzie snapped.

  "You killed the both of them easily enough," Scylla went on, enjoying the look of distress on Mackenzie's face. "Why not me? After everything I've done to you?"

  "Because," Mackenzie began. "I'm not a murderer."

  "Are you sure?" Scylla taunted. "Because there are two people who might argue with you about that. Well... if you hadn't killed them, that is. But as it stands, they're in no position to argue with anyone."

  Mackenzie opened her mouth to speak, but didn't know what to say. Again she imagined just pulling the trigger, ending Scylla's reign of evil, but couldn't bring herself to do it.

  "If you don't give me that metric," Scylla began, speaking slowly and clearly, "then you might as well shoot me now. Because without it, we're all dead."

  Mackenzie frowned in confusion. "What?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

  Scylla grinned, as she knew she had caught Mackenzie's interest. She began to speak, but stopped suddenly as the sound of more gunfire echoed down the hill. Both Scylla and Mackenzie looked up in time to see Jesse and Bell running hard as the pursuing soldiers and Boroslav had caught up and immediately opened fire on the two Diviners.

  "Dammit," Scylla hissed through her teeth. "I said alive."

  Jesse and Bell vanished from sight around another turn and escaped the barrage of gunfire that was raining down around them. Boroslav and the soldiers stopped shooting and started running after them again. Even from this distance, Mackenzie could see the thirst for blood in Boroslav's eyes.

  As Mackenzie stared up at Boroslav, he turned his attention down towards her. Their eyes met once again and Boroslav's lip curled at the sight of her. Boroslav suddenly stopped running after Jesse and Bell and came to a stop at the top of the hill. He then swung his rifle around and aimed down the hill, aiming directly at Mackenzie.

  "No!" Scylla shrieked, but Boroslav either couldn't hear her or i
gnored her.

  Boroslav opened fire on Mackenzie, seemingly unconcerned by how close Scylla was to her. Both Scylla and Mackenzie dove in opposite directions, just as the ground was torn up by bullets. Scylla took cover behind a large rock, screaming at the top of her lungs for Boroslav to stop shooting, while Mackenzie sprinted as fast as she could, not knowing where to go or what to do. As she expected for a bullet to end her life at any moment, Mackenzie spotted an opening in the hills in front of her, forming a small canyon-like tunnel between the stones and dirt. Mackenzie ran straight for that opening, hearing the bullets whizzing by her head, feeling them hitting the ground by her feet, but she didn't stop running, didn't hesitate. She finally reached the narrow opening between the terrain and quickly squeezed through, vanishing from Boroslav's sight, though once she was on the other side of the crevice, she ran just as hard. Behind her, the sound of gunfire stopped and Mackenzie could hear Scylla roaring furiously up the hill at Boroslav.

  Mackenzie didn't pay them any attention. She ran blindly through the narrow space, panting hard, her world plunged into near-darkness as the high stone walls on either side of her kept her in shadows. She cried out in sharp pain as she scraped her elbow against the rough stones all around her. Holding her elbow where it stung painfully, Mackenzie just ran.

  She didn't know where she was going, where Jesse and Bell had gone, but she knew she had to keep moving. Maybe she would be able to meet up with Jesse and Bell once she got out of this tunnel, but she didn't know for sure if they were even still alive.

  Rounding a bend in the small canyon, the walls suddenly opened up and Mackenzie found herself standing in a much wider space, though the tunnel still stretched on ahead, the path bending out of sight a short distance in front of her. Above, the walls stopped and allowed threads of sunlight to stretch down to the ground, splitting the darkness apart. Pausing for just a moment, Mackenzie started making her way towards the continued path, hoping that she would find Jesse and Bell at the end of it.

  The moment she took a step forward, though, Mackenzie heard a high-pitched hiss from nearby. Freezing on the spot, Mackenzie slowly turned her head to look and found herself staring at a creature she had hoped to not see again.

  It was a gaper, glaring at her from the top of a nearby rock where it was soaking in the sunlight that filtered in from far above. Its mouth was wide open and Mackenzie could see inside its throat as it stared back at her. The quills on its back were bristling, making that sound of wood rubbing and clunking together. Mackenzie knew she must have startled it, but was lucky to have not walked so close that it attacked. Right now, the gaper was only wary of her. But if anything else made it nervous, it would attack. Mackenzie and the gaper were locked in a staring contest, Mackenzie keeping as still as possible while she tried to think what to do.

  Suddenly, Mackenzie heard a sound like a zipper being opened and looked up with only her eyes towards the sound to see one of Boroslav's soldiers rappelling down the inside of the canyon, a steel line unreeling from a box attached to his belt, his rifle held in one hand.

  The soldier landed on his feet and unclipped the line from his belt, then turned his gun on Mackenzie.

  "Don't move!" the soldier barked.

  "Trust me, I won't," Mackenzie said back quietly, trying to move her lips as little as possible, still staring at the gaper.

  "What?" the soldier demanded, having not heard her. "Keep your hands where I can see them!"

  Mackenzie still didn't move, but continued her staring contest with the gaper, which just glared back at her with its reptilian mouth wide open. The soldier was slowly walking towards her now. Mackenzie realized that he hadn't seen the gaper.

  The soldier was approaching Mackenzie on her right, moving slowly and cautiously. Mackenzie kept her breathing slow and steady, tried to ignore the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears. She needed to hear the soldier's footsteps in the sand, to hear how close he was. She kept her eyes locked on the gaper, but watched the soldier in her peripheral vision. His blurry shape was getting closer now. So close.

  "Put your hands up!" the solder ordered, almost shouting.

  At the sound of his voice so close and loud, the gaper suddenly found Mackenzie to be the least threatening. It turned its attention towards the soldier, hissing loudly through its wide mouth and bristling its poisonous quills.

  The soldier finally noticed the gaper as it hissed at him and looked away from Mackenzie towards the deadly lizard. Mackenzie heard his foot turn in the sand as he considered running, and saw in her peripherals the gun move away from her and towards the gaper.

  Acting quickly, Mackenzie reached out with her bionic hand and snatched the gaper up off the rock, holding it tightly just behind its front legs so that it couldn't turn and bite her. It hissed loudly in protest as Mackenzie lifted it up, its legs kicking wildly. In the same motion, Mackenzie also turned and swatted the barrel of the soldier's rifle aside so that it wasn't pointing anywhere near her. Caught off guard, the soldier fired a round into the ground nearby, the sound echoing off the canyon walls. Mackenzie then tossed the gaper through the air straight at the soldier, whose eyes widened at the sight of the reptile flying towards him.

  The soldier raised his hands instinctively to catch the gaper and stop it from clamping down its powerful jaws around his throat, but instead of catching it, he simply presented a new target. The gaper bit down hard on his wrist and Mackenzie heard the soldier's bones shatter instantly.

  Screaming in agony, the soldier flung his arm around, trying to shake off the gaper, but it held on tight. Mackenzie was already moving past the distracted soldier, quickly making her way out the direction she had been heading. Glancing back over her shoulder, though, Mackenzie saw the soldier hold his arm out as far as he could, then raise his rifle at the gaper that still clung to his wrist.

  "No!" Mackenzie cried in warning, but too late.

  The soldier fired a single round and the gaper was obliterated. As the gaper's head fell from the soldier's wrist, he only had time for a split second of relief before another ferocious hiss came out of the shade to his left. Mackenzie and the soldier both looked in time to see the second gaper, the first one's mate, launch off the canyon wall, claws extended and mouth wide open.

  The gaper locked its powerful jaws around the soldier's throat and clamped them shut. Blood burst out of the soldier's neck like juice from a squashed lemon. The soldier's eyes bulged and he choked as he tried to scream for help. More blood flowed out of his mouth as the gaper shook its head like a dog that had caught a rabbit, ripping and crushing every part of the soldier's throat it could reach. The soldier fell to his knees, grabbing the gaper and trying to pull it off. The quills on the gaper's back pierced his hands and Mackenzie knew that even if he survived the attack on his neck, the poisonous quills would now kill him in minutes.

  Unable to watch any more, Mackenzie turned and ran, leaving the soldier's life to quickly fade away.

  Mackenzie followed the twisting turns in the tiny canyon, chasing an exit that seemed to always be just out of sight, lying beyond the next bend, only to scurry away as soon as Mackenzie rounded the turn, finding a new hiding place farther up ahead around the next turn.

  Finally, Mackenzie rounded a bend and saw a curtain of light filtering into the canyon up ahead. She almost laughed with delight at the sight of it and she put on an extra burst of speed as she sprinted towards it. Once she was out, she would be able to find Jesse and Bell and finally get the hell out of there.

  Mackenzie ran out of the canyon without pausing, without even a moment of hesitation. She found herself running across a flat landscape, with sloping hills on all sides, like she was inside of a shallow bowl. She ran several steps across the landscape, determined to leave the small canyon behind, when she suddenly heard a loud and booming voice, full of urgency and terror.

  "MACKENZIE, FREEZE!"

  At the sound of Jesse's voice, Mackenzie instantly stopped running,
without knowing why she had to. All she knew was that if Jesse was screaming something that way, she better listen.

  Looking around, Mackenzie spotted Jesse and Bell at the top of the nearest hill. It seemed the canyon she had been in and the hill they had been running along ran parallel to one another, resulting in the three of them reuniting now, though Mackenzie was at the bottom of a bowl of sand and stone. Peering up at them, Mackenzie saw Jesse and Bell both staring down at her with horrified expressions on their faces. Jesse was standing on the crest of the hill, looking as though he was considering leaping down to her.

  A terrible feeling of dread settling in her stomach, Mackenzie slowly looked down at the ground around her feet. Then she understood why Jesse had screamed the way he did.

  Mackenzie recalled easily when Lowe had explained this phenomenon to her. The flat stone patches, the fragility, the absolute lethality. It stretched roughly twenty feet to Mackenzie's left and right, as well as another fifty feet straight ahead.

  Mackenzie had run straight into the middle of a redox field.

  Horror settled within her as she realized what she had done. She had trapped herself. If she made one single bad step and cracked even the smallest stone, the gasses that were trapped inside would be released into the air, then react with the chemicals on the rock exterior, resulting in an explosion that would create a chain reaction of more explosions from the surrounding stones. Mackenzie would have no chance of surviving that.

  How she had managed to run so far in without stepping on a stone was nothing short of a miracle. The small gaps between the stones were barely more than the width of her feet, and she stood now, completely still, frozen in mid-run, her feet stretched far apart and only inches from the explosive stones.

  "Jesse?" Mackenzie called out hesitantly, staying as still as possible. "What do I do?"

  "Just..." Jesse began, sounding uncertain. "Just don't move. I'm coming down."

  Together, he and Bell began to make their way down the side of the hill. Fortunately it wasn't too steep, so they were able to control their descent, but it still took them some time. During which, Mackenzie could feel every second ticking away as though it was her blood leaving her body. Eventually, Jesse and Bell made it to the bottom of the hill. They carefully approached the edge of the redox field and just looked around it helplessly.

  "Any advice would be really good about now!" Mackenzie cried a little fearfully.

  "Hold on," Bell began, trying to sound calm, but failing.

  "Easy for you to say!" Mackenzie shrieked, her voice cracking. "You're not standing in the middle of a mine field!"

  "Mackenzie, listen to me," Jesse began. He spoke urgently, but somehow remained calm. He kept his eyes locked on Mackenzie's, who refused to look away as though that in itself would trigger an explosion. "You need to be very, very, careful. I need you to slowly make your way towards me."

  "What!?" Mackenzie gasped. "I can't move in this!"

  "Yes you can," Jesse replied patiently, but firmly. "You made it that far in, you can make it back out. There are decent spaces between a lot of these stones. You should be able to step between them. You can do it. Just watch where you step, and come towards me very slowly. It's not too far. You can do it."

  "Yeah," Bell nodded fervently. "You've got this, Mackenzie."

  Mackenzie looked around at the redox stones, feeling highly doubtful that she could do anything of the sort. With her heart racing, Mackenzie took a long, slow, deep breath. Then she slowly lifted one foot off the ground and carefully placed it on the safe dirt between two of the deadly stones. She froze for a moment, waiting for the explosion that would kill her, but it never came. Mackenzie sighed with relief, but knew she still had a long way to go.

  "That's it, that's good," Jesse said encouragingly. "Keep going."

  Suddenly, Mackenzie heard footsteps echoing in the canyon behind her. Turning her head, she saw Scylla appear in the mouth of the canyon, glaring out at her with a look of ferocious hatred. Beside her, Boroslav appeared. He spotted Mackenzie at once, then raised his rifle to shoot, but Scylla quickly turned on him and grabbed the rifle, then used it to pin him against the wall of the canyon. Boroslav grunted in surprise as Scylla pressed the side of the rifle into his throat, pushing it with both hands until Boroslav almost couldn't breathe.

  "I said alive!" Scylla hissed. "How many times do I have to say it before it sinks into that empty brain of yours?"

  Boroslav choked once in protest, then managed to speak. "I'm sorry, Scylla. I lost my senses momentarily to my grief. It will not happen again."

  Scylla glared into Boroslav's eyes, scrutinizing him. Then she finally released her hold on him and turned away to look back to Mackenzie. Boroslav held a hand to his throat and coughed, but Scylla ignored him.

  "Miller!" Scylla shouted. "What the hell are you doing out there? Do you want to die?"

  "Do you want to eat my ass?" Mackenzie shouted back with as much vehemence she could muster under the circumstances.

  Scylla sneered in contempt, but said nothing more. She glanced around at the redox stones, calculating her next move. Boroslav stepped up beside her again, standing straight, and spoke with a strange formality.

  "The stones have spaces between them, Scylla," Boroslav said. "If you would permit me, I can do as Miller has done and enter the redox field, stepping in the gaps. I will bring you the girl."

  Scylla frowned as she thought. She watched as Mackenzie took another tentative step towards her friends. The thought of shooting Greaves and Bell crossed her mind, but Scylla was concerned that seeing her friends die while she was traversing the redox field would cause Miller to misstep and set off an explosion. Miller was the only one who could access the information Scylla needed, not even Joseph Miller was any use to her now. She needed the girl.

  "Fine," Scylla snapped at Boroslav. "But be careful. I don't want any harm to come to Miller. She's the only one who can get me that metric. And you know why we need it now. I suggest you remember that if you have the sudden urge to break her neck."

  Boroslav nodded curtly, then crouched down to set his rifle on the ground, keeping his eyes locked on Mackenzie, who was still stepping carefully between the stones. Watching his foot placement, Boroslav began to enter the field.

  Mackenzie glanced back over her shoulder and went pale when she saw Boroslav coming after her. He moved swiftly and with inhuman precision, walking an invisible path between the deadly stones as though he had walked it a thousand times before. At this rate, he would catch up with her quickly. Turning back to Jesse and Bell, she saw Jesse half raise his pistol to shoot Boroslav, but stopped before he even lifted the gun to elbow height. He couldn't shoot Boroslav while he and Mackenzie were in the redox field, his falling body would be certain to break the stones.

  "Mackenzie, you've got to move faster!" Bell shouted.

  "You stay right where you are, girl," Boroslav barked. "You will kill us all."

  Mackenzie glanced between Boroslav and Bell, her eyes flitting to Jesse for guidance, but he seemed at a loss. Mackenzie could almost see the distress he felt at not being able to do anything to help. Mackenzie already knew what she had to do, though. The only thing she could do. She had to keep going.

  Taking a deep breath, Mackenzie tried to calm her nerves and focus her concentration. She needed to block out everything but where she was going to step. She set her eyes on the ground ahead, picked her next move...

  And leaped.

  Jesse and Bell both gasped in horror when they saw Mackenzie jump through the air. Even Boroslav froze in shock, and Scylla took half a step forward as if she was going to reach out and catch Mackenzie before she hit the ground. Mackenzie's leap was true, though, and she landed on one foot between the redox stones. She wobbled slightly, balancing on just one leg, windmilling her arms to stay standing, then leaped forward again to land between the stones farther ahead.

  "Oh my God, be careful!" Bell gasped, digging her fing
ers into her cheeks with anxiety.

  Mackenzie barely heard her as she focused on her next leap. She bounded from one space to the next, each time before her foot touched the ground feeling certain this was the step that would kill her, but each time finding flat and safe ground.

  "Mikhail, get her!" Scylla screamed from the small canyon.

  Boroslav was already picking up the pace, though. He was almost running between the stones, moving as swiftly as a jaguar. Mackenzie wanted to look back to see how close he was, but knew she couldn't, she had to focus.

  "Come on, come on, come on!" Jesse urged Mackenzie, watching her feet with wide, unblinking, eyes.

  Mackenzie suddenly stopped, only a few feet away from Jesse and Bell, and looked around desperately. The gaps had suddenly become too small. There was nowhere nearby big enough to safely step. Mackenzie's eyes darted left and right, searching for just one more space, but there was nothing. Her next step would be her last.

  "Mackenzie, come on!" Bell cried.

  "There's nowhere to step!" Mackenzie replied helplessly. "I can't move!"

  Jesse and Bell both examined the ground and realized Mackenzie was right. Jesse raked his fingers through his hair, glancing behind Mackenzie at Boroslav as he quickly gained on her. Then Jesse turned his eyes back to Mackenzie.

  "You have to jump," Jesse said.

  "What?" Mackenzie gasped. "I can't jump that far!"

  "It's only a few more feet," Jesse insisted. "You can make it. I'll be here to catch you, you only have to make it as far as my arms."

  To show how serious he was, Jesse took a few cautious steps into the redox field himself, carefully stepping between the stones that tapered out at the edge. He then extended his arms towards Mackenzie as if about to hug her.

  "Bell," Jesse began, speaking over his shoulder. "Grab my belt. As soon as Mackenzie is in my arms, you pull us back as hard as you can."

  "Got it," Bell replied, nodding once. She then planted her feet firmly behind Jesse and grabbed the back of his belt in both hands, a look of pure determination and focus on her face.

  "Okay," Jesse said, turning back to Mackenzie. "Just jump towards me. As hard as you can. I'll catch you."

  "You're crazy," Mackenzie said fearfully, shaking her head. "There's no way."

  "Mackenzie," Jesse suddenly snapped. "Do you trust me or not?"

  "I..." Mackenzie began hesitantly, thrown off by Jesse's sudden impatience. "I do."

  "Then listen to me," Jesse said firmly. "You have no choice. You need to jump. I will catch you, I promise. Just trust me."

  Mackenzie stared into Jesse's dark brown eyes and saw the furious determination there. She could hear Boroslav's steps approaching behind her, but she didn't turn away from Jesse to look. Finally, Mackenzie nodded.

  Jesse nodded back at her, then set his feet firmly on the ground, ready to catch her weight. Bell tensed up behind him and Mackenzie could see the muscles in her arms tighten.

  Mackenzie bent her knees, judging the distance between her and Jesse. It was only a few feet, like Jesse had said, but to Mackenzie it might as well have been miles. Jesse's arms reached towards her, ready to catch her, but Mackenzie wasn't even sure she would make it that far.

  Telling herself to stop thinking about it and just do it, Mackenzie took a deep breath and looked into Jesse's eyes. She focused on him, on his face, and blocked out everything else.

  Then she jumped.

  Boroslav froze and glared at Mackenzie as she left the ground. Scylla stared from within the canyon, her eyes widening in shock. Jesse stretched his arms out as far as they would go, leaning forward and only held upright by Bell behind him.

  Mackenzie threw all of her weight into the leap, swinging her arms forward to gain extra momentum. She could already feel herself starting to descend and was certain she hadn't gone far enough. She reached out to Jesse, looked into his eyes, confident that they were going to be the last thing she ever saw.

  Before she realized it, though, Jesse's arms were around her waist. His strong arms caught her and he grunted loudly with the effort to stop her from falling. Mackenzie threw her arms around Jesse's neck and held tight, bending her legs at the knees, afraid that her feet might touch the redox stones. But Jesse was thrown off balance by grabbing Mackenzie out of midair. Mackenzie could feel him wobbling on his feet, then start to tip forward, unable to correct his balance to account for her additional weight.

  Bell pulled as hard as she could, though, and yanked both Jesse and Mackenzie backwards, away from the redox field. Jesse allowed himself to simply fall backwards and hit the dirt, Mackenzie landing heavily on top of him, yanking her feet away from the redox stones just a split second before her toes kicked the nearest one.

  All three of them had fallen into a pile, Mackenzie still clutching Jesse as though letting go would mean her sudden death. Jesse still held her just as tightly, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist.

  "Nice jump!" Bell began to laugh.

  "Yeah," Jesse grinned up at Mackenzie, their faces only inches apart. "Good one."

  Giddy with relief, Mackenzie grinned and rose to her feet, pulling Jesse up with her, who then turned and helped up Bell. The three of them turned and looked back at the redox field, and at Boroslav who glared back at them.

  "We gotta go," Jesse urged.

  "Do not move!" Boroslav roared, pointing a finger at them.

  Mackenzie, Jesse and Bell had already turned away and started running, but Boroslav was not to be ignored so easily. He sneered through his cleft lip and then started moving as fast as he could through the redox field, running parallel to the Diviners, searching for a pathway that would allow him to break free of the explosive stones and capture his prey.

  "The guy just won't give up!" Bell cried in exasperation as they ran.

  "Jesse, you have to shoot him," Mackenzie said. "He won't stop. He'll chase us all the way across the desert if he has to."

  "I can't," Jesse replied. "We're still too close to the field. As long as we're in this bowl, we're within range of an explosion. If I shoot Boroslav, he'll set off the redox field."

  With no other options, Mackenzie, Jesse and Bell simply ran. They ran between the redox field and the nearest hill, all the while aware of Boroslav's impossible agility as he traversed the natural mine field. Glancing over her shoulder at him, Mackenzie was reminded of a 20th Century film she had seen from the Panspermia archives once, The Terminator. Boroslav was as relentless as that machine had been.

  Under normal circumstances, they might have been able to outrun Boroslav as he was slowed down by having to be careful with his foot placement, but Jesse was still limping from the gunshot wound to his leg. Mackenzie and Bell helped him along as best they could, but they were still slowed down.

  "That way!" Mackenzie suddenly cried, pointing straight ahead. "We can get out up there!"

  Mackenzie had spotted a section of the hill that was not as steep as the rest and was made up of firm stones that looked easily climbable. Jesse nodded once to show he had seen it, then they all began making their way towards it.

  Suddenly, just as they reached the bottom of the hill and were getting ready to climb, Mackenzie spotted movement above. Looking up, she saw a dozen soldiers rise over the crest of the hill, each one carrying a rifle and aiming it straight down the hill at the three of them.

  Mackenzie, Jesse and Bell all froze when they saw the guns. They were pinned down. There was nowhere for them to hide or take cover. Soldiers had blocked their only escape, and Boroslav was still approaching behind them from within the redox field.

  Laughter reached Mackenzie's ears and she slowly turned to see Boroslav no longer running, but walking almost casually through the redox field. He met Mackenzie's eyes and his grin widened, his eyes glinting with the anticipation of what pain he would soon inflict upon her.

  "Nowhere left to run, pretty one," Boroslav crowed. "Now... you wait there until I reach you. If you run, my
soldiers will gun down your friends."

  Mackenzie looked around helplessly, looking to Jesse and Bell for an idea of what to do, but the looks of dismay they both had on their faces was enough to tell her there was nothing they could do. There was no escape plan now.

  Watching Boroslav slowly make his way towards the edge of the redox field, Mackenzie thought she could hear a faint humming sound nearby, but didn't pay it any attention. She had to think of a way out, a way to at least save Jesse and Bell. She thought that maybe if she surrendered herself, Boroslav would let Jesse and Bell leave. It was unlikely, but Mackenzie had to try something. She opened her mouth to speak, to start making demands or plead for a compromise, but never got the chance.

  There was a sudden and impossibly loud thwump in the air, followed by twin beams of a bright purple light streaking across the sky. The purple light flashed by overhead and struck the ground in the center of the armed soldiers above. The light seemed to explode the dirt and stone and a wave of rippling energy blasted through the nearest soldiers, completely obliterating them. The others, who were farther away, were suddenly screaming as they were tossed into the air by the concussion of the strange explosion, bursting into flames and falling back down to the ground where they screamed again momentarily, but then fell silent.

  Boroslav watched in stunned horror as his men were destroyed, but then all eyes turned to the cause of the destruction.

  The VTOL flew in fast and low. It skimmed the top of a nearby hill, then slowed down and hovered almost directly over Mackenzie's head. She, Jesse and Bell all stared up at it in amazement, unsure of what was happening.

  Scylla could also see the VTOL from far away in the small canyon. She glared at it in confusion for a moment, then realization dawned on her and her lips curled into a vicious snarl.

  "No," she hissed.

  Above Mackenzie and the others, the door in the side of the VTOL opened up and a face poked out to peer down at them.

  "Min-Hee?" Mackenzie said aloud in shock.

  Scylla's sister disappeared back inside the VTOL and, a moment later, a steel ladder was unrolling in the air, tossed out by Min-Hee. The ladder unravelled completely between Mackenzie and Jesse, then Min-Hee stuck her head back out and yelled at them.

  "Come on!" Min-Hee cried. "Hurry!"

  Pausing only long enough to exchange looks of incredulity, Jesse grabbed hold of the ladder and held it steady.

  "Bell, get up there!" Jesse yelled over the sound of the VTOL engines. "See if Min-Hee has any guns, cover us from the air!"

  "Got it," Bell nodded, then quickly began to scurry up the ladder, her petite frame allowing her to move faster up the shaky ladder.

  "Stop!" Boroslav roared, bounding closer and closer across the redox field, scowling furiously.

  "Mackenzie, go!" Jesse shouted at her.

  Quickly glancing back at Boroslav, Mackenzie looked at Jesse and shook her head.

  "No, you're hurt," Mackenzie argued. "You go first."

  "There's no time to argue with me!" Jesse yelled, almost angrily.

  "Then get up the ladder, you idiot!" Mackenzie yelled back. "I'll hold it steady, Bell can pull you in. I won't go until you do."

  As if to drive home her point and show just how serious she was, Mackenzie snatched the ladder out of Jesse's hands and glared at him stubbornly.

  Jesse opened his mouth to argue more, but stopped when he saw the look in Mackenzie's eye. She was not going to budge on this. Scowling in defeat, Jesse nodded.

  "Fine," he conceded bitterly. "But you better come up right behind me."

  Jesse then started to climb the ladder, moving slowly because of his leg. Mackenzie held the ladder as steady as possible for him, but it still swayed and rocked under the VTOL engines.

  Above him, Bell stuck her head out of the door, a pistol in her hand, and shouted out, "Hurry up!"

  Jesse tried to speed up, but his leg slowed him down tremendously. Mackenzie looked back over her shoulder and saw Boroslav was nearing the edge of the redox field. He teetered on his feet as Mackenzie watched, as if about to fall and Mackenzie found herself hoping he would. But Boroslav regained his balance and continued his approach, finally reaching the edge of the field. With a single leap, he cleared the remaining stones and landed on his feet on safe ground. He looked to Mackenzie and his eyes narrowed. Then he started to sprint at Mackenzie, his feet kicking up the dirt as he powered forward with malice in his eyes.

  "Min-Hee says we have to go now!" Bell screamed.

  "Mackenzie!" Jesse roared. "Up the ladder, now!"

  Not wasting another second, Mackenzie jumped and grabbed hold of the ladder. Without her at the bottom to hold it steady, it immediately began to swing as the force of the VTOL engines pushed it in every direction. Jesse was more than halfway up the ladder, where he was able to hold on more easily, but Mackenzie felt like she was about to be flung off. She wrapped her arms around the steps on the ladder and held on. The VTOL began to rise farther up as Min-Hee took off again, and Mackenzie started to slowly climb the ladder, terrified she would fall at any moment.

  Suddenly the ladder swayed violently and Mackenzie cried out in shock as she felt her foot slip off the rung. She threw her arms around the rungs in front of her and managed to stop herself from falling more than a foot, but her heart was pounding and she could taste her fear in her throat. Jesse was rocked violently, too, and his feet slipped out from under him. He held tightly to the ladder, but the gun he had tucked in his belt suddenly slipped loose and tumbled down, shooting past Mackenzie to the ground below. Looking down, Mackenzie saw that they had risen several feet off the ground and were still rising, but they had not risen far enough.

  Boroslav had leaped through the air and grabbed hold of the ladder. His weight had set the ladder into a violent swing, almost knocking Mackenzie off. Boroslav was now slowly climbing the ladder towards Mackenzie, his teeth bared and his canine tooth peeking between his cleft lip.

  "Mackenzie, don't stop!" Jesse shouted down at her, still holding on to the ladder from only a few feet below the door into the VTOL.

  Mackenzie turned away from Boroslav and started to climb again, but she found it difficult to move with how much the ladder was swinging. Min-Hee tried to keep the VTOL steady, but they were drifting to the left, slowly hovering out over the redox field.

  "We have to get Boroslav off the ladder!" Min-Hee shouted back at Bell. "He won't stop until he kills us all!"

  Bell raised her gun and tried to aim at Boroslav, but frowned. Looking back to Min-Hee, she shouted, "I can't get a shot! I might hit Mackenzie!"

  Boroslav seemed inhuman in his ability to climb the swinging ladder. He quickly caught up with Mackenzie and she felt him firmly grab her foot. He yanked on her leg and Mackenzie screamed as she felt herself almost lose her grip on the ladder. But she tightened her hold and refused to budge. She looked down at Boroslav, who was sneering up at her, his hand wrapped around her ankle. She tried to shake him lose, but he was too strong and held her painfully tight. Mackenzie tried to kick him, but Boroslav seemed to find her attempts laughable, because he actually grinned at her.

  "You're coming back with me!" Boroslav laughed insanely.

  "Stop!" Mackenzie shrieked at him. "We're right over the redox field! We'll both die if you pull me down!"

  "Then I will gladly see you in hell!" Boroslav cackled.

  He yanked on Mackenzie's leg again and she nearly lost her grasp on the ladder entirely. She felt herself fall as her feet were pulled down, but she managed to regain her hold on the ladder rungs just before she fell too far to save herself.

  "Bell, give me the gun!" Jesse roared up at Bell.

  Bell lay flat on the floor in the VTOL and stretched her arm down towards Jesse, straining her shoulder to pass him the gun. Jesse's fingertip brushed against the pistol's grip as he reached up to it, his teeth clenched in determination.

  "Let go!" Mackenzie yelled down at Boroslav.

>   Jesse finally got a hold on the gun and, holding onto the ladder with one hand, spun around to aim down at Boroslav. Mackenzie held her body as close to the ladder as possible, afraid that Jesse might accidentally hit her. Boroslav also noticed Jesse aiming the gun, because he pulled himself up closer to Mackenzie, pressing his body against her legs and sneering in contempt up at Jesse.

  "If you shoot me," Boroslav began, "then you shoot her. Can you hit me without hitting the girl? How good is your aim, hero?"

  Jesse glared down at Boroslav as he aimed down the sights of the gun. Mackenzie stared up at him, wondering what he was thinking, if he would shoot, and if his aim was good enough. But Jesse slowly shook his head, not taking his eyes away from Boroslav as he spoke.

  "I'm not the hero," Jesse replied. "And I won't shoot you."

  Boroslav seemed momentarily shocked, but then grinned nastily. As Mackenzie stared at Jesse in surprise, Jesse looked from Boroslav to her and then winked.

  "But she will," he added.

  Before Boroslav could understand what Jesse meant by this, Jesse opened his hand and let the gun fall from his grasp. Mackenzie watched it falling towards her, as if it was in slow motion. It spun in the air, twisting and turning as it descended. Reacting on instinct, Mackenzie reached up with her bionic hand, stretching her fingertips towards the gun. Boroslav was still clinging to her legs, watching the gun fall and Mackenzie reach for it.

  As if by some miracle, the gun landed perfectly in Mackenzie's grasp, her metal fingers wrapping around the grip. Without hesitation, Mackenzie turned on the ladder as much as she could with Boroslav holding her legs and she aimed the gun straight down at him, the barrel now only a foot away.

  Boroslav looked at the barrel of the gun, then sneered up at Mackenzie, as though daring her to pull the trigger. He opened his mouth to speak, perhaps to issue some challenge, maybe to dismiss her ability to pull the trigger, but Mackenzie had had enough of him speaking.

  Mackenzie pulled the trigger and fired a single round into Boroslav. She saw blood fly into the air as the bullet entered his chest, just below the collarbone, then more blood out his back as the bullet exited.

  The force of the shot knocked Boroslav back and the shock of it made him loosen his grip on Mackenzie's legs. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Mackenzie raised her knee and struck Boroslav square in the jaw. His head snapped backwards and his eyes rolled. Then he slowly fell backwards, losing his hold on her entirely.

  Mackenzie watched as Boroslav fell clear of the ladder, falling straight down towards the ground, right over the redox field. Min-Hee must have seen as well, because the VTOL suddenly hummed louder than ever and began to peel away, rising higher into the air.

  Scylla watched from far away as Boroslav fell. He didn't scream or cry out, but he was reaching up towards the VTOL as if he might be able to reach some invisible rope to save him.

  Jesse and Mackenzie both threw themselves against the ladder they still dangled from, held as tightly as they could, and waited for the inevitable.

  Boroslav fell hard into the redox field flat on his back. He hit the ground with enough force to break several bones, but he didn't notice. He had only a split second where he heard a heart-stopping crack beneath him, and then his entire world turned orange and yellow.

  The explosion was instantaneous. The fireball engulfed Boroslav entirely and he vanished from sight in only a blink. The fire climbed into the air and reached for the escaping VTOL, but it, and its occupants, were already beyond its reach.

  The chain reaction of explosion was next. The first explosion sent out a shock wave that shook and cracked all the surrounding stones within twenty feet, which then all exploded. The entire field was going up in a massive wave of fire and noise, the sound so loud and deafening that it drowned out the VTOL's engines. Mackenzie could feel the heat on her face even as they flew away at high speed.

  Scylla watched as the wall of fire raced across the field towards her hiding place in the canyon. Sparing no thought for Boroslav, Scylla turned and raced back into the depths of the canyon, running at full speed. She felt no fear, only fury, which was evident on her face as she pumped her arms and legs. The fire then reached the entrance to the canyon and clawed its way inside, as if trying to grab Scylla and drag her out. Scylla felt the heat on her back as she ran, but didn't slow down. She reached the bend in the canyon and dove aside, letting the fire slam into the walls and scorch everything it touched, but Scylla was unharmed. She backed away from the flames, staring into the flickering orange and yellow light, her lip curled with disgust and rage. The fire reflected in her eyes, but no matter how hot it was, no matter how intensely it burned, it could not match the ferocity that Scylla felt inside. Both at Miller's escape, and also by her own sister's betrayal.

  Flying over the desert, Jesse and Mackenzie finally climbed inside the VTOL and Bell reeled in the ladder and closed the door, drowning out the sound of the VTOL's engines and the rushing air around them. Mackenzie and Jesse both stayed lying on the floor, panting hard, neither one able to entirely believe they had made it. Even Bell looked stunned, leaning against the wall of the cabin, looking between Mackenzie and Jesse with incredulity.

  "Mackenzie," Jesse said suddenly. "Do you still have the hard drive?"

  Mackenzie quickly patted the place where she had stowed the Panspermia's hard drive and was relieved to find it still there. She pulled it out and waved it at Jesse, smiling slyly.

  Jesse threw back his head and laughed, which made Mackenzie laugh as well. Bell joined in on the laughter and before any of them knew it, they were all laughing in hysteric relief at being alive.

  "Min-Hee," Mackenzie exclaimed, suddenly remembering their saviour.

  Mackenzie climbed to her feet and hurried to the cockpit, leaning between the pilot and co-pilot chairs to look at the side of Min-Hee's face as she stared stoically out the window ahead.

  "You really saved us back there," Mackenzie said gratefully. "But why? Why did you help us?"

  "My sister demands complete loyalty," Min-Hee replied. "It's hard to be loyal to someone who harvests your organs. But I didn't just save you. Hopefully I have saved myself. I want something in exchange for helping you."

  "Girl, you can have any damn thing you please after that rescue," Bell laughed.

  "I want asylum," Min-Hee explained. "I can never return to Scylla now, she'll kill me the second she sees me. I am also willing to work for your people in gathering more water. This VTOL will help with that."

  "That's... amazing, Min-Hee, thank you!" Mackenzie grinned. "Of course. I'll make sure you get asylum."

  "And with the water map from SALINA," Jesse added, "we can use the VTOL to gather as much as we need without ever moving Town."

  Mackenzie grinned back at Jesse and Bell, who beamed back at her. For the first time in a long while, Mackenzie actually felt something she had almost forgotten was possible.

  She felt hope.