Brief Escape
Thinas scanned the night with strained eyes, Letty sleeping restlessly beside her. They hadn’t encountered a Tech in days, and she knew their luck would end soon. She watched the morning’s glow ignite the eastern woods in rose-pink stripes. What was once breathtaking now indicated the arrival of another ultimatum. If they could just reach the coast. Rumor told that a group of Navy rebels still held San Diego’s beaches in defiance.
Her head wrenched to the treeline at the sound of metal dragging through the brush. Letty’s eyes shot open. Thinas made a circular motion with her forefinger, and the girls sprang up. Thinas swayed, her injured leg screaming in protest. Letty threw her shoulder under Thinas’ arm, and they stumbled up the hill, bullets erupting behind them.
Their breath caught as they crested the top. The expanse of the Pacific brewed in the distance. Buds of hope bloomed in Letty’s chest like wildflowers. Thinas wheeled her arm back from the high vantage point and whipped a sticky grenade at the gaining Tech. It stuck to its ugly mono eye before unleashing a booming explosion. Shrapnel rained everywhere as the girls barreled down the hill into a forest. They strained to traverse the thicket, branches biting at limbs before bursting from the wood only to find horror on the other side.
A plethora of Techs and Battlebots. At the head of the swarm stood a gnarled white Aero alien.
“No.” Thinas breathed as Letty fell to her knees, defeated.
A blinding blast knocked them back. Thinas’ head met the ground with a thundering crack. Warm wetness pooled under her neck, tickling her numbing ears. She watched the blue sky undulate above, picturing herself swimming the ocean’s cool foam. Water washing over her head, pulling her into the deep, dark stillness of rest. She let her eyes close, the crashing of waves in the near distance a soft lullaby.