Steel Hearts

Chapter [10] Truce

The air stilled. No longer did a breeze travel north. Humidity subdued, wrapping itself in sordid smells. I blinked, and then stared at Ethan, unsure of what he had said held true.

“Wha –what did you just say?” I stammered. My eyes flickered past him.

He didn’t have to say anymore. His shaking hand pointed across the bridge. But as the figures forged ahead, walking right toward us, I released a long sigh. It wasn’t bottom-feeders who had captives. Instead, it was Inara and her gang that had one of them in restraints.

“No way,” Chase gasped, running ahead.

“Chase! What are you doing?” I yelled after him.

I didn’t have a choice, I had to follow. Even from the safe distance between me and the others, I could still see that mocking smile of Inara’s. She held onto the bottom-feeders bounded hands behind his back. She pushed the fetid, walking corpse straight toward me. I dodged him, letting the bottom-feeder fall to his knees behind me.

“Are you flippin’ out of your damn mind?” I shouted at her. She shrugged, adjusting the hand-held gun on her belt loop. “What the hell are you thinking keeping one of these like some pet?” I started pacing, rubbing at the back of my neck. “Just when I thought we left you all behind for good…”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, princess,” she said.

Ignoring her to keep my cool, I looked over at Chase and Ethan. They circled the bottom-feeder, jabbing it with the tip of their shoes.

But the bottom-feeder wanted to fight back, nipping at Chase’s leg.

He kicked him in the face, and then jumped back. “He was trying to take off my damn leg!”

I shook my head. “Did it get your skin?” Walking over to him, I knelt down and pulled up his pant leg. There was no wound. “Nope, you’re lucky.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled like a child in trouble.

I couldn’t help but smile up at him. “Next time, it’s a time out for you.”

The bottom-feeder moaned, clicking his tongue. This was similar to what I heard back at the Inner City. It must be a form of communication.

Inara stepped in front of him, poking it with a walking stick. “Quiet, Feeder!”

He shrank back, licking at his bloody, chapped lips.

Gross.

I stood. Placing my hands on my hips, I said to Inara, “It’s time to talk. Why do you have a bottom-feeder, and why are you here?”

She rolled her eyes, looking down at her feet, and then back up at me. “Steel City was ambushed.”

The siren we had heard…

I looked over at Chase, and then at Ethan. They both were pallid in the face. Tank’s large body came into view as he stood next to Inara. He frowned, pointing back toward the city.

“There were so many of them. We never knew they had a community that large.”

“Until now,” I said out loud to no one in particular.

Tank nodded. “Shooter…” he began, but stopped.

“Where is he?” I hadn’t noticed until now that they were down one man. “Is he okay?”

Inara shrugged. “We don’t know. When the loft was overtaken, it was each man for himself,” she said with no remorse.

I half-laughed with disbelief. “Are you kidding me? You just left him behind like he was never important in your life? You really are a bitch.”