Souvenirs From Dead Worlds | ✓

Chapter 2

The boy was a lot bolder in the face of danger than Sam had expected. When he looked at Sam he was meek, avoided eye contact, and spoke sparingly, but when it came to the drones he didn't freeze up. He was smart enough to get the hell out of the way so Sam could deal with them and brave enough to keep moving after Sam was done.

Being out in the open was necessary but definitely not safe, and Sam was surprised that the boy didn't decide Sam was mad and abandon him. Surprised, and very disappointed. Sam was too busy shooting drones to figure out what to do about it, though.

Other than the corner of one narrow lane where half a dozen people had been trapped and executed by the drones, there hadn't been many bodies in the side streets. The marketplace was a different matter. The drones tended to aim to kill, and their lasers burnt rather than cut, so at least there wasn't a great deal of blood. Bodies, though, yes. Plenty of those.

Sam risked his life for a few extra moments to find a clear spot so that none of the bodies got crushed under his shuttle. While still shooting the drones, Sam turned the dial on his ring with his spare hand, then pressed the buttons in the required sequence.

Less than a minute later, the beam from Sam's laser gun narrowly missed being deflected back into his arm before his shuttle de-cloaked, appearing before him in all her ruddy, dented glory.

The boy, who had been lying behind Sam on the ground to stay out of the line of fire, made a startled noise and scrambled back.

Sam hoped he would run.

He didn't.

Sam should have left the boy there, laying frightened on the ground. He wouldn't have survived more than a few moments after Sam had left. Why should Sam help him? Everyone else on this world was going to die, why should this boy live? He wasn't special, he'd just encountered Sam at the right — or perhaps wrong — time.

Sam twisted his hand in the front of the boy's shirt, yanked him up, and shoved him into the shuttle ahead of himself. Yep, Sam was going to regret this.

#

Wherever the man had shoved Kias, it was darker than it had been outside in the mid-morning sunlight. The few lights there were, Kias didn't understand. They didn't look like fire. Some were larger, about the size of Kias' fist, and shone white light from the curved surface of the ceiling. The others were far smaller and glowed faintly in many different colours on the surfaces that encircled most of the small room. Once the door slid shut all sound from outside was cut off, leaving only a soft humming sound and, after a few moments, a clicking sound coming from where the man had sat down on the other side of the room.

This room, and the man who had shoved him into it, were about as strange as the metal monsters outside, but at least they didn't appear to want Kias dead, even if the man had threatened to strangle him.

The man seemed to have relaxed now that they were in this room, and so Kias allowed himself to do the same, just slightly. Just enough that the wound he'd received across one side of his stomach from attempting to fight one of the metal monsters decided to remind him of its existence by means of sharp, burning pain. Kias crawled under one of the surfaces with the glowy lights and curled up, hoping he could be forgotten for a while.

#

Sam jabbed furiously at the keys, selecting and confirming the coordinates of the transport point. This was the stupidest thing he'd ever done, and he had done some exceptionally stupid things in his lifetime. Like that time he'd tried to fight a drone with a sword because he'd dropped his gun somewhere. He probably should have known better that time, if not because of his training then because the owner of the sword had actually known how to use it and Sam had still had to take it from the man's dead body. He still had a scar from that.