Shadow Army: A Shadows Rising Novella

18. Bullets

CRESS:

Frowning, I glanced over my shoulder.

Three long, slender, sinewy things were lined up on the rocks we had just left behind. They were clearly animals, bobbing their heads, scenting the air, but they weren't any critter I was familiar with, and the shine of polished metal glinted from their backs and sides. For a moment I just squinted, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.

Then the figure of a man appeared on the ridge above them, silhouetted against the sky between the trees, and that was all I needed. "Move," I shouted, rounding on Ephie. "Now!"

For once in her life, Ephie didn't argue. She was already moving, practically climbing right over Doc.

Doc bit out a curse and grabbed at the guide rails to keep from pitching into the gorge, but then he was moving too, all three of us scrambling along the chains, desperate to reach the cover of the trees on the other side.

We got all of two more meters before everything went sideways.

The man on the ridge wasn't alone.

There were more of those animal things, and more men, calling back and forth to each other.

Then I caught a blur of movement off to my right, glanced that way, and did a double take, gawking as what looked to be some sort of metal flying engine rounded the bend of the gorge. Just floating right along, nothing holding it up but air. I watched it come toward us, sleek as a fish, its bright silver hide glinting and sparkling as it passed directly under the bridge.

There was a man sitting in the control box seat, calm as you please, like he was taking tea in someone's front parlor. His eyes met mine for a split second as he shot past.

Doc's incredulous, "Tell me you just saw that!" broke through the absolute fog of disbelief in my head.

"I saw," I barked, giving myself a shake and tearing my eyes away from the flying man as he disappeared down the ravine. No sense goggling around, we didn't have time. I shoved away the growing terror that was bubbling up in my craw and kept putting one foot in front of the other, following along behind Ephie as fast as I could.

We had to get to that side and cut the bridge.

There was a mechanical whirring sound coming from the trees ahead of us, and a sharp hiss. I chanced a look upward and found Nox crouching on a pile of boulders, all lit up with blue lights, a weapon cycling into place on his right arm. He took aim at the men across the gorge, blue lightning arcing across his chest and down his arm, and then a spate of glowing blue bullets burst from the barrel of the gun.

Doc ducked low, glancing over his shoulder, eyes gone wide at the splintering trees and exploding stone that erupted from the top of the bluff behind us. Then, with a cough of a laugh, he turned and stumbled forward again, moving faster.

A moment later, the men at our backs were in range and started firing at us, flashes of green tracer rounds zipping all around like swarms of angry hornets. One singed my left ear before nearly taking Doc in the head – only the crazy swaying of the bridge saved us. We might as well have been puckmucks in a carnival shooting game. More ion rounds zinged through the air, sparking off the chain, sending up puffs of smoke from the rocks on the other side of the gorge.

There was an ominous tug on the chain beneath our feet, a new tension that said something was on it with us. The guide chains too. All three of them started swinging wildly, in different directions.

Move, move, move, move drummed in my chest. Five more meters. Ten. Then Doc was on the platform. He whipped back around, reaching for me. I was too far away. I saw him open his mouth, saw that frantic look on his face, but the chains were bobbing too much for me to keep good footing, and I couldn't get any closer. Whatever was on there with me, it weighed more than I did, and it was moving fast.