Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

46 Protect (Part 2)

Above them, Wobeck aircrafts dove closer to the ground. Reo managed to send the same wave of energy crashing into three of the Wobeck planes. The others scattered skyward once again, with Nomenain gunships in pursuit.

Reo swayed on his feet. There were more beads of sweat on his brow, and his face looked dazed as if he had been spinning in circles.

"Are you alright?" Maeyune asked.

"It doesn't help that they're drilling into Vaius," he muttered, pressing a palm against his temple. He shook his head, blinked, and appeared as if to push aside his pain. "The gunships are trying to clear the air for the transport crafts. We should make our way over to the villagers, make sure they get on safe."

She knew he was right. She nodded, but her eyes went wide as an explosion in the village square shoved one of the automechs backward. It tumbled toward them.

"Look out!" she cried.

She managed to grab Reo's wrist and pull him aside, and they slumped onto the ground, missing the machine by mere inches. Maeyune covered her face with her arm as dust and sand created a whirlwind from the impact.

Disoriented, they stumbled to their feet, and as Reo started for the automech's cockpit door to rescue the pilot, Maeyune saw the Wobeck aircraft that exploded in the sky. It grew larger with each second. Her heart leaped into her throat when she realized they stood in its path.

"Reo!"

It hurtled at them faster than they could move. Reo summoned a shield in the final second before the plane crashed into the ground in front of them. It drove the fallen automech sideways. And as the Wobeck aircraft skidded across the village square, both Maeyune and Reo were swept off their feet and tossed flying into the air. 

The breath left Maeyune's chest, and for a moment, she stared in blank wonder at the gray mass that covered the sky.

She heard Reo land first, saw him rolling toward the edge of the square, toward its cliffside. He managed to stop his body from tumbling over the edge, his fingers digging into the dirt to stop his momentum.

She expected to land hard, too. But she drifted, and drifted, and the cliff's edge passed underneath her, rose above her.

And she was falling.

She vaguely heard Reo shouting her name when water struck her back like a wall and swallowed her into darkness.

Darkness spat her out as soon as she surfaced. Her mouth fell open wide, and she heard herself gasping for air. She could scarcely see through her wet hair that bundled around her face like black tentacles. Cold water filled her throat and burned her lungs, and she coughed as she was swept away with the river's current.

She whipped her arms around her to stay afloat. Her right arm ached just below her shoulder, and wincing, she fought against the pain in order to swim and keep her head above water.

When she was able to stay adrift with the current, she turned her head, scanning either side of the river and searching for the nearest stretch of open riverbank. The river was no more than forty yards wide, and it carried her near its center.

Up ahead, she spotted a short span of sand, and fortitude filled her veins.

She could swim to safety. She had to.

Gritting her teeth, she worked with the river's flow as she pushed toward solid ground. With only one good arm to guide her, she struggled to regulate her strength. The need to survive was the only thing her body understood, and in a fury, her legs kicked to propel herself forward.

If she were to stop now, she would miss the sand and be swept even farther away. Seconds ticked by, and the sandy riverbank was all that she could see, all that she fought for.

Before she realized it, she felt rocks and sand underneath her fingers. Sharp pebbles bit into her knees and palms as she crawled onto land, but she paid them no mind.

She had hardly made it out of the water when fatigue cascaded down her body. She collapsed onto her stomach, her cheek pressed into the coarse sand. Water lapped at her ankles, and in the distance, she could hear the faint sounds of battle and whistling aircrafts.

But all she could think about was the feeling of solid ground underneath her.

She was alive.

A sudden sob shuddered through her chest.

Her eyes pricked with tears, and she felt them slide across her face as she lay unmoving. She let them fall, lacking the strength to stop them or even wipe at them.

She was weak and ineffectual, entirely useless. There was little to nothing she could do.

And she was tired. She was so, very tired.

She only wanted to rest her eyes for a minute--just a minute while she lay alone on the riverbank. And as she wept silently, she allowed exhaustion to steal her away.