Page 59 of From the Noblest Motives
He's leaving without us.No. There must be other vehicles.The kids couldn't fit in there with Cyril and three women in late pregnancy. A roar overhead cut off any thought except panic as a huge gunship slid into view above the trees.A Guild ship?
A muzzle flash from above—
"Down! Down!" Damien tackled Shudder off the path behind the root ball of a fallen cypress as a huge boom shook the ground and blasted outward from the coach house. He did his best to shield Shudder as dirt and shrub debris pelted them.
A silver-gray flash speeding through the undergrowth up ahead indicated that the gunship had missed or at least had failed to prevent the skimmer from leaving. Damien picked his head up far enough to spot the gunship turning ponderously and leaving his field of vision, no doubt in pursuit.
Shudder got up on hands and knees, trembling violently. "Oh fuck. Oh gods. No more explosions. I can't do more explosions."
"It's all right." Damien put an arm around him to help him up. "They're gone."
After two shaky breaths, Shudder found his balance, then lost all the color he'd gained back when he caught sight of the coach house. "Thekids. No, no, no, no…"
He took off in a stumbling, weaving run, and Damien cursed silently as he gathered the packs back up before following. As long as they hadn't emerged from their underground bunker, the youngsters should have been safe. He hoped.
The condition of the coach house didn't shore up that hope. The vehicle bay had been reduced to a pile of debris and twisted metal. One of the fieldstone walls had collapsed atop the cellar door leading to the bunker. Shudder flung himself to his knees, tears rolling down his cheeks as he tried to shift stones with his mind one by one, but obviously his concentration was shot, as the stones moved and dropped, moved and dropped in time with his trembling breaths.
"Shudder, wait." Damien took him by the shoulders and eased him back from the pile. "You'll exhaust yourself."
"I hear them," Shudder whispered. "I… We have to get to them."
"Let me find something for a lever. Just—" Damien cut off as the noise from a vehicle in mag-lift mode reached him. "What now?"
A truck barreled up the path with no regard for the vegetation or its paint. A very familiar truck. It screeched to a stop a few yards from them, and Blaze stuck his head out the window.
"Get in, idiots. Don't just sit there like melted lumps."
"We have to get the kids!" Shudder's voice climbed nearly to a shriek, and Blaze was out of the truck and beside them in four strides.
"What are you shrieking about? What the fuck's happened here?" Hands on his hips, he lowered his voice when Shudder leaned against his leg. "Guild fuckers?"
Shudder nodded. "Guild fuckers. How did you know?"
"Saw the craft overhead." Blaze spared a glare for Damien. "Don't return. Seriously? And since when do you forget how to grammar when you message? Almost made me suspicious it wasn't you."
"We were running." Damien gestured toward the buried doors. "Cyril got away. The kids are still in there."
"And I can't… I can't…"
Blaze ran a gentle hand over the fuzz atop Shudder's head. "I see that, Shuds. Move back a bit for me."
He got a pair of work gloves out of the truck, then, biceps bulging in distracting ways, he simply started picking up the stones and moving them one by one. While Damien approved, it did seem a little like showing off. He retrieved a broken crossbeam from the rubble to use as a lever and helped as best he could.
Shudder did watch them both with avid fascination, swiping at his eyes and only gulping a little bit at his breaths still. Showing off seemed to be the right sort of diversion, and by the time they'd cleared enough to open one half of the basement doors, Shudder was calm and on his feet again.
"Hello? Everyone all right down there?" Shudder called down the stairs. "It's just us here now. It's safe to come up."
"Shudder?" The young voice—Damien was certain it was Hillary—wavered uncertainly. "Who's up there with you?"
"Damien and Blaze. Everyone else is gone. Are you okay?"
Four heads peered around the corner, all of them squinting in the sunlight.
Danilo ventured halfway up the steps. "We thought we were gonna be buried alive. It sounded like a war going on."
"Cyril got away?" Hillary pushed past him, searching the adult faces waiting aboveground.
"It was one shell. Cyril got out with Gwyneth and the other women," Damien offered softly. "But the vehicle shed's destroyed."
