Page 134 of Homebound
He grabbed her by her elbow without finesse and threw her against the body of the sweeper where the armored side would protect her. Gemma’s bad head reverberated from the impact, and she would have slid down on the floor if not for Ruby whose arms caught her.
“Careful. She’s been hurt.”
This time Simon’s head whipped to her. His eyes took in Gemma’s undoubtedly pitiful visage, and the black glow flared. Now he was angry.
The sweeper kept moving.
“Stay with it, always on this side,” Simon instructed them. “When it reaches the hole, go. Run. I’ll count to ten and engage the feelers.”
A shot landed perilously close. Simon hauled up his bazooka and opened an answering fire. Literally.
“It’s a fire thrower!” the Sakka wailed.
“It’s got several settings.” Simon’s attention was on the lobby.
“What about you?” Gemma couldn't keep her eyes away from him, her love, her life.
“I can break away from the feelers. I’ll meet you at the old church where you fed me yogurt. Go there and hide. Understood?”
Gemma nodded, as did Ruby and the Sakka.
Simon didn’t seem to be convinced. His eyes swept over Gemma. “Can you run?”
“Yes,” she lied. “Don’t worry about me.”
The sweeper kept going, and they minced along, protected from the guards’ fire by its impenetrable body. When they reached OO’s office, the busted door allowed them an unobstructed view of the inside: the polished desk, the knickknacks, and OO himself slumped in his posh chair… holding his head in his lap. Blood from his severed neck had saturated the front of his clothes so that he appeared to be wearing a crimson robe. Gemma couldn't suppress a shocked intake of breath. Next to her, Ruby hiccupped.
Slowly but surely the clunky sweeper circled the lobby and approached the hole where the entrance door had recently been.
“Now!” Simon shouted.
The Sakka was the first to take off, but Ruby clamped her wiry hand around his upper arm.
“Not so fast, mister. You don’t know the way.”
“Let go of me, helper,” the alien hissed, his tiny pointy teeth bared. He had a lot of them.
Ruby was far from intimidated. “You are going with us or not at all. We had an agreement.”
The Sakka didn’t give a fig about the agreement, anyone could see it from his narrowed eyes and the body poised to flee. But Ruby held firm.
Simon’s unblinking eyes took in their scuffle. “You’re wasting our time,” he warned softly.
The Sakka deflated.
Ruby tugged, and the meek alien followed her down the street.
“Hurry, Gemma,” Ruby called back. “You have to show us the way to the church.”
While Simon let out another round of fire to provide cover, Gemma let go of the sweeper’s side she had been using as a crutch and started running, leading their small group to their destination. She didn’t look back at Simon. She couldn't, she was so scared that something would happen again and he wouldn't be able to follow. That they would again be separated.
But no, she shouldn’t let her fear rule her. Those thoughts were poison. Instead, she concentrated on keeping her head straight and on placing one foot on the ground after the other in a slo-mo approximation of a jog. She felt every step reverberate inside her aching brain.
I can do this, she thought, and it became her groove.Icandothis, Icandothis, Icandothis…
The church’s ruins were well within a mile from the prison, but to her, the distance might as well have been a full marathon. With Ruby and the Sakka at her heels, she stumbled inside at the same place where she’d gotten in when chased by the mad cannibal. Another unpleasant, debilitating memory. For her, the City was chock full of them. Her short sojourn here had so far been nothing but misery and an endless fight for survival. She should have lost that fight a long time ago. To think of it, she was amazed she’d made it so far as this.
The tree of them huddled in a corner behind a pile of bricks. All were breathing hard.
