She stopped on the side of the road in the rain, looking over a tall fence into the vast expanse of Fort Liberty. Her fourth eyes showed her the path and direction to get to where her friends fought, but it was so far.
There was no time.
Chapter 17
Race With Death
The spider-kin pelted off the road into the woods on the edge of the Army base. She scurried up a tree, then drew a long line from the spinneret on her wrist and swung out as far as possible. She barely cleared the eight-foot electrified fence with the razor wire. She landed in a roll to spring back up in a run.
A siren sounded somewhere, some sort of alarm. The camera drones that normally patrolled the border of the Army base were probably grounded due to the terrible weather, but the stationary cameras could still track Liliana’s petite form.
Somewhere, no doubt, patrols were scrambling in the pouring rain. She couldn’t slow down to avoid them. If she ran any slower, she might as well go home and get used to not having any friends again.
The drenching rain beat at her. It made her ballet shoes slippery in the grass and leaves. Brambles caught in her skirt. The wind blew icy in her face, and rain dripped in her eyes.
Tracked vehicles crunched into the brush on her trail.
Up ahead on a four-foot barbed wire fence, a sign read:
DANGER
Restricted Area
UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE
Authorized Access Only
Liliana hurdled over the fence and ran through an open field with rolling hills. She watched with her fourth eyes for metal hiding in the tall grass to make sure she didn’t trip over anything dangerous. Stickery grass and burrs tore at her tights in the untamed field, slowing her down. She hopped up and sideways to avoid a metal cannister and kept running.
The tracked vehicles she heard earlier stopped at the fence. The barrels of weapons that looked like elongated radar dishes swiveled toward her as she ran, tracking her until they caught up. A strange, low-pitched sound hit like a huge pillow, knocking her off her feet. She felt it vibrate in her belly as much as heard it. Blood ran from her nose. She couldn’t think with the overwhelming noise.
The spider seer struggled up to her hands and knees, but she couldn’t make it to her feet. A metal canister in the grass near her shaped like a huge bullet exploded, showering the area with shrapnel. Fiery heat seared her left thigh in streaks.
The weirdly heavy air pressed her down. She struggled against it. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and slam her hands over her ears, but she couldn’t stop.
She had to keep going.
As her limbs gave out beneath her, she gave one last push and rolled behind a low hill, blocking the direct line of sight between her and the sonic weapon. The sudden cessation of gut-vibrating pressure felt like a boulder had been lifted off her.
To avoid the sound weapons, she loped like an animal in a low crouch with her hands on the ground. Following the natural curve of the rolling hills, she kept earth between her and the sound weapons while still moving as fast as she could in about the right direction. The horrific sound vibrations continued behind her. She heard another explosion, but it was far behind by then.
Liliana risked using her fourth eyes to check on Siobhan, wondering if she managed to not die while fighting a lion-kin five times her size.
Her fourth eyes showed the future vision of Siobhan dodging the enraged were-lion in the lab with the chemicals. The sword Doctor Nudd had given her danced in her skilled hands, deflecting with finesse and speed the powerful strikes of the lion’s long sword. The lion had the advantage of size and strength, but Siobhan had the edge in speed and skill. Hurled glass jars, lab equipment, and insults kept the lion-kin too enraged to think straight.
A grin crossed Liliana’s face. She should have known that Siobhan with a sword could hold her own against pretty much anyone
That moment was still in the future. Liliana did not have her clocks, so she wasn’t sure how many minutes she had. Perhaps fifteen or twenty, or was it ten? All too soon, time would catch up with the seer’s visions.
She still had half of Fort Liberty to cross.
Liliana’s teeth chattered from the cold even as the muscles in her legs burned, and a suspiciously hot liquid trickled down her thigh. The wet, cold air clogged her lungs along with a sharp smell like after a match has burned. The sound weapons were far enough behind that she could stand again and run full out. She clenched her teeth so they wouldn’t chatter and ran as if a pack of wolves nipped at her heels.
If only she could run faster. She had to run faster.
The spider-kin ran by things she never would have expected to see on an Army base, like a baseball diamond. A siren blew the base alarm from the speakers above the empty stands. She jumped the chain-link fence near third base and pelted across the neatly trimmed grass to first, glad for the open, easy ground, but concerned about the lack of cover if anyone came after her. She made it across and hurtled over the next fence without breaking stride. If she kept running at this rate, she would make it. She was going to get there in time.
She passed a building with a statue of a soldier and a big sign that read, “82nd Airborne Division War Memorial Museum,” just as three soldiers—two men and a woman—rounded the corner of the building. They shouted at her, voices unintelligible in the deluge of rain and wind. The guns they pointed at her made their message clear, though.