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“Stay behind me,” said Sienna, dropping her sack as well, and pulling out two CZ75’s.

Gemmel had restored the fully automatic handguns a month ago. He wanted her to have something powerful, but light enough for her to use. She recalled the way he had presented them to her, the concern on his face. I really am incredibly dim! How hadn’t she noticed all the little signs?

Had this situation not coincided with her revelations about Gemmel, she wouldn’t have been distracted. Sienna wasn’t one to get blown over by flaky, girly things. Regardless, she almost missed the Feeder until it was nearly upon her. Rainie’s sudden intake of breath alerted her, she dropped to her knee, and took out the creature’s head.

Sienna was up on her feet and rushing the gates without another thought. Except, instead of a battle, or even a slaughter, she found half of the camp prostrate and surrounded by statue-still Feeders. Her eyes went wide when every black maw turned in her direction. Then, they went above her.

“So, you’re the little guttersnipe causing so much anxiety.”

Shimmering flecks of coal for eyes in pale, doughy features, he was attired in a pin-stripped suit and red tie. He held his hands primly in front of him, sanctimony evident in his posture. He was also standing on a narrow stone pillar that Sienna swore wasn’t there earlier, twelve feet off the ground.

“You will refer to me as ‘Mr. Rove,’ although I would prefer a simple Sir from your kind.”

He took a step out into open air, as if falling wasn’t an option. It wasn’t. Another second pillar of stone, eleven feet high erupted from the dirt to meet his foot. A third came, ten feet high, then a fourth. The fifth one lowered him down to the ground with a single flick of his fingers.

“For the sake of my time and your ignorance… geo-thermals,” Mr. Rove said.

“What do you want,” Sienna asked the Mancer, guns never lowering.

“You will leave immediately with me, without dalliance or incident, and I may allow these wretched stains to live a short while longer.”

Sienna lowered her weapons. There were over forty members of the Northerners camp surrounded by at least that many Feeders, half a dozen more lurching through the gates now. Rainie scrambled through and found a spot next to the other.

All this for her? For what she may or may not become. It was pointless, she was pointless. But Sienna wasn’t about to allow these people to fight a Mancer for her. This wasn’t their battle, their responsibility. They had been lucky enough that Mandela had taken them in. No, best to go before…

… before Gemmel and Sean did something stupid like fire a rocket launcher at Rove.

They had situated themselves high up across from the scene in a rickety old bell tower. The propulsion of the rocker firing was enough to start the tower swaying, the two already scurrying back down as soon as the slim, arm-length missile was away. Rove tapped into something — heat, velocity, who knows — and brought it to a shuddering halt only feet from himself. The enormity of will must have been staggering, because the Feeders had begun to stumble around and take swipes at the Northerners. Many started to escape. Sienna found her CZ75’s back up at Rove’s face, this time with the triggers pulled.

Bursts of electricity stunted each bullet or veered them wildly off course. Rove stomped forward, a gesture directing a group of Feeder to tear into a group of Northerners who had taken refuge behind two large steel kegs. The blood sprayed in high arcs, almost as high as their screams. Sienna tapped at her triggers again, aiming closer to his feet in an attempt to unsteady him. Taking a step up, he simply began floating.

She began to backtrack deeper into the camp. The signal strength from the T-Net towers to her Servant was weak here, but if she could make it another one hundred yards, it would have full bars. If she leeched, she could put herself on an equal playing field. She twisted to take a few more shots at Rove, and saw it. Even without the nirvana from leeching, she saw the inevitable.

Gemmel was rushing straight at Rove, shoulders down and ready to tackle. The Mancer was more than aware of his presence. At the last moment, he summoned some type of energy, changed his density or something, and backhanded the huge man with a single stroke. Sienna could hear the sound of bones cracking, see his neck shift at a weird angle. She abruptly ran back to where he fell on the dirt.

His feet were twitching, chin was pressed down tightly against his chest. Eyeing rolling around spastically, blood began to dribble from the corners of his mouth as she pulled herself closer. Tears streamed as his eyes came to rest on her.

Sienna knew there wasn’t much time.

“Why?” she screamed, gathering him up in her arm. “Why did you… I was going to leech!”

Gemmel stared at her, unable to speak. Unable to even say the words.

“Just… just leech off me, Gemmel. C’mon, Jay! Please!”

Unable to say the words. Unable to say goodbye.

Sienna sobbed, clutching the body of her dead friend. Her best friend. Her brother’s best friend. A man who had honestly loved her, and she had been too stupid, too blind to see it.

“I can eradicate all of them,” came Rove’s voice behind her. “I can erase them all without doubt or concern. Or you can leave with me now.”

Sienna looked up at him with eyes reddened by tears and rage.

“I know what you’re thinking. But before you could get close enough to me to leech, I could incapacitate you in twenty different ways, murder you in four. Yes, even from this short distance.”

Sienna thought of her brother still out there, the dozens of Northerners still alive.

“Let’s go.”

————————

DataLog Text-MemxJourn: Doyle, Sienna A. / 10-07-24

“Get out,” snapped Rove.

Sienna blinked in the dull morning light. They only made two stops a day, so she knew this was the morning one. The sky was overcast, matching the desolate stretch of road they were on. The tall grass that lined the road like squat, green walls was reclaiming the highway. The grey clouds and their promise of rain added a vicious humidity to the heat. Rove’s pudgy features were puckered with sweat.

There had been two vehicles, his SUV with a driver and guard along with a cargo van with two more additional guards. She was placed in the back of the van, completely sealed off, with only a few rations and bottles of water. They stopped twice a day so everyone could take rest breaks, refuel, and find a spot in the woods to piss. The guards never took their laser-targeted assault rifles off Sienna’s torso.

“Do you need to… relieve yourself?” asked Rove, his face screwing up the last two words.

“No, thank you,” replied Sienna, smiling sweetly. “I’m sweating out all the water back there, and you’re not feeding me enough for anything else.”

Rove tittered, as if even that was too much information. They both knew Sienna had every intention to kill him as soon as the first opportunity presented itself. What she didn’t know was where she was going and why. That didn’t stop her from asking every time they stopped for a break.

“Are you going to tell me what this is all about yet?”

“Oh, I think you know.”

“Oh, I think I don’t.”

“Then you truly are as much an imbecilic whore as you look.”

“Right… is that because you prefer the hirsute gentleman type?”

She wasn’t sure what is was, but Sienna had slowly picked up on the fact that, while they were terrified of him, neither Rove’s driver nor any of the guards could stand him. She got the impression they had never seen anyone talk to him like this before, let alone some twenty-something blonde chick. While they might not defy him on her behalf, they were loving every minute of it and it might eventually be beneficial.