We had driven another ten miles when something slammed into the back of the prison vehicle.
“I got it,” Vee said. To my surprise, she pulled a hefty handgun from a holster at her hip. She hauled the upper half of her body through the window and aimed at the back of the vehicle. She fired four shots and I heard something scraping the pavement behind us.
“Guess that means we’re getting closer,” I said as I turned right down a shop-lined street. Vee dropped back into her seat.
“Why don’t you just call them out and tell them to get into the back of the vehicle?” Vee asked as we slowly rolled forward.
Honestly, the idea hadn’t even occurred to me. “Where’s the fun in that?” I said. Just then, I saw two figures standing motionless inside an old ice cream shop. They stared blankly out at the world. “It’s been a while since I’ve been able to physically kick some Bane ass.”
When I glanced at Vee as I put the vehicle into park, I had hoped to see the hints of a smile on her face. But she just looked calm and collected.
We climbed out of the vehicle and I unlocked the back doors. Inside there were benches lining either side of the vehicle. Other than a reinforced vent at the back, it was a steel box.
I just had to hope it was enough to keep the Bane contained until we could get back to the hospital.
“How do you want to do this?” Vee asked. Her fingers twitched at her side, hovering over her firearm. A screech from the sky drew my eyes upward. Bird was once again circling us.
“I honestly hadn’t thought about it all that much,” I said. “I take one, I guess, you take the other. Blunt force sound okay?”
Vee shrugged her left shoulder and cocked her head to that side slightly. I supposed that was a yes.
“Don’t kill them,” I said. “We need them good and alive. If they get to be too much, Royce gave me this nice little toy.” I held up his modified CDU. “Let’s go.”
Maybe it was that twin bond I’d heard about, or just adrenaline surging through both our systems, but we both broke out into a sprint at the same time. I kicked the door open, shattering it into a thousand splinters.
One of the two Sleepers twitched, its head jerking up slightly. I went directly for that one, wrapping my arms tightly around its chest. Not hesitating a moment, I swung us back in the direction of the door.
I was half way to the vehicle, dragging the struggling body behind me, Vee just about out the door, when the body I grabbed twisted, yanking from my hold. It swung, its fist barely missing the side of my head as I ducked. I spun low, kicking my foot out and knocking it from its feet.
I threw myself on top of it, but in that instant, its eyes opened, staring at me with its metallic and too sharp surfaces. Its hands wrapped around my throat and rolled, pinning me to the ground.
Despite my position and the air being choked off, I felt more alive in that moment than I had in months. I was back in Eden, conducting a raid and fighting to protect a small colony of thirty people.
A smile actually spread on my face as I curled one leg up, hooking it around the male figures neck, and throwing it back onto the pavement. I sprang to my feet before the uncoordinated machine could recover. Pinning both its hands behind its back, I threw it into the back of the vehicle.
Vee and her Bane were in a similar scuffle and I turned to see her grab it by the throat, lift it, and throw it into the back as well. We slammed the doors closed and I locked it behind us.
The metal siding suddenly dented out toward us, followed by another dent, and then another.
A laugh suddenly broke from my chest as I looked at Vee. She just stared at me emptily.
“That felt really good,” I said, placing my hands on my hips.
“Yeah,” she said. She tried smiling, but I could tell it was forced. “I suppose.”
“Let’s hurry and get these two back to Royce before they break free,” I said. We both climbed back into our seats and I started the vehicle. I had just pointed us back in the direction of the highway when Vee looked out her side view mirror.
“Looks like we drew some company,” she said. This time she pulled out her assault rifle. She positioned herself so she was sitting in the window. I looked out my side mirror just as she started firing. There were three Bane sprinting down the road after us.
When I looked back in the direction I was driving, there was a Bane standing right in the middle of the road. I drew my Desert Eagle and put my hand out the window.
I only had time to fire two shots, but it wasn’t enough to take it down. The transport vehicle was, however. Metal crunched against metal and there was a slight bump as we drove over the body.
Vee fired five more shots before we turned a corner and she slipped back inside.
“Four Hunters,” I said. “At least two Sleepers. All within the circle of the Pulse. How many others are there that we haven’t seen?”
“We’ve shot and killed at least a dozen others, that I know of, on security detail,” Vee said.
I nodded. Avian had been bringing home similar reports. They were closing back in on us.
Vee looked back in the side view mirror. Her expression was serious, her eyes distant.
“You don’t hate the Bane, do you?” I said, glancing over at her. “Not like the rest of us do. You don’t necessarily fear them.”
“It was different for you,” she said, looking forward again. There was another heavy bang, just behind us. The metal divider between us and them dented inward. “You were raised as a normal human. You were taught to fear them. You didn’t know you were like them.”
She absentmindedly rubbed her chin, before resting it in her hand, her elbow propped up by the window. “But I always knew I was close cousin to them. The Bane at NovaTor, they were all I had for company. They weren’t the best company, but they probably kept me from going completely insane. I never feared them because I knew I couldn’t become like one of them and I knew they wouldn’t try and kill me.”
“Do you pity them?” I asked, looking over at her again for a moment.
She hesitated, evaluating feelings she wasn’t sure how to feel. “I don’t think I really feel anything toward them. Does that make sense?”
I looked forward down the road again. “Yeah,” I said. “I think it does.”
TWENTY-NINE
We had only been gone for three hours when we rolled back in front of the hospital. Yet Royce had already gotten a holding cell ready for the Bane we had captured.
A glass one. Right in front of the hospital. Where everyone could see them.
The two Bane had calmed some when we got back, but considering the higher risk now that we were back among humans, Vee and I used the modified CDU to knock them out and then move them into the cell.
They lay slouched on the concrete sidewalk. The entire framework of the cell was solid steel and ran right into the ground. The walls were glass and allowed you to see everything going on inside the cell very clearly.
How Royce managed to pull it together so quickly was beyond me. But this was Royce.
“Well,” Avian said as he walked up from the trucks that transported security detail to and from our borders. “If you had to go catch a Bane, I’m glad you had help.” Avian smiled at Vee as he stopped at our sides.
“My sister is a very effective Bane hunter,” I said, nudging her with my elbow.
She gave an uncomfortable smile and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“She just barely gets the chance to get away from the Bane and you already have her tracking them down.” West walked up from the truck as well, an assault rifle lazily lying across his shoulders, his wrists hanging over the sides of it.