And I hurled that murdering bastard right into the fire.
I scooped up the pack and shouldered it as I pulled the knife from my boot. It was like one movement how I did it. And then I was darting forward. Slicing my way through the poacher guards and heading for the Harvesters at the door.
There were screams behind me, and I turned my head for an instant, saw Kade grappling with Harvest in the fire, his cornhusk robes going up in flames. Other poacher lords were trying to break them up, but I couldn’t think about the fact that Harvest was still alive and kicking and Kade needed my help. Because up ahead of me, the replicants were closing in and closing their empty hands into fists.
No weapons. Not this time. So I’d see what these boys could do in a bare-knuckle fight.
I charged past the two poachers with the vat full of water, and I swung my knife at the Harvesters, trying to get some space so I could make for the door.
I called for Crow. Hollered for Alpha. But I couldn’t see nothing except those dull copies around me. I couldn’t move the knife fast enough. They were getting closer, ready to rush me all at once.
I slammed into the one between me and the doorway, stabbing at him as the others pressed tight, their hands at my neck, fingers grabbing at the pack.
I spotted Alpha. Her arms still bound in the cornhusk ropes, two poacher guards holding her back. And she was straining and screaming, but I couldn’t hear her above all the damn noise. And I couldn’t do nothing for her. The Harvesters were crawling all over me. Tightening their grip, like they were all fingers of the same giant fist.
I slammed and bucked, and we smashed into the dudes with the vat of water, spilling it clear across the dirt with a crash.
But then I heard a new sound. Above all the turmoil. I heard a bellow and a boom. And then the Harvesters were being peeled off me, one after another. They were being ripped apart and thrown through the air.
I broke free. Spun around, so I could see what was happening.
And it was Crow that was happening. Holy shit, it was Crow.
Bide our time, he’d said. Save our strength. And you best believe he had meant it. Because he weren’t just standing, or walking, and he weren’t just towering ten feet tall. He was spinning and kicking. Mowing down Harvesters and poacher guards with those big purple tree-legs. His wrists were still bound together, but it was like he didn’t even need them—dude moved like a blur, mammoth and tree and man all mixed up together.
And nothing could stand in his way.
I yanked at the straps of the pack, cinching it against me as I raced over to Alpha. Sliding into the dirt and slashing her ropes apart with my knife. She grabbed two machetes off the ground and leapt up beside me.
But there was Kade and Harvest, dragging themselves out of the fire and rolling in the dirt to extinguish the flames. Kade’s robes had gone up in smoke, leaving him all red and singed at the edges. But Harvest’s clothes had just seemed to melt against him, leaving him more smoke-like than ever as he scrambled to his feet and stared into my eyes.
It was Kade I wanted to get a good look at, though. How could we get out of here without him?
“They’ll head for the scaffold,” he yelled, though the poacher lords were too frail to run after us, and all the guards had been beat down by Crow.
Kade stared at me, trying to make sure I was getting the message. “They’ll head for the scaffold,” he screamed. “They’ll head for the fields.”
Didn’t need to tell me a third time.
We bolted through the door as Harvest rallied and the poacher guards and the replicants began squirming upright. I hacked my blade at the ropes on Crow’s wrists, setting his arms free, and he jammed the steel door shut behind us.
“What about them?” cried Alpha, pointing into the sprawling chamber.
The workers had turned still at the sight of us, but slowly they began hoisting up their shovels, flicking open switchblades, brandishing hacksaws and pickaxes. And there were so many of them crowding towards us. A whole mob between us and that tower of ladders we needed to reach.
“Hope you saved some of that strength,” I said to Crow.
“Just stay behind me. Both of you. And give me one of them swords.”
Alpha threw a machete up to the Soljah, and damned if he weren’t something, stepping in front of us, like he was putting us all on his back.
I tugged the pack even tighter to my shoulders, felt the remains of Pop hang against me.
I’ll get you out of here, I wanted to tell him. I’ll get you some water. Show you some sun.
“What about Kade?” asked Alpha.
“He ain’t coming with us,” I said. “But he wants a tree. He told me.”
“No,” Crow said as we inched forward. “I’m not leaving a tree with these scum.”
I had my knife in a white-knuckle grip as the crowd shook their weapons and tools and marched closer. And it weren’t just those poachers ahead of us, neither. The steel door was rattling and clanking. And once it flew open, we’d be surrounded. Too many poachers on too many sides.
And Harvest, of course.
Unless Kade could figure out some way to kill him.
“Give me your knife, bud,” said Alpha, taking one hand off her machete.
“I’m gonna need it.”
“No time to argue. You trust me or not?”
She reached her hand out, and I gave up my blade, just as this battle was about to go down. But if there was one person I trusted, it would always be Alpha.
She pitched the knife at the closest dirt wall. The blade spun through the air, and when it hit the wall, it sparked up and smoked as it sank. She’d cut those red wires. Busted the circuit. And one by one, the white lights that lit up the chamber blinked out like broken stars.
Until every star had turned black.
We plunged forward through the darkness just as the door peeled open behind us. I could smell the smoke from the fire pit. Hear the yells of the poachers. And then I heard Harvest’s voice, too.
I could sense the mess of bodies before us. Blades and shovels, ready to strike. But we kept charging, blind and desperate. Alpha letting out a battle cry that seemed to turn things bright for a moment. Her voice setting the darkness ablaze.
Then we hit the first wave of poachers. I could see their shapes in the gloom. Metal scraped upon metal. Sharp steel clanged and clashed. Crow and Alpha slashed their machetes, fending off the poachers’ tools, hacking a pathway through the mob, until we were swallowed and wriggling inside it.
The three of us kept spinning, punching and thrusting, and we never quit moving. But once we got through the crowd, we weren’t at the scaffold—just a dirt wall, and we were cornered against it.
Crow spun around with one leg out, knocking folk back like they were nothing. Giving us a little time to escape.
“Wait,” I yelled, still at the wall. “Crow, wait.”
I’d hit something. Stubbed my foot on the old iron pipe that ran all the way up here, pumping the water from beneath those upside-down peaks.
“Bust it open,” I screamed, and I kicked at the pipe so it rang out in the darkness.
Crow took two giant strides and was right there beside me, swiping behind him with his machete as he took aim, and then boom, the pipe crunched and crumpled. He kicked it again. Two more times. It punctured, and he smashed it wide open. There was water everywhere, gushing out of that pipe so fast, it damn near smacked me onto my ass.
But I stayed on my feet as the dirt turned to mud. Slippery and thick. I started to try to push through the crowd. Head down. Flailing around with no way to see. I just followed Crow, battling onward. I could hear Alpha behind me. But I lost my footing.
And then I went down.