SNAFU: Hunters

“Grenade!” Bronze shouted. Harris and Vida dropped to the ground, while Tighe turned away. The metal egg hit the monster mid-chest, and it caught at it with winding pseudo-fingers. When the grenade went off, chunks of purple-black flesh and shredded dermis flew everywhere. But it cleared the rift for a moment, long enough for Vida to raise her head and look through.

On the other side was a vast courtyard paved in rough dark stone. A cloud-covered sky hid the top of a steep mountain looming in the distance. There were more of the squid-armed monsters, and belos’, and a cohort of ’ponera. But in the center of all this was a woman. Dressed in deep red, her head wrapped in cloth to hide her hair, she held some kind of serpent-like creature with multiple heads draped over her shoulders. Her face was dark and slender, eyes like clear amber, and she met Vida’s gaze directly.

Everything else faded to little more than background noise. The sound of gunfire became distant crackles, and the bellow of the only remaining monster that had made it through the portal was reduced to the hollow boom of a far-off sea. Vida pushed to her feet, never dropping her gaze from the woman on the other side. She drew back, throwing the blade with all her force. It flickered through the rift, nearly hitting the other woman before one of the belos’ blocked it with its own armored body.

Her implants were fried, the burns on her arms throbbing in time with her heartbeat. It didn’t matter. Vida dropped her pistol, oblivious to the fight between her crew and the remaining invader. She took a deep breath, focused on her heartbeat, the very center of her being. Gracefully, like an exotic dance, she made the forms with burned arms and aching fingers. The last of her active implants, those above her left ear, glowed and seared her as she called more power from them than they were made to deliver.

Across the rift, the woman in red nodded, turned away and disappeared among the disparate monstrosities that surrounded her. The rip in the air burned, first electric blue and then white hot, twisting like a rising cinder from an unseen fire. Then it closed, a scar upon the fabric of reality, and was gone.

The last creature fell, only yards from its fellows, and rank fluids from its dying body soaked the clean earth of the meadow. Vida saw it fall, saw that the Cobalts and their girls were still whole, that the rest of the crew had survived. Then the darkness that had filled the other side of the rift drifted over her, and she knew no more.

* * *

The world was soft and warm, and rumbling. Vida opened her eyes, feeling as though she’d slept for a year. She was stiff and immobile, for a moment thinking she’d been restrained. But no, it was the Cobalts. One lay on each side, wedging her between them, and their contented purring made the camp bed she lay on vibrate.

“She’s awake.” The light voice belonged to one of the girls. Vida wasn’t sure at first which one, until Tchaz leaned over her. “Welcome back.”

“Where?” Vida asked, her throat dry and voice hoarse.

“Hope, Idaho,” Kai said from the other side of the bed. She smoothed her hand over Faina’s flank, and smiled at Vida. Her right arm was bandaged from shoulder to elbow, and a colorful bruise was just beginning to fade from her jaw. “We’ve been here three days.”

Rakehall appeared then, bringing her a cup of water. “How are you feeling?”

“Like death warmed over,” she replied, taking the cup gratefully.

“Slowly,” he advised. “I’ve had you on IV fluids, but there’s nothing in your stomach. Don’t push it.”

“How long was I out?” She forced herself to sip the water, instead of guzzling it the way she wanted.

“Six days,” Tchaz answered. “You sealed the rift without any tech. Aio was afraid you wouldn’t recover.”

Vida glanced at her arms. The burns were well on their way to healing, but she could feel that the implants had been removed. She felt… lighter. “Why here? Idaho?”

“It’s a good, quiet place to regroup,” Rakehall said, taking her now-empty cup and filling it again with fresh water. “No new rifts since that day. No sign of any OHs. Tighe decided to take advantage while it’s clear.”

“The calm before the storm,” Vida mused, and pretended she didn’t see the way Tchaz and Kai exchanged looks.

Later, when she’d managed to talk her way out of bed rest, and eaten a little to fill her empty belly, she sat in a camp chair on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille. The air was calm, the sun low above a bank of clouds, and birds flew over the water on perfect curved wings. She sat in the quiet, listening to the soft slap of wavelets on the narrow rocky beach.

“Mind some company?” Harris asked, joining her with a second chair.

Vida shook her head, but didn’t look away from the lovely view.

“How are you?”

She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “Alive. We’re all alive. So, good.”

“I wanted to thank you.”