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An Angel With Scales

Chapter 2 - Galatians 5:13-14

The thrum of the shuttle’s engines rattled the house’s windows as it lowered its altitude, dashing what little hope Allen had that this was just a misunderstanding. Kess continued her rapid assembly of the 5 ft railgun, snapping the pieces of the barrel together with smooth and satisfying clicks.

“How . . . How!?” Allen pulled at his hair and wracked his brain trying to think of where they had slipped up. Was it the Van? Were they monitoring the house already? Did they know about the listening posts? Cold fear gripped him, they needed to escape! But what about the post?

“Father, I pray in this, our time of need, for the peace of thy spirit, to bring remembrance to that which I should do. Bless my hands to be steady in protection of thy saints, and of my companion, Brother Jensen.” Kess spoke with clarity and purpose as she completed her assembly. Something about the fervor in which she prayed steadied Allen. “I glory not in the work of death, but preservation. Fill me with charity towards my enemy, that I may speak with the tongue of fire and resist the temptations of the evil one. Father, I am here, I am listening, in Jesus name. Amen.”

“I’m going to set it off.” He stated after waiting for her to finish, reaching into the access panel for the battery bank.

“What?” she asked with incredulity, stepping towards him as if to stop him.

“The capacitors should take about 30-40 seconds to discharge once I pull the second battery. Then the deadman switch should pull in,” He pulled the contacts off of the primary battery, “The explosion should be enough of a distraction for us to make a break for it.”

“They likely have the back entrance covered.”

“We will have to punch through, somehow. I didn’t come all this way to get captured.”

The sound of a door slamming open alerted them that the shuttle had dropped its payload of Daxy enforcers. The duo had lost the initiative, and now a decisive action needed to be taken.

“Pull it and let’s go.”

“Done.”

No sooner had they pushed through the door than they were greeted with the muzzles of two plasma rifles and a pair of Daxy to match, standing across the living room.

“Don’t move! Put your hands where I can see them!” One officer commanded, pointing her rifle at Kess, who growled and held her railgun trained on the officer in return. A standoff at the worst possible time.

Seconds stretched on like hours as Allen’s mind raced to evaluate his options, the ticking time bomb behind him becoming an ever more present threat. The front door to their right was still closed, which indicated that they must have come in from the back door. A terrible idea crossed his mind.

“I surrender!” He shouted, putting his hands above his head, pushing past a gawking Kess. The Daxy footsoldiers shifted their attention to him, surprised. One nudged the other.

“Ahem, Human, we will take you into custody and protect you from this criminal,”

“Don’t. Test me.” Kess snarled.

“My colleague will cuff your hands--just as a precaution. Xeki, if you would.”

“Yes, please, I don’t feel safe around her! Bind my hands, whatever you have to do!” Allen simpered, putting the big strong Daxy guardswoman between him and the doorway and giving Kess a subtle nod to the corner of the room. Recognition lit in her eyes and she started circling to the safest spot in the room, earning a shout from the other Soldier.

“You’re really compliant, aren’t you, little guy. Don’t worry, momma’s gonna keep you safe and sound,” The second Daxy, Xeki, smiled as she pulled out her standard issue cuffs and reached out to take his outstretched wrists. The timer Allen had going in his head was going overlong, and his innocent smile started to strain as the cuffs got closer to his hands.

“Wait,” He pulled his hands back to his chest, feigning shyness, “Are you sure those are necessary? My skin chafes terribly, you see and--”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.” Xeki’s face split a grin as she reached for him, a twinkle in her eye.

Click. BOOM!

A flurry of wood and sheetrock, carried on a shockwave, blasted the first Daxy off her feet, knocking Allen down underneath her.

Kess, dropped to all fours, narrowly avoiding the panicked fire from the tipped lizard woman, and charged the one still standing. Xeki, who had shouldered her rifle in favor of her cuffs didn’t stand a chance as she was bowled over and summarily beaten over the head until unconscious.

Allen groaned at the weight on top of him, ears ringing, trying to contort an arm to his tool kit. The unintroduced Daxy grunted in pain as she sat up to see the thrashing of her comrade, in her shocked state she fumbled for her rifle, barely noticing Allen as he drew a canister from his belt and sprayed her in the face with it. She howled at the burning sensation in her eyes, clawing at her face trying to clean the stinging fluid off. She managed to force an eye open just in time to watch as the butt of Kess’s railgun collided with her forehead, knocking her out cold.

Shadows flickered across the transom of the front door, followed by a resounding crack as the old hardwood bulged and nearly splintered in two from the impact. The door held, but just barely.

Kess bounded over to Allan, and shouted what he could barely hear to be “We need to go!” His ears were still ringing from the explosion, the high pitched screech drowning out most everything else. She scooped him up under an arm and broke out into a sprint out the back door, jumping the chain link fence and making a break for it. Her eyes snapped around wildly, looking for a suitable hiding place to give them time to regroup. She settled for the parking garage underneath an apartment complex. She set him down on his feet and leaned on a cement pillar.

Allen’s hearing was beginning to recover, if only enough to hear the rumble of the shuttle engines as it circled the area.

“We need to shake that Shuttle,” Kess said, breathing heavily. “They’ll be scanning for us.”

Allen’s mind raced with a million questions, his heart trying to keep pace. He clenched his eyes shut, trying to force himself to breath slowly. He could only succeed at taking gasping breaths. A pair of arms gently enfolded him into Kess’ cool embrace, his chin resting on her shoulder as she kneeled in front of him.

“Hey, it’s ok,” She whispered soothingly, holding him tight. “It’s going to be OK.”

After a minute his heart rate calmed and his breathing steadied. He shut out the endless stream of “what if’s” and focused his thoughts on survival. He pulled away from Kess, her grip loosening a second later.

“What’s the response time for a backup callout?” He forced out.

“They would be off the ground in 3 minutes.” Kess recalled from her days as a hunter.

“How many shuttles?”

“It’s difficult to say, for a normal manhunt, two to three. We need to move quickly.”

“We can’t get the van out, at low altitudes they’ll see around the camo.” He says, starting to pace. Nausea gripping his gut. “Ugh, this is getting too hot. If we run, they’ll see us.”

Kess peeked around the corner to the garage ramp. “It’s getting closer, we need to find a new hiding place before more show up.”

Allen raked his fingers through his hair, as if trying to pull a thought from his head manually.

“There’s an old golf course near here that has an underground watershed. With the leaves falling, they wouldn’t even know it’s there,” he started.

“That’s what you said about the listening posts.” Kess gave him a pointed stare.

“Yeah, well I doubt the Daxy took over maintenance on our golf courses. Our best bet is to let them pass us and then slip through when the search area gets too large to cover.”

“They’ll be scanning for heat since they know a human is around,” Kess countered.

“I’ve got a mylar sheet in my survival kit, that should cover the entrance and mask us from infrared scans. This is the best I can think of without having to hop from house to house.”

“You’re counting on them expecting us to run.”

“I’m better at hide and seek than tag. You’re the expert, how many humans have you seen camp out next to a Daxian base?” He asked. She tapped a claw to her chin in thought.

“None.”

“Neither have they.” He pressed. She stared into his eyes, for a moment recognizing the man she once knew.

“. . . Alright. I trust you. I can disable that shuttle with this at overload. That will give us minutes to get to your hiding spot.”

“If memory serves, there's a cheap padlock on the trap door, nothing my bolt cutters can’t handle,” He pulled the tool from his belt, extending the handles.”

“I’ll carry you.” she reached for him, he recoiled.

“It’s cybernetic, not crippled. I can run.”

“Not as fast as I can,” She smiled down at him, “I’m better at tag.”

“Ugh,” He groaned as she picked him up like a sack of potatoes and slung him over her shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her neck and worked his legs under the straps of her combat vest.

“Ready?” She asked. He tapped her twice on the shoulder. She chuckled at his embarrassment.

The shuttle drifted into view from her vantage point at the downward ramp, making a sweep over the street. Others could be heard in the distance.

Kess took her time to line up a shot where she remembered the battery bank to be, knowing that if she didn’t make this shot, she wouldn’t likely get another. She breathed slowly, blocking out all other sensations than the railgun in her hands and the sight of her target. The railgun began to whine as the rails crackled with anticipation for a slug to complete the circuit.

She pulled the trigger and the gun bucked in opposition as the tungsten rod screamed from its barrel, punching a hole through its target. The shuttle began to pitch into a downward spiral as its engines desynchronized and sputtered.

Allen cheered as he watched it come crashing down a block over. Kess inspected her weapon, and sure enough the arcing had shredded the rails, tiny pits forming in the metal where the conductor had vaporized. She cast the spent weapon aside and broke into a sprint from their hiding place. With the occasional call out from Allen, she found the overgrown golf park.

“It should be on that gnoll, next to the evergreen!” He pointed.

She bounded through the leaves towards the fir tree and let Allen down. The shuttles were close now, engines whirling.

“Come on, come on . . . Here!” He slapped his hand on the metal plate, brushing as few leaves aside as possible until he could find the latch. After fumbling with the rusty lock, he managed to snap it with his cutters. Kess lunged in and lifted the entrance to the dank cellar barely open, trying not to disturb the leaves on top.

The pair slipped, or squeezed in Kess’s case, into the dusty cement dugout. It was barely a room, six feet wide by eight feet long, with pipes entering and exiting the cement walls, each going through a series of valves and gauges. The crumbling cement was cold under Kess’s feet and she shivered in the dark. The shuttles rumbled overhead, but the pitch was changing. They were passing by.

A light clicked on as Allen pulled a flashlight from his belt. He immediately set to work in his backpack, rifling around to find his mylar sheet. Unrolling it with jerky motions he tucked it under the corners of the trap door with a screwdriver.

The shuttles were sweeping the area, their engines growing louder and softer as they circled.

The pair sat in tense silence as they waited. Kess shivered as she pulled a packet of hand warmers from her pocket. The October sun did little to warm the ground this deep. She began tucking the little pouches anywhere she could fit them. Allen watched in muted interest.

“It’s freezing down here, my electric blanket is in the van.”

“I’m sorry, I should have thought of that,” He said, zipping up his jacket as well. He leaned awkwardly next to the entrance, his hands in his pockets.

“It will take them at least a day to expand the search the way you want. Do you have rations?”

“A little, this is a 72 hour kit, but I have eaten most of the snacks.”

After a few minutes, Kess gave an exasperated growl.

“This isn’t working,” She sighed, ”Come over here. I need your body heat.”

“Kess,”

“I’m not joking, I will freeze to death when temperatures drop tonight,” She stated forcefully, widening her legs to make room.

“Fine.” Allen sighed and came over. He crouched to one knee and then twisted into a sitting position so his back was facing her. As he started pushing himself back, she reached her cold hands around his waist and dragged him the rest of the way. The swell of her chest felt cool on the back of his neck. He sat there, tense.

“Relax,” she spoke in a soothing tone, “I’m not going to do anything to you. You can trust me.”

After a few moments she let out a sigh of contentment as the warmth of his body began to trickle into her. The shuttles were present, but gradually lowering in decibel as they fanned out their search. A few minutes longer and he leaned back into her, the tension in his body slackening. He had been exposed to Daxy pheremones before, and though they never seemed to hit him as hard as he’d seen others, he could still feel the chemical happiness lulling his mind to security. He thought of New York, and grimaced.

“I still don’t get it. How did they know?”

“This again? Isn’t it possible they just picked up the signal?” Kess asked, confused.

“They’ve never done that before. The thing uses machine learning to send a low power optical signal into the mountains, just barely outside of the visible light spectrum depending on the time and weather conditions it’s in. Not even Zion could detect it if they didn’t know it was there.” He explained, his mind still cycling through possible causes. Did they know about the other posts scattered around Utah? Had Zion been betrayed?

“Maybe they didn’t? Maybe they just detected us,” she postulated a more likely theory. “When was the last time this required maintenance?”

“Four years ago, by the logs. No one said anything about being seen then either,” Allen stated from memory.

“It does us no good to dwell on it for now,” Kess surmised. “You’ll run your brain ragged thinking in circles.”

“What else is there to think about?” He countered.

“What indeed?” Kess smiled as she craned her head down to rest her chin on his short hair. Even with his jacket on, he was still warm.

They sat like that for some time before Kess broke the silence.

“I was surprised--when you surrendered back there,” she said. “Why didn’t you let me handle it?”

“It was the safest way. I was worried they would shoot you if I didn’t distract them.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, I promised to protect you, not the other way around,” she rumbled.

“Hey, I gave you the advantage back there,” he retorted.

“You did. But you didn’t need to scare me like that.”

“You didn’t actually think I would surrender, did you?”

“I didn’t want to think that, but you have seemed down lately. I haven’t seen you in so long, I didn’t know what to think.”

The silence stung after she said that. After a while Allen found his words.

“I’m sorry for not writing, Kess. I was on the road a lot, but even still I would get your letters when I came back. I feel like dirt for not responding.” He admitted.

“I was worried, you know. That you’d been lost, or that you didn’t want to see me again,” she held him tighter for a moment. His heart felt light, but his mind dripped poisonous thoughts to weigh it back down. “Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t know what to say.” That was true. He didn’t know how to tell her that even as she sent him messages of love and faith, he couldn’t send the same. He could hardly love himself, let alone another.

“That’s not an answer.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.”

“You could have said anything, I just wanted to know you were safe,” her gravelly, alto voice faltered for a moment. She took a breath, “But it doesn’t matter now, I am back now. I’ll protect you myself.”

He couldn’t understand it. He had disconnected with so many people over his lifetime that it was second nature. Yet this crazy lizard lacked the good sense to accept his rejection and leave him to his own destruction.

“Why?” He took a shaky breath, “Why did you pick me, out of everyone you could have that day?”

“I thought you looked cute in a suit.” She smiled, toothily.

-

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