“Out of my way!” Jinto crashed through a turtle’s display shelves, knocking all sorts of turtle merchandise to the floor.
The lugubrious reptile shrugged lethargically.
“Sorry,” apologized Lafiel as she ran through. “Jinto, we’re backtracking now,” she added, panting to catch her breath.
“Hm… You’re right.”
“I thought you two were leaving,” said the otter Jinto had met earlier. “Maybe you changed your mind and want to buy something after all? Yaaay!”
“Are you selling an air car or a spaceship?” asked Jinto sarcastically.
“Of course,” beamed the otter.
Jinto stopped and turned to see the otter waving a toy spaceship emblazoned with its picture. Jinto was about ready to shoot the otter when he caught a glimpse of a policeman peeking into the shop.
“Freeze, you two!” hollered the policeman.
Jinto pulled Lafiel into an alley that led to an expansive lawn beyond which loomed a large, stone building. Jinto envisioned the hail of bullets and laser beams that would surely make scrambling across the wide-open lawn a short trip.
But, as much as he feared the danger of running out into the open, he feared the certain doom of staying in the alley even more.
He could hear the heavy breathing of the policeman. The lawmen called for Jinto and Lafiel to freeze.
But they had other ideas, hiding in the dead angle of the alley — a little nook, just out of the policemen’s sight.
There was a shout from another direction. Looking for the source, Jinto saw a greenish-brown uniform.
Even worse. Enemy soldier.
Casually, Lafiel fired a shot that took the soldier down. “He saw us, Jinto. We need to get out of here!”
Sighing, Jinto began to run again.
For now, the closest thing they had resembling a plan was to run toward the large stone building. Although the stone walls would probably crumble like cardboard under the enemy’s explosives, Jinto thought they might be slightly more stable than the plywood storefronts.
Jinto and Lafiel weren’t even halfway across the lawn when enemy soldiers spotted them. Without breaking stride, Lafiel sprayed lasers at them as the soldiers struggled to get into good firing positions.
Pulling a Yapeil from his pocket (Mosk), Jinto switched it into its detonation standby state. Tiny vibrations in the palm of his hand reminded him of its destructive potential.
Although Jinto had a pretty good arm from years of playing Minchiyu, the soldiers were an awfully long way away.
He decided to chance it and lobbed the grenade.
Boom!
Men flew into the air along with chunks of earth.
Score!
But as soon as a soldier fell, a new one immediately took his place.
Ji! Ji! Still a step ahead of Jinto, Lafiel continued firing over her shoulder. Despite the fact that she wasn’t even looking at her target, her aim was impeccable.
Of course, realized Jinto. Frokaj.
In this situation, her Frokaj was an enormous advantage, essentially giving Lafiel a three-hundred-sixty-degree field of view by emitting a series of ultrahigh-frequency waves that sensed movements in her surroundings. That was why she didn’t have to turn around — she knew exactly where they were the whole time.
But the bullets kept coming, and their enemy’s attacks increased exponentially.
A huge clod of smoking dirt flew into the air a mere five Daj from Jinto.
Just keep running, he told himself. You’re almost there.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What’s wrong?” Kite asked Entoryua, who lay facedown on the ground.
So, that’s the difference between this army and the police, Entoryua thought. They’ll charge headfirst into the biggest gun battle Clasbul’s ever seen!
Shamefully, Entoryua was too scared to get up.
“Withdraw,” he decided. “We’re going back.”
“Inspector!” Kite protested, “You’re throwing in the towel?”
“Hell yes, I am!” Entoryua said. “I don’t know how it is where you’re from, but there isn’t a single police force on this planet equipped for this kind of carnage. Chasing them equates to signing our own death warrants, and I’m not about to forsake all these men. If you still want to capture the Abh, be my guest, but the police are backing down.”
Punctuating this last sentiment, an explosive round flew by and obliterated one of the animals.
“Watch where you’re shooting, you twits!” Entoryua knew that they couldn’t hear him over the gunfire, but he didn’t care. “Why are you all still standing around? Retreat. Now! Keep low! Go, go!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Jinto slid in through the door.
“Glad you could make it,” said Lafiel.
They were in some kind of theme restaurant populated with waggly eared rabbit waiters. There was one more door in the room, which, Jinto guessed, probably led to the kitchen.
Lafiel held her position by the front door, intermittently squeezing off a few shots.
“Let’s go.” Jinto tugged on her sleeve.
“Okay.” Lafiel fired a couple more Klanraj for good measure.
“Just two today?” asked one of the rabbits.
“Not hungry, thanks,” said Jinto as he moved toward the employees-only section of the restaurant. Through a window, Jinto caught a glimpse of the soldiers preparing to fire a really big gun.
“Get down!” Jinto yelled.
Lafiel hit the deck, but the rabbits weren’t up to speed on the nuances of gun battle — they just stood there, waggling their ears, pretending to chomp on fake, oversized carrots.
Boom!
The stone wall wasn’t as thin as Jinto had feared, but it was much too weak to withstand the soldiers’ ammunition. The wall crashed to the ground. A series of explosive rounds flew through the new opening.
Pieces of rabbit flew in all directions.
“Warning! Warning!” said one of the decapitated rabbit heads. “Destruction of Guzornyu Amusement Park property is — “
A small explosion shut the rabbit up. Permanently.
“Lafiel, let’s get out of here.”
“Yeah.”
“Attention, guests!” said a mostly intact rabbit. “This place is dangerous. We should evacuate at once!”
Then the rabbit took a sniper’s bullet to the face and flopped to the ground in animatronic agony.
“Crap!” Jinto said angrily. Was that really necessary?
Keeping low, they ducked through the kitchen door, which was entirely undamaged. They ran past cooking machines and found another door that led to a long corridor lined with doors on both sides.
Lafiel collapsed.
“Lafiel!” Jinto ran to her. “Are you wounded?”
“Oh, no.” An embarrassed smile seemed out of place on her face. “I hate to admit it, but I’m exhausted.”
“Ha ha! How about that? The indestructible Abh is human after all.” Jinto sympathized with her — it was an extremely rare set of circumstances that would lead to an Abh having to run for long periods of time, let alone on a planet with two times the Abh standard gravity.
How long had they been on the move? Three hours? Four? True, they walked some of the time, and jogged some, but the last thirty minutes had consisted almost entirely of full-on sprints.
Of course, rather than admit to being physically taxed, Lafiel pretended to be fine until she had used every last drop of strength in her body.
“We can’t say here. Come on, I’ll lend you a shoulder.”
“Sorry.” Lafiel reached out to take his hand.
“Would you rather ride piggyback?”
“Shut up.”
“Ah, there’s the Lafiel I know!” a relieved Jinto commented. “Don’t worry, the enemy soldiers are probably just as worn out.”
As Lafiel used Jinto’s shoulder for support, Jinto’s thoughts moved in a completely different direction. In the past, Lafiel wouldn’t have accepted this kind of help from Jinto — she would have given him the Gosroth’s log and insisted he go on without her.
Even if they didn’t make it out alive, Jinto could at least count that as a small victory.