Saxifrage Fire

0031

Alethea sat on the steps of the shop porch where she'd taken her first steps towards ending life as a Sera. She studied the early night sky and the haze of toxin that hung in the air and reached up to check her mask. The ground shook periodically with the shock of dynamite blasts nearly a mile south at the camps yet to be freed.

Several doctors on Kaleo's team were hauling out wounded, just freed slaves from the back of medical trucks, carrying them to mats rolled out in the road to be treated. Other NESPS were sitting, stunned, and covered in soot and poison staring vacantly as their Antis shut down the machine inside their brains that had taken them captive, for some, decades ago. A couple of pyro kids who ran Pa's shop hauled out boxes of old Antis and medical supplies to pass off to Kaleo who was currently knelt by a frail woman with golden hair and darting eyes.

Thea cocked her head curiously, wondering if the resemblance to Ember was true.

Ember was still at the frontline on the northern side of the road that separated their forces from a heavy line of Garda guarding the remaining camps. It had turned to a stalemate two hours prior. Thea had helped infiltrate a few camps and had the raging headache, ringing ears, and the dry blood on her staff to prove it. Images flashed through her head; the day felt more like a week, and she struggled to cope with the fact that she'd failed to save Alex that very morning. The image of Thalia firing the bullet into the sky instead of her head flashed in her memory for what must have been the hundredth time.

"I thought I told you to get some sleep!" came Ezi's voice.

She hadn't noticed their truck pull up a few years off. She scanned, finding Ember marching furiously with a bag of explosives slung over her shoulder as she shouted orders into a radio.

"I couldn't," Thea muttered as Ezi flopped down beside her.

She watched Kaleo summon Ember over to the woman.

Ember dropped the radio and ran at the sight of her.

"Looks like we found their Mom," Ezi said, her voice muffled by her mask.

Thea's eyes burned with tears as she watched Ember take their Mother by the shoulders and shake her gently, pleading for her to remember.

The woman looked up, stunned, then opened her arms to Ember.

"We're at a stalemate, Thea," Ezi said, clearing her throat. "It could take days to breach the line to the southern side."

Thea stared down at her feet, her brow furrowed.

"The Garda may push forward to take back our side if we retreat too soon. We need to keep our forces stationary and move those we can to the Eastern Gate of Eirene before we withdraw. Hopefully, we can breach the gate before the Garda flank us from the back."

"So... hold out till morning?"

"We'll move at 2 a.m. Those on the line should follow us once we're reached the Gates of Eirene."

Ezi pulled out her radio and passed the message along to the team leads a mile south.

Thea leaned forward looking down the dirt road packed with NESPs disassociating, wandering around aimlessly. She sank forward, burying her face in her hands. What had she been thinking? These people weren't in any condition to overtake a city. Even if they had been, their numbers weren't enough. She felt Ezi grasp her shoulder.

"It'll be okay, Thea."

She met her gaze briefly, then took her closed staff in her hands and started to wipe the blood off on her pants leg wishing Oshi was there too.