Zanele hunched over her keyboard, tapping in a message to her brothers. They were staying at their aunt's house in the middle of town, as if it was any safer there than here on the outskirts.
'I know we don't see eye to eye,' she wrote, 'but I don't want us to die hating each other.' She deleted that line and tried again, 'I understand we've had our differences, but we have a common enemy.' She stopped. Her hands hovered above the keys, clenching into fists. 'You think I'm a grouch and a contrarian,' she typed, 'and I'm done trying to change your mind. Goodbye.' She breathed, enjoying the catharsis of typing that, then tapped a few keys to wipe the page clean.
The door to the house swung open, banging against the wall, and Mapula stumbled in, her face slick with sweat, panting with ragged breath. A blast of cool late-year air followed her.
"Zan!" said Mapula. "Zan! We just got another message from Sami! She says there are twice as many bandits now! Remember that plane on the news? It was full of bandits!"
"More Mauves," Zanele mumbled. "We beat them once. We can do it again."
"What? No, it wasn't the Mauves. It was someone else. They're called the Sabers, and they're going to make an alliance."
"It's a good thing Sami is there, then. She'll sabotage it."
"I don't know if she can."
"You really should close the door. You're letting mosquitoes in."
"Are you listening? You're not listening, are you?"
"I am," Zanele replied, closing her projector, "but there's nothing we can do about it for now. So the best thing to do is just relax."
"No it isn't! Look, since the Sabers bombed the airplane, and now they're getting an alliance with the Mauves, a lot of people are talking about abandoning the town."
"What?" Zanele shot to her feet. "Who wants to surrender?"
"A whole bunch of people. Come with me! I'll take you to them."
Zanele followed Mapula out the door, ready for a shouting match.
In front the hospital, two jostling crowds faced each other, each mob a few dozen people strong, mostly immigrants. Rowdy hands held guns up in the air, and one excitable woman threw a rock before her friends restrained her.
"That's enough!" said the mayor, standing in the bigger crowd. "It's too early to make a decision, and we don't have enough information. In any case, we will never abandon this town out of fear. Our mothers and fathers didn't build this great town so it could fall to barbarians."
Zanele watched, shaking her head. "Looks like Sami's story is out."
As the mayor's improvised speech wound down, the two crowds ceased their stomping and clamoring, and a few people scurried away. In the smaller group, Zanele spotted her friends Gamawe and Liliani, the most timid people she knew, and also Nakasi.
"Hey," said Zanele, stepping up to Nakasi. "You just got done arguing with the mayor? Which side were you on?"
Nakasi huffed. "You don't know? I was wanting to run away."
Zanele folded her arms. "You, of all people?"
"Yeah. I may be a fighter, but I'm not stupid. The bandits are getting stronger and we're not. If things keep going like this, we're all going to die. And unless Mari Maldashi has the decency to dig up an army of golems any time soon, there's no way things will get better."
"We can fight them off. A lot of people will die, but that's better than going vagrant."
"I've been a vagrant most of my life, and no, it isn't. You've been sheltered, so you never thought about this, but fighting a war accomplishes nothing. You'll kill people, then you'll die yourself, and for what? Hunting is good. But if it's an even fight, you'll be better off running."
