The Sun Dwellers

She levels her gun at his head.

“Who are you?” the CO asks, Maia’s gun still tight against his head.

“We’ll be asking the questions here,” A

“No, of course not,” the CO grunts. “But in about two seconds, when I’m supposed to check in and I don’t, there will be dozens of soldiers swarming this place, so I suggest you—”

BOOM! The bullet rips into the CO’s thigh, just above the knee. He cries out in pain, topples over, clutches his leg.

Maia stares at A

“He was lying to me,” A

She thrusts a foot at already-injured soldier two, who tries to block it by throwing his hands over his head. Instead of going high, she stomps on his stomach, earning another groan and the move of his arms from his head to his gut. Lashing out again, this time at his head, she feels the satisfying—and somewhat sickening—thud of her boot off his skull. His head snaps back, cracks into the jaw of soldier number three, who lets out a bloodcurdling howl, and then lolls to the side, his eyes rolling back into their sockets.

Soldier three is clutching his mouth, blood pouring out from between his fingers, his face all scrunched up. “War is hell,” A

Turning to face Maia, her body hot with violence, she says, “Knock him out.”

Maia looks at the CO, back to A

“He’ll get loose and then he’ll try to kill us. We don’t have time for prisoners, and I don’t believe in killing defenseless soldiers, even ones like these.”

The CO rolls over in the fetal position, his face a shattered mess of pain, his pant leg a darker red than the rest of his uniform. “You already shot me,” he spits out. “Just finish the job.”

“I’m not letting you off that easy,” A

Maia takes a deep breath, closes her eyes for just a moment, and then swings her gun like a hammer, whacking the CO sharply across the temple. His writhing stops, his body still with u

Letting out a deep breath, Maia looks at A

“Violence always is,” A

“You made it look so easy, almost like you enjoyed it.”

A

“She did it for us.” A

Her husband stirs, sits up, rubs his head as if clearing his mind from a bad dream. He truly is a giant, with rock-like fists, a chest the size of a beer barrel, and a head twice the circumference of most adult humans. His lip is swollen and fat, one of his eyes bloodshot, painted with black and blue beneath it. But he’s smiling. Smiling at his wife, who’s smiling back at him.

“Oh, Barry!” she cries, clambering to her feet and launching herself at him. She lands on him so hard that, if not for their significant size difference, she might have flattened him.

Maia watches the heartfelt reunion with moist eyes, while A

She thinks of Adele again, in the belly of the beast, having already endured so much emotional and physical pain, forced to endure more. She hopes her youth hasn’t passed her by these last seven months, when everything changed.

Chapter Twelve

She leaves the rescued moon dweller couple in what she hopes is a safe place—a hidden bomb shelter beneath the floorboards of a shed. It’s a neighbor’s, who had invited Bear and his wife to stay there with them, but they opted instead to remain in their own cellar. A bad choice. But now the kind neighbor welcomes them with open arms and a warm drink, as A

“I’m so glad we got there when we did,” Maia says. “That was amazing seeing their eyes light up when they hugged each other.”

A

“We have to get to the base,” A

“It’s not far,” Maia says.

“The way this place is swarming with cockroaches, it’s far enough.”

“We’ll make it.” Now who’s the optimist?

A

They exit the shed, ru

The secondary, hidden entrance to the tu

A

Voices shout through the thick and dusty air, but she’s unable to ascertain their direction or distance. When they fade and don’t return, she leads Maia across the next block, sticking to the shadows and narrow side and rear laneways. Every once and a while she stops to listen for the enemy, tilting her ears in each direction like an animal.

In this ma

“Which entrance should we try?” Maia asks.

Given the entire topside of the church collapsed on the primary entrance, the amount of heavy rock and cement is an impenetrable fortress, one made dangerous by shifting rubble and unexpected pockets of empty air. It could take days to dig them out that way.

“Secondary entrance. We’ll be more exposed, but there’s much less blockage.”

Maia nods. “That’s what I was thinking.”

“I’ll go out first,” A

“We’re doing this together.”