City Agents began following Homeward's gestures, grouping up and preparing to get in the truck. Homeward continued staring at Shigure. I could feel him trying to will Shigure to leave with him and everyone else.
"Take the vehicle," Shigure said. "Homeward, you take my wife with you. I'll," his voice broke as he stared at me. "I'll stay here."
"Kim!" a crazed cry came from a hoarse voice. Big Brother skidded to a halt on his knees in front of Shigure and myself. "Kim," he whispered.
He held a finger to my nose and started back when he couldn't feel my breath. I was breathing. It was just very weak and faint. It wasn't my fault he couldn't feel it.
There was a cry of desperation and then there was shouting. I felt danger approaching. There was no time to think. Using Shigure's shoulders to heave myself up, I used my body to protect my man. A sharp blade stabbed into my back and glanced off a rib.
"Kim! No!" Big Brother shrieked again when I fell limp again into Shigure's shaking arms.
"Get away from her!" Mr Holt yelled and I heard the striking of flesh.
*"I'm still alive,"* I muttered to Shigure through gritted teeth in our link. *"You dare send me with Homeward to leave me behind and I'll die. Just you try it and see."*
*"Uki-chan, you need medical attention. You need…"*
*"You just don't get it, do you?"* I roared at Shigure through our link, making him wince. *"You married me! I am not leaving you! We go through this together!"*
"We have to go!" Homeward shouted. "Everyone, get into the truck! I still have to pick Apricorn and the baby up. I'm not waiting for you if you dawdle! Shigure…"
"Go," Shigure said in a sharp voice. The sharpest and hardest I had ever heard him use. "Get them out of here. Uki-chan and I will… will stay here," Shigure's voice faded into a slight sob.
"But Harmony…"
"I'm taking her to a hospital now," Shigure said, lifting me up and adjusting me in his arms. "We'll be fine. You get going before you miss this window of time to escape. Your priority is Apricorn and the baby. Go."
*"Harmony,"* said Homeward to me via the spiritual channel of communication. *"Are you there? Talk to you man."*
*"I did,"* I replied. *"I'll stand by whatever he decides. I'm not leaving him and if he really sends me away, I'm going to die. We won't die so easily if we're together. I'm already healing. Don't worry about us. We'll be fine. You hurry up and go."*
The big lizard limped over to us, having finished off the enemy agents in the area.
*"Big guy,"* I said to the lizard. *"You go with them too. You go and protect them. You'll be passing by new territories and places you'd never otherwise go yourself. Perhaps you'll find a female of your kind along the way. I'm staying here with my mate."*
*"It's dangerous here,"* said the big lizard. *"Don't stay long. I'll go."*
The big lizard climbed onto the top of the truck and a City Agent climbed up after him, holding a big machine gun he had gotten from somewhere.
The truck engine started and Homeward waved at us. I lost consciousness as they left.
*****
I smelled the smells of the hospital and wrinkled my nose. I heard a relieved sigh come from my side.
"Uki-chan, you're awake," said Shigure.
*"Hurts,"* I moaned. *"Everything hurts so much."*
"The doctors have managed to stabilise your wounds. I'm not as good at healing as you, but I believe that you're making a good recovery after I sped things along. The only problem is that the doctors said that your left leg is smashed beyond saving. You won't be able to walk on it again."
*"Just like they said your eye is gone again?"* I scoffed. *"Here, put my hand over your left eye. Let's regenerate one for you, shall we?"*
Shigure did as he was told and I felt with him the burning pain of his left eye reforming once more.
"Now heal yourself," Shigure put my hand on my own head.
*"Father Creator?"* I asked. *"I think I'm going to need a lot of help here. I'm going to speak what is not as though it were now."*
*"Children, leave the hospital immediately,"* I heard the Creator speak with an acknowledgement of my request.
Glancing at Shigure, he nodded to say he had heard the Creator's voice too. He quickly helped me get dressed. I jumped out of bed, making him exclaim in surprise.
"Let's go," I said, feeling my leg healing as I walked so that my gait became smoother and smoother.
I took his hand and we walked out of the hospital ward, covering our hair with hats and a burqa we had bought from the hospital gift shop. I felt Shigure's glow of pleasure to see that I was healed.
"Almost fully healed," I corrected him. "I'm not sure why. Maybe to prevent me from doing something impulsive. It still hurts though."
We walked out just as we saw enemy agents walking in. We had just made it in time with the Creator's timely warning. I didn't want to think of what would have happened otherwise.
"Where should we go?" Shigure asked. "The enemy have almost finished taking over the city. I didn't expect them to take over so quickly or easily."
"We go be guerillas," I grinned at him. "Although, let me check to make sure my family have escaped."
"They might be watching your family," Shigure warned.
"Just a peek," I promised.
My family's apartment was empty when we arrived. There was no one waiting except for an ambush.
Shigure and I combined forces, while I yelped inwardly at the pain from all these sharp movements while I fought. We killed all the enemy and I picked up a few knives that I would be able to use.
"Do you think they took my family or do you think my family escaped?" I asked Shigure.
"Best to ask the Creator," Shigure suggested.
*"They have evacuated and are already nearly at their destination in the next city,"* the Creator Father replied, causing me to breathe a sigh of relief.
Shigure and I ate a quick meal, scavenging what was left from the cupboards. Finding an old school bag, I filled it with food and bottles of water. Then we left the apartment.
In an apartment Shigure had bought under another name, we crashed for the night, sharing the bed after a quick shower. We hugged each other all night, enjoying the chance to be together. On a soft bed. In relative safety. We didn't do anything besides sleep.
In the morning, we combined our mental forces and began sweeping through the city again. Just like last time, we incapacitated the enemy invaders and agents. Some died, but most were left with brain injuries of varying degrees. Of the double agents and double traitors that we met, we didn't touch them. We left them to bear the brunt of the enemy's anger when they came calling again.
The enemy's anger was not what we expected. There was no warning. No evacuation of the enemy agents still in our city. Airplanes screamed over the city and bombs fell.
Shigure picked up our bags and ran, hearing the airplane engines and feeling the ground shake under the bombardment. The air was filled with choking dust, making it difficult to see. Bits of buildings and debris was constantly raining down from above. Shigure pulled me to the nearest air raid bunker in the area, where we sat with other people who had made it, gasping for air.
While we were catching our breath, Shigure and I picked off the airplane pilots one by one, causing the bomber planes to crash in the desert, the Blue Gulf or ocean. A few crashed at the edges of the Tangled Mountains.
When we heard no more planes, everyone in the bunker slept a night and then ventured back above ground. We hurried out to scavenge what we could and see what we could pick up. Shigure and I scoped the area out and found all the City Agent buildings had been targeted and destroyed.
We reached out to sea and found one lurking submarine. When we stopped the submarine, it suddenly exploded, shocking the both of us. The explosion was so huge that we felt the cliffs shake.
From the Blue Gulf cliffs, we heard more than saw the crumbling of cliffs on both sides. That submarine had been in the Gulf itself. A secondary explosion went off and we heard an ominous cracking sound. Not waiting to find out what it was, Shigure dragged me into a run. A run toward the desert side of the city. There, we and many other survivors from the city were met with the enemy army. When had they arrived?
We were all quickly taken into custody and forcefully separated. Shigure and I feigned surrender and pretended to be normal civilians. I even shed a few tears to complete the disguise.
During the night, Shigure and I got to work again, warning the prisoners with us to find any way they could to escape from the Blue Gulf region and to run as far as was possible. It was unpleasant to be the bringer of death to so many people and feel them dying, but it was them or us. We were just trying to protect our people and buy them time to leave.
Explosions rocked the city and even the wilderness where we were. Almost as if the enemy knew that their people were dead and gone. We couldn't make out what and how the explosions were occuring. It was only when we saw a missile flying into the desert that we realised what was going on. There was a ship out there shooting missiles at us.
We cast out minds out to sea to see what we could see. But all that we could see was the bottom of the deep blue sea. There was something wrong with this image. The more we looked at it, the more it seemed to try to suck us in.
"A trap!" Shigure shouted, dragging us back from looking in that direction again. "They've improved their technology again."
The missiles rained down and continued for several days and several nights. We hid in an empty bunker, wondering where all the people had gone.
When the missile rain stopped, more enemy soldiers and agents marched into the city. Whenever Shigure and I wanted to attack them, we came up against that weird deep blue sea illusion trap again. Our strongest attack could not be used. We could only resort to the physical guerilla warfare.
Everyday, the enemy soldiers swept further into the city and cleared more ground. People were captured or killed on the spot, depending upon the response. The missile rain pounded the city all the way to the other end before the enemy soldiers and agents came to capture anyone who had managed to survive.
Shigure and I could only retreat out into the wilderness and climb a tall rocky outcrop to see what was going on.
From the top of the rock, we held hands and Shigure hugged me around the shoulders to his body. I gasped at the sight.
It was like some giant creature had taken a bite out of the blue gulf. The rural cliffs had crumbled all the way to the edges of the Tangled Mountains. The ground was completely broken. The bridge connecting the city side to the rural side was gone. It was all rubble over there.
On our city side, half the city had fallen into the sea in a big wide arc. All the towers had fallen or collapsed.
Out at sea, we saw one, two, three white dots floating on the water. Enemy ships, perhaps.
The enemy was serious in capturing us or wiping us out at all costs this time. How had their country rebuilt the capital and the seaside city that we had destroyed last time so quickly? It seemed impossible. Or were they receiving help from other nations?
At the bottom of the big stone, we found enemy agents waiting for us. Shigure and I worked together to fight, but we were slowly being overwhelmed by the huge numbers and the number of bullets with which they shot us.
The ground suddenly rumbled and shook. It was a violent shaking that knocked everybody to the ground. I heard the sea roaring. This didn't feel like it was caused by the enemy. I felt the spirits of the Land stir, unsettled, and the heavy air of impending danger.
"RUN, CHILDREN," the Creator's voice directed us, pointing out a direction.
Despite our injuries and the shaking earth, Shigure and I pulled each other up and then hand in hand, ran with all our might, somehow managing to keep our footing. There was an ominous cracking sound behind us, but we had the feeling that we shouldn't look back. We didn't have the time to look back.
Airplanes screamed overhead once more, but this time they didn't drop any bombs. They just passed overhead, ignoring everything happening down on the ground.
Shigure and I couldn't stop. Didn't dare to stop running. The Creator pointed us in which direction to go and when to change directions. With us fled many other desert creatures.
My mouth was filled with that dry gooey feeling of dried saliva and the taste of blood, my throat felt raw. My chest ached, legs felt heavy and feet felt like they were on fire. My neck and shoulders were growing stiff. I had a sharp stitch, not to mention I had already been shot a few times. Shigure had too.
Despite the pain, we knew we had to run. Keep running and not stop running or we were done for.
The animals overtook us, racing away into the night. We were slowing down without wanting to.
The ground cracked and shifted beneath our feet and then we were falling. Shigure pulled me into his arms and hugged me tight. I held him tight too, closing my eyes as he held my head right to his chest.