She Bleeds for Us: The Galactic Consortium 3

Chapter 19

The truck was crowded, with an open top. It lurched and bumped as it made its way down the dirt road. The crowd of refugees in the back watched Devaki cautiously.

Gabriel watched her cautiously, too, but for a different reason. They were wondering who and what she was. She was clearly not a local. Even without her pack, her bearing wasn't of a poor person. She wasn't beaten down.

Gabriel was trying to understand what her game was. Two checkpoints inside the border she got them captured. On purpose. She called it a shortcut. How was this a short cut?

They were going south, at a much faster pace then they could have made on foot. That was true. But then they would be forced into a refugee camp. Did she have some plan to escape that? He hoped so.

Someone passed a jug of water. Gabriel's tongue fished around in his cheek. He found the small metal ring Devaki had given him, told him to keep there for the time being. He pushed it with his tongue in front of his teeth and made his mouth a round "O." He accepted the jug and drank.

The ring, she claimed, would treat the water for disease. He told her he'd been drinking the same water most of his life and hadn't gotten sick except the once when everyone in Freetown had dysentery. You couldn't avoid something that hundreds of people had.

She'd ruffled his hair and told him he was a very brave boy. "But do this for me now," she said. He nodded and he used the ring as she said.

Devaki took a drink as well, and Gabriel caught a brief glimpse of the ring in her mouth. None of the others knew or had similar devices. They'd have to just hope they didn't sick. Then again, they didn't have a mission to complete.

Devaki closed her eyes as if checking something in her head. She did that. Sometimes she used a small device to show Gabriel the things she was checking, like a holographic map. But she didn't need the device to see it. It was in her head somehow.

The ring, the device, seeing maps with her brain, and the other things from her pack that she'd shown Gabriel, it all gave him faith. She wasn't Sarasvat but she could help them. He knew it. He just had to get her back to grandma.

"Our destination is just up ahead," she said.

A man next to her spoke. "The camp isn't for another hundred miles, a couple hours easy."

"We aren't going to the camp," she said, giving Gabriel a cheeky smile and a wink. "We have business in Freetown."

"They won't just stop and let us off," Gabriel said.

She gestured for him to come. "No, they won't." She gathered him in her arms like a small child, though she was not a large person herself. "Hang on tight."

She climbed the walls of the truck towards the open top. A startled gasp went up through the crowd. The drivers seem to take no notice.

And then they were flying through the air, hot air rushing past Gabriel. He was weightless and floating, the ground rushing towards them.

She rolled into a small ball as they hit the ground. It was jarring but they rolled three times and then she sprang to her feet, seemingly unhurt.

She was sprinting across the ground still cradling him. Gabriel risked a glance and saw the truck. They were running nearly as fast, dozens of startled faces staring over the edge at them. Devaki waved and the trucks began to pull away as she slowed down.