“I’m ready,” Druck said to Kat.

  “We’ll be back soon,” Kat said.

  They headed off together.

  “Heckler, if you can’t walk, maybe you can stand guard?” I said.

  “I don’t know. I—”

  Emerald’s knife sank into the ground just in front of his face, smoothly thrown. “If you can’t make yourself useful, then you’re of no use,” she growled.

  “I…uh…I can stand guard,” Heckler said, bouncing to his feet.

  “Keep a lookout on the other side of the tree,” Emerald ordered.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied, passing us and standing somewhere out of view behind us, close enough to raise an alarm if he saw anything.

  Emerald stood up, leaning her new spear against the tree. She began pulling off her clothes. “Can you hold these for me?”

  “Uh…what are you doing?” I asked as she removed her shirt and wiggled out of her pants, stripping down to her underwear.

  “Going fishing,” she replied, grabbing the spear. She leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. “Holler if you need anything.”

  My face heated up, her attention leaving me flummoxed. “Uh…okay.”

  “Maybe we can go skinny dipping later,” she suggested with a mischievous smile as she turned away. She made a straight line from me to the bank of the river, disappearing as she descended the slope. I heard her splash into the water, and then everything was finally, thankfully still.

  CHAPTER 20

  Some time later, I was dozing off under the tree when I heard Emerald shout. My eyes snapped open, aware of a sudden increase in splashing that seemed out of place. Heckler appeared from around the tree, knife in hand, fearful eyes flipping my way as if I knew what was going on.

  “Emerald,” I shouted, forcing myself to my feet. I still felt weak, but the short break had at least allowed me to recover enough to walk. “Come on.” I motioned for Heck to follow me toward the river.

  Reaching the bank, the first thing I noticed were six fish arranged in a row on the grass, each one nearly two feet long with a bulbous head and sharp-looking teeth. I spotted Emerald in the water, holding her spear out toward a muscular man in combat armor brandishing a long combat knife, his bearded face split by a menacing grin.

  “Come on, sexy,” he said. “Give me a roll, and I’ll let you be the next-to-last killer standing.”

  “Take another step toward me, and you won’t have anything to roll me with,” she replied. Tough words, but she was no match for him with her spear. She couldn’t punch through his armor that way. Though I had a feeling she could pretend to surrender and do a lot of damage once he started removing the bottom half of his armor.

  Neither one of them had noticed Heckler and me. Heck took aim with his blaster, glancing at me, waiting for permission to fire. I nodded, and his finger moved from the guard to the trigger.

  A plasma bolt came out of nowhere, burning a hole through Heckler's hand that forced him to drop his gun. Before he could cry out in pain, two more rounds found his head and shoulder, burning a hole through both. He collapsed toward me, leaving me to decide whether to catch him or jump out of the way. I chose the latter, stepping aside and visually hunting for the shooter as I reached to tap my comm badge and summon Kat.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” a voice behind me said, right before the muzzle of a blaster pressed against the back of my neck. “Prezz!" he shouted at the man below us in the water. "We got one dead one and one live one up here!” he shouted.

  Prezz, the guy in the water, didn’t take his eyes off Emerald. “Is he with you?” he asked.

  “He’s my boyfriend,” Emerald replied, confusing both him and me. “And if you don’t let us go in peace, you’re going to die. I guarantee it.”

  The man laughed. “That’s not how it looks to me, sweetheart. How about a new offer? Drop the spear, give me what I want, and I’ll let him live.”

  The man holding me dug the muzzle in a little deeper. “Prezz! He’s got a comm badge on him. He was trying to use it.”

  “Are there more of you here?” Prezz asked Emerald.

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “Are there?”

  “You’ve got ten seconds, bitch. And then my sniper burns your boyfriend's brains out. After that, the three of us are going to have some fun with you.”

  “Only three of you? I’m not concerned.”

  She really didn’t seem worried. I was. The muzzle of the gun was planted too hard in my neck to reflect the shot. Maybe with enhance, I could knock the guy away before he squeezed the trigger? Or could I use dampen to freeze the gun mechanism or maybe excite to heat up the grip and make him drop it?

  I probably couldn't do any of those things before he shot me. And there was still the sniper to contend with, the one who had killed Heckler. The brush crackled off to my left, and he emerged from behind a tree, his gun aimed at me.

  “I haven’t seen anyone else out there,” he announced.

  “Looks like you two lovebirds are alone,” Prezz said. “Five seconds left. What’ll it be?”

  “Go roll yourself,” she replied.

  “Jules, take him out.”

  “Gladly.”

  I could feel his finger moving to the trigger, but before he could squeeze it, Ixitat dropped from the tree onto Heckler’s killer. He hesitated as his conspirator screamed in wide-eyed terror. He kept screaming as Ixy sank her two forelegs into him and Emerald lunged forward, stabbing the spear into an apparent weak spot in the shoulder of Prezz’s combat armor. He dropped his blade, roaring as he tried to grab her. She ducked under his reach before uppercutting him in the nose, breaking it.

  At the same time, the pressure of the blaster on my neck suddenly and silently vanished. I heard Jules thump to the ground behind me and smiled despite myself. I started turning, my hopes up probably way too prematurely as a familiar weight landed on my shoulder. A familiar furry head rubbed against my cheek, and tears of joy burned at the backs of my eyes as my little blue friend purred loudly in my ear.

  “Shaq!” I exclaimed. It was too good to be true. I reached up to stroke his head with a shaking finger. “It's so good to see you, buddy.”

  “Ben,” he buzzed back. “Happy to see you.”

  “Thanks for the save. I'm glad you showed up when you did," I said before remembering Emerald. Looking back toward the river, I found her in Prezz’s grip, the big man holding her head underwater while she flailed. “Shaq, my friend down there needs a little help. Can you—?”

  “Mmmhmm,” he buzzed, leaping off my shoulder and sprinting down the slope. Ixitat finished with the other attacker, her attention shifting to Shaq. She began scurrying after him, her posture anything but friendly.

  “Ixy, wait!” I shouted as Shaq noticed her. He stopped rushing to help Emerald, turning toward Ixitat as the hair rose on his back. “Shaq, wait!” The two aliens faced off against one another while Emerald was being drowned. “You’re both on my side! Help Emerald!”

  They looked at one another, and then at me. Shaq broke the standoff, resuming his race to the water. He didn’t arrive before Emerald’s arm came out of the river, a rock clutched in her hand. She slammed it into the side of Prezz’s head, and he lost his grip on her, stumbling back in the water. She came up gasping for air but still ready to fight, turning toward the big man, whose head was bleeding profusely.

  He eyed her warily before looking over at me and then Ixitat. Falling to his knees in the water, he lowered his head. “I surrender.”

  “This is Kill Spree,” Emerald said. “There is no surrender. Get up.”

  He lifted his head, face twisting in rage as his hand came out of the water, gripping his knife. He threw himself at Emerald. She quickly stepped back, struggling to keep her balance as her heel caught on something beneath the surface.

  Shaq leaped from the shoreline, spreading his limbs to gain enough distance to land on Prezz’s wounded arm. Knife drawn back to strike, He turned his head, confused by the jagger running up his arm to his shoulder, teeth bared. Shaq sank them into Prezz’s neck, leaping off again and making it back to dry land as the man fell into the water. The current immediately took the body downstream. Shaq charged back up the slope, returning to his perch on my shoulder.

  “Thanks, buddy." Stroking his head, I rubbed my cheek against him, and he began to purr again.

  “Hey, Ben,” Emerald called out as she climbed out of the water and picked up the stick her catch hung from by their gills. She held them up as if nothing had just happened. “Let’s eat!”

  CHAPTER 21

  “What the hell happened here?” Kat said as he and Druck walked out of the brush and stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of Shaq perched on my shoulder and a half naked Emerald standing there, not to mention the sight of Heckler's dead body. Kat frowned at Emerald first. “Why are you in your underwear?” His gaze shifted to me. “And what is that cute blue thing on your shoulder?”

  “Shaq!” Druck cried out, coming over to me and reaching out for him. Shaq lifted his head and leaned it forward to let Druck scratch his chin. “Good to see you, little friend.” He glanced at Emerald, raising an eyebrow as he ran his eyes over her. “Not bad.”

  “How would you like me to shove this fish down your throat,” Emerald snarled back. “The teeth will slice up your intestines real nice.”

  “I’ll pass.”

  “Good to see you too, Druck,” Shaq buzzed.

  “Shaq, this is Kat. He’s a new friend of mine.”

  “Of ours,” Shaq replied. “Mmmhmmm.”

  “So you’re Shaq,” Kat said. “Ben’s mentioned you often. I thought you would be bigger.” He started laughing.

  “Bigger?” Shaq buzzed, joining him with a melodic laugh of his own that quickly turned serious again. “Matt? Quasar?”

  “Not yet,” I said. “But we’ll find them, and then we’ll all get out of here.”

  “How?” Druck asked. “The Mustang is totaled.”

  “We’ll find a way,” I replied. “We’re not dying here.”

  “No way,” Shaq agreed.

  “Ugh, poor Heckle,” Druck said, spotting the corporal’s body on the grass. “We barely knew you.”

  “His name was Heckler,” I corrected.

  “I told you we barely knew him. So what happened here?”

  “One of the killers jumped me while I was spear fishing,” Emerald said. “I’m in my undies because I didn’t want to get my clothes all wet. Unless your name is Ben, you don’t have my permission to stare.” I felt my face heating up again, drawing a laugh from her. “Aww, you’re so damn cute and innocent. Anyway, Ben, Ixy, and my new favorite furry buddy Shaq helped me take them out. And I got us some fish!”

  “Foodsss,” Ixitat said. Not to be outdone, she dropped a ball of webbing on the grass and used her forelimbs to open it, revealing a handful of large birds and a couple of smaller furry animals that could have been related to Shaq.

  “Ewww,” Shaq buzzed, turning around on my shoulder to look away from her massacre.

  “We need a fire,” Druck said.

  “We need some wood for a fire,” Kat said.

  “I’ll take care of that,” Emerald said. She thrust the fish out toward Druck. “I trust you know how to descale and gut?”

  “Uh, no.”

  She shook her head. “Do I have to do everything around here?”

  “I can do it,” I said. “I learned how during the only summer camp Mom was ever able to afford for me. I was nine. Matt and I went together. Fishing, tug-of-war, ghost stories, s’mores. The usual.” I smiled at the memory.

  “You shouldn’t have to do it,” Emerald said, glaring at Druck. “Are you useful for anything?”

  “Two things immediately spring to mind,” he replied.

  “Gross,” Emerald shot back, pretending to vomit. “You go get the firewood then.”

  “As much offense as possible, Emmy, but Ben is in charge here, not you.”

  “Call me Emmy again, and I’ll teach you to descale and gut with you standing in for the fish.”

  “Druck, can you get us some wood for the fire,” I said before they could continue the back and forth.

  “Sure, Boss,” he replied. “I’m on it. Shaq, do you mind helping me out? You can keep lookout while I pick up sticks.”

  “Ben?” Shaq said, looking to me for approval.

  “That sounds like a good idea. Emerald and Ixy will protect me.” Shaq hopped from my shoulder to Druck’s.

  “Be back soon,” Druck said, heading off into the trees.

  “I never gutted a fish,” Kat said. “But I have plucked birds and skinned small animals before.” He smiled. “I just didn’t want to say that with Shaq still here. I’ll take care of them.”

  “Maybe you could bury Heckler,” I said.

  “Why?” Emerald asked. “He was still a mass murderer, and the only reason he didn’t kill you was because he knew he was safer with you than without.”

  “Because he’s still a human being, and he still helped us escape the demons. He deserves at least a little respect for that.”

  Emerald wasn’t convinced. “I say we dump him in the river and let him float downstream with Prezz.”

  “No, we’ll bury him,” I insisted.

  Emerald scoffed. Still clutching the fish, she shook her head and walked casually over to Heckler’s body. She shoved it with her foot, rolling him over to the slope of the river bank while I watched in stunned surprise. One last kick and his body went down the side, hitting the river with a loud splash.

  “Oopsie,” she said on her return. “I slipped.” We locked eyes. I was a little annoyed by her disobedience, but her total lack of animosity and the hint of care in her gaze disarmed me. “We need to save our energy for finding your friends. Digging a six foot ditch is the opposite of that.”

  I couldn’t really argue that point. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  She smiled widely and returned to the tree where I had dumped her clothes, quickly putting them on and retrieving her knife. She sat cross-legged, pulling the first of the fish into her lap and cutting off its head. Next, she started scraping off its scales with her knife. When she had finished with that, she split it down the belly stem to stern. Running her thumb down its core to scoop out its guts, she let the gore spill down her pant legs.

  “She didn’t want her clothes wet, but bloody guts on them is okay,” Kat commented softly.

  “I guess so,” I replied.

  “Be careful, Captain. She seems to like you, but she’s so off her orbital axis that might not be a good thing.”

  “I concur. She does have skills, though.”

  Emerald looked up at us. “I can hear you, you know.” She laughed maniacally as she picked up the lopped off fish head and shoved her hand into it. "Hello, Ben," she said, her fingers moving the mouth up and down. “Are you hungry? Because I taste reel good. R-E-E-L. Reel good. Get it? Hahahahaha.”

  “Nutssss,” Ixitat softly wheezed out.

  I forced a smile. Definitely way off her orbital axis. Even so, after seeing her fight Prezz, I was glad she was on our side.

  CHAPTER 22

  We ate well that night. It turned out Emerald was more than just a scientist who had gone a little cuckoo, thanks to being framed for murder and spending years on Melchior. She had serious survival skills, from taking care of the fish to cooking them with minimal smoke from the fire. Unsurprisingly, I ate the lion’s share of the haul, polishing off two of the fish on my own while the others filled up on the remaining river dwellers and the smaller animals Ixy had caught. Shaq kept watch for part of the night, Ixitat the rest, allowing the tired, pathetic humans to get some sleep.

  With the light of the day as the twin suns pierced the horizon, I awoke still a little worn out and definitely not at full strength. Emerald was already up, having speared a few more fish and cooked them for breakfast. The additional grub helped raise my chaos energy levels a bit more, allowing me to regain nearly half of what I had lost. Given a choice, I would have stayed in the wooded area for another day to fully recover.

  But there was no choice. Matt and Quasar were still out there. Still in danger. And even at half-strength, I could be a force to be reckoned with. I had the right motivation, and so far the right team.

  We traveled a direct line from the trees toward the settlement, going uphill a few miles from the road. Additional forested areas and vegetation sat between us and the destination, slowing our overall approach while also offering consistent cover. The atmosphere had gone almost silent, the regular sounds of hissing and gunfire from our initial hours on the planet replaced with a tense peace. Every once in a while a single gunshot or two would echo across the landscape, disrupting the uneasy silence.

  Ixitat remained in the lead, often scouting ahead, especially when she could climb into the trees and jump from branch to branch, leaving threads of her silk across the limbs as she moved. I quickly learned to spot her path by searching for the glint of sunlight off the webbing and following it. I had to look for uneven shadows to actually spot her body. Well hidden in the foliage, she was a silent assassin who probably could have won Kill Spree if she were actually a contestant. Then again, if I hadn’t stopped her and Shaq from getting into it by the river, who knows how that might have turned out? Shaq was a killer, but Ixy was just as lethal.

  With the implanted camera lens, Shaq's tiny eyes offered viewers a feed of his exploits as he ranged ahead of us. It was probably why I spotted drones overhead from time to time, most of them further in the distance, in many cases helping players mark the positions of other players. I was sure the activity was intentional, designed to help keep the momentum of the fighting going, though I was also sure there had been a lull through the night.

  The two groups of creatures squaring off against one another instead of the contestants had given everyone a chance to rest. The drones didn’t come close to us, though we were all certain they knew exactly where we were. No doubt the implants in the eyes of Shaq, Druck, and Emerald were also equipped with trackers. I could imagine the executive producer, Yen, ordering his engineers not to recklessly lose any more of the external cameras. Fine by me. If one of the drones did get too close, I had every intention of pulling it from the sky into a tree.