"That caused Harmon to crouch down to Kohl’s level, which elicited a groan as well as another wince. “Yeah, about that.” Harmon lowered his voice, making sure the other gang members that were nearby would not hear a thing. “What are we going to do about…?” Harmon paused, unsure of what word to choose.

Kohl looked at him, his face twisting up into an annoyed expression. “About what, Har?”

Essem felt the force of Maple’s push as she shoved him away from his pack. He wanted to shove her back, but tucked that urge away. “The hell it isn’t. I’m the one who got you into this and then dragged this whole damn town into it. You can’t stand there and say this isn’t my fight. I deserve my shot at some revenge.”

Essem was going to protest, but Maple continued. “And don’t give her that bullshit that you work better alone. You’ve been with your father for your entire life. You’ve never done a damn thing by yourself.”

Maple wanted to protest but Essem was already up and moving. Instead of running, which was what she expected, he was walking slowly toward the guard. He’d covered about ten of the twenty odd meters between the two before being noticed.

“Who the hell is there?” The sentry spoke, his voice too loud for Maple’s taste.

Essem answered, but was quieter, and his voice had a rougher quality to it. “It’s just me, man. I’m bored, and there’s nothing out there.”

Realizing how far away she was, and now by herself, Maple scrambled out from under the truck and stayed low as she moved quickly to the truck bed, pausing only for a moment to grab the sidearm from the fallen guard. In the dim light, Maple was sure she caught a glimpse of a nosebleed from the guard’s face.

As she pulled herself up on the truck bed, Maple swore she heard something from behind the heavy tarp that was Kohl’s tent. Leading with the pistol, Maple slid inside.

Then he felt it. The bottom of his palm slipped free, followed quickly by the rest of his hand. Tim checked again. The guards had no idea. He felt his pulse start to race as he rapidly worked at the knot on the other hand. It only took moments and it, too, was free.

Essem trudged out of the water on the other side of the stream. He was breathing heavy and his head was pounding from the wallop the guard had given him. Essem was guessing it had probably done more damage than he’d thought-which was to say that he thought it hadn’t really done any at all.

He could make out Maple’s shape up ahead. She was moving fast and with good reason. The screams and the gun shots had awoken plenty of Rotars, and it was obvious within moments that they’d discovered what had happened. Essem had seen the torches in the distance, and heard the shouts of pursuit. He thought they had enough distance on them, especially with the extra darkness, but it was obvious from Maple’s speed that she didn’t agree.

Keeping low and in the shadows, Tim eased himself forward to get a better idea of what was happening. There was panic at first among the people there, followed by several exclamations of anger, but one voice started to rise above the others. Whoever he was, he was taking command. He started barking orders and organizing search groups.

Then Tim heard two things that made him feel much better about his odds of escaping.

Maple was about to say ‘no’ but then she did hear it. Shouts followed by the sounds of gunshots. Maple panicked. What the hell was happening? Maple looked around for some sort of answer or guidance, but she only caught sight of Essem running toward the wall of Shade’s Rest, rather than the gate. His stride was weary from Kohl’s body still on his shoulders, but he was moving with determination. Maple followed.

“That’s right. Weakness.” Harmon looked around. “Now isn’t the time to blame anyone for what happened to Kohl. We’d been beaten, and came back here to regroup. But Shade’s Rest showed us they still wanted to fight. They came here and tried to scare us. To make us think twice about coming back to their town. But they forgot one thing.” Harmon paused like the leader from the movie. It was a trick he’d used in his speeches. “When one of our brothers is taken, it doesn’t scare us, it only makes us more angry. It only makes us want to bring hurt on those who did this. They did it to Tim, and now to Kohl. Our own leader!

"For some reason, Maple found that funny. She chuckled as she ran a mental check of her body. She could still feel her hands, but there was an odd tingling there. Chest, neck, and then legs. There was a problem. Maple checked again, but she couldn’t feel her legs."