Kody peered anxiously ahead. The road stretched out about two hundred yards in front of them. The ground started to vibrate and they heard a loud rumble. At the point where the Mustang’s headlights merged with the darkness of the night, a yellow behemoth crested a small hill and rolled toward them, taking up the entire road. Kody’s eyes were stuck wide open.
Jag pressed as far back into his seat as he could, watching the massive vehicle’s advance. “What
is
that thing?”
Kody heard Aari wheeze beside him. “That’s a mining dump truck . . . ”
“What is it doing all the way out here? Look at those tires! They’re huge! And it’s heading
right for us!
”
Just as he spoke, the machine came to rest, as if the driver didn’t want to run the Mustang over. The boys and the Sentry squinted against the glare of the truck’s headlights.
Something nagged Kody as he remembered what Mariah had mentioned on her call. He leaned forward and squeezed his eyes shut for a few moments. When he opened them, everything appeared a few shades brighter, though there was a bluish tint around the edges of his vision. He narrowed his eyes and his view zoomed in on the cab of the mining truck. He studied the person at the wheel for only a second before gasping. As muddied and disheveled as she looked, he would recognize his friend anywhere.
“It’s Tegan!” he yelled. “She’s
driving
that monster!”
“You sure?” Jag asked, though even as he spoke he’d opened his door and got out. Kody followed, with Marshall and Aari catching up to them.
“Tegan!” Kody shouted, waving his arms about his head.
While Marshall hung back, Jag ran ahead. “Come down, Teegs!”
Kody saw the cabin door of the mining truck swing open. Tegan stepped onto the platform and hastened to the edge to take a look. When she saw them, she let out a scream and bolted down the ladder.
The boys picked up their pace, sprinting toward Tegan as she ran toward them. Jag was the first to reach her and grabbed her in a bear hug. Tegan grabbed him and pulled him toward Aari and Kody, away from the direction she’d come, but when she saw Marshall, she backpedalled and lost her footing. She fell on her back end and scooted away from the Sentry, terrified.
Kody reached her and lifted her to her feet even as she struggled to get away. “Tegan—Teegs! Calm down! He’s a Sentry!
“But—”
He let her go as she stopped fighting against him and said calmingly, “He’s with us, Teegs.”
She looked at the Sentry with uncertainty, then said almost inaudibly, “We need to get Mariah and get out of here. They’re after us.”
Kody became aware of vehicles approaching. The newcomers’ headlights lit the street on either side of the mining truck. He didn’t take his eyes off the vehicles as they drew closer. Aari and Jag, wondering what he was staring at, went to look around the truck. In Kody’s peripheral vision, he noticed Tegan backing away.
Zooming and brightening his vision again, he sized up the newcomers. As the image in front of him sharpened, he saw a man leaning out of one of the vehicles, lifting something in his hands.
“Tegan’s right, it’s them.” Kody shrank from the sight. “And they’re armed.”
T
he men advanced, two of them training their weapons at the teens and Marshall. Kody recognized the giant who strolled calmly toward them and could hear the venom in the man’s voice over the sound of the engines. “You really think you can get away? From here? From us?”
The orange-haired man holding the shotgun spoke, his Australian accent pronounced. “You’ve caused a damn lot of destruction, lass.”
Kody glanced at Tegan, wondering what in the world she and Mariah had done.
“You better be well worth it,” the Australian continued. “If not for the order to keep you alive, I’d gladly put a bullet between your eyes.”
“Too bad we’re not allowed to shoot to kill,” the giant sighed, his tone thick with sarcasm.
The Australian smirked. “Can still shoot to maim, though.”
Kody, Aari, Tegan and Jag backed up slowly but stopped when Marshall stepped forward to stand protectively in front of them. “What do you want with them?” he called. “They’re just kids!”
“Kids!” The giant tossed his head back, letting out a humorless bark of laughter. “These girls probably caused us six figures in damage!”
The Australian lifted his head slightly, scanning Kody and the others. “Where is she?” he demanded. “Where is the other girl?”
Marshall stared the men down. “You have no right to take them!”
“We’re talking about rights now, are we?” A wad of spit launched from the giant’s mouth. “Hand them over.”
The Sentry rolled his shoulders and snarled. “Over my dead body.”
The giant shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He signaled his cohort.
Kody saw the blast leave the Australian’s shotgun before he heard the report. He opened his mouth to yell, watching in helpless horror as his heightened vision followed the cloud of pellets toward the Sentry.
The next thing he saw was Marshall being driven to the ground by a blur—Jag. Tegan dodged sharply as the bullets whizzed by harmlessly.
Marshall landed roughly on the road, groaning. Jag leapt upright the instant he had Marshall out of harm’s way, arms held up in surrender. “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! We’ll come!”
“Hands up, all of you!” the Australian barked. “Now!”
Dazed and scared, Kody, Tegan and Aari did as they were told. They were ordered to move forward, which they did, slowly and with small steps. Then Kody heard Jag mutter under his breath, “A distraction would be awesome right about now, Aari . . . ”
There was a tense moment of silence before the men let out startled exclamations. The mining truck beside them shimmered briefly and vanished from sight.
“What the hell?” the Australian cried.
Kody caught sight of Jag sprinting into a blur. The armed Australian beside the mining truck was stunned when Jag appeared suddenly in front of him. The teenager grabbed the man’s arms and delivered a knee between his legs before ripping the shotgun away from the winded assailant.
As the Australian fell to the ground, rolling in agony, Jag spun around with the speed of a striking serpent and swung the shotgun at the unarmed man beside the Australian, smashing him in the face with the weapon’s stock. The man, who’d barely had time to see Jag, let alone comprehend what was happening, was knocked to the ground, unconscious. Kody had to slow down his vision to capture it all.
As Jag spun again to face the third adversary—the giant—he was met with the man’s massive fist. The shotgun fell, clattering on the gravel as Jag was sent sprawling backward. He rolled a couple of feet away before lying still in the dirt.
“Jag!” Kody screeched.
The giant pulled out a pistol from his holster and pointed it down at Jag. As his finger slid to the trigger, the mining truck suddenly appeared. Startled, the giant and the remaining adversary snapped their heads left to look. At that exact moment, Kody saw Jag disappear from sight like a specter.
Beside Kody, Aari mumbled pleadingly, “C’mon, Jag. Move it . . . ”
Kody saw movement next to him; Marshall, seizing the moment of distraction, charged toward the two remaining men. He headed for the one holding an AR-15 rifle and kicked the weapon out of his adversary’s hands. Swiftly, the Sentry slipped behind the man and grabbed him in a choke hold. With a heavy grunt, Marshall lifted the man and flipped him over his shoulder, sending his opponent crashing onto his back. The Sentry was upon him in an instant, delivering right and left hooks without any breathers.
The giant calmly stepped behind Marshall and pressed his pistol to the Sentry’s head, stopping him cold. “Here’s the thing, hero. We need those kids. But you?” His finger slid to the trigger. “Not so much.”
The bang was earsplitting, and the howl of agony that followed rattled Kody’s ears. Then he realized Marshall was still crouched, unscathed, over the man he’d been hitting—the shot had gone wild. Kody rubbed his eyes and stared, barely able to take in what he was seeing.
The giant slowly sank to his knees, the gun in his now-limp hand pointed to the ground. Red dripped from a gash on the back of his head. The AR-15 that Marshall had kicked away now hung in the air as though suspended by invisible wires, its butt splashed with blood.
Marshall stood and grabbed the rifle. Lining up as a batter would, he swung the weapon around and nailed the giant in the gut. When the big man leaned forward in agony, Marshall struck out with a fist to the man’s temple, knocking him out cold.
Kody would have watched him fall if not for Jag appearing out of the air in front of him, making him jump. He fist-bumped his confused-looking friend. “Nice work with the rifle.”
Jag returned the gesture, looking even more confused now. “That wasn’t my doing.”
Kody was about to make a smart remark when a movement caught his eye and he stepped away from his friend.
Jag turned around to follow Kody’s gaze. Mariah was walking toward them from behind the adversaries’ Hummers; now the rifle hanging in the air made sense. She looked even worse than Tegan. When she got closer, she stopped and looked at Marshall, eyeing him with uncertainty.
Tegan bolted toward her, followed by Kody, then Jag and Aari. When she saw them approaching, she let out an elated cry and shot past Marshall to meet their open arms.
Kody grinned broadly. “You’re all dirty!”
Mariah managed to punch him with one hand as tears left streaks down her mud-dried face. “Missed you too, brickhead.”
The five held onto each other for a while longer, unable to form words. Kody could hear the rapid beating of his heart eventually ease. The silence was broken when Marshall came up to them and said gently, “I don’t want to interrupt your reunion, but we’ve got a bit of work to do here.”
Kody felt Mariah pull away from all of them. She half-glared at Marshall. “You . . . You attacked us . . . and then you
followed
—”
“Mariah, it’s not—” Jag began, but Mariah held up her index finger.
“But then I just saw you,” she continued warily, “and you were . . . you were
helping
us? Why? Who are you?”
Marshall wiped some blood from off his cheek with his t-shirt, then gave Mariah a remorseful smile. “I apologize for how this may all seem. My name is Marshall. We haven’t got time for a chat right now, but I’m sure your friends will fill you in.”
“He’s a Sentry,” Kody told Mariah. “
The
Sentry. It wasn’t Tony after all.”
At the mention of the name, Kody saw a look of thunder and destruction in the girls’ eyes. “That’s one of the things we need to talk about,” Tegan said bitingly.
“Later,” Marshall said. He took out a switchblade from his pocket and tossed it to Aari. “Slash their tires. Be quick.”
Aari caught the blade and ran toward the Hummers as Marshall went back to the four men on the ground. He saw that the one Jag had kneed was struggling to get up and quickly grabbed him in a chokehold to send him sliding into unconsciousness.
Marshall and the boys found a box of zipties in one of the Hummers and began tying the men’s hands behind their backs. They then dragged the men one by one and shoved them into some bushes about thirty feet away from the road.
The girls grew jumpy as Kody and Jag went to grab the last man. “What’s wrong with you both?” Kody called as he and Jag dragged the man across the dirt.
“I think Mariah and I stirred the hornet’s nest up there,” Tegan said, her tone a few pitches higher than usual, “and I’ve got a feeling more of these guys will be coming down here soon. We really need to go.”
By this time, Aari had finished his duty and handed the switchblade back to Marshall. “Are we all good over there?” the Sentry asked, watching as Kody and Jag finally got the last man into the bushes.
“Yeah,” Jag replied. The group took one last look around, then packed into Marshall’s Mustang.
“It’s
really
crowded in here,” Aari muttered.
“It’s designed for two people in the back,” Marshall said as he shut his door. “Hang in there, we’ll try and get a rental once we’re safe. Besides, we can’t be driving this beauty anymore now that they’ve seen the car.”
“Where are we going?” Tegan asked.
Marshall made a U-turn before tearing out of the small ghost town. “We’ll figure that out as soon as we get out of here.”
“T
his is so uncomfortable,” Aari muttered. “Ow! Tegan, your elbow’s in my ribs!”
“There’s not enough room back here,” Tegan protested.
“I’m getting dirt on me,” Kody grumbled.
“Not our fault!” both Mariah and Tegan chorused.
Marshall listened to the lot of them complain, entertained. They were driving through Deming and heading to Las Cruces with the teenagers crammed in the back as both sides recounted what had happened to them.
“Again, sorry about that, guys,” he said. “We’ll get another ride soon.”
“Too bad the car rentals at Silver City weren’t open,” Kody sighed.
“It was four in the morning,” Jag said. “And anyway, we needed to put as much distance as we can between those guys and us.”
“You know,” Aari said to the girls, “I’m not gonna lie, your escape sounds like something straight out of a movie.”
“I was scared,” Tegan confided. “Those beasts—the Marauders . . . It’s the people from the mountain last year. It’s them.”
“What are they doing here?” Jag asked.
“It looked like two different projects,” Tegan answered. “Above ground it was mining but underneath . . . I don’t know. They had a whole lot of construction going on inside that cave.”
“And hydro . . . hydro farms?” Mariah said. “No, wait. Hydroponic farms?”
Aari jumped in. “Hydroponic farms? You sure?”
“Yes . . . ”
Marshall frowned. “That’s odd.”
Tegan frowned in return. “Why?”
Marshall looked into his rearview mirror. “I think Aari might have the answer.”
“Hydroponics is a way to grow plants with just water and light, essentially,” Aari said. “There’s no need for soil. Question is, why are they building a hydroponic farm underground?”