Where Fires Dare to Burn

Chapter 31 - Nobody Came to College to Do This

As darkness began to creep its way over the ELU campus, it brought a wave of existential dread washing over Luke. His thoughts whirled through what they were about to do, what was being proposed; the sheer craziness of what his life had turned into over the last few days. Two weeks ago he'd been getting ready to enter an archery contest. And now?

Now he was about to break into university property, take those skills, and use them violently against other human beings.

Poachers, he reminded himself. Murderers. It made things just a tiny bit easier to remember that.

He wondered how the others must feel about all this. He'd seen more than any of them – he'd been face to face with DeVergne and knew exactly how far the man was willing to go. He'd faced down Gallie Parwood in the Karkadda compound. That world was real to him. Gabi and Kenny had had some time to adjust, but he could tell that Kyan and Aliyah were still shell-shocked by everything they'd seen. They were moving on autopilot right now, swept up in events they only loosely understood; like the whole thing was a train wreck they couldn't look away from.

The equipment store squatted moodily, waiting for them, lit up by the campus floodlights. A well-placed lie to Coach Gore requesting some last minute pointers before their regional contest had been all they needed to lure her out here. The others slunk off to hide on the far side of the building while Luke and Gabi tried to look innocent as they loitered at the entrance in the half-light.

They didn't have long wait. A couple of minutes later Coach Gore's wiry form loped into view, and she cracked a patronising smile as she approached them.

"You know," she said without preamble. "I wouldn't have thought you two would be struggling for confidence."

"First competition." Gabi shrugged. "We're freshman. I dunno – we don't want to screw it up."

"Well, I'm here for another hour. You can have some range time until then, but that's it, alright?" Gore smiled. "Some of us have lives to go to."

Luke returned the smile tightly but didn't trust himself to speak. To hear her speak so glibly when he knew full well just how involved she was in the carnage erupting in Lasquette Bay was almost more than he could handle. Gore turned away from them, pulling her keys from her pocket and approaching the door. Gabi and Luke stepped to the side, leaving more space than their coach really needed.

The lock clicked. The door swung open.

"So, is there anything specific you wanted to work on?"

Gore half turned before Kasper slammed into her.

The Karkadda came surging out of the shadows in a single, fearsome bound. Her panicked cry was smothered by his hand as he tackled her inside, sending her keys spinning across the floor. In a flash Luke and the others piled in after them, dragging the door to the equipment store shut with a bang. He looked around frantically before he spotted the glint of metal on the ground. Scooping the keys up, Luke slapped the switch inside the door frame.

"What the hell is going on?!" Gore shrieked as the lights burst into life, flailing around in Kasper's grip. With the noise now insulated by the building, he tossed her roughly into the room and straightened up, a grim expression on his face. She backed up into the centre of the equipment store, ringed on all sides by metal gear cages, lockers, and solid stone.

"This her?" Kasper grunted, glancing back.

Luke nodded. "Yeah, that's her."

"Arbor? Truong?" Gore looked at him uncomprehending. "What is this? What are you doing?"