Fireteam Delta, J. Halpin [online e book reading .txt] 📗

“What?” Summers said, pulling the girl’s hair out of the way. He hadn’t noticed them before. She didn’t seem to appreciate the action, as she slapped his hand away.

“No touch!” she yelled. Only, she said it with a bit of an accent. He remembered hearing her speak something . . . something other than English when they’d first found her.

“Sorry,” Summers said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “So, uh, what are you?” Summers asked.

“Jesus, man, have some class,” Adams interjected.

“Sorry. Again,” Summers said. Adams may have had a point. “Where are you from?” Summers quickly amended.

“Zolah,” the girl finally answered. It solved nothing.

Nowak approached, saw both Summers and Adams crowded around the girl—and then her ears.

“Uh, is she an elf?” Nowak asked.

The girl saw everyone staring at her. She pointed to herself, speaking slow, as if to a child.

“I am Asle.”

“Are there more Asle?” Adams asked.

“Asle. Name,” she said, punctuating the words as if she were speaking to a bunch of idiots.

“You’re Asle?” Nowak tilted his head. “What were you doing here? With these men?” Nowak said, indicating the dead laying around them. Asle didn’t seem bothered in the least by the scene.

“You take Asle from Zolah. Make me speak,” Asle said simply.

“We take?” Summers asked, confused. “Where’s Zolah?”

“Really far,” Asle said, pointing seemingly in every direction at once.

Then, the realization hit.

“Shit. No, no. We. No. Take. Not us.” Summers immediately understood that, for whatever reason, the 63rd had kidnapped a child. He rightfully wanted to distance himself from that.

“You take Asle,” she replied with a bit of finality, and more than a little accusation.

“I think she’s their translator,” Nowak concluded. When he saw Summers’ expression, he clarified. “Whatever the 63rd were trying to do, we know this ain’t anywhere on Earth. Not our Earth, anyway. Settlers used to do the same thing back when they first came to America. They’d take children, teach them to speak their way so they could help talk with the natives.”

“She’s just a kid,” Adams said.

“First thing’s first, you all right? We’ve been in survival mode, and I didn’t think about what you’d be going through. Sorry about that.” Nowak looked the girl over. Asle didn’t give a reaction. If she was bothered by the piles of bodies around her, she wasn’t showing it.

“Fine,” she said simply.

Nowak leaned down to the girl’s level. “Good. Do you think you can help us? We could really use some help right now.” He took her silence as permission to continue. “Do you know what that is?” Nowak pointed to what remained of the shambling moss creature that had torn into their friends. Asle nodded. “Are there more?” Nowak asked.

“Um. Skeen. Children feed,” she said, indicating the pale creatures around it. “Only one. Too big. No more,” she said, more confident. “Skeen gone, too. No mother. They find new.” She nodded to herself, seemingly proud for having an answer.

“So, queen bee and the absolutely terrifying drones?” Adams speculated.

“Sarge, I don’t know if I’m good with dragging a kid through hostile territory,” Summers said.

“We don’t have much choice. But I get what you’re saying.” Nowak glanced down at the girl. “Look, Asle, you don’t have to stay with us. We can find you somewhere—” Before he could finish, Asle’s eyes widened. It wasn’t quite an expression, but there was something of panic in her eyes.

“No leave! No leave!” she shouted. “I. Will. Speak. Good.” She seemed to put more effort into that sentence than the ones before.

“No,” Nowak said quickly. “You can leave if you want. Do you understand? You can stay with us if you want. But you do not have to.”

It took Nowak a few more reassurances before she started to calm down. “Wow, Sarge, you’re great with kids,” Summers muttered.

“Shut up,” Nowak said. “Reason I stayed single.”

“Uh huh.” Summers looked at him skeptically.

“Y’all want to explain what’s going on over there?” Cortez shouted as she left the tree line. She had about six guns slung over her shoulder and one in her hands.

“Uh . . . she’s an elf?” Summers shouted back, pointing to the girl beside him.

“Asle,” Asle muttered.

“All right. Fucking neato,” Cortez replied, completely nonplussed. “I found the big boss. Gonna need some help.”

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What Cortez had found was an LUV—a Humvee about thirty feet in the air, tangled in the branches of an absolute beast of a tree. At its side dangled the very much dead suit Summers had seen earlier.

“How in the shit did he get up there?” Nowak stared up at the dented Humvee.

“My guess is that the big guy tossed him,” Cortez answered.

“Real question is how are we going to get it down?” Adams asked.

“I got an idea,” Summers said, raising his gun and leveling it at the thick branch holding the Humvee.

“No. No. That’s a stupid goddamn idea,” Nowak said, seeing where Summers’ mind was going.

“You got a better one?”

“Just give me a second,” Nowak said, watching the Humvee intently.

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Two hours later, Summers took aim at the offending branch.

“Clear!” he shouted, and then fired a long burst into the branch’s base. The bullets tore through the wood in an instant. There was a loud crack, and then the Humvee tumbled down nose-first, slamming into almost every limb of the tree it could before landing wheels-down in front of them. Its suspension system bounced as the corpse of the suit crashed onto the hood with a wet thud.

“That actually worked better than I expected it to,” Nowak admitted.

Cortez immediately got to work looking the Humvee over. She shoved the corpse of the suit off the hood, popped it, and gave the engine a once-over. Then she quickly moved to the driver’s seat.