“Is it a guard?”

Slooky sat up, turning that direction when Lott didn’t reply right away. Though he couldn’t see anything, and Yellen was to the east, it wasn’t something he could face at the moment, not without his leg in better condition. He did a quick mental inventory of what was in his bag, only to feel worse because of it. He’d used too much at Yellen.

A trickle of apprehension worked its way into his mind.

Magnice couldn’t help in a fight, unless he was just going to throw stuff from where he was sitting. They had to rely on Lott, hoping she could handle whoever was headed their way, even without their usual abundance of weapons at their disposal.

Was it too much to ask for it to be an ally instead of a foe?

“Keeps looking back…” Lott’s voice trailed off. “Hup. I see the face. All clear. It’s Vice-Captain.”

Immediately, all of their expressions brightened, banishing the grim thoughts to somewhere far away in the back of their minds.

“Sare?” Magnice smiled, his eyes lighting up.

Sitting back, more relaxed that he was just seconds before, Slooky gave a loud but low whistle before falling back onto the dirt to stare up at the cloudless sky changing into that of the nighttime hours.

“She got out alone. Gotta give her credit for that,” he said quietly.

All it took was that low whistle and some time before Sarah was jogging her way into their little circle.

“Hey,” she said, glancing around at them. Her eyes landed on Magnice. “All good, Jack?”

He nodded, throwing a thumb back toward Slooky. “You should be asking him.”

For his part, not noticing the shift of attention onto him, Slooky stared up at the sky in almost child-like wonder.

“I didn’t realize there were so many stars…” he whispered.

“Slook?”

He turned to her, gave a salute, and returned to his star-gazing.

“Jack says I’ll be fine. Just need some rest.”

“Had a lynch string on his leg,” Magnice added, pointing at the cover he’d put on the wound, now tinged pink as it worked to fix the holes the spikes left in him.

They all knew what lynch string was. It wasn’t their first encounter with it, but none of them had ever cut the string before. None of them had ever been in Slooky’s position. The times they’d faced it, one of them retrieved the box, releasing the captive limb. There wasn’t a moment of losing part of themselves to it.

Knowing of it, and using it were two different things.

In all their time as Ghosts… only twice had they used it.

It just wasn’t necessary for them.

Sarah nodded.

“Any sign of Bue and Exel?”

“I was out-pod before her.” Slooky piped up. “Don’t know.”

“Haven’t seen them.” Lott shook her head.

Antsy by the tense silence that followed, Slooky sighed.

“Do we just wait?”

Silently, Sarah held her hand toward Lott, gaze focused off into the distant northeast. Without needing a word, the binoculars were placed onto her palm. She bounded up the rocks, getting a better vantage point around one of the peaks in the distance, where she knew Carver, the facility they were in, was located.

“They’re farthest,” she said, holding the binoculars up, flipping automatic off without much of a thought, and began to focus them with taps of her fingers. “If we all got out in the same amount of time–”

“Then they’ll be here last.”

Looking to Magnice, Sarah nodded.

And if they kept heading southwest, that led them farther from the facilities. But more importantly, it was directly opposite of Carver. Bue and Exel would be playing catchup, put in a tight spot of not knowing where the rest of the team was.

At least, Sarah thought to herself, it would take time for them to be chased. They had about an hour.

Magnice called Lott over to him as he grabbed his kit with a sigh. Sitting on her shoulders, they made the way halfway up to Sarah, just high enough for Magnice to reach her thigh.

Carefully, he unattached the seam on her uniform before dabbing at the wound. Like a statue, Sarah held still, despite feeling the sharp tingle of a disinfectant. An odd sticky cream followed.

“Bullet?”

“Yeah.”

Magnice nodded, placing gauze over the wound, taping it down, and then reattaching the seam of her uniform, like a tiny velcro strip that only came apart when the end was pinched. He hooked the end of it, back to how it had been, and gave her the all-clear.

“Movement.”

Sarah, no longer kept still by Magnice, bounded up one rock higher before halting, her eye on something in the distance.

“How far?”

She checked the numbers appearing in the binoculars twice. If it was them, they were moving quickly.

“Three miles.”

“How many?” Slooky, slightly less worried this time now that they had their Vice-Captain and Lott for muscle, gazed up at Sarah instead of the sky. If the number was more than was manageable, that was a different issue. Then, they could all worry.

“Two.”

“Think it’s them?”

Sarah didn’t reply right away, focused.

Exel and Bue met up on the far side of the first hill, checking themselves over for wounds. The sounds of bullets had ceased.

“I told you. You would be the first one hit.”

“It wasn’t even… forget it. Let’s go.”

Gritting his teeth, he held back a surge of frustration. It wasn’t even from the bullets. He’d gotten scraped on his shoulder when he dove behind the first big rock of safety. Unluckily for him, he’d landed on the sharpest pile of rocks, which tore right through his uniform.

Together, they started south.

As they trekked higher, Bue glanced off to her left, to the east. In the distance, she spotted something that made her pause.

“Exel? Is that supposed to be there?”

“Hm?”

He stopped, looking over at a distant light with her. Frowning, he thought of the maps he’d seen. He knew where several Corporations were known to have several buildings. There was nothing between the Williams Facilities and the Corporation that controlled the shoreline. The elevation changes were so drastic it made the makings of a road to travel on nearly impossible.

“No… it shouldn’t be.”

Neither got a chance to ponder those thoughts longer as a pop sounded, a bullet skipping across the ground at their feet.

Exel shoved Bue in front of him, pushing her ahead.

“Go!”

They ran, as fast as they were able across the treacherous rocks, flinching at every bullet that was fired their way.

Someone had followed them, revolver in hand. Shot after shot was fired, whenever they were briefly visible to the one pulling the trigger.

They reached a flat area, Exel slowing. Bue turned, noticing him come to a stop. There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

“That was five, right?”

“Hm?”

“Five shots,” he clarified.

“Yeah. Why?”

Bue had no idea what it had to do with anything. Five or four or six, she just wanted to get away from them, to not be fired at anymore. While she questioned the importance of the number of shots, Exel grinned.

“Well, it changes things.”

Guns were a rarity, even more so to have them in working condition with usable ammunition. That was one thing the Ghosts never focused on.

That is… none except one.

He shooed her silently off to the side, out of the way and behind an outcropping of rock that would hide her from sight.

Rough footfalls came closer.

Exel quickly knelt down, right in plain sight, visibly wincing, holding onto his ankle. As the figure appeared, he did nothing. Gun held in her hands, one of the officers from Carver pointed the weapon at him without hesitation. He lifted his hands up belatedly, but the trigger had already been pulled.

He met her eyes as he moved slowly to his feet. Her eyes widened, shocked at the turn of events.

The gun had been used, but there had been no bullets left in the chambers.

It was empty.

Exel remained unharmed, relying on a difficult skill to procure.

[Skill: Weapon Identification

Ability to identify a weapon from sound alone.

Skill recognized for the assortment of unique weapons, that create noise when used, brought into the inventory inside of Fallacy.

Exceeding 20: Identify the weapon style and range upon hearing a sound, when within range of the weapon.

Exceeding 50: Immediately able to identify the exact weapon, ammunition count, range, and current distance, upon hearing the weapon’s sound, no matter the distance.

Current Approved Weapon Count: 54]

Of course, it didn’t help much in the fights the Ghosts normally dealt with. But this?

Exel grinned, rushing her, knocking the gun from her hand with a calculated swipe through the air. It tumbled across the ground, far out of reach. A wild punch thrown was caught by Exel’s hand and he threw her balance by pulling her own arm across her body, flipping their positions around.

He eyed the ground behind her before going on the attack without rest, causing her to step back, again and again, to block and dodge his crazy offensive assault. But Exel wasn’t focused on the fight.

Just as she took another two steps back, he thrust his hands at her shoulders, shoving her back. It wasn’t even a second as Bue joined him, looking to where the woman had fallen.

But she remained in the air, as she fell, pulling something from her waist as she descended toward her demise.

With rapid speed, the item she threw moved up to where they stood.

She didn’t see Bue catch the handle, right before it would have hit her. There was a stony and unreadable look on Bue's face as her hand clenched around it, her knuckles changing color by force.

Exel, moving away from the cliff’s edge and Bue, who stared down into the ravine below, strode over to the gun that lay abandoned on the ground.

“How did you know she was out of bullets?” she asked slowly.

Picking up the weapon, he inspected it, slipping it into his bag as he stood up.

“There’s only five bullets in that weapon. I’d have been fine no matter what.”

Bue turned, meeting his unwavering and confident gaze.

“And what if she’d had two guns?”

For a moment, Exel didn’t speak.

Though he had the ability to know what kind of gun it was, and maximum ammo, Bue was right. If she’d have had two, he would be dead. A sense of mortality reared its head within him. He grit his teeth.

Dying now…

Was something that couldn’t happen.

There were to many things that needed to be done.

A voice rung in the back of his mind, but even as a chill settled upon his heart, he shrugged, appearing every bit of relaxed that he wasn’t.

“Guns are rare,” he said with an air of nonchalance. “Think she’d have two?”

Sarah’s eyes didn’t leave the two, even as they stopped and pointed toward Yellen, which remained covered in smoke of varying colors and densities. They appeared to be talking with one another.

She hit a button and carefully directed the long-distance laser on the left side of the binoculars to the torso of the taller individual. The shorter of the two smacked the spot the laser touched, turning immediately to the source. A light knocking of knuckles and they were rushing their way with renewed vigor.

A calculated risk that was well worth it.

“It’s them.”

Sarah, hopping down, back to the rest of the group, handed the binoculars back to Magnice. There was a collective sigh of relief as they waited out the minutes until the last of them arrived.

There were a few short greetings before bags were lifted back onto shoulders. Each one of them knew what was coming. They couldn’t stay here, not this close to the facilities, to the officers, guards.

It wasn’t safe.

“We should move.”

Everyone nodded at Sarah’s words, all except Magnice, who held up a hand, stopping Lott from coming his way to carry him.

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

Without words, he pulled an item from his bag. It looked small and cylindrical, as well as cheap and useless. It looked awfully similar to a regular old kaleidoscope that affected what could be seen through the tube.

Quietly, he assessed the curious and confused gazes. It was clear to see that they didn’t know the relevance of this particular item. It wasn’t exactly a moment to take the time for something unimportant. As much as they all knew Magnice’s brilliance, this didn’t seem to fit.

He held it up triumphantly.

“It’s what I bought.”

Slooky’s face changed instantly, his mouth falling open in horror.

“We nearly died for that?!” he said, pointing a finger at the useless object.