Revenant Slaves Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Ash

Read chapter 40 of Revenant Slaves by Zee on NovelPedia.

Chapter 39: Ash Ash caught Zain before he could hit the ground. Or rather, he thought he had caught him. Zain’s weight still dragged him down; Ash’s own legs were barely steady under him, and the world around them was still breaking apart. The exosuit dragged at Ash’s limbs, but he still lowered Zain as gently as he could. Ash laid him on the scorched black ground like the flaming lunatic was made of glass. Zain’s eyes had rolled almost all the way back; his breathing was shallow, but it was there. He was alive. Rain was coughing. Not a small cough either. It was deep, rattling, the kind that made Ash feel like her chest might tear itself apart. She had one hand over her mouth and one over her ribs, wheezing hard. Her knees almost gave out beneath her. “Ma!” “It’s alright,” and even as she said it, she sank down beside Zain, one hand pressed to the earth to steady herself. “Go.” Ash stared at her. “Go?” he repeated. Rain looked past him then, toward the wreck that had once been her house, and for one impossible second, Ash saw her composure crumble. His mother had faced pain, death, hunger, humiliation, all of it with that same quiet endurance. But now tears filled her eyes and spilled over. “Bluey and Spring,” she whispered. Ash’s heart stopped. “They were in the house too.” Rain’s voice broke. “Both of them were inside. Both of them...” Ash felt horror, fear, and rage hit him all at once, so violently that it was like the quake had returned inside his chest. “No.” Rain covered her face, and she started crying in earnest. Ash looked down at Zain, then at the house's wreckage, then back at his mother. He moved before he had even fully thought it through. He dropped to one knee beside Zain and started fumbling for the latch on the back of the exosuit. Zain had shown him the mechanism in the city. Near the hip. The latch that would open up the battery housing, and eventually split the rest of the suit down the middle as well. His hands shook. His missing fingers made everything clumsier. Swearing under his breath, he finally got the latch open. The battery indicator blinked alive when Ash yanked it half free and checked the readout. Sixty percent. “That’ll do.” He stripped the suit off Zain as best he could. It was awkward, desperate work, and Zain’s limp body kept getting in the way. But Ash managed it and shoved himself into it next as fast as he could. It fit tighter than when he had worn it in the city, with his bandages and damaged hand, but the servos adjusted around him and the suit accepted his weight. He set the strength output to maximum. Then Ash turned and started tearing at the wreckage of the house with no plan in mind, only desperation. Mortrum was still dying around them. The sky was dark with ash, but not dark enough to hide the fire. Every horizon burned red-orange. Volcanoes that had slept longer than anyone alive on Mortrum were vomiting lava and smoke into the heavens. The ground still shuddered from time to time, and each tremor made the ruin of the house groan and shift. Ash ripped up warped metal plates and synthetic sheeting, tossing them aside. A support beam cracked in his grip and was flung away. Dust choked him, ash coated his face, and sweat ran down his body under the exosuit. He didn’t stop. “Ash!” He turned sharply. Maya was sprinting toward him through the ruined lane, fully armored in her own exosuit, her helmet open but clipped back. Behind her came a cluster of rebel fighters, the same strangers who had stayed among them as guests these past few days. They carried tools, white cases, rifles, and cutters. Maya’s eyes immediately swept over him, then to the suit he was wearing. “Where is Zain?” she asked. Ash pointed behind him, toward Rain and Zain’s limp form. Maya moved fast, but he caught her arm and blurted the explanation out before she could go. “We were buried. He... something happened. We were under the house, and then suddenly we weren’t. We got out, and my wounds and Ma’s, they were.