Page 55 of Retrograde

My heart rate spikes.

Military trucks and bikes. Some marching soldiers. All in that nasty mustard yellow—Continuum colour. No inconspicuous army green. These assholes want to be very fucking obvious as they flood our streets. Like pus leaking from a wound. The sight of them rolling through the destruction they themselves caused makes my stomach turn. These houses used to be homes! These roads used to lead somewhere other than death. This region was never without conflict, but people used to live their lives here.

I clench my jaw, nearly cracking my teeth. I want to feel their skin tear under my blade. I want to crush their organs in my fist.

The first vehicles roll onto the bridge.

“Aron,” Attila urges me from the corner of his mouth.

“Not yet,” I growl. “I want to get as many of these fuckers as I can.”

Like a swarm of nasty vermin, they flood the bridge, filling its entire width and progressing along its length. The roar is deafening, the march of their boots echoing like a dreadful heartbeat.

There are so fucking many of them, still coming from in between the desolate streets. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an offensive this big, and I shiver when I imagine what would happen if we let them through. The Rifterland would be finished, and we would be pushed right to the border of the Rift—and over it.

One day it will happen, I know. One day, they’ll roll all over us. Obliterate us.

But not today.

I wait until the leading truck is nearly on our bank. And then I press the button, the tip of my thumb going white with the pressure.

Nothing.

Nothing happens.

Fuck.

I try again. And again.

“Aron!” Attila snaps in my direction, and all the other men are murmuring, heads turning towards me.

“The remote doesn’t work. Fuck!” I slam it into the ground. “Fuck!”

This can’t be happening. We cannot fail. Not like this. This is too big, the consequences too catastrophic.

The first truck, three bikes and about ten foot soldiers already made it across.

“Retreat?” Attila asks grimly.

“No fucking way.”

My mind is reeling, heart pounding, stomach churning. I knew something would go wrong today, knew it, felt it in the marrow of my bones. This is all my fucking fault. I didn’t test the remote connection. All because I let myself be distracted by a pretty pussy.

My eyes stray towards the control box at the foot of the bridge, fixed to the nearest supporting pillar. I chew the inside of my cheek until I taste blood. Cold sweat erupts all over my body, ice rushing through my veins.

I’m responsible.

I’m fixing this.

“Attila,” I address my second-in-command, and hate myself for my broken voice, for the violent tremors making me quake visibly.

“Yeah?” he asks me tensely, then his face falls when he notices my expression.

“Riley.”

There’s only one thing left on my mind, one persistent, overpowering thought. If I don’t get to hurt her, then no one does. No one else touches her. No one.

“Let her go. Set her free. Nobody lays a finger on her.”