Page 7

“There!” North said.

Spinning, I looked up and saw the monster clamber over a fallen brick wall into a larger store. The greenish-yellow glow from its back gave it away.

I touched my ear. “Sasha, we have a visual on the monster. North and I are in pursuit.”

“Acknowledged,” the comms officer replied.

“Don’t let it get away,” North clipped out.

We broke into a run and followed.

North

Stepping into the abandoned shop,I fought back the urge to sneeze. It had once been a grocery store and was filled with aisles of shelving. It looked dusty and forlorn, with old, desiccated leaves, and scraps of paper and rubbish on the floor.

Closer to Sydney, teams had started to dismantle the abandoned towns, and recycle what they found there. Butfarther out, towns like this one had sat untouched since the invasion. No doubt the people of Swanhaven had scavenged whatever they could from here.

As we walked inside, my boots crunched on twigs and rocks. The shelves were bare, and one set was tipped over. Toward the back of the store, the roof was caved in.

The monster was in here somewhere.

Jess moved forward, and I scowled at her. “You don’t have any chest armor, so I’ll take point.”

She didn’t look happy, but nodded.

There was a noise at the back, something falling. It hit the ground with a loud clatter. I whipped my carbine up and hurried down an aisle, Jess behind me. Another crashing noise and I swiveled.

Come on, asshole, stop hiding from us.

Then I saw a flash of movement at the end of the aisle, and swiveled my carbine and fired.

Whatever it was darted away in a flash. I cursed.

I pointed and we slowly continued on. We came to an area with old glass-fronted fridges, the doors hanging open. My boot crunched on some broken glass.

“Looks like people raided this during the invasion,” she murmured.

“Yeah, my mom and dad said they had teams to scavenge for supplies to keep their base stocked. They’d search for food and medicines.” Now we could create most of those things, but it had taken time to build capacity and abilities back up. The world was nothing like it had been before the invasion. Things were done in smaller batches, and on a priority basis. Smaller communities farther out depended on supply drops from New Sydney.

There was another noise, and I pointed. We moved into the next aisle.

My boots stuck to something on the floor, and I pulled a face. I lifted my foot. The sticky brown substance smelled bad.Great.

“North, there.” Jess pointed quickly.

I looked up. The creature was perched on top of a shelf, like some weird gargoyle from the fairy tale stories my mom had read me as a kid.

We both fired at it, and it leaped off.

I was getting mad. I felt like it was playing with us.

A loud, squawking noise broke the silence, and we quickly rounded the next aisle. Two birds took flight, and I caught a glimpse of colorful wings as they flew at us.

“Hell.” Jess ducked and lifted an arm as they flew past her, and arrowed out the torn roof. She straightened. “They surprised me, but they were pretty.”

“Rainbow lorikeets.” Another flash of movement. “There’s the monster.”

It was scuttling across the floor at the back of the store, near the old deli section. I ran after it, circling some old counters that were covered in decades of dust. I fired.