Release me. Now. Or I erm." She was still looking at him, unblinking. "Or I'll let him have another shot, then he'll shoot you." "The last thing he'd ever want is to kill me," said Alkland firmly. "Ah, but that's where you're wrong. That's why he sent me after you. You see, you don't understand. This is a good thing. A very good thing." He looked at the woman's face and saw a grim, relentless light growing there, deep in her eyes. Her mouth was shaping a silent cry that he could hear in his mind. The words she spoke a year ago were true. All their hate was gone, replaced with a cold, sharp, implacable, and unstoppable hatred for him. "You'll get us all killed. Come on." He pulled her off the ground and shoved her toward the door. "Go, go. Tell them I've got her. Get out. Go!" "I think not," she said. Alkland dived at her, but she simply batted his grasping hands away with the gun. She was stronger than he'd given her credit for. He stumbled back, a thin smile playing across his mouth. There was no fight left in him. He would have to go. He'd get some people, some backup to back him up, come back. He'd come back, and he'd take her down, and all this would be over, and he'd be alone. Something hit him in the back of the legs, hard, and he fell forward. He tried to twist, tried to fight his attacker, but he could only watch as they got her down on the ground, tied her hands, and tethered her feet together. He got a good look at her as the man stood up, a wide smile on his face. He was huge, over two meters tall, and built like a professional wrestler. He wasn't bald, he had a thick head of gray hair, but that didn't even begin to make up for the look of joy on his face. His eyes gleamed with a crazy kind of excitement that Alkland felt like he knew and understood. "Look what we've found, Captain." He gestured to the woman and smiled. "She's wanted, too, you know." Alkland felt his entire body shiver, felt the sickness rising, the fear and the anger and the humiliation. "Hilarious," he said, and then his voice got a lot less friendly. The man started laughing. "You don't find it funny?" He walked over and stood over Alkland, smiling down. "But there are worse things out here. I have access to them. In the interest of mutual aid, I'm willing to let you go. Or, if you're not up for a trade, you'll get to watch her die. Then you'll die, one by one, until you decide to do the right thing and give up. You know, on your own initiative." He punched Alkland in the side of the head, fast, and he collapsed to the ground, eyes closed, and gasping, like a fish thrown onto the bank. "You know, it's really too bad," said the man. "Because I'm really, really enjoying this." There was a click and a thump. Alkland felt something cold on his face. Then the world went black, and he knew nothing more. # **Chapter Six** _"So what's your plan?"_ _"I get them into the cell. Then I get the key. And then we're free."_ _"And then what?"_ _"Well. Then we are free."_ He drifted back to consciousness. He was in a cell. He could feel the hard ground under him, the hard concrete around him, and they were keeping him in that cell. He couldn't hear anything, but then he remembered. He'd been deaf in his head ever since he got here. But he knew what he was supposed to hear. He'd spent all night in here, and that's how long he'd been here now. There were noises, and lights flashed around him, sometimes right in his face, dazzling him, searing him, blinding him, and leaving him blinded. "Time for your morning walk," a man's voice said. He started shaking. _Get a grip_ , he thought. _It's a game. He's testing you, remember?_ He sat up, and it was a mistake. There were too many people in here. Too many. At least a dozen, and some of them were carrying guns. They were all just watching him, eyes glued to him, eyes following him wherever he went, like they were all in a trance. "Look what you did to me," he said. There were five men there. He started laughing. A flashlight flicked on. One of the men fired a burst of sound at him. He stopped laughing and got up. "You," said one of the men. "Wake up, you. Look what you did to him." "Says he's done something to him." "Oh, come on, he's trying to freak us out." The man with the gun walked up to him. "I guess you've got it, then." He didn't say anything. The man held out a hand to him. "It's all a matter of faith, now, don't you think?" Alkland took the hand, but his heart was pounding. He'd tried so hard to get these people to be his friends, but they were still the same, they were worse than him. They hated him. He knew he was their enemy. The man looked at him and smiled. "No more hiding, Alkland. We're bringing this city together." "Who's we?" The man shrugged. "All sorts. Anyone who wants to be." "What happened to the war?" "We're stopping it," the man said, and then he stood up, dusted himself off, and left, leaving Alkland alone. _A different time_ , thought Alkland. _This is a different time._ A voice crackled over the intercom. "Hey, it's the new girl. You doing okay?" Alkland found his voice, took a breath, and spoke into the microphone. "Alkland, here. Yeah, everything's okay." The man laughed. "You know, you sound a little weird." "What?" asked Alkland. "You do. Did you forget to sleep?" "Yes," he said. "I forgot to sleep." He was staring out at a view of a city. There were no skyscrapers, just houses. Tall, fat, ugly, gray, ugly houses. Each house was only one story, they were all small. One step on the top of the wall and he would be looking down on what was essentially a shantytown, a collection of the city's cheapest houses. "What's that smell?" said the voice in his head. He looked around. He was in a park. What a stupid thing to say. And his head still hurt. "You know what they mean by park? It's the place where a lot of people go when they're playing. Right? So if you went to a park, there would be a lot of people there. And you'd be able to have a lot of people see you doing the park thing." "No." "You're not playing, Alkland. You're really not playing." It was a long way off. He could still hear the guy talking to him, and it annoyed him, the way the voice sounded, like it was mocking him. He walked back toward the house. There were many people there. It was just a village of humans, and they had a wall around the village, not made of brick or stone, but just a wall made of sandbags and sand. A fence, really. It looked completely inadequate. _They haven't built a city_ , he thought. _They haven't been keeping themselves alive for months in a building made of anything other than bricks and stone._ They'd brought up an old house from a garage he'd seen in the neighborhood and moved it over to the fence. Some men were working on it, some were standing around, some were walking up and down the wall. Some were sitting on the wall looking down, laughing at something. They were all in the same way, every one of them a broken thing, somehow, inhuman, stupid, and arrogant. But they weren't that stupid. This wasn't a city. There was nothing for people to do but wait for the coming of the war. And even if there was a war, it wouldn't be a battle. Not the kind of war where you kill the enemy. Alkland was in a village on the edge of this massive desert. There was something else