The Rain: The End by Marietta Standlee (good summer reads TXT) 📕

where he ended up because Quill is making his move for me. The arm holding the knife is outstretched, as it comes towards me, he probably thinks I'm being distracted by the alien ball. I see him coming, though, and sidestep him just in time, but not without getting nicked by his knife, grazing my waist, slicing into my flesh. A hiss of pain escapes me, but I manage to interlock my hands, and this time, I hit him in the back, putting all my strength into the blow.

A searing pain runs up my arm, from the fingers all the way to my shoulder. Too late, I remember the Professor's words about the Gorongiath ribs. He was right. They do protect their backs, and they are very painful to hit.

Nonplussed, Quill turns around to stab me, I kick up, and my foot connects with his knife-hand. His arm jerks up. Not giving him time to recover, my other leg comes up as soon as the first is back on solid ground, following up with another high kick against Quill's chest.

He stumbles back, and the moment he hits the wall behind him, he loses hold of his knife. Instantly I'm on him, not giving him time to recover. My hands come crashing down on his skull while my knee pulls up, hitting him in the chin the second he slumps over.

A shot rings out, and Quill's head jerks to the side; a large hole appears on the right side of his skull, followed by green goo. Another shot, and somebody behind me goes down. I don't turn; I know Colin killed whoever tried to attack me from behind. I grimace at him; the pandemonium all around us has almost come to an end. Colin aims and shoots one more time at somebody attacking one of Bellow's marines, then it's over.

Not for long, though, in the ensuing silence, we hear the telltale noise of feet stomping while running. The alien's reinforcements are coming. Fast!

Chapter 14

"Move back to the ship!" Colin yells at the same time as his hand grabs for my wrist and pull me along with him back into our spaceship.

"Doors!" I hear Derek scream as soon as everybody is back inside, just as the first Gorongiaths approaches, shooting in vain against the closing doors.

"Briggs, get us out of here," Colin demands before assessing me. "You look a mess."

Well, quite honestly, I feel like a mess. But Colin should talk; he doesn't look much better. His left eye is swollen shut, blood pours from his right arm, where a knife must have gotten him, or a bullet grazed him.

"Let me see your side; you're bleeding." He demands in a worried tone.

"It's nothing." I manage, looking around. Several of our fighters sport bullet wounds, some lacerations, and knife punctures; nobody has gone unscathed.

My eyes search for the President's son. I find a body on the ground, his head covered by a blanket. My stomach sinks, our mission failed. I close my eyes for a second and wonder what this will mean for us.

"They never had any intentions of letting him go," Colin says quietly next to me, as he ignores my earlier words and checks on the slash on my side from Quill's knife.

"Well, it wasn't a complete failure." Derek offers cheerfully. "We got to kick some alien ass, plus we got rid of Quill."

I grin at him even though a hiss of pain escapes me as Colin smears something on my knife wound. Derek is right; looking at it from that perspective, we didn't completely fail.

I watch our soldiers take care of one another and don't feel so bad for Colin doctoring me. Unfortunately, there wasn't any time to bring a medic on board, but luckily nobody seems to have sustained any life-threatening injuries. We have plenty of time to go home and have everybody looked at there.

"Want me to shoot the station out of the sky?" Briggs asks from the doorway to the bridge.

A wide grin spreads over Colin's face as he turns from me to our Captain. "By all means, please."

Joanne Briggs grins from ear to ear and gives out the needed orders to blow one more Gorongiath stronghold out of the sky. Although, sky is probably the wrong word here.

Once Colin is finished with me, I check on his arm, which isn't bad, just a superficial wound bleeding quite a bit. I disinfect it before putting gauze over it and telling him to hold it tight.

"Now what?" I ask while I work on his arm.

"We'll take the President's son to him as planned," Colin states grimly.

I protest, "Not us—anybody but us, he's likely to order us shot on the spot."

He looks at me thoughtfully while Derek pipes up, "She's right. Briggs and I will do it; the President has no beef with us."

I'm still shaking my head. "Yes, he does, you freed us. In his mind, you probably killed his son, just as much as the Gorongiaths did."

"So, what, we deposit the body at his doorstep? Ring the bell and run?" Derek seems to warm up to the idea.

"We'll take the body to Farnsworth, he won't arrest or attack us, and Farnsworth will take care of McFarland," Colin says, applying pressure to the gauze.

Great, I think. We're back to square one. The President will remain furious with us, and we will still have to be on the lookout for potential attacks from our own people. What a mess.

But Derek is right; at least Quill is dead. With him gone, the Gorongiaths will be busy trying to reestablish their government and won't have time to plan attacks on us. Their fleet diminished, they'll probably barely be able to keep on the defensive, afraid of another attack from us or the Phinaruhs.

Epilogue

Turns out President McFarland is beyond furious with us. But fortunately, without risking