Bless Me On My Way - English Edition by dublinertinte (beach read book .TXT) 📕

explosion shook the dome. The other two Tusk gliders turned away, attacked again and burned a swath into the forest, the fire was in front of the dome within seconds. Jack saw them though the glass of the dome, concentrated again on the control panel and hit one of the gliders. It was too late to eliminate the other one. He could not use the laser cannon within the dome, he jumped behind the sturdy construction of the fire wall and activated the tracker. Connected to the battery, it immediately sent out the signal and Jack hoped that someone was still in the orbit and would receive it. They should not come to get him. They should drive away the Tusk. Once that was done, he would disappear, if he was still able to do it. Above him, the dome exploded, he threw himself to the ground and although he pressed his forehead on the floor, his hands over his ears, the explosion was so violently that it tore one ear drum. Hidden behind the fire wall, he was protected from the flying glass and metal chunks and fire, but the wall could not protect him from what came after.

Rachel met a small group of villagers and passed on what Jack had told her. Most of them agreed to flee further into the wood and into the narrow valleys. But George held her back for a moment.
"What is he doing to stop them?”
"He will attract them to the dome."
"There are reasons why the dome is off limits for us," said George, "there are equipment and weapons which can blow us all to pieces if they are not operated correctly.”
"Jack can handle it."
"He will not come out alive."
George took over the distorting dogs from Rachel and she wanted to move on, but then she suddenly stopped.
"I can’t leave him alone," she said. George stared at her, turned around and saw through the thick trees the explosion that destroyed the first glider.
"I have to go back."
She left the dogs with George, ignored his attempt to persuade her to come along with him.
"If I find him, I come back with him," she said, ran back and smelled already the burnt wood, plastic and molten metal.
She was out of breath, her arms scratched from the bushes and was pushed to the ground when the dome exploded. For a second she was unable to breathe, felt the cuts in her face and was relieved that her eyes were intact. All around, small fires had broken out, splinter stuck in the ground and in trees. Her small incisions were burning, but she pushed this aside. She ran, stumbled and found the shortest way to the dome and stopped when she saw what was left of it.
Bless me

, she thought, I must find the entrance.

The roof of the dome was destroyed, the technology was burned and waisted. A glider hovered above the remains of the dome, several scouts had landed in the rubble. The Tusk talked with the intercom, searched through the destroyed remains and were not surprised to be attacked again. One of them was hit and collapsed, the other entrenched himself and aimed at Jack, who had barricaded himself behind the destroyed firewall. He had no chance. The bullets hit the wall around him and Jack was so busy trying to reload his pump gun and to shoot blindly on the attackers, that he did not notice he was hit. He noticed it when he saw the blood on the floor. Not just isolated little splatters of blood, much more.
Ignore it

, he thought, as long as you can feel your fingers, shoot back.

The ammo did not last long, he loaded the last two cartridges into the gun and turned around. He saw the movement in the corner of his eyes, reacted to it without thinking. The Tusk, who tried to get at him, was hit by the full charge, was thrown back and disappeared from Jacks view. The other Tusk waited for his attack, jumped from the top of the wreckage and stopped a few yards in front of Jack. Under normal circumstances, he would have reacted more quickly, but he slipped in his blood when he grabbed again for the gun and tried to dive. The charge caught him and nailed him against the ruined wall. Immediately he could not breath nor move.
That’s it

, he thought, but if they managed to escape, it was worth it.

He blinked with some efforts and looked up to the Tusk wearing his mask and battle gear and coming closer. Everything seemed to freeze around him. He took in air with a hard whistling, breathed bright red blood bubbles. The Tusk knelt beside him, leaning down to him and whispered: “Who are you? Where are the others?”
Jack could not answer. The pain was worsening with every breath and he would have said to the Tusk to end it, but he could not.
“You didn’t do this alone. Where did you come from? Did you fall from the sky?”
He beat Jack on the stomach, satisfied as he barely get any response. He would end it.

Rachel found the entrance to the dome, Jack had left the metal door open and also he had had no time to hide the place behind torn green. She entered to the dark and narrow tube which filled her with an acute attack of claustrophobia which was completely new to her, as she never had been in such a thing as a narrow dark room. Her heart was pounding and with wide-open eyes she felt her way through the passage, found the flickering fire after the bend. It was so much smoke in the air that her eyes starting watering and she pressed her palm to her lips, trying to breathe through her sleeves.
I can’t faint

, she thought, went down to her knees and crawled through the scattered debris, glass and metal fragments, moved them aside in order not to cut her hands. She did not look up, ignored the Tusk glider and looked for Jack. She screamed when the shooting began and only by the deafening roar of explosions, no one heard her cry. She had been hidden in a computer cabinet, moving out the round and square disks which no one could use anymore, to make place for herself. In the closet she pushed the crooked door close until she could see only through a crack. What she saw from her hidden place was the landing of the glider in the debris, Tusk jumping out and being shot from another part of the room.
Why don’t I have a weapon

? Rachel thought, wiping the tears from her face, if I had a gun, I could help him.

It took barely ten minutes until the fight stopped and Rachel heard the monotonous hiss of the Tusk as he put the questions on Jack and got no answers.
She pushed the door a little bit to the side, lifted her head and saw a new light above the glider which had caused this destruction. There were movements in the chaos of fire, destruction and smoke around her, the Tusk ran to his glider and disappeared, and finally she crawled out of the hiding and over to the place behind the broken fire wall. She expected that Jack was there, but she was not ready to see what she found. There was blood everywhere, smears of blood, blood in splashing and pools. Beneath a broken stone block was Jack, half turned on his side, one hand still on the tracker which constantly gave his signal. His battle suit prevented the blood streaming directly from the gunshot wounds because the fabric closes itself if perforated. The blood ran out of the neckline of his combat gear and when Rachel pulled him laboriously in an upright position, she felt horrified that the inside was full of blood.
Jack did not respond when she whispered to him that everything will be all right. She held his head and tried to see if he was still breathing.
“You’re not going to die”, she said, “I’ll bring you away from here.”
Slowly he opened his eyes, stared into space and Rachel pressed her hands to his face and pressed a kiss on his forehead.
“I’ll stay with you”, she said, sobbing and trembling, when she believed that he looked at her and his painfully face relaxed a little. She struggled violently when hands reached for her and moved her to her feet. She saw what they did, without understanding it. The men, unrecognizable in their combat gears, took the tracker from Jacks hand and switched it off. The laid him flat on the floor and pushed something over his face. When they opened his combat gear and pulled it down, Rachel saw the bullet wounds and turned away abruptly.
It’s a nightmare

, she thought, I wake up and everything will be fine. Jack is fine. This is not his blood. With such wounds he could not be still alive.

Rachel heard the question addressed to her, but she could not answer. When it was repeated, she said: “How can he breathe?”
“We take care of him. Now I wanna know who you are and what Jack has done here.”
Rachel stared at the woman who had taken off her helmet and run her fingers over her shaved head. The woman took Rachel aside, wanted her to concentrate.
“Answer my questions.”
Rachel stuttered, she did not know where to start and finally she could say something that was understood.
“You tell me that Jack has lived with you Ciudad the last years?”
Rachel nodded. It could be reduced to that.
“I’m Bessinger”, she said, “we have caught Jack’s signal. We usually don’t interfere in the affairs here, but this time it was different. We take him back to the station.”
Rachel nodded and discovered that her hands were cut and grazed and was surprised that it did not hurt.
“They attacked our village”, she said, “and if they do, we flee into the forest. We are looking for a new place for the settlement.”
“You flee”, Bessinger said disparagingly, “that was obvious.”
On the portable surveillance monitor she controlled the environment and shouted into the intercom that they should continue to monitor the area until they had Jack in the glider.
“Can I come with him?” Rachel asked.
Bessinger turned to her, looking suspicious.
“Why should we take you with us?”
Rachel tried to push her feelings aside and to focus on the next important things to do. She could go back to the other Ciudad, start over again and wait for the next attack. Without Jack. But she could not do this.
“I want to stay with Jack.”
“That’s impossible.”
Rachel knew what kind of impression she had on the soldier. What was absolutely normal for her, the gray dress made of coarse cloth which hung from her shoulders, solid black shoes without socks, their hair hold together with a ribbon, might be strange to them.
She was neither tall nor strong, was neither particularly pretty nor female. She had to convince Bessinger that she had to stay with Jack. Meanwhile, the soldiers lifted Jack into a stretcher and brought him to the glider.
“What do I have to do to stay with him?”
In her ears her voice sounded small and uncertain, and Bessinger made a face as if she could not believe that she had to deal with a wailing child.
“What’s your name again?”
“Rachel.”
“Rachel, there is no way that you could stay with him. He’s a soldier and just has been hiding for a while with you. That’s all. You go back to your forest and we get