Chapters 52 - 55

                                    

                                          
Chapter 52
                          

                          
Tick, tick, tick, tick…
                          
Jordan peered over the sand dune. Two of them were hovering next to the enormous open city gates. The sun was setting behind Jordan and her group, making it harder to see them.
                          
Jordan’s mind was still getting over the fact that they were yards away from another city, a city once much like her own. The large walls raised high off the ground. Once people would have been inside laughing, crying, living. Now according to Rhun, it was a graveyard. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of voices were silenced forever. All she could do was pray that her friends were somewhere safe inside.
                          
Rhun slowly crawled back from his vantage point on the peek of the dune. “Well, we’ve been here for two hours already. It doesn’t look like they are going to be moving anytime soon.”
                          
“Then we go through them?” Jordan was shocked to hear the excitement in Lierna’s voice.
                          
“We go through them,” Rhun quietly echoed. “Ward, Argo, take the one on the left. Lierna and I will take the one on the right.”
                          
Jordan found herself nodding along with the crazy plan until she realized she wasn’t included. As much as she thought the idea of attacking the machines was crazy she refused to be the only one left hiding in safety. “Wait, what about me? I can help.”
                          
Rhun shook his head. “It’s too dangerous for someone who hasn’t encountered a ticker before. Stay here and keep watch. If any other approach, let us know.”
                          
Jordan knew Rhun was trying to placate her with a bogus task. “No way. I’m going with you. You’re doing all of this to locate my friends. There’s no way I’m staying back.”
                          
Rhun paused for a moment looking at the other three members in their party. He was quiet. Jordan knew he was weighing the decision in his mind looking at the plan from every angle.
                          
“Oh, let her come, Rhun,” Lierna said. She looked from Rhun to Jordan and skewered her with a sardonic grin. “I like you, Jordan. You’re crazy, but I like you.”
                          
Rhun ignored Lierna’s outburst and looked to Ward and Argo. Both men nodded and grunted in affirmation of Lierna’s previous statement. “All right then,” Rhun said taking in the entire team. “Jordan, you’re in. Speed and stealth are our greatest allies.”
                          
Jordan nodded along, grateful for the opportunity to prove herself amongst her new comrades. “Right speed and stealth” she repeated. It was only as the others turned to go that Jordan realized she didn’t have the slightest clue on how to kill the machines.
                          
 
                          

                          
Chapter 53
                          

                          
“Perfect, the sun is setting. It will be much harder for the clickers to find us in the dark,” Leopold said as he shifted the light sack on his shoulder. “Come along now. There is no time to waste.”
                          
Alice matched his gate stride for stride. Jerrick; however, was having trouble finding a comfortable way to carry his load. Leopold gave him a smile of encouragement. “There you go. You got it. Put all those muscles to use.”
                          
Jerrick gave him a stare that made Leopold quiver. “Well then, anywho. We should stick to the perimeter of the city wall until we reach the entrance. Then we’ll move as fast as we can over the desert and to the survivors outside the wall.”
                          
“Right,” Alice repeated, “the survivors. Tell me again how we plan on finding them in the desert?”
                          
Leopold cleared his throat as the sky darkened with the approaching night. “Well, that is the easiest part, isn’t it? People cannot survive without water. The Codex shows a map of what the world used to look like. We head for the nearest water mass. That’s were they’ll be. Water means life in the desert.”