Arranging an escape from the hidden valley was filled with pitfalls and traps. To do such a thing when the ones escaping were not men from the fields or helpless babes, but the daughter of the leader and the man who had been captured purely to impregnate her ....Well, that seemed to have been something of a challenge in itself. But despite the pitfalls, somehow Gia had come through for them.

Over the course of two weeks, Ember and Ethan had begun hording the items that had been appearing on the outcrop of rock that served as a balcony to their locked chambers - rope, food, packs, a pistol and bullets, even a small medical kit to add to the box of hidden salves and ointments Ember already had. They had sparred together as the time grew shorter, both aware of the crisper chill in each morning as the winter snows approached; they had endured Marka's "spot checks", the cruel medical examinations that were designed purely to humiliate the one and anger the other. But it was finally time to put everything into action. With instructions to reach the east side of the watch tower - and the knowledge that Nemone was standing watch tonight to provide the distraction they would need to scale down from the balcony at all - they gathered together their packs.

Ember crouched in the shadow of the cut opening in the rock, her eyes fixed on the watch tower below. "This is not going to be easy," she warned Ethan for the umpteenth time, swallowing hard as she checked the ropes already hooked securely in place.

Ethan, too, was nervous - more so for Ember's safety than for his own. He had long since put her safety before his, nearly from the moment he'd realized he'd somehow fallen in love with her. While making their escape was risky, it was a calculated risk and far less dangerous than the alternative. Staying meant eventually being separated, either because he hadn't performed his duty in impregnating her or because he had. Either way, they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't. Time was of the essence, and with winter coming, it was now or never. "I'd rather die a free man than live the rest of my life a slave," he insisted. They'd been over this a dozen times or more, weighing all the options, going over the plan. They knew what they had to do, but that didn't mean it was going to be easy.

"I know," she whispered. It was a different kind of nervous she was feeling; though she wanted to go, she was leaving everything she had ever known, truly uncertain how Ethan's people would welcome her, if they even would at all. But she was not going to pass up an opportunity to get away from the valley, and her mother's cruel regime, not this time. Sharp eyes caught a flicker of light from the watch tower window, and she nodded swiftly. "There it is. We've got about ten minutes to get down."

Ten minutes hardly seemed like enough time to scale a mountain wall - especially for someone who'd never attempted such a thing before - but it would have to be. His insides felt like scrambled eggs, but somehow he'd managed to keep his dinner down. His experience as a soldier had probably helped with that, though he was secretly terrified they'd be caught. There were even worse things in the world than the women in the valley, but they could only worry about one thing at a time, and right now, the main challenge was scaling that mountain. "I'll go first. You follow. We have to maintain silence, so if you get into trouble, you tug on the rope to warn me. Got it?"

She nodded, her face pale in the darkness. "Got it," she promised, grasping hold of his collar to kiss him briefly. "If you die, I'll kill you, just so you know." It was an awful threat to make at such a time, but it was the best she had. I love you didn't seem appropriate right now.

He hesitated a moment to allow her kiss him, refusing to believe it was the last kiss they'd ever share together. He had to believe this would work; otherwise, he'd have given up hope long ago, and he wasn't the type to give up hope. "We're gonna do this, Ember. We're gonna be okay." They simply had to be. There was no more time for pep talks. They had ten minutes to scale that wall and they had just wasted thirty seconds. He kissed her quickly one last time, before tossing his rope over the wall and disappearing into the darkness.

She nodded once again, his kiss searing her lips in his wake, swallowing the instinctive yell that wanted to rise as he disappeared over the edge of the balcony and onto the sheer drop below. Terrified in her own way, she waited just long enough for him to have gotten partway down, tossing her own rope after him and scrambling over the edge herself. One look down, and she almost threw up, tightening her grip on the rope as she forced herself to move, ignoring the weight of her pack as, hand over hand, she lowered herself into the darkness after him.

It was a race against time, knowing Nemone in the watch tower couldn't keep the spotlight off the mountain forever. It would swing back around in due time, and if they were still on the mountain when it did, nothing she said or did could save them. It helped that Ethan was young and athletic, but even more so, that he had been trained from youth to be a soldier and to do what he had to do to stay alive. This wasn't just about him though; it was about Ember, too, and her safety was far more important than his, not only because he loved her, but because of who she was. Hand over hand, he half slid, half shimmied his way down the rope in the dark, thankful for the gloves he'd been smuggled that protected his hands against rope burns and cold.

Like him, Ember at least had gloves to protect her hands against the rough hemp rope, her main concern being the thought that someone would enter the chamber above them and cut these ropes before they reached safety. She glanced down just once, as her boots touched the first foot of the steep incline, breathing out in relief at the knowledge that they were halfway down. But once they reached the bottom, they had to cross the open assembly yard undetected. Their only blessing was that there was no need for guards on the ground so close to the hill.

Ethan knew better than to look up or look down, his heart pounding in his chest as they started their long journey to freedom. He didn't want to think about anything else, focusing all his attention on the rope in front of him and on lowering himself down from that great height. It would be a miracle if they pulled this off, but they really didn't have much choice. He had no doubt in his mind that if they stayed, it was only a matter of time before they were both killed. This was their only choice and their one chance at freedom.

The surface of the incline was loose turf and sharp gravel, each of them sending small stones bouncing down to the foot of the hill as they scrambled on impossibly thin ropes. Then a shocking warning came to them in the flicker of shadows above their heads. The sweep of the watch tower's spotlight was returning to the hill. Ember felt the panic grip her, looking down desperately toward Ethan.

"Keep going!" he whispered up at her, hoping she heard him in the dark silence of the night. They were too close to give up now, and if they were caught, they'd suffer a fate far worse than death, at least at first. He'd been warned of some of the punishments that would await him if he tried to escape, but he knew he was likely a dead man anyway. The time for a careful climb was over, and he practically slid down the rope, chancing the burn, chancing falling, anything to avoid the light that was going to sweep down on them and give them away any minute. Just as he felt the panic of fear nearly take hold of his heart, his feet found purchase on solid ground and he breathed a great sigh of relief.

"It doesn't matter," he told her. "What matters is that we get out of here." He didn't want to argue about who had the heavier burden to carry or which of them was more physically capable of carrying such a burden, though the answer was obvious. "We're almost there," he whispered. Not almost free, but almost at the place where they were supposed to meet the contact who would take them the rest of the way. "Are you ready?" he asked her again, taking her face between his hands and searching her eyes in the darkness. Don't give up on me now, his gaze told her. We're so close.

She leaned into him for a fraction of a second, one brief sharing of her need to have him close before she took her own weight once again. Only a few weeks ago, she had been completely alone; now, she didn't want to think about a life without Ethan. "I'm ready," she promised him fiercely. "We should get moving. The sooner we meet this person, the sooner we set out again."

"We're gonna be okay, Ember," he promised her, though he had no way of knowing that for sure. Even if he didn't make it, he had to be sure she did. She was the hope of their people; she was all that mattered. Though this part of the journey should be easy in contrast to what they'd already done, they were so close to the tower that they had to be extra careful, extra quiet so as not to be discovered. He took hold of her hand as he started on foot again, hugging close to the tower to stay out of sight as they inched their way around to the far side.

If she'd known that was what he was thinking, they would have had an argument standing right there. She didn't think she was anything of the sort; if anything, she was a liability for him to be traveling with. But the decision had been made, and there was no turning back now. It was escape, or suffer whatever her mother decided was the best punishment for them both if they were caught. Moving carefully in his wake, Ember held tightly to Ethan's hand, creeping as quietly as she could along the wide curving wall of the tower.

They still might argue if she ever found out how he felt, if she ever found out that he valued her life so much more than his. What if she was carrying a child" It was not outside the realm of possibility, and that thought only made their escape that much more urgent, that much more crucial. Slowly, he led her around the circumference of the tower until they reached the other side, but the shadows were too deep to see anything or anyone who might be waiting for them, and Ethan's heart sank as he worried if they'd been forgotten or abandoned.

The eastern side of the tower was far deeper in shadow than Ember had been expecting, the plunge into darkness enough to set her stumbling as she lost sight of her ground beneath her feet, bumping into Ethan's back as she raised her eyes to peer into the shadows. Not for the first time, she found herself gripped with the intense fear that this was all some elaborate set up for a trap, that somehow Gia had been turned to Marka's way of thinking. But if that was so, why all the secrecy, why the decidedly difficult escape" She bit her lip, daring to murmur into Ethan's ear. "I don't see anyone."

Somehow he managed to catch her as she stumbled, more out of instinct than anything else. She had just whispered what he'd been thinking when he heard something. It wasn't much; it could very well have been an animal even. He found his heart pounding again, his hand going almost automatically to the pistol he had strapped to his side. It was just a faint rustle of leaves, a crunch of gravel, but everything about it told Ethan's instincts that someone was there, someone was watching. The question was whether that someone was friend or foe.

The tension that was suddenly right there in the air between them was enough to put Ember on edge, her ears straining to pick up the sound that had alerted him. She mirrored his movement all the same, her own hand falling to the machete strapped onto her thigh. She had no wish to use it against anyone, but she was not about to let Ethan be harmed. Whoever it was had better be a friend, or their chance of seeing another dawn would be close to zero.

The form that suddenly appeared from out of the shadows was large, taller than average, with shoulders so broad they could only belong to a man. Ethan was reminded for just a moment of the half-human creatures that had attacked him that day near the river, before Marka's women had rescued him, only to find himself their prisoner. But as tall and broad as the figure was, this was definitely a man, not a mutant. For a moment, the figure loomed large in the shadows, as if he was considering their presence, and then he stepped forward. If was no wonder Ethan had almost mistaken him for a mutant, as the man was wearing some sort of shaggy fur over his shoulders, his hair long and pulled back from a face that was rugged and bearded, the shadows too deep to clearly show his features but for the eyes, as green as emeralds staring out of that rugged face.

"Come with me and be quiet about it," he told them, his voice deep, despite the hushed whisper.

As for Ember ....it had been a long time since she had been allowed out of the hill. She had forgotten just how big the men who were held down here were, how well-developed they were after years of hard labor. Even Ethan towered over her - this one was huge. She swallowed uncertainly, glancing to Ethan. "Who sent you?" she asked the man who had startled them both, wary of following unless he could give her one of two names.

He had the names that she sought, and though he could have taken offense or even questioned their motives, he only answered the question with one word that would hopefully gain their trust. If they did not trust him, then they were already doomed. "Nemone," he replied, pronouncing the name perfectly, as though he knew it well. "Do you want to escape or would you prefer to ask more questions?" he pointedly asked, reminding them both that it was dangerous to linger.

"We'd be idiots not to ask that question," Ember pointed out, but her hand relaxed away from her blade. She glanced back to Ethan, nodding to him. This was their contact; unexpectedly male, yes, but definitely their contact. "Lead on."

Ethan's hand lingered near the pistol, as if he was debating.

"Shoot or don't, boy. As soon as you do, a dozen guards will descend on you and then where will you be? Where will she be?" the man said with a nod to Ember, knowing fully well who she was and what was at stake here. "Decide," he demanded.

Ethan hesitated a moment, but seeing how Ember seemed to have given him her trust, he could only do the same, his hand moving away from the weapon.

"Good choice," the hulkingly large man said. "Now, follow me, and for God's sake, be quiet."

Wary of the big man, but with little choice, Ember reached for Ethan's hand as she moved to follow Nemone's choice of contact for them. If she hadn't known her cousin inside and out, she would have been suspicious, but no ....he really was exactly Nemone's type. Knowing that made it easier to trust in a stranger. She glanced back at the hill before resolutely turning her eyes forward. She didn't expect to see it again.

That still left their guide with two guards to deal with, and no room to intervene without putting him in danger. Feeling sick for killing one of the women she had been bred to think of as a sister, Ember hesitated beside Ethan, watching the dirty fight in front of them helplessly.

Ethan did not think of the lives he was taking, knowing they would just as soon kill him or worse. They had set out on this course, and he knew if they failed, a fate worse than death awaited them both. Knowing this, he fought with courage and vigor, but it was the big man who had the hardest task and who had taken it upon himself to defend them. His sword slashed through the shadows, as he called back to the two behind him.

"Go, you fools!" he shouted back. "Run for your lives!" Though his manner was unmistakably gruff, it was clear that he meant to buy them some time and defend them to the death, if need be.

"We're not leaving you!" The words were out before Ember could think of them coherently, some inner conscience refusing to leave someone to die just for trying to help them. Setting her jaw, she darted forward, under their guide's raised arm, plunging her machete into the chest of another sister.

The big man growled as Ember rushed forward, Ethan right behind her. Together, the three of them were far more of a threat than only the one, as fierce a warrior as he might seem. Shots rang out in the night, from somewhere far off, blindly shooting, and the big man grunted as he felt something rip into his side. He went down on one knee, his sword arm going up to defend himself against the last of the guards, but it was a dagger in the back that took that guard's life and sparred their guide's. Ethan withdrew his knife, and the guard collapsed on the ground. He turned to find Ember finishing off another, and suddenly, they were alone, but for some far off gun shots and the low rumble of an approaching vehicle.

The blind shots might have gone unnoticed in the melee, but for the way their guide fell down onto one knee, clearing in pain. Ember's eyes flashed to Ethan's face in the darkness, her own pale with fright and shock as she dropped down herself to lay her hand against the big man's side. A hand that came away sticky with cooling blood. "Sh*t," she breathed, concern filling her expression. "We need to get moving, before you bleed out."

"No," the big man replied, clenching his jaw in pain but making no mention of it. "I'll only slow you down. There's a Jeep hidden in the orchard not more than a hundred yards from here. Stay in the shadow of the trees as long as you can. You still have to get past the perimeter. There's a rifle and other weapons. You're a sniper, aren't you?" he asked, looking up at Ethan from his crouch on the ground. "Pick off the guards one by one. If you go quickly, you can get past them before they can call for reinforcements." His breath hitched a moment, as he touched his own side, his fingers coming away sticky with blood. He was covered in blood at this point, though most of it was not his own.

The rumble of the approaching Jeep was growing louder, each bumping thump as the wheels crashed down onto the uneven ground seeming almost deafening in the quietly ominous night. The shots were no longer ringing out, the sound of other vehicles on the move beginning to intrude on the night. "We're not leaving you," Ember insisted through clenched teeth, rearing back as that loud rumble of a solar-powered engine became the skid of a Jeep wheeling into a stop beside them.

"Get in," a familiar voice hissed out of the uncovered interior, and Ember almost bit through her tongue in relief.

"Nemone ..."

"Nem," the man echoed, in obvious surprise and pain. "What are you doing here" It's too risky."

"There's no time to argue," Ethan broke in, ducking to slide an arm around the big man and help him to his feet. No one gets left behind. Those words had been drilled into his head from a young age, and he wasn't about to leave a man who had put his own life at risk to save theirs behind to be captured and killed.

"Shut up and get in the damned Jeep, Mahon."

Despite the immediate danger, Ember couldn't help snorting a little with laughter at her cousin's manner of speaking to the man who had offered to die to see them safely away. The passenger seat dropped forward to allow Ember and Ethan to manhandle the finally named Mahon into the vehicle and clamber in themselves.

"Everyone in" Hold on, then."

Wheels skidded in the dirt as Nemone, the Captain of the Guard and Ember's own cousin, put her foot down, sending the Jeep bouncing off into the night, toward the dark rise of the hills that held the valley hidden.

The man whose name was apparently Mahon, which was ironically pronounced nearly the same, growled in reply as he was unceremoniously manhandled into the Jeep. "Stubborn woman. What do you think you will accomplish by this" If you are caught, Marka will skin you alive just for fun." He ought to know; he'd been used as an example once or twice to keep the other slaves in order, though in his case, it had not worked in Marka's favor. She should have just killed him when she had the chance, and he knew it. Ethan remained quiet through all this, taking note of the connection between the two. He couldn't help but feel relieved at Nemone's arrival, but they weren't out of danger yet.

"We both know I'm the only one who can get away with having a Jeep out on the perimeter in the middle of an emergency without being suspected," Nemone informed Mahon in a tense tone. "Now shut up and let Em work on you. Em, there's a flashlight in the back of that seat. You ....Ethan' Rifle and ammo fixed to the roof, goggles in the door." She reached back briefly, one hand touching Mahon's leg in a quick squeeze before returning her full attention to getting them off the fields and into the woods that lined the hills.

Startled by the sudden round of orders, Ember found herself obeying before she even considered it, one hand locating the flashlight to click it on, peeling away layers of fur and wool to find the wound that had put their guide down.

"Yes, ma'am," Ethan replied obediently, knowing when not to argue. Back home in the village, men and women were equals, both holding respected positions of leadership, including the militia. He went about doing as he was told, securing the rifle and making sure it was properly loaded. If he was going to be called upon to do what he did best, he wanted to make damned sure he did it right.

"And how do you plan to explain our escape?" Mahon countered, flashing Ember a warning look, though he knew she was only doing as she was told.

Mahon's gaze never seemed to leave Nemone, whether he was watching her back or now that she had stopped the jeep to turn around and face them. He wasn't sure if she was changing the plan because of him or for some other reason, but if she could change plans, so could he. "Come with us," he blurted suddenly, even though he knew damned well she'd refuse. Though he had said us, it was really him he was asking her to join. The possibility of never seeing her again weighed heavily on his heart, though he knew they were not only doing this for the good of the people, but for their own selfish reasons, as well.

Despite the presence of their companions, they might as well have been alone. The gaze that met Mahon's was too intimate for any outsider to witness. "I can't," Nemone whispered reluctantly. "If I go, everything changes. We've worked too hard to slip up now." Her hand reached out to touch his, gripping his fingers tightly. "Three months," she promised him. "I'm harder to kill than you are."

He snorted in response to her remark. "I'm just a bigger target," he said, his expression softening in the darkness. He knew they weren't out of danger yet, but they'd gotten farther than either of them had ever expected or dreamed of. "I'll get them to safety. You have my word. And I'll find our boy. This isn't goodbye, Nem. Don't think you'll be rid of me so easily as this," he told her, tangling his fingers with hers. As much as his side was aching, he refused to be robbed of a proper farewell.

"I'll be disappointed if you are that easy to be rid of," she warned him, the barest threat of emotion beneath her voice betraying how hard it was to say goodbye. She drew in a deep breath. "Someone needs to get up front and take the wheel before the patrols reach us. They'll have heard the engine."

It couldn't be Ethan, as he was the sharpshooter, and Mahon didn't trust Ember to drive when she had no experience behind the wheel. "I'll drive," he volunteered. "Not much good at anything else right now, anyways," he mumbled, looking at the pair beside him and wondering which one was going to get out of his way. "Well, don't just sit there and stare at me. Move!" he ordered, the gruffness returning to his voice.

Ethan was the first to move, climbing out of the jeep to allow the big man to get past him. He didn't dare argue, seeing the logic in the man's choice, though it would put the already wounded man in clear view of being shot at. Mahon gritted his teeth to hide the wince as he climbed past Ethan to momentarily exit the vehicle.

With the men shuffling around each other, Nemone reached over to pull her cousin into a tight, one-armed hug. "Be safe," she told Ember fiercely, pressing something into the pocket of the young woman's jacket. "Something from Gia. We'll see you soon." Before Ember could add anything, Nemone had twisted about, sliding from the vehicle herself. She could have edged across the seat sure enough, but some part of her needed to say goodbye to Mahon properly. They really didn't know if they would ever see each other again.

Ethan shuffled past the man to retake his seat once the man had vacated it, quietly pretending not to notice the sentimental moment shared between the two women, which he guessed was going to be followed by an equally bittersweet farewell between lovers. He remembered his first days in the valley, when he and Ember had argued, just like these two, though that fire had cooled only to be replaced by a far deeper blaze.

Mahon waited, though he knew their time was growing short. The longer they tarried, the more organized the guards would be at the perimeter, the more ready to stop them. He wound his fingers around Nemone's for just a moment, gazing into her eyes, refusing to let her see how this was tearing him up, though he thought she must know. "I will see you again," he promised her, refusing not to believe it.

"You had better," Nemone told him, her own jaw tight with the deep stress of having to say goodbye at all. "When you reach the perimeter, just keep driving. Don't look back, don't worry about me. They're trained to hit a man on foot, to protect the technology at all costs. You're safer in the Jeep. Don't slow down for anything."

"Nem," he started, his voice failing him, breaking under the heartache of having to leave her behind, of the worry that something would happen and he'd never see her again. He knew there was no time for a long farewell, so instead, he simply took her in his arms and kissed her. He'd harden his heart later, but for now, he was just the man who had fallen in love with her against all odds and circumstances. "Stay alive, no matter what it takes."

She clung to him as he kissed her, pouring her heart back into him, her grip tight but gentle, mindful of the injury he carried. There was nothing that could be said that they hadn't already shared. She'd never thought, when she'd chosen him purely to keep up appearances, that they would ever come to the point where she ached in his absence. Drawing back, she looked into his eyes, fierce and soft, her fingers tight in his hair. "You, too," she told him, more an order than a request. "Find him. He deserves to know his father."

"He will know his mother, too," he promised her, fully intending to keep his word. "I will see you in three months," he told her, if not sooner. As short as three months was, it seemed like far too long a time to be apart. He leaned his forehead against hers for a moment, while they looked into each other's eyes, the connection between them clear to see, though others had been blind to it. "I love you," he whispered quietly at last, too quietly for the others to hear, those words meant only for her.

She'd tried so hard to keep it together, but those words were rare. They'd dared to say them only when they were absolutely certain not another soul could hear, yet in this moment, he didn't hesitate to share his heart before witnesses, no matter how low his voice. A lump caught in her throat as she swallowed hard, forcing back the tears that wanted to fall. "I love you," was her only answer, whispered with the same fierceness that marked everything she did. A last kiss burned his lips before she pulled away abruptly. "You have to get moving."

He saw the tears in her eyes and felt as though his own heart was breaking, but there was no time for such softening now. There was too much at stake - more than just the lives of two star-crossed lovers. He made no argument at her statement, knowing they could linger no longer. "Get in," he told her, so that she could jump from the vehicle while it was moving and make it appear she had been hijacked. "Try to jump where it's not so rocky," he instructed, worried the fall alone might kill her.

"I've come through too much to let a little tumble kill me now," she pointed out, back to something a little more like herself as she climbed into the passenger side. Her eyes took in Ember and Ethan, assiduously not paying any attention to them. "You two need to hold on tight, this is going to be a very bumpy ride."

"Give me the pistol," Ember argued quietly, refusing to hide when she knew as well as they did that it would take more than one gun to keep them back if the mutants decided to attack the Jeep. "How far do we need to go?" She knew nothing of the distances out here; only enough to know that in order to leave a baby safely in the clearing, she had been obliged to steal a Jeep herself a couple of times.

Mahon said nothing, letting Ethan answer the questions now that they were away from the valley. He was too lost in thought, too worried about Nemone and distracted by his own hurts to answer the questions at hand, too focused on the drive across the plains and the dangers that still faced them.

"I'm not sure," replied Ethan. He'd been unconscious for most of the trip to the valley and when he had been conscious, he'd been blindfolded and unable to know where he was headed. He reckoned from the passage of time, however, that it had been at least twenty miles, maybe more. "Not too far, I don't think. Twenty miles maybe?" he said, wondering if Mahon would agree or if the man didn't know. He wondered at the man's history a little - where was he from, how long had he been in the valley, how had he met Nemone and how had they become lovers" But all those questions would have to wait until they were safe.

Since her request for the pistol had been tactfully ignored, Ember rolled her eyes, pulling it from Ethan's thigh and checking it was still loaded. She loved him, truly, but he had developed a tendency to forget that she was just as well trained as he was. "So with any luck, we'll be safe well before dawn," she mused thoughtfully, her eyes returning to the darkness passing them by. The men would be safe; she knew she wouldn't be entirely safe until she proved she could be trusted. Her thoughts wandered to Nemone, and to Gia, who had both taken such risks to get them out ....what would happen to them now she was gone"

Ethan flinched as she tugged the pistol from his thigh, as though he hadn't heard her ask. He'd been so focused on watching for mutants that he'd completely missed her request for the pistol. Mahon was thinking along similar lines, wondering if Nemone would be safe or if Marka would suspect she had been part of the plan to help them escape. Either way, there was nothing that could be done about it now. He only hoped Marka's daughter was worth the risk they had taken to free her.

"When we reach the village, you should let me do the talking," Mahon suggested, though it hardly answered her thoughts.

"No," Ethan countered. "I'll do it. I'll explain. They'll listen to me," told them both, but before they were able to discuss it further, his attention shifted to some movement just a few short miles distant. "They're coming," he warned.

"Which direction?" she asked abruptly, shaking her pack off onto the floor of the Jeep finally. Ethan had the advantage, wearing the night goggles, but she wanted to be ready to help if any of the things got too close. She'd only ever seen one, already dead, being drained of the poisonous ichor that even a scratch could inject into an unwary victim. She had no idea what to expect.

"East," he replied, carefully tracking their movement. Abruptly, he pulled the goggles from his face and handed them to Ember. "Put these on and keep your eyes peeled. Don't take a shot too soon or they'll be out of range, but don't let them get too close either." Ethan wished they had better cover, but the Jeep left them open and vulnerable to attack.

"Can we veer away from them?" Mahon asked, preferring to avoid any contact with the things, if at all possible.

"Not unless you want to end up in a swamp," Ethan replied, leaning forward to peer through the sights of the rifle, set for night vision.

Taking the goggles from Ethan, Ember slipped them on over her head, shifting to find as secure a spot to aim from as she could. "At least they're coming at us in the open," was all she really had to say, focusing to let her eyes adjust to the eerie green glow that was now her vision. The movement from the east caught her attention - a frightening amount of it, too. There were at least ten of the things headed toward them, faster than she had thought they were capable of. She swore quietly under her breath, hoping they ate each other, or the Jeep might end up overwhelmed when more came out of hiding.

"There will be more where those come from," Mahon promised grimly.

Ethan frowned, wishing the man would just shut up and try to be a little more optimistic for Ember's sake, though maybe it was better to be realistic. A shot rang out in the night, echoing for miles. With any luck, it would alert the villagers to trouble and maybe they'd come to their aid. Ethan's reputation as a sharpshooter wasn't exaggerated as the shot, even while moving, hit its mark, taking one of the things down. That did little to slow down the others however, and Ethan took another carefully, one by one, picking the things off like ducks in a row.

Painful as it was, Ember forced herself to remember her training, knowing the range of the pistol in her hands and how limited her own ammo was. She couldn't afford to miss a shot, not while they were so exposed. But being so focused definitely had its downside. While Ethan picked off the mass approaching from the east, some sixth sense made her glance around as a pale shape leaped from the marsh on the other side of the Jeep, long clawed fingers reaching for Mahon. She didn't even think - she spun about, squeezed the trigger, and the mutant fell back, clawing in futile despair at the sizable chunk now missing from its head. Heaving herself up, she kicked it from the Jeep, almost swallowing her tongue at the sight of others keeping pace with the vehicle. This was not good.

Mahon seemed as shocked as she was at the sudden appearance of mutants so close to the Jeep, like they had come out of nowhere. The Jeep swerved just a little, but thankfully not enough to veer them off the path and into the deadly marshland. He gunned the engine again, taking a chance on speed over caution. He found his heart racing, as he narrowly escaped the mutant's deadly claws. He'd have to make sure to thank her later, if they got out of this alive.

Mahon drew a knife from his belt, swerving a little again as he took the wheel with one hand while he lunged toward one of the mutants with the other to drive the knife into its chest. "Machete!" he called. "Give me your machete!"

In the meantime, Ethan was taken by surprise, one of the mutants taking a wild swing at the rifle, which in turn, knocked Ethan in the head, momentarily stunning him.

For all her time spent in solitary confinement, Ember's instincts had not died. She'd been trained as a soldier, taught to fight from a young age, and as all hell broke loose around her, those instincts responded. Her foot kicked out at the mutant trying to reach for Mahon, one hand ripping the machete from her thigh to drop the handle into his free hand. Barely a moment later, her pistol rose, her second shot fired, taking the one attacking Ethan in the face. Four shots left ....nowhere near enough.

Somehow, Mahon managed to get hold of the machete, and finding it in his free hand, he took a swing with the blade at one of the things while trying to steer the Jeep one-handed at breakneck speed. He wasn't sure how, but somehow he made contact, slicing the neck of one, blood spurting from the wound to cover his sleeve. Ethan seemed stunned for a moment, groaning in pain, a lump forming on his cheek where the rifle had made contact.

Ember grabbed for the back of the passenger seat as the Jeep swerved, knocking her off-balance with the violent motion. It was just as well - a loud thump gave away the scramble of another of the things up onto the back of the Jeep, one long clawed hand sweeping through the air where her face had been only a moment before. But to her shock and ever lasting relief, its face quite suddenly exploded in a spatter of blood and ichor, the victim of a shot fired accurately from the line of trees ahead of them. Finally Ethan's people had responded to the shots that warned them of what was coming. Men and women were just visible, crouched or standing among the trees, as shots rang out. So accurate, in fact, that Ember made a grab for Ethan's stunned form, dragging him down to avoid any stray bullets catching him.

Ethan only groaned as Ember grabbed him downward, stunned for the moment and unaware exactly of what was going on around him. It was up to Mahon now to get them to safely to the cover of trees where Ethan's people were waiting. One of the things rose up in front of the Jeep, and the big man crashed right into it, the speed carrying them forward, the body crushed beneath the vehicle's tires. A stray bullet hit the windscreen, shattering glass, causing him to flinch and swerve, but he kept his foot on the gas, only stopping when another mutant lunged toward the wounded driver and the Jeep came to a sudden halt as it smashed into a tree just as they entered the woods.

In the process of pushing herself back onto her feet to defend Mahon, the sudden jolting stop threw Ember over the side of the Jeep and onto the ground in a painful roll, quick to scramble over onto her back and fire at the bodies crowding in over her, oblivious for now to the very human rescuers rushing to finish off the clinging creatures still swiping at the vehicle's occupants.

The force of the crash thrust the big man forward to smack his head hard against the windscreen, blood dribbling down his forehead, probably the least of the wounds he's suffered this night. Too stunned to be of much use, he was relieved to find what he presumed to be the villagers coming to their rescue. Weary and wounded, he slumped over the steering wheel, the machete falling from his hand onto the ground. Ethan, too, was stunned, sliding sideways and losing consciousness as everything around him slowly faded to black. Thankfully, their rescuers had the advantage now and easily took care of the mutants before they could do cause any more harm.

As the bodies dropped around her, the poison each one held leaking into the ground, Ember couldn't hold back her nausea any longer. Heaving, she rolled onto her knees, what little dinner she had eaten what seemed hours ago returning to the outside world as she shuddered. As hands reached for her, the edges of her vision turned black, blindness spilling through her sight as she passed out, at the mercy of the village Ethan called home.

((Look, we survived an action sequence! W00t! Huge thanks to my writing partner for being generally awesome!))