Chapter 23: Making a Change

Rick stared at Emily after her announcement, then his eyes rushed to look over the movement in the hills and bushes around them. "You mean they're all around us?"

"And I think they closed off our retreat," she said, her mouth set in a grim line. "If they stay still long enough, I can cut out..."

But that wasn't to be, because before they could execute the plan, the grasses and bushes began rustling more violently on all sides. Several jackalopes launched themselves like furry missiles and Rick ducked one, using his elbow to deflect another.

There were more coming, several through the grass, but this time he was prepared for a low attack. Rick began a series of rapid fire kicks that sent most of the jackalopes tumbling backward, but one got through and cut along his ankle.

A second later, a jackalope split in half a foot from his head, showering him with blood. He hadn't even noticed the beast before Emily cut it in half. "We can't fight like this," she said. "Cover me."

Though Rick had no idea what she meant, there was no time to argue. Emily raised one arm in front of her face, focusing, and there were jackalopes closing in from all sides. Just trying to fight them off with his fists was useless, but Rick realized that he had another weapon.

Bracing his defensive core, Rick used a Bunyan's Step to throw himself at a rushing group of jackalopes. Since he hit them before they could lower their horns, they went flying. Some of their antlers stabbed him a bit, but nothing like a direct attack.

Grinning, Rick began bouncing around Emily in a series of rapid Bunyan's Steps. He was taking trivial injuries and exhausting himself, but each movement sent more jackalopes flying. If he moved around her in a star pattern, he could effectively keep them all off. They began to bunch up strangely, forcing him to shift his pattern. Just when he started to wonder how long he needed to keep it up, Emily spoke.

"Stay there."

He froze and at that moment Emily struck. She swung her hand through the air, the aura around her hand extending to a massive distance. It sliced straight through a large region, tearing apart grass, jackalopes, and rocks with equal ease.

Though she took out several of the animals, Rick realized her true objective: she'd completely cleared a large area of grasses and other places for the jackalopes to hide. He managed one more Bunyan's Step to get him into the open space and Emily followed him a second later.

"Great idea, Emily."

"We need to finish this fight first." For all her terse response, he saw a smile on her face.

From their new position, the two of them fought off the herd of beasts. Rick could feel that he was bleeding from the minor injuries, and occasionally a charging jackalope managed to score another slice, but he'd realized that those couldn't take him down. If he focused on defending his face, his fists, and his joints he'd be fine. Emily took a few injuries as well in the swarm, but she wasn't seriously threatened.

As they fought together, their teamwork began to improve. He developed a sense for her position and didn't move unnecessarily when she could defend herself. Meanwhile, she eased off on rushing in to protect him from flank attacks, trusting in his defenses.

Rick felt the enormous difference in power between them, yet Emily didn't emphasize it. She trusted him to carry his weight and didn't make him feel like a burden. He remembered just how prickly she'd been when they'd first met. It had been justified, due to the circumstances, but she'd warmed a bit since then. Obviously she was never going to be the emotional type, but now that she trusted him, she was a reliable ally.

It went on long enough that Rick began to expect the animals to merge together into a giant boss jackalope. But nothing ridiculous happened, the beasts just thinned until the last threw themselves homicidally into his shoe and Emily's sword. They shifted back to back, pivoting carefully to examine the battlefield, but it seemed that it was over.

"Whew." Rick let out his breath in one burst and his tension went with it. He wanted to slump to his knees, but his knees hurt. When he looked over himself, he realized just how many injuries he'd taken. They were almost all superficial, and they hadn't impeded him significantly, but damn they hurt like hell now that the adrenaline was wearing off. "Wow, I am a mess."

"Dammit, these things cut my hoodie." Emily examined it in dissatisfaction. "I really figured its inbuilt defenses would hold, but their ability to use lucrim offensively is surprising."

"Yeah, but I think we had to have killed most of them." Rick was still panting for breath, so he took a while just to breathe deeply. Once he felt better, he began picking up all the corpses and dropping them into a garbage bag.

He felt slightly relieved that Emily needed to catch her breath too after that experience. After poking her fingers through the holes in her hoodie, she sighed and pulled it off to tie around her waist. Underneath she was wearing a t-shirt - it was a perfectly normal one, but with her chest rising and falling like that, Rick decided it was a good time to check the survey technique again.

"We're pretty close," he announced, looking back up into the hills. "Hopefully we'll find the anomaly before we run into any more of them."

"No need to rush into it." Emily reached into a pouch in her hoodie and came out with two thin cans. They looked like energy drinks, but the label said "EthCorp Bioenergetic Restorative" in plain font - not exactly a catchy slogan. "Drink one of these. Given your defensive core, it should help a lot."

"Thanks." Rick took it, his fingers brushing against hers, and hastily drank it. The liquid tasted more like gasoline than anything, but an instant later he felt it shoot through his body like fire. He rubbed his forehead. "Wow, that's quite a kick."

"Yeah. It will make you feel a lot better in the short term, but it will also help you recover faster." Emily had already finished her can and tucked it away in one pocket. She gave him a surprisingly broad smile, then gestured with her head into the hills. "Alright, you ready to finish this?"

They advanced forward in more cautious silence, after the previous ambush, but no attacks materialized. Rick decided that since Emily had normal combat covered, the best thing he could do was focus on the survey technique so they could finish sooner. The anomaly really had to be close, maybe tucked just around any one of these corners.

"I think it must be just ahead..." Rick looked up from time to time, then went back to frowning at the aura between his hands. "Hopefully soon."

"Rick..." Something in Emily's voice made him look up and he immediately froze.

A dragon wound its way from around a rock, this one larger and less pathetic than the previous beast, though still woefully under-grown overall. It had a few broken antlers sticking out of its hide, as if it had fought off local jackalopes.

All of that was less important than the foam around its jaws: the dragon had rabies.

Before they could react, it let out a keening cry and charged, shockingly fast. They'd both been frozen at the sight and had to force themselves to react. It was all Rick could do to dodge aside with a Bunyan's Step, knowing he couldn't contract a potentially lucrim-enhanced infection. Emily dodged and struck back, but her aura blade glanced off its scales, only landing a shallow blow.

There was almost no time to think - the dragon caught itself on an opposite mound, its body coiling as it prepared another rabid rush. Rick wasn't sure how to react, but in the moment they had, Emily called out.

"You block, I strike!"

Almost before his mind had consciously understood, Rick found himself moving in reaction. When the dragon rushed at them again, he threw himself out to meet it. The jaws came for his face with terrible speed, but Rick managed to hit it in the side of the head with one elbow.

His blow barely stunned the rabid dragon, which lunged out at him again. This time its teeth threatened his strike, so all he could do was grab it around the long neck. Yet the creature was surprisingly strong, twisting and trying to snap at him. Any moment, it would get the right angle and those teeth would sink into his-

The dragon's head spun through the air as Emily completed her swing.

For a while they just stared at the creature, then Rick let out a low laugh. The poor creature was tragic, yet it was a laugh of pure joy that they'd survived. Thankfully, Emily joined him, dissipating her aura blade and wiping her eyes as she laughed.

"I can't... I can't believe we killed it like that..." Rick had to suck in a deep breath.

"I know!" Emily partially doubled over, gripping his shoulder so as not to fall down, and he didn't even mind the slight pain. "Immediately after I started kicking myself, heh, because I kept thinking that what I'd yelled was stupid. Yet you figured it out."

"Guess we're in sync after slaughtering so many defenseless rabbits." It was a dumb joke, but it got a giggle from Emily. For a moment they were both bending over, getting their laughter under control, their faces nearly touching. Emily stared into his eyes with an expression he couldn't read, and when she spoke her voice was oddly breathy. "Rick..."

She didn't continue and he stared back, becoming increasingly awkward. Before he could think of anything to say, she pulled away.

"Let's finish the job first. There could be more of them."

So the moment had passed. Rick swallowed his disappointment, though he wasn't sure exactly why. They took care of the dragon's body as respectfully as they could, burying it instead of putting it in a garbage bag. After that, they advanced toward the anomaly.

It ended rather anticlimactically, with a few weak jackalope attacks and one more attempted ambush. But it was a much smaller number of the animals and their teamwork had improved, so the murderous creatures never had a chance.

Then, without anything else to defend it, they stumbled across the anomaly. Emily stood guard in case more jackalopes came to attack them, but nothing stopped Rick from getting out his sphere and reporting the anomaly. It was accepted almost immediately, and though he breathed a sigh of relief, he found himself a bit disappointed.

As they walked back out of the hilly area, collecting a few missed jackalope bodies along the way, Rick found himself wondering if he'd made a mistake. Going in alone would probably have been suicide, and he thought calling Emily had been the right choice, but something wasn't quite right. The conversation that had come much easier before now seemed suppressed as if by an aura.

When they got back into Emily's car, she gripped the wheel tightly and drove well over the speed limit as if rushing home. Rick risked a glance over at her and wondered what was wrong. She did seem to pull back when people got too close for her, so had that been the problem after the big fight?

They finally got back and he was starting to feel like he should just run away. Yet it wouldn't be right to just leave her after she'd done so much to help him. So as he got out of the car, he swallowed his uncomfortableness and spoke. "Thanks a lot for helping today, Emily. And if I screwed u-"

"Rick, do you want to get dinner sometime?" Without warning she was staring at him, her gaze intent but no longer so unfriendly. He froze in shock, staring back at her.

All at once he reinterpreted how tightly her fingers gripped the steering wheel. The way the words had tumbled out of her mouth, she was as nervous as he was. Rick found his emotions spinning rapidly because he didn't want to stand there like an idiot but he needed to make the right decision. Emily was a great friend and he wasn't about to deny the attraction he felt, yet she'd seemed to hold herself at such a distance...

She turned away. "Okay, forget it. I'll-"

"Wait. Yes." Rick took a deep breath as he made his decision and smiled at her. "Yes, I'd love to get dinner sometime. And I don't mean dinner to talk about lucrim techs at the place by your work. Though, uh, we can definitely do that if you want."

Emily's glare melted into a relieved smile. "Oh, thank fuck. It's hard for me to put myself out there and I was beginning to think I'd blown it."

"No, no, you're fine. Uh, if you were throwing hints earlier, I can be pretty bone-headed about this sort of thing. Sorry if I missed-"

She snorted. "I'm not going to go on about feminine intuition, Rick. I'm an engineer. I like things to be straightforward and simple."

"Well. Uh." The fact that they were technically sort of dating hit him in a rush and he tried to work with it, keeping his face in a smile that wasn't too ridiculous. "If we're being straightforward, all that fighting left me with no idea what my schedule is. But I do really want to get dinner, so let's text and set a time."

"Right, good. And no bullshit about waiting three days or anything." As Emily smiled back at him, Rick realized that he didn't regret his decision in the slightest.

After that, he collected several garbage bags of animal carcasses out of the back of her car. This was significantly less romantic. But grinning like an idiot the way he was, Rick didn't really care.