There
was a nick on the windshield.
George
had noticed that earlier when he had popped into the front cabin to
collect some equipment from Mabel. He assumed that a stray bullet had
hit the transport during the firefight. That time, the shields that
would protect the windows had not deployed. At least the glass had
been tough enough to take a hit.
They had
stopped to pick up Iona once they were in the open wastes again, out
of the rocky area where the tower had been situated. Iona was back in
her human form and was at that moment curled up in one of the seats
in the passenger cabin in the middle of the transport. She was
asleep, clutching her stuffed goat like a baby would with her toy.
She
looked so peaceful. Her sleeping form was a stark contrast to the
dangerous panther with armor-ripping claws that George had witnessed
earlier.
"Hey,
Squirt," Tricia called. Her armored bulk was on a small seat
modified for her armor.
"Yes?"
George responded. He was very tired. The fight had been exhausting,
with people shooting real bullets at him and him trying his very best
to stop them. He was fortunate to have survived unharmed.
"You
understand the concept of suppressive fire, don't you?" Tricia
asked.
"Yes."
George nodded. "Like you said, shoot at them to stop them
shooting."
"The
same goes for you," Tricia pointed out.
"What
do you mean?"
"When
they're shooting at you, you're supposed to be taking cover."
So
instead of shooting back, George should have ducked!? Once he had the
leisure of thinking without worrying about seeing his own blood, he
recalled that he had been shooting back wildly instead of seeking
cover. It was a wonder that he had not been hurt!
Iona was
suddenly awake and beside George. "Squirt, let me see your
bracelet!" she demanded. Without waiting for a reply, she pulled
his hand to herself so she could examine the accessory.
Each and
every one of the beads of the bracelet had broken into pieces. The
fragments that had been trapped within the bindings of the bracelet
fell out when Iona had roughly taken George's hand.
"Wow,
all your balls are broken," Iona commented in wonder.
Mabel,
in the driver's seat in front, blew an amused snort.
"Sorry
about your bracelet," George apologized. How had the beads
broken? A bullet could not have cracked all of them, could it? Did he
slam his wrist against something hard? Even that could not have
smashed each and every one of the beads, could it?
"Squirt,
that bracelet was for your protection," Tricia explained, "Each
bead protects you from one bullet."
"What
kind of technology is that?" George asked curiously.
"It's
magic!" Iona proclaimed.
If he
had been told that the day before, George would have rejected it as
baseless superstition. But since he had spent time in the wastes and
had seen things he had only seen before in downloaded videos -
specifically, Iona's shapeshifting - he was much more open-minded.
There were things out in the wastes that he had never imagined
possible.
Could
there be other stuff in the shows on Covenant's network that could
actually have some truth in them?
"It's
a blessing of the Catalocus Tribe," Tricia said, "Separately,
armor or the blessing could reduce harm from a bullet but you'd still
get hurt. That's why you've both on you. And from the way you've been
fighting, you'll need all the protection you can get."
"You're
very lucky," Mabel added, "The blessing fails when the last
bead has broken. The next bullet will put you in hospital... or
worse."
George
really did not like the 'or worse' used to describe his safety!
"Why
don't you have one?" George asked the heavily-armored Vixen to
get away from the uncomfortable subject concerning how close he had
been to leaking life fluid. As he recalled, only he and Mabel had
bracelets.
Tricia
tapped her spaulder. "This protects me," she said, "and
Iona doesn't need it. Her armor's been blessed already."
George
glanced at the bone plates on Iona's outfit. He wondered how
effective that protection was.
"So,
Squirt," Mabel addressed him, "what do you think? The
wastes is exciting, isn't it?"
"Well,
yeah," George agreed. As long as he did not lose a finger, a
toe, or his head.
There
was silence after that. Iona went back to sleep.
"Anyone
care that we left the place wide open back there?" Tricia asked.
"What
do you mean?" George asked.
"We
left the windows and the main doors open," Tricia elaborated,
"Any wasters left can just walk in."
"I'm
sure Lukas can handle himself," Mabel said confidently, "I
imagine he's been in the wastes for quite a while in that tower,
waiting for challengers. Plus that black power armor's still in there
somewhere."
George
did wonder about the bald man's safety. Well, if anything happened to
Lukas, 'Madboy Keith's Tower of Trials' would stop releasing new
episodes. He could find out, if he could locate the
program on Covenant's network.
***
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