I rinsed the wound in Andy’s side with the chlorinated water from the pool, receiving a hiss of pain for my efforts.

“Hold him down,” I told Carter. She did so, her weight on his shoulder, so he remained still. Pulling the needle and thread from the medical supplies in my bag, I began the work of tying the cut closed. The wound was wider than the original cut from the fly, and my combat knife didn’t cut skin as cleanly as a scalpel.

We repeated the entire process with Carter as well. I was thankful that they were so close to Citrine. While their wounds weren’t healing faster, they were able to ignore the pain more easily. Both of them were back on their feet within minutes, and Carter’s wound had been mid-thigh.

“Carter,” I said, “you comfortable treating the rest of the group?”

“Same thing?”

“Most should be easier,” I said. “Some could be worse. Yours was mid-thigh, but not close to your femoral artery.”

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Great. Andy’s had field training like me, so he can advise.” I took a breath and met her eyes. “No bullshit. Not everyone is going to live through tonight.”

“Why not?” Carter asked, even as Andy nodded his understanding.

“Not everyone is strong enough.”

“What will you be doing?” Andy asked.

“I’m going to find more cores. We can use the mana to heal anyone who needs it.”

“You need backup?”

“I hope not. I’m going to collect the cores we left behind with the bodies of the flies, then I’ll be right back.”

“And if shit goes sideways?”

“Shit is already sideways. This is just the new situation normal.”

“Fair. Good luck.”

I left the room, the other two right behind me, signaling for Susan and another woman, who wasn’t carrying a child, to come into the side room.

I looked at the group of women and children for a long moment. I was wasting time, and I knew it, but I took the extra moment to count the group. Seventeen. There wouldn’t be enough cores, I already knew that.

“I’m going out to collect those cores,” I said in a low voice to Bragg and Chavez. “I’ll be back soon.”

“You need someone to watch your back?” Chavez asked.

“No.” I shook my head. “I need you here to take care of the civilians.”

“Roger,” he said. “We’ll keep them and the location secure until you get back.”

“Good,” I said.

I didn’t say more. I didn’t have to. I left the Comfort Inn, making my way back down the street. I had a few things working for my stealth. First, it was nighttime, which is always great for covert operations and not being noticed. Second, I was by myself. One person can move both more carefully and quickly than a group of people in an operation. That’s why spies tend to be on their own. Third, I had the training. I might be as big as an ox, but part of training included how to move at night and where to put my feet to avoid making a lot of noise.

However, I had one major factor working against me. The blood of the centipede lit up my pants and arms. In the darkness, I felt like I was wearing a lighthouse, with a loudspeaker mounted on top for good measure.

So, I didn’t bother moving quietly. I didn’t move cautiously from parked vehicle to vehicle along the road. I accepted my role as a walking streetlamp and strutted my way down the street. My sword was out, and my gaze flicked all around me.

I made it to the end of the block before the first attack came. The rats were back, and they attacked with abandon. They pounced like cats, extending scrabbling claws and snapping teeth. Some would lash their large tails at me, like whips. So, I cut their tails off. I sliced into their faces and bodies. Blood and saliva flew from them, but more followed. I jumped on top of a Corolla, hoping the extra height would keep them away from me.

Rats can jump just as easily as humans. Perhaps even better, pound-for-pound. For a moment, I was grateful that the electricity was knocked out, or I had no doubt the entire street of cars would be going crazy with alarms to wake the dead. The alternative wasn’t much better. Skittering nails sought to purchase and screeched like nails on a chalkboard as the sharp claws dug into the metal hoods of the vehicles.

I swung my sword, even as I jumped from car to car — parkour! — to get away from them. A tail wrapped around my leg, sending me sprawling, and only my momentum saved me. I say momentum because it wasn’t just my speed that helped. It was also because I outweighed the rat by a good two hundred pounds. See, I had learned something in high school physics. The rat was standing still, I was moving, and I was bigger. Physics was my friend today.

By tripping, my entire weight tipped off the side of the car, on the opposite side of the rodent pack. Instinct kicked in, and I landed on my shoulder, rolling just in time to see the body of the rat, its tail still wrapped around my leg, sailing through the air like some bird of prey, screeching at the top of its lungs. Rats don’t fly. That’s why they don’t have wings. Something else I learned in school. That’s where my knowledge ended, though. I didn’t remember the equation for the force of a hundred-pound object striking the ground, but I didn’t need to. The crack as the rat’s body struck the pavement was enough to tell me the damn thing wouldn’t be getting up again. I did, however, slice myself free of the tail, and beat at the other rats that tried to swarm me.

A desperate minute later, I’d managed to kill most of the rats, and the rest were bleeding out. I examined the cores of my victims. Not enough for our needs, but a good beginning. I took every core and stuffed it into my backpack.

I wasn’t bothered again before I reached the bodies of the dead flies in the road. The bugs were about the size of my hand, and the cores bigger than my thumb. I cut away the carapace of every last one, digging out the cores and dumping them into my bag. Mostly useless to me, but I was glad they would help the others.

I heard a swishing noise behind me. Cursing myself, I whirled to face whatever danger had snuck up on me, and I came face-to-face with a tiger. Damn, but the creature’s head was enormous this close. It didn’t bare its fangs at me as it watched what I was doing. Along with its nose, there was a line of orange skin from its earlier wound. That’s when I noticed the swishing noise was coming from its tail, moving back and forth along the ground.

I kept eye contact with the tiger. If I looked away or showed any kind of weakness, I was afraid the predator would attack. For a minute, we each stood there, examining the other. Despite the cool night air, a line of sweat traced its way down my temple. My fist clenched around the sword, but I could feel it growing slippery in my grip.

Suddenly, the large cat sat down on its haunches. After a moment, it broke eye contact, and looked down at the asphalt beneath my feet. Its eyes flicked back up to mine. Apparently, I didn’t give the response it was looking for because it cocked its head to the side, then looked at the ground at my feet for another long moment. I cocked my head to the side, hoping the gesture meant the same for both of us.

The cat stood up, causing me to take an inadvertent step back. It chuffed in what was an unmistakable laugh before it looked at me, then looked at my feet. It made the motion again before sitting back down on its haunches. Moving slowly, uncertain if I’d understood, I sank to one knee. The big cat cocked its head at me for a long moment, then chuffed again. It stood back to its four paws and looked back up the street where I came from. It began padding its way silently back up the street.

I didn’t move.

The big cat turned back to me and cocked its head to the side, then looked back up the street. It turned its head away, and continued back up the street. This time, I followed the tiger.

I was able to keep pace with the creature as it led me up the street and directly in front of the Comfort Inn. It sat down on its haunches again, watching the front entrance.

“You want to come in?” I asked.

The tiger tilted its head to the side, then looked back at the glass door.

I stepped up next to the creature and slid the doors apart. I stepped through before the cat, at this point certain it meant no harm to me. If the creature had intended to kill me, it no doubt could have done so many times over. I trusted my instincts and let the large cat follow me into the building. Chavez and Bragg stood several yards from the door, their weapons at the ready, though none pointed directly at the tiger.

Several people huddled in the back of the room, their eyes trained on the predator in their midst. The big cat watched them in return, but made no aggressive moves. The cat flopped to the ground in a heap with a loud “thump”, and began cleaning itself.

I turned to go to the back room, but the animal chuffed again, bringing my attention back to it. It looked me in the eyes, then began cleaning its haunch again, just as it had done before.

I turned away again, but it chuffed again. It repeated its previous process, looking me in the eye for several seconds, then cleaning its right haunch, in the same place as before. In fact, it was the exact same place. I watched the tiger carefully, as I took a step closer. Each of the creature’s paws could have covered my chest, and the claws were over an inch long, more than capable of giving me a very bad day.

Again, I acted on instinct, reaching toward the area the tiger had licked. Now that I was closer, I could see a thin line of freshly healed skin there as well, and underneath it the life forms of the eggs from the flies that attacked us earlier.

My understanding of the entire exchange from earlier fell into place. I looked the cat in the eyes again, its head looming in my vision only a foot away. I cocked my head to the side and flicked my eyes down at the wound. It repeated my motion, and I knew what it was asking.

I backed away slowly from the creature and went over to Chavez and Bragg.

“Do not go over to the tiger. I don’t think it intends to hurt us, but it’s injured, and I can’t be certain of what it will do. We’re going to help it after we’ve helped everyone else.”

“We should kill it,” one of the women hissed from where she hid. “It’s dangerous.”

“Yes, it is,” I said. “I’m not entirely sure if I could kill it without someone dying, and I don’t want to find out. It came to us for help, and I’m not going to throw away the life of a potential ally just because we’re afraid.”

I didn’t let the conversation continue, walking back into the swimming pool, where Andy and Carter were stitching up Susan. She looked in decent shape, so I didn’t offer her one of the cores. There wouldn’t be enough for everyone, and I wanted to save them for the children, if possible.

When she was able to sit up on her own and had pulled her shirt back down to cover her side, I moved over to her.

“I never caught your name,” I said as she gingerly moved to sit up.

“Susan,” she answered.

Well, I’ll be damned.

“It’s nice to formally meet you, Susan,” I said. “I’m Lieutenant Ward, but please just call me Forrest. Can you move without pulling those stitches?”

“I won’t be doing anything strenuous, but light movement should be fine.”

“Good. I want you to send in two more people, a mother, and her child if you don’t mind.”

“Yes, sir.”

“After you’ve sent them in, would you please tell everyone that we will help them and their children? We are going to save everyone.”

“Thank you.” She said it so simply, but I could hear the gratitude underneath it. How many people had she known that had died over the last week? How many times was she the strongest person in the group, and they were relying on her? I could see the gratitude, not only for everyone else, but also for her, own sake. I felt the burden being lifted from her in her response, even as it settled onto my shoulders instead.

“You’re welcome.”