that I had my bearings and could orient myself, I studied the citadel, looking for the exit we’d taken last time. It had taken nearly an hour on Damien’s motorcycle. Walking was going to take all day.
“You don’t know, do you?” Luke scowled.
“Shut up,” Trevor said, handing me a pair of binoculars.
I found where I thought the road we’d taken should be, a sliver running through landscape, and traced the path through the woods with my eyes. Squinting through the binoculars, I searched for the abandoned settlement. I paused when I found a thin meadow, a barren spot on the landscape where trees wouldn’t grow.
“There,” I said, pointing to it.
“That’s probably about eight or nine miles away,” Trevor said, taking the binoculars from me. “We should get there this evening, if we hurry.”
We jogged down the hill and into the woods, avoiding the abandoned highways and sticking to smaller roads or cutting through the thick forests when necessary. Part of me was relieved to see the sky again, after days under ground. Even though it was full of ash, and I had to keep my mouth and nose covered, it still felt liberating to be out from under all that steel and concrete.
We were making good time, and were probably about halfway there, when we heard a scream. I tensed, drawing my bow and looking behind me—but it wasn’t one of us.
“We can’t help them,” Luke said. “Whoever it is, it’s not our problem. And if it’s an elite or slagpaw, they’re probably already dead.”
“That sounded close though,” Jazmine said. “Shouldn’t we check it out at least?”
“I agree,” I said, nodding to Trevor. He rolled his eyes at me. “Shouldn’t we be moving away from danger? We’re on a top secret mission, critical for the survival of the human race, and you’re going to risk it all to save some stranger?”
“If we don’t help the weak and defenseless, maybe humanity doesn’t deserve saving,” Jazmine said. I caught her eye and nodded.
We ran through the woods in the direction of the screaming. It didn’t take us long to find the source. A group of merchants were running in circles around a wooden cart, in the middle of a flat stretch of road.
I drew my bow, but couldn’t see anything to shoot at.
“What is it?” I asked.
There was something strange about them, something dark fluttering around their heads. I thought they were bats or birds at first, but they moved too slowly, tumbling like fuzzy leaves.
Once we moved closer I could see that they were large, black moths with dark purple stripes.
“They’re scared of butterflies?” Luke asked.
“They’re poisonous,” Jazmine said.
“Of course they are,” Trevor groaned. He tore a branch off a dead tree. The leaves were already brittle and dry.
“Toss me your lighter,” he said. Luke pulled it out of his pocket and sparked it against the leaves. They burst into flame. The rest of us found our own branches, and together we charged towards the cart with our makeshift torches, streaming thick black smoke.
“Don’t let them touch your skin!” Jazmine yelled, swiping her flaming branch into the dark swarm of winged insects. Their wings caught on fire and they fell burning to the ground, emitting a terrible screeching sound.
It was all over in a few moments. We helped the merchants to their feet. They had large, angry rashes on their arms and faces, but appeared mostly unharmed.
“What are these things?” Trevor asked, kicking at one with his foot. With the wings gone, it looked like a large black beetle, writhing in the ash.
“Death moths,” Jazmine said. “Though I’ve never seen them this far north.” Their wings were as big as my palm, with mesmerizing patterns and a velvety texture.
“Why do they call them that?” I asked.
Jazmine picked one up carefully and spread its sapphire wings. Large round circles in the swirled pattern looked like eyes, and on its back, as big as my thumb, was a white, skull-shaped mark that gleamed against its dark body.
“Freaky,” Luke said.
“Thank goodness you came,” one of the merchants said, wiping down his skin with a wet rag.
“They’re nocturnal, we thought we’d be safe, but they must have snuck into our cargo before we left.”
“What are you even carrying that attracted them?” Trevor asked.
The man opened the door of the cart and we looked inside. Dozens of potted pants bore shrubs with bright yellow and white flowers. The scent was intoxicating.
“Plumeria!” Jazmine said, breathing in deeply. “You’re from Denvato?”