The streets of Pendervale were mostly empty. The combination of futuristic drones overhead, foreign tanks rumbling down the streets, and explosions in the distance had been enough to deter all but the most determined employees from attempting to make their morning commute. The few cars on the streets pulled off to the side of the road in the face of our fleet wheeling through.

Republic drones spewed lasers and dropped explosives, but gunners mounted in trucks and vans were able to obliterate them as quickly as more drones arrived. We took a few casualties, but not many.

Drones tried dropping bombs of foam and self-unpacking wire matrixes designed to obstruct our path like giant spiderwebs, but our lasers sliced through them like a snowplow through frosty powder.

“Everything okay back there?” Lannon asked, not pulling his eyes from the road.

He was reacting to the sound of me ripping a length of fabric off Jack’s shirt.

“Just keep driving,” I urged.

I wound the fabric around Jack’s thigh and pulled it taut.

He wheezed in pain, but I didn’t let up, tying down the tourniquet as tightly as I could without tearing the fabric.

“Mommy, I’m scared,” Violet sobbed.

“Everything will be fine,” I said. “Just stay tucked under Mommy for a little longer, okay?”

She didn’t answer, but she didn’t move from where I’d put her at my feet, out of sight from most laser fire.

The bleeding seemed to have greatly slowed with the tourniquet, but Jack’s eyes were wandering in their sockets. I laid his face in my lap and tapped a hand against his bristly cheek.

“Baby, are you there?”

“I…yeah.”

“Stay with me, okay?”

He didn’t answer.

I jostled him, fighting to stay calm.

“Are you with me?”

“Yeh,” he mumbled, letting the word drool from his lips.

A fresh clip of laser beams razed the top of the truck. White sparks poured off Lannon and me as beams were swallowed by our shields. Our gunner grunted in effort as she swiveled our mounted barrel around to return fire.

I barely registered the message in the corner of my vision.

Warning: Shield battery at twenty-five percent.

“Laura!” Lannon called to me without glancing back. “We’re a few minutes from the portal. Now would be a good time to drop you off and get you away from the fighting.”

“Jack’s bleeding back here,” I shouted back. “He needs medical attention.”

“Fuck.”

“Lannon!”

He seemed to remember that Violet was still in the vehicle. Fortunately, she was sobbing so loudly I doubted she’d even heard the swear. It was unfortunate that F-bombs were as popular in the multiverse as they were in my home vernacular.

“How bad is he?” Lannon asked.

“He needs blood soon. Like in the next ten minutes would be great.”

“Mackerel,” Lannon mumbled, settling for a blander expression.

“You’ll have to stay with us until we reach the portal,” he said. “We have medics with hemoglobin injectors, but none of them are in this truck.”

I felt my husband’s head loll against my knee.

“Jack!” I shouted at him.

Violet jumped in alarm at the panic in my voice before gushing forth a fresh wave of tears.

Jack stirred to attention.

“Stay awake, Jack!” I shouted at him. “Please!”

He mumbled something unintelligible, but at least he was conscious.

“Mommy!” Violet screamed. There was blood all over her arm and running down her pajamas. I was ninety percent confident it was Jack’s, splattered on her. I hadn’t seen Violet get hit.

We rumbled over a crater in the road that had been blasted seconds earlier. We lurched hard, scraping the axles of our truck on concrete. I felt the thunk of our chassis slamming the pavement deep in the pit of my stomach, but the tires held out, and the car didn’t crumple like an empty soda can. Lannon kept his foot on the gas, and we kept moving.

“Portal ahead!” someone shouted on the main communication channel of our micro-communicators.

“Enemy tanks spotted!” another voice added.

I peered between the two front seats through the windshield. A line of five Republic tanks had squared themselves off in front of the field where we’d carved our portal. Violet’s elementary school still stood across the yard. Mostly intact, save for a corner of the fourth-grade building which had collapsed like a smashed Lego project.

As soon as we rounded the corner and the opposing militias caught sight of each other, lasers began flying from all directions. The space between us and the Republic tanks became crisscrossed with searing red beams. The air was filled with the sound of cooling units hissing. Then the explosions began.

The row of MEAD vehicles in front of our battalion took the brunt of the blow. They hadn’t had a chance to take evasive maneuvers or really do anything but turn on a measly bumper shield. Those force fields shattered after a single strike from such high-powered and expensive lasers, leaving the ensuing barrage free to knife through the machines with frictionless ease.

The vehicles exploded, melted, collapsed, and splattered with the blood of their occupants in a matter of seconds. From what I’d learned over the last few months, the lasers on these Republic tanks carried a penetrating power and a heat rating nearly fifty times greater than the handgun I’d originally stolen from Magrue. Those MEAD soldiers who’d had the misfortune of running into those lasers face-first never stood a chance.

But they did act as a physical barricade, absorbing most of the Republic fire and giving the remaining MEAD fleet enough time to aim and fire their own volley of lasers. Our guns weren’t as good, and the force fields mounted on the grills of these tanks were certainly better than what we had, but through sheer numbers, the combined destructive power of thirty MEAD artillery units was enough to knock out five Republic tanks.

Lasers speared through the force fields and screwdrivered their way through the steel paneling, shredding the tanks’ interiors.

Lannon was already shouting directions in the main communication channel before the last tank had been destroyed.

“Go, go, go! We’ve got to control that portal before they squeeze more through.”

Our artillery units surged forward, closing the gap.

“Semicircle formation!” someone shouted in my ear. “At least six lasers.”

Drivers wheeled around to park their vehicles in a tight cluster around the business end of the portal. Gunners aimed the barrels of their mounted lasers at the grass before the portal, ready to eviscerate anything that came through.

“Let’s throw down some crystallizing foam. Build a barricade in front of the portal,” someone instructed on the communication channel.

I wasn’t listening much. Lannon pulled us off immediately adjacent to the portal and parked the truck. He jumped out and helped his wounded comrade climb out of the driver’s seat.

Jack was unconscious. Still breathing, but he was leaning limp against my legs.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I shook him.

“Jack!”

Nothing.

I picked him up like a limp beanbag and carried him out of the truck.

“Lannon! I need that hemoglobin now.”

Lannon pointed at a man climbing out of a truck nearby. He had a red pouch clipped around his waist.

“There’s a medic. Go. Quick.”

I turned to the truck.

“Violet, come on!”

She was petrified. Crying inconsolably and covered in her dad’s blood.

This was going to be a childhood trauma that would take years to fully unpack, no doubt. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything to be done about it right now.

“Violet!” I snapped, a little more forcefully than I intended. “I need you to stick with me. Just for a little longer. Daddy’s going to be fine. Okay?”

She sniffled but didn’t really react.

“Come on!”

I hefted Jack over my shoulder and started moving toward the medic.

She didn’t follow.

I cursed Lannon for letting my daughter get caught up in his rebellion and ran where he’d gestured. I’d go back for her as soon as Jack was stabilized. I gently splayed my husband out on the ground before the medic.

“He needs help,” I said.

The man nodded simply and pulled out a big needle of red fluid. He found a vein and began pushing the stuff into Jack’s vasculature.

The medic fished for a metal rod with a glowing tip.

“Going to re-cauterize the wound,” he said. “This’ll take a few minutes. Especially while I’m waiting for the painkillers to kick in.”

“Is he going to be okay?” I asked.

Jack still hadn’t stirred.

The medic shrugged.

“Probably. But don’t want to make any promises until I know more about his status.”

The big ugly p-word punched me in the chest. It had been uttered with such a casual air, but damnit that was not what I needed to hear right now.

More action pulled my attention from the medic. It appeared that our bridge, while corrupted, was still working. There was a flurry of activity at the portal as five Republic soldiers fell through the black maw and were plopped onto the grass.

Trigger-finger lasers blasted high-powered shots that cut straight through body shields and internal armoring, goring two soldiers before they even hit the ground. The others were swarmed by MEAD fighters, holding them at gunpoint and claiming their weapons.

At the same time, a fresh tide of drones swept over the tree line and began unloading beams and bombs in our direction.

My head whipped toward the truck.

Violet.

I was halfway turned to run her way when a laser beam sliced through the hood of the vehicle, causing the engine to erupt into flames a second later.

My daughter, still in the backseat was bucked against the seat cushions by the force of the eruption. Stunned, she pushed herself up, using the seat for support.

“Violet!” I screamed. “Get out of there.”

Flames were swallowing up the body of the truck like a plague of locusts spreading across a cornfield.

The soles of my shoes ripped craters out of the grass as I sprinted in my daughter’s direction. I was only a handful of seconds away, but that was precious time. Gluttonous flames licked up splattered oil, swallowing the entire truck.

Just when I’d started to believe she didn’t have one, Violet’s survival instinct kicked in. Perhaps she started thinking straight or perhaps a deeply ingrained fear of fire was activated, but she shuffled to the lip of the door and jumped out as the flames descended upon where she’d been standing.

I grabbed her a second later, collecting her in a maternal bear hug and twisting her away from the burning truck and blasting drones.

I took another hit to my back and was chastised by the AI of my body shield.

Warning: Shield battery less than ten percent.

That wasn’t enough to take another direct hit from one of these drone lasers. I threw down the umbrella shield and clicked it on with my foot. I set Violet down on the grass underneath the translucent blue canopy, patting her down and making sure she was unhurt.

Across the street, Jack and the medic were underneath another umbrella shield. I released a breath of relief when I saw Jack sitting up and speaking as his wound was being sealed with medical foam.

“We have control of the portal,” a voice reported on the main communication channel. “Now it’s just us against however many Republic soldiers have already entered this reality.”

I held Violet close to me, trying to swallow her fear with my touch. I was about to open a communication line with the medic to coordinate Jack’s extrication when another voice entered the main chat.

“This is Markley back at the safehouse. Good job over there. We’re holding our own. Most of the Republic forces are headed your way. ETA three minutes.”

I expected the report to stop, but Markley continued.

“We’re also getting some fuzzy communications on a nearby channel. Is that you?”

Lannon answered.

“Shouldn’t be. We’re on channel thirty-seven point two. While I’m on the line, I need an engineer over here. Getting an error message about our bridge’s defense mechanisms.”

“See to it,” Markley said. “The sooner you get control back over that portal, the better.”

Markley hadn’t even finished replying when a third voice broke through, patchy but distinct.

“Hello? Hello? This is Jeffir Stocha. Do you read me?”

I recognized the name. He was MEAD.

“Jeffir?” someone shouted into the channel. “You’re supposed to be on the widow’s nest.”

“Yes sir,” Jeffir replied, his voice becoming clear as he synchronized his communicator to the channel we were using on this reality, “but we got word that the other end of the bridge on twelve zeta was captured by the Republic. We knew you were in danger, so we used the bridgemaker to put down a quick little thread connecting this reality to the widow’s nest. We thought you could use some backup.”

“And don’t worry,” another voice added. “We’ve already collapsed the thread behind us. No radish demons will be sneaking through to the widow’s nest.”

Lannon laughed on the line.

“I’m upset you disobeyed orders, but holy possum’s ass am I glad you did. Our bridge is corrupted. We’ve had to manually gain control of the portal on this side. Now there’s a fleet of a few hundred Republic hounds headed our way. Where are you and what are your numbers?”

A laser beam fizzled against our umbrella shield like a cigarette butt extinguishing itself. The force field held. For the moment.

“We’ve got about a hundred extra fighters lined up, and we brought more guns and shields,” Jeffir reported. “I put down our thread about a quarter mile from your location. We should be there in a minute.”

“You’re a real lifesaver, you know that?” another MEAD voice spoke up on the line.

“You think I’d miss the liberation of our first reality? No way.”

There was a pause, and Jeffir added, “also, the woman is with us. Sally Parsons. She insisted on coming.”

I nearly choked on my own saliva.

She insisted on coming?

Why in the ever-loving shit would my mother insist on coming here? To a place she knew was the middle of a warzone and crawling with interdimensional demons that would only grow stronger in her presence.

I thought I’d made some real progress with her during our time on the widow’s nest. Maybe everything wasn’t dug up and forgiven, but at least we were seeing eye-to-eye. At least I’d felt I could trust her not to royally fuck things up with a peanut-brained decision like this one.

I spoke on the main communication channel.

“Why is my mother with you?”

“We explained that the operation was in danger, and she insisted on helping.”

“How the…” I bit my tongue in front of Violet. “How on Earth is she supposed to help? She has no body modifications, no training, and is nearly retirement-aged. Plus, there’s at least two dozen radish demons on this Earth that will go crazy now that she’s here.”

“That’s…why she wanted to help.”

“What?”

“The demons. She said…if she’s with us, the demons might attack Republic soldiers in order to keep her safe.”

“Lannon,” I asked. “Does that make any sense?”

“I don’t really know,” he responded.

Another stray laser sank its fangs into our umbrella shield but couldn’t puncture the barrier. Nearby, an explosion rattled the ground underneath me. A sooty mist was permeating the local atmosphere. The oxygen diffusion function of our umbrella shield filtered most of the char and dirt, keeping the air fresh within our shelter.

“We don’t have a lot of information on radish demon behavior,” Lannon continued. “We’ve certainly never seen the person they’ve imprinted on caught up in an active shootout with Republic forces.”

“So my mother wants to use herself as bait?”

“I guess so.”

“And someone said that was okay?”

Violet started at my tone, and I realized I was furious that MEAD had let my mother put her put herself in danger for their own gain.

“She didn’t give us much room to argue,” Jeffir said. “We’re almost at your location.”

“Good,” someone else said. “We’re throwing up expanding foam barricades, but we’re about to get scrambled by Republic missiles. Everyone, brace yourselves.”

I was getting really tired of Lannon and the rest of MEAD.

I picked up Violet.

“Hold on tight,” I said. “We’re going to grab Daddy and go find Grandma.”

Violet, smart as she was for a six-year-old, had given up trying to understand what was going on. Wordlessly, she clung to me like a koala hugging a stalk of bamboo.

I deactivated the umbrella shield and pocketed it – the thing wouldn’t be useful until we stopped moving again. I booted across the street to Jack and the medic, who lowered their own shield briefly for us to enter the shelter.

“Jack,” I breathed. “Are you okay?”

“The doctor says I’ll need surgery on the leg, but that I’ll be able to start walking on it after a few days.”

I rolled my eyes. I was more concerned about the almost-bleeding-out-onto-the-grass than I was about how his leg felt, but I guessed the fact that he was talking and that the color had returned to his face indicated that the hemoglobin injector had worked its magic.

“Can you move right now?”

Jack opened his mouth to answer, but the medic cut him off.

“He definitely cannot use that leg in his current condition.”

“No problem,” I said. “I’ll carry you.”

I handed Jack my gun.

“If any of those drones start coming our way, keep shooting until the gun doesn’t let you shoot anymore. Got it?”

“I…uh. Yeah. Okay.”

I picked up my husband and tucked him under my other arm. I bid the medic farewell and took off running for the elementary school. Jack squeezed off a few shots into the air behind us, but no lasers came our way.

The battlefield around the portal wasn’t a big place. MEAD forces were spread out over a city block’s worth of grassy fields and destroyed residential housing units, with a focal point around the portal. It only took a minute of my robotic bounding stride for the sounds of fighting to muffle in the distance.

There was a fresh burst of chaos as a voice in my ear alerted me to the arrival of the Republic tanks. I could hear the echoes of explosions in the distance.

I carried Jack and Violet a few more blocks away before setting them down behind a Thai restaurant. I gave Jack the little black box which produced the umbrella shield.

“When I go, turn this on and stay underneath until the fighting’s over. I’ll come back here for you.”

His strong brow furrowed in bewilderment.

“What? You’re going back?”

“My mom’s in there.”

“Huh?”

“It’s stupid, but she’s there, and I’ve got to go get her.”

He started pushing himself to his feet.

“Let me come with you.”

“No.”

My response was sharp, but I could see the fire burning in Jack’s eyes, and I needed to extinguish it.

“Even if you could walk, you don’t have any shields, and someone needs to stay here with Violet.”

He looked frustrated by his helplessness. It had been a long morning of obsolescence for my poor husband.

“You’ll risk your life for her?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He didn’t press me, nodding his head in acceptance.

“Please. Be safe.”

“I will.”

I kissed Violet on the cheek and him on the lips before stepping away. Jack pressed the button to resurrect the umbrella shield, and I took off running back toward the sounds of conflict.