Solomon cursed as he came down hard just as his saddle was rising underneath him. His enhanced dexterity had let him overcome the bouncing and put his shots close to where he'd wanted them, but it wasn't doing anything to help him move in harmony with his mount. The system's healing soothed away each ache shortly after impact, but the overall effect was still disturbing.
It was worth it. They had left the gate far behind together with the surviving guard. If anybody else had been around to act as backup, they hadn't had a chance to make a move before Solomon and Kanmi were past them and away.
Solomon bounced up into the air again as a dialog box popped up informing him that his Marksmanship skill had ranked up to level three. He dismissed it just in time to crash back down into the saddle. He focused through the jolt of pain, taking advantage of the end of combat to drop his pistol into his inventory and take the reins in hand.
They were riding down the main road that looped through the campus. To get to Tiffany's dorm they needed to go around one horseshoe curve, then halfway around another bending the other way. There was probably a faster way to get there by cutting through the footpaths, but Solomon didn't want to chance getting lost on top of all of the other risks he was taking.
At least they didn't have to worry about traffic jams. Not only were there no cars driving on the road, any cars that had stalled out on the system's arrival had been cleared out at some point. The only speed limit was the strength of his horse and Solomon's skill as a rider.
There was quite a bit of foot traffic. It wasn't the sheer flood of humanity that Solomon had seen swarming over the campus between classes in the past, but even a trickle of pedestrians made for a stark contrast with the deserted streets of the city.
The crowds reacted with shock as he pelted by. A few made what might have been aggressive moves, but none of them had time to attack before he was gone. Solomon tried to at least get a glimpse of the people he passed. It would really spoil the big rescue plan if he raced by his sister.
He didn't spot any familiar faces. He did notice that everybody seemed to be wearing an armband. Always in the same place, the left arm near the shoulder. The colors were all over the place. He saw blue, yellow, green, and white. There didn't seem to be any obvious rhyme or reason, at least nothing that stood out to a man flying by on horseback.
Whoever was in charge had tamed this place to the point that people were walking around unarmed. They had the students organized somehow. The armbands couldn't just be a fashion trend. Just as Kanmi had said, they were going up against professionals here. Not directly, not yet, thank goodness.
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Solomon didn't regret charging in. He regretted not arriving sooner. The campus was already looking more organized than he liked. He had to hope his sister was still in her dorm room.
They thundered around the first curve. As they pushed deeper into the campus, the foot traffic picked up. More people were reacting with surprise and fear, while fewer looked ready to initiate violence. Nobody stopped them as they raced down the next straightaway. At the next curve they veered off towards the dorms.
His sister lived in the third building on the right. It was a concrete monstrosity that had been built back in the seventies. Usually it was locked to the resident's id cards, but somebody had propped the door open. It saved Solomon the trouble of smashing the thing.
He leaped off his mount and reduced it to a token. He tucked it away in his pocket. He didn't want it getting stuck in his inventory if they had to leave under pressure.
Kanmi was right behind him as he charged into the lobby. The rec area off to the side that usually had a few students hanging out was conspicuously empty. For that matter, he hadn't seen many people once they'd made the turn off to the residential area. Solomon shoved the worry to the back of his mind and headed for the stairs.
Visiting his sister on the seventh floor had been much less of a hassle when the elevator worked. Solomon paused at the bottom of the landing to gather himself.
"Could we fake up some armbands for ourselves?" he asked. They might not be able to charge out as easily as they had charged in. Putting Kanmi in sunglasses and casual clothes would be a thin disguise and his own missing hand was quite distinctive, but a weak disguise was better than none.
"Depends," Kanmi said. "We can make a couple that look right. If they got a scanner, though, we're screwed."
Solomon nodded. Plan A would be leaving the hard way, then. He started taking the stairs two at a time.
It was tiring, but not nearly as bad as he'd expected. The system offered a lot of nice little bonuses. It was too bad they came packaged with so much trouble.
They burst out into the common area for the seventh floor. Only a few students were sitting around. Nobody he recognized. Unlike the last time he'd come here, they were talking to each other instead of staring at one screen or another. The students looked shocked to see them, but they stayed where they were as Solomon led Kanmi down the right hallway. Tiffany's room was at the end.
Reaching the door, he gave it a heavy knock. No response. He stepped back and looked at Kanmi. The alien stepped forward and opened the door with a heavy kick. Following in behind him, Solomon was greeted with an empty room. Not just empty, it looked like it had been tossed over by a robber.
Shaking his head, he stepped back into the hallway. Maybe the students in the lounge would know what was going on.
He never saw it coming. There was a flicker of light at the edge of his vision, then a great feeling of pressure and pain near his shoulder sent him flying backwards. When he regained his bearings, he found himself pinned against the wall at the end of the hallway by an arrow that had punched through his armored clothing and the cinder block wall alike with equal indifference.