The Forsaken

her pack with a crash. I see an arrow sticking through her pant leg. She sounds like she’s in shock.
    I start crawling toward her over the mud. What Gadya taught me is useless. Even she can’t get a shot off because she’s forced to take shelter behind a tree.
    This battle isn’t going to last very long, I realize. But it’s going to leave a pile of corpses behind. Our corpses.
    Just as I’m succumbing to despair, I suddenly hear a rumbling in the sky, followed by a high-pitched squealing noise. I look up. I’d almost forgotten that the drones aren’t the only things to fear on this island. That something even worse lurks above us in the clouds.
    “Alenna, stay low!” I hear Liam yelling. He’s trying to run over to protect me, but the storm of arrows makes it impossible.
    A second later, the first of the feelers shoots down from the heavens, plowing into the earth about ten feet away from me. I scream, scrabbling away as fast as I can.
    The feeler’s tentacles snap, whir, and grind as they throw up clods of dirt and tree roots. Then they whip into the air and slam downward again. They’re like coils of living rope. Black metallic snakes in search of prey. Malignant. Inhuman.
    “Alenna, look out!” Liam yells. I hear a deafening noise and roll sideways just in time. Another set of feelers strikes the ground right where I was crouching.
    Our bows and arrows are obviously useless against these things. So are spears. But it also means the drones’ weapons are useless too. I can see drones running away as the feelers go after them as well. The watcher and his drones apparently didn’t anticipate this assault. Painted bodies flee in terror back into the trees.
    I watch a drone get plucked as he scrambles away from us. He’s tossed up into the sky by the feelers, disappearing so fast that only his screams linger behind.
    Gadya races toward me and helps me up. Rika staggers to her feet too, despite her injury.
    “We brought them on us when we crossed into this sector!” Gadya yells.
    “How do we fight them?” I scream back.
    “We don’t! We run!”
    “I can’t move,” Rika yelps, gesturing at her leg.
    “You have to!” Gadya lunges forward, grabbing her and supporting her weight. “Alenna, cover us.”
    I raise my bow and arrow. I can cover us against the few remaining drones, but not against the feelers. We lurch sideways as we hear the feelers making their terrible sounds. So far I’ve seen them take more of the Monk’s drones than our people, and I’m grateful for that. But right then I see one descend and snatch up one of our builders.
    I spot Liam. He’s racing nimbly across the terrain toward us. At the same time, he’s also spinning and twirling—a blur of constant motion—to avoid feelers diving down from the sky.
    I continue firing arrows. Some hit tentacles, but the tips just ricochet off the metal without impact. The feelers are relentless. One tears a cypress tree right out of the ground, roots and all, in its attempt to snatch Liam.
    I crouch back down on the ground in the dirt. The feelers haven’t come after me in earnest yet. They seem more interested in the boys. But maybe that’s just because the hunters are the ones running around exposed. I watch helplessly as they take another of our hunters. There’s nothing we can do.
    “Alenna—” I hear Veidman yell. I turn and see him on my left. He’s trying to organize everyone.
    “What do I do?” I call back, terrified but slotting another arrow into my bow.
    “Stay put!”
    Veidman rushes past. Feelers slam down a few feet behind him, knocking up a spray of dirt. He stumbles but keeps plunging forward. The feelers pull back up into the sky, preparing for another assault. I wonder how many are hovering above us. At least six or seven. Maybe more. And each one seems to possess at least eight individual tentacles.
    Sinxen helps Gadya drag Rika to the shelter of a large tree. I know the feelers can still reach her there, but they’re not paying her much attention. I wonder what draws the feelers. Maybe motion or body heat. I look back and see that Liam has paused to help pull another wounded hunter to safety in the forest.
    That’s when it happens.
    I catch a glimpse of something fast and metallic, as fast as an arrow, slamming into the earth in front of me like a meteor. It’s a tentacle. The ground shakes and I stagger back, getting pelted in the face with debris.
    Then something hits the earth behind me. Another