Helga immediately kicked the door closed behind her, stopping Bo, Esme, and Khan in their tracks. It didn't shut all the way, however, and Bo peered through the crack between the doors at Helga's tense back.

So far, the soldiers hadn't noticed her. They were still talking, some smoking, and failed to realize a girl had appeared at their backs. There was no way Helga could do much on her own, though. She'd need Bo.

Bo started forward, her hand on the door, when Helga's entire demeanor changed. Her tense shoulders relaxed, and she dropped one hip. She flicked her braid over her shoulder and slid forward like a fox to tap one of the nearest soldiers on the shoulder.

"Hey, boys," she said, voice husky and filled with a smile.

Bo's mouth hung open. What was she doing? It seemed almost comical to see her smiling at the soldiers and biting her lip. As if she had completely lost her mind.

"What?" one of the soldiers stammered, spinning around to take in Helga with his eyes widened. "Who are you?"

She shrugged. "I was told you all might like some... company." She trailed her fingers along his exposed forearm, and Bo practically saw his knees give out as he stared at her in astonishment.

"But you came from the cells..." one managed to get out, but his companions quickly began talking over him as they enquired Helga's name and age and where she was from because they didn't recognize her accent. Helga lapped it all up, making sure they saw each time she stretched or moved. She was covered in grime and even some of Khan's blood, but somehow all the soldiers saw was a beautiful woman talking to them.

They didn't even see her silently signaling to Bo behind her back, or the way she steered them so that they faced away from the door. She looked over their shoulders Bo, flashing her eyes briefly to the left, to signal that she'd like backup. Bo nodded, and slid out from behind the doors. She held the rifle securely in front of her, though she knew she couldn't afford to shoot it. That didn't mean she couldn't bludgeon a few men with it, though.

Bo waited, and soon was rewarded with a signal from Helga who had bent down to give the soldiers a view of her exposed neckline. Their eyes firmly and entirely occupied, Helga quickly motion to Bo. A point at one of the soldiers, and a slashing motion. And then she was standing back up again, leaning against the wall and puffing out her chest.

At first, Bo thought she meant to attack the indicated soldier first. But then she saw the way he was so much smaller than the others, and how he nervously held his gun in a loose and easily-broken grasp. He was the weak link, and someone that wouldn't give them too much trouble if left conscious.

Helga moved forward, slinky and lithe, toward the soldiers. Her eyes were trained on Bo, though the soldiers were still too shell-shocked to realize that her attention wasn't on them as much as theirs was on her. She reached out, wrapping her arm around the biggest soldier's shoulders and neck. He grinned, glancing at his comrades, smug in self-assurance that Helga had chosen him from amongst the rest. And he wasn't wrong, but he wasn't right in the way he thought he was.

Helga moved in close, her lips inches away from his neck. She looked at him, and he laughed shakily as she pressed against his chest. "Well, boys," she purred, her hand tightening in the hair at the nape of his neck. He exhaled, his hands loosening from his gun as they reached for her waist. "Can't say it was a pleasure," she continued. "But THIS certainly will be."

Before she'd even finished the sentence, she jerked her knee upward and firmly between the large soldier's legs. He exhaled in pain, crumbling as she drove her knee into his stomach and snapped his head back to deliver a chop to his throat. His eyes bulged as he collapsed to the ground and she gave him a swift kick to the head that knocked him out. The soldier nearest to him jumped to action, but not fast enough. Bo slammed open the door, catching his shoulder with the impact. He staggered forward, cursing as his arm hung useless and at an odd angle from its joint. He spun around, trying to fumble with his gun, but Bo swung her own rifle at his head, connecting with his temple. He dropped as easily as the first soldier, which left only two.

Helga launched at the smaller soldier, who almost surrendered himself as she grabbed his arm and twisted it around behind him. Bo leveled her gun at the last soldier, who begrudgingly raised his hands and snarled as Bo walked up to him and soundly smacked him with her gun. He fell, the third soldier to slip into unconsciousness, and then all that was left was the small soldier sniffling in Helga's grasp.

Bo stalked up to him, grabbing the front of his uniform and hauling him forward until he was only inches from her face. "We're looking for a man and you're going to tell us where he is," she snapped, twisting his uniform even tighter in her grasp. He whimpered, his eyes flickering from Bo to Helga, and then to Esme and Khan as they slowly exited the hallway and stared at the fallen soldiers on the ground.

"I- I don't know anything! I'm a brand new recruit," he squeaked.

"You'd know this man. He's impossibly tall and has long blonde hair," Bo said. "He's part alien. You're sure to have heard about him."

She saw in his eyes that he knew exactly who she was talking about. Despite the dire circumstances, relief flooded Bo's chest. If this green militia recruit knew Adam, it meant that Adam had at least made it to this building alive. There could be hope yet.

"I s-saw him, but he's not-" He gulped and whimpered. "I shouldn't be telling you this! I'll be executed for treason!"

Bo shook him until his head flopped back and forth. When she stopped, he stared at her with horrified eyes, his hands shaking violently. Bo leaned in close, baring her teeth. "You'll tell me where he is, or else I'll have nothing better to do than to carve up some militia dogs."

The soldier spluttered, his eyes swiftly moving to Esme and Khan. "Please, help," he gasped. "Help me, I didn't- I only just joined the militia!"

Esme, to her credit, looked at him in pity. Bo realized that he was probably a boy from a camp just like her own had been, and that chances were he hadn't signed up of his own free will. But at this moment, he was standing between her and Adam. And she wouldn't stand for even a second's delay when Adam's entire life was hanging in the balance.

"Take us to the half-alien," Helga said, twisting his arm again behind his back and making his squirm. "And we'll think about letting you go with only a few scratches."

The small soldier nodded enthusiastically, and Helga loosened her grip on him. Bo let go of his uniform and took a step back. Neither of them wanted to really hurt him, as he had surrendered easily enough and looked more scared then ruthless. In fact, Bo wondered if once they were free, she might organize a party to come back and go undercover to try and recruit this boy, along with any others, to the Forlorn. He looked miserable and frightened, most likely pressed into service because he had no other options, and Bo felt her heart twinge a bit for him. She knew what it was like to be pressed into a corner and deprived of freedom.

The boy led them through a hive of corridors in the building, which was only one floor and had low ceilings. It felt more like a bunker, but every so often they would pass windows that revealed they were still on surface level. But even that didn't do much to lift the pressure of the concrete and heavy doors.

Thankfully, this building seemed to be mostly offices, and so there were no wandering militia that might notice a rag-tag team of injured ruffians following an obviously terrified soldier around. Only glimpses of some men and women through office windows, typing into display screens, or talking on radios, were the contact the group had with other humans. No one glanced up or happened to need a bathroom break as the Forlorn crept by, and with this luck they reached one of the exterior doors.

"You'll—we'll have to go through a courtyard to get to his building," the boy said, licking his lips and nervously looking from Helga and Bo. No doubt he thought he'd receive a thrashing for the bad news like he probably got daily from his officers. But Bo didn't feel like hurting him as much as he didn't feel like getting hurt. So far, he'd proven himself to not have a corrupt heart like the rest of the soldiers.

"How many people are usually in this courtyard?" Helga asked. Khan had already moved with the help of Esme to a window set in the wall, and was peering out its grimy glass to where a lamplight cast its harsh white light across the orange landscape.

"Not many," the boy replied, his nervous energy slowly calming as he realized he wasn't going to get beaten. "There's a dust storm currently forecast, so everyone should be seeking shelter."

Bo bit her lip. "Think we can wait around a bit until the dust storm comes?"

"Depends on how long it will be," Helga said.

Khan turned away from the window. "I can already see it starting. It won't be but a few more minutes."

"We'll stay here for five minutes tops," Bo said. "If it hasn't started by then, we'll just take our chances."

The group moved to a nearby empty office, shutting the door behind them and keeping the light off. They all huddled against the wall, hunching down or sitting, too tired and tense to speak. Only their breathing filled the room, and Bo listened to them and hoped that the five minutes they waited for the storm wouldn't be the five minutes it would take to stop Adam's breathing. In the darkness, she allowed herself one moment to drop her head onto her arms, sinking into the exhaustion and worry that weighed on her bones. She let the panic over Adam being gone from her wash over her, and tears slid down her cheeks. She'd spent so long looking for him, and yet here again he was taken from her. She was beginning to doubt the surety that she'd always felt when thinking of the future with him.

But then the five minutes was up, as quickly as a blink, and Helga was up and opening the door. Light flooded back into the dark room and Bo quickly swiped at her eyes and cheeks to dry them. No one noticed, and she was thankful.

Getting to her feet, she walked out right behind the soldier, guiding him with a hand on his back to the door. Already, the sound of the wind whipping by could be heard indoors. The door shook on its hinges, and orange dust floated in through the cracks. A dust storm at night was extremely dangerous. Not only did the dust itself bring visibility down to almost nothing, the darkness would just make it even more confusing to try and move anywhere. Which meant hopefully all the militia were indoors, and that none of the guards were looking out into this specific courtyard with infra-red binoculars.

Helga reached around the soldier and pulled a pair of goggles off his equipment belt. They were standard issue militia gear, heavy and large compared to the ones Bo used at home, and unfortunately there was only one pair. Helga held them up with a sigh.

"I guess one of us will have to lead the others," she said, testing the strap on the goggles and then making sure there were no cracks in the plastic lenses.

"No bandanas to keep the dust out of our lungs, either," Khan said.

"We'll just have to go fast," Bo said. She snatched the goggles from Helga and slid them on. "I'm not waiting any longer. Grab my shoulder and let's get going."

She didn't even wait for anyone to reply. She marched to the door, swinging it open to reveal a swirling mass of orange dust filling the dark night sky. The only light came from the lamps that lined a pebble road, and Bo marked these as her way of navigating to the other building. If she could see the lights, which alternated between left and right as they followed the road, then she'd be able to keep on track.

Helga's hand wrapped around Bo's shoulder, grabbing a handful of crimson leather. Bo glanced behind her to see that the others hand grabbed ahold of each other in a line, with the soldier pressed between Helga and Esme. Everyone covered their mouths and nose as best as they could with their free hand, and then shut their eyes.

Now it was all up to Bo to get them safely through the screaming winds and swirling dust. She took one deep breath, and then launched into the maelstrom. 

A/N-- 

UPDATE Nov. 12, 2017:

Voting is now closed on what to do with the remaining chapters of We The Forlorn. I got the most votes for Option D, which was to post all the chapters at once. So the Binge Readers have spoken, and I'll be posting all the remaining chapters soon! Thanks to everyone for voting, and I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the book, whether you choose to maintain a moderate pace or whether you binge it. <3