‘I will not hurt her. I told you, I’m a medic. You have my word.’ I stare down at him. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on?’

For a moment he can only heave breaths. The stink of gore and sundered flesh fills my nose.

‘What’s the nearest town…?’

‘Redcrop. A day’s ride. Mining township.’

‘The Accord – have authority there?’

I laugh, humourlessly. ‘They like to think so.’

He sags back. ‘Take her there. Find a wire. She will know— what to do. She must…’

A noise catches my ears and I stop him with a gesture. In the distance, but coming closer, something is droning: the distinctive, double-cough of an overhauled engine. I swear and spring up.

‘What?’ the man asks, as I rip the tarp free and bundle it onto the mule.

‘Seekers, most likely,’ I say, piling everything into the medkit, ‘coming to scavenge the site.’

‘Seekers? Bandits?’

‘More like a cult.’

I see a light in his eyes, and know what he’s thinking; even a cult can be bribed, can be traded with.

‘Forget it,’ I say, ‘the Seekers are crazy. If they see you are hurt, they will kill you both and take your organs before they listen to a word you say.’

I bend to retrieve the unused bandage. For the space between breaths we are eye to eye. I see myself reflected there, and it’s a face I hardly know, the eyes shadowed and squinted tight, the skin wind-whipped and scar-peppered. The engines grow louder. A dust cloud appears in the distance.

‘Go then,’ he chokes, ‘take her, and remember your oath.’

I don’t argue. The options are two living and one dead, or three corpses, plundered by the Seekers. I know which one I prefer, and anyway, no matter who the child is, the tally doesn’t lie. I lift her awkwardly and wedge her among the bundles on the back of the mule. Then I’m in the driver’s seat, pulling the scarf over my mouth.

‘Tell her I died for her,’ the man’s cry comes over the noise of the dirt mule’s engine. ‘Tell her I didn’t know their plans. Tell her she must fight.’

I don’t answer, just take off towards the horizon.

* * *

I ride for Redcrop. There’s nowhere else. Much as I dislike being in a settlement, it is as safe as anywhere and at least I have a few contacts. As for the girl… I glance back to where she lies, slumped upon the mule.

Tell her I didn’t know their plans.

A shiver ripples across my skin, despite the heat. No child should have military tattoos, no matter how patriotic her family. They couldn’t be real.