In the time they’d been travelling together, they’d become close friends, more like a family. They had occasional squabbles and disagreements, but they were there for each other no matter what, because it was the five of them against whatever hazards they encountered. Very little of their journey thus far had been easy, and they might still have a long way yet to go, but as long as they stuck together, they’d make it across the island to their destination.

But now, to save all their lives, they must work together as a team, minus Scott who was still recovering from Halyana’s poison and couldn’t be moved. Given the choice, Varian would have preferred to rest as well; the poison had taken a heavy toll on him, although he’d been better able to handle its effects. But rest would have to wait until after they dealt with the Complex and its Watchers. Jonathan was depending on them to protect him while he disabled and shut down the self-aware computer.

So, it was a case of divide and conquer, distracting and confusing the robotic Watchers, disabling and destroying as many as possible, keeping the attention of the Complex on them and their activities while Jonathan was busy with his own task.

Fred went one way with Connell, Liana took Adrea and some of the other women with her, which left Varian defending Queen Halyana, quite a turnabout considering she’d been the one who’d ordered them poisoned simply because they were men. Hopefully, she was learning that men weren’t all as bad as the ones she was used to.

It was a relief to have the sonic energiser back; it was Varian’s only means of defence, and he could use it to short out the Watchers’ circuits, disable them before they could attack, while his friends used whatever methods they had at their disposal to do the same. If they coordinated their offensive properly, it had a good chance of succeeding, but only if Jonathan could handle the main threat, the computer itself.

If any of them failed, they would all die.


The End