The truck ploughed its way along the muddy road after Simmini drove it through the city and headed back to hide their tracks and the direction they took into the forest. Heavy rain had come done soon after their escape and Vil and Simmini were spattered through the partially broken windshield.
'Thanks for saving me back in that shaft.' said Vil while he applied a quick bandage to his flesh wound.
Simmini gave him a smile. 'Thanks to you we escaped and I avoided the torture I'd probably had to endure, so we're even on that.'
'Where are we heading for now?'
'The village I wanted to get help from that I told you about. I still need to save my people.' She stared ahead in silence for a while. 'What will you do now that you're free again?'
Vil leaned his head back against his seat. 'I don't know. This isn't my home, or planet. Hell, this isn't probably even my universe and the chance of meeting another human looks like nil. I have practically no reason for survival here since I'm essentially extinct the moment I appeared here.'
Simmini glanced at him. She knew he was right and a freak among all living things here and wondered if he could handle being here in due time. She didn't know if she could even help this strange visitor and decided to concentrate on her current task first. That was a higher priority to her.
Some time later Simmini pointed at a sign at the side of the road. 'We're coming up on the village. It's not too far down this side road and out of the forest.'
Vil kept an eye ahead while looking at tracks on the road. 'Say, is there a lot of traffic to and from that village?'
Simmini glanced at his frowning face. 'There's not much traffic anywhere since the Ants took over. Why do you ask?'
'Because it looks to me from the leftover tracks there have been many vehicles down this road not too long ago.'
Simmini gritted her teeth. She hadn't realised it. 'Crap! It could only have been Ants! Something must have happened!'
She drove as fast as she dared on the slippery road and soon they laid eyes on the outskirts of the village in the middle of damaged fields with various crops. Vil saw houses with clear battle scars. 'That doesn't look good.'
Driving slowly through the wet streets the damage was clear. Stone walls were pocked with bullet holes, some houses were burned down, dead feline bodies lay in the streets in pools of red water and in the gardens, some heavily wounded. Simmini held back tears. 'They must have found out about the resistance force here.'
She stopped just outside the village square and stepped out into the rain. Vil followed her to what looked like a pub while looking around for a sign of life. She pushed open the door and the smell of blood hit her nose. The light from the windows touched the cold bodies of several older women and probably most of the village's children. One woman still embraced a baby.
Vil walked inside and held his breath. He had seen the same thing happen to the colonies and anger crept over him. He wanted to say something but there were no words that could make a difference to the situation.
Simmini stepped outside and he followed her again into a side entrance and the pub's garden. At the shed in the back she moved away barrels at the side to reveal a wooden floor. A gap at one side provided a grip to pull it up and give access to the storage underneath with crates of weapons and ammunition. 'I will at least take this back to my people.' she said. 'We'll just have to try and hold out long enough by ourselves.'
After loading up the truck Vil helped Simmini move the bodies around the square into the pub. They stood at the front door and she looked over them one last time. 'I'm sorry we can't bring everyone here. It's the best we could do for you now.' she said and ignited the oil they had poured all over the floor. The flames engulfed the entire drinking room quickly and she and Vil stepped back. 'You don't have to come with me if you don't want to. It'll most likely mean death and you have no obligation to us.'
Vil looked up at the smoke drifting up into the raining sky. 'I'm as good as dead anyway, might as well make it count and send some of these Ants to their grave first.'
She glanced at him and smiled a little, then headed to the truck with him.

***

Vil watched the group of Ant soldiers sitting under a low canvas at the edge of a clearing in the forest through the binoculars. 'So the whole area is surrounded like this?'
Simmini had drawn a crude map in the dirt at the bottom of the low slope they hid behind. 'We have the advantage of using the forest as a shield and held them off so far. They try to break through but our traps and shooting from concealed places is costing them their lives. So far they didn't succeed at reaching our village but when a whole lot more soldiers arrive they'll overrun us by numbers.'
'You think they'll come?'
'It's certain. We're just lucky that this is a remote area and no large force has been near enough for it to happen sooner.'
Vil moved down towards Simmini and examined the map. 'I think we'll need to surprise them again.'

***

One of the Ant soldiers at the blockade on the road towards the village chirped for attention when two headlights appeared in the distance. His fellow soldiers took up their positions around the wooden barrier with barbed wire.
The truck slowed down before the barrier and the first Ant held up his arm to block the light from one headlight that shone straight ahead instead of down. He chirped at the driver to kill the lights when the driver door opened.
Right then gunshots came from the side and two of the soldiers at the other side of the barrier went down. The Ant turned to fire at the flashes between the trees but Simmini shot him from truck and fired at the two confused remaining soldiers.
Vil stepped out from between the trees. 'See? They're too rigid in their ways and quick to surprise.
Simmini grinned. 'I'm learning a lot more about them now.'
Together they pushed the barrier aside and continued their drive to the village before other soldiers came to assist. The village lay mostly inside the forest and most houses had large vegetable gardens. Vil noticed there was barely any damage on the houses while Simmini drove slowly towards the centre.
She stopped at the small square and Vil looked around in the dark. 'No one here, or all in hiding?'
She opened the driver door. 'They're here.' she said and got out.
He stepped out and the moment both of his feet touched the ground a gun and a rifle were aimed at him, their owners clad in dark clothing and their watchful eyes focused on him. 'Stay very still.' a voice from the dark in front of him said. 'We don't know you or what you are.'