Lightning by Bonnie S. Calhoun

takin’ another mouth with us to feed,” Leather Ties said.
    â€œAin’t you just mister smart britches,” Dirty Nails said. “Then what do you propose we do? We gotta get something out of this.” He ogled Treva and Selah.
    Selah raised her chin in defiance. Try it and I’ll detach your body parts , she thought. Treva’s head snapped in her direction. A hint of a nervous smile crossed her lips. She must have heard Selah’s thought.
    â€œTake our supplies.” Jaenen gestured to the neatly stacked packages. “We have a lot of food.”
    Selah noted he didn’t offer up their hidden weapons. Her heart pounded. She hadn’t prepared for a battle. She needed focus, not fear. She pulled in a few long breaths to calm her quivering extremities. A flash popped before her eyes. She squeezed them tight. Not now!
    Dirty Nails and Eye Patch herded Selah and the group out of the AirWagon and onto the side of the road. Leather Ties held them at gunpoint while the AirWagon was stripped of belongings, and several of the bandits moved off into the woods with the majority of the booty.
    Selah cringed watching the supplies disappear. One of the bandits noticed her leather bag. He poured the kapos out on the ground and picked one up by the blade using two fingers.
    â€œWhat would anybody want with this baby pig sticker?” He threw his head back and laughed.
    â€œYou could probably give them to Lys to clean his nails,” another answered.
    Dirty Nails growled his displeasure at being the butt oftheir jokes and fired off a round, just missing the ear of the one who’d last spoken. Everyone scrambled from the vicinity, leaving the man standing there motionless as a tree, still holding Selah’s knife.
    â€œYou don’t have to get so ornery about it. I was just joking.” The man threw the knife to the ground with the others, walked over the bunch, and ground them into the soft forest floor at the edge of the road.
    Selah tried to make eye contact with Treva to keep her friend calm. She thought any show of emotion might give the bandits further provocation, and Treva appeared on the verge of tears. Cleon and Jaenen took up positions in front of the girls as a shield.
    Dirty Nails grabbed Selah’s backpack from the remaining pile and dumped it out. He kicked through her clothing and other items, then felt over the bag and ripped open the side pocket, exposing the wrapped cloth. She tensed.
    He dropped the bag and unfolded the cloth, discarded the data glass pack, and turned the reader over in his hand. “Does everything you people use take some kind of power? You’re all slaves to the order.” He tossed the reader on the bag.
    Selah squeezed her lips tight, hoping the reader and data glass hadn’t broken.
    â€œWe need something more to give you passage through our land. How much money you people got to go with this bounty?” Dirty Nails walked the line of them, stopping near Selah. Her stomach lurched. She forced down her gag reflex at the rancid smell emanating from him. How could one person possess such a vile odor?
    â€œWe’ve got very little, but I don’t think it will work for you.” Cleon held out his ComLink and opened the bio-coin interface.
    Dirty Nails slapped his arm away. “I mean real money! Gold, silver, stones?”
    Selah jerked her head around. She hadn’t heard anyone talk of stones since she was little. He meant diamonds, the stones of barter in the wild lands. Very few people she knew dealt in any physical currencies—too bulky, and easily lost or stolen.
    Cleon shook his head. “No. We don’t use metals or stones, only virtual coin.”
    Selah knew just what he was thinking. If they spent virtual coin it could be traced.
    Dirty Nails grabbed Treva by the arm. Cleon reached to stop him. Two rifles drew down on him. He raised his arms in surrender as he backed away.
    â€œI think we may need