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Twins.
    At least they gave me a blanket. But if they’ve left the train, I’m probably toast…
    She gripped the Glock a little harder. It was more than a little creepy being aboard a dim, deserted train. Any second, someone—or some thing —might jump out at her from the darkness. She slowed as she neared the end of the carriage, realizing its door was open.
    Any second, an army of Barks could rush in, their pale, fishbelly-white bodies undulating as they opened their sharklike mouths and went for her…
    Movement in the door made her trigger finger quiver dangerously. She quickly lowered the gun as she recognized the silhouette as a man.
    â€œGareth,” she whispered. She didn’t know how she recognized him, but her instinct told her it was the quieter of the Twins.
    He turned slightly, putting a finger to his lips without stopping his scan of the land around them. Then he reached for her gun, engaged the safety and tucked it back into the holster. Pulling her close, he bent to speak directly into her ear.
    â€œThe train broke down. Finn’s guarding the other end of the carriage. Stay behind me, and keep quiet. We don’t want to attract unwanted attention.”
    Unwanted attention. Now there was a way to put it. Mari stepped back inside the carriage, peering through the window at the seemingly barren land. She’d been wrong earlier about there being no buildings around—there was a ramshackle cabin in the near distance. Was it infested with Barks?
    Gareth seemed to focus most of his attention in that direction. Now that his leather jacket was hitched up a bit, she could see two vicious-looking daggers hanging unsheathed at his waist. Electronic ones, judging by the buttons on the hilt. Otherwise, he didn’t seem to be armed.
    Mari frowned. Twins were faster, stronger, more physically capable than a typical human. They’d been created as super-soldiers. Yet surely even they couldn’t successfully fight Barks with two daggers.
    In those early days when much of humanity perished, it was reported that Twins had been instrumental in helping to create walled Cities, fighting off Barks by night and shoring up infrastructure by day. Even though more than ninety percent of the population now lived behind walls, Twins still kept busy, guarding transport and Cities.
    And, apparently, running strange missions for her government that involved her late father.
    Mari took a deep breath and reminded herself that Gareth was probably used to this. She shifted, wondering if she should go check on Finn, but Gareth signaled her to stay put. So she occupied herself by scanning the land herself, wondering what possessed certain people to live outside the safety of walls.
    Her own City had only rarely been attacked. The aliens had gotten smarter as years went by, so sustained attacks on walls were rare. The aliens were carnivores and could go long periods without eating. Not that they lacked prey—there was still plenty of wildlife in many areas. Humans, however, seemed to be their favorite dish. So the Barks lurked, preying upon people who didn’t make it back inside the gates before nightfall.
    Since crops had to be grown somewhere, and space was at a premium inside walls, humans still had to venture outside. Mari had taken a job as a shepherd several years ago, watching over the animals as they grazed during the day, then driving them back inside the City before sunset. Well before sunset, in fact, to the point where she was eventually fired because her boss was annoyed that the sheep didn’t get that extra half hour of grazing in.
    Her boss, however, had never driven the sheep out herself, never experienced the gut-churning terror when one animal wandered a little too far and had to be brought away from an abandoned barn where Barks might have been lurking, waiting to rend flesh away from bone.
    That was how Carter had died.
    That was also why they assigned two people to