The doctors were beyond shock at what they saw. It was the worst case of malnutrition they had ever seen. People living in ruins, trapped in an island in the middle of nowhere, with nothing not even clean water to make life a little easier. The effects of the deprivation were clearly seen on the women: dry and scaly skin, decaying teeth, and bones that stick out their ribs in painful detail.

The children were not worse off than their mothers either: bloated stomachs, p.r.o.nounced hair loss, and a pinched facial expression that made them look older and strangely apathetic. Most were teenagers but were so underweight their growth were stunted.

"How long have these people lived on the island?" one doctor asked An Ning. "The government shut this island down in the 70s. How did they get here?"

An Ning didn't answer. She and Taey had walked around the small island as soon as it was light. The island was the size of three football fields so it didn't take them long to circle back. They were trudging along among the rubble when they heard a mournful howl. They followed the sound and saw a dog tied to a rock. It was a puppy. Black, hairy and was feeding on a carca.s.s of a bony dog that had been dead for several days.

There was a slight drop beyond. An Ning walked over, her stomach churning at the horrendous sight that greeted her. There were dogs everywhere. Live and dead dogs. Zombie-like creatures that stared at her with dead eyes. Some were tied to rocks, put in cages, strangled, decapitated, eaten raw.

The smell was beyond h.e.l.lish. It was the smell of death ten times over.

Taey gagged wretchedly beside her. He heaved and retched and emptied his stomach. An Ning walked over to the whining puppy and untied it from the rock. It trembled in her arms. She could feel it s.h.i.+ver and seemed to shrink unto itself in fear. She looked at it and after a while patted its head gently to calm it down.

"Burn it," she said, without looking at Taey. "Burn it all down."

When she went back to the encampment, the troops were starting to stir.

"The boats will be here in thirty minutes," one of the men told her. "Better get them ready."

An Ning nodded and walked over to one of the tents.

Nyra looked up when she opened the flap.

"We'll be leaving soon," An Ning said. "Can you help me get everyone ready?"

Nyra nodded and signaled to the other women in the tent and they started waking up the children. One of the women went out and entered another tent. In less than ten minutes, everyone was awake and ready to move out.

An Ning saw Taey speaking to one of the communications guys. He was frowning and looking at An Ning worriedly. Sensing something, An Ning walked over to him.

"The s.h.i.+p detected something strange coming this way," Taey said. "It's not a boat or a missile but it's something."

An Ning looked at the peaceful sky in the horizon. It was still a little dark but the faint glow of the sun was becoming visible by its orange shadow riding on the waves of the gentle tide.

"It's a drone," An Ning said. "She's sending a drone. Typical," she added the last with a twisted smile.

"What drone? What are you talking about?"

"Protect them," An Ning commanded, her eyes narrowing as they focused on a spot moving towards them with incredible speed. "It will be here soon."

The thing blocked her view as soon as she finished the words. It was twice bigger than Gara. The drone this time had an ogre's face, hairless, broad brows, and a snout with two sharp fangs. The drone's muscular body was encased in thick armor. It carried a large mace in its right hand and behind its back, the wings flapped violently, stirring a small whirlwind that whipped An Ning's ponytail across her face.

She could hear screaming, the stampede of feet running towards safety. An Ning didn't move. She and the creature locked eyes. An Ning suddenly jumped the distance between them and hacked at the creature with her sword. The move was so sudden and unexpected, it took the creature several seconds to realize that she had just cut its right arm off. The arm and the mace cluttered to the ground with a loud clang.

Enraged, the creature lunged at An Ning with its fist. Fast as lightning, An Ning ducked and broke her fall by holding tightly to the drone's leg. The creature tried to loosen her grip by swinging its leg back and forth but An Ning tightly held on. She flipped legs and used the momentum to clamber up the creature's back.

The creature howled in fury and batted An Ning with its wing. An Ning held onto the creature's neck and pried open its back with her fist. She pulled at the cables controlling the wings until the flapping stopped and the creature fell to the ground with a thud. An Ning landed on her feet beside it.

The drone was damaged but it was still able to lift itself up and again lunged at An Ning. With a loud yell, An Ning evaded the attack and plunged her sword at the base of the creature's neck. There was a loud crackle, an angry hiss and the creature's body dropped to the ground and lay still. An Ning walked over and pulled her sword out.

The head was still flas.h.i.+ng blue lights when she cut it off. She didn't gouge out the eyes this time. She lifted the severed head and looked at it straight in the eye. She had left the chip inside the head undamaged so she knew whoever was controlling the creature could see her but could only watch in impotent rage as she swiftly dismantled the drone from neck to hip.

The human body forged with the creature had been sewn so tight it was nearly impossible to recognize it as a person. The only thing still linking it to its humanity was its blood, which pooled on the ground in large trickles.

An Ning glanced at the severed head and laughed.

"Can't you be more boring than to bring me a drone? You lack imagination, girl. This," she said, indicating the island, the women, and everything that Yu Yan had tried to destroy, "all this is finished. You failed, you dumb loser. Wait for me. I'm coming to get you, you f.u.c.king c.u.n.t."

The head seemed to twitch angrily. With a last triumphant laugh, An Ning pulled out the eyes and destroyed its last bit of consciousness by blowing the sockets off with a gun.

An Ning stared at the carnage with an unreadable face. When she looked up, the first person she saw was Richard. She didn't even evinced any surprise to see him. The two of them stared at each other silently, the distance between them lengthening with each second.

An Ning finally pulled her gaze away and glanced at Taey.

"Is everything ready?" she asked.

Taey looked somberly at her and nodded.

"Start the evacuation then," she said, walking over to the women huddled together watching her.

"You are pregnant," Nyra said, looking weirdly at An Ning.

"Yes."

"How far are you?"

"Nearly seven months."

There was silence as the women looked at each other.

"Hippolyta once attacked a garrison in the south when she was on her eighth month. Li Cheung was furious and tried everything to stop her from going. He even used magic but she was so stubborn, so convinced that what she was doing was right," one of the women told her, her eyes faraway as if she was seeing a different world where Hippolyta and the Amazons once ruled with their might.

"I remember the fight they had," another woman added to the story. "Li Cheung threatened to leave if something happened to the baby. Hippolyta merely laughed."

"He didn't know how strong Hippolyta really was. She never even got sick in her life," another woman said.

"How did it end? The argument?" An Ning asked curiously.

"Hippolyta went to war and Li Cheung went with her. We stormed the garrison, won the war and came home with riches. A month later, your mother was born. Li Cheung of course fainted during the birth. He couldn't endure the sight of your grandmother in pain more so her threats that she will never sleep with him again because it hurt too much to give birth to his brat," Nyra said, chuckling at the memory.

An Ning smiled, happy to see the women looking somewhat relaxed and carefree. The water from Hippolyta's grove was more potent than she first thought. It practically worked like an elixir of life, bringing some color to the women's cheeks, brightening their eyes, strenghtening their muscles and giving l.u.s.ter to their hair. The children, too, looked more alert than they did before. They were shy and self-conscious but they met An Ning's eyes with a smile.

"It will not affect the baby," Nyra was saying. "We never lost a child even we fought while pregnant. We were made different from other women. I guess, we evolved that way just because," she shrugged.

The evacuation went smoothly without any more incident. Of the twenty thousand women that Yu Yan kidnapped, brainwashed and left to die on the island, about eight thousand survived. Nyra was unflinching when she told An Ning of cannibalising their fallen comrades the first year they arrived and everybody sickened because of the lack of food and the harsh elements. Then a crate of dogs appeared out of nowhere, perhaps lost during a storm from a stranded s.h.i.+p. They raised the dogs for food while others fished.

They made a hard scrabbled existence on the island for twenty years, occasionally attacked by pirates who raped and impregnate the women then left never to be seen again. Some one hundred children were born during this time. Some died while others lived. Those who lived were mostly female children but there were about ten male children who survived but were so weak they were almost bedridden.

An Ning went from women to women introducing herself and trying to make them feel safe and protected. She saw how the women looked at the men, angry and suspicious. It made her feel sad that the Amazons who used to fight yet deal fairly with the opposite s.e.x had been reduced to this cliché of liberal female clichés : resentful and hostile because of a man.

The boats ferried the women and children to the cargo s.h.i.+p in less than an hour. An Ning carried the puppy in her arms as she and the women on the boat looked back at the island in silence. It still looked like a battles.h.i.+p with its giant sea wall b.u.t.tressing the falling buildings; it still looked lonely and desolate but it was no longer a prison.

An Ning tickled the puppy under its chin. It licked at her fingers with tentative affection. The puppy's black hair shone with red highlights under the sun. It was quite a lovely color, like sunset on the cusp of blooming.

An Ning took a last glance at the distant island. It was the start of a new beginning. She turned around as the boat finally approached the cargo s.h.i.+p.