Chaos Quarter by David Welch

concrete hurdled through the park, smashing limbs from the fig trees and scattering dozens of terrified birds. People screamed and ran from the burning structures. The monkey troops followed them, screeching in terror.
    They reached the rubble of the brick building. Paper and furniture burned despite the rain. The upper floors had collapsed, leaving a rubble pile of splintered wood and bent metal.
    Sticking out from the pile was a human torso, male. Rex rushed up, ignoring the pounding rain drenching his clothing. The body lay motionless, a thick, steel I-beam crushing the chest.
    “Our guy,” Rex said. “Get him out from under here.”
    “What? Are you taking the—”
    “Sooner he’s in the truck, the sooner we’ll get back to the ship and off this damn planet!” Rex roared.
    Intimidated into action, Chakrika started shoveling rain-slick debris off the dead man with her hands. Rex grasped the I-beam with both arms, throwing his weight behind it. The beam resisted, then broke free abruptly, sending Rex sprawling forward into the debris. Grumbling, he got to his feet. He brushed bits of ruined brick from his pants and then scurried back to the corpse.
    Something stirred. He didn’t hear it; it was impossible to hear anything over the rippling explosions engulfing the city—he saw it. From under a wrecked patch of drywall, a figure emerged. A woman.
    Chakrika noticed his stare and turned to look. Out from the rubble stood a tan-skinned woman with platinum blond hair, pasted to the side of her head from downpour. Her clothes clung to her skin from rain and from blood. She was banged up and cut, but otherwise unharmed. She saw them and rushed over to their sides. Without a word she began digging out the body.
    An explosion erupted in the park. They crouched low, a hail of debris flying over them. Bits of smashed concrete pelted Rex in the back. He grasped the body around the chest and hauled it free. Chakrika ran ahead of him, opening the tail-gate of the truck. The strange blond woman followed like an obedient puppy, her eyes never leaving the body.
    Rex muscled the body into the back, slammed the gate shut, and rushed to the driver’s side. Chakrika was already in the car and strapped in. Rex paused, squinting at something in the distance. One of the small ships had pulled into a hover over a nearby street. People ran terrified down the road. A black net shot from the ship, entangling a half-dozen people. The net closed in on itself and then jerked skyward. A cable retracted the net and the screaming people inside toward the hovering ship above. The reality of the situation dawned.
    “Slavers!” Rex shouted, jumping into the truck. He gunned the engine, accelerating down the street. Chakrika put her window down, sticking her head out to look.
    “There’s one after us!” she screamed.
    He heard her gun fire. She shot helplessly at the pursuing ship with her pistol. Rex hit the accelerator, pulling away as a steel net struck the ground behind them. Through his rearview he could see the empty net retracting.
    “God damn it,” he swore, jerking left. The maneuver banged Chakrika’s torso against the window frame. She yelped in pain and ducked back into the car.
    “No problem shooting that thing now, eh?” Rex quipped as he swerved right. The pursuing fighter overshot.
    “Can we get to the ship?!” Chakrika exclaimed, hyperventilating.
    “I don’t know,” he replied, slamming on his brakes. Their attacker overshot, his net landing in a pile of rubble five yards ahead of them.
    “Tell me we’re getting to the ship!” she screamed as he accelerated the truck forward. They shot under the retracting net, racing toward the spaceport.
    “Damn it, tell me!” Chakrika bellowed, tears streaming down her face.
    “OK, we’re gonna be just fine,” Rex dead-panned. He could see the spaceport’s terminal just ahead. Tracers shot upward, the spaceport bristling with defenses. A downed slaver ship burned in the