“Yes!” A deadbolt! I slid it into place and turned around, looking for a way out. A window. Anything I could climb on. Anything.
“Shit.” No windows. The ceiling wasn’t made of magical movie tiles I could crawl into and hide behind. No, this stupid building had open ceilings, exposed metal beams and not a single hiding spot. Even the ducts were too small to crawl into.
I just locked myself in a prison cell with no way out.
A roar unlike anything I’d ever heard had me backing away from the door.
Crashing. A fight. Were they fighting each other?
I backed up until I couldn’t go any farther.
The door flew off its hinges, ripped out of the frame as easily as tearing the door out of a wall made of paper. I screamed. The Hive leader stomped closer, that button held out in front of him like a badge. Silver eyers. Black. They flashed like a strobe light inside his skull.
“No. No. No.” My shoulder blades hit cold brick. Shit.
The cyborg followed. One step. Two.
The exterior wall exploded inward. Arms appeared before the debris hit the floor and grabbed the cyborg. My attacker spun to face the new threat as a massive, dust covered creature broke through the wall to stand between me and the Hive.
Dust rained down. I coughed, the debris making my lungs burn. Pebble sized pieces of concrete and drywall splattered my head and shoulders like rain. Blinking dust out of my eyes, I clamped my teeth together, not wanting to make a sound.
The new, bigger monster was covered in cyborg parts as well. He roared.
I dropped to my knees, hands covering my ears as the two Hive cyborgs charged one another. Their bodies colliding created a boom in the small space. I didn’t dare move. If I got in their way, I’d be dead.
What the hell was going on? Why were the Hive fighting each other?
Fucking insane.
Even as I thought the words, I pulled my cell phone out and started recording. I watched them land blow after blow, their strikes so hard I knew just one would kill me instantly. The first cyborg was big and scary, but the new one? At least another head taller, too tall to be anything but a real life giant. His shoulders were easily twice the width of a large man’s. His thighs were thick as tree trunks and his hands? God, they each looked as big as a dinner plate.
His dark hair was covered in dust and debris, but beneath that I saw a strangely handsome face, more human looking than the bronze cyborg’s angular features. He looked human. Super-sized human. Eight or nine feet tall, human.
Which meant, not human. Was he one of the guys from the TV show? Was he a beast?
I had nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. I had no weapons to try to fight even one of these huge cyborgs, and no way out.
Was I going to die here? Damn it.
My body shut down. I felt my spine slump, my muscles refused to move. Numb. That’s what I was. Was this what being in shock felt like? After all the trouble I’d encountered in my life, the threats and bullying, this moment felt surreal. Somehow, my mind whirred at top speed as my body froze in place, unable to run. It was as if I was watching things happen to someone else, my mind detached and clinical. There was no fear. There was just… nothing.
I felt nothing when the giant lifted the bronze skinned cyborg over his head and threw him into the wall. Nothing when the wall cracked behind the Hive’s body and his blood dripped all over the floor. Nothing as the giant stomped over, put one foot on the smaller opponent’s hip to hold him down, and used both hands to rip the bronze cyborg’s body in half, armor and all, just like in an anime. Oddly, I realized that when I watched a cartoon, I didn’t smell the tangy scent of blood.
Shock. I had to be in shock. Dazed. Cold. Until the giant whirled around to face me, blood and dust splattered all over his body, and one word came out of his mouth like a lion’s roar. One word restarted my system like an electric shock, made me want to scream. To run.
One. Word.
“Mine!”
5
Lark
* * *
The giant took two steps toward me. I stood, legs shaking, and held out my hands. Like that was going to do any good.
“Leave me alone.”
