He gripped her and stopped as a tree erupted in front of them, static electricity ignited the air and flooded his circuits.
Norah was shielded within his arms as the branches crashed around them. Whatever fire that sprung up died out within seconds.
She trembled in his embrace.
“We can’t go back.” He squeezed her into him, soaking up her fear. “They’re coming.” Stryker loosened the straps on his rifle.
“I’m scared,” she said into his buckles, whispered with a twitch, and not meant to be heard.
“I know.” The last branch fell, making a splash.
He released her and they continued their retreat.
***
Norah couldn’t breathe, and in fact, could barely speak; her words were caught up in her mouth and every time she opened it, rainwater would flood in.
They were running through a forest she had been in a hundred times, through water that reached up to her shins.
She knew where they were, but when the land sloped she wasn’t prepared for it. It didn’t matter–the Cyborg held her up.
Without him, she would have fallen face-first, twisted an ankle, and left crawling through the mire. Actually, she would’ve still been within her lab, waiting for it to flood enough that she could swim to the top.
The rain lashed at her face. But her fingers remained clawed into his side; she clutched the buckles at his chest as if the wind was tugging her away.
“Fuuuck me,” Stryker’s hollow voice shot out. Norah looked up as they jerked to a stop; she stumbled against him.
Her eyes caught what his had.
A singular planetary flyer that was sinking into the same wet soil that they were. The ground slurped it up, eating it whole, and took it for its own. The vehicle was half submerged.
Norah glanced down at her own legs and found the water had risen to just below her knees. Her boots were flooded and she could no longer see her feet within the brackish currents.
Stryker let go of her and went to what was left of his flyer; it visibly bubbled and sunk a foot more as if to spite them. She trudged to the nearest tree and clung to it as the wind blasted her from every side.
Norah couldn’t even muster an emotion as her only hope vanished, again, before her eyes. A bolt struck the tail of the flyer, sending a blast of light through the hazy green of the jungle.
The Cyborg gripped the side and pulled.
Her mouth fell open. The several ton vehicle shifted and squelched, pulled up for a moment before it began to sink again.
Impossible. That kind of strength is...wrong.
Her fingers sank into the bark, the grime settled under her nails. Stryker pulled again, leveraged against nothing, and made an inch of progress. It stopped its descent for a moment, for a shriek to sound in the distance, before the mud took it back.
Stryker turned around, his eyes slitted and dark, baring his anger and strength down on her. Norah lost her breath again, her lips parted as he came toward her, his gait intent and filled with rage. She braced herself against the alien tree.
“I need to strip.”
What?
“What? Why?” she asked as he began to peel off the weapons on his hips, thrusting them in their packs. His buckles came next, a vest, a thick armored shirt, before he reached for the straps of his pants.
Norah couldn’t bring herself to look away. She didn’t even bother to pretend to be coy. It didn’t matter with the situation they were in.
“Need to lift it up from the bottom,” he barked over the thunder. “My armor hinders me.”
There was a thin under-suit he wore that outlined every muscles and curve of a body dripping in rainwater and mud. Norah’s belly fluttered. “You’re crazy. You can’t go in that.” She waved her hand at the mud. “You’ll die. There’s no possible way you can get under it.” She let go of the tree and grasped his hand. “Please don’t. Please! You won’t be able to breathe or see. What if you get caught underneath?”
