The storm raged and the poncho Stryker had given her didn’t help anymore.
Norah missed the Cyborg already and hoped he was okay. Hoped that he would retrieve his vehicle.
The tourniquet on her heart grew shards of guilt as she mourned her would-be savior. She pulled her knees into her chest and sneezed, her pistol tight in her hand.
She had chosen to trust in a stranger which was unusual for her despite the circumstances. Norah didn’t know why, maybe it was because he had been a blip of light within the nightmare, but she missed him as much as she missed Robert and her co-workers.
She only hoped that someone else had survived, that the others had gotten off the ground with their ship, that she wasn’t the only one left from the Axone group.
The night fell in waves of terrible darkness around her. The thunder howled in her ears.
Norah pulled off her boots and socks, tied the shoelaces together, and hung them on a branch before she settled in. There was nowhere for her to go but up or to crawl laterally to another tree; neither prospect offered her an advantage, so she settled in.
To die or to live for another day.
She didn’t notice as her eyes drifted closed and she zoned out, a body quivering with fever.
Her eyes shot open sometime later at the sound of gunfire. Norah gripped the branch and looked down but couldn’t see anything. She had left her flashlight behind in her pack at the base.
Something screamed its dying breath just as another shot rang out into the wind.
“Stryker?” she screamed with a rush of hope, having nothing left to lose. Norah leaned further out over the ledge. “Stryker I’m up here. Up in the tree!” She hoped it was him, but who else would fire a shot in the dark?
She strained to hear him call back out to her but only heard the rustle of damp leaves and crackle of thin branches slapping together. A movement caught her eye, followed by a grunt. She lifted up and begged the stars for her Cyborg to be okay.
An opportune bolt flashed, but only for a second, and to her horror she saw the creature from the water, muddied and disfigured, climbing up from between the leaves. Norah grabbed her boots and scrambled up just as a hand closed around her ankle.
Her mouth opened, teeth bared, into an unfinished scream. Her leg kicked out to dislodge herself when it spoke.
“Norah, it’s me. Calm down.” She heard the words but fumbled anyway, and jerked her foot free. She lifted herself to the next branch. “Norah, stop,” the voice bellowed.
Distance cleared her mind and she stopped.
“Stryker?”
Another grunt and a huff answered her. She stopped her ascent and looked down into the darkness.
“Come down, we need to talk.”
The wind howled. “It’s you, it’s you, right?” She hated that her voice shook, that she was so damn tired it hurt.
“It’s me, Norah.” A hand, big and warm rounded over her thigh and held her in place. “Let me help you down.”
Her breath hitched and she let him lead her down, her boots hanging from her palm. His hands caught her in the darkness, wrapping around her weakened frame until she was captured between his strong arms and pressed into an even stronger chest.
It didn’t lift with each breath but shifted with each beat of life. On any other occasion she would never have let a strange man enfold her in such an intimate embrace but right now...right now, any amount of comfort was gratefully accepted.
Norah sniffled. She reached up and rubbed her brow to lessen the spinning in her head.
Stryker’s chin settled on top of her head and his mechanical heat took the shiver out of her body. It was the best feeling in the universe.
Norah mumbled, “You wanted to talk?” So tired she couldn’t remember her fear. There was a point, she knew, when exhaustion settles in and trumps everything else. It blurs it out to grey, an eraser to even the threat of encroaching death. She used to have to recite the periodic table to get to sleep but now, now all she had to do was breathe. And remain still.
The Cyborg seemed to know her needs better than she did. “I lied,” he said, his heat penetrating her clothes. “Just rest, we’ll talk tomorrow.”
They were the last words she heard as she gave into the protection he so freely gave.
***
