His countenance stiffened further. “I never said that.”
“I don’t understand? The flyer is gone.”
Stryker’s hard body drifted away. He dislodged himself and stood up. She watched as he dressed himself back into his buckles, weapons, and armor.
Norah didn’t know why her mouth had dried up. But it had. And she felt like a creep looking up at the powerful man that stood beside her.
He placed every article of clothing, every barrier between them back into place, all taken out of his pack until he was the same being who saved her from her hole.
He reached out his hand and she took it without thinking.I don’t want to be alone.
It was just a hand.
Norah stood up on the branch before him, straight and unburdened by the worries of every other moment. She decided to be as strong as him, as hardened as his internal shell.
I’m going to save us. I think that I could save us.
“We need to see if the vehicle is still at the lab,” she shot out, trying to gain some ground.
He lifted his finger and twirled a loose tendril back behind her ear.Damn you.She tried to ignore it and to ignore the tingling feeling that overcame her every time she looked at him. She realized that she only felt weak when standing next to him.
I’m strong too, I am.Norah grasped his arm and sneezed. Her eyes remained closed in misery.
“I know, that’s why we’ll go back,” he conceded. Norah opened her eyes and narrowed them. He continued, “My vessel is gone.” It hurt to hear it but he said it aloud, again.
“I guess we should start now, then.” She looked around. “While the rain isn’t so bad,” she muttered, “when there’s less water in the air.” Her hold on the Cyborg tightened as she listened for a scream, a screech, a wail. But she could only hear the wind and rain, and sometimes the buzz and hiss of the other beasts in the forest. “I think it’s safe,” she said after several minutes. Her eyes lifted back to his, where he waited for her return. “Is it safe?” Norah reached down and grabbed her boots.
Stryker took them out of her hand and kneeled down. She clutched the nearby branches to steady herself as he lifted her feet and slipped the wet shoes back on them.
“No, it’s not safe,” he said at last. “Nothing about this is safe.”
“Did you see the fingers in the water?” she blurted out.
He opened his mouth then paused, “Fingers?”
“I saw, well, I don’t know what I saw but it looked like fingers, partially decayed coming out of the water at the base of the tree, it’s why I climbed up. They reached for me.”
“I didn’t see...fingers,” he said as he re-tied her boot.
“But did you see anything? Anything at all? Human or the like?” Norah added, “I heard gunshots.”
Stryker unhooked their packs and shrugged them over his shoulder.
“There were beasts but nothing human. And they’re gone now, scared away,” he answered and looked at her. She glared back.
“I’m not going crazy.” Norah placed her hand back atop her gun. “I saw fingers.”
“I believe you.”
No, you don’t.But she sighed and let the subject drop.
They climbed down the tree. Stryker went first and had his hand emptied every time she lowered herself down, waiting to catch her, but it only cracked what remained of her heart.
He could have been the ugliest man in the universe just then, the worst man she had ever met in her entire life. He could have been a pirate, a murderer, a rapist, and she would have stayed with him. If she had learned anything in her life, it was that survivability went up within groups, and she was determined to keep going.
So she let his hands slide across her, ensuring her safety with each wavering branch.
The sound of rushing water increased as they got closer to the ground. Second-hand rain dripped from the leaves and over their heads. They settled on a branch above the water. Norah looked down with a prayer but saw no elongated fingers reaching up to grab them.
