Unfortunately, something more unsettling revealed itself.
“The water level has risen.”
Stryker looked at her with his unreadable eyes. “Several feet overnight.”
The rain kept falling.
“How is that possible? There are no large bodies of water nearby, only bogs and swamps.”
“We’re under sea level.” He shrugged. “Shouldn’t you know this?”
Norah prickled. “I was sent here after the research lab was built. It doesn’t matter if you’re under sea level if there’s no sea within hundreds of miles.” She looked out at the falling rain. “We need to find a place to wait out the storm.”
His eyes flashed at her, drawing her attention. They were blue now when before they were brown.I know his eye color?Norah had never paid attention to human detail before.
“We can’t.”
Her body shivered. “Why?” she whispered.
“My ship is due to leave without us in a day and a half, Earthian time. It’s stationed above the clouds.” His voice bellowed under the metal band. “The storm was covering a third of the planet when I dropped in. It’s not going to end, not anytime soon. We could wait it out but it could take months or years. How long have you and your fellows been here?”
Years.It felt like.
“A little over six months. The research lab has been here for three years,” she added, licking the dew off of her lips.
“No known storms?”
“Nothing like this.”
“Hmm.” The Cyborg pulled the bags off his back and dug out a receiver, handing it to her. Norah took it. “Keep that on you, in your pistol holder if you need. If we get separated you can use it to call me. I can track it when it’s powered on.” He nodded at it. “It’s solar powered.” He looked up. “Doesn’t mean much with this weather.”
“Thanks.” Norah attached it to her belt. Stryker loaded on both their packs and made to jump down. “Wait!” He stopped. “There’s something in the water.” Norah gripped his arm. “Those fingers, those creatures were in the water.”
“Alright. Let me go first and clear the way. Wait here while I check it out.”
He jumped into the water with a splash.
***
The water came up to his hips. He looked up at the girl, catching her dark eyes with a reassuring nod before scoping out the area. He could still connect to his flyer, but when he did, the pressure of thick mud and water pressed down on him from every side.
Stryker couldn’t save it. He had shifted into hisformand burrowed his way deep within the moist terra, he wouldn’t have been able to do it otherwise. But his horrible beast allowed it and so it had come in use for something.
He adjusted the metal on his face.
It’s not like I’m a fucking worm.He felt himself snapping at the air, at nothing at all.
He looked back at Norah once again, wanting to sink his teeth into her caramel skin. His armor had never come so in handy before. Stryker would die before he took his muzzle off around her.
He examined the area, finding nothing but alien life-forms.
He analyzed the monsters from the night before but didn’t sense them anywhere nearby.The fingers must have come from them.Which was strange…
Human-shaped heat sources surrounded their tree and the nearby areas. He waded through the quagmire towards them.
The same heat signatures from the facility.His monstrous blood ran cold.We’re being followed.Stryker unstrapped a gun from his bicep and aimed it at the red shape and fired.
The bullet whistled into the water. The signature remained the same.
