“What’s wrong!? What’re you shooting at?” Norah yelled behind him.
His jaw ticked. His wanted to strike out but subdued the need. Stryker made his way back to the girl.
“Nothing,” he said, frustrated. “Thought I saw something.” Norah sat directly above him, her now-booted feet dangling from the branch. His fingers rounded her supple calf, shielded within cotton, and cupped it. “You can come down now. I’ve got you.”
Thick waves of black hair, dripping with crystal held his eyes, calming him.
“Do you...do you sense a lot?” she asked and didn’t move.
“Everything.”
“There are creatures, very dangerous ones in this jungle, carnivorous, venomous, do you see anything in your tech around us?” Stryker watched her lift her eyes and look around, not for the hundredth time.
He held her leg as he ran his eyes over everything in their vicinity. The movement of countless creatures twisted and twirled around them. The insects that bit him were dead around his legs, killed off by his nanobots.God damn it.
The water continued to rise.
“Norah,” he looked back up at her. “Can you trust me?”
Her almond eyes widened. “Yes? Maybe?”
“I need you to come down.”
His girl licked her full lips again, his tongue licked his own behind his mask.
“Is it safe?”
Stryker tensed. “Do you doubt me?” They stared at each other, a tension spiked out and enveloped them in something that almost stung. A minute passed and another centimeter of water rose over his skin. Alien water bugs continued to nibble his flesh.
“Okay.” She eventually relented.
Stryker turned his back and grasped both of her calves. “Just slide off and onto my shoulders.”
“Can you carry me and the packs? I can wade through the water.”
His pride bristled. Stryker tugged and caught her without answering. Fingers gripped the short waves of his hair with a gasp and rustle, and he started moving before the girl was even settled. His muscles tensed, his manhood questioned, his perfection on the line. He held her legs, keeping her feet above the water line.
“Norah,” his voice was hard; he headed back toward the lab.
“What?” she held on, slumped over his shoulder.
“You never have to doubt me.”
“I–I don’t.”
Stryker pulled her feet through the straps over his chest and recovered the gun in his hand. They held her as he held it.
She continued, “I’m scared.”
“I know, babe.”
“–and so tired.”
He picked up the pace. “We’ll be safe soon,” he reassured her and tightened his grip on the handle of the gun.
Chapter Six:
***
