“I’ll drive, you shoot,” she yelled.
His heavy, metalloid Cyborg body shifted under her in a way that didn’t seem humanly possible. She jerked the vehicle back into position and dodged a low-hanging branch. Norah thought she felt something jut up against her back side, something long and thick. She couldn’t be sure what it was, but she thought all of the unaccounted for guns were in the duffel bag.
It felt wrong and incredibly inappropriate.
It had to be a gun.It had to.
Stryker grunted and reloaded a new chamber; the old one fell into the water at her feet. The craft dipped again, submerging her view for a moment before lifting back up into the rain.
And right into another coiler.
She crashed into it before she could change course and ground the creature under the craft’s heavy metal frame. The spray of blood that coated one side window, the frame of the other and part of the ceiling announced its death. Gunfire rang out like music as the vehicle shuddered and groaned.
“No, no, no,” Norah begged as the front dipped again into the water. The smell of exhaust filled the small compartment. She was able to drive it several more yards before it came to a complete stop.
Norah hit the controls, urging it to restart, but it didn’t move. She stared in shock as her view of the rain vanished and the front half of the craft began to sink into the bog.
The two coilers that were chasing them attacked the open back of the craft.
Her nails dug into the wheel as error reports flooded the console, and an A.I. blared evacuation measures in her ears. Water flooded the interior as they sank. She tried again to restart it, screaming and cursing it all the while.
The coilers swam like eels across the cracked glass on either side. A hand gripped her arm.
“Time to go,” Stryker urged, pulling her out of the seat.
He covered her as a spiked tail whipped out, further destroying the enclosure. It struck him and they crashed together. The water poured in. It was up to her stomach and was rising with each passing second.
What was left of the terra vehicle shook with each strike. One of the eels snapped its jaw at her, hitting the front window shield.
She latched onto Stryker’s arm. “Are you okay!?” His eyes were at half-mast, staring straight ahead. “Stryker?” she screeched, shaking him. “Stryker? Look at me. Look at me!”
He looked at her as water rushed around his head. “Time to go,” he repeated in a strained voice. The Cyborg pulled her toward him. “Time to go.” His eyes narrowed and flashed. “Time to go.”
He said it again and again.
“Stryker, wake up, please,” she yelled and fought his hold. But it didn’t work.
The air bubbled up, the monsters had them trapped, Stryker hadhertrapped. The water lapped at her chin.
“Time to go.”
“Gowhere!?” Norah looked into his eyes and asked, begged. Although the light cast shadows across his face they still shone like beacons against the encroaching darkness. She glanced around, anxious, alert, and more awake than she had been in days, and tried to find anything that would help them.
She twisted and reached back toward the console, begging it to turn on, even for just a moment. When that didn’t work, she kicked the machine and cursed the company that made such a shitty terra vehicle.
Norah turned back around to face Stryker and grabbed for one of the packs floating behind him. She strained her head up as the water covered her mouth, gasping up the remaining air.
She tugged but the bag didn’t move, caught on something out of her reach. Norah screamed in frustration.
Stryker twitched like a short-circuited machine, having gone quiet now that his mouth was under the water, he held onto her with a punishing grip. Norah tried to shake him; he didn’t move. She tried to retrieve her arm from his grip; he didn’t let go.
This is it.
Norah clutched his head and stared into his eyes. She couldn’t stop the tears forming as the glass shattered behind her.
Water reached her bottom eyelashes. Something snaked across her back.I’m so sorry.I’m so sorry you died because of me.Norah leaned her brow against his and waited to drown.
There was a bellowing rush just before the entire flyer was swallowed by the water. She closed her eyes. Stryker’s grip on her loosened and her body was thrown into the front windshield, her eyes shot open only to burn from the alien miasma.
