She could’ve cried when Stryker rose up.
Two packs bubbled up next and Norah, without a thought, reached out and grabbed them from the debris bobbing around the grave of the sunken ship.
Her heart expanded as her body found its breath once again; relief, dread, and excitement shot through her. She felt it all until they morphed into a singular emotion: shock.
The heavy band came up next as she hauled both bags onto the branch that was beginning to dip with the weight before placing hers, waterlogged, onto her back.
“I thought you were dead,” she whispered as she made room for the Cyborg to climb up. His eyelids twisted and she thought she saw the head of a snake appear before it vanished in the haze.
His dark, poison blue eyes drifted from hers to examine everything around them.
Norah had lost count of the shrieks.
“I’m not easy to kill,” Stryker growled as he raised his rifle and eyed the area through its scope. The branch cracked and snapped. “Start heading up. I’ll cover you from here.”
She watched, still in shock, as his gun stopped to aim at something in the water and issued an ear-splitting shot; the body of another coiler rose, dead.
Mud and blood oozed everywhere. The eel’s elongated fangs showed through a mouth gaping in a dying scream, eyes glazed and pale, surprised at its own death.
She didn’t want to leave Stryker. Every time he left, she was always sure he had died.Everybody else would’ve.Norah didn’t want to lose him again. Her heart couldn’t take much more.
“No,” she said, coughing. “We stick together.”Please.“I’ve seen more than one horror movie, Cyborg.”
He looked away from his gun, its scope, back to her. She could see him weighing her words.
“Yeah, so have I.”
What?
He continued, “Fine. I’ll be right behind you.”
Norah chewed on her lip, nodded, and with shaking muscles began to climb the tree. Each branch burned under her palms, her hands torn up from so many death-grips, her thighs strained from constant use, and feet wrinkled, having been encased in wet socks for longer than was healthy.
She stopped and looked down.
Stryker was a foot behind her. “Keep going, I’m here,” he said, reading her mind.
Norah frowned but turned away and kept climbing, continuing as the sounds of the flood fell away and the wind picked up around her. The constant barrage of rain slapped against her face until she thought it was hail that poured down from the sky, not water.
A hand caught her ankle, stopping her, and Stryker joined her on her branch. She hugged the trunk. Her hair whipped around her head and shoulders.
“We need to find a safe place to retreat,” his voice boomed over the airy howls.
“Is there such a thing as a safe place here?” Norah quipped then added, “We can cross over to one of the giant trees next to us. They have pods and enough space to camp.” Stryker looked around and eyed their canopy-like surroundings. “Think we can do it?” she yelled. Thunder joined her question.
The Cyborg ran a hand through his short hair and pulled his pack off to rest between them. He pulled a long rope out.
“We can if you trust me.”
The wind lashed her face and her sensibilities bloomed with misgivings as the strange man tied the rope around his arms and waist.
Her eyes fell to the abyss below them.I have nothing left to lose.
Nothing.
Norah nodded at the Cyborg. “Okay.”
Their eyes met, and a shivering, vulnerable, unusual moment passed between them. Something heavy and unkindled. A fire that had burned down to embers, only waiting to burst back into flames. She rubbed the goosebumps from her arms. His eyes flickered into dark rings of color as she gulped down the burning ash.
