He reached behind her and unhooked her clothes, he helped her dress as she used his body for support.
“No. Because I doubted you.” Each word tasted like well-deserved acid on his tongue.
Norah grabbed her boots from his hand and stuffed her feet in them. “I hate wet socks,” she uttered, angered, her head downcast. Stryker took hold of her hair and swept it from her face. It felt like velvet in his grip as he tied it back for her.
“I hate jungles.”
“Well, I hate heights and rain,” she quipped and covered her ears. “And those fuckers below us.”
Stryker smiled under his mask.
The second sun was just beneath the horizon. The world lightened an imperceivable shade around them, just enough for his technology to discern. He noticed his dagger sticking out of Norah’s pistol holder on her waist.
“I hate that I can’t kiss you.”
She humphed.
His smile widened. He pulled on one of her crimped up curls until she looked at him. Her dark eyes filled with satiation, exhaustion, annoyance, and most importantly, courage.
Stryker pulled out his rope and leashed it around him. Norah sighed as she lifted her pack over her shoulders.
“I guess that means we’re tree hopping to the landing zone.”
He clipped his bag to his side.
“Yeah, a pain we’ll have to experience together.”
Stryker knew he had won when the corner of her lip curved up.
“Let’s…” she paused. “Let’s just get out of this hell-hole.”
Chapter Twelve:
***
Norah held on tight. Her nails dug into the Kevlar strapped across Stryker’s back. Her body was pressed hard against his back, harder than their desperate joining before. She knew when each bruise formed. Her teeth sank into her lower lip with each jump until the taste of copper laced her tongue.
Her forehead rested on his shoulder, within the crook of his neck. It slipped over his armor. Her sweat increased as her fear grew.
The shriekers were following them.
She didn’t know how, but the wails they emitted had yet to lessen with each tree they crawled to, that Stryker jumped across. Norah gritted her teeth and kept silent.
The rope dug deep into her tired muscles. She had learned something: she hated water as much as she loved it. They were drenched and every fiber of her being wanted to beg him to stop so she could peel off her clothing again just so she wouldn’t have tofeelit anymore.
She clenched her eyes shut as Stryker poised to jump again. If he were human, she was sure he would be experiencing pain where she clung to him with her vice-like grip.
All she could do was hope she had placed her trust well and was truly safe with the Cyborg she clung to.
I want to tell you how I feel.
The rain hit her. The wind tore at the trees. The deluge continued.
The lightning flared and the thunder was as common as her heartbeat.
Norah lifted her eyelids, burdened by raindrops, to the world around her. Stryker jumped. She winced. She noticed the light first, and then that she could see beyond the rain just enough to notice the trees all around them. The Giants interspersed with canopies of leaves, open pods appeared and vanished below them. Waterfalls were everywhere.
It was gloriously beautiful in a destructive, terrifying way. The planet was flooding. It was flooding over to create an orb of water. An ocean to cover the world.
