Starved and wild.
He held back from sinking his teeth into its hide. The monster shook and danced around in a frenzy, trying to break his hold on its frame. Stryker felt its black claws come up to hook under his tail and throw him off.
Saliva slathered his face just as the monster closed its teeth around his head.
Chapter Twenty:
***
Norah raised her weapon the moment she heard the sound of the broken door opening. Somehow, poised for whatever came out, she felt a wave of calm wash over her. Even if Stryker didn’t want her help, she would give it to him if a moment presented itself.
She didn’t imagine a Wieraptor, but a shrieker on the other side of the door. Her hurt and rage could only focus on her personal demon and when the heavy crunch of an incoming beast filled the room, she saw the white fingers and heard the mind-bending shrieks of the ghouls that were her enemy.
Her mind registered a half lizard, half bird-like behemoth but her eyes saw the loose pasty grey skins of her dead friends. Its mouth opened wide in a howl that split its face in half to its shoulders. She caught the sight of teeth before it entered the room. The creature slammed itself into Stryker, who had bent down and shot a volley of bullets into its face; It was undeterred.
It was a horde of pasty-skinned monsters in her mind. That’s all she could process.
She felt jitters and the need to run screaming; at the same time, she wanted to attack the creature for seeking to hurt her savior. Norah inhaled the dry air and slunk her way into the hallway it had vacated. It took everything in her to break focus and glance at the console in the destroyed passageway. It sparked and flickered.
It was ravaged beyond repair.
Her fingers faltered. She turned to make a run for the bridge, the door stood at the end. A goal for her to achieve. As sweat dripped down her face she flinched at the clamor and horrible grunts of battle that followed her. Norah was at her destination in a heartbeat.
Three times, knock three times.She pounded her fist against the door, so warped she feared that it might get stuck in its track. She couldn’t hear her knocking over the fighting behind her.
She pounded again. The door lifted with a screech that had her skittering back, it stopped half a foot above the floor.Fuck, fuck, fuck.The ruined metal groaned but moved no more. A face appeared at the bottom. Norah dropped down, fear fueling her body.
“It won't open!”
“Try again,” she screamed back. She glanced behind her to make sure she hadn’t caught the attention of the Wieraptor. What she saw made her stop.
Stryker was crushed beneath the beast.
“Try and crawl underneath it,” Matt reached out and grabbed her hand. “I’ll pull you in!”
Norah looked at the small opening, knowing she would never make it through. She looked back up at the jarred door that shook in sync with the noise. She didn’t want to be stuck underneath it, at the mercy of the Wieraptor behind her.
She banished the thought. Stryker would come out alive. He had to. Why would he die after all this time, right at this crucial moment? Norah wrenched her hand out of Matt’s grip and shuffled back.
“No.”
“You can’t be serious,” he yelled after her retreating body, his arm trying to catch hold of her. “You have to try!”
She looked back to see her Cyborg wrapped around the beast, glass shards sticking out of both bodies, intermittent gunfire between. Her body was drenched with sweat, her throat tight with fear. She saw a dozen shriekers clawing at Stryker every time the monster howled. Norah blinked away her terror and rose up onto her feet. Matt called after her as she raised her arm, gun in hand.
The beast reared its arm back, sharp nails at the ready, and pinned the Cyborg to the ground.
Norah ran forward with a scream, aiming her gun at its back and fired off every bullet she had. She flew into the lab as the Wieraptor roared and twisted to locate her. Beady red and white eyes stopped her dead.
Stryker’s tail moved, curling around the beast as it turned toward her. She made a run for the stairwell and the open hatch at the end. Her feet stormed up the steps, lost in the noise of the monster making its way to her.
She heard Stryker scream her name, and as she reached the second floor landing her hands pushed off the upper floor to throw herself against the wall where she followed it to the open door.
She had never run so fast in her life and when her body full-on slammed into the closed hatch of the EonMed ship, she didn’t feel any pain, instead, her body let out a horrible sob.
Norah looked back just in time to see the Wieraptor fall from the railing with a clang.
She punched the code for the ship into the panel, fingers sliding over the screen, slick with sweat. When the door opened, it was enough to make her cry in relief. The last thing she heard was a howl cut-off from Stryker as the door shut behind her.
