“Theoretically… yes.”
But they didn’t know for sure. Her latest headache chose to flare up, and she winced. Anything. She’d volunteer for anything if it’d cure her. Cure or kill, here we come.
“I volunteer as tribute,” she mumbled.
Vincent snorted. “I’ll see you both later. When we get there.”
The door slammed shut.
They were a half a day from the place they aimed for, where Big Daddy should be, when the biggest ever attack rolled in. She couldn’t see out the windows without finding a tussle of beaster and nanodog, and these were as large as Toother or bigger, Men were being flung about, and nanodogs were being blasted into death and beyond.
Her palm itched to be filled with gun. Her eyes felt bright, feverish, and as if she should not close them, in case she missed something vital.
Her spidery buddy, Mo, had been keeping count from a vantage point on the dashboard. His metal nose was pressed to the glass. So far nothing had smashed any of the glass, though if she had a weapon, she’d have fired through the windshield several times by now.
Yeah, maybe itwasfor the best she wasn’t armed.
Violence did rather hype her up.
Maura was cowering on the floor despite her attempts to help calm her. Cyn patted her hand where she clutched the edge of the seat.
“Incoming to the right!” Little Mo bleated, his blinking eye lights reflecting off the glass. How had she not noticed this little Christmas Tree critter for five years? How had the Ghoul Lords not?
Gore splashed across the window, and she glimpsed Vargr on one side, Rutger on the other and both were firing repeatedly. She had an aching leg and a thumping headache—her fifth one of the trip. Cyn chewed her lip, fuming.
The biggest nanodog yet was galumphing in like a super-large lapdog on crack.
“Fuck this.” She twisted the door handle and kicked it open on Vargr’s side. He was firing one way, the nanodog was bounding truckward, all furry and toothy, with a mouth like ashark. Coming at him was a whole array of triangular teeth ready for that first bite, yawning open.
He was using one of his guns, but had the other holstered, so she naturally whipped it out and blew a hole in the nanodog’s brain. It crumpled and slid. By the time Vargr clutched for his gun she’d dispatched the creature with a double tap, just to be sure. Blood erupted, and hair.
He spun, growled at her, and took back the gun that she offered to him, butt first. “In!”
She hopped back into the truck and he followed, cramming himself and his wings in and almost closing the door, leaving only a small gap. Every so often, he opened it wider and fired. It seemed to confuse the big critters. They persevered, and the fighting lessened.
The last nanodog she noticed alive was upside down being throat gnawed by Toother.
Someone had slashed the harness to free Toother from the truck when the fighting began.
“Phew.” Vargr slumped back onto the seat. “I’m deaf.”
“Not surprising, considering.” So was she, a little. Her ears rang.
“You.” He twisted to peer at her dubiously. “Are bad.”
“Yeah.” Her grin spread to mocking proportions. “However, I did give the gun back.”
Ignoring her, he leaned forward to nod at Maura, who’d climbed back onto the seat ages ago, probably when hero Vargr had entered. Not surprising. Sitting next to him did feel good.
“Maura,” he added. “I have to take this one here, elsewhere. I’ll send Locke in. We are close to out of the worst of the radiation. Hopefully we’re also out of nanodog territory. We must be the best food they’ve seen for a while. The bastards are tenacious as fuck. Cyn.” He eyed her, she shrugged. “Come.”
With one hand he thrust open the door, and with the other he latched finger and thumb on her ear and pulled her with him as he exited.
Muttering “Ow” a few times, she followed. It was surprisingly difficult to avoid being dragged. She could’ve crotch kicked him but that’d lead to more of this… animosity. Truthfully, she was almost giggling.
Which stopped once she remembered what had led to this, when she saw the destruction and death.
Vargr released her, and she found Rutger was here, standing, eyeing them both.
