“Thank you.”
With a salute, he turned and bolted. I had to admire his ass. It looked rather tasty as he dashed off.
I rested a hand on the alien’s neck. His pulse was bounding, thumping from a familiar two-heart gallop.
“Okay, so far, not a corpse.”
The hero's eyes were almost serpentine, yellow, and narrow. I pulled a penlight from my pocket. With a click, I checked his eyes. One pupil blown, no iris to be found. Dammit, if he’s herniating, I’d be carrying a corpse to the truck.
Explosions.
I dropped onto all fours, covering the alien as a car launched upward. The heat washed over my body as debrisskid along the street. I imagined dying in the line of duty, but it wasn’t going to be today, not because a bunch of second-rate heroes couldn’t stop a simple alien invasion.
The harpies were scary, but I’d gladly punch the winged hell beasts. However, in the middle of the road, a shadowy figure stood watching. Its lengthy arms hung below its knees, black fingers dragging along the pavement. It’d be ominous on its own, but as its body jerked as if staving off a seizure, I fought to control my bladder. Staring in my direction, I swore the beast grinned.
“Goddammit,” I growled, “we’re screwed.”
3
The shadow didn’t run so muchas stalk forward. Its arms went out wide, preparing to lunge if I ran. I couldn’t outrun molasses, let alone a supernatural creature. The alien grabbed onto my wrist, and I stole a glance at the agony written across his face.
“Don’t die on me now.”
Other than an extra set of appendages, he didn’t appear to have any weapons. Scouring the ground for a weapon, I reached for a tire iron. It wasn’t nearly as impressive as the ten smoky blades attached to the shadow’s hands, but it would have to do.
“I’ll be right back.” Maybe.
My fingers tightened on the piece of metal. If I could get close enough, perhaps duck under its hands and strike upward, I could impale the creature. Leaning forward, Icharged, preparing to stop short, hopefully out of reach of its hands. A simple fake and misdirect, the thing couldn’t be that smart. Evil shadow monsters were dumb, right?
As I stopped short, hoping I gauged its striking distance correctly, it surprised me with a swift turn. With one arm stretched out, it batted at me, and into the air I sailed. Smacking asphalt, I rolled to my knees, praying it didn’t take up the chase.
Instead, the thing laughed.
It stopped when the back end of the ambulance slammed into it. The crumpled body fell underneath a tire as Lei spun the wheel. It’d have been a high-five moment, but she ruined it when she slammed the brakes and backed up to drive over it again. She smiled through the passenger window, two thumbs raised high. That smart ass probably waited until she could save the day.
I patted down my body, searching for anything poking in the wrong direction. Bruised ribs, maybe cracked, but otherwise I’d survive. Our patient might not be so lucky if we didn’t get him out of the war zone and into a hospital.
“Man down,” I yelled.
Lei jumped from the driver’s seat and, in a well-rehearsed manner, had the gurney out of the back. We didn’t have time to secure the patient. Based on the bruising, he had internal bleeding. We skipped the collar. Lei raised the side of his body and I slid the board under hisback. We’d strap him in once we drove away, for now we lifted, putting him on the gurney.
“I’ve never seen him before,” Lei said.
“Me either.”
“Check the blood for acid.” I appreciated the advice. Last time it had eaten through my pants and left a nasty scar on my thigh.
We wheeled him to the ambulance, sliding him inside. I jumped in the back and seconds later, Lei had us flying toward the hospital. I had the alligator clip on his finger as I grabbed the cuff for blood pressure. Supers with multiple limbs always posed a challenge, so it was down to picking the easiest arm to check his blood pressure.
The monitor went to work, spitting out numbers. Hypoxic. That would explain the incoherent mumbles from the hero. The constant starts and stops didn’t hinder me as I grabbed a needle and started an IV. The moment I hit a vein, I grabbed the tape from the bar, securing the line. Did he have a heart? Or multiple hearts? Sometimes I longed to work on humans and their predictable organ placement.
I grabbed the scissors and pulled at the suit around his neck. When I couldn’t pull it away from his body, I let out a low growl. There were plenty of heroes with suits biologically attached to their bodies. It served as protection of their secret identity, but it made my life difficult. I hateddifficult. As I applied the leads to his body, I hoped I could get a reading.
“Dammit,” I mumbled.
The numbers didn’t indicate Cushing’s triad. It meant the alien’s physiology didn’t align with my equipment. Unlike other trucks, we had tech onboard supplied from the heroes themselves. I reached for the cubby with the Machinist’s nanobots. I hated relying on their tech, but when conventional methods failed?—
“It is time.” I nearly jumped at the sound of the alien’s voice. The deep bass almost sounded musical.
