30
“Come on, put your shoulder into it,” the brunette said from behind him.
Reaper strained with all his might against the heavy boulders blocking his path. “What the hell do you think I’m doing?”
“Not pushing hard enough. You forget that I’ve seen your test results. I know how strong you are.”
Reaper pushed with all his strength, willing the boulder to budge, shift, anything. It didn’t even move a centimeter.
Grunting, he pushed again and again, digging his boots into the stairs for leverage. Fuck it all, he couldn’t move the massive wall of granite trapping them inside.
“Push harder.”
Reaper snapped out, “Look, ma’am—”
The woman cut him off, “My name is Melissa.”
“I don’t care if your name is fucking Cleopatra. Unless you’ve got a magic wand hidden in your pocket, this wall isn’t moving.”
“So, you’re just going to give up?” Melissa’s tone was incredulous.
Reaper snapped, “Give up? You think I’m giving up? To be honest, I couldn’t give two shits about your life or mine for that matter. The only person that matters is Caroline and she’s safely outside.” Reaper shoved again, this time with a halfhearted effort and then collapsed to the ground, drawing a knee against his chest and slinging his arm over it.
He’d seen her disappear through the opening a millisecond before the rocks slammed together. She’d made it safely.
Caroline Cotter had proved to be smart and resourceful and caring. He had no doubt she’d make it back to the helicopter with the map he provided.
But would she know how to fly it?
A tinge of his hope disappeared. He knew that once she reached the states, and found his team she’d more than willingly offer herself to his men until they could find another solution besides shackling her to a cot and draining her dry. But she couldn’t reach the United States unless she got out of the jungle and in the short amount of time he’d had to make a decision he hadn’t even considered the fact that she’d probably never had lessons on flying stealth helicopters.
Which meant that ultimately, not only would Reaper give up his life, his men would die.
Dammit all to hell. They were freaks, altered things, no longer normal. They had to have Caroline and her blood to exist and Reaper was no longer willing to sacrifice her, no matter how steep the cost.
Melissa felt her way up the stairs and past Reaper, blindly searching in the darkness. He didn’t bother to try and get up or assist her, even though he knew she couldn’t see anything. What would she do anyway besides annoy him and remind him of his failures? Still, she began scratching and clawing around the edges of the rocks and the sound was annoying if nothing else. “Would you stop that?”
Her breaths came in short sharp pants. “Not until there isn’t enough oxygen in here for me to survive.”
Reaper let out a harsh bark of laughter. “I thought you were smart. There isn’t enough oxygen in here for you to survive. We have 10 minutes maybe before hypoxia sets at which point you will lose consciousness and then—”
She cut him off, “I know what hypoxia is, and I also know that if I can find a weak point in this wall maybe I can give you enough leverage to use those genetically enhanced muscles of yours to get us out of this godforsaken cave alive.”
Melissa moved methodically along the floor, bumping into his hip when he didn’t move out of her way.
“You’re wasting your time. Besides, you and I both deserve to die for our part in Project Mayhem.”
She took a sharp intake of breath, “And your men? Do they deserve to die?
Reaper couldn’t even work up enough energy to cringe that he’d been so willing to sacrifice himself so that they may live. He’d completely lost sight of who he was, before Mayhem, when he joined up with the project to protect others, and instead all he’d done was kill and destroy.
As had his team.
“You saw what we did to the scientist?” He asked quietly.
“I did.” She answered without hesitation.
“And you still think we deserve to live?”
