Josephine grinned and flanked my right as Damien flanked myleft.
We were goinghunting.
* * *
“Bastards areheavy as a bag of rocks,” Brisk stated, wiping sweat from his brow even as it poured down his face. We’d been ghoul hunting for two hours and only had ten grunts and one sentry in our ‘snack’ pile. It might at least distract the giant beast before he realized Maxine was lying there helplessly in a bubble he could easily pop. She had to wake up soon—she just hadto.
Maybe the giant won’t even wake for another week, I tried to convince myself. Although Dawn seemed pretty alarmed, and her warning felt pretty imminent, so I highly doubted my forcedoptimism.
Just as I thought that, the ground shookagain.
Okay, that’s not a good sign.Each time I glanced at the mountain, I could swear it looked less rocklike and more like a figure lying on its side. It was…transforming.
I dragged my dead grunt to the pile we’d made at the base of the mountain; about two hundred feet from the dome Maxine and the others were in. We’d done the best we could, and now we were allexhausted.
“Let’s take a break,” I told the crew. After hiking into nearby ghoul-concentrated zones, killing and dragging them almost a mile over ten times, I was ready to sleep for three days. The fact that I was already sleeping was more thandepressing.
“Hey, can I talk to you?” Damien gently coaxed me away from Josephine and Brisk. Away from the creepy breathingmountain.
“What’s up?” I asked my eye candy. He looked insanely sexy right then, hair slicked back atop his rugged unshavenface.
“Can we talk about the fact that the sentries spoke? That they knew your name?” He totally popped my eye candy bubble with his realitycheck.
“I was hoping to never ever talk about that again. I put that in my deep dark place and told it to never come out,” I repliedhonestly.
He frowned, concern flashing across his face. “I have atheory.”
Oh Lord. Smart people and their theories.Being of average intelligence was nice; I didn’t get big theories, so I could just forget about stuff like everyone elsedid.
“Remember when you tried to link with their mind? When you gotstuck?”
I nodded. “You slappedme.”
He winced, reaching out to caress my cheek. “I’ll never forget it. I’m sorry,” he saidseriously.
I waved a hand, dismissing him. “It’s fine, I was kidding. Trying to keep this light.” I laughednervously.
The freaking sentries know my name. Why is he reminding me ofthat?
Damien chewed on his bottom lip. “Kit, nothing about this is okay. They know your name. I think when you linked with them… they learned everything aboutyou.”
OhGod.
His ‘theory’ was terrifying, and probably true. I would have to see Master Aki about it. He’d always said my gift was special, that it would be the thing that could change this war. But then he said a lot of stuff. I was feeling that familiar tightness in my chest, a dizzy head, sweaty palms. Oncoming panic attack—great. We had giant ghouls about to wake up, the US government had established a deal with the ghouls for alien oil, and now the freaking sentries had seen inside mymind.
“Hey. It’s okay, we’ll figure this out.” Damien reached out and brushed a tear off mycheek.
A tear? I was crying? I didn’t fucking cry. What was happening to me? I’d gotten soft. I think the whole thing with Maxine had messed with myemotions.
I wiped my cheek dry. “I’m fine, just worried about Maxine,” I said, and started to walkaway.
It was stupid of me to try and mentally connect with the flesh eaters. They were a freaking hive-mind alien race. What had I beenthinking!
The ground shook again and I was thrown to the left, forcing me to spread my legs to keep from falling over. The shakes were getting stronger and closer together. That could not mean goodthings.
Peering over my shoulder, my eyes widened in horror as I made out the distinct body of the giant. Each time the ground shook, rocks fell away from him, and now his form was revealed. He was like a humongous sentry, lying in the fetal position with colored ropes for hair and a big-ass mouth full of teeth. That mouth now hung open, slack, and he was…snoring.By the mercy of God, his eyes were stillclosed.
I barely had time to think before Damien was hauling me over, and we were running back to the group. Josephine and Brisk were right on ourtail.
