Page 9 of Doom

“I didn’t mean it literally,” she said, her eyes sparkling with mirth. “Your behind is quite spectacular … Like, seriously perfect,” she added, pink creeping back to her cheeks. “The term ‘badass’ is a human expression meaning that you’re amazing, that you’re really strong, and that people with any kind of survival instincts shouldn’t mess with you.”

More embarrassed than I wanted to admit, I tried to control my expression and gave her a grateful smile. “You flatter me, Victoria. Thank you.” I gestured to the vehicle with my head. “Want to give it a try?”

“Sure!”

I had wanted to show off my strength and had achieved my goal. So why were we both feeling awkward? Victoria hopped into the van, started the engine, and advanced by a few meters.

She lowered the driver’s window. “Seems good. Do you see any fluids leaking from underneath?”

I shook my head.

“The passenger door is stuck,” she said apologetically.

“Don’t worry. I hadn’t planned on riding. I’ll run alongside,” I said.

“What?” she exclaimed, looking at me as if I’d lost my mind.

“If more bugs show up, I do not want to be trapped inside a vehicle,” I explained.

“Oh, right.”

I smiled. “Come on, Red. Race you to the entrance.”

“Are you kidding me?”

I took off, keeping an eye on my proximity scanner to make sure nothing bad lurked in the vicinity. But my Red didn’t disappoint and stepped on it. She wasn’t able to accelerate much considering the short distance we had to cross, and while I could have easily outdistanced her at that speed, I was content to run alongside her.

“I didn’t know you were such a show-off,”Rage mind-spoke to me while leveling me with an amused stare.

“The passenger door is damaged,”I explained, my face deadpan, though he wasn’t fooled.

Victoria stepped out of the vehicle, medical bag in hand. Despite her eagerness to find her friend, she jumped into physician mode, immediately donning gloves and examining the paralyzed victims with a concerned look on her face. I crouched by her side, next to a young male. He stared at me with a mix of fear, hope, and helplessness.

“Do not be afraid, sir,” I said gently to the male. “We are here to help. We must remove the paralyzing implant in your arm. It will hurt a bit and will take some time to fade away, but by this time tomorrow, the effects will have worn off. While you recover, we will evacuate you and the other humans to a safe area.”

Turning to Victoria, I said, “This is what you’re looking for.” I showed her the barely visible bulge in the fleshy part of the man’s shoulder, then I willed the claw in my index finger to come out. “You have to make a small incision, like so,” I demonstrated, carefully slicing through the skin with my claw.

“Wait!” Victoria exclaimed. “You didn’t clean the area first!”

“Do not worry, Little Red,” I said with an indulgent smile. “The sealant we use contains antibacterial agents and disinfectants. I will give you one. Then you need to massage both sides of the cut like this to coax the implant out. Do not try to push it out or it will bury deeper. Then apply the sealant, like this. It will close the wound, disinfect it, and numb any pain in that area.”

Victoria opened her mouth as if to ask a question but then changed her mind. If my suspicions were right as to what the question had been, I was glad she had withheld it. The victims had been traumatized enough without having to listen to the gruesome details of the horrible fate that would have befallen them. I gave her one of my two sealant tubes, shaped like a pen. Between us—she, Rage, and I—we’d removed most of the Mexlar implants by the time the rescue shuttles appeared. We’d also found Andy along the way.

Wrath walked out of the shuttle, fully dressed in the black Vanguard uniform, followed by a few of our Hulanian Soulcatchers. While Victoria’s gaze lingered on my brother a little too long for my liking, it was Shoyesh, my Soulcatcher, who made her do a double take. Having grown up surrounded by Hulanians, I never gave their appearance a second thought. However, I could see how strange she must appear to a human. Like all the people of her species, Shoyesh was bald, with blueish-grey skin. A long appendage in the shape of a fan dangled at the back of her head with natural, intricate patterns which indicated her age, gender, cast, and psychic level. Her face, somewhat reptilian in nature, was long, with thin lips and only two discreet nostril holes. Shoyesh’s round, doll-like, midnight-blue eyes assessed Victoria in turn. She’d never seen a human female up close. And while their bodies shared similar curves, Hulanians being particularly sexy—according to Dr. Xi—Victoria’s breasts seemed to fascinate Shoyesh, as her people’s females had flat chests.

My woman made a commendable effort not to gape at Shoyesh, who reciprocated. But they both kept stealing furtive glances at one another. I made quick introductions, not going into details about Shoyesh being a Soulcatcher.

Considering the number of paralyzed humans, Wrath had brought two shuttles and a dozen Warriors and Hulanian females who immediately went to work removing the remaining Mexlar implants and loading the humans on board. By the look of it, a few trips would be required.

I personally carried Andy inside the shuttle, with Victoria following closely.

“My friends will take you and the others to a safe place,” I said to my woman while sitting Andy down in one of the seats and securing his belt.

“I … hmm …”

I gave her an inquisitive look, surprised by her apparent reluctance. “What’s wrong?”

“My patients … When the attack began, Andy and I were on our way to one of the makeshift hospitals. Our colleagues and patients are desperately in need of the supplies and waiting for our return,” Victoria explained, twisting her hands nervously.

---