Page 41 of Marked
I chanced a look back to see that we were being followed by a group of what appeared to be military Ghengrills. They must have been the reason the window exploded. Not wanting to trip and fall flat on my face, I quickly turned back and focused on running.
He followed the curve of the hill down, and I was hopeful we could find the air hangar before even more of Ghengra blew up in our faces.
The desert was surprisingly hard to run on. What I thought was sand at first was actually hard little pieces of rock that molded together almost like clay. The red and purple clouds had brightened overhead, and I wondered if that meant it was the middle of the day or sunset or what on this strange, alien planet.
There didn’t seem to be any life out here. Maybe the Ghengrills had killed everything.
The rumbling grew louder, and a strange feeling of foreboding began to brew deep in the pit of my belly. Alaric and I continued to run, until we turned the corner and a lone building rose up in the distance. It was about a mile or so away.
Another blast roared past us, exploding only about a few hundred feet away from us. The force of it pushed us back, and I cried out as I landed flat on my back. Alaric fell not far away from me, but I heard his back slam into the rocky surface. He groaned and I heard the pain in his voice.
I didn’t know how much longer that would last, but I needed him right now. No. I needed him forever.
I had his child in my belly.
Slowly, I pushed myself to my feet. I heard Alaric moving beside me, but I didn’t turn to look because something else caught my attention. I turned back toward that hazy horizon and stilled at what I saw.
There were at least six very large, dark shapes moving toward us. Quickly.
“Fuck,” Alaric whispered.
“What?” I asked.
“We need to move,” he said quickly.
“What are they?” I pressed, unable to tear my eyes from the growing shapes in the distance. They appeared pitch black against the white rocky desert surface, and as they grew closer, the magnitude of just how big they were started to dawn on me.
“It’s the Uruk-Zuk,” Alaric whispered. “They’re vicious beasts, and under Ghengrill mind control, they’re even more dangerous. We need to run now. If we don’t get to that building and fly out of here on a ship, we’re doomed.”
I looked at the building in the distance and then back to the Uruk-Zuk.
There wouldn’t be enough time. There was no way we’d be able to run that far fast enough, but I had to at least try. Alaric didn’t even give me time to think about it. He grabbed my hand and practically tore my arm out of my shoulder socket in his haste. I hissed and opened my mouth to complain, but I decided to focus on sprinting as fast as I could instead.
I did run faster now. My stride was longer and more graceful than before. I knew where every footfall was going to land before I made it. My heart pounded in my throat, and my muscles cried out with exhaustion, the soreness in my limbs a stark reminder that I had only just come out of my heat and that I hadn’t had a single moment to rest since then.
I just wanted to fall asleep in Alaric’s arms.
I wanted to be somewhere safe. I wanted to be home.
Hot, fierce anger welled up from the very tips of my toes. I ran faster. Harder. I put everything into putting one foot in front of the other, but I feared it wouldn’t be enough.
Another blast burst to our right. I’d caught sight of it this time and swerved as much as I could to avoid the fallback. It didn’t help though, because I still stumbled and fell to the ground from the force of it. I rolled quickly and jumped back up to my feet, just falling behind Alaric by a few yards. The rumbling behind us grew louder, and it soon became clear what it was.
It was hooves. The sound of countless hooves pounding against the rocky desert surface, again and again in an orchestra of endless noise. They were so much closer now, and as I stared at the distance we still needed to traverse to make it to the hangar, I came to the sickening realization that we weren’t going to make it. It was still too far away.
We were going to have to fight.
My anger grew stronger. Fiercer. More consuming.
I couldn’t control it. It seemed to well up from the very pit of my soul, and then it swirled around me. Alaric urged me onward, but I was too angry.
I wanted to fight. I wanted to rip the Ghengrills apart, limb by fucking limb for daring to interfere in my fate. For daring to try to separate my mate and me. For trying to stop him from taking me like I was meant to be taken. I realized that the totality of what they had actually attempted to take away from me, was what my heart continued to beat for, the very thing I now breathed for.
My family.
The child growing inside my belly.
They were trying to take it all away from me.
