Page 51 of Monstrous Rampage
“Now, now, Miss Price, I thought testiness in human females was caused by premenstrual syndrome not ovulation. Kroktl was so successful at becoming a father, I thought it best to start with a specimen as close as possible to his Tri-R designation. Meet Chonk, our latest Raptor Rex iteration.”
I looked around, interested despite my irritation, but I didn’t see or hear anything. “Kroktl’s red eyes allow him to see with X-ray vision. I remember hearing about the yellows with laser eyes. What does ultra green do?”
All the hair on my body stood up. My hair tickled my face, blowing in an invisible breeze. Then all the air disappeared. Pressure surrounded me, squeezing like a giant fist, even though nothing was there. The giant tree trunk cracked. Shattered. Sending wood projectiles exploding like vicious little daggers. The root heaved me up into the air as the tree collapsed, leaving a deep hole of mangled roots, rocks and dirt.
The fist released me, and I fell into the hole, rolling down toward the bottom. Broken roots stabbed me, snarling in my hair. My skin stung all over.
“Cease and desist, UGRR!” Snyder bellowed over the speaker. “Medics, report to the training chamber. Yes, you too. UGRR, stand down. I say again, stand down!”
A different male voice echoed over the speakers. “Acknowledged, UGRR standing down.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Snyder retorted.
I would have laughed if I could catch my breath. Dr. Snyder never cursed. My ribs creaked, sore from where a root jabbed me. I tasted dirt and blood. My ears were clogged, making everything sound like I was underwater, though I could still hear.
“She asked for a demonstration of ultra green. I complied.”
“Let me remind you there’s a reason you were pulled from squad duty, UGRR. Ultra green was unreliable and caused too much collateral damage.”
“My databanks don’t include any past missions, whether official or training. There were no contingent orders given to me expressly limiting this exercise to avoid using ultra green. In fact, my orders were?—”
“I know what your orders are,” Snyder broke in.
Interesting. I don’t think he wanted me to hear exactly what he told the UGRR to do. Despite the guy blasting me into this hole, I kinda liked his snarky attitude. He wasn’t afraid to talk back to the agent who could simply put him back to sleep and dump him at Nyan Station for termination.
Rekt scrambled over the edge of the hole without hesitation. “Holly! Can you hear me?”
A hand clamped over my mouth. Rough arms grabbed me, hefting me up effortlessly. A hard shoulder jammed into my stomach, knocking my breath out of my lungs. Then he was running so fast the ground was a blur. I didn’t think dynos had the same powers in their humanoid shapes, but this guy had no problem running with lightning speed. Leaves rustled in the wind of his passing, but he moved lightly across the ground, weaving around bushes and trees. Leaping over thicker roots.
He paused, pulling me down in front of him. His chest moved deeply against me, but he wasn’t winded despite running with me tossed over his shoulder. His profile was like Kroktl’s with the same wide, thick shoulders and hairless head. His skin was a soft mottled green, almost like he was wearing camouflage. Crouched in a thicket, he scanned the area and then dropped his gaze to my face.
He grinned widely when he caught me staring. Stunning electric green eyes glittered like emeralds. “I’m Chonk.”
“Um, hi. I’m Holly.”
“I know.” His voice lowered, rumbling with amusement. “You reek of Syko and Rekt. Will I be next?”
My cheeks burned and I dragged my gaze away. “I don’t even know you.”
“Fair enough.” He dropped to the ground, shoving me down on my belly beneath him. “Shhh,” he breathed out against my ear. “Hesent me.”
Not Snyder. Syko. “How?”
Chonk shushed me again. Then I heard crunching. Footsteps. Branches shoved aside, whipping back into place. The crack of leaves or twigs underfoot.
“Holly!” Rekt called. “She needs medical care!”
Did I? Compared to how I felt before?—
Gulp. Heat seared my face again.You mean before Rekt came on my thigh and rubbed it into my skin?
Chonk scooped me up, gripping me tightly against his chest as he ran, slithering through the brush without making a sound. Then he dropped to the ground, pressing me beneath him while he listened and watched. Repeat. How big was this training chamber anyway? Surely we’d covered miles of ground, but nothing looked familiar. Maybe it kept changing.
Though I really needed to have a talk with whoever designed this “Guatemalan jungle.” Bright red coffee berries dotted the ground beneath my nose. Coffee grew on the high-altitude volcanic slopes, not in the lower jungle forests. Actually, that pine tree he dodged behind looked more like a Scots pine than the Caribbean pine typically seen in Guatemala. As a botanist, it pissed me off even more to see such lazy research by the all-powerful Draco Sirius Command.
Or was that purely Snyder’s failing? He wouldn’t care about getting the jungle details right. Which meant he probably didn’t care about other things that DSC had down pat.
Like security protocols. Which was probably how Syko had found a way to talk to Chonk before he was even sent in here to meet me.
