Page 54 of Monstrous Rampage
A laugh echoed through the panel. “Ah, what a brilliant effort, BGR++. If I were still a professor, I’d give you an A for creativity. However, your overall grade on this exam is definitely an F.”
Snyder.
Fucking bastard.
HOLLY
“Okay,Snyder. I met your choice. It didn’t work out.”
Lies. But hopefully he couldn’t measure the unfortunate wetness between my thighs. Fucking hell. I’d never gotten so wet before. Especially from a brief interaction with a guy I didn’t even fucking know.
No answer. Guess he was being pissy.
Grumbling beneath my breath, I started walking, even though I had no idea where the exit might be or how large the chamber was. The raptor guy ran for quite a while, though maybe we’d just been going around in circles the whole time. I hadn’t been able to see very well around the giant hulking shoulders.
Which only made me remember his weight pressing me against the rocks.
Yum. I mean, Ugh. Wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong man?
Maybe not. Or maybe my body was just confused and needy after missing Syko. How many days had passed? I had no way ofknowing. Snyder could have kept me knocked out for days at a time, and I wouldn’t have known.
I hated feeling so out of control of everything. Even my own stupid body.
As I walked, I jerked on the bracelet again, trying to work it down over my thumb or pry open the clasp. No luck.
Something rustled in the bushes ahead, scattering coffee berries across the pathway. “Which of you is there? Chonk?”
Larger trees swayed and cracked as something big pushed through. Heavy footsteps thudded the ground like an elephant. It wasn’t running or light, so not Chonk. So it had to be Rekt.
“I’m okay.” Relief quickened my step. “Just a little banged up.”
A heavy, rattling breath made me jerk to a halt. More steps. Heavy, plodding, methodical. Not scrabbly like I imagined Rekt’s crab legs would move, especially through such thick undergrowth. A head poked out of the branches. Very lizard like, so not the triceratops of Rekt’s base. Green. Too high up off the ground to be the raptor, I thought. But not tall enough for one of the long-necked sauropods.
“What’s going on? Snyder? Hello? Which one is this?”
“Well, well, well,” Snyder finally answered. “It seems as though you’re going to have the opportunity to put that squad together quicker than we originally thought, Miss Price.”
“What does that mean?”
The dynos pushed more of his body through the trees, revealing triangular plates down his neck and spine. Stegosaurus base.
Gulp. The only stegosaurus base in the group was the one blended with spider DNA.
His head swung back my direction.Eyes. He has too many eyes.
A whole row of faceted glittering black eyes dotted across his lizard head.
Frozen in place, I could only stare as he neared, stepping out of the tangled jungle into the open pathway. First, two spindly spider legs, touching the ground far ahead of his body. Then the four ponderous legs of his base. Two shorter spider legs near his tail stump.
Stump. Not the longer, familiar stegosaurus tail. Arched upward slightly. Ready to fire.
Because he had spinnerets poised at the shortened tip.
I bolted sideways into the thickest brush, pushing my way through scratchy branches. Thorns. I didn’t even care. The last thing I wanted was to end up trussed in webbing like Frodo in Shelob’s lair. That scene had given me nightmares for a week.
Dodging larger trees and stumps, I ran flat out for a few minutes until my brain had a chance to calm my body down. I didn’t hear his footsteps behind me. He wasn’t chasing. He wouldn’t be able to shoot webs at me through all the trees I’d run through. I should be okay.
Panting, I paused beneath a palm tree. What the hell was going on? I didn’t ask Snyder again. For one thing, I didn’t want to give my location away if the NSTG-A was still in pursuit, but for another, I couldn’t trust Snyder to give me a straightforward answer anyway. All he cared about was his breeding program.
