Page 62 of Monstrous Rampage
Choose well, mate of mine. Build your squad. Find a way to escape this prison that killed me.
Kaos made a choked sound beside me. Cracking my eyes open, I turned my head, surprised to see him smiling. The sound had been a smothered laugh.
“Sorry, just musing about how ironic this whole situation is,” Kaos said. “I’m made from the only thing DSC can’t control. Which is why you woke me up. But again, I can’t be controlled so kaboom.”
“Nothing matters anyway,” Nihil replied, making us both laugh.
“Evidently we’re all appropriately named,” I said.
We could have communicated without physically speaking on the grid, but in our final moments, words seemed best. Real words. The casual heat of their bodies on either side of me.
Even badass engineered super-soldiers liked a little physical contact before they died.
“Is Holly appropriately named?” Kaos asked.
I considered my databanks for a moment. “Evidently her name derives from a type of evergreen tree on earth with prickly leaves and red berries. I wouldn’t describe her as either of those things.”
Through our connection, I felt an intense wistfulness from both of them. How rare it must be for dyni—especially experimentals—to mate. To feel an instant biological connection. A sense of belonging. Completion. I’d never experienced such intensity of emotions until meeting the little scrap of a human female. I didn’t think she’d mind if I allowed them to glimpse our few precious moments together.
Closing my eyes, I allowed the memory to fill my mind and spill onto our grid so they could enjoy it too. The delicate silken taste of her skin on my tongue. Her determined courage.“Please don’t eat me. I can help.”
Even now, I let out a low huff, partly derision but mostly affection. Such a fragile little thing offering to helpme. The unstable, flawed alpha even DSC gave up trying to control, with immense, destructive powers to warp and twist realities by my will alone.
Yet she had helped me. She gave me a reason to live. Even if only briefly.
The lift dinged. My eyes flew open. Someone was on their way down—to join us in death. “Computer, how long until breach?”
“Forty-five seconds,” she replied.
The doors opened.
No.
Holly. Naked, smudged with dirt, a few bloody scrapes on her body. A huge, pleased smile on her face.
“NO!” I bellowed, throwing myself toward her. Slamming her back into the wall. Covering her with my body.
But it wouldn’t be enough. I couldn’t shield her. I’d be sucked out first but?—
:Glad to see you too,:she spoke into my mind.:We need to get the fuck out of here.:
I punched the wall, slamming my head against it. Claws sprouted from my hands, screeching against the tungsten in a fruitless effort to tear my way to safety. Not for me. For her.:You can’t die. Not like this.:
“Let’s go!” She yelled. “Come on!”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her the lift wouldn’t work. They didn’t either. They crammed in around me as the doors began to close.
“Hull breech eminent,” the computer said. “Ten seconds, nine, eight…”
Terrible sounds tore my chest. Rage. Death spiraled inside me. A black hole of hatred, crushing all of DSC’s creations into nothing but dust. Indigo flared in a brutal burst, darkening toward ultraviolet. If we must die…
Small hands cupped my cheeks, her fingers gentle but firm. Stroking me. Bringing me back into my body. “I’m here,” she crooned softly. “It’s alright now. You’re safe.”
Shame strangled me.:I don’t care about me. I wanted you to live. I wanted you to have your squad, even if you had to do it here.:
:You’re my squad, and we’re getting out of here. Starting now.:
The lift vibrated around us. It took a moment for me to realize we were moving, not imploding. The locked lift was goingup.
