Page 32 (1/2)
A hand on her back, Vanessa’s, pulled her Tania glanced behind her to see the woht Her eyes were cast upward at Pablo, her ht line Tania felt the now fa fro her backward Tania went, letting the woman pull her back the way they’d come Ten meters, maybe more, before she shoved Tania to one side of the tunnel and brought her gun up
Tania looked at the slope The red light grew as Pablo ca backward down the incline Then his legs, torso All the while bright flashes of white light erupted froht thereSoon enough his whole body was visible He took a knee at the bottom of the ramp and quickly reloaded As he did so, a subhuht toward Tania Silhouetted against the red flare it looked like an ape, except only the head and chin had hair
Vanessa shot the former human twice in the chest and it cruunshots were so close she could hear theers Tania hardly had tiain He’d tossed it aside so he could aim with both hands A subhu hiain trying to slip past hiht
Pablo turned to shoot it as it passed, putting his back to the narrow side tunnel He fired into the creature’s side She saw it react as if merely swatted at One hand went to cover the wound, and the other continued to act as a leg as the creature rushed toward them Vanessa finished it off
Pablo ot past, Tania realized
A shape, a blur, exploded out from the side tunnel It leapt onto Pablo’s back and the tent down in a cloud of dust Kicking Flailing liunfire
Tania screaunfire fro into that confused mess? Too risky! Taniatoward Pablo: She was shooting behind thelanced back to see, but the tunnel was pitch-black Each time she fired a s Tania a brief gli toward theht Pablo had dropped faltered Dirt, or rock, kicked on top of it Tania dropped the pack that carried the alien object and rushed forithout another thought Churned dirt and dust filled the tunnel now, giving her only a few --no, convulsing Booted feet, Pablo’s The creature was on top of hi wildly dohere his headkicked in She kicked, and though she’d taken the correct stance her suit ’s head but hit it in the back of the neck No matter, she had its attention Tania followed up with a punch that landed perfectly on the sub’s throat She felt the Adalove of her suit
The creature fell back, gasping, clutching at its throat Tania stoht not die, but it would be down for a while, so she shifted to Pablo His face was a bloodyupward
No No!
She slipped her hands under hi his heavy, li the floor of the tunnel Subhu with the churned dirt Tania could only see a meter in any direction, so thick with dust the air had becoed with brass, but Tania would gladly breathe it right now if she could The air in her suit wouldn’t last er, of this she had no doubt
She pulled Pablo’s body around a fallen subhu, ahead and behind The half-buried red flare sputtered one final gasp and then the tunnel plunged into absolute darkness With the black caroped around until she found Pablo’s neck She felt no pulse, but couldn’t be sure if she would feel it through the gloves of her suit So she pressed her fingers to her own neck
The vein below her skin pounded against her gloved fingers
Pablo was dead
Tania slu now if her own supply of oxygen would run out as she wept Another life, another good person, sacrificed to whatever these goddaular slab of exotic material and throw it into the cold dark waters below Let all the subhumans jump in after it If they wanted it so badly, maybe they should have it
Vanessa lit the extra flare and Tania found herself staring into Pablo’s eyes His face was a horrific ashes, but the eyes … his eyes were perfect Strong, intelligent, calm
No No, she couldn’t quit If everyone else succeeded, then all this would be for nothing, and she wouldn’t let that happen She wouldn’t let this loved hand, Tania reached out and drew his eyelids closed
She felt a hand on her shoulder A second later Vanessa collapsed on the ground next to her and fell over her friend’s body The anguish on her face knew no equal, Tania thought, and though it hurt to adlad in that moment that she couldn’t hear the wonited, brighter than the flare, brighter than the fucking sun
She picked up the bag that held the alien object and hurled it toward the slope in the hallway
A second later twoat her, they fell on the bag, clawing at it to reach the artifact within Tania picked up Vanessa’s gun and walked calet these beings had once been hule bullet into their heads fro the sick way they convulsed, the fine spray of blood that dotted the glass of her helainst the wall and waited for the next She shot that one, too When the fourth caun clicked empty Tania tossed it aside and threw her ar its mouth and nose as she’d been trained to do The anian to claw violently at her arainst her Tania let go The body collapsed at her feet
She stepped back again and waited, but nobrushed her arm and Tania wheeled, lashed out, only to see Vanessa next to her The woman raised her hands defensively until Tania relented
The tears Vanessa had cried for Pablo ran in two vertical streaks down her dust-coated skin Yet her expression held no sign of grief now She reached out to Tania, grabbed her helht We kill ourselves, like Jake did, rather than let theet us
There was no hiss of air when the seal broke and the helritty air She aled to choke it down "I should have saved a bullet for each of us, I guess," Tania said
"Don’t say that," the woman replied "We need to run now Can you do it?"
"My helmet," Tania said numbly "You--"
"The suit is torn," Vanessa said She lifted one of Tania’s arms and showed her The led "Take this knife I’ll carry the … thing"
"It’s hopeless," Tania said, watching the i that held the alien artifact onto her back Her head pounded; whether it was from the near asphyxiation or the tainted air she now breathed, she had no idea
Vanessa gripped her by the shoulder and growled her words "It’s not We’re going The towers aren’t far, Tania We’ll fight our way and finish this for him Do you understand?"