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The hatch door was al painfully slowly The e of the door to see if his friend was okay, but he turned now to face Mark again, full of rage Mark felt rage, too Like nothing he’d ever felt before Like a storrabbed his foe’s shirt, squeezed it in his fist, then growled tords that somehow calmed the stor to die," theto die right now"

"No," Mark answered "I’m not"

He balled his hand into a fist and smashed it into the pilot’s cheek Theat Mark’s hair and face and clothes He finally caught Mark’s shirt and his shoulder and yanked hiainst the hatch door A e cut into Mark’s back as the pilot pressed on hi into Mark’s neck, cutting off the air to his windpipe

"Youman today," the pilot said in a low, vicious voice "I’ve had enough people tickto taketo do it over a very long period of time Do you understand?"

He eased back on his ars Then the pilot grabbed hiht on Mark’s sto Mark square in the jaw It felt as if soain and the pain doubled Mark closed his eyes, tried to ta inside him like a nuclear reaction How much could he take in one day?

"Better not let that door close for good, now," the man said, clearly confident that he’d already won the battle "As et squeezed like a grape, I think I’d rather take a little ot to his feet, then walked over to the controls and pressed so There was a lurch that Mark felt in his back, then a squeal, then the continued slorenching sound as the door started opening once again He could see the cha pad round In a few minutes they’d be open to the entire horde of Bruce’s people, open to thee to row

The pilot stepped up to Mark, then reached down and grabbed his feet, lifted theood position" He started to swing Mark’s body around as he walked sideways deeper into the cargo roo "I’llto life, screa out as he twisted hirip The man stumbled backward until his back hit the wall next to the reopening raed forward, finally slaut The man doubled over and wrapped his ar to the floor They rolled and tu fists Mark tried to knee hi up and connected with Mark’s chin

Mark’s head snapped back and he fell off the pilot, who leaped forward, getting on top of hi his momentum to spin backward and throw thewith a shock of horror that the raht swarm aboard when it was fully open, for all he knew

He quickly pushed the retract button and the door squealed, then started closing again He was just turning back around to face his foe when the e slab of the raain Mark twisted his body and grabbed the pilot’s shirt with both hands, trying to fling hiap of the door, but the man put his feet down and was able to push hiainst each other, punching and kicking Mark was tired and hungry and weak, but he fought on, fueled by adrenaline alone He i held by the bonfire people, probably even crazier with another day gone and the debacle of the forest fire He had to live He had to find her He couldn’t let thisreactor of heat and fire and pain that had been building and building within his chest--finally exploded once and for all

He lurched with a strength he didn’t know he had, throwing the pilot off his body He was on top of thehi his crunching Mark felt disconnected froht lights danced before his eyes, his body tre in his veins

He are on some level that the ramp door was almost closed On so and yelling, readying to attack the Berg But Mark had lost all control

He looked doas surprised to see hi hi over the lip of the rarip, but Mark didn’t let hiain The pilot yelled and squirmed violently, obviously aware of what Mark intended

Maybe even more aware than Mark himself He held on, kept the ed for Mark His thoughts were purely focused on the er was like a fog that had filled his head And he couldn’t stop hi had snapped

The ramp door closed on the pilot’s chest Squeezed him as it strained to come fully closed The screams that erupted fro hie into which he’d sunk As if he was seeing for the first ti another hu, the squeal of the door’s hinges as they continued to stress over the obstacle keeping the door open--Mark felt a rush of horror at hiht in the narrowing gap His screa, shake the entire thing through and through Mark scraainst the rath, kicked out with both feet, connecting against the ed a few inchesthe body away fro to end the man’s misery

With a final kick, Mark knocked the pilot free The ap and the ra silence filled the cargo roo with an almost complete darkness The silence was interrupted seconds later by the grind of aback to the central chamber

Mark’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and he pulled hiainst it He felt so inside that he didn’t like

He wrapped his arms around his knees and he buried his head there He didn’t really understand what had just happened to hie, the adrenaline puine He’d been consu to destroy that pilot He’d al door And then he’d come to his senses and pushed the man out

It was like Mark had lost his …