by Naomi Lucas
Where is she? Why hadn’t she stayed near me?
Everything in him screamed to cut his losses and get out. His thoughts felt like the pulsing red lights of the reactor but at a much higher, stressful tempo. He pushed them away, he wasn’t going to leave without the girl.
Jack dodged as a metal pipe broke away and flung outward, nearly smashing into the side of his head. The girl’s scent was stronger the farther he went and became almost overpowering when he caught the fresh scent of blood.
Her blood.
He balanced his body as he rounded the corner, veering off into a side room where her blood was stronger and fresher. He looked around frantically but she was still nowhere in sight. In the center, he kneeled down where glass shards lay strewn about, now scattered to every corner of the room from the tremors. Pieces of them were coated in her blood.
He picked one up and examined it before tossing it away. It wasn’t a significant amount.
A different smell permeated the air as he quietly stood back up and rescanned the immediate area; with no effect. It smelled like soil, not just any soil, but the moist swamplands back on Earth. It smelled like musk and decay and the acrid odor that floats in the air after a bloody battle.
Jack sensed that he was no longer alone as a loud sobbing wail vibrated through the thick metal walls around him. The sound came from somewhere deep in the ship, the vibrations were faint ripples. It was like a hundred beings crying all at once. The sound stung his ears.
He unsheathed his pistol and cocked it while he quietly proceeded further, the smell of carnage growing stronger as did the volume of the crying. He focused on the small communicator he had given Allie day’s prior but could not locate its signal, he gave up in a frustrated groan.
It was then when he strained his ears that he heard Allie’s voice. “–to stab until it’s dead.” She shrieked in an frantic curse.
Jack rounded the corner, following her voice, and froze.
The girl was on her knees, stabbing the ever-living crap out of something beneath her. Her body glowed like a bright red beacon in his infrared vision. That neon red was sprayed over the floor and walls around her.
“Allie?” He walked up behind her, staring down at the floor. When he rounded her body and stood in front of her he could see what she was aggressively destroying; the creepy thing from the cave.
Her eyes were wild and parts of her hair were plastered to her face and body, soaked with blood and sweat. Jack stood there and watched as she relentlessly stabbed at the thing before her– as if she were in a trance. He would have gotten lost in that strange moment if the ship hadn’t begun to shake again, bringing him back to the danger of their situation.
He kneeled before her and sheathed his gun, using his free hand to swipe the hair off of her face before cupping her cheeks.
Tears were flowing from her eyes, creating clear streaks down her blood crusted face. Allie wasn’t a celestial angel crying bloody tears but a bloody angel crying tears of pain.
“Sweetheart, you’re okay. You did good. It’s dead.” He watched as her movements faltered as she looked at him, registering the scene around her, the glaze of her eyes clearing.
“Jack?” She asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, it’s me baby. You did great but now we need to go.” The weapon she held dropped from her hand. The sides now dulled, the tip blunted and dripping with gore.
“We need to go.” She repeated him.
“Yes, it’s not safe here.” He moved his hands to her forearms and pulled her up to a standing position until she yelped, crumpling back to the ground.
“My ankle– my leg, it’s broken.” She cried. He ran his hand over the area, feeling the fracture in her tibia under his fingers.
“Alright, put your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist.” He said as he lifted her into his arms. She complied with a whimper. “Hold tight, Allie, I’m going to get us out of here.” Jack lifted her thigh on his left side higher up so she wouldn’t get chafed by the circuits and they wouldn’t be damaged.
He looked down at the mangled carcass on the floor beside his feet, pleased that there was no trace of its creepy smile; in fact there was no face left at all. He gave the girl a gentle squeeze as he quickened his pace into a run towards the surface.
The ship was quickly falling apart around them. It took all of his effort to monitor the environment, focus on their escape, and carry all of his precious cargo. The frequencies were still scrambling with his internal processing system. He barely had time to register the shifts of metal before they fell around him, stopping before loose pipes slammed into them moments before they cracked open and splintered.
He kept one arm firmly around Allie, keeping her body pinned and protected from the destruction raining down around them. He could sense her breathing begin to even out as she came down from her frenzy.
There were several behemoths outside the wreckage, swimming around, aggressive and enraged by the electric currents. He knew more were on their way, sensing several breaking their way through the mountain, forcing their way into a place they otherwise would have avoided. This place was a deathtrap.
Jack felt a wave of violence course through him, willing him to stay, to reap destruction alongside the wurms. That this was what he was created for. Battle. War. His body was alive from the reactor and the power outside was beckoning him to join the fray.
The whimper of the girl in his arms brought him back down.
The exit before him was blocked, rubble buried the long passageway they had used to enter the ship. A wurm ran its body into the side of the haul at that moment, making the ship shift forward, sinking even further into the sand.
The ground slurped it up willingly, actively trying to rid the planet of the invasive mechanism that had invaded its world. The planet was riding itself of the thorn in its side.
Without stopping, Jack ran full speed at the damaged exterior wall, pushing his arm out to shield the girl from impact. The wall caved outward from the contact. The spot where his elbow had hit punctured a small hole. He quickly set his hand on it and transferred all of his remaining nanobots to destroy the wall.
A ray of sun spot-lighted through, illuminating the dreary interior, brightening their forms and making the their blood-drenched clothes glow. The girl lifted her head away from his neck and looked out. With his hand still positioned on the deteriorating wall, Jack leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“See, we’re almost out,” he breathed over her skin.
He pounded at the ruined metal with his hand, breaking it apart, letting more of the sunlight through. Looking out himself, he saw the wurms slither right below the surface, the spikes along their backs feathering the sand. The entire pit was now a funnel and they were right in the center. The ground was approaching fast as the ship lurched downward.
The scene reminded him of shark infested waters.
Jack knew if they didn’t leave now they were going to be sucked up along with the ship.
“Hold tight. I’ve got you but I need you to not let go. This won’t be easy.” He waited for her acknowledgement.
“I won’t let go.” She buried her face back into his neck.
He kicked the crumbling wall now that it was brittle enough for them to push their way through. He snaked both his arms around the girl’s body and backed up, creating enough space for the right momentum and just as the ship jerked, he ran forward and jumped through the hole.
The last thing he heard from the ship was a distant sad cry being buried by its fate.
The landing brought him to his knees, his legs sinking into the unpacked sand. He got up and started running as soon as he knew he was cleared from the waterfall of dirt pulling everything down, every step he fought to keep them out of inner ring of the giant funnel.
This day is not going as I planned. He groaned from the effort and the loss of all of his nanobots.
The exertion it took
for him to fight against the sink hole behind him was monumental, even for his superior endurance. It’s nice to be challenged. He thought to himself. Just not while I have a dying girl in my arms.
The ever present wurms swam around the pit, sometimes emerging upwards to ram their lengths into the battle cruiser, forcefully trying to obliterate its existence. Fortunately for them, most of the monsters lurked deep underground now, working on the parts that had been buried some time ago; And now that he had full function of all of his cyberbotics and processing units he could sense the wurms tearing the metal to shreds, leaving nothing behind.
For once he felt a real spark of luck, that he and Allie had escaped the mausoleum. If he had been fully human, they would have both been dead by now; but then again, he would never have come here for parts to repair his ship but would have taken the safer route and sent out a distress signal throughout the sector.
Jack felt the girl in his arms fading fast and he could tell that her body was about to crash.
If she doesn’t pass out soon she may go into shock.
He knew that she was coming off the high of hysteria, the blood coating her body a clear indication that she had been hurt. He had to get them both someplace safe and he had to do it soon.
His attention shifted back to the events around him, noticing a wurm was heading in their direction and it was going to emerge at any moment right beneath them.
He rolled to the side at the last second, cradling the girl as the giant head broke through the ground and landed directly on the disappearing ship, smashing it down. By the time the wurm began to burrow back into the ground, the battle cruiser was gone, now devoured by the planet.
The whimper against his chest set him to moving again, he rolled onto his knees and stood up, continuing his ascent out of the now quiet pit. He adjusted his pack as he climbed.
Soon after they reached the top and the sand gave way to the rocky mountainous landscape, he breathed a sigh of relief. They were finally out of immediate danger and now he just had to find someplace safe to break for the girl. Blood now drenched the both of them.
Some of her wounds must be deep if they haven’t clotted yet. She was losing a significant amount.
“It’s okay, sweetheart, you’re going to be alright.” He relayed with a confidence that he was having a hard time believing.
So he ran, and ran until they had long since passed their camp from the previous night. He stopped shortly to pour water down her throat but then continued on. He wanted to get as far away from the nightmare as possible so that when he set Allie down, he could reassure her it was now a distant memory.
The afternoon crested and moved towards evening before he actively sought a place for them to rest. The place he scouted out wasn’t great but it would work as he inspected a small tunnel that lead into the mountain, the walls caved out by the bones of a long dead wurm.
Jack shouldered off the pack and delicately laid down Allie’s body. When she was curled up on the ground, a small, sad moan escaped her lips. He felt guilt, pain, anger that he hadn’t been aware enough to stop her foolish descent into the ship.
When she was on her way to recovery, he was going to demand some answers.
He turned back to the pack and emptied it, taking out the blankets, laying them out and folding them over to create a small cushion. When he was satisfied he gingerly lifted Allie into a sitting position and unbuckled the clips of her cloak and pulled off her make-shift mesh tunic, both pieces now beyond repair from damage and blood.
Her eyes remained closed the entire time and he assumed she was struggling to distance her mind from the pain she was feeling.
“Allie? I’m going to need you to stay awake. Just for a short time. I need to check your head for a concussion.” He kept his voice soft yet stern with authority.
“Jack?” She breathed.
“Yes, sweetheart?” He leaned over her, pulling her hair away from her body at the same time.
“I’m sorry.” She whimpered, tears forming in her eyes.
“You should be sorry. You lied to me and then did something stupid.” He ground out, “But I’m sorry too, I promised you that you wouldn’t get hurt and you did. So we both didn’t live up to our word.” He turned away to start a large fire, one that would last the night and keep their camp well lit.
I’m fucking done with this planet and its weird creatures and heavy darkness.
“I always hurt my friends. I knew what was in that ship and I let you go anyway. I thought I could protect you from its evil and I not only left you but I broke my promise and almost got myself killed.” She continued in tears, “I left to get answers and I got them. My friend wasn’t there but I left you too. I wasn’t watching your back.” She was stumbling over her words.
Jack was stuck between wanting to comfort her and wanting to lay out the hard truth. He knew she was strong enough to be treated like a soldier but she was also dealing with a trauma that he couldn’t understand. He decided with neither method.
“First off, we’re not friends. Friends don’t fuck each other. Second, you’re going to heal up and get through this because we have a deal, a contract, and I hate when people try and renege on their word. So I am going to help you recover but I’m not going to do the recovering for you. That’s up to you.” He softened his voice, “I saw what you did back on the ship to that nasty smiley shit and I’m proud of you. You listened to me and aimed to kill. I’m also inappropriately hard right now because it was the sexiest sight I have ever seen.” He took the cleaning fabric he had pulled from his pack and started to glide it over her damaged form. The debris that was plastered to her hands vanishing before she took the cloth from him, wiping at her face and arms.
A small twitch played on her lips, “Of course you would say that.”
He got the smile he wanted to see out of her and Jack knew now that whatever happened next, she would overcome this. He grinned back down at her.
He reached up and rubbed her scalp, feeling nor sensing any bumps or bruises. “Your head is fine. You can drift off to sleep if you want to.” He leaned back to unbuckle his body armor, peeling it and his weapons off his body. He then carefully removed the circuit boards and placed them in his pack for the night.
“Jack, if we’re not friends, what are we then?” The girl asked him tiredly, wincing from her movements to face him.
He went back to her side and helped her sit up and it was when her fingers darted to her knees that he saw tiny flakes of glass lodged in her skin. “Stop.” He stilled her hand and fumbled with his medical supplies, pulling out a syringe filled with pain relief and a disk of medicinal salve before he answered her question.
“We’re currently business partners, we’re also partners in crimes against this planet,” He grinned as he injected her. “We’re lovers, we’re two beings who are alone, stranded on a planet billions of miles away from civilization who got dealt shitty cards.” Jack finished as he took out his tweezers and pulled the tiny slivers out of her skin, simultaneously spreading the salve over each area afterward.
She watched him with curiosity, her face wincing in pain now and again. Luckily the painkiller he gave her was strong enough to numb her out once it spread through her bloodstream.
“I like that,” she smiled. “I’ve never had those relationships before. It feels like a fresh start– I never want to have a friend again.”
He wanted to laugh as her expression went soft, her eyes widening as the painkiller went into effect. “Well, I don’t have many friends but the ones I do have I keep at a distance. You can’t hurt what you don’t have. I understand.” He leaned forward and kissed her, very aware that she was naked in front of him. His tongue slid over her lips because her mouth tasted like tears.
He lifted her up while his mouth still explored hers hungrily and laid her down on the blankets. “You need to sleep now. It will help you heal faster.” He said against her lips before pulling away. “I�
��m going to stitch up your calf and your arm and apply the serum to your cuts while you’re out.” Jack watched as she closed her eyes before he moved. “When you wake tomorrow, you’ll feel better.” He promised.
“Thank you, Jack,” she whispered sleepily. “Thank you for saving me. Again”
“Shh,” he placed one more light kiss on her lips. “Sleep.” He waited until she drifted off before he covered her upper body with one of the blankets, then repositioned himself at her feet.
He grabbed the numbing agent and slathered it over her broken ankle as well as the areas around where the creature had torn her open. Jack disinfected each cut and tear before stitching her closed, he had to repeat the process for her arm.
When he was done cleaning her up and fortifying her wounds, he sat back and took in her injuries, moving himself back to her very swollen ankle. He lifted it carefully between his hands with the intent of locating her break. He gently probed her skin with his fingers until they were in position.
Jack knew that she was sleeping and that the painkillers were keeping her that way but he also knew that she was going to feel it, if not tonight, tomorrow morning. He hoped he had given her long enough to fall under.
He watched her face as he snapped her leg, realigning her bone using his strength to traction her skin. A short pop and the fractured tibia was back in place. Her body spasmed as a pained moan escaped her lips. Jack felt like praying to the stars at that moment because she hadn’t woken up from the pain.
I don’t want to cause her anymore pain, she has already gone through too much.
There was nothing to be done for her bruises or the blood loss this night, tomorrow he would make sure she ate and rehydrated. He moved away from her still form to tend the fire while he refueled himself, giving his body the extra nourishment to enhance his effectiveness at replacing his bots.