by Lisa Lace
A doctor near his feet had been slowly stabbing a needle into his leg before leisurely pulling it out again with a pair of pliers. He set his tool down and consulted a computer screen mounted on a nearby wall. “Shrapnel,” he replied. “It looks like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A mortar hit nearby, and several pieces of metal pierced vital organs.” The doctor shrugged as he went back to his stitching. “Good thing the hospital preserved the body for us.”
Wrath seemed to fall through his memory. The doctors above him slowly shrank and faded away as he plummeted into nothingness. It was an unpleasant sensation, but he preferred it to lying down and watching the humans work on his lifeless body. Instead of tumbling back into blackness, the cyborg discovered he was passing through scenes. As soon as one location came into focus in front of him, it dissolved into something new.
He was inside a vehicle. His hands were on the wheel, guiding it expertly. Rachel sat next to him, her green eyes batting innocently before the scene dissolved.
A young, familiar-looking man stood next to Wrath. He wore his dark blonde hair long, gathered back into a ponytail that lay over the collar of a leather jacket. “You can shove it up your ass, big brother,” the young man said with a sneer. “Don’t try to put the blame for all your problems on me.” His face shimmered and sunk in on itself, blue eyes sliding past his mouth before Wrath had a chance to reply.
Rachel was in front of him again, naked and laying back on a bed. She had her ass at the very edge of the mattress, legs dangling down and spread wide. Wrath had his cock buried inside her. He watched her breasts bounce as he pounded into her. Rachel put her hands on them to keep them from shaking.
“No.” He pulled her hands away and cupped each of her perky globes himself, feeling the vibration in her soft flesh with each thrust. He rejoiced in the wet heat of her around his erection. Small moans escaped Rachel’s lips as she built up to a climax.
Her hands, freed from her chest, slid down to her pussy. She ran her finger around her clit in tiny, quick circles until Wrath felt the walls of her sex clench around his cock. He was about to cum inside her when the scene folded on itself like a sheet of paper.
Wrath was standing in a desert. It was a different place than his home for the past year, full of sand and the sun instead of bushy plants and craggy mountains. He wore his uniform and felt confident. The enemy could not stop him. There were other soldiers around him as well, but they needed prodding. They marched beside him with terrified eyes, wildly swinging their guns as they watched for enemies rising from the dunes.
“We’re okay, everyone,” Wrath assured them. “We’ve been through territory just like this before.”
“Don’t you think that’s a problem?” asked the soldier on his left. He had dark skin that glistened with sweat in the sun. “They know our tactics and what to expect from us. We should have planned a different approach.”
Wrath blew him off with a wave of his hand. “Jack, I can’t wait until we go back home so I can tell everyone you’re afraid to fight.”
An explosion rocked the ground underneath his feet. The noise around him was a dull roar and so big that he couldn’t hear anything else. Everyone started running, and he turned to follow them. Whatever had hit them was too big to fend off by themselves.
The ground moved underneath him again, and Wrath fell forward onto his face. He had been deployed for months but was feeling the chill of fear for the first time. It traveled up his spine and wrapped all the way around to his stomach. He seemed to be looking at another person as he watched his blood drip onto the sand. It flowed down between the grains, leaving his body forever.
The sand and the blood swirled together in his vision, creating a dark red whirlpool that sucked him in headfirst. In the blackness, he heard the melodious voice from before. His eyes darted back and forth as he searched for the source.
“Wrath, come back to me,” the voice begged. “I need you here with me. I want you to be better even if it’s only temporary.”
The next scene appeared slowly. The darkness lifted like a dark fog, gently revealing Wrath’s surroundings. He could feel the desert sand against his back. A woman’s hands were on him, giving support but not preventing him from getting up. Wrath focused on her face, wondering who she was.
“You did it,” she murmured as she ran cold fingers across his cheeks. “I was starting to worry that you weren’t going to make it. Now we have a chance to get you on your feet and find the help you need.”
Wrath suddenly remembered the voice as blood started to rush to his head. Rachel was speaking to him. He remembered with startling clarity everything she had said. She was trying to convince him to go to Cyborg Sector again. He looked around the room. Judging by the looks on the faces of his comrades, she had convinced everyone else already.
The cyborg pushed himself to a sitting position. “Don’t try to take advantage of my weakness. I already told you how I feel about Cyborg Sector.”
Rachel ran her hands through her hair, shaking angrily in frustration. “I’m not trying to trick you into anything. Can’t you tell that your biochip is malfunctioning? It’s beginning to degrade. You can’t fix it yourself if the problem is inside your brain. If you want assistance, we’ve got to get you to the right people, and they’re all at Cyborg Sector.”
Wrath almost agreed with her but managed to stop himself. “Don’t talk to me about what I should or shouldn’t do. I can think for myself. I don’t know what Cyborg Sector trained you to do or how you’re getting information into my head, but I plan on finding out.”
“No,” she blurted out. “I didn’t do any of that.”
Wrath knew that he could wring Rachel’s neck if he wanted to. His training told him to eliminate any threats. Something was stopping him, and he didn’t know what it was. What he did know was that he didn’t want Rachel to get hurt.
He put his arms behind his back, trying to fight off the urge to wrap them around Rachel and take away her pain. Wrath felt like he might fall over, but he didn’t want to show any weakness in front of his men.
“Tie her up again,” he commanded, motioning toward the wheezing woman on the ground. “If she tries to run away, bind her feet and carry her. Don’t listen to what she says. Gag her if you have to.”
Weapon moved quickly to follow his leader’s orders, but Wrath noticed that the scarred warrior didn’t act with the same zeal he had shown before. He needed to have a talk with each cyborg. He didn’t know what Rachel had said to them while he had been out. He couldn’t risk a mutiny.
“Let’s move out!” he bellowed, sending the cyborgs scrambling. They placed Rachel in the middle of the party near Clayton. She watched Wrath with concern. He almost went up to her. Part of him wanted to take her aside and talk to her so he could understand what was happening to his mind. Instead, he assumed the lead in front of the double line and led a march into the night.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The interruption in their hike had adversely affected the schedule. Wrath refused to slow down and trudged doggedly through the sand. He was acutely aware of the dim orange glow beginning to penetrate the darkness at his back. The other cyborgs could see the beginnings of the sunrise as well but didn’t say anything.
He had failed them. He couldn’t even get the group to the next shelter on time. Wrath felt like he was losing Green Squad. By the way they were carrying themselves, he wasn’t even sure if they still acknowledged his authority.
As they started hiking through small canyons cut by ancient floodwaters, they began to slow down. The trail’s elevation began to change drastically. It was hard for the bound humans to move.
“Should we cut them loose?” Weapon asked as they prepared to head down into the third and final arroyo. He stood with his hand around the rope tying Rachel’s wrists together. Wire waited next to him with Clayton in tow. He peered down the steep, rocky cliff. It was only twenty feet down, but it was a considerable obstacle for the prisoners.
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It disgusted Wrath to see one of his best soldiers go soft, but he knew why Weapon wanted to do it. If the humans were untied, they could climb in and out of the canyon without assistance. The cyborgs would be free to take care of themselves as well as have total access to their weapons. Even if the humans managed to escape, they wouldn’t get far. Cyborg Sector would catch up with the group soon. The cyborgs would need their weapons to defend themselves.
Wrath wasn’t willing to give the humans any leeway. “No.” He noted the aggravation in Weapon’s scarred face but ignored it. Everyone would have to deal with the minor inconvenience. They descended into the arroyo. The incoming rays of sunlight were easier to ignore when the canyon walls protected them. The faint hints of dawn faded into the background as darkness covered them once again. Wrath deactivated his night vision every now and again just to enjoy the solitude. He ignored the sounds of the other cyborgs behind them as they navigated their way down the trail carrying the humans over their shoulders.
The farther they progressed along the trail, the harder it became for Wrath to control his vision. A different kind of darkness lurked at the corners of his field of vision and threatened to overwhelm him. He didn’t want to see any new images but knew he was on the verge of losing himself. His footsteps faltered, and merely putting one foot in front of the other became a struggle. Soon it took all of his strength to keep moving forward.
A shudder of dread shot down Wrath’s spine when he heard the whine of the helicopter in the distance. It was still far away, but they all knew Cyborg Sector was coming. The tunnels no longer protected them. Even though Green Squad had reached the mountains, they were still vulnerable. Slick, flat rock rose in front of them.
Wrath racked his brain, wondering if there was still a way out. If they fought, they would be vastly outnumbered. Was there anything they could do? Anywhere to go where they could evade the eyes of the government? They just wanted to live in peace without being dismantled by scientists.
Without warning, an explosive pain shot through his skull. When Wrath recovered, he discovered that his night vision was malfunctioning. He tried deactivating his implants, but darkness was all he could see. His systems had betrayed him again at the worst possible time. Wrath fell to his knees and pounded his fists against his head, hoping he could force his electronics to start working again. He heard the sounds of movement around him and wanted to see what his men were doing, but his vision wasn’t coming back.
The helicopter would arrive at their position at any moment. Wrath could only imagine a bright spotlight trying to pierce the darkness inside his head, but he would hear its whirling blades and feel air currents buffeting his body. Wrath couldn’t move as he knelt and waited for the inevitable. The cold sand under his hands and knees felt like it was anchoring him to the desert. Without his eyesight, he couldn’t command the cyborgs or attack his enemies. Green Squad was on its own.
Wrath came to a conclusion quickly. “Everybody has to go!” he screamed above the din. “Leave the prisoners, and leave me! Get out of here while you still can.”
Someone replied to him, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying. “If you’re still here talking to me, that means you are disobeying a direct order. I won’t be responsible for your death or whatever else the humans have in store for you. Start moving!”
He waited, impotently running handfuls of sand through his fingers. If they didn’t want to abandon him, it meant he had been a good leader. But if they obeyed him and saved themselves, it would mean he had been a great one. He had an unusual feeling in his heart — hope. Wrath wanted to hear the movement of boots as they made their way down the mountain range to their destination. If they weren’t weighed down by the slow progress of a blind cyborg and the burden of human prisoners, they might make it to cover before the helicopter arrived. Instead of boots, he heard a countermanding order from a voice he heard every day in his head.
“You have to surrender!” Rachel had a plan and screamed again at the other cyborgs. “Deactivate your plasma guns, raise your hands and give yourselves up! It’s the only chance we have to save Wrath!”
Wrath knew Green Squad was going to listen to Rachel. The sounds from the world came intermittently into his processing unit. They were interrupted by flashes of other scenes and visions in his mind. Through the confusion, he heard Weapon take up Rachel’s cause, ordering the other cyborgs to listen to the human. Wrath wanted to scream. He felt like beating his head against the rock. He was willing to do anything to bring himself out of his nightmare and command his soldiers again.
He heard the dull whir of helicopter blades as the chopper arrived overhead. Someone inside began calling out directions to the soldiers, but the instructions sounded garbled to him. Wrath wouldn’t want to obey even if he could understand what they were saying. The sound of new voices descended on him like crashing waves.
Wrath couldn’t move or defend himself as the sounds of movement and shouting surrounded him. He felt strange hands on him, heard Rachel’s gentle voice in his ear, and knew someone was lifting him into the helicopter on a stretcher.
Chapter Twenty-Three
After Cyborg Sector had retrieved Rachel from the desert, everything became a blur. She had watched as people strapped Wrath to a stretcher and lifted the cyborg into the chopper, staring at the flying vehicle until it was a speck in the distance. They placed Rachel in a separate vehicle from the cyborgs, who rode in a heavily armored SUV. Clayton sat next to her. They didn’t speak to each other. There wasn’t anything to say.
Cyborg Sector wasn’t interested in letting her fly directly home. She boarded a private plane with a guard on either side of her and went to Washington. After she had deplaned, she found herself getting a complete examination at a hospital. A never-ending stream of doctors and nurses put her through every test they could order. Rachel was too dazed and exhausted to give them a proper accounting of her ordeal. Eventually, the visits to her hospital room began to slow down.
In a few days, they transferred her to a nearby hotel room. Rachel had cooperated enough so that they no longer worried about her running off before they finished questioning her. Cyborg Sector dismissed her security detail after the first day. Her time was her own as long as she showed up for all the scheduled appointments.
“How did the rescue make you feel?”
Rachel had come dutifully to another psychiatric evaluation. Cyborg Sector had determined there was nothing wrong with her physically other than some minor dehydration, but they weren’t finished going through her brain.
“How is that relevant at all? Does it matter?” She glared at the man sitting across the room. He looked like he was on the verge of retirement. With glasses and a graying beard, the psychiatrist looked like the stereotypical example of a professional in his field. Dr. Rickson scribbled on his notepad as they talked. The notetaking was beginning to wear on her.
The doctor set his notepad on the arm of the chair and folded his hands in his lap. “Sometimes victims find getting rescued is harder than being a prisoner. They develop emotional bonds with their captors and don’t want anyone to save them. It’s a normal reaction. We can treat it with therapy. You don’t have to be ashamed if you feel this way, but we can’t help you unless you’re completely honest with yourself.”
Rachel shook her head. Of course she had feelings for Wrath, but the whole story was more than this psychiatrist was ever going to understand. Wrath had meant something to her before the recovery incident. Her feelings toward him weren’t going to change.
The cyborg was probably livid with her now that she had forced him and the other cyborgs to surrender, but she didn’t feel like she’d had a choice. If they ever met again and he hated her, at least he would still be alive.
“Do you know what happened to the cyborgs?” she asked. “Did Cyborg Sector destroy them? Or did they start the rehabilitation?” She was vaguely aware that she presented positive for Dr. Rickson’s preliminary diagnosis. She d
idn’t care. They had been the ones asking all the questions so far, and it was about time she got some answers.
The doctor creased his eyebrows and picked up his notepad again. “What do you want them to do with the cyborgs?” She didn’t answer, and he continued asking questions after several seconds of silence. “Would you prefer their destruction or would you like rehabilitation?”
Rachel sighed in frustration. The conversation wasn’t going anywhere. “I think our time is up.” She stood from her chair and strode out of the room.
Several messages were waiting for her when she returned to the hotel. The media had managed to find out where she was staying. She knew how determined journalists could be. If things had been different, she would have been the one pursuing the story.
There were messages from tabloids, newspapers, television stations, and a book publisher. Rachel pressed delete on every one. She had already spoken enough to Cyborg Sector. The last thing she needed was to have lights and a camera shoved in her face.
Rachel realized that she hadn’t contacted anyone at work since returning from the desert. She’d been too busy being poked, prodded, and questioned to give any thoughts to her job. Did she still have one? Lifting the receiver, she dialed World Community News.
The receptionist put her directly through to the manager, Cindy Edwards. After several clicks and fuzzy connections, her boss finally answered. “Rachel! You little scamp! I thought I sent you on an innocent little assignment, but you turned it into something major! Way to go! This will be a great start to your career.”
“Actually, Cindy—”
The enthusiastic manager was not about to let her say a word. “My flight just landed, and I’m on my way to see you. I tried to call the hotel, but they kept telling me that you weren’t in or not taking any calls. I knew you had probably told the staff to screen everyone and keep the other news channels away. Clever girl.”