Chapter Twenty:

***

Norah raised her weapon the moment she heard the sound of the broken door opening. Somehow, poised for whatever came out, she felt a wave of calm wash over her. Even if Stryker didn’t want her help, she would give it to him if a moment presented itself.

She didn’t imagine a Wieraptor, but a shrieker on the other side of the door. Her hurt and rage could only focus on her personal demon and when the heavy crunch of an incoming beast filled the room, she saw the white fingers and heard the mind-bending shrieks of the ghouls that were her enemy.

Her mind registered a half lizard, half bird-like behemoth but her eyes saw the loose pasty grey skins of her dead friends. Its mouth opened wide in a howl that split its face in half to its shoulders. She caught the sight of teeth before it entered the room. The creature slammed itself into Stryker, who had bent down and shot a volley of bullets into its face; It was undeterred.

It was a horde of pasty-skinned monsters in her mind. That’s all she could process.

She felt jitters and the need to run screaming; at the same time, she wanted to attack the creature for seeking to hurt her savior. Norah inhaled the dry air and slunk her way into the hallway it had vacated. It took everything in her to break focus and glance at the console in the destroyed passageway. It sparked and flickered.

It was ravaged beyond repair.

Her fingers faltered. She turned to make a run for the bridge, the door stood at the end. A goal for her to achieve. As sweat dripped down her face she flinched at the clamor and horrible grunts of battle that followed her. Norah was at her destination in a heartbeat.

Three times, knock three times. She pounded her fist against the door, so warped she feared that it might get stuck in its track. She couldn’t hear her knocking over the fighting behind her.

She pounded again. The door lifted with a screech that had her skittering back, it stopped half a foot above the floor. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The ruined metal groaned but moved no more. A face appeared at the bottom. Norah dropped down, fear fueling her body.

“It won't open!”

“Try again,” she screamed back. She glanced behind her to make sure she hadn’t caught the attention of the Wieraptor. What she saw made her stop.

Stryker was crushed beneath the beast.

“Try and crawl underneath it,” Matt reached out and grabbed her hand. “I’ll pull you in!”

Norah looked at the small opening, knowing she would never make it through. She looked back up at the jarred door that shook in sync with the noise. She didn’t want to be stuck underneath it, at the mercy of the Wieraptor behind her.

She banished the thought. Stryker would come out alive. He had to. Why would he die after all this time, right at this crucial moment? Norah wrenched her hand out of Matt’s grip and shuffled back.

“No.”

“You can’t be serious,” he yelled after her retreating body, his arm trying to catch hold of her. “You have to try!”

She looked back to see her Cyborg wrapped around the beast, glass shards sticking out of both bodies, intermittent gunfire between. Her body was drenched with sweat, her throat tight with fear. She saw a dozen shriekers clawing at Stryker every time the monster howled. Norah blinked away her terror and rose up onto her feet. Matt called after her as she raised her arm, gun in hand.

The beast reared its arm back, sharp nails at the ready, and pinned the Cyborg to the ground.

Norah ran forward with a scream, aiming her gun at its back and fired off every bullet she had. She flew into the lab as the Wieraptor roared and twisted to locate her. Beady red and white eyes stopped her dead.

Stryker’s tail moved, curling around the beast as it turned toward her. She made a run for the stairwell and the open hatch at the end. Her feet stormed up the steps, lost in the noise of the monster making its way to her.

She heard Stryker scream her name, and as she reached the second floor landing her hands pushed off the upper floor to throw herself against the wall where she followed it to the open door.

She had never run so fast in her life and when her body full-on slammed into the closed hatch of the EonMed ship, she didn’t feel any pain, instead, her body let out a horrible sob.

Norah looked back just in time to see the Wieraptor fall from the railing with a clang.

She punched the code for the ship into the panel, fingers sliding over the screen, slick with sweat. When the door opened, it was enough to make her cry in relief. The last thing she heard was a howl cut-off from Stryker as the door shut behind her.

The thunder of her heart filled her ears against the sudden silence of the research ship.

He’s never going to trust me again. Norah realized she had a problem when it came to listening to Stryker’s directions. To her, it was about immediate safety, not the hope of being saved.

She caught her breath and spun around. She needed to help him but couldn’t think of what she could do. She wasn’t a monster hunter, she wasn’t even all that physically fit. Her gun training was subpar, she had barely hit the minimum qualification for an uncolonized world mission, and that was as a scientist. Hitting the back wall of the range instead of the sides was almost enough to pass.

Norah rushed back to the armory and looked around. Nothing but a scattered collection of guns, bullet boxes, and handheld weapons greeted her. She rummaged through the stockpile, through the rope, the flares, and the extra tech equipment but found nothing that could do more than provide a short diversion.

She slammed the radio down and screamed. Frustration strained her muscles as she spun in a circle, feeling every second tick away.

I’m a chemist, not a soldier.

I’m a chemist. Her breath hitched and she made a mad-dash to the storage lab and refrigeration unit. I’m a chemist! She collided with the laboratory door and typed in the lengthy code access to the unit, failing three times before she got it right; the panel released with a gust of freezing air.

Norah stopped short as she looked into the sealed lab, several frozen bodies were strewn across the floor in front of her, hands up and out as if they had tried to break down the door. Beyond was a dark trail of blood and entrails scattered about. Dr. Entin, the meteorology specialist, twitched and jerked in her direction.

Her throat closed up. Shivers wracked her frame. Hollow eyes followed her as she dodged the shells of her former friends and rushed to the refrigeration unit. A deadened wail rose up behind her, a hushed whisper of air that gained tenor with each second.

She slapped gloves over her hands and pulled out the drawer with her most recent research. The ones that had made it to the ship.

She grabbed hold of several closed bottles and turned toward the door. The skin on her body stiffened from the cold, her eyes drawn to the white flesh of her dead co-workers. Their eyes stared back at her from inhuman angles, too big, too freakish for their faces.

Their wails rising in pitch every second. She skirted around them, just outside their reach and shut the laboratory behind her.

Her hand went numb, clutching the bottles to her chest. Norah reeled over and emptied the contents of her stomach.

She ran back to the hatch, out of breath, her sides aching; she prayed that she wasn’t too late. If Stryker died it would be the last straw for her. She didn’t think that she could handle any more horror.

Please. Please. Please, her mind cried as the door opened and the Cyborg’s ship came back into view. Norah rushed to the railway to find Stryker’s form wrapped around the throat of the Wieraptor, his head hidden within the jaws of the beast.

Norah screamed at the creature. “Over here you fucker!” heckling it from above. It writhed and thrashed back and forth as it tried to dislodge the serpentine noose around its throat. She was ignored as the fight came down to who loosened their hold first.

She ran back down the stairs and threw herself against the monster’s side, only to be thrown away from it. Her boot kicked one of the guns on the floor, and placing both bottles in one hand she picked it up, aimed at the beast, and pulled the trigger. It whirled in her direction and Stryker’s head popped out from its toothy grip. His throat was torn down to the metal casing that held him together.

Their eyes met for a second. She ran forward as Stryker pulled his lips back. He sunk his teeth into the Wieraptor’s jaw as she aimed her samples at its opened mouth.

The first one missed and rolled across the floor. The second one landed within the gape of its mouth.

“Wrap its mouth shut,” she shouted.

Stryker tore his teeth out of the beast, sinew and flesh went with it, but it wasn’t enough for her to recoil. Norah watched as the Cyborg curled his entire body around the creature’s head and forced its jaw closed.

She ducked and sprinted up the stairs. Please work! If Stryker was right, the Wieraptor would be infected. She didn’t even want to think about the outcome, her only care was for her snake that fought for leverage.

The beast went berserk, shaking and humming through its shut mouth, thrashing around in a frenzy to throw off Stryker’s hold. Norah prayed. She prayed to any god that would hear her plea. The beast crashed into the wall. It clawed at the metal around its throat.

Her eyes remained on the Cyborg, his face half-covered in carnage, his gaze focused, distant, violent, and cold. For as much as the beast raged, Stryker remained motionless, immovable, and hard. But the viper in him kept striking out. His fangs penetrated the monster’s neck over and over until it oozed black and red.

An eternity went by before everything began to slow and the frenzy died down to a struggle. Norah gripped the metal beams of the rails until her hands went numb and her knuckles locked.

A horrible cry came up from the back of the creature’s throat. Its rough belly convulsed.

Time slowed down.

Stryker released his body from around the Wieraptor and slithered to the opposite side of her as it continued to cough. A guttural wail rose up. Familiar and terrifying, louder than before. Norah clasped her hands over her ears but it didn’t dull the pain that flooded her head.

When it stopped, she looked up to see the Cyborg crouched, human again, in the corner. His eyes bored holes into the beast. She reeled back as the monster began to vomit up blood.

It continued until fell down dead in a pool of its own gore.

Norah wiped the trickle of blood from her nose and cried.