King Karik Korinth
“What? What do you mean a drone? This cannot be,” Marcus shouted over the radio. I looked at him. He looked sick to his stomach.
“There is a report. A drone has taken a woman out of the village. It is unbelievable; we have never seen anything like it,” he said.
“Where? Where did it happen?” I asked frantically. I already knew in my heart that it was Vanessa.
“It was from the south medic tent. I think it was Dr. Lopez. That is her station,” Marcus said.
“Jex, with me!” I shouted. Within seconds, we were flying towards the medical tent.
I landed in the area where she had been walking to. I saw her bag and toolbox that she had been carrying.
"Vanessa!” I shouted. Jex shouted too. We quickly flew into the air and scanned the area.
“She is not here. It had to have been her. Jex, lead me to the camp. We need to find a place to observe and to rescue her. There is no time to lose. Go at double-speed,” I said.
“Yes, follow me!” he flew, and I followed him over the wall toward in the fifty-mile mark of this cyborg army. We reached the mountains, and Jex already had a spot. It was the same place that he had observed the cyborg camp from when I sent him to scout.
“This is it. They are still not moving. Why would they take a human female? From what I have heard, they do not abduct humans. They simply want to kill them,” he said.
“Yes, I have heard the same. This must be some new tactic. I only hope that they took her for a very specific reason. Because then she will still be alive. They want to do something, and I don't know what that is. What do you see?” I said as we looked down over the camp.
“There, that is different. The keddle: do you see it? It was not opened when I was here earlier. I didn't even know they could open. Look at it.”
I looked down and saw the large keddle. It was open. It was like a clamshell on its side; it was not facing us.
“I don't know, but we can't see from here. We need to go around on that side in order to see the open-end area,” he said.
We flew low and slow around to the other side of the ridge. We hid in the brush. We looked around to make sure that no one had seen our movements. Then I looked inside the keddle. My heart stopped.
“It's her,” I said. Vanessa was sitting down. I could tell that something was on her arm, but it was such a far distance that I could not tell what was going on.
“It looks to me like they are running tests on her. It is what I looked like when she was running tests on me,” I said.
“That is odd. Why would they do that? It does not make sense,” Jex said.
“No, it does not. Unless they are trying to find out new information about the humans. When they come across humans, they are always dead. Maybe they have a new strategy and need to experiment on a live human. That would make sense. That is the way a machine would think. Gather information and then come up with a strategy. We have to rescue her,” I said. I did not like seeing her this way. I was restraining the rage inside of me. I wanted to fly directly to that her and get her out of there. But I knew that was the wrong thing to do. I would be shot out of the sky or when I landed next to her. Even though we moved fast, I still needed to get to her and unhook her. I didn't know if that would cause any damage.
“No, it might be too late. We have to get her. But I need a distraction. I need to draw the Clenok cyborgs away from her,” I said.
“That is perfect. Set them and leave immediately. Do not wait for me. Set them, leave, and detonate them. I will swoop in and get her and will fly in the direction of the village.”
“Go now. We are wasting time. Who knows what they're doing to her. I owe her my life. She saved me from death, and I will save her. Go,” I said.
It caused a great pain inside of me to see her that way. I hoped that she was all right. My heart went out to her. I wanted to save her. It was at that moment that I knew that I was feeling very deep feelings for her. Could I have fallen in love with this human in such a short time? It didn't seem like it could be possible. But then again, her DNA had bonded itself to me. And anything was possible.