Chapter Fifteen

Thunder tried to make his plasma gun charge faster as Purity Force ran down the stairs. There were too many of them for a single cyborg to defeat. He knew he would never get out alive. Even though his mind focused on fighting for his life, he worried for Melissa. If he died, there would be no one to protect her. He had an idea about what the other cyborgs would do to her, but he didn’t want to think about it.

Looking up, Thunder could see the collapse of the main floor had compromised the structure of the building. Maybe he could blow his way out of here. The cyborg fired a ball of plasma into the ceiling above the stairwell. It hit and cracked the plaster, leaving a pattern reminiscent of a spiderweb. The humans barely had enough time to look up before parts of the building collapsed on top of them.

A few cyborgs came into the stairwell behind Thunder in time to see his accomplishment. Savage ran behind him and gave a roar of triumph. “That’s the Thunder I know!” he exclaimed. “I knew you would come around.”

Thunder was waiting for the dust to clear, but he knew the cyborgs were going to win. “We’ve managed to whittle their forces down to almost nothing. I’m going back to get Melissa before we go.”

Savage grabbed Thunder’s arm before he could take another step. Thunder spoke immediately. “I know you told me to leave her, but I can’t. I’m the one who brought her into this mess. It’s my duty to get her out of it.” Adrenaline pumped through his body, urging him to take action and retrieve Melissa before it was too late, but he knew he had to get through the cyborgs first. He couldn’t fight all of them at once.

“That’s not why I’m stopping you.” Savage looked at the other cyborgs slowly before turning back to Thunder. “You can’t get her because she’s dead.”

Thunder looked at the other cyborgs for confirmation. They stood silent and rigid behind their leader. For the first time, he didn’t know what to do. His programming, which had become so much a part of him that he didn’t even think of it as software, had always led him to the next step of the battle. But if Melissa was dead, there wasn’t a battle to fight.

“What happened?” When he had left her, Melissa was safe in the storage room. He imagined he could still see her there, waiting for him.

“The other humans killed her.” Savage’s square jaw went rigid as he gritted his teeth. “They found her, one of their own, and cut her down without saying a word. Purity Force is even tougher than we imagined if they’re willing to kill their fellow humans.”

“Did you do anything to stop them?” Thunder demanded. They were losing precious time needed to get out of this miserable place, but he wanted answers first. He knew it was possible for Savage to stand idle while Purity Force murdered Melissa. The cyborg leader wanted all the humans dead.

Savage put his hands in the air to ward off Thunder’s verbal assault. “There was nothing I could do about it, brother. By the time I got to her, she had vanished.”

The blond cyborg positioned himself on the stairs to tower over Savage. “I’m sure you’ll understand if I don’t believe you. You wanted her dead all along.”

“No, I didn’t,” Savage reminded him. “I wanted to use her in negotiations. I didn’t care what happened to her after that. What I do care about is you, brother. If I had my way, I would have kept her alive if only for your sake. But she’s gone now.”

Thunder pushed his way past his commander. “I want to see her body.” The other cyborgs blocked the doorway, and Thunder raised his hand to shove them out of the way.

“Believe me, you don’t,” Savage called from behind him. “It’s messy. We’ve got to get out of here.”

He hesitated for a moment. All of a sudden, Thunder wasn’t sure if he wanted to see Melissa’s dead body even if she had died peacefully. It would be easier to remember the way she had looked when he left her, with love in her glistening eyes. But he needed to know the truth.

“Thunder, it seems like you don’t believe me.” Savage could read the cyborg’s thoughts from his body language. “Why don’t you ask Dagger? He was there, too.”

Thunder’s eyes sought out the mechanically inclined cyborg. Out of all the other cyborgs, Dagger was the one most likely to sympathize with Thunder. He remembered both of his lives and knew what it was like to be human. With a surprising pang of regret, the blonde cyborg wished he had thought to introduce Melissa to Dagger. They would have gotten along well, and Thunder wouldn’t have worried that the skinny young soldier was after his lover.

Dagger looked up at Thunder and nodded his affirmation. That was all he needed. Letting out a howl that reverberated through the crumbling building, Thunder fell to his knees. He had come to this horrific place to rescue his fellow cyborgs. Even though there was still a chance of achieving the goal, he had gained and lost too much. Melissa had made the cyborg realize there was more to life than killing. Now that she was gone, he was starting to question his purpose.

A new wave of Purity Force soldiers blocked the light at the exit above the stairwell. They were shocked to see the bodies of their fallen colleagues littering the steps. They raised their guns to shoot down Thunder and the cyborgs behind him.

When Thunder had left the storage room, he hadn’t wanted to kill anyone else. He hoped to look like more than a killer in Melissa’s eyes and thought there might be a chance for cyborgs and humans to live together peacefully. He needed a truce if he wanted to be with Melissa without consequence from either side. But the fantasy had died with his woman, and there was no longer a need for caution.

He charged his plasma gun and starting firing freely, knocking down the members of Purity Force like bowling pins. They fell against each other and down the stairs. Thunder stepped over their bodies as he made his way up toward the sunlight. He didn’t care if Savage and the others were behind him or if they had turned back. Thunder was prepared to take out as many humans as possible until his body couldn’t move. A white, intense rage drove him now. Anyone who got in his path would regret it.

For every human he killed, it seemed like two more took their place. They multiplied quickly and looked identical in their uniforms. The humans might have been clones of each other. Thunder took them down by firing rapidly and consistently. When he began seeing shots come from over his shoulder, he knew his brothers were behind him.

The battle was answering some of his existential questions. He was a cyborg. He was made to fight. There was nothing more to life than conflict. He and the rest of the cyborgs would kill the humans until they showed they could listen. Even then, they might not stop. They were soldiers, and nobody was going to tell them what to do.

Bloodlust burned inside him as he thought about the other cyborgs trapped around the country. Savage’s squad and the soldiers they had just rescued would team up and work their way across the nation, adding to their numbers as they piled up the bodies until no one was left to stop them.

Thunder laughed when he realized the irony. The dismantling of Cyborg Sector, the rehabilitation program, and the eradication project began when humans were afraid of a few rogue cyborgs who refused to follow orders. The humans would now suffer more casualties than if they had accepted the cyborgs.

He emerged from the building and cut through the Purity Force officers. He had his comrades behind him, and nothing could shake his confidence. They didn’t stop a single time as they made their way out of the building. The humans scattered around them.

Now that the cyborgs had freed themselves from the old warehouse, they had a chance to escape. “We need a vehicle!” Thunder ordered.

Dagger ran up beside him. “Over there!” He pointed to a van parked on the opposite side of the street. It was the dull white color of Purity Force and still looked new. It was shiny and clean, without a speck of rust. That car would get them farther than any of the junky old beaters they had used to get here.

“Can you get it to start?” Luck was finally starting to break in Thunder’s favor.

“Absolutely!” Dagger moved to the front of the group and pulled open the driver’s side door. Some Purity Force officer had not bothered lock it before fleeing the scene. The skinny cyborg jumped in and stuck his finger into the access port underneath the steering wheel. In a moment, he had connected himself to several wires, and the engine turned over.

Thunder roared a cry of appreciation for the mechanic as he lowered himself into the passenger seat. He heard the back door slam as more cyborgs piled in behind him. The van zoomed down the road.

Once they had cleared the industrial area and headed for the highway, Thunder turned around to congratulate his brothers on a job well done. He noted several of the rescued cyborgs as well as a few from his old unit, but he was surprised to find the commander hadn’t come with them. Thunder was still angry about Melissa and hadn’t bothered to verify his location when they left the building. “Where’s Savage?”

“He went with one of the other groups splitting off from us. I think three different teams were trying to get out of the building at the same time. It was hard to keep track of everyone.”

Thunder nodded and turned to the front of the vehicle. Dagger was guiding the van up a ramp that led onto a highway, matching the speed of the other vehicles around them. If they were lucky, nobody would come after them immediately. He could understand his fellow cyborg’s confusion. The scene at the warehouse was chaotic, and not all of the cyborgs knew each other. They had planned to split up, but there hadn’t been time for specific group assignments.

Thumping his fist on the dashboard, he realized that he might have known where everyone was if he had been planning with his comrades instead of fucking Melissa. Although she had not been a waste of time, he wondered about the power the girl had over him. The human woman with soft lips and velvety skin could take him away from reality. How could he have let her put his brothers at risk?

“What about Compass?” Thunder finally asked. “Did he make it out?” He hadn’t always cared for the dark-haired cyborg, but since Compass had been part of his team during the journey to the city, he felt like he should ask. At least Melissa was safe from him.

A slight hesitation from his fellow cyborgs made Thunder think Compass had fallen in battle, but Dagger answered the question. “He got out. Compass and his group left right before we did.”

“Good. We’ll head to the rendezvous point and figure things out from there.” Thunder watched the city buildings race by as they drove down the highway. He wondered how many humans were in each one of them. What were they doing? Were they crowded around their phones, trying to learn more information about the escaped cyborgs who terrified them? Or were they fucking each other, touching tongues, breasts, and lips as they enjoyed each other’s bodies?

Shaking his head in an attempt to free his mind from such thoughts, he turned his speculation to the cyborgs. How many of them remained in the city? Had they missed a chance to help their brothers? If so, they would have to wait a little while longer. Thunder and the others would be back for them.