Chapter 14 #2
Snow came faster now, heavy flakes in the wind. It would cover our tracks. Good and bad.
“We keep moving.” I checked for exits.
Chain-link fence wrapped the property, topped with tired barbed wire. On the street beyond, occasional headlights could be seen. Freedom there, if we could reach it.
We threaded the dead machines, our steps soft under fresh snow. The city hum stayed in the distance. The quiet here felt wrong.
Then the hatch clicked.
He’d found us.
“Run.” I sent Selina for the fence. “Don’t stop. Don’t look back.”
We went for it, speed over stealth. Fresh powder made every step a gamble. Behind us, movement pressed close.
The fence rose ahead: two and a half meters with barbed wire. Not impossible. Not easy with half-broken ribs.
“I’ll boost you. Over the top, then run to the street. Find a crowd.”
“Not without you.”
“This isn’t a debate.”
I laced my fingers and braced through the pain. She stepped into my hands and I threw her up. She caught the top and pulled herself over with more strength than it looked she had.
Movement whispered behind me.
I spun and got a forearm up in time to block a head shot. He’d crossed the yard like a shadow.
“Go!” She hesitated at the top. I barked it again, and she moved.
He and I locked up in the snow. He was fresher, stronger. And I had a reason he didn’t.
He drove me back and kept the pressure up. I gave ground on purpose, pulled him with me. Blood from a cut above my eye ran into my vision, the wind turning it sticky.
“You are compromised,” Blackout said, smashing a knee into my side. “You are worthless.”
I laughed once, and it hurt. “Still putting you on the ground.”
I feinted left and drove right, knuckles catching his throat. He staggered. I followed with two strikes to the face. He recovered like a machine, blocked the third, and hit back hard enough to rattle my jaw.
We circled, white breath between us. Over his shoulder, Selina had made it over. She didn’t run. She dug through the junk.
“She will be taken,” he said, tracking my glance.
“Over my dead body.”
“That is the intention.”
He moved fast and clean. I blocked what I could and ate the rest. Each hit took a piece. He worked my injuries on purpose.
A hard shot caught me and I hit the snow. I rolled, tried to get up. He stepped in and planted a boot on my chest. Weight increased until the world narrowed.
“Resistance is unnecessary,” he said. “The outcome is fixed.”
Edges of the yard dimmed. Through the flakes, Selina stood at the fence, pale.
She hurled something: a rusty length of iron spinning through the air.
“Specter!”
I reached, caught it, and swung in the same breath. I brought it down on his knee with everything I had.
The blow landed. His gear cracked. Shards of plastic and Kevlar bit into skin. His weight shifted. Air rushed back into me.
I rolled up with the bar in my hand. He adjusted, stance shifting. Hurt, but still dangerous.
“Street!” I sent the order toward the fence.
This time she ran, gone past the barrier. He tracked her again, doing the math. Reprioritizing.
I couldn’t let him chase her.
I attacked, using the iron to keep distance, forcing him to defend instead of pursue. We moved across the snow between dead machines.
He adapted fast, felt my timing, closed the gap inch by inch. Inside the arc, the bar would turn against me.
I needed another play.
Behind him sat a massive industrial press, half-collapsed from rust and age. A bad idea formed. It would have to do.
I shifted gears and let him push me toward it. Every step looked like failure. It wasn’t.
“Your resistance is illogical,” he said, pressing in. “You cannot win.”
“Depends on how you score it.” I backed into position. “Sometimes not losing is the win.”
Cold metal touched my spine. Nowhere else to go. Good.
He came in to finish it. I waited. At the last second, I dropped and rolled, swinging the iron not at him but at a rusted support.
The shock screamed up my arms. For a breath, nothing happened. Then the structure groaned and came apart, tons of steel folding inward.
I threw myself clear as the press collapsed, burying Blackout from the waist down. The crash rolled across the yard.
When the dust and snow settled, he was pinned. Awake. Still a threat. But stuck.
I pushed to my feet. Everything hurt. My ribs were steady fire. But I was upright. And Selina was out. For now.
I approached, bar ready. His face didn’t change. His eyes still worked.
“You won’t kill me,” he said. Not a question.
“No.” I leaned in. “You’re like me. Used. And I need you breathing to find Dresner.”
“I am nothing like you.” Flat. “You are broken. I am whole.”
“We’re both broken. Just not the same way.”
I turned and limped for the fence. Selina waited on the far side, worry written across her face. She hadn’t gone far. Of course, she hadn’t.
“He’ll free himself,” she said as I reached her. “We need to go.”
“Yeah.” I glanced back. He was already testing metal, looking for any give. “We bought time.”
I climbed. Every move lit the ribs again. At the top, the barbed wire tore my sleeve and skin. Fresh blood. New sting. I dropped to the pavement beside her.
“You’re a mess,” she said, gentler now as she helped me up.
“Been worse.”
Her hands were cool on my face as she checked the cut above my eye. The care didn’t fit the last ten minutes. It still landed.
“That needs stitches,” she said.
“Later.” I caught her hand and held it to my cheek a beat longer than I should. “We move.”
A taxi rolled toward us, light on under the snow. I stepped out and waved it down. The driver took one look and hesitated. Cash fixed it.
“Hlavní nádra?í,” I told him. Main station. From there, south. Croatia. To answers.
As we pulled away, I looked back at the dead yard. No movement yet. He’d get out. He was built for that.
Selina leaned into me, warm against the cold in my bones. I put an arm around her and drew her close.
“We’re still alive.” Quiet, her head on my shoulder.
“Yeah.” I pressed my mouth to her hair, found her under smoke and fear. “I plan to keep it that way.”
The taxi slid through snowy streets and into the night. Behind us, a hunter worked himself free. Ahead: risk, questions, and maybe a way through.
For now, with Selina next to me, I let myself believe we might make it.