Chapter 21 #2
It had armor plating all over its long, sinuous body. The plates fitted together like scales. Its giant head was triangular in shape with a wide mouth filled with jagged metal teeth and two neon-red glowing eyes.
“Oh. My. Stars.” Malin pressed a hand to her mouth. Together, they watched the metal monster clamp onto the zip line. It gave a giant shake of its huge head before plunging back into the scrap below.
Xander analyzed the situation, creating and discarding numerous plans to get across. Nothing eliminated the need to enter the beast’s domain.
“What do you think attracts it?” she asked. “Noise? Movement? Vibration?”
“Possibly all of that.” He curled a hand into a fist. “It probably has built-in sensors. It’ll detect anything unusual in a set radius.”
Her shoulders slumped. “So how do we cross without becoming monster bait?”
He wanted to tell her to stay here. But he knew the labyrinth could throw up something else equally as dangerous and he’d be too far away to help her.
“We cross it as fast as we can. Ready?”
“No.” She closed her eyes for a second. “Damn, I wish I had my boots and coveralls.”
“You look pretty cute in bare feet and that ripped dress.”
Her eyes popped open. “You did not just say that!”
He kissed her and she kissed him back. There was a lick of desperation, of fear, but there was also the need that was all Malin.
He set her back. “Okay, let’s go.”
He went first down the ladder. Malin followed, and once he set foot on top of the scrap, he reached up, nabbed her around the waist and lifted her down.
He sensed her racing heartbeat, the light sheen of perspiration on her skin. But her face was set with a quiet determination that made him want to smile.
They set off.
Xander moved quickly but as silently as possible. Malin followed a little behind. He was worried about her bare feet and when she gasped, he glanced down.
She waved him on. “Don’t worry about it, tough guy. You can’t carry me, the ground’s too unstable.”
She was right. But when she cried out again, he thought he might try carrying her.
She was cradling one bleeding foot. When he started back toward her, she held up a hand. “The quicker we get across, the quicker we can deal with this.”
Jaw tight, he kept moving. Every muscle in his body was strained, his attention tuned for any movement beneath them.
As they neared the halfway point, he was tempted to relax a fraction. There had been no sign of the monster.
Malin stepped up closer to him and overbalanced. He grabbed her arm before she tumbled, but a clump of metal was knocked loose. It rolled down the hill of junk, clunking and clattering as it went.
She stood there, frozen, eyes wide.
He held his breath.
Nothing happened.
He breathed out. “Come on.” He took another step.
Something moved ahead of them. That eerie vibration. The scrap undulated in a circle around them.
The creature was circling them.
“Malin. Run!”
She ran ahead, and Xander followed closely behind. They moved as fast as they could, not caring now how much noise they made. But it was hard, the uneven surface making them slip, fall and sink into the junk up to their knees.
Suddenly, a hump of the monster rose up beside Malin, knocking her over. She let out a small cry, tumbling down onto her side.
Xander changed course and headed for her.
She clambered to her feet, panicked. The vibration came again from somewhere in front of her.
He leaped forward, landing in front of her.
Just as the giant mouth of the metal monster breached the surface right in front of them.
Without thinking, Xander grabbed its huge jaws, holding them open.
“Xander!”
The monster bellowed a metallic-sounding roar that echoed around them. It fought to close its jaws, but Xander held tight, straining against the massive force.
With his mechanical elbow, he thrust inside. Something knocked loose. Maybe one of the jagged metal teeth.
The monster roared again, and in a violent move, sank back into the scrap.
Xander let go just in time to avoid being sucked under. He fell forward onto his hands and knees, lungs burning.
“Malin. Go. Fast as you can. I’ll be right behind you.”
With a nod, she took off running.
Xander pushed up and followed. His shoulders were screaming from the strain, but nothing was damaged. And Malin was fine. He had to focus on getting her out of here.
Then something clamped onto his right leg, pain seared through him and he fell to his knees.
Dammit! He studied the trap. A giant claw, like a large-predator trap, was attached to his calf. Blood flowed freely. He blocked the pain and worked on prying the trap apart.
“Xander.”
He looked up. Malin had stopped and turned back toward him.
“Keep going,” he yelled.
She hesitated.
The vibration came again.
Heading in Malin’s direction.
“Malin!” he yelled.
She ran, but the monster was faster. It had almost reached her.
Xander’s breath caught in his lungs. He fought the trap, putting all his force into it, struggling like a wild man.
The metal monster shot up from beneath Malin and swallowed her whole.
It leaped into the air and its massive jaws snapped closed. Then it plummeted back into the scrap pile and disappeared.
Xander’s brain just stopped. “No!” he roared.
He didn’t remember tearing free of the trap, or scrambling over to where he’d last seen Malin. He was just there, clawing at the junk, ripping it up and throwing it aside. But no matter how much steel he moved, more fell into the hole he’d created.
He kept going. Until the skin on his hands ripped and blood ran down his elbows.
There was no sound, no movement, no Malin.
She was gone.
He waited for the monster to reappear. Time ticked by and he sat there, poised, ready.
“Come on!” he yelled.
It never came back.
Desolation tore through Xander. It was a painful, empty feeling that tore at his insides. Left him bleeding and raw like his hands.
He dropped to his knees, and let out a cry that echoed out across the maze.
Gone. She was gone.
He wouldn’t get the chance to tell her of the bright, confusing feelings he had inside for her. He wouldn’t ever get to say that he was a CenSec who’d fallen in love.
Xander dropped his head in his hands, his body shaking with the force of his sobs.
He thought of the Antikythera, but realized it just didn’t matter to him right now.
Nothing did.