Rhea felt a subtle vibration in the ground then, picked up by her sensitive cyborg feet. “Do you feel that?”
“I do,” Horatio said.
“What?” Will said.
Sebastian stopped up ahead. He turned around. “They’re early.” His words were soft, barely audible. It was questionable whether Will, or even Horatio, had heard. But Rhea did.
She and the others turned, following his gaze. Rhea zoomed in on the southern horizon.
A cloud of dust rested atop the horizon, spanning from east to west.
“Tasins?” Rhea asked. The cloud seemed to grow larger as she watched. She occasionally saw a fleeting tentacle appear within the depths, or a long talon, but these glimpses were quickly engulfed by the broiling dust.
“No,” Will said. “These aren’t Tasins. They’re the new bioweapons.”
“They’re headed straight for us,” Horatio said. “Tracking our scent on the wind, no doubt.”
Will stared at the incoming cloud a moment longer. Then: “We have to run.”
18
Rhea, Will and Horatio dashed alongside the base of the cliff. They sprinted after Sebastian, who had taken the lead. The cyborg was no longer concealing his strength and was running at the maximum speed his body was capable of. He was quickly pulling ahead of the others.
Rhea was purposely limiting her maximum speed so that Will could keep up. She suspected Horatio was doing the same.
Rhea considered lifting Will into her arms, but the added weight would only reduce her maximum speed: she calculated she would run at about the same pace with him anyway.
“Go!” Will said, gasping for breath. “I’ll catch up!”
Rhea shook her head. “I won’t leave you.”
“I’m not asking you to!” he sounded exasperated in addition to exhausted.
“Actually, you are,” Horatio corrected.
Will glanced over his shoulder at the incoming dust cloud. “You won’t outrun them.”
Rhea glanced at Horatio. “What if we share his weight between us?”
“Then we’ll be able to attain approximately seventy to eighty percent of our maximums,” Horatio said.
Will looked over his shoulder once more before addressing the robot. “Will that be good enough?”
Rhea glanced at Horatio. The robot merely shook that metallic head.
“There you go,” Will said, panting harder than ever. “You have to leave me so you can reach your top speeds.”
“It won’t matter,” Horatio said. “Even if we ran as fast as our friend Sebastian, the creatures would still overtake us. We’d only be delaying the inevitable. We are, quite frankly, doomed.”
Will slowed his pace, and Rhea and Horatio matched.
“Looks like Master Bardain was right,” Will said, still wheezing.
“About what?” she asked.
“He’s always telling me, one day, my luck is going to run out,” Will replied. “Well, that day has come.”
“Not if I can help it.” Rhea glanced thoughtfully at the rock face. “What if we climbed?”
“All bioweapons can climb,” Horatio said.
“Maybe these ones can’t,” Rhea suggested.
“It’s possible, but doubtful,” Horatio said. “Climbing is one of the key traits that bioweapon designers always bake in. At their heart, they are weapons, after all. And if a weapon can’t climb obstacles to reach its prey, then it’s not much of a weapon, is it? They can climb.”
Rhea glanced over her shoulder. She couldn’t help the rising desperation she felt deep inside as her human brain refused to accept defeat, and she struggled to come up with a solution. “But we have to try something.” The bioweapons were fast closing. The party had maybe five minutes until they were overtaken. “Maybe if we drop down and freeze, they’ll pass right by, thinking we’re rocks?”
“You forget your training so soon,” Will said, his breathing becoming better, now that he had slowed. “We’re downwind. The bioweapons will be able to track us by scent, even if we’re motionless. Sorry dude, this is it. I just wish I’d never gotten you into this. I should have never made you sign that contract. Probably should have never reactivated you in the first place, considering your mind was wiped.”
“No, you should have,” Rhea said. “I have no regrets. You gave me one last chance at life. I would have rather lived for as long as I have, than never existed again. Even if it meant never knowing who I once was.”
Rhea sprinted on, feeling defeated.
No. I refuse to accept this.
There had to be something she could do, even if it meant she had to die in the end.
And then she knew.
I will die for them.
“I’m going to climb,” she said.
She leaped up and latched onto the cliff face.
“Dude, it’s useless,” Will transmitted.
“You keep running.” She reached up, finding a handhold, and pulled herself higher. “I’ll distract them.”
“The bioweapons will simply split up,” Horatio sent.
“Let her climb,” Will transmitted. He continued running below. “Let her feel like she’s at least doing something to help us.”
Rhea continued to climb as the others fled. “You know, what if we caused a collapse? Get the bioweapons to start climbing after us, and then send this wall crumbling down upon them.”
“There’s too many of them,” Will transmitted. “It might work at first, but the bioweapons will keep coming. Eventually, they’d get us. Look at them, they cover the land from horizon to horizon!”
“Why are you all so eager to accept defeat!” Rhea sent. “I’m going to collapse this rock face on the bioweapons. You want to stay down there, that’s fine. But I have a potential escape plan here. If you’re too proud to accept that, because I came up with the idea and not you, then maybe you deserve to die.”
“She’s right,” Sebastian broadcast. “We have to try it. Who knows, maybe we’ll frustrate these creatures enough that they’ll leave us alone.”
She glanced toward him and saw the cyborg
