“Please! Don’t phrase it like that. It’s bad enough we got zombies, I don’t need a vampire ghost image in my head too.”
“Okay, borrow from.” Lutz rolled his eyes and waved at the volunteer. “Come on, unless you’re afraid of ghosts too, like Chucky here.”
“I’m not afraid of ghosts!” Chucky fumed and glared at me. “Figures your friends are just like you.”
“Yeah, she rubbed off on me.”
“Both of you. Mission, zombies, a pissed off Xak and its baby…”
Our volunteer Ci’in eased between us. “I got a mini-kit on me. She tapped a tool belt on her hip, giving Lutz a grin. “I don’t mind mouthy ghosts. Had a few in my time. You humans like to hang on to those you left behind.”
“Only until I have to go.” Lutz stepped aside and gave her a chivalrous bow. “This way, my dear.”
She trotted away with him just like he was a normal guy flirting with her. We followed behind as she left us a trail of light cubes. We reached half of the advance team, set up to stop us from going deeper. Bomb perimeter.
“How much further?” I knelt down next to the team lead.
“About a hundred feet. Your guy indicated it was just enough explosives to seal off the section, not cave in the whole mine.”
“Good to know. Any word from our tech?”
“No, she and the rest of the team left their com-sets. Electronic trigger and all.”
“Great, so we know absolutely nothing.” Chucky was across from me.
“Not ideal, I agree, but necessary. Once we get past this trap we need to get Lutz back on their position, so we know what’s happening. One second too late and no one goes home.” It was a bittersweet goal, eons old, but one I wanted to fulfill for us all.
I waited a few more minutes, but waiting with no word was more than I could bear. In two steps I slipped past the warriors prone with their rifles. Chucky cursed out loud, coming after me. “Seriously, Sis, I don’t know where this streak came from.”
“Kettle, pot. You’re just as bad, and it ain’t our first round, brother.” I pointed from him to myself as I slid along the wall at a crouch until I came up behind Casey.
He looked up at me as I knelt behind him. “Can you two stop sniping at each other?”
CHAPTER
34
Casey shut us up for a few minutes, but I was feeling the Maxa’xak, and the urgency. Snipping at Chucky took the edge off, but I resisted. It took another five minutes before we heard a little ‘yip’ from up ahead. “All clear.”
With that, I took off again. Lutz buzzed ahead of us, trying to catch up with the enemy. A few more bends and I didn’t need his help to know we were close. My whole body shimmered with energy.
Casey saw it too, grabbing at my arm each time I tried to slip past him. “You wait until we can see what’s ahead of us. Last thing we need is you setting off an ambush. We got them cornered, making them all a hundred times more dangerous.”
“That’s right. Listen to him.” Chuck said it firm enough it wasn’t just him snarking at his little sister.
“It’s hard.” The imbalance between the three of us, Ci’in, Kwia and Maxa’xak created a force all of its own, a magnetic draw that sucked me towards it. Drawing me forward to extinguish the bad energy and return the universe to the proper balance. “This is why I’m here.”
The grip on my arm tightened, reminding me Casey had hold of me. It was the same sensation as during my Rising, the rope that bound us, his blood against my skin. It worked against the overwhelming urge to rush into battle. He drew my feet back to the ground.
“Hang onto me a bit longer.”
“As long as I can.” His fingers dug into my arm, restraining my bloodlust for the Maxa’xak.
A few more meters and the advance team dropped to the floor. They started firing into the dark ahead of them. Cubes of light were thrown into the blackness and immediately weapon fire was returned. We all hit the ground.
Level ground. We were either at the bottom of the mine or one of the last levels. That was better than being fired upon from below, but the cavern ahead was off to the left of the tunnel opening, meaning our warriors were shooting around a corner.
I crawled up behind them, waiting for them to open up a barrage so I could stick my head out to get a view of the cavern. A quick image, then back in response to Casey jerking on my leg. I curled around and pulled out another light stick, stabbing it with my knife.
“We need more cubes in there, but this is what I saw.” Using the stick like a pen I drew out the cavern. “There’s another tunnel or cavern there. There’s a debris pile right here.” I blobbed gel to the side of the cavern. “That’s where the shooters are. We need some good throwers.”
Two of the Kwia and Chucky raised hands. “Grenades, percussion and smoke. Then Frankie, take your group to that pile and take out the shooters. From there launch the next assault. Knock them off their feet and give us time to get through.” I nodded to the Ci’in. “Hold on extractions, just make sure they can’t get up again.”
“Got it.” Frankie pulled out what he had left of his grenades, as did everyone else, handing them off to our throwers. We moved back while Chucky’s team joined the men keeping the enemy on edge. The three men took a moment to prepare themselves, each getting a quick peek between gunfire outbursts, timing their assault.
They opened up another final barrage of bullets at the enemy line. Simultaneously, Chucky and his Kwia stepped into the cavern and started lobbing grenades.
I jerked at the same instant one of our throwers dropped to his knees.
