Purge of Prometheus (22 page)

I think it’s time we went to sleep
, the Voice said, echoing her own sentiments.

Solemnly removing Cerise’s hide pants, Keryn pushed the snow back over her teammate so that she wouldn’t be found by any Terran patrols.
 
Turning toward the waterfall, Keryn skirted around the outside of the pond, cautiously moving across the slippery stones, until she was able to climb into the exposed cavern behind the falls.
 
She stripped free of her pants, donning the warmer hide pair, and collapsed into the warm blanket.
 
With it enveloping her like a glove, Keryn hardly noticed the discomfort of lying on the hard, stone ground before she was sound asleep.

Keryn awoke more refreshed than what she had in many months, but unsure of how long she slept or whether the darkness around her was day or night.
 
Stretching, she felt the stiffness that had settled over her body from sleeping on the hard rocks.
 
Her neck ached and her shoulders were sore, but she reveled in the pain, knowing how much better her body felt as a whole.
 
Donning the waterproof boots once more, she packed her supplies back into the pack and slung it over her head and shoulder, letting it droop at her waist.
 
Eating a quick breakfast consisting of a grain bar, she stepped out of the overhead cover, feeling more confident than she had since the Terran arrival.
 
Still, she couldn’t shake the inevitable feeling that continuing her quest was a waste of time.

“Why even keep searching for the ship?” Keryn asked to the empty air, knowing that the Voice was listening.
 
As she took another bite of food, the weight of her mission weighed heavily on her shoulders.
 
“Cerise is dead, which means McLaughlin was left alone.
 
He wouldn’t have survived without treatments.
 
So can I expect the
Cair Ilmun
to still be intact as well?”

Would you be able to return to Miller’s Glen without knowing
, the Voice asked, sounding as though it were standing beside her.
 
The question struck a chord within Keryn.
 
Your own doubts would tear you apart if you don’t finish here with definitive proof one way or the other.

Satisfied and refreshed, Keryn set off through the snow, heading toward the answer to her burning question: did they still have a way off this planet?
 
The trek through the snow seemed easier today, her body stronger and warmer, making her strides more powerful.
 
After only a half hour of walking, Keryn started to recognize landmarks.
 
A jutting stone that she had passed upon their arrival protruded from the snow on her left.
 
A twisted tree that was full of leave two weeks ago still drooped over the trail, its now barren fingers reaching toward her hair.
 
Keryn slowed her pace and pulled out her pistol, knowing that the grotto lay not much further ahead.
 
Crouched and moving cautiously, she moved up to the edge of the clearing and peered through the darkness.

Crestfallen, Keryn looked around at the debris that littered the grotto.
 
Shards of metal lay strewn throughout the area, some having been blown apart with enough force to be lodged into the trees around the grotto.
 
The ground itself was pot marked with small craters, the type that would have been caused by repeated explosions of fuel cells igniting under intense heat.
 
Looking across the clearing, she frowned at what remained of the
Cair Ilmun
: a skeletal ship and shredded engines melted and fused to one another in an unflattering orgy of metal.
 

Keryn leaned against the nearest tree and lowered her pistol as she drank in the sight.
 
Her one hope for escape had been taken from her and her mind whirled at the ordered effects from the ship’s destruction.
 
The trio no longer had a clear plan for escape and would now have to rely on a new plan, one that she struggled even now to formulate.
 
The only ships that remained on the planet were under tight control of the Terrans, who would never relinquish one of their ships without a grueling and deadly fight.
 
The trio just didn’t have the firepower to stand against the Terrans, not without help from the other survivors of Miller’s Glen.
 
But even the survivors were hesitant to help; their spirits had been crushed with the loss of so many friends and family during the bombing and their bodies, after two weeks of hard manual labor, were a reflection of their spirits.
 
Somewhere there was an answer, but Keryn was pretty sure she wouldn’t have it until she had a chance to meet with the others.

Turning back toward town, Keryn took a hesitant step away from the wreckage when a booming voice erupted from the darkness behind her.

“There she is,” it roared, the voice’s words were slurred and hard to understand.
 
“I told you they’d come back for their ship!”

Keryn glanced fervently over her shoulder.
 
Behind her, green eyes flared to life in the darkness; pinpoints of light glowing like savage creatures hunting their startled prey.
 
Stepping into the grotto, Keryn saw the sleek black uniforms and assault rifles of the Terrans, their eyes glowing brightly from behind their masks.

Night vision goggles
, the Voice said, as they both cursed themselves for not realizing the Terran patrols would be so well equipped.

Stepping up beside the Terrans and dwarfing them with his sheer size, Keryn stood in disbelief at the disfigured Oterian who cried out in fury.
 
“Recognize me, you bitch?” Cardax screamed over the short distance.
 
“Take a good look at what you did to me.
 
Look at me one last time before I kill you, you whore!”

Most of Cardax’s fur was gone; the tan, leathery skin underneath was warped from blisters that refused to heal.
 
His right arm hung limply at his side, its once impressive size withered, blackened, and shriveled.
 
Keryn’s eyes lingered on two wide scars running across his chest, the blatant marks of the torture he had endured while her prisoner.
 
Most startling, however, was what remained of his face.
 
The skin on the right side of his face looked like running wax, melting down the side of his cheeks and running over the side of his mouth, causing the slurred speech she had heard earlier.
 
His ear on the side of his head was missing and she saw no sign of the ear canal that should have been there in its stead.
 
His horn was also missing on that side of his body, though the other one still glittered venomously in the darkness.
 

Keryn was honestly stunned that Cardax managed to survive the bombing of Miller’s Glen.
 
The room in which he had been kept had been decimated in the explosion, the heat from the blast lifting the walls and ceiling from the room and scorching the floor.
 
She could only imagine his anguish as, strapped to the chair, he was unable to escape as the flames rolled over his body.
 
He had every right to be furious, but she couldn’t find a justification for him siding with the Terrans

“So you sold your soul to the devil for a little retribution,” she spat angrily.

“I’ve made new friends,” Cardax hissed, spittle flying from his mouth.
 
“And you, you slut, are as good as fucking dead now.”
 
He turned to the Terran standing beside him.
 
“Kill the bitch.”

The Terran turned toward Cardax, glaring with obvious disdain.
 
After a pause, he turned back toward his soldiers.
 
“Kill her.”

Keryn was already running before the Terran commander was able to give the order.
 
Rounds slammed into the trees as she ran, weaving along the path that she made on her approach to the grotto.
 
She stopped occasionally to fire behind her, once striking one of the Terrans who chased her.
 
Though he was hit solidly in the chest, he quickly climbed back to his feet.

“Damn it,” Keryn growled.
 
“Of course they would have body armor.”

She ran on, firing just often enough to discourage her pursuers.
 
Their automatic weapons, however, continued to punch holes into the snow around her and splinter the trees throughout the jungle.
 
After a short time, Keryn saw the stream rolling past up ahead.
 
Sliding into the clearing, she scrambled for purchase on the icy rocks as she tried to stop her momentum.
 
She turned and ran toward the rock bridge she had crossed before her night’s sleep; rounds ricocheted off the stone outcroppings behind her as she fled.
 
She pointed her weapon behind her and fired a couple more rounds, sneering in frustration when she heard the click of the bolt sliding to the rear.
 
Her magazine was empty.
 
She pressed the magazine release and let it fall into the snow as she pulled her last magazine off her belt.
 
Keryn slammed the new magazine into the well as she bounded gracefully across the stones.

Landing on the far side of the river, she leapt to the ground as she saw more green eyes emerging from the trees to her left.
 
Their automatic fire tore through the air above her head as she scrambled for cover.
 
The pursuers on the far side of the river, including the infuriated Cardax, ran from the trees on that side just as Keryn, still firing, found a large rock behind which to hide.
 
Rounds now struck the rock from two sides, both from the Terrans on the far side of the river and from those on her side who were approaching from downstream.
 
The bullets gouged chunks of rock from the boulder she was behind and she cursed again.

“Armor piercing rounds?” she screamed.
 
“You have got to be kidding me!
 
Is there anything you all did not bring with you?”

In response, the Terrans fired another volley.
 
Sweat that had nothing to do with the exertion from running ran down her face and traced the curve of her back.
 
The heavily armed and armored Terrans were closing in on her position quickly.

Let me help you
, the Voice whispered enticingly in her ear.
 
We can make it out of this situation if you let me help you.

“No,” she yelled into the darkness.
 
“I won’t let you take over again!”

As though to prove her point, she spun around the stone and opened fire on the closest Terran.
 
The first couple rounds struck his body armor, driving him to his knees but not killing him.
 
She adjusted her fire and her next round caught him in his exposed neck.
 
Blood sprayed across the white snow as the Terran gurgled and pitched forward.
 
She continued firing, her next round aimed at the unarmored leg of the Terran behind him, striking him between the thigh and knee plates.
 
The round tore through the insulated pants, ripping the soldier’s leg from under him.
 
Off balance, he fell to the snow, bringing his face on level with her aim point.
 
She squeezed the trigger and one of the two green lights vanished on his face plate.
 
The round pierced his eye and exited the back of his skull, stopping only when it struck the heavily armored helmet.
 
The other two Terrans on her side of the stream ducked for cover while the far side opened with another barrage.
 
Keryn dove back for cover behind her boulder.

She clutched her pistol to her chest as she took a mental inventory.
 
She still had grenades, but only one was a high explosive.
 
The others, smoke and flash grenades, would be useful, but she needed killing power.
 
Beyond her grenades, she had fired enough rounds that she had no more than…

One
, the Voice interrupted, its mental faculties free to do math while Keryn fought.
 
You only have one round left.
 
Are you ready for me to take over yet?

“I’ll never let you take over again,” she whispered, her frustration stinging her eyes.
 
She paused as she examined her options.
 
The two Terrans who had taken cover before were now advancing on her position.
 
Cardax still screamed at her from across the stream

“Come out, you coward,” he yelled, tauntingly.
 
“Take the bullet in your brain like a real woman!
 
Or maybe you’d prefer it if I dug
my
knife into
your
chest?
 
What’s that?
 
No answer to my question?
 
That’s a shame because now I have no choice but to carve off your flesh, one strip at a time!
 
And don’t you worry one bit,” he continued through his melted mouth, “I’ll be coming after your Pilgrim boyfriend once I get done carving you up, you little bitch!”

You need my help
, the Voice said, its voice flat and calm.