Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
My talent pegged it as clean, but there were limits to what I could sense. If Bear had an open wound, and I dumped a bunch of alien bacteria into it… But then I crawled all over in that water with an open wound – which was mysteriously not open anymore, and yeah, not thinking about that – and I almost drowned in it. I was pretty sure I’d swallowed a bunch of it. Which was neither here nor there, except if there was some vicious pathogen in it, we were both fucked.
There was water in the canteens. All miners carried some. We would have to save that for drinking. There was no way to tell how long it would take us to get out of this cave.
Suddenly my mouth was dry.
I dipped the hat into the stream, scooped some water, and gently poured it over Bear’s flank, half-expecting the dog to bolt. Bear sat like a rock.
“Stay. What a good girl. The best girl. So good.”
Three hats later, the water ran mostly clear. A gash carved Bear’s skin over her shoulder. It was shallow and not too long. Most of the blood must have come from somewhere else. Someone else.
I exhaled. One of those carts should have a med kit on it.
“Let’s get some antiseptic on that.”
I needed to get across the stream and the slight wobble in my leg said that if I fell, I would regret it. The best place to cross was still the same – the shallow part where Aaron lay in two pieces.
I picked up Bear’s leash and made my way to the crossing. If she yanked me off my feet, there would be hell to pay. I waded into the stream, ready to drop the leash at the slightest tug. Bear whined and followed me. I slowly shuffled across the stream bottom.
“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”
The words came out like a curse. Melissa’s face was branded into my memory. I could replay it in my head like a recording. Six years. I couldn’t even remember how many breaches together. She knew my children’s names. She looked straight at me and yelled at London to throw the grenade.
“I thought she was my friend, Bear.”
Bear didn’t answer.
“I saw Melissa push Anja out of her way. And that over there is Anja’s body. She was twenty-six years old.”
Sanders, Hotchkins, Ella Gazarian, they were in front of me when I was sprinting for that exit. My memory served up Sanders being swept away by the blast.
“They were her guildmates. They trusted her, and she fucking left them, and worse, trampled over them trying to escape. Sanders is probably the reason I survived. He took the brunt of that aetherium grenade.”
We cleared the stream and carefully went up the shallow slope to where the carts waited. Water sloshed in my boot. The other one was wet, too.
I tied the leash to the cart, found the first aid kit, and flipped the heavy latches open. A nice big bottle of antiseptic rinse. We were in business.
“Stay, Bear.”
The shepherd sat again.
I opened the antiseptic and poured it over the wound. Bear shook but stayed.
“You are so good. Such a good dog.”
I capped the bottle and grabbed a tube of antibacterial gel.
“Melissa’s priority was the mining crew. But London’s priority was keeping everyone safe, and if that failed, keeping me alive. He was in charge.”
I remembered the cold calculation in London’s eyes, too. The way his face iced over when he hurled the grenade. The set of his mouth. I squeezed the gel onto Bear’s wound.
“He was looking straight at me, and his eyes said, ‘Fuck you. I’m not dying here today.’ His shield lasts two minutes. Two minutes, Bear! That man is fucking invulnerable with the shield up. I was halfway across that stream when he bailed. If he just activated his shield and waited ten seconds, I would’ve been on the other side of the cave-in. The rest of the mining crew would’ve been on the other side with me.”
Bear tilted her head, looking at me.
“The hostiles weren’t even paying attention to us. They were fighting each other, and they cut us down because we were in their way. We could’ve run all the way to the gate. Even if the creatures had followed us, they couldn’t exit into our world. They are trapped in the breach until the anchor gets enough energy to rip the gate open.”
Bear tilted her head to the other side.
“You know what he said to me? He said, ‘I’ll get you out of here in one piece. The only way you go down is if I’m down, and I’m really good at surviving.’ Well, we know he didn’t lie. That asshole is excellent at surviving.”
I screwed the cap back onto the gel tube.