Human Bait

Chapter 18: Displeased

At first, the shock and ringing in my ears blotted out everything else. Then I registered a patter of approaching footsteps below the ringing. Footsteps, and Rekkan's yell.

"Zaf, get back!"

Before I could oblige, he seized my shoulders and threw me back toward the desk. My hand that snapped back to catch myself slipped in a pool of still-warm blood, and my tailbone knocked the desk. I recovered just fast enough to see the bald researcher hurtle through the doorway. The rifle fired again, and blood and brains splattered the file cabinets, dripping down over the papers.

Doors slammed walls, and more feet battered the ground.

"Fuck, there are too many." Rekkan shot me a glance. "We gotta get out of here. Follow me."

I pushed off the table and trotted to Rekkan's side, but then my eyes snagged on the leatherbound notebook on the coffee table, and my breath caught in my chest. I recognized that worn binding and the handwritten scrawl across the open pages.

My mother's journal.

I swooped over to grab the book and tucked it under my arm before rejoining Rekkan.

Rekkan shot me a bewildered glance, but he only said, "Stay close to me."

He strolled out into the entry hall.

I watched the next sequence of events as though in a dream. Doors swung open and shut as more researchers streamed into the room. Rekkan swung the rifle around, picking off the closest attackers without ever breaking stride. Tables toppled, papers fluttered, and brains and blood spattered the room like a combusting pressure cooker. My eardrums rattled with the growls, snarls, rifle blasts, and exploding heads.

Just before I reached the ladder, my boot kicked something soft, and I stumbled. The book slipped from my blood-slickened fingers and slid across the ground.

I lurched toward the book. The moment I snatched it off the ground, a white lab coat flashed in my peripheral vision. The growl poured hot breath over my ear.

I jerked back just before the attacker could reach me. Another blast from the rifle ripped off the growl, and blood painted the floor where my feet had been a millisecond prior.

I leapt at the ladder and scrambled up the rungs, the journal still pinned under one armpit.. Rekkan followed close behind as I burst through the trapdoor and swung over the edge. Behind Rekkan, I heard the scientists scrabble at the ladder. They couldn't climb exactly, but they could pile higher.

"Rekkan, hurry!"

His hands caught the ledge, and he kicked the ladder behind him. The pile of scientists toppled backward, and Rekkan emerged into the room with a cloud of dust. He slammed the trapdoor door behind himself and staggered to his feet, coughing.

The trapdoor moved almost imperceptibly. Then it popped up an inch.

I ran to the nearest factory machine and threw my weight into it. The machine refused to inch.

"Get out of the way," Rekkan growled, unexpectedly close to me. He pushed me aside and gripped the machine.

"I can help," I insisted, but he wasn't listening. He braced his legs against the ground, knees bent, and shoved the machine across the floor all the way onto the trapdoor. Then he shifted to watch the floor beneath the machine.

Rekkan shifted, preparing his rifle once more. More thumps, a few muted snarls... and the sounds dissipated.

I dropped down to press my ear against the floor and heard the wet slap of retreating footsteps through carnage.