“Brone? Nara?” a frantic voice shouted. “Are you in here? Please don’t be in here,” the voice rasped.
Gritting my teeth, I wiggled one of my hands, lifting it as high as I could. “Here,” I choked out, dust and dirt coating my mouth as I swallowed, trying to clear it. “Here!” This time it came out a bit louder and a hand grabbed onto mine.
“I’ve got you.” Fingers squeezed around mine. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out.”
“Dax?”
“Close. It’s Dex.” The sound of a comm activating reached my ears. “I need backup at the cabin right now. It was attacked. The cabin is destroyed.” His voice shook.
“Dex, it’s Lennox. Help is coming. I need you to stay on the line. Have you located the Tank Class and the female?”
“I have found Brone. Negative on the female.”
Negative on the female.Pure terror filled my circuits as something warm dripped down my cheek. “Nara!”
Dex’s fingers slipped from mine. “Nara? Nara, can you hear me? It’s Dex.”
“Dex please,” I begged. The warning lights were making it impossible to think. I blinked, ordering my systems to stay online. “She was…was directly in front of me.”
Warning! Critical systems failure imminent. Processor shut down will occur in one minute and thirty seconds.
I twisted my frame as a bolt of pain sizzled up my spine, but I fought it. A few more twists and whatever had been pinning me down slid off my back. I pushed myself on to my hands and knees.One minute to shut down.I swayed as dark fluid pooled beneath me. “Find Nara! Don’t worry about me,” I ordered. My visual system was a mess, but I made out the blurry shape of Dex digging in front of me.
Debris went flying as he dug at cyborg speed. “Fuck! She’s not here, Brone! She’s not here!”
That wasn’t possible. She was right in front of me.“She must be here! Please, Dex, find her,” my voice cracked, terror licking up my wires as I fought to draw in air.
“Dex!” Reaper’s voice boomed through comm. “Tell me you have the female.”
“No.” More digging sounded. “She’s not here. My scan is showing no heat signatures or life signs besides two cyborgs inside what is left of the dwelling and one weak one located some feet outside of it.”
“Ion!” Lennox gasped.
Thirty seconds. Please seek repairs. Full reboot needed.“Dex, whatever happens, find Nara. She is the only thing that matters.” My arms gave out and I crashed to the floor, my visual systems going dark.
Shut down commencing in three, two, one.
“Nara,” I whispered, my world going black.
* * *
Bright lights burned above me and I blinked. “What?”
“Shh, take it easy, Brone. Your systems are still coming back online.” Dax’s face swam in front of me. “You are lucky I am good at my job. Those bastards shot you in the head.”
I was shot?“But…” Everything was fuzzy. Reboots were a bitch. I recalled the boom, the hot rush of something hitting my head, and the sound of Nara’s cries.
“Nara!” I tried to sit up, but a few sets of strong hands held me down. Viper, Reaper, Dax, and Acer towered above me, pinning me to the exam table.
“Don’t move!” Reaper growled. “Dax barely got you back! Your systems were in critical failure. The forced shut down and Dex’s quick thinking managed to keep you alive until you made it back here.Dax and Dex both worked on you to save your life. Luckily, you are one hardheaded son of a bitch. That and the newly fused plate on your skull kept the bullet from blowing apart your core programming. A few inches and that would have been it. You would have been toast.”
I shook my head. I would worry about my near-death experience later. “Where is Nara? Tell me, Reaper. Is she okay?” I couldn’t help the way my voice broke. If they shot me… Nara wouldn’t survive a direct hit, even with Dax’s upgrade. Metal frames worked better at stopping bullets. Nara was still flesh and bone. Her heart and brain were nothing but organic tissue that bullets could easily pierce and destroy.
“Is she…did she..,” I couldn’t finish.
Reaper’s face filled my vision. “They took her, Brone.”
“They took her?” She wasn’t dead. Hope filled my chest before being quickly replaced by fear.The thought of my Nara being in the hands of the Global Allegiance made all the fluid that was left in body run cold. I struggled against the cyborgs holding me down. “We have to go! We need to get her back!”