He grasped her hand and pulled her to feet, wrapping an arm around her waist. Chaos and Caliber took up their positions right next to him, all three glaring at me with daggers in their eyes.
Determination scrolled across her features as she looked to the newly created gap. “What can we do to help?”
Nara
Iworked in tandem with my cyborgs to help clear the rest of the piled pieces of concrete blocking our way. The second I had gone over to help, Brone had growled, and I shot him a glare over my shoulder.
That Tank Class was not the boss of me.
Plus, I had definitely needed something to do with my hands or I might have slapped a cyborg. That cyborg being the big gray one who had jabbed an injector full of unknown liquid into my neck. As a scientist, I was insanely curious to study the substance, but the bigger part of me felt pure terror at the thought of what had been in that vial.
It was stupid. I hadn’t wanted to die. I hadn’t wanted to leave my cyborgs. I had even been feeling a tingle of warmth inside my chest at the thought of the Tank Class, but it fled the moment my choice had been taken away.
I wrapped my hands around a particular large piece and gave at tug. The chunk slid out from where it had been lodged. It barely required any effort from me, which screamed like an alarm in my head that I had been fundamentally altered.
It should have at least felt like work, my shoulders straining, the muscles in my arms flexing, but there was nothing…not even a twitch. It felt like a cruel reminder of what had changed inside me. I was already a freak. A too tall ginger, with far too many freckles, and whose intelligence had made me a target.
I had seen the other females that had paired up with the cyborgs. They were pint sized, beautiful girls a cyborg could tuck under their arm and be proud of. Where did that leave me?
I had spent a year hidden away in a lab in the woods, cut off from everything and everyone. The lack of sunlight had made my already pale skin even paler. My untamable red curls were forever pinned back in an attempt to bring them to heel in some kind of hairstyle. My height always left me feeling like an ungraceful giraffe among other humans.
Cyborgs were at least taller than me. Standing next to them, I felt like I fit in. It had been nice to look around the rebellion and relax at the fact I wasn’t the tallest one in the room.
Put me next to the other woman that called the rebellion their home and I was back to worrying about my height. Back to worrying about everything about me. I hated my insecurities. Hated feeling like I wanted to hide, even among those I had believed I could one day call friends.
They won’t want to be your friend when they learn the truth.I pushed that thought away. I didn’t have time for that now. I needed to get my cyborgs out of danger first.
Caliber lifted the last piece, widening the gap enough so we could slip through. I shot a look over my shoulder at Brone. Well, most of us anyway.
A hand reached out, and I saw a woman I had never seen before. There weren’t many human females living with the rebellion so a brand-new face was easy to recognize.
I took the hand offered. “Who are you?”
She grinned. “Name’s Lennox. And my team and I are here to save your asses.” She tugged me through the hole we had created, then flashed me a wink.
I frowned as she went to take Core’s hand. Pushing her out of the way, I hissed, “Don’t touch them.” I had never seen this woman before. If she thought I would allow her near my cyborgs, she was dead wrong.
“And here I thought you’d be a nerdy scientist who cowered in a corner. What a surprise you are, Nara Jones.” She slapped a hand against my back then stepped aside so Core, Chaos, and Caliber could slip through.
Fuse came next, a scowling Brone hot on his heels. I wasn’t sure how he accomplished it, but he managed to squeeze his large frame through the gap.
If I wasn’t pissed off at him, I might have been impressed. Instead, I turned my back to him and took in the sight of the rest of the rebellion.
Somber cyborg faces greeted me, and with a quick glance over their frames, I saw injuries. A lot of us hadn’t come out of this unscathed. Not that we were out of the woods yet. We still had to get out of these freaking death tunnels and then…honestly, I didn’t know what came next.
Where would we go?I had only been here a few weeks, but taking in all the cyborgs crammed into the tunnels, I realized they had lost everything they had ever known for years. Their home was destroyed. They might be able to salvage some things from the wreckage, but it would be far too dangerous for them to stay here. The rebellion had been compromised-both structurally and literally.
The Global Allegiance wouldn’t stop. This was simply a calm before the storm. In my heart I knew they would be back. The rebellion might have won this battle, but the war was far from over.
Shame shot through me. If I had never made my cyborgs, the rebellion would never have come for them and thereby risking the Global Allegiance’s wrath.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, staring at the battered faces surrounding me, and I wanted to take it all back.
To put the genie back into the box. But it was too late. And once they realized I had done more than watch over Core, Caliber, and Chaos, that I had been responsible for figuring out how to make more of their kind, I knew any chance of being able to stay would vanish.
Where would I go?I had no family. No home to go back to. I had never fit in with others, and being altered at what I knew was a genetic level-this was Dax we were talking about-would only make things harder. God forbid I needed a medical scan. I had no way to explain what had happened to me without betraying Dax and the rebellion.
More than I already had that is.