Page 29 of Craze

“It’s in your eyes!” Rochir calls out. “I can see the light!”

Craze shoots in rapid succession at the squads that approach as he backs up to me.He’s going to see the light real soon.

He takes the wristband from me and initiates Ravenger III’s self-destruct, something beyond my clearance. Red lights flash. “Eat dust, fuckhead.”

Then Craze picks me up and jumps over the ramp's edge, shielding me from gunfire. His sides smoke. Holes riddle his clothes.

When we’re under the cover of the large ramp, I wriggle free and reach for Jeela.

Craze>>Pellucid: She’s Solcrue?

Pellucid>>Craze: 1/3 - Solcrue, human, cybernetics. She’s on our side. There is nothing else to know.

He shrugs, picks Jeela up, who’s collapsed, and carts her under the Ravenger’s belly to the hoverdrone Tangle slows on the opposite side of the ship. As we bump into the hot underside of Ravenger’s hull, I make sense of their evac name.

A red frame surrounds my vision, like it did the day I heard Poppy’s communications and moments before with the soldiers climbing the ramp.

Pellucid>>Craze: Incoming!

Craze deposits Jeela on the platform, whips around and charges behind me. He steadies his gun with two hands and fires faster than I’ve ever seen. An explosion throws him back and toward me.

Shit!My body tenses.

He catches me with one arm as a hot flash tears past us. I close my eyes as we smash into the hoverdrone, sending it tipping and launching away from Ravenger III. Craze’s body cushions mine.

The rocket blast blends with Ravenger’s self-destruct, creating a ball of fire and flaming fragments that litter the ground as we speed away from the landing zone.

Women screech is disorientation and fear. Tangle uses the momentum of the explosions to guide us into a long banked turn that heads for the hills.

Tangle>>Local: we’ll see you below! Heading for the catacombs.

Axe>>Local:click, click.

RamBash>>Local:click, click.

Morbid>>Local:click, click.

Craze>>Local:click, click.

I don’t know what else to do but join in because I can.

Pellucid>>Local:click, click.

It feels nice to talk with others, to know I’m not stuck with only Sevrin’s voice in my memories.

Craze smiles down at me, where we lay on the hoverdrone among the other survivors.

Tangle glances back at us all. He’s a smaller unit with yellow eyes and a digibadge to match. “Can everyone make it a few more minutes? Or do we have any critically injured?”

Shavih pushes herself up. Blood runs down her arms. She says what’s on my mind. “We’re all injured. But we’re free. We would rather die free than risk stopping and anyone getting captured.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Tangle increases our speed, and we haul ass across grassy plains into rocky hills that quickly jut up into a snow-capped mountain range.

Craze>>Pellucid: Permission to check on your humans.

Not knowing what else to do, I nod. He likely has more energy than me if the last few moments are any indication. But calling them mine? I have felt responsible for them since we made our plan months ago.

As he pushes up from me, something hard grazes my thigh. I prop myself up on an elbow and see him covertly adjust himself. Then he sits up and scans the women lying haphazardly on the drone’s platform. Curious need stirs in my belly as I watch him work.

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