Page 114 of Heart of Dawn
Not at the end…
A severe tremor almost tipped us all onto our faces.
“Come on,” James ordered, taking point. Thankfully, he had the fob.
The pink ooze continued to stream down the walls, cracks spidering everywhere, smoke pouring out weakly. The color losing its vibrancy.
“Dawn’s dying,” I whispered through the rioting pain in my arm.
“So will we if we don’t hurry,” James responded.
The beta led us back the way we’d come, the doors opening without the fob as the robot voice repeated a warning.
“Facility compromised. Please evacuate immediately.”
No problem!
I bounced in Cate’s arms, my eyes on Miko. His complexion paled by the minute, his lips parted. The injury on his head appeared much more severe than I first believed.
“Don’t leave me,”I pleaded through our connection.
His heart barely made a sound.
He’s dying.
He’s leaving me.
The ground opened up before us, a geyser of pink goo gushing out. Terrific heat filled the corridor.
“Stay back!” James barked.
The spurting stopped, leaving behind a crevasse filled with bubbling Dawn crap. Thankfully, the wolves easily cleared it and the spiral stairs were now in sight.
“Last part!” James cried.
A series of rumbles shook the grated space, the metal bending. Pink liquid began to rise through the floor toward us.
“Onto the stairs!” James ordered, ushering everyone on before him.
He made it on himself just in time.
Cate hurried up behind Paige, footfalls pounding, the tension as thick as molasses. The stairs wobbled, screeched their metallic complaints. Bent in the previous tremors, it could give out at any moment.
The exit opened up. Paige went through, Cate next, then?—
“Shite!” James bellowed, the stairs giving way.
My stomach flipped, bodies moving.
“Gotcha!” Trev’s big body loomed beside me. “You ain’t going anywhere.” He hefted the beta out of the hole.
They bro-hugged. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, mate.”
“Thank God…” Cate wheezed.
Basil’s face appeared in my field of vision. “What happened?”
