Page 34 of Rebel
I stepped out onto the steps and into the night.
The light was a pinprick of warmth on the gray and black landscape. Vex stood outside the entrance to the main building.
“Rogue? Xavier?” he called out.
I crouched and scanned the night. Two on the roof, two in the quad, and two on the other side of the exit he’d just come out of, ready to block him off, no doubt. They were smart, they were hungry, and we were prey.
Something flew across the quad and hit the wall behind Vex.
A rock.
Vex started and then moved forward. “Rogue?”
Could he sense the creatures?
They were going for the light. The wrench was a solid weight in my hand as I crept down the steps. Wings buzzed as the two creatures behind Vex took flight and blocked the exit.
Another rock to the wall.
“Fuck!” Vex cursed.
Were they playing with him?
The urge to call out was a pressure in my throat, but I kept my lips pressed together. The ground was firm beneath my feet, and then I ducked behind the tower and round toward the two creatures in the quad closest to Vex.
My boots didn’t make a sound as I ran toward them. Wings fluttered, and heads turned in time to get a wrench to the face. The creature screamed.
Vex let out a cry.
I ducked as the other one lunged for me and brought the wrench down hard on one of its limbs, and then the quad erupted in eerie screeches. The creatures took flight straight for me, leaving the exit open for Vex.
“Vex, get back inside. Now!”
“Rogue?”
“Get inside. Now! Or you’ll get me killed.”
The urgency in my voice, the warning, must have been enough. Vex turned and ran for the exit; he swung the door open and stood in the entrance, lamp held up. “Rogue, where are you?”
Safe. He was safe, but I was surrounded. The creatures hovered in the air for a moment and then attacked. Oh, fuck.
I swung the wrench with all my might, heart in my mouth, dread bubbling in the pit of my stomach because it was me against four. Two were injured and holding back as ground attack.
The wrench beat against the butt end of a bulbous torso, glanced off a mandible, knocked a head to the side, and busted an eye. My screams mingled with the creatures’, and Vex’s bellows ripped the air.
My arm burned as something sliced through my flesh. One of the fuckers got me. A blow to the back accompanied by searing pain had me hitting the dirt. Fuck. I waved the wrench, smacking into something, not caring what, before pulling myself up.
“Fuck you!” I lashed out, over and over, creating a no-go zone between them and me; they flew in and back, in and back, trying to get to me. I couldn’t keep this up much longer.
The radio at my hip crackled again, and Vex called my name, but the world was pinpoint-focused on where my feet were planted and the monsters trying to get at me. My limbs were tiring, and my vision was blurring. Please, not another toxin?
My knee buckled, and I hit the ground. Fuckers watched me. Hovering, not attacking, as if they knew I was fucked. As if they knew … A toxin.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Vex, run.” My voice was nothing more than a gasp.
Their bulbous eyes seemed to gleam with glee.
