The Breaking Wheel

Chapter 66: Shattered Blade

John smashed through the final steel door and leaped for Naga's tail, knocking it out of the way and breaking the bone blade. The serpent roared in pain and lunged down at Dr. Collingwood, jaws wide open. She just sat there, unmoving.

Billy grabbed the snake's head and tore both his eyes out. Eddie grabbed Dr. Collingwood and leaped out of the snake's coils.

Naga's head jerked up and his tail wrapped around one of the cabinets in the room and hurled it against a wall. The door fell open, and Lawrence, bound and gagged, tumbled out.

Naga hissed, his forked tongue tasting the air. The blade extended from his tail again, half-healed, and he struck Lawrence in the face. John leaped up onto Naga's head and dug his sharp nails into the soft flesh under the serpent's chin. In the chaos, Lawrence managed to scramble away before he could be impaled by the broken blade.

Several weeks later...

Lawrence rubbed his face for the 1,674th time that week. The cut Naga had given him had healed to a scar running from his hairline, down through his right eye, and stopping at his chin. He was lucky that he wasn't killed.

Now that he thought about that, almost every time he managed to get away from a situation that would have surely killed him, someone else had died right in front of him. Bill, Teguok, some of the MTF guys during the whole SCP-008 fiasco, and now...

If he always survived impossible situations, but the people he cared about had to suffer for it, was he really lucky, or was it just being passed on to someone else?

"Lawrence?"

Charlie's deep, soothing voice brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up at the bulky 939. "Hm?"

"John told me something... concerning about Molly."

"What is it?"

"When John broke into the room to save her, he saw the snake swing his blade down at her... and she just let him. She didn't try to dodge or block or even defy him verbally. She just... lowered her head. Like she'd just given up."

Lawrence stared at Charlie for one second, then bolted out of the room.

He had to find John.