The Not So Lonely Lone Wanderer Book 1

Chapter 11 - Completion

They lasted two weeks.

Two entire weeks of dodging one another, changing direction when the other advanced and making sure eyes didn't meet accidentally at whatever function they happened to attend together. That included cafeteria dining to the occasional game in the atrium, though lack of players had basically hamstrung the baseball leagues since Butch's Tunnel Snakes had decided baseball sucked and their members were age perfect for the teams.

And it started innocently enough, another radroach infestation in the lower levels had security scrambling since the maintenance levels, which were often point of entry, had no weapons save a few heavy tools and a lot of attitude. A six-man team was en route to the lower levels, thump of that many boots making the walls vibrate as they half jogged, half ran with both guns and flamethrowers at the ready. Most of maintenance had already evacuated, a few hardy ones staying back to watch the excitement, including Arianna and Stanley.

Leaning against a door jam, the usual half on/half off untility jumpsuit and green tank a bit grungy with the cutest anime ponytails on each side of her head, Arianna watched them go with a wry, amused look on her face. She gave Chris a kissy moue as he jogged past, which made Hunter thump his partner in the bicep to keep focus.

"Thought you two were keeping things cool."

Chris looked thru the plexi of his helmet with a grin. "That was cool. I looked fuckin' amazingly cool."

Hunter rolled his eyes, grunting in what sounded suspiciously like disgust. "You need to loosen up those straps friend. You might be cutting off some blood to the brain."

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Once past maintenance, the hallway narrowed into a dim corridor flooded with red emergency lights. The thrum of the reactor seemed to echo, the vault's heartbeat down this far into the bowels of the instillation, making it hard to hear the threat till they were literally on top of it. The hissing reverberated as the six men backpedaled from the dozen or more cat sized insects bobbing heads and flapping wings before attacking.

Wolfe, Hunter and Chris had done this so often it became rote but both Armstrong and Stevie Mack were struggling, firing wildly with both gun and flamer. Chris dodged a swing with the flamethrower nozzle and knocked Hunter to the left as well, avoiding an epic singe but infuriating the pair till Chris finally knocked Stevie back into the bulkhead like wall. Shoving his helmet visor back, a savage blue stare pinned the smaller man as Chris leaned in to snarl. "Keep your shit under control or get the fuck back upstairs."

Mack had the nerve to bluster back. "Like your head isn't in your pants thanks to the doc's brat up there."

One second of time to stop the roll of events but noone noticed save Hunter and he was just too far away. Locking his hand around Stevie's throat, Chris just lifted and smacked him back, the metallic thud just one of the random pings bouncing off the walls along with diminishing whistling cacophony of insect noise. The first one staggered his opponent, the second drove Officer Mack to his knees. Crouching, not observing Hunter moving in from behind, Chris went nose to nose one more time. "Watch that mouth or next time you won't be walking back, you'll be carried."

One last shove knocked the other man on his ass as Hunter cinched his fingers in Chris' collar and hauled him up. "Back to work, kick his ass later." Grumbling he returned to the fray, snapping off shots with barely controlled fury.

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They were quieter coming back so two officers had passed before Arianna turned around and caught the rest going by. Wally's brother gave her a belligerent black look as he cruised past where she sat at her bench but kept his mouth shut. Could have been rumors of what the Overseer had seen that afternoon in the atrium, could be the blond, hulking ferocity two steps behind him that made sure all that transpired was a look. Chris stopped and watched the rest go, only Hunter following his partner's lead and lingering after the rest of the security detail returned to the upper levels.