Ultima Book III

Claire's Assimilation

                          Claire's POV:

                I woke up to Haylie stroking my wolf ears and I could hear chatter over the radio that she had. "She's awake!" Haylie said over the radio when she noticed my eyes were open. "Copy that," Toby said over the radio, "Checkpoint South, report." "All clear here," Clockwork replied, "How is it in the north?" "It's clear up here," Garroth said, "How is it in the west?" "Clear," Mercer said. "Are you ready to move?" Haylie asked me as I got to my feet. I nodded as I stretched then followed Haylie to the meeting location as the others converged to us. "How do you feel?" Haylie asked me to look at the small network of bright orange veins that look like wings on my back. "I feel okay," I said as the wings pulsated with a soft orange light, "I don't hurt anymore." Right when we rounded the corner, Ryan jumped us. He threw a flash bang to blind us as he subdued me and Haylie. "You are not leaving this place alive," He said as he pointed his pistol at my head. He pulled the trigger and the bullet zipped through my head then into the ground as blood splattered on the floor. I heard Haylie cry out in shock and rage as she rushed Ryan with her fire claws out, but he simply tripped her and was about to shoot her, but I impaled Ryan with my assimilated bladed tail. "How?!" He said in a distorted electronic voice, "I shot you in the head." "I can't die," I hissed as the gaping hole in my head closed. I then slid the blade of my tail down to cut him in half then I left him to meet up with the others. They saw the blue blood on my tail, and they didn't say anything about it. "We need to meet up with Connor," Alex said while heading out of the hall. He stopped dead in his tracks as twenty SWAT personnel simultaneously pointed their guns at him. "Get down on the ground!" One of them yelled. "You don't want to do this," Mercer said with his hands up, "It won't end well for you." "Get down on the ground or we will fire!" The same officer said again. "Fine," Mercer said while stimulating his arm into a blade, "Have it your way." He rushed through the gunfire and quickly decimated the entire force with just a few strokes of his arm blade. "We go now," Mercer said after he flicked the blood off of his bladed arm, "Before more of them get here." We followed him to get our clothes back from the people that kept us here. I found my mother's sapphire necklace and her favorite hoodie, and I held them tight. I put her hoodie on along with her necklace then I met up with the others.