Raven Tide

7: Cut Off (Raven Tide)

Shit!

Fucking drugs!

I pushed and slid back across the tiled floor while releasing a small detonation disk from my gauntlet and flicking it at the soldier's boots.

"Chyani!" I pulled our bodies together with a sharp spasm and took cover behind the exam table.

BLAM

Everything shook and, in an instant, the soldier's heartbeats vanished.

"Do you know the path to the exit?" I didn't wait for the dust to settle and lifted Chyani to her feet while tightening the clamp on my belt.

"Yes, there's also a map in your gauntlet," Chyani led the way through the ragged hole in the wall and into an observation chamber with a dead body untouched by the explosion.

The man in the lab coat was missing his hand, had been castrated, and was pierced in the brain.

Did she do this?

Sirens blared and the white lights had eclipsed in flashing red. It was the last thing my throbbing headache needed.

"Your stuff's in here!" Chyani pulled a severed hand from her coat pocket and used it to unlock the door at the end of the narrow hallway.

"Wait," I stopped her from pulling the handle. "I hear soldiers gathering on the other side."

"Good ears," Chyani let go of the door. "What do we do?"

I opened my gauntlet and found the map of the compound. Venom Heart was streaming up-to-date scans of the entire facility.

How did she sync this?

I shook my quills and shifted to another holographic window.

All my tech items contained locators. They were scattered in the next chamber, as Chyani stated.

I synced into my helmet's targeting system with my gauntlet then fired a few pulses of my Anti-Graven sidearm into the ceiling.

There was a crash and then men shouting for cover, followed by silence.

"It's clear, but stay low," I opened the door and we sprinted in. My muscles still felt squishy, and it helped that Chyani stuck close to help me keep my balance.

She pried loose a metal bar from the wreckage and began smashing the encased tables.

It was bewildering that someone so small and soft, contained the potential for such precision violence. No wonder why humans persisted in being one of our favored rivals.

Piece by piece, I redressed while keeping vigilant of any incoming or surviving soldiers. My vision stabilized and the effects of the tranquilizers fading from my system.

"Is that everything?" Chyani hopped between the rubble from the collapsed ceiling. "We need to get to an elevator. We're really far underground."

I pulled up my map. "There are five shafts. They may quarantine this level."

We peeked out into the hall. It was empty, and my map highlighted the quickest route to our left.

"Not that way!" Chyani grabbed my arm, pointing to the signs posted above the colorful lines striating the corridor walls. "There'll be more guards and turrets."

"Can you read this?"

"No," she backpedaled and waved her arms for me to follow. "But look at it. All big and extra pointy. I saw them posted above ground on yellow doors guarded by armed soldiers."