Cynophobia

☠₂₄☠

I was worried about Rose. The Strikers got through the same way we did, that meant that they had to get through the Remnants cave. I picked up the flip phone and stared at it. "Will the Cynoids be able to pick up the signal?"

"I can encrypt the signal for you," Loki offered gloomily.

I flipped it open and powered it on. I tried to steady my shaking hand as I punched in the numbers. I pressed the phone up to my ear. It continued to ring, but on the last ring someone picked up. "Hello? Cynthia?"

"Ivy! We heard about the attack. The Cynoids got into the tunnel, but we escaped. What happened? Is everyone there alright?" I asked.

"The big Cynoid that attacked Claude broke in again. They came through the garage this time. There weren't enough guards to stop them. They agreed to let the guards live if we told them where you were... and they did," she replied. "I'm glad you're alright though."

"Is Rose alright? Is she in trouble?" I asked. "How did they get past the cameras?"

"She's fine, Dr. Williams won't let anyone punish her. She agreed to take a polygraph to test her loyalty," Ivy explained. "They knew exactly where to go. When I saw them they were already bursting through the garage. Their first raid must have mapped out our cave."

"As long as Rose is safe, luckily the Cynoids were after us instead of the Remnants." I sighed with relief. "How are you doing?"

The was a short pause. "Vincent has been a little... completely insane since you left. Whatever you're doing, please come back when you're done. His fuse it short, he threatened to send the guards who betrayed your position to the city."

"Oh my God," I whispered. Cairo sat next to me and pressed his ear against the phone so he could hear too.

"He got into another fight with James. James had Crashers explode and seal the abandoned tunnel when Vincent wanted to try and go after you," Ivy said. "He shot him in the foot."

I didn't like James, but that was extreme. "Do not pursue us, we barely made it out alive. There are hundreds of them in that cave, you won't stand a chance. Tell him that I'll come back for Rose once I've accomplished what I've left for."

"Alright, good luck you two. The sanity of the Remnants is in your hands," her voice said before she disconnected.

I powered off the phone to preserve battery life.

"Are you glad we left your psycho boyfriend now?" Cairo asked.

"I didn't regret it after I saw him kill Liam's brothers," I replied. "And he wasn't my boyfriend, stop being bitter about it, I had to do what I had to do."

We camped out for another hour until we were positive the Cynoids went to search somewhere else. We started heading for Mt. Tom, covered in mud.

Storm clouds appeared above. The smell of rain started to well around us. The good thing was that the Cynoids would find a cave or something to retreat to. We also would get the mud off of us, we would look more human than mud monster.

Rain started to trickle from above. We couldn't stop, we had to get to the mountain as soon as possible. We could see it, but it was easily a days walk from here. We were back to walking, but it was in the opposite direction of the hangar.

"Do you remember anything before you all woke up in the forest?" I asked. "Where the lab might be?"

Loki thought for a moment. "I have one fuzzy memory if I can even call it that. It might be a dream, I'm not sure. But I remember seeing Alpha looking at me. I couldn't move. He just stared at me like I was a piece of prey, then he was gone."