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For one horrible, nerve-wracking moment, Red was paralysed with fear.
The thing humans call suicide keeps looking more and more appealing. He was already deathly scared of the mortal animals---although they were more like beasts. It had taken him some time to be able to hang around Jada without shrieking and running. Now, faced with creatures that stood tall and proud with their snarling muzzles and shiny silver coats, he worried he would accidentally wet himself.
"What are those called?" he whispered, pressing against Alisa's side. She'd just sent one of the beasts flying, so he figured she was the safest person to stick to.
She turned her head slightly, cocking a dubious eyebrow. "You don't know what wolves look like?"
Wolves. Red had a faint memory of them---of course, they weren't his memories, but still. "Why are they so...shiny?"
"Robot wolves," Alisa grunted, seeming ready to punch every single one of them in the face.
Red's hand reached for his waistband.
At his left, he noticed Lennox nocking an arrow in his bow, a steely glint in his eyes as he stared the creature opposite him down. A palm rested on the still-wailing Becca's head and stroked her hair, as if to calm her down. The wolves didn't appear to like her cries, inching closer to the defenseless girl. Cheng Xin looked terrified, but copied his sister's stance all the same.
Red allowed himself a brief second of hope. Perhaps they can be scared away with intimidation?
When the wolves pounced, he remembered that there was no such thing as hope in this miserable, earthly life he had been doomed to.
"WHY DID I EVER BREAK SATURN'S STUPID SPEED LIMIT?" Red screamed as he dove to the side, narrowly missing a swiping paw. He wasn't so lucky for the second. Blinding spots of agony scythed across his vision as he saw a gleam of metal and felt sticky blood stain his thigh.
"What?" Alisa shouted back, slamming a wolf in its silvery muzzle with her bare fist. That held off the beast and made Red feel like a huge wimp, until he noticed her shaking out her palm with a hiss of pain. "Damn it!"
There was a sharp twang and an uttered exclamation. Red's head swivelled to the side. Lennox's arrow had simply bounced off a wolf's hide, and the rest were closing in on him and Becca. "Can we sacrifice the pervert and his crazy girlfriend?" Red heard Alisa grumble. "The wolves seem to like them."
"No!" came Cheng Xin's hurried reply. "No leaving anyone to die, Li!" Red mentally agreed. There were reasons why Cheng Xin was literally his last hope in humanity.
Red's thoughts were rapidly quelled by more twisting and flipping to prevent the rake of razor-sharp claws and fangs across his fragile mortal body. He, once more, made several silent prayers to the Earthling's god. It had worked once before. Perhaps it would work again.
