The ground shakes beneath my feet. I run to the hole and look down, fearing the worst.
Armor punches at the rock around another Titan, who’s feet-up in the dirt. A wolf howls in the distance. I draw my gun and hope he can get Carver out quickly.
“We must go. The mutant wolves have come through our area before.” Armor hauls a Titan out of the soil, gathers him in his arms, and jumps out of the hole. “We will come back for the others. Carver is offline. We need to replenish and recharge him to have any hope of recovering the rest.”
Armor gets down on a knee. “Climb on my back. We must move fast. You will run too slow.”
“Slower than you, but that’s still kind of a dick thing to say.”
“I am sorry. It is the truth.” Armor jerks his head toward his back. “It’s important to know your limitations so you can compensate for them and give yourself the proper advantages to win. I am the advantage now. But I cannot guard us while I carry both of you. I need you to guard us.”
Hooking my arms over his shoulders, I let my body dangle between his wings, then wrap my legs around his waist and draw my handgun. “Ready.”
Wolves snarl a short distance from our position.
“Hang on.” He gets up and sprints away from the approaching pack, a perpendicular path to the cave’s entrance. Slowly, the wind starts to pick us up. Armor finds a small hill in the desert, sprints up it, and leaps off.
The cooler night air doesn’t provide the lift I imagine he would get during the hot days, but we still glide into the trees. As we near the ground, he folds his wings back and keeps running.
My body bounces as trees whip by us, and it’s difficult to target the wolves trailing our position. I fire and tag one as Armor nears the entrance of the cave. He stops just inside. I get down to guard them, but the wolves take an interest in tearing apart their fallen packmate instead of us.
Armor lays Carver down like he’s made of glass, then stacks boulders in front of the doorway before returning to Carver’s side. When I inspect the Titan, I see why. Carver is covered in blades. “I don’t think we’ll free everyone in time without his help. Can you do anything?”
I’m not sure. But the way Armor looks at me, pleading for a solution, I know I’m going to try everything I can.
Setting my bag on the ground, I pull out my tablet, spare batteries, and wiring kit. “If you can handle his sharp body and open whatever ports he’s got, I’ll do what I’m capable of.”
Armor rolls Carver onto his stomach and opens a port in his side near the kill switch. “This is closest to his core. Taking a bore unit apart requires a Titan medic’s knowledge. I would charge him myself, but I can only connect to a generation unit like most Titans.”
I survey the plug connection. “I’m going to need a minute.”
Armor nods but looks tense.
“What?”
He shakes his head once. “Clover of the BlazeStar feeds me updates on the situation. It is difficult to be patient when we have so little time left. I was buried for so long that this all feels like it’s happening very fast. But I have been dreaming of this day and all the things I would do if I was ever free again.”
“Even if we don’t make it off the planet with the others, we will survive. All forty-five of us,” I tell him. “We will find another way to escape.”
“You really believe that?”
I meet Armor’s doubtful gaze. “We will because we choose to make that opportunity. I was trained to mend things in the shadows so others might live in the light. We will find a way to make it happen.”
Time to see if my cybertech skills are up to the task.
