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I very slowly, but also as quickly as possible, put my leg back on. Then I slam the emergency escape, which is basically a hole in the floor. I fall into the pit below and I run through the dry sewer beneath. Megaris is a city of tunnels. As busy and chaotic as the surface can be, what is happening in daylight is only a fraction of what is going on in total.
I run.
I run because Rath K’zar is a korabi, and korabi want us dead.
I run because the only possible reason I can think of for his presence is the desire to see me dead once and for all. I bet he is going through us all one by one, killing us in the most brutal and cruel of ways. He must be hell-bent on vengeance to have tracked me down.
“Stop! Human, you are in no danger!”
I do not believe him.
I feel his claws close around me, his big meaty fingers following as he grasps me about the waist and lifts me up off the ground like a puppy. He turns me around to face him and look into those freakish eyes of his. One is gold, the other is black with a pale dot in the center. We did that. Well, not the augmentations, but we took his eyes. There is no way he is not furious at having been forever maimed. I know only too well the anger which comes with knowing your physical capabilities are forever changed thanks to the deliberate aggression of another.
“Stop it,” he says, laughing. “No human can outrun me. Especially not one with one good leg.”
“That’s true,” I agree, shoving my hand into my pocket.
I set off an electromagnetic charge, hoping it’ll fry any metal components they might have used on him. I’m guessing at least one of his major bones is held together with metal rods by now, and they're probably linked into his neurology.
He winces, indicating that there is some discomfort. I wasn’t going for discomfort. I was hoping for full body flailing at the very least. Minor wincing isn’t useful to me. I’m still trapped in his grasp, still on the cusp of death. His eye flashes at me with electronic annoyance.
He used to have pretty eyes, from what I remember. I watched him ravage Lyric via a captured drone. I know what this korabi looks like when he is fucking a human he desires. I’d be lying to myself if I said my body wasn't reacting to the memory of everything that came before.
“Have you come to kill me?”
“No. You’re alive, and I plan to keep you that way.”
“Then why are you here? Historically, humans don't stay alive long after you pay them a visit.”
“I deserve that,” he says, acknowledging his part in the deaths of my family with a casual comment. “I’ve come to make up for what I did to you all. I’ve come to work with you to see if we can save some of your people.”
“Save them from what? You could just stop murdering us.”
“I want to do more than that. I want to help you all escape the city.”
I am officially skeptical. I am also alive, which I didn’t have to be. Rath K’zar is more than capable of killing me with a flick of his fingers. Especially now that he is augmented. Far from killing him, we made him more dangerous than ever. I don’t trust him. I also don’t really have a choice.
Back in this mess…
Finally, I reach our old den. It was carved into the mountains of Megaris, a stronghold of freedom. A place to be human. Tunnels and caves used to wind their way for miles. Now it is a mausoleum. The bones of my family lie here, beneath the rubble.
I don’t know why I expected to see the others here. Some part of me really thought that Lyric and Rath K’zar would be waiting here to sweep me off to some paradise outside the walls of Megaris.
I walk around for a few minutes, musing on the awfulness of what has come before and what is yet to come. Krush will not let me go. He said he loved me. He poured out his limited royal heart to me. And I ran away. He’s going to feel rejected. He’s going to hate me. Or love me. Who fuzkin’ knows.
I run my fingers down one of the old structural posts absent-mindedly. I can feel memories wrapping themselves around me. We were so happy here. These walls rang with the laughter of babies and old people alike. Now they are deeply silent, absorbing all sound and all joy.
I feel something. Something that makes me look. It’s a message. And it looks like it was left relatively recently. Symbols scratched into one of the posts at the entrance are useful means of communication for multiple reasons.
