AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Despite the moniker, Eden could only chuckle briefly; this situation was way worse than she had ever experienced. Dante was pulling her hand once again and running ahead of her while shooting left or right as the situation called for it. She could hear the gunshots flying above her head or brutally hitting some of the servers.
“You damn Italians!” groaned Pride. “Can you please leave some of those servers intact if we’re supposed to copy them? You’re doing more damage to those archives than the Core itself, and they are intentionally trying to wipe them!”
“We don’t exactly have time for neat cleaning, Pride!” retorted Circé, annoyed.
Indeed, it was raining fire from all sides. Several times, they had to dodge them by diving down or staying hidden behind one of the dark towers for a couple of seconds. Eden glanced over her shoulders, and indeed, more soldier bots were coming down from the elevators. Luckily, their arrival was predictable, so Dante’s men would fire as soon as the doors opened. One of the elevators was even stuck where it was because of the pile of soldier bots preventing the doors from closing. Still, their firepower was enough to force them all to stay in hiding and wait for the right window to fire back. They should have been grateful those central units separating them from the robots were in some sort of reinforced steel for their own protection, otherwise, it would have been a massacre in the room.
Finally, they reached the stairs and climbed up as fast as they could to get out of sight. Eden was brutally pushed forward, and she heard Dante groan, sending a chill down her spine.
“Dante!”
“I’m fine. Keep going!”
His voice didn’t sound fine, but she had no time to disobey. Biting her lip furiously, Eden climbed the stairs. Circé and more of Dante’s men ran into the stairwell behind them, but there was no sign of Rolf. He was staying behind to lead the fight against the robots, and Eden could still hear him shout orders to the men. She tried not to think too much about it; if everything went well, those robots would be deactivated in a matter of minutes now, hopefully...
She held Dante’s hand a bit more firmly, and they progressed together up the stairs, only slowing down when they got close to the doors for the next floors. Behind each, a terrible ruckus could be heard, but it seemed like the robots were staying far away from the emergency stairs. The more they kept climbing unbothered, the more suspicious Eden got; even if the robots were initially prevented from accessing the emergency stairs, the Core should have bypassed those protocols and told them to fire at anything moving by now... Was that Pan’s doing once again? Eden couldn’t help but think he was scarily powerful at times.
Suddenly, the stairs trembled, and they stopped moving, eyes riveted above them.
“...What’s that?” asked Circé behind them.
Eden frowned, and put her head in the hole between the stairs, trying to see what was going on farther above. She removed her head right before a gunshot resonated in the stairwell.
“Soldiers!” she shouted. “And they saw me.”
“I thought so!”
They couldn’t send soldier bots, so the Core sent their human soldiers after them. Eden could now very clearly hear steps rushing from above.
“What do we do?” she asked Dante.
They glanced at the door they had just passed. The seventy-third floor! They were so close to their goal. Dante grimaced, but turned around and fired several shots at the door’s lock, slamming it open with a kick. They all ran inside, guns up and ready to fire at anything that comes. They only found more rows of central units inside, although this room was in the dark for some reason. Quickly, Greed remotely turned the light on for them. Eden sighed and turned around, watching two of Dante’s men push the door closed. On the left, she realized Circé was busy wiping her shoe on the carpet with a grumpy expression.
“Whoever’s bleeding, you could try not to spill it everywhere...”
Eden’s blood suddenly went cold. She turned back around, her intuition suddenly clicking. Dante. Her lover didn’t seem bothered at all, but she had him spin around and lifted his shirt. That’s where the blood came from. A very fresh, blood-dripping bullet injury was located in his lower back, and not a minor one either.
“Dante, you’re bleeding!”
“I’m fine.”
“Hell no, you’re not!”
Eden immediately ripped his sleeve to try and soak up the blood that was coming out. She couldn’t believe someone was incapable of feeling their body bleeding out like that, but Dante was definitely unaware of it. He glanced over, not shocked at all, even when his eyes got down to the blood-soaked fabric. His inability to feel pain was turning into a terrible and cruel weakness.
“Let me see,” said Circé, pushing Eden over. “Oh, shit, they really didn’t miss...”
She took out one of those little first aid medical bots and applied the carbonic ice spray all over the injury, but even if it was enough, they wouldn’t have been able to tell. Dante was still standing, looking perfectly fine despite that hole in his back. He only grimaced when the robot began pulling a little string to stitch the injury.
“Damn it...”
“You can’t feel pain, but stitching bothers you?”
“The sensation is annoying.”
Eden sighed. In other circumstances, she could have laughed at him losing his temper over getting stitched, but this wasn’t the time. Now, she was worried her lover could die from blood loss and not have the smallest clue about his own condition. Eden kept staring at the medical bot, almost annoyed at how that thing could only do first aid and basic care. Sadly, they wouldn’t have much time to worry about Dante’s condition. They could already hear the soldiers banging against the door, and the elevators coming their way. Dante’s men were rounding up around them, trying to establish a safe perimeter, but either way, things wouldn’t go well. They were only two floors away from Pan...
“Greed, anything from Pan?”
