A Night to Forget

[Natalie Grey]

Natalie slowed her way when the shadows deepened. Her heart hammered; instinct warned her away, but there was nowhere else to go. Then the walls shook and a shower of dust prickled her skin. She steadied herself on the wall. The power eclipsed like someone snipped the last lifeline left to her, enclosing her senses in a tighter snare. Her attempted diversion seemed only to have made him angry.

Gunfire hammered ahead. Someone screamed piteously, and she could feel the anxiety begin to claw its way out of somewhere deep. Netlands had been chaotic, a frenzy of fire and explosions and men shrieking. This was somehow worse. The loneliness of it. The darkness that swallowed the horror. She couldn't see what was coming.

Friend or foe? And were they headed towards her or away?

She wished she could do something about the blood; the creature she'd seen had been frenzied by it even through the glass. Running her fingers over her wounds, she was sure they had stopped bleeding, but there was so much of it even she could smell that metallic tang; she might as well have a damn buffet sign lit in neon above her head.

She couldn't hear Pavlov behind either, but he must still be here. Which meant she was quite thoroughly trapped.