The road ahead of me stretched as I ran. I was moving quickly. Yet far too forcefully, inefficiently. I couldn't fathom why. My body had healed. But it wasn't fully my own.
My taloned feet shattered the tarmac with each footfall. Meanwhile, my mind raced with an unrelenting barrage of images. I saw Roland, imagined where he would be. I needed to find him, warn him.
Certainly, it must have been part of my programming. The requirement to fully brief your squad and convey the right intel. But it went deeper. Every thought of those humans, of what could happen to them, tightened my chest. They crushed me like the jaws of some great, unseen beast.
I turned a corner. Sparks flew from my soles as I drifted like a sports car. Then I pushed forward. It was raining. The water that fell was cold as ice. It smelled of battery acid. As I accelerated, the droplets broke around me, the displaced wind forming a barrier.
I could have slowed down, taken my time. It was an option, but it didn't feel like one. This had nothing to do with my instinct, my programming. This had to do with me. It had to do with the same madness that plagued G-2. I did not want them to die.
I had found my rhythm. I had found something to work with, to care about, to protect. In the past I had a starkness, a cold, ruthless drive. But only now do I find my mind clear. In all these long years, I have never been so certain.
I stopped abruptly. I saw someone I recognized. The displaced wind blew away the hood that covered their head and splashed their face with chilly rainwater.
Kiara yelped in surprise. Her shotgun raised reflexively. She stood there, gun pointed at my chest for a moment. Then she sighed and lowered it."You came back?"
I caught the subtle shift in her eyes, the easing of a tension in her brow. I replied with a brief nod. She smiled then.
"I am glad," she said softly.
Of course she would be. After all, I am the sole reason for their survival. An angel of violence and steel."Why are you out here?" I asked as I noticed her shivering.
"I was waiting." She gestured to me. A flicker of surprise ran through me and my wings shifted back.
"For me?" My head tilted. "Why?"
She laughed. It wasn't a happy sound. She looked away and raised her hood."I like Steven." She choked back some tears. "I lied to him. I can't be with him knowing he could die any second."
I stared impassively. But I listened. She knew I was listening."You think they would let a married woman join the army?" She looked up at me. "I was just some girl, a farmer's daughter. I thought I volunteered to help people. I thought this was what the king wanted. I don't want to die."
"Neither do I." My voice rang out. The wind brushed her hood down and swished through her hair. The tears that had fallen were lost amongst the raindrops.
Kiara looked to the side, then back at me."Everyone keeps dying. Everyone will keep dying."
She stiffened. I placed a hand on her shoulder."You won't let him close because you fear the pain of losing him."
"Yes," she replied through shaking lips.
"I don't wish to die. Because I have a reason to live. You don't want to stay alive. You simply fear dying, don't you?" I let her go.
Offense flashed over her."What? How could you?"
"You said it yourself. You are terrified. You see no path forward, no hope besides living to see another day, another dreadful battle. You are so focused on avoiding pain that you forget to find joy."I didn't fully grasp how I spoke these words. They flowed from somewhere deeper.
I looked her in the eyes, fully, completely."I don't avoid food for fear of it being stolen. Humans need others. All you do is starve till it's stolen anyway."
"You wouldn't get it," she whispered.
"I am not like you. I don't need to understand everything. However, I am in a situation not too far from yours. I may very well lose everyone."I held a hand out and let the rain collect in my palm.
A shudder ran through her."What should… should I do?"
"You? I wouldn't know." I stepped forward. Then, I snapped my fist shut and let the water splash around us."I would do the one thing I am good at. The one thing I can do."
Her eyes widened. A sudden brightness filled them as her features filled with a soft determination."And what is that?"
She already knew the answer.I grinned."Fight."