Meanwhile
Jet couldn’t believe it. The Black Heart was down.
“I got her,” Norris said.
Jet’s vision blurred as teared welled in her eyes. She couldn’t believe it. The nightmare was finally over. She watched as Delta kicked the weapon away from Dahlia. Jet couldn’t tell the extent of the damage from this distance, but she was hopeful. Norris and Damien crept toward the ridge where Dahlia lay lifeless. The men held defensive positions for about half the distance; they put their weapons away. The men climbed the ridge and checked Dahlia’s body for something. Delta peered in Jet’s direction, looking for someone. Jet waved at the young cyborg, who waved back.
Delta would never do that, April is back.
The cyborg started walking toward the Jet, then the unthinkable happened. Dahlia exploded. The men flew back from the blast. April was knocked off her feet. Even though Jet was at least two hundred feet away, she felt the shockwave.
What in the hell just happened?
Yells and cries from behind enveloped her. Norris got up and attended to his friend. Jet caught another glimpse through the binoculars. Damien looked like he’d gotten into a tangle with a wood-chipper. Norris was alive, but barely. A screeching noise emitted from the other side of the ridge. It sounded like a cross between a tiger’s roar and the grinding of metal. April got up and started limping toward Jet. A reflection of light caught Jet’s attention. Something metal was hover Dahlia’s body. It resembled a creature with three heads. The image reminded Jet of an old tale, with Hercules throwing a three-headed dog from Mount Olympus. Instead, this one was metal and seemed pissed off.
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What the hell am I dreaming?
The dog thing leaped toward Norris. The man responded by shooting it. He unloaded an automatic weapon into its body. But the dog seemed unaffected by the attack. Its three heads snapping at Norris. One of the heads stretched like a telescope and flanked him. Another dog head snapped a third bit of metal fangs into Norris’s back. The man screamed so loud Jet had to cover her ears. April ran as the dog creatures finished Norris. April was about halfway to Jet when she noticed the snow-covered foliage move as something shifted through it. A silver tube-like thing raised its massive body. It struck. April went flying headfirst into the ground. The cyborg tried to move, but the snake thing wrapped itself around April like a vice. She screamed, and the snake coiled around her body.
“Jet, we need to leave—now,” Sally yelled.
“Not without April.”
“Can you shoot?”
Jet nodded. “Yes.”
Sally threw a weapon toward Jet. She caught it with one hand.
Her father used to take her and her brother George hunting. She hated the experience back then, but was happy to have the cold steel of a weapon between her fingers.
“Cover me!” Sally said as she ran toward April. Sally took a weapon about the size of an elephant run and shot at the snake and April.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jet said.
Sally ignored the question as she shot again. The snake thing and April lay motionless on the ground.
“You killed her!”
Sally shot her a look. “I brought down that cyber snake-beast. This is an electromagnetic pulse weapon that the Dark Angels created. It only affects machines.”
“April’s a cyborg.”
Sally gave a look of horror as the reality of what she said set in.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“Take me to her,” Jet demanded.
Sally practically had to drag Jet to April’s body. The cyborg lay lifeless in the snow.
Jet took April’s head into her lap, brushed the girl’s hair back, then sobbed uncontrollably.