Welcome to all my new followers!
Stone raised his hands and stumbled backwards, as if shocked and petrified. The guards instantly snapped their guns to attention. As he held out his hands in a placating manner, he studied their armour. Can’t penetrate with bullets or lasers, he realized. There’s only one option. “Please…” and he allowed his voice to tremble.
“We’re not dumb,” one of the guards snapped. “You layered with weapons. OUT!!!”
“Please…” he said again and then his feet shot out from underneath him. At the same time, his hand whipped around and yanked out a grenade, pulling the pin and throwing it out into the hall. It just behind the two guards.
Not seeing what he had grabbed, they turned to look.
Stone instantly scrambled up and pressed himself into the top right corner farthest away from the open doors.
BOOM!
“Are your fleet ready?” Ver’thad demanded, currently unable to keep the annoyed and urgent tone out of his voice.
The leader quickly touched an earpiece it had on and shouted something urgently into it. It then turned to Ver’thad. “Ten more minutes,” it answered.
Ver’thad gritted his teeth. That would have to do. “Winter,” he said, turning on his comms. “Report.”
“Winter, report.”
Winter gritted her teeth as one of her hands clutched her bullet wound.
As Bond‘s fist came flying down, Winter instantly flipped sideways, pushing away the searing pain and rammed her foot at Bond’s head.
His head snapped back, but her heel slammed into the right side of his forehead, and he crashed into the floor, unconscious.
She looked up and was nearly thrown backwards by a strong blast of wind. Shielding her eyes, Winter saw that a portal had opened in the room and Racquel was herding Jones and Mooney towards it while other people – the other prisoners, she realized – were rushing into the room.
Towards her.
She quickly pulled a grenade from her belt and pulled the pin, sending it sailing towards the portal.
“There,” Rue sighed as she sat back down in the pilot’s seat, turning off the auto pilot and switching it back to manual. “Last one.”
There was a clink clink clink as something rolled on the floor behind her. She caught the reflection of something in the windshield.
Tick tick tick…
Britchy yelped as Rue dove to the floor…
Saw something metal sailing back toward the portal…
Her seat seemed to suddenly lurch forward as there was a blinding flash of light and a thunderous rumble…
Jones stepped through the portal just as he saw Rue throw something out.
Then he was thrown against something hard and everything went dark.
Racquel pushed Mooney and someone else who was nearby to the floor as the grenade exploded. Billowing flames rushed over her and debris landed all around them.
Coughing as the dust cleared, Racquel raised her head and saw a large hole in the floor and roof with bits of debris strewn across the floor. “Bond? Bond!” she scrambled to her feet as she searched for her friend. She felt slightly dizzy, but she ignored it as she had more pressing matters to think about.
She spotted an arm sticking out from underneath some rubble.
Bond’s.
Stone dropped to the floor and pushed his way through the twisted elevator doors, ignoring the mangled bodies for the moment.
As he made his way up the stairs to the cockpit, he knew that someone would probably have spotted what happened over the security cameras. Nothing he could have done about that.
But he could do something about it now.
He went over to the nearest plug-in port and plugged a device in.
Ula desperately turned on her headset. “Ma’am?” she said as the call was answered.
“Yes?” the pilot said.
“Stone’s escaped.”
“WHAT THE F***?!”
“And-whoa, what!?” Ula frantically typed something on her virtual keyboard, bringing up one of the security camera footage from the many on the screen before her.
“What’s happening?” the pilot demanded.
“Stone’s…” she narrowed her eyes as she watched the live footage. What’s he doing? He had something plugged into a plug-in port. She pressed a specific button combination and it zoomed in on the device that was plugged in.
It was…
Oh, shit!
Stone turned to the camera she was watching through and gave the middle finger.
Then all the screens went blank.
Racquel rushed forward, stepping over all the corpses – unfortunately, a lot of the prisoners had been killed in the blast – and began moving the debris.
“Here, let me help,” a voice said behind her. She jumped and whipped around.
Oh. Mooney.
“Sure, thanks,” Racquel agreed and went back to removing the debris. Once they all had gotten it cleared off, Racquel saw that there was a gash on Bond’s forehead and his hair was matted with blood.
Mooney pressed two fingers to Bond’s neck. He looked over at Racquel. “He’s alive.” Racquel let out a relieved sigh. Suddenly, everything spun around her and she gripped some of the debris to steady herself, the sharp pain of the debris bringing her back. She touched her forehead and her fingers came away bloody.
“Winter! Report!”
Turning toward the cackling noise, previous nausea now forgotten, Racquel soon spotted Winter’s comms…on Winter’s mangled corpse.
Grabbing the comms, Racquel listened carefully as the voice came over the comms again.
“Winter, report! The fleet is ready to leave. What’s happening?”
Ver’thad, she realized and turned on the comms. “Winter can’t make it, mother******,” she snarled. “What do you want?”
There was silence for a moment before Racquel heard a string of curse words. She glanced down at the comms screen, which showed where Ver’thad was at that very moment.
That’s all I need.
“I’m coming for you a**h**e,” she stated. “And I’m going to whup your ass.”
There was a chuckle on the other end. “Be my guest.”
Britchy groaned as she came to. Pressing her palm to her forehead, she opened her eyes.
The world was lurching around and there was a strange whirring sound.
She also smelled smoke.
Forcing herself to sit up, she saw that indeed the plane was lurching and that there was a large gaping hole in the side of the plane.
From the grenade, no doubt.
Gripping the hand railing on the so far safe side of the plane, Britchy then saw a sight that chilled her blood.
The plane was nose-diving for the planet below.
And Rue and Jones were both slumped up against the center console.
Bracing herself, Britchy let go of the hand railing and let herself slide/fall downwards. Slamming into the co-pilot’s seat, she struggled to regain her breath as she strained to reach for the yoke to steer the plane out of its suicide dive.
She must have bumped something in her fall, as the plane suddenly lurched sideways and began spinning around like a spinning top and Rue slammed into her, causing her to slam into the plane’s windshield, which ccrraacckkeedd loudly upon impact.
She couldn’t reach the yoke.
Oh, crap.
Stone jammed the door open with his shoulder and strode into the room. Weapons immediately snapped onto him.
Really?
He snapped his laser guns up and pressed the triggers. After cleaning out the room, he sprinted forward.
There was a door at the end. The one that lead to where he needed to go.
The cockpit.
Racquel sprinted through the aisles. Every few seconds, she kept glancing down at the comms to check on Ver’thad’s location. He was on the move. Tapping the screen, it zoomed out and she looked at a map of the area and, judging by his current course, quickly figured out where he was going.
She quickly adjusted course and took a shortcut, heading for Ver’thad’s destination.
Ver’thad’s not going to mind if I get there first.
Stone kicked the cockpit door down and aimed his weapons at the pilot’s seat.
Which was empty.
Wha-?
WHACK!!!
Ver’thad and the leader ran into the launching pad, where the aircraft were all revving, getting ready to lift off at a moment’s notice.
“Come on!” Ver’thad urged. “We need to get out of here before they-”
“Leaving without me?”
Oh no. Ver’thad stopped and turned around. Sure enough, Racquel was standing there, aiming a laser gun at Ver’thad’s head. He mockingly raised his hands, shaking his head with a scolding “tsk, tsk, tsk”. “You really think you can do this?” he mocked, subtly glancing over at the alien leader, who then rested his hands behind his back once.
A laser beam instantly shot through the alien leader and slammed into the nearest aircraft, blowing it up.
“Well, that was pathetic,” the alien leader said, without even a scratch. “You really expect to kill a simple hologram?”
Racquel blinked in surprise. Ver’thad saw out of the corner of his eye the leader give a subtle hand motion behind his back, though Ver’thad made sure that he kept his eyes riveted on Racquel so as not to clue her in.
The aircraft starting to lift off might, though. Hmm.
A laser beam shot towards him.
Ver’thad ducked and rolled out of the way and bullets fired from the aircraft chewed away at Racquel’s heels as she turned and sprinted for cover.
Stone twisted around as a steel pipe came crashing down into the floor just missing him by a hair.
He slammed a fist into Baldie’s solar plexus and she doubled over. He then swung one of his weapons down toward her forehead.
She suddenly gripped his wrist and yanked him off of his feet, sending him flying into the far wall. Okay, he thought as he drowsily got himself back onto his feet. She’s either quickly recovered or she’s a damn good actress.
That was all he got to think of before she aimed a gun at him and fired.
Britchy gritted her teeth as she tried not to vomit. Come on! She tried leaning forward, but she only succeeded in getting banged up around the cockpit. If only it would stop bloody moving-that’s it!
She could use the plane’s momentum to carry herself towards the pilot’s chair and get the plane out of its dive. “OOF!” she cried out as she slammed into another part of the windshield again.
Well, this is going to be harder than it looks.
Racquel dove through the hangar door and rolled to the left side of it, pressing herself against the wall as bullets and lasers shot through the open doorway and chewed up the far side of the room she was in.
There was a lull in the assault.
She quickly rolled straight past the doorway, shooting through it as she went past and onto the other side.
A fresh burst of fire chewed the wall right above her head.
There was an explosion. Ah, I must have hit something, she quietly congratulated herself, hoping that one of her lasers had hit that damned Ver’thad.
She then heard the sound of all the aircraft starting to lift off. No, I must not have hit him, she realised as she scrambled out into the hangar and aimed her gun at the aircraft out in front – where Ver’thad was staring straight at her through the windshield, his spacecraft’s guns trained on her.
As was everyone else’s.
Hearing noises behind her, she turned and saw that some of the aliens had surprisingly survived that Britchy assault from earlier and were all aiming their weapons straight at her.
Uh…damn?
Stone jerked his head back.
The bullet skimmed his head and slammed into the wall.
“You know,” he joked, jumping to his feet and feeling around for a particular something, “most girls just chain me up before having at it. But you’re pretty determined to make me immobile for your pleasure, aren’t ya?”
She paused, cocking her head with noticeable confusion. “Wha-? I’m not-”
His hand snapped around.
Her eyes widened.
A bullet pierced her forehead.
She flopped to the ground.
He lowered his gun and quickly stepped over her corpse and went over to the control panel. He saw that they were just starting to descend onto the planet.
Gritting his teeth, he quickly typed in a set of instructions and then quickly turned and left, running like there was fire on his heels for the hangar.
Cause he had just programmed this ship to nose-dive down for the very centre of the aliens’ city, and he had also just armed all the detonators on this baby’s nuclear weapons and missiles and he most certainly did NOT want to be around when this babe brought the house down.
As he ran, he quickly called the others. “Three minutes.”
Britchy slammed into the front of the center console. “Kinda busy!” she snapped. Anchoring her feet firmly in the corners of the console, Britchy grabbed hold of the yoke and pulled it toward her.
Come on, come on…
She could feel the plane starting to resist her pull, and she ground her teeth as she fought to keep the plane upright.
The ground rose up to meet her…though, she could have sworn that it was at a somewhat less precarious angle as before.
Britchy kept pulling and she began to feel the plane straightening out.
Pulling a little further, the plane’s bottom barely skimmed the ground as she then pulled the plane to go up and away.
“Racquel, Bond – Stone is now less than two minutes out.”
No answer.
“Hello?”
Stone opened the hangar doors and detached his ship from the magnets keeping it levitating in the air. It dropped through the hatch and the engines kicked in. As he steered the ship, he quickly brought up Bond’s and Racquel’s vitals. “Bond’s unconscious. Racquel’s still active. I can hack into Bond’s teleporter and teleport him back here. Racquel’ll will have to get her butt back here herself. I don’t have time,” Stone said as he steered his plane with one hand and began hacking into Bond’s teleporter with the other. “Britchy, you need to keep those fighters at bay until I tell you to teleport your ship out of there.”
“Roger that.”
“Racquel, move!” Britchy shouted over the comms.
Racquel instantly turned and ran for a door nearby, both arms outstretched as she fired in both directions. As she heard bullets pinging! of the floor both infront and behind her, she mentally counted down in her head.
100 seconds.
99 seconds.
98 seconds.
“Argh!” she cried out as she felt something skin her right calf. She fell, but quickly scrambled back up and crouched as she half-ran half-limped towards the exit, firing only with one arm now so that she could open the door.
78 seconds.
77 seconds.
Busting her way through the door, she dropped her weapon and pulled out her teleporter. Ducking to avoid being shot, Racquel quickly typed in her destination.
A laser beam slammed into the wall right next to her.
As she shoulder-rolled forward, she hit enter.
As Britchy fly towards the hangar, she quickly checked the time.
60 seconds.
Arming a missile in the bay of the craft, Britchy opened the bay doors as she neared the hangar.
Nearly there…
50 seconds.
Around the exact same time…
Stone nearly jumped as he heard something behind him. He glanced behind him and saw Racquel roll forward onto her feet as she suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Hey, Stone,” she said as she sat herself down in the co-pilot’s seat.
47 seconds.
“Here,” and he swiped the holo-data of Bond’s teleporter over to Racquel. “Hack that.”
38 seconds.
One of the aliens’ ships launched into the atmosphere. The pilot soon spotted Britchy’s oncoming ship and swiftly typed in some instructions, firing missiles at Britchy’s ship.
“Whoa!” Britchy exclaimed as she saw the missile coming.
She quickly yanked on the yoke, and her ship swerved to the left, just avoiding the missile. Performing a corkscrew, Britchy dove over the hangar and as she did, she released the missile.
“Done!” Racquel announced.
13 seconds.
She quickly typed in some instructions and Bond immediately appeared in their plane.
Stone instantly typed in his ships onboard teleporter some new instructions.
11 seconds.
“Wait! My onboard teleporter isn’t working! It got wrecked with all the nose-diving earlier!” Britchy cried out.
10 seconds.
“Hang on!” Stone turned his ship around and flew toward Britchy’s ship, making sure that he was at an angle that was above her.
9 seconds.
“Hold still, B!” he ordered. If he could latch his ship to hers, then when he pressed enter on his teleporter, it would teleport her ship as well as they’d both be connected.
“Almost there…”
7 seconds
He released his clamps and maneuvered them over to Britchy’s ship.
5 seconds
“Drat! Missed! Let me try again!”
4 seconds
The clamps attached. Yes!
3 seconds
2 seconds
He pressed enter just as the clock reached zero.
WWWWWHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
This is the SECOND-TO-LAST CHAPTER OF WINTER KILL!!!!! I’VE ONLY GOT ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT BEFORE I’M ACTUALLY FINISHED WITH THIS STORY!!!!!!
I hope none of this appeared rushed or anything bad and that the way I wrote it was okay.
Have a great day/night!
COPYRIGHT
All novels and short stories on this blog are the works of @rue202 and Racheal’s Novels Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of the author is strictly not allowed. You may use excerpts and links or reblogs of this material provided that complete and clear credit is given to rue202 and Racheal’s Novels with clear directions to the original content.
The Enchanted River in the Cryptid's Hollow 
2 thoughts on “Winter Kill – Chapter Twenty-Five”
Comments are closed.