Between a Bear and a Hard Place(74)

“We’re not gonna end up there,” Fury said, nuzzling her side with his snout. “We’re getting out of here as fast as we can.”

She gave herself one more moment to look at the coats and the masks before she finally ripped herself away. “We have to find what he is,” she whispered. “We have to find out so we can tell him.”

“He helped us,” Fury said. “We’ll help him. That’s the way we are.”

Swallowing hard, Claire nodded her head and looked away. She had no idea where she was going, but that didn’t matter. Just the act of taking a step, one single step, was an act of determination. And just that first step was all it took to bring back her courage and her resolve. Having her mate beside her, and the other one missing? That was enough to make the rest of her decision.

The first step? It was hard. Painful almost. The second was easier. By the time she decided which hallway they’d follow – purely on the grit of her guts – both of them were running.

“Wait!” they heard, static words coming through their forgotten radio receiver. “Come back! Get your radio!” It was Rogue’s voice, clearly irritated.

They both skidded to a halt. Fury went back for the phone and came back naked, in human form. “Guess we better listen to him.”

Claire shrugged.

“What is it?” Fury asked.

“You’re going down the wrong hallway. Head east, Eighty-Three said he’d meet you at the bottom.”

“How?” Fury asked, looking slightly confused.

Rogue snickered. “He’s got a key. Jack ass left me up here as a lookout to make sure nothing else goes wrong. But... enough of my whining. He’s got a key.”

Claire and Fury exchanged one more glance, she sighed, he laughed, and then they were charging off in the other direction.

*

The smell of gas was strong in the air.

Not any sort of mysterious, magical, experimental gas – just plain old gasoline. Claire cringed as she and Fury dashed past an open vent which apparently was a pipe leading deeper into the compound, carrying a river of the stuff. What it could be doing, or fuelling, she had no idea, but it was a bit strange that this super-futuristic, underground complex needed that much raw gas.

But God did it ever smell.

“Left at the next junction,” Eighty-Three’s voice squelched through.

“Where are all the guards?” Claire shouted back at Fury, who was carrying the handset. Apparently it worked, because he answered.

“Off the grid. I cannot find them. They must have finally terminated my network access.”

“Which means they can’t—”

“See me,” he finished for her, or rather, was saying at the same time. “That means... Well, I am not sure what it means.”

“They can’t trace you either!”

“Well, I mean aside from that.”

The noise from his respirator was still even, but was quicker than usual. And, if she listened carefully enough, Claire thought she could hear the clicking of those strange knee-high boots he wore thumping away on something that rang out with every footfall.

“Are you running? Left here,” she said to Fury, who followed her direction, and somehow was keeping abreast with her. She took a fleeting moment to admire his nakedness, and particularly, the bouncing part of it that he seemed to not even recognize was bouncing happily with every step.

“No,” Eighty-Three said. “Yes.”

“Why did you lie?”

“Just trying it out.”

She would have laughed under any other circumstances. Under this one, she just chuffed lightly and asked, “What should we be expecting when we get wherever you’re going?”

“You will know it,” he said, cryptically. “We have two jobs.”

He coughed, which was very strange coming from a body that Claire had long suspected didn’t actually have any lungs, or much of a throat or a mouth. Still though, he was coughing, and then he started breathing harder again, to the point that it caused a slight bit of concern.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Do we turn?”

“No turning. Yes I am all right. Keep going straight. You will come to a catwalk over a river of stuff which I will not describe. I suggest you avoid looking at it. Keep going straight and when the fork comes, jump straight off the end. There you will find a maintenance ladder that leads down into the river.”

“We’re jumping into the river?” she was starting to worry, which she should have been doing much sooner. “The river you won’t tell me what it is?”

“No, you are to jump over it. I suggest you not go in. Soon after you get to the ladder, I will come find you. Goodbye for now.”