The Sands of Time 73

 

The chase was long, through dark tunnels and flooded passageways. Joon had been down here before, when he'd seen the bodies and the breeding tanks, if that's what they were. It took everything they had to stay ahead of pursuit. There were dogs, and drones, which were worse. Nasty looking metallic spheres- robots. An energy beam from one of them had almost killed Joon, blowing out a section of wall right next to his shoulder. 

Close one. 

They gave it the slip by pitching headfirst into a shaft, expecting to die, but they landed in a pool of fetid water. Joon thought he recognized the garbage level, where he'd been caught during his last foray down here. 

He recognized the smell, anyway. 

Hillier seemed to be having fun. She thrived on the danger, he thought. A couple of days ago they'd been musing on why she stayed. He was thinking she liked the adrenaline. 

Now they were stumbling through a half flooded tunnel, lit dimly. There were lights on the walls at intervals, tricky footing. They rounded a corner and ran smack dab into two security men. 

Joon launched himself into one while Hillier tackled the other. The fight was quick and brutal. Joon had trouble with his man but they went down, and he managed to bash his opponent's head into a stanchion. He looked up to see Hillier underwater, her guard holding her down. He kicked the man in the head, and she rose, sputtering. She grabbed the man around the neck, and after kneeing him, she held his head underwater. He struggled and kicked, and despite Joon's attempts to stop her, she seemed intent on killing him. Joon tried to pull her off, but she shrugged him away. The look in her eyes frightened Joon. 

Eventually he stopped struggling, and Hillier rose. She looked like she had when she killed Dr. Valerus. 

Not remotely human. 

She licked her lips and caressed her breasts. 

"That... was amazing."

Joon had no comment. 

"Let's move on," she commented. "I know that scares you, but it's better than sex. Their fear."

Joon had forgotten- someone ages ago had said Hiller was a psychic vampire. 

Not wrong. 

The chase continued. 

*******

It could have been hours or it could have been days. They descended deeper and deeper into the bowels of Sanctuary, never stopping. They heard shouts behind them, and drones whirring through the passages. They were attacked by dogs, and one had a cybernetic eye- he suspected the handler was seeing them through its eye. There were three of them, and it was a bloody affair. Hillier had taken an energy weapon off one of the guards, and she burned two of the dogs down before the third one knocked Joon sprawling. She couldn't shoot it without risking him, so she wrestled it off, and between her and Joon they broke its neck, but not before being savaged. The water was full of blood. 

They stumbled on, exhausted, bleeding. 

I'm not sure how we're going to get out of this. 

"You know," Hillier mused, "I would have liked to fuck you before we died."

Joon grinned. 

"There's still time." 

"I'm too tired," she replied. 

That's when they saw it- a red R emblazoned on a slimy wall, encircled.