Resistance (Earth Evolution Series Book 2) (9 page)

Chapter 15

“The communicator is going crazy without the long-range chip. But there are times I can almost make words out. We must be getting closer now,” Kyle told her.

Rachel looked back at Kyle. He said he was taking the rear to cover their asses, but she thought he really did that so he could watch
her
ass. “You still can’t get through?”

“I managed one word so far before it cuts cut off. They know we’re alive so that’s a plus. I just need to…”

“Kyle!” Rachel pointed to an area behind Kyle. She saw at first two shadowy figures heading in their direction.

Kyle turned to look at what she was pointing at. “Run, Rachel!” He grabbed her hand and they began to run.

Rachel wondered at first if maybe the shadowy figures might be the rescue party, but then she heard a voice call out that she recognized.

“Get them!” Leonard called out.

She glanced back and now three more figures could be seen, making it five in total. They were chasing after them. Her heart pumped so fast she thought it was going to beat out of her chest. She wasn’t in the best shape for this type of physical activity. She realized that Kyle had to slow down to keep her with him. She was slowing him down. He let them stop for just a second or two so she could catch her breath.

“Go Kyle, just leave me. You can get help and come back for me.”

Kyle glared at her. “I am not leaving without you.”

He grabbed her hand and they started to run again but she heard a lot of noise and the next thing she knew, Kyle was falling to the ground and pulling her with him. “Kyle!”

“Go Rachel! I’ve been shot in the leg and won’t be able to run.”

He was shot? She looked down and, sure enough, there was a bloody hole in his pant leg near his upper thigh. She cringed as she noticed the bloodstain growing bigger and bigger.
Damn
! Dusty must have brought some ammunition with him to bargain with.

“Go before they get here!” He turned over and reached for his weapon. It was the first time she had ever seen Kyle holding a gun or a blaster or whatever it was. But even with it being more advanced than what Leonard and his cronies had, Kyle couldn’t take them all out by himself.

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Damn stubborn woman!” He grumbled as she pushed him to his feet.

She helped him move to the side of the tunnel to try to give them a smaller target to hit. A few more gunshots were fired, but they all missed. She figured they were trying to save the ammunition.

“Why aren’t you firing on them?” Rachel almost wanted to reach over and grab his weapon.

“They need to be a little closer for me to get a good hit.”

She looked into Kyle’s pain-filled eyes. They connected in that one look. So many emotions were displayed in such a short time. Fear, pain, regret, and something else...possibly love. But neither spoke out loud what they were feeling.

“I wish you would leave me and make a run for it,” Kyle whispered.

“Not a chance. I would never willingly leave you. You’ve gotten under my skin, alien boy, so deal with it.” She gasped when he suddenly pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Then he released her just as suddenly as he had grabbed her.

The thought that they could die here, like this, had her feeling panicked. She looked down again at Kyle’s bleeding leg. Kyle might already be dying as it was. She wasn’t sure how much blood he had lost. But he swayed a little so it must have been a lot. She heard his communicator crackle.

*****

Kyle reached for his communicator. It crackled with interference, but it wasn’t as bad as before. He spoke into it in the hope that they were close enough to relay a message. “This is Lieutenant Estro. Is anyone there?”

“Kyle! Are you okay?” Liam’s voice came over the line.

“Could be better. But at this moment I am shot and bleeding and about to get into a hand-to-hand battle with five men.”

“What about Rachel? Is she okay?” It was Lieutenant Colonel James’s voice this time. He must have confiscated a communicator from someone.

“She’s fine, but she refuses to make a run for it without me. Liam, we’re going to need some back up. How far away are you?” Kyle asked, glancing at Rachel.

“I’m not sure, but we have to be at least in a ten-mile radius for our communicators to be working without interference.”

“Get here as soon as possible.”

“You do whatever is necessary to keep you and Rachel alive, or there will be hell to pay,” Liam warned him before they ended their communication.

Kyle turned to look at Rachel. “They’re coming. Promise me, if I go down, you will make a run for it. Liam can’t save you if you’re dead.”

She shook her head. “No, I won’t leave you.”

He wanted to argue with her more but the five men who had dared to take Rachel were nearly upon them. He had to take out as many as he could so that they could have a fighting chance to survive.

“If I lose my weapon, I want you to use it. There is a code, 1-2-28. It will unlock the weapon for you.”

He limped out from the cover he had taken and pulled his weapon out. He fired, aiming for the two men who had their weapons drawn. He hit the first guy in the chest and he went down. But the second man moved at the last minute and he only hit the guy’s arm, which made him drop his gun.

“Stay behind me, Rachel!” He knew he wouldn’t have another chance to get a clear shot, so he locked his weapon and threw it to the ground. He would have to take them on hand-to-hand.

The guy who had shot the gun out of his hand reached him first. He launched himself at Kyle. He used the guy’s momentum and gripped him as he pulled him forward over his head, making the guy land hard on the ground behind him. He saw Rachel go over and kick the downed guy in the face to knock him out. He hated that she put herself in danger, but at least that was one down that he didn’t have to worry about. There were three left.

“Get the girl. We’ll get this guy!” the taller man, obviously the one in charge, yelled out.

“Run, Rachel, I can’t take on three of them.”

“No, I’m not running!”

*****

Rachel was scared. Kyle only had time to shoot down one of Dusty’s goons. But there was no way that Kyle could handle all four remaining men. When he had thrown the one named Ennis over his head, she didn’t hesitate to knock him unconscious. She didn’t want the guy to attack Kyle’s back.

She knew that Kyle was trying to keep the three men from getting to her. But Dusty and his other goons were coming at Kyle and one had grabbed hold of Kyle’s arm. That made room for Leonard to slip past Kyle’s defenses and race for her.

Rachel wasn’t blindsided this time. She was ready for him. She planted her feet firmly on the ground. Leonard glared at her.

“Bitch, you’re going to die for all the trouble you have caused.”

She snorted. “You were planning to kill me anyway. That threat doesn’t scare me.”

He attempted to punch her but she side-stepped him and kicked him in his side. She grinned when he clutched his side. “What’s wrong, Leonard? Are you getting beaten up by a girl?”

The taunt worked great at making Leonard lose his focus. He tried to jump at her but she crouched down into a ball and he sailed right over her. She got up to go kick him while he was down but he rolled up to his knees quickly and caught her foot with his hands. He yanked hard, making her lose her balance and she fell backward. The air whooshed out of her.

Leonard quickly tried to jump on top of her while she was down, but she lifted her knees up to her chest and shoved him off with her feet. She moved back to stand up and face him again.

He threw a few punches and, each time, she turned to keep from being hit directly. Leonard was bigger than she was, and if he hit her in the right place with enough power, she would go down in a heartbeat. Her father taught her to not fight muscle with muscle, but to fight smarter than the other guy, to fight dirty if she had to.

She barely got out of the way from a leg kick. She knelt down and grabbed whatever she could use as a weapon. She stood up and threw the dirt she had in both hands at Leonard’s face. Some of the dirt got into his eyes, and that provided the distraction that she needed.

While he tried to get the dirt out of his eyes, she did a roundhouse kick to his gut that made him bend over at the waist. Then she kicked straight up with her foot, connecting with his chin. Leonard’s eyes rolled back in his head as he fell to the ground, unconscious.

“Take that
bitch
!” Rachel yelled at the fallen man. Her victory was short-lived when she looked up to see how Kyle was doing. Her heart stopped beating as she watched Dusty’s goon stab Kyle in the side with a large knife.

“Kyle!” She looked around for Kyle’s weapon. She saw it on the ground, grabbed it, and then punched in the secure code he told her about. She shot the goon that had stabbed Kyle. She went to shoot Dusty next, but he turned and began running away. She didn’t have time to worry about chasing after him. She had to get to Kyle, who had already lost a lot of blood from his gunshot wound.

She rushed to his side and dropped to her knees. The weapon lay forgotten next to her knee. “Kyle, baby, are you okay?”

He grunted. “Where are the other guys?”

“I killed Dusty’s goon with your weapon. I took down Leonard, and Dusty made a run for it.”

“Are you injured?”

“No.”

He laughed. “You’re doing better than me. Keep...weapon close.” He passed out from the pain.

Tears ran down her face. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t carry Kyle herself.”

“Rachel!” She heard a familiar voice call her name.

She looked up through her tears. “Dad?” She then noticed more people coming toward her. Liam was one of them.

“Hurry, we need a mediko. Kyle’s hurt bad!”

“Kyle!” Liam yelled as he rushed to get to them. “What happened?”

Chapter 16

“We were trying to run for it but Kyle got shot in his leg, which kept us from running further. Kyle tried to take on five guys on his own. He shot one. Then he threw one over his shoulder and I helped knock that one out. But two of them fought with him hand -to-hand. I fought with Leonard, the guy who actually kidnapped me, but I knocked him unconscious. The two live ones are back there.” She pointed over her shoulder as she continued to explain. “I saw this guy stab Kyle so I shot him with Kyle’s weapon. The other guy, Dusty, took off that way. Someone needs to go after him.”

Liam ordered several of his lieutenants to chase down Dusty. Then he ordered his other lieutenants to take the two unconscious men in for questioning.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Rachel’s father asked, kneeling next to her.

Rachel might fight a lot with her father, but when she got in trouble, he was the one she sought out most often. She leaped into his arms. “Please, Daddy, don’t let Kyle die. He was protecting me.”

She glanced over and watched as Liam applied the mediko patches to Kyle. He gently turned him to the side to examine the knife wound. He sprayed some kind of healing foam that covered the area and kept it from bleeding. He then turned Kyle over and did the same for the still-bleeding gunshot wound.

Liam shook his head. “Damn it brother, you really know how to injure yourself don’t you?” He hit his communicator. “This is Captain Liam Estro. I need to have a team of medikos ready topside to accompany an injured warrior. Notify chief Mediko Jared Estro that I am bringing in a multi-wound patient, and that it’s his brother Kyle.” Liam lifted his brother into his arms, grunting a little at the weight. But he refused to let anyone else carry his brother. He went to what Rachel thought looked like a bike and sat on it.

“Lieutenant, attach our bikes. I can’t steer or operate it while holding Kyle.”

“Yes, sir.” The two bikes were attached, making them look like a tandem floating bike.

“I want to question the men who took my daughter. They are human and should be handled by the human authority,” Lieutenant Colonel James said sternly.

“They injured one of my warriors, my brother. They will be held and questioned on our command ship. If you want to question them, you can come on board.” Liam didn’t hesitate to take command of the situation. It didn’t seem to faze him that he was talking to his father-in-law at all.

Rachel’s father growled but turned his attention to Rachel. “Come on, honey, let’s get you back to the dome and treated for these bruises.”

She shook her head. “No, I want to go with Kyle.”

“Rachel, this is no time to argue with me. Do as you are told for once.”

She didn’t let him see how he hurt her. “They can treat me on board the command ship. You can also come and question the prisoners.”

He reluctantly nodded his head. “Very well. We’ll get your mother so that she can see for herself that you are okay. Then we will take a transport up to the command ship.”

She was glad that she didn’t have to ride the floating bike with someone else. They had brought two extras, one for her and one for Kyle. But they did attach her bike to a bike driven by one of Liam’s lieutenants so that she didn’t have to try to steer. She was really worried about Kyle. He hadn’t woken up yet. She was also worried that that creep, Dusty, would not be caught.

“Are you sure you do not need to see a mediko first?”

She smiled at her father’s concern. “Jared is at the tribe campsite with Mom. He can check me out before we leave for the command ship.”

He grunted, still not happy with the situation. He didn’t know how to handle things that he couldn’t control. Rachel had, for the most part done, what he had asked of her. But this time, she was making her own decisions.

*****

Rachel hugged her mom, who was in tears. “I was so worried for you.”

“I’m okay, Mom. Kyle protected me. But now he’s hurt bad.” She watched as Kyle’s brother, Chief Mediko Jared Estro, rushed to his brother’s side with concern on his face. He checked his vitals and examined his wounds. Lily came over to help wipe Kyle’s face with a clean wet rag.

“We need to get him to the command ship right away. He’s lost way too much blood.”

“Will you do a blood transfusion?” Lily asked.

“Yes. I think Father is a perfect blood match. I know that I am a match for Liam. I gave him a stabilizer, which should keep him from bleeding out until we get to the command ship.” Jared directed his medikos to lift Kyle onto a floating stretcher and to secure him.

“We should get back to the dome,” Melissa said, wiping Rachel’s face with a wet cloth.

She shook her head. “Dad said that we could go to the command ship. I want to keep an eye on Kyle and Dad wants to question the prisoners.” She could tell her mother wasn’t happy with that last bit.

“Why can’t he let others question these prisoners? He is always stepping over the line with his authority.”

Wow
. I It was the first time she had really seen her mother angry with her father.

“It will be okay, Mom. We’ll get to spend time with Maggie.” That seemed to mollify her mom a little.

“Do you need me to check you, Rachel?” Jared asked, walking over to her and her mother.

“I just have some scratches and bruises. Nothing serious.”

“Let me give you a patch.” He opened his case and pulled out a mediko patch. He applied it, and then checked her stats, too. “You are dehydrated.”

“I’ll get her some water,” Lily offered.

“That will help, but I would like to put you on some fluids when we get to the command ship. An hour or two and you should be fine.”

Her mother answered for her. “Yes, please, Jared. I worry about her.”

Jared walked away. Rachel noticed how Lily watched his every move. There was definitely something between those two. Lily hugged Rachel gently. “I’m so glad you’re all right. You gave us quite the scare.”

“It was not by choice, for sure. But I’m fine, really. Kyle saved us.” It bothered her that when she said that, no one really paid attention to it. It felt like they were dismissing Kyle. Was this what he had to deal with on a regular basis? Was it because he was younger? Because his father and brother were such great warriors? He seemed to be in their shadow all the time. She understood that completely. She didn’t feel that way about him. He was her hero. And the man she was falling in love with.

*****

It was the longest hour of her life. It took forever for all of them to get out of the subway. Several transports had to be brought down to take them to the command ship. She wanted to go with Kyle, but because Liam and Jared, along with several other medikos, were traveling with him, there wasn’t room for her.

Rachel’s father was staring at her strangely. She knew she looked like a mess but was she that horrible-looking? “What is it?”

“What happened?”

“It’s my fault. I was being stubborn and went to the subway tunnel that was less guarded. Kyle warned me against that but I was...I didn’t believe his concerns were real.”

“You said that these two prisoners were the ones that took you. Who were the other men?”

“They…” She looked around the transport at the Drastans. She wasn’t sure if any of them were to be trusted. “Let’s wait to talk about this once we are on board the command ship. I know that Kyle’s brother and father will want details and Kyle isn’t able to give them the answers they need.”

“You will tell me now!” Her father puffed up his chest.

“Dad…”

“David James, you will calm down right now. Our daughter has gone through enough without you bellowing at her. She already said she would tell you when we get to the command ship.” Her mother’s beautiful blue eyes narrowed.

Her father made the mistake of turning his anger on her mother. “She wouldn’t have been in this mess in the first place if you hadn’t insisted on letting her come along.”

Her mother sucked in a breath. She was clearly hurt. Then her eyes narrowed and she glared back at her father in anger. Oh, that was not a good sign. “Rachel never would have felt the need to go to help with the subway tribes if you weren’t such a damn control freak and showed the least bit of interest in what she was doing.”

Rachel turned to find that every warrior on the transport was looking in every direction but at her family. She felt herself blush.
Way to air dirty laundry
. Yes, her family, like many others, was a little dysfunctional. She and Maggie had always competed for her father’s attention when they were growing up, like it was a grand prize to have his acknowledgment and praise. It had happened more often for Maggie than for Rachel. Rachel never seemed to live up to his demanding expectations.

But she wasn’t a child anymore. Her parents were still holding onto that and, in the end, it could hurt them all. She knew it was time to speak. “Shut up, both of you. This is not the place to talk about stuff for all to hear.” She shocked both her parents with her statement. Her father started to say something else, but she held up her hand to stop him. “Sit down, be quiet and act like an adult, for goodness’ sake!” That ended the conversation, and they rode the rest of the way to the command ship in silence.

*****

Rachel got off the transport and felt dizzy. Her father reached out and caught and held her arm. Her mother was on her other side, holding her other arm.

“I guess the traveling, on top of the adrenaline from getting kidnapped and then hunted is catching up to me,” she admitted.

Jared saw them and ordered a gurney to be brought for Rachel. She didn’t argue when the medikos helped her get up. At least she’d be going to where they were taking Kyle. She closed her eyes briefly and before she knew what was happening, she fell asleep.

When she woke again, she had no idea how much time had passed. She looked around and felt relief when she saw Kyle across the room from her. She tried to sit up but found that she had an IV in her arm.

“Don’t move yet. You need fluids to replace what you’ve lost. Jared said it would be finished in another fifteen minutes,” Maggie said from the chair next to her bed.

“What about Kyle?”

“He had to have surgery to remove the bullet. He lost a lot of blood from both wounds and they did a blood transfusion, with his father as donor. So he might wake up with a superior attitude and a stubborn streak.” Maggie laughed, but it was forced. Rachel couldn’t respond with the same humor.

“What are you not telling me?”

Maggie sighed. “He almost died twice. Once before the blood transfusion and once during the transfusion. He coded and they had to give him meds to save his life. He’s recovering now, but it will be a few days before he wakes up.”

Rachel tried sitting again. “Help me, Maggie, I want to get to his side, and hold his hand, at least. Please.”

Maggie nodded her head, seeming to understand her need to touch Kyle. She pulled herself up, being cautious with her pregnant stomach. She removed the hanging fluid bag and kept hold of it as she helped Rachel stand. They walked slowly over to Kyle’s bed and Rachel sat down in the chair. She pulled it up as close to his bed as possible. Maggie hung her IV bag up on the pole that had Kyle’s IV.

She reached over to take his hand in hers. “I’m here, honey. Just rest.”

She could feel her sister’s eyes on her. “What do you want to know?”

“How serious is this thing between you and Kyle?”

“Serious. I’m in love with him.”

“You know Dad’s going flip his lid?”

“Yep, but I’m not giving him up.”

“Okay, I’ll help you with Dad. What happened down in the subway with these creeps?”

“I...need to talk to Dad, Liam, and the commander about that. But I don’t want to leave Kyle.”

“I’ll call them and have them meet us here.” Maggie stepped away and picked up a communicator. Rachel turned back to Kyle.

“Please get better, baby. I miss your wiseass remarks and your constant flirting. I need you.” She leaned down and kissed his knuckles. He was the most amazing man she had ever met.
Please God don’t let him die.