Cree rushes through the halls but he has to keep reminding himself to move slowly enough for Naomi to keep up. Her headache seems to have dulled a small bit and Nisha's assistance with both her magic and letting the girl lean on her for support have been helping a great deal, but Cree personally knows how straining it is to consistently have your Augmentation pushed to its limits, which it seems is what Naomi had gone through since being taken.
But the desperation he feels as he tries to find Edith makes it hard to slow down. With Nisha focused on helping Naomi, that leaves only him to defend them against any officers that stand in their way.
He's already had to take down a few and it's a small bit of relieving to know that at least when officers see him, they have a brief moment of hesitation to strike him down considering the fact that the last time he was here, he was one of them.
Cree stops and looks back, giving Naomi and Nisha a moment to catch up. "How're you holding up?" he asks the girl while also keeping an eye on their surroundings.
Naomi takes a deep breath. "A bit better... For now," she says wearily and looks around. "Shouldn't we be going after Regan and The Director to make sure he doesn't, you know, kill her and cause over half of the population of Hexes to die, yourself included?"
Cree sighs and stiffly shakes his head as he turns forward again. "No. I trust Regan."
"But the Dark isn't him," Nisha reminds him. "If he can't control it, you could—"
"I trust him," Cree repeats himself sternly before waving them on to follow as he keeps moving forward down the hall.
As he turns the corner, an officer spots him and pauses before realizing Cree isn't the Ghost anymore, but before he can even lift his gun, Cree phases out and reappears behind him in time to slit his throat, then nod to the girls and they keep going.
They rush through the halls until Cree skids to a halt at the sight of a metal door with a small bloodstain on the knob. He doesn't wait for Naomi and Nisha to catch up before throwing the door open.
His heart freezes once he sees Edith laying on the floor in a small pool of blood.
She isn't moving.
He races to her side, sliding onto his knees across the floor to roll her over, his left hand trembling. He sees her cheeks are dampened with tears and her eyes are open, but vacant. Her mouth is slightly open and she occasionally twitches as a tiny breath escapes her lips, but she doesn't even respond to him moving her or filling her view.
Naomi and Nisha reach the room to see Cree on the floor with Edith in his arms. He keeps looking her over, trying to understand what happened while Nisha does the same thing he did when they found Naomi and she looks around at the screens covering the walls.
"Edith? Edith, can you hear me?" Cree stammers out. "Edith, what happened? Are you—"
"...Cree," Nisha says in a small voice.
He looks back at her in desperate search of answers, only to be met with her mournful gaze as she steps to the side so he can see the screen that displays a flatline for the baby's heartbeat.
Naomi covers her mouth. "Oh no..."
Cree returns his focus onto Edith, then trails his eyes down to her stomach. He sees the blood that still seeps from a wound through her stomach. Pressing his hand to it, he feels no heartbeat.
'Someone killed her baby.'
His eyes travel up to the desk in front of him to see another screen that displays her EPC status, when his entire body becomes paralyzed.
YOU ARE READING
Rift
Science Fiction(Imperium Saga, Book 6) This is what it all comes down to. Nearing the end that could result in either unity for the world or being left forever divided. Outsiders from the continents of Aramora and Utopia come together to bring back the order that...
