Blood of My Death

Blood of My Death: The Ancient Earthscrapper - Chapter Forty-One

I saw Diane kneeling over me as heavy rain fell all around us. The sky was still dark, but at least there was a sky. I tried to set up, but every muscle refused to follow my commands.

"Don't move. Your body is badly damaged. You need to rest once I find us some shelter," Diane stated.

"I can't feel my legs!" I whispered.

"Your body is in shock. You probably won't feel them for several days. I don't know for sure," She replied, shaking her head.

"I have to go find somewhere to get us out of the rain. I'm going to pull you under a tree or something. It's going to hurt badly. Are you ready?" She explained, looking down at me.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I replied weakly.

Diane put her hands under my shoulders as pain shot through my body. She pulled me as fast as she could to a nearby tree. It had an indention in the base of its trunk, but it wouldn't keep me entirely out of the rain.

"I will be back as soon as I can. Don't fall asleep, Kristen. Stay awake for me and, more importantly, your sister," Diane warned as she stood up.

I nodded, letting her know I understood what she was saying. She checked over me again before running off into the dark forest. I leaned against the tree and looked at the river I had fallen into. The waterfall was loud, covering up the sound of the rain. 'Diane left me here because the sound of the waterfall would help hide my presence. Whatever those creatures were, it would be hard to hear me over the waterfall,' I thought as I looked down at my legs.

My exoskeleton was beat up, but it didn't look like I damaged it too badly. There were some bent parts and dents, but overall, it was fine. The upper body part was a different story. One of the arm attachments had fallen off. It was just a display that showed the power level of the suit. I had turned it off after escaping the facility, so it wasn't a big deal. I couldn't assess the back of the exoskeleton unless I took it off. I couldn't do that independently, as it was like a metal harness or jacket. It wasn't too bulky, and I could probably wear a jacket or shirt over the whole thing. This suit wasn't like the larger ones available to the public. It was more like the military ones that were form-fitting. Except this one was more ergonomic and slenderer than anything I had ever seen. It was lighter than anything I had ever used, but its weight could still bog me down in the water. The heaviest part was the ankle area, which weighed me down like iron weights in the water.

Other than the damage I could visibly see, it surprised me it wasn't worse. Nothing sold to the public or even the military would function right now. This had to be something DNA Labs was using me to test. Whatever the reason, I was glad I had it instead of a wheelchair.

Staying awake proved more difficult than I had thought it would be. Without any pain medicine, I was hurting all over, and bruises were forming where I had been hit. I tried raising my shirt up, but my arms just lay beside me, unable to move. My injuries were severe, and I couldn't even turn my head if I needed to. All I could do was stare out towards the waterfall. It was unlike any waterfall I had ever seen on the holo-T.V. The terrain looked familiar, but nothing was recognizable. I couldn't tell what part of the world we were in.

So far, all we had seen was miles and miles of forest in all directions. There were no roads and nothing that indicated human life was out here. Besides DNA Labs, we really were in the middle of nowhere. After a long while, the rain lightened up as the clouds grew lighter. I could see more of the area in front of me and through some trees on the far side of the bank.

My heart skipped a beat when I noticed two bright yellowish orbs staring back at me through the darkest part of the trees. I hadn't seen them before, but I did now. Fear swelled up inside of me as the eyes began moving towards me. The creature came to the lighter part of the woods in a few moments. It was scraping at the trees as it meandered towards me. It must have found a different way to come down to our area. Diane was somewhere in the woods behind me, and there was no way she would hear my screams as this creature ripped me to pieces, turning me into bite-size Kristen steaks.