The Dreaming: Dark Star (Book 5)

Underground Highway, Part 2

       

Liran held onto Akim for dear life, partly because if he let go, he'd fall over, and partly because although he despised the spineless bastard, there wasn't anyone he'd rather be looking at right now. "Please tell me you're not here to arrest us."

Akim laughed and held Liran by the shoulders, looking him in the eye with a manic grin. "Are you kidding – they wouldn't let me anywhere near you after my last disastrous mission. The only reason I'm still in uniform is because they're short-staffed, and Sally's still malfunctioning, so they haven't been able to extract my full memories yet."

Liran breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, but wasn't completely convinced. Akim was a brother and had done him a huge favour letting him go in the cave, but from this distance, Liran could see he was unshaven and hadn't washed his hair in a few days. His breath smelt bad as well. He must be losing it.

Imorah approached, and Akim nodded politely and let go of Liran. "Listen, we should get going. I don't know who might be chasing us," he said as he walked backwards. He climbed up the monstrous truck and opened the heavy door and disappeared inside.

Liran nodded to Imorah, who was hesitating. "It's okay, we have to trust him. Climb on up."

Imorah reached out and grabbed onto a steal bar and hauled herself up onto a small platform, and then scooted inside the vehicle.

Liran hopped up behind her, having to basically lift himself onto the platform, and muffled a scream and closed his eyes as his foot exploded into a fiery ball of pain. He heaved himself into the cab of the truck, and practically fell into the chair.

Akim put the truck into drive and turned to look at Liran. "What's going on? You okay?" he asked in their dialect.

"Liran shook his head. My fucking foot. I think I broke it." The lurching as the truck changed gears, and the vibration of the engine was more than he could bare. The tunnel started to fly by like he was falling down it.

"What? How?"

Liran shook his head. What an idiot I am. He couldn't even say it. I broke it on purpose because I was angry. He exhaled. What the hell am I going to do now? His foot was pounding like it was full of far too much blood and his boot was a vice grip, but he knew that taking it off would be hellish. He sat back, gasping in pain.

Akim glanced behind him. "Hey Imorah, you see that red duffel bag up there?"

"Uh... Oh yeah."

"Grab it down and bring it up front here."

Imorah groaned and then yelped as something heavy fell onto the floor.

"You okay?" Akim asked, looking at her in the mirror.

"Yeah, fine." She dragged something up front. A big red bag.

"Open it up and look for a box called medi-serum. It's a yellow, sealed box."

She unzipped the duffelbag and rifled around in the contents. "Is this it?"

"Yup. Open it up—there's a needle. Just jab into Liran's thigh."

Liran wanted to look, wanted to open his eyes, but he might puke. The moving vehicle and the pain in his foot was making him sick.

"Like, anywhere?"

"Anywhere."

"You ready, Liran?"

"Just do it." He was about to be sick. "Do it now."

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his thigh, but nothing compared to the pain in his foot.

"Perfect. Good job. Hey Liran, you should feel that in about two minutes."