Space Shift Stories: McGuffin 46

XV. Treasure Hunted

Julia looked worried. She pulled out her gun, she's not shaking one bit. It made me wonder if this is ever her first time holding a gun. Her grip of it was firm and her form although subtle was correct. 

"Let's move on" I told her as I walked a few paces ahead. 

"Okay" 

Her reply, her voice, it doesn't seem husky. There were no traces of fear. I looked at the tablet and with a little time I deduced that the codex is on the farthest center of the building. Using my holowatch I saw that we are still being picked up by the satellite tracking. The signal might be faint but it's not that bad. 

We tried to move at different path but reaching a few steps in, most of them were locked. I could follow the suggestion of the map to reach the fastest point to the codex. But my items are limited. There was only one path that seemed to be open. With no other choice we took that path with the open doors.

I walked forward, I kept my pace short to match Julia's. I followed both the tablet and the holowatch tracking.

"Nice form" I told Julia. "I take it this isn't the first time you held a gun?" 

"I had training. It was a preparation for an assignment that I hoped would be assigned to me" Julia replied. 

"What kind of journalist needs gun training?" 

Julia looked surprised. But her face changed to like a mother telling her son a concept new to him. "There's this one planet, well technically an empire. They hope to rule a third of the galaxy."

"You wanted to make a piece about the people they oppress am I right?" 

Julia nodded. 

"Isn't that a little dangerous?" 

"It is. Even I want to be as far from them as possible." Julia looked grim. "But if I could grab anyone's attention to help…" She smiled. 

"Well they haven't been reaching us, so I don't fear it one bit."

"Well some say that without any intervention, they might conquer their system. Oppressing a good few people" 

"You're doing a feature on scavengers and hoping to do an expose on an oppressive empire. You surprise me in more ways than one."

After a few minutes following the path we came across an intersection. But the left and right doors are closed. We ignored that and walked on. Roughly ten minutes of walking we reached a closed door. I opened my bag to pick up an explosives. Julia looked around the door and hallway. She saw a panel and called my attention. 

"Rover. There's a panel over here"

"Thanks. I might have a way to open this without blowing it up." I said as I opened the panel and worked on opening the door. 

The panel had a few wires but this isn't a challenge. I cut a few wires. I grinned. The the lights shut off then turned red like those emergency lights. 

"Rover?" 

I looked at Julia. Suddenly there closed doors on the intersection opened. An overlapping growl permeated along the walls. Julia called out my name even louder. 

The closed doors slowly opened, I could make out a few of them. They looked like dogs but their heads are rounded. Their stance resembled a gorilla, with their front legs being taller than the hind. Their skin appeared to be leather with few patches of fur. They opened their mouths revealing teeth with a metallic gloss. Saliva and gunk dripped off their mouths. They paced slowly.

I opened the doors a little quicker. As few of them canted forward, Julia panicked. As they got closer I had no choice but to shoot the panel. It exploded and opened the doors. I stood up, grabbed Julia, and aimed at the dogs. I killed a few of them. Julia saw it as a cue to shoot them too. She got occupied in shooting them. I however felt that the wave won't end anytime soon. I hurriedly grabbed Julia and made a break for it. 

Shooting and running was our movements. Julia matches my pace but honestly I am just slowing down for her. 

"Is that the fastest you can go?" I asked through my rough breathing. 

These dogs are fast but their movements are irregular. It seemed like they're just new born or something. 

"I can go faster" Julia said. 

"Don't shoot. Just run" I told her as I holstered my gun. 

Julia did so as well. She ran even faster than before. I looked at the tablet and saw that there's an elevator or something up ahead. As we got closer I begin to pull out few explosives. I stick a few in an evenly paced position. As we approached the elevator. It was just an open space directly above. No elevators in sight. With one option in my mind, I grabbed Julia by the waist and shot my grapple. 

"Shoot anyone who jumps" I told her. 

As the grapple propelled us a few dogs jumped. Julia shot them down. As reached the upper level the force of the grapple threw us out. I held Julia close making my body a cushion for her fall. We landed on the steel floor with a thud. I landed on my back, the impact was spread evenly on my back. I let of a load groan. Julia looked at me. She was too close for comfort. Her chest my up to my chest. I could feel her heart. It was beating fast. 

Her eyes looked thankful. She was on top of me a little longer than I expected.

"You're welcome."I said

She smiled a little and got off me. She blushed showing her embarrassed that borders on falling in love. But what I am saying. Her heart is beating cause we ran a mile or two. 

"You closed our exit. What's the plan?" 

"Keep going."

We both stood up and walked to where the codex might be placed. As we got closer we hear the same sounds of those dogs. Julia prepared her gun. She aimed to a lower level, aiming where the dog's head will be placed. We waited but my reflexes took over, I grabbed Julia away from something that was hurled towards us. 

We managed to dodge. I looked back and was taken a shock to see what was thrown. Julia did the same. It was one of the dogs, dead. The hairs at the back of my neck raised. Whoever threw the dog slowly walked towards us. My adrenaline is asking me fight or flight.