Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 83

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"Look out!" Thandi yelled.

Kayla was thrown forward as though a freight train had hit her, sending her sprawling onto the concrete. Then Rayker was on top of her, pinning her to the ground. She started to smash her fists like hammers as Kayla raised her arms in a useless attempt to protect herself. The blows rained down, each as hard as a strike from a steel bar, and she wondered how long she could survive the onslaught.

The pain stopped, and a hand grabbed the back of her head, dragging it upright.

"Look me in the eye you pathetic little brat!" Rayker spat at her, and her free arm came up.

Kayla couldn't look away, as the flesh ripped open and the bloody tip of a spike poked out from the woman's wrist. Rayker brought it up under her chin.

"When I've killed you, I'll transform each one of your pathetic friends and make sure they serve me," she hissed.

A gunshot rang out, and Kayla flinched as Rayker collapsed sideways off her. She lay still, a huge red welt forming on the side of her head. Outside the observation booth, Thandi lowered her pistol.

"That's it—program set!" Weslan yelled.

"Move Kayla—hit that switch!" Thandi called.

As Kayla watched, the inhuman woman that had killed her father, and so many of her countrymen, began to move her limbs.

Kayla staggered to her feet; fully aware she would never get a better chance to avenge those she had lost. A painful ache filled her chest as she turned away from Rayker's collapsed form. Wiping the blood out of her eyes, she moved over to the chambers' control panel, confirmed the switch for the third chamber containing Reed's unconscious body, and pushed it.

Reed was beginning to stir as the gas surrounded him, and Kayla found herself morbidly curious to see how the process would unfold. But there was a scream of rage, and a blow came from nowhere, knocking her onto her hands and knees.

"For that, you piece of human trash, you die," Rayker said as she stood over her.

Kayla, now completely drained, waited for her death. At least she had defeated her executioner. Nothing that Rayker could do now would save her drone army from Weslan's new program. As she stared down at the blood-stained alien metal, waiting for the blackness, she wondered if Thandi was right—if she would meet her father again. A new cacophony of gunfire erupted in the hall, but she didn't care. She shut her eyes.

"Clear!" a voice yelled.

Arms shaking as she spit out blood, Kayla pushed herself upright. Her left eye had swollen shut from the beating she had taken, and through her one good eye, she saw armed soldiers spreading out through the lab, moving purposely. They were helping the Rangers, and closing in on the dead bodies of the Helvets. Then Urtiga was in front of her, helping her up to her feet, and calling for a medic.

"Rayker?" Kayla breathed.

"I shot her, but she got away," Urtiga said. "She's insanely fast. No worries—I sent a team after her."

Kayla nodded, her heart aching painfully as she tried to make peace with the decision she had taken.

"Where did you go?" she asked, as one of the unit's medics arrived and began to check her over.

Urtiga grimaced. "Let's just say there's a lot more to this place than meets the eye. It took us some time to defeat those soldiers, and then we had to figure out the teleporter. Sorry about the delay."