Mission: Planet Biter (Veslor Mates #4)(4)

She stared at the number displayed.

Six.

Then she was blinded by tears. “No!”

That’s when she ended up on the floor under the desk, sobbing.

She’d only slept for a few hours…and in that time, thirteen more people had died.

“Thirteen is so unlucky. We’re cursed.

“Stop it! It’s the drugs. I’m not cursed.”

Evil laugher sounded from the imaginary bigfoot and she covered her ears. Not that it muffled the sound. She was hearing the thing inside her head.

“It isn’t real,” she chanted, rocking her body again. “Not real. I refuse to die here. I am going to make it. Hang in there. Just fucking hang in there!”



Alarms blared. Vera jerked awake inside the storage closet where she slept, her eyes wide in the darkness. “What new hell is this?”

She pushed open the door, momentarily blinded by the light, and wiggled out of the cramped space. No imaginary figure waited out there to scare or yell at her. She made it to the desk in the main room of the security pod and took a seat.

Red lights were flashing on the screen of the computer, along with a few more lights on the walls. According to the display, the group of pods that made up their research facility had been breached from the exterior, in the area where they kept their armored land vehicles.

She looked at the live-feed monitor for that section of the pods. One of the larger doors revealed damage, as if it had been blasted open. Metal curled inward, debris littering the floor and covering a few of the tank-like surface vehicles.

The camera flickered out, then came back. The door remained damaged. She figured it might actually be real, since the alarms still blared and what she saw hadn’t changed.

Panic hit. Had the alien animals grown smarter? Figured a way inside?

She tried to think, remain rational, but she kept remembering the vision of Crystal’s body, dozens of bites taken out of it, as she was carried to the Med Bay by two security officers. Maybe those small creatures had gathered in large enough numbers to attack that section of the pod, managing to bust through the large exterior door.

That would mean they were now inside—and would come eat her.

Vera jumped out of her seat, swayed, but made her way to the weapons locker. Dr. Hazel had used Chuck’s fingerprints after he had died to change the biometric lock, gaining Vera access to everything inside security.

She pressed her badly shaking hand on the pad and it beeped, unlocking the locker. She grabbed one of the laser rifles, but then hesitated. Her aim would probably be bad with her faulty vision and shaking body. There was a sonic blaster. That would hurt anything in the general vicinity of her aim when fired.

She released the rifle and grabbed the blaster.

“Okay, I can do this. I won’t be eaten.” She rushed back into the main office, staring at the only door into the security pod. “They have to get to me by coming through there.”

Vera swayed again on her feet. Not only did her hands shake, but her entire body was suffering from tremors. Her balance was crap. Spots danced before her eyes and everything went dark, but that blaring alarm kept blasting.

She had gone blind. It had happened a few times before. Usually she didn’t mind when her eyes went wonky. It meant she couldn’t see anything imaginary that wasn’t there. Now she needed her eyesight to survive. There were real reptile-like creatures with rows of sharp teeth coming to eat her.

“No, no, no! Fucking work, eyes. I need to see!” She rapidly blinked and some of her vision returned. She aimed at the door again with the sonic blaster, found the trigger with her finger, and tried to brace her legs. She’d never fired that kind of weapon before but she’d heard it had a bit of a kick.

“I’m not food,” she screamed. “I’m not dying!”

The loud blasting alarms made her head hurt, as though she were being stabbed in her ears with a knife.

A light lit up on the panel by the door and it scared her enough that she accidently pulled the trigger.

The weapon discharged a sonic blast. It hit the wall and bounced back at her. Vera realized she was too close to the shockwave just before she was thrown off her feet. She flew through the air and landed painfully on her back.

She struggled to suck in air that had been knocked out of her lungs, her entire body aching, but Vera managed to lift her head. The blaster wasn’t in her hands anymore. She’d dropped it.

The door to security was slowly being pried apart by what looked like a robotic arm.

She screamed, rolled over, and started belly crawling toward the nearest door.

It wasn’t the local reptile creatures that had tried to eat Crystal, coming after her. She was under attack by killer robots. Every horror vid she’d ever seen of them began to play through her head, terrifying her. She didn’t want her body to be torn apart like wet tissue by some mindless machine!

She reached the entrance to the bathroom, knowing she needed to rise to her knees once she got inside, to close and lock the door.

Something grabbed ahold of her. Something big, wrapping completely around her ankle. She screamed again.

She was pulled back into the main room, her shirt riding up until her bare belly was dragged along the floor.

She twisted, kicking out with her other foot. “Abort mission! Live person. You’re not allowed to kill me, you stupid bot! I’m authorized to be here!”