Chapter 131

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One

Combat had a way of rising from nothing to a moment of tension with everything on the line, then in an instant flipping into devastating chaos. For Connor, that chaos was inevitably marked by screaming more than gunfire.

Screaming was the sound of someone horribly wounded.

Screaming was the opening to goodbye.

He knelt beside the Moon twins, medical packs unzipped, gauze and pressure packs torn open. While Elise held their bloody hands, Connor had gotten them out of their chest plates with Mosiah’s help.

But the effort was pointless.

The clones shivered—the air cold once more now that Selen was gone. But sweat poured down their faces, mixing with tears.

They gasped and wheezed fighting for life.

And blood was everywhere, mixing with the pus oozing from the necrotized wounds caused by the tentacle monster attacks. The fluids mixed, creating a nauseating fetor that made Connor shudder.

Even with all of that, with his hands slick from gore, he lied to them. “You’re going to make it.”

Tom nodded. “I—I know. Gonna…”

But Tim was already slipping away, lips going blue where not reddened by coughed blood. His eyes weren’t focused on anything.

Connor had seen someone treated for a punctured lung before. Without intervention, the victim would drown in his own blood as it filled the organ. Even if he knew what to do—and he didn’t—he didn’t have the medical tools.

So he grabbed Tim’s hand and squeezed. “You remember how you said Tom was saving up all that money for retirement? How you felt bad about surviving when Gregor died?”

The clone’s eyes took on focus, staring at Connor. Tim wheezed, then coughed. “Only…ever…wanted…”

“Sure. All of use want—”

“…to…be…human…”

Connor’s stomach knotted. “You are human. You’re as human as anyone I’ve ever known.”

“…belong…”

“You do belong. Tim, you’re part of the family. You’re one of us.”

Tim nodded once, then groaned wetly, hacked up blood, and stopped breathing.

His eyes lost focus again.

Connor did the only thing he knew to do: chest compressions.

But Tom reached across and clamped a hand over Connor’s wrist. “Let him go.”

“No.” Connor shook off the clone’s grip and tried again, counting the compression timing out loud.

“We’ve been dying.”

“We get you up to Lem, he’ll take care of you.”

Tom grabbed Connor again, this time without much strength. The clone’s face glistened with sweat. “Those things—the tentacled monsters—injected us. I didn’t think it was anything. Then the wounds started rotting.”

“We’ll get you into the infirmary. We’ll cut away the necrotized flesh.”

“It’s in us. Deep in us.”

Connor pressed down for another compression, and Tim’s mouth opened. Thick, black fluid gushed out, covering his face and neck.

Fingertip-sized forms swam in the rancid fluid, tentacles whipping around.

One of them had gotten onto Connor with a glob of the viscous fluid.

He shook his arm, tossing the little thing to the floor, where it tried to pull itself away with its tentacles.

Elise groaned and backed away. “What in the—?”

Connor grabbed the sword he’d set down to tend to the brothers and skewered the little monster.

It writhed on the sword tip, wrapping small tentacles around it.

Then it went limp.

Tom’s eyes were wide with disgust and terror. “That’s what’s inside.”

Connor flicked the little thing away. “What?

“Inside of us. It wasn’t just venom.”

Realization dawned on Connor. “That thing laid eggs in you?”

“Something. We’ve felt them crawling inside of us.” The clone tried to push away from one of the little creatures, which was leaving a trail of black ooze on its way toward him.

Mosiah pulled Tom’s knife and stabbed the little creature. He squinted at its writhing form in astonishment. “There was nothing like this when we came here.”

Connor dispatched the last of the monsters before they could get away. “That’s because you unleashed them.”

“Unleashed? All we did was come to the ruins, descend into this pit, and help ourselves to these artifacts.”

Tom swallowed. “They’re eating me alive. Connor…”

“I can’t kill you.” Connor took the surviving clone’s hand.

“You don’t have to. I’m…barely holding on. Just take away the pain.”

“That’s going to make the bleeding—”

“—faster.” The clone closed his eyes. “I know.”

Connor pulled the painkiller auto injector from Tom’s pack, then took another from Tim’s. It might not be enough to kill, but it would be awfully close.

And Tom wouldn’t feel a thing after.

“I’ve got two of these.” Connor held the injectors up for the last Moon brother to see. “One should ease the pain. Two…”

“Both. Please.”

When people were dying like Tom was, they knew it. They had a right to choose how to go out.

Connor punched both injectors into the clone’s healthy thigh.

Tom flinched but a second later smile. “Thank you.”

“I failed you guys.”

“No. You did what you could. Selen…” The clone sighed.

The drugs were going to work, spreading through his body.

He closed his eyes, and a peaceful look spread across his face. “I hope the little monsters overdose.”

Connor couldn’t help laughing. It would be sweet justice. “I’m going to miss you two. Your kimchi, your obsession with your brother, your steady presence in battle, your humanity.”

“That’s what we liked about you, Connor. You see the potential in people.”

“We all do. Our family—”

The clone shook his head slowly. “With you, there’s…a purity.”

Then Tom sucked in a jagged breath, shook, and the life went out of him.

Mosiah harrumphed. “It was never my intention for anything—”

Connor stood and turned away. “Selen told me never to trust you.”

“I—” The old man sputtered for a moment, then went silent.

“The problem is, I can’t trust her anymore. I’m not sure I should trust anything she’s ever said to me.”

“I can assure you of one thing: I am not the problem.”

“That’s true.” Connor saw tension in Elise’s body.

Did she think he saw her as part of the problem still? She should know better.

Mosiah cleared his throat. “There might have been a selfish motivation in me hiring her.”

Connor retrieved the sword that had flown from his numbed hand. “What was that?”

“I knew she was having financial problems. She’d reached out to borrow money from an associate a while back.”

To fund the university expedition, Connor thought. “She wanted you to know.”

“Entirely possible. Beyond that, though, all I cared about was getting to this hellish planet and returning the things that seemed to have no other purpose than to kill those who stole them.”

Selen had a lot of crimes to pay for, but they would have to wait. There was a higher priority.

Connor sheathed his swords. “Well, Mosiah, let’s get you patched up. We have a mission to finish.”