Chip called back from the pilot’s seat, adjusting his headset. But Adam barely looked up from his phone as he nodded and said, "Thanks."
Chip glanced in the rearview mirror, catching sight of Adam hunched over the small screen.
A smile tugged at his lips as he shook his head. When he first t Adam, the guy was a pure, relentless workhorse. Didn’t rest. Didn’t even sleep, from what Chip could tell.
From the mont Adam joined the RLRD, the rate of Leaks they cleared almost doubled. The man was a machine, always moving, always fighting, always pushing forward to the next mission.
The entire reason why they were even in trouble was that he was too efficient. He was being bashed by the other guilds online, but never once did he see Adam even heed them or leave a comnt.
It felt as if, as far as Adam was concerned, the people who hated him didn’t exist at all since he wasn’t going to that side of the internet, or looking at his phone at all.
But now... this was the first ti Chip was seeing Adam glued to his phone.
Chip chuckled.
Adam’s head snapped up, surprise flickering across his face. "How did you—"
Chip grinned. "So, you dating her or what?"
"Huh?" Adam blinked, confusion creasing his brow. "Dating? No. Katherine’s my sister."
"What?" The helicopter jolted slightly as Chip’s hands jerked on the controls. "Sister? Wait, what? I didn’t expect that at all."
"I didn’t expect it either," Adam said, returning to his phone.
Chip stared at the back of Adam’s head, mouth hanging open. "What do you an you didn’t expect—"
But Adam had already gone quiet again, staring at his phone.
Chip was right, though. Adam was chatting with Katherine.
Adam zood in on a photo she’d sent from her movie set. People in suits milled around in the background, and Adam’s jaw tightened instinctively. Even now, anyone in a suit made his skin crawl.
Hospital agents could be anywhere.
[Do you think this outfit is cute?] Katherine texted.
Adam glanced at the image once; it was Katherine in so elaborate costu.
"Hm..." He nodded and sent back a smiling emoji with a thumbs up.
In fact, all of Adam’s responses were mostly emojis. Katherine didn’t seem to mind at all, sohow understanding exactly what he ant with each little symbol.
When Katherine stopped replying, Adam carefully tucked the phone away and looked out the window below.
His breath ca out in a small puff of vapor. The landscape stretched endlessly beneath them—colorful fields painted gold by the setting sun, rivers snaking through valleys.
Chip said, following Adam’s gaze.
"Yes," Adam replied quietly. "It’s quite peace—"
And then, all of a sudden, the world exploded.
tal shrieked against tal as sothing massive tore through the helicopter’s hull. The aircraft split apart like paper, sending chunks of twisted steel spinning through the air. The rotor blades scread as they sheared off, one blade spinning past Adam’s head close enough to feel the wind.
Adam plumted through open sky, debris raining around him as he spun in the air. And when he caught sight of the Shion tumbling past him, he quickly grabbed it, the weight equalizing him as everything else fell apart.
"Shit..." Adam looked around and noticed the cockpit-half of the helicopter was spiraling away into the distance. There was smoke trailing behind it, but through the shattered windscreen, Adam could see Chip slumped forward, unconscious, blood streaming down his face.
"Chip!" Adam kicked hard against the falling debris, launching himself toward the other half of the helicopter.
"S-shit!" His fingertips barely caught the twisted fra. The tal rotated violently under his grip, almost tearing off as he fought to hold on. Wind scread past his ears as he pulled himself closer, the tal straining against him and the wind.
Adam crawled inside through the shattered windscreen, glass crunching under his knees. Chip hung unconscious in his pilot’s seat, blood streaming from a gash across his forehead. The harness kept him secured, but his head swayed at an unnatural angle.
"Chip!" Adam shouted over the rushing wind.
No response.
Adam grabbed the entire seat and tore it free from the cockpit floor, bolts snapping like twigs. He cradled Chip against his chest, reaching for the ergency parachute release with his free hand.
"Where is it?!" Adam patted the sides of the chair, trying to find the handle. And when he finally felt it... he saw a shadow shooting toward them.
"What—" Adam’s teeth ground together as he hurled the seat and Chip away with all his strength, sending him clear of the falling wreckage. The shadow slamd into Adam, driving him deeper into the cockpit as tal shrieked around them.
The impact sent the cockpit tumbling through the air, but Adam’s eyes stayed locked on Chip. The shadow dragged Adam downward, its grip like iron around his torso, but Adam kept watching the sky above.
The shadow hamred blow after blow into Adam’s ribs, each strike sending shockwaves through the twisted cockpit fra. Adam felt himself being tossed around, but he refused to look away from Chip.
"Chip!" He scread despite the strikes. "Wake up! Chip!"
Then he saw it—the parachute blood open above, the white canopy catching the wind and slowing his descent.
Adam sighed in relief and finally grabbed the shadow with both hands.
Before he could do anything else, however, they slamd into the ground. The cockpit crumpled completely around them, tal folding inward like a closing fist.
Several seconds of silence passed.
The wreckage exploded outward, sending twisted tal fragnts across the field of wildflowers. Adam shot out from the destruction, rolling violently across the soft earth, his body leaving deep furrows in the soil.
He stabbed the Shion into the ground, using the blade to stop his montum. Dirt and flower petals scattered around him as he ca to a halt.
Adam looked back at the destroyed cockpit, then turned toward where the other half of the helicopter had landed. Smoke rose from the wreckage about fifty yards away.
"Is... my motorcycle okay?" he muttered to himself. But then, it exploded.
"Ah... great." Just like that, his first purchase with his real na on it was gone—burnt to nothing in the middle of a flower field.
Adam’s eye twitched. His grip on the Shion tightened until his knuckles cracked.
He looked back toward the cockpit wreckage, but the shadow was already rushing toward him across the field, crushing flowers under its feet.
This ti, Adam rolled his shoulders and cocked his fist. When the shadow reached him, he drove his knuckles forward with everything he had.
The shadow flew backward from the force, its large body skidding across the field and leaving a trail of destroyed flowers in its wake.
"Ha..." Adam gritted his teeth, trying to calm himself down. He was about to approach the shadow, but sothing squird against his knuckles.
He looked down... only to see the blood and flesh from the shadow writhing on his skin before slowly dying and withering away. They looked like worms, almost.
Adam blinked, then looked back to where the monster had been thrown away. The shadow was already close again, its... fist already just a foot away from his torso.
The punch caught him in the chest, sending him tumbling backward through the flowers. As Adam rolled violently across the ground, the pain didn’t really register to him at all, no—what did register to him was how familiar the strike felt when it hit him.
He knew that punch; he was sure of it. He had felt it more than a hundred tis, maybe even more. The crackle and the small explosions that erupted from each hit.
That punch belonged to Bjorn.
"What the..." Adam recovered quickly, planting his feet as the shadow approached again. When Bjorn threw another punch, Adam swatted the fist away with the Shion’s flat blade, then drove his other hand forward at his chest, sending the shadow flying once more.
"Bjorn!" Adam called out. "Bjorn, is that you?! What—what..."
Adam’s horror grew as he finally saw Bjorn’s whole body clearly in the fading sunlight.
His upper body had swollen like a balloon, unequal and grotesque, with a hunched back that made his legs barely able to balance his weight. His head looked like a pimple compared to how broad his shoulders and neck had beco.
Most importantly, his face—his eyes bulged from their sockets, building pressure behind them. Teeth jutted out from his cheeks at impossible angles, almost like tumors of bone and enal.
Bjorn... no longer resembled a human being. He was almost like cancer personified, and from the tears of blood trailing from his bulging eyes... he was in great pain.
"Oh..." Adam’s shoulders sagged, and his grip on the Shion faltered.
"I... told you to run away from them."
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