Chapter 391: Taking The Golden Nugget Hotel [7]

While Ryan was dealing with the Hybrids behind them, Sydney was already running through the corridor with Zakthar dragged half against her side, half off the ground, while Lucy kept pace just behind her. The hallway lights were too bright after everything that had happened in that private room. White light washed over the carpet, over the bodies they had left behind, over the blood smeared across Zakthar’s sleeve where Sydney’s grip had twisted the fabric tight against him. Their footsteps hit fast and uneven in the corridor.

Lucy was still reeling from what she had just seen.

"What kind of monsters were those things..." she said, breath rougher now than before.

She had seen Gaspar use that strange Symbiote membrane once or twice. That had already been enough to tell her there were things in this world she did not understand. But those creatures back there were different. Bigger than Infected should be. Faster. Smarter. Wrong in a way that made training feel suddenly small.

"They’re Hybrids," Sydney replied without slowing. "Some kind of mutated Infected."

"They seemed intelligent."

"They are. Dangerously so." Sydney adjusted her grip on Zakthar and shot Lucy a quick glance over her shoulder. "So don’t get sloppy and keep covering my back, will you?"

Lucy checked her rifle while still moving, hand quick over the magazine and grip before her eyes lifted back to Sydney.

"Didn’t you have some power that lets you run fast?" she asked.

She had been wondering it since they started moving. Sydney could have taken Zakthar and vanished ahead if she really wanted. Instead she had stayed at Lucy’s pace, even slower in places, clearly making sure Lucy kept up.

Sydney gave a small grimace.

"Well, yeah. I can run away fast. But that would mean leaving you behind."

"I’m perfectly fine on my own," Lucy replied, frowning at her.

Sydney let out a short breath that sounded almost like a laugh.

"Oh no, you would not be fine against one of those Hybrids. Believe me. I already fought one of those freaks before, and it took me, Christopher, and Martin a coordinated attack worthy of anime nonsense to put it down."

Lucy did not answer immediately.

Just remembering the way the Hybrids had moved made her skin crawl again. The speed. The strength. The fact Ryan had stepped in front of one without hesitating and taken a hit that should have cut him in half. None of it had felt like a normal fight. It had looked like something dragged out of a nightmare or some insane movie, except she had seen it with her own eyes and heard flesh tear and concrete crack.

There was still one part of this she could not make fit.

She glanced at Sydney again.

"Do you really expect me to believe you’re concerned about me?"

If Sydney was holding back just for her, that meant she was staying in case Lucy had to face a Hybrid alone. That made no sense. Not after everything. Not after Lucy had been an enemy not that long ago.

Sydney made a face.

"Concerned about you? God, no," she said. "But my gut tells me you and Chris have something brewing, and I do not want a potential romance getting smashed in front of me because you died in a hallway."

For the first time since they started running, Lucy nearly lost the straightness of her face.

There it was again.

Up until now she had kept telling herself Sydney was only joking because that was easier than taking any of it seriously. But Sydney did not sound like she was joking now. Not fully.

"I don’t love him," Lucy said.

Sydney snorted.

"Well, you’re an ex-Marine, strong, competent, all that. Then there’s this mysterious handsome guy who kept you chained to a chair for days, watched over you forever, then ended up saving your life and nearly dying for it." She lifted a shoulder while still half-dragging Zakthar. "Seems to me it’s probably a messy mix of Stockholm syndrome and actual feelings. He definitely caught your eye when he came in to protect you like some idiot hero. For someone like you, that had to hit."

Lucy did not bother answering that either.

Mostly because she disliked how close Sydney’s absurd version of it came to something she did not want to examine right now.

Instead she looked ahead, then sideways, then asked the thing that actually mattered.

"Aren’t you worried about Ryan?"

She asked it more casually than she felt.

Partly because Ryan had saved her life too, and partly because leaving him alone with those things had been a terrible idea no matter how powerful he was.

Sydney did not answer.

That alone told Lucy enough.

The smirk Sydney had been wearing faded, just slightly, but enough to see it happen. Then she turned her head over her shoulder to check behind them.

Her eyes widened.

"Shit."

Lucy spun around too and felt the air leave her chest.

The large Hybrid was charging down the corridor after them.

It filled the space in a way that made the bright hallway feel suddenly too small. One arm was half-lacerated and hanging badly, but the thing did not seem to care. Its body came on with the same heavy speed as before, too fast for something that large, head lowered, ruined mouth open.

It looked unreal.

Lucy stopped at once, planted her feet, raised the rifle, and fired for the head.

The Hybrid brought up its thick arm again and let the bullets hammer into that instead while it kept advancing.

Lucy fired again.

And again.

Each shot landed cleanly. Shoulder. Upper chest. Face line whenever the arm shifted. She did not waste rounds. She placed them exactly where they had the best chance of slowing it, and it worked, a little. Not enough to stop it. Enough to steal moments.

"The stairs!" Sydney shouted.

"It’ll catch us there easily!" Lucy fired again and backed up another step.

She knew it at once. The stairs would funnel them. No room to maneuver, no room to fire properly, nowhere to break line of attack if it lunged.

"Then what do you propose?" Sydney snapped stopping.

Lucy’s eyes flicked behind them for half a second.

The elevator doors stood half open.

Sydney followed that look immediately.

Without another word, she dropped Zakthar to the carpet and rushed for the elevator. She forced the doors wider with both hands and leaned over the edge, looking down into darkness. The car itself sat several floors below, its roof barely visible in the shaft.

That was enough.

An emergency ladder ran down one side.

Sydney smiled sharply, grabbed Zakthar up again with one arm like he weighed nothing, and looked back at Lucy, who was still firing as she stepped backward.

The shots kept coming in measured rhythm. Lucy was practically stitching bullets into the Hybrid’s upper body, forcing it to shield, slowing it every time it tried to build speed again.

"Go," Lucy said.

Sydney nodded once.

Then she jumped into the shaft, caught the metal rungs with one hand, and started climbing down fast with Zakthar braced against her.

A few seconds later Lucy reached the opening, let the rifle fall against her back by its strap, and jumped after her, catching the ladder hard with both hands as the Hybrid crashed into the corridor behind her.