Benjamin Wray - Acid Reign - Genesis

Ripp sped around the left side of Lilly, putting the Mustang between her and the horde. He slid to a stop, spraying dirt and rock into the horde.

The door facing Lilly opened.

“Get in, Lilly! Hurry! Lilly!”

Lilly got up painfully and slowly looked around.

The Fringers had recovered from the shower of gravel and were rushing towards them.

“Lilly! Get in!”

Lilly finally realized it wasn’t a dream. She grabbed her pack and jumped in leaving her helmet behind. Ripp opened his door, rolled the arc grenade towards the horde, and shoved the Mustang into gear.

Ripp and Lilly were pushed back into their seats as the Mustang raced forward. He needed to get as far away from the explosion as fast as possible. He looked over at Lilly, who was covered in blood and barely conscious, and injected her with a syringe.

Boom!

The shockwave of the explosion caught up to them and shook the transport throwing it out of traction, for a moment. Ripp regained control, shut down the extra sensor displays, and eased off the accelerator.

He looked over at her open bag and recognized the hexagonal insignia of Theonicorp on the case. He decided right then that whatever she had found wasn’t going to be handed over. Ripp had never known Nun to be anxious. The desperation he felt with the Theonicorp theme meant Nun was fixated on something, and Ripp was determined to find out what it was.

Memories of finding Lilly and the mysterious woman, named Soam, starving to death in the Fringe came flooding back to him.

He looked at Lilly, saw how vulnerable she was and remembered the promise he made to Soam.

“I’m proud of you,” Ripp said.

“Thanks for coming to get me.”

Ripp nodded. “We can talk about this later. We need to get you to a medical center right now, and then I need to try to stop Gus from killing Nun. If he hasn’t already.”

Lilly nodded and closed her eyes.

The only light in William’s cell came from a small hologram device that was projecting his wife and daughter playing a card game. The hologram stopped after they both slammed a card down at the same time and laughed. He turned the power off as tears welled up in his eyes.

“Forgive me.”

Copyright © Benjamin Wray, 2017

Cover Art Copyright © Benjamin Wray, 2017

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