Chapter 46

Express elevator to hell, going down

They reached the armored elevator just as the drones closed in. The doors closed, and banging ensued outside; but Katja was certain her father had commissioned this lift to survive them, and then some.

She looked at the control panel, swiping at her eyes as she did so, as though it could wipe Adrien from her thoughts.

It didn't work, but she tried to concentrate on the elevator buttons anyway. The shaft went down to basement level 10. Somehow, that didn't seem right. There was an extra security measure here. The people who built this place were evil, not idiotic. Or… not completely idiotic.

"Alexei, do the blueprints show how far down the elevator shaft goes?" Katja asked.

"Deep. Very deep," Alexei answered vaguely, like he was trying to score points for being mysterious.

"The panel only lets us go to B10," Katja explained as calmly as she could.

"That is not the bottom floor, I can tell you that much. Perhaps there's a code in the buttons?" Alexei suggested. "Maybe I can work up a pattern that'd make sense. Give me a few minutes."

No, that didn't track. It would be completely random, easy to forget. Ergo, a security risk to trick someone into taking you to the prize. That wasn't her father.

"You must have patience, little one," her father said after she'd fallen from a chair trying to get markers and paper from an overhead cabinet so she could color. "You're persistent, which is good." He wiped at her teary eyes and checked her injured ankle. "But you had already asked me for help, and I told you I would in a few minutes. You were too impatient to wait until I had finished my report, and now you are hurt. Sometimes, it's best to pause and see if your first attempt has an effect, even if it takes longer than you'd like. Many of the men I worked with never learned this lesson, and they never advanced. I know you can do better. Now, stop crying. You caused your own pain, did you not?"

Patience was the only thing she had been taught by both her brother and father.

Reaching over, she pressed the basement level 10 button and held it down, longer than anyone would deem necessary. The elevator began to descend, the lights above the doors highlighting the passing levels.

It passed B10 and kept going.

Katja released the button and braced against the wall.

Now that they were in motion, it really struck her. She had left Adrien. She had left him.

"We're not going to survive, are we?" Katja asked aloud to Blue. Looking up at the stoic, silent alien, he stared back from behind his mask and gave a very small, almost imperceptible head shake.

Deep down, she had known they wouldn't; but a part of her fantasized about it. The last of them winning and going home. Making all the pain, failure, and losses balanced out with something akin to a happy ending – which, right now, for her, was her remaining friends' survival.

"I am honored to fight and perish at your side," Blue offered. He must've sensed her distress.

"It's not me I'm worried about. It's you, Alexei, and Adrien," Katja replied.

"Adrien is a warrior," Blue stated. It was such a simple phrase that spoke volumes. He didn't need to explain. It didn't matter that they were different species. Warriors, soldiers, did not run from a fight; they ran toward it. Adrien, like her, believed in saving the world, even before his knowledge of extraterrestrials. Every mission could've been his last. This was no different.

She could relate. Anything less felt like a dereliction of duty.

"Can he beat it?" Katja asked.

"Praetorians are dangerous hard meats. Highly prized. Very rare," Blue explained. Interesting word, Praetorian. That was the term for ancient Roman magistrates. Of course, more well known were the Praetorian Guards – specialized, elite combat veterans who protected government officials. Maybe Blue had substituted in a word that simply didn't exist in Earth languages.

"But can he beat it?" Katja pushed.

"It would be a hard-won fight," Blue answered, and she could tell he was trying to be diplomatic about it. Still, both of them knew Adrien was capable. She wasn't about to count him out totally, but that didn't lessen her fears.

Petrov's crumpled body ghosted through her mind, and she felt herself shaking.

The elevator dinged as it reached the bottom floor. The doors opened into an observation deck and control room.

"Set the charge, hide it away from them, but give us some time. I want to make absolutely sure we kill her. Bomb is the contingency if we fail," Katja stated before they exited the elevator. She had to be sure this thing died. Blue, for his part, just nodded.

Inside the central chamber, the queen was revealed.

She was behind a transparent barrier, but that didn't make her any less intimidating. She was a glossy, inky black, just like her drones; but with sinewy strength and a large, regal head crest. She was enormous, over 8 meters high and twice as long. The ovipositor Alexei mentioned before was completely visible.

That felt so long ago now. Almost like years.

"And so, one queen comes to overthrow another… I was contemplating whether you would find me or not," the queen greeted.

"Tell me, am I the 'villain', like in the stories you tell your offspring? Good and evil, comforting concepts you can't help but attach to things you don't understand. There will be no more sickness, no more hunger, no more wars under the hive. Only unity. Surely you are not so blind you cannot see the 'good' in me, or the 'evil' in the Yautja," the queen purred.

Katja didn't answer, just approached the glass, and stared at her.

"I wish to express my condolences for your breeder male. I regret that I was not there. Had I been, perhaps a part of him could've lived on in the form of one of the hive."

"I'm betting he'd prefer to be where he is, over… that," Katja hissed. "Don't talk about him."

Blue reached out a clawed hand and placed it on her shoulder, perhaps trying to calm her. She watched him discreetly place the bomb beneath the control console.

"You are in pain over your loss. I can help. Take that all away. Wouldn't you prefer not to hurt?"

"I'd prefer you dead," Katja said flatly.

"You cannot accomplish that. You are weakened. Even if you do not realize it, your illness still ravages your body, and soon you will relapse. I can smell it. Were it not for my knowledge of knowing you'd recover; I'd simply kill you rather than use you as a gestation host."

"Maybe not. But he certainly can," Katja made a motion to Blue.

"Ah, the Yautja. You put your faith in a species, a creature, that is completely driven by instinct and is universally narrow-minded. You do not know them as our collective does. Immeasurable passages of time, and they have changed very little. It is truly a wonder how the Mala'kak suffered defeat at their hand," the queen stated.

Blue roared at her before playing a clip of Adrien saying 'bitch', making sure she could hear.

Katja mentally frowned. If knowledge was gathered and stored between queens, even across the expanse of the universe, then that could prove to be a problem. They simply learned from each defeat and adjusted their tactics. And they had been collecting for a very long time.

The other troubling thing was the Yautja. Was Blue. If the queen was to be believed, then he truly had no capability of emotion. Barely above an animal. Purely instinct-driven. It made her wonder what their social interactions out here had been, then. Merely a front to gain trust and help?

"We know each other better than she does," Adrien's words echoed in her mind.

Shaking her head, Katja tried to focus. Blue was not a liar nor deceptive; the queen, however, was highly suspect in that regard.

Despite his culture and what he was, the things he'd done, she truly believed Vai was a good man. She'd stake her life on it, even. And had. Their interactions felt too real to be faked, either.

"I actually like you very much, warrior female. I see much of the same drive the collective has, within you. So many opportunities to end your life since we first met, close to that shelter; but you excelled at keeping the Yautja's attention on you rather than me," the queen stated.

Adrien had been right, then. She wanted them to finish each other off. Maybe she'd hoped they would wear Blue down so much that he'd be easy for her to kill.

"My final offer. Stay here with me, and you and your males will be spared. You all will produce me future hosts. An army," the queen said.

Katja nearly gagged at that. Did this oversized insect really think she'd repeatedly give birth, only to hand over her babies for infestation?

"We can overthrow every human government. Even the Yautja government," the queen tried to tempt her. "You can have your revenge, for your breeder male."

"And replace it with you and your 'government'? No. I'll see the planet scorched and lifeless before I let you destroy it," Katja growled. "Humanity will never be yours. Certainly not to feed your shock troops to spread through the galaxy."

Blue roared challengingly, seeming to be thrilled at the prospect of battle.

"Then join me in extinction!" the queen returned the threat with an ear-splitting screech.

The queen must've been prepared for her to decline the offer, because not a moment later, warrior drones burst from the elevator, throwing Blue through the observation window.

Katja herself was knocked onto her back and slid across the floor; but she didn't so much as get the breath knocked out of her, and was quickly able to drop the drones.

Getting up, she went to the broken window and saw Blue struggling to rise, the queen standing over him ominously…

This was no hard meat queen. This was the next stage of hivemind, an Empress. The final stage was the Matriarch, the galactic coordinator of the empresses; in turn, the empresses were system coordinators to queens, and queens ran the local population of hard meat drones.

This, indeed, was a bigger prize than Vai'dqouulth would've ever imagined. Most alarming was her ability to communicate directly to them. He had never heard of any hard meat being able to do that… or having sentience. The question being, was the empress speaking… or the matriarch? And in what dark, foul corner of the universe did the matriarch reside?

No matter; Vai'dqouulth readied his cannons to fire.

The attack came unexpectedly. The hard meat warriors hadn't given up the chase; they had merely waited until Katja had declined the offer. Even though Vai'dqouulth had expected she would, he was still proud of her for doing it. Power was a difficult thing for most humans to resist.

Drones hit Vai'dqouulth from (what he assumed) was a monitoring room and to the floor below, near the feet of the empress. In the fall, both of his cannons detached from the control arms; one was stomped and destroyed by the giantess herself.

Vai'dqouulth was on his feet quickly and brought his bracer up, just as a hard meat warrior leapt and bit into it.

He was able to twist it to the ground and stab it with blades. Spinning, he flung his shuriken, splitting the head of another.

Just as he returned the disk back to his belt, Vai'dqouulth felt a hit to his back. Given the jolt and the weight behind it, he guessed it was the Empress's tail. She had obviously ripped herself free from the ovipositor. A last-ditch maneuver for all queen hard meats trying to save themselves.

Or so he'd heard, in tales from other hunters. He himself had never personally witnessed it.

"Prepare yourself, Yautja," the empress purred in his mind.

Whatever she intended to do, she never got the chance, as human weapon fire suddenly cracked out above Vai'dqouulth.

He rolled out of the way and looked up, watching as Katja took deliberate steps from the observation platform, firing one shot at a time.

The ammunition, while doing little damage, did open the empress to an attack by his combistick. He stabbed the beast right in the thorax.

Her reaction was to expel projectile acid from her mouth, which missed Katja, but caused the suspended walkway to melt and break into sections. It left Katja holding on to the remnants of the structure as pieces swung precariously.

In response, Vai'dqouulth began to make for the human, but was whipped away by that tail. "Foolish move!" taunted the Empress.

Vai'dqouulth crashed into the wall, hard enough to cause an indent. She approached and shoved him back before he could move.

The empress bit down on his mask with the outer mouth. Frantically, Vai'dqouulth detached the hoses, and removed it just before the metal was compromised and she crushed it in her jaws.

Her mistake was taking an extra fraction of time to spit it out. It gave Vai'dqouulth an opening to shoot a net at her, which wrapped perfectly around her muzzle, causing the empress to thrash her head and claw furiously.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Katja came up behind and began using that flame weapon on her tail. Vai'dqouulth hadn't even seen Katja drop to the observation floor.

The orange heat licked at the empress's long tail, and he could tell she would have screeched, had the net not been clamping her mouth shut.

Vai'dqouulth slid beneath and between the massive legs to join Katja. The exoskeleton was now thoroughly charred and weakened. Pulling his blades, he sliced downward, shearing off a good length of that lethal tail, making sure to include the sharp tip.

"Enough!" the empress bellowed into his mind.

She turned and charged lightning-fast at them both. Vai'dqouulth pushed Katja aside and took the full force of the hit, and he almost lost consciousness. His combistick and shuriken flew off his belt.

"You persist too long after your own defeat!"

Slumped and weakened in the corner, Vai'dqouulth aimed his left set of wrist blades and fired them off at the queen. They did little more than cut off one of her smaller arms. He wasn't about to try again with his dominant arm's blades.

"Arrogant creatures! Does the hive take life, or give it? And who are you to decide as such? Your efforts will merely be a minor inconvenience to our inevitable infinitude! You court death, and the fallout shall be your copulating with it!" the empress raged as she approached him, crushing Katja's weapon with her feet.

Once close, she violently lifted him into the air. It seemed there would be no more speaking.

Her mouth opened, and Vai'dqouulth saw the second mouth prepared to pounce.

It was only at the last possible instant, as the mouth shot out, that it was abruptly severed and fell. The Yautja was released from the empress's grip as she reeled.

Landing on his feet, Vai'dqouulth looked over and saw his shuriken returning to…

Katja.

The female sidestepped the weapon rather than try to catch it, and charged the empress, his combistick in her hands.

She drove it into the thigh of the distracted egg-layer and curiously abandoned it there as she used it for a foothold to clamber up the empress's back, her smaller kinetic weapon in hand.

That would not be enough, and surely his future Earth mate would be killed. He was out of weapons.

Or so he believed, until he spotted the lone detached – but undamaged – plasmacaster laying close by.

As Katja struggled to put rounds into the back of the empress's head, where the crest bone met the skull, he ran and retrieved the plasmacaster. In desperate circumstances, the caster could be used as a sort of hand plasma weapon, with a manual firing mechanism and vision-guessed aiming.

Katja was tossed, and her landing did not look soft. Vai'dqouulth fired the converted plasmacaster and blew the empress's leg off.

The empress fell, but not without a fight; grabbing chunks of the structure and throwing them at him. Once down, however, she could not stand upright again due to the missing leg and confined quarters.

"The hive is like a flowing current. You barricade us, and we simply overcome it by ceaseless erosion, or carving a new path, or overwhelming you in a flood. You may have destroyed this nest, but defeat is only a measure of time for us. It does not end here." The empress spoke much too calmly. It seemed she had accepted her defeat. Perhaps it was simply the nature of the hive mind – her individual self was not agonizing over the loss, as more of their kind would eventually replace her.

And she wasn't dead yet.

Vai'dqouulth was pinned under rubble now, his converted plasmacaster out of reach.

He looked around for his human, and soon spotted her.

Katja wasn't moving, which made him want to bay mournfully. But then, she began to stir. First, she rose to all four limbs. Then, with difficulty, to her legs; though her weight was shifted entirely to one foot.

He watched with rapt interest as Katja deliberately approached the empress, tearing his combistick from the creature's severed limb on the way. The empress did not offer resistance as Katja limped and dragged her way toward her. She did not so much as twitch.

"I underestimated you, slave female. You are a dangerous weapon," the empress spoke; but it was clearly directed at Katja, and with at least a modicum of respect.

Katja had now crawled up onto the dying hard meat's head, after slipping, falling, and persisting.

Without another word, she spun the combistick to a vertical position, then thrust the weapon downwards with both hands. The weapon sunk deep into the empress's head.

Katja twisted the grip with all her might. She did this several times, until she was satisfied. Vai'dqouulth wished for his helmet, to record her kill and to see her in trichromatic spectrum rather than infrared as he did now.

"You won't have this planet."

She turned her attention to him.

"Blue!" she called.

Katja limped over and attempted to help him lift the rubble off of his body.

"It is no use," Vai'dqouulth observed.

"It's my useless leg," Katja growled, clearly frustrated. "I just need–" she began, but cut herself off as she retrieved the combistick and wedged it under the rubble.

Using her entire body weight, and him using his muscles, they lifted it enough for him to wriggle free.

"Goddammit!" Katja screeched.

Vai'dqouulth turned and saw her rubbing her left arm. "What?" he asked; a quick, simple word.

"I think I dislocated my arm," Katja hissed through pained, gritted teeth.

That, he could possibly treat. "Allow me to assess," he offered. She nodded and sat quietly as he felt up and down her arm. The coverings and armor were in the way, so he ordered her to remove them, though he could tell it was painful for her to do so.

With it off, he felt her arm epidermis, which had some very small, short hair protrusions on it.

How interesting. Yautja grew similar quill protrusions on different parts of the body, but they were spiked and sharp. They grew more numerous and pronounced with age. He himself had them beginning to sprout on various parts of his body. Most notably, just behind his mandible's webbing, where the jaw connected and a few on his crested forehead.

Deciding not to comment, he continued to feel the arm and the joint. He felt confident in getting it back into the proper place now. "Ready?" he asked, in warning.

She removed her belt and put it between her teeth. Curious. But she nodded, and he began the process of putting the arm back in place. He could tell it was painful for her, but all he heard were stifled grunts.

Finally, he found the mark, and it was in place. She dropped her belt. "Thanks. Much better," she said faintly.

"Leg now," he motioned to her pants.

"What about the bomb?" Katja asked.

A wise question, but they still had time. "Leg," he emphasized, and Katja seemed to get the hint as she shimmed out of her leg coverings.

He felt the appendage, trying to be objective and not enjoy touching the soft skin.

There. A lump below the knee; it was broken. To be sure his assessment was correct, he put just a little pressure on it and Katja yelped as expected.

"Fracture," Vai'dqouulth spoke.

"Can you do anything about it? Maybe set it, at least?" Katja requested,

Vai'dqouulth contemplated. He thought he could do it. Bones were bones, after all, and he'd even resupplied his medicomp before coming here with some healing salve that would accelerate mending.

Humorous. Usually he acquired bones, not mend them, from her kind.

"Yes," he answered simply, rather than explain at length. She nodded and bit down on her belt once more. He, meanwhile, pushed the bone into place and she groaned in pain, the belt muffling most of the sound.

He was no expert, but it looked and felt good. He'd have a Yautja healer look at his work later. For now, he pulled the salve out and lathered it over the darkened skin where the break occurred. Cellular regeneration accelerant was a highly universal and useful medical tool. To his knowledge, there were very few species that couldn't use it; and it was so plentiful as it was a renewable resource. Most bathing units actually mixed it into the water by default.

One could even drink it diluted or straight (though it didn't taste very good, nor did it get one intoxicated), but it was excellent at latching onto blood cells and being carried to damaged areas.

"Now you," Katja spoke, dragging him from his thoughts.

Him? Vai'dqouulth began giving himself a once-over. There was a metal rod for structural reinforcement that had been rammed through his abdomen, which he ripped out and tossed away. He'd certainly suffered many lacerations in the form of bites and claws; but otherwise, he felt he was in better condition than Katja.

Still, he knew she would not let him go without at least some care. So, he used the surgical stapler on the puncture to his abdomen, which caused him to bellow in pain, and then pulled an egg-shaped healing shard from his belt.

These shards were hyper healing accelerants, and not safe for use outside the Yautja species. While the cream would suffice, he wanted to save that for human use. His own blood loss was a minimal concern, currently; but still a concern.

Breaking the shard in half, he found two pink-looking crystals on either flat end of it. Bracing himself, he stabbed both into his body. Again, the pain was excruciating, as Yautja believed in pain tolerance mastery. No anesthesia of any kind ever used. He could feel it working, though.

With help, he and Katja stood and strode to the queen to admire the kill, Katja using his combistick for a walking brace. Truly, the death scene was marvelous. Although Katja did not seem overly impressed. "You collect these, right?" she asked, pointing to the empress's head to indicate the skull.

"Yes," Vai'dqouulth answered. The explanation was far more complicated than that, but typing that out was too much work.

"Are you gonna take it?" Katja pressed.

"While credit is shared between us, the trophy belongs to the one who delivered the killing blow. You," Vai'dqouulth answered. Then, the realization truly settled in.

Katja, the small female warrior soft meat, had killed not a queen, but an advanced empress.

A slight shudder ran down his spine. Few Yautja males could have such an honor and prize and here, the less physically powerful of humanity, the female, could claim one. He needed to start courting immediately, before even other Yautja males started to consider her worth.

"Oh. Well, I don't think I can keep it; especially if we are trying to minimize your kind's signature here. Can I gift it to you? Probably means a lot more to you, though I'm not sure how we'd get it out of here," Katja offered.

Wha–? She–?

Females weren't supposed to offer skulls and gifts to males! Not only that, but queen skulls of any kind were also life-bonding gifts. It showed how determined one was, and how valued the prospect was.

Vai'dqouulth was stunned into a stoic stance, which was thankfully masked by his behavior often being similar to this. There was no way she could know what this meant to him in his society. In some ways, he was insulted; but only in the sense that this is what he wanted to do for her.

The moment was fleeting, however, as he realized three things. First, this was what he intended all along; second, she was alien; and finally, he had said he would hybridize Yautja and human customs. Adrien had said either sex could initiate their customs, so what did it matter if the end result was the same?

"I accept, but we must leave the trophy," Vai'dqouulth answered.

She didn't need to know just yet what she had done. It wasn't deceit on his part to withhold information; he just knew coaxing would be involved, and a high stress situation wasn't the best opportunity.

"I hate to be negative, but how are we gonna get out of here?" Katja asked, tipping her head back to look at what used to be the observation walkway.

The 'elevator', as it was called, had been destroyed by hard meat drones to seal them down here. However, Vai'dqouulth was confident he could climb them both out.

"Come." He motioned her to follow.

Katja was once again scooped up as Vai'dqouulth lifted them out of the pit. From there, he brought them to the elevator shaft and began to climb, Katja holding onto his bandolier and netting as he did.

They reached the top in short order, but he did feel the stretch of the staple in his abdomen.

Once they were on solid ground, Katja limped with his combistick in one hand as a walking support, and her smaller hand weapon in the other.

Eventually, they reached the door Adrien had sealed. She pressed a few buttons on the control pad and the door slowly opened.

Vai'dqouulth readied his shuriken, not knowing what to expect.

Inside, they walked around until Katja stopped. He could vaguely make out the large outline with his current natural vision, but it had no heat signature. It seemed his marine companion had succeeded.

Praetorians were an underrated kill and trophy, in his opinion. While not queen status, they certainly were more deadly. They were bigger and stronger drones; but not so big, like the queen, that they lost maneuverability.

They were often absent from trophy walls because of their deadliness and rarity.

"Should see the other guy…" A familiar male, human voice called out from behind them.

Adrien had been flicking in and out of consciousness. He wasn't sure how much time was passing during this, but when he opened his eyes, he could see Katja and Blue, though from blurred vision. Or at least he hoped. Maybe hallucinations were setting in.

If it was them, at least he could die knowing they had won and the world was safe, if only for a short while.

"Should see the other guy…" Adrien finally coughed out.

They both turned and ran – well, more like hobbled – over.

Katja's face said it all. He had probably given a version of it to others in the same scenario. "That bad, huh?" Adrien commented.

"No, no, it's ok, we'll get you out of here and get you some help!" Katja falsely assured him, a frightened smile on her face. He had done that to marines on their deathbed before, too.

Blue didn't speak. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be mulling something over deeply.

"Forget it, Katja, I know how bad it is. You'll never get out of here before the bomb goes off. And even if you do, I won't last long. Let dying devil dogs lie," Adrien sighed.

He knew his guts – what was left of them – were basically being held in his body by what was left of the armored carrier.

"Shut up. C'mon, on your feet marine." Katja said as she struggled to hoist him up. Blue stepped in to assist.

"Ah, Katja, I'm not debating this!" Adrien groaned in pain.

"Yeah, I'm not debating either. I'm ignoring you," she responded. Then, louder, she shouted an order into her comms. "Alexei, we're in the warehouse! We need a path out of here that goes by you, and we need it fast!"

Rather than be his typical bratty self, it seemed Alexei was doing just that. Adrien wasn't sure, as he never did retrieve his helmet with the radio. Plus, it wasn't like he could've understood the dork anyway.

Blue practically dragged Adrien along with urgency, though the brute never picked him up as he often did with Katja. It did cut their travel time down significantly.

"Morphine," Adrien requested. Climbing and being tugged along hurt so damn bad.

"I can't; you've lost a lot of blood and it'll lower your heart rate too much," Katja said, sounding on the brink of bawling.

Blue suddenly stopped and set him down. Adrien thought the beast was finally gonna put him out of this misery, but instead, he dug around in what he assumed was a medical kit and produced a cylinder.

The alien pulled a tube out from the side of it and fed it behind the armor carrier. A nozzle? Adrien idly wondered. Blue pressed a trigger and Adrien felt something filling the insides.

"Biofoam. Will minimize trauma to organs and wounds as we move. Also regenerative, will delay death," Blue explained aloud.

"Thank god. You're a lifesaver, Blue. Painkiller?" Katja asked hopefully.

"No," Blue answered unapologetically.

Not surprising. Macho asshole aliens probably loved proving how tough they were.

Still, he shouldn't complain, because the biofoam was minimizing the pain in a way by keeping everything cushioned and in place. Not to mention slowing the hemorrhaging.

They continued on, the biofoam definitely minimizing the pain, but also added a burning pain. Maybe that was the regeneration working.

Eventually, they came to a stop. It took Adrien's foggy mind a few seconds to recognize the door as Fedor's office. Great, they were rescuing Alexei.

Blue destroyed the door with… a… pistol? He didn't recall seeing that weapon before. Or maybe he was hallucinating.

Adrien blacked out after that. When he woke up next, they were outside, bitter wind hitting his face. He was resting against a rock and Blue was cupping his face, rotating it left and right. Making sure he was alive, probably.

"Not an option. Moscow isn't going to send anything in here," he could hear Katja say. So far away. Like on an old landline.

Adrien shut his eyes.

Again, he was jolted awake. "…That's not gonna work, my man is hanging on by a thread."

He caught the tail end of her conversation into a radio as she screamed the words. He knew she was trying to get a NATO base to send medivac, but there was no way they'd fly into Russia.

"Blyad!" he heard her say as she threw the radio into the snow. And that Russian word he did know. Very naughty.

"She's so pretty when she's swearing and worried about me," he thought dizzily. He'd laugh if that was even possible.

Adrien let blackness come again.

When he awoke, they were moving.

Katja looked surprisingly happy. Had something changed? Nah, not even she could get NATO to come here.

"Hang on Adrien, we're gonna get you some help!" she assured him. What help? What the hell was she talking about?

No answers were forthcoming and he didn't want to speak because of the pain.

Not much later, after some more painful traveling, Blue's ship was looming above them. Soon, they were at the ramp. Katja was right, they were getting out of Siberia. At last. Screw this place in particular.

Maybe it was deliriousness or insanity onset, but Adrien wanted to do this himself.

"No, no. I walked into this country, and I'm walking out. Let me go," Adrien stated, but it may have been a mumble. They stopped, but didn't release him.

"Let me go!" Adrien ordered more firmly. This time, they obeyed, albeit with obvious reluctance.

Gathering himself, Adrien unsteadily walked up the ramp with no fanfare before plopping down on the floor, the others looking on.

"Ok! I walked out, let's hustle!" Adrien urged as if he wasn't dying.

He fell unconscious shortly after.