Chapter 10 · Dead Zone Dive

"Get your head down or lose it!" Pip screamed, his voice cracking through the plush speaker.

I didn't have time to argue. I dove. The Bloom-Sentry’s blade—a jagged shard of iridescent crystal—slammed into the wall where my skull had been a millisecond ago. Plaster exploded. My ears rang.

I rolled, sliding across the grime-slicked floor, and came up swinging. My fist connected with something that felt like wet concrete. The Sentry didn't even flinch. It just tilted its head, a sickening clicking sound echoing from its throat, and lunged again.

"Maya, left! Move your ass!"

I bolted. I didn't think; I just felt the surge. That humming heat in my veins—the combat genes the vats had stitched into me—kicked in. Everything slowed. I could see the vibration of the Sentry's muscles, the way the air shimmered around its crystalline growths. I leaped, planting my boot on a tipped-over table and launching myself over the beast's head.

I landed hard, skidding into Jax. He didn't move an inch, just grabbed my shoulder and shoved me back toward the door.

"You're faster than you look, kid," Jax grunted.