Still conscious with half her flesh missing

She was insensate with pain, and she struggled at what I was doing to her. I momentarily wondered if she'd hit me or the beetle with one of those punches that could crush stone. Worse, if she grabbed me and I couldn't break away, I'd plummet to the ground with her.

"Fly!" I screamed the word. "Lift up, Glory Girl!"

Her face was melting on one side, her eyes a ruin, her ear and the surrounding area of her head a bloody mess. I wondered if she could even hear me.

I was getting dragged down. How long before I had to make the call about letting go? It would mean letting her fall back into the burning city street. Maybe her forcefield would protect her, but the acid would CONTINUE to eat into her, until it got at something especially vital. She would die, slowly and painfully. Burning to death would almost be a mercy.

"Rise! Fly!" I shouted.

She began to lift up. I took the opportunity to let go of her hair, grabbing at the one hand that wasn't covered in acid. I pulled on her hand, and she followed my lead.

We moved as fast as my beetle was able. I knew she could fly faster, would have compelled her to even push me and the beetle forward if I thought I could have handled the navigation. As a group, we passed over a red scaled wingless dragon that I took to be Genesis, wading through the flames on her way to the site of the battle.

My beetle needed a name. Had to have a better way of referring to it. A hercules beetle, but bigger, a giant. I thought about Hercules, about the myth; Hercules had borrowed the burden of the giant who carried the world. Atlas.

"Come on, Atlas," I urged him, "Faster."

Dumb to talk to him, when I knew for an absolute fact that he couldn't understand me. Maybe I was talking to myself.

We found my teammates still clearing a path through the edge of the area. They were all walking, the dogs in a formation around them, Bitch holding up the distant rear with Bastard.

I landed. Glory Girl didn't have the strength to stand, and collapsed like a rag doll.

***

Prey 14.6