The woman’s voice stirred something up in my core, as if it was pulling a line of memories up from an abyss. I was beginning to remember who she was, her name was Lucy. Her gaze met mine not out of fear or caution, but out of remembrance.

She turned her gaze towards Henry for a moment to ask him, “Where did you find him?”

Before Henry could respond, I did for him.

“We staggered into each other outside of Paris.”

Lucy smiled and reached out to hold my hand, which reached out to meet hers.

She held my hand as if two lovers would, which confused me. She saw my confusion.

“What is the matter Norman?” Lucy asked me.

Henry opened his mouth to speak; “His-his-his memory…corrupted.”

While caressing my hand, she didn’t shift her gaze away. I wish I could remember her the way she remembers me.

We were interrupted by the sound of a commotion outside the cathedral, like a marching band trying their best to play quietly. The clinks must’ve tracked us down to the church if they weren’t already heading this direction. A look around the church revealed no other ways out that wasn’t blocked off or boarded up except for the main entrance way, which was no doubt crowded with a dozen clinks already. The only other possibility besides fighting our way out was trying to climb out from the collapsed wall to the right of the altar; the opening was nine feet from the ground and would require us to prop one another up.

We needed time for that, but we would get it. Two clinks were already roaming in through the entrance way of the cathedral, accessing the corpses scattered across the ground beneath them. Without making a sound I gestured for Henry and Lucy to take cover behind the altar. I would`ve joined them, but hiding would only prolong the inevitable. I needed to make a move.

On one the clink`s corpses, five feet away from the alter, were two grenades strapped onto its hip. They could still be usable. The two clinks who were roaming the entranceway were now nearing the center of the cathedral and with half a dozen more were making their way behind them, retracing the steps of the first two.

I would have about ten seconds to make my move before being spotted. With the rifle in my off hand I crept along the floor of the cathedral towards the grenade pouch of the dead clink, who was still slightly twitching from the recent firefight.

Only a foot away now, my hands were itching their way towards the grenades. Before my fingers could slip the pouch open, the clink suddenly sprung to life and gripped my wrist with its hand. The rest of its body twitched while the clink`s hand tightened. The two from earlier were beginning to shift their attention towards the commotion we were making. In about five seconds I would be greeted with a barrage of hot metal that would turn me into a junk pile along with the rest of the clinks on the church`s floor. My rifle shifted in my off hand and pointed I aimed it’s barrel towards the clink that held my arm; a burst of fire erupted and turned its chest cavity into a well-ventilated hole. The moment I felt its grip loosen from I wrist, I grabbed a hold of one of the grenades and pulled its pin loose. The side of the grenade read:

“HIGH-IMPACT GRENADE: FRAGMENTATION ON IMPACT”

The grenade began glowing an orange hue once the pin was pulled, that’s when I knew to throw it. The grenade was thrown through the air towards the two clinks at the center of the cathedral that were already in the process of aiming their weapons towards me. The grenade exploded in a cloud of smoke that enveloped both the clinks in its blast, sending shrapnel flying across the cathedral.

While the two in front were taken care of and the rest were impaired by the explosion, I took the liberty of drawing the second grenade from the pouch and arming it. Once armed, I threw the grenade towards the collapsed wall behind me and watched as the explosion sent the remaining structure collapsing below. The entire building was shaking as the explosion no doubt was taxing what little integrity was left.

Gunfire erupted from the entrance way where dozen clinks were now trying to steadily aim as the structure shook and caused debris to fall on top of them. Henry was already carrying Lucy in his arms as the two joined me towards the exit created by the grenade, dodging the debris as it fell around us.

The opening was still too tall to simply vault through so Henry had to help Lucy over the edge of the gap, while I stood there taking the attention away from them. My foot jolted unintentionally to the left as a bullet knocked one of the toes off my foot. The clinks would not let up even though the building was falling on top of them.

I fired back at the group of clinks, tearing those apart that were unlucky enough to be out in the open. The clink that was shot first by my volley spazzed out and fell to the floor after a piece of debris landed on his head. The clink who I fired on next managed to land a shot on hip, only managing to take off some fabric and an inch of my synthetic shell. When I fired back its head exploded and sent it wandering aimlessly, firing in every direction since its sensors were no longer existent.

By the time I was aiming at my third target, Henry was shouting gibberish at me that I took as a sign that it was my turn to leave.

Henry was waiting with a hand out at the edge of the gap. In the seconds it took me to jump, one bullet smashed the wall in front of my face and another knocked the rifle out of my hands, sending it flying in two separate pieces. I jumped towards Henry and felt my hand grip his. As he was pulling me up towards the edge I could feel the walls shaking as they were mere seconds away from crumbling down upon themselves, hopefully burying the clinks in rubble when they did.

Before I was able to pull myself through the gap, something moving through the air hit my temple and sent my sensors haywire before I was shut down. 

Next Chapter: Chapter Ten: Norman