Chapter 40
Colt was separated from the other prisoners and placed in a holding cell that had no light. The stench of metal, gasoline, and burning oil made his stomach churn, and the cacophony of sound echoing off the walls made it impossible to orient himself.
He felt the engines rumble to life, and moments later the transport lifted off the ground. Panic fought to take hold, but Colt clung to the words that had become so familiar. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
He breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth as he waited for his eyes to adjust, but his enhanced night vision didn’t give him much of an advantage. This is where I’m supposed to be, he reminded himself. He was in a room that wasn’t much bigger than a closet, and as far as he could tell the closest thing to a door was a small vent about the size of a license plate. Not that it mattered. If he found a way to escape, it wasn’t like he could fly.
“Hello! Is anybody there? Anybody?”
The dull thud of footsteps was accompanied by muffled voices, but whatever language they were speaking, it wasn’t English. The footsteps stopped, and suddenly the wall behind him opened up. Colt felt a burst of pain as someone drove a needle through his neck. He spun around to see who was there, but his knees buckled and he fell.
He felt dizzy. Nauseated. And as he looked up he saw the silhouettes of two hulking figures standing against the bright light.
“Is that him?”
“The one they believe is the Betrayer? Yes. Yes, it is.”
The voice was deep and horrible, and Colt saw a long, lizard-like tongue slip out from the speaker’s lips as though it was tasting the air.
“He’s still wrapped in human flesh,” the second figure said. Through his blurred vision, Colt could see rich green scales, a yellow-green underbelly, and scar tissue running along its neck and shoulder and across one of its thighs.
“Where are we?” Colt was slipping into darkness. His own words sounded strange in his ears, like he was somehow speaking in slow motion. His lips felt numb and rubbery, and he could no longer feel his tongue.
Strange thoughts filled his mind as he shut his eyes. Buildings burning. People screaming. His grandfather, young again, but he was lying dead in the middle of a battlefield as German soldiers rolled past his corpse in panzer tanks. Danielle running as Thule gave chase.
“Sleep,” one of the Thule said as everything went black.