Author's Chapter Notes:
Finally. This has been sitting back far too long. *sigh* You ever got the feeling that it's good when something's over, but yet you're not ready to let go of it?
They were everywhere, swarming around and underneath the truck. Screamers. Small and vicious devices, designed to chew through anything and everything. Marie had gotten back in to the truck at last possible moment, losing only her left shoe to one of the Screamers as she had been climbing the ladder at the side of the truck. She was shivering all over, staring through the wind shield. What ever had made her so scared of him earlier seemed to be forgotten at the face of this new threat.

“What… What are those?” She stuttered rubbing her bare ankle.
“Death.” There really was no better word to describe the machines that were currently chewing their way through the heavily plated side of the truck.
“What do you mean?” She asked, turning to look at Logan who had slumped against the backrest of the driver’s seat, his fingers drumming the steering wheel.
“They probably have a fancy title, but during the first war guys used to call them Screamers.”
“Because of that whiny noise they make?”
“Because of the noise you’ll be making when they start working on you.”
“Oh.”

For a while they sat in silence. He was already beginning to regret his bluntness, but there really was no reason to sugarcoat the issue at hand.

“How do we stop them?” Marie finally asked. All business. He suppressed the urge to laugh.

He could still remember his first encounter with the Screamers. Nobody really knew who had developed them. They attacked anything and everything with a pulse. His team had been scouting an abandoned village behind enemy lines. Suddenly ground around them had started shifting. Bubbling and boiling, sand rising and swirling, terrible screeching noise echoing from the buildings around them. His quick reflexes and generally paranoid attitude had been his saving grace. While the rest of the team had grouped together to face the possible threat he had retreated to the nearest building, finding a sturdy stone floor. Transport chopper sent to retrieve his team had rescued him from there at the last possible second, heavy stone slabs crumbling from beneath him as the Screamers tried to catch him.

“We don’t.”
“Oh?”
“There’s no way to stop them. We can wait right here or step outside and get this over more quickly.”
“We’re going to die no matter what we do?”
“Yeah.”
“Uhm…”

He couldn’t tell if she was simply acknowledging the fact or trying to come up with some sort of plan that was doomed to fail from the get go. She was again staring through the wind shield, her gaze sweeping the horizon. She looked calm. Resolved somehow. He closed his eyes and swallowed, waiting for her to speak first. When she stayed silent he turned to look at her and cleared his throat.

“I… Uh… I could help you out…” He stuttered.
“How?”

He unsheathed his claws. Barrels of the lasers tore their way through his knuckles as well, adding the scent of burnt blood and flesh to the stale air around them. It would take ages from him to die. At least he could make it quicker for her. Marie turned to look at him, tears shimmering in her eyes but an honest smile tugging the corner of her lips.

“Put those away, Logan. There’s a better way for the both of us,” she said, then leaned closer to kiss him. Her lips were dry and whispered over his quickly. He could smell the scent of ozone. He could feel and taste it on his lips.

“Are you sure?” He asked, ashamed of the relieved tone of his voice. Marie nodded, her face only inches from his, their noses nearly touching. This close he could see blue dots, small speckles dancing in her irises. Like miniscule explosions.

“Are you strong enough to…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.
“Strong enough to kill myself?” Marie asked. He swallowed and nodded. Marie shrugged.
“Probably. I… I think it’s enough if I just keep going. I noticed it before. The longer I keep using the blue mist, harder it gets to turn it off. It feels almost as if I could dissolve completely if I just kept going, and…”
“That’s awful lot of if’s and maybe’s. Are you absolutely sure? I don’t want you to do that if there’s a chance that it doesn’t work. I don’t want to leave you alone with the Screamers.”
“It will work. Trust me.”

He could feel the truck trembling and shuddering around them. He could hear the sound of a tearing metal, screams and echoes of the dying shielding. Loud noise and rising stench of burning metal and ozone didn’t matter anymore. He was with Marie. She was sitting on his lap, her thighs cradling his and her fingers combing through his hair. There was no need for words. Everything had been said before.

When they more heard than saw the first Screamer getting through the floor of the cab he grasped a firm hold of her, taking her lips to a searing kiss, blue mist swirling around them, vaporizing everything at its wake.

Few moments later there was nothing left. Nothing but a metal skeleton, coated with blue substance. Wind picked up, driving the sand forward, starting the burial ceremony.
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