Chapter 20
Lara Stella woke up to water dripping on her face. She blinked several times, spreading a wet film across her vision, and saw a jumbled haze of pipes and debris. She sat up and blinked the water out of her eyes and rubbed them dry. A sharp pain lashed through her side, as if a dagger had been jammed into her ribs.
She looked down at her side and saw a gash. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was ghastly and purple. With every move, it sent radiations of pain throughout her body.
Her energy was critically low.
Beyond critical.
She was sitting against a crumbling wall. Steam escaped from a pipe overhead in a mad whistle, warming the air. Part of the ceiling was on the ground. She could see the floor above her—the remains of a command center, the place where she, Brocc, and the rest o
