“No way I could like someone like you.”  The words were like the twist of a knife.  Hostility and aggression combined with pure, petty malice.

Sounds about right, mostly.

“Just going by looks, when you can’t see half my face?” I asked.  Without breaking eye contact, I reached up and pulled down the lower half of my mask.  “You don’t recognize me?”

I think it was more about behavior.

She didn’t glance away from my eyes.  “No.  Now move.  I will order them to attack.”

She would.  She could.

Only question, really, is why hasn’t she already?

I leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on her lips.

…

what.

She advanced closer.  Sirius growled again, and she held one hand out to stop him.

So glad they still listen to her.  This would be a disaster if the dogs were on a rampage.

Yeah, damn.

Especially considering Bentley won’t shrink until Rachel makes him.

I supposed the miasma was slower to affect them, given their mass, or the vectors it affected weren’t present or as predominant in dogs.

Makes sense.

She stepped close, until her nose was an inch from mine.  She stared unflinching into my eyes.  I met her gaze with that same unforgiving hardness.

Oh, oops. I’ve kinda been assuming she was on the back of one of the doggos.

Staring contest! 👀

“You think I’m attached to you?”

Pfft. I like this wording. It makes “attached to” sound like you could replace it with “attracted to” or “in love with”.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t ship it, but I like how that sounds. If it’s intentional, it’s even a pretty good way of subtly illustrating how much a simple emotional attachment to another human means to Rachel.

This again.  This situation seemed to be highlighting the worst parts of people and twisting others.  Amy’s paranoia, Legend’s battle instincts, Bitch’s antisocial tendencies, and my… whatever it was, that led to me trusting Jack. 

Loneliness, desire for friendship and more?

“Yeah.  I’m making that assumption,” I told her.

“Fuck you.”

I mean, negative emotional attachments are a thing too…

She advanced, and I stayed put.  Sirius growled.

“I’m not your enemy,” I said.

Firmness.

“We’ll attack you.”

“If you do, maybe the cure will get transmitted to your dog, and then to you.”

“You’re not that stupid.”

And how do you know that?

I shook my head.  “Not really.  But I don’t think you’ll attack me, either.”

Callin’ the two-ton inside-out hellhound-shaped bluff!

Could the Bentley Taylor saw earlier be a fake made by Bonesaw to sell their excuse for how they got down?

“I do.  Listen, I’ve got a cure-”

“Who the fuck are you!?”  Rachel shouted.

Time for some reintroductions, perhaps?

Or maybe you could use the cure right now.

I shut my mouth and turned to face her.

I was secretly glad the dogs hadn’t turned on her, as that probably would have meant the death of a teammate, but I was getting a firsthand look at what our enemies had to deal with.

I am not surprised that something to this effect is happening. A situation with Rachel and the doggos on the other side has been a pretty obvious eventuality for a while. The question was mostly just how it would happen and when.

The dogs were big and vicious enough that if they attacked, there wasn’t a whole lot I could have done.  Heck, Tattletale and I together couldn’t have managed much of a defense against one of the creatures, let alone three.

Yeeah, the doggos are really not something you mess with.

So hey, if Rachel has all her doggos here, why was Bentley alone earlier? Was Rachel close by? Or maybe she had to round them up one by one?

“We’re teammates,” I told her.  “I was just fighting the Nine, I’ve got a cure for this thing.”

I’m not sure people are gonna take kindly to the idea of letting another thing get used in the water if they’re not sure you’re really on their side.

“Or you’re going to kill me the second I let my guard down.”

I’d been conned by the Nine.  Tricked into letting them get access to certain information.  Bitch wouldn’t have fallen for that, but that came with the caveat that she was that much harder for us to reassure.

To be fair, she’s distrustful even on the good days.

“I can put my weapons away.  Or give them to you.”

That means so little in this world, Taylor, when the person you’re talking to doesn’t know what you might be able to do without your weapons.

Tattletale first.  She could help me find Siberian and figure out how to distribute the antidote.

Let’s hope her power does counteract the miasma. That’d make this a lot easier.

I tracked the trails of extermination smoke as I flew.  I was faster than they were, but they were elusive, staying out of sight and moving through awkward positions.  I spotted one mechanical spider moving through a trash-littered alleyway and changed my route to close in on another trail.

One down, eleven to go, and there’s a good chance it’s none of them.

My second confirmation of a mechanical spider left me with the feeling that I’d made the wrong call.

But it was too late to turn back.  It would be faster to go help Tattletale and get her assistance than to turn around and fumble along on my own.

She’d be able to help with the trails too, if you get her quickly.

They were traveling on foot, I hoped, and they still had to find Cherish.  She was bound to be in a remote spot, and they didn’t have many clues to work with.  It would take time.

True. Though when they get really close, she’ll be able to alert them to that fact with her power, so they don’t have to check inside each building.