Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

ARI

So. A pit. Very creative.

Ari craned his neck back, squinting into the artificial light above. At his level, the walls were smooth stone but appeared to be rougher farther up. The pit was too narrow to fly out. He could climb.

Flexing his fingers, Ari hardened them, letting the nails elongate into claws. Rock climbing came naturally to his people, almost as naturally as flying. He slammed his claws into the wall, getting a strong enough hold to pull himself up. Concrete crumbled as he climbed upward. His shoulders ached, still not fully healed from the tumble he took two days ago. How was that only two days ago? So much had happened with Carla that it had to have been a lifetime, not a single shared night and a handful of hours.

Bit by bit, he rose out of the shadows into the light. He neared the transition into natural stone. The climb would be easier once he had a proper rock to grip.

From above, the wall sprung a leak. A perfect arc of water splashed down onto his head. His hand slipped, and he fell to the bottom.

A trap triggered by proximity.

“Very creative,” Ari muttered.

Water collected at the bottom of the pit, failing to drain away.

Ari climbed again. This time, the rock retracted into the wall. He was rewarded with more water and another fall.

A puzzle. This pit was a puzzle.

Ari made it farther up the wall this time. The puzzle tested his memory of which stones were safe and which to avoid. Just as his confidence grew, the stone he grabbed crumbled under his grip, leaving a gap in the wall.

He fell, and he was not alone.

The creatures fell from above, landing on his arms and shoulders. Ari shook them off, throwing them into the water. Orange flashed in the darkness. He was far from an expert on the venomous creatures of the planet, but he recognized that distinctive diamond pattern. He read about them in a tattered old wildlife field guide that Miriam left behind on the ship.

At this point, the water was mid-calf, and he realized the true nature of this pit. It wasn’t a puzzle to be solved to escape. It was a test to determine which manner he would choose for his own death.

Shift to stone to be impervious to the serpent’s bites and be too heavy to swim and drown? Or remain in his soft skin form to tread water but risk being bitten and die that way?

Remaining in his current form had a chance of survival, but if he failed, his death would be agony.

Fangs sank into his calf, the pain sharp and erasing all sensible thought. He grabbed the serpent, its body twisting and coiling while its jaws snapped. Enraged, he bashed it against the wall until it stopped moving.

Now, his only choice was to sit, waiting for the venom to take effect while he drowned, or continue to climb, causing the venom to move faster throughout his body.

CARLA

This was happening too fast. She needed to stall.

Carla grabbed the shell cracker from the table and brandished it at Tavat like a knife.

His quills went down, unimpressed. “You think that can injure me? I have scales .”

“Crushing damage. If I get a finger, it’ll hurt.” She flexed her hand, working the cracker for maximum crackiness. Look, she used the tools at hand.

He snatched the cracker from her hand, making a triumphant noise. That was fine. Carla grabbed a handful of feathery quills and yanked.

The quills came out with a gasp of shock, followed by a squint and a growl that she felt down in her soul.

He moved towards her, menace radiating with every step.

Carla backed away, keeping the table between them.

The lights went red, and an alarm sounded. “Perimeter breach.”

Finally.

Kronkee rushed in. “Master, an unauthorized ship has landed.” He gasped. “You’ve been disfigured.”

Tavat caught Carla, grabbing her roughly by the upper arm and squeezing tightly enough to bruise her. “What did you do?”

Carla smiled. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You think I have the time or patience for your games? Shoot her.” He released her, shoving her away. “This one bores me.”

A grin spread across Kronkee’s face like nothing would please him more.

Shit, she was gonna die.

“Fine, fine!” Carla held up her hands in surrender, still holding the quills. “Ari didn’t think you’d let us walk away, so we bought protection.”

Turns out you can solve a lot of problems by throwing money at it. Ari threw a pile of untraceable credits to hired mercenaries—as per her original idea.

“Impossible. A code is required to bypass security,” Kronkee said.

“It’s also a little shortsighted to think we wouldn’t share the security code, not when it was good for an entire day. Those things really should be single use,” Carla snapped. Really. “The captain was very keen to take this job. Personal reasons, but I didn’t ask. Do you want to know his fee?”

“Mercenaries. They are only interested in credits,” Tavat said.

“Yes, exactly, which is good news for you,” Carla replied, taking a step back and angling herself to keep an eye on both Tavat and his minion.

“Female, cease talking?—”

“You’re right. You don’t want to know the fee. It’s pretty insulting monetarily but oddly flattering when you consider how much he must loathe you. We’re basically paying for supplies and fuel. I don’t think the crew was too thrilled with a small payday, but not my monkeys, not my circus, you know.”

Yes, she was stalling. The key to an escape was to make sure your opponent was too busy to chase after you. She’d throw out every confusing idiom she could if it bought her just a half minute more.

“But the good news for you is that you can buy your way out of this situation. Give me Poppy’s controller, and I’ll give you the hailing frequency to negotiate with the captain.”

An explosion rocked the room. Dust fell from the ceiling.

“Oh my, I think they’re here,” Carla said.

Shouts came from the corridor, followed by the sound of multiple people running. Things were getting interesting.

Poppy lurched toward Tavat, a feral look on her face. It hurt to see her friend like that. Poppy was gone. Carla could run and save her own hide, leaving Poppy behind, but as soon as she thought about it, she knew it was impossible. Poppy would never leave her behind.

This will get us both killed.

Guards filed in, surrounding Tavat and pointing their guns at Carla.

“Interested in that trade?” Carla asked, unbothered as she twirled the quills between her fingers. “The code for the remote control.”

Tavat was pissed. His eyes narrowed, and his tail lashed from side to side in a display of genuine emotion.

“Very well,” he said. “For all the good it will do you.”

He tossed the controller onto the table.

She grabbed it and a flower from the centerpiece for good measure, then recited a string of numbers. “Now, what did you do to Ari?”

“You are in no position to make demands. Find him yourself.” Tavat dismissed her with a flick of his wrist.

Well, she should have seen that one coming.

“How hard can it be?” she muttered, stuffing the flower and quills down the front of her dress for safekeeping. “Come on, Poppy.”

The remote had a single button. Carla pressed it, causing Poppy to lurch forward and to give a little cry of anguish, which hurt Carla’s soul.

They made it to the corridor when Poppy drifted away. Pressing the remote just made her go forward. That worked well enough until Poppy got turned around. The overhead lights went out. Backup lights came on, casting an amber glow.

Carla did her best to navigate the maze that was the villain’s lair, all curves and no straight path, in reduced lighting while herding a zombie. She had studied the schematics of the compound and memorized the route to the area marked “laboratory,” but it was too easy to get turned around. A flashing sign would be nice but no, just one curving hallway after another with mood lighting.

She didn’t have much time to wander around Tavat’s lair looking for Ari. The plan had been that she would find Poppy, likely held in the lab ongoing her zombification process. Now she had Poppy but no Ari. She’d bet her last dime that Ari was in the lab.

The sounds of gunfighting got closer, and smoke drifted in the air.

“I don’t suppose you have any idea where the lab is, do you?” Carla asked. Poppy moaned. “Yeah, well, it’s not a perfect system. I expected to find you in the lab, not serving drinks. Do you remember the way?”

The fighting got closer. Shots echoed off stone walls. Sparks flew at the end of the corridor. Carla looked for an open door, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.

The first door she tried was locked. Typical. The second door opened into a medical suite.

Lighting had been reduced to amber emergency lights. Banging came from the back.

Carla put a hand over her chest, checking that the flower blossom was still in place. One flower had enough oomph to keep Poppy from trying to eat her face, but was it enough for more?

Well, she had zero interest in being a zombie chew toy.

Carla grabbed an empty metal tray and crept forward. Aim for the head; that was what movies taught her.

A row of cages lined the far wall, each occupied by a person. The glow from a monitor cast barely enough light to make out the details. Wings. Tails. Waxy complexions drained of normal color. The shadows hid algae growth, but Carla knew it was there.

“Ari?” she whispered. She felt positive she’d recognize his shape even in the poor lighting, but better safe than sorry.

No response from any of the cage occupants.

Carla sat down at the monitor. The screen was filled with live feeds of various cages and rooms. She found the keyboard and tabbed through the feeds. The occupants’ eyes had a spooky glow from the combination of emergency lighting and low-resolution cameras. Some tried to escape, looking for a weakness in the cages. Some prowled their cages. The worst were the ones that sat motionless. Those were the ones completely lost.

There.

Carla paused. That was Ari. The camera angle was high, looking down as if he were in a pit or a hole.

Okay, good. Well, not good, but he was alive and somewhere nearby. She could work with that.

Tray in hand, Carla crept into the dark. She found the door that connected the lab with the area on the monitors. She hurried past the cages, the occupants not deterred by her flower at all. One blossom was not potent enough, or there wasn’t enough pollen. Poppy still seemed under control and not too ravenous for brains, but maybe that was a tired old zombie stereotype.

Cages gave way to isolated rooms. She peered into a window embedded into a door. A figure rushed the window, causing her to jump in surprise and drop the tray. Poppy did not like that.

“Sorry. Not that room,” she said, picking up the tray.

The third room was unoccupied, with a dark patch in the center of the floor. Bingo.

The power went out completely, plunging them into darkness.

Locks disengaged, and Carla really wanted to have a word with whoever thought electronic locks were good enough for a zombie holding pen.

Maybe… maybe the power would come back on. Zombies weren’t exactly the most aware of their surroundings; they might not even notice their cages were unlocked. Soon. The power had to come back on soon.

No such luck.

Somewhere nearby, a door opened slowly, the hinges creaking.

“You better be in this room,” she muttered, pushing open the door. She debated closing it, but she didn’t want to risk being locked in if the power came back.

In the dark, she shuffled forward, feeling each step with her toes, searching for a drop -off.

When she found it, she kneeled and felt for the edge with her hands. “Hello down there!” she called.

“Carla, you should not be here,” a familiar voice drifted upward. Relief and happiness surged through her as Ari’s voice echoed off the pit’s walls.

“Yeah, I know, but it’s complicated.” She paused; a groan and the sound of hands pawing at the door made her glance over her shoulder to the doorway. “Look, I’m coming down.”

“No. Do not come down here. I will come to you.”

There was a snarl and the sound of a large body slamming into another. Carla wanted to say that Poppy was protecting her, but it was probably just territorial instinct. The room was about to get crowded and bitey.

“Sorry, that’s not really an option,” she said, not bothering to hide the fear in her voice.

“I will come to you,” he repeated.

Something touched her. Carla screamed.

No time.

She jumped.