Chapter 3

She shrugged on her pack, securing it over her long coat. It was too dark yet to tell that morning had arrived, but the little watch she was given with her pack vibrated softly, telling her it was time to leave for her shift.

She'd hardly slept last night, hearing prisoners moving around the passageways, making noise. It had kept her on alert in those late hours. She started to wonder if she was going to have to move along sooner than later.

Quickly, she turned off her heat lamp and stashed it with her other tools into a small alcove in the rock. As she left her cave, she put on her helmet and started straight for a passage to the outside. Light was already beginning to break from the split open canopy above, what she'd heard called the spine.

Outside the wind caught her firmly but she didn't hesitate. She made her way past a row of sharp rocks and a set of giant bones from a creature she didn't want to imagine. Drones hovered above, watching prisoners make their way into the working sector. Ria followed them down until she was forced to walk with the groups heading inside.

In the food hub, she kept her head down, getting in line for the usual gruel that was given over by menacing-looking bots. From across the wide open area of tables, she caught the sight of Draka's men—mostly ashora—by another doorway. Other prisoners were gathered around as they spoke. She couldn't hear what they said, but whatever it was, it caught the attention of many.

When she picked her gruel up off the counter where the robot set it, she bee-lined for the outside.

She found her small hidey-hole at the back of the hub, behind a garbage compactor, against a wall closest to the kitchen and ovens where it was just a tiny bit warmer. She took off her helmet and threw her hood over her before digging into her bowl, eating as quickly as possible.

"Sick of this crap," someone cursed on the other side of the compactor. Ria stiffened, her hand flying immediately to her helmet. Feet crunched from one side to the other but didn't travel around to her. She heard a bowl clatter against the ground. A low grunt followed. "I need some more viluum. This stuff is starting to make me sick."

"That's the withdrawal," someone hissed back.

"Yeah, I need another supply, but Graal's pack isn't sellin'. Don't know what to do."

"Heard you can get a vial of it from Draka. He and his pack are looking for a new guy. Get in and you get access to his supply."

"Really?"

"Jaxis, one of their oldest members, just got sacked by the bonelickers. They're looking to replace him. Need some kind of chemical engineer."

The other snorted. "What are they cooking up in there, you think?

"Won't say, but it isn't viluum. I heard they get that supply some other way. Probably through a trade. My guess is it has something to do with fuel they want for whatever they might be keeping inside their territory."

"Heat has been shutting off more and more lately. People are going savage for the territories around the steam vents, but packs aren't budging."

"He's got plenty of those too. Who knows, he might be trying to use them for something else."

"Too bad I'm no chemist. I'd soon blow this place sky high."

They both laughed. She heard them move on, hearing their voices mixing with others as they left for the work buildings.

Ria sat unmoving for a moment, then quickly finished her meal. Too bad she had such expertise, but she was the wrong specimen to be helping someone like Draka.

Maybe if he hadn't scared the shit out of her at the pool, she would have been naive enough to try, hoping he'd spare her any harm. But she wasn't stupid, and she had no reason to trust him.

She set her bowl aside and put her helmet back on, moving out of the shadow of the hub and off toward the water treatment plant.

She cleared her head of anything but her work for the next several hours, mixing solutions, testing the water, then moving the tanks on to the next section to be packed off, ready to be taken off world. Sure, some of it remained behind for them, at least the stuff that was left after a day, but most was sent out to more civilized planets, bottled up, and put on sale for just a few credits, calling it clean mineral water from the crystal lakes of some blue mountainside on a planet without chemical poisons or diseases.

It was a crock of shit of course, but the civilians bought into it, not knowing who was making it. The other buildings were the same. Products made by prisoners and sent out. It was the prison system's way of keeping them busy and hopefully distracting prisoners from more "unsavory" hobbies or keeping them from fighting. Neither worked of course, but the wardens didn't really care as long as the product got made.

At least she wasn't in the mines. She'd heard those were to the east and the heat and steam that billowed out from below seared off skin. Sometimes monstrous things woke up from the deep and ate groups whole. Most times people just fell into the earth.

Yeah, it could definitely be worse for her.

Before she knew it, the light was fading and her shift was done. She made for the hub once more and ate her food the same way she had in the morning, then she started back for her cave, avoiding everyone as best she could.

She'd been lucky this time to have stolen an extra piece of bread and a small block of graidon, a chalky substance that when melted was close enough to eating cheese. With that and her canteen filled up with warm water, she tried to appreciate the little things. She'd hunker down like she always did, with her little heat lamp, sharpen her blade at her side, and maybe try to make a durable knot to tie around it so she could practice throwing without losing her weapon. She'd practice every night so if she ever needed to use it in an attack, she'd be capable.

It didn't take long to get back into the caverns and make her way down the usual path. When she got to the entrance of her little cave, however, she knew something was wrong right away.

The flap was torn off. She took out her knife and cautiously slipped inside. When her boot crunched on glass, she knew someone had gotten inside and broken her heat lamp. Her hooks and rope were all gone.

She let out an angry cry, hitting her blade against the cave wall. Scavengers must have found her hideout. Now she didn't have that little warmth or light to see by.

Which meant going out again and scavenging.

Cursing, she secured her knife back on her belt and turned out of the cave. She would have to move too, since the cave might hold her scent and most of the aliens had a much better nose than hers.

For now she'd just have to find a place to sleep. Then tomorrow she'd go out again after her shift and look around.

She made her way out by a different path, up into the spine, and on to the surface from there. From the top, she could see around her. By the little light still left, she could see the buildings scattered around the side of the mountain, some dipping down into a valley. She looked away from the mountain toward a small cluster of buildings along the cliffside of a low hill with an old watch tower some ways off, trying to remember if a pack held them or not. Going into another territory at this hour was reckless, but she had to find shelter before nightfall.

She stood there for a few minutes considering, then decided to take the chance.

Crossing around the edge of the main sector, she crept up the hill, keeping watch for any wanderers. When she got close to the set of buildings, she ducked down by a wall and waited to see if anything moved.

The only thing that stirred was a torn-up flag in the wind. Nothing moved inside either. She slipped silently past the wall and across a barren courtyard into the largest of the buildings.

What she expected to find—and feared to find—was sleeping inmates, lying low. What she found instead was mostly empty rooms. One after another. She slipped down halls and through doorways, seeing nothing of value. The building was empty from what she could tell, the windows were broken out, and there was evidence that people had been inside, but at the moment there was no one to be seen.

It would probably do just fine for the night if she found a room she could barricade. Or maybe the tower was still intact enough to climb.

As she came into a large central room, she slowed, looking up at a broken-in ceiling where icicles hung down from the roof, dripping water below. Her gaze followed the water down and halted.

In the middle of the room were several dozen crates. She gaped at them, absently pinching herself, glad to find she wasn't dreaming. She stepped around the crates and lifted the lid off one.

Boxes of food. Stuff she hadn't even seen in the hub. How the hell the packs got a hold of some items, she'd never figure out. But she wasn't going to stand around just staring.

If the food was here, it meant she was definitely in someone's territory, and they would be back. She should leave, but the temptation to search around was stronger. She went through other crates and found more food stuff, along with canteens, clothes, and—oh, hell yes—a big heat lamp.

Take what you can now and get out of dodge, she thought. Just a few things. She wouldn't have time to look through it all. In another life, she wouldn't be so ready to steal. But now she didn't think twice. Survive or die was all one could expect in this hellhole.

She opened her bag and pushed down her spare clothes to make room. Then she started grabbing what she could and stuffing it inside. Food, mostly, with an extra canteen and some kind of digital compass. The heat lamp, she fastened to one strap. She zipped the bag up, looked around one last time, then hurried out of the room.

She encountered no one as she weaved her way out of the building, which was a miracle in itself. But it also worried her. Why would the crates just be lying there with no one watching? Someone should have been keeping guard.

Soon after she thought it and stepped outside, she had her answer.

"I walk away for one second and some little insect comes crawling," came a voice behind her.

She whirled around and something hard hit her across the face, sending her flying sideways across the courtyard. Her helmet flew right off, rolling across the ground several feet away.

She saw stars, pain burning across her face from the blow and along her thigh from hitting the hard earth.

"A human?" the attacker hissed, sounding shocked.

She blinked several times and looked up to see a huge lizard staring down at her, black and blue scaled with orange eyes and short stubby horns across their head. An uugari, she realized. Usually not very clever, but this one might be an exception to the rule.

They bared their teeth at her in what she could only guess was a delightful grin. "The human Draka seeks. I'll bet my spurs on it."

She tried to scramble away, but he caught her ankle and pulled her back. "Brightburn gods favor us at last," they hissed. "Margrul will piss himself with happiness."

Margrul.

She glanced at the uugari's clothes, blue-black attire with pads across the chest and along the arms and legs. A belt similar to hers. And on one arm, a band, similar to the kind Draka's men wore only instead of the spiny green star drawn at the center, it was three curved, black claws dipped with red.

She'd never seen the infamous pack leader, but she'd heard his name enough times and seen the brutality of his men—only matched by Draka's own—to know who he was.

A really big problem.

Panic flooded her. She kicked their hand away and pushed herself to her feet. She started to run, but the reptile rushed her and caught her with ease, ripping the bag right off her, items falling from the torn opening. They wrapped their arms around her, lifting her off the ground. She struggled in their grasp, squirming, yelping in pain at their crushing grip. She kicked behind her, trying to hit something solid, and met her target right between the legs.

The uugari barked in pain, their arms loosening. She pulled her arm out and elbowed them in the throat and the mouth. They growled deep and let her go. As she stumbled forward, they lunged and swiped at her.

Their claws ripped through both her coats and clothes underneath, sinking into the skin of her shoulder. She screamed in pain and crumbled to her knees. They went for her again and she rolled away onto her stomach. The pain blinded her, but a primal need to fight or flee forced her to keep moving. She went for her knife, unsheathing it and holding it close to her chest. When the uugari turned on her again, she rolled onto her back.

They came down on her, ready to tear her apart. She threw up her arm as she turned her face away, striking her knife upward.

She felt her blade pierce something hard. The uugari froze, and she looked up to see that her knife had sunk into the side of their neck, just below the jaw.

Their eyes widened, and they tore away from her, black blood trailing across the ground. She sat up, putting a hand over her shoulder, feeling the warmth of her own blood soaking into her coats.

The uugari stumbled back, then fell to their knees. They bared their teeth at her again, now stained with black. Their eyes held enraged disbelief, then started to cloud. They dropped to their side and, a moment later, went limp.

Ria sat there staring, too shocked to move. Then she came to her senses. She needed to go. Right now.

She rose carefully to her feet, still clutching her shoulder. Cautiously, she stepped closer to the uugari, standing over them.

They were dead. She was sure of it. Black blood pooled beneath them, their mouth hanging open, eyes sightlessly aimed up toward the sky.

She crouched down and pulled her knife from their throat, blood dripping onto their clothes. Her hand shook as she straightened up, trying to come to terms with what just happened.

She had defended herself. That's what happened. They came at her, hurt her, and she had been forced to fight back. She hadn"t expected to kill them. It made her stomach turn. But relief also flooded her because they couldn't hurt her again. They couldn't take her to Margrul.

The sound of crunching ice and rock made her look up. Another of Margrul's followers stood a few yards away, staring at her. They saw her face, saw the knife in her hand, saw the body at her feet.

The only thing that went through her head then was to run. So, she did. She bolted out of the courtyard and away from the buildings, running back toward the caves as the last of the light slipped away.

She didn't go back to her cave but instead found a narrow chamber that she hoped most of the others wouldn't be able to fit through with a small crack in the ceiling where the light of the moon slipped through. She had left all her possessions behind. Her bag, her helmet, the heat lamp. She sat in the dark, wanting to cry but knowing tears wouldn't help. Instead, she tore the ends of her long coat that she still had wrapped around her and used it to stop the blood still seeping from her shoulder. From what she could assess, the wound wasn't deep, only because it had to go through several pairs of clothes first to get to her skin.

Shallow or not, she was in danger of infection. She had lost her water canteen too, so she had no way to wash it properly.

She cursed herself for going into the building, for getting greedy and thinking she had any chance of taking all those items without consequence. She had to be smarter than that. But she felt like the biggest idiot in the world.

With little else to do, she slumped down against a wall and fell asleep.

Sometime later, she woke again with a start, the moonlight still seeping in. She had no idea what time it was, but something told her it wasn't even close to morning.

She sat still in the dark and realized what had made her wake so quickly. She heard voices and footsteps close by.

Shivering, she rose, groaning. Her muscles ached and her shoulder still burned, but she forced herself to her feet, to walk over to the narrow entrance and peek out.

A glow of an orange light shot through the dark and she saw a couple of silderhydes walking past.

"They're out in droves hunting," one hissed to the other. "Bigger bounty than Draka's."

She stiffened, listening.

"Dead or alive?" the other asked.

"Both want her alive."

She closed her eyes. She knew Margrul's man would have gone to tell the pack what he'd seen. She'd hoped that the uugari she killed hadn't been worth the need for revenge. Clearly she was wrong. Now two of the largest packs in the prison were out for her blood.

And she had no way to hide.

"Is Serval back from the mines yet?" she heard one say.

"Yes. He's brought gifts back with him. Caught a fight between two groups and stole away a few of their bags while they weren't looking." They laughed.

"Perfect. I want to eat before we go searching around for the bounty."

"She's defenseless, they say. Might be hiding in the caves somewhere. Put out some food to trap her."

"Good idea."

She stood with her back to the cave wall until the light began to fade. Then, before it was gone completely, she slipped out of the narrow entrance and began to follow them.

She didn't know what she planned to do, but she had to do something. Fear of being caught brought her out of hiding, forced her to take out the knife again and follow quietly behind.

As they weaved through the tunnels, eventually the silderhyde pair ducked into a low entrance of another cave. It was wide enough that she could peer around it and see inside.

There she saw the little group of them huddling around. Another entrance could be seen curving around the opposite side, leading out of the caverns. They greeted each other and crouched around the several heat lamps that sat around the room. She didn't pay attention to their conversations but instead drew her focus to the bags huddled to one wall along with a stack of clothes and a couple helmets, used by those who worked in the mines.

She waited in the dark, knife poised as they took out food bars they'd also stolen and scarfed them down.

"You think she's close?"

"I say we try the entrance to the west. There's a stream there."

"Yes, good idea."

"Let's go and get a head start."

She backed away, ready to hide as they came out, but they left through the other tunnel opposite. Only two remained behind to watch their things.

She might be able to take them if she wasn't already injured. They were smaller than her, but they could be vicious when they wanted to be.

Instead she waited patiently for a better opportunity. They hung around playing some game using bones and rock gems from the mines. They talked and ate some more. A few times she thought about charging in but caught herself every time. Just a little longer…

Eventually one left to go piss outside, leaving the other alone. It was her best shot.

Carefully she crouched forward and slipped inside. The silderhyde had his back turned. She didn't want to have to kill again if she could help it, so she flipped her knife around with the butt of it facing away from her. She got a few feet away when the alien caught sight of her. They screeched at her, jumping away.

She fully expected them to attack. Instead they screeched louder, hoping their brother would hear.

"The human! The human is here!"

No time to try and stop them, so she went for the goods. She sheathed her knife, then grabbed a bag, a coat, and one of the helmets.

They didn't stop her, and she knew now it was because they were scared of her. They saw the knife, they knew what she'd done, and they were alone, a better fighter in a group than on their own.

So, she took the opportunity and ran with it. She ran like hell back the way she came.

She flew down one tunnel after another until she found herself back at the narrow hole she had found. She slipped back in, praying they wouldn't be able to track her.

She hunkered down and once again waited, ready to hear the sounds of footsteps and cries. But nothing came. Still, she couldn't stay. Quickly she opened the bag and searched inside. She found a canteen and drank heavily from it before putting it back. She shucked off her old coats and shirt, then searched through the bag for something to wrap her shoulder in. She found an old scarf and used that, ripping it and wrapping it around her chest then across her bad shoulder and under her arm, tying it tight. She searched some more and found a stretchy long-sleeved undershirt and put it on. Then she shrugged on the thick, long coat, a deep green instead of the black one she had, with a furry hood. She didn't spend much more time digging around. She needed to get out before others came looking for her. She zipped up the bag and swung it over her shoulder, then she gripped the helmet in one hand and made for the exit.

It took her forever to get out of the caves. She had to go slow and hide several times as prisoners searched for her. A few times, she had to take out her knife again, certain she was going to get caught and forced to fight again, but each time they moved on. She realized her coat reeked of something she couldn't place but it must have been deterring them the other way.

When she finally made it out, she put the helmet on and started to walk. Not toward the city but the mountain.

While she had hidden and waited within the caverns, she'd come to a very ugly conclusion. Eventually she would get caught. No matter how much she ran, someone would find her. She needed protection and she needed it fast.

But no pack could protect her from the two that sought her out. They were too powerful, too deadly. No pack would take on the risk. So, she had to make a decision.

She knew Margrul would kill her slowly for taking the life of one of his men. Or use her in some awful way. Draka might do the same. But unlike Margrul, she hadn't killed one of his members. Hadn't tried to steal from him. The problem with Draka was he was psychotic. He scared her too, but he was the only other one who might protect her from Margrul.

But she didn't have to go to him on her knees begging. What she had planned was crazy in itself. But she'd rather try something than nothing at all.

She tested her helmet as she walked, to see if the communicator on it worked.

"Hello," she spoke. She brought her fingers up to a soft button on the side and repeated her words, testing her voice at different frequencies. It was meant to make her voice clearer, but instead she dialed it down so it was lower and more grating. Like a male's.

It wasn't going to work. He'd force her to take the helmet off and reveal herself. But she had to try. As she climbed the mountainside, the moons rising above her, she made up a story that she hoped would be convincing, letting her hide in plain sight.

If not…

While she'd been hiding in the caves, she'd looked into the bag again, just to see what else she could find. She'd found a pair of gloves and in one of them she'd found a vial stashed within. A highly potent vial of viluum.

Someone who took it a lot would have no issues. But if someone like her were to take the whole thing…she imagined it wouldn't take long for her to go into a full deep sleep she'd never wake from.

It was just a precaution. In case Draka proved to be as wicked as she feared him to be.