3. Maddie
3
MADDIE
M ore figures stumbled out of the shadows one by one, moving in eerie unison. Kahdrex scrambled back from the one he’d struck, blue skin paling to a sickly green as he watched it rise to its feet, head lolling on a broken neck.
“What the zzuhd?” he said, then repeated it at a roar, snatching a heavy wrench from his tool belt and swinging it at his foe.
The thing—I really didn’t want to think of them as people—brought its arm up with far more force than I’d expected, smacking the wrench out of Kahdrex’s hand. The big alien looked as shocked as I felt, hesitating a fraction too long. With its free hand, the shambling corpse grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him closer.
Fuck it, I should let him die, I thought, but I was already moving. Cursing the loss of my blaster, I snatched my multi-tool from my belt, switching it to an industrial cutting blade and swinging it down with all my strength. The blade carved through the thing’s hardsuit, then its flesh and bone.
Even when the hand was no longer connected to the arm, it kept hold of Kahdrex. But the body changed its focus to me, and a swing of its free arm would have smashed me if Kahdrex hadn’t yanked me back and out of the way.
“What the fuck are you doing, idiot?” he snarled without looking at me. “You don’t know how to fight.”
“I’m saving your ass, dipshit,” I snapped back, looking at the thing stumbling after us. A missing hand didn’t bother it any more than a snapped neck. “That goddamned thing was about to tear out your fucking throat.”
“Stay behind me.” That was the only answer he gave, ignoring my point. My blood boiled.
“I should have let it eat you.”
“I’m not letting these things have the pleasure of killing you. You’re my prey.”
I didn’t have time to deal with the complicated emotions his phrasing sent washing through me, so I tried to ignore the butterflies unaccountably taking wing in my stomach. “We can kill each other later. Right now, let’s get to my ship and get the fuck out of here.”
Kahdrex’s pause was telling. Silence, broken only by the static hiss and the footsteps of the approaching dead.
“What did you do?” I backed away, letting him stay between me and the shamblers. “What the fuck did you do to my ship?”
“Your ship is fine! I just…might have nudged it away from the Numenon. A little.”
It was my turn for a stunned silence. Lucky, since it saved my life. Speaking, I wouldn’t have heard the footfall behind me as we backed away. Spinning, I saw a skeletal face peering out at me through a cracked helmet, elongated jaws wide, fangs glinting in the flickering light.
The static hiss roared in my ears, and I shouted something, I don’t know what. My multitool slid into the monster’s ribcage before I knew what I was doing, but the thing didn’t even slow down. It grabbed for me and I jerked back, nearly losing my tool in the hurry to get away.
I almost made it. The thing’s hand caught my wrist in an iron grip, jerking me toward it. That would have been the end of me, but Kahdrex clasped my shoulder, pulling me in the opposite direction.
For a moment, I was the rope in the universe’s most terrifying game of tug-of-war.
Then Kahdrex sent the shambler flying with a powerful kick to the stomach, dragging me away before it could recover and almost throwing me toward an armored door between a coffee shop and a tailor. I stumbled, got my feet under me, and ran. With shamblers coming from both directions along the promenade, we needed to get off the concourse and put something solid between us and them.
For a wonder, the door was still powered. It slid open when I hit the switch, so I ducked inside and reached for the emergency switch. And hesitated. The temptation to pull the switch and lock Kahdrex out was strong. Against those numbers, he might last a few minutes, but he wouldn’t stand a chance of winning.
He’d do the same to you, I told myself, but still hesitated. My hand trembled on the switch, and then the chance was past. An unaccountable sense of relief rushed through me as the alien tumbled through the open doorway, tangled with a shambler and pursued by more.
I hit the emergency seal switch, and the door shut with a resounding thump. It would need to be reset before it would open again, and while the monsters chasing us might press a button, I doubted they could work a manual restart.
That bought us time to breathe, so I looked around to see where we’d escaped to. A dim little room, shelves along two walls full of cleaning supplies. The other two each had a hatch, the one we’d entered through and its twin. I recognized the layout at once, since I’d been through one earlier.
We were in an internal airlock. One that someone had used for storage, almost certainly against regulations, but an airlock, nonetheless.
Kahdrex lay panting against the tarnished metal of the shelving. A look up and down his hard, powerful body showed no sign of injury, which was both good and absolutely the only reason I had my lingering stare. It had nothing to do with his muscular arms and… shut it, hindbrain. I am not interested in how sexy you think he is.
Even if he had saved my life. Fuck.
“What in the Void did you do?” As soon as he’d caught his breath, he did his best to remove my sympathy, glaring and throwing the blame my way.
“Me? I just came aboard. There wasn’t time to do this, even if I knew what this is,” I said, glaring right back. “What, do you think I’m some kind of necromancer?”
With a growl, he levered himself to his feet. “Maybe you are. Maybe?—”
Whatever he’d been about to accuse me of, a loud thump interrupted him and made me jump. Another thump followed and another, corpses slamming themselves into the door we’d come through.
“That hatch is an inch thick metal,” I said.
“There’s no way they’re getting through,” he agreed. Another bang and the hatch shuddered, making a grinding noise. We shared a nervous look.
“No point hanging around to find out, though.” Kahdrex looked at the other door. “Let’s get moving.”
I nodded in shaky agreement.