2 #2
Jason stayed pressed against the bars of his cell, his hands still reaching toward the empty corridor. "Mira," he whispered. "Mira, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Then he slumped against the bars and started to cry, his shoulders shaking with the weight of his loss.
Aiden watched him and felt something shift in his chest. He had been angry before, furious at the guards and the system and the whole twisted nightmare he had been dragged into.
But this was different. This was the kind of anger that settled deep, that burned slow and steady, that would not fade until something was done about it.
He turned away from the bars and sat down on the hard bench. Marcus was watching him with a strange expression, something between respect and wariness.
"You shouldn't have done that," Marcus said. "Drawing attention to yourself. That guard will remember you."
"Let him remember me," Aiden said. "I want him to remember me."
Marcus shook his head. "That's not how you survive."
"Then tell me how you survive. Tell me what I'm supposed to do when I see someone crying and begging and no one helps them."
Marcus opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. He looked at Aiden for a long moment, and something in his face shifted, like he was seeing Aiden for the first time.
"You really mean it," Marcus said. "You're not going to stop fighting."
"I'm not going to stop," Aiden agreed. "I'm going to find Melissa. I'm going to get her out of here. And then I'm going to find a way home. That's what I'm going to do."
Marcus nodded slowly. "Okay. Then let me help you. I've been watching these guards for a week. I know their patterns, their routines. I know when they're sloppy and when they're alert. I know which doors are locked and which ones are just for show."
Aiden leaned forward. "Tell me."
"Not yet. First you need to rest. You need to save your strength. When the time comes, you'll need everything you have."
Aiden wanted to argue, wanted to demand answers now, but his body was already betraying him.
The exhaustion was settling into his bones, the adrenaline fading and leaving behind a bone-deep weariness that made his eyelids heavy.
He had been awake for hours, maybe days, he could not tell anymore.
The fight with the guard, the shock from the collar, the fear and the rage and the desperate hope that Melissa was still alive. It was all catching up with him.
He lay down on the hard bench and closed his eyes.
The hum of the ship vibrated through the metal, and he could hear Jason still crying in the next cell, his sobs muffled by the bars.
Aiden thought about Mira and the look on her face when the guards dragged her away.
He thought about Jason reaching for her, his hands stretching through the metal with nothing to hold onto.
He thought about Melissa, somewhere on this ship, scared and alone and calling his name.
He was going to find her. He was going to save her. He was not going to let her end up like Mira, dragged away to a fate she did not deserve.
The hum of the ship grew louder in his ears, and the darkness behind his eyelids deepened. He drifted into a restless sleep, filled with images of white light and golden hair and a hand reaching for him that he could never quite grasp.
When he woke, he did not know how much time had passed. The lights in the cell were the same harsh white, and the hum was the same steady pulse. Marcus was still sitting against the wall, his eyes open and watchful. Jason had stopped crying, or maybe he had just run out of tears.
Aiden sat up and rubbed his face. "How long was I out?"
"Hard to say," Marcus said. "A few hours maybe. The guards came through once. They didn't bother us."
Aiden nodded and stood up, stretching his aching muscles. His body was stiff and sore, his knuckles still raw from punching the guard, his head still throbbing from the collar shock. But the anger was still there, burning low and steady in his chest.
"Is Jason okay?" Aiden asked.
Marcus shook his head. "He's not okay. He won't be okay for a long time. But he's alive. That's something."
Aiden walked to the bars and looked into the cell next to his. Jason was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, his face buried in his hands. He did not look up when Aiden approached.
"Hey," Aiden said. "Jason. You okay?"
Jason lifted his head, and his eyes were red and swollen. "They took her. They took Mira."
"I know. I saw."
"She's all I had. She's been with me since we were kids. We were going to get married. We had plans."
Aiden felt the words hit him like a punch to the chest. He thought about the ring in his pocket, the plans he had made, the future he had been so certain of. He thought about the look on Melissa's face when she had said I love you, so easy, so natural.
"Me too," he said. "I was going to propose to my girlfriend. Tomorrow. I had it all planned out."
Jason looked at him, something like recognition flickering in his hollow eyes. "What happened to her?"
"I don't know. She's somewhere on this ship. They took her to the female wing."
Jason nodded slowly. "They're going to sell her. Like they sold Mira."
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
Jason stared at him for a long moment. "You're going to fight them?"
"I'm going to try."
Jason looked down at his hands, still shaking in his lap. "I wish I had your courage. I couldn't even stop them from taking her. I just stood there and watched."
"You did what you could. You screamed. You fought. That counts for something."
Jason shook his head. "It doesn't count for anything. She's still gone."
Aiden did not have an answer for that. He stood at the bars for a long time, looking at Jason's broken face, and he felt the anger in his chest grow hotter.
This was what the system did. It took people and broke them and threw away the pieces.
It turned men like Jason into hollow shells and women like Mira into commodities.
It had taken Melissa from him, and it would take everything else if he let it.
But he was not going to let it.
He turned away from the bars and walked back to the bench. Marcus was watching him with that same careful expression.
"You're going to do something stupid," Marcus said.
"Probably."
"Just make sure it's the right kind of stupid. The kind that keeps you alive."
Aiden sat down on the bench and looked at his hands.
The knuckles were already starting to heal, the skin pulling tight over the scrapes.
He flexed his fingers and thought about the guard's face breaking under his fist. He thought about the satisfaction he had felt, brief and bright, before the collar had dropped him to his knees.
"I'm going to find a way out," he said. "I don't know how yet. But I'm going to find one. And when I do, I'm going to find Melissa, and I'm going to get her out of here."
Marcus nodded. "Then we need to start planning. I've been watching the guards, like I said. I know when they change shifts. I know which doors are locked and which ones aren't. I know the layout of this ship better than they think."
Aiden looked up at him. "You've been planning this all along."
"I've been thinking about it," Marcus said. "I haven't had the courage to act on it. But maybe with two of us, we stand a chance."
Aiden nodded. "Then tell me. Tell me everything."
Marcus leaned forward, his voice dropping low.
"Here's what I know. The guards change shifts every six hours.
There's a fifteen-minute window where the corridor is empty.
The door to the main corridor is locked, but the lock is old.
I've seen it jam twice. If we could get out of these cells, we could make it to the access tunnel.
From there, the female wing is three levels down. "
"How do we get out of the cells?"
Marcus pointed to the ceiling. "There's a panel up there. It leads to the ventilation shaft. The guards don't know about it. It's too small for them to fit."
Aiden looked up at the panel, barely visible in the harsh light. "That's our way out?"
"That's our way out. But we need to wait for the right moment. The guards have to be distracted. And we need to be ready to move fast."
Aiden nodded slowly, his mind already racing ahead.
He thought about Melissa, somewhere on this ship, waiting for him.
He thought about the ring in his pocket, the promise he had not yet made.
He thought about the look on her face when he found her, the hope that would bloom in her eyes when she realized he had not given up.
"I'm ready," he said. "Just tell me when."
Marcus looked at him, and something like respect flickered across his face. "Soon," he said. "Very soon."
Aiden leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. The hum of the ship filled his ears, and the cold metal pressed against his back, and he let himself feel the anger burning in his chest. It was the only thing keeping him warm. It was the only thing keeping him alive.
He was going to find Melissa. He was going to save her. And then he was going to ask her to marry him, the way he had always planned.
The hum of the ship vibrated through his bones, and Aiden waited, patient and still, for the moment when he would finally move.