15 Penny
I was shaken from my sleep by a loud bang that vibrated through the walls like a distant explosion. Or maybe it was an earthquake. Did asteroids have quakes?
I rolled over and lurched to my feet, feeling only marginally better than I had when they tossed me in the observation cell in the first place. They’d at least given me more water and that alone had helped, but I still wasn’t one hundred percent.
The cell shook and a loud crackle made the readings on the glass flicker and then go out as a long hairline crack flashed down the middle of it. Being buried alive was one of my irrational fears as a child and now I was about to experience it.
The spike-headed guards sprinted down the hall, racing past my cell and shouting to one another. I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but worry sounded the same in every language.
I shot up from the corner and rushed to the glass barrier. My view was limited to a small stretch of corridor, but when lasers began streaking past, I half expected a squad of storm troopers to march into view.
Instead, the lights flickered out.
As I leaned my weight against the wall, I felt something shift. I stepped back, surprised, then pushed again.
The door was loose.
The locking mechanisms had been disengaged.
Between the flashes of laser fire and crackling shock sticks, I couldn't make out much, but I could see enough. I shoved against the door again and wedged my fingers into the narrow gap that had opened, searching for leverage.
The warped glass fought me every inch of the way, refusing to slide cleanly along its track. Still, I managed to force it open far enough to squeeze through.
Once in the hall, I flattened myself against the wall, doing my best to avoid the chaos. I took a few steady breaths, filling my tired lungs before making my move.
On the floor ten paces away was a guard, a big hole blown in his chest. It smelled foul, like burned fat and plastic.
I staggered toward him, crouching to pick up the gun he had in his hand, and then slammed my back against the opposite wall in case another firefight broke out.
Looking at the gun, I tried to figure out how it worked, turning it one way and then the other in an attempt to decipher its function.
Deep voices thundered down the hall. Voices that sounded almost mechanical, like they were being filtered through something.
The passage was hazy with smoke, but I could still make out a group of large, formidable figures covered in skin-tight, silver-green suits that mimicked muscle striations with an outer layer that stretched in a hundred deliberate directions like webbing.
They carried strange rifles, but they all had a utility belt with multiple weapons sheathed on their hips and thighs.
The bottom half of their faces were covered in a conforming mask like a compact breather, leaving only their black eyes exposed.
As they passed me, a couple of them gave me an elongated glance before regaining focus and marching onward in unison.
I felt like if I moved, they’d fire on me, so I stayed put, watching them gain distance.
If they were the reason the guards were dead, I was going to let them do their business unbothered.
Remembering what I was supposed to be doing, I started fiddling with the rifle again, wishing I could learn alien technology a little faster.
I checked both directions down the hall and waited until the corridor fell silent and empty before making my choice.
Ultimately, I wanted to be behind the strange soldiers. Wherever they went, the shikari were either running or dying. I just needed to stay far enough back to avoid getting caught in the middle of a firefight.
Rolling my shoulders, I set off after them. Standing still for too long felt like a good way to get found, and I wasn't exactly confident in my ability to use alien weaponry if that happened.
The lights were flickering like the apocalypse was upon us.
The sounds of gunfire, screaming, and explosions echoed from every direction, bouncing off walls and making it hard to tell where exactly the action was taking place.
When I came to an intersection, I skidded to a stop, looking in all directions.
When I spotted bodies and blackened laser damage on the walls, I knew my friends had been there.
I followed the path, treading over severed limbs and debris along the way.
My body was heavy and each move I made felt ten times slower than usual.
When I came to another turn, I slammed right into a fleeing body.
We bounced off each other so hard, it almost knocked the air out of me.
Looking up, I saw one of the spiked guards, his armor torn and his hands empty of any shock sticks or weapons.
He scurried to his feet and fled down the passage away from a slew of strange, animal sounds howling from the other direction.
Steadying myself on the wall, I stared into the dimly lit corridor only to see two stampeding nozun thundering toward me.
I took off, careless whether I was going in the right direction or not at that point. I knew from experience that I couldn’t outrun two nozun just by sprinting straight, especially when I wasn’t at my physical best.
As soon as I saw a small hatch on the wall, I veered toward it, kicking the metal grate with my bare foot.
I absolutely hurt myself, but I didn’t care, nor did I have time to check for damage.
As soon as the grate popped free, I slid inside.
It was large enough for me to crawl on all fours, but too small for the giant creeps, so they just slammed into the entrance behind me.
They fought over the too-small space, snarling and grunting foul words at each other like quarreling siblings fighting over a toy.
All I could do was breathe and throw out curses as I moved through the narrow vent. To where, I didn’t know.
I arrived at another grate and took a moment to look both ways before I decided to shove my way out into a slightly less hectic corridor. I was greeted with wet puddles of blood and almost slid onto my ass trying to right myself.
“Jesus,” I muttered, trying to ignore the stench of burnt flesh and destruction as I navigated through a disheveled storage facility.
I padded across the metal floor between large stacks of containers, my heart galloping in my chest. I desperately searched for some kind of indication I was heading somewhere useful, but the alien symbols on the walls meant nothing to me.
A loud crash echoed from behind me. I whipped around to see one of the two nozun smashing through a half-open door into the storage chamber, his slitted nostrils expanding to sniff at the air.
That was the first time I saw one of them stretch up on his hind legs fully when they were that close and I wished I never had to see it.
It was like staring at a cryptid in the flesh, seven feet tall with arms too long for his body.
He spotted me between the crates, gawking, and a wide and horrifying smile stretched across his big mouth.
In the dome, with shock collars and vague rules, they were a menace.
In the open, with no audience and no threat of punishment, I was free game and I had nothing at my disposal to defend myself besides a weapon I didn’t know how to use.
I raised the rifle like I would a rifle from Earth, my finger instinctively searching for a trigger that wasn’t there.
When my thumb hit a smooth side panel, a tiny screen lit up where the scope should have been.
A thermal image of the nozun popped up and at the sound of a faint beep, I pressed my thumb to the panel.
It fired.
Oddly, there was no kickback like I was used to, but the pellet smacked into the nozun’s gray flesh nonetheless, soundless.
It did nothing but piss him off.
Because I’d picked up a fucking dart gun…
When I fired again, nothing happened.
Because I picked up an empty fucking dart gun.
I recalled Thilar taking multiple stun darts to go down and it seemed a nozun required more than one, too.
He charged, sinking onto all fours to run faster.
I grounded myself and when he was close, I used the rifle like a bat, swinging with all my strength.
His head snapped to the side when I hit him and he was thrown off balance, knocking into a stack of metal cannisters.
He recovered quickly, turning and leaping in my direction.
I ducked and he jumped clean over me, but he was so fast. He grabbed hold of my ankle, flipping me onto my back and caging me beneath his long limbs.
I held the rifle up with both hands, trying to put a barrier between us.
Even my training could never have prepared me for fighting a giant ape when my body was at half strength.
He snapped his teeth together like a dog, drool sputtering from his mouth as a deep, laughing rhythm rumbled from his throat.
On his hip was a belt with multiple knives strapped to it. I took a chance and let go of the rifle with one hand, reaching for one of the blades. I grabbed the first one my fingers could wrap around and yanked it from its sheath, jamming it into the nozun’s side. He barely flinched.
Thilar made killing them look easy…
I stabbed him again. Again. Again. On the fifth, I twisted the knife, dragging it along his ribs with a loud and determined scream until he finally seemed to pay attention.
He reared back and pulled one of the other blades from his belt. Laying beneath him, I could see a paler patch of flesh between his neck and chest. I turned the blade toward him one last time, aiming at that discolored area. Just as I thrust, he drove his own blade toward me.
I felt his flesh give and dragged the knife sideways, cutting him open until his insides spilled over me.
Dark, hot blood splattered across my face and chest. He squirmed, scratching at the wound with one hand, his breath coming in wet gurgles.
Then he collapsed, pressing his full weight on top of me.