Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
Tai
“Wakey, wakey.” Bri’s blurry face comes into focus inches from mine.
Her eyebrows are pinched together. I can’t hear what she’s saying over the ringing in my ears.
My arms shake as I push myself up off the dirty floor.
Bri steadies me when I sit up and sway a little, struggling to find my center of gravity.
She checks my pulse at my throat and smiles up at me when she confirms a regular heartbeat.
Bri’s voice cuts through and her image sharpens. “You have some explaining to do.” She grabs both sides of my face and watches my eyes, checking for any sign of brain damage.
“I know, I’m so sorry—”
She stops me. “We can talk about this later. Are you able to get up? We should get going.”
“How did you get in here?” I ask.
“It’s not hard to sneak past a sleeping guard,” she says and helps me to my feet. The room spins and I stagger back. Bri catches me before I fall and crack open my head.
“He’s still sleeping? Shit. These guys are so useless.”
Bri laughs. “The rest of the brethren are busy. As long as we avoid the third level, we should be good,” she says.
I lean heavily on her, still trying to find my balance. “My pack and blaster should be right out here.” I step through the wide-open door on wobbly legs.
My belongings are right where I last saw them. I sift through the pack, making sure nothing is missing. It’s all there: a handful of hydropacks and nutrigels, tent, translator, and best of all, my blaster. I tuck it into my belt and breathe a sigh of relief. It feels good to have it back.
“We’re going to need provisions.” I hold open the pack, showing her how little we have left.
“Let’s make it quick. I don’t think we have much time left,” Bri says.
“How did you get away from them?” I ask. A multitude of possibilities run through my head: poisoning, barricading them in some room, setting off explosives. I rule the last one out. If she had access to explosives, she would have used them on me by now.
“Let’s just say I flexed my goddess powers,” she says with a sly smile.
“Bri, what did you do?” I ask again. This time more forcefully.
“I told them I wanted to reward them for uncovering the traitor in the colony.” She bites her bottom lip to hold back a smile.
“And that reward would be…?” I cross my arms over my chest.
“I told them I’d do the ceremony.”
“The ceremony? Like, the pleasure one?” I ask.
“What other ceremony is there? It’s the perfect distraction. Plus, they needed to ‘purify’ themselves to prepare. I don’t want to think too hard about what that means.” Bri looks extremely proud of herself. Truth be told, I am too.
“Those poor idiots are going to be so disappointed when they whip their dicks out and you are nowhere to be found,” I say with a grin.
“I stopped feeling sorry for them when you were on the ground unconscious,” she says. “Are you okay?” Her eyes pass over my face and chest, checking again for injury.
“I’m fine. Let’s get out of here. This place sucks.” I grab her hand and pull her behind me. The point of contact between us feels right. Even in the middle of this insanity, her presence has this strange effect on me.
By some miracle, we find a walk-in pantry filled with dry goods and a faucet down the hall from the sleeping guard.
We quietly look for food we can easily carry, trying not to shift around too abruptly.
I grab a bag of some weird grain mixed with dried fruit, as many flatbreads as I can hold, and all the dried jerky meat I can stuff into both our packs.
Bri fills up our canteens at the faucet and tosses me one. The two of us working together feels like everything is clicking into place. Nothing can stand in our way, not a colony full of murderous cultists, not a planet that’s actively trying to kill us. Nothing.