Off Planet

by Aileen Erin

  “You should’ve done more.” I’d never heard Roan’s voice be that cold before. “He should be dead.”

  That look in his eyes was trouble, especially now. “Don’t do anything. Don’t be stupid. Not like me, because I think I’ve been played.” I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry but damn it. The more I thought about it, the worse this whole situation got. “I think Jason was moving me—his pawn—to the place he wanted. But what does he want? What’s his goal? Why bait me like that? If he knew who I was, why not just turn me in and start the war SpaceTech has been itching for? I don’t get it. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “We have to find a way to contact Declan without his brother finding out.”

  I sighed. “I don’t know how. I mean, we could look up some of his public accounts, but those will all be monitored. That would give our location straight to SpaceTech. But Declan said he was watching. I’m hoping that means that he’s taking care of Mom, and if I can stay away from SpaceTech long enough, maybe he can catch up to me. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the run, but I’m sure I’ll remember what to do. Maybe he’ll get to me before Murtagh finds me again.”

  That was a couple more maybes than I wanted.

  I got up and started walking around the train cars.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m getting my go-bag. That’s the whole reason we came here.” I’d made a little star mark on the side of a blue car. Three rows in. Five cars down from the entrance.

  I paused when I spotted it. “Here. It’s here.” I tried to open the door, but it was rusted shut. “Help me with this.”

  “You’re going inside? It’s full of bones.”

  I looked back at him. “Yes. As you said, no humans would look in there.”

  He muttered something but came to help. A few good tugs and the door moved just enough for me to squeeze through the opening.

  I climbed over the piles of bones, moving to the back corner. The bag was about a foot under there. In retrospect, I probably didn’t have to do such a good job of hiding it, but at the time, I wanted to make sure no one ever found it.

  As I dug through the bones, I tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter. That they were just bones. That bones didn’t care that I was shoving them around, but these had been people. Aunare with full lives that had been ended too soon. I could almost hear the ghosts of them screaming for revenge, but there was nothing I could do. Not right now.

  I found my bag and dusted it off. Roan was pacing outside the train car as I squeezed back through the opening and jumped down.

  “What now?”

  “My mom and I had a plan if someone found us. We’d come here. Grab the bag. We marked a path through the dead zone. There’s another bag there with enough supplies for me to hike to Santa Fe. We have a contact there, and—”

  “You’re leaving me.”

  I hated the hurt in his voice. “It’s for the best. I probably shouldn’t have called you. I’m going to get you into trouble for sure.” This sucked. “Maybe I should—” My finger started burning. I bit down on the chip when the burning didn’t let up. “Christ. It’s not stopping.”

  “I’m not getting any alerts.”

  I stood up slowly, looking around the sky. A little tingle rippled along my skin.

  Energy.

  That frequency. I knew it. SpaceTech’s own special com channel.

  It grew stronger until I saw the lights.

  No. No. Not yet. It was too soon. I should have had hours. A half-day at least. I hadn’t even had time to breathe, let alone figure out a plan.

  My heart pounded as I waited, praying with everything I had that I was wrong. That they were just passing by. That it was just a random coincidence. That it was Declan instead of Jason.

  But then I heard it. The soft, high-pitched whine that was getting louder by the second.

  “They’re here.” The words were strangled, but I managed to get them out.

  “What?” Roan said as he searched the sky, but he didn’t feel the energies like I did. He wasn’t Aunare. He couldn’t feel them approaching.

  I pointed. “There.” The dragonfly-size scout drones zoomed overhead.

  “Shit.” Roan swatted at one as it lowered to scan his face. The tiny bot sped back, but they could take a hit and keep going. “Let’s go.”

  “It’s too late.” My skin grew cold as I stood motionless watching the black dot in the sky grow bigger as it flew toward us. It had to be a SpaceTech jet.

  There wasn’t anything I could do anymore. It was over.

  The jet came toward us, hovering above the trains.

  I never even had a shot at running. Not if they were this quick. “How the hell did they find us so fast? We don’t have trackers…” It didn’t make sense.

  “I do.” Roan’s voice was barely more than a whisper, but the way it cut through all the noise in my head, he might as well have shouted it.

  I spun to him. “What! When did you get a tracker?”

  “I started at the plant yesterday.” He pulled up his long shirtsleeve. A tiny incision marked his wrist. “They made me switch out my chip. It was required in case of an accident. They said they had to be able to find me.”

  “And you didn’t think it was worth mentioning?!” How did I not realize… I should’ve felt the tracker frequency, but I’d grown so used to sensing them in everyone around me, that I ignored the tiny hum. I didn’t even know he was getting a new job.

  This was so iced. I told myself it didn’t matter—that they would’ve caught me anyway—but I didn’t know that for sure.

  I pulled at my hair. “Fucking shit, Roan!” The scream tore through my throat. “How could you not have told me?”

  “I forgot! I was a little distracted by the whole beating the shit out of Jason Murtagh thing. And you’ve been MIA lately. I didn’t get a chance to tell you about it. It didn’t seem important in light of what I learned last night,” he said over the growing noise. “You have to get out of here. You have to run. Take my Tykson.” He shoved his helmet at me, but I stepped back.

  I’d never lose them. Not now. Not with a ship already in sight. “You go. It’s me they want.” I shoved my bag at him. “Run. There’s a path. Two cars down, take a left. Then fifty-seven steps. Then straight to the trees. You’ll see an “A” marked into a tree. Follow the letters. When you get to Santa Fe, find out what happened to my mom. If Declan isn’t taking care of her, use the money in the next bag.” He was staring at me, not moving. “What are you waiting for? Run!”

  “I can’t leave you.”

  I gave him a shove so hard that he fell to the ground. “Go! Get out of here! Now!”

  He stood and paced for a second as the ship closed in, then strode back to me.

  What the hell was he doing? Was my best friend really this stupid?

  I was going to die as soon as they realized what I was, but that didn’t mean that he had to join me, too.

  “Go. Or we’ll both be worm food.” Tears flowed down my face, but I didn’t care. Not anymore.

  He threw his helmet on the ground with a curse and wrapped his arms around me. “Damn it. You can’t cry. You have to show them how tough you are. Don’t give them anything. Maybe they won’t scan you. Don’t you ever give up hope.”

  I wanted to tell him not to be a moron—they’d definitely scan me—but I clung to that idiotic hope. I wiped my face and tried my best to shove all the fear away. It wasn’t going to help me get through this. I had to be strong. I’d done nothing wrong, no matter what that perv said.

  Dust filled the air as the ship stopped overhead. I covered my eyes and lifted my jumpsuit collar to protect my nose and mouth.

  Roan had waited too long. Why hadn’t he run?

  A zipping sound filled the air. I squinted. Six figures rappelled down cables while the jet hovered above us.

  “On the ground. Now!”

  I shivered as my blood turned to ice. My knees hit the earth
hard, and with that impact, I felt like I was floating outside of my body. Like this was happening to someone else. Except it wasn’t. It was happening to me.

  Two of the soldiers grabbed Roan, and my heart pounded painfully in my chest.

  “Leave her alone. She didn’t do anything wrong.” Roan’s voice sliced me.

  “Stop struggling or you’re going to lockup with her,” one of them yelled over the noise.

  “I’ll be okay,” I lied, but that didn’t stop Roan’s tirade.

  I closed my eyes as hard hands groped me, searching for weapons. My heavy, panting breath sounded like it belonged to someone else as they twisted my arms behind me, locking them in cuffs.

  Roan was still yelling, but it was drowned out by all the other noise. The ship. The STPF. The drones. The sound of my heart hammering in my ears.

  Strong hands spun me around. The biggest block of a guy I’d ever seen towered over me, dressed in a navy-and-gray camo uniform. His mouth opened and closed a few times. “You’re just a kid,” he said as he shook his head.

  What was he expecting?

  He hesitated. For a second I thought he’d do the right thing and let me go. Then the moment was over.

  I’d been an idiot for thinking that, even for a second.

  He gently wrapped the cable around my waist before looping it through his gear and securing it. “Target acquired. We’re a go,” he said, and my feet lifted from the ground.

  Roan was left alone among the derelict railroad cars, watching me. He yelled something that I couldn’t make out, and then snapped on his helmet and sped off. I watched as he disappeared from sight. He was the last bit of home I’d see. Maybe ever.

  The soldier held me as we were sucked into the ship.

  Roan was right. I had to hold it together. I couldn’t show any weakness. Even if all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry until they came to kill me.

  Chapter Ten

  The jet hovered just above the roof of STPF’s headquarters in downtown Albuquerque. My vision was a blur as they shoved me out of the jet and hustled me inside. I didn’t notice anything except the gray concrete floor and the way my breath was whistling as it left my lungs. I slipped into counting my breaths, like Declan had taught me, to keep from glowing. So far, it was working, but I wasn’t sure what I’d do if it stopped. I still felt like I was floating through this nightmare. I was living it but also removed from it. Distanced. I wanted to poke at that feeling to make it go away, but I was sure if I did that, then this would feel too real, and then the glowing would start.

  It didn’t take long for the STPF to get me booked into the system. My chip held up enough to give them access to my forged file, which didn’t immediately set off any alarms. The vidscreens on the walls streamed the streets outside. The faces were scanned as people walked by, and their records pulled up beside each face.

  I watched those screens the whole time I was inside. I couldn’t look at the files they were making about me. I didn’t answer their questions. They didn’t really care what I would say. They had everything they needed on me. They’d proven that when they played video from the diner. I was still in the same uniform. Jason Murtagh’s blood was still on my face. I was guilty, and everyone knew it.

  I’d been holding my breath, but once I was given wipes for my hands and face and ordered to strip down and change into the orange jumpsuit, I knew I was over the first big hurdle. They’d taken my contact lens and deactivated my chip but left it in my finger. It wasn’t sending out painful signals anymore and could be turned back on easily, but at least it’d done its job. From what the officer could tell, I was a normal, everyday, troublemaking Earther.

  When were they going to scan me?

  Maybe I was wrong about everything. Maybe Murtagh didn’t know shit about me, and he was just a pervy asshole after all. Maybe it was just bad luck that he’d come to my diner. Maybe they didn’t automatically scan people to see if they were Aunare like I thought.

  I never wanted to be more wrong in my life as I sat in the booking room and prayed that I’d somehow avoided them finding out the truth about me.

  Officer Perez—the female guard they assigned to my booking—had been surprisingly respectful. After a while, she told me to get up and follow her. She led me through a few locked doors, to the cell block.

  I tried to step back, but Officer Perez pushed me forward. I didn’t want to go into a cell. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, but it was only going to get worse from here. I knew it.

  I forced myself to keep moving, slowly marching my way into the cell, and Officer Perez slid the door closed. Metal slid along metal. I jumped as the lock engaged, clanking and beeping as the alarms activated, and suddenly everything felt a little too real. I was back in my body, and I wished with everything I had that I could go back to that floating feeling.

  “Stay away from the bars. They become electrified if you get too close. They won’t kill you, but it’ll sting like a bitch.”

  “Okay.” I swallowed the knot of dread. I wished I’d researched more about the whole process of being sent to jail. At least I’d know more about what to expect. Not knowing when I was going to get scanned was driving me crazy.

  Breathe. I had to remember to breathe.

  Officer Perez started to turn away. I was safe. I was stuck in a cage that could shock me, but no one had scanned me. If I was being treated like a normal human, then I had a shot at getting through this alive. I took a breath, thankful that maybe Roan’s job on my file had been thorough enough that SpaceTech didn’t require a scan.

  But Officer Perez stopped.

  “Shit. I almost forgot.” She tapped in her code, unlocking the cell. “Scanner’s down. Your file checks out, but it’s procedure.”

  Any hope I had left went down the toilet. “The scanner’s down?” My voice sounded hollow.

  “Yeah. Broke a few hours ago. It’s never broken before, so I’m not used to doing it this way. It’s throwing me off my game. All out of order.” She pulled a little rectangular device out of her pocket. “Just need a little blood for the lab. Arm, please.”

  My heart hammered in my chest as I held out my arm. My pulse was going so fast, so hard, it almost looked like it was jumping from my skin.

  I tried to breathe but I couldn’t. Not if I was supposed to hold still. I wasn’t sure how the glow was staying away, and I knew I had to get control soon.

  Officer Perez looked at me. “You okay?”

  I didn’t trust my voice, so I gave her a tight-lipped nod.

  The officer took the gray, one-inch by two-inch box and pressed it against the inside of my elbow. A few lights told her where to place it, dinging when she’d aligned it with my vein. “All righty. This might sting for a second.”

  I hissed as the needle pierced my skin. That one sting was it. Would it tell her the results instantly? I wasn’t sure if they’d figure out that I was Amihanna from that one test, but they’d know I was Aunare.

  “Okay. That’s everything. Just settle in. It’ll take a bit to process the blood. With the scanner down, the lab’s backed up. You won’t see me until dinner unless there’s a problem with your blood.”

  Unless some miracle happened, she would be back much sooner than dinner.

  “Okay.” It came out a hoarse whisper, but it was all I could manage.

  The sound of the locks engaging barely registered this time. I watched the officer until she was gone from view. The tiny box with my blood locked inside was my death sentence. I wanted to shout through the bars that this wasn’t right. That I didn’t deserve to be here. For her to come back and let me out. Instead, I stayed frozen, unable to do anything but watch as she left. A high-pitched whine slipped from me, and I stifled it as I tried to find a shred of hope to cling to.

  I don’t know how long I stayed there, staring down the hallway before I finally made myself move. It smelled like something had died in the cell, but I forced myself to step farther away from the bars
and find a space clean enough to sit on.

  Everything in Albuquerque was dirty. With the winds and the sand, there wasn’t any way for a place to stay clean for long, but this cell was beyond foul. Black and brown smeared the gray cement walls. Some of it must’ve been old blood, but I didn’t want to know what the rest was. The metal toilet in the corner was splattered with shit. I choked back the bile rising in my throat.

  Two metal pallets stuck out from the walls. I perched on the edge of the lower one, making sure not to examine it too closely, and pulled my knees to my chest.

  This was so iced. The worst thing that could ever happen had happened, and there was nothing I could do but wait for everything to end. There was a tiny drop of relief in that. No more hiding. I wouldn’t have to be scared anymore because I’d be dead.

  The absurdity of that thought made me want to laugh and scream and cry all at once. A whimper escaped before I could stop it. I slapped a hand over my mouth to muffle the sound. Air whistled in and out through my nose as I held my hand tight against my face.

  I was a fighter. I’d trained my body for years. I could think of something. But what?

  My mind was broken, and I couldn’t come up with anything that could help me out of there.

  I sat there until I couldn’t sit still anymore. Nervous energy forced me to move. I got up and started pacing. Ten steps forward and turn. Ten steps back and turn. Ten steps, turn. I went back and forth, moving just slower than a jog. It didn’t clear my head the way I wanted, but at least I was moving. At least I was doing something.

  A clang sounded at the end of the hall, and I stopped moving. There were other cells in the block, but my mind kept picturing Officer Perez coming back with that gray box. Maybe she’d been wrong about the lab being backed up.

  I held my breath, counting six, before I let it out, counting to three. Then inhaled quickly for a count of three again and let it out for a count of six. I stayed as quiet as possible, listening to the footsteps echoing and counting my breaths the way Declan had shown me.

  When I finally gathered the courage to look down the hall, it wasn’t Officer Perez like I’d thought. A wall of a woman dressed in orange was coming toward me. I assumed there was an officer behind her, but if there was, I couldn’t see them.