by Caryn Lix
“Scratch escape,” Cage whispered to the others at the rear of the room. “They’re outside.”
“They?” Mia challenged.
“At least two, maybe more. I think you’re right about the blindness. One ran right past us without seeming to notice.”
“So how are we supposed to get back to the prison?” Tyler demanded, his voice shrill and hysterical.
And loud.
Too loud.
Matt lunged for him and clamped his hand over his mouth. The rest of us pivoted to stare at the door.
All sound ceased. Then came a long dragging noise—the creature’s tail sliding behind it?
I looked from the door to the prisoners, all of them panicked, their eyes wide, their breathing fast, and I closed my eyes. Hello, superpower? If you’re in there, this is an excellent time to make yourself known.
Nothing. Figured.
But superpower or not, this was my responsibility. They were my responsibility.
I wiped my sweaty palms on my pant leg and tightened my grip on the stun gun. “I’ll draw them off,” I whispered. “You guys head for the prison.”
A hushed chorus of “What?” and “No!” met my pronouncement.
I held up my hands. “I know the station. I can get away.” Maybe. But if I couldn’t help Mom, I could at least help the prisoners. Mia couldn’t keep up with us if we had to run, and I had my doubts about Tyler, too. And if another creature showed up? Trying to outrun three of those things? Now that I knew what we were up against, I needed to find Mom now more than ever. I wasn’t ready to retreat just yet. “I’ll meet you back at the prison. Go as soon as I lead them off.”
Before anyone had time to argue, I set out for the door, but quickly realized that Cage was right behind me. “You didn’t let me go alone,” he said when I opened my mouth, “and I’m not letting you. Besides, I got us into this. It’s my responsibility.”
I didn’t have time to fight with him about who was responsible for who. Every second we were stuck in here was another second for the creatures to find us. “Let’s go.”
We took positions on either side of the door. Our eyes met, and Cage nodded. I thumbed the switch, and the door slid open.
The creatures weren’t as close as we’d feared. But as soon as we moved, one of them screamed.
“Follow me!” I shouted, and bolted in the opposite direction of the prison.
Cage trailed me by seconds, and behind him, the creatures. They were fast. I’d planned to run for the supply room, where a maintenance hatch connected to the living quarters, but we weren’t going to make it.
Suddenly, Cage grabbed my elbow and hoisted me off my feet and into his arms. “Hold on!” he shouted. I barely had time to react before he broke into a superhuman run, the force of his speed throwing me against his chest. I buried my face, hiding from the wind tearing exposed skin.
But Cage was running blindly, and he couldn’t keep it up forever. We had to hide. “Right!” I shouted. Cage followed my order, pivoting into the living quarters and setting me on the ground.
“Where to?” he demanded, glancing behind us, still clutching my arm. We’d outdistanced the creatures, but we could hear their claws scrabbling for purchase nearby.
Instinctively, I charged into my own living quarters. I grabbed Cage’s hand and yanked him into my bedroom, then dove under the bed, pulling him with me. “Don’t. Move.”
The bed wasn’t much more than a capsule, and Cage landed almost on top of me. He wedged me in further, blocking me from sight with his own body. I started to protest, but at that second the outer door hissed open.
We froze. Cage’s arms came around me, pulling me against him. I tensed in shock. Cage had touched me often enough, a hand on my arm or my back, but he’d never held me like this. There was a protective quality to his hold, as if he could somehow keep me safe if he just made me small enough.
I didn’t even think about arguing. I tangled my hands in his shirt and squeezed my eyes shut. Whatever the creatures did to their victims, I didn’t want to see it coming.
This close, Cage’s breath ghosted my skin, his every tremble ricocheting through me. His arms clenched almost painfully around me, as if he could make me disappear. He smelled of sweat and antiseptic and something else, something more appealing that I couldn’t quite place, and his body had a lean hardness I’d never felt before, not even in the other guards I’d fumbled against in dark corners and closets.
Another slide. Their claws clicked across my bedroom floor. One of them gave a quick chirping sound, and the other responded with a huff. Cage’s arms shuddered with the effort of silence.
His chest encompassed my entire range of vision, but I sensed them stalking closer, listening with predatory senses, sniffing as they scented the air. Did they smell us? If they could scent blood, the fresh wound on my arm and the spilled blood on Cage’s shirt would draw them like a magnet. I hadn’t even considered that, and now it was too late.
I held my breath and felt the catch in his chest as he did the same. We kept perfectly silent, as still as another piece of furniture.
One of the creatures snorted. Their footsteps receded across the floor, and the door hissed shut behind them.
I allowed myself a small, measured breath. A moment later, the softer sound of the outside door of our quarters followed.
I still didn’t dare move. Cage relaxed his grip, although he continued to hold me. We stayed under the bed—pristine and spotless thanks to Sanctuary’s vigilance, not at all the disaster of dust bunnies and graphic novels you’d find under my bed in our house on Earth—huddled together, neither of us willing to risk action.
“I think they’re gone,” I whispered at last.
Cage nodded, his jaw set.
I pressed gently against his chest. Part of me wanted to stay right here, safe and hidden beneath the bed. But we had to throw them off our track, discover what these things were, what they wanted. And I had to find Mom. “Cage,” I said.
He closed his eyes, pressing his jaw against the top of my forehead. “This is on me,” he said.
“What?”
“This whole stupid escape, it’s something Mia and I put together one day. But she was just talking. The actual planning? That was me.”
“Your escape didn’t summon those creatures.” I pulled back so he had no choice but to look at me, both our faces shadowed in darkness. “They were coming either way. You can’t hold yourself responsible for any of this.”
“If it wasn’t for me, everyone would have been locked in their cells. Maybe the creatures would have run right past them.”
“Or maybe they would have sat there, trapped and terrified, while the creatures tore the cells apart and . . . did whatever they do.” I couldn’t let myself believe everyone was dead. Mom was not dead. And that meant the other prisoners might be alive too. “We can’t know.”
He looked like he was going to argue but couldn’t quite come up with the words. The lines of his forehead relaxed as he allowed, “You have a point.”
I squeezed him. “Then let’s get out from under the bed.”
He hesitated almost imperceptibly before releasing me and sliding away. He reached back, and I let him help me up, although I didn’t really need the assistance. Something had shifted in our relationship, and I wasn’t sure when. Was it when he’d agreed to help me search for Mom? When he’d cut the chip out of my arm? Or maybe just now, hidden beneath the bed?
Cage. Hu. A thief. A gang member. A prisoner who’d taken me hostage, blackmailed my mother. I called on every memory of his arrogance, his threats, his taunts. None of it seemed to matter.
I was in a hell of a lot of trouble.
NINETEEN
WE CREPT TO THE EXIT and listened. I strained for any sound in the outside corridor but came up empty. I felt like we’d abandoned a layer of safety in leaving the bedroom—I didn’t know if the creatures had thumbs per se, but they certainly seemed able to operate the keypads opening the doors, and
so far none of Sanctuary’s security had presented a barrier. “Let’s give them a few minutes,” I said at last. I didn’t want to waste time, but blundering into the creatures in the corridor wouldn’t help my mother. We were better off waiting, giving them time to move away, and then resuming our search in earnest.
Cage nodded. He shifted uncomfortably, taking in the room’s clean lines, the painting of a forest over the white leather couch. “So. This is where you live, huh?”
“Yeah.” My voice sounded flat to my own ears. In the chaos of the last few hours, I’d almost managed to forget what happened last time my whole family gathered in this room. Honey, we need to talk. “We should get away from the door. Let’s go back in my room—we can hide under the bed again if we have to.”
But once we were in my room again, I saw how small it was. It seemed even smaller with Cage inside, pacing like a restless animal. “Do you want a clean shirt?” I asked suddenly. “I think Dad left a few. They’d probably fit you.”
“Left?” he asked.
I winced. “Um, yeah. My parents are . . . well, it doesn’t matter. You’re covered in blood.”
Sure enough, I found a few of the plain black T-shirts Dad wore under his uniform in the closet he shared with Mom. I grabbed one and returned to find Cage sitting shirtless on my bed, his jumpsuit folded over his waist, hunched over with his head in his hands. I hesitated in the doorway, staring at the tight cording of muscles on his arms—and the scars riddling his back.
He straightened up and half smiled. “Thanks,” he said, reaching for the shirt. He shrugged into it and knotted his jumpsuit sleeves around his waist the way Mia always did. “You want to sit down?”
I sank onto the bed beside him. It wasn’t a very big bed, and our arms almost touched. “What does your tattoo mean?” I asked when the silence became too heavy to bear.
“Which one?”
I nodded to the Chinese characters on his arm. He smiled, softer and more real than his usual broad grin. “It’s Rune’s name,” he explained. “Her Chinese name, I mean. Not ‘Rune.’ ”
“You have a Chinese name too, right? What is it?” I asked. I’d read it in the file but forgotten it. He’d only ever been Hu to me, and now Cage.
“Cheung. We don’t use them, though. No one does in Taipei, at least not where we grew up. You go by your street name.” He nodded over his shoulder. “The dragon on my back, that’s the gang we worked with. Rune has a matching one. We have snakes on our left legs from the first gang.”
“Do you have any more?”
“A bird in a cage beneath my shoulder. Rune used to say I reminded her of a caged tiger. It’s how I got my name.” His lips quirked in amusement. “I made it a bird to dodge expectations. How about you? Any tattoos?”
I barked a laugh, stifling the sound with a worried glance at the door. No inhuman howl answered me, though, so I must not have been too loud. “Yeah, I don’t think my parents would approve. The company doesn’t love tattoos either.”
“You’ve been with Omnistellar Concepts your whole life?”
I shrugged. “I was born into the company. My parents are really patriotic, especially Mom.” My throat caught on her name, but it was helping to talk like this—normally, like we were friends having coffee, not until-recently enemies running for their lives. “My earliest memory is of my mother telling me how lucky I was to be part of a corp like Omnistellar. Every time we walked by a hovel in some city, she’d point it out and remind me how much we owed the company. And Omnistellar always taught us that anomalies were dangerous—so dangerous they had to be contained at any cost.” Was I trying to justify the way we’d treated him, all of the prisoners? Maybe. Maybe even to myself. “I went to Omnistellar summer camps, clubs, schools. . . . All I’ve ever known is the company.”
“Kind of like a gang.”
“Hardly,” I said, enough of the guard left inside me to recoil at the suggestion.
Cage grinned, spreading his hands. “Seriously. What would your guard tattoo have been?”
“A serial number, probably.” Although part of me had always wanted one, maybe a symbol of strength. That was a secret I’d take to my grave, though.
Cage chuckled. “Sorry.” He hesitated a minute before repeating, “Kenzie, I am sorry.”
“For what?”
He stared at me in disbelief. “Are you kidding? For taking you hostage. For threatening you. For letting Mia hit you. And then there’s this. . . .” His hand ghosted over the bandage on my arm, his jaw tightening in distaste.
I caught his hand between both of mine, held it a moment, and then let it go, forcing a smile. “I asked you to do that.”
“Not for the rest, though.”
I glanced away, uncomfortable with the conversation’s direction. He was right, after all—he had taken me hostage, and he’d planned to use me to escape. But now that I knew the prisoners on a personal level, everything muddled in my mind. I was starting to understand why Omnistellar forbade contact with inmates except under the most dire circumstances, and I wasn’t sure I liked the reasons. “You didn’t hurt me,” I pointed out. “And you weren’t going to.”
“No, I wasn’t.” He scrubbed at his temple. “I’m glad you figured that out. I was getting pretty sick of playing the bad guy.”
His left hand remained on his lap where I’d dropped it, only inches from mine. My fingers were pale beside his darker skin, his warmth radiating through me even from a distance. I searched for a topic of conversation, anything that would distract me from our current situation. “Mia and Alexei,” I said suddenly.
“What about them?”
“Alexei seems relatively calm. More or less stable. How’d he wind up with Mia?”
Cage shrugged. “I don’t know the whole story. They were arrested together. Alexei was never exactly forthcoming with the details.” He frowned, biting the corner of his lip. “You know, I never really thought about it. They were just a pair. Mia and Alexei.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“But now I’m curious!” he said in frustration.
I laughed in spite of myself. “You and Mia seem close.”
“You jealous?”
I scowled and pulled back from him a split second before I caught the teasing glimmer in his eyes. “Oh, very funny. Besides, it seems like Matt’s the one who’s jealous.”
Cage groaned loudly. “He does not like Mia. And he likes to be in charge. He was willing to follow me, but he doesn’t like her tossing out orders.”
“Matt seems all right,” I said cautiously.
“Oh, he’s more than all right. He’s one of the best friends you can have: loyal, solid, and always ready to have your back. But he’s not a risk taker, you know? For that, you go to Mia.” He tipped back suddenly, flopping on my bed and stretching out his arm, wiggling his fingers in invitation. “Speaking of risks?”
I laughed in spite of myself and leaned back, curling against his shoulder, solid and real beneath my head, though my mom’s voice screamed at me to get up and retreat. But I wanted this, a moment of normalcy in the midst of chaos.
He gestured at the poster on the ceiling. “Robo Mecha Dream Girl ?”
My eyes flew open. “You know it?”
“I’ve read it. It’s pretty good, but I’m more of a Warriors of Silver guy myself.”
“Oh, come on. Warriors of Silver hasn’t produced anything good in years. I mean, yeah, it wasn’t bad back when it was all about the training camp, but now that they’re fighting aliens every other week . . .” My voice trailed off. “Well,” I said dryly, “maybe that’s not as unrealistic as I thought.”
Cage groaned, dragging his free hand across his face. “Let’s just stay here,” he suggested. “We can go to sleep, and maybe when we wake up, all of this will have gone away.”
And just for a moment, I was tempted. Here in my bedroom, where I’d been safe and happy, I could pretend there wasn’t a bleeding spot on my arm where a chip had been
yanked out, that my parents still loved me and each other, and that there weren’t some kind of alien beasts stalking the station.
But of course we couldn’t do that. Because my mom wasn’t in the next room joking with my dad. I didn’t know where she was. “We can’t stay here,” I said softly, as much to myself as Cage. “I have to find my mom and make sure the others got back to the prison okay.”
His expression collapsed, and I had a second of bitter regret for breaking in on his tranquility. But he nodded. “Rune’s going to be freaking out. I don’t suppose you know a shortcut.”
I did, actually—the one I’d originally intended for us to take. If we reached the storeroom, a maintenance hatch led to the hall near the command center. Once there, we could at least talk to Rune and decide on our next step.
But as I opened my mouth to tell him, an alien’s high-pitched scream cut me off, a triumphant roar as it closed in on its prey. And right on its heels came another, this one full of terror and all too human.
TWENTY
“WAIT!” CAGE CRIED AS I lunged for the outer door. “Kenzie, we don’t know what’s out there! Slow down!”
I spun on him. “That was a human scream! What if it’s my mother? One of the other kids?”
“I’m not saying don’t go. I’m saying take a minute to think.”
I bit my lip until I tasted blood, bringing my racing heart under control. Drawing my stun gun, I gestured for Cage to stand opposite me. I steadied my grip on the gun and thumbed the door control. As it slid open, I lunged to the side and plastered myself against the inner wall, holding my breath and waiting for something to attack.
Nothing happened. I made myself count to three before catching Cage’s eye. We nodded at one another, and I slipped into the corridor.
“Which way?” he whispered.
Gunshots rattled through the station—actual gunfire. My heart stuttered. Only two people on Sanctuary carried real guns: Mom and Rita.
I broke into a run, ignoring Cage’s whispered command, already thumbing the trigger on my stun gun. Another scream rose in the air, and then choked off abruptly.