by R. A. Rock
I felt like I had turned to marble. All my turbulent feelings went away.
There that’s… better. I suppose.
I directed my thoughts to the paddling and focused on carving into the water again and again, until I forgot everything except the ache in my muscles and the motion that I had to keep doing, over and over.
Maybe if I threw myself into the exercise I could forget every mistake I had ever made and all the unexpected consequences.
***
Yumi
I tripped on a shadow and fell, tumbling to the ground, rolling down a small incline, and knocking Audrey, who was walking ahead of me. She stumbled but kept her feet.
When I finally stopped rolling, she was standing over me.
“What the hell, Tanaka?” she whisper shouted in Primary.
I didn’t say anything, so caught up in my own unhappiness that I couldn’t think of anything to say. I couldn’t stop thinking of what I had said to Chad and how he had reacted. She must have seen it in my eyes because she didn’t yell at me anymore, only reached her hand down to me. I grabbed it and she yanked me to my feet.
Shiv was watching us in silence. He shook his head and continued walking. It was night and we were approaching the camp from a different direction than we had left from. I made every attempt to pull myself together, paying closer attention to the world around me.
We hadn’t encountered any difficulties on the way here. It had all been too easy and that worried me. The three of us had waited until full dark to approach the camp and according to the map Matt had drawn us, we should be coming up on the it in the next few minutes.
A second later, I spotted the perimeter of the camp, far away down the path we were following through the forest.
“Hands up,” someone said from behind us.
So much for too easy. I hadn’t thought they would have guards this far out. That was my first mistake. Goddamn it. I couldn’t make any more.
I raised my hands as I felt the barrel of a gun press into my back.
I saw Shiv and Audrey do the same ahead of me.
“Turn around nice and slow and keep your hands in the air where I can see them,” the male voice said.
We complied and got a look at our captor. It was none other than the man who had been going to take Audrey into the bushes when the group from Sipwesk had attacked and freed us. Apparently they hadn’t killed him. But what a one to leave alive.
He had a nasty wound in his shoulder where the arrow had hit him. But his face looked positively gleeful to see who he had caught.
“Well, look who we’ve got here,” he said, an evil grin on his face. “I remember you nice folk. You almost got me killed.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
YUMI
There were clouds tonight and a cold wind blew them across the moon. At the moment, the clouds parted, revealing that the guard had a gun in one hand and a knife in the other.
“Now, where was I?” he said, and without another word, he reached towards Audrey with the knife. I met Audrey’s eyes. She looked absolutely terrified. And she doesn’t get scared.
But these people were total whackos — this guy especially gave off a crazy vibe. Who knew what he would do? He kept the gun on me — too far to reach him to disarm before he could gut Audrey and too close to duck out of range.
We all watched in horror as he carefully put the knife under Audrey’s shirt and ripped straight up and back, cutting it clean in two and exposing the bra that encased her pale breasts. I let out my breath.
At least he hadn’t stabbed her.
He took a step closer and nocked the knife under the small piece of fabric holding the two sides of her bra together. Then he stopped. His gun hand was maddeningly steady and I didn’t dare make a move without killing me or Audrey or both of us.
He looked at Audrey and with an expression that was pure sadism, pressed the tip of his knife into her skin. A bright red drop of blood welled up and stained the white of her bra. To her credit, Audrey didn’t make a sound. But she turned a shade lighter than usual.
The idiot began to cackle and then flicked his wrist, cutting the bra in half so that her breasts fell out.
“Ah,” he sighed. “Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about.”
Audrey swallowed and kept her head up, her cheeks red with embarrassment. Shiv averted his eyes.
“Tie them up,” he said to Shiv, throwing him a couple ropes he had in his pack.
The asshole made Shiv tie me tightly to a tree and then he made him tie Audrey’s hands behind her. I quivered with rage and waited for my moment. He would not touch Audrey.
Once Audrey’s hands were tied, he bound Shiv on the other side of the tree so we couldn’t see each other. I watched, feeling powerless, as he dragged her away from us. The sounds of them crashing through the bushes gradually faded until I couldn’t hear them anymore.
A cloud went over the moon and we were left in darkness.
Fuck.
This was not how this mission was supposed to go.
“Shiv?” I said.
“I’m here.”
“You okay?”
“As okay as I can be in this situation,” he said, a quiver in his deep voice betraying how upset he was.
“Look, we have to get out of these ropes. Got any idea?”
“No,” he said, sounding desperate. “I have no ideas. Obviously if we had our abilities we could…”
“Shhh,” I said. “It’s classified, remember? Obviously if we had our abilities, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.”
“Nooooo.” Audrey screamed.
“Audrey?” I yelled. Had that maniac brought her back?
“No, it’s me, Shiv,” Shiv answered.
“Didn’t you hear her scream?” I said, confused.
“No, Yumi. It’s totally silen-“
She screamed again.
“What the hell?” Shiv said.
“You heard it?”
“Yes,” Shiv’s voice was excited as he said it.
“You think that means the time travel didn’t totally screw them up?”
“Yes.”
“And maybe they’re coming back?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“Then try and manifest something in my hand that can get us out of this mess.”
“Okay,” he said, and there was determination in his voice.
I waited, feeling impatient. But I knew that even when Shiv was up to full power, it took him some time to use his ability.
The silence stretched.
Each second felt like it took a thousand years to tick by.
“Please don’t. Oh no. Please. Help me, someone! Please!”
Audrey’s thoughts hit me like bullets and I prayed to a god I didn’t believe in for a break. Just a tiny break in a series of fucked up mistakes that had led us to this moment.
A second later I felt something stab my wrist and I almost dropped it as the blood gushed out and the sharp thing fell down to my hand. I grabbed desperately and managed to pinch the blade with the tips of my fingers.
“Shit,” I said.
“Got it?” Shiv said.
I slowly and carefully manoeuvred it back into my hand and gave a sigh of relief when it was firmly in my grip.
“Yeah, I got it,” I said, not bothering to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Obviously our abilities were back but Shiv clearly wasn’t himself. He had never manifested an object through my body before. But whatever. I didn’t care. I could get free.
I worked the sharp object — whatever it was, I couldn’t see it — around until the blade was against the rope. Then I narrowed my focus to sawing through the rope, until a minute later, I was free.
I wiped the blood off the handle and gave the… paring knife?… to Shiv.
“I have to go,” I said, tearing the flimsy undershirt Nessa had lent me off of me and pulling it out from under my shirt and coat, wrapping as tightly as I could manage around my wrist and ty
ing it with one hand and my teeth. There. Hopefully that would stop the bleeding enough that I wouldn’t pass out.
“Go!” He yelled, beginning to saw through his ropes.
I tore through the trees in the direction they had gone, following the obvious trail they had left as well as Audrey’s mental cries. Soon I could heard her actual voice. She was crying.
Shit. Was I too late?
I burst into the clearing and honed straight in on the asshole on top of her. I dove for him, knocking him off of her. We rolled until we stopped with him on top of me, pinning my hands to the ground, his face right above mine. The pain in my arm was excruciating but I blocked it out.
He looked surprised at the sudden change from one woman under him to another. And I used the moment of shock to head butt him as hard as I could, then I struggled in his slackened hands a little till I could clock him in the ear with my elbow.
It was enough to loosen my right hand and I drove a hard right hook into the same ear, making him groan and list to one side. I bucked and he fell off of me.
As soon as I was free, I jumped to my feet and went at him relentlessly. A sharp kick to the other side of his head. Three, or maybe it was five, punches to the face. I stopped to catch my breath as the pain in my arm slowed me down a bit.
And he took the time to stand up, I grabbed his shoulders as he wobbled and gave him a hard knee to the groin that knocked him to the ground again, curled up in the fetal position. I was going to kick him in the head to knock him out when I was pulled out of my battle trance by Shiv’s voice.
“Stop, Yumi. God, you’re going to kill him.”
Somehow the sound of his voice pierced the fog and I realized that both of them had been shouting at me for a while but I hadn’t been able to hear anything.
I stepped back, shaking a little.
I only killed in self-defence… now.
I wasn’t the woman I had once been. But one creep attacking my friend and I was right back there. Violent. Deadly. And no one that anyone would want to be friends with. Chad’s disappointed face popped into my head but I pushed it out again.
Audrey took my hand.
“Come on, Yumi. We have to get out of here.”
She was wearing Shiv’s shirt and she had a bruise on her cheek.
“Did he…?” I swallowed. I couldn’t say it.
Please God, let him not have…
“He didn’t,” she said, out loud. Then looked at me, startled. “Did I just hear your voice in my head?”
I nodded.
“It looks like our powers are coming back,” I said.
“Just in time,” Shiv said, grimly. “Now let’s get out of here. I think we should regroup. We all need a little rest before we try another attempt at getting in.”
“Okay,” I said, and then frowned as Shiv’s face went blurry.
What the hell?
“Yumi? Are you okay?” Audrey said as I slowly sank to the ground, unconscious.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
YUMI
“Yumi, please wake up, please. Please let her not have lost too much blood. God, I wish Gracie was here. She’d know what to do. God, I miss Gracie, so much. Please Yumi, wake up. Please…”
I regained consciousness and opened my eyes. I couldn’t see a damn thing — the night was so black with the clouds across the moon — so I closed them again. I couldn’t see anything but I sure could hear Shiv’s desperate thoughts in my mind.
“Could you shield, Shiv?” I said, my voice sounding croaky as I tried to pry open my eyes again, which felt as though they were weighed down by stones. All of a sudden the thoughts disappeared from my mind. Audrey was already shielding. After the life she’s had, she’s suspicious by nature.
Though it was highly unlikely that anyone in this time had our abilities. A few people back then had been able to do what we do. But in general humans hadn’t evolved the brain structures we have in any large numbers until the 2300s.
“Oh, thank God, Yumi,” Shiv said and kissed me on the forehead. I tried to sit up and instantly his arm was around me, supporting me. “I thought you’d lost too much blood. I thought you were… I thought I had…”
The moon emerged from the clouds once again. I tilted my head and gave him a look.
“It would take a lot more than a little gash to kill me, you know that, Shiv.”
“It was more than a little gash, Yumi,” he said. “When you passed out, Audrey and I found the wound. We could see your bone.” He looked like he was going to throw up.
Okay. So, it was more than a little gash.
I lifted my arm. It was tightly bound with what looked like the sleeve of Shiv’s shirt. Audrey was wearing what was left of said shirt, minus one sleeve. The fabric was stained a bright red but since I had woken up, I assumed I wasn’t losing a ton of blood anymore. I guessed I had been out for a few minutes then, while they tended to my arm.
Shiv was naked to the waist, having given Audrey his shirt and he looked damn fine, as usual. His handsome face was drawn with worry over me and his light brown skin was covered in sweat.
“I thought I killed you,” he said. “I’ve never…”
He searched for the word.
“Fumbled a manifestation like that before.”
“It’s cool, man, don’t worry. I’m not dead. You know I’m tougher than that. If a scimitar in the guts didn’t kill me. A knife to the wrist isn’t going to.”
But I knew it had been a close one. If I had lost too much blood…
I mean, that was the way people killed themselves sometimes, right? Slitting their wrists and letting their blood drip away until they were gone. I had to admit that as bad as I felt right now, the idea had merit.
But… I would never kill myself.
I’m too tough for that, too.
“You need stitches,” Audrey said.
“Never mind stitches,” I said, studying her face. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be okay,” she said. “He didn’t do anything.”
I let out a shaky breath that I hadn’t realized I was holding.
“Good,” I said. “Now let’s get going.”
I tried to climb to my feet but I was too woozy from blood loss.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Shiv said. “You need to recover.”
I stared at him in dismay.
“We’ve got that guy tied up, right?”
“Yeah,” Audrey said.
“And there isn’t another guard change till 3am, right? That’s what Matt said? The changes are at 10pm and 3am?”
“Yes,” Shiv said, glowering at me.
“So, we have about three or four hours before anyone notices he’s missing. And before there’ll be a guard along this section of the wall?”
“Yes, but…” Shiv started.
“But nothing Shiv, we’re not going to have made this whole mess for nothing.” I glanced at Audrey apologetically and she nodded in agreement. “This is our chance. We need to get in now, get the bracelets, and get out before the next guard change.”
“You can’t even walk,” he said, as I leaned heavily on him and stood up.
“If this is our chance to get those bracelets and get home, I swear to God, Shiv, if I need to, I can teleport.”
“You’re not Grace,” he told me.
“True. But that doesn’t make me any less right. Let’s get moving. We need to find the hole in the fence Matt told us about.”
“Goddammnit, Yumi,” he said, as I took a shaky step and my knees buckled. He caught me before I could fall and wrapped his arm around my torso, under my arms, holding me up. I put my arm across his broad shoulders, putting a good deal of my weight on him.
“You caught me. See? It’ll be fine. Cause you’ve got my back, right?”
He tipped his head to look down at me, a reluctant smile on his face.
“You know I got your back, girl,” he said. “Always.”
I felt a lump in my throat, knowing that he w
as my friend. Even though he had watched me almost kill that guy. I still wasn’t sure why they all put up with me and seemed to like me so much… monster that I am… but they do. And today, I was fucking grateful to have them with me.
Who knows where I would be without my friends?
Probably either dead or wishing I was.
“Alright. Let’s get those damn bracelets and get out of here,” I said, leaning on Shiv and moving as quietly as I could towards Brett’s camp.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
YUMI
Getting into the compound, surprisingly, went without a hitch. And that was probably a good thing because I wouldn’t have been much use in a fight. My wrist hurt fiercely and I still felt dazed, my vision sometimes blurry.
We went back to the trapper’s cabin where we had been brought before Brett when we were first captured. It was the place where he had removed our bracelets and we hoped that he had kept them there. The house was unlocked and dark except for a light shining from one window.
“Brett?” A woman’s voice called from the bedroom as we tiptoed in.
Audrey put a finger to her lips and lifted the gun she had taken from the guard, moving towards the room. Shiv and I waited as she entered and held the woman at gunpoint.
“What the…?”
“Hands up,” Audrey said and we moved into the room to stand beside her.
“What’s going on?” the woman said, her hands in the air, her naked body clearly visible through the sheer nightgown she wore. Shiv averted his eyes.
It was the same woman who had sat next to Brett when we had our audience that first day. I remembered the jaded eyes and caked on make-up. The see-through nightdress was new, though.
“Where are the bracelets?” I said, getting right to the point. “The ones Brett took off of us that first day. Where are they?”
“Those pieces of crap?” she said, disgusted. “I had thought that they would be nice to wear but they’re some kind of plastic. Not pretty at all.”
They’re a high-tech plastisteel that costs millions of credits and is practically indestructible. But whatever. I’m sure they seemed like plastic to her.