Erika wasn’t optimistic that they’d ever leave the horrid world of the Conexus. But she kept that thought to herself. If Ian was hopeful, that made one of them. She didn’t want to poison his well of hope. “Good point,” she said.
The door slid open and Xenos scurried in. The door shut immediately behind her. She moved in the same quick way that Tex did. It gave the appearance that she somehow glided on rollers rather than walked.
Xenos carried a small metal tray. No cheeseburger for Ian. There were two metal cups and two small rectangular bricks that looked in the dim light like two hunks of particleboard.
“Nourishment,” Xenos said. She held the tray out to them. Her hands were covered in gloves made of the same silvery metallic material that her clothes were made of.
Ian shrugged and picked up one of the fibrous bricks of so-called food. His lip curled as he smelled it. “Damn. Smells like rotten fish that someone pissed on.”
“That’s not encouraging,” Erika said. She grabbed the small block of food meant for her.
Dr. Randall took his block of ‘food’ and sniffed it. He took a small nibble off the corner.
Ian bit into the block and chewed. And chewed and chewed. He grimaced and grabbed for one of the cups. In Ian’s large hand, the diminutive cup looked like a toddler’s sippy cup. Ian took a long draw and nearly gagged.
Erika sniffed the bar and realized, to her misfortune, that it did indeed smell as Ian had described it. She took a small bite. To say it was grainy would be an understatement. It was like chewing wood pulp and completely flavorless. Not a hint of salt or sweet. Not even bitter or tangy.
“Bottoms up,” Ian said. He held his tiny cup up in the air.
Erika clinked her cup on Ian’s and they both drank the viscous liquid. It had no more flavor than the brick of tasteless fiber, but at least it was wet and washed down the particleboard.
“Is the nourishment acceptable?” Xenos asked.
Erika coughed. “It’s – well, we won’t starve, but –”
“It is acceptable,” Dr. Randall said. He winked at Erika as he said it.
“Acceptable. Noted. The humans will not starve,” Xenos said.
Xenos turned to leave, but Erika called out to her. “Xenos, wait.”
Xenos twirled around but did not walk back to them.
“Please – stay. We have so many questions. Where are we? Can we leave this dark room and go outside? And where is Tex?”
Xenos glanced over her shoulder at the door. “I have been instructed only to provide nourishment and ensure that the humans do not expire. I am not authorized to answer your questions.” Xenos again began to leave.
“Please!” Erika grabbed Xenos by the shoulder. The fabric was like tissue paper under her fingers. Xenos’ slight shoulders were bony. “You have to help us.”
Xenos froze and dropped the metal tray. It hit the hard floor with a loud crash, and Xenos’ eyes grew even wider than normal. She pulled her shoulder away, but Erika did not feel a stabbing pain in her head or the sensation of invisible hands strangling her neck. She didn’t telekinetically attack me. Maybe she doesn’t have all the same abilities that Tex has.
“I don’t want to harm you. I just want answers,” Erika said.
Xenos’ voice came out a pitch higher. “I am not authorized. Nourishment only. I must go or –”
“Or what?” Dr. Randall asked. He approached Xenos and she hunched herself away from him, her back nearly against the door.
“The Conexus,” she said. “They can use their minds as one. I am Infractus. I am not one with them. I cannot defend myself against them. I am inferior. If I disobey, the Conexus …” Xenos’ eyes welled with fat tears.
“They’ll torture you,” Erika said. “It feels like a knife stabbing you through your head, doesn’t it?”
Xenos looked up at her. “How do you know of this? You are not Infractus and you only just arrived three cycles ago.”
Erika didn’t know how long a cycle was, but she tucked the information away to puzzle over later with the other questions she’d gathered. “I know this because – well, let’s just say I know someone with a similar ability. I don’t want you to be punished. But you have to understand. We got sucked up into a ship, immobilized and plunked down in this dark room. We have no idea where we are. We’ve been separated from our friend, and we don’t know what they plan to do with us. And we don’t know how to get home.”
“Home?”
“Yeah,” Ian said. “Back to Earth.”
Xenos bent and picked up the tray she’d dropped. “I regret that I am unable to help you. I must go.”
“Wait,” Erika said.
Dr. Randall motioned to Ian behind Xenos’ back. As soon as Xenos waved her hand to open the door, Ian grabbed her and pulled her to him before she could exit into the hallway. He was so much larger and stronger than her that he easily overpowered her.
Xenos let out a loud, earsplitting screech that sounded like a cross between a dolphin and an injured cat. To Ian’s credit, he didn’t let go of her. He clamped his left hand over her tiny mouth as he held her middle with his right arm.
“I don’t want to hurt you. But I will if you try to get away.”
Ian’s voice dripped with a nastiness that Erika had never heard from him before. Erika had no doubt that Ian could easily wring the neck of the tiny fragile Xenos. It wasn’t the ‘Infractus’ that held them against their will in the makeshift alien prison. Erika didn’t want any harm to come to Xenos. “Ian, cool it.”
“Time to cowboy up, remember?” Ian grabbed Xenos’ right arm and twisted it up behind her back. He shoved her forward into the hall.
Dr. Randall followed and Erika moved cautiously into the hall after them. Though she didn’t wholeheartedly agree with forcing Xenos in this way, she wasn’t about to stay behind in the dark room by herself.
“Okay, point the direction that leads out of this place and to the outside,” Ian said.
Xenos shook her head.
Ian pushed her arm further up her back. A pained cry was muffled behind Ian’s hand. “I’ll break your arm first, then your scrawny neck. If you’re not going to help us get out of here, then you’re of no use to us.”
Ian had never hit anyone that wasn’t in football pads, but he appeared more than willing to make good on his threat. The acid in his voice made a chill run up Erika’s spine.
Xenos whimpered but did not point a direction.
Xenos’ whimper sounded like a small child being hurt. Erika wanted to escape the Conexus, but she wouldn’t hurt Xenos to do it. “Ian –”
Dr. Randall stepped forward and positioned himself in front of Xenos. “He’ll do it. He will kill you if you don’t help. Do you understand?”
Xenos nodded.
“You’d rather die than help us?”
Xenos shook her head.
“Then why don’t you tell us how to get to the outside?”
Xenos tried to speak, but her words were muffled.
“Ian, let her speak,” Erika said.
“But she’ll –”
“Dammit, take your hand off her face. She can’t tell us where to go with you mashing her mouth shut.”
Ian slowly pulled his hand away. He kept his hand at her mouth, ready to clamp it over her again if she tried to scream for help. “If you scream, I’ll break it.” Ian yanked upward on her arm and Xenos winced. “Now tell us. Which way to the outside?”
“No way,” she said. Her voice was hoarse.
“Dammit, I’m through playin’.” Ian pushed Xenos’ arm further up her back. A strangled, pained cry came from the Infractus.
“Stop it,” Erika said. “Be patient, Ian. She’s trying to tell us something. What do you mean ‘no way out’? There has to be a way to the outside.”
Xenos shook her head. “No outside.”
“Of course there’s an outside.” Erika laughed a nervous laugh. “This dark hole of a place can’t be the whole planet. You just m
ean you’ve never been outside. That’s it, isn’t it? Infractus aren’t allowed outside or something?”
“There is no outside. Tro is all that there is for Infractus and Conexus.”
“What the hell is she talking about?” Ian asked. “What’s this ‘Tro’ you’re babbling about?”
“Here. All that is. We live in Tro. There is nothing else. Only Tro. No one can leave Tro.”
Nausea washed over Erika. The dark, musty walls of the hallway closed in on her. She’d be buried alive in that nearly black, dank hallway. “No. That can’t be. This – this godforsaken shit hole can’t be all there is to this planet. There’s got to be more. And we’ve got to get to it. I’ve got to get to the outside. I’ve got to.”
Her voice quavered. Erika’s fear was so palpable that it threatened to become corporeal.
“Tro. All that is. All that ever was. All that ever will be.”
Erika paced and tried to breathe. Her head was dizzy and a huge headache brewed across her forehead. She knew it was probably the lack of oxygen, but that didn’t make it hurt less. She tried to think, but it was hard to concentrate. I hope I die before I go nuts. She tried to breathe deeply to calm herself, but it didn’t work. She just sucked in more dank air that didn’t contain enough oxygen.
Dr. Randall said, “Let me try something else. We came from planet Earth. On a ship of some kind controlled by the Conexus. It was a large, silvery orb. Do you know of such a ship?”
Xenos nodded.
Erika let out a relieved breath. “Good. Okay. Where do they keep that ship? Point us in that direction.”
Xenos’ eyes darted to the side and tears welled in her eyes again. “I do not have permission to –”
“Screw permission,” Ian said. He forcefully pulled up on Xenos’ arm.
She whimpered.
“Xenos, please take us there. If we stay here, we’ll expire. There’s not enough oxygen. And we need the sun to live. Do you understand? If we stay here, we’ll … die.”
Xenos’ eyes grew wide. “I will be punished severely if you expire.” She slowly raised her free arm and pointed to the corridor to the left.
“Lead the way.” Ian pushed her forward in the direction she’d pointed.
Xenos had moved swiftly before, but now she stalled. Ian shoved her roughly in the back more than once. He’d say “move it” or “come on, go.” But it quickened her pace only slightly.
They turned to the left down another corridor as dark as the one they’d left, lit only by the same bluish-white floor lights as their holding cell. The halls were long but wide. Erika and Dr. Randall could easily walk beside Ian and Xenos. The walls were a sort of crumbly cement that showed exposed rock here and there. Erika couldn’t make out the colors of the walls or the rock in the dim light. Everything looked like a shade of grey. The walls looked as though they had been built – definitely not naturally occurring and not just tunneled out of the rock. But it had not been well maintained over the years.
At the end of the long hall, Xenos pointed them right into yet another dark, musty hallway indistinguishable from the others. She could have been leading them in a circle, like rats in a maze. Erika tried to memorize all of the twists and turns, but she lacked the oxygen required to concentrate. She was so tired. If she weren’t running for her life, she would have liked to lie down on the crumbly ground and take a nap. Adrenaline was the only thing that kept her moving.
She kept expecting to run into more Conexus, but the halls were quiet. The area they walked through seemed old and abandoned. Erika wondered if the Conexus maybe worked and lived somewhere else.
They turned once more, this time to the right. The light was brighter at the end of the hallway. It hurt her eyes, now accustomed to the dim light. Her pulse quickened and though she’d been tired enough to sleep standing up, she wanted to run toward the light. She had no idea what lay behind the brightness, but it had to be better than the stinky cave-like room they had come out of.
“Ian, wait,” Dr. Randall said.
“What?” He said it over his shoulder but didn’t stop walking toward the light. “Push yourself, Doc. We’re almost there. I think.”
“What about Tex?”
Ian stopped and spun around, whipping Xenos around as well. “Forget Tex. He betrayed us. I’m not risking my life – again – for that little two-faced Judas.”
Ian voiced the feeling that had welled in Erika too. Tex must have known that the Conexus weren’t going to roll out the red carpet for them. He’d done the mind-meld thing with them or whatever it was. He must have seen what the Conexus planned for them. Yet he’d been insistent that they get on the ship.
But this was all conjecture on their part. Erika had no way of knowing for sure until she was able to talk to Tex.
“I can’t just leave him here. He’s my son,” Dr. Randall said.
“You may not be able to leave without him, but I sure as hell can,” Ian said. He shoved Xenos again to force her down the hallway toward the light.
“Ian, stop. This isn’t you. You’re scared – we all are, including Xenos. But we can’t leave without at least finding out if Tex was in on the plan or not,” Erika said.
Ian let out a growl and kicked his foot into the crumbly path. “Dammit.”
“Don’t be mad at me,” Erika said.
“I’m … I’m not mad at you. Just pissed in general ’cause you’re friggin’ right. Okay, Xenos, do you know where they’re keeping the other human that came with us from Earth?” Ian asked.
She nodded.
“That’s something at least,” Ian said. “Take us to him, then.”
Before Xenos could answer or point them in the right direction, she was on her knees, gasping for air, and Ian was thrown away from her. He was pinned to the wall like a fly to flypaper. He kicked his feet and strained, but he was unable to free himself from the invisible force that held him immobilized.
Erika turned toward the direction they’d come from. Three small beings glided toward her. Behind the three Conexus was a taller being. It had the same huge, hairless head as the others but was more robust. It also had slightly fuller lips, and its lower lip appeared to be tattooed with purple vertical lines that met in a point at the tip of its chin. The larger being spoke. “Xenos, you have disobeyed the commands of the Conexus. You will be punished.”
Xenos writhed on the floor as she gasped. Her pale, smooth skin turned an alarming shade of eggplant purple.
“Stop!” Erika screamed. “Don’t hurt her. We forced her to bring us here. Ian had hold of her.”
“That is of no consequence,” the larger Conexus said. “Xenos disobeyed the will of the Conexus.”
“Please,” Erika said. “She – she did not disobey. Her job was to keep us alive, right? And she did. We told her that we’d die if she didn’t bring us here. She didn’t fail your commands.”
The Conexus were only a few feet away now. The larger one looked to Erika then to Xenos. She lay with her head twisted to the side, her mouth locked open in a silent ‘O’, the veins in her temples throbbing.
The Conexus regarded each other. It appeared that they were engaging in conversation though they did not speak out loud.
Xenos coughed and gasped. She slowly stood, her hands shaking. She took huge gulps of air.
Erika was about to thank the Conexus, but before she could get the words out, her whole body rose into the air. She was held aloft by invisible hands. She and Dr. Randall hovered in the hallway while Ian still hung on the wall like a trophy kill.
“Xenos, you will follow,” the apparent leader said.
The Conexus turned back in the direction from which they’d come, and Erika was pulled along behind them by a lasso she couldn’t see. She looked toward Ian and was glad to see that he too floated in the air behind her. His arms and legs flailed as if that might help him get himself back to the ground. It didn’t work.
The Conexus twisted down this corridor then that. Erika again tried
to memorize their route, but it was no use. What little concentration she might have mustered was destroyed by the disorientation of floating in the air. Her stomach fluttered with the panicky feeling that she would fall out of the air. She knew they would not drop her, but she couldn’t help feeling that way.
The Conexus stopped. The one on the right waved its hand and a door swooshed open. A brighter light came from inside the room. Not as bright as she’d seen at the end of that hallway that led to their way out, but brighter at least than the corridor. A slight breeze wafted over her skin as she was hovered to a table. She was slowly lowered onto a hard, cold slab.
She was glad to be out of the air. No sooner was she aware of the hard surface against her backside when a bright, white light turned on over her head. The light pained her eyes. She tried to raise her hand to shield her eyes, but her arms were pinned to the table by invisible restraints. Her legs too were pinned to the table.
She could move her head, but with the bright light blinding her, she saw nothing but shadows beyond the cone of brightness. “Dr. Randall?”
He didn’t answer. Erika didn’t know if he’d been left behind or if he was passed out.
“Ian?” Erika yelled. “Are you there?”
“Yeah. I’m here. This doesn’t seem good, does it?”
“No. Not good.” It didn’t bode well that she was immobilized on the table like a specimen pinned to a board, awaiting dissection. “Ian, whatever happens … I’m sorry.” A tear welled in the corner of her eye. “I’m so sorry.” She snuffled.
“Don’t blame yourself, Erika. I chose to come. I’m not like Jack. I don’t follow you around like a dog.”
Erika laughed a dry, small laugh. But at the mention of his name, visions of lazy afternoons listening to Jack strum the guitar and sing and of curling up against him while they watched movies came to her mind. And that thought led to other memories of her life on Earth. A life that now seemed like it belonged to another person entirely. Was that even me? On the precipice of what could be the end, any anger toward her mom melted away like ice in a Big Gulp on a summer day in Arizona. Her life played like a fast-motion movie in her mind, and the memories her brain chose to recall were the happy ones – of laughing and cooking in the kitchen with her mom and aunts, of the wind whipping her hair as she rode her bike, and the feeling of hot sun on her face.
H.A.L.F.: The Makers Page 8