Haven 6

Haven 6 Page 14

by Aubrie Dionne

  Eri pulled her­self back from her in­tense long­ings and opened her eyes. Her team needed her; she had to stay sane.

  Look­ing into Striver’s gaze, she faced her own fears. “Some­times I think the com­mander has for­got­ten what it’s like to be hu­man, to walk around and re­late to oth­ers. I won­der if she’s lost touch with real­ity.”

  Re­lief coursed through her. She hadn’t told any­one about her mis­giv­ings, and it felt good to shake her con­cerns from her own shoulders, to share the bur­den with someone else, an un­biased party. Well, not totally un­biased.

  “Whatever hap­pens, Eri, we’ll work it out to­gether, all right?”

  She wanted to be­lieve him so badly, she denied all the secrets brew­ing in­side her and the fact she spied for people plot­ting to steal his home. “All right.”

  His hand traveled to the back of her neck, his fin­gers in­ter­la­cing with her curls. She leaned to­ward him, los­ing her­self in his touch. His mouth was only a breath away. Her heart fluttered. Just a little closer…

  Some­thing stomped on the rock be­hind them and they jumped apart. Ri­ley crouched down, like he’d just jumped three meters to where they stood. He chewed on a piece of long grass, and his blue eyes twinkled like ma­gic. “Hey guys, I found the cave.”

  …

  Dusk came sooner than Eri ex­pec­ted, the moun­tain cast­ing a dark shadow over them. Ri­ley led her and Striver to a ledge where they could peer down at the moun­tain­side without be­ing seen.

  “Where is it? All I see is rock.” Striver squin­ted as he lay be­side Eri.

  Ri­ley poin­ted. “Look by that shrub. See the crack in the facade?”

  Striver inched near the edge to get a bet­ter look. Eri res­isted the urge to pull him back. She wasn’t his mother, and he’d been able to take care of him­self all these years be­fore she met him. So why was she feel­ing so over­pro­tect­ive?

  “Boy, if it wasn’t for the co­ordin­ates on Eri’s locater, I would have never guessed any­one could even fit in there, never mind use it for a hideout.”

  Eri placed her hand on her laser. “No guards?”

  Ri­ley spit out a piece of chewed grass. “Nope.”

  “Why do you think they chose this spot?” Striver scratched his head. “It doesn’t make any tac­tical sense.”

  Ri­ley shrugged. “Who knows? I’m guess­ing this en­trance is the only way out and in. It could be a trap.”

  Eri checked her locater. Her team­mates’ life signs blinked just bey­ond the rock. So close, yet so un­touch­able. The urge to save them welled up in­side her. “They’re here, all right. We’ve got to do some­thing. We can’t just shake our heads and turn back.”

  Striver rubbed his chin with his fin­gers. “They may fight us with the lasers.”

  “That’s if they got them work­ing, if they figured out the code. Be­sides, I have a laser, too, re­mem­ber?”

  “It’s a gamble.” Ri­ley crept up to the edge of the ledge with Striver.

  “How could they pos­sibly know we’ve come for them?” Each second of in­ac­tion pressed on Eri’s chest, squeez­ing out her last breath. Now was not the time to ar­gue.

  “We all know you guys have techno-gad­gets that can do al­most any­thing. What if they bet on you hav­ing some­thing like that loc­at­ing thingama­jig on your wrist?” Ri­ley picked up her arm and her loc­ator flashed fluor­es­cent green in the dim light.

  Eri touched the screen and the light flashed off. “There’s no way they’d know what it did, or that mine con­nec­ted to theirs, or that you guys saved me.”

  “We’re go­ing in.” Striver pulled his bow off his shoulder. “Like Eri said, we’ve come too far to turn back.”

  “Un­der the earth, the Guard­i­ans can’t help us,” Ri­ley warned.

  “Good,” Striver shot back, slid­ing down the ledge. “Let’s prove we can ac­com­plish some­thing on our own.” As much as he cared for the Guard­i­ans, some­times he felt their pres­ence suf­foc­at­ing. It was like hav­ing your par­ents around you all the time.

  Eri fol­lowed Striver, hop­ing Ri­ley would come along. They could use his help, but if he didn’t be­lieve in go­ing, she wasn’t go­ing to force him. Her feet touched the ground and she heard Ri­ley slid­ing down the ledge be­hind her.

  She turned her head as he landed be­side her and gave him a ques­tion­ing glance.

  “I can’t leave you and Striver to go alone, now can I?”

  Eri smiled and cuffed his arm. Maybe she didn’t hate him after all. “Thank you.”

  “You can thank me once we get in and get out.” Ri­ley shook his head. “If we make it.”

  “We’re go­ing to make it.” Striver ad­jus­ted his ar­row bag tighter to his back. “Stop be­ing all gloom and doom. You sound like you’re telling the tale of Old Earth.” He poin­ted to a cir­cu­lar route, his eyes flick­ing to Eri. “We’re go­ing around this way. Keep low to the ground and fol­low my lead. Skirt the foot­hills. Stay out of the open.”

  “Yes, sir.” Eri sa­luted him like a lieu­ten­ant. Striver smiled and slid down the nearest rock. Ri­ley waved his hand for her to go next, so she checked on her laser and fol­lowed Striver into the shad­ows.

  Her heart beat so fast, she thought it would fly out of her mouth if she gasped for too long. So many things could hap­pen, and she didn’t want any­one to get hurt be­cause of her. She feared what the Law­less had done to her team­mates, and she feared what they’d do to her if they caught her. Sur­pris­ingly, she feared los­ing Striver the most. Was it be­cause he’d risked everything for her? Or was it more than just his sac­ri­fices?

  They closed the dis­tance, and Striver put a fin­ger to his lips and waved them back. Eri huddled with Ri­ley be­hind a jut­ting rock as Striver crept to the mouth of the cave. She bit her nail back­ward as he snuck in with an ar­row raised.

  “Al­ways the hero.” Ri­ley sighed and settled back on his butt, cross­ing his arms. Eri re­mained si­lent, too nervous to reply.

  Two second later, Striver emerged and signaled for them to join him. Eri and Ri­ley ran across the na­ked ex­panse and slipped in.

  Dark­ness swal­lowed them as the air cooled, leav­ing goose bumps on her skin. The crack cast a sliver of light be­hind them.

  “We need light to go on.” Ri­ley shuffled in the dark. “I should have thought ahead.”

  “No prob­lem.” Eri raised her laser gun and pressed a but­ton on the side. White light erup­ted, il­lu­min­at­ing walls drip­ping with wa­ter and moss. A mul­ti­legged bug skittered across her boot and she kicked it off, jump­ing back.

  “What in cy­ber­space is that?”

  “A spi­derm­ite.” Striver kicked it away and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Their bite is pois­on­ous, but it would take thirty of them to make you sick.”

  Eri cringed. “I don’t even want one to bite me.”

  Ri­ley took up the lead. “They swarm, so we have to move fast.”

  The cave nar­rowed un­til Eri had to squeeze against slick walls crawl­ing with spi­derm­ites. She brushed one off her shoulders, stifling a shriek. This was worse than the air ducts she used to crawl through as a kid. These crit­ters were ten times as large as the little brown spiders on the Her­it­age.

  Don’t think about the bugs. Think about your team.

  “You do­ing okay?” Striver whispered into her ear.

  Eri nod­ded, aim­ing the light ahead so Ri­ley could con­tinue in the lead. The walls pressed around her, and all she could think of was a cave-in, of the rock trap­ping her un­der­neath its weight and her never again see­ing the light of day. What if the tun­nel nar­rowed so much they couldn’t squeeze through?

  Stop be­ing stu­pid. If they lugged Litus and Mars through, you can fit eas­ily.

  The group roun­ded a bend and Ri­ley turned. His face shone white as a ghost in the light of her laser. “There’s some
­thing ahead.”

  Eri’s throat tightened. Judg­ment time.

  Golden light leaked from a source bey­ond the tun­nel. The ra­di­ance grew so strong, Ri­ley didn’t need the light from her laser any­more. Eri turned it off, not want­ing to an­nounce their pres­ence. She made sure the laser still buzzed with en­ergy.

  Ri­ley ges­tured over his shoulder for them to join him be­hind a stalag­mite in a pool of stag­nant wa­ter. Eri and Striver waded be­hind it, hud­dling next to Ri­ley. Peer­ing around the rock, Eri saw the tun­nel open to a lar­ger cav­ern.

  “Why are we stop­ping?” Striver whispered to Ri­ley.

  Ri­ley held up his fin­ger and they listened. Voices.

  Eri couldn’t make out the words, but she could def­in­itely hear a man’s voice. It wasn’t Litus. She squelched her dis­ap­point­ment. Litus was still in there. Loc­at­ors never lied.

  She glanced at Striver. “What should we do?”

  He’d already pulled out his bow and a long, slender ar­row, the end dec­or­ated with what she re­cog­nized as a Guard­ian’s iri­des­cent feath­ers. “We catch them by sur­prise.”

  Ri­ley brought out his bow and nod­ded in agree­ment. Eri’s grip on her laser tightened, the weight strain­ing her wrist. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to hold­ing it, al­ways feel­ing like a child wield­ing her par­ent’s weapon. Re­mem­ber—you killed the alien in the sim­u­la­tion, plus the gi­ant boar. You can do it, even when you don’t want to.

  They tip­toed to­ward the light.

  Striver and Ri­ley re­leased the first vol­ley of ar­rows. They ducked as shouts rang out and the men in­side re­turned fire. Striver gave Eri the sig­nal, and he and Ri­ley dis­trac­ted the at­tack­ers as she snuck for­ward to get a bet­ter look.

  Hope bubbled through her limbs. “They’re alive! They’re tied up in the back.” She wanted to run to them, but two men shot at Striver and Ri­ley from dif­fer­ent points. In the cen­ter of the cav­ern, a golden pool of light glimmered like a basin for the gods.

  “Get to your friends,” Striver shouted, throw­ing her a black blade. “We’ll hold them back.”

  The weapon skid­ded to her feet and she picked it up. Eri nod­ded and slid it into her boot. In the dis­tance, Mars and Litus shouted, send­ing more ad­ren­aline through her limbs. She bolted to the next stalag­mite, every mo­ment she was out in the open tingling on her skin. She ducked be­hind the rock gasp­ing for air. Two more and she’d reach her team.

  She jumped out of hid­ing just as an ar­row whizzed across the cav­ern to­ward her. She rolled and came back up be­hind the next rock. Panic made her squirm, feel­ing around her body for the end of an ar­row, but she hadn’t been hit. An­other ar­row flew over her head and hit the rock wall be­hind her. They knew she was there.

  Striver yelled—in pain or frus­tra­tion, Eri couldn’t tell. Her heart tore as she cast a glance over her shoulder. She couldn’t see if he’d been hit. Was he draw­ing the at­ten­tion away from her? Should she go back?

  No. She was too close now. One more rock to go.

  Wait­ing for an­other vol­ley of ar­rows to end, she fired in the gen­eral dir­ec­tion of the men and scur­ried between the two stalag­mites, keep­ing close to the ground. She reached Litus first, pulling out Striver’s blade to cut his ties. His cam­ou­flaged uni­form sagged on his body like he’d lost weight.

  “Eri?” he whispered through dry, cracked lips. “Is it really you?”

  “What are you do­ing wear­ing their clothes?” Mars looked at her with a mix of in­credu­lity and dis­trust.

  “I’ve made friends.” Eri pushed the thought of a wounded Striver from her mind. They were there to save her team, and that’s what she had to do right now.

  Litus rubbed feel­ing back into his wrists. As he fumbled with the bonds on his legs, she cut the ropes around Mars’s hands.

  “Where’s Cursor and the rest of the team?” Her loc­ator had re­gistered them as gone, but she re­fused to be­lieve it.

  Litus shook his head. His shoulders slumped with fail­ure.

  “Damn bas­tards.” Mars stood and stretched her legs. She’d already kicked off the ropes. “We’re all that’s left.”

  Eri swal­lowed a lump in her throat. All that’s left. Even though she’d found Litus and Mars, she still felt empty-handed. Tank had helped her with her oxy­gen mask. Even now she could see him play­ing Galaxy Bat­tle­field with Mars. Don’t think about the oth­ers. Save the people still alive.

  “Come on.” Eri rubbed her nose with her sleeve. “We have to get back to the tun­nel.”

  “Not un­til I’ve given him a dose of his own medi­cine.” Mars hurled her­self into the ar­row fire, run­ning dir­ectly at one of the men. He saw her com­ing and reached be­hind him, into his ar­row bag for an­other ar­row.

  “She’ll never make it.” Eri brought up her laser, but Mars stood in the line of fire.

  “You don’t know Mars,” Litus said from be­hind her. “Give her a second. She’s been wait­ing for this chance since she woke up.”

  Just as the man pulled the bow­string back, Mars lunged, hurl­ing through the air. She rammed his chest be­fore he could re­lease the ar­row. Eri’s heart sped as they fell in a tangle to the ground, wrest­ling.

  “Push ahead!” she heard Ri­ley shout from across the cav­ern. Striver and Ri­ley ran and hid be­hind a stalag­mite in the middle of the cav­ern. Striver was still alive and well enough to keep fight­ing. That much kept her go­ing. As they closed in on the younger man, Eri watched Mars fight the older pir­ate on the ground. He man­aged to get the up­per hand, push­ing his weight on top of her.

  Eri held up her laser.

  “Can you get a good shot?” Litus’s voice was hoarse and weak.

  “I’ll try.”

  While Mars looked like she’d stored her en­ergy up on the floor of the cave, Litus looked as though they’d leaked his en­ergy from him. Eri wanted to help him, but she had to make sure Mars didn’t get killed. She fo­cused on the man’s back just as Mars punched him in the jaw and they rolled over to­gether, limbs en­twined.

  “Nope.”

  The man pulled him­self from Mars’s grasp and stood, reach­ing in his shirt. He pulled out a black blade and swung it as Mars re­gained her foot­ing.

  Mars jumped back as the blade swung a mil­li­meter away from her gut, sli­cing her cam­ou­flaged uni­form. She turned and side-kicked the man in his belly. He stepped back, tee­ter­ing over the golden pool. Mars re­covered from the kick fast enough to land an­other punch in his chest. Flail­ing his arms, he fell back­ward into the li­quid.

  Litus cheered, pump­ing his fist into the air. Eri shouted across the cav­ern, “Way to go, Mars!”

  In­stead of splash­ing, the golden sub­stance en­vel­oped the man like gel. He screamed as mol­ten ooze covered his face. The sur­face lay pla­cid a mo­ment later.

  Eri and Litus joined Mars on the edge, star­ing into the golden li­quid.

  “What happened to him?” Eri offered them her wa­ter pouch. She checked across the cave for Striver and Ri­ley. They stood with their bows raised, cor­ner­ing the other man. To her re­lief, they looked un­harmed.

  Mars took a swipe of wa­ter. “Sent him back to where he came from.”

  “Where’s that?”

  Mars’s eyes looked like they could shoot lasers of their own. She handed Litus the wa­ter pouch. “Hell.”

  “Hey, Eri, look at this.” Litus took the pouch and poin­ted to strange sym­bols carved along the side of the pool. “Can you fig­ure out what it says?”

  Eri crouched down, tra­cing her fin­gers over them. “It’s noth­ing I’ve ever seen be­fore.”

  “You’re the lin­guist.” Mars joined her by the sym­bols. “I bet with enough time you could.”

  For a mo­ment, she for­got about the battle, in­trigued. Be­sides the S.P. Nautilus, this was the find of
her life. Any lin­guist would be ex­cited to get a chance at some­thing this for­eign. “With enough time, I’d fig­ure out the whole lan­guage.”

  “Tie him up.” Ri­ley’s voice echoed from across the cave. Eri tore her­self away from the sym­bols. Striver. She had to check on him and make sure he was okay. She left Mars and Litus and ran across the cav­ern.

  Ri­ley tied the man’s hands be­hind his back. “Stu­pid, be­tray­ing weasel worm.”

  Striver watched with such strange pity and emo­tion in his fea­tures, it made Eri’s stom­ach quiver.

  “You guys okay?”

  “We’re fine.” Pain tain­ted Striver’s voice.

  “What’s the mat­ter?” Eri placed a gentle hand on his arm. “Are you hurt?”

  “Only by his traitor brother,” Ri­ley said, yank­ing on the ties. The man he’d bound fell to the cave floor with a thud. Brown hair covered his face and he blew it back with de­fi­ance. His nose was broader than Striver’s, his fea­tures softer, but he had the same green eyes. His brother?

  She turned to Striver and he pulled away, not able to meet her gaze. “Are your friends okay?”

  “We’re fine. What’s left of us,” Mars answered from across the cave. Al­though she’d just won in battle, her shoulders slumped. “Where’s the fast­est way out? I have a date with the leader of these sav­ages. We’re go­ing to a nice little spot I call re­venge.”

  “Enough, Mars. You and I need to rest. To eat.” Litus held up his hand. He looked at Ri­ley and Striver. “Can you help us?”

  “Where are the laser guns?” Striver scanned the cave.

  “They took them back to the main camp.” The man tied on the floor struggled against his re­straints. “You’ll never get them back with your ragtag army.”

  Ri­ley moved to kick him and Striver grabbed his arm. “Not now.”

  “I want to show the little traitor just how much it hurts to leave your people.”

  The man on the floor coughed and spat as if Ri­ley’s words sent a blade to his gut. “You have to get out of here. Jolt’s com­ing back with more men. They’ll be here any minute, and you will all be boar’s meat.”

 

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