by Anna Adler
She knew, of course, that Lizardians could climb vertical walls without difficulty. Chase had Lizardian blood, but it was impossible to predict how the various talents manifested in hybrids.
“I can climb.” He pulled her in his arms and kissed her forehead. “Come on, baby. Hold on and don’t let go.”
Holly nodded. Chase went down on one knee so that she could climb onto his back. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and held on as he stood and approached the wall. He rubbed his hands together and flexed his fingers before placing his palms against the rock, searching for a good hold. Next, he lifted his right foot and placed the instep against the wall. Holly remembered that Chase was barefoot. His muscles tensed and then he simply began moving up the wall, smoothly, like a man-spider.
“Oh my god.”
“Just hold on,” he gritted out.
Chase began to move faster, and before long, they were going up at a brisk pace. As the distance to the prison cell grew, Holly began to worry.
What if Chase loses his footing? What if my weight is too much of a burden?
She was probably unbalancing him and pulling him away from the wall. She could feel his bulging muscles working, and his breath was coming hard and fast. The top of the shaft didn’t seem to be getting any closer. If they fell now, they would die.
“Can you really keep going like this?” she asked.
Chase stopped. He leaned his forehead to the wall and panted.
“What is it?” she asked, alarmed.
“Just need to rest a moment. This damn shaft,” he panted, “is deeper than I thought.”
Fear squeezed her throat and she broke into a cold sweat. Her arms ached from holding on to him. Chase’s arms must be hurting even worse. “You should’ve left me behind.”
“I’m not leaving you behind.”
“I could’ve waited on top of the cell until you got to the surface and found a way to bring the cell up.”
“No!”
“I could wait safely down there.”
“We don’t know if it’s safe, and I don’t know how to operate Silenian machinery. I’m never leaving you behind. Ever.”
“But I’m too heavy.”
He let out an exhausted laugh. “I barely feel your weight. I’m out of practice, that’s all. When this is over, you should punish me for that fact.”
Holly opened her mouth to argue, but then she understood. “If you get us out of this shaft,” she said, her voice dropping lower, “you’re going to get all the punishment you want.”
“Mm. Good. Tell me about it.”
“What?”
“Details. I want details.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“No, I want details.”
“Are we really going to talk about this now?”
“We might die up there. This might be our last chance.”
“Chase, you’re crazy.”
“Good. Tell me how you’re going to punish me for that. It’s going to motivate me.”
She was clinging to her half-alien lover, hanging off a stone wall in the dark, with a death trap below and potential doom above, their only hope at this point being that Chase could keep climbing.
She sighed. “You know what? You’re right. You’re out of shape.”
“I’m sorry, Mistress.”
“Sorry is not good enough. This is unacceptable. I need you fit and healthy.”
“I’ve been bad and haven’t done my exercises.”
“That’s right. Clearly, you have to be punished for it.”
Chase chuckled. He began to move up the wall again. Slowly at first, but picking up speed.
“I want to serve you, Mistress. Protect you.”
“You can’t protect me if you’re weak. I need you at your fittest.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
“There’s no way around this. You have to be punished.”
“Yes. How will you punish me?”
She spoke softly into his ear, “First, I’m going to take you to an obstacle course. We’re going to make you exercise as you’ve never exercised before. It’s going to be hard. You’re going to hate me. You’re going to beg for it to be over.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Chase climbed faster.
“You’re going to sweat through your clothes. I’m going to order you to take them off and keep working. The exercise is not going to end until you’re dripping.”
“And then?”
“Once you’re so exhausted you can barely stand, it’s time for a different kind of punishment. Which one do you think I should use: a crop, a cane or a whip?”
Chase panted. “I want—”
“I’m going to use all of them, of course,” Holly promised him, her lips touching his ear. “One after another.”
“Yes. Hell, yes.”
“I’m going to keep whipping you until you can’t take it anymore.”
“Yes, Mistress.” His voice was hoarse. His muscles bulged under her as he climbed.
“That’ll teach you to do your exercises in the future.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
“Then, once you’re utterly exhausted…”
“Yes, Mistress?”
“You’re going to kneel at my feet, kiss the tips of my boots and beg for forgiveness. You better make it good. If I’m not satisfied with your remorse, I’ll send you back on the obstacle course.”
Chase kept climbing briskly, his body twisting like that of a lizard. Holly felt the cold air whoosh past her cheeks as they advanced. His breathing was labored but energetic.
“Good. And if I…apologize…properly?”
Holly let him hear the smile in her voice. “Hmm. If I’m happy, you get to please me. I’m going to tie you up. Ankles and wrists, so that you can’t move. I’m going to blindfold you. And then I’m going to take advantage of your cock. I’m going to ride you long and hard until I’ve had my fun. You’re mine, Chase. Your cock belongs to me.”
“Fuck, yeah.” Chase was nearly flying up the wall. The lights at the top of the shaft were approaching fast, until Holly realized they were only a few meters below the doorway leading into the prison building. Chase froze. Holly went silent as well. The doorway was open, guarded by a restrainer bot. The damn thing was facing the mining shaft, waiting for them.
Chase moved downward and then left, so that they were a few meters directly below the doorway.
“Did it see us?” he asked her in a low voice.
“I can’t tell,” Holly whispered. “It doesn’t matter. We won’t get past it.”
“But it’s only one?”
“I think I saw only one. When they come to terminate you, there’s going to be more.”
“All right.” Chase thought for a moment. “I have to ask you again to trust me.”
Holly swallowed. She knew something unpleasant would follow, but she said, “Yes. What do you need?”
“I’m going to have to leave you hanging off the wall by yourself for a few minutes. Do you think you can do it?”
“Um…”
“Feel here. The wall’s rougher here. You can find something to hold on to.”
Holly released one arm from around Chase’s neck and touched the wall. Her heart sank. The cold, uneven surface was only a notch more friendly than a smooth wall. She wasn’t a climber and she had no idea how the hell she was supposed to hold on to this without losing her grip immediately. But they were running out of time, and she had to get her weight off Chase. He apparently had a plan.
“Are you sure I can? I’m not Lizardian.”
“I’ve seen humans capable of climbing rocks like this. All you have to do is stay still and hold on for a minute. I’ll help you find a foothold. Here’s a small ledge. Put your right foot there.”
With Chase’s deft guidance, Holly soon found herself facing the rock wall and clinging to it.
“Look up,” he instructed. “Not a single glance down, you hear me? Just hold on and keep your eyes on me. I’m going up there.”
“You can’t get past the bot!” she cried out.
He gave her a stern look. “Watch me.”
Chapter 28
Chase knew he had to go all out if he wanted to get past this fucker of a bot. His body ached from his exertions, but fresh determination pumped in his veins. Holly depended on him. He had agreed to help her on her quest to free the aliens on Silenia. His Mistress was a fighter. She wanted to change her homeworld, but she couldn’t do it alone. She needed a worthy male to protect her and help her. It was time to prove that he was worthy. Time to show her what Chase Decker was made of.
Chase launched himself forward. The bot detected him and moved to intercept him the moment he reached the doorway. It got a grip on him, but only partial since Chase twisted out of the way a fraction of a second before. He felt joints getting dislocated, but he kept wrenching, rolling and rolling, toward the hallway beyond. If the bot got a full grip on him, he was as good as gone. He knew well enough by now that these bastards never let go. This thing was big enough to restrain both him and Holly and wait for the execution squad.
Chase managed to tear free. Once he was past the bot, he rolled up to his feet and spun to face the bot. The burning pain from his dislocated shoulder fueled his rage. He imagined Holly behind him. This monster was trying to get its creepy metal hands on his woman. He snarled at the bot as it approached. It strode toward him, relentless. The bot didn’t experience fear or calculate battle strategies. The Silenian restrainer bots simply came at you, and kept grabbing until they got you.
The thought of protecting Holly pushed a surge of adrenaline into his veins. His collar was missing, but he felt like an enormous, bloodthirsty hound, protecting his Mistress. He didn’t even feel the pain anymore. He was the only thing standing between his female and this monster. She depended on him to protect her.
He launched himself at the wall, using it as a launch pad to backflip onto the bot’s shoulders. He landed on the bot’s head and grabbed it with both hands and twisted with all his might. The bot’s multiple hands grabbed him, trying to pull him down.
Chase felt muscles spraining, but he resisted and kept twisting the bot’s head. The head was the main guiding unit for the limbs. Removing it would immobilize the bot. A scream tore from his throat, but then he felt metal bending and wires snapping. The twisting metal neck screeched then came loose and the bot powered down, its limbs frozen in place, still gripping Chase. But he was able to yank himself free now.
Once he landed on his feet, he gave the bot a scornful shove. It toppled with a clatter.
“Chase!” Holly screamed from the dark mining shaft. “Chase!”
Mistress!
Chase dropped the severed robot head, rushed to the gaping doorway and leaped into the shaft. He landed against a wall then leaped to the opposite wall where Holly waited.
“Chase,” she sobbed, startled. “What—?”
He snaked an arm around her waist to keep her from falling. “Hold on. The way is clear now.”
He pulled Holly to him. She gripped him convulsively, her limbs trembling from exhaustion. He climbed up swiftly and set her on her feet in the hallway next to the ruined bot. Holly drew shaky breaths and stared at it.
“I can’t believe it. You…you took down a restrainer bot.”
“Had to clear the way.”
She fixed her shocked gaze on him. “With your bare hands! No one has ever done such a thing. No one.”
“Had to protect you.” Chase rubbed his eyes. He was suddenly dizzy. Like someone had whacked him in the head with a club. The adrenaline rush was fading and suddenly all the pain from his injuries crashed into him. He staggered.
Something wrapped around his waist and held him upright. He blinked. Holly’s arm was around him, squeezing tight, her serious gray eyes looking up at him. “You’re a mess.”
“I’m fine,” he grunted.
Alarms blared in the building, echoing in the hallway they stood in. Holly pulled at him. “Come on. We have to go.”
“Where?” He struggled to clear his head. More enemies were coming. He needed to be in shape to fight, but his overexerted body was betraying him.
“Infirmary. This way. I saw a pointer.”
“I’m fine. I’m going to get you out of here.”
“We do this together,” Holly said sternly. “We’re a team, Chase. You’ve got my back; I’ve got yours.”
Chase wasn’t sure which way they were headed, so he followed Holly blindly. She kept her arm around his waist and guided him. “This way, hurry. Through here. Come on. Walk.”
Chase submitted. He decided to save his strength for the next fight. Holly would tell him. He followed her, until the smell of antiseptics told him they had reached the infirmary. Holly dropped him on a flat surface. An examination table.
“Stay there.” Her voice brooked no argument.
She hurried off somewhere. Chase flexed his injured shoulder and groaned with pain. He didn’t remember how or when he had popped it back into place. He only remembered how the bot had dislocated it. He could still use his arm, but it hurt like hell. The whole right side of his body was in blazing pain.
Holly appeared back to his side, out of breath. “I’ve locked and barred the doors,” she said. “And I blinded the cameras.”
“You’ve locked us in here?”
“This room has a few air vents and recycling hatches we can use. But first, we need to do something. Lie down.”
“I’m fine,” Chase argued.
“They’re tracing you by the chip in your neck. I need to take it out.”
Chase’s mind perked up. “All right.”
Holly hastily rifled through drawers and gathered the necessary equipment by the examination table. “We have only one option, Chase. We have to get out of here and run through the city. We have to get to the park where we hid the thermal suits and breathing masks, and we have to get outside the city dome. And then we hope that your friend manages to pick us up before our pursuers do.”
Chase agreed it was their only option, but thinking about the layout of the city, he knew they would never make it. Everyone recognized their faces, and their prison break had been noticed—security would be all over them.
“Yeah. Agreed.”
“But we won’t get anywhere if every bot in the city knows your location,” Holly went on. “The chip has got to go.”
It would give them time, but it wouldn’t save them. Chase met Holly’s gaze and he could see in her eyes that she knew it too. Their plan was hopeless. But he wasn’t going to say anything. They would fight until the end.
“Good,” he said calmly. “Do what you have to do.”
“I promise you won’t feel a thing. I’m giving you a local anesthetic.”
The thought of Holly operating on him wasn’t bad at all. He trusted her, and he grinned, despite all his pains. “Whatever you say, doc.”
“Lie down. Face down. Try to relax your neck.” Holly snapped on a pair of sterile gloves.
It was hot. The timing was completely inappropriate, but Chase was turned on. He lay down on his belly and folded his healthy arm to function as a pillow of sorts. He felt a cold spray and then a pinch on the back of his neck. Holly leaning over him and touching him was pleasant. He found himself enjoying the procedure and he groaned.
“Does it hurt?” Holly asked immediately.
“Not a bit.”
He felt a slight pull. Then Holly stepped back and dropped a tiny, bloody chip on a metal tray. “That’s the chip out. Wait. I’m going to patch you up.”
“How bad is it?”
“It’s a small cut. All you need is a bandage. But the wound goes deep, so be careful.”
Chase remained still as Holly proceeded to put a bandage on the back of his neck.
“Where are all the other bots?” he wondered. “The alarm is on. Shouldn’t guards and bots be all over us by now?”
“Guards? No. Cloverfield Correctional is automated, so the
few human guards are only office personnel. They wouldn’t try to confront us. But you’re right about the bots. They should be here any—”
Something crashed against the door. Holly jumped.
“Shit. That’s the reinforcements now,” she concluded.
Chase rolled to his feet and faced the door. “I’ll keep them back.”
“Just make sure the door holds,” Holly said hastily. “I need a minute.”
Chase strolled to the door and threw himself against it. Holly had locked it, but the bot’s pounding was bending it inward. It might give in any second. From the corner of his eye, he saw Holly rushing across the infirmary, picking something off the floor and rushing back to the other end of the room. She was doing something with a recycling hatch. Chase put all his strength to keeping the door in place. The steady thuds from the other side made his shoulder ache. He snarled with pain but held on.
Then Holly was beside him. She put a hand on his arm. “Come, quickly!”
Chase let go of the door and ran after her. He assumed she would lead them to a different exit, but instead she pulled him to a back corner of the infirmary, between shelves and supply closets. She pulled him to crouch on the floor beside her.
“Quiet.”
Chase obeyed. The door broke down and landed on the floor with a crash. A restrainer bot entered the infirmary, stomping over the door. Chase sensed Holly holding her breath. He kept expecting a human reaction—maybe the bot would pause and cast a look around, trying to detect them. But the bot simply advanced into the room, going for the recycling hatch Holly had manipulated. It punched through the shaft and reached inside. Finding nothing, it turned and marched out of the infirmary. Chase saw several other bots in the hallway, following the first one.
“Where are they going?” he asked in a whisper.
“To the recycling room,” Holly replied. “I taped your chip on a cleaning robot and put it through the hatch. They’re now chasing after the cleaning bot, but it won’t take long before they realize their mistake. Come on. We gotta run.”
Chapter 29
They raced out of the infirmary and along the office-framed hallways of the prison building until they reached the wide corridor leading to the main entrance. Holly had to pause for a second to catch her breath and make sure the course was clear. Just then, faint noise from the outside carried into her ears. The background noise had been there all along since they left the infirmary, but only now, as they stood still, did she recognize it for what it was. A shouting crowd. “Free them,” the chorus of human voices seemed to chant. “Free Chase and Holly.”