"Six?" she asked, puzzled.
"Yeah. I spoke to an Evvex on the way into the Burrower's tunnel. They're the ones that own the highest floor, right now."
"We know," Zane said.
"Oh. Well, apparently I'm the eleventh human. There are two more yet to arrive, for a grand total of thirteen."
Neve chuckled. "Thirteen floors, thirteen humans, and you've got thirteen days."
I rolled my eyes. "They find something they like and stick to it, I guess. Toot says the bastards even have thirteen fingers."
Zane snorted. "Who or what is a Toot?"
"It's not his real name. It's just short for 'tutorial'. He's a Yvarre'en I met in the Glade, though right now he just looks like a silver orb. I'm probably saying the name of his race wrong, but they were the ones that took a run at the Evvex last. They lost. As punishment, they have to teach the rest of the races a few tips and tricks. He's okay."
Neve held up her hands. "We've never seen anything like what you've just described, and we've certainly haven't received any aid."
"Sounds like a perk exclusive to the volunteers," Zane said angrily. "Big surprise."
I tried to control my rising anger. "You keep calling us that, but nothing could be further from the truth. I was asleep when the soldiers rang my doorbell. I hadn't even gotten out of bed before they kicked the door down. I can't speak for the others, but I can assure you that volunteering was the last thing on my mind."
"Did you fight them?" he demanded.
"I was in my pajamas! They had a whole bunch of guns, and there was a Colonel, and—"
Zane was all too happy to interrupt me. "Did you try to escape?"
"How the hell would I have done that? They grabbed me and chucked me into a space ship, you prick. You guys, of all people, should know what that's like. I don't care if it’s aliens or the government, I was no less abducted than you were!"
Neve stood up between us, not that she had to worry about Zane and I getting into a physical altercation. I wasn't that dumb...
"Enough," she said. "Quit it, both of you. Adam, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell the others about us. Zane, go and cool off. Look after Simon. He was raving a little while ago, and Jia and Peter have been doing their damnedest to respect my wishes and leave Adam in peace."
"Okay," he said, begrudgingly. "Where's Dr. Ford?"
She rolled her eyes and sat back down beside me. "One guess."
"Really? Again?"
"He's sure he can make it work." Zane walked off and Neve leaned toward me, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Our mage used to be a scientist at Los Alamos."
My jaw dropped. "As in, the place where they invented the atomic bomb?"
"The very same. Before you get too excited, just remember that there were a lot of long years between then and when he got taken. Having said that, he's got some interesting ideas about what he can do with his spells."
This was sounding better and better. "Interesting how?"
She frowned "He insists he's still at the research stage. Whenever one of us asks him, he gets angry at us for interrupting his 'process'."
"Oh."
"Don't get discouraged. He's good enough to have made the illusion you stepped through, back in the Burrower's tunnel." She glanced over her shoulder to make sure that none of the others were within hearing range. Zane had spoken to Simon and Jia already and moved back to the entrance of the passageway he and I had emerged from. "I need you to do me a favor, Adam."
"Okay," I agreed. "If I can."
"We aren't able to improve our skills or increase our levels in here, but that doesn't mean we aren't still racking up experience. Promise me that—"
"What about getting back to the Glade?"
"We've tried. It's not a safe place either."
My heart sunk. I'd been relying on backtracking in order to find a spot to spend the experience points I'd already earned.
"Adam? Get your ass over here," Zane called.
I froze, uncertain. Should I listen to him?
"Now," he demanded.
Neve angled her chin in his direction. "Go on and see what he wants. This'll wait. Lord knows Zane won't."
I got up, thankful that she'd given me an out. I didn't know enough about the interactions of these guys to avoid stepping on toes, though Neve and Zane certainly seemed to enjoy an easy-going relationship. "Thanks," I told her. "I'll be right back."
"Me too," she said.
Nobody who knew me would consider me socially adept. I got along with people all right, but I never felt that very many of them actually 'got' me. It seemed like odd little things happened to me all the time and I never knew how to respond. Like just now. Why would she say 'me too'?
I shook my head a little and went over to where Zane was. In the few seconds it took to cross the distance to the passageway's entrance, his body language had gone from curious to downright alert.
"Something wrong?" I asked, though the dour look he gave me told me that I'd somehow managed to transgress yet again, this time by speaking too loudly.
"Shut up," he ordered, turning quickly to stare into the passage. "I thought I heard something back there."
I did what I could to help, even if that was only holding my breath and refraining from shifting my weight on the crunchy rock beneath my feet. His muscles were rigid, and I noticed that he'd already slung the pickax from his belt. It hung ready in his hand, just in case.
The pair of us stood like that for what felt like forever. Finally, I had to breathe. I did so as quietly as I could and Zane took it as a signal to speak again. "Probably nothing."
I nodded knowingly, trying to show him that I had faith in his judgment. "I'm sure you're right."
He laughed and wrinkled his nose up at me. "You're going to kiss my ass now? Is that it?"
"Too obvious, huh?"
"A little. I wouldn't bother trying it on any of the others, though. We've seen far too much shit to fall for it. Neve doesn't need a sycophant."
"What does she need?" I asked, and the sparkle in his eye told me that I had responded far too quickly to conceal my interest.
"So that's the way it's going to be, is it? I bring you back here, and instead of helping us out, you turn your brain toward getting into her pants?"
"No..." I said, though I couldn't stop my voice from trailing off. Neve was an attractive woman, after all. And the Citadel was essentially forcing us to spend time together. "Are you two..."
"Nope."
I was relieved to hear it, which may mean that Zane had been right when he'd guessed that I had feelings for her. I was too busy trying to work out if the fact that I'd promised to keep this little group a secret meant that I was banished or not.
Neve obviously had the mental discipline to cut ties and carry out a plan, and if I thought myself so irresistible that she'd risk everything for a little bump and grind, I was even more deluded than usual.
"Adam," Zane asked, cutting into my thoughts, "where do you think you go, once your thirteen days is up?"
"Back to the station, I guess."
Zane nodded. "And where do you think we go, while we wait for our timers to restart?"
I shrugged. "Home?"
"In a way. This is home though, for us. This is all we have, and there's no going back. You'll spend your time on that space station of yours, and they'll probably put you in a room with the other volunteers. You'll have pizza. Maybe tell ghost stories right before the pillow fight. We don't 'go' anywhere. For us, this is all there is."
"Sorry," I said. It was a shit fate, and I didn't know the words to even pretend to make it better.
"But there's another reason why Neve wanted you to promise not to tell anyone about us. We've already disappeared from Earth once. Whoever we left behind is either dead or still working through the loss."
"When did you get abducted?"
I didn't realize how intensely personal that question was until Zane's harsh facade slipped for a moment and I saw a gli
mmer of pain make him wince. "Did you ask Neve that?"
"No."
"Good. Don't."
I glanced back at her, just in case she was listening. This was the first time I really paused to consider their life. Now that I knew they were stuck here, in a time and place from which they could never return, it put their accomplishments into starker perspective.
They hadn't been lazy. They'd done the best they could with what they had here, in a situation that would've made many curl up into a ball and hope for death.
I looked for her, but Neve was gone.
"She'll be back," Zane said, following my gaze with his. "Divide the amount of time you're in the Citadel by half and you get the number of hours you have to wait in order to re-spawn. That means that you'll have six and a half days of space station splendor, once you're done fucking up in here."
"And you guys just wink out of existence and then reappear later?"
Zane sighed. "You know when you go to sleep and you wake up, and it's like no time has passed? No dreams, no rest, no downtime? It's like that, only wor—" He cut the word short and hefted the pickax.
This time, I heard it too. A cascade of small stones from deep within the narrow tunnel. I cocked my head to the side and listened for more, but no noises followed.
"Sometimes," Zane whispered, his voice so low I could practically feel it rumble in my own chest, "the rocks shift. The walls are only as stable as I could make them with the tools I have on hand." Despite his words, he wasn't acting like he believed them.
I risked a response, speaking as quietly as I was able. "Do you want me to go in the tunnel with you and take a look?"
I thought it was a selfless suggestion, not to mention very possibly the bravest thing I'd ever voiced. That was probably why it hurt so badly when he gave me a withering sideways glance that made me feel all of four inches tall. "What the hell would I want that for? If we do have to fight anything in there, you'd only get in my way."
"I can hold my own."
He was annoyed that I didn't know my place, but fuck this guy. I decided to teach him a lesson and nonchalantly slid a hand into my pocket. "Suit yourself. If I were you, I'd use one of these in there, though. Swinging that pickax at a moving target is going to be an issue, with the walls so close together." I took out three of the XAR claws and held the sharpest out to him.
He stared down at it like I'd just offered him fire stolen fresh from the gods. "Where did you get that," he breathed.
I smiled smugly, savoring the moment. "Oh, just from a XAR I killed." I didn't see any reason to bring up the fact that I'd gotten a lucky shot or two in, or to admit that I'd had to resort to trickery to get CAV to fall into the stream where the piranha could do my work for me.
I could tell that he was shocked, though his words had the same effect on me. "Never in my life, Adam, have I ever hoped that someone was lying to my face as much as I am now."
"What?"
"Did you kill a XAR?"
"Yes," I insisted, puffing out my chest a little. I suppose I should have been ready for him to doubt me.
"Were you at least smart enough to let him kill you back?"
"That's a dumb question. Hell no. Why would I do that? Look, Zane, I'm just trying to prove to you that I'm not some coward who runs at the first sign of trouble. I—"
Zane grabbed the XAR claws from me and pushed by me on his way to Jia and Peter. "On your feet. Grab the essentials. We're about to get hit."
They had clearly prepared long and hard for exactly this situation, since they instantly began gathering supplies and strapping woven bags to their backs.
Once he was satisfied with their response, Zane turned back to me. "I know you're our Savior and everything, but before God kissed you gently on the ass and sent you amongst us, did he happen to explain the Nemesis mechanic to you?"
"No..."
"Of course not. Did you kill the XAR in the Swathe?"
"Yes."
"So you saw that you were this one's Nemesis, yeah?"
I nodded. "I guess so."
Zane looked angry enough to spit fire. "The XAR are all about social standing. Nothing else matters to them. Not many of them are warriors, and those that are don't take losing well. They risk getting kicked out of the Hive if they can't slay their Nemesis. Their Faction paid a huge price for the ability, and they use it well. It lets them track down the one that killed them until the status is gone."
I was already seeing where this was going. "Shit."
"Shit indeed. Your XAR friend probably smelled you right through the illusion. He'll do whatever it takes to end you, because if you kill him again he's out of the Hive for good. And 'for good' is a long, long time in the Citadel."
There was a pit in the bottom of my stomach, a burning, boiling swirl of acid that felt like it would soon work its way up to the back of my throat. I swallowed as hard as I could. My mouth tasted like I'd been sucking on copper. "What do we do?"
Zane flexed his muscles and took a practice swing with his pickax. "We don't do anything. I fight them as long as I can, in order to give the others a chance to escape. Inevitably, I'll die. The XAR will have brought backup, and winning would just make me a Nemesis too. Neve wouldn't let us settle here until I'd hacked a separate way out into a different Burrower tunnel. Otherwise, it'd be too easy for someone to simply guard the only entrance and pick us off as soon as we popped back into existence."
"Fucking campers," I growled.
To my surprise, Zane wasn't familiar with the term. "If you say so. But if the XAR occupy this place, the Citadel will let us spawn together elsewhere, somewhere lower than we are."
"That's good," I said, "but you still aren't thinking this through. I have to fight them, too. CAV has to kill me, or I'll simply lead him to the next encampment. And from what Neve said your guys would die pretty fast without you around. Let me take the XAR on alone. I'll stall them, and once I'm dead the Nemesis thing will be gone and he won't be able to follow you."
He didn't answer, but it was obvious that I was right.
"We both know I'm a liability, Zane. Let me make this right, at least."
He had a few pouches on his belt, and he dipped his hand into one of them and scooped out a yellow glob of what looked like snot mixed with pus. "As you wish. Come here, then."
I stepped closer. Zane reached behind me and slapped the stinking crap on the back of my neck. "That'll stop the XAR from being able to control you, at least."
"Thanks."
He moved to apply the stuff to Map, but I grabbed Zane's elbow. "Take him with you, okay? There's no point in him dying too, and I don't know what'll happen if he does."
"Okay. I'll do my best to look after him."
I gave Zane a little mock salute. "Just make sure the next spot you pick is nicer than this one, okay? This camp is fucking depressing."
Zane cracked a smile. "I'll do my best." He handed me the pickax, though when I took it the damn thing almost dragged me to the ground. "This might come in handy."
As he turned to go, the smile still on his face, I couldn't help but call out, "Go in peace, my child. I will sacrifice myself for your benefit, just as any good Messiah would."
The smile went away, and then so did Zane as he hurried across the clearing and ushered the rest of this little tribe into a well-concealed illusory wall that I would never have guessed was the entrance to another tunnel. Better yet, it was fifteen feet off of the ground and accessible only by a hidden ridge, so that the XAR wouldn't find it via simple blundering.
Jia and Peter vanished, but Zane stayed there, waiting for Map.
I turned to the big creature, who was looking at me with those wide, sad eyes. "I know, I know," I told him. "But I can't help the ways things are. Go with them, and I'll try and find you again."
It occurred to me that I had zero ideas on how to actually do that. I suppose I could work my way back up here from the Glade again, and then through this passage and into the new one. But if the
rest of the way was hidden, I'd have to rely on Neve and the others wanting me to find them, as opposed to my own nonexistent tracking ability.
Map hesitated, and I turned him around and gave him a gentle push in Zane's direction. "Bye, big guy."
He took a couple of reluctant steps forward, but I realized I had one last idea and darted around in front of him, holding out one of the buckets that had been sitting on the ground. "Actually, how about giving me back some of that red stuff before you go? There's no point in making it too easy on the bastards, right?"
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
It took me a second to remember what the stuff was called, but I was eventually able to dredge it up from within the confines of my memory. Crimson Cluster Slurry. Map had regurgitated an entire bucketful for me before retreating with Zane. Between it and the pickax, my hands were too full to give my newfound companions a proper wave, but I did my best and then turned and entered the passageway on my own.
Aren't you forgetting something, Adam? I asked myself, annoyed. I'd been so eager to set up a hopefully explosive ambush that I had almost hurried off without a vital component. Embarrassed, I doubled back to the little camp and went over to the rocks that Jia had been fiddling with.
At least Zane and the others had already gone. If I did get a chance to catch up with them again, I'd rather not have to hear about the time I forgot the fire I'd needed to light the bomb...
Jia and Peter had been hard at work over here, and the way they'd handled one particular sort of rock had given me the feeling it was capable of burning them. Now that I was over in the area I saw that they'd taken most of their raw materials with them, leaving me only a few scraps as viable options.
I'd ditched my gloves once the roots had destroyed them in the wind, but I didn't have time to be careful. I braced myself for a burn and got down on one knee, picking up each of the different ores or rock flakes in turn. The only one that felt even a little hot was an odd specimen that looked like knobby copper. The heat it gave off felt more like an electrical jolt, working toward my bone through the skin as opposed to heating up the surface.
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