by A. G. Wilde
She just had to hope she wasn’t too late.
The gator-guard had told her where to go—a place called the Scintex—and she was very aware that it might be a trap.
She had no way to verify if what he said was true but there was one thing she was sure of.
The guard wanted her captured…and he thought she was weak.
He didn’t think she’d be able to put up a fight even if she ended up reaching Ka’Cit.
Nia gripped the weapon in her hand.
Well, he was wrong.
She’d never felt more deadly than how she felt now and if one thing was clear, time wasn’t on her side.
She had to take the chance.
She’d only been able to send a message to Riv through the sat phone in the hover car before she’d sped away from Ka’Cit’s homestead.
She’d told them everything was all right. She didn’t need them worrying about her.
She wasn’t even worried about herself.
If this went south… Fuck.
But this was what you did for the people you loved.
Suddenly, you didn’t matter anymore.
She was fine with going into the enemy’s nest on her own. Just like he had done for her on more than one occasion.
Her heart ached.
Ka’Cit.
All she could feel inside was…anguish and rage.
It was dark now and the lights of the stalls on either side of the street played on her mask.
As she walked, she could feel her own power.
An alien bumped into her, took one look at her face—or, rather, the mask—and his six eyes widened.
His tried to scramble away when Nia pointed the gun at him.
He almost withered before her.
“You,” she said. “Where is the Scintex?”
The alien was trembling so hard, she didn’t know if he even understood what she was saying.
Six eyes blinked before a two-fingered hand pointed down a side street. “Straight th-that way.”
Nia lowered the gun and headed down in the direction she was pointed to.
It was different down this street.
She noticed immediately.
It was seedier and the air felt heavier.
The aliens were different too.
They seemed more brutish, more on the wrong side of the law, and that alone made her grip the handle of the blaster tighter.
They watched her, leaning on the side of the buildings, and Nia got the very real feeling that she’d just stepped into the ‘wrong side of town.’
There was a series of what looked like clubs on this side of the street and as she continued walking, it dawned on her that she had a very big problem.
She had no idea which one of them was the Scintex.
She could understand spoken language but written language was a whole other affair.
For a moment, her whole plan crumbled before her.
She was looking at the glowing signs, trying to figure out which one of the buildings was the right one when she heard a sound, almost like a whisper.
Nia’s head turned.
Off to the side, between two of the buildings, a little bald-headed alien that looked like Dobby was motioning in her direction.
Nia looked behind her.
Was he talking to her?
But there was no one else close enough that he could be trying to speak to.
Nia hesitated.
She didn’t have time to waste.
For all she knew, every second wasted was a second against her.
Every second that passed was one where Ka’Cit could lose his life.
Still, the alien motioned to her again, his round eyes darting down the street.
Nia gripped the blaster and walked toward him.
“Are you talking to me?” she asked.
The alien blinked at her and nodded.
He was shaking. She hadn’t realized before till now that she was closer to him.
“Yes,” he glanced down the street again. “You’re wearing the mask. You’re with the Bone Crusher, aren’t you?”
Nia blinked. She almost denied it before she remembered that’s what she’d heard them call Ka’Cit before.
“I am.”
The alien’s gaze darted down the street again. “I know where he is. He is in trouble. I can take you there, but you have to hurry.”
Nia’s eyes narrowed.
If she hadn’t learned anything so far, she’d learned that trusting random aliens was a bad, bad idea.
Deception was high in this land.
She raised her gun and pointed it at the alien. He paled.
“Why should I trust you?”
His body shook. “I speak the truth.” Reaching behind him, he took his tail in hand. It was thin, like a mouse’s tail and she realized belatedly that he was handing his tail to her.
“You want me to hold…your tail?”
The alien’s nods were sharp jerks because of how hard he was still trembling. “Yes, so you know I am telling the truth.”
When she just blinked at him, he continued. “The Bone Crusher saved me once. I do not wish him any harm.”
Nia studied the alien for a few moments then lowered her weapon.
“Take me to him.”
The alien blinked at her and dropped his tail. With a thin arm, he motioned for her to follow him and she had to squeeze through the gap between the buildings.
He was only about a meter tall and he moved fast, stopping to turn and look her way a few times to ensure she was keeping up.
That was a challenge. With the only light coming from the street, the darkness worked against her and it was difficult to make her way.
To add, behind the buildings had a lot of debris—what looked like old tables and other things—and she had to do quite a bit of climbing and crouching as she made her way.
The little alien kept going.
Every now and then he’d stop on top of something high so she could see his location.
He was incredibly nimble, but he never went too far ahead that she couldn’t see him.
They traveled like that for a few minutes, him leading the way, she behind, before she caught up to him because he’d stopped.
He was standing before a singular door and his long ears quailed at the sides of his head.
“Here,” he whispered before rapping on the door.
Moments passed before it opened and an alien of his same species stood there trembling.
“Hurry,” he said, before going behind her and pushing against her legs for her to enter the room.
It was dark in there and she didn’t know what to expect.
“Aren’t you coming in?” she asked.
His eyes widened a little and he shook his head. “I am not allowed.”
Nia took a deep breath and hesitated.
Could she trust him?
Hell, she’d come this far behind him…
Just then, she heard an undeniable sound. Laughter she’d heard a thousand times.
Gator-guards.
The sound made a unique mix of anger and anxiety churn within her.
“Hurry,” the alien at her feet hissed and Nia nodded, taking a step forward and into the building.
The door closed behind her with a soft click and the other alien stared up at her.
“This way,” he whispered before he began moving forward.
Nia followed behind, her ears perked and her heart thumping in her chest.
The little alien just turned a corner and she was about to follow him when he yelped and took a few steps back in her direction.
Nia froze.
The alien’s eyes went wide at whatever was before him, whatever she could not see, and he began shaking his head.
“What the qrak is wrong with you, fool?”
It was the voice of a gator-guard and she had no idea how many more were around the corner.
Fuck.
The gator-guard couldn’t s
ee her yet. She could probably backtrack…
But the guard took a step forward.
For a second, he didn’t see her. So focused on the little alien at their feet, that split moment made Nia want to slink back into the shadows.
But the guard sensed her presence and his gaze snapped in her direction.
Yellow eyes met hers and widened, his arm immediately moving to the weapon at his side.
Nia didn’t hesitate.
Her body already knew what to do even before her mind could tell her muscles to move.
Her arm raised.
The gun cocked.
Her finger found and pulled the trigger.
The blast left the weapon and found its target so quickly, the gator-guard didn’t know how to react. He clutched his chest, his mouth opening to release a scream that did not come.
His eyes were wide, still staring at her in shock as he fell with a thump to the floor.
Nia’s heart hammered in her chest.
There hadn’t been any sound from the blast.
This gun had a silencer.
No doubt that would come in handy in the next few minutes.
“What was that?” The voice of a guard, but it was coming from another room.
“Sounds like the phekker had too much woogli drink.”
Nia froze, listening as her heart thumped hard in her chest, and hoping no more of the guards entered the corridor.
If she could do this without causing chaos, she’d opt for that.
When she looked down, the little alien that was leading her was trembling so hard, the grey tunic it wore was shaking like a leaf.
As he looked from the fallen guard then back to her, she could see the fear in his eyes.
“Don’t worry, little guy, I’m on your side.”
Wide eyed, he barely nodded, but he grabbed the foot of her trousers and tugged lightly.
“Come quickly. Don’t have much time.” As he tugged on her leg and she began following him once more, he scowled and gave the body of the guard a kick as they stepped over it.
Well, if that didn’t show his allegiance, she didn’t know what would.
She guessed she wasn’t the only one who had something against the dastardly guards.
Around the corner was a set of double doors and even though she didn’t know what was behind it, she had a pretty good idea. She could hear the laughter.
It sounded like several beings were on the other side.
The little alien creeped up to the set of doors, his hand still fisted in her trousers, and it was not until he tugged again that she looked down at him. His eyes were still wide and he was still trembling.
“They’re in there,” he said, and pushed the door ever so lightly that there was a crack in the middle they could see through without being seen themselves.
Nia gulped.
In the other room, there were at least four other gator-guards sitting around the table. They were playing a game of holographic cards, it looked like, and they were caught up in their fun. They had no idea that just in the other room, one of their comrades had fallen.
“Quick, you have to kill them before they see us.” The alien by her side was insistent.
He was right, though.
She had the element of surprise on her side, and she needed to use it.
Searching the room behind the doors was difficult when she could hardly see, but there was no sign of the one alien she was looking for.
“Where is he?” she whispered. “The Bone Crusher. I don’t see him.”
The alien tugged on her trousers again and pointed.
Barely visible at the back of the room in the shadows, there was the outline of another door.
“He’s in there,” the alien whispered.
“How many more of them are in there with him?”
“Just one more.”
Nia took a deep breath. Okay, she could do this.
She could do this.
She knew she wasn’t going to miss but that didn’t mean she could dodge bullets. So she had to be quick. She had to be sure. And she had to be fast.
Gripping the weapon in her hands, she glanced down at the alien.
“You might want to hide for this.” His nod was a trembling mess as he let go of her and hurried away.
Time to let her instincts take over.
This was just like being in the shooting range.
Just like the shooting range.
She repeated this to herself as she kicked the doors open.
They slammed against the wall, creating a loud bang. That made the aliens in the room look up.
“Surprise, motherfuckers.”
She’d always wanted to say that line.
It took a moment for them to realize she was holding a gun, only a moment, and then they were moving.
Nia pulled the trigger, pumping it with her fingers as she unloaded blast after blast.
This wasn’t Call of Duty.
There wasn’t any ducking or rolling. No advanced tactics.
This was simple.
Point and shoot. And, if she didn’t hit them now, then she knew she would be in deep shit if one of them got away.
She could face them with a gun in her hand. She wasn’t sure how she would fare in one-and-one combat.
This was the one chance she had at this or risk being caught. So she held down on that trigger, unloading the bullets and she didn’t stop until the gun heated up in her hands and hissed.
As the steam cleared from the muzzle, Nia found the option to breathe and only then did she duck to the side behind one of the tables in the room.
Her chest heaved as her heart thudded in her throat as she checked the room for movement.
For some of the longest seconds in her life, she listened and looked, trying to pick up any movement, and when one of the bodies of the guards slid off a chair and fell to the floor, she jerked so hard she hit her head on the table.
There was no other movement.
No other sound.
Crawling from her hiding spot, Nia rose to her feet.
They were dead.
Every single last one of them. Even the table was shot up.
It looked like she’d gotten her hand on a gatling gun and unloaded the full clip in one spot.
A breath shuddered from within her. She’d done it.
She’d really done it.
But there was still the fact that they weren’t in the clear yet.
With steps she hoped were quiet, Nia crept toward the door Ka’Cit was supposedly behind, stepping over the bodies of the guard’s sprawled over the floor as she made her way.
There were sounds coming from behind the door, almost too low for her to hear if she hadn’t pressed her ear against it.
Talking.
Someone was talking.
For a moment, she strained her ears to pick up some of the words, worried that the sound of wood splitting and the guards falling had permeated through the door.
But she didn’t hear anyone scrambling to exit the room and attack/defend themselves.
The little guy had said there was only one person in the room with him and she believed him. He and his friend had helped her this far.
Glancing down, she checked her gun.
It had heated up so much, she hoped she hadn’t wrecked it.
There was just a little bit of charge left in it. She hoped that would be enough.
Following what the little alien had done. She did the same. She cracked the door open a little just, enough that she could see inside the room.
What her eyes fell on made her heart thump and sink in her chest.
She recognized the alien. Even with their back turned towards her, she knew who it was.
The dark leather.
The long blue tail.
The way the alien walked with confidence and poise.
Herza.
She was standing with her leg wrapped around him, her tail stroking his leg.
Nia almost growled at the sight.
He was tied with his arms above him and Herza was stroking her body against his.
But despite Herza’s presence, Nia found she could only look at him.
Ka’Cit.
Her heart leaped and joy filled her at the fact that he was there.
She’d found him and he was alive.
“You’d really give this up for that little animal?” Herza’s words swam through the air and brought her back to reality. “That little thing? You’d prefer that…over me?”
She gestured to herself before running a finger down Ka’Cit’s cheek.
“This is the last time I’m offering. You should take it while you can get it,” Herza continued. “You won’t get a second chance, Smooth-Faced. Not where you’re going.”
Ka’Cit didn’t respond and Herza’s anger visibly grew.
Nia heard when the female’s claws extended as she stroked her finger down the side of his mask.
“And this mask…” Herza growled. “The Bone Crusher.” Her tail flicked and Nia knew what that meant.
Herza was turned on.
The realization made Nia see red.
“Do you really think somebody is coming for you? Is that why you’re holding out?” Herza asked. “Wake up Smooth-Faced. No one cares about your kind. You’re lucky I’m even here touching you. No one is coming for you. You may be the Bone Crusher, but people like you don’t have friends.” She flashed her fangs. “You’re alone and you’ll always be alone.”
The words made Nia grit her teeth. She’d heard enough.
Pushing the door open, Nia pointed the gun in Herza’s direction.
“Get off him, bitch. He’s mine.”
Shock registered in Herza’s eyes as she turned and almost stumbled off Ka’Cit.
“Who—” Herza backed away.
Ah.
The mask.
She forgot she was wearing it.
“Nee-ya?” The utter hope in Ka’Cit’s voice, the disbelief, the shock—it knocked Nia out of her element for a second. “How are you here? You shouldn’t be here.”
His eyes darted to the door behind her, the fear growing in that green pool of his. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I came for you.”
Her words brought another level of shock to his system, it was clear.
She hadn’t seen those diopside eyes in weeks, but she was still just as good at reading them. And he wasn’t hiding his emotions behind a wall at the moment.
Right now, they were raw and at the surface.
