“There’s something not right about you,” she said. “Something suspicious. You’re not who you say you are.”
My chest tightened.
“What do you mean?” Eve said.
“He remembers more than he’s letting on,” Skylar continued, still not meeting my gaze. “Which is why I don’t—and won’t—trust him.”
“You’re right.” I gazed into another darkened room. “I do remember some things, and I can’t make you believe me, but you should. I’m not a bad guy.”
Eve gave Skylar a hard stare. “We know you’re not, Leo.”
“Speak for yourself.” Skylar’s eyes narrowed at me. “You appear from nowhere. I’ve never seen you before, and yet Mason and Kelvin risked their lives for you. Why?”
I shrugged. “The CodeX implant?”
We stopped at a door, and Skylar looked at me askance. “If I didn’t know better,” she said, “I’d say you caused all this.”
“Skylar,” Eve hissed.
I wasn’t sure how to react to the accusation.
Hurt?
Offended?
Annoyed?
All of the above?
Skylar stepped up to me. “Let’s get one thing clear, oolak; the only reason you’re here right now is because you can open doors with the implant in your fat head, nothing more.”
Eve stepped between us. “Calm down. Fighting won’t do us any good.”
“Get away from me.” Skylar shoved Eve aside, but Eve shoved back.
“Don’t push me.” Eve waved her clenched fists.
“Woah.” Now it was me stepping between them. I raised my hands while the girls glared at each other.
Skylar waggled a finger in my face. “See what you’re doing to us? I don’t want to get to know you. I don’t want you as a friend. I think it’s a mistake keeping you here. You’ll get us all killed.” She swung around and thrust a finger at the lock. “Open it.”
I pondered Skylar’s words and was inventing a witty comeback when the hatred in her eyes made me change tack.
“I’ll tell you about someone I do remember,” I said as I opened the door and followed Eve and Skylar along another darkened corridor. “When I was eight, there was this kid in my class called Mike Fish.”
“Fish?” Skylar said. “As in a creature that swims?” She consulted her scanner display. “He sounds like fun.”
“Mike was a dick,” I said.
Skylar gestured to a bulkhead door, and we stepped through, making our way along yet another dark corridor. I could’ve sworn they were getting narrower, and I hoped she knew where we were going. My hands shook. Startled, I glanced at my health meter, but it remained on eighty-six percent.
“So,” I continued, trying to not let the confined spaces get to me, “Mike Fish. We hated him. Every time someone snuck sweets into class, Mike would tell the teacher.” I peered into a room filled with crates and moved on. “If we doodled in our notebooks instead of listening, Mike would rat on us. Passing notes? Forget it.”
Eve, Skylar, and I squeezed past several cabinets and pressed on ever deeper into the ship, my sense of foreboding increasing with every step.
“Mike Fish was a super-grass.” I clenched my fists and took a few deep breaths. “He would snitch on anyone. No hesitation. In the playground he’d sit by himself, because no one likes a snitch, right?”
“What did you do?” Eve asked.
Skylar didn’t take her eyes off the scanner display. “Beat him up? Teach him a lesson?”
“One day I got home from school,” I said, following them around a water tank. “Mum told me she’d made friends with a lady at work, a nurse with a son my age, and she’d invited them over for a playdate.” I sighed. “Guess who the kid turned out to be?”
Eve followed Skylar over a bulkhead. “Mike?”
“Yep. Mike.”
Skylar adjusted her phase-band, muttered under her breath, and took a right this time.
“So,” I continued, staying close to them, “Mum forced me to share my toys and games, and I only wanted this a-hole gone as quickly as possible. You know why?” I waited for a reply, but neither Eve nor Skylar answered. “Because I was scared the other kids at school would find out Mike Fish had been to my house, and then they’d treat me the same. I’d be a social outcast too.”
“That’s kind of understandable,” Eve said.
“Yeah, I’m not so sure.”
We walked into an area packed full of machines covered in pipes, cables, and dials.
“There was Mike,” I said, “playing with my toys. Acting like nothing was wrong. I couldn’t help myself. I asked him why he was such a dick, why he grassed us up to teachers all the time. I was really mad that I had to talk to such a prolific snitch, someone so universally hated, but I wanted to know.”
We slipped between machinery—all dead and silent, like the rest of the ship.
“Turns out,” I continued, “Mike Fish’s dad was a policeman.”
“Don’t tell me,” Skylar said. “That’s where he got his sense of justice.”
“No. Not from there.”
Skylar frowned and kept going. Eve gave me an encouraging smile.
“Mike was a clever kid.” I caught up with Skylar. “Mega smart. Figured his dad was having an affair. Found presents and cards made out to some other lady.”
Skylar stopped and turned to face me. “What?”
“That’s terrible,” Eve said.
I nodded. “Mike pieced other clues together, but he kept the findings to himself, not wanting his parents to break up.” I took a breath. “One night, his dad was going out. Drinks with the lads, he said, but Mike knew where he was really going. So as his dad was leaving, Mike went to confront him.”
Eve raised her eyebrows. “And?”
“He bottled it at the last second.”
Skylar rolled her eyes, and we walked into another packed hallway.
“His dad died that night,” I said. “Car accident.”
Eve covered her mouth with her hand.
Skylar lowered her phase-band and faced me.
“Mike blamed himself,” I said. “If he’d gone through with it—told his mum and dad what he knew—his father wouldn’t have left that night. He wouldn’t have died.”
“It wasn’t his fault,” Skylar said.
“I know.” I wiped sweat from my brow. “That’s why Mike snitched on people—he hated lies. He thought he was doing his classmates a favour by snitching on them. Helping them become better people, to see how damaging lies can be.”
“What happened to him?” Eve said.
“Nothing,” I said. “He’s still at school.”
Skylar stared at me for a moment, then consulted her phase-band display and marched along the hallway.
I jogged to keep up. “You know something? Out of all my friends back home, Mike Fish was the hardest to say goodbye to. He was my best mate. Always had my back, never lied. You knew exactly where you stood with the guy.”
“Is there a point to this?” Skylar said in a sarcastic tone.
“My point is that someone might act and sound like a complete dick, but if you take time to get to know them, like really know them, they could be a Mike Fish.”
“Let me guess.” Skylar smirked. “You’re a Mike Fish.”
“Me?” I shrugged. “No, I’m a dick. I just wondered if you were a Mike Fish.”
Skylar stared at me, then stabbed a finger at a locked door.
Taking the hint that our deep and meaningful heart-to-heart was over, I stepped to it, being a good key. The door slid aside, revealing nothing but blackness beyond.
The three of us were about to walk through when Skylar gasped. She stared at her scanner screen, and her gaze drifted upward.
A pair of glowing eyes appeared in the gloom, accompanied by a low snarling sound.
Twenty-Six
The way I look at it, when there’s an alien monster staring you down, wanting some tasty human-size
d snacks, you’ve got pretty much two choices.
Option one is to remain still.
Some people think this makes you magically invisible, but I don’t reckon that’s true. All it does is allow the alien to kill you in a more leisurely manner.
The second option is to run.
No prizes for guessing which I favoured.
I wanted to run away, I really did, but instead I remained frozen like a coward, my body paralysed as I stared at the glowing eyes ahead of us, their menace emphasised by deep, raspy breaths. I’d guessed it wasn’t an oversized kitty that craved petting.
Skylar and Eve clapped hands over their mouths, which made me feel a lot worse about the situation.
“What the hell is it?” I murmured, looking for a nearer escape route but not finding one.
Judging by the faint outline of a hulking mass, the distance between its pupils, and its height from the ground, I judged the creature to be around the size of a black bear.
Maybe bigger.
Eve nudged my arm, signalling us to move away from the whatever-the-hell-it-was, and I wholeheartedly agreed with her decision.
But as we did so, despite inching back with no sudden moves or overt signs of bravery, the giant shadow edged toward us, growing larger by the second. The raspy breaths increased in volume, and a new sound made my skin sprout a million goosebumps—the scraping and clacking of thick claws across hard floor.
We were doomed.
As we continued to back away, I murmured out of the side of my mouth, “Anyone gonna tell me what the heck that is?”
“Grondar,” Skylar whispered back.
“What’s a grondar?” I hissed.
She shook her head as we reached the T-junction, but instead of going back the way we’d come, we headed down the left corridor, our eyes still fixed on the moving shadow. Its hulking mass struggled to fit down the narrow hallway, and I prayed it would trap itself.
I risked another glance over my shoulder. The corridor continued for twenty feet, then ended in a heavy-looking door. If the three of us could reach it, perhaps—
Low snarling made me whip round.
The grondar stood taller now, its muscular form showing against the muted orange backdrop of the emergency lighting. It walked with an almost human gait, its shoulders hunched, and thick black hair covered its body.
What complete moron would bring such a wonderfully dangerous being on board a confined spaceship? I pondered as my life flashed before my eyes.
The grondar moved under an emergency lamp, revealing a flat black wrinkled face. As if to emphasize how bloody lethal it was, the animal snarled, baring large pointed teeth.
I edged in front of Skylar and Eve, knowing their reactions were a lot quicker than mine. “When I say run,” I muttered, “run. Find us an escape route. Okay?”
The girls both shook their heads.
As if sensing what we were about to attempt, the grondar snarled again and dropped onto its front feet, ready to pounce.
“No choice.” I wheeled around and shoved Skylar and Eve down the corridor. “Run.”
The creature roared, and its paws pounded the metal floor.
Skylar reached the door first, then I followed Eve through. I grabbed the handle and went to slam the door, but the grondar crashed into the other side, sending us flying. We hit the opposite wall hard and slid to the ground.
The alien-monster-thing clambered through the door frame, drool dripping from its rancid mouth.
“Here.” Skylar grabbed my arm.
Half-scrambling, half helped by Skylar, I climbed over another doorframe. She pulled Eve and me into another room, shut the door, and sealed us inside. The grondar bellowed and banged its fists on the metalwork.
Eve, Skylar, and I backed away from the door, staring at the lock, all three probably wondering the same thing—did the animal know how to open it?
Judging by the grondar’s persistent banging and roars, the answer was likely a “no,” but I didn’t want to hang about long enough to find out.
“What exactly is a grondar?” I asked.
“It’s from Talessi.” Eve glanced at Skylar. “Some kind of monkey?”
Skylar gave a curt nod.
“That’s a big monkey,” I said.
We were in a room six feet wide and ten deep. Displays and controls lined each wall, all dark and lifeless. I was about to approach them for a closer look when Skylar cried out and leapt at the door.
The handle was turning.
I dove for the door too and grabbed ahold of it with Skylar. Even with our efforts combined, I could feel the strength of the creature on the other side.
Eve looked at us, panic in her eyes.
I scanned the room, frantically searching for something to wedge against the door, anything to prevent the handle from turning further, but there wasn’t a single thing we could use.
The creature roared, and the handle moved a fraction.
We couldn’t hold it forever.
I looked for an alternative way out.
In the corner, next to a control panel, was another closed door. I gestured toward it and redoubled my grip on the handle.
Eve hurried over. “Locked.” She studied the display next to the door. “No power.”
The grondar bellowed again, and it took all our strength to hold the handle in place.
“Now what?” Eve said.
“Can you two hold it for a minute?”
“A minute?” Skylar said. “Why not make it twenty?”
I forced a quivering smile, swapped places with Eve, and raced across the room. She was right—the other door was locked, but it had an air vent toward the bottom of the panel. I sat down, grabbed the frame, braced my feet, and pulled.
A sharp clank echoed around the room as the vent’s frame popped from its mount. I swung it out of the way.
“Leo,” Eve murmured, her face screwing up as she fought to hold the door closed. “Hurry.”
I lay down and peered through the opening. On the other side was a room with a door leading back to the main hallway, and it stood ajar.
Will the grondar hear us?
Only one way to find out . . .
I ran back to the door and grabbed the handle, nudging Eve out of the way. “Go.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Skylar hesitated too.
The grondar growled, and I gripped the handle harder. “Go,” I insisted.
Skylar paused for a moment more, then ran across the room and squeezed through the air vent. She helped Eve through.
The grondar roared again, twice as loud as before, and the handle turned.
I counted to three, then let go.
As if in slow motion, I dove for the vent, the door behind me crashed open, and the grondar lumbered across the room.
I had almost made it through when sharp claws slashed open my spacesuit and my right calf. Pain tore up my leg, and I screamed as I scrambled away.
My health meter plummeted from eighty-six percent to forty.
I clambered across the room and through the other door into the hallway. Skylar slammed it shut behind us, then did the same to the first room we’d entered.
We raced up the corridor—with me limping—and slid to a halt at a dead end. I bent double, panting, grabbing my leg.
“Are you okay?” Eve asked.
“Yeah,” I wheezed. “Just give me a minute.” I grimaced at the pain in my leg, wondering whether to roll up the suit and take a look at the damage.
Eve indicated the healing device on her belt. “This isn't powerful enough. We’ll take a look as soon as we’re back on Horizon Eighteen.”
I nodded.
Skylar consulted the map on her scanner display and tilted her head. “This says there’s an emergency exit nearby.”
“Here.” I stepped into a small dark recess. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I spotted a computer terminal with its display dimmed, a
nd mounted to the wall opposite, there was a metal ladder.
We all gazed upward. High above was a circular hatch in the ceiling.
I couldn’t see any other way out. “What do you think?” I whispered.
“Stay here and touch nothing,” Skylar said, grabbing the ladder.
I focused on the narrow hallway as she went up, my senses straining into the darkness, expecting the monster to appear at any moment and tear us to shreds. Clearly thinking the same thing, Eve edged down the corridor, also peering into the gloom.
Skylar pushed the hatch open and clambered through.
My heart hammered, my blood sang in my ears, and every muscle froze. I sought a distraction, and my attention moved to the computer terminal and the keyboard under it. As I stared, the alien symbols turned to letters, English letters. On the screen was an input box.
Can I contact Ayesha? Or maybe someone in the real world will see my message and work out another way to get me out? Grandma Alice too? Could Ayesha reset the game? Let me start again? Perhaps there was an alternative version I could play instead. I wondered whether there were other similar games running in parallel I could jump into. Something easier?
It was all a stretch, but worth the risk.
I made sure Eve wasn’t watching me, then quickly typed: Trapped inside alien video game. SEND HELP.
“What the hell are you doing?”
My head snapped up.
Skylar peered down at me, her brow furrowed. “I told you not to touch anything.” She beckoned to the both of us. “Get up here.”
A loud crash came from further down the hallway, followed by an ominous snarl.
“Go.” I climbed the ladder after Eve, wincing with every painful step, and was about two-thirds of the way up when something struck the rungs below us. Knowing what it was, I didn’t bother to look but kept climbing as fast as I could, fighting the pain in my leg.
Skylar hauled Eve through the hatch, and I slid through too, turning in time to see a large clawed hand grab at me again.
Eve slammed the hatch down on the grondar’s hairy wrist, and it pulled its hand back, bellowing. She closed the hatch and locked it, then stepped away, panting, but no further sounds came from below.
GAME SPACE - Full Novel Page 14
