Prisoner

by Bryant, S. J.

  She tried to breathe through her mouth but then she could taste it, like she'd licked a sweaty man's armpit.

  By the time she reached Gren's door, she had her arm over her nose and mouth and her eyes watered from the smell.

  She knocked twice.

  "Who is it?" a high, panicked voice asked.

  "Gren? My name is Nova. I need to talk to you about an item you might have."

  "I don't have anything of yours. Go away."

  Nova gritted her teeth. "It's not mine. It belonged to someone else."

  "I don't have it!" Gren shrieked.

  Nova leaned her shoulder against the door, testing it, but the solid metal refused to give way before her.

  "I—" her mind raced. "I want to buy it from you."

  Silence echoed on the other side of the door. "How much?" Gren said, after a pause.

  "I need to see it first."

  More silence. Then the lock on the other side of the door clunked open and the door squealed on rusted hinges as it pulled back.

  A deathly pale face covered in sores appeared in the tiny crack. Milky white eyes on the edge of tears peered out at her from above a nose leaking snot. Gren's yellowed and broken fingernails gripped the edge of the door. "Planning to steal my stuff?"

  A new wave of stench washed through the open door, bathing Nova. She had to bury her face in her sleeve, and even then bile rose to the back of her throat. "What? No!"

  "I'll kill you if you do," Gren said. His voice wavered but there was a certain madness in his eyes that made his threat more real.

  "I won't steal," Nova said. She kept her left hand over her mouth but her right dangled at her side, near her knife. Wood had been right, Gren couldn't be trusted, but she'd have her knife out and buried in his throat the instant he tried anything.

  Gren opened the door an inch wider and stepped back. "Okay."

  Nova had to squeeze through the narrow opening. Her chest and stomach scraped along the door. She winced as the metal tugged on her stitches.

  Inside, the cell was worse than a mess; Nova had seen meteor showers with more order. Items of every sort covered every inch of floor. Stacks of chairs, piles of metal tubes and mountains of torn material competed with heaps of rubbish. Rotting vegetation and meat, mouldy paper, blood-soaked cloth, all of them lay in piles throughout the small room.

  Nova's face twisted and she instinctively gripped hold of her knife.

  Towers of rubbish teetered so high that she couldn't see to the other side of the room. A single walkway snaked away from the door between the stacks in a maze-like pattern to what Nova assumed was Gren's bed. It was difficult to be sure because it was piled as high as the rest of the room with rubbish.

  "Um—" Nova said.

  "Well?" Gren said, face scrunching. "What did you want to buy? How much? Hmm? Stop looking at my things!"

  "I er— I was looking for a ring. It belonged to Sigma."

  "All of this is mine!" He bellowed like a child throwing a temper-tantrum.

  "Oh," Nova said. "I mean. I'm looking for a ring with a red jewel on it."

  She released her hold on her knife, trying to calm her nerves. She felt as if she'd stumbled into a serial-killer's basement.

  Something rustled amongst the paper and rubbish.

  Nova jumped, turning to face it.

  A pink tail disappeared into a pile of rubbish with a high-pitched squeak.

  She shivered to think about the rodents that must be crawling near her feet. With this much junk they could be the size of cats and she wouldn't even know.

  "A ring," Gren said. He tapped his fingers against each other. His eyes narrowed as he gazed about his room. "A ring with a red jewel. I found one like that recently."

  "Yes!" Nova said. "That would be it."

  "Close your eyes!" Gren commanded.

  Nova narrowed her eyes. She pretended to close them all the way but kept a slit open at the bottom. There was no way she'd let Gren stab her while she stood like an idiot with her eyes closed. She tensed all of her muscles, ready to strike.

  Gren waved his hand in front of her eyes, nodded once, and scurried away into the rubbish. He knelt and crawled beneath a pile of dirty clothing, wriggling around before emerging with something clutched between his thumb and forefinger.

  Nova stayed completely still.

  Gren scurried back and stood in front of her. "Okay. You can open your eyes."

  Nova's eyes sprung open. "That's it!"

  Gren smiled. He pulled the ring close to his chest and stroked it with his spare hand. "It's mine."

  Nova's hand clenched into a fist. "But you said that I could buy it."

  "No I didn't," he said. "It's mine."

  "I'll pay you whatever you want," Nova said. "Look, I'll give you my spoon."

  She pulled the crude piece of metal out of her pocket and held it aloft.

  He looked at it and licked his lips, eyes darting between the ring and the spoon. "It's nice. I want it."

  "Give me the ring," Nova said.

  "But it's mine!"

  "I'll give you the spoon if you give me the ring."

  Gren rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. He seemed to be arguing with himself, muttering under his breath.

  "No deal," he wailed. "It's not fair. I want it!"

  "Then swap," Nova said. She took a deep breath, using all of her self-control not to snatch the ring out of Gren's hands.

  Gren wailed. "No!"

  Nova gritted her teeth and let out a long breath. "Then what do you want for it?"

  Gren looked close to tears as he stared at Nova's spoon and then cast his eyes around his room. He flicked his head back and forth, tucking the ring deep into his pocket. Somewhere near the centre of the room his eyes lighted on something. They opened wide and a grin spread across his face.

  "A skull!" he said. He danced away from Nova towards a dusty set of drawers. The bottom drawer lay in a broken heap of wood on the floor.

  Gren slid open the next drawer up. Inside, lying on a bed of clothes, was a skeleton. The yellow bones stood out against the material but some of them still had bits of flesh clinging to them. None of the bones seemed to match, the right humorous extended at least three inches longer than the left and the ribcage didn't fit with the shoulders. The spine ended where the head should have been.

  Bile rose in Nova's throat.

  "I need a skull," Gren declared.

  Nova froze in place, staring down at the skeleton. Whose bones were they?

  "Don't look!" Gren snapped. He slammed the drawer shut and the bones rattled.

  "I—" she didn't know where to begin.

  "Get me a skull and I'll give you the ring," he said.

  Nova shook her head.

  "The skull or no deal!" Gren yelled.

  Nova tore her eyes away from the drawer and stared into Gren's face. "You swear?"

  "Yes."

  "Alright. I'll get you the skull."

  "It has to be a whole one," Gren said. "No missing pieces."

  "Okay."

  "It has to have teeth."

  "Okay."

  "And I want your spoon."

  Nova gritted her teeth and glared at Gren. "Fine."

  "When will you have it?"

  "I don't know," Nova said, biting out each word. "It depends how long it takes me to find it."

  "Well, hurry up," Gren said.

  "Why?" Nova asked. "Do you have somewhere important to be?"

  She shouldn't have said anything, she should have just left, but she couldn't help it. The weird man in front of her made her want to scream. She imagined shoving her fist into his face. Sarcasm was the most polite response she could manage.

  "No," Gren said, narrowing his eyes. "Skelly doesn't like not having a head."

  "Skelly?" Nova said.

  Gren pointed at the closed drawer.

  "You know it's not real…" Nova said slowly.

  "Shut up!" Gren bellowed. "It's whatever I say it is! I
need the skull to complete my collection! Now leave!"

  Nova bit her lip and backed through the small walkway. Rubbish crowded in on her from all sides and she had a sneaking suspicion that the skeleton wasn't the worst thing Gren had hidden away.

  She opened the door and practically ran out.

  Gren slammed it shut behind her.

  Nova jogged to the end of the corridor and out into the courtyard. She took a deep breath of fresh air that flooded her lungs, then took three more deep gasps, relishing the glorious aroma.

  "Any success?" Wood said.

  "Have you ever been there?" Nova said between breaths.

  "No." Wood chuckled. "I wouldn't be that stupid."

  "You could have warned me," she said.

  Wood shrugged. "I did tell you to take a knife."

  "I didn't need a knife! I needed a gas mask, and antibiotics, and a hazmat suit."

  "That bad, huh?"

  "Worse," Nova replied. "And he's a nut-case! He was going to give me the ring in exchange for my spoon."

  "Good deal," Wood said.

  "Yeah. Except then he changed his mind. Now he wants a skull! A skull so that he has a whole skeleton – Skelly!"

  Wood burst into laughter, throwing his head back.

  "It's not funny!" Nova hissed. "He has piles of rubbish in there. Actual rubbish. There are rotting things – I don't even know what they are!"

  "I've heard that," Wood said when his laughter died away. "Glad I didn't go with you."

  "Where the hell am I supposed to get a skull from?"

  Nova's whole body felt covered in filth. She needed to wash her hands, desperately. It was like she could actually feel the germs crawling over her fingers.

  "There're lot of dead people here," Wood said. "But a skull might be harder to find."

  "So what?" Nova said. "I just go out into the tents and ask around for dead people?"

  "That's one option," said Wood. "But as I said; a skull will be hard."

  "Why?"

  "People like to keep skulls. That's probably why Gren hasn't been able to find any."

  "What do you mean, people keep them?"

  "They're useful. They hold things so you can use them as cups or bowls. Also, lots of people here believe they bring good luck, so they keep hold of them."

  "A skull?" Nova said. "Brings luck?"

  "That's what they reckon," Wood said with a shrug.

  "If it brought luck, how the hell did they end up in this dump!" Nova said through gritted teeth.

  "Because they didn't have the skull before they were sent here," Wood said with infuriating logic.

  Nova threw up her hands. "This is ridiculous."

  "Tell me what you need the ring for and I'll help you find one."

  Nova bit her lip. "I'm bartering with Jimmy."

  "Why?"

  "It's private."

  "Jimmy, hey?" Wood said. "So, you need something. But what is it? You don't look like a druggie, so it's probably not that. What else would be worth this much trouble?"

  Nova kept her mouth closed.

  "I'm not helping unless you tell me."

  Nova shook her head. "I can't."

  Wood's eyes narrowed. "I thought we were friends…"

  Nova let out a long sigh. A part of her wanted to tell Wood, even to help get him free too, but if she wanted any chance of saving her friends at The Jagged Maw she had to stick to the plan. "I'm sorry."

  A brittle smile clung to Wood's face. "Sure. Of course. I've just gotta…" He turned, smile wavering, and walked back towards the cell complex.

  Nova got to her feet and cursed all the way to the outer edges of the prison.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Two months until guard change.

  The outer edges were just as derelict as when Nova had arrived a month previous. Half-dead people sat with vacant eyes and stared into nothing. Only broken boxes and tattered tents separated them from the planet. Their skin stretched so tight that Nova could make out the bones beneath.

  They glared at Nova as she walked past and some of them licked their lips at the sight of her. They whispered after she'd gone.

  Nova kept a firm hand on her knife. If any of these bastards tried to take her down, she'd bring them along with her. She was better trained than any of them and far stronger, especially as most of these were so close to starvation that their hair and fingernails had fallen out.

  Sunken eyes loomed out of sockets so deep that they could have been mistaken for skulls. They looked so close to death that a part of Nova wanted to just sit still and wait for one of them to collapse. That wasn't really an option though. She didn't have long to organise delivery and she didn't want to risk spending any longer out here than she had to. The meaty flesh on her bones would be too much temptation for some of the prisoners.

  She could have killed one of them and taken their skull but she wasn't that kind of person. She had no doubt that there were ample people on Ankar who would have done it for her, for a price, but she couldn't do that. She refused to let her humanity go completely, otherwise she deserved to stay on Ankar.

  Nova blinked away her thoughts. She'd accidentally stumbled onto where Kirt's body had been burned. A blackened pile of ash was all that remained, with sooty footprints traipsing back and forth across the dark circle.

  Nova stopped and stared down at the ashes. Despite not liking Kirt, a ball of guilt settled over her stomach. If it weren't for her, he'd never have been caught and sent to Ankar in the first place. Now his charred bones lay scattered amongst ash, but not his skull.

  She shook her head and moved on. Further down the line of tattered tents she came upon a woman with yellowed teeth. The woman grinned at her, revealing a mouth blackened with rot. Her gnarled fingers tangled amongst the material of her ragged dress.

  Nova's eyes slid past, ready to move on, when they landed on a white flash of bone. A skull.

  It sat beside the woman's knee wearing a wide-brimmed hat that flopped down over its eye sockets.

  Nova stopped short and stared, mouth hanging open. She'd found it! Everything she needed was sitting right there under a straw hat!

  The old woman's eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. "What ya want?"

  Nova took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Hello." She tore her eyes away from the skull and looked at the woman. "What's your name?"

  "Auntie Mabel to you."

  "Well –er. Mabel, I-"

  "Auntie Mabel!" the woman screeched.

  "Oh, Auntie Mabel," Nova said.

  The woman's wild eyes flickered over Nova and then at the surrounding tents. "What ya want?"

  "I'd er, like your skull," Nova said.

  "What!" Auntie Mabel roared. She grabbed the skull and clutched it to her chest, along with the wide hat. "It's mine. You can't take old Agnis."

  "Agnis?" Nova said.

  "My dear sister," Mabel said. She looked down at the skull with infinite care and sadness. "We've been together since birth and I'm not letting you take her now."

  Nova gritted her teeth. She needed that skull, but how was she supposed to convince a crazy woman to give up her sister's head? She took a deep breath and ran her eyes over Auntie Mabel's bare tent. "What if I trade you for something?"

  "Don't want nothing."

  "There has to be something-"

  "Nothing!" Mabel screeched, clutching the skull tighter.

  Nova frowned. A piece of leather cloth with tattered edges lay on the floor beside the woman. Bite marks dented the smooth finish. Why would someone bite a piece of leather? It was probably the most valuable thing she owned, aside from the skull.

  Food!

  Nova's nose wrinkled. "I'll get you some gruel."

  Mabel's head whipped up. She narrowed her eyes at Nova and her tongue flicked out to lick her lips. "Food?"

  "Yes. I'll get you a bowl of gruel if you give me that skull."

  Mabel looked down at the skull with watery eyes. Her mouth twitched as she cradled it.
"Poor Agnis."

  Nova waited, teeth gritted.

  "You bring the gruel first. Then we'll talk," Mabel said.

  "Fine."

  Nova took a deep breath and walked away. Her fingers twitched to snatch the skull out of Mabel's hands, she could easily outrun the old woman. But just like killing someone for their head, she wasn't that kind of person.

  She trekked all the way back to the courtyard. By the time she got there, evening had descended. Prisoners gathered together under the orange spotlights.

  "No skull I see," said Wood as soon as she came into the light.

  Nova opened her mouth to reply but he'd already turned away before she had a chance.

  Nova stomped all the way to her cell and lay down, exhausted.

  ***

  She didn't get up again until the sun glowed high in the sky. She went down and collected a bowl of gruel from the food generator and carried it towards the outer edge of the courtyard.

  "Where are you going with that?" asked Wood.

  "Found someone with a skull," Nova said.

  "You're going to go into the Outers with a bowl of food?"

  Nova shrugged. "If that's what it takes."

  "You'll be lucky to survive."

  Nova snorted. "There's no such thing as luck."

  "If there was, you'd be pushing it right now. At least hide it in something."

  Nova grabbed a dirty rag from a nearby table and wrapped it around the bowl. "Better?"

  Wood rolled his eyes and followed her out of the courtyard.

  "I need that skull," Nova said. "If this is how I have to get it then so be it."

  "You're crazy."

  Nova shrugged again.

  "Fine. I'll watch your crazy back," Wood said with gritted teeth. He pulled the knife out of his belt and walked along by Nova's side.

  "I thought you wanted no part unless I told you everything," Nova said.

  "Yeah well, decent people are hard to come by in this dump. Maybe I saw the error of my ways."

  "Good to hear," said Nova.

  Together they strode through the prison. The hungry crowd around them grew but they daren't attack whilst Wood's knife pointed at them, instead they grunted and crawled along as a starving mass.

  "How do they know what I have?" Nova whispered.