Sunscorched

by Jen Crane

  Nori whimpered and inched away from him, which put her closer to the leader. By the looks of him, he had no interest in playing savior today. There were four, though. What was the other one doing? Was he sneaking around one side? Would he stand up to these three? Would no one help her? Nori searched for him, but couldn’t see past the ones who had her cornered.

  “Your eyes are pretty,” the dumb one—Jenks—said. “Blue. Like I remember the sky.”

  “Oh, write her a sonnet, why don’t ya?” the slithery one taunted.

  “Shut up, Wallace.” Jenks’s mouth twisted into a petulant scowl.

  “We ain’t got time for romance, boys,” the leader said, leaning his head to the side as he ogled her.

  Nori fought to remain upright as her knees buckled beneath her. She spread her arms out, clasping at the sides of the tunnel. She couldn’t speak. And there was nowhere to run.

  “You know what we oughta do?” the man she hadn’t yet seen said to his comrades. “We should sell her to Big Hank.”

  The slithery one, Wallace, tossed a scowl over his shoulder. “She ain’t a fighter. Look at her.”

  “Yeah,” Jenks chimed in. “She’s tender.”

  “I’m a lot tougher than you think, a-hole.” That drew a round of snickers from the men. Nori cringed, and a terrified whine leaked out.

  “Big Hank’s always buying. We could sell her for a fortune,” the faceless one went on, “but we’d probably get less if she’s damaged.”

  Something about the voice was familiar. Recognition tugged at the corner of her mind. The only person she knew in this new world Barker. Well, unless— Nori’s eyes flew wide when she realized who’d spoken. She opened her mouth to call his name, to plead with him to help her, but his face came into view behind the first three men. He shook his head ever-so-slightly and closed his eyes.

  Nori snapped her mouth closed, at least until she could understand what was happening. What was he trying to communicate? Why was he acting like he didn’t know her? Why in the world had he suggested they sell her?

  She glanced from Cooper to the leader, whose face was drawn in concentration as he weighed his options.

  Cooper looked just as she remembered him, though he seemed much more at home in the subterranean space than he had above-ground. His dark hair fell in messy clumps around his face. Not curly, exactly, but close. His eyes were as sharp as she recalled. At that moment, those intelligent eyes pinned her down, told her not to make a move. She didn’t.

  Wallace, though, couldn’t keep his eyes—or his hands—off her. He closed in again and reached to touch her hair, looking at her as if they were the only two people in the world. As if there weren’t three other men crowded around him in a dark tunnel. As if Nori wasn’t trembling with a nauseous blend of fear and loathing. When he ran the back of his hand across her cheek, she could stay silent no longer.

  “Get your filthy hands off me,” she seethed and jerked from his touch.

  Jenks howled a laugh. “Maybe she is a fighter, Sarge.”

  “S’all right,” Wallace purred with menace. “I like ’em feisty.”

  “No.” Cooper’s deep command echoed through the tunnel, his tone drawing every eye in his direction.

  “What’s that?” Wallace turned his head, as if he hadn’t quite heard right. “You telling me what to do, boy?”

  Cooper straightened, preparing for a fight. “Leave the girl alone. Or can’t you find a willing participant?”

  Wallace jerked, his face contorting into a sour sneer.

  Nori closed her eyes, breathing through her nose as relief washed over her. The shaming had worked—for the moment, at least. Wallace’s full attention shifted to Cooper, whose widened stance and fisted hands screamed bring it on. Cooper rolled his shoulders and stretched his slender neck. When he opened those steely eyes again, his face had morphed from easygoing and detached to world-hardened and violent. Nori gaped at the transformation.

  Wallace had been posturing, too. He tossed his leather jacket aside and spread his arms dramatically in invitation.

  “Cut the crap, you two,” the leader—Sarge—barked. “Cooper’s right. Let’s take her to Hank.”

  Cooper’s eyes narrowed infinitesimally. He was relieved, she realized. Relieved she was being sold to someone named Big Hank.

  12

  Welcome to Trogtown

  “You can’t do this.” Nori said, jerking away as Cooper tightened zip ties on her wrists. “Please,” she shook her head, her chest tight with panic as she searched his stoic face. “Don’t do this.”

  Cooper slipped a finger between her skin and the tie and gave her a look that spoke volumes. I won’t hurt you, it said. Follow my lead and stay alive.

  Nori’s gut clenched. Trust Cooper, whom she didn’t know at all? No way. Not that she was overflowing with options. She wracked her brain for another way, any way, but didn’t come up with one. There was no choice but to have faith in the man she’d saved in the alley that night. With a shaky breath, Nori closed her eyes in acknowledgement. She understood; she’d go along with his plan.

  “I’ll stoke ’er.” Wallace’s words jarred Nori back to reality, his hungry leer sending cold shivers down her spine.

  “I don’t think so,” Sarge said sharply. “Cooper, this was your idea. She’s your burden now.”

  Cooper scowled, but nodded as he threw a leg over his bike. “Get on.” His voice was rough, harsh. He jerked his head toward the back of the bike then stared straight ahead without another word.

  Nori had never touched a motorcycle in her entire life, much less ridden one. She approached it slowly, cautiously. Unsure what to do, she looked at Cooper, who offered no assistance. Not even a glance. She pressed her bound hands hesitantly to the leather at Cooper’s shoulder, balancing herself as she mounted the bike. Astride the seat, she didn’t know what to do with her hands, and placed them first on Cooper’s shoulder then back down in her lap.

  When he stood to kickstart the motorcycle, Nori lost her balance and grasped at the bottom of his leather coat, bracing her legs on the ground with a yelp. She didn’t dare risk a look at the other men.

  “Put your arms around me,” Cooper yelled over the sound of four anxious engines.

  Nori leaned around his wide shoulder, catching his gaze and offering her bound hands as a reminder.

  “You’ll have to put them over my head,” he said, narrowing his body by pressing his shoulders inward and fists together at his forehead. He looked like he could be praying, and Nori offered a silent prayer of her own as she slipped her arms over his shoulders and down to his waist.

  Cooper nodded, more to himself than Nori, who jerked at the force of sudden acceleration. Though there was no way she could fall backward, she pressed herself tight against his back, her eyes and jaw squeezed shut as they accelerated through the tunnel.

  “Hate riding sweep,” Cooper spat after a while.

  “What?” Nori opened one eye and peeked around him, regretting the move immediately as mud flew into her face.

  “Riding last sucks,” he said, his voice muffled through the narrow opening of his mouth. “The mud.”

  Nori nodded against his back, unwilling to leave her shield again.

  Cooper slowed and hung back from the group after a while, mumbling a curse at the spray of silt and gravel from Wallace’s back tire.

  “What the hell are you doing down here?” he yelled over the engine, twisting in his seat to look at her.

  Nori assumed they weren’t in danger of being overheard, though she could still glimpse the others up ahead. “Sunscorch coming,” she yelled. “Won’t survive another.”

  “How did you get here?”

  Nori shrugged, boiling her story down to words that would carry over the engine. “Dad knew a guy.”

  “They sent you alone?” Cooper swung around to look at her again, his expression disbelieving and…angry?

  “No.” Nori shook her head. “Well, yes. Long story. Betray
ed.” It wasn’t a great explanation, but it would have to do under the circumstances.

  “Got any friends down here?”

  Nori’s mouth twisted at the thought of Barker. She shook her head.

  “First lesson,” Cooper said. “Don’t trust anybody.”

  “Duly noted,” she mumbled.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “Cooper?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re not really gonna sell me, right?”

  He stiffened, his stomach clenching beneath her hands. “I don’t have a choice.”

  Nori jerked from him, but her bound hands kept her close. Too close. She couldn’t go anywhere, even if she wanted to jump from the speeding motorcycle. She wrestled with the ties at her wrists, but it was hopeless. A knife was the only thing that could get her out of them.

  “Stop it,” Cooper ordered, his voice rough. He’d shifted from easygoing to vicious. “It’s the best I can do. Hank’s fair, at least. And not violent toward women that I know of.” He nodded toward the men in front of them. “You want to stay with these animals?”

  “Oh, and you’re not an animal?” Nori demanded. “You’re one of them.”

  “I’m nothing like them.” Muscles worked in Cooper’s jaw. “I saved you, didn’t I?”

  Did he? Being sold sounded nothing like salvation. Were her only choices this Hank, or Sarge and the others? No. Cooper would help her like she’d helped him that night in the alley. He had to. He wasn’t bad. She knew it. She knew it in her bones.

  Nori stood on the foot pegs to speak close to his ear. She could hardly plead with him if she had to yell. “I just need…” Her lip trembled, so she bit it, steeling herself against the pain. “I just need a place to hide for a week or so,” she said. “To wait out the sunscorch. I’ll go back to my parents. I’ll leave this filthy place.”

  Cooper pulled away from her, and that familiar feeling of hopelessness resurfaced. “Too late now,” he said, eyes focused straight ahead. “Can’t escape those three. Hank’s your best bet to stay alive.”

  “Can’t we outrun them? Just turn this bike around and hide me somewhere?” She wasn’t above begging. “Please.” When he didn’t respond, she said again, her voice cracking. “Please, Cooper.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll try to make it right somehow,” was all he said.

  Nori let the tears that had been threatening to fall rush over her cheeks, and pressed her forehead to Cooper’s back. They rode for miles and miles, but she didn’t look up again.

  Not until the bike slowed.

  They came to a sliding stop, spraying gravel and mud in Wallace’s direction. Wallace jerked up and shot Cooper a look that promised their fight was far from over.

  “Arms up,” Cooper muttered, and Nori obliged as best she could. He wiggled out of her embrace, stepping from the motorcycle and clasping her arm as she dismounted. His grip was meant to appear as though he kept her from escaping, but he was really helping her off the bike. She couldn’t understand him. One minute, he was saving her from molesting bandits, and the next, he was selling her. One minute, he barked callous orders, refusing to save her, and the next, he chivalrously helped her from the bike.

  Nori risked a look at her captors. Wallace and Jenks were noticeably irritated, their eyes lingering on her as Cooper directed her from the tunnel and up a set of primitive stairs. Sarge had stalked ahead, but not before ordering Wallace and Jenks to stay behind with the bikes.

  When she reached the top of the stairs, Nori’s legs stopped working. Moments before, the dungeon-like darkness of the endless tunnel was the only thing she’d seen in hours, maybe more than a day. And now…what stood in front of her was like nothing she’d ever laid eyes on, or even imagined.

  “It’s a city,” Nori breathed, craning her head to see more of the vast expanse.

  “It’s a city,” Cooper repeated drily. “Come on. There’s Sarge just up ahead.”

  Nori’s wrists chafed from the zip ties, the abrasions worsening each time she slowed to take in people milling about the alley-like streets and the unkempt stores that lined them.

  “You’re hurting me,” she said through clenched teeth.

  Cooper looked down at her raw wrists and his eyes softened. “Well,” he groused, his words incongruent with his expression. “Keep up.”

  “How much farther?” Nori wished her question hadn’t sounded so much like whining.

  “Just through there.” He nodded toward a dark street between two buildings carved from the sides of the cavern. How deep must those buildings go, she wondered. How had these people chiseled entire structures from stone? How long had it taken to build an underground city this size? And most confounding: how had she and the people aboveground never known of its existence?

  As Cooper urged her toward the buildings, Nori’s heart raced. This was her chance. She could break free of him and escape down one of the alleys. The cavernous city extended farther than she could see. She was fast, an excellent sprinter. Surely there was someplace she could hide. Even if she had to lie low for a few days, it was better than being sold for God knew what purpose.

  Nori swallowed hard, chanting, I can do this. I can do this.

  With a final huff of breath, she pulled back hard with her bound hands, causing Cooper to turn and face her. “What’s u—”

  Nori kicked him in the stomach. Cooper grunted and bent reflexively, wheezing to catch his breath. With no time to lose, Nori kneed his face as hard as she could. She cried out at the pain of connecting with his forehead, but it worked. In his shock, Cooper released her hands. She bolted.

  Risking a look behind her, Nori saw Cooper had recovered fast. As she ran for the nearest alley, she marveled at both his sprinting ability and his familiarity with the more colorful aspects of the English language.

  She put her head down and kicked her body into a higher gear, thankful she’d taken up running so long ago. Sprinting toward the darkest place she could find, she hoped her excellent night vision would give her an advantage. She made it to the alley in record time, and stuck out a hand to grasp the corner of the stone wall as she rounded it.

  Cold stone beneath her fingertips was reassuring, and she took a stabilizing breath milliseconds before something attempted to separate her head from her body. Her neck throbbed with a thick, blunt pain. Her vision faded. Her butt hit the ground.

  Nori grabbed at her brutalized throat, blinking in confusion. She tried to piece together what had happened, but couldn’t spare a thought for chronology. Every fiber of her being was concentrated on one action: breathing. She wheezed, she coughed, she gasped for breath, but none came.

  Her esophagus wasn’t working. It hurt. Not a stinging or burning, but a deep, debilitating pain. Like someone had punched her in the throat. Nori swung her head to search the alley, but saw only stars. Closing her eyes against the pain and confusion, she tried to calm down. But, fun fact: a body simply refuses to relax when it can’t get oxygen. She curled into a ball and struggled to catch her breath.

  When she could finally inhale, when her vision finally cleared, Nori looked up to find Sarge’s satisfied and condescending sneer above her.

  Cooper rounded the corner so hard in pursuit he nearly fell on top of her. He swung his arms to stop quickly and remain upright. He looked down at her, chest heaving, and she flinched at the furious set of his face.

  “Clotheslined ’er.” Sarge raised a lip to reveal short gray teeth. It was meant to be a smile Nori thought dimly as he stalked toward her. He turned to Cooper. “How embarrasin’. Little thing like this gettin’ the best of ya.”

  “It won’t happen again.” Cooper grabbed Nori’s bound hands and jerked her up so hard her teeth snapped together. Her wrists were bruised and raw, despite the breathing room he’d given her.

  “Ow,” Nori yelped, whirling to kick at his knees. He dodged her awkward attempt easily and swept his leg behind hers. She grunted as her butt connected with the hard ground. Ag
ain.

  “What are you thinking?” Cooper vibrated with fury as he loomed over her. He wasn’t just pretending for the group this time.

  “I was thinking to escape before you sold me into slavery.” Her voice was loud, and sounded much more confident than she felt sitting in filth and humiliation on the street. “What did you expect me to do? Just go along with it? Oh, yeah, sure. You wanna sell me to Big Hank? Sounds awesome.” Nori scoffed and leveled her gaze at Cooper. “I’m not really a ‘go along with it’ kinda girl.”

  “Yeah, I noticed,” Cooper mumbled darkly.

  “Let’s move,” Sarge commanded, leading them from the alley.

  “That was really stupid,” Cooper said moments later when Sarge couldn’t hear them.

  “It’s better than whatever you’ve got in mind.”

  “No,” he said hotly. “It’s not. You wouldn’t last one night on these streets, much less a whole week. You don’t have any idea what life is like down here. These people are here because they’re hard, Nori. They’re fighters. Generations of ex-military and doomsday preppers, most of them. And in case you haven’t noticed, there aren’t a lot of women.”

  “So?”

  “So?” Cooper repeated the word so loudly Sarge turned at the commotion. “So,” he said lower, “people get lonely. Cute girl like you is manna from heaven. You’d be a ray of sunshine in this dark world for somebody.”

  “Well, I’d never agree to that,” she said, and raised her chin haughtily.

  “No one would stop to ask you, you little fool.”

  Nori jerked at his sharp tone and stared up at him, trying to understand as he dragged her along.

  “What you need is protection,” he said. “And Big Hank is the best I can come up with. Nobody will mess with you if they know you’re his.”