Page 25 of Crash Landing
Shaking off the disorientation, I stood and fired at the damn thing again. Then again.
Finally, it fell motionless, three burning holes from my pistol sizzling against its leathery flesh. I looked up as Sam crept out from behind a wall of thick tree roots, her eyes so wide I thought they’d pop out of her head.
“Saleuk?” she said, her voice breaking.
I kicked the kilor’s leg aside, panting and sore. Running through woods at full speed and then getting kicked in the ribs by one of Phesah’s predators took it out of me a little. Seeing Sam, alive and unhurt, made the trouble worth it, though. I holstered my pistol and took a step toward her, prepared to hear some snarky remark about how I didn’t tell her it was me behind the tinted helmet the whole time.
“Look,” I said, putting my hands up in surrender. “I would have told you who I was, but you—”
She suddenly stumbled forward and came at me in a jog. I thought she was going to kick my shin with those little feet of hers until I saw her eyes well up with tears. When she reached me, she leaped up and slammed into my body, locking her arms around my neck. Instinctively, I wrapped her up in my embrace. She buried her face against the crook of my neck, her body trembling.
“Sam,” I said softly, rubbing a hand up and down her back.
Her scent was fearful. Stressed. She’d been terrified, trekking through an unknown world alone. And understandably so since she was only there because that damn researcher had assaulted her.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re here,” she sobbed.
I gently released her, letting her slide down my body and onto her feet, but it was clear she didn’t want to let go of me.
“I need to look at you,” I said. “Make sure you’re not hurt.”
“I’m ok,” she said.
“I’ll be the judge.”
I cupped her face between my hands, lifting her eyes to meet mine. They were all red and puffy and glistening with moisture. I turned her face to one side and then the other and then scanned her body to look for injuries. Aside from a couple of rips in her suit, she looked unharmed.
“What are you doing here?” she sniveled.
I chuckled and went to grab her little pack off the ground, handing it and the little light device to her.
“I was assigned to keep all of you from doing exactly what you did. Getting lost in Phesah’s wilderness. You’re as much a handful now as you were before.”
She slung her bag on her back and shook her head.
“It was fucking Hemburg,” she spit out.
I paused, envisioning the creep. “What’d he do?”
“He wanted something from me I didn’t want to give and when I hurt his precious ego, he got pissed, like most men do. I threatened to show everyone our conversation from my OxyMask feed, so he took it from me, and next thing I knew I was tumbling down a hill.”
I almost threw my fist at the rock wall imagining how he’d attacked her.
“I should have been there. I should have been watching more closely.”
Sam narrowed her eyes up at me and then punched me in the arm with her fist. “About that. Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”
“Because last time we saw each other, you said ‘I hate you’ eighteen times.”
“I do hate you. I mean, I did. I mean,” she shook her head. “I neverhatedyou. That’s something people say when they’re annoyed and you were so annoying.”
“Annoying? You think it was fun watching you cough and sneeze and complain? Not only about me but about a planet I consider a home. You were all full of germs and you yelled so much, I thought my ears would bleed.”
She pursed her lips and pointed her finger up at me. “You couldn’t stop making fun of me. All you did was speak with words I couldn’t understand, probably telling everyone how much you hated having to keep an eye on me while my best friend was getting laid, falling in love, and spending time with aniceman who just wanted to take care of her. Meanwhile, I felt like I was dying and all you could ever do was stare at me and make snide remarks. You could hardly even use my name. All you did was call me that stupid name.”
“It was hard to take care of you when every time I got close, you acted like you were going to bite my hand off. Like ageshi.”
Her arms folded over her chest and she adjusted her weight to one leg, popping out her hip in that annoyed fashion of hers. My eyes skimmed down her small form, glimpsing the soft curves of her feminine physique. Her face was sharp with irritation for a moment and then it eased again and she sighed.
