Page 43 of Matched to the Alien King
Even now, he watched in horror from the viewscreen while I sank even lower.
“I can’t risk it,” I said as the sand crawled up over my chin. “I won’t.”
Even though the alternative could be death? I couldn’t move. Couldn’t lift my legs. Couldn’t risk Nera finding out what I was if I called out to Earth Space Fleet.
Footsteps pounded closer, almost right on top of me. Dread chased a shudder down my back. Whatever happened, I had seconds to say what needed to be said. I opened my mouth. Whether to call for help anyway or to save my last words for Axxel, I didn’t know until the words fell out.
“I love you, brother,” I said in a rush. “Tell Roxxanne and Nera I lo—”
I never got to finish. My head sank under. My arms, caught over my head, couldn’t budge, but my fingers could. I snatched off my communicator from my wrist and tossed it as far as I could so Axxel wouldn’t have to see any more of my death, and so Nera would know where to find my body.
Then my arms sank too, completely covered in quicksand.
The rest of me was also sinking down, down toward my death, only it was even faster now. It wouldn’t be long until my lungs demanded a breath.
But wait a second.
My arms. They’d moved to my sides.
I snapped open my eyes and immediately regretted it. Sand gritted its way under my lashes and scraped over my corneas, so much that I was unprepared for what happened next.
A sharp landing that rattled muscle and bone and my poor, confused brain.
I sucked in lungsful of air. So now I could move and breathe. Things were really looking up, other than whole beaches of sand in my eyes.
Seconds later, orange quicksand pelted down from above. I did my best to shield my face from it, and after it quit falling, it only came up to my knees.
I’d fallen through much more than that. Strange.
I blinked upward. Jungle leaves taunted me from high above, swaying happily about seventy feet above my head. No sign of Earth Space Fleet. They must have skirted around the gaping hole in the ground. Smart of them.
Next to my left knee, lying in the wavy patterns of sand, was my communicator. I bent to retrieve it, hoping against hope it wasn’t broken.
“Axxel.” My throat sounded like it had a whole beach inside it too.
His holographic face appeared, stunned to the point of almost comical, but I sure wasn’t laughing. “Maxx? What thefuxx, man? Is there a reason you made me feelallof my feelings in the span of two minutes? Geez. My hearts can’t take that shit. Are you all right? Where are you? I’m going to kill you the next time I see you. Please know that. But really,are you all right?”
“Other than my present situation, I’m fine. I’m at the bottom of a deep hole.” After I strapped the communicator back to my wrist, I angled the viewscreen up so he could see how deep it was.
He gulped. “Oh. That’s much better than death.” Another gulp. “Isn’t it?”
Movement to my right locked me in place much better than the sand burying me up to my knees. A long, sharp pincer scooped its way out of the sandy wall about a quarter of the way up from the ground.
Big. Too big. The teeth inside the pincer’s shiny black surface were the same bright orange as the sand, but I could definitely still see how jagged and razor-sharp they were.
“I’m not alone,” I muttered to Axxel.
“Oh. Good. Please tell me it’s a friendly face checking on you? A Nera face?”
A second pincer joined the first, scooping out a bigger hole in the wall.
While stepping my legs out of the confines of the sand, I reached for my machete. “I don’t see a face yet, but I seriously doubt it’s friendly.”
“Ask it. Maybe it just wants to snuggle.”
I turned the viewscreen so he could see the thing emerging too, now with a long snout tipped with mandibles that looked sharp enough to pierce steel.
A sound came out of Axxel that I’d never heard before, a cross between a shriek and a squeak and maybe even a little bit of a quack for good measure.
