Page 45 of Matched to the Alien King
“Right.” I hefted myself away from the wall and peered upwards. “Any ideas?”
“Uh, wait for Nera to rescue you?”
Movement came from another part of the sand wall. Another creature? I wasn’t planning to stay here and find out.
“No more waiting,” I growled. “I don’t think I’ll be alone for too much longer.”
“Fuxx, okay. What about chimney climbing?”
“What?”
“I learned about it a long time ago back when… Well, back when Rain announced she wanted to climb a mountain. I sort of did a deep dive into the whole climbing thing.”
“Why?”
“Because we don’t have mountains on Xenoxx. They’re really tall and are often covered in snow, but you can still climb them.”
I ground my teeth together until they ached, still searching for escape options. “I know what a mountain is, Axxel, but this is no mountain.”
“Well, no, but…”
An idea dawned, a really, really stupid one. Maybe. “Physics.”
“Physics Mountain?”
“Physics, the study of matter and energy.” I stared up at the seventy feet above me. “I’m going to run up this hole.”
Axxel snorted. “Okay, Maxx,” His sarcasm dial cranked so hard that it broke. “You do that.”
So I did. Couldn’t hurt to try anyway.
Blowing out a quick breath of air, I leaped toward one side of the wall. As soon as my foot landed on the wall, I poured on a burst of speed. I kept going, faster and faster, around and around.
And it was working. Each step I took against the wall was higher than the last. The sandy walls held shockingly well, though I guess they had to in order to make the hole in the first place.
I couldn’t slow down though, not even when pincers burst through the wall ahead of me. I used them as temporary footholds. Thanks, stinky alien bug.
My lungs burned. My hearts thrashed, but already, I inhaled the salty sea breeze rather than noxious gas. It rustled through the jungle’s trees, just feet away now.
Almost there.
Then, there was no more wall to run up.
I collapsed next to the hole and lay there, catching my breath, and reevaluating all of my life’s choices because I never wanted to do that again.
“Holy shit, Maxx.” Axxel said, sounding as out of breath as I was.
On the viewscreen, he lay on the brig’s floor with his eyes closed and looking like he’d aged a whole century.
“Centripetal force,” I said between breaths. “Next time, do a deep dive intothat.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna hang up on you.” He threw a hand to his forehead like a damsel in distress. “You’re too much for my emotions to deal with right now.”
I chuckled, then chuckled harder when he didn’t hang up on me.
He cracked open one eye and asked, “You good?”
At the sound of running feet, I turned my head. It was Nera dressed in military garb, racing away from Earth Space Fleet. She kept glancing backward like she’d just stolen all of their valuable secrets.
