Page 25 of Chosen By the Alien King
“If we get caught, what do you think will happen to us?”Darc blew a chunk of pink hair from her cheek.“Murder or torture?”
“Or will they just call us all traitors to the universe and lock us up forever?”Mosely shrugged.“Who knows?Who cares?”
Darc rolled her eyes.“I do, obviously.”
I settled my hand on my machete handle, strapped to my side with a black Space Fleet handkerchief.“Let them try anything.”
Mosely nodded.“Agreed.I don’t plan on letting them get away with this.We’ll see who tortures who in the long run.”
Darc offered him her fist, which he bumped with his own.
Their easy, platonic relationship reminded me of Axxel and me…and Miekil and me.Perfectly in sync with one another and natural.Maybe it hadn’t started out that way, but it’d evolved into it.
I wished Axxel were here.I wished Pete were with Miekil.
“Three-fourths of the way done,” Mosely announced, his finger still tapping.
As soon as he said it, a loud boom battered against the door.The three of us jumped then leveled our weapons.
The door suddenly swung open and crashed the chair against the wall.A woman with blonde hair pulled tightly into a bun stood framed in the doorway, her eyes like chips of ice.I recognized her from the bungalow.She’d been an unexpected morning visitor, and Nera had hidden me from her in the closet.
“Lieutenant Avery,” Darc breathed.
“Found you,” she said with a slight smirk.“Don’t look so scared.You all look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“More like a nightmare,” Darc replied.
“You’re projecting, Avery,” Mosely told her, cracking the knuckles of his free hand against his thigh.“You’rethe one who looks scared.”
Avery shot him a glare.
For a moment, no one moved, locked in a silent battle of wills.
Time to speed this whole process along.
“We’re about to expose Earth Space Fleet’s lies and deceit,” I announced.“If you try and stop us, you will fail.”
Avery laughed, a sinister sound that dragged across my scales.“Oh, really?”
Two men stepped to her sides in the doorway, both armed to the teeth.
“Well,” Avery said, nodding, “good luck with that.”
Chapter thirteen
Nera
Frominsidetheroom,loud snores drifted out.
Rain had been right.It wasn’t a trap, at least this part of the bunker.I allowed myself a sliver of relief and crept blindly toward the other side of the room.The air was thick with sweat and ass.This was surely the male barracks, if my nose was anything to go by.
Vague shapes floated in the darkness, side-lit from a few officers’ solar-powered watches strapped to their wrists.That was my only source of light, and when one of them twitched or moved to scratch, I froze, my heart sinking into the ground.For some reason, this reminded me of wading through a vat of hibernating zombies.
No idea where that thought came from, but I’d prefer no more like it, thank you very much.
Ahead, I spotted the door, and I nearly peed in relief.On tiptoe, I slipped through it and quietly closed it behind me.Now, instead of a vat, I stood inside a well of emptiness.
“Conserve your flashlight battery for when you need it and so you’re not spotted.I’ll guide you.Feel your way to the right,” Rain instructed in my ear, her voice steady and calm.“Slowly in case you need to duck into somewhere for cover.”
