Page 27 of Akur

The alien grunted. “Don’t rejoice. I nearly didn’t.”

But he did. “How did you even find us? I thought…I didn’t think anyone was coming. Are there more rebels out there? Will there be a counterattack?” She kept her voice low, still aware the darkness could be hiding any number of things. The screeching sound she’d heard long before hadn’t returned, but that didn’t mean they were in the clear. It didn’t mean they were alone.

“There is no one.”

Her breath stopped in her nose, halted neither in her lungs nor outside of her. “What…what do you mean?”

But he didn’t say anything else, and frankly, she was too afraid to ask.

There was no one else?

The last she saw of the Restitution’s base had been death and destruction. Before that beam took her, the entire base had looked like a war zone—and her side had been losing. But even though she’d lost hope that they were coming to save her, she guessed a part of her had still wished some of them had survived.

But he said there was no one.

He was the only part of the resistance that was left?

His breathing was ragged, each exhale burning against her skin where he tilted his head against her shoulder. She could feel his pulse racing, feel the way his muscles spasmed as they tried to respond to commands.

“Gratitude,” he rumbled.

She hummed a tone in her throat. “For what?”

Heavy breaths were all that came from him, and he breathed deep and long.

“You braved this oppressive darkness.” He said after a few moments. “You are a courageous one, female of fire.”

She didn’t know how to respond. Thinking about it now, she’d crawled through pitch-black cold darkness to get the water. She wasn’t scared of the dark, but what she did was nothing compared to diving after a ship in space.

After what felt like an eternity, he managed to speak again. “Left…pocket.”

For a moment, she didn’t realize what he meant, but then it clicked that he was giving her a command. She shifted, trying to maintain her grip while reaching around him. Her fingers found the pocket he mentioned, feeling something smooth and flat within. She hadn’t felt that when she’d been looking for his teleportation device. When she pulled it out, his hand covered hers, the heat within them warding away the chill as he guided her fingers to what felt like a tiny depression. A button.

The sudden flare of light made her eyes water. It wasn’t bright—just a soft, bluish glow emanating from the device in their hands—but after so long in complete darkness, it felt blinding.

As her vision adjusted, she finally got her first proper look at their surroundings. She was right about them being in a tunnel. It was about as wide as a subway tunnel, the walls rough-hewn from solid rock. The ceiling arched overhead, disappearing into shadows beyond the reach of their small light. For as far as the light reached in both directions, the tunnel stretched on.

“Hmm.” It was a grunt. As if the alien was surprised to see where they were.

“Think you can do your magic and get us out of here again?”

“You speak of this ‘magic’ as if it is a weapon I wield.” His head tilted as he looked one way down the tunnel, then the next. “I had no part in transporting us to this place.”

“What do you mean you had no part?” She shifted, adjusting her grip to better support him. “We were above ground, fighting those assholes, and then we were here. If you didn’t do it,who did?”

He was quiet for a long moment, his breathing still labored, and she didn’t like it. It made her anxiety go up a notch. Made the chances of their survival seem to waver and fade.

“Unknown. But…” He paused, seeming to gather strength. “Not good.”

Great. If he hadn’t transported them here, and the Restitution was gone…

“It had to be them. The gator-guards. They put us down here for a reason.” Her head snapped up as her eyes scanned the length of tunnel she could see. Suddenly, the absence of that screeching sound was even more notable. Where was the thing that made that sound? Was it waiting? Watching them?

“Possible.” The alien’s muscles tensed under her hands. “Or worse.”

Note to self: if she wanted positivity, she probably shouldn’t turn to him for it.

“Worse?” She didn’t want to ask, but she needed all the information she could get. “What could be worse than our enemies?”

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