Page 26 of Shadow's Chosen

Nezka looked back at her, the fires of his eyes bright against the dark. He started down the tunnel leading to the hub, and Elise followed him.

The musty smell strengthened, and murky water began to rise around their boots. An inky black that absorbed the shine of their lights.

"Hold." Nezka stopped. His eyes flickered down to study the water when the shouts of men grew closer, lights aiming in their direction. A few stray bullets flew by, bouncing off the walls.

"We need to go!" Elise nearly shouted as the noise rang down the tunnel. Nezka tugged on her arm once, pulling her to move faster.

They ran until the tunnel curved around slightly and opened into a long, vast chamber. As they paused by the edge of the tunnel, Elise could see that the central hub was made up of several railways with platforms between them and tunnels along opposite ends going in different directions. The tracks they currently ran on traveled across the second level of the hub with a platform to one side and stairs leading down to the other railways. From below, the trams sat at their platforms, now abandoned, and the tracks on the first level were completely flooded. Elise could see all this by the light that spilled from above, seeping through the holes and cracks in the ceiling. It made the place look ominous.

"When I say, make for the other side and don't stop," said Nezka.

Elise looked at him, confused. "What about you?"

The sounds of the men behind them were drawing closer. Nezka turned back toward the tunnel. "I'll be right behind you."

Not in the least convinced, Elise tried to make him look at her, but his focus was on the tunnel. Shaking her head and cursing under her breath, she readied her gun and looked down the tracks to the other end. One part was crumbling away, but besides that, it was a straight shot to the other side.

The lights were nearing, and the hollering of men grew louder. "Go," Nezka ordered. He looked back at her when she didn't move. "Now."

Elise, this time, didn't hesitate. Quickly glancing down at the level below, she rushed down the tracks with gun tight in hand. The first set of shots went off, and Elise couldn't help turning her head back to see. Behind her, the hunter was shooting into the tunnel, toward the men coming at him. Flashes of light burst from the tunnelway, bullets ricocheting off his armor. Elise made it to the other side then slowed and stopped. Nezka shot back at the group of men while receding slowly down the tracks toward her. The men began to spill from the tunnel, and as they did, Elise caught the glint of Nezka's blade as it appeared in his hand. He shot the last of his bullets, making two men drop cold on the tracks, then threw the gun down into the abyss below. The water began to move under them, frothing and bubbling. Elise aimed her gun, ready to fire at the group, when a massive tentacle shot out and grabbed onto the tracks.

A creature much like a squid with several eyes rose up out of the inky black and started climbing onto the railway. The men screamed, and Elise lost sight of Nezka in the flurry of tentacled arms flailing everywhere. She knew she should be running away, but she couldn't seem to make herself leave. Instead, she fired at the beast, aiming for its head and eyes.

Her focus was so sharp on the monster, Elise didn't see the second squid, much smaller than the first, come up and reach out for her. It went for her feet, and Elise only noticed in time to jump back out of its reach but not before another of its tentacles swept her off her feet. She kept hold of her gun but fell back, her legs tossing above her. She rolled away as another limb came down then crawled closer to the tunnel, shooting at its head where she could see it rising onto the tracks. Just as the creature retreated back, Elise spotted Nezka in the fray of tentacles, dodging then slicing them in half. She got to her feet and started forward when one of the last men standing outside the tunnel shot a round of firebombs across the tracks. They went off in a blaze of red flames and hot white mist. Elise was thrown back as the tracks blew apart in several small sections and the monster reared up with a loud groan as fire seared its many arms. She covered her head and twisted her back as spray hit her, making her armor sizzle. The mist dissolved, and she peered back, only to see the smaller squid coming up for her again. She skidded to her feet as she fired, slowing it only momentarily as she forced her legs to move, pushing herself into a sprint down the opposite tunnelway. She didn't stop, knowing the creature was still behind her, chasing her as it slithered and squeezed its way through the tunnel for her. She didn't know how long she ran, but when she finally came to another small station, she let out a small cry of relief. She forced herself up the platform and pushed herself up the stairs until she saw the dim light of day. When she made it out onto a road, she fell to her knees, her breath like fire in her lungs.

She was so dazed at first she didn't register that it was raining lightly. She also hadn't noticed the pack of aliens standing close by. She lifted her head and, when she finally saw them, lifted her gun, only for it to be knocked out of her hand. She lunged for it but one of the aliens—a very large lizard—kicked it out of her reach and pointed a knife at her face.

"You look lost," it hissed in drogin. It gave her a grotesque, venom-dripping smile. "What a pity."

Ten

Elise sat curled up against the back of the car, hands and feet tied together with a metal coil. The vehicle jerked and shook along as it sped down the road, engine roaring loud in her ears. Above the noise, music blasted, similar to techno, and the aliens spoke and laughed, though she couldn't hear what they said. Four of them together, one driving, two sitting up front, and another clinging to the back. Two were drogin, one was that cat species—lygin—and the other was the lizard who was similar to another one of the hunters in Nezka's group. Elise assumed they all came from Xolis and had somehow found their way here of all places. They were a grody, rough-looking group, with dirty, padded clothes and makeshift armor. Even the drogin pair were different from the more docile looking kind seen above. If the drogin of the high city were like the fancier looking dog breeds, the drogin of the under city were the mutts and the wolves. They were bigger, meaner looking, like some deranged werewolf with hair unclean and wild, teeth crooked or chipped. They smiled at her with their wolfish grins, one now sporting her gun, the other rifling through her pack, throwing items onto the road. Elise would have spit at them if not for the gag in her mouth.

She didn't know where exactly they were taking her, only that they were going way south, far out from where she needed to go. Between where they were taking her and what they planned to do with her, Elise thought about Nezka and if he was even still alive. She'd seen one of the bombs go off near him just before she herself had been thrown back. That kind of fire would have seared the skin at that range, melted it. Coupled with the tracks breaking apart and the squid monsters waiting below, she couldn't possibly fathom that he had survived. What she felt in that regard, she couldn't really decide. She wasn't relieved or happy, that was certain, and she told herself it was because she had lost her one chance to get to the energy deposit. She had no map now, no weapon, no way to fight them on her own. They weren't taking her to where her people were held, so she could only imagine what they were going to do.

As a soldier, she'd been trained for torture, so that didn't scare her. If just a mere captive, she knew she could endure. But if they made her a slave...

A vision of walking out from the jungle flooded her mind. She could still smell the smoke, still see the fires, hear the cries.

Laughter cut away the memory, and the car veered around a corner, swerving across the pavement. The car picked up speed, flying toward what looked to be a large metal gate. Past it, Elise could make out several wide buildings. More cars came into view, some like that strange dune buggy she'd seen before, others more like racers with low ceilings; a couple were even sleek like the luxury cars back home. All had lights on their frames and underbellies and chrome sidings. It looked like a lot of the parts were stolen; she suspected the nicer cars had been too.

As they came to the gate, the car halted to an abrupt stop. Guards on the roof noticed them, and one waved as the gate slid open. They flew on through, passing a courtyard with more cars and some motorcycles, into a wide-open garage with, yes, even more cars. People gathered everywhere, more than she had yet to encounter in the undercity. Their clothes were dark, some wearing a rough hide, like leather, others metal plates. A select few wore an emblem on the backs of their jackets—a large thorny plant with jagged teeth for petals and claws for leaves. The drogin howled and barked as they passed, the car making its way to the other end of the garage where a wide door slid open as the car came to a final halt. The four aliens jumped out, and the lizard pulled her from the back, swinging her over his shoulder.

They swept past the garage door into an equally large building that, from what Elise could tell, had once been a ship hangar. They went around to a long passage on the side of the building, past a pit at the center where ships must have once been stored but was now empty, and then over to the back. The area was dimly lit save for the bright colors of tags and mutant designs covering the walls and floors, the glow assaulting her senses. Elise jerked and squirmed over the lizard's shoulder, and he promptly smacked her ass and thighs hard to make her quit. Elise hollered through her gag, but it came out as nothing more than a strangled, muffled noise. When the lizard finally stopped walking, he dropped her like a sack of clothes, and she hit the ground with a dull thud. When Elise twisted around and peered over, the first thing she saw were two small ships, broken apart and dismantled. Below them, several aliens of various kinds stood around. Between them sat a drogin, probably the ugliest drogin she'd ever seen.

"What is that?" he sneered, drool clinging to the outer corners of his mouth. He looked like a gnarly bulldog with sagging skin and matted tufts of hair along his skull, his fangs poking out from his bottom lip.

"Found it crawling out from Moki's tunnels," the lizard said, tapping her side with his boot. "I think it's one of those humans. Heard about em' on the main feeds. Pretty sure it’s a female."

"Pretty sure?" the ugly drogin growled.

The lizard tilted its head in a shrug. "A hunch."

The ugly drogin, which Elise took for the leader of this large pack, eyed Elise with watery gray eyes. "The Red Blades are looking for these from what I'm told." He leaned forward and bared his teeth in an awful grin. "You did good bringing her to us, Ruzi. This is our turf, but those ass-kissing scum-crawlers have acted like the undercity belongs to them. Well, we keep her, and they'll come looking. If they want to buy, they'll have to pay in blood." He gestured for Ruzi to bring her closer. The lizard grabbed Elise's arm and dragged her forward. Elise grimaced through her gag as the drogin's disgusting face came inches to her own, his breath like spoiled meat, making her feel sick. "Besides, I owe the others a little fun." He swiped the gag from her mouth. "You understand me, human?"

Elise spit the saliva that had built up in her mouth on the ground. "Yes," she said through gritted teeth. "I understand you. Now get your gross face away from mine."

The drogin looked stunned for a mere second then laughed, his drool spraying on her suit. "Ah, this one has a tough side." His eyes traveled over her body. "She looks like a fighter. You a fighter, human?"

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