Page 21 of Shadow's Chosen

The gang of drogin laughed loudly as they sat around talking, breaking his thoughts. Nezka thanked them for it by stealing one of their guns. He took the holster for it too and clipped it to his waist, then he shouldered the bags and snuck out the back.

Before he returned to the place where the girl waited, Nezka climbed up the side of another building until he reached its top. The buildings beneath the higher city were wider and older, built with a sort of concrete and old metal unlike the massive chrome and glass towers from above whose bases could be seen at various points like giant legs planted in the middle of this lower part of the city. Bridges and tramways several hundred feet above his head connected together like a web along the sky, blocking out a lot of the natural light to which there was already very little thanks to the thick cloud cover miles above. There were, however, artificial lights seen all across the city from top to bottom, though they were much more sporadic in the lower sector. Still, he could see the neon colors and see the glow of larger buildings in the distance to one side, some domed, some tall enough that they even hit the top of bridges, seeming to keep it in place. There were even those few places where no bridges or trams went across and where the space was open to the sky.

Looking in the direction to which he would need to follow based off the map, Nezka saw not too far ahead, the next gate, a large, lengthy wall, with buildings placed above it, that served as a gateway for those to cross the next section of the undercity and for those to enter the lower or higher sectors. Of course, the tunnels and stairways had been closed off and blockaded to keep the gangs from spreading, but if one only needed to get to the other side of the wall, they could pass through a smaller gate or so he was told. This assumed, of course, that they weren't being guarded. But Nezka knew they would be. So, getting past those who controlled it now that he didn't have a whole slew of drogin soldiers at his back would be difficult.

He'd think about it later. For now, he needed to get back. He climbed down and stopped on the street when he caught something passing by. Or several large somethings. Some sort of stray beasts by the look of them were chewing up scraps of another animal nearby. Nezka watched them for a moment, taking note to avoid them before slipping away.

***

"You can't honestly be serious about this," the human said as she looked over the holographic map lit up before them by Nezka's techband which was laid flat on the ground so that they both could see it properly.

Nezka thought that an odd statement. Of course he was serious. "Why would I not be serious?" Nezka said plainly.

The human sighed, rubbing her head again. He wasn't sure yet if it was because her head still hurt or if it was a normal human sign of frustration. "We can't finish the mission," she said. "We are the only ones left. The plan should be to getoutof the undercity,notgo farther in. We might as well let ourselves get caught."

"We won't get caught."

The girl shook her head. "This is insane. No, actually, it's suicide. I won't go."

Nezka rubbed the side of his neck. "I have to finish the mission. If you won't come..."

She sighed again then took another sip from the canteen he had stolen. She grimaced as she swallowed, though he had made sure the container had been filled with water and not something poisonous or undrinkable by her kind's standards. Clearly, water didn't suit them either. Or she was just being fussy about it. "Why, though? Why go? Why not wait for more to come?"

"No one is going to come. There's no point waiting for help," he explained.

"The drogin will surely bring more forces," she said before taking another sip.

"You think so? Do you have that much faith in them? You think they will sacrifice more of their own just to save a small group of humans?"

She frowned, saying nothing.

"Besides, I know a better reason for you to go." He tapped at the map, bringing the energy deposit where the humans were said to be into focus. "If some of your team lived then they were likely taken by the attackers. I believe those same attackers are the ones who took the other group of humans."

Her eyes widened. "So you think they would be together?"

He tapped his ear, and she looked at him, confused. "Yes," he said.

Her eyes shifted over the map, her expression growing troubled. "If they are, then...I guess we have to go." She gazed up at him. "But how exactly are we supposed to get out after?"

"That...you will have to leave up to me." In other words, he didn't know yet. "But I can say the likelihood of them having ships is high."

"But I thought ships couldn't get down here."

"Only if there are outage barriers or shields in place," he stated. "But if they needed to leave or escape for whatever reason I'm willing to bet they have a way to shut it off."

"That's only a prediction. You can't possibly know."

"True," he said. "But the only way to know is to go and see for ourselves. Other forms of escape might present themselves in time, and who knows...by then, the drogin might actually come to our aid."

She didn't look entirely convinced, but he knew she wasn't about to say no if it meant getting back to her people.

"All right. Say they do have my team and that there is a clear way to escape once we save everyone. How the hell are we going to get there without, I don't know, being seen? Or caught?" She threw out her arm for some reason, and he watched her hand curiously as she pointed at nothing. "Obviously, I know there are other species walking the city besides drogin, I've seen them. They might think you're just another odd immigrant. But we don't know who is friend or foe, who might be working with who. And if those men are looking for me for whatever reason, if the wrong kind of person sees me, they might go running to those responsible for the attack."

"You're not wrong. And I have...ideas."

"Like?"

Nezka tilted back his head and smirked. "Besides just throwing down anyone who looked at you wrong or taking out every single person who got in my way? A disguise, if that's even possible. Or,"—he tapped the map again, bringing up the wider area and highlighting a route.

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