Page 34 of Cozy Prisons
Then the doors to the medical building slid open, and Hale stomped in. “What the fuck do you think you're doing?” they shouted at Falkilm and Daxus. “Get away from her!”
Hale was holding something long and narrow in their hands. Then they rushed at the two Talins, stabbing the weapon at them. Hale was startlingly fast, and the Talins scrambled back to keep from getting impaled.
Now that they were closer, she could see that Hale was using one of the sampler poles from a survey bot. It was a good choice of weapon because it was about five feet long, incredibly strong, hollow, and sharp at one end.
“Run!” Hale shouted. “I’ll hold them off.”
Nataly jumped off the bed, but didn’t rush out of the room. When she’d put out the distress call, she expected a bunch of people to gather and force Falkilm to let her go home with their numbers. Hale was too new to know what the distress call meant, so they’d come in ready to fight for her freedom.
Damn, it was sweet but unnecessary.
“Hale, we aren’t going to hurt Nataly,” Daxus said, dodging another stab. “This is a medical intervention.”
“If she doesn’t want to be here, then it’s a kidnapping, not an intervention,” Hale snarled. When Falkilm and Daxus separated in an attempt to flank them, Hale performed some complicated footwork that ended with Nataly behind them and one of the exam tables between the humans and Talins.
It was going to be hard to convince Hale that Daxus and Falkilm didn’t mean any harm when the two kept acting likean opposing force. Instead of simply letting them back up and leave, the two tried to circle her and Hale again.
“Are you able to run?” Hale asked.
Before Nataly could answer, the doors slid open and the room filled with people. The questions of twenty people filled the room as they surrounded Nataly and Hale. Their close proximity forced Hale to lift the tip of his weapon and rest the butt on the ground or risk impaling someone by accident.
While Riff, Decard, and Illea faced Falkilm with angry faces and scathing words, Falkilm was doing his best to defend himself, but was wilting in the face of her friends.
Hale gave her a flummoxed look. “What’s going on?”
“This is what I meant to happen when I sent out the distress call,” Nataly explained. “We all band together. If a Talin thinks they can bully one of us, they have to face all of us.”
“You guys had this planned out in advance?” Hale asked, relaxing enough to rest the weapon on their shoulder and move closer to her.
“We knew it would be easy for the Talins to treat us like our opinions didn’t matter,” Nataly said as Falkilm found himself backed up against a wall when Illea poked him with a finger. “We came up with this as a way to keep any of us from being singled out, intimidated, or forced. They think they know everything and forget that we’re just as smart as they are.”
“And here I thought all of you blindly followed Palathum’s lead,” Hale said.
“We’ve never blindly followed anyone.” Nataly gave them a wry smile. “Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be the first one to have to use the system.”
More humans and some Talins came into the room. The humans immediately joined the group around Nataly and Hale while the Talins stayed near the door, unsure of what to do.
“Enough!” Daxus said with a loud challenging rattle. “Nataly needs to be cared for. She will stay here and everyone else will leave!”
Nataly smirked. She knew what was coming next. Half the people pressed in closer to her as a physical barrier, and the other half turned on Daxus.
“You’re not in charge of us!” Naj declared. “How dare you try to order us around!”
Those were the words Palathum heard as she entered, with Utharium right behind her. Everyone fell silent as Palathum surveyed the room. Nataly expected her to address Falkilm first, but no, Palathum settled her gaze on Nataly.
“Do you want to leave?”
“Yes,” Nataly said. “I didn’t ask to be here. Daxus carried me here while I was asleep."
“She cut her hands with her fingernails,” Daxus said, making several of the humansbooloudly at him.
“Palathum didn’t ask you anything!” Decard said.
“Keep quiet, let Nataly talk!” Illea snapped.
Palathum sounded a warning rattle. “Everyone, quiet!”
When the room went silent, Palathum focused on Nataly again. “Is it true, did you injure your hands?”
