Page 2 of Keeping Freya
I curse as I walk back towards the cell.
“What are you doing?”
I keep walking stoically. “We need a handprint.”
Luckily, the alien doesn’t have scales on his arm, but sawing off the hand is not an easy task. It’s bloody, and it takes up a lot of my strength. He also smells really, really bad,and I have to stop multiple times to keep myself from throwing up.
At last, I walk back towards the girls and push the hand against the screen. The doors open, and we look at each other. Now what?
Crys takes the lead and steps into the hallway, quickly moving the gun from left to right. “It’s clear!” she says softly, and we enter the hall.
The hallways are dimly lit, but we can see the hall ends on the right, so we should definitely go left. The metal floorboards make too much noise for my liking, so we try to walk on tiptoes to the next corner. We hear chatter coming from in front of us, and I turn around to the girls.
“Crys, shoot them the minute they come into view, we have one chance and one chance alone.” She nods, her mouth a line of grim determination. “The rest of you, plaster yourself to the walls.”
The girls move into position, and I follow Crys as we creep as close to the incoming aliens as possible. They turn the corner, busy talking with each other.
“NOW!”
Crys opens fire. Laser beams shoot from the gun, and damn, but she is an excellent shot. She moves the weapon like a villain in a movie; she just keeps on shooting, waving from the left to the right.
Silently, I step forward and put my hand on her shoulder. “They’re dead, honey. Like super dead.”
She looks back at me, eyes wide, blinking like she’s just coming out of a trance. Impulsively, I hug her.
“You did good, girl, now let’s grab those guns. There are still two left.”
I gesture for the others to come closer, and we move as a group. I peek around the corner, but luckily, it’s empty. The girls grab the guns, and I hesitate, trying to decide which wayto turn. There’s a window here, and when I look outside, I see stars and am momentarily stunned. It’s not like I had much time to admire the view after the kidnapping, and I must admit it is breathtaking.
“It’s beautiful,” Brittney whispers. The others utter murmurs of agreement, and I look at Crys. She gives me a chin lift, thinking the same thing: we have to split up.
“Crys, you take Jodie and Anna, Brittney and Daphne are coming with me.” I turn around to face them. “We don’t know the layout of the ship, we don’t know where they are. We have to move quickly, remember there’s still another ship out there, and we have to terminate them before they raise any alarm.”
The girls are a mix of unshed tears and fierce determination: fear and bravery. I lift my chin, grab a gun, and take the lead. I hear two pairs of footsteps echoing behind me, and relief floods my system. I’m not alone; we can do this. I can get us home.
We walk through the hallway only to come upon another sliding door, and I push the hand on the panel. The doors open with a buzz, and we walk into some sort of control center.
“You’re taking your time with the humans, are you? The High Commander wants us to go into hyperspeed; he wants to be at the Den on Tekrov tomorrow.”
I don’t wait for him to turn around, I aim and shoot, hitting him straight in the head. He falls forward, hitting the console and making the ship shake and spin. The girls yell, and somewhere to the right, a door opens, and the last asshole enters. He looks at me, and it’s the last thing he does because I blow his head off with a continuous stream of laser beams.
As his body falls, the ship stops spinning, and it feels like the world stops for a minute. I turn around, runningfootsteps come closer, and all the girls enter the control center.
“It’s over,” I say out loud, but my voice trembles, and I feel my body starting to shake.
“It’s over,” I say again, tears streaming down my face. I drop the gun, then my hand, and then I fall to my knees.
CHAPTER 2
Freya
Daphne slaps me in my face. “Don’t you dare check out Freya!” she shouts. I look up at her, astonished.
“Ouch.” I touch my cheek.
“Feeling better?” she responds as she cocks an eyebrow.
Grinning, I grab her hand and hoist myself up. “Yeah, thanks.” We look at each other in silence, and then we start laughing. And not just a quick little laugh, we are full-on belly laughing. We can’t stop either. Every time one of us looks at the other, we start again, just like a bunch of teenagers.
