Page 56 of Down to One
I struggle for a few more moments, but when the second guy leaps out of the trench and pulls my ankles apart, fear courses through me.
All four limbs are pinned. I can’t fight. Can’t beat them. Can’t win. Back on Earth, in situations not nearly as bad as this, sometimes my smart mouth got me somewhere, but that’s not going to work today.
As a very young girl, I learned how to go to the nowhere place in my head. It’s a nice skill to have when you’re ripped out of a home you like, or when someone is teasing you mercilessly. Not to mention when you’re being pounded by someone older and stronger.
I slip into my mind, push reality into a hazy, dreamy place, and think about something pleasant.
As a kid, the pleasant thoughts were from movies or books. Today, I have something far better to think about. It’s reality. My reality of the past few days. I think of Xzavic. I focus on the affection in his eyes last night as he looked at me. I’ll hold onto that.
Titan
She was right. It’s best we split up from here. We’re both hoping someone will take the other out, so we don’t have to be responsible for it. I don’t want to have to live with the guilt.
I have no doubt she’s not going to last long. All this time I’d thought she knew how to handle a rifle, but when the drones brought it to the cave last night, she didn’t even know how to hold it. Perhaps she’ll teach herself how to use it this morning before she reaches the city.
I shove food into my mouth while I pull on my clothes and fashion a bag out of the ridiculous purple pants the network had me wear last night. I fill it with anything else I might be able to eat later and jam the remaining water bottles into it. At the last moment, I shove the bedspread in, although I don’t know what good it might do.
After grabbing my sword, I leave the cave at a jog.
She made the right move when she left me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t follow her.
As I track her, I wonder what I’ll do if she’s in trouble. The plan, although we never discussed it, was to let someone kill one of us, so we didn’t have to do the deed ourselves. So why, exactly, am I shadowing her?
If she’s in peril, should I step in? Won’t that defeat the purpose?
I don’t know the answers to those questions. I just know I’m going to follow her to the city.
She got a head start, but her legs are short. I follow her trail at a run.
I haven’t been at it for more than half an hour when I spot something up ahead. At first, I can’t make out what I’m seeing. It’s low on the horizon, just a bump that doesn’t have the rough edges of the boulders dotting the landscape. I know it’s out of place, though. I know something’s wrong.
Seconds later, I see two Charthian males—ugly fuckers—on their knees. Then I know exactly what I’m seeing. Rape.
