Elodie chanced a look back at the guards who inspected the cell beyond. She hadn’t known it then, not in the darkness, and not next to Gunner, but that the brig smelled once again like blood. She’d been too focused on her sudden freedom and Gunner’s proximity to realize. She gagged.
“Maybe he couldn’t take it any longer,” one of them mused.
“Fuck! And we’re going to have to report this to Juke. Shit, we may be dead too after this news. Lost flesh... He hates losing a profit.” The guard stepped back from the body, holding his nose with one hand, while the other rested on the gun at his hip. Her gaze zeroed in on it as he unbuttoned the clasp and lifted it out of its sheath. He rested his hand on it, a finger hovering over the safety. “Let’s get him down and take him to the other corpses. Doc’ll want to inspect him too.”
Her arms went numb above her head.
Other corpses...
“I’m not touching him.”
“Get the androids then!” The one with the gun turned his attention to the rest of the brig and she snapped her gaze straight ahead, hoping not to catch his eye. She recognized him, and recognized the others too. They all had shifts before, but she didn’t see the ones she hated most among those who were there. Out the corner of her eye, several androids moved forward and began to work on Royce’s body.
“Check every lock in here, make sure none of them have been tampered with. Double check it. The lights were only off in this section of the ship... What the fuck you think you’re looking at?” the lead guard yelled at a nearby prisoner.
“There’s no way they could’ve gotten out. Why the extra effort?” another said. They moved through and started, simultaneously, going through each cell’s panel.
“Look how scrawny this one is,” one of them said, motioning toward her. Elodie stiffened but held her stance. “Weeks with minimal food, they couldn’t get out, let alone go on a killing spree.” He moved past her cell and she sagged a little.
One by one, the guards went through each unit. Twice over, two at each lock, verifying that nothing had been tampered with. She glanced back at where Royce had hung and wondered why it even mattered.
He’s right. None of us could’ve done that.Her gaze moved to Gunner and a shiver traveled like death’s fingers down her spine.
He was looking at the floor in front of him, head bowed down, his hair falling forward and obscuring his face, and his arms raised but only halfway above him. He appeared tired, and his pose suggested as much.
But it was just that, a pose.He could do that.
He could’ve done it.
The second guard checked his lock and stepped away. Gunner tilted his head and caught her eyes. The milkiness of them gave nothing away.
Shhhh. His lips moved for only her to see.
“All’s clear,” one of the guards called out. “Let’s leave the cleanup for the androids.”
The one with the gun passed by her cell, stopped, and turned her way. Elodie swallowed but he kept turning to face the rest of the hold.
“You can all lower your arms,” he said and waited as they complied.
Her arms dropped to her sides, prickling with renewed blood flow. She shifted slightly toward Gunner to keep him and the guard in her sight.
“Don’t get comfortable. We’ll be back soon,” he bellowed. He holstered his gun and strode out the door, leaving them as suddenly as he’d come in. The other guards followed in his wake, looking as haunted as any brig prisoner and she wondered briefly if this Juke guy would really kill them.
Elodie remained where she stood for some time, eyeing the robots that had begun to clean Royce’s cell. They released a cloudy chemical smelling gas over everything and then beamed lasers over it next.
It wasn’t until her legs started to give out that she moved back to the wall, sliding down the center of it.
She felt eyes on her.
She felt the blazing heat of them melt the skin on her body and pierce through her layers.
She knew Gunner waswillingher to look his way, and she fought with a willpower far stronger than her own.His.He sat in his usual spot, right where she imagined him, in the dark, leaned up on the bars.
She wouldn’t look but sheknew.
If she looked, she’d see his jacket, see it piled up by his hip and she couldn’t muster enough courage to do it. And her lack of courage at that moment was stronger than his willpower. Even if she wanted to ask him about it, she couldn’t do it in front of the androids.
Only an idiot would talk among another’s tech. So she watched the androids instead, burning, spraying, lighting up the dirt until the space practically sparkled. The blood vanished in a haze.
