We didn’t fight them.There was blood on the walls. It was easy to know what course of action was likely to keep you alive when you’re confronted with bloody walls.
“What about you, Kallan? How’d you get here?” Gunner asked, pulling her out of her memories.
“Same as them but less climactic. Was caught out in the open and taken. They took me and my ship, even seeing through my cloaking device, and apprehended all I had. But my hide will bounce back, I know what’s ahead for us,” he grumbled. “Royce though, didn’t expect something as desperate as suicide to get out of here.”
Her ears perked up.Someone else would’ve noticed.She didn’t need to look to know Gunner wasn’t hiding it.
“If I’d’ve known I would’ve stopped him,” Gunner’s voice tickled her ear. Elodie felt her pulse jump. “He gave me back the jacket last night in the dark, was surprised myself when he pushed it through the bars. Didn’t get a chance to ask him what he was doing before the sirens went off.”
Liar.
“Odd,” Kallan mused.
“Agreed. Looks like we’re not the only ones dealing with death today though.”
He’s changing to subject...
Elodie chanced a look at Gunner through her hair but quickly glanced away when their eyes met.
“Sounds like someone went on a killing spree above,” one of the other prisoners interjected. “Better them than us.”
“Hmph. Until they’re back here for recruitment,” Kallan said.
“They fucking warned us this time. I wonder how many spots are needing to be filled this time. Because at this rate, there’s not many of us left to fill ‘em, not if they’re planning on turning a profit off our flesh as it seems.”
“Better chances of surviving if they’re not allowed to kill us...”
Elodie tuned them out as the conversation wore on. Gunner had gone quiet as well and as time passed without further incident, the silence reclaimed the space around her. Her ever-begging stomach gnawed her from the inside out and the grey space grew easier enter. Missing the morning meal took its toll and she closed her eyes, slipping into sleep without realizing it.
When she woke up sometime later, the lights were dimming, and the brig door was opening. An android walked through, alone, and without a guard to distribute food. There were a lot of firsts happening for her in the last half week, and the energy to be surprised had all but left her. The robot left them to their barely sated hunger.
After she was done scarfing her ration and popping one of the water gels in her mouth, she moved toward the bars closest to Gunner. The dark, though not like the night before, gave her back enough courage to talk to him.
He lifted his dead eyes to follow her movements, and she became lost in their frosted appearance. His lips twitched at one side for a second before vanishing.
They stayed like that for some time, watching each other in the low light as the cycle lengthened. Coughs and rattling snores of those around them grew. It was as if they waited until the witching hour to be alone and Elodie almost missed the roaring privacy they had been granted the previous night. She missed the temporary closeness she had to another person. She missed the freedom.
She’d come to expect his attention and that disturbed her to the core.
Shadows obscured most of his features and she dropped her gaze to follow the grey and black shades of his gun tattoos, and along his broad jaw.
Elodie noticed when his breath changed to expand his chest, bringing her attention to the outline of his shirt and the muscles beneath. It clung and bunched in all the right spots, and as she focused on the cloth’s subtle movements, his muscles bulged a little farther out. Her brow furrowed and her cheeks heated.
A jerkish smile lifted the sides of his lips cooling off her sudden ardor. She shivered and quickly glanced away, screaming in her head the danger she was putting herself in.
The sound of him moving brought her attention back to him. He picked up the jacket on his other side and placed it on the ground between them, and without a word, threaded and squeezed the material through. Elodie gripped the other end and tugged, and before long had the material in her hands.
She shrugged it on and the smell of him consumed her. It was delicious and spicy, minty and strong. She tugged the collar closer to her nose and caught just a hint of menthol and hops, and lingering cannabis.
The material sat heavy and thick over her shoulders but she didn’t mind as the chill she’d grown used to left her skin. The jacket covered her completely and left excess to hide behind. It was a shield, a cocoon, an added layer of protection.Safety.Gunner had given her safety... She wanted to cry out from bliss at the feel of worn flannel surrounding her hands.
She zipped up the front and checked the pockets, knowing she’d find nothing. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said, his voice a barely-there whisper.
“Do what?” she asked, hunching into the jacket and all its layered glory. Its heavy warmth.
“Zip it up. It makes you look like a woman with how large it is on you. Keep it unzipped and the sleeves rolled past your wrists and don’t wear it during the day.”
She mulled over the suggestion, having already decided to take it off during the day anyway. “Thank you.”
