Kate
Ihate it, but I’m wondering what would have happened if Rune hadn’t found me exactly when he did.
Disintegration?
Torture?
Whatever it was would have definitely ended in my death.
My body trembles. Maybe it’s shock—I just almost died—again. Plus, I’m on an alien aircraft in space and for the past few weeks I’ve watched the annihilation of the only home I’ve ever known and most of the human race.
Being in shock seems the least of my problems.
I burst into tears.
Angling my body away from Rune and the others is the only thing I can think to do. There’s no way I’m going to humiliate myself with a face full of tears in front of them. I wipe at my cheeks frantically.
But I can’t seem to get myself to stop.
I grit my teeth and rummage in the small aid station through blurry eyes. There’s not much here. It’s mostly vials of dark gray liquids. But luckily, I find a kind of thick gauze that would be perfect for cleaning the wounds, if I could just figure out where they keep their disinfectant. It’s too hard to see through tears.
A few feet away from me Tore clutches at his shoulder and his breath hitches. I move to him quickly, glad to have something to focus on besides my current situation.
I crouch in front of him. There’s blood smeared over his chin and one of his eyes is swollen shut. I try my best to give him a reassuring smile, but it comes out more like a silent sob. “I’ll try my best to help you.” My voice breaks over each word.
“I can’t believe you’re real,” he whispers.
My hands freeze over his shoulder plate, realizing for the first time what the weight of me being here is tothem.I’m extinct. This makes me cry more.
His eyes shift to Rune and Jex across the room then back to me. When I pull his armor off, he hisses out a painful noise and tears fill his own eyes.
I pat the area with the dry gauze, but it does no good. The wound still leaks too much blood and I have nothing to stop it. I need a tourniquet because even applying pressure is not enough. “Do you know what this gray liquid is?” I ask, holding up one of the small canisters I found.
“Alloy compound. Put it…put it…cover the cut and put my armor back on.”
I do as he says, and within moments his painful expression seems to ease into a more comfortable one. “Thank you. Thank you,” he whispers.
“Kate,” Rune is suddenly next to me his tone, tight and sharp. “Get up.”
I stand slowly and turn to face him.
“What do you think you’re doing?” His words are vicious, accusatory.
“What does it look like?” I ask, breathlessly. “He’s hurt. I’m helping him.”
He leans closer to me, jaw set, lips tight. “These Caelum are traitors to me. All of them turned on me for Pious.”
“Really? It didn’t look like any of your men had much of a choice or even their own free will while wearing that puppet armor you were all manipulated into thinking you couldn’t live without. And it’s not okay to let them die. They were tricked and thought you were dead.”
“These are the same Caelum that came to your planet and destroyed it.” His words are harsh, his shoulders bunching up with tension.
I bark out a laugh. “It’s really no wonder that your own men tried to kill you.”
Rune straightens, his eyes dart quickly down to Tore then lock back on mine.
“What do you mean by that?” he asks, clenching his fists.
I shift closer to him, leaving only an inch of space between us. “I think you should ask yourself why your men were so easily brainwashed, why they would so easily fight against you. Because to me, it certainly shows what a shitty ruler you are when you walk away from your own men when they need you the most.”
