Kate
One of the guards drags me over the grated hallway floors and shoves me into a small square room. It’s the same one they put me in when I first got here, the one I already slipped out from by tricking the maintenance guy, Tore.
So far, my escape attempt sucks, it’s got me right back where I started from. A cold metal cell.
There’s nothing in here I could use for a weapon or a way to get out. Everything inside is made of smooth alloy and glowing buttons. The uploading dock takes up one side of the room, which I can’t use because I have no armor to plug in, and in the other half of the room is the same steel slab of metal I used as a bed before.
I pound on the door. “Hey! I need clothes! I’m freezing in here!”
Of course, no one answers—why would they? You would thinkif I didhold the future of the entire human race between my legs, they’d treat me a little nicer around here. Give me a blanket or something.
Just for fun I slap my fingers around the screen of the docking stationing and watch the dashboard brighten, flicker wildly, then darken again.
I ball my fists and start pummeling the buttons until something buzzes and a plate in the wall shifts and moves, opening a thick glass window. I trace my fingers over the speckled surface and feel the icy void of the atmosphere pressing in.
The universe stretches out in front of me. Stars and planets like bright gemstones in the sky floating in bands of soft colors, framed with the absolute darkness of space. And in the middle of it all, Earth.
It’s so far away. Like a small blue ball.
I wonder what time it is down there.
No, I don’t, not really. I’m just homesick and worrying over Claire. She’s not going to be okay alone. She needs someone there to take care of her and that someone is me.
“Oh God,” I whisper, hanging my head in my hands. “Please let Claire be okay. Please.” I climb up onto the cold chunk of metal on the other side of the room and curl myself into a ball to try to keep warm.
It doesn’t help and shivers begin racking their way across my shoulders and down my spine. My teeth start chattering right after. Was it this cold in the preservation lab? Or are they slowly freezing me to death in here?
My fingers and toes start to feel numb. I hug myself tighter. Oh God, what if Pious is trying to kill me?
What if I did this to myself from pressing all the stupid buttons I had no business pressing?
Fuck, I’m going to die in here.
Metal clicks and rattles through the lock in the door.
I gasp, quick and loud. If it’s Pious, my limbs are too weak to fight him off me.
I press myself into the icy flatness of the wall behind me and start praying in my head. Please God, I don’t want to go through this. I don’t want to die. I can’t, I have to save my sister.Please.
Another loud click and the door whooshes open.
I want to lunge forward and claw at his metal eyes. I want to slam my fists into his metal chest and scream and bite and make him bleed. But I can do none of it, because the intensity of the shudders vibrating through my body are at violent levels.
Four guards file in, large and menacing.
I try to speak through my trembling lips, but the words come out choked and slow. “I’ll die before I let him touch me!”
The fuckers still advance on me.
I steel myself and kick my feet out. I don’t have a clue how I can defend myself against these monsters, but I need to try.
“No!” I scream, as the closest one’s hands reach out for me. I thrash my legs out again trying to block it from touching me, but I miss completely.Because, of course I do.
Frigid alloy fingers catch around both my ankles and yank me forward. My bottom slides to the edge of the bed and stops just before falling off. My pulse is a hurricane in my ears; will Pious have his way with me now, in front of these men?
The vice grip on my legs opens and the Caelum’s hands reach straight up. I still my movements instantly.What is he doing? What is he going to do to me?
The Caelum’s fingertips land on the edge of his jaw and his faceplate comes off, making my breath catch in my throat.
