“Eat me, Elle,” the man said.
“Not even if you were the last meal on Earth,” she responded.
Moments ticked by before the door opened again. She grabbed his arm and pulled him out.
“Ugh, that Ken is a dick. You have my permission to melt him with eye laser beams or whatever you aliens do.”
Ice couldn’t melt anything with his eyes, but he made a mental note that this Ken man possibly deserved death.
“Damn, this would be easier if you spoke my lang?—”
A blaring siren sounded, and red lights began to flash. The woman’s demeanor changed instantly, going from stealthy to panicked.
“Keep your head down and we might just make it out of here.” She grabbed his hand and forced him to run. It wasn’t long before he heard others behind them.
“Lock it down. Lock it down!” a man yelled. “Sharp?”
“On it,” Ice’s liberator yelled.
“Sharp, stop,” the man shouted back.
She ran faster.
“Sharp, that’s an order!”
There were no more warnings. A loud pop sounded behind them seconds before a light fragmented over their heads. Tiny shards rained down as they ran under them.
Another shot sounded, this time striking the wall by Ice’s shoulder.
She jerked around a corner. She lifted his hand and placed pieces of metal into his palm. “I hope you know how to use keys and drive. Look for the blue sedan by the number seven.” She held up seven fingers then drew the number seven in the air before she pushed him away, indicating he should keep running. “You go. I’ll hold them off as long as I can. Whatever you do, don’t stop.”
She turned her back on him, bracing herself as the footfalls came closer.
Ice frowned. He was not leaving her.
He spun her around and tossed her over his shoulder before running full force in the direction she’d told him to go. The woman struggled in protest at his plan. Ice didn’t care. If she truly was scared of these other Earthlings, he was not leaving her behind to face them alone. They would escape together.
The annoying siren kept blaring, cutting the sound of his running so that it came in punctuated bursts. Two large doors came into focus and he charged faster. More shots were fired, ricocheting around them. Something stung his leg and arm, but he kept going. He charged through the doors, leading with this palm to slam them open.
The dark room that greeted them smelled like the engine room of a spaceship.
The woman kicked. “Put me down!” He let her go, and she slipped off his shoulder. “Fuck, you can run.” She hurried back to the door and took something out of her pocket. She slid it against the wall and began punching numbers into a keypad.
“Lockdown,” a serene voice said. The beeping continued on the other side of the door. “In three, two, one, initiated.”
Fists pounded as the men shouted at them from the other side. “Sharp, goddamn it, open the door!”
She sighed heavily and gave a small smile. “That will hold them for a second. Come on.”
She tugged his arm, taking him to a blue sedan by the number seven. He knew what a car was from the uploads, but he had never seen one. He looked at it curiously and continued to follow her.
“No.” She stopped him. “Get in the passenger side.”
He didn’t know what that meant.
“Argh, come on,” She grumbled, tugging him around the vehicle to the others side. She opened the door, placed her hand on his head, and roughly guided him to get in.
Ice watched her run around to the other side. She slid in next to him, jamming the metal keys into the dashboard and revving the engine to life. Within seconds, they were driving through the dark room, past lines of various-shaped cars.
