“Shit, shit, shit.” I scrambled up the stairs and dead sprinted across the narrow walkway towards the opening lift before me. The grinding, shrieking metal on metal sound of the doors opening ever so slowly an action symphony to go along with the staccato tempo of my heartbeats. I skidded to a grinding halt, lost my footing and fell to my ass as the doors opened fully, revealing the gleaming teeth of the twins as they emerged from the darkness inside the lift.
“Going somewhere?” One of them growled.
“Sneaky, sneaky, morsel. Naughty. Very naughty,” the other echoed, her head lowering in that threatening manner all dog like creatures seemed to do.
I scrambled to my feet with my hand on the railing as I glanced over my shoulder to see Rathal sauntering up the stairwell. I looked back at the twins and then back at Rathal before peeking over the railing to the walkway below me. It wasn’t that far… but it wasn’t directly under me. It was at least three feet to the right and about twenty feet down. And below that? Probably a two hundred foot maze of criss crossing pathways that I’d ricochet off like a pinball to my death if I missed.
“Don’t even think about it.”
I looked back at Rathal to see his hands on his hips and a scowl scrunching up his handsome face. I looked back down at the walkway beneath me.
“Callisto Ramirez, don’t you dare.”
Oh. He was using my whole government name. Must mean business then. I grinned at him, winked, and launched myself over the railing one handed to the sound of his barking curse. I’d pushed off pretty hard and landed even harder on the path below, the metal shuddering under me as I landed hard on myknees, my hands slapping the floor with stinging force to keep my face from smashing into it.
“Nailed it, yet again,” I said, rising to my feet with a groan and rubbing my smarting palms together as I looked up at Rathal staring down at me with all his sharp teeth showing.
“That was incredibly foolish, Callie. I’m disappointed in you.”
I shrugged and started walking. “Guess you’ll just have to catch me and spank me for it later then, won’t you,” I threw out over my shoulder at him and then stopped to slap my palm over my face like the goddamned idiot I was. Now why the hell did I go and say that? My mouth had just spit it out before my brain had time to catch up.
Rathal chucked above me, his voice a silky dark purr. “Is that so?”
Ah, shit. Now I've gone and done it.
I took off again, running until I came to a fork, one side going down, and the other up. Above me the branching walkways seemed to all go away from buildings that housed the hangars and not towards them. There were two tall brown buildings that smashed together in front of the warehouse—like the district of ship docks where the hangars were. Somehow, my mad sprint and jump had put me the equivalent of four city blocks away when I’d been so damn close before. It was like being in a suspended version of downtown New York City, but no road signs and no clever city planning. This station was a hodgepodge of buildings slapped up wherever the fucking whim struck. God I hated it here.
Rathal’s laughter ghosted towards me. “Which way, which way? Better make a decision quickly, darling. I can only walk so slow.”
“Fucking asshole.” I took the stairs going up two at a time, pausing at the top for just a second to get my bearings and then took a sharp left down a walkway that zigzagged arounda multitiered apartment building with aliens out on their balconies watching the show. I flipped off my audience, earning riotous laughter and some shouted insults before taking another set of stairs up the building to the roof.
“Good choice, darling, but where will you go from here?” Rathal shouted from somewhere. He wasn’t behind me on the stairs and when I went to the edge of the building and looked down at the walkway I’d just been on he wasn’t there either. I had no idea where the hell he was but I wasn’t sticking around to find out.
Jogging across the bare metal rooftop to the other side, I found planks of nailed together wood of various ages and colors in a makeshift bridge like something a bunch of punk teenagers would slap together that led to the other rooftop. Sure enough, on the other side there were chairs and boxes flipped over with empty glass bottles strewn everywhere.
I slowed to pick my way carefully over some broken glass as the black slippers I’d been given were not exactly good mad escape plan worthy. I could call up my gold armored boots, but then I’d make a shit ton of noise on all the metal. Not that me being quiet was exactly working in my favor since Rathal seemed to always be one step ahead of me. He’d caught me so fast. I felt like stomping my foot at the unfairness of it all, but instead I settled for sliding down a short metal pole to another walkway that descended down the building to a roadway.
This area was quiet, with no aliens bustling back and forth. Crates and goods containers were stacked against the wall forming a type of alleyway to my left that led me to believe this was another service road like the one that led into the trash pickup area. The slight scent of rot further cemented that fact in my mind. Around me were several twenty or more storied metal buildings with a tangle of walkways above me so thick I could barely see where I’d just come from. The first few floors ofwalkways were clear of aliens or the usual hanging clothes, but above that was a hive of activity.
The service road I was on rose up a sharp incline and then bisected a few hundred yards in front of me. With the buildings crowding around, I couldn’t see where the road led, and going back up into the maze of catwalks wasn’t something I wanted to do, since it was getting me nowhere fast, so with a heavy sigh I jogged up the road and looked both ways when I came to the intersection.
Just long roadways in either direction surrounded by tightly packed buildings on all sides. This station was a literal maze now, with no clear direction, no signs, and with an overlord who had eyes everywhere. My shoulders drew tight and I gritted my teeth against a growl of frustration trying to work its way up my throat.
“Would you like a hint?” A softly amused female voice said from above me.
I jerked my gaze upwards, scanning the balconies and walkways until I saw her leaning out of a fourth story window. Long black hair hung down over her shoulder, strands catching here and there on the dozens of decorative buttons that adorned her worn leather jacket. Tall cat ears twitched forward as her large golden eyes watched me. She was catlike in her appearance, her face a melding of humanoid and feline with long dark whiskers sticking out on either side of her small muzzle. Her fur was that of a calico, blends of oranges, blacks and whites with a mostly white face but for a patch of black over one eye. She waved a slender hand at me and winked. “Well?”
I looked away from her to rescan my surroundings, indecision weighing me down. This could be a trap, or it could just be a station citizen getting bored with my inaction. There really wasn’t a whole lot of choice for me here.
I shrugged and glanced back up at her. “Yeah, sure. Give me a hint.”
She sniffed, sneezed, and then giggled down at me before pointing at the road across from her balcony, to my right. “That way circles back around to the Center.” She shifted her finger to the other road, to my left. “And that one branches off in many directions, none of which will lead you to the hangar bays.”
I threw my hands up. “Well then which way do I go?”
She grinned at me, sharp feline teeth whiter than her fur. “Down.”
I looked at the metal road beneath my feet. It had little raised metal Xs on it for traction. “Down?” I asked, glaring at her.
