We trekked for about three hours away from base prior to the attack. Since we were out for an hour, that could be enough time for another group to have caught up, or were close to it.
“Except they listen to my orders, and my orders state no one can stay out after dark. They have at least a three-hour walk back, so they have little time to search for us,” he replied.
“Good thing nights last barely over five hours because, if they haven’t taken notes from me, we’re going to be alone out here.”
“We aren’t alone,” he mocked.
“I would rather be alone.” And I was once again tempted to make that happen, considering beating the bastard over the head with the water canister. But his corpse could attract scavengers, and he was more pleasant to look at than the uneven walls of a cave.
“How touching.” Roys reached into the small pack on his waist. He retrieved a candy to pop into his mouth. “I don’t think we should move on after nightfall, either.”
“It doesn’t exactly matterhere.”
“Caves are well-known dwellings for nocturnal creatures. We aren’t too certain if there are any, but I don’t believe we’re equipped enough to risk finding out.”
He had a point there. My silence made him smirk. Death by water canister was growing awfully tempting, but instead, we walked in silence.
05
ImayhateRoys,but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy the wild look about him, coated in sweat and dirt. The shadow of a beard formed on his jaw. My eyes admired the captain’s firm chest, over the hair trailing along his stomach to disappear beneath the hem of his exoskin. I thought of Arana’s challenge to discover if he really was just a pinch. Apparently, one could still be horny when practically buried alive. The human condition truly was a bitch.
Roys stood at the center of our makeshift camp, an alcove we stumbled on. At some point, the tunnel bled into a cave system. We meandered through the entrance, where water dripped from the stalactites. The soil was more rock than dirt, blue rock at that, inlaid with shimmers like the night sky. The alcove was out of the way of the entrance and provided good cover.
I sat the water pack aside and tugged off the upper half of my exoskin to remove the shirt beneath. My exoskin kept me warm enough, so the shirt would make for a good pillow.
Roys sat down, his teeth chattering. He had tried tugging the remnants of his exoskin back on hours ago. However, the neckline had broken apart entirely, and the wreckage took to his arms next. He kept what remnants he could over his chest to protect from the growing chilland to hide those dark veins. The tunnels didn’t carry the heat of the jungle above. We sat out the lamplight between us, which gave off little heat. He needed clothes. Real ones to cover his back.
I shifted the shirt behind my head and shut my eyes. Though utterly exhausted, sleep wouldn’t take me. I kept thinking back to Arana walking toward the flora, how Roys told me not to shoot but I did. So many times I was ordered not to do something, and it rarely led to anything good.
Never fight against the upper ring; they will destroy you,Pa always said, but the upper ring destroyed us, anyway.
Never turn your back on me, and I will never turn my back on you,our boss always said, but as soon as trouble came knocking, he ran.
We’ll always be together. I promise,my own voice, lying toHer.
Joining the militia meant following orders. I knew that when I accepted their offer, but it also meant I never had to look back. I could do push-ups for angry commanders. I could do laps for disagreeing with my superiors. I could take the hits when they were drunk or angry, and whatever stupid remarks or annoying commands they threw at me, so long as it meant I was far from a past that couldn’t catch up with me.
But Roys was right; if I had listened back there, we wouldn’t have been separated. Arana would be alright, and we’d be at base camp laughing over the ordeal rather than doomed to waste away underground. I would die the same way everyone else did at the Colony.
“Why do they call you Lucky?”
My eyes opened. Roys situated himself on the left to put weight on his arm rather than his back. His teeth continued chattering, arms crossed tightly.
“Because I’m a lucky bastard,” I replied.
Roys snorted. “The situation at hand says otherwise and, literally, everything I’ve seen from you thus far.”
“Getting in trouble isn’t unlucky. That is of my own volition.”
“I always knew you irritated me on purpose. There has to be a story. You don’t get a name like that otherwise.”
I had plenty of stories, many of which my troop didn’t know, and yet they, and everyone before them, called me lucky anyway.
“Plenty of reasons, some stupider than the others. I’ve never been caught thieving, from childhood and well through my cadet days. I’ve never lost a game of poker or wrecked my speeder, although that last bit is out of pure skill. They call it luck rather than admit the truth.”
“Your speeder skills are impressive.”
“Don’t give me compliments. It’s unsettling.”
