The breathing gets louder when he disappears. I slink to sit against the wall, wishing I had a gun or at least a knife to defend myself with.
A security light blinks down the dark hallway, providing a pathetic amount of help with deciphering the situation.
Heat grazes my face, carrying with it the scents that remind me of fresh, raw meat. I squint and try to find the source to cover up my panic.
Its presence leaves me in a crashing racket, followed by a grunt. The security light blinks, exposing two shadows of beings prepping to attack one another. Something growls. A gun flashes, and I see my guard and a monstrous creature I’m not familiar with. It has long dark fur and six-limbs if what I saw in the light was accurate.
My guard grunts in the dark. The alien roars, and I tuck myself tighter against the wall. Another gun flash. I count two more of the creatures. Then a third in a different direction. Scuffles echo in the pitch-black hallway.
The screen overhead goes out, and I hide the light of my wristband under my sleeve. I crawl away from the spot, hoping they’ll lose track of me.
If there was ever a time to be undetectable, it would be now. But as I circle the docking pad toward another ship, I feel claws curl over my shoulder, and I know I have waited too long.
The monster pulls me backward and then grinds my body into the floor so hard that the pressure in my spine makes me worry it might snap.
“Leave her alone! Or I will rip out your talons one by one!” The voice is so familiar. So clear.
Audible scuffles of boots mix with scraping talons. The security light flashes, exposing a tangle of creatures I can’t sort, my guard barely visible among them.
A heavy foot or hand, I can’t tell, presses into my chest. I claw at the talons, feel the breath leaving my body, and know I haven’t got long.
“Tell me,” a low, ghostly voice shudders.
“What?” I wheeze.
“Your father’s gold—”
Tears burn my eyes. “I don’t know.”
It comes out in only a whisper of air.
Talons press harder until a sharp pain cuts into my right lung.
A squeak is all I manage.
My guard’s gun goes off again and again. I can’t tell if it’s him who growls or one of the monsters.
The talons leave me and are followed by the heavy thump of a limp body falling to the floor. I roll to my side, strain to pull in air, and scramble to find the things I’ve dropped.
“Come on, we have to go.” My guard clicks on a flashlight and scans the bodies piled up around him. He’s bloodied and out of breath, but on his feet. “Did you get everything?”
He brings the light to me and pans the area around my feet.
“I think so,” I barely rasp.
“Are you hurt?”
My ribs ache as I breathe. “Yes.”
“How bad?”
“Barely tolerable.”
He points his light toward the hangar, then collects me and helps me up. “That way.”
I follow his lead but can’t quite seem to bring the dock door into focus.
“ABR, do you copy?” he calls out over his wristband.
