AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fuck, I don’t know? We can’t get to our room without going around them, and there is no way they won’t notice us if we try to do that. I really wish I had some kind of weapon.
Suddenly an idea hits me.
“Oh no, I don’t like that look,” Danielle groans.
Grabbing her arm, I pull her back the way we just came. “I’m pretty sure we passed by the kitchen. And what do they keep in kitchens?”
Danielle gives me a worried look. “Um, food?”
“Knives!”
“Oh.Oh, no.”
Oh,yes!
When we get to the doorway I’m looking for, I lean inside and look around. My relief is palpable when I find it’s empty.
Except, it’s not. I’m just about to duck inside when a figure walks around a corner in the back. It’s one of those orcs, only he is a hell of a lot smaller than the ones I’m used to seeing. Skinny and scrawny, not much taller than me, he must be a kid.
“Shit.” I press my back to the wall with a hiss.
When I lean back around the corner, the kid is still there, but he isn’t paying me any attention. That’s when I notice he’s got some kind of headphones on, and it looks like he’s mopping the floors, bobbing and swaying like he’s listening to music.
Okay, I can work with this.
Unfortunately, he’s in the kitchen area where any knives would likely be kept. But there is a wall of cupboards just inside the entryway and out of his line of sight. Odds are there’s something in them we can use to defend ourselves.
I’ve nearly gone through the whole row of cupboards when frustration starts to gnaw at me.
“What kind of backward alien station is this place?!” I grumble to myself as I close one set of cupboards and open the next. There hasn’t been a single thing I could use as a weapon in any of these. Nothing but what looks like overstocked textiles and bulk foods.
I move to the very last cupboard, my expectations that I might find something so low that I—oh, hello!
Sitting just inside the cupboard, among a variety of other canisters, is a fire extinguisher! The label is in alien, so I have no idea what it says. And it’s yellow, not red. But it looks just like an earth fire extinguisher in every other way.
I imagine spraying the slugs with the fire retardant and using the cloud of powder as a sort of smoke screen so we can sneak around them and make it back to our room before we’re caught. I quickly decide I like this much better than using a knife. I’ve never stabbed anyone before, and while I’m pretty sure I could defend myself if my life depended on it, I really don’t want to put that theory to the test.
When I come trotting around the corner and back to where Danielle is waiting for me, I don’t miss the shocked look on her face.
“I thought you were getting knives?”
“This is better.” I hurry down the hallway.
“A fire extinguisher?” she snorts, catching up to me.
I shrug.
When we get to the end of the hallway, the slugs are still arguing with the two males.
“Okay, now what’s your plan?” Danielle asks.
I worry my lower lip between my teeth, trying to decide if I just rush in there and spray everyone or sneak in like a ninja. What if it doesn’t work? What if it’s not like an earth extinguisher? The argument between the slugs and males is getting pretty heated; maybe we can just sneak by without needing to do anything.
It’s in that instant that one of the slugs suddenly pulls a blaster and points it at the golden feline-looking male. He stumbles back a step and lifts his arms in the universal sign fornow wait a second, let’s discuss this.
A moment later, the other two slugs have blasters out as well, and I can hear the whine of multiple charges. My heart kicks up in my chest, and I know I need to do something.
“Shae, no!” Danielle’s harsh whisper barely registers when I step out from around the corner and toward the group of aliens.
