Riley Vance's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Riley reached the tunnel mouth and stopped. She looked back once. Mendez lay where he had fallen. She could see the shape of his boots on the rails. He had been with her from the first night at the fortress, through the crash, through the cage. She had built the gun for both of them. She wiped her face with the back of her bloody arm and went into the dark. The mine ran cold. Blue Vael lamps guttered along the walls. She followed the rails past empty carts to a side chamber where the scouts had stripped the prisoners. Her gun sat on a shelf inside a lockbox with a glass front. A small red light burned on the lid. She pulled the panel from her waistband. Its screen was cracked but the switches still moved. She pressed the same key sequence she had used on the shackles. The red light on the box flickered and died. She lifted the lid and took the gun. The barrel was cold. The taped grip fit her hand the way she remembered. She checked the chamber. One shot loaded. One shot was enough. She walked back out into the yard. Urig stood over a fallen prisoner near the fence gap, tail lashing, claws wet. His antenna snapped toward her as she came into the light. "Urig." He turned. She raised the gun and fired. The shot cracked. It punched into his shoulder plate and spun him a quarter turn. It did not drop him. She worked the bolt. Nothing chambered. The homemade feed had jammed. Urig came at her fast. She swung the gun like a club. He caught it and tore it from her hands. He hit her across the face with the back of his claw. She went down on one knee. He kicked her flat. Her ribs cracked. She tasted dirt. He stood over her and lifted his claw the same way he had lifted it over Mendez. Riley looked up at him. She did not close her eyes. A blast of green light hit Urig in the chest. It went through him. Purple fluid sprayed the dirt. He staggered, looked down at the hole, and dropped sideways. His tail thumped the ground once and went still. Riley rolled onto her side. A young man stood ten feet behind her with a long alien rifle braced against his shoulder. Light brown dreadlocks. Bare feet. Broken blue shackles still clamped around his wrists, dark now. She had seen him in the far cage. He had never spoken to her. He lowered the weapon and offered his hand. "Let's go," he said. Riley took his hand. He pulled her up. Her ribs screamed. She looked once at Mendez on the rails, then at the fence gap and the open desert past it. She followed the stranger with the alien gun out through the fence.