Faith

I suck air down into my lungs. Adrenaline pushes me forward and my heart feels like it’s about to pound right out of my chest. He’s faster than me, I know this. Yet still, I seem to be pulling ahead.

I can do this. I can get away. I urge myself onward, wondering if Rylan was hurt when he fell back into the gorge. If he was, good. I’m glad. I mean, that monster is trying to freaking hunt me! He slept with me and now he’s going to try and kill me. To think I ever felt bad about stealing his ship! He can rot in that damned gorge for all I care.

The sound of my boots kicking up the leaves that blanket the forest floor might as well be thunder against the silent landscape. I grow nervous and wonder if I’d even hear Rylan coming. Cutting a glance over my shoulder, I see only a vacant and pristine forest behind me. I breathe a sigh of relief and turn to continue my escape, but again…I’m stopped short. Only this time, the thing blocking my path looks like a creature from hell and he’s got a blaster aimed at my face. I put my hands up.

I have nothing to defend myself with. Even if I hadn’t dropped that branch when I was running, it wouldn’t have done anything to protect me from a blaster. Maybe this is finally it for me. My “luck” has run out at last. A smile splits the face of the alien and I notice his thin strip of a tongue shoot out and taste the air in my direction. My blood runs cold.

“Get on your knees and put your hands on your head,” he sneers. His voice is as cold as ice. I’m trembling and glance furtively around, looking for my dried-up luck as if it were a tangible object to find.

“I said, GET ON YOUR KNEES!” the alien bellows so harshly at me that I nearly jump right out of my skin.

“We…we can talk about this,” I try lamely, but all it buys me is a mocking laugh. I drop to my knees and place my hands on my head, but I keep my chin high as the bastard approaches me. My heart is pounding. This is it.

Then, before my brain has an opportunity to process, Rylan appears behind him. He heaves what appears to be the branch I attacked him with and it comes crashing down on the other guy’s head, who falls in a limp heap on the ground.

I sit there, wide eyed and still on my knees. Rylan is panting and out of breath. He discards the branch angrily and stalks silently toward me with a scowl on his face. Grabbing me by my arms, he hoists me to my feet.

“Come on,” he grits out. “We’re leaving.” He turns his back on me and begins to walk away.

“Leaving?” I choke on the word. Rylan spins around and his eyes flicker again, like I’ve seen them do before. Only this time it isn’t lust that lights them. Nope, this seems more like rage.

“Yes. We are leaving,” he growls. “Which is what I was trying to tell you when I first caught up to you back there! But obviously you didn’t trust me enough to stop and listen. Just like you didn’t trust me enough to ask for my help back when we were on Nydor!”

“What did you expect me to do? I stole your fucking ship, Rylan! I’d have stopped to ask what the hell was going on, but I can do the math myself!” I spit, feeling angry and defensive. “Obviously we aren’t friends. You’re one of these fucking hunters, going through the forest, murdering people! And you expect me to do what? Call a timeout for a quick conversation before you kill me?”

His voice softens and his expression changes. The anger seems to slip away. “We aren’t friends? And what about Nydor? Hell, Faith,” he says, looking genuinely hurt. “You’d think after the night we spent together you would know me better than that. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to save you.”

“Oh yeah? Just like that? What about your ship? What about your sisters? You told me yourself that you needed this to help them. So what, I’m just supposed to walk off into the forest with you on nothing more than blind trust?”

“I am not a monster, Faith! I was invited here under the assumption that we would be hunting game, not sentient beings. No matter what incentives they offer, I am no killer.” He says the word with such disdain that I flinch.

“Oh yeah? Well, I am,” I tell him defiantly. “You still want to leave your sisters high and dry for someone like me?”

“I read your file,” he says. His expression is blank.

“So you know,” I reply, keeping my chin raised, daring him to judge me. Instead he takes a long, slow breath and scrubs his hand over his eyes.

“I know that you somehow fell into the hands of slavers and they sold you to a male who wanted to be your master, a male who thought it was okay to own other people. I read that you killed him. I read how you killed him.” He pauses, taking a moment to appraise me. “I am an intelligent male, Faith. I can guess what happened and I do not blame you for it. You acted within reason, anyone else would have done the same thing.”

For some reason his words of understanding only cause resentment to swell inside my chest. “No. Not just anyone. None of the other slaves did what I did. Only me,” I counter, cutting my hand angrily through the air.

“Not everyone is as strong as you.” He shrugs, as if it is a simple thing and again, his words bring nothing but pain. It’s been so long since anyone has shown me kindness, compassion, or understanding that it feels foreign to me. It scares me and the only defense I have against it is pushing him away.

He must see the dismay written on my face, because his tone continues to soften and when I look at him again he inches closer. It’s almost as if he wants to reach out and comfort me. Instead, he keeps on talking. “It is hard to be strong all by yourself. It wears at you. But you are not alone anymore. You have me. I will do whatever it takes to get you off this world safely. Now come, we must get away from this place and find shelter.”

“But your ship?” I ask, determined not to let my voice crack with emotion.

“I’m angry, yes. But It isn’t worth your life.” He holds his hand out, beckoning to me.

I clench my teeth against his kindness. Despite my discomfort, I’m not too stupid or too proud to turn down his help. “Okay, but we need to take his gun.” I remind him of the hunter at our feet.

“No. Leave it,” Rylan says, his voice hard again. “You can have this.” He passes me a smaller hand-held weapon and I frown at it.

“I want that one,” I say, pointing at the much larger, super-charged blaster the hunter had aimed at my chest a short while ago.

“This”—he indicates the gun he’s trying to give me—“is set to incapacitate a person. That gun is meant to obliterate its target. That gun, we leave behind. I’m telling you, Faith, I did not come here to kill anyone. That is something I wish to avoid unless absolutely necessary.”

“I’m not asking you to kill anyone. I’ll carry it,” I insist.

“If you want my help, and let me make this clear: you do want my help, you’ll take the charger and leave that death machine behind.” Rylan’s voice is firm and the look he gives me is without compromise.

“He’s just going to wake up and use it to kill someone else, you realize that, right?” I argue.

Rylan stares at the gun and sighs heavily. Finally, he picks it up and leaps up into a tree, climbing like it’s his second nature. He ascends higher and higher before he finally loops the gun’s strap around a branch, leaving it hidden except to the most discerning eyes. Then he hops down so easily, it’s as if both the climb up and down were nothing at all to him. I hide my astonishment at his agility.

“I don’t like the idea of leaving a gun behind, but I’m glad he doesn’t have it. Thank you,” I tell Rylan, giving him my gratitude as an olive branch.

He nods in acknowledgement but doesn’t look at me. “Let’s get out of here before he wakes up.”

Rylan leads the way. We start out in a run and don’t stop for what feels like hours. I imagine we create a substantial distance between us and the other hunter.

As an added safety measure, Rylan keeps doubling back and covering our tracks or creating new ones in the wrong direction. I’m impressed with his ingenuity and the stamina it takes to do that extra work.

Finally, we reach a small and trickling stream that seems to bubble straight out of a heap of rocks and boulders. “We should break here,” Rylan says, eyeing me. I get the feeling he could go on, but he probably sees me waning. I’m grateful for a chance to rest, so I don’t try and talk him out of it.

I drop down onto a rock next to the water and slump my shoulders as I work my filter, filling the bottles I have. Every muscle within me aches. I’ve been pushing myself to the limit and my body is finally protesting. Unfortunately, it’s still too early for the day’s second ration, so I try not to think about the hunger sickening my stomach and gulp at my water instead. Rylan must be able to read minds, though, because he digs in his bag and shoves a protein ration in my face.

“You don’t have to—” I begin to decline the food, but Rylan shoots me that furious look again and I take it. He’s mad. I get it. I stole his ship and now I’ve ruined the future of his entire family. He hates my guts, deservedly so.

“We should discuss the plan. Do you know where the pods are?” I ask, burying my emotions and focusing only on survival.

“We aren’t going to the pods,” he tells me.

“What? Why?”

“It’s a lie. They are without power, no one is meant to leave this place alive. Now eat,” he commands, nodding to the half-opened protein ration clutched in my hands. I comply, but break the bar in two so I can save the rest for later.

“No. Eat all of it. If we run out I will hunt.”

“Hunting isn’t a sure thing, Rylan.”

“Yes, it is. Now eat.”

“Fine. So, if the pods are a no go, what do you have in mind?”

“The goal is to make a wide circle back around to the airfield on the south side of the dome. I’m hoping the path we take will allow us to steer clear of the other hunters. From the airfield, we’ll have to steal a ship. The one I came here in is too small and too slow to get us out safely,” he says with narrowed eyes.

“That’s a shame,” I reply coolly. He already knows I’m guilty of stealing his ship, I don’t want to talk about how shitty I felt for doing it. So, I purposely dodge the reminder, looking away to study the forest around us. Rylan lets out a low growl that makes him seem more animal than man and he stalks over to me. I force myself to meet his gaze, unwilling to bow down to anyone.

“Aragrandani or not, I am a good male, Faith,” he insists, pounding his fist on his bare chest. “I gave you every chance to confide in me back on Nydor and instead you used me. If only you would have said something, neither of us would be here right now, risking our lives!”

“How was I supposed to know?” I throw my hands up in complaint.

“You should have trusted me.”

“Trust is easy to talk about when you’ve never been abducted and made a slave.”

“You trusted me enough to bed me,” he retorts. “Or did you only do that to steal from me?” There’s accusation in his voice and it makes me wonder if this is about more than just his ship. Did I actually hurt his feelings?

“Look, Rylan, it’s nothing against you. I just don’t trust anyone, okay?”

He takes a deep breath and hangs his head, looking defeated. There is a long stretch of silence before he speaks again. “Do you trust that I’ll get you off this planet and get you to safety?” he asks. His voice is grave and his expression solemn.

I sigh and search the horizon, wanting to give him something. “What about Nydor?” he asked earlier. It was a wonderful night that ended terribly with my betrayal of his trust. And now he says he’s here to save me. If I didn’t feel ashamed before…I certainly feel it now. “I don’t know, Rylan. I’m all out of trust. Any hope I had is long gone too. But I’ve still got determination. I can give you that.”

“I am also determined,” he says, seeming to find peace in my offering.

“What about your sisters?” I ask quietly. The question needs to be spoken. “What about your own hopes for settling down? This thing you’re doing here, helping me escape… I know you’re sacrificing everything.”

He sits down next to me and takes a long drink from his water pouch before handing it to me. I begin to refill it for him. “My sisters and I will figure something else out. Nothing is worth sacrificing a person. Even a person who does not trust me…yet,” he adds and his troubled expression morphs into a teasing smile. “Until then, we need to get far away from here.”

“I won’t argue with that,” I huff.

“If we are to continue on I also need you to promise me something.”

“Promise you…? Oh, Rylan, I don’t know.”

“It is crucial, Faith.”

“What is it?” I ask with a frown.

“I need to know that if I ask you to do something while we are out here, you will comply without argument or hesitation.”

“I can’t possibly promise you that,” I scoff.

“You must, Faith. You may not trust me, but I need to trust you. Our lives may depend on it. Give me your word on this.”

“Wait…wait…wait…” I tell him, feeling anxious. “At least give me an example so I know what I’m agreeing to.”

“If I tell you to run, you will run. If I tell you to hide, you will hide. If you must go on ahead without me—”

“No fucking way!” I tell him.

“I’m not asking for your trust,” he is quick to clarify. “But we need to work as a team. You must have…faith in me.”

“Pretty sure that’s just another way of saying trust,” I point out, trying not to laugh.

“Then, believe in me?” he questions. I give him a skeptical look and his expression becomes teasing. “Have confidence? Reliance—”

“Okay, okay. Put the thesaurus away, big guy. I’ll believe that you have a plan and try to do my part,” I assure him, biting back a smile. When I look over and see him watching me, he’s got that same playful and easy way to him that he had back on Nydor.

“I am sorry about your ship, Rylan,” I offer, putting myself out there more than I’m typically comfortable with.

“You should be,” he says with a quick, chastising tap on the top of my head before pulling himself up to his feet. I roll my eyes and pull my pack on, but I can’t hide the fact that I’m smiling. It was generous of him to not rub my nose in it. Lord knows he has every right and I hate to admit it, but I’m grateful I’m not doing this alone.

After our break, we walk at a hurried pace the rest of the day and into the night, only taking time for quick sips of water. Rylan forces another ration into my hands, but I can only bring myself to eat half, before I tuck the rest away. There isn’t much, we really should be saving them.

“We will camp here for the night,” Rylan declares suddenly.

I look up to see there’s a tight space in the center of a ring of trees, maybe only two arm spans wide. It’s well hidden in the sparse moonlight. The ground here is nothing more than rough rocks jutting up out of the thick carpet of leaves, but at least it’s clean, blocked from view, and has multiple exit points. I nod, looking around for an optimal spot to settle in. I can feel Rylan’s eyes on me as I tuck my pack under my head and pull my arms and legs in close to my body for warmth.

“I’d offer you a fire if I could—” Rylan begins.

“I’m not stupid, Ry, I wouldn’t ask for one. This is fine,” I assure him, even though the air is getting pretty crisp. Leaning against my pack I close my eyes without saying goodnight.

“You should eat,” Rylan insists, and I huff out a breath, peeking up at him.

“I’m not stupid, but you might be. We don’t have a ton of rations, we need to ration them.”

He frowns at me as he opens his bag. Defiantly, he pulls out a handful of bars, tossing them into my lap. There aren’t many. Enough for us both to have three meals a day for two days or two meals for three days.

“I’m not taking the last of your food. I need you to be strong enough to help me out of here,” I tell him, annoyed.

“I have other food options.”

I cock a brow at him skeptically. And, as if I challenged him, he jumps down out of our small alcove of trees. Not far away, I hear him rustling in the leaves. It isn’t long at all before he returns with two dead creatures in his hands. They’re black with spider-like legs, but their bodies appear smooth and scaled like a reptile’s. Rylan tosses one down on the rock with a boyish grin. It’s almost as if he expects me to be squeamish. I only blink at the thing. He then proceeds to rip the leg off the other and suck out the insides…slurping and crunching on it as he does. I stare him in the eye, feeling like a gauntlet has been tossed. I get to my feet and shove his share of the rations back into his hands. Then, I pick up the spider lizard.

Ripping off its leg, I follow Rylan’s lead, sucking out the insides. It’s not that bad, I think to myself as I return to my spot, shooting Rylan a pointed glance over my shoulder. It’s sort of like an oyster, I guess. I finish the legs and Rylan disposes of the carcasses while I re-adjust my resting spot. My eyes are closed again when he comes back, but still, I hear him laughing. I open one eye to peer over. He’s shaking his head at me, like he can’t believe I just ate that thing.

“Believe me, I’ve eaten worse since my abduction. Surviving tastes a hell of a lot better than starving…take my word for it,” I tell him. His laughter dies in his throat and he grunts, apparently no longer finding the situation amusing. Rylan falls silent and peers out between the trees into the night. Faint light from the moon filters down past the canopy high above us.

“Sleep. I’ll take first watch,” he tells me. I don’t argue. I’m tired as fuck. I tuck my legs in close to my chest again. It’s getting colder as the night wears on. After a moment, I hear rustling leaves and Rylan comes to sit down next to me. I jump, startled by his nearness. If he’s aware of my unease, though, he doesn’t show it. Instead he wraps his arm around me. I can’t help but stiffen.

“This is no time to be proud,” he tells me. “It’s cold out.”

I hesitate for a few seconds before relaxing against him. It is cold, I tell myself, justifying our contact. There’s a brief moment as he holds me that I feel safe again, just like I did the night we shared together on Nydor. I remind myself that it wasn’t real, though, just a stolen moment between two people…certainly not something that could ever happen again. But I don’t have to worry about it for long. Soon I fall into a deep sleep.