After spending the last two days running or hiding from zer dogged captors, Benexx assumed it would be a simple matter to pick up one of their patrols and tail them back to wherever their central staging area was so ze could bury them all.
That assumption had proven rampantly optimistic.
After playing around with the remote detonator for a while, Benexx discovered it had several handy settings in addition to its direct trigger pull, including scheduled detonation or delay “fuse.” It also had an internal clock synched up to Shambhala Standard Time. Ze hadn’t had any accurate gauge of the passage of time since waking up in the cell they’d dropped zer in days before.
Benexx could hardly believe how much of a relief it was to just be able to look down and check if five minutes had passed, or five hours. Indeed, ze’d learned that it had only been five days since the attack at the parade. If anyone had cared to ask, ze’d have sworn it must’ve been a moon, maybe longer.
It also meant that zer birthday was yesterday. Ze was fifteen now, and by Atlantian reckoning, an adult. All things considered, ze’d have preferred to stay a child for a little longer. Ze’d done too much growing up in the last few days.
Thanks to the clock, Benexx knew with confidence that ze’d been stumbling around looking for zer quarry for the better part of seven hours now without so much as a flicker of skinglow in the distance. No one had come looking for zer in that whole time, no patrols, no guards at doors or intersections. No hushed voices or footfalls. And the only scents they’d left were stale and weak, hours old at the least. It was as if they’d pulled up stakes and left, abandoning the search for their hostage entirely. But neither was ze any closer to finding the exit to the infernal labyrinth.
“Typical,” Benexx whispered to no one in particular. Ze’d stalked around to each spot ze’d had to hide from patrols before and waited for at least an hour before moving on to the next one. Ze couldn’t seem to shake them when ze was on the lamb. Now that ze wanted to find one, nobody was home. They were being quite inconsiderate of zer schedule. “I’ll have nothing good to say in my review of this resort.”
Benexx’s head rolled back before ze could catch it and banged against the hard rock wall ze leaned against. Ze rubbed at it and swore under zer breath. Ze didn’t know how long ze’d been awake, but it felt like days. Ze’d stolen a few fitful naps here and there, but so much time spent not only awake, but struggling to maintain sharp focus while zer body hovered barely above operating temperature was taking its toll. Zer body would come along to collect sooner rather than later. Ze rubbed zer eyes until warm glowing blobs appeared, then faded away just as quickly as they’d come.
That was, all but one of them.
Benexx’s hand moved to rub it away, but before it did, zer eyes refocused and the bluegreen smudge resolved into the glowing outline of an Atlantian’s body. It was real, and it was walking almost straight towards zer.
Fear returned like a crashing wave, fear of being recaptured, of being beaten or worse, of being thrown back into zer cell, or of ending up dead on the cold floor like Jolk. But the heat of zer rage quickly cut through the icy wave of fear and boiled it off. Benexx brought the muzzle of the rifle to bear on the newcomer, but did not turn on either the torchlight or the holographic sight, either of which would give away zer hiding spot. It was purely defensive. If ze had indeed been spotted, ze would shoot them, preferably in a non-lethal spot, run as fast as ze could in the opposite direction, and pray they stopped to help their injured member, buying zer enough time to hide and start the process over.
It would be a hard shot to make without the aid of the computer calculated reticule, but with each approaching step it became just a little easier, even as the danger of discovery ratcheted higher. Benexx’s grip on the rifle’s trigger tightened to take up the fraction of a millimeter of slack, then exhaled in anticipation of the shot, just as zer mother had taught zer.
The Atlantian sauntered towards zer until they were so close Benexx recognized their face. It was Sula zerself. Benexx had to fight back a sudden impulse to just shoot zer through the head in cold blood.
Hold, Benexx admonished zerself. Hold fire.
Sula held zer own rifle, but it hung on zer shoulder by the strap instead of in a ready position. Ze didn’t spot zer missing hostage hiding in a hollow, and didn’t notice the muzzle of Benexx’s stolen rifle lined up with zer center mass. Sula just kept walking, an angry grimace glued to zer countenance like wallpaper. Ze didn’t lock eyes with Benexx. Didn’t look zer way at all. Instead, Benexx’s tormentor paced right past zer without so much as a glance and continued down the corridor without wavering.
Benexx waited five seconds, ten, then finally pulled fresh air into zer sacks just as they started to burn and let the slack out of zer rifle’s trigger. Sula had overlooked zer entirely, the plan was still viable. Ze uncurled from the little cubby hole ze’d been hiding inside, gingerly shouldered the pack with the bomb, detonator, and what remained of zer food, then set off in pursuit.
Sula wasn’t difficult to follow. Zer skinglow was bright enough to light up a good-sized room. Ze noisily stalked through the corridors like a newborn dux’ah crashing through halo trees. Either ze hoped to flush Benexx out of hiding, or ze simply didn’t care about all the attention ze was drawing to zerself.
But then again, why should ze care? Sula obviously hadn’t yet appreciated that zer role had changed from predator to stalked prey. Benexx desperately hoped to keep it that way until zer trap was sprung. Ze still hadn’t seen, smelled, or heard even a hint of an exit. For all ze knew, they’d sealed off the way out after they’d brought zer down here. It wasn’t unheard of among Dwellers. In the old tales, Dweller caves were shut off from the ash and poisonous air of the surface after an asteroid impact for years at a time. Maybe Sula had simply pulled back zer patrols figuring Benexx was too well hidden and intended to starve out zer wayward hostage.
The hunger pains in zer stomach told zer that it probably would’ve worked in another couple of days. Benexx had come to accept that ze might never leave this place. Might end up buried under thousands of tons of cold rock, left to be discovered only by some far future archeologist. A mystery, a footnote in history. All ze wanted now was to live long enough to make sure ze wasn’t the only artifact of interest they discovered.
Sula took a hard right and disappeared into a small side tunnel Benexx had overlooked completely during zer blind meandering through the cave since escaping. Benexx hustled as quickly as ze dared so ze wouldn’t lose the tail. Trading a bit of silence for speed, Benexx caught up and put zer back against the wall just to the side of the new passage. Ze could still hear Sula moving through the tunnel, but it was no longer the regular cadence of a walk. Instead, Sula grunted with apparent effort.
Benexx’s bloodways chilled at the sound, afraid of what it meant lay ahead. Sure enough, as ze craned zer head around the corner to get a look, ze spotted a rope hanging from a large hole in the roof of the passage. Sula had moved up to a new level. If Benexx followed, ze’d have to sling zer rifle and climb with zer hands, weighed down by zer gun, waterskin, and the bomb in zer pack. Slow and defenseless, in other words. The rope was a perfect ambush point. If Sula had gotten so much as a whiff of Benexx on the air, ze could be waiting at the top of the rope with zer rifle leveled at the hole in the floor and there would be no way for Benexx to know until the trap was already sprung.
The apprehension that had already taken root in zer chest grew so fast it nearly burst. Ze wanted to spin around one eighty and run in the other direction.
And yet…
Ze put a hand on the rope, but stopped. Any wiggle at the top would give away the fact someone was dangling from the other end of it. Instead, Benexx slung zer rifle and grabbed two handfuls of wall. Unlike the half-hemisphere of the cave ze’d been caged in, this climb was more or less straight up and offered plenty of handholds. It still wasn’t an easy climb, especially without making any noise, but it was manageable.
Halfway up, maybe about four meters, Benexx felt the rifle sling begin to work its way off zer shoulder. One of zer hands shot over to grab it before it slipped off, but then the other immediately peeled free from its hold. The weight of the pack hanging from zer shoulder dragged zer back that much faster. Falling backwards with only zer feet still stuck to the wall, Benexx’s arms spun like wind turbine blades, flailing for a hold, any hold.
Zer hand brushed against something floating in space and reflexively clamped down, halting zer fall. It was the rope, but ze didn’t have time to worry about it as the rifle fell off zer arm and spun towards the floor. In one smooth, desperate motion, Benexx grabbed the rope with both hands, then released zer grip on the wall and kicked a foot out at the tumbling gun.
Ze curled a single toe around the nylon sling. The slack went out and the rifle’s weight snapped the sling taunt, nearly ripping it free of zer grip and sending it clattering down to the floor for everyone within a hundred meters to hear like the ringing of a bell. But zer grip held, barely, and ze got the rest of zer toes around the sling a moment later.
Hanging from the rope, one foot clinging to the wall, and zer gun dangling from the other, Benexx let out a long, relieved breath. Ze rehung the rifle across zer chest this time, then pushed off from the rope and clung tight against the wall and looked up, expecting to see the muzzle of Sula’s gun appear at the opening above at any second.
It didn’t, and the anxious knots in Benexx’s limbs slowly unwound as the undulations of the rope settled. Tentatively, ze resumed the climb. After the near disaster, ze was motivated to get the hell out of the chute and back onto level ground where ze at least had a chance to retreat or hide. Hanging by zer fingers in this chute, ze felt painfully exposed.
Keeping focused on the rock instead of the hole at the top, Benexx made the rest of the climb without incident. Ze paused just below the rim and listened intently for a ragged breath, a shifted foot, a safety catch being clicked off, any signal that ze was about to lift zerself into a trap.
There was nothing outside the retreating sound of faint footsteps. Sula’s, Benexx assumed.
Ze reached up a hand at a time and grabbed the lip of the hole and pulled zerself up onto the new level. The air was different up here somehow. More… fertile, somehow? Yes, it smelled like the beds of turned dirt and fungus crops ze’d tasted touring the Dweller caverns with Kexx and Sakiko three summers ago. They were growing mushrooms down here, which meant the caves had been occupied for months, at the very least. Maybe zer assumptions had been wrong and they’d smuggled zer to Atlantis after all. Stowed away in the belly of a transport plane maybe? That would explain why there hadn’t been enough time for zer wounds to heal more.
Benexx shook zer head. It still didn’t matter where ze was as long as ze remained underground. Ze was wasting time, and the distance between zer and Sula grew by the second.
Keeping a sharp eye out for any hint of skinglow, artificial human light source, or even strange scents, Benexx came to zer feet and started in the direction of Sula’s diminishing echoes as quickly as ze judged prudent. The path under zer toes was worn smooth, well-traveled by many feet over many months. That wasn’t the only difference. In addition to smells of underground agriculture, ze picked up hints of Atlantian pheromones, human sweat, smoke from cooking fires, and the sharp undercurrent of mingled bodily wastes. Nor was it just smells. The air itself carried more heat, Benexx felt it. Just on zer skin for now, but it wouldn’t be long before zer blood carried the warmth deeper into zer core.
This level of the caves was different than the ones ze’d explored. It felt… lived in. Which only made sense, the more ze thought about it. You wouldn’t put a bomb factory next to your living room, after all. You’d want to keep it isolated, on the far end of the village where the damage would be minimized if anything went wrong. The same logic applied to zer jail cell. Apparently, the old human real estate axiom of location, location, location was a universal constant.
Benexx caught just the briefest glimmer of skinglow, maybe no more than an elbow, as Sula again rounded a corner. But there was more. The bend in the corridor glowed, not with the bluegreen of Atlantian bioluminescence, but the amber of fire. There were whispered voices on the air as well. This was the place, finally. Instead of running in gun blazing, Benexx put zer back to the wall and did zer best to be just another hole in the cave. Zer blood raced as ze reached the door, partly out of fear, partly out of excitement, and partly because it was in a race to draw heat into zer muscles, organs, and brain(s).
Ze reached the doorway, which, for once, actually deserved the name. Its edges had fresh tool-marks. Someone had worked the natural opening wider with hammer and chisel. Benexx snuck a hand into the doorway to grab a scentshot. Dux’ah fat torches, jerky, spices, stewed fungus. Dinner time. Zer hollowed-out stomach churned with hunger, but ze ignored it. There was just enough smell of pheromones and sweat to know the crowd sitting down for the evening meal was a mix of Atlantians and humans, but ze couldn’t get any read on how many. Uncle Kexx would have. Zer sense of taste and smell bordered on clairvoyance.
Once more, Benexx stuck zer head around the corner for a lightning quick, one-eyed scan of the chamber beyond. What ze saw filled zer with an odd mix of dread and elation. There were somewhere between a dozen and two fullhands of conspirators sitting on the floor around a pair of large cooking fires, too many to count in the brief glance ze took, and more than even zer most liberal guess had been of their strength of numbers.
Which would have been atrocious news if ze’d been forced to fight zer way through all of them, but, since ze was delegating the work of taking them out over to zer new best friend, the fact they were all so helpfully clustered together in one place was simply wonderful.
Benexx set zer rifle down gingerly on the floor of the cave and unslung the pack from zer shoulder. The bomb had grown increasingly heavy the longer ze carried it. Ze’d be glad to be rid of the extra weight dragging zer down, in more ways than one. While the succulent and savory smells of a hearty meal wafted through the doorway, Benexx busied zerself prepping the device that would ensure it was zer tormentors’ last supper.
There was a spike in conversations between courses, which Benexx exploited to run a system check in the hallway. A new scent emigrated from the room beyond: yulka cakes drenched in dipoora pollen sauce. It was a treat for children, one ze’d had more than zer fill of over the summer. But right then, the smell made zer mouth water.
Benexx shook off the thought. Ze needed to decide where to place the bomb for maximum effectiveness. Ze wasn’t a demolitions expert by any means, but ze had a basic understanding of the physics involved. The tunnel out here would channel and redirect most of the blast energy away from zer targets. Leaving it inside the doorway was better, but ideally it would go smack in the middle of the dining room where the surrounding walls would contain and amplify the explosion and turn everyone inside into a finely-strained jelly.
That was the ideal placement, and a happy little daydream played out in Benexx’s head where ze walked confidently into the very center of the room, smiling at all of the faces stunned into silence, set down the bomb, stole a cake from out of Sula’s gawking mouth, sauntered out of the room, set off the explosion without looking back, then ate the cake.
Yippe kai-yah, motherfucker.
Benexx shook zer head again, trying to clear the cobwebs from zer mind and regain focus. The combination of hunger and a sudden surge of warmth after days of running below zer optimum body temp threw all sorts of interesting physiological error codes as zer metabolism ramped back up only to find it had almost nothing left to burn.
Optimal placement was out, but if ze was sneaky Benexx thought ze could at least get the bomb down the short passage and rested against the inner wall, which was almost as good, and had the added bonus of not vaporizing zer as ze hid in the tunnel. Probably.
Benexx cradled the bomb in zer arm and went completely prone. Ze concentrated on matching the hue and patterns of zer skin to the rock of the entryway. The effort resulted in a subpar facsimile that would almost certainly have earned zer uncle’s disapproval, but it was better than nothing at all.
While zer captors and conspirators ate their cakes, Benexx inched toward both zer vengeance, and only chance of salvation. Like a skip-rock fish stalking through the tidal pools of the New Amazon river delta, Benexx crawled towards zer prey.
The cake course finished, and everyone spoke up appreciatively towards the cook, even the humans. Benexx rolled zer eyes, but took advantage of the sudden uptick of noise and distraction and brought zerself to within arm’s reach of zer target.
The cook presented the next course; dux’ah fat gravy over falafel, a nod to their human guests. Benexx loved the falafel that street vendors in Shambhala sold, on warm summer nights, after football games. Ze’d never wanted one of the spicy balls of deep-fried chickpea paste so badly in zer life.
Neither, as it happened, had zer stomach, which registered its desperation with a long, low, and loud guuuuurgle.
Everyone stopped. Time itself stopped. After an interminably long moment, every head in the chamber, some still bearing an open mouth full of half-chewed food, turned as one to the doorway where Benexx lay. No one spoke, either from shock or simple rejection of the absurdity of the scene.
“Um,” Benexx finally ventured. “Hello.”
Sula, sitting near the middle of the room between the two cooking fires, stood and struck a finger in Benexx’s direction.
“GET ZER!”
That was all the incentive Benexx needed to reverse zer course out of the room.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, ze admonished zerself as the first poorly-aimed rifle rounds splashed and ricocheted against the stone hallway above zer head. Benexx scrambled backwards like a pond-skimmer as tiny flechettes of stone and twisted metallic-polymers exploded from bullet impact craters on the walls around zer, tearing at zer skin like a swarm of biting insect analogues, leaving superficial-yet-stinging flesh wounds in their wake.
In zer haste to escape, Benexx almost left the makeshift bomb behind in the hallway, but grabbed it at the last instant with a foot. Keeping low and against the opposite wall to the incoming fire, ze made zer way back to zer rifle and pack in the outer corridor. Once ze had everything in hand, Benexx headed in the opposite direction from where ze’d come at a dead sprint. Ze dug out the detonator from the pack and discarded the rest. Whatever food, medicine, or water ze had left was just dead weight now.
The first of zer tormentors spilled out of the doorway as if they’d been shoved, but Benexx was ready for them. Wheeling backwards, ze held up zer stolen rifle, spotlight and sights turned up to full illumination because why-the-hell-not at this point, centered the computer-assisted reticule on zer enemy’s chest, and pulled a trigger in anger for the first time in zer life.
A quick one-two-three burst erupted from the rifle with a deafening cadence, filling the tunnel with the echoing sounds of its thunderclaps. The first two rounds missed their target by less than a finger-length, but the third struck home into the right side of the first Atlantian to present themselves. The recipient rocked back from the sudden transfer of kinetic force, but quickly came to their feet and returned fire. Lacking hearts to stop, Atlantians were devilishly difficult to kill with single shots unless landed directly in the head, a fact that was both beneficial and detrimental to Benexx’s chances in the short-term.
The tiny bullets sliced through the air faster than sound itself, some barely missing Benexx’s head. Ze turned and ran down the hallway, deafened by the gunfire, muzzle flashes seared into zer vision. Ze pointed the rifle back down the tunnel and blindly sprayed a long burst as ze retreated, hoping only to convince zer pursuers to get back under cover and put an extra bit of distance between them.
Sprinting through the dark, Benexx was suddenly struck in the left leg with a white-hot pain just above the knee. Ze let out a shocked yelp of surprise as much as agony as zer leg gave out and sent zer crashing to the floor in a heap. The rifle skittered away from zer grip and came to rest against the far wall, its cone of light pointed back down the hallway, while the bomb remained in zer other hand.
Ze’d been shot. The bullet passed cleanly through the meat of zer leg without hitting the cartilage or expanding very much, not that it hurt any less. It felt like ze’d been run through with an electrified spear. Benexx scrambled back to zer feet, heavily favoring zer left, and moved to grab the gun, only to be driven back again by a barrage of incoming fire aimed at the light. The shooter thought ze still held it. In an instant, Benexx decided to use the diversion to maximum effect.
Ze planted the bomb on the opposite side of the passage even as another burst of fire tore into the rock face, then hopped away as quickly as ze could, dragging a hobbled left leg behind zer. Even over the ringing in zer ears, Benexx heard shouting break out behind zer, goading zer forward. Digging through the pack, zer fingers urgently felt for the detonator until they wrapped around the familiar pistol grip and pulled it free.
Then Benexx’s retreat came to a screeching halt. A rock wall blocked the passage ahead. Zer head spun, clamoring to spot an opening in the rock, a hole in the ceiling or floor, anything that ze could use to continue onward.
Nothing. It was a dead end.
The sounds of feet slapping on stone and shouted commands filled zer ears as despair flooded zer mind. There was no way out, and ze hadn’t covered nearly enough ground to have gotten clear of the blast radius.
A voice accustomed to being heeded barked at zer to turn around. A weakened, exhausted part of Benexx’s brain obeyed without resistance. Sula stood there, several steps ahead of a half dozen of zer compatriots, three of which held their own rifles.
“Nowhere left to run now, little bearer. You are proving to be more trouble than you’re worth. Your value to us as a hostage does have limits, you know, no matter who your parents are or how famous you think you are. I have half a mind to order you shot right here and dump you in a hole next to Jolk. You two deserve each other.”
A ray of red hot fury shot through the stifling blanket of hopelessness that had descended over zer soul. Dying down here alone was bad enough, but the thought of zer body spending eternity trapped next to Jolk’s filth?
Benexx held up the detonator where everyone could see it. The temperature in the cave seemed to drop twenty degrees in less than a second. Sula’s skin went blank with the shock and realization that ze wasn’t in control of the situation after all.
“What is that?” ze asked.
Benexx pointed to the pale-faced human bombmaker standing to Sula’s right. “Ask him, he knows.”
Sula conferred with the man, who nodded confirmation.
“I see,” ze said quietly, then cleared zer throat. “And what is your detonator connected to?”
“Oh, just a little bomb I scratched together from a few kilos of your stolen explosives. It’s about twenty meters behind you, around the bend. You all ran right past it.”
“That puts you in the blast zone as much as any of us.”
“Sure does.”
Sula smiled warmly. The forced, unnatural sight of it turned Benexx’s stomach. “Come now, young bearer. You don’t want to die here, alone.”
“I’m not alone,” Benexx taunted. “You’re all right here with me.”
“Stop this foolishness!” Sula snapped. “I am not an unforgiving host. You are scared, and cold-headed. You’re confused. I’m sure you’re starving by now. If you set down that remote, I promise you a fine meal. We will share food from our table, an equal share, in recognition of the… unexpected bravery you have displayed.”
“I’m not hungry,” ze lied.
“I salute your boldness, but if you think you’re going to negotiate your way out of this tunnel–”
“I’m not interested in negotiating anything with you,” Benexx interrupted.
“Then what are you interested in?”
Benexx savored the terror on Sula’s face, ze even managed a smirk.
“This.” Ze pulled the trigger, and the world went white with light and noise.