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Miranda was more than happy to see Esme alive and well, but after their hello’s and hugs, Miranda’s attention went back to Fanian, the asshole who refused to die.
Esme had Miranda in a tight hug. “Thank you. I really didn’t want to kill him.”
“Kill this guy?” Miranda huffed and pulled away.
Miranda trudged through the snow, dragging the kids behind her on their sled. Esme followed close behind. Miranda stopped in front of the sprawled form of Fanian and stared. His dark green blood stood out against the snow as it dripped from the arrows jutting nicely from his head. He really was handsome in a strange sort of way. Too bad, he was an evil asshole.
She nudged him with her foot. He didn’t make a sound or twitch. “He isn’t dead,” Miranda said. “He’s been hunting me since I left you and Ben. I keep trying to put him down, but he magically recovers.” He also wants to sell the kids and me.
Anger surged through her, and he didn’t look so handsome anymore. She pulled her foot back and kicked him. Hard. He may be passed out, but she hoped when he woke, he would feel where her boot had been. “Must be alien mojo or something.”
“Um, I think three arrows to the brain definitely did the trick this time.”
If sawing his neck in half didn’t kill him, then neither would these arrows. “Look at his chest. He’s still breathing.” She lifted a foot and rested it on his chest. “I’ve even bashed his head in with a rock.” Miranda tilted her head to the side. “I almost decapitated him too. That took a lot of work. He just keeps coming back like new.” And she wished she knew why.
“So first of all. Wow. You would think, after all, that he would stay away from you.”
“You would think. But he just won’t leave me alone. He was following us when you crossed his path. He left us alone abruptly, and I got curious and followed him.” Miranda shrugged. “He says that he has a buyer lined up for me. No, thank you. So I decided to kill him and keep killing him until death finally sticks. Hm. I haven’t tried burning him yet.”
“We could try the fire sticks. It might take him forever to burn, but it’s worth the try.”
Miranda glanced at Esme. She’d thought the super-smart scientist would’ve judged her for being so violent. This place was turning all of them into killers. Miranda didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Save ’em.” Miranda grinned at Esme. “I found a torch that’ll burn him up real good. I think one of the hunters accidently dropped it.”
Esme raised an eyebrow. “I guess Christmas came early.”
Miranda turned to Adam. “Baby, can you hand mommy the fire-thing?”
Adam rummaged through Lexi’s diaper bag and tossed her the torch.
Miranda winked at Esme. “Stand back and watch this.”
Esme took a healthy step away. Miranda flicked her thumb, and a raging ball of fire spurted from the end of the torch to light up Fanian’s body. His clothes and hair immediately caught fire, followed by his skin, which sizzled and crackled as it melted from his bones. Black smoke billowed into the air.
Come back from this, asshole.
“As much as I would like to sit around and roast marshmallows over his corpse, we have to go,” Miranda said. “The smoke will attract other hunters, and they’ll home in on this area. That means we can’t go back to our hiding spot for a while.”
“You have a place nearby?” Esme asked.
“It’s a little spot that we’ve been calling home since yesterday. I can’t find any good shelter in this hellhole.”
“Don’t talk that way about the North Pole, mommy,” Adam said.
Miranda winced, then whispered. “I told the kids we’re on an adventure in the North Pole. We’re looking for Santa and his elves. The hunters, who are really robots, are trying to keep us away from them.”
Esme opened her mouth in an “O.” “You guys can hang out with me for a while. I found a nice place. Follow me.”
Esme donned her snowshoes and led Miranda and the kids back to her cave. They traveled in silence and, as quickly as possible, sure not to leave visible tracks.
Esme led them to the side of a mountain and stopped in front of some trees and bushes. She pushed brush aside, revealing a narrow tunnel. Miranda had to drop to her knees to crawl through, pulling the kids while Esme pushed on the sleeping bag from behind. When they came out on the other side, darkness and heat greeted them.
“Hold up.” Esme fumbled with her comlink, and when she had the fire sticks in hand, she activated them. She spread them around, creating plenty of light.
Miranda glanced around. It would’ve been nice if she could find a roomy and comfortable place like this for her and the kids. Instead, they’d been struggling nightly in shelters that exposed them to the harsh elements or were not safe. “Wow. This is a helluva lot cozier than my spot. Warmer too.”
She sighed, because as good as that thought was, Fanian would probably find them within a day. He seemed to know her every move before she did.
Esme opened her bag and dumped her dead fish on a rock. “I lucked up and found this place. It’ll take me a little while to get the fish cleaned and cooked. You guys get warm while I make us dinner.”
“You’re a lifesaver. We’ve been surviving off of protein bars. I would kill for something else.” She wrinkled her nose at the smell. It smelled just like fish. She hoped that it tasted like it too.
“You can still get protein bars here? My food icon is gone.” Esme frowned while tapping her comlink.
“Ours too. I hoarded them in Level One. Glad I did.”
“That was smart.”
Miranda edged toward the hot spring. She couldn’t tell how deep the water was, but it looked clean and smelled fresh. “The water? Can we get in it?”
“It’s deep in some spots, so watch Adam. I’ve been using that stone on the ledge to scrub the dirt from my clothes. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do for now.”
Miranda stripped from her snowsuit, not caring about modesty. “Sweet Jesus. We haven’t had a bath since we got to this place. I smell rank. I swear a hunter would only have to follow the stink to find us. I’m not entirely convinced that’s not how fireball back there keeps finding me.” When she was undressed, she unbundled Lexi. “Strip Adam. We’re taking a bath.”
Adam crossed his arms and pouted. “A bath? But I don’t wanna.”
Miranda cradled Lexi in one arm and crouched to Adam’s height. “Remember how I told you we have to be smarter than those robots who don’t want us to reach Santa’s workshop?”
Adam poked his bottom lip out but nodded.
“Well, being smart means we don’t make it so easy for them to find us.”
“But if we take a bath, we’ll smell clean and not like outside anymore. If we’re hiding from the hunter robots, it’s good to smell like the outside because we,” he frowned as if trying to find the right word, “blend.”
Miranda pulled his hood down. “Honey, right now, we smell worse than outside. We smell like a pack of animals. We have to clean up.”
“When I first got here, I couldn’t reach anyone for roll call. I didn’t know who was left or who’d been taken,” Esme said as Adam began undressing. She set to work on scaling and cleaning the fish. “I’m glad you’re still here. Well, not glad, glad, but you know what I mean.”
“We had roll call, and you didn’t answer. We all feared the worst.” And they had. There’d been plenty of crying that night. It wasn’t that no one hadn’t expected Esme to be taken. But they’d known Esme’s survival skills were on par with everyone’s besides Ben’s, and that’s what had everyone worried. It was just a matter of time before they were all taken.
“Yeah, I got an instant ticket to Level Two. So what did you have to do to get here?”
“I guess they recognized that being a single mom with two kids takes some epic survival skills. It’s just a damn shame I had to come to an alien pl—I mean, this survivalist campground for my particular skills to be recognized.”
“I like the North Pole, better than the other place we just left. It was too hot there.” Adam stood in his underpants. “Maybe Santa will let us stay.”
Miranda smiled. “Why would we ever leave this place?” She smiled and glanced at Esme. “Oh! No childcare, no viable jobs, no schools, and as far as I can tell, no good pediatricians.” She turned back to Adam. “We can’t stay, hon.”
Esme chuckled. “But they do have a good transportation system. You have to give them that.” She snapped her fingers. “Here one minute and gone the next.”
“We went from sweating buckets to freezing.”
“It’d been raining, and I was running through water and mud trying to get away from a hunter.” Esme scrunched her nose. “Oh, and I was covered in blood when I came here.”
Miranda opened her eyes wide. “Shut. Up.”
Miranda had been somewhat covered in blood too, but she hadn’t imagined she and Esme had been in similar situations. Maybe killing was the way to advance through the Levels? If that were the case, she needed to remove emotion from the act and do whatever it took to get her kids home.
Esme nodded. “I killed—” She glanced at Adam. “Er, I mean, I helped one sleep the long sleep. I had to call for an emergency pod, and it brought me here. I was so cold. I was sure I was going to die.”
Miranda eased into the hot spring, holding Lexi against her side. Lexi immediately began splashing and kicking the water excitedly.
“I came up in the middle of nowhere. I was in shock and had an arrancar on my tail,” Esme said. “Have you run into one of those yet? Lovely animals.” She rolled her eyes. “Not.”
Miranda frowned. “What does it look like?”
“Rows and rows of sharp teeth. Red mouth dripping drool. It has large dark eyes, one in front, one on each side where its ears should be. White fur. And kinda has the build of an alpha wolf on steroids.”
That sounded way worse than her killer, roving polar bear pack. At least the bessen looked cuddly. “Uh, no. And I’m glad for it. I can’t take any more surprises.”
“I really can’t either. Luckily Xrez has been helping me out. I don’t know what I would’ve done without him.”
Miranda paused and glanced at Esme. “Wait. He’s here, and he didn’t capture you?”
Esme raised her eyebrows at that. “Again, we know how this story ends. I’m here with you.”
“But we don’t. Not really.” Miranda narrowed her eyes. “What’s his end game, Ez?”
Esme didn’t seem perplexed as much as Miranda was. “He doesn’t have one.”
Miranda helped Adam into the hot spring. “Can you throw me the baby wash from Lexi’s diaper bag, please?”
Esme set the fish down, rummaged through the bag, found what she looked for, and handed it to Miranda. “Can I use a smidge for my clothes after you’re done? I’ve been using pebbles from the bottom to scrub the grime away.”
“It’s the least I can do for you letting us use your bath.”
Miranda finished washing the kids, concentrating on the task, trying to ignore the danger that Esme’s hunter may know where they all were.
“A smorgasbord” is what Payton had called Kaylin, Danny, Min, and Yesenia when they’d all met up.
If he happened upon them now, he would have four humans, instead of one. She didn’t want to make all of Xrez’s happy hunter dreams come true. When she finished, she ushered Adam out and carried Lexi to the make-shift sled. She sat them both down, spreading the toys from the baby bag around them so they could have something to do while she took a few minutes for herself.
“Back to Xrez. I think he does have a plan, and it’s right there staring you in the face.”
She gathered their clothes and got back in the hot spring to vigorously scrub the dirt from them. When she was in earlier, she felt the rush of water around her legs, coming in one direction and leaving in another. She didn’t have to worry about bathing in dirt. Luckily the spring had an excellent filtration system.
“He wants you.”
Esme took the fish over to the small circle of rocks and laid them across the top. “We talked about it. He doesn’t.”
Miranda stopped washing long enough to glance at her. “You sound disappointed.”
“Pft. I’m hardly disappointed. Although, if I were captured and ended up as someone’s mate, I wouldn’t mind if it was him.”
Miranda stared at her. Not believing what Esme admitted. Never once had she thought about mating with a hunter. “Wait. Are you seriously thinking about giving up and staying here?”
She’d had one goal in mind, getting her kids to Earth and back to safety. She glanced at Adam. He was busy playing with Lexi and not paying attention to their conversation. Despite that, Miranda maneuvered closer to Esme and dropped her voice to a whisper.
“What about beating the game and gaining your freedom?” Miranda continued.
“Seriously?” Esme whispered. “Of course, I want to win. No one in their right mind would want to stay here. But I’m talking about if I didn’t have a choice. I wouldn’t mind exploring new planets. I mean, this is a scientist’s dream come true. The exploring new planets part, not the hunted down part.”
“So, just head out and explore the galaxy and forget about your friends and family back on Earth?”
Esme activated more fire sticks and arranged them to heat the rocks to cook the fish. “I didn’t say that I would forget about them. I just know they would get by.”
“So, you would give up everything for Xrez or any alien who promised to take you on a sightseeing adventure?” There was a hard edge to her voice.
Esme lowered to sit next to the food, turning the fish with her knife. “I’m not saying I would agree to be one of these hunters’ mate. That’s not what I want. I already killed one who tried to claim me, and I would’ve killed your friend back there too. I don’t want to be hunted down like some kind of...”
“Prey.”
“Exactly. Xrez is different from the other hunters. He said he’s not one of them, and I believe him.”
Miranda got out of the hot spring and spread their clothes around on any available rock to dry. “Then why is he here?”
“Mommy, me and Lexi are hungry,” Adam whined.
“And I’m going to feed you.” Esme pierced the filet closest to her and peered at the meat inside. “These taste like catfish. I know they’re black and all, but if you can get past the color, you’ll like it.” She used her knife to move the fire sticks out of the way. “I don’t know how you want to do this. I’ve been eating off these rocks like a savage.”
Miranda brought out a child’s dinnerware set made of hard plastic and had a picture of a cartoon truck on it. She hadn’t had much use for it since the only food they’d had were the protein bars. “We look high-class next to you.” She held out the plate, and Esme loaded it with three filets.
“It’s still pretty hot. I don’t want the kids to burn their tongues.”
Miranda took the plate from Esme. “You know, Xrez helped me out too.”
“He did?”
Miranda nodded. “In Level One, he came out of nowhere and told me there was a trap set for me on the path I was on. I don’t know if he was telling the truth or lying, but he’d told me and left. I didn’t have a reason to believe him, and I also didn’t have a reason not to. So I called for a pod. Did he save us from being caught?” Miranda shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“See? He’s here to help us out. That’s all he’s been doing. He said he couldn’t interfere when a hunter confronts us, but he’s been giving me survival tips.”
She gave Adam a piece of fish, which he greedily began eating. “But what’s his motive, Esme?”
Esme let out a breath. “Why does he have to have a motive to be nice? Not everyone is out to do us harm.”
“That first night you met him, he’d told you that aliens came to this planet to hunt. Now ask yourself, why would he be here if he wasn’t one of the hunters?” Miranda took a bite of her fish, then closed her eyes. “Mm, this is so damn good.” She then chewed another bite and fed it to Lexi.
“Before I was taken from Earth, I read an article about how a group of people had infiltrated a sweatshop in China. They went in there as supervisors, even though they were against the practices, to film and document the workers' conditions. They’d tried to help out as much as they could without blowing their cover. They’d spent five months there, and when they were done, they had enough evidence and footage to shut that place down. Those workers ended up with a nice settlement from the company.”
“And you believe Xrez is some vigilante who came to save us from this place?”
Esme lifted her chin. “I think that’s more plausible than what you’re suggesting.”
The evening alarm rang out, and both Esme and Miranda glanced toward the exit.
“We survived another day,” Esme said.
Miranda raised her water canvas. “Here’s hoping we survive tomorrow too.”
Esme raised hers and tapped Miranda’s.
“You know we’ll have to leave as soon as our clothes dry,” Miranda said. She hated to leave Esme’s company, but it wasn’t safe. Esme was obviously in love with an alien, and Miranda couldn’t risk her children being caught.
Esme slumped. “I know it, but I don’t like it.”
Miranda held out her arm, and Esme did the same, comparing the countdowns on their comlinks. Miranda’s was moving at a much faster pace.
“If I thought staying wouldn’t slow my progression into the next Level, I would stick around a bit.”
“I just have myself to look after. You have the kids. You’ll make it out of here in no time.”
“I better see you on the other side, Esme.”
“You will.”
They ate the rest of their meal in silence.