I sit huddled in a tight ball, unable to tear my eyes away. I’m an intruder, an outsider peering into something private. But I can’t move. And if I could, where would I go? It’s not like being lost back home and walking around until I recognize a street or something. I’m on a different planet, stuck in a cave with the man I thought was my angel, but actually turned out to be an alien who came to Earth to ….
Maybe I’ve gone crazy and none of this is actually happening. I close my eyes and wrap my arms around my body.
“What’s wrong with you?” asks Adalyn, with an expression of disgust.
“Nothing,” I lie.
“Kalli? Hey, Kalli, you did it. You saved us. I was supposed to save you, but you saved me instead.”
Ellis staggers toward me. She’s right by his side, holding on to him, her fingers entangled with his.
“Not so fast, Ellis. You should rest a bit more. That was an insane fall you had.”
“Not much worse than we have had before. Remember?”
The inside of my chest shrivels up and burns.
“I’m fine. You fixed me all up, just like you always do.” He kisses Adalyn’s cheek.
I can’t be here. I know I shouldn’t care. I told him I hated him, and I meant it. Everything he’s ever said has been a lie. He lied about Sammy. But seeing them together—it hurts. I slowly rise to my legs, take a shaky step toward the opening of the cave, and everything shifts. I steady myself against the rocky wall, and I’m almost outside when I’m yanked back.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Her voice is cold, much different than the voice she uses for Ellis.
“Adalyn, take it easy. She fell too. Have you examined her?”
“No. I was much too busy trying to put you back together.”
“Kalli, are you hurt anywhere? Your head? Back?”
The same hands that touched her now touch me. I shrink away.
“Did that hurt? Adalyn, come take a look. It could be her head or neck.”
And then her hands are on me. Poking and feeling along my head. I shove her hands away.
“Okay then.” Adalyn moves away. “She looks fine to me.”
“It’s okay Kalli. She won’t hurt you. She’s not like Margaret.”
At the sound of Margaret’s name, my breath catches inside my throat.
“Ellis, we don’t have time for this. They could be here any minute. I cleaned up your trail of blood as well as I could, but I was really rushing. We need to move,” says Adalyn.
“Kalli, she’s right. We have to go.”
“Then go. I’m not stopping you and your girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” Ellis says.
“Are you kidding me? Ellis, we can’t do this right now,” Adalyn says, tying her hair into a tight ponytail.
“Come on, Kalli.” Ellis holds his hand out to me. “Adalyn’s on our side.”
I don’t want to go anywhere with them. But what other options do I have? So, when Ellis calls to me from the opening of the cave, I follow.
A breeze whistles through the bare branches. It’s so cold. I wrap my arms around myself. The whole place is gray and ravaged. There’s no color except for the ribbons of red and blue cascading through Adalyn’s hair. She moves her head side to side, and her thick ponytail sways. The word ‘beautiful’ is at the tip of my tongue, then she turns to me, and the word dissolves as I take in her face.
She makes no effort to conceal her malice toward me. She looks like she’s just eaten something sour. Her brown eyes are narrowed into slits. Her nose is thin and stretched by the pull of her pursed lips. But then she looks at Ellis and transforms. Her face relaxes and the word ‘beautiful’ once again comes to my mind. Her pale skin radiates light against our bleak surroundings.
Adalyn takes the lead. She moves effortlessly over and around the fallen logs. She’s so quick that it’s almost impossible to follow her. My legs feel like they’re made out of bags of sand.
“It’s really important we keep up. Come on.” Ellis tries to lift me up.
“Don’t you have cars? Why do we have to walk?”
Ellis shakes his head. “All vehicles were banned a few years ago. A mandatory measure instituted by the Council to help curb the pollution.”
“And you don’t have anything else? You haven’t invented a vehicle that runs without producing pollution?” I am shocked. A civilization that can travel to other planets can’t come up with an eco-friendly mode of transportation?
“All resources have been devoted to reversing the damage we have caused Istriya. Adalyn heads the geological team studying ways to harness molten lava from the core of the planet and generate heat. It’s been getting colder and colder on Istriya. Margaret’s team is focused on maintaining the population. And another team is devoted to ensuring that all pollution-producing items are banned.”
Adalyn stops and turns back to us. Her words whip out low and harsh. “Ellis, this is not the time for a history lesson. We need to move.”
He leans forward again, arms outstretched.
“Don’t. I can walk. If I’m holding you up, just go.” I don’t mean it, but the words come out anyway.
“I’m not going to leave you out here. We need to get to the base and speak to Lucas, the Council Leader. He’s the only one who can help us. Time’s running out.” He holds out his arms, and this time I don’t fight when he picks me up.
“Shh,” Adalyn whispers when we catch up to her.
Ellis and I both look around. I can’t see or hear anything.
“What? What is it?” asks Ellis.
“They’re coming from over there, moving quickly.” She glares at me. “We can’t outrun them.”
Her message is clear, but I’m not going to be the reason we get caught.
Meeting her glare, I say, “I’m slowing you down. You can move quicker without me.” I push Ellis’s arms away, but he tightens his hold. “I’ll hide until they pass.”
“Absolutely not! I’m not leaving you here by yourself.”
“She has a point, Ellis ….”
“No!”
“Listen, you’re still recovering. I’ll take her. She won’t slow me down at all. But we need to throw them off,” Adalyn says.
“What are you suggesting?” Ellis asks, a strain in his voice.
“They’re coming, Ellis. It’s the only way I can think of. I’ll take her, and we’ll wait for you in my quarters.”
Hang on. I’d be with her. And Ellis? He’d take them on by himself?
“That’s stupid. Ellis can’t distract and outrun them on his own. You said it yourself. He’s still recovering, and he can’t carry me either. I’m slowing him down.” I wriggle to free myself from him. “So I’ll hide, Ellis can head for the base, and you can create a diversion,” I say pointedly. “And then once they’re on the wrong path, you can come and get me, and we can meet Ellis at the base.”
“Well, I guess that’s an option too,” Adalyn says with a grin. “You’ve found yourself yet another fan,” she adds, raising her eyebrows.
“Kalli, you can’t be left out here on your own—”
“But—”
“We don’t have time to argue. We’re going to follow Adalyn’s plan,” he says, passing me into her arms. “I’ll be back with you soon,” he promises.
I start to protest. He puts a finger to my lips. “Trust me.”
He squeezes Adalyn’s shoulder, and then he’s gone.
“Okay, hang on.” Adalyn breaks into a run.
I hold on to her tightly and curl into myself to prevent my limbs from whacking into the trees. Adalyn slows down, and I can see a large structure in the distance. She stops, and without setting me down, pulls out a thin blanket from her bag and drapes it over me.
“Just in case we run into someone, it’s best if you stay hidden.”
“Wh—”
“Shh. We’re almost there and then you can talk. Just wait.”
I can’t see much through the blanket. There’s little light from the sky, so under the blanket it’s practically black. It feels like we’re going down stairs. Something creaks. Her footsteps echo as we continue traveling down. At last she stops and places me on the ground. I free myself from the blanket. It doesn’t take long for my eyes to adjust. The room is almost dark, except for a thin ray of light coming through a small window. Adalyn’s standing on the other side of a door made of bars. Bars are all around. I’m in a jail cell.
“What are you doing? Where are we?”
Adalyn stares at me.
“Hey! Let me out of here,” I say, getting up and pulling unsuccessfully on the locked door. “We’re supposed to meet Ellis. You told him you were taking me to your place.”
“Yeah, well, I took a slight detour. It’s a little more private down here,” she says, running her long fingers across the bars. “So exactly what are you going to tell the Council?”
“What? I don’t know—”
“That’s why you’re here, right? To talk to the Council Leaders? To talk to Lucas.” She paces uneasily back and forth. “What makes you think they’ll listen to you? What do you know that would make them care? I’ve been trying to warn them about changes I have seen in the deeper caverns. But they just dismiss me. All they care about is finding an alternate heat source. They’ll wish they had listened to me.”
Hairs rise on the back of my neck. I have no idea what she’s talking about. “I think Ellis will do most of the talking,” I say, hoping that hearing his name will soothe her.
Despite being a few inches taller than Adalyn, I feel small under her stony gaze. I move closer to the bars, placing myself directly across from her. I steady my quivering legs and straighten my shoulders, so that when she looks at my face, she has to look up.
“I thought Ellis contacted you before we landed. Didn’t he tell you everything that happened?”
“No, he did not. He just said that he was coming back and no one could know, and he had to speak with the Council.” She crosses her arms. “So you will have to fill me in.”
I slowly exhale and, as clearly as possible, I tell her how I accidently discovered the workshop and the photos. I give a glossed-over version of the encounter that left Margaret with the silver rod embedded in her chest.
“Fallon plunged the bio-knife into Margaret?” Adalyn interrupts, her eyes wide in disbelief.
I swallow hard before continuing. My throat is parched and my voice barely audible.
I nod. “Ellis and Fallon realized that Margaret had no intention of honoring her promise not to harm the women they had used.” I pause again to steady myself as my mind fills with vivid images of the women slumped in the glowing tanks. “They knew the Leaders would be against the brutality, so—”
“So they went against Margaret!” Her face presses against the bars as her hands wrap around them, shaking them violently. I jump away at the loud sound. Adalyn’s eyes are glued on me. She takes a couple of steps back from the bars and leans against the rock wall. “Do you know why they were there? What those women were being used for?” she asks, scratching her long nails against the rocks, like nails on a chalkboard. I tense at the sound.
“Yes, I do.”
She tilts her head, daring me to continue.
“The women were implanted with embryos from women on your planet.”
My voice falters, and despite my intention not to, I glance down at my own stomach. It’s brief, just a mere flick of my eyelids, but she catches it and pounces.
“You were Ellis’s assignment, right?”
Assignment? The word drives a knife through my chest.
“Yes, I was,” I say, my eyes glued to my hands.
“And what happened to your embryo? Was she placed in the tank? Where is the baby?” She rams back into the bars. “She wasn’t on the ship with you?” she shrieks.
Baby? The word makes my stomach knot.
“No, we didn’t bring the tank with us. Fallon said they weren’t ready to move.”
“Oh,” she breathes, as she slumps down to the ground, her hands gripping the bars for support. “Okay, good. So she’s in the tank? Fallon stayed behind to make sure everyone was fine?”
“Uh-huh.” I shrug.
Adalyn slowly rises. She regards me critically. Before she even opens the door, I back away. She’s fast. I’ve only taken two steps when she grabs my arm and yanks me to face her.
“Tell me the truth,” she demands, her voice icy cold.
“Y-yes, Fallon stayed behind,” I stutter.
“And the baby that was inside you, where is she?” She’s so close to me that I feel her breath on my face.
I struggle to break from her grip.
“Tell me the truth!” she shrieks again.
“I was injured when they implanted me.” I don’t want to go on. I know why she’s asking. I know I should lie to keep her calm and her rage in control. But the words are out before I can stop them. “I’m sorry. She didn’t survive.”
She looks at me, her eyes red. A sound of such immense anguish bellows from her that, the instant she releases me, I fall to my knees and cover my ears.