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The wind whipped at my hair, stinging my face.
From “Put me down!” to “Don’t drop me!” in less than a second.
The tiny prison guard figures swelled into view as I returned to a safer height.
A second drone joined me and took up my other leg.
I was eager for it to do so.
My arms flopped down and almost dragged along the sand.
My heart thumped hard and my blood flooded my face, for the moment relieved.
I hadn’t felt a rush like that since I took the Demon’s Chase rollercoaster.
I was still a little breathless.
The prison guards opened fire on the merchant’s vehicle as it tilted toward a dune and kicked out great plumes of sand as it disappeared into the side of a mountain.
The guards’ shock rifle fire did nothing to slow it.
A pair of guards approached.
I could only make out their boots and peered up at them.
“What do we have here?” one of the guards said.
“Prize number 3214,” the drone’s electronic speaker said, distorted due to having been damaged at some point.
“A Prize?” the guard said, turning his nose up. “I didn’t even know we were missing one.”
“I doubt anyone misses a Prize when they can always bring in more,” the second guard said.
That was just how low on the pecking order I was.
They hadn’t even noticed I was missing.
“Still, she’s a deserter,” the first guard said. “Put her in the truck. We’ll get the story out of her later. The supervisor can decide what to do with her.”
The scuffed boots turned to the drone.
“Take her to the truck,” he ordered.
A light blinked on the drones’ underside and they whirred as they carried me toward a small but growing mass of prison guards.
I peered up at the sky and looked for the little shuttlecraft Egara was riding right now, whizzing away to freedom and safety.
I was glad for him.
At least one of us deserved to get away from here.
Still, I was sad.
I wanted to be with him.
To think we came so close to being free together in the vast and limitless expanse of space…
Only for it to be snatched from me at the last moment.
