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“But I can’t see him!”
“Shut up, you foo—” The nameless guard never finished his sentence. Levi dropped to the ground and swept Cora’s feet out from under her.
“Oof!” she exhaled as she hit the gravel. A blaster went off.
“What are you doing, you idiot? You might hit me!” one of the Jorvlens yelled.
Levi crawled around the guards’ legs, wrapping them in his rope. When he pulled it tight, they fell, whooping and yelling their outrage.
Taking a couple of flailing fists to his core, Levi attempted to deliver as many blows as he received. He cut the ropes with the knife he had stolen, hoping he didn’t stab anything important, and tossed up more dust in the struggle.
“Run!” he yelled at Cora, unable to see whether she had taken off yet. His eyes, nose, and mouth were full of silt. Edging out of the dust cloud, he made a break for the horizon but tripped over an extended leg.
“Not so fast,” the nameless guard barked. “What the—”
Levi turned on him with the knife, punching and slashing as he doled out several body blows before the newer guard wrapped him in a vise-like hold from behind.
Just as Levi slammed his foot into the guard’s instep with all his might, a sharp, icy pain hit the side of his neck like a tree branch swinging with full force. A stinging sensation like a million bees crawling under his skin spread across his whole body, and he fell to the ground, completely immobilized.
“Funny how effective something as old-timey as a stun gun is against ‘rebels’ like this,” he heard one of the Jorvlens say as his vision faded to black. The last thought that crossed his mind before he lost consciousness was the simple hope that Cora had gotten away.
Chapter 13
It had been a while since Cora had been forced to run. Her lungs ached and her feet slid on the gravel, despite the smelly boots Levi had managed to procure for her. When he had cut her rope, she almost wanted to linger for an extra second just to kick him for all that ear-secretion nonsense.
But she hadn’t. She had run like he told her, and now she was fully aware of the fact that she had run alone. Whatever had happened back there, he hadn’t gotten away—not yet. She could still hear thrashing, but she didn’t dare look back.
Throat burning and eyes dusty, she swiped at the tears and focused on the wavy horizon. Was that her vision or the ground? She couldn’t tell.
Far behind her, she heard popping and sizzling noises like meat on a grill, but she ran faster. Through the haze, heat, and dust, she made out a white cylinder a stone’s throw to her left. For all she knew, it was some sort of Jorvlen monster, but she changed course and ran to it anyway.
The cylindrical structure looked like it was composed of a thick, hard mud daub. A ladder stretched from the desert floor and hooked to the rim. Not stopping to think over the potential danger of what might be inside, Cora grabbed a rung to begin climbing and immediately regretted it.
“Augh!” she screamed, releasing the rung. She shook her hand and rubbed the palm against her thigh in pain. Pulling up the fabric of her shirt, she wrapped it around her hands to shield them from the hot metal and climbed, hoping no one had heard her cry out.
The cylinder was hollow and deep. Cora couldn’t see the bottom. Her heart pounded in her ears and her breath came in gasps. Nothing had better live down there, she whispered to herself, carefully descending into the blackness.
She descended only until she was sure no one was following her, perhaps twenty or thirty feet. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, it occurred to her that the pit must be very deep, because she still couldn’t see the bottom and her movements echoed subtly.
When she could breathe steadily again, she chanced climbing the ladder to lift her sights above the rim of the pit. For a moment, she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but then she realized how disoriented she was. She had been looking the wrong way.
Turning her gaze, she saw the transport shuttle and the facility but couldn’t make out much of the scene between them except for a settling cloud of dust. It seemed the struggle was over, and Cora looked wildly about for any sign that Levi made it out of there.
Instead, two hulking, bent forms emerged from the swirl dragging a lifeless form. She couldn’t hear any specific words, but she could hear barks of laughter as the guards toted their quarry toward the fence surrounding the facility.
Levi is dead. The thought hit Cora in the chest like a bucket of bricks. She couldn’t breathe. As her grip on the ladder loosened, she realized the darkness in the pit was growing thicker and shook her head to keep it from enveloping her.
She had to stay alert and alive, no matter how much it hurt. Levi had sacrificed his life for her, and she owed it to him to stay alive. Her breath returned, and she screamed silently into the void, kicking the cement walls of the pit and bashing her fists into the metal of the ladder until her knuckles bled.
How could he have let this happen? Didn’t he know she was nothing, that she would never have asked for this kind of sacrifice? Numbness stole into Cora’s heart as she stared into the blackness.
Not so long ago, she had only wanted to enjoy her vacation. Then she had wanted freedom from the Jorvlen filth who arrested her. After that, she’d wanted to escape with Levi, find the Desolation Stone, and bring down Umbrosis.
The last few days had become so full of dreams, plans, and details that she had ignored the fact that it could all end in the blink of an eye. It was all over. She could do nothing without Levi. Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to see him and hear his voice one more time.
Stop it. Stop it! Stop it and do something! she reprimanded herself. Now wasn’t the time for grief. It was the time for action.
Levi had told her all about his family, their business on Noxxa, and his home planet of Lorr. She would survive. She would make it out of there and then find a way to Noxxa and tell his brothers what happened. Levi’s family deserved to know. The least she could do was give them that.
