C16 Knox - Escape Attempt

Everything was fuzzy. A wind rushed through my head and I couldn’t move. Pain lashed through my back. Blood tinged on my tongue and I spat onto the cell floor.

My head spun. Lifting it shot a fresh wave of sharp pain down my back.

Simitar!

The Roulex was saying something, but I couldn’t make out the words. It was like he was talking into a tunnel.

Flashes of memory sparked in my mind. Samantha. The Roulex striking her while she curled in on herself and covered her head to protect herself on the dirty, stone floor.

I blinked, trying to force my eyes open. A headache bloomed against my temples.

One of the Roulex leaned over me, their sickening shot in its hand. The kind that made their prisoners rut like animals. Like they’d given Samantha. But over his shoulder was the second Roulex and he was on top of her, bending her arms back.

Rage fueled my muscles. I sprang like a coil, plowing into the monster touching her. His head whipped back against the cell bars with a satisfying crunch. Then he sank to the floor, green ooze pouring from the back of his head.

I spun at the last Roulex who had dared come inside to harm Samantha.

Foolish creatures had thought a handful of them could take me? Not when I had been awake and heard them coming. It was only when they activated the sedative in the cuffs first, then activated the tracing beam that they had the upper hand. Now, this creature was mine.

He must have realized his mistake because he tapped the comm on his wrist. I reached out and crushed his hand. His high-pitched scream grated across my nerves. Then he jabbed the needle into my neck with a smirk.

I reached up and broke the thing off me. My yell of triumph made him pee himself.

“Now you pay… for everything you’ve done.” I yanked him to me and broke his neck in one swift movement.

I shoved his dead body away and met Samantha’s eyes. Fear that she’d only see me as a monster too sank into my chest, and I couldn’t freaking breathe for a moment. Celica hadn’t liked fighting. She’d been fragile. Delicate. This place had made her waste away long before they’d killed her.

Samantha was pale and her eyes were huge, but she didn’t look at me with loathing. She shook from adrenaline. She sat up, kneeling on the floor.

Without a word, she bent over the leader’s body, digging into his pockets on his uniform.

“What are you doing?” I asked her. “The keys are in the door.”

We could escape. I could taste freedom in the air over the stench of this place.

She waved a wrist at me. “Not with these on us.”

Smart. Not only could Samantha fight, but she was amazingly intelligent, even for a human.

We wouldn’t get far with their ability to tranq us, but we still had to get out of the prison itself.

“Got it.” She flashed me a smile and unlocked her bands, then tossed me the key.

I followed her lead, quickly removing the cuffs and throwing them. They clattered against the stone wall. “Let’s go.”

The Roulex’s key was still in the cell door and I turned it, swinging the door wide. Its squeal echoed down the hallway. Shouts sounded nearby.

“Come on, now’s our chance.” I couldn’t wait to feel the sun on my wings, to fly through the sky, to be free. I hadn’t believed in miracles, but I did now. Once we were safe, then I’d tell her the truth about Celica.

I glanced up and down the hallway. Shadows dashed in the distance. The Roulex were coming. We had to go if we had even a remote chance of escape. There was no time for delays. No time to release other prisoners, but I could hope they would realize I did what I could.

Quickly, I tossed the guard’s keys into the cell across from ours. I met the prisoner’s dark gaze. “Free the others.”

The prisoner nodded with a thread of cold determination.

My wounds healed and I leapt out into the hallway, whirling when Samantha didn’t come out with me.

“It’s safe, hurry.”

But my words went unanswered. Dread plummeted into my gut.

“Samantha?”

A Urix and Stavorl rushed past me, unlocking other cells on this block.

I rushed back into the cell, my skin hot and tight. Had one of the guards survived and attacked her?

She lay on her side, blood pooling from her legs. Her eyes met mine and she gave me a half-smile. “I guess I didn’t realize how badly he clawed me up until I stood and tried to walk. I don’t think I’m going anywhere. Go! Get out of here while you can.”