Page 27

The announcer hovers overhead atop a translucent cube, motioning into the laser-tag arena. He’s a smaller human with gravity-defying brown bangs and is dressed in a formal Abr uniform with silver stripes down his slacks and sleeves. “Please beware that the cubes will change heights throughout the game. The armor you wear will puff the same dust as the Glitter Ball when it receives an impact.”

“Fuck.” Teol chuckles, hangs her head, and shakes it. “We’re screwed.”

Gashnaar growls a deep clicking sound and leans against Teol, sniffing her neck. “I dooon’t mind.”

“I want a damn vacation on the Pearl!” Teol insists.

He grins. “I can give yooou that. We dooon’t have tooo win.”

I’m jealous.

“I could too,” Elix whispers as he pulls his magazine out of his rifle and looks at it. “If that’s what you want.”

I watch him, wondering what he’s doing. “We all got the same magazines. Something wrong with yours?”

He frowns. “Lasers are not effective. I know this is pretend like in basic training. But I feel like I have nothing. And you should always check your weapons, magazines, safeties, know the firing pattern options, the range—” He looks over at me. “You are only as safe as your tool’s capabilities and your situational awareness.”

The wall of doors opens, and we step inside a massive room, a railing keeping us at one end. The cavern is enormous, all glass, and filled with cubes in spaced-out rows that rise and fall in no order I can perceive. But they have to have a pattern of some kind. I just have to take my time.

They look like hyperengine cams—rotating out of sync.

A few cubes line areas of the floor in clustered stacks that don’t move. Neon lights blink inside every glass cube atop its hoverpads. An illuminated archway with a holographic ribbon is at the far end.

“Do you trust me?” Elix asks.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

When the announcer sets off the buzzer, we hop the railings. Most women and their males fire at nearby couples. A hand grabs the back of my vest and throws me high into the air. My hoverboots give me some control, but they’re only on partial power mode. I can’t dart around the whole arena in just my boots. I flail as a cube rises toward me.

It’s a wild sensation, flying upward and setting my boots down on a floating platform.

Clouds fill the entrance to the race, and the number of participants drops by half on the overhead scoreboard. Names blink off in rapid succession.

I swing my laser rifle around and target people from above, keeping them away from Teol.

Elix rises on another cube as mine descends. “Jump!”

I do as he suggests. As I land on his cube, he leaps to the next. We keep up the rhythm until we’re halfway across the floor.

He fires at a Retterwan that’s on a rising cube across the room. The alien’s vest and leg panels blink red. The scaly green male swears and jumps down.

A rifle points at Elix from the side as we descend, and I tug him back to me, then lift my rifle and fire at them. The woman’s suit flashes red. Her gun darkens, and she kicks air in anger, then storms off.

“Wing release!” a cameradrone calls out.

I look back just in time to see a Talhuskin targeting my position, he knocks me back and out of Elix’s arms. I fall backward off the cube, flailing as I try to catch my balance. The Talhuskin comes back for me, catches me, and throws me against a wall.

Pain explodes in my cheek. My glasses crack.

“No one wants you here,” he hisses.

I blink and he’s gone.

Elix is at my side in three bounding steps. He rests a hand on my back and fires angrily at everyone who approaches.

“Serves her right,” a woman says, her suit flashing as she walks back to the race start. Her rifle has darkened.

“What for?” he demands as I touch my flaming cheek. Hot liquid coats my skin.

I look up as she replies and watch her saunter off. “Her family is evil. She doesn’t deserve this race.”

Elix’s shoulders slump. “She is not her family. Are you yours?”

She curls a lip and snorts as she walks away.

The hatred in people’s hearts is hard to comprehend sometimes. But I have to show that this race is safe for the few out there who need this opportunity.

I’m not sure I believe it is, but I know my perspective is skewed. Most people don’t have maniacal fathers like me.

As clarity comes back to my mind and the throbbing in my head eases, I decide to show people I’m not as breakable as they think. I’d rather go back to being left alone because I’m a threat instead of being abused because they think I am weak.

“Zariah?” Elix gently asks.

A Jorbiun in a corner sees us and takes the opportunity to aim. I clumsily fire from the floor and tag him. “Come on. I’m not offline yet.”

The moving forest of cubes provides an interesting array of cover as I lead Elix into it. The cubes move together every sixth unit in an alternating ascending and descending pattern from the inside rings out.

“We’re vulnerable in here,” he protests. “There’s no pattern.”

“I can see it.” I lift my rifle, wait for the openings, and get us moving forward in a pocket with the cubes enclosing us from behind. As they descend from above, I step forward, find my targets under the falling cubes, and fire.

“How did you figure this out?” Elix asks.

I discover a Nytheralian sneaking up on Gashnaar. They’re harder to see in this shiny, blue, and purple-hued environment. It’s the perfect camouflage. I tag him as the cubes close and see Gashnaar wheel around in shock.

“Zariah. The pattern?”

I think of the caves and tunnels from my youth. “My father threw me in dungeons of all kinds to reach the treasure. I was smart but expendable. I did it so I could eat, so his men wouldn’t take out their lust on me. He was smart enough to at least not fuck too much with his most prized tool, me.”

A shout makes me focus on the right-hand side of the laser tag field and peer out ahead of our shield. Teol and Gashnar are cornered. No one’s firing at them. Their suits are still green, but four males in darkened suits stand around them, three holding Gashnaar down, one holding Teol.

“Any friend of that bitch is just as much of a problem as she is,” one says.

Elix calls after me, but my legs are already moving me in their direction. I can’t stand the idea of my only other friends getting harassed over me. Elix and Aurelius have sacrificed and risked enough.

Cameradrones hover in as security is called over the PA. But they’re going to be too slow. The Talhuskin that ran into me now picks her up by the neck until her feet dangle from the floor. She might be a fighter, and manage to get her legs wrapped around his arm, but he’s much bigger than her. Her face reddens. Veins strain in her forehead. Gashnaar cries out to her as the others claw at him and hold him back.

The cubes rising and falling between us make my path treacherous. I run toward them, hop up onto a descending cube, and use it to launch me into the air. My hover boots carry me over the next row. But the cube in front of me is too high to reach. I drop down and sprint under it. The next is midrange. Too high to jump, high enough to go under. I drop to the floor and slide under it. The next rises, so I jump atop it.

The last two rows are both headed up, but I have to move laterally to climb them. I take the next cube to the right and use my hoverboots to reach the last row, which rises two cubes to the left. Then I’m above the group, looking down at them.

“Zariah!” Elix calls after me.

“What are you doing?” a cameradrone asks.

I don’t waste time finding my target. “What you aren’t!”

I sprint along the last row, pick my rising cube, and jump off of it toward the Talhuskin. “Leave Teol alone!”

He looks up at me, and his eyes widen.

I drop, knees-down, toward his back and raise my rifle, the butt aimed at his head. When I crash into his shoulders, I bash my rifle against his face and take us both to the ground. Teol slips from his grip.

The three males holding Gashnaar jolt backward. Seeing Teol coughing and gasping for air ignites a fury I can’t contain. She has only ever been nice to me.

I grab the muzzle of my rifle and swing it like a bat at the nearest Ginarigon male. He staggers back, holding his nose. Elix body-slams one of the Talhuskin males holding Gashnaar, effectively breaking Teol’s mate free. The first backs up and runs as security chases them around the arena.

Elix helps Gashnaar up, while I give Teol a hand.

“Go,” I say. “I’ve got your back. Go get your trip.”

Teol takes Gashnaar’s hand and hurries through the last few cube rows toward the ribbon. I take up a position behind them and fire at two other racers who are almost to the ribbon before my rifle goes dark. Someone has shut off my ability to fire. But my suit is still green.

I see a third, a white-banded female sneaking around through the cubes. All I can do is make myself a body in the way. I put myself between her and my friend, take the hit, and watch my suit blink red.

It’s a strange feeling, looking down at it, knowing if this was real that I’d be dead.

Fun and games my ass. This week has been hell.

Teol makes a happy noise behind us. Elix holds his green rifle in front of him, his suit still on, still guarding my friends. He’s closer to them than I am.

“Miss Landing, you’ve got something on your face,” a cameradrone says as it hovers down to eye level and circles my body. I can’t tell who’s talking, but it isn’t a familiar voice. I wager it’s a guard. It might be a reporter. Could be a hacker. That seems more likely with everything else going on.

“Is it a look of indignation?” I snort.

“What?”

“You and all the others are judging me for just trying to survive this life and have a little fun here for a change,” I say, thrusting a finger at the camera lens. “You vilify people before you understand them. Not all of us want to live in the shit on the fringe for our entire existence.”

But maybe that’s where I belong.

I look at Teol. She’s a good person. I don’t want to drag her into my life. Elix gets it. Aurelius too, I think. But maybe it’s best if I stay away from her even if I want a friend. I can’t stand the idea of someone else getting hurt for me.

The drone is quiet for a moment as Elix approaches. Then it says, “It looks like blood.”

“That Talhuskin smashed my face pretty hard against the wall. Just hope he got a black eye in return. And I’m not going to bother wiping it off. So you’re just going to have to look at it or go away,” I snap.

Elix touches my cheek, gives it a quick inspection, then draws me into a hug. “Tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m fine.”

As he holds me, I sense a growing pressure between our hips. “Seeing me beat up has you turned on?”

“What? No.” He leans back and motions to the Talhuskin still writhing on the floor. “Can’t help it. It has a mind of its own when I see you, smell you, or even just hear your voice at this point. But that move, that was amazing.”

“I couldn’t stand the thought of her being hurt because of me. Gashnaar either. What was I supposed to do? I don’t want a vacation on the Pearl of Gaia.” I shrug. “This has been enough of a reminder that I am not welcome in this world anymore.”

“Don’t say that.” Elix cups my face. “You are a much better person than most. You took a bullet for your friend, metaphorically, since it was a laser. But that’s an honorable thing to do.”

Security swarms the area and a few head our way, catching the cameradrone’s attention.

“But please don’t ever do that again,” Elix says. “Promise me.”

I shake my head and look into his bright gold eyes. “I can’t. I’d do it for you.”

Elix inhales deeply and then kisses me with passion.

A slurry of concerns about Abr policies and rules muddle my desire into a knot until I can’t sort it out, so I just stop caring. His touch feels so right, so perfect, that I don’t give a damn about the rules anymore.

I’m tired of hiding, running, being put in a corner where I’m just scraping by. I’m going to take what I want.

Fuck everybody else.

I grab Elix and draw his mouth deeper into mine. In doing so, I bump the concealer controls on the sides of his neck. His green color fades through like ink in water, and he looks like a fucking rave glowstick.

Everyone around us slows and turns to find the source of the light.

He pulls back and slaps his neck. “Zariah? What did you do?”

I grimace as Elix sways like he doesn’t know what to do. He tugs his ball cap lower on his head. “We need to go, now.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“I’m the law, privately but the law. I really needed to keep my cover.”

“I’m sorry.”

Elix guides me toward the exit while Teol and Gashnaar get handed their prize at the end of the race arena. I’m happy for them but unnerved by the security that simultaneously surrounds us.

“I know.” Elix warily watches the guards, too, and lowers his voice. “I got lost in the heat of the moment, and that’s my fault. I don’t blame you. But now we have to deal with those consequences.”

“You need to come with us. Now,” one of the Abr officers says.