Page 5

Chapter Five

MAYA

I ’m back to running for my life, only this time I’m not totally panicking.

All I can say is that I’m glad I’m not also screaming like a banshee like the women around me. Seriously? Why do some people scream when it’s unnecessary? We get it, you’re scared! But you’re only going to draw attention toward yourself.

Instead of running toward the Hunters and other security officers, I set my sights on something further in the distance. The communication tower. If I want to save my friends, then I need to find out what’s going on.

Sure, the axe-wielding giants pose a threat, but I have to believe they are here for Ariana. And the colony trained Hunters for a reason; to keep the beasts at bay.

Within seconds I’m slipping through the small alleyways between buildings.

The patchy light blue grass flies beneath my leather shoes. My feet slide through the mud, and I feel the splatter of near-freezing mud hit the backs of my arms. I just know that the back of my skirt is going to be soaked through by the end of the day.

Why didn’t we build nice, neat gardens? Raised planter beds? Or better yet, garden paths that I could run along. Instead, I have icy blades of tall grass ripping at the hem of my skirt and branches of alien trees slapping me in the face. It really feels like this whole ‘settle on an alien planet thing’ is not meant to be permanent, a facade to keep us placated as something sinister goes on beneath our feet.

My mind is a jumble of impossibilities and I feel completely overwhelmed.

Aliens! The planet is supposed to be empty of sentient life. The government checked… Didn’t they?

Now that I think about it, doubts are surfacing. It wouldn’t be the first time someone lied to me. Just more things for me to uncover.

Sweat breaks over my skin from exertion; I ignore it. I push through it. I funnel all my anger and desperation and pain into reaching my destination.

The control tower rises up ahead of me. If I’m lucky the commotion has caused the guards there to abandon the tower. It’s my one chance to sneak in and actually hack the mainframe!

I’ve always kind of wanted to say that line.

The direct opposite of me right now. I’m flushed, my ankle-length skirt keeps catching on things, and I’m sweating up a storm. I’m pretty sure that with the way my curly black hair is frizzing around my face, I look ridiculous.

I slam into the side of the stone building.

I’m also not sneaky at all. I’m like the direct opposite of some sort of superhero.

My goal is in sight. I just have to get past the colony walls; huge towering stone and wood barricades that keep the alien wildlife locked out. Or us humans locked in…

I rest my hand against the building wall, clutching my beloved tablet to my chest as I gasp for air.

Apparently, I’m not even as fit as I thought I was. All those days sitting at a desk, coding the colony’s computer systems and helping to design the tools necessary for living on Atraxis has caught up to me.

As soon as I am not so close to passing out from a lack of oxygen, I peer around the corner of the building. Before me is the second colony gate. This one is tiny compared to the main gate. It’s meant merely as a maintenance gate rather than for heavy machines to drive through. In fact, I’m not even sure most of the colonists even know about it. I do, since I had to help set up the security access for it.

“Why even bother?” I hiss through my teeth, talking quietly to myself, “If you don’t bother actually closing the door!”

Still, my shoulders relax ever so slightly. At least I don’t have to hack my way through that exit.

Never underestimate a simple computer engineer. I’ve taken more coding classes than most, especially as a female working in a male’s world. Hacking the computer system wasn’t that hard, especially when you’re the one who helped build it. When I’d looked into Ariana’s situation, I had discovered that she didn’t have a debt like we’d been led to believe. In fact, she was rich. Like, filthy, filthy rich.

The colony financial manager, Walter, had been lying to everyone. And we just believed him. Worse, the communications between him and several colony council members had implied they knew what he was doing all along.

Normally I’d be panicking right about now. Running away in fear, perhaps? If I was able to, at least. But fury causes my heart to pound, and determination fills my head.

Anger must be the thing that drives people forward against all hope. And I am really angry right about now.

Glancing around, I can’t see anyone. As I expected, everyone’s either rushed toward the commotion or sprinted away from it. Sure enough, I can hear plenty of screaming in the distance. A chill runs down my spine at the bloodcurdling cries.

Please, God, let Ariana be okay. All I’ve got left in this world are my friends.

Hiking up my skirts, I dash through the swinging gate and to freedom. The walls disappear behind me, and the alien forest rises up before me. Tall, pastel blue and pink trees rise up before me. They tower over me, so different from the forests on Earth. It’s a reminder of how I have to make this work. I have no other choice.

Atraxis is my home now. I have to stand up for what I want. And that begins with not letting people get away with lying.

I hurry down the mud path toward the control tower. No one’s bothered to lay bricks or make a proper path since only a few security guards come out here. It’s a small stone building with a huge metal antenna rising into the air from on top of it. Not conspicuous at all… Like seriously… the council insisted we build the walls, and it’s pretty safe to assume that they feared an attack. So why did they not bother to build a wall around one of the most important buildings we have — the one that controls our communications and technology?

Oh, that’s right. A lot of people just don’t understand technology and its requirements. They think it just works. Like it’s magic. That concept of “plug and play”. They don’t understand the hours and days of upkeep required. They don’t witness the frustrating nights, staying up late trying to figure out the bugs in the code, how it all comes down to a comma in the wrong place…

I duck my head and glare into the darkened interior. My hands are shaking, and it’s definitely because I am so angry. Not scared at all.

I’m angry that people don’t take the time to see me. I’m angry that people think they can just do whatever they want and get away with it. I’m angry because I moved to this planet for a fresh start, and less than a year in someone’s already gone and ruined it.

Seeing no one here, I slip inside.

“Don’t turn on the lights,” I whisper to myself as I move deeper into the room. “The guards will see the lights and come to investigate. Just gotta pretend I’m not here. I’m invisible. I’m a ghost. Ohhhh!”

My voice echoes, bouncing off walls and returning to me with distortion. I shiver. Yep, that’s definitely from the cold, not my quickly crumbling nerves of steel. Why did I have to mention ghosts? Of all things, going into a dark room in a land where actual monsters lurk… Am I trying to freak myself out on purpose?

Gripping my beloved tablet with white fingers, I rush toward the dimly lit bank of computer screens.

I breathe a sigh of relief when they power on, their screens dispelling the shadows in the room.

Maybe I should have turned on the lights after all.

Quickly, I’m connecting the wire between my tablet and the computers, plugging it in. My fingers fly over the screen, activating apps. The very apps that I used to hack the system in the first place. Seems that no one’s caught on to my illicit activities, yet.

My brown eyes widen as I stare at the screen in disbelief. Documents flash before my eyes. Emails and communication reports. Photographs of various aliens flash across the screen, some I am now familiar with like the giant green orcs invading our village, while others are completely, well for lack of a better word, alien.

My attention gets snagged by the blueprints and maps. I tap on the pictures, bringing them up on my tablet’s screen so I can get a better look at them. I recognize the area, the same snaking river that runs through this region that makes up a fjord. I can clearly see where the colony is located… but what confuses me are the marks on the maps. The same symbols for buildings are in multiple places.

But, there’s only one colony. Are these future planned building locations?

“Oh wow, these are existing buildings,” I say to myself. “But… but… they are massive! And so many.”

My fingers flick through the images and documents. Land scans, structural analysis, even several communications… all proving that the buildings are pre-existing structures.

The sounds of talking from outside are the only warning I get. I look around, panicking now, for a place to hide. The room is just one wall of computers and a single chair. Of course, there are no other doors. Of course, my luck decides to run out right now.

I’m trapped.