toward her. “Uh, hello?” she said, cringing as her uncertain voice echoed down the hallway.
He glanced at her, then looked away, choosing to lean down next to the snake man he’d taken out rather than talk to her. She watched as he moved a hand to the alien’s neck, probably to check for a pulse, then grin and stand back up. It was just as she’d assumed – he’d killed him.
Kicking the corpse at his feet, the man bent back down when he realized that the alien’s jacket had fallen open to reveal a gun. The man seemed to hesitate at the sight of it, but upon closer inspection he seemed to get over his reservations and confidently grab it, stuffing the weapon into his belt.
When he stood up again, he looked at Taryn.
“Yeah, hi,” she waved. “Still locked in here, go figure.” She knocked on the cage bars with her knuckles for emphasis.
The man didn’t even acknowledge her. Rather, he merely shifted his eyes and picked up the legs of the dead snake man, grunting as he began dragging it away in the opposite direction it’d come. Taryn watched him go, frowning as his footfalls grew distant and she could no longer see him in the darkness.
“Hello?” she called out. “Hey, asshole!” she tried again when there was no answer. “Mother fucker!” she cursed, slumping in her cell. She should’ve just tried all of those buttons when she had the chance, to hell with the consequences. And now, instead of being halfway to her ship and comrades, she was still locked up while the creep from across the hall had made his escape. “That dick,” she spit.
Taryn listened to the silence, her eyes on the caged ceiling above her as she considered how hard it might be to escape that way, when she heard footsteps. She hoisted herself back up to her feet, glaring down the hallway as she squinted through the shadows.
Her heart stopped when a crocodile man stepped into the light.
He was bigger than the flat-face the other prisoner had just dragged away, though it might’ve just been the huge snout with dozens of pointed teeth. Taryn took a cautious step back in her cage, her eyes on the crocodile. The alien never stopped, marching right up to her cage with an eager look in his eye.
“Lonely?” the creature growled, his black tongue darting out past his teeth as he spoke. “I could hear your hiss caterwauling from fifty hiss hissssss.”
Taryn tapped her comm as it went in and out, her eyes never leaving the alien as he approached. When he got close enough, his giant snout formed a hideous grin, and he laid himself over the wall of her cage, stuffing his snout between the bars.
“You hiss delicious. Here,” he thrust a hand into his pocket, pulling out a remote. Keeping himself close to the cage, he slithered along it until he was standing in front of the door, blocking it with his hulking frame. “Allow me to join you,” he hissed, pressing a button.
Kanthi
Kanthi held back a coughing fit as the pungent smell of Thagzar suffocated the hallway around him. He glared at the legs he had hoisted up on either of his shoulders and pulled the body faster, doing his best to take shallow breaths and ignore the stench. He hadn’t been a part of the Great Rebellion when his people had overtaken the snakes, but if the smell of this one snake up close was anything to go by then he could only imagine the aftermath of that great battle.
He dragged the body for another couple of feet before he found what he was looking for. A door, unprotected by codes or keypads, hidden in plain sight just off to his left. Kanthi shoved it open with his elbow, peeking inside. It was a small closet, filled with weird clippers and polishers along with the odd undertone of disinfectant. No doubt about it, he’d stumbled upon a custodial closet.
Perfect.
“In you go,” he dumped the body inside unceremoniously. It would be hidden in there, crumpled under the crooked shelves and cobwebs. But, if someone were to look upon the lump of green closer…
Kanthi glanced about the small room. There had to be something in there that could help him, if only to disguise the body. He half-turned, his arms crossed as he surveyed the room, and did a double-take when he saw a sack of compressed towels. Snatching the bag off of its hook,