A SICKENING FEELING of déjà vu churned in my stomach. The noise of the tool digging into the door, followed by the sparks of fire and the smell of melted metal, made my mind flash back to the day of my crash on the Dark Anomaly. Only now I knew for sure that nothing good waited for me on the other side.
“Stand back.” Vrateus moved to the doors, still unsteady on his feet.
Flicking his wrists, he made both of his guns slide out from his sleeves. I searched around, finding my laser gun on the floor.
Not waiting for those in the corridor to cut through the doors, Vrateus hit the panel, opening the doors himself.
The males, at least a dozen of them, stared at him in astonishment, either surprised at finding him still in my room or shocked at seeing him alive, or both.
They recovered quickly.
“Get him!”
Four of them rushed Vrateus.
Lifting his guns, he fired, immediately killing two. Before they rushed the room, he leaped into the corridor then hit the panel on the other side, closing the door in my face.
He must have done it instinctively. Because if he really thought about it, his going alone against all of them could easily result in him being killed, especially in his condition. And with him dead, it wouldn’t take them long to finish what they’d started and break through the door. Locking me in did not save me, but it deprived me of the possibility of helping him.
I huffed in frustration. His protectiveness would get both of us killed.
Vrateus had been doing everything on his own, all his life. Having someone on his side, ready to help, must be new to him.
Hadn’t I made it clear I was on his side? Or did he still have doubts about trusting me?
Luckily, since I had tampered with the panel before, he could no longer lock the doors from the outside. All I had to do now was to slide them open, which I did.
About half of the aliens lay on the floor, dead. The other half, however, were swarming Vrateus.
Shoved by one, he fell on his back. A burly alien, with a crown of horns growing on his head and a row of them rising from his spine, lifted the tool they had used to cut through the door.
With the rest of them holding Vrateus down, the one with the tool leaned over him, clearly intending to use the device to cut their captain’s throat.
I swallowed a cry of horror, quickly raising my gun.
Aiming at a spot between the horns on the male’s head, I pulled the trigger. With a flash of the laser, the alien staggered back, dropping the tool. Vrateus jerked to the side, letting the blade embed in the floor instead of his flesh.
Steadying my trembling hand, I fired again. This time, I aimed at one of the aliens holding him down. Two of them let go of him to rush me. I promptly retreated into the room, taking cover behind the wall. Peeking out, I shot them one by one while Vrateus made quick work of the others.
The last one glanced at me then at the approaching Vrateus, then took off down the corridor.
“Stop!” Vrateus shouted, shooting at the back of the escaping male. He skidded to a stop before tumbling down to the floor, face first.
“Are you okay?” Vrateus hurried to me. Grabbing my shoulders, he spun me around. Patting down my arms, back, and sides, he inspected me for injuries.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded.
“No more shutting the doors in my face,” I said, grimly.
“Sorry. That was reflex.” He had the decency to look remorseful.
“From now on, please, try to treat me as an asset rather than a liability.”
He stared at me for a moment. “That will be an adjustment for me. It’ll take a while getting used to having someone I can fully trust. I’ve never had that.”
At least he realized he could trust me.
“Well, I got your back.” I gazed over the floor littered with dead aliens. “We have to get out of here.”
He grabbed the nearest dead body by the legs. “We need to lock them all in here. Without the bodies, it will take some time for Crux to figure out what happened.”
I shook my head.
“Sorry. I’ve tampered with the panel. You can’t lock the doors from the outside anymore.”
Vrateus dropped the legs of the dead alien down again.