Chapter 57: Volume II: Chapter 24: Escape Part 2

Chleo heard something click behind her, magnet against metal.

“What are you doing here?” Jones asked. “Did Tilly send you?”

“Nah, we decided you could use the help,” Merk said crossing his arms and leaning on… nothing. Chleo drank in the sight, sensing three more sparks in the distance. “This the girl you’re all going on about? She doesn’t seem so special.”

Chleo would have felt insulted if she didn’t hear the undercurrent of worry.

“The best packages are usually wrapped in plain paper,” Jones answer.

“Hey,” Chleo said, officially offended. One of the sparks bled into focus. Her red void mixed with blue, a new, familiar figure joining Merk’s.

“What did you do to her?” Dai asked, steps clicking into the room. A dangerous edge threaded her tone. Chleo drank in the sight.

“Ask them,” Jones said. “She’s blind as a bat, though the flickering skin is new.”

Chleo watched Dai’s eyes widen in surprise. “Lexy?”

“Hello, Dai,” the queen answered.

“You know each other?” Jones asked. Fabric rustled as his crew turned to cover both groups.

“Remember that family we were looking for?” Merk asked, moving into the room. Chleo watched him crouch into a defensive stance. Dai mirroring him a few meters away.

“Let go of my daughter.” Another spark joined them.

“Dad,” she heard herself shout. Guilt warred with relief. She hoped he wasn’t still mad about her stealing the ship. The last spark entered, Eelock focusing into view.

“Tough break, man,” Jones said. Chleo thought she detected genuine regret. “Tilly needs her. This is bigger than just one person.”

Eelock raised a brow. Oh, how Chleo savored seeing it in the void.

“You should leave, Jones. Your friends are making a mess upstairs.”

“They open the cells?” Eelock’s other brow rose to join the first. “Yeah, I told them that wouldn’t end well.” Jones huffed a laugh. “We’ll just collect the Doc and be on our way.”

“No.”

“No?”

“You don’t want to go against us Jones. Take your crew and leave.”

Jones laughed. “Right.” He paused. “Make a path.”

Chleo heard the twang, felt the shift in the void. An arrow shaped space of nothing interrupted the glow over Dai’s shoulder before it passed farther into the void. She heard it thwack into the wall.

Two knife-shaped spaces appeared in Dai’s hands, stunner-shaped spaces appearing in the others. They lay down cover fire while she twirled closer. Chleo watched fascinated as she watched men fall in the blank spaces made in Dai’s glow.

More stunners buzzed to life behind them.

“Five shots and they go down,” the queen yelled. “Get everyone to this corner.”

“Five, are you serious, Lexy?” Merk complained. Chleo watched the shadow of an arrow pass inches from his head.

“Johnson wanted them indestructible,” the queen said, exasperated. Dai moved closer to Chleo dropping another body on the way. How many of them were there? Chleo needed to reevaluate her count. “I did what I could under the circumstances.”

She confirmed at least five more… plus Jones—Her mom grunted in the back of the room. Someone thumped to the ground—and an unconfirmed number behind her. Dai moved barely out of reach, squaring off with a figure on the edge of her glow.

“You know what that sounds like, Lexy?” Merk asked.

Chleo kicked forward. Her foot collided sooner than expected, but it worked. The figure fell, off balance, straight into one of Dai’s blades. Chleo threw her head back again, hoping to catch Jones off guard. He dodged, but his grip faltered. She wrenched out of his hold, diving for Dai.

“Excuses.” Chleo heard Merk, Dai and Eelock echo. Her mom snickered in the distance. Something thwacked then thumped in the same direction.

Chleo and Dai retreated toward the other Neons.

The queen let out an annoyed groan. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

Chleo stumbled along, Dai guiding her by the arm. Stunner blasts buzzed in her ears. Her watch clanked against the ceiling. She ached to have it in her hands again. Dai tugged Chleo to the left, the shadow of her blade slicing the air.

The fight pulled Dai’s attention, while Chleo focused on standing as still and small as possible. Dai cut, spun, and dodged, the figure she fought bleeding in and out of her glow. The figure lunged for Chleo, one second outlined in light then lost to the void. She felt the shift but lost it in the surrounding commotion. A body rammed into her, hugging her close and spinning back toward Jones.

“Got her.” A woman’s voice growled in her ear. Chleo stomped where she thought a foot would be. It took two tries before her boot smashed against another. The woman cursed and jerked back.

Chleo yanked away. She scrambled, lost among the shifts zooming through the room. Dai was closest. She used her as a beacon in the storm.

A body snagged her foot. Crashing to the floor, Chleo thought she felt a shift in the distance. Ignoring it, she pushed forward, Dai struggling to meet her. The shift came closer, still separate from he chaos in their room.

Dai reached her, eye’s widening in surprise when Chleo’s hand lifted to meet hers.

“You can see me?”

“It’s complicated,” Chleo rushed not having the time to explain. They had other things to worry about, like the growing number of shifts moving toward their little corner of the void. “Something’s coming,” she said as firmly as an exhausted, disoriented person could.

Dai didn’t hesitate. Chleo could have kissed her.

“We need to move,” she shouted back to the others. The number of stunner blasts increased as they charged to meet her and Dai in the middle of the commotion.

Arrows flew at the reckless advance. One glanced off of Eelock, another embedding in Merk’s shoulder. They ran shielding her dad as he alternated shots with their stunners. Merk cursed not losing a step.

They pushed forward, collecting Dai and Chleo in the center. Her dad threw her over a shoulder without breaking his stride, and they continuing forward, a battering ram against Jones’s last standing crew mates. Some fell, from what Chleo could see in the combined glow of her friends, others stumbling out of view.

By the time they joined Will in the back of the room, two more thumps fell near where she heard her mom and the queen scuffling with one of Jones’s men. Her dad set her back down as the group encased them in the corner. His hand lifted to her cheek, his eyes searching hers.

Adrenaline and fear crawled through her skin, exhaustion making her limbs shake. She was tired of the void, tired of not being able to walk without tripping or being able to help. Seeing him, drinking in his features, was like grease to a rusty gear.

Love colored his face shining as bright as the green filling her void. After everything she did, stealing Eelock’s ship, putting everyone in danger, she didn’t see the anger she expected. Guilt bubbled in her chest.

“Are you ok?” His concern nearly crushed her.

“I’m so sorry, Dad.” Tears prickled behind her eyes.

“Hey, none of that.” He pulled her to his chest. She focused on the Neons lighting the void around her, their presence soothing in the chaos. The queen and her mom entered the glow, their blank spaces moving by Will’s. Her hand twitched for his. “It’s going to be ok,” her dad said into her hair. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

She heard the door slide open.

“Hello, again,” a voice chirped. The room stilled. “Jones, good to see you. I heard you flew the coop. I told them it couldn’t be true, not if I was still here.”

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“Oh, shit,” Chleo heard Jones mutter.

That couldn’t be good.

“Get the panel off the wall,” Lexy said, worry lacing her voice.

“Yeah,” her mom agreed, her blank space rushing through the glow to push against the wall. Chleo watched fascinated as the void swirled along the edges, light and color pressing against the walls and floor giving them an empty definition. She examined her own hand, surprised to find it flickering between a shade of green back to the same outlined blank space.

“Zel,” Jones said louder, “you remember Tilly, I’m sure?”

“The little yellow, shiner? Sure.” Chleo watched the Neons bristle.

“She needs the girl.”

“How is that my problem?” The panel clicked off the wall. Eelock was closest, his glow flowed into the space shining purple over short narrow walls. Chleo wondered if Merk would fit.

“She freed you,” Jones said. “Call it a debt.”

Slow calculated steps clicked into the room. Others, less controlled, followed.

“And here me and my friends thought we should thank you,” Zel said, mock disappointment dripping through his tone.

“Dai take point,” Eelock muttered, keeping his eyes glued to the confrontation outside Chleo’s view. “Then Merk.”

“I’m last,” the queen insisted. Eelock flicked his eyes to her shadow. She lifted something, a bulge with a string leading from the bottom out of view. The detonator. He nodded.

“Chleo, after Merk. Go,” he ordered.

Dai climbed in. Merk followed. Chleo took a second to admire his agility in such small space before her dad guided her to the opening.

“I don’t care about your little pet project, Jones,” Zel hissed. “I’m here for the shiner. Wouldn’t mind a piece of the Doc either.” Chleo crouched, moving to enter the tunnel. “Tilly can fight her own battles.” Zel laughed, the sound following Chleo as she crawled forward following Merk’s glow. “If you really want your lab rat, Jones, you might want to catch her before she scurries away.”

Jones’s protests and renewed stunner blasts echoed, Chleo’s watch still clanking against the ceiling as she shuffled forward. The sound muted as her dad entered behind her. She sent her favorite gift a silent goodbye, refusing to dwell on it. They hurried forward to make space for the others. She sensed her mom enter next, then Will.

The Neons in their group lit the void enough for her to make out everything in the tunnel. Walls and pebbles hovered blank around her, the glow avoiding them, leaving an outline that she could follow. Her eyes darted in their sockets useless. She closed them focusing on the light in the void, using it to find the same outline around the humans in their group. They almost had everyone.

Chleo felt Eelock enter, his glow rushing to catch up with the others. The queen followed, her shadow bobbing in and out of his light. Chleo wished she could tell if someone was behind her.

They pushed forward as quickly as they could. Chleo felt rocks dig into her aching knees, her legs burning with exertion still sore from Johnson’s forced run.

“Brace!” the queen yelled from the back, bunched up against Eelock.

They slammed to a stop.

“Cover your head,” Chleo’s dad shouted behind her, moving over as much of her as he could in the small space. She threw her arms up, curling into a ball.

A blast shook the tunnel.

Dirt rained from the ceiling.

She took a breath. That wasn’t so bad.

Another blast rocked the space, others echoing behind. Rocks started to pelt her back. The ground shook, tossing her into the walls. Something cracked in the distance. Stones groaned… then crashed.

Through her panic, Chleo watched the void. Shadows of rocks piled behind Eelock’s purple haze, narrowly missing the queen’s legs. She watched more fall, Will grunting when one bashed his shoulder. Another blast stuttered in the distance, smaller than the rest. Another crack echoed. She watched as rock crashed, outlined by Dai’s blue glow.

“Watch out,” she shouted, an oversized stone heading for Dai’s covered head.

Chleo threw a frantic hand forward, a fruitless attempt to do something… anything.

She felt the glow in the void harden then solidify. Instinct gripped her. She pushed.

Chleo watched the stone’s shadow rocket forward into a waiting pile. She swallowed.

Dai turned back. An unreadable expression crossed her face as she tried to spot Chleo around Merk. The tunnel settled around them. Silence fell.

“Everything ok up there?” her mom asked. Chleo’s thoughts raced. Was it? What happened? She did… something. Something that unnerved Dai.

“Fine,” her dad said, strained. Something that unnerved her Dad too apparently. “Just a close call.”

“Glow check,” Eelock ordered.

“Here,” Dai started.

“Still crawling,” Merk said.

Chleo felt her dad squeeze her foot. “Here,” she croaked, leaning against the wall. Her dad repeated the same. Then her mom.

Will groaned a reply. Chleo reached toward him through the void, focusing in. He slumped against the wall. A blank spot dripped from his elbow through the purple glow to join the shadowy ground. Blood?

“How bad is it?” She heard the queen ask, controlled concern in her voice.

“Fine for now,” Eelock muttered back to her. “We need to get him to the med bay.”

“‘M fine, Mother,” Will wheezed.

“Convincing,” Chleo grumbled, worry making her heart flutter.

“Here,” the queen finished the health check.

“Path forward?” Eelock asked. Chleo watched Dai’s glow beat a shade brighter with adrenaline, blue outlining a pile of rocks.

“Blocked,” Dai answered.

“Path back?” he asked.

“Same,” the queen answered.

“Dai, any room to dig us out up there?” Chleo watched her close her eyes. She pressed her forehead against the stone that almost crushed her. Chleo wished she could help. Her fingers twitched wanting to comfort her friend. Merk reached out for her, hand squeezing her calf.

Dai pulled back with a sigh. Her face hardened, determination locking into place.

“I’ll do what I can.”

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