The Belly of the Beast

Ch. 25, Partners and Promises

The guard gestured again for Lizard to step inside. Instead of moving, Lizard stuck his tongue out and hissed. The guard flushed red and grabbed his burrowing whip. So fast I nearly missed it, Lizard's head whipped forward and smashed into the guard's nose, blood bursting free. The other guards swarmed forward, beating Lizard down and dragging him into the metal box. Another man, thin and shaking, was tugged from the line and they were both stuffed into the metal box together. Screaming came from inside, followed by a thud. Then, silence.

"Next person who fights loses an arm," the Kaptain yelled. He lifted his burrowing whip and lashed it down with a crack that made the whole line jump.

Skull leaned over my shoulder, his voice gleeful. "Careful Z, not like you've got one to spare."

I ignored him, mind churning as I examined the metal boxes, hoping they weren't really coffins made for two. I hadn't seen a handle on the inside, but that didn't mean there wasn't a way out. Afterall, Xyla locked me inside the Porta-Potty thing, and I'd escaped that by dismantling and crawling out the bottom.

Still, if they put Skull and I inside one together, one of us was going to be dead before we made it to The Letter Trial. Unless that was the Letter Trial. But it didn't seem like an interesting thing for a crowd to watch, people killing each-other inside a metal box? Who knows what these Puckers like though...

The Kaptain gestured to Kovu. "Put the girl in the first one."

My mouth went dry, heart beating in my ears, as Kovu undid me from the line. He grabbed my flesh arm, firm but not cruel, and led me up to the front. I tried to read him for any hints as to what was happening, but he blushed, unable to meet my eye. Is that a good or bad thing? I didn't have an answer. Reading men was Xyla's forte, not mine. He pulled me around the front, and my mind went blank.

Dagger stood next to the metal box.

Dagger was my partner.

"Hands up. Both of you," Kovu said.

I lifted my wrists, and watched as he unlocked my handcuffs, which I had a plan to unlock in less than thirty seconds, and picked up a new, heavier set. Bloody Beast. He locked one cuff on Dagger, and I held out my metal arm, hoping he was stupid. Kovu paused, looking at my metal arm.

"Other hand."

I switched arms, and he set a heavy metal lock around my flesh arm, locking me to Dagger. Our eyes met. I might as well have been staring into a pool of dark, still water.

Kovu opened the door, revealing a simple interior, all black, and entirely too small for two people. Like the other, there was no handle on the interior. So how to get out?

"Get in."

Was this how they took us to the next Letter Trial? Or did we have to escape it somehow? Except coffins aren't made for escaping... I pushed the thought away and stepped forward. I was a Belly rat. If there was a way out, I would find it. Xyla needed me— failure wasn't an option.

But my handcuff caught. I turned to see Dagger leaning away from me. His eyes had gone wide, his face pale, legs stiff. I glanced at our guard; Dagger was almost a head taller than me, there was no way I was strong enough to pull him inside by myself.

Kovu seemed to realize this and flushed. "I said get inside." He glanced back at the Kaptain, who was beating another prisoner who had refused to answer. Still Dagger didn't move. Kovu pulled out his burrowing whip, powering it up.

"Inside. Now." A current ran down the whip, crackling, but Dagger met the guard's eyes, cold and unflinching.

Kovu swallowed, raising the whip, and I suddenly realized what was going to happen if I did nothing. My partner would be injured before the trial even began. I took a step back and slipped my hand into Dagger's.

"I'll get us out. I promise."

He stared down at my flesh hand, cuffed to him, now holding his hand in mine. I decided to push my luck, and turned and stepped into the metal coffin. This time the chain didn't catch. The guard slammed the door shut, and Dagger was thrown up against me, his hands against my waist.

His touch sent a shock through me. I could smell him; a clean, almost soapy scent, different from the stale reek of the other men. Maybe he really had been a K-guard.

His hands left my side almost at once, but now his breath came in short, tight gasps. I was suddenly reminded of one of the other engineers, Xolo, who'd been deathly afraid of small spaces.

"Close your eyes." I leaned forward and put a hand on his chest, on the flesh rising and falling. He recoiled, but the space was too small to go far.

"Take slow, deep breaths," I said, making my voice soft, smooth. "Think of green hills, a blue sky high above. Birds flying in the distance. Think of an ocean with waves, and make each wave a breath." They were the words Yaneli used to comfort me as a child. She would hold my head in her lap, stroke my hair, and paint a picture of Old Earth with words alone. During those first few weeks when I lost my arm, when we'd begun the agonizing process of rebuilding the metal arm, it was Yaneli's words that kept me tethered to this world.

As I repeated her words, the walls I'd constructed to protect me fell away. The plan I'd constructed—that Xyla needed me, that I could save her still, that all of this was one big adventure bringing me closer to her—suddenly felt like a paper thin sheet of glass with an ocean of grief beyond.

Yaneli was dead, and it was my fault.

Xyla was gone, likely dead, and I might never see her again.

It didn't matter if this was Wonderland or Hell, because without them, nothing mattered anymore.

My heart pounded grief, so thick and hot I had to force my breath in and out.

"Green hills," I whispered, the words no longer just for him. "A blue sky. An ocean and slow waves that break on the shore." The words became a lifeline, and I kept my hands on his chest, worried if I let go, the grief would swallow me whole. Xyla and Yaneli were gone. It was my fault, all of it. Everything I'd tried to do, the tiny, fragile life I'd tried to construct was shattered, gone forever. 

But I wasn't alone in this moment. 

We were two souls stranded together in a dark hell hole, but somehow that was enough for me to hold onto. 

"You are not alone," I whispered in a shaking voice, not sure if I was speaking to me or him. 

You are not alone. You promised Aliyah to return the necklace. You promised Yaneli you would fight. You promised Xy to find the sky. You promised Dagger you'd get him out of this box. You can't give up. People still need you. 

Together, like we shared the same lungs, our breathing slowed, his chest rising and falling in the same slow rhythm as mine.

You are not alone. 

You promised to fight--and you will. Until the final breath in your body.