“Now pick a target. Something, er … hmm. Hey, there’s a red hunk of metal way over there. See it?” He pointed and I slowly moved the barrel, tracking through the automatic sights until I found it. It was a chunk of wreckage, probably a piece from a runner craft. Geez, how had he even seen that from so far away? Did he have super alien vision, too?
“Got it.”
“Settle on it. Then take a deep breath. Hold it in and squeeze the trigger,” he instructed. “Squeeze—don’t pull. And don’t cringe. Or shut your eyes.”
“Are you ever going to be quiet so I can do this?” I fumed, gritting my teeth as my sweaty finger hesitated on the trigger. My heart pounded in my ears, my body tensing for the recoil. Would it hurt? God, I’d never done anything like this before. Could I even hit it?
I took a deep breath … and squeezed the trigger.
The rifle flinched in my hands with a high-pitched POP. The butt of the gun seized against my shoulder. Blue light exploded from the end of the barrel, and the smell of something sharp and chemical-ish stung my nose.
In the distance, a small plume of dust kicked up around my target.
I looked back, watching Phox’s face for some indication of how I’d done.
His eyes had gone wide. Well, wider. His mouth hung open, giving me a good view of the slightly pointed incisors on his top and bottom teeth from this angle.
Gradually, his gaze panned down to me with a touch of anxious caution crinkling his brow. “You’re, uh, you’re sure you’ve never done this before?”
“No. I think I’d remember firing an alien rifle full of blue exploding goo.” I grinned hopefully. “Does that mean I hit it?”
He took a small step back away from me and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah. Dead center, actually. Nice shot.”
My grin broadened and I let out a laugh of delight. “Really?” I leaned in to look through the scope. Sure enough, there was a dinner-plate-sized hole punched right through the center of that red piece of metal. “That was awesome! Can I try again?”
“No, we don’t have a lot of ammunition. We can’t be wasting it all on target practice,” he scolded, totally wrecking my celebration.
Ugh. Right. Fiiiine. “You are no fun at all.”
“So I’m told.” He waved a hand at me dismissively as he turned away to get started on his engine repairs. “Just keep a lookout. And if anything comes close, shoot it.”
I hesitated. “Anything? What if it’s another runner team that isn’t coming to attack us? What if they want to help us? You know, like to join forces or forge an alliance or something?”
“No,” he growled firmly.
“So I’m just supposed to shoot people on sight? Without even giving them a chance to explain themse—”
“Yes,” he rumbled again.
“But why?”
Phox froze, his broad shoulders going stiff. With his back still turned, I couldn’t see his expression. But I could hear the anger like rumbling thunder in his voice when he spoke. “Because they will do the same to us, Brinna. I guarantee it. You’ve never seen how this goes down, but I have. Dozens of times. That killing spree at the starting line? That was just the beginning. It doesn’t get any easier from here. And the only people who make alliances in the Renegade Run are the people who wind up with holes in their heads just like that hunk of scrap metal out there. Is that what you want?”
My mouth clamped shut, my breath catching as I tried to rationalize, to think of any possible argument I could make for mercy. He was right, though. I knew that.
“Thought not. It’s shitty and wrong and disgusting, but it all boils down to picking between me or them,” he muttered, his body flinching with angry, jerking motions as he got back to work. “And I choose me. So if you see anything through that scope, you damn sure better shoot it.”
14
HIDE AND SEEK
Phox stayed elbow-deep in the engines of our runner craft until the very last rays of the blistering twin-star sunset disappeared below the horizon. With only the much bigger, hauntingly red sun to cast its crimson glow over the rugged landscape now, everything seemed much dimmer. Well, by comparison through my super sun goggles, anyway. My surface survival suit switched off since I no longer needed it to keep my body temperature cool, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, I could breathe more easily. Too bad it wouldn’t last. According to my resident giant alien thief-turned-mechanic, we only had about eight guaranteed hours of this eerie red night.
I kept my gaze trained down the scope of the rifle, watching diligently for anything that moved. Apart from a few more of those hovering orb-cameras, however, there wasn’t anyone else in sight for miles in any direction. Maybe we were the only ones still hanging this close to the starting line.
“Augh! Shit!” Phox popped out of the nearest engine compartment hissing and cursing and shaking one of his hands.
I glanced back. “What?”
“Burned myself. Damn, that hurt.” He shook his hand and waggled his fingers. I noticed the tips of a couple of them were black. Ouch.
“You gonna be okay?” I dared to ask.
“Yeah.” He went on hissing and shaking his hand. “Fine.”
“How’s it coming down there?” I turned back to my scope, admiring the view of the two huge planets moving soundlessly into the sky. One was a misty, bluish color with a dark storm spot that reminded me of Jupiter. The other was a bit smaller, or farther away probably, and a more purplish shade. The longer I stared at them, the
