“A Prize?” the guard said, turning his nose up. “I didn’t even know we were missing one.”
“I doubt anyone misses a Prize when they can always bring in more,” the second guard said.
That was just how low on the pecking order I was.
They hadn’t even noticed I was missing.
“Still, she’s a deserter,” the first guard said. “Put her in the truck. We’ll get the story out of her later. The supervisor can decide what to do with her.”
The scuffed boots turned to the drone.
“Take her to the truck,” he ordered.
A light blinked on the drones’ underside and they whirred as they carried me toward a small but growing mass of prison guards.
I peered up at the sky and looked for the little shuttlecraft Egara was riding right now, whizzing away to freedom and safety.
I was glad for him.
At least one of us deserved to get away from here.
Still, I was sad.
I wanted to be with him.
To think we came so close to being free together in the vast and limitless expanse of space…
Only for it to be snatched from me at the last moment.
My nose clogged up and my eyes stung.
Don’t cry, I told myself. Don’t cry. Not here.
I lacked the same level of control I had if I was upright.
I could blink the tears back and force them not to fall.
But I was upside down and the tears seeped not just from the corners of my eyes but between my eyelashes.
They trailed down my forehead and into my hair.
I didn’t want to be here on my own.
I didn’t want to be surrounded by these prison guards.
I didn’t want to go back to Ikmal and take up my previous occupation.
That was, if they even let me return.
They might think I’d tasted the forbidden fruit of freedom and might infect the other Prizes.
It was a very real fear, I realized.
My time outside the prison walls had changed me.
He had changed me.
I wasn’t the same person I had been before we escaped.
I knew that.
I wondered if Egara was the same prisoner he’d been.
I didn’t think so.
“Let’s load up and get out of here,” a tall figure said.
It was difficult to distinguish the guards from each other as they all wore the same uniform and were of a similar height.
But one stood out, and it was the guard that just spoke.
He was taller than the others, broader too.
Were they assigned their rank by size? I wondered.
The guards climbed into the back of the van and took a seat on the benches that ran down either side.
It reminded me of typical military transport ships for US soldiers.
One guard pressed a hand to my back and pushed me forward.
The drones rose automatically so my head didn’t hit the side panel.
I was small enough to fit in the back, still hanging upside down.
I took a moment to peer up at the sky and noticed no metal lump, no sign of Egara anywhere.
The last guard climbed on board and sat opposite me.
He slammed the back door shut.
I wondered where Egara would go now he was free.
I imagined him in his pirate ship, taking command of his men and raising hell.
It brought a smile to my lips.
Maybe he would find someone to love, a girl who wasn’t a damn Prize and had more value.
Okay, so maybe I was saying these things to make myself cry.
I’d been separated from the kindest prisoner I’d met and he’d been stripped from me.
If there was a reason to cry, it was now.
A slat at the front of the truck slid aside revealing the oversized leader of the team.
He leaned an arm through the window and peered back at the others.
The prison guards focused on their gloved hands and feet.
If I had to guess, I would have said they were forlorn.
“Will the warden launch a search party for him?” the guard closest to the leader said.
“I don’t know,” the leader said. “Probably not. Better to sweep it under the rug than let it be known a prisoner escaped Ikmal.”
A prisoner.
One.
That meant they had caught other escapees.
And they were letting him go without even chasing him.
Not that he would know that.
He would spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.
I snorted, realizing that wasn’t much of a change of pace for a pirate.
“The warden’s not going to be happy all we caught was his stinking Prize,” the agitated guard said, leaning back, folding his arms, and kicking at the truck wall.
A couple of the guards glanced in my direction.
I might not be able to read their expressions but their body language was clear enough.
They were pissed.
And I was the object of their disgust.
“Maybe the prisoner didn’t escape,” a guard halfway along the bench said. “Maybe we found him in the desert and we buried his body.”
The suggestion hung heavy over the assembled.
The leader shook his head.
“It’s bad enough he got away,” he said. “What do you think the supervisor will do to us if he discovers we lied to him?”
“I don’t know,” the guard said. “But I know what he’ll do to us if we tell the truth.”
What did these guys have to worry about? I thought. Their lives actually meant something.
They weren’t going to be tossed to the wolves the way I was.
They weren’t going to be forced to dress up in lingerie and paraded in front of ogling and howling dangerous prisoners.
They weren’t going to be handed over to a random alien fighter to be used as he wished.
I shook my head of the steaming hot tears threatening to spill down my cheeks once more.
I had just begun to get used to my place inside the prison when I escaped.
Now I had to get used to it all over again.
Only this time, it was worse.
I wished Egara had never rescued me.
I wished I’d never laid eyes on him.
I wished I’d never chosen that dress with the pendant he liked.
I wished…
I wished…
Oh, I didn’t know what I wished for!
I didn’t regret meeting him.
I didn’t
