He turned to her. “I’m not one of your race. I can easily jump that high. I’m lifting you up.”
Her gaze went to the fire by the opening of the cave. It was already burning lower. They were running out of time, and they’d be screwed when the charge for his weapon is drained. “Fine. Just don’t die.”
Crath grabbed her waist, spun her in his arms, and adjusted his big hands to her hips. She tensed her entire body, stiffening her limbs. Then he lifted her off her feet.
She hated having their backs to the opening of the cave.
He lifted her higher, his arms up over his head. She placed her hands on the rock, looking for any kind of handhold to help her climb the scant foot or so remaining. The opening was so close!
“Place your feet on my shoulders,” he snarled.
She bent her knees up, brushing them against the rock wall, and he maneuvered her enough for her to get one of her heels on his upper chest. “Get ready to let me go in a second and then get your shoulders under my feet.” Kelsey found a slight outcropping of rock to claw her onto. When she tried to take her own weight, it hurt her fingertips but she didn’t let go. “Now!”
He released her waist and she was supporting all of her weight for a scant second, until he grabbed her ankles, placing them on his shoulders. She straightened her legs, taking all the pressure off her hand gripping the rock. Once standing, she faced the opening in the wall…and saw utter darkness.
Anything could be in there. Alien spiders. Alien rats. Myriad images flashed through her mind, but the monsters roared from outside, reminding her that there was no choice.
With a deep breath, Kelsey quickly felt around inside the rough opening, finding the floor to be smooth rock. She extended her arm farther and her fingertips just touched the bag that Crath had thrown in. It meant there was floor at least a few feet back.
“Give me a boost,” she ordered, wishing she had his wrist light.
Crath lifted her by her ankles, shoving her higher. She crawled into the hole. It seemed bigger, now that she was entering it, than it had appeared from below. She shoved the bag forward carefully, using it to judge that it was safe ahead as long as it didn’t disappear or hit anything.
“Get up here,” she yelled, after crawling on her hands and knees about five feet. Rock walls surrounded her, and she paused, reaching up. She felt more rock overhead when her arm was almost fully extended. The makeshift roof felt a little jagged and rough. “And stay low,” she added. “Otherwise, you might knock yourself out. Keep your head down and stay on all fours. It’s going to be a tight fit for you. Be careful.”
There was a loud thud behind her and light suddenly showed her what lay ahead. The tunnel was bigger than expected. About five feet wide, maybe four and a half feet tall, and the floor had a slight ascent. The rock beneath her and the lower half of the side walls were mostly smooth, proving water had definitely flowed through the tunnel at one point, probably for decades or even centuries.
She twisted to look back but the brightness from his wrist device blinded her. She slammed her eyes shut, looked forward again and reopened them, letting them adjust once more to the dark.
“We need to move. I’m too close to the opening,” Crath reminded her.
“Right.” She pushed the bag forward, crawling carefully. Her knees were going to be skinned up, despite the smooth surface, if she didn’t find a way to cover them. The thin nightgown wasn’t long enough to completely protect her bare skin. She also didn’t want to think about the view Crath must have, crawling behind her. Her vagina was probably on display, since the aliens hadn’t given her underwear.
“Not the shit to worry about right now,” she muttered.
“I don’t think they will be able to follow us up here,” Crath replied. “But I want to be far from their reach to be safe. The littler ones might be smart enough to lift one another the way I did with you.”
“Let’s hope those beasts are dumb, but that wasn’t what I was mumbling about. Can you shine your light upward a little so I can see where we’re going? Thankfully this incline is only minor. We’re going up. This definitely was where water once flowed for a very long time.”
She felt his arm brush against her hip, then his hand gripped her shoulder. “Adjust as you need.” He chuckled.
“What’s so amusing? This is dangerous. There might be an obstruction somewhere in front of us, or above us. Did you hear me earlier when I mentioned that water no longer flows through here? It rained earlier but it’s dry in here. That means there’s a break or collapse somewhere inside this tunnel.”
“It’s a cave. Not a tunnel.”
She rolled her eyes. “It was a waterway slash tunnel, but yes, it’s also a cave. One probably widened from countless years of water flow. We’ll either reach a spot where it’s totally blocked off, or maybe even a portion of the rock floor gave way. Which means the floor under us might not be stable. However you look at it, we might be in serious danger.”
“I am an enforcer of the law. I’ve survived many hazardous situations before.”
“Yes, but you’ve also admitted to knowing nothing about this planet. Just…be careful,” she reiterated.
“Halt,” he ordered.
She froze when the light no longer shone in front of her, and Kelsey turned her head. Crath was on his hand and knees right behind her, taking up most of the crawl space. But there was enough room for her to see he was looking back at where they’d entered the tunnel.
She saw movement near the bottom of the opening.
He twisted abruptly, grunting as his back hit the wall, and his head and one shoulder ended up pressed against her ass and the back of her thighs. He tucked his long legs closer to his body and used his blaster to shoot at something.
Whatever it was screamed, loudly, and answering roars sounded. What sounded like small rocks falling echoed beyond the tunnel. Some of the mud monsters were now inside the cave below.
And they were smart enough to reach them.
“Keep going,” Crath ordered. He fired again.
“If you hit the top of the tunnel, it could collapse,” she warned. “That might be our only way out!”
“I’m worried about surviving now,” he shouted back. Then he fired again.
There was a deep rumble, the entire tunnel shuddering around them, and pure terror gripped Kelsey. Loud noises and blaster fire was a bad combination in a mountain cave. She scrambled forward blindly, knowing the floor extended at least another ten feet ahead, since she’d seen it in Crath’s light.
Suddenly, a massive boom sounded behind her.
She froze, wrapping herself around the bag and covering her head with her hands. If the roof came down, if the tunnel collapsed, she’d die regardless. She could no longer see, but she tasted dirt in the air and shoved her mouth and nose against the bag. There was one more violent rumble…
Then everything became unnaturally quiet.
She was still alive—but was Crath? Was she about to die in a cave-in? Would she be trapped until she suffocated?
Fuck you, Earth officials, she vehemently swore inside her head. This is all your fault.
Chapter Seven
The cough that sounded behind Kelsey had her almost bursting into tears of relief since it hadn’t come from her. Crath had survived. She lifted her face away from the bag and opened her eyes. There was light in the tunnel.