Bandits (29 page)

“Nickel told me your dad said you and Nickel had a de
s
tiny different than the path he’d thought you’d go. Do you think he thought you’d end up here?” She looked ahead and tripped slightly over a protruding rock.

Daniel studied her face briefly. “No. In his journal, my f
a
ther said he didn’t want us to have to come here. But if we did, this place had to find us…, we couldn’t find it.”

“Are you still mad at him?” she asked softly.

“I guess part of me always will be. I can’t help it. I’ve been angry with him for three years and frustrated that I still loved him at the same time.”

“So you loved him and hated him at the same time? I don’t know how that would be possible,” she said and reached out to touch his arm to console him.

“Well it is possible, and …” he mumbled.

“And painful? I guess it would kinda feel like your heart was being torn in two. Part of you angry that he’s not being the dad you wanted and another part hungry for the relationship you used to have. You were so close to him growing up, like his sh
a
dow. But in the end, you only had anger in your eyes when you looked at him.”

He pulled away from her touch, wanting to lash out at her for digging too deep. “It’s not like you get along all that great with your mother.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, you are low. No, I don’t get along great with her. But I don’t hate her either. We just don’t see eye to eye. Maybe even debate a little,” she said with a small laugh. “Okay, we argue a lot, but I still look at her with love. The looks you gave Poppy just were hateful, like you couldn’t stand the sight of him most of the time. He was so hurt about it, Daniel. One time I heard him crying in my dad’s office, saying he’d failed you as a father. He said that he’d wish he had a second chance to make it up to you. To be the father he should have been to you since you were born.”

Daniel shrugged. “Well, some scars cut too deep to heal. That man forced me to take over his jobs. To finish up what he’d signed up to do and created himself. You don’t just quit on your kids and expect them to still respect you. He was the best at what he did, a legendary Zukar. And then? Then he was not
h
ing – threw it all away, for what? Who knows? He never told me. I lost respect for him years ago.” Daniel started to pick up the pace when he saw the entryway to the next corridor slide in up ahead.

“You could have tried to...ugh,” she said as she tripped over a protruding rock. The sound of moving rocks reverbe
r
ated around them.

“Hell, I knew it was too good to be true.”  He crouched and grabbed Jade by the arm. The rocks on the smooth walls moved, and large knives shot out of them.

“Duck!” Jade said before she snatched Daniel’s vest to pull him down.

“Run! The knives are spread out enough to dodge them.” He half dragged and pulled her through the flying knives that were coming from all directions out of the wall.

They came to a small breach point where the knives couldn’t reach. “Watch out!  The floor!  Daniel, they’re timed. Look… there’s a sequence to them.” The jagged rocks on the floor in front of them opened and shot knives up into the cei
l
ing. Holes in the ceiling opened and caught the flying knives.

“Got it!  Now move!
T
hey’re coming too fast for us to go at the same time. You go first. Go! I’ll cover you,” Daniel said and pushed Jade forward. He shot knives in mid air as they flew in various directions. The knives he hit wiggled and then fell to the ground around Jade, clearing a path for her to get to the entranc
e
way
.
Jerking side to side and running out of the way of several knives that flew at him he kept as close to her as possible. Coun
t
ing the sequence of throws in his head, he yelled out, “Now! Don’t stop!”

With a leap, she landed in the connecting corridor. “Your turn!  The sequence is the same, just faster.
”
Jade fired at a knife aimed at Daniel’s neck.

He was close, real close to the entranceway. There was a clicking noise as it seemed the knives adjusted on the side walls. With a grunt, he leaped toward Jade
.
A knife shot up from the floor and sliced clear through his arm mid jump. “Ughhhhhhh!” Another knife flew from the wall and lodged into his muscled thigh. With a
thump
, he fell forward next to Jade
.
Bent in a squat, he forced himself to stand. “Pull it out!” he forced out through the pain.

Jade looked up as the passageway in front of them moved and the hall they landed in started to shake. “Okay, I’m gonna to do it now. We should hurry.” She didn’t give him time to prepare himself before she pulled the knife out of his leg.

“Ahhhhh!” he cried out and closed his eyes.

She threw the knife aside and reached down to pull him up.

“I’m okay.” he said and took her offered hand. Bending down, he ripped off another piece of his shirt.

“Looks like you may as well take the whole shirt off. Just keep the vest,” Jade said and pulled off another piece of his shirt to tie it around his arm. She took the piece he held in his hand and tied it around his thigh while he looked at the map. She eyed him when he pulled the remainder of his shirt over his head and stuffed it in his back pocket.

“I see you checking me out
.
”
Daniel chuckled
.

“I’m not,” she said back and stuck her tongue out.

“Ready, we have to go this way. My time is running out.”  He took off in a light jog with a slight limp after he touched her arm.

“I’ve been ready,” she said and jogged along-side him.

Daniel looked around the hallway, hoping for clues on what to expect next, though he’d easily come to learn that nothing in this place could be taken for granted. The floors were even, the walls were smooth, and the entire place moved. As they jogged, he felt a tremor under his feet. He looked over at Jade. “You feel that?” he asked when another tremor hit.

“Yeah, it’s probably just moving like the others.”

“I don’t trust it. Every hallway here is a test, and my time –
our
time is running out,” he said as they moved through the dim hallway looking for signs of what was in store for them.

“Well, as long as the test doesn’t include anymore fre
a
kin’ monsters.
Yuck
, those things were creepy,” she said with a shiver.

“Nothing worse than what you can find on Merwin
.
”

“Please! These things are much worse than what we see on Me
r
win, and you know it.”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that
.
”
He
tapped her arm.

“What did you say? You’re actually giving me credit for b
e
ing right
.
”
Jade
pulled his hair.

He felt a tremor again, and this one was stronger. He picked up his pace, and Jade kept up with him with each stride. “I’ve seen beings this nasty on some of the snatch jobs we’ve gone on. The Planet Oiden has these
huge Snake Aliens
. Those oversized ba
s
tards tease you then spray acid spit on you before they slurp you up.”

“Eww! That’s nasty, real nasty. Thanks for the visual. I mean, it’s not like I’ve had enough material for my nightmares today.” She grimaced.

He shrugged. “You did ask,” he said with a smile. He liked the way they had fallen back into the comfortable banter they had before this journey.

“Uh, no I didn’t. You just wanted to gross me out. Like always. Hey…, you feel that?  It was a strong one.”  She slowed down.

Another tremor hit, and its thundering power shook the e
n
tire passageway. The ground shook and lifted, and groans of cracking rock thundered through the air. Daniel was thrown through the air and forward from the power of the earthquake. His body hit and then slid on the ground. He shook his head out of its daze and pushed off the ground to bend at the knees.

“Daniel!” Jade yelled.

He stood up and quickly turned around. The ground b
e
hind him had cracked. Its jagged opening separated Jade from him by about twenty feet. Steam rose up from the depths of the crack behind him.

Quickly he looked around for Jade. Dread
filled
his gut. “Jade?  Jade!  Where are you?”

“Here! Down here! Help me up,” she cried out.

Looking around at the crack, he saw her hand. He ran toward it, and
a lump caught in his throat
when he discovered she was on the opp
o
site side of the steamy crevice.

“I can’t reach you Jade, because you are on the opposite side of me. You have to pull yourself up,” he demanded of her. Fighting back his frustration at being unable to help her he watc
h
ed. There was nothing he could do, and it frustrated him as he paced while watching her struggle.

Her other hand came up and held securely onto the ja
g
ged edge of the cracked rock. She
shrieked
and lifted a foot over the edge just as a slight tremor shook the ground.

“
I – can’t hold on… much…,
” she said while she stru
g
gled to hold on and her foot lost its grip. Loose dirt and rubble covered the floor, causing her heel to slide. Once again, she threw her foot up over the lip. Arms shaking, she clung to the edge of the chasm.

“Don’t give up! Hurry up before another tremor hits,” Daniel encouraged. He paced from side to side while he watc
h
ed her struggle. Letting out a breath of relief, he watched her pull herself up and crawl onto stable ground.

“Freak! Now what?” Jade asked as she stood up. She ran a
trembling
hand through her hair while she debated if she could make the distance.

“You have to stay there, and I’ll go on. Hell, it’s probably safer over there than where I’m going anyway.”  Daniel watc
h
ed her, a look of anguish on his face at the thought of leaving her there defenseless. His fist tightened at his sides as he tried to think of a way to save her, the treasure, and the others.

“No.
Don’t you even think about leaving me.
I’m going to jump!” She moved several feet back, put her hand up to her forehead, and walked back further.

His eyebrows bunched up. “No, Jade!  If you don’t make it, I’ll...,” he said.

“You’ll go on because you have to. Now move out of my way!” she said and took off running. She ran at top speed. The pain in her calf a distant memory, pure adrenaline
fuel
ed her. Arms flailing and legs kicking in midair, she leaped.

Daniel tried to gage where she would land and stood near the edge. Pain pierced his heart when Jade fell short in her leap. He reached out when her torso slammed into the edge near his feet, and she scrambled to catch hold of the edge.

“I got you! Pull up,” he called. He slid a bit forward from her weight
, h
is brow shining with sweat as he slammed down onto one knee. He grabbed onto her wrist, and she dangled over the side of the
side
of the cracked edge. Another tremor shook the ground, and threw him off balance, and dang
e
rously close to the crevice.

Jade kicked her feet up until they landed on the rocky side of the crevice. “Don’t- let-me-go!”

“Never!” Holding Jade’s wrist for both of their lives, he growled out with determination. His hips still on steady ground, he shimmied backwards while Jade pushed upward by her feet. “Almost there! Just keep pushing up,” he told her and hoped another tremor wouldn’t hit.

With one last tug, he pulled Jade’s chest and hips over the edge. He stood up and pulled him with her. Enveloping her in a tight hug, his heart beat rapidly while he just held her.

She wiggled in his arms.
“Um, Daniel, I can’t breathe.”  Jade looked up at him and smiled, and a grateful tear slid from her eye.

Daniel took a finger and wiped the tear away, and then leaned down to kiss her, “Don’t ever do that to me again. I would never forgive myself if I had to stand by while you tried to do something stupid and get yourself killed.”

“I can’t promise you that, but I’ll try.”  She pulled her arms out from between them and wrapped them around him. Then squeezed him with all the strength she had left, even though it wasn’t much.

“That tickles. You call that a squeeze?  You are too tiny to pack the power to squeeze me to death.”

“Whatever. I’m getting tougher and stronger everyday. One day, you never know. I may become a hard competitor,” she said and pulled away from him to adjust her weapons belt.