The Escape

I was relieved when I finished and moved on to another pod, leaving him behind.

"What the hell was that?" Kal asked quietly.

Morris looked at him wide eyed, then at me.

"Just trying to get him to pitch in. He's the type who likes to talk, let him say what he wants as long as he is working. Right?" I said, not looking at Kal.

"So you don't think any of that was true?" Morris asked softly.

I looked at him, wondering if he was serious. He was. I gave him a half smile, not knowing what to say. Kal chortled, then moved closer to his work to hide his face.

"I don't really know you, Morris," I said idly. "What's your first name?"

"Henry. What's yours?"

"Cassidy is my name. Evans."

"Oh. Thought it was your last, like everyone else's."

"Nah. Had those coveralls with my name on them since before I served under Jacobs and a security freighter. She didn't issue me a new one and I wasn't about to buy my own like you guys. She never came to engineering so no big, right? Anyway, to answer your question, that guy is full of shit. Completely. Everyone knows the hunter who killed Montrose was named Monroe. The names were so close, it was kind of an easy connection to make and remember."

"I didn't know that."

"He assumed none of us did, but we were docked on Pyramus when he was brought in. You weren't with us then. Pretty much everything he said was either exaggeration or an outright lie. I bet he caught Alvarez on accident, either that or he found some guy who looked like him and was hauling him in hoping to fool someone. I bet that's why he left him there on the ship. Jacobs will corroborate that he had him and he died on the ship and he will get his bounty, even if that wasn't him."

"He did keep saying they had the wrong guy," Kal said thoughtfully. "I talked to him a few times and he said he wasn't Alvarez. His name was Dominguez. Maybe he wasn't lying."

We all looked over at the bounty hunter who was oblivious to us as he talked to Jenson, who seemed annoyed that the man had caught him as he was passing by with his makeshift bundle of pine needles.

We worked until dark and I kept my eyes on the forest around us, wondering if Phillippe was out there, watching. Had he gotten the water and food I had left him?

Jacobs separated the needles into three piles, then ordered the women on the smallest pile and the men to separate into two groups on the other pile. I would rather have bunked up with Harris and Kal, but I didn't say anything as I laid down next to Hubert on the end, not wanting to be near Jacobs. Julius was more than happy to be close, always the suckup. Gilliford was smack in the middle, asleep before all the rest of us.

I was weary, my head still hurting, but I couldn't sleep as I lay there thinking about Phillippe and what he was going to do. Would he really kill Russo? When and how? Should they have put a guard out instead of just blocking off all the doorways? I fell asleep, the questions swirling in my head.

Hubert shoved me awake twice. "Be quiet!" she hissed both times.

The second time, I got up and went to the makeshift door, easing it open to step out. It was cold and I huddled in on myself. There was a very faint light coming from one of the two moons. The other wasn't up, or had gone down, I didn't know which. It wasn't my area of expertise. I went to one of the pods that we hadn't stripped yet and climbed in, closing the hatch before curling up to sleep.

Kal woke me up in the morning by pounding on the windshield. He made a face at me when I sat up and I grinned at him. I climbed out and Jacobs stalked over to me. "I gave very specific orders for everyone to sleep inside last night!"

"I talk in my sleep, Hubert kept waking me up, so I came out here so I wouldn't bother anyone."

"No more taking off by yourself! We go by two's!"

"Yes ma'am. Is there a designated latrine and is it ok if I do that alone?"

"Behind that building," Kal said, trying not to laugh. "That's for girls. Boys is over behind that one so don't go wandering."

I rolled my eyes and turned to find my way behind the building. I disliked being out in the open and I was nervous as I tried to watch both sides of the building at once for peeping toms or someone coming, but finally managed to do my business and start back.

A hand closed around my mouth and pulled me into the undergrowth and I squeaked in shock.

"Hush," Phillippe growled. "Get Russo to go off alone."

"How? Did you get the water? And Fruit?"

"Yes but I didn't need it. I found a stream and that fruit grows everywhere. Don't do anything like that again, you could have given me away. Get him to go off alone."

"How?"

"I don't care, just do it."

"The boys bathroom is over there, can't you just wait for him?"

He scowled down at me angrily.

I sighed. "I will try."

He let me go and I hurried out, back to the front. I wracked my brain, trying to think of a way to get Russo to leave. Finally, it came to me.

"Hey, you are a hunter, right? You have told us how you stalk your prey? Why don't you go and try and find one of those animals everyone is trying to hunt?" I asked him, going to refill my water bottle where he was standing.

"I hunt people."

"It should be easy then since animals aren't as smart. Right?"

"It would be good to have someone else looking for food," Harris said, having walked up to talk to me. "And no one here is more qualified than you to be doing it. That would be a huge contribution."

"And hey, fresh meat? That's its own incentive, right?" I asked, smiling up at him. He huffed and rolled his eyes, but turned and headed towards the forest. I turned and grinned at Harris. "Think he will bring home some bacon?" I asked, but my heart wasn't in it. The man wasn't going to come out of that forest.

Harris and I went back to work, stripping pods for what we needed while Jacobs barked orders and ranted and raved more than usual.

"Harridan," Harris muttered after she had come by for the third time telling them to move faster.

I was also feeling the stress and was starting to get enough of it. We worked all day, gathering resources, everyone on the crew being run ragged by Jacobs who did nothing but storm around and yell. By evening, I was done.

We had just sat down to eat, the light having faded too much to work by. Barstow and Hammond had brought back a bag full of birds that Lawrence had fried up over a fire, in a panel from one of the pods.

Kal sat next to me and Morris hesitated, then sat on the other side of me. Meadows sat at our fire and I stole glances at him as he talked to Rossi, laughing and joking.

"You think this is a game, Rossi? Meadows?" Jacobs snapped, stalking up to our fire. "You think this is funny? Get your heads out of your asses! We need to..."

"That's enough!" I raged, my head pounding, I snapped, jumping up. "You may have been captain on that ship but we aren't on that ship anymore! We are all equals here while we are stranded! You don't even HAVE a ship anymore, you have NO authority over us! None! And whose fault is that, by the way? Who bought that second rate core on Ares? Not Harris. Not me. You didn't even ask us! And when Harris TOLD you that it was a bad core, what did you say? You said they are all the same, as if you would even know! You have never once poked your nose in engineering in the two years I have been with you! You think you are too good to ask opinions or get advice and look where it got you? Look where it got us! You are a SHIT captain and a SHIT person, so sit down and shut up and quit acting like such a supreme cunt! We are all adults and we don't need you raging around us like a harpy!"

"You little BITCH! You will never work again, I will see to it..." Jacobs began.

Harris stood. "She's right, Abigail. This is all on you, so sit down and shut up. No one is in charge here. No one."

One by one, everyone stood. Everyone but Julius, who looked horrified. Jacobs pursed her lips, glaring around at everyone, then she stormed off.

"Holy shit, Cass, where did THAT come from?" Kal asked, looking at me in shocked amusement.

"My head is killing me and I couldn't listen to her another second. This is all on her and what has she done to help? Nothing but make things miserable."

"I might be able to help your headache," Meadows offered, his eyes shining with his smile.

My heart sped up and my tummy did a little flutter. "I would appreciate that," I answered, hardly able to get the words out.

"Anyone seen that bounty hunter?" Thornton asked loudly. "It'll be pitch black soon."

"Where is he? Taking his ease in a building somewhere?" Barstow asked.

"He went hunting, he left this morning," Harris answered, frowning into the forest where Russo had gone in.

"Alone?" Halifax asked.

"He's a bounty hunter, guess he didn't feel like he needed to be weighed down with a tagalong," Harris shrugged.

I stayed quiet.

"Guess we'll be sending out a search party in the morning," Rafferty said with a scowl. "Cass... thanks for saying what we were all thinking. Once she... calms down, I think things will go smoother for all of us."

"Sure," I answered, embarrassed now.

I ate quietly, then got up and went to the pod I had slept in, the one I had designated to keep intact.

"Did you want that help?" Meadows asked, moving closer in the dark, backlit by the fires.

"Oh, yeah, that would be great. You find some herbs?"

"No," he said, taking hold of my head. He turned me and put a finger from each hand on each temple, then placed each finger on my head in different places, his thumbs on the base of my skull, then applied gentle pressure.

"Oh... wow. That's... nice."

"Mmm," he agreed, holding his fingers in place as I sagged, relaxing under his touch. "So why so stressed, Little One?" he asked.

He had always called me that, from day one. When he said it, I didn't mind it at all.

"Is it because you couldn't save the ship? It's not your fault, the core was bad."

"I know, it was just a hard and stressful trip here, conserving fuel so I could make it. Cold and slow and uncomfortable... and then getting here and listening to her screeching. I couldn't take it another second."

"We've learned to ignore her, but you are young and less able to let things roll off your back, yeah?"

"Maybe," I answered. "I'm not that young," I said quickly. "Just because I am short doesn't mean I am not old enough for... anything," I finished, horrified at the words coming out of my mouth.

"I know. You and Kal look cute together."

"Kal is like a brother to me! We don't feel like that about each other."

"No? Morris looks at you like he would like to see if you..."

"Not interested," I said quickly. "Not my type."

"No? You are old enough to have a type?"

"Yes, not so shy and unsure, someone with a sense of humor, someone not afraid to go after what they want."

He chuckled. "Like you are?"

I blushed. He knew. He knew I had a crush on him and he was teasing me for it.

"Thanks, my head feels better," I said, stepping away and scrambling up into the pod.

"You don't have to sleep in there, you..."

"It's fine, I don't want to keep people awake. Harris is used to it but no one else is."

"We can get used to it. You deserve to be in there as much as anyone."

"Yeah. Maybe tomorrow. Tonight I want to think and sleep in peace."

"Morris is getting up his nerve, you know. What then? You gonna give him a chance?"

"No, like I said, I have no interest at all. There is zero attraction. If he speaks up, I will let him know. Goodnight."

"Sleep well, Little One," he said gently.

I shut the pod and sat down, letting out a deep breath. UGH! He saw me as a kid and he was trying to pair me up with Kal and Morris! Whatever. It's not like that was what I really needed to be thinking about. I needed to be thinking about getting a satellite and beacon out, then setting up a ground signal. Not the super hot medic.

I curled up but couldn't get comfortable at all. I rolled and stretched and tossed and turned, huffing angrily. Hours passed and I sat there, my mind refusing to shut up.

There was a tap on the side of the pod. I sighed and sat up, ready to tell Kal to go back to bed as I opened the hatch. A giant hand grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the pod, then pulled me into a dark building. Not even the dim moonlight to light it.

"Stop just grabbing me and jerking me around!" I hissed, trying to pull away from Phillippe.

"Shut up!" he whispered. "Your men aren't telling you that there are creatures in the forest, something like a bear lizard. One came after two of them and they ran. They don't want to worry anyone but all they are really doing is putting you all in danger. Those creatures don't fear man."

"Ok. Thanks. I guess you got what you wanted and Russo is gone. So are you going to go hermit out in the forest somewhere now?"

"Shut up. The tall awkward kid giving you constant eyes, you need to tell him to fuck off."

"Morris? Why?"

"You are letting him think he has a chance when he doesn't. Don't lead him on, tell him to fuck off."

"You can't tell me how..."

"Shut. Up!" he growled, clamping a hand over my mouth and shoving me against the wall. "Not another word, you just fucking listen and do as you are told. No fucking arguments. Tell him to fuck off. If you don't, he's going to be found gutted by those creatures. Do you understand?"

I nodded slowly.

He pushed back, letting my mouth go, then disappeared into the darkness. I stood shivering against the wall for several long moments before slipping back out and finding my way back to the pod. I closed it, vowing to never open it in the middle of the night again. Jerk. What did he care about Morris's feelings or me leading him on? Which I wasn't. I wasn't encouraging him at all. I just wasn't hurting his feelings by telling him to leave me alone.

I guess I was going to tell him to leave me alone.

Sleep was a long time coming and my eyelids felt like sandpaper when Kal pounded on my window in the morning. He looked worried.

"What's up?" I asked, yawning.

"Jacobs never came back last night. We thought she went off and slept alone in another pod like you, but no one can find her."

I climbed out of the pod and hurried to the group with Kal. Morris sidled up next to me as I listened to Halifax tell off groups for search parties.

"Morris?" I whispered, making him look down at me. His eyes were so hopeful. "Back off," I said with a scowl. "I'm not interested."

He looked stunned and hurt, but I was doing it for his own good. I stepped away, moving around next to Harris who put a fatherly hand on my shoulder as we listened.

When Halifax paused, I stepped up. "Last night I saw something in the moonlight," I said loudly. "A bear sized lizard thing. It was huge and terrifying and it looked like it was sniffing around for a meal."

Barstow looked wide eyed at Langston, then they nodded at each other. "We saw one too but we didn't want to worry anyone. We didn't think they would come close to here, or people."

"We need to set guards and watch our food stores," I continued.

"Do you think it got Jacobs?" Julius asked, her voice raising an octave.

That brought worried glances from everyone.

"Nothing changes," Halifax said. "You have your teams, start..."

"No," I said, cutting in. "Teams of four, not two. Check back every hour on the hour, that way if someone is found no one will spend the day out looking for nothing."

"That makes more sense," Blaylock said, nodding.

Halifax gave a curt nod. "That's fine. Cass, you, Harris, Kal and Morris stay and work on the satellite."

"Not Morris," I said quickly.

"Okay... Morris, team up with Rafferty.

Morris looked horrified as he went over to Rafferty, his head down. The teams began heading out into the forest and I turned, going to the pod I had left off on it, Harris and Kal following quietly behind me.

"That was pretty harsh," Kal said softly, cutting his eyes at me.

"Yeah. I just... didn't want to lead him on, make him think that I was receptive to his advances, such as they were. Best to cut it off quick so he can get over it quick, right?"

"There may have been better ways to do it," Harris offered. "But you were right to let him know. He has it pretty bad for you."

"Well now he can move on," I said brusquely.

After that, we worked in relative silence, waiting for the teams to return. Julius and Gilliford stayed back, as well as Molina and Owens who were standing guard. I was sitting and constructing the pieces I had gathered, putting together the separation systems when Thornton and his group came running into camp.

"We found them!" he panted, looking pale.

I stood up, afraid and the everyone still in camp crowded them.

"Looks like she found him in the forest and something happened. There was a struggle and he stabbed her, and she shot him. I don't understand what they could have fought about?"

"Maybe he asked her to testify that he had that prisoner and she said no," Kal said thoughtfully. "They are both dead?"

"Both. Something chewed off his leg after, but yeah. They offed each other."

I felt sick. Why had Phillippe killed Jacobs?!? Had she found him and pulled her gun on him? I understood setting it up to look like they killed each other, it covered any questions, but he wouldn't kill someone to cover his tracks, would he?

"I guess we'll need to bury them," I said, still distracted and feeling sick. "Try and call everyone in as best we can, or just wait for them to check in. We still need to work on getting a signal going. Umm. Can you four try and do a little more hunting? Stay together, watch for the bear lizards."

"Bearzards?" Kal asked as if testing out the name.

I turned and went back to what I was doing, feeling poleaxed. Why had he killed her?

I was vaguely aware of people returning, but I focused on my work as the story was told again and again to every new group who came in. More hunting parties were sent out and groups went to forage as others worked on preparing camp and the sleeping quarters.

I was numb when Kal brought me lunch, sitting down next to me. "You ok? You haven't really been yourself since you landed."

"No. I guess I haven't. I had a lot of time to think in the pod."

"Yeah, I guess we all did. So why the short temper?"

"Just done putting up with shit I guess. Life is too short for that."

"Yeah. That all? Not lady issues?"

"Shut up you moron," I said, finally smiling. "Asshole."

He grinned. "Anyway. Morris went into that building over there and he hasn't come out. He is pouting and feeling sorry for himself I think. You think you should maybe talk to him?"

"No, I don't. I said what I needed to, I need him to keep his distance."

"Did... he say something? Do something that I don't know about?"

"Just leave it," I snapped.

He nodded and looked down at his hands. "So how long on that do you think?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Two days, maybe three. Depends on how much I have to try and improvise and adapt. All I have is the tools I brought. And how much people interrupt me."

"Now you are sniping at me?" he teased.

I smiled.

"So...Meadows, huh? Isn't he a bit old for you?"

"He's not that old... is it that obvious?"

"Not to anyone else. I saw you looking last night and your face when he offered to help. I know you well enough to know that look. That why you cut Morris's heart out?"

"No and I didn't cut his heart out. Jeez. I just told him to back off. He'll get over it."

"Whatever. You know we may be stuck here a while, right? Even if you get the beacon up. It might be easier to make nice and not alienate people."

"Thanks for the advice. I just wanted to get the bullshit out of the way straight out the gate. That ok with you?"