Roth Read online

  I steady us and reach down, holding my hand over the tube. When a door opens, I ease Mattie into it and then get in myself. I shut the door just as we shift again, and instead of flying around the room, we are just jolted a little to the side of the shower.

  These tubes are made for only one, so Mattie and I together make it a snug fit. The entire ceiling of the shower is cut off and warm water rains down over us. It’s automatic and impossible to shut off. A drain at the bottom takes the water away.

  As I’m instantly soaked, I wrap my arms around Mattie and hold her to me, hoping we’ll be protected enough in here to survive the collision.

  “What is happening?” she cries out.

  “I don’t know, but we’re about to crash.”

  “Crash where?”

  “We’re just over Roth, so somewhere there,” I call back, grunting when my head knocks into the roof where the water is coming from.

  “Are we going to die?” Mattie cries.

  “No, I won’t let that happen,” I try to assure her, but it’s hard to do that when we’re trapped in a spaceship that is hurtling to the ground.

  If I had time and could have moved properly, I would have gotten to a monit and sent her away. Sent us both away. But whatever has caused us to crash didn’t set off any of the sensors. This must be some sort of system failure.

  I wrap my arms around her, sensing we’ve been falling too long now. We’re heating up, the spaceship no doubt burning on the outside. If we don’t die from the crash, then there is a good chance we’ll be burned to death. Maybe jumping in the shower was a good idea.

  “I’m glad I found you, Marduke. I’m happy that I got to know you. I wouldn’t change a thing,” Mattie tells me, and I feel the goodbye in her words. She thinks this is the end. She thinks we’re going to die.

  “Mattie, I promise—”

  She holds out her hand and covers my mouth. “No more promises. It doesn’t matter anymore. I want you to know that I lo—”

  I don’t know what she was going to say because, in the next instant, we crash to the ground.

  Chapter 5

  Mattie

  Darkness. That is all I see. I feel wet and smothered, but I’m breathing. I’m not in unbearable pain. We crashed and I am still alive.

  There is darkness within me as well, one that is overwhelming me. For long moments, all I can think about is the loss of my parents. Their images bombard me, memories that we have already lived and ones that will never happen. I will never get to speak to them again, never see their smiles or hear their laughs. Dad will never walk me down the aisle on my wedding day, and they will never be a part of my life again. They will never get the chance to be a part of Hannah’s.

  A sob erupts in my chest, a wail that is ready to burst from me except the heavy weight leaning on top of me distracts me, and it takes me out of my grief as my surroundings hit me once more. It brings me back to the present, and the fact I was just in a spaceship with Marduke which then crashed from space. How are we still alive?

  “Marduke?” I whisper, feeling his weight over me. We’re still trapped in this strange tube, which appears to have withstood the crash. There is no longer water cascading over us, but I am damp and cold.

  I untangle my arm and hold them out around us, making sure nothing is crushing him. There is space between him and the outer edge of the tube.

  “Marduke, say something!” I demand, finding his head leaning over my shoulder. I feel his neck and try to find a pulse, but I feel nothing, and rather than letting my panic overwhelm me, I instead attempt to shift so I am lying over him. Not only so I can breathe a little easier, but so I can move more freely to see if there is something seriously wrong with him.

  How can I have just gotten him back only to lose him? How cruel and unfair can my life be?

  We’re both wet, however I can’t see if there is blood mixed in with it.

  When I try to move out from under him, I’m surprised to feel us moving. We shift from side-to-side before we settle again. If we’re trapped under a pile of rubble, there is no way we would be able to move like that, right?

  I rock us this time, testing out how crazy I have obviously become, and again, we move. I feel around for a door, finding nothing suggesting one, but then the strange tube casing lights up. It glows beneath my hand, and I find similar symbols as to what I’ve seen on the control.

  I am hesitant to touch any, in case we’re taken back to a spaceship where those creatures are. If we’re transported there now, there is no way we’ll survive. I’ve got no weapons and an unconscious Marduke.

  I stay still a while longer, watching as the glow from the symbols fades.

  “Mattie?” Marduke croaks my name as I feel him shift over me.

  “Marduke, are you okay?” I gasp, relieved when he lifts his weight so he’s not crushing me.

  “I think so. What about you? Are you hurt? What about… your stomach?” I frown at his odd question, yet given the craziness of this situation, I don’t dwell on it very long.

  “I think I’m okay. I’m still wearing the vest,” I point out, wondering if he’s forgotten already. “How do we get out of here?”

  Marduke doesn’t answer me for a moment. His hands, which are trapped behind me, move. “I need you to try to lift your back upwards so I can move my arms out. I can access the keys on here and figure out what is going on. Even though we’ve crashed, it can run off my DNA to work.”

  “Keys? Do you mean the symbols?”

  “Yes, how did you know there were symbols here?”

  “I made them glow before. See.” I touch the tube behind him and again the symbols glow and light us up. Since his head is no longer against my shoulder I have a clear view of him. He has a large gash over his eye that is bleeding, but that is the only injury I can see. “Which one gets us out of here?”

  “How are you getting them to work?” He stares at me curiously, his expression changing from confusion to surprise.

  “I don’t know. I just touched it and it worked, just the same as the remote control thing.”

  “The control that put you on my spaceship?” He stares at me hard now, and in the dying glow of the symbols, I wonder why he appears so serious.

  “Yes, what’s wrong?”

  “I don’t think now is the best time to talk about it. Can you get them to light up again and press the third symbol down?”

  “What will it do?” I ask hesitantly, pulling him back down over me so I can see the symbols behind him.

  “That one will make the tube see-through. We’ll be able to see what is going on outside of it and how dangerous the situation is.”

  “What do the other symbols do?”

  “Adjust heat, sound, soap. Things like that.”

  “Sound? What is this thing?” Although, from the water running earlier, I can guess.

  “This is our version of a shower. And, yes, sound. Sometimes the water running can be a distraction.”

  “I thought water running was meant to be soothing?”

  “I suppose it’s not for some people. We also have automatic dryers that leave you dry and clean.”

  “It sounds kind of awful.”

  “It’s time saving. A shower takes no longer than a minute on Oden.”

  “They’re kind of small. How are you supposed to fit two people comfortably in here?”

  “We don’t share showers.” He lifts his head up to stare at me again.

  “People did on Earth,” I remind him, liking the smirk that crosses over his face and the glazed look in his eyes.

  “Yes, I think we should make that a requirement. A large shower.”

  “A requirement for what?”

  “For when we live together,” he states it like a fact.

  “We’re going to live together? But I thought you said back on Earth that we couldn’t be together?” I whisper, too scared to hope that, maybe, he has a way around it. Right now, everything is going wrong. Could it be that there
might be something that can go right?

  “It is part of the reason I came back for you. We can do this, just not on Oden.”

  “You’d leave your home and family for me?” I gape at him. I know he doesn’t have the best family ever; however it is still a huge thing to give up that familiarity, the same with a home you’ve always known.

  “Of course. I want to be with you.”

  “Then where would we go if not Oden? Could we go back to Earth?” I hate how hopeful I sound because, if Oden is too dangerous, then Earth will be, too.

  “My first priority was finding you; figuring out where we’d escape to didn’t factor into my plan yet. I can already tell you Earth won’t be an option for us, though. I’m sorry.”

  “You were just going to find me and we’d run away? What about Hank? I can’t leave him, not after—” I gasp. “Oh, my God, Hank! Do you think he’s alive?” I tap the symbol Marduke told me to and the dark casing of the tube disappears, throwing us into the reality of our situation.

  We aren’t actually trapped within the wreckage of the spaceship. While pieces of twisted metal and smoke surrounded us, there is nothing keeping us trapped in here. It’s still light out, but the duller kind, which means the first and brighter sun has already set. Only a few hours are left before nightfall.

  “The last symbol down will open the door.”

  He lies back down on me as I lean up and over him to tap the symbol. I let out a relieved cry when the door opens behind Marduke. He’s able to pull his arms away from me and leans up and out of the tube, eventually stumbling down the side. He winces in pain.

  I sit up and stand on my own shaky feet. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

  “I’m okay.” He leans back over and I take his hand as I slide down the edge of the tube. With no weight inside now, it rolls away, and I lose my footing. Yet, Marduke wraps his arm around me and keeps me upright.

  As he assesses me for injuries, I check him out, too. Apart from the gash over his eye and a wince when I touch his left shoulder, he doesn’t appear badly hurt.

  “How did we survive that?”

  “The tubes are made of very strong materials. See.” He points to another tube at the edge of the clearing.

  As I look around, I take in that the spaceship crashing has destroyed and knocked down many trees. I can’t see anything familiar from my short trips into the forest, which isn’t surprising since I rarely came in here. For all I know, we could be near the camp, or on the other side of the planet.

  “When the spaceship impacted the ground, most everything crumbled, but from the force we were shot out. There were four similar tubes which we use as just holding cells on board. As far as I know, they’re empty, but they should be undamaged as well.”

  “So the others…?” I finally drag my eyes away from our surroundings and stare at him.

  “I’m sorry.” He tightens his hold over me.

  “I sort of knew we’d probably die doing this, but Hank…” Tears blind me and I lean my head against Marduke’s chest, feeling his heart beating under my ear, letting it calm me a little.

  “What were you trying to do? Why were you teleporting yourselves anywhere?”

  “I was going to get revenge. I wanted to kill your brother,” I admit softly.

  He sighs heavily in response, and I worry he is upset with me. What if he and his brother have made up now? What if he has taken his brother’s side?

  “That is way too dangerous. You wouldn’t have likely even made it to Oden, and even if you managed to, Ival is guarded. You wouldn’t have gotten close enough to him before you were caught.”

  “If we managed to get to Oden, I would have found a way,” I say steadily, truly believing my words. I might have had to wait for the right moment, but I would have been patient. I wouldn’t have failed.

  “You would have been killed, most likely by Ival,” he reprimands me.

  “Are you saying I couldn’t have taken him?” I feel annoyed at his lack of belief in me.

  “I can’t even take Ival. He’s a beast, Mattie. I would never underestimate you, but assuming Ival is in any way weak is a mistake. I’ve never seen him lose to anyone. The only reason I survived back on Earth when the hinema first arrived and Ival tried to kill me was I escaped. I didn’t better him or disable him. Humans stepped in and gave me the chance to leave. I would have died after I sent you away if he wanted me to. He has guards, but he doesn’t need them.” Marduke is painting an awful picture of Ival in my mind. Before, I was furious at him. I wanted him dead, and there was no need to think past that. Now, Marduke is scaring me, and I feel fear as well as my anger.

  “No one is perfect and unbeatable. I would have thought of something. I had an edge because I was willing to give my life…” away. I was willing to sacrifice myself. What if I had? I would never have known Marduke was alive. He would have been here searching for me, and I would have missed him on my way to Oden for my revenge.

  “Don’t talk like that. You always are willing to put your life on the line, and it needs to stop. I refuse to let harm come to you. You are mine and you are protected, so no more life threatening situations from now on, okay?” He places his hands over my shoulders, squeezing them before sliding them over my arms and finding my hips. He brings me forward as I feel a moment building between us. A tension that isn’t unpleasant.

  “No more life threatening situations, huh? Kind of like being in a spacecraft when it hurtles to the ground and smashes into pieces?” I attempt to joke, yet it doesn’t have the intended effect.

  Marduke winces, and instead of bringing me closer to him for a kiss, he wraps his arms around me and leans me against his chest for a hug. “I’m sorry, Mattie. I don’t know what happened to bring us down. I can’t even think what could cause such a thing. As far as I know, something like this isn’t possible. No spaceships have ever been brought down like this.”

  Marduke feels tense against me, his mind elsewhere now. His chest is bare, his shirt nowhere to be seen, and even though it’s cold out and his chest is damp from the water in the shower, I feel heat zapping through me as I run my fingers over his chest. I lift my other hand behind him, moving it over his back.

  How many times have I imagined this? To be able to touch and feel him? To be in his arms and to finally feel safe again? How sure am I that this isn’t a dream?

  “I can’t lose you again, Mattie. You need to promise me you won’t put your life at risk again. There are things you don’t know, things I need to tell you still. You have to survive this.” His voice sounds deep as I feel the rumbling of his throat vibrating through me.

  I don’t know what else Marduke has to tell me, but whatever it is, I’m not ready to hear it. After him telling me my parents have been killed, and now, knowing I’ve lost Hank, I am not stable enough to hear anything else. Good or bad.

  My knees weaken, my fatigue setting in and possibly shock. I am unbearably tired and my mind drifts, my thoughts moving over to my parents.

  I’ve never been overly religious. I never went to church and steered clear of the religious debate that always seemed to be important back home. I’ve hoped there was more to the world. I’ve loved the idea of a greater power steering us right, watching over us. But what greater power allowed this to happen? Are we still under protection of the watchful eyes of someone when we’re not even on the same planet?

  “Do you believe in Heaven? Do you have an equivalent here?” I ask him, not sure Marduke can give me the answers I need to feel better.

  “We believe that, when you die, you stay alive in our history; in the words written and spoken.”

  “On Earth, some people believe in Heaven. A place you go after you’re dead, where you get to be with all your loved ones that have passed away. You can look over the people you left behind and live for eternity. I never cared about that stuff before, but now, I have to believe it. I was ready to die, Marduke. Without my parents, my sister, my friends here, losing you and Logan
, I had nothing left to live for. All I wanted to do before I died was to kill your brother. I wanted to swipe that smug smile off his ugly face and make him pay for what he took from me.” I breathe heavily from my sudden outburst and feel anger growing inside me again. It pushes away my fatigue and tiredness, giving me strength to want to fight again.

  “That’s really dark, Mattie. You can’t think like that anymore. Logan, Lisa and your sister are alive. I’m alive. None of us can handle losing you.”

  “But you just said before that we can’t go to Oden. I’ll still never see them again, so they’ve already lost me, and I’ve lost them.”

  “But I’m here, and I need you with me, not in your Heaven where you’re untouchable to me. We’ll figure something out, I promise. Just no more dark thoughts, okay? We don’t go looking for any fights, and our one priority is getting off Roth.”

  “It’s not fair to leave everyone here. We have to get Earth back.”

  “It’s not possible, I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not sure that’s good enough, not now,” I admit, knowing if I manage to leave here with Marduke and escape this hell that is the invasion and the aftermath of it all, I won’t ever stop seeing the faces of those we left behind. Not only everyone that I love, but strangers, too.

  His body tenses again, his arms locking around me, and a rumble erupts from his chest. “I’ll get you off this planet and to safety, no matter what,” he promises, although it comes out sounding more like a threat.

  “I want to go home, Marduke. I want to go to Earth. Can you promise me that?”

  He doesn’t answer, and I know he can’t. If Earth is lost to us forever, then what do I do? Roth is awful, and I hate this place, but I think, deep down, my biggest problem with Roth is that it isn’t home. It isn’t Earth. I can’t ever accept this place as being my new home. What’s more, no matter what planet I go to, I’ll feel the same.