Planet X - Michael Jan Friedman [46]
Erid’s father shook his head. “We’re your parents! We can’t just leave you like this!”
Suddenly, a brilliant beam of energy shot out from one of his fingertips and struck his mother in the shoulder. She cried out in agony and fell spinning to the floor, where her blood began to pool around her.
Erid wanted to reach out to her, to help her, but he couldn’t—because more of the bright, blazing beams were springing into existence. More and more and more …
“No!” he screamed.
… and realized he wasn’t in his parents’ house anymore. He was somewhere else. In a bed somewhere. And someone was embracing him, looking needfully into his eyes.
Corba, he thought. I’m with Corba. The beams … my hurting my mother … it was just a nightmare.
But something was wrong in the real world, too—he could see it in Corba’s expression. She seemed frightened by something, and Erid knew she didn’t frighten easily.
“What is it?” he asked, blinking away the last vestiges of sleep.
She pointed to the window. “Look.”
Erid pulled away his covers and made his way to the window. It was still dark out, but as he got closer, he could see a flash of light. It blinded him for a moment.
When his vision cleared, he was greeted by a sight that made all his experiences to that point seem commonplace and mundane. A large vehicle of some kind was blocking half the street. Nearby, three bulky, alien figures in battle armor seemed to be standing guard while two others carried unconscious Xhaldians toward the vehicle.
Erid recognized the unconscious ones. They were two of the transformed who had escaped from the fortress with him—the woman who turned invisible and the man who could grow twelve feet tall.
He didn’t understand. What was happening? Who were the aliens?
Suddenly, he heard Paldul’s words in his head. They throbbed with urgency, forcing Erid to hold his head in pain.
“Someone’s found us,” thought the telepath. “They’ve broken into the first building and dragged our comrades out. The rest of us have to get away while we still can.”
“Can’t we fight them?” Erid wondered back, his heart beating hard against his ribs.
“You don’t understand,” Paldul thought, his anxiety coming through in waves. “They’ve got stun weapons that put to shame those we saw in the fortress. We’ve got no choice but to run.”
Erid opened his eyes and saw that Corba had been subjected to the same painful announcement. She looked at him.
“Wehavetogo,” she rasped.
“Yes,” he said.
They pulled on their clothes as quickly as they could, then ran down the hallway and found the stairs. Erid’s legs felt heavy, unresponsive. Corba could have sped ahead of him if she had wanted, but she lingered so she wouldn’t leave him behind.
On the stair, they found two of the other transformed—Inarh and the woman who drew energy from things around her. They glanced at Erid and Corba, but they didn’t say anything. They just made it down the stairs as quickly as they possibly could.
When they reached the ground floor, they crossed the common area and headed for the building’s back door. Corba got to it first. She peeked through the oval window set into it, then turned to the rest of them.
“It’sclearbackhere,” she said.
That was all they needed to hear. The four of them burst out of the door, followed the alley behind it to a perpendicular alley, and got as far away from the building as they could.
Erid wondered what had happened to Leyden and Denara. For all he knew, they had been among the first contacted by Paldul, since they were among Rahatan’s favorites. If that were so, they were out on the streets already, concealing themselves from the aliens.
In any case, he couldn’t worry about them at the moment. Not when he had his hands full worrying about himself and Corba.
Propelled by fear, Erid ran as quickly as he could on his leaden legs—and he didn’t look back. Not even once.
Chapter Seventeen
THE MOMENT SOVAR’S, shift ended, he went looking for Robinson. He felt he had to share what he had learned with someone,