The Sympathizer

Chapter 1

Blood drips down the side of my face, like a snake slithering past my earlobe, down my cheeks and then my neck. I resist the urge to wipe the sensation away and close my eyes to control my breathing.

The alien's blood is putrid and stale even though freshly drawn when I severed one of their limbs to escape. Its smell lingers in my nose making me want to wash myself repeatedly but I'm currently suspended in the air, roughly twenty feet from the rocky surface below.

I tuck the documents I stole under my arm pit and loosen my arm that is currently holding my body weight. It's begun to grow stiff, I have a feeling I'm going to have to move quickly before my arm goes to sleep.

The armed guards are still looking for me, but their urgent voices are faraway. I doubt they'd find me here anytime soon. No one comes this way unless they're looking for a quick death.

I glance around one of the legendary caverns of Scythia, a planet of turbulent winds and equally tempestuous leaders. They've been planning a coup for a long time, an attack on one of Pluto's largest army bases in Taygetha.

I have all the details copied into a little chip nicely tucked into my waterproof breather suit pocket. They weren't too happy that a fourteen year old giddy little teenager had fooled them into thinking she didn't know a thing about computers.

You see that's the thing about male chauvinism, it exists in so many parts of the universe. In Scythia, the women aren't allowed to work, only nurture and foster their children so no one batted an eye when I wandered around the control centre while my General parents met with their leaders formally.

My pigtails have come undone and my face is now splattered in green blood. If the leaders who overlooked me saw me now... I have to stifle a smile just thinking about it.

A sound echoes across the hollow walls, like the wail of something old and dark and hungry. I swallow down my nerves and look around me, searching for the nearest exits.

I can't go back, the army officers will be waiting for me and since this is part of my training, no Plutonian officers will be there to help.

I look ahead at the sliver of light peaking from the ceiling. That seems like the only plausible route. Something moves in my periphery and my heart rate picks up.

There have been stories of the monsters that lurk in the caverns of Scythia, long bodied creatures with teeth so long and sharp, no one ever escapes them. That's why no one ever enters these caves.

Until now.

I tuck the documents securely and place my palm over the drive in my pocket for reassurance. Everything's intact so I release a cable tie and aim it at the wall across from me.

I check the tension of the wire before fastening a tiny magnetised pulley that will bring me to the other side. Once that's secure I release my hand, feeling the tiny pin and needle like sensation reverberate throughout my arm. I shake it out quickly and thrust myself forward.

I push forward and move fast, hoping to reach the hole in the wall before whatever creature lurks here does. My body is light, propelling me forward fast enough, I see the hole in the wall, the size large enough for me to run through.

I am so close I could reach out to it but then something long, black and sharp unfurls before me and with a flick of its finger cuts the wire in front of me like it was made of paper.

I fall to the ground, hard and fast, my heart in my throat. I don't look down, instead I shoot out another cable tie to the far wall, the jerking movement it causes nearly rips out my arm but it slows my fall just enough that I don't crash into tiny little pieces.