HONRIDS

Escape

(Leri)

The haul from the wreckage was great. Not only was there food and medical supplies, but state of the art human weaponry! The haven officials confiscated them saying that they should be locked up, and only were to be used in an emergency. I managed to grab some blankets and a med kit before the rest of the haven had stripped it clean. I had just been given my own den in the haven, meaning I had literally nothing but a four room space with a hand pumped spigot for water and a toilet. I spread the blankets out over the sandstone floor, making myself a warm place to sleep. As I got ready to try to get some rest, I heard a knock at the door.

I opened it up to my little sister holding a basket of food and scrap metal.

"Mommy said you would need these!" She said sweetly. I smiled at her.

"I do! Thank you Eva!" I said happily.

"Leri! Did you hear that we caught a round ear?" I put my gifts down behind the door and returned quickly.

"A human?" I asked in shock.

"Mmhm! He crawled in here during the salvage! They took him to the infirmary and I really want to meet him! Mommy wouldn't take me, but she said you would!" Now I get it, the basket was my payment for babysitting Eva!

"Alright, but don't be upset if the guard says no." I lifted her up on my shoulders as we walked down to the infirmary. The guard up front was short and very well built.

"Excuse me, but we were wondering if Eva could meet the visitor?" I asked politely. I knew the answer would be no, but there was no harm in asking.

"Sure, just try to get on his good side so he will tell us what happened up there when we ask. He's too trained to give in to torture, so we have to get it out of him through persuasion."

I was shocked to say the least. I had expected to be sent off with a disappointed Eva, but instead I was meeting a human. The guard led us down the tunnel and he unlocked a door and let us in. As I entered, the guard shut and locked the door behind me. I swallowed hard as I walked into the room. I put Eva down on the ground.

"Stay behind me Eva." I said quietly

"I'm not going to attack you ya know." I jumped at the voice, and fell over at the humans feet. I was scared as fuck. A human around 20 stood above me as I lew on the floor, helpless. His hand came down, and I braced myself for the worst. Except the pain never came. I opened my eyes to see him offering me his hand.

"You don't need to be so afraid of me you know. I have seen things a lot weirder that this from people with round ears." He said jokingly.

I reluctantly accepted his hand as he helped me up.

"Hi mister! I'm Eva! What's your name?" Of course my sister was as friendly as ever.

"Well hello Eva, my name is Jace. Your the first person to know my name down here, you know that?" He seemed friendly enough, but there was a slight hesitation behind it, as if he didn't trust us. At least the feeling was mutual. For some reason, in my nervous state, I just blurted out the question that had been nagging in the back of my mind.

"What was the thing that attacked you?" I covered my mouth after I said it, shocked at my own impulsiveness. He looked at me carefully.

"You mean it wasn't you?" He asked suspiciously.

"If we wanted to kill you, do you think you'd still be alive?" I asked as my sister chattered on about her new toy. He shrugged.

"Keep in mind I'm in a holding facility. If I know one thing, it's that once I give you what you want, I'm dead." He said with a dark look in his eyes. Then after I thought about it for a while, I realized he was right. Once he was of no use to us, best case scenario he gets thrown back out into the desert to starve or die of heat exhaustion. Worst case, we kill him on the spot. If he cooperated, he died, and he knew that. It was then that I realized that the guard was waiting for us with the door open.

"Curfew is in ten, best get going now." The guard said.

"Bye bye!" Eva said as I led her out.

As the guard locked the door, I noticed my hairpin had fallen out. Oh well, I'm sure the med kit would have a few.

"Did he tell you anything?" The guard asked.

"His name's Jace, and he thinks the only thing keeping him alive is what he knows. Somehow we need to convince him otherwise."

(Jace)

I had been counting the seconds to know that within the next few minutes, the guards would be changing shifts. The eldest of my two visitors had lost a hairpin when she fell, and luckily I was able to conceal it under my shoe before she noticed. I quickly slid the hairpin into the lock, pushing the cylinders down one by one. I heard a click, and the door opened. The guard was asleep, allowing me to close the door and sneak through the tunnels. To make a long story short, I got lost. I wandered around for about an hour before I heard a patrol. I looked around for a door without a lock, and only one door opened. I quietly shut it, and looked around to see a very blank room with a pile of blankets in the corner.