Perdition's Child

Chapter 25

After being frisked and having their coms taken they were led to a room with separate cells. Their captor ignored Lyshja's explanations of how they were completely allowed to be here and if they disappeared there'd be a massive search and other such bullshit. Mehk wished he'd succeeded in blowing his brains out before, since at least he wouldn't have taken her with him...

Lyshja's arguments degenerated into furious yowls once she was behind the barred door of her cell, but Mehk ignored her to examine the space for escape possibilities. There didn't seem to be any.

Someone in a cell further up yelled, "Would you shut up!? Some of us are trying to get some quality shut-eye before we die!"

Mehks' ears twitched in shock, "Vega!?"

Silence, then, "Holy shit, you have the shittiest luck of anyone, anywhere, ever, after me."

"Yeah, I know. Are you alone? What happened to everyone else? Is Ritcha still alive?

"Uh... Just me, and Ritcha's alive, yeah, and most everyone else is alive too. Except the commander got pretty fucked up in the face. If you think he didn't like lellians before, just wait until you see him next." Vega paused, then added. "Irika was fine last I saw her."

"Irika? Is that the alien Mehk was out drunk in the desert pining for? What's she like?" Lyshja experimentally bit at the bars, but they'd been built to keep frantic lellians and aliens in place so it did no good. She moved on to other ideas.

"Really Mehk? That's pretty sad, why didn't you just call her?" No one did patronizing like Vega.

Growling, he wished he was face to face with the young human so he could bite his nose. "Because Darkei deleted the contact list off my phone and no one from Pestilence has called me. Which is really bad right now, because the very next time I fall asleep the virus is going to suck out my mind and take over my body since Tes never messaged me about those treatment options."

"Oh, shit. Rough."

"Yeah, kinda." No point taking out on Vega though. He leaned back against the door. "How long have you been in here? When are you getting rescued?"

"They'll come, they know I'm on Lequin. Hopefully I get rescued before they cut out my heart. That Ritcha guy is fucked up." His voice cracked, and Mehk was suddenly reminded that the human was even younger than Lyshja. Much too young to be fighting the worst sort of rhoha his species could throw.

"Hey, don't worry. We'll get out of this somehow." It was hard to sound convincing when you were trying not to let yourself howl in fear.

"Thanks for the pep talk. Especially since you're apparently going to be some sort of dead next time you sleep. That means a lot, really." He started pacing, Mehk could hear his boots clicking against the concrete floor. Light by human standards, and even. At least he didn't sound injured.

"Ritcha?" Lyshja perked up, "He's my uncle! If I talk to him, I'm sure he'll let us go. Do you idiots keep forgetting who I am or something? This isn't that hard, I'm a pretty big deal."