Tabitha Chirrick - Overshadowed

The ceiling was low inside. A lone light hung from it, casting dull yellow rays over the dirt floor. A pair of rovers sat parked in the corner. Small things, but they would beat walking.

“Don’t even think about it,” Shy said, shouldering past. “We aren’t taking one of the vehicles. It could give us away.”

“We’re walking?” Tayel asked. Her legs threatened to collapse under her.

“That’s the idea.” Shy led the way into the tunnel entrance past the rovers.

Tayel couldn’t see the end of it. “So where does this lead, exactly?”

“The woods. They draw the fuel lines through here,” Shy said, running her hand along one of the large tubes built into the wall. “The dock workers fill barrels sometimes as well — probably for the smaller sub-transports in each shuttle.”

“Is it possible we’ll run into workers in the woods then? Or this path?” Tayel glanced backward.

“I suppose it’s possible, but I’ve taken this route a few times in the last week to study its reliability. It’s sound enough. Workers seem to use it once every three days for basic maintenance.”

“What happens if we do see someone?” Tayel couldn’t help asking. Jace’s warnings of life imprisonment and death played over and over in her head.

Shy answered with silence, which wasn’t exactly comforting. They walked for a while, until, after a turn, Tayel could see a door at the end of the tunnel. It was an enormous steel thing, out of place in the cave. At least they were almost there. In between thoughts of prison food and morality, a dull rumble filled her head. She frowned.

Shy stopped. “Wait.”

Fehn halted, as did Tayel. Her heart pounded as the rumble grew louder. The ground trembled with the same frequency as the sound. It had to be a rover. People were coming.

“Xite!” Shy spat. “Go! Run!”

Tayel sprinted. She kept her weight on her toes so she wouldn’t make much noise, and pumped her arms until they burned. Her head spun. The sound of the rover followed them up the incline, growing louder with each passing second. Tayel should have listened to Jace. She’d go to prison, just like he’d warned.

She reached the door exhausted, every breath an effort. She pressed her hand to her chest and heaved. The rover roared louder.

Shy smashed a sequence of numbers into the keypad. It blinked red. “Xite!”

“Hurry it up, Shy,” Fehn growled.

Dim white light appeared in the tunnel behind them — headlights.

“Shy.” Tayel’s voice sounded far away, her head suddenly weightless.

Shy punched in another number. The keypad turned green, and the door unlocked. Tayel stumbled out into the open air. Voices carried on a conversation up ahead, next to a pair of giant fuel tanks. The beam of a flashlight appeared, tracing a path toward the door as it closed. Tayel leapt into a bush on the right. Small branches gouged into her exposed skin. As the flashlight glazed over where she hid, she stopped breathing. Shy and Fehn were not with her.

“Vern?” the voice ahead called. “That you?

Her heart would burst from her chest at any moment, she was certain.

“That’s weird.”

The flashlight bobbled as footsteps drew closer. Light penetrated Tayel’s sanctuary, seeping through the leaves and making patchy shadows on her clothes. Every nick and mark itched like crazy. The door to the tunnel slammed open and she bit her inner cheek to stifle a yell. A rover rolled into the grass. The flashlight beam departed the bush as the man who carried it greeted the vehicle.

“Hey, Vern.”

“Don’t ‘hey, Vern” me. You two are hours ahead of schedule. Making me get my ass up early…”

Tayel lost track of whatever else the two men said to one another and just focused on her breathing. She rummaged around inside the bush, slowly moving her limbs through the tiny branches and wincing as they dug into her arms. The brush behind her was too thick to slip into — she wouldn’t fit. The next closest bet was a shrub a few yards away, but it would require a dash too daring to reach. The man with the flashlight hadn’t spotted her, so maybe she’d be okay just staying put. She didn’t know what the guards were doing, but they were taking forever. Her whole body itched with cuts and her muscles seemed permanently flexed.

Finally, the rover roared back to life and drove toward the door. Tayel froze as the headlight beams hit her hiding spot, but the vehicle kept going. It rose and fell over a small rock, and a barrel tipped over the side. It fell to the grass with a thump and then a swish swish sound as fuel splashed around inside.

“Dammit,” one of the guards mumbled.

Tayel swallowed.

Two men stepped out of the rover and stood beside the barrel, their feet inches from her face. She closed her eyes.

They lifted their fuel, loaded it into the back of the rover, and then they were gone, the door slamming shut behind them. Air exploded from her lungs and she burst from the bush, collapsing into the cool grass.

“Red.” Fehn stumbled out from the brush on the other side of the door. “You okay?”

She took a long breath. “Yeah.” The door stood shut, but at any moment the guards could decide they needed another barrel’s worth of fuel. “Let’s just hurry up.”

“Come on, then.” Shy pulled away from the other bush, swiping twigs off her arms and out of her long hair.

“I thought you said you’d studied the routes,” Fehn spat.

“You heard the driver; they’re working ahead of schedule. We all knew this was a risk. Are you two going to mope about it, or should we get going?”

Answers left unspoken, she led the way to the fuel tanks, opened the gate surrounding them, and instructed Tayel to secure a hose to one of the nozzles. Tayel’s palms sweat while turning the unlocked valve, and her pulse pounded in her ears. Her eyes refused to leave the door to the tunnel. Any moment it could open. Any moment she could be caught. She paced, willing the fuel to pump faster. Fehn gave the barrel a little shake and nodded. Relief flooded her and she closed the valve, pulled the hose, and closed the gate behind her.

It took forever to push the damn thing up the mountain. She couldn’t judge the exact time, but it took longer than an hour. She thought being away from the fuel tanks would ease her anxiety, but it didn’t. After all, she had to go back down there. They would have to go through the tunnel again, and then the restricted area at the docks. She wanted to cry. Maybe trusting Shy had been too big a risk.

At the top of the mountain, Tayel collapsed. The barrel rolled to a stop in the middle of the flat clearing.

Shy made a disgruntled sound. “Come on, Tayel. I thought you were athletic. Did you get enough sleep?”

Tayel moaned, “No,” with her face still in the grass.

“Stay here. Fehn and I will fill up my ship and I’ll find some water.” She paused. “What’s wrong with you?”

Tayel rolled her head to the side, but Shy wasn’t looking at her. She was looking at Fehn. His head turned, and his back fell from the release of what must have been a heavy breath. His lips pressed together to form a thin, angry line.

“The markings on your ship,” he said.

Tayel lifted her head to see what he was talking about. A rust-colored, medium-sized fighter sat in the clearing, its angular wings locked to the sides in landed position. A bright red symbol with three fangs surrounding a sphere stood out on the hull — the Sinosian raider insignia. Tayel’s jaw unhinged. The ship. The clothes. The story. It all made sense.

Shy was a raider.

“Hang on.” Shy put her hands up in a passive position. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to give you a bad first impression, but yes, I’m — I’m the raider princess.”