Renegade Runner by Nicole Conway (ebook reader with highlight function .txt) 📗

stormy smell of his saturated my nose and made my thoughts scramble.

“No emergency release,” he concluded as he wrapped his big hands around the central strap that spanned across my lap at my hips. “Brace yourself.”

“Wait, what’re you going to—?”

He gave the strap one quick jerk. It snapped like someone yanking the tags off a new shirt.

I fell, barely catching myself as I smacked right into him.

My yelp of surprise and terror must’ve made him look up at the worst possible moment.

Our faces collided. My mouth mashed right against his.

For a single, solitary second, we stared at one another in dumbfounded horror. Then he practically dropped me onto my feet just as I threw my hands against his chest and shoved away as hard as I could.

He sputtered and spat, curling his lip down at me. “Ugh. Come on. Really? Disgusting.”

My sentiments exactly.

I wiped my mouth and glared right back. Seriously, where did he get off blaming me for that, anyway? He was the one who’d broken my belt and just let me drop like that. And with no warning? It was at least half his fault. More than half, honestly. I couldn’t control where I fell.

“Shoulda just let you hang there. At least then you’d be outta my way.” He went on muttering as he muscled his way past me into the back half of the ship. “Useless, overly-chatty human.”

I leaned away as far as I could so I didn’t have to touch him anymore than necessary. “Yeah, well, for the record, I think you’re pretty disgusting, too. Try anything like that for real and I’ll kick you right in your alien balls,” I snapped.

His only reply was a snorting, scoffing sound as he stomped away. Probably to assess the damage to our craft. I watched from a distance, still dabbing at the bloody cut on my face as he dug around in all the smashed-up pipes, torn cables, crunched metal plating, and splintered glass.

“How bad is it?” I finally asked when he sank back onto his rear end amidst the debris and let his elbows rest on his knees.

Part of me already knew the answer. It didn’t take a mechanic to tell that the sparking, smoldering, mashed-up runner craft we were sitting in was basically a dead shell now. We were screwed.

“Dead in the water.” He sighed and combed some of his sweaty hair away behind his pointed ears. “Main power cell is fractured, so even if the rest of the ship were working, we wouldn’t be going anywhere. Right now, the emergency backups are the only thing keeping the atmosphere in here stable. Should last for a few hours. Other than that, we’ve got nothing. No life support systems. No shields. Nothing.”

My footsteps crunched over the bits and pieces as I came to stand next to him.

“What we do have is, mmm, probably fifteen minutes left before sunrise.” He bowed his head and shook it slightly. “If we’re lucky.”

We so weren’t.

My grumpy giant partner and I lingered there in total silence, him sitting in the rubble and me standing close by, looking around at the dark inside of our ruined runner craft. The only light came in through the windshield, half of which was covered by what appeared to be a giant rock or boulder. Was that what we had smashed into while we’d been tumbling?

My heart sank all the way to the soles of my boots. This hunk of space garbage was basically our shared coffin now.

“Phox,” he murmured suddenly.

I stared down at the top of his head. “What?”

“My name,” he explained, still grumbling like a huge sulky kid. “It’s Phox.”

I arched one of my eyebrows. Why was he telling me this? Was he about to launch into some kind of we’re-about-to-die life confession? Oh god, I hoped not. I was not prepared to be anyone’s deathbed priest.

“You know, just in case you feel like appealing to any human deities on my behalf.” He cast me another sideways smirk.

I rolled my eyes. “Considering all of humanity was apparently designed and planted by some kind of super-alien race, I’m guessing all bets for human deities are officially off now.”

He chuckled and looked down. “Fair enough.”

I crossed my arms and turned away, not wanting to risk him seeing my expression as I swallowed hard against the emotion rising in my throat. “Brinna,” I offered stiffly. It was only fair, right? If we were swapping names, I should return the courtesy. Besides, it was better than having him continue to call me “human” all the time.

Phox glanced my way again, studying me for a few seconds before he pursed his lips and gave a small nod. “Okay, then, Brinna. You ready to try not to die?”

I frowned. “What do you mean?” Wasn’t it hopeless? Our ship was basically rubble now. We weren’t going anywhere and the sunrise was approaching.

He pointed upward. “Hear that?”

I listened. But there was nothing—only silence.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Exactly. It’s too quiet out there. Meaning the rest of the racers are either long gone, dead, or crashed and stranded like us.” He pushed himself up, dusting off the butt of his suit and heading for the door of our ship. “So we’re gonna have to do this fast.”

I hedged in closer, my heart pumping in a wild frenzy of renewed hope and pure adrenaline. “Do what?”

His expression steeled, his jaw tensing as he reached for the edge of the door and braced like he was about to rip it open by force. I had no doubt he could. “Simple,” he said as he widened his stance and started to pull. “We’re gonna steal someone else’s ship.”

11

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN

Opening the topside door of our ship let in a blast of hot, arid wind like staring into an open oven. I snatched back, grimacing at the intensity as he continued to pry the crumpled door ajar far enough that he would be able to slip out. That was when we both got our