BooksBarbecue
Back Containment
Chapters (48)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. TWENTY-NINE
  32. THIRTY
  33. THIRTY-ONE
  34. THIRTY-TWO
  35. THIRTY-THREE
  36. THIRTY-FOUR
  37. THIRTY-FIVE
  38. THIRTY-SIX
  39. THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. THIRTY-NINE
  42. FORTY
  43. FORTY-ONE
  44. FORTY-TWO
  45. FORTY-THREE
  46. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  47. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  48. Copyright

If only that were true. She didn’t understand, and it was my fault. I couldn’t communicate it. Even with my power, I couldn’t have explained the terror of becoming prey, stalked on our own station, knowing that every step might lead to an alien shriek and a claw tearing through your flesh. And before I found the words to describe it, Yang turned her back and walked away.

“Yang!” I roared, lunging after her. I didn’t know what I was going to do, only that I had to make her listen. We couldn’t let what had happened on Sanctuary happen here. I’d die first. “Wait! There’s more to—!”

The guard grabbed me and shoved me. I rebounded and chased after her. The guard jerked his stun gun into play, aiming it straight at my chest. Agony tore through me as my muscles spasmed, sending me twitching to the floor, my teeth snapping shut on my tongue. A sea of blackness surged against me as two of the guards grabbed my elbows and hauled me to my feet. I struggled to speak, but my brain responded sluggishly, fighting the aftereffects of the stun.

Dragging me between them, they prodded Rune forward, leading us in one direction—and Cage in another.

The call is made. It is not answered. It is and it isn’t and the mind is and isn’t and rises and falls, and more awake, more arise, uncurling and unfurling and spreading.

There is no one. The hive is all. The hive is calling. A ripple tears through it. Pain and fear. Unfamiliar. Unpleasant. Unwelcome.

Follow. They have found it. They have set their sights.

Harvesters are gone.

Hunters awaken.

There will be no escape.

SIX

I NEVER ACTUALLY LOST CONSCIOUSNESS from the stun gun blast, but I must have come close. The world swam around me in a disorienting mess. The next thing I knew, I was huddled on a hard bench, Rune crouched beside me, terror in her eyes. “Kenzie!” she cried, her fingers sunk into my neck as she prodded for my pulse. “Come on, Kenz. Talk to me.”

I swallowed painfully. “I’m okay,” I said, or tried to. It felt like I had a mouthful of bloody cotton. A few years earlier, I’d had dental surgery. The laser seal went wrong, and they sliced part of my mouth. All the damage was repaired before I opened my eyes, of course, but they’d packed my cheeks with cotton to absorb any blood, and I’d awoken with this same awful sensation.