CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Maren set the doors to lock again after she’d left then peered into the hallway beyond before leading Gin outside.

“So,” Gin said, a coy note to her voice as the reinforced barrier pulled closed behind them, “any exciting news you want to share with your best friend?”

Maren felt her face turn red as she smothered a grin. “Later. Once we’re no longer in imminent danger of death.”

“Fair enough.”

The station’s hallways felt even emptier than they had before. Maren led Gin towards the communications room, her gun turned on and clasped in both hands. She tried to guess where the station’s other three occupants might be: Suriya had left the communications room, seemingly as a result of the announcement. Did she hope to get to the ship and make it off the station alive? If so, she would probably be suiting up in the airlock.

Mark and Holly had also left their camp. She had a horrible premonition that they were intending to intercept her on the way to the communications room. If she’d been able to afford a couple more minutes, she would have taken a less direct route, using the back ways and circling through the maintenance sections to stay off the main path, but by the sound of it, that ship wasn’t going to hang around for long.

Her plan was simple to the point of stupidity: run as fast as she could, shoot anything that moved, and hope they got to the control room in one piece and before their only hope of getting off the station left.

She ran quickly but quietly, rolling her feet with each step to muffle the sound. Gin, who had never trained for combat and wasn’t used to running, wasn’t so good at being stealthy. Her footsteps echoed through the empty hallways like a beating drum.

No point worrying about it, Maren reminded herself. They knew you were coming as soon as you opened the door.

She rounded a corner and stopped, holding out one hand to keep Gin behind herself. She’d caught a flash of dark motion coming from a doorway ahead of them. Maren glanced past the door; the communications room was at the end of the hallway, tantalisingly close.

“Jeeze,” she hissed. Every nerve of her body felt alive as she tried to figure out what to do. They could make a dash for it and hope for the best or turn around and take a different route—

“This is Captain Matthews,” the voice said through the speakers. “My crew and I are preparing to leave. If there is anyone alive on this station, please signal immediately.”

No time. Gotta risk it.

“Run as fast as you can,” Maren hissed to Gin, giving her a shove to bring her abreast. Maren ran beside her, keeping herself between the doorway and her friend, her gun trained on the dark opening. As they drew closer, not trying to mask their footsteps anymore, Maren saw motion inside the shadowy room, but by then, it was too late to stop. They were nearly at the door then abreast of it, and all of a sudden, they were on the other side without the monster having a chance to attack.