Steel Horizon

Chapter Fifteen

"You have to be careful. There's probably another Scrapper around here somewhere."

I allowed myself to show a bit of a smile. "No, it's dead already. I'm sure Jude can tell you about it." I looked away from Kaileb and caught Jude's eye. He nodded once and I knew he wouldn't tell them about what the Scrapper told us—nobody else needed to know about Jude's arm. His voice drifted in after me as I went inside, relaying what had happened.

I knew exactly what I was looking for.

The weapon lay across the room, near the back wall where an overturned rack had thrown its contents all over the floor. I crouched over the pistol, not ready to touch it. It looked exactly like something they would make—so out of this world it didn't belong in it. The silver metal was smooth and unblemished, identical to Jude's arm, like it was impossible to be scratched or broken.

Even though I saw the similarity between their weapons and machinery, both strange and foreign, there was still a resemblance to our guns here on Earth. Same shape and size; same purpose. Some of them kill, but some of them shoot out something else, making us immobile until they could restrain us. Just like the thing that was shot into my neck to paralyze me. Between their guns and nets, it was hard to escape once they had their eye on you.

I touched the muzzle of the pistol, where it widened more than it should, feeling the cold steel which sent a shiver down my spine.

I picked it up.

I stared at it.

The weight felt good in my hands—a feeling of being able to defend myself. A couple of small gears were connected to the trigger, next to a small switch. I looked closer and saw there were two options. I didn't recognize the symbols. Since the Scrapper obviously wanted to capture Elliot and Kaileb, I figured the switch was on the one that didn't kill.

The temptation to slip into my bag and use their weapon against them was strong. But I didn't want to become like them. Even using their weapons gave me a bad taste in my mouth. I hid it underneath a pile of boxes, hoping nobody would see it.

A soft kick thudded from the other side of the wall. I listened and heard another. The sound reminded me of Luke when he would throw a tennis ball against the other side of my wall. Mom would always yell upstairs for him to stop, and he would for about five minutes, then he would start back up again.

I stepped towards the door on my right—a storage closet by the looks of it—being careful to stay quiet. I pushed the door open, and when nothing moved towards me, I stepped into the darkness. When my eyes quickly adjusted to the change in light, I could see the room was small and orderly, and the only things out of place were two people sitting in the corner. The guy was slumped, as if unconscious, but the other—a girl—stared back at me with as much uncertainty as I did. She had long dark hair, pulled back into a ponytail that should've been fixed days ago. I guessed she was the same age as Jude and I. They were bound and gagged, unable to move from the place the Scrapper had left them.

I could hear myself calling for Jude, but I don't remember doing it. Closing the few feet between us, I kneeled down next to the girl and pulled the gag from her mouth. Her eyes were still wide with fear, and I knew if her hands weren't behind her back, they would've been shaking.

"Are they gone?" she asked, her words cracking. Her throat sounded dry.

"Yes, they're gone." I pulled a pocketknife from my coat and freed her ankles. I was leaning behind her, trying to get to her hands, when I heard Kaileb and Jude come into the room.

"Morgan, what—" Jude stopped talking.

"I don't know," I said. "I just found them." After the girl's hands were freed I stood up and faced him. "I'm guessing the Scrappers were waiting to capture more humans before transporting them to wherever they had in mind. Why else would they keep them in here and then set more traps?"