Human

|| nine ||

Before the door shut behind us, I gave Zelda one last look. Her hands gripped the front of her shirt while her mouth thinned out in a straight line. Looking in her eyes, what she'd said at the table repeated in my head: I need you to be careful while you're here.

"Million is this way." Riddick's voice, heavy with irritation, rang in my ears as I turned left around the eating area and the Astorians who flocked with plates in their hands. I kept close to him, hands folded behind my back just as he did his. The Astorians we passed smiled at me, eyeing me closely.

I couldn't fake a smile so perfect. I don't know what they saw, but the way my lip twitched, I knew I was two seconds away from a stroke.

"We've replayed the recording on your tags, as you requested. Seems you're right about Kole." My eyes dug into the back of Riddick's head as he took us into a wide hallway with walls made entirely out of glass. At first, when we entered it, I saw nothing but the exterior walls of the Colony ship. Larger than any human Colony, the ship looked like it went on for miles. Then I thought, it fucking had to, the rooms were huge as shit.

"And?" I cleared my throat as I looked down at my shoes. "Is he free?"

"Not quite." I looked up again, expecting Riddick to finally look at me, but he didn't. He kept walking, head high and faced ahead. I happened to look at his hands and caught a ring on his finger, with a jewel similar to the one on Zelda's chain. "He isn't entirely innocent."

I bit the inside of my cheek. I'd heard that so many times in my life. There were days when my morning meals were taken from me because another human—a mid-number—broke the rules and I just so happened to be near him. What did Riddick say earlier? Guilty by association.

"Why?" Here I go. "Because he, what, used his band to open the door? Ever think Axel intimidated him and made him do it?"

Riddick's steps finally slowed, just as the scenery outside the windows broke from metal to the view of the sky. Sunlight hit my face with rays so warm I stopped to look at it. The clouds were beautiful, and with us so high up, for a moment, I honestly thought I was flying.

"Are you saying Axel forced him to do this?" Riddick stepped in front of me, blocking my view. "Honestly made him do it?"

My hands formed fists, but with them behind me, he couldn't see. I lifted my chin to look up at him better and cleared my throat. "Excuse my language, but Axel is a fucking abusive prick. Not saying humans don't deserve a whipping or two—hell, there were times when I did deserve three—but Axel, he's a-whole-nother story. The Elders fear him..."

"Elders?" Riddick nodded his head slowly, looking down, then out the window. "The Firsts still have fear?"

The Firsts. I'd heard that term before. While we humans looked up to the oldest of our kind with respect—myself included, despite how much I hated their shit—the Astorians saw them as the first to be placed within colonies. From our teachings, there were two thousand Firsts placed within ten colonies. In our colony, after fifty-five years, there were forty-two—or, forty-one, if you removed me from the group.

Everyone else was an After, as the Astorians said. Me? Well, as Riddick turned to continue down the hall and I followed close, I figured I was really fucking special. And I wondered, who else was special with me?

"Fine, we'll go with your story, Jake," Riddick said, glancing back at me. "Million has already decided not to kill him, so you've saved a guard today. Now, Axel, I think he cursed your name twice when we locked him in chains. He hasn't died yet, but..." We reached the end of the hall, where the windows ended and met the sides of a large double-door. "He will. Soon."