I settle down, my back against a collection of “Q” words as the other refugees shuffle and retreat back into their little homes. It reminds me of the way fish and other little animals swim about coral, sometimes darting out to grab a bite of someone else but hiding most of the time in the folds and curls of their world.
I could be happy and comfortable here. I’m not going to make the same mistake I made on loser moon. I’m going to stay put. As if that will make any difference. I know what I am. I’m a pawn being thrust about by the universe, hoping to find some happiness.
* * *
“Here she is.”
I look up from my little corner to Zed’s voice. The first thing I notice is that Zed is not alone. He has come to me with a small platoon of his enemies. Aberks. Un-be-fucking-lievable. I try to hide, but there’s suddenly nowhere to go. The refugee aliens don’t want to deal with these spindly bastards any more than I do. They have shuttered the doors and windows of their book houses, disappeared like the inhabitants of reefs when predators approach.
“I thought you said we would be safe here!”
I am confused. At first, I assumed they must have grabbed Zed and put a weapon on him and made him lead them to me. Now, I realize something else is going on. Zed looks at ease. Actually, he looks incredibly happy.
“We also use the library as a safe, neutral space for trades,” he explains. “We usually use the parking lot, but I wanted something from the vending machines. So…”
“Okay…”
“You’re the trade,” he says. “They’ve offered me a very great deal of money for you and frankly, I’m taking it.”
He’s betrayed me.
What’s going on now is some kind of fucked-up, twisted version of previous past events. Time is all fucked up. Zed is all fucked up. And frankly, fuck this.
I jump as high as I can vertically, grab a shelf and scramble up the stacks. Bookshelves are basically just ladders for books. I move faster than even I expected me to move, quicker than they or I thought I could move. The stacks are very tall, at least twenty feet high. I am at the top of this stack before the Aberks can shout out in dismay, and before Zed can catch me.
“Fuck that guy,” I curse under my breath. The top of the stacks are about two feet wide, which is more than wide enough to traverse easily except for the fact they’re twenty feet in the air, which makes absolutely every step completely terrifying.
I’m going to escape, and then I don’t know what I’m doing to do. The love of my life reincarnated as an asshole after I fucked up and got us eaten by a squid. Maybe this is the universe’s version of revenge. Maybe I fucked around and found out. I don’t know. I know that on either side of me there is a vast chasm of knowledge. If I topple over the edge of it, I’m done for. But if I let myself be sold, I’m done for too.
I run along the top of the stack. Until I reach the end of it. And then I realize that this plan wasn’t a plan. All I’ve done is take myself to the very edge of the stack of books and found a cliff of information. I look back over my shoulder. I am being pursued. Not by Zed, but by the little gray men with the spindly legs and the big eyes and the ill intent.
There’s nothing for it. I jump. I toss myself into the air and hope that wherever I land will be soft enough to survive.
FLUMPH!
I land in a pile of discarded pages, left there by the same refugees who turn the hardcovers of encyclopedias into building materials. My landing is soft enough to not only survive, but to allow me to keep running. A perfect landing, in other words.
The aliens are not brave enough to make the same jump. They are cowards at their core. They wield powers greater than any I could ever imagine, and yet they are too afraid to leap. This is how I will escape. Not through power, or intellect, but by a willingness to do absolutely anything to get the hell away.
* * *
Zed
I cannot help laughing at this turn of events. The human is leading her new owners on a very merry chase. I can hear their little voices, squeaky and distant. One of the Aberks is hanging from a shelf halfway up the bookcase, having found himself unable to continue to ascend, and equally unable to descend.
They were not prepared for the human to attempt an escape. They expected her to just sit there and accept being the product of the transaction. That’s not how humans work. It’s definitely not how this one works. I have to admire her. I am impressed by her refusal to simply submit to the wishes of more numerous and powerful beings.