Shadow Cipher

10. Nova

It felt amazing to fly again. If only it were better circumstances. It also made me miss my brother. He would have been so proud to see what I had just done. An emergency landing like that was intense, but I made it seem effortless.

I look over at Red Shadow. I can't believe I sobbed in his arms. How embarrassing. I hate being vulnerable and to be vulnerable like that in front of the man trying to take me to my doom left me with very complicated feelings. I go to my room and grab a bag I had packed before the whole Kevin Fiasco. It has everything I would need for a trek through the dangerous forest of the Death Planet. I even found a good combat knife and some grav boots. It also has some rations and canteens, clothes, water purifying tablets, a first aid kit and other necessities.

When I start walking to the exit hatch, Red Shadow appears in front of me blocking the way. "No," he says in a gruff tone. Seriously? I'm so not in the mood to deal with this s**t.

"Yes."

"No," he insists, refusing to move. "You are not going out onto the DEATH planet and getting yourself killed."

"Now, later, what does it matter? Other than that it might effect your pay day?" I snark back.

He just glares at me. "I happen to enjoy my pay days, thank you very much. Now go back and get comfortable while I get us ready to take off again."

"It'll take days before the ship's solar panels take in enough energy to be ready to go." I say it so matter of factly, there's no way he could argue with me.

"I don't care, you aren't leaving this damn ship!" he shouts.

I try not to, but my eyes tear up, and I feel like I'm going to cry again. s**t. Today has been too much. I can't handle this. I can't handle him. I can't handle accepting that one of my oldest friends betrayed me. I can't handle anything right now. So I knee him in the balls. He goes down. I sidestep around him and take off into the forest as fast as I can. I just need to be away from that asshole. I need to be away from everything.

It's been 3 hours according to my data pad, and I haven't seen Red Shadow since the ship. Thank god. Perhaps he got the hint and will leave me alone. Perhaps this is my chance at freedom. Then I hear a twig snap and I turn quickly only to step into a f*****g hunting trap. It lifts me into the air upside down. I keep myself from screaming in case the person who set it is nearby. I must have done something to the god of luck because I hear footsteps before I can cut myself down. I look up, which is actually down in my perspective and feel sweat start to gather on my forehead. I recognize the uniform. It's one of the men from Kevin's ship.

"Looks like we got ourselves a pretty little hacker, boys!" He says, looking me up and down. I'm definitely hating my position because I'm d**k height and I can see he is getting hard. "What should we do with her? Should we have fun before we take her to the boss?" the others around him chuckle and I hear others voicing their agreement from all around me.

Someone takes the rope I'm tied to and spins me, disorienting me. I try to shout, but when I do, the spinning suddenly stops and I have some gross tasting rag being shoved into my mouth. I recognize the taste of the knock out drug and only have a moment to wish I listened to Red Shadow before darkness overtakes me.

I wake up and groan. This is starting to get old. I'm tied to a tree, my head is pounding, I have some intense vertigo, and it's dark outside. I wait for the dizziness to pass and take stock of my situation. Someone undressed me. f**k. I'm still wearing my undergarments though, that's positive at least. It's cold though. There are 5 men around a camp fire. They tied my arms and legs so I'm basically star fished against the tree. They even tied my head so the rope acts like a gag while keeping my head immobilized. This is really bad. I have no way to get out of this. One of the men stands up and walks over to me. He notices I'm awake and takes his gun and rubs it against my cheek. "Finally awake, I see. Good. I didn't want you to miss this."

He then takes his hand and starts to reach for my breasts. He squeezes them hard enough that it hurts. He definitely isn't doing this for my pleasure. He reaches behind me and unhooks my bra. It's cold out, so my n*****s immediately harden in the night air. I shiver. He seems to find joy in my discomfort. He takes my n****e between his fingers and squeezes it hard. Then he takes his gun and rubs it against the other n****e. I refuse to cry, but this is horrible. I have never felt so violated before. His hand reaches for my underwear when a heavy object drops from the tree, right on top of the man's head, knocking him out immediately. It was silent, so none of the others noticed. Red Shadow turns to look at me with a furious expression on his face. "I'm sorry it took me so long," He whispers, "I came as quickly as I could." Then he's untying me and handing me his jacket so that I can cover my exposed body.

I wrap the jacket tightly around me and say, "Thank you for coming."

He nods then looks to the group of men and says, "They are all going to die for this."