She was going to have to open her eyes.
She forced her hands slowly away from her face. Gritting her teeth, she lifted her eyelids. Light lanced into her left eye. She blinked it hard. Her right lid wriggled limply, brushing a cloth padding that pressed against her cheek and temple. They hadn't cut the eyelid away. For some reason that made her feel better.
“Lynn?”
Her working eye saw a pitted, grey cement wall with a blobby shadow falling across it. She lay on a rough cement floor. Her skin prickled against her clean-suit as the cold and an impression of dampness seeped through. Her helmet had been removed. The air around her head and ears was dank and smelled of encroaching mold.
She licked dry lips with an equally dry tongue. “Arron?”
He sighed with relief. “Can you sit up?”
She wanted very much to say no, but instead she tightened her muscles and tried. His hands caught her shoulders and helped her. The world spun. She leaned her head back against the wall and tried to steady her breathing. She kept her eye open. Now that she had her sight back, she didn't want to cut it off.
She could look around a little better. The cell was solid, unpainted concrete. A metal door with a flap-covered slot in the bottom provided the only way in and out. A metal drain had been sunk in the center of the floor. A metal bucket stood in the corner. That was all her one eye could see.
She felt Arron sitting at her right side. Gingerly, she reached up and touched the cloth that wrapped her darkness. It was rough, ragged, and warm. The tang of salt and iron filtered through her nostrils.
“Why'd they …” Arron's hand flicked into her line of sight as he gestured at her.
“Cut out my camera.” Her throat felt like she'd swallowed a river of sand. “Is there anything to drink?”
“No. Sorry.”
She relaxed her neck and let her head turn toward him. He had drawn his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. One sleeve of his shirt had been ripped off at the shoulder, and she knew where her bandage had come from. He still had his helmet on. Hers lay next to him. A thin milky film filled the creases of the clean-suit around his elbows and knees.
Age marks. The clean-suit's organics had about three days of life in them. After that, they dried out and cracked open. Lynn raised her hand and flexed her fingers. A spider-web of white lines creased her palm and fingers.
“Marvelous,” she muttered, and let her head rest against the wall.
“I don't understand.” Arron spoke to the door. “I don't understand how they could do this.”
“Somebody's obviously decided that there's something more important than saving the world, and we got in the way.” Lynn shifted herself gently so she could press more of her back against the wall. “It'll be okay. Trace and R.J. will have already missed me. They'll have Commander Keale and his people out looking for us. We just have to wait it out.”
“I hope they find us before anybody else does.” Arron flexed his hand the way Lynn had and watched more white lines form and spread. “We're both going to be biohazards before long.”
Lynn decided not to waste breath agreeing with him. She wanted to sit quietly and nurse her eye. She touched her bandage again. Something else needed to be said. “Thanks for tying this up.”
“You're welcome.” She heard him stir. “You should put your helmet back on. The last thing you need is some fungus taking up residence in… that.” His hand held the helmet out to where she could see it. She grasped it with both hands and managed to ease it over her head and lock it down.
She leaned her head back against the wall. “Is there anybody outside?”
“If there is, they aren't answering. I banged on the door for about five minutes after they tossed you in here.”
No help there. She hadn't ready expected any. Actually, now that the shock was wearing off, she was surprised they were still alive. Taking prisoners was not something the Dedelphi generally did.
“So we wait.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
“So we do.” Arron leaned back next to her.
Lynn sat there, breathing and hurting. Arron didn't seem inclined to talk, and that was just fine with her. She dozed for a while, and woke to a sploshy sound coming from her blind side. It took her a second to realize it must be Arron using the bucket and despite the fact she couldn't see anything, she turned her face toward the opposite wall. The sound reminded her how painfully thirsty she was, which made her stomach clench against sudden nausea.
The clank of a bolt being shot back sounded from outside the door. Lynn's head jerked up. The door swung back, revealing a dark hallway and two Dedelphi sisters with a daughter held between them. As a team, they tossed the daughter in the cell. She sprawled belly down on top of the drain. Lynn stared.