Renegade Runner Nicole Conway (christmas read aloud txt) 📖

Squeezing my hands into fists, I figured I had maybe a minute before they arrived.

I drew in a deep, balancing breath and looked off into the distance over my left shoulder. The faintest glint of crimson light caught my eye amidst some of the rocks and rubble strewn with debris about half a mile away. I gave one nod.

Time to go.

As the runner crafts drew in close, I broke into a mad sprint for the door of our ship. My feet blurred over the ground, my thighs burning with a delightfully familiar heat as I eased back into that comfortable rhythm I’d honed over so many years of training. I knew this feeling. No looking back, or down, or anywhere else but at my goal: the open bay door. My finish line.

I jumped the last few feet, bounding over the scattered, bloodied remains of two other runners Phox claimed he hadn’t beaten to death with his bare hands in an effort to steal this ship. Yeah. Suuuure. No way was I buying that. Especially since he’d known exactly where the bodies were. Okay, fine, maybe he’d found them while he’d been out scouting for stuff to fix the engine. But a few of the bruises on their faces were suspiciously knuckle-shaped.

Now, they both had fresh gaping wounds in their chests from close-range alien plasma rifle rounds, too.

Convincing? God, I hoped so.

Jumping into the cool reprieve of the ship, I hit the panel that closed the door. It made a noisy, lurching, crunching sound and stuck about six inches away from being fully closed. Perfect.

Backing away, I fought to control my panting breaths as I listened. The roaring of the two runner crafts blared outside and then went silent. Peering through the crack, my heartbeat skipped. They’d parked a short distance away, their bay doors opening with a hiss and clatter.

Double perfect.

Four tall figures stepped out into the eerie red night, dressed from head to foot in suits that covered all but their faces, which were obscured by matching sleek helmets. They reminded me of something a motorcyclist might wear, only much more high-tech. I caught glimpses of faint movement, lines and texts, glowing against the heavily tinted glass. They had heads-up displays inside those fancy helmets? Not fair.

“She’s inside. You sure you saw two?” one of the runners asked, striding at the forefront with a shorter, much beefier-looking alien gun gripped in his hand.

“I thought I spotted two life-form signatures before, but you know how the heat plays with the instruments. Hard to get accurate readouts from that distance,” another said in a feminine tone. Suddenly, her head snapped around to look straight in my direction.

I flinched back, staggering away as my body trembled and tingled with a fresh surge of adrenaline. Don’t freak out. Cool—I had to keep cool.

“Two down by the door. Wounds look fresh. Maybe she took them out?” the female-sounding figure suggested.

“A lone human? By herself? Don’t be a moron.” The leader sneered. “Even if Faulbender does want her dead, that doesn’t make her some kind of Renegade prodigy. She isn’t Sienne.”

My heart stopped for a second. I squeezed my hands into fists. Focus, Brinna.

“You don’t know that,” another of the figures mumbled as they all hedged closer. “Maybe that’s why he wants her taken out now. He is paying an awful lot just for—”

“Would you just shut up and do your damn job?” the leader shouted. Bootsteps crunched over the rocky ground, coming closer. “She’s obviously got a weapon, so play it smart. Ready? On my count.”

This was it. I had to move—NOW!

Dashing to the back of the ship, I squirmed into the narrow opening where Phox had removed one of the interior panels. I slipped into the nest of tanged cords, cables, and piping, pausing only long enough to close the panel behind me. Faster. Oh god, I had to go faster!

I wrenched and twisted, slithering through the interior of the engine block as the metal mechanics scraped and snagged at my suit and hair. Nearby, the hum of the engine’s main power cells put off a current in the air that I could practically taste crackling over my tongue. No going near those. No touching them. Phox had warned that while it had only burned him some, getting too close and accidentally brushing up against them would do far worse to my fragile human body. He’d been a sweaty, shaking mess after he’d wrapped our belt of spare ammunition around it. One wrong move, one spark from the nearby cables, and …

Sweat drizzled down my face as I pushed on. Seconds, minutes—geez, how long had I been in here? What was happening outside? Was I taking too long? I had to go faster. I’d insisted on being the one to do this because I was smaller. I could get through more quickly than Phox.

Just a little farther.

Then there was light. Red daylight bled down from overhead. The exit!

I squirmed faster, writhing the last few feet and pushing upward until my head popped free out of the opening in the panels Phox had been using to work on our engines from the outside. Another twist freed my arm and shoulder. Then my whole upper body. I kicked free of the engine compartment and stumbled, nearly falling as I made for the edge of the ship. Below me, the muffled sounds of voices and commotion inside the ship made my body flush with frantic urgency.

I jumped off the back of the ship and tore into another mad sprint, my head down and my legs pumping furiously. Faster. Harder. I had to get out of range before—

BOOM!

An explosion rocked the air behind me, sending out a blast wave that threw me into the air like a ragdoll. My arms and legs flailed. Heat bloomed against my back. The air filled with a flash of blue and violet light. My vision went white.

I hit the ground like a meteor, skimming and flipping over the hardpacked earth until