Ellox’s head jerked wildly as she opened her eyes. The sun had set, leaving the empty blackness of the wasted land the only thing she could see for miles. Her ears were filled with a loud hum and popping sound near to her head as the cold wind crashed against her face. Maneuvering her shoulder, she tried to get her bearings. As she turned her shoulder, she could feel the rough fibers digging into her muscle. The feeling was all too real; she knew that she was bound. The cord was stretched across her back, on her hands, and on her feet before being fastened tightly to a leather seat. Her body was twisted into a “U” shape as she was draped over the seat. She turned her head to the right to see the back tire of what looked like a two wheeled vehicle. Her wrists were wound tightly next to the tailpipe, creating an unpleasant heat against her knuckles. She could feel the closeness of the road to her feet, leaving only three to four inches between her feet and the pavement. She painfully turned her head to the left in an attempt to see the rider of the vehicle. Even in the darkness his pure white shirt and slacks were lit up like a lantern. He didn’t seem to notice she was awake, keeping his bike focused on the road. She attempted to break her bonds, turning left and right to loosen the ties, but it was no use. She gritted her teeth, slowly moving her wrists back and forth over the tail pipe, trying to slowly burn away the bond on her wrist.

The bike struck a hard bump on the poorly kept road, sending her wrist into the tail pipe. The heat from the pipe fired jolts up her spine causing her to gnash her teeth even more. The bonds cracked against the heat, sending smoke up to her nose that she did her best to close. She could feel the flesh from her hands start to sear against the heat. Her long fingers stretched out, trying to avoid the fate of her palms. Feeling the bonds becoming weaker, she pulled her hands off the pipe, allowing the cold wind to cool her already burned skin. Pressing her wrists heavily against the ropes she pulled. The torque pushed all of her power against the rope tearing bits of the fibers away. She stopped, catching her breath. The pain of the burning, still excruciating, coupled with the pain of the tearing the bonds was starting to become too much. She gritted her teeth again and tried a second time to break the bonds. Like a cloth caught on metal the bonds tore away, leaving her hands free. She reached her long fingers back in an attempt to untie the bonds around her waist.

The bike shifted again against the road and her hand slipped from the small of her back, striking the rider with her singed palm. She held her breath as he turned to see her. Reaching for his belt, he drew what looked to be a long metal stick. With one swift motion, he jabbed the stick into her back sending a bolt of electricity all through her. She let out a scream not afraid to stay quiet. He jabbed her again with the prod, forcing her to go limp, leaving her fingers just an inch from the pavement. She held her breath, staying as still as she could. The rider returned his focus to the road. Ellox quietly lifted her hands to her back, slipping her fingers under the bonds on the leather seat. She slowly felt around for the knot. Weaving her fingers through the rope she found a tightly wound knot on the top of her spine. Feeling her fingers under the main cinch, she pulled slowly, loosing its grip. The knot broke, allowing the cord to fall from her waist dragging behind them on the road, leaving only her ankles bound. As she was focusing on the next step, the bike hit another pothole, vaulting her from the seat.

She frantically grabbed at the leather, just managing to hook the rider’s belt as her feet met the pavement, tearing deep into her heels. She screamed again pulling back on the rider who wove the bike in a zigzag motion while attempting to keep both wheels on the road. Lifting her feet off the pavement she swung her hips onto the motorcycle, sitting side saddle behind the rider. He reached for his prod again, stabbing her in the arms and neck. The shock nearly made her lose her grip again as she slid back and forth on the saddle. The prod’s bolts dug into her skin, blistering with every jab. Wrapping her palm around the rider’s helmet, her long fingers nearly covered the entire circumference of the shell. She slammed the rider’s face into the handlebars twice. The shock loosened his grip on the prod, allowing her to seize it from him. The bike jostled and bounced against the rough potholes, dipping and swaying against the weight of the fight. Ellox swung the prod under the rider’s neck, pressing hard on his throat, rolling the cylinder up and down like a rolling pin on chilled dough. The rider released the handlebars and attempted to pull Ellox off with a series of jabs and punches to her face and ribs.

The motorcycle swerved wildly off the road, launching both Ellox and the rider into the air, landing hard on the dirt and sagebrush. Ellox, whose feet were still bound, landed poorly, dislocating her right shoulder as she couldn’t correct her fall. The prod fell from her grip, vanishing into the darkness of the wasteland. The rider landed several feet from her, cracking the helmet against a few rocks before landing abruptly in a small cluster of cacti. Ellox wasted no time in getting away. Digging at, large clumps of dirt with her hands. Crawling into the blackness. She feared the desert. The terrifying sounds, the screeches that bellowed from the air at night, they always worried her. But knowing her attacker was like returning her to the caverns, she pushed through the pain and the fear and continued into the darkness.

The motorcycle’s front wheel was damaged, and the handlebars and headlight bent and coiled into a mess of electrical wires, oil, and metal. The rider pulled themself up out of the cactus tines, brushing off each needle with a grimace of pain. As the rider limped into the darkness, they produced a small pistol. Smoother than most with a red and silver finish. The rider lifted the pistol and fired a shot into the air. The normal crack and boom of the hammer striking the cap and igniting the gunpower was absent from the shot. In its place was a shrill scream like the sound of block of ice dropped in hot water. The entire wasteland like up as if it was day for a brief moment before the light was gone. Ellox’s breathing nearly stopped. She recognized the sound and the light from some distant memory. She froze, hugging the dirt tightly, as if it would slip away into the night if she didn’t. The rider limped further into the land, gasping and coughing from the dirt that had settled around the jacket and helmet. The rider fired another screeching shot with blistering cool light that made Ellox hug the dirt tighter.

“Ellox!” The rider called in rough, garbed voice.

She refused to lift her head, knowing the tricks they played on her in the cavern. The petting and the soft voices followed by the shocks and clamps. All of it eventually leading to the room. She closed her eyes, hoping to wake up in Theodore’s car with another slice of cherry pie.

“Ellox pros bin mars!” The rider called out again.

She recognized the language. She lifted her head, attempting to see if she recognized the rider. The white suit was littered with a debris and the helmet was cracked. The rider stood hunched, bending under the weight. Ellox stared at the hands which were clutched around the rider’s waist as they limped into the darkness. The fingers seemed to be the size of a human but with them pressed against the body, it obscured the exact shape.

“Ellox! Bin mars!” The rider called again.

She listened to the voice, muffled and mechanical under the helmet. The language and tone she almost was certain she had heard when she was little.

“Father?” She mumbled to herself.

The rider dug their knee into the dirt using a small sage branch as a weak brace, slowly couching again under the helmet.

“Ellox,” the rider called again, much weaker than before.

She twisted her head to again look at the rider. The faint light from the shattered headlight was flickering and dying in the darkness, leaving only the faint sight of the rider, weak and fading, not even being able to hold up the helmet. She carefully unbound her feet. The pain of the dirt filling her wounds made her want to squeal. She fully unbound her ties and crawled closer to the rider, hoping to see if the fingers were indeed not human. As she crawled in the darkness, her hand struck a long cylinder. She recognized it instantly as the prod. Gripping it tightly, she began to use it as a clumsy crutch. The sleekness of the metal made it hard to grip and catch the sand as she churned the ground, slithering towards the rider. She was nearly there. The rider had sunk to both knees, hanging its head as if waiting to be executed. The slow breathing of the helmet eked out in small bursts, as if it was a motor slowly puttering before it died. She craned her neck to peer at the fingers. The rider snapped their head up staring directly at her; before she could respond on the rider was upon her striking her back to the ground with one blow. As she toppled, she felt the hand of the rider clutch her hair and toss her violently across the plain. She flew just a bit before again landing hard on her already mangled shoulder.

She let out a wheeze of pain as the rider rushed to her. The limp seeming all but gone. She rolled over to face her attacker. The rider pulled its gun, snapping another blast of light. This time Ellox could feel the heat of the light on her skin and she fell again in pain. As the rider approached her, they came to a slow stop staring down at her. She growled at the rider, waiting to be struck again. The rider crouched down next her, still breathing roughly through the helmet.

“Thirty-” the rider began.

Before the first syllable had escaped the rider’s lips, Ellox plunged the prod deep into the helmet, shattering the visor, and pressing deep into the rider’s face. The rider screamed in pain as the prod bolts dug in just below the rider’s eye. The rider fell backwards onto the ground, writhing and twitching. Ellox screamed, taking her heel, she dug it into the rider’s chest. The loud sound of ribs cracking echoed throughout the wasteland.

She screeched and ran, propelling her long legs deep into the darkness. Her speed quickened as she tossed the prod into the darkness, refusing to look back. The coarse ground pinched at her feet as she ran but she didn’t care. The fear of the rider and feeling of returning to the cavern frightened her. Still rushing into the dark, she tucked her head down, trying to dry the tears that began flooding down her cheeks. Her carelessness eventually caught up to her as she tramped on a cactus bush sending the spines all the way through her foot. She toppled over, wildly attempting to snag anything to center herself, eventually settling on a smooth stone that she hugged against her. She continued to cry, weeping heavily into the rock. She looked back at the road. The dim light of the of the motorcycle was all but gone. All that was left were the stars squeaking out what little light they could, leaving most of world still completely black.

Scanning around the entirety of the wasteland, she could not see anything that looked like shelter. The blanket of the night sky had all but swallowed up any landmarks or civilization. She tended her foot. The spines had dug in deep, slowly leaking her blood down her heel. She winced in pain as she touched them. Feeling she needed to keep moving she pulled on the spines. The small needles broke at the slight touch leaving a still raw sliver protruding from her foot. Not wishing to cause more damage, she pressed on trying to put as little pressure on her foot as possible. The small pins twisted in her foot as she dragged it across the earth. She slumped forward trying to keep her balance. As she pressed her already mangled foot further into the earth the soil gave way sending her tumbling down a small ravine. The stones and sediment clogged her wounds and struck her skull with every click and clack of the fall.

As she slowed to a stop where the earth beveled, the pain and agony set into her veins three-fold. She rolled over, nesting her head, staring up at the stars. As the tears flowed from her eyes, she wondered which star was her home. From the earth all the planets flickered against the sky in a simple white light, yet from what she remembered her home was a robust red. She closed her eye and pictured home.

The cold mornings when her mother would take her up to the surface. The wind would tickle her ears and her mother would wrap her up in a warm cloth as they drove along the surface. Her father would pester her about needing to adjust to the cold, but her mother always ignored him. It was rare that they would travel to the surface and so when they did her father insisted they take the air way to the market. The red haze of the sky would flicker off her mother’s bracelet, blocking her view of the diggers that glided across the expanse. Every morning there they would troll across the tundra while watching safely from the air. Both her parents told her the expanse was not walked upon unless absolutely necessary. When she would pester about the diggers they would always respond, “Somethings belong on the expanse. We do not.” She told herself one day she would run away and ride with the diggers on her own free adventure. She wished more than ever to have her mother’s bracelet flicker in her eyes instead of cold light of the stars. At least then she knew she was safe.

That dirt against her ears was cold from the wind traveling from the north. But to her, she might as well have been laying on hot coals. The pain of the spines and the sands seeping into her body kept her from falling into a distant sleep. She turned on her side trying to let sleep take her. As she held on for the embrace of sleep, she heard the dirt crunch and clump around her. Turning back on the her back she was met with a light that shined directly into her eyes. She tried to peer past the light to glimpse several faces, masked and gurgling. Attempting to fight back, she felt the sleep began to overtake her as they began to speak.

“Oi fin garlion mu sae Male,” said one in a harsh tone.