“If we stay put, they might find us… then we’re dead,” I pointed out. Not scared by it, but noting the likely truth. “If we move, the chances are probably similar, but not if we get into hiding and figure out how we’re going to beat this.”

  “What you’re saying is, wait… that you want to get me in a dark, secluded place? Just the two of us?” She adjusted her seat, and whether intentionally or not, the edge of her ass showed and just the hint of turquoise panties underneath the red mini-skirt. I swallowed, reminding myself that she was a nut job and a criminal, not someone to have those kinds of thoughts about.

  “I’m not not saying that,” I said, “but I don’t think I’m saying it like you think I’m saying it.”

  She grinned and shrugged, her pigtails bouncing. “Whatever you say, boss.”

  “Just… come on.” I motioned her up and started focusing on my survival training, scouting locations along the hillside and mountains that could be natural hiding spots for us to seek shelter. As dark as it was, without lights or anything to guide us, it wasn’t easy.

  We came to a small stream. She looked like she was about to drink from it, but I held out a hand. “It could have traces of acid. Look.” I pointed in the direction it was coming from, toward the Chaos Zone.

  “But I’m thirsty,” she pouted.

  “We’ll find something, I promise.” A look around made me less certain, only trees and barren lands. “Probably have to head back when the fighting dies down, look for supplies. Maybe there’s something left on my ship.”

  “Didn’t look like it,” she replied. “Plus, others were already ransacking the remains.”

  “Fuck me.”

  She grinned, but I kept walking, not letting her comment on that.

  “You must be used to this,” she said, catching up. “All the hunting, no?”

  “You’re right. It’s not the first time I’ve found myself stranded up shit creek, and won’t be the last.”

  “Tell me the worst.”

  “The worst?” I racked my brain, crouching instinctively at the sound of another explosion. Would it ever end? “There’s some competition, but maybe the time I was on Xandos, tracking down this real nasty piece of work named Suari—”

  “He’s so nice!” She grinned, then her face contorted into a frown. “Wait, you were hunting him?”

  “Big belly, kinda reminds you of a rhino?”

  “You mean the way his dick is like this huge rhino horn? Yeah, I always said that it’s like—”

  “The fuck?” I interrupted. “No, I—I didn’t see that thanks be to Oram. Just, because he’s huge and has that mole on his nose. You slept with that guy?”

  She laughed. “Hell no, with that rhino horn he’d tear me in two! I’m petite, didn’t you notice?”

  “Ah…” My mind was racing with images of that, and it was not pleasant.

  Her face took on an awkward, perplexed expression. “You were saying?”

  “Right… So, on Xandos, not looking at his dick, and I was tracking him through this swamp, wading right up to my chest, when something brushes against my leg. At this point, I have nowhere to go, and I’ll be honest, things brushing against me in water freaks me out. A couple more steps and I start realizing it’s not just water—the swamp has a layer of blood to it, and is getting hot.”

  “No…”

  “Right? What kind of swamp has blood and is hot, I wanted to know. Well, at the time I just wanted to be anywhere else but there, but I had to get my payday, right? Put that bastard behind bars.” An uneasy feeling came over me, and I glanced over to see Cheri got really nervous at that statement. “Sorry.”

  “Keep going. I want to hear what the deal was.”

  “I mean, it’s easy. Why I’m glad you weren’t… you know, sleeping with the guy. It was his dumping ground for bodies, many not quite dead when he put them in there, and that was my first exposure to a hybrid.”

  She frowned and shook her head.

  “Not familiar?” I asked.

  “Enlighten me, dear educator,” she replied with enough sarcasm to blow a house down.

  “Right, most people don’t know.” I debated telling her but figured there was no harm at this point. “They’ve been popping up, mostly on the dark planets, beyond the fringe, you know. I thought it was only a rumor before that, but… then I saw her.”

  “Oh my god, what the fuck did you see already?” She turned and grabbed me, hysterical. “WHAT?”

  I would’ve laughed if the memory wasn’t bothering me so much. “I was, pushing through that yuck, and it brushed me again, then grabbed hold and pulled me under. I couldn’t see a damn thing, at least… not until the light was almost on me.”

  “Light?”

  “What are those fish called, the ones with a light hanging over them?” I knew the name, it just wasn’t coming to me.

  “You were scared of an angler fish?” She burst into laughter, but I covered her mouth, to keep from drawing attention. She was holding me, me with my hand on her mouth, and we stood there like that, totally aware of the awkwardness.

  Finally, I released her and shifted out of her embrace—not sure where that came from—and said, “No. A super hybrid—part super, part angler fish. Teeth covered in fresh blood, eyes yellow and crazed, and that fucking light, that horrible light coming right at me, inches away as I caught hold of her arms and tried to keep her off. She had claws too, and…” I shuddered at the thought, trying not to get lost in the moment.

  “Damn. So like a vampire mermaid? Did she have the fish tail and all?”

  I nodded. “Vampire mermaid… it’s almost funny, if I hadn’t seen the thing. See, your rhino friend was part of an illegal network of supers trafficking for experiments. That was just the first of them I came across.”

  “But… the story can’t end there,” she said as we started walking again. “What happened next? Did she bite you and turn you into a vampire? Oooh, do you want to suck my blood?”

  “No, she didn’t turn me into a vampire.”

  “Sure, I can see that. You were out in the daylight and all, but… what happened? Did you live?”

  I turned to her, sure she was joking, but she really looked nervous for me. “Spoiler, I lived.” Laughing at the relief on her face, I added, “Also, the vampire mermaid wasn’t so hard to defeat… just terrifying. She wasn’t very strong, see. Maybe new to this living in water thing, or maybe that was her power and she just hadn’t gotten used to whatever hybrid procedure had made her that way. Either way, as long as I stayed away from her teeth I figured it was safe, so I managed to get around behind her and apply a chokehold. My breath nearly ran out before hers, but once I realized her gills needed to be covered, easy. Then I swam to the top to find rhino dick about to take a piss—okay, yeah, I did see it. That thing was disgustingly monstrous—”

  “Right?”

  “Anyway, I lunged, pinning his foot to the ground with a knife and narrowly avoiding his piss, and then was out of the water taking him down.”

  She looked at me, nodding excitedly, then stopped. “Wait, that’s it? Sounds kinda easy.”

  “You try swimming in blood and have a vampire mermaid thing come after you, then almost get pissed on,” I defended myself. “It was horrible.”

  “Worse than that time you were buried in the sand of Yinta, with those sand snakes all around you, eating at your flesh?”

  I turned, impressed. “You’ve done your homework.”

  “Actually, I know a lot about you. Kind of a stalker. Want to know a secret?” She leaned in, mouth open in a wide smile, then whispered, “I let you catch me.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “It’s true. Only way I could get to know you, I figured.” She looked at me and crossed her eyes, sticking her tongue out, and then laughed. “Or maybe that’s all bullshit, who knows!”

  With that she ran ahead, her little red skirt flapping up and down to show her turquoise panties, her pigtails bobbing.

  I had no idea what I was doing with her, but she was fun. After a glance around to ensure we were still in the clear, I followed. Soon we were deep in the forest, well enough away from the now-periodic fighting to have less to worry about. Still, others could’ve come out this way too, so I kept my wits about me.

  When we sat to take a break, she alternated between staring at me and then lying back to gaze up at the stars. Then we got moving again, hoping to find something else back here, some form of shelter maybe or more guard houses I wasn’t aware of, but so far, nothing. When we’d gone too far, we veered left to sort of circle back, as I worked out a better plan.

  “How old were you?” she asked after a healthy amount of awkward silence.

  “Excuse me?”

  “First kill. How old?”

  “I prefer not to kill, actually.”

  “But you killed the vampire fish.”

  “True.” She had me there, and that certainly hadn’t been the first time I’d had to take a life. But I don’t know, for some reason this didn’t feel like an area I wanted to let her into. All of this was too much, especially considering the situation. I’d already opened up to her a bit but had been starting to think that was a mistake. She was a villain and belonged in the asylum. Glancing over, I saw her scrunching her nose, looking at me with curiosity.

  With a shrug, she started skipping, and I had to take longer strides to keep up.

  “Wait, did you read my thoughts?” I asked between breaths, starting to feel the exertion already. “Or… the voices told you? I didn’t mean it like that,”

  “Look, I get it,” she said, skipping along. “You think I’m crazy because I act crazy, but really I act crazy because I am crazy. See?”

  “Not at all.”

  “I’m a complicated beast, like an onion but more delicious. If you ever want to peel me open and find out, maybe you’ll understand. I don’t know. I think it would hurt though.”

  While I wanted to ask her what the hell she was talking about, I figured doing so would only encourage her to keep on blabbing about this nonsense, so instead smiled politely and said, “I’ll do that.”

  “Peel me open?” she gasped, and I sensed a hint of fear from her. “You wouldn’t?”

  “What?”

  “Okay, let’s just be clear.” She stopped, grabbing me by the arm and spinning me around. “Are you talking about like, using a knife to open me up, or is this some metaphorical way of saying you want to sleep with me?”

  To not stare at her in confusion was hard. I could tell she didn’t like that, that it made her feel attacked, but following her logic and train of thought was bewildering.

  “I don’t have any intention of doing either,” I said, slowly, and then pointed to the hillside. “There. That’s where we’ll regroup.”

  “Ah, regroup,” she said with a wink.

  I didn’t even bother to comment, instead leading the way. It was a better location than I’d hoped for, complete with a spot that went into the hill in a half-cave, trees hanging over the entrance, and a freshwater source past it.

  First thing I did was get a drink. I plopped down on the dirt, one hand running through my hair as I tried to consider our next move. Cheri sat across from me, cross-legged. Though her skirt somewhat covered her down there, it was still suggestive as hell. Even more so when she leaned forward and said, “Truth or dare.”

  “Unless the dare is ‘I dare you to find us a way out of this mess,’ I’m not interested.”

  She pouted, then said, “Truth for me. Cheri, why are you helping this asshole who tried to kill you and then sell you for a bounty? Answer, because he was just confused, he didn’t know the real you yet, and wouldn’t have done all that mean stuff if he had. That, and he’s kinda cute.”

  “I’m not sure this is how it’s played,” I stated.

  “Since you’re not playing, I have to figure out how to play on my own, as I don’t know the rules.”

  “You don’t know the rules of Truth or Dare?”

  She pouted and shook her head. “I wasn’t exactly invited to the parties, you know. Not since the incident.”

  “Do I want to know what the incident was?”

  “Not if you think little kids should be confined to bathrooms when wanting to relieve themselves. I’m not some prisoner who does my business where they tell me, I’m not—”

  “I think I get the picture.”

  “Good,” she said, grinning. “Speaking of which.” Without another word, she glanced around, took a few steps away, and then pulled down her panties as she squatted to take a piss. “Cheri, I dare you to piss while this guy is watching.”

  “Oh, come on,” I protested.

  She ignored me as the tinkle started. At least I wasn’t turned on anymore. And actually, that was a good thing, because my head was clearing and I was beginning to think about the direction of the asylum compared to where we were now, and what our options were.

  If we could get to my ship and scavenge a few parts from the comms equipment, even if it didn’t work, I was confident we could attach it to the equipment in the asylum and get in touch with a colleague or two. They wouldn’t come out of duty or the goodness of their hearts, but I had some good credits to offer up as payment.

  A new round of shooting started, a ship taking off and then a moment later being hit by something, only to careen back down and, judging by the sound of it, explode. Things were heating up back over at the Asylum.

  “We have to lie low,” I said, looking out at the darkness as bursts of light and more explosions went off. “It’s too crazy out there.”

  “Crazy…?”

  “Bad choice of words.”

  Cheri considered it, then shrugged. “Personally, I’ve always liked the label, but I like psycho even better. Call me Miss Psychobitch, one hundred percent.”

  “I’m not calling you that.”

  “Why not?”

  I shifted to see her, an orange glow lighting up her face and then fading. “It’s offensive.”

  “Fuck that. Don’t I get to decide what’s offensive to me?” She scooted closer, leaning toward me in a way that I hadn’t yet decided whether it was nice or made me uncomfortable. “Here’s my point—I do what I want when I want. I don’t live by their norms, what they tell me is the best way to behave, so they label me psycho? Fuck yeah! I say that word means freedom. And bitch because I won’t cower before any man or woman. Because when I see bullshit, I call it out. Strength. Strength and freedom equal psychobitch, and I own it.”

  I smiled, shaking my head. Maybe it was the exhaustion, or maybe the pure honesty coming from her right then, but she seemed to be making a good point. “Fine, it’s not horrible. But I’m not calling you a psychobitch. My mom taught me better than that.”

  “You can be one too, you know. Mr. Psychobitch, why not?” She grinned, this time putting a hand on my leg. “It’s so crazy, right? Or psycho, to break gender norms of the word ‘bitch,’ that you’re afraid to wear that label?”

  I frowned, glanced at her hand, and shrugged. “No. I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “Well, Mr. Psychobitch, let’s do it—you and me and whoever else we find. We’ll be psychobitches and tear this place up. Those fuckers want to stand in our way? I say we don’t let them. Does this mean I forgive you for throwing me in that cell and being a real asshole? No, but… I’m willing to admit you’re badass in a fight, know how to survive… and are probably a good lay.”

  My eyebrow arched at that. “I’m not going to sleep with you.”

  “Because it’s against societal norms?” She scoffed, then added in a mocking voice, “Oh no, we just met and she was my prisoner and I don’t know if I can get it up because she’s a strong, powerful woman and rules say it’s not proper.”

  “That’s not exactly—”

  “Fuck that!” she interrupted. “Be a Psychobitch.”

  Again, my eyes went to her hand on my leg, watched as it started to creep up my thigh. Her emotions were washing over me like a warm breeze—authentic, caring. Strange… but it was enough to make me go for it.

  I leaned in and, eyes open the whole time in case she surprised me with a knife to my throat or something, pressed my lips to hers. Her reaction caught me off guard, grabbing me by the shoulders and slamming me to the ground, then coming back in for a kiss so passionate it was like we were long-lost lovers finally reunited. Her lips were moist, her tongue teasing me, flicking across mine, and then she gently nibbled on my lower lip.

  When she pulled back, I saw she was straddling me, chest heaving as her eyes took me in. She went for her top, playing with the shoulder of it, eyeing me as if asking if I was ready. And then she laughed.

  “Holy shit, you were really going to do it, huh?” she asked.

  “Wait, what?”

  “Go all the way, right here when we could be killed at any minute. Fuck, you’re crazier than I am!” She leaned in, kissed me again, and whispered into my ear as her hand moved down toward my crotch, “That’s hot.”

  Her hand went to my thigh, creeping down between my legs, and then she pinched my thigh and laughed.

  I stared at her for a minute, then said, “I’m pretty sure you’re mean.”

  Her grin widened at that. “Oh, you don’t like a tease? Trust me, I’m not one at all. You’ll see—I’m going to fuck you so hard you’ll shrivel up from all the cum leaving you. But not here, not like this. Shit, I may be batso, but we need to live through this and,” she lowered her voice, gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb, “there are three of those bastards sneaking up on us.”

  “What?” I pushed out from underneath her, cringing as my boner nearly bent with the quick movement. Readjusting myself, I cursed at my carelessness and took up a defensive position. “How do you know?”

  “Part of my powers,” she said, cuddling up behind me and running her hand along the inside of my thigh again. “It’s what drove me a bit insane to begin with, the docs say. Voices, thoughts… I can’t hear them, but they’re there. They sort of mumble, but I can get a sense of what they’re going on about. Like yours, for instance—you wanted to fuck me soooo bad.”

  “Can you… not?” I said, moving her hand. “I’m trying to focus.” Her hand was on my pistol next, pulling it free. “And…”