Nessa could smell cheap floral fragrances from some of the female humans. She wanted to cough, but she dared not. From her hiding spot, she listened.
“Where’d it go?” Zane asked.
“It?” A boy--who was less mature than the other guards and had red bumps all over his face--questioned.
“The alien, Jonathan,” Zane snapped.
Several guards flicked on beams of white light, and they moved them around. Nessa inched into the darkness. She tried to see through gaps of guards.
“It couldn’t have gone far,” a woman with almond eyes and a thin face chimed in. “We took its ship to Level Eight.”
Nessa searched her memory. When did they take my ship?
It had never occurred to her; she’d been so focused on watching Jamison and his family, spending time with Jamison, on her own captivity. She scanned the ceiling. Balconies stacked on each other and ascended to a transparent rotunda. Hallways wrapped around each level. Each hallway had an attached balcony.
The white lights enabled her to see a platform. She waited until the light beams flooded toward the hallway the guards had come from. Then she dashed to and tumbled onto the platform.
It wobbled, but the floor and the holding unit got farther away.
“There!” The almond-eyed woman shouted.
The guards aimed their beams at Nessa.
“Hurry up!” She snapped at the platform.
It hovered at Level Two, and she climbed one Level Two barricade. She watched the other Level Two balcony for movement. Level Two stretched into a spiral staircase.
Voices echoed, and she gasped at the security guards on her heels. She took two stairs at a time even though it made her dizzy.
Her body strained from the climb, but the security guards were two stairs behind her.
The steps took a break. A label read “Level Three”. Five more to go. Nessa’s energy lowered by the second, and she hung on adrenaline to finish the climb.
Up she went. Level Three. Level Four. Level Five. Now the security guards’ energy seemed to be waning. Level Six. Level Seven. The Level Eight balcony wrapped around the dome and into a landing bay. She could see inside. That was definitely her ship.
A form blocked her view. Jonathan. She scanned for gaps to go around him. A foot landed behind her. Zane. The almond-eyed lady was near Jonathan. Nessa noticed the railing. She hoisted herself up and tumbled over. The security guards peeked over the rail. She grasped the bars. Her upper body throbbed. She felt for the next bar and swung over. Minutes dragged on, prolonging her agony. Until she reached for the next bar and found a horizontal surface.
She grasped it and hoisted herself up with numb arms and a weak upper body. She glanced at the guards.
“It’s gone,” Jonathan said, peering into Level One again. “No way it could’ve survived that fall.”
They filed back through, puffing.
“We’ll take the elevator,” Almond Eyes said.
Nessa let herself breathe. She stood on trembling legs and into the blackness of the landing bay.