The System Can’t See Me

The point at Kai's hip did not move at first.

It pressed into the raw strip of skin where the jeans had torn away. Cold went through him before the pain did. He kept his face against the floor and waited for his body to stop trying to jerk away.

It did not.

His good knee twitched. The motion pulled at the trapped wrist beneath his ribs. His torn palm scraped once across the concrete. The lunch box bit into his left shoulder through the ruined shirt.

Nia felt the movement against her side.

"Don't," she said.

Kai let out a breath that shook on the way out. "Wasn't planning to."

Her voice was close to his ear, but she was still behind him. Her scraped hand lay somewhere under his ribs, too low to reach his wrist and too far from the hook. The other hand had lost the shirt and found nothing else to close around. He could feel her shoulder against his side when she breathed. It was the only steady thing left in the space.

The hooked point pushed harder.

Kai's teeth closed on the inside of his cheek.

The skin at his hip gave.

Pain opened along his side, sharp enough that his chest came off the floor before he could stop it. The lift lasted less than a second. The wedged box stopped his left shoulder. His right wrist folded farther under his ribs. He dropped back down with a sound he did not recognize as his until Nia said his name.

"Kai. Kai, stay down."

"I'm down."

The answer came out thin.

He could not see the point anymore. It was against him, under the edge of his vision. He saw only the red pipe, the wet concrete, and a section of black plate beyond the pipe that seemed too close to be there.

Nia shifted behind him.

Her right knee scraped. He felt it through the floor. The bleeding calf had folded under her when she fell, and every attempt to move made her catch her breath. Her bare left foot dragged a little in the runoff. The sound was small. It was enough to make Kai picture her trying to pull herself higher with a leg that would not take her.

"Can you reach it?" he asked.

She did not answer at once.

"No," she said flatly.

Kai swallowed. His throat was dry despite the damp air. "My side?"

"I can reach you. Not it."

That was worse somehow. He knew exactly where she was. He knew exactly where the hook was. There was only the length of his own body between them, and neither of them had a hand that could cross it.

The point shifted beneath the skin.

Kai's breath stopped.

It was not a clean cut. It pressed in, paused, and dragged a short distance along the torn hip. The motion peeled heat through him. His leg kicked before he could hold it still. The good knee knocked against the concrete and slid. His bad ankle bumped beneath the thin water. The soaked cuff twisted around it.

Nia made a sound behind him and caught herself against his side.

Her hand pressed above his trapped wrist. The contact was light, then suddenly hard when her balance failed. Kai could not move away from it. His ribs took the pressure. The point at his hip moved again.

"Sorry," she said.

"Don't say sorry."

"I stepped wrong."

"You didn't step anywhere."

For a moment, he heard only their breathing and the thin run of water around Nia's foot. Then something scraped on the other side of the red pipe.

Nia went still against him.

Kai did not tell her to look. She was already looking.

The black shape filled more of the mouth. One wet plate slid past another. A dark joint flexed behind the pipe. The hooked point at his hip tightened as the shape moved, but he could not tell whether the movement had caused it or simply happened at the same time.

The hook bit deeper.

Kai's body dragged an inch.

His cheek ground across the floor. The trapped wrist moved with him, skin peeling across the palm. The lunch box did not give. It stayed jammed against his shoulder and the bend, making his left side turn against something that would not move.

Nia slid too.

Her hand under his ribs lost the small patch of floor it had found. Her shoulder struck his side. Her right knee dragged across the concrete, and the calf behind it pulled tight enough that she hissed through her teeth. Her left foot slipped deeper through the runoff, then stopped with the ankle scrape pressed against grit.

Kai tried to get his fingers under him.

The trapped hand did not answer. The other arm remained caught between his body and the box. His fingers only curled against nothing.

Nia heard the scrape of his palm.

"Don't," she said.

"I can't."

"Then stop trying."

He almost laughed. It came out as a cough that hurt his ribs.

The point withdrew a fraction.

Kai froze.

Nia's hand tightened above his wrist. "What happened?"

"It moved."

"Off you?"

"No."

He had expected relief. There was none. The pressure had changed, but the metal was still inside the torn skin at his hip. Every small breath drew his side over it. He could not make his chest stay still long enough to avoid that.

Nia's fingers trembled against his ribs.

"Tell me where," she said.

"You know where."

"Tell me anyway."

Kai shut his eyes. The concrete smelled like old dust, wet paint, and something metallic he did not want to name.

"Right hip. Lower than before."

Her hand stayed where it was.

"Can you feel your leg?" she asked.

"Yes."

He did not add that he wished he could not. The pain ran from the point at his hip through the outside of his thigh whenever the hook shifted. It had not reached farther than that. He held on to the fact because there was nothing else to hold.

The red pipe gave a tiny shudder.

Kai saw it, not felt it. Rust flaked near the floor. A bead of water dropped from somewhere above and struck the concrete beside his mouth.

The thing behind the pipe moved again.

This time the hook pulled sideways.

Kai's hip rolled toward the pipe. His chest followed until the pressure under the lunch box caught him. The twist tore the wound wider. He cried out, then bit down before the second sound could come.

Nia's arm slipped around his middle by accident as he turned. Her scraped palm pressed against his ribs. Her other hand caught at his side and immediately slid through the torn cloth. She did not get a grip. She only came with him, dragged onto her stomach beside his back.

Her right knee hit the floor again. The injured calf stretched behind it. Kai heard her suck in air and knew she was trying not to make noise.

"Nia," he said.

"I'm here."

"Your leg."

"Later."

There was no later in the crawlspace. There was only the next second. Still, he did not argue.

The hook stopped pulling sideways.

Kai lay twisted as far as the wedged box allowed. His right hip was closer to the red pipe. His good knee had slid out from under him and rested against the wet floor. The bad ankle remained behind him in the runoff, turned at an angle that made the swelling throb. His wrist was still trapped. His left shoulder had nowhere to go.

Nia was partly across his back now, not by choice. One forearm lay over his ribs. Her cut palm left a warm smear through his shirt. Her other hand was trapped between her own body and the concrete, fingers open against the floor. Her left foot was still in the water. The right leg lay behind her at an angle that made her whole body shake when she breathed.

"Can you get off me?" Kai asked.

"Trying."

She pushed with the forearm over his ribs.

The push did not lift her. It drove him into the floor. The hook at his hip shifted, and Kai made a sound through his teeth.

Nia stopped.

"Sorry."

He wanted to tell her to quit apologizing. The words did not make it out.

Nia tried to lift her forearm.

Her trapped hand slid over the concrete. The moment her right leg dragged behind her, pain seized her calf and she folded back across Kai's ribs.

The hook pressed in.

Kai's body jerked. His good knee struck the floor flat. The trapped palm scraped beneath his ribs.

Nia went still. "I can't move without hurting you."

Kai drew one careful breath. "Then stay where you are."

She held still.

The pressure of her forearm settled across his ribs. Kai tried to ease his right hip away from the point without moving anything else. His muscles tightened, then shook. The attempt pulled at the wound and left him exactly where he had been.

Nia felt it.

"Don't do that," she said.

"I stopped."

He had not meant the answer to sound angry. She knew it. Her arm did not lift, but he felt her hold her breath for a moment before letting it go against the back of his shirt.

Beyond the red pipe, a second hooked shape appeared between the black plates.

It did not come toward them.

It held in the narrow gap.

Kai watched it hover in the narrow gap while the first point stayed in his hip. He could not tell how far back the rest of the creature went. He could not tell whether the shape belonged to the same body. The pipe blocked too much. The dark plates blocked more.

Nia followed his stare.

"Don't tell me," she whispered.

"I wasn't going to."

The second shape withdrew. The first did not.

Kai's breath caught against the pain in his side. Water cooled his ankle. Nia's forearm pressed over his ribs, and the closed lunch box still pinned his shoulder.

Then the point at his hip pulled once, slowly, and stayed there.

Kai felt the wound open around it.

Nia's arm tightened across his ribs before she could stop herself.

Neither of them said anything.

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