by Maya Riley
I glanced down, expecting to find another science book, but this one stood out. It was all black with strange symbols on the cover that I’d never seen before. Curious, I reached out and took it in my hands, flipping to the table of contents and skimming down. I flipped through the pages next. “This seems to be a book on the evolution of magic.”
“That’s a strange thing to have in a science lab,” Lincoln noted. “Light bedtime reading? Story time for the kids?”
“Is that supposed to be a joke?” I laughed, grateful for the light humor, whether it was intended that way or not.
“Maybe.”
“Is there any relation, that you can see, between this magic book and the files?” Maura got us back on track.
“I have no idea. I have no idea about any of this stuff. I’m so lost and confused, this is making my head hurt.” I rubbed the heels of my palms into my temples now, the pressure in my skull wasn’t letting up.
“B, you doing okay?”
“Yeah, just a headache. Probably from information overload. Or getting knocked out from the psycho rotter earlier, I don’t know.” I sighed and picked out the next random folder from the file drawer and opened it. This time, the face staring back at me made me freeze. My blood ran cold, and the seconds increased in between each heartbeat as the world around me skidded to a halt. What blood was left in my head pounded in my ears. Someone called my name from far away, but I couldn’t hear them, couldn’t focus on anything other than the face staring back at me. The face I’d seen a picture of multiple times before, taken from the day I’d entered the orphanage with no memories of where I’d come from, before I had learned to utter even a single word.
The face in this file was my own.
Blyss
“Blyss? Blyss, what’s going on?” The voices around me turned frantic, and I held the file close to my chest, urging it to not be real.
“Talk to me, B. What are you seeing?”
“Sis, come on.”
“She was looking at that file, what’s in the file that’s got her like this?”
Cold fingers wrapped around mine, but I held on tighter. “I don’t know, she won’t let me see.”
“Snap out of it before I make you snap out of it.”
Tap, tap, tap.
“Don’t make me force it out of you.”
Smack!
Stunned, I held a hand up to my cheek. “The hell?” I glanced around to see that my sister was the guilty party here. “Did you just slap me, M?”
“You were scaring us. You opened that folder and froze. Your face drained color faster than Mama G’s bad dye job. You had this look of terror in your eyes. You weren’t responding, so, yes. I slapped you.” She crossed her arms and looked at me with no hint of regret anywhere on her face. Teenagers. They turn fourteen and think they rule the world.
I responded by thrusting the folder toward her face, showing her the picture. She grabbed it and looked at it closely, trying to figure out what made me go still. “Sis, what are you trying to show me?”
I pointed at the picture. It was clear as day to me, why couldn’t she pick up on it as quickly?
“Okay, you’re going to have to use your big girl words. I see you pointing at this picture, but I’m not seeing the same thing you are. Do you know this person? This baby?”
I nodded. She’d never seen me, or pictures of me, at that age before, but surely the similarities were obvious.
“Could this be the baby from your dreams, the one that you’ve seen in one of those cribs?”
I nodded.
“Is there something else you’re not telling us?”
I nodded once again. I was hoping she wouldn’t make me say it, but it was beginning to look like I’d have to spell it out for them. For surviving in a postapocalyptic world, they were surprisingly unobservant.
“M, you didn’t know me before you came to Mama G’s. You’ve never seen a picture of me that day that I was brought into the group home, have you?”
I watched her face, scrunched up at first, morphing into one of understanding and utter terror. “This baby in the picture is… you?” She accompanied her words with sign language, remembering that Jonah was here too.
I confirmed her question with one last nod. Silence engulfed us as everyone took in this new information. I looked around at the people in front of me. I’d briefly mentioned growing up as a foster kid, but none of them knew the whole story. Hell, apparently I didn’t even know the whole story. I braced myself for the comments and judgment that had made up most of my life, but they didn’t come. The expressions on their faces turned to that of pity rather than censure, and I wasn’t sure which one was worse.
Life could be grand and it could be shit. I dealt with the cards I was handed, and that was that. After years of dreaming about how I came from a perfect family, fantasizing about being reunited with them some day—everything a lonely little foster girl could dream up—and then to find out that I was from this crazy lab instead… My world, even though lost in the past with all my other painful memories, came crashing down as the truth slapped me like a jellyfish in the ocean.
“Uh… Sis…”
I peered up through the fog in my brain to see Maura’s brow furrowed, looking down at the paper with my face on it.
“What? Does it say where I was taken from?” I ask, as an ounce of hope ignited inside. Maybe I could still get my family, even after in this fucked up world was a family that still wanted me dearly.
“Not exactly. It says… it says that you were grown here, created like the others.”
The pressure in my head grew to an unbearable level, pounding against my skull and threatening to break free. I grasped my head between my hands and leaned forward, practically folding myself in half with my head between my knees. It was all I could do to not throw up all over the floor.
A rough hand landed gently on my back, rubbing in soothing circles that weren’t having any effect on me, although I appreciated the gesture. “It’ll be alright. You’re one of us now, regardless of where you come from,” Lincoln said softly
The sweet gesture wasn’t enough to make me feel any less like shit though. All my emotions, fears, regrets, and dead hopes began to bubble up into my chest. I began to heave and within moments, the barely-there contents of my stomach spilled out onto the floor. Gentle hands held back my hair, and the salty smell I’d begun to identity as Jonah washed over me, comforting me.
A thin, red cloth appeared in front of my face and I took it, grateful for something to wipe my mouth on.
“Do either of you have any water to give her?”
M’s voice was the last thing I heard before another wave of nauseousness hit me and I collapsed to the floor in pain and darkness.
Groaning, I lifted a hand to my head. The pain was receding, but the little gnomes with jackhammers had already done their damage.
The coolness of the concrete felt good against my skin, and I braced my other palm against the floor to push myself up and into a sitting position. The silence was confusing. Where were the others? They’d seemed to have been pretty worried about me before I passed out. Assuming I had passed out, which I figured was a pretty good bet.
I opened my eyes then shut them again instantly against the blinding, bright light. Strange, I didn’t think the power was working in this place, we had to find our way through with windows and a flashlight.
After another minute, I opened them again, squinting slightly to adjust. It appeared to be so bright and completely white, a stark contrast from the monochrome room we were just in. Had they moved me? It surprised me that they would move me, and then all leave, even Puppy. Not that I expected anyone to baby me, but with how much they chased me to this point, I didn’t think a little vomit would scare them away so quickly.
Echoing footsteps sounded out and I turned my head toward the newcomer, to find a face I’d never seen before.
“Good afternoon, 662. Glad to see you are well.” The male gree
ted me with a confident voice, not at all concerned about the kind of state I was in.
Finally sitting upright, I eyed the man walking toward me, hands in his pockets as though he was confident there wasn’t any threat around. He was roughly my height, average build, with sandy hair combed neatly into place. How anyone could have hair that perfect in a world so disastrous was beyond me.
His eyes raked over me. Not in a seductive way, more of a predatory way. Like I was the only prey around and he was trying to gauge when to go in for the kill.
“Who are you?” I finally managed to spurt out. My voice was raspy, my throat parched from not having enough water.
“My name is Dr. Crane. It’s good to see you again, 662.”
“Six siss… What did you call me?”
“662. Or CN662 to be exact. You were creation number six hundred and sixty two. You were our prized gem, our key to the lock we’ve been trying to pick for centuries. You were going to grow up to do great things.” He got a gleam in his eye as though remembering a child’s first steps, before it was replaced with a scowl. “But then you were taken from us. Hidden away for seventeen years. We’d given up, accepted that you were long gone and we’d need to find another viable test subject. Then I was watching the monitors, the same as every other day, checking to see how the old building was doing against the rotter-ridden world, when my eyes saw something that couldn’t possibly be true. I’d thought for sure they must be deceiving me.”
“Monitors? The building has power?” I questioned.
“Only the cameras, for as long as the batteries last. But I kept watching and finally accepted the unbelievable, you were back. We could’ve never thought that after seventeen years of endless searching, you would come waltzing right on back in here to those who gave you life.”
Oh no, this wasn’t sounding too good. I’d thought this place had been deserted, abandoned. I certainly hadn’t entertained the thought that there could still be people here running this place.
“How can you be so sure?” I questioned. “If I’ve been missing for seventeen years, that would make me around two years old when I left here. I sure don’t look two years old anymore.”
He reached a hand out and I pulled away, but not fast enough. With a tap to my shoulder, he answered with a grim smile. “You have a birthmark there, correct?”
The fuck was going on?
“We branded all of our subjects. I like to call it a… creation mark.” The way his lips curled at the edges sent shivers down my spine.
“I never had that mark before now though,” I countered.
“No?” He paused and lines etched across his forehead in thought. “It may have disappeared when you did, since you didn’t have any of our testing solutions to keep it in place.” The lines receded from his forehead as he continued on, satisfied with his explanation. “That mark is a strange one. If it’s popped back up now, it could be mostly from what’s going on in the world. There must be magic floating in the air that it’s reacted to. And now, with you, I can get back on track to harness it.”
“Where am I?” Bringing the subject around to something a little more useful, and away from my strange mark, I looked around, not finding any recognizable features. We were in a nearly warehouse-sized room, but there weren’t even any windows or a skylight. Shelves ran the length of one long side of the room and some large square objects were hidden under white cloths, scattered throughout the space. The fluorescent lights were working in here, so we must be separate from the parts of the building we’d traveled through.
“You’re in a separate building, still connected to the main one. After the outbreak, thanks to someone’s carelessness,” hard lines crossed his face at the memory, “those of us who survived were forced to run and hide here. We have enough supplies to last us years, and enough research to practically start over as most of our subjects were destroyed, but we’re surviving.”
“How’d I get here?”
He crossed his hands in front of him, smiling at me as though I made him proud. The weirdo. “It’s a separate building with an underground tunnel. I never go out there without gas canisters, which knocked out your friends so I could more easily deal with you all. By the way, you passed the test with flying colors.”
“What test?” I was so confused and he wasn’t giving me any of the answers that I really needed. And what team? I couldn’t see anyone else in here. Before I could press him any further, another headache spread, practically vibrating my skull. I was back on the floor within seconds, clawing at my hair. After an undetermined amount of time, the pain eased back and I blinked my vision into focus. The man was standing above me, grinning, with a little black object in one hand.
“This test. Each of our creations were built with a… let’s call it a safety device. This handy little device produces waves to your brain, which results in the pain you just experienced. The higher the frequency, the greater the headache. It’s a good way to keep the subjects in line.”
Fuck that hurt. I eyed the device, making a mental note to grab it when we escaped. First, I’d have to find the others. Those searing headaches that I was plagued with as a child made me wonder if it was all due to a simple press of that button.
“It’s good practice to have a backup safety device for the safety device. So good news is, if something were to happen to this one, there’s still another.”
Well shit. Still, need to grab this one. I’ll worry about the other one later.
“When you disappeared, I drove all over, everywhere I could, with this,” he shook the little device to punctuate his point, “trying to find the young girl who would react to it.”
Well, that answered my unspoken question. I brushed my hand inconspicuously over my pockets, but the familiar bulge of my blade was gone. Fucker took my weapons, leaving me unarmed. I needed to find another way to get away from this psycho. He wasn’t rotter, and he wasn’t scaver. He was merely insane.
“But you were hidden well. So tell me, 662, where have you been all these years? What happened to the one who took you?”
“Took me?” I asked. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“The one who stole you from your crib during a night shift change. Surely you weren’t thrown into the wilderness to fend for yourself at that age.” His eyes pierced into mine as he waited for an explanation I didn’t have.
“I have no idea who you’re talking about. I grew up in and out of the foster system. I had no idea about any of this shit until today,” I spit out. Anger began to rise in my chest and I clamped it down. I needed to figure a way out of this mess and letting the rage cloud my vision was not the way to go at the moment. I’d wait and hear what else he had to say to me, get all the information I could to find my friends and get out of this nightmare.
His disapproving scowl exhibited his unhappiness with my explanation. “Hmmm. So he really did leave you in the wilderness to fend for yourself. That’s surprising. We never did find him again, it was assumed you two were in hiding together.”
“Where are my friends?” I blurted out, unable to wait any longer. They were my priority in this moment. Although to get to them, I’d need to get myself away from this guy.
A smirk crossed his lips, causing my blood to run a degree cooler. “I thought you’d never ask.” He removed his other hand from his pocket, producing another small black device, and with a swish of his arm as though he were the host of some fucked-up game show, pressed the small round button.
A rumbling filled the room and the large white cloths were lifted up by steel wires, revealing the same glass cages I’d passed during my trip through this nightmare. What I saw inside of them, though, sent panic shooting through me.
There were four glass prisons, each on skids as though they had been moved, and with a cot, toilet, and sink. Each one was occupied by one of my guys and Maura, with a smaller one that contained only Puppy. It was the first one of that size I’d seen since entering this building, since al
l the others looked to be the same. I glanced at each of them in horror, and each one of their eyes reflected the same fear and horror right back at me.
Lincoln’s fists opened and closed as though he were trying to keep his cool. Fire would not be good in his enclosed space and lighting himself on fire would not help any of us get out of this mess. I tried to project calmness to him, but I doubt it worked. He knew how fucked we all were. With each of them trapped in their exposed prisons, it was up to me to figure a way out of here for all of us. I needed to keep my cool, get this crazy guy to trust me enough to let his guard down for a moment.
Erasing all emotions from my face, I turned back to the doctor. “What is it that you want from me?”
“That, 662, is the best question you’ve asked all night.”
Blyss
Stalling for time, I followed the doctor’s directions. He wouldn’t straight up answer exactly what he had in store for me, choosing to give me instructions instead. He said I needed to prove my compliance, or else I’d be met with another raging headache and my friends would be made to suffer. I didn’t ask how he intended to make them suffer, since I wanted to focus on concocting a plan to get them out of here as soon as possible, and the thought of their possible pain wouldn’t be of any help.
He was careful not to show me his back, so he did at least have some brains. I looked forward to making sure I would see those smart brains of his spread out across the floor, painting the pretty concrete in red and flesh-colored tones.
The clicker remained in his hand as he guided me out of the large warehouse-sized room and into another series of hallways. This hallway maze was much cleaner than the ones I’d stumbled through when we first arrived. The fluorescent lights lit up the off-white walls and tiled floors and the harsh smell of disinfectant filled my nose. Doors lined these halls rather than glass cages, and I itched to find out which one led outside. Or at the very least, back into the darkened building we were in before.
