Uendeligt: An Infinitely Forever Novel

by S King

  A surprised gasp left her as she looked at me, “you knew?”

  “It’s pretty fucking obvious wouldn’t you say so?”

  For the first time since I came here an ounce of sympathy passed over her. Coming to sit on the love seat, she didn’t reach for her notepad and ballpoint pen.

  “You’re not afraid?”

  “What good would it do?”

  “Luminous, may I ask you a question?”

  “As long as you keep your hands off the note pad and.” I nodded to the hidden mic and camera in the corner of the mural. “You turn those off and disconnect them as well.”

  I wasn’t expecting her to actually do it. Actually if I were really being honest with myself. I expected things to return to normal. She with the fucking notepad and me in silence, staring at the beautiful wall. To my utter shock and amazement, she considered me for all of a half of a second before nodding once. Getting up from her wicker love seat, she disconnected the cameras and the wires.

  When she returned to the love seat, I raised a brow at her. Naturally, Dr Humming started singing like her feathered friend.

  “You are aware of what they’re going to do to you?”

  “Of course.”

  “You’re…ok with it?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Then why aren’t you fighting back? Why are you going through all of this?”

  It was a sad pathetic answer, the words on the tip of my tongue that is, but unfuckingfortunately, it was the truth. So, I turned the tables on her.

  “Where else am I going to go?”

  She opened her mouth as if the clear and obvious were staring her in the face. And in an essence it was.

  I smirked and fully looked around the room. “Being in a tropical resort would be nice but it’s unrealistic,” allowing my eyes to fall on her, I smiled, “isn’t it?”

  Together, she and I, were bound by the same genetically enhanced moral obligation all members of the night time experiments shared. If any of us betrayed our creators after serving in the guards or the labs—wherever our talents rested, then we could really only go one place. The gallows and be done with it all. The thing was. I had become so beloved amongst the guards and the scientists that I luckily skipped out on the gallows fateful call to come home and was forced back to the place I had fought tooth and nail to get out of.

  A twinkle in her eyes sparked to life as she asked, “you’re known for surviving the impossible. You don’t think your friends will come to save you?”

  I snorted about to tell her, she knew, and I knew the labs were so well hidden. It’d take someone who worked in the labs and precise location tracking to get to where I was. Unfortunately, neither Karina, Dristan, or god forbid Demir had the ability to track a location.

  Instead, I shrugged and fell back into my bubble of silence.

  “I’m sorry, Luminous. Truly, I am, but.” She shook her head, “the things you can do. The things you lived through? We need more people like you.”

  “Lucky me.”

  A knock on her door stopped her from trying to convince me this would be worth it in the long run.

  Dr. Humming bit her lower lip looking at me as if she needed to convince me to get a grip and be happy by what the fates had planned for my remaining days. But she, luckily, knew better than to press the subject. Deciding to leave me to my thoughts, she got up from the wicker and opened the thing to reveal one of the orderlies that had been transporting me to and from my room.

  “It’s time,” his voice was as dead as always and I knew without looking at him. Those hard green eyes were nailed to me like a damn board.

  “Very well,” Dr. Humming stepped aside and let him in.

  Something knocked against the ceiling, forcing my head to snap up in confusion. Throughout my entire time here, there hadn’t been any knocks, scratches, or disruptions within the building. Not my room nor the hallways. Everything had been eerily silent without even a slight breeze to shit the papers on the clipboards.

  A vain spark of hope ignited its way into my heart; thinking it may be Karina letting me know she was coming. Afterall, my best friend had a way of making sure things were perfectly wired and everyone important to her was clear from the blast sight. If it were her in the ceiling, she wouldn’t be able to do anything right now to the people apart of Whitmore’s employee roster. I didn’t have a clear escape and didn’t have time to calculate the thickness of the glass in the two small windows anyway.

  For now, I was just going to have to wait to see if my mind were playing tricks on me. It wouldn’t be the first time and I was sure it wouldn’t be the last if I were subjected to stay in this place any longer. Patience. I would need an ass load of patience until I figured out the truth behind the mysterious knock in the ceiling.

  Shifting my eyes around to stare at the man glaring at me in his black scrubs, I waited for the words to hit my ears.

  “Miss. River,” he addressed me for the first time and didn’t even bother blinking. “Come with me.”

  “Like I had much of an option in the first place,” I grumbled.

  Unlike anyone else, my sarcastic charm didn’t work on him. He didn’t crack a smile or even raise a brow at me. Giving me a look of sheer boredom and disinterest, he simply waited for me to follow him from the room.

  I took another longing look at the ceiling, hoping I hadn’t imagined things. Hoping Karina would come bursting in through the ceiling yelling some incoherent BS. But as I stepped closer to the orderly, I knew my imagination was simply playing games with me. So much for remaining positive.

  “Let’s go,” he held up the cuffs and for the first time raised a brow at me. “Are you going to need these or is this going to be a plesant walk?”

  I heavily considered taking him on. But thanks to the lack of weights in my room along with not having my whip, I knew his methods of getting me to bend to his will were tried and true for any fighter. He’d let me tire myself out and then take me down just so he didn’t have to dirty his precious scrubs.

  Holding out my wrists, I waited for him to slap the metal around me. There was no purpose in changing the routine now.

  With a begrudging sigh, he stomped over to me and cinched the things a little too tight this time around my thin wrists. But I wasn’t about complain. Like anything else, the more I bitched the more punishment I would get.

  “Let’s go,” he said again, grabbing my upper arm and hauling me away.

  Down a long corridor, hook a left and skip two doors. I could travel the path in my sleep. Somehow—no matter the direction, it was always the same BS route and always the same silence that followed.

  However, this time it was different, and I didn’t like different when it came to dealing with the scientists or their orderlies.

  Instead of going down the corridor I was used to taking in order to get to my room, we instantly hooked a right. Walked down a narrow path with only the subtle sound of the cuffs clinking surrounding us. Opposite of skipping two doors? We skipped eight. Where the hell were we going?

  I tried to find the direction—better yet, I tried to think of where we were.

  “Don’t make things difficult and life will be kinder to you.” Big meany warned before shoving me into a room with the cuffs still on.

  I knew life had taken a funny turn for the worst when I scanned the room and only found a bed with what…no. no. no. Instinctively, I stepped back only to come against the wall.

  “Luminous River,” an automated voice, much like the one that would call out in the tunnels for the Onyx Elite, echoed through the room. “Please disrobe from the waist down.”

  No, no, no. I started shaking my head and tried to find a place I could bolt from but there was nothing but walls and the locked door behind me.

  “Luminous River, please disrobe from the waist down.” The automated voice warned again as I started rattling the doorknob and banging on the metal barrier for everything it was worth.

  Hands wrappe
d around my shoulders, lifting me from the floor and away from the door. The harder I strained against the hold, the more forceful the grip became.

  “Fighting will get you nowhere,” the voice warned.

  I reared my head back and felt the sharp snap before it happened. He knew what I was going to do and dodged it. Slamming me on the table without any mercy, a cold air bit at my exposed thighs while my legs were jerked back for a moment.

  In two seconds, I was flipped around and pinned on the table. I bucked and squirmed against the hold as another man came from out of nowhere. Grabbing my ankles he spread my legs open painfully before strapping either limb into the stirrups.

  At least they didn’t examine my most private part of my body and left me without incident. Something moved around the room, away from my line of sight as I tried to regain my breathing.

  “Ok, this isn’t that bad,” I whispered to myself, trying to look around the room. “I’ve still got time. I can get out of here without anything entering me that shouldn’t be entered into anyone.” The false reassurance was nothing to be proud of as I looked over my hip and found the insemination device.

  Seeing as how I was the only one within the room and the device was the only other inanimate object. I had put the pieces together. The device came from under the table where I couldn’t see it when I had first stepped into the room.

  Without warning, I felt the burning in my eyes and cursed internally for what was happening. As the salty tears rolled from the corners of my eyes. The only thing I kept thinking to myself was how stupid I had been and how, out of all people I should’ve listened to Shang. He was right. Demir had only one thing on his mind from the very beginning.

  He hadn’t thought or cared about me from the time the ink had dried down on the order from the courts. Hadn’t so much as gotten together with his judge buddies or Dristan to think of a way to stop this very situation from happening before it started.

  In reality it was my own fault for thinking otherwise. For thinking he had meant the promises he had made me. It was my own fault and thinking otherwise was against my better judgement.

  “Fucking stupid,” I breathed, as I stared at the plain white ceiling. Waiting for the insemination arm to come closer and do what Demir had signed off on. Him and the rest of his fucking judge buddies.

  Breeder. Baby factory. All of these things Shang had warned me about and I had refused to listen. Hell, even Talay had somewhat warned me before taking me in. Granted, she was going to save herself before she allowed me to walk away without too much of a fight.

  A soft whirring broke through the shaky breathing and mumbled curses coming from my mouth. Alerting me to the time. It didn’t matter if I fought against the steel cuffs that held my ankles apart in the stirrups or strained against the cuffs at my wrists. I was bound like a damn pig for slaughter.

  My legs shook from the cold and with dreaded fear for what was about to happen to me.

  “No, no, no!” I knew it was of no use but still, I didn’t stop trying to wiggle and fight my way off the table.

  Just when I had thought all hope had been lost and I was about to be condemned to a life of a damned prized dog. The unthinkable happened.

  One second I was finding some type of strength to just endure the invasion. Do my duty as guard member. As a prized experiment. Just put up with what was to come. And the next I was tossing my head to the side as the machine exploded in a wave of shrapnel and flames.

  “Luminous!” My head snapped around to find Shang throwing his big body over the ledge of what used to be the observation window and rushed to me.

  Dressed in head to toe in all black. He wore a mask that covered everything from his nose down. Along with a matching baseball cap. The only thing visible on him being those deathly black eyes. Filled with the type of determination I had seen in him when we were going back and forth on the river bank.

  Maybe it was because I had been beaten and broken to the point of nothing more than a shell. Maybe all of this had shed a new light on my entire life. Whatever the case had been, I felt no shame as he ripped the steel cuffs from my ankles and wrists while I bawled like a newborn. When I was free I didn’t hesitate to bolt upright and launch myself into his strong arms.

  “Hey, hey,” smoothing my hair down my back, he lifted me into his arms. “Not that I don’t like the appreciation, but this isn’t the time.”

  “You jackass,” I managed to squeeze out between sobs.

  Shots being fired off at my left and right, had me looking over my shoulder at the man I had cursed, loved, lusted after, and hated.

  Even though he was dressed in the same outfit as Shang, I knew those dull gold-silver eyes without having to see the rest of him. What was worse was the fact I knew the anger and possessiveness dancing in his eyes better than I knew myself. It was the same look he had had right before he covered it with coldness before he stabbed me. Before he ordered Roxy to deliver me to the scientists. But the look and meaning behind those eyes weren’t directed toward me. Instead, his anger and hatred was…for himself. As if he couldn’t stand what he had become or what he had done in order to get to where he was.

  There’d be a time and place where we would have to talk, but now wasn’t the time considering the situation the two men had created in order to get me out of here.

  Demir didn’t say anything to either me or Shang as he cleared the room of any threats. He simply gave me a once over before nodding once to Shang and calmly walked out of the room with the expectation we would follow.

  At this point I couldn’t tell where Demir’s head was at, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to stand in this laboratory, wrapped around Shang like a fucking spider monkey trying to figure it out. Obviously, neither was Shang; without giving me any warning he flipped me around to his back and started after Demir without any objection or question.

  Clinging to Shang, I didn’t give two rat’s ass about my own ass and funny business being fully exposed. The only thing I cared about was getting the hell out of this lab and away from these nutcase scientists. A small hope bloomed in the center of my chest as I clung to Shang for dear life.

  “And to think, you told me to stop making bombs,” Karina jumped from the rafters and smiled at me as she fell into step beside Shang. Dressed in her own all black outfit and wiring up a bomb, she glanced up long enough to skip over a fallen medical cart.

  “How did you guys get here?” I adjusted myself against Shang’s back, keeping a steady eye on Demir in front of us.

  “As hard as it is to believe,” Karina raised a brow in Demir’s direction. Leaving the explanation to hang in the air.

  “No?”

  “Right,” she shrugged and put the final touches on her Russian Heart.

  “But—” Pounding footsteps behind us, snapped my head around.

  “Stop right there!” Three men in white lab coats burst from a side door with their guns raised. Oh so they meant business? Well, good thing I wasn’t one for playing games either.

  Slipping my hand in Shang’s coat, I narrowed my eyes on the men who had helped strap me down to the fucking table. Maybe if they didn’t have a hand in capturing me, I’d have thought twice about killing them. Then again, how likely were any of us going to leave anyone from the lab alive?

  “Karina,” using my other hand to hold onto Shang’s chest, I leveled the barrel in the orderlies direction.

  “I got it,” she didn’t hesitate and took off running down a hallway to my left.

  Shang raised me higher on his back, “what’re you two doing?”

  “Just run when I tell you to run,” I breathed, tracking Karina’s movements.

  It was nothing for her to run up the wall, grab onto the ledge of the ceiling and pull herself above the lip. In no time, she was crawling through the air rafters again, not caring that the tiles were shaking under her weight.

  “Wha—” I cut off his words and swung the gun around toward the scientists again.

 
Squeezing Shang’s chest a little tighter, ignoring the pleasure running up my body from the feel of his muscles beneath my touch. I felt a sadistic smirk pull my lips back as my finger squeezed the trigger in rapid succession. One by one the scientists dropped. Any other time, I’d have been proud of eliminating several members of the cult like lab. But even as the blood pooled on the sterile white floor, I was still no closer in getting out of here.

  “Luminous,” something in Shang’s voice shifted.

  Looking up at the ceiling, I swallowed hard, “Shang, run.”

  I didn’t need to tell him twice. Somehow Shang had seen what Karina was capable of and didn’t want any part of it. Without warning he ducked right while Demir cut left. As Karina knocked away the ceiling tiles, she laughed manically as one after another her Russian Heart bombs fell, and rainbow snappers exploded into the hallways.

  The hallways echoed of aftershocks and shouts. Clinging to Shang, I emptied the clip of his gun into another round of scientists bursting through doors from either end of the hall. Karina would get herself out of the building before the final explosion and knowing her, she’d make sure there was nothing left for the OE to rebuild.

  “Get ready to jump,” Shang shouldered his way through the door and kept running with the trust I was going to hang on.

  Pressing myself a little tighter to his back, I hoped we weren’t about to explode with one of Karina’s bomb. Staring ahead, I found Demir coming around the corner with his steps purposeful but unhurried. He had been the one to orchestrate this entire jail break. Now, he was pulling two beautifully crafted guns from his waistband.

  “Duck,” Shang ordered picking up his speed while Demir raised the guns and shot at the only thing blocking all of our escapes. With a final glance over my shoulder, I made a promise to myself that I’d bring down this fucking society if it were the last thing I do.

  Chapter 18 Death to the Bloody Black Courts

  I didn’t like the fact Luminous had literally jumped into Shang’s arms while she was bare assed naked from the waist down. But now wasn’t the time to argue about whose arms she needed to be in. She was safe, she wasn’t forced into having someone’s kids and then being ripped away from them.