Welcome To The Jungle

by Michael Todd

That is disgusting.

  No one down there likes him, because he is a presumptuous ass, Pandora replied. The good news though is that he found out T’Chezz was planning his death, so he isn’t loyal to anyone but himself right now. I told him to help Ella; that the more he helped her, the longer both of them would stay alive. I am pretty sure he agreed, and I don’t think she will struggle too much with it.

  Good work, Katie told her.

  “Ella,” Katie began, moving back over to the girl, “I need you to start working through your feelings. We are all a family here. We’ve all been through the process, and we are all here to help you with anything that you need. There are also counselors on the team, if you’d prefer one of those. However, after talking with Korbin and Damian, we know that your priority is to begin training. Training is one of the most important things we do, and it’s not just for workouts and tiny waistlines. It’s for survival, because right now you are weak, so you run the risk of dying permanently.”

  “I don’t want to die,” Ella said quietly. “I know I said that in New York, but I didn’t mean it.”

  “It’s okay.” Katie smiled. “We all go through a really rough time when things start to change. How about we forget about the past and start fresh right here in this glass-boxed room? You can embrace your new situation and learn to do the things we do.”

  “Okay,” Ella agreed, although she wasn’t very happy about it.

  “Perfect!” Katie stood up and headed for the door. “We start training at six, so get some sleep tonight and be ready by that time to set things on fire.”

  “Okay,” Ella replied as Katie left the room.

  That’s not so bad, Ella thought. Six in the evening is not a bad time to start.

  11

  Look, you little bitch, Melneck hissed. Get your non-athletic funky ass out of this bed. I am not here to be your goddamned babysitter.

  Dream on, asshole. Ella laughed mentally. My parents spent twenty years trying to get me to do what they wanted. You think you are any better? Fucking think again. I don’t get up before the crack of noon on an early day.

  Melneck growled and ran his powers through her body, fucking with her intestines. She immediately became very gaseous, stinking up the entire room. She didn’t budge, just pulled her covers tighter around her. She did not want to get up, she did not want to train, and she did not want to deal with the rest of this team of soldier do-gooders. She wanted to stay in bed and decide later if training was something she wanted to do. She wasn’t about to start running, doing pushups, and fencing without fully feeling into it. Melneck increased the pressure on her intestines.

  I really feel like you are hurting yourself more than me. Melneck chuckled. I have smelled sulphur in one form or another my whole life, so this is like a sweet memory from my parents’ house. It’s like I am getting ready to start my day.

  You think it’s pleasant now, wait until you see what I can do to your body, Melneck growled. Don’t like your thighs? I can make them fatter. Your ass too big? You haven’t seen nothing yet. Oh yeah, then there is my favorite…acne.

  You don’t scare me, Ella snarled.

  IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR GIANT ASS OUT OF THIS BED, YOU WILL GET DIARRHEA NEXT, Melneck screamed. I am not going to put up with some lazy piece of shit. I will take over your body. Don’t fucking test me girl!

  “YOU ARE SUCH AN ASSHOLE!” Ella screamed out loud, throwing the covers back. “I swear, when I get you out of me I am going to kill you myself.”

  I’d like to see you get so strong that a threat like that would worry me in the least. He chuckled. Right now, all I would have to do is flick you and you would break in half. Now get up. Take a shower, brush you goddamn teeth because your breath smells like a demon’s rotten asshole, and get downstairs. I’m sure they are all waiting for you.

  Oh joy, Ella growled, getting out of the bed. A new happy little family, just waiting to meet their new fucking pet. Not what I signed up for. I’d rather work non-stop shifts at Starbucks with the same obnoxious bitch ordering the same obnoxious fucking drink with fifty-seven ingredients. And to think I used to think that was the absolute description of hell! Who would have thought I would have found the real hell in a desert?

  Oh, trust me honey, you’ve seen nothing yet if you think this is hell. Melneck laughed.

  “There she is,” Katie told Calvin. “Good luck with her.”

  “I grew up in the ghetto.” He cracked his knuckles. “This girl has nothing on me.”

  “Right.” Katie chuckled, waving to him as she walked away.

  “Good morning, Ella,” Calvin said as he walked up to her. “I am your team leader Calvin. I’m second in charge under Korbin, who you will meet eventually. I want to start out the day with some questions.”

  “Oh, I love questions,” Ella grumbled, walking over to the table with Calvin. “Why is this place such a wreck?”

  “We had a demon invasion here,” he replied. “We got them all, but it was tough on the structure. So, tell me about yourself. Where did you come from, what are your interests, and so on?”

  “Well, I am not really interested in anything,” she said pointedly. “I was a straight-A student in high school, but not because I cared to study—just because it was so damn easy. They tried to challenge me with AP classes, but they were all yawnworthy. All they included was more homework. The other crap was already in my head.”

  “Okay.” Calvin wrote some notes. “You sound like a very smart young lady. What did you do before you got infected?”

  “I worked at Starbucks. That’s about it.”

  “No college?” he asked.

  “I got a couple scholarships.” She shrugged, looking around. “But I wasn’t interested. My parents just couldn’t wrap their little heads around that. College wasn’t for me. They saw opportunity; for me, all it included was learning more and ‘getting ahead,’ and I have no idea what that means.”

  “What did you want to do?” Calvin asked.

  “I dunno.” She shrugged. “I only have one life, so I want to enjoy it. I didn’t want to become a slave, to be a tool for the government for forty-five years just so I could retire when I was too old to enjoy myself. Hell, no! There is too much in this world for me to experience. I am doing that shit now while I’m young, while I can go out and see the world without a walker and a bunch of pills to keep me alive. We are born into slavery and we work our whole lives thinking it’s for the greater purpose, but when we finally get to the end all we have to look back on is what we did at work. No, thanks.”

  Calvin nodded along, listening to what she was saying but not hearing anything new, for all she was so smart. Sure, she was probably genius-level, but that wasn’t going to help her when she was facing down a six-hundred-pound demon with nothing but a sword and her talent. She didn’t seem to understand why she was there or what she would be doing.

  “Did you have any interests outside of school or work?”

  “Parties. Smoking weed and chillin’ out with my friends.”

  “Right.” He looked up at her. “I meant like physical activities.”

  “Nope.” She yawned.

  “Nothing?” he asked. “No fighting, no wrestling… Maybe competitive volleyball?”

  “Competitive volleyball?” She snickered, peering at him to see if he was trying to put one over on her.

  He wasn’t.

  “Don’t knock it,” Calvin told her. “I’ve become a believer in the power of volleyball. Katie there…she is the team heavy, meaning she carries us in almost all the fights. When she came in here she had nothing under her belt except competitive volleyball, and she is the best ass-kicker on the team.”

  “Oh?” Ella lifted one eyebrow. “How nice for her.”

  “All right,” Calvin said, putting down his notes. “I think at this point the best thing for us to do is just see what you have in you. Go put on some tennis shoes, I put some new ones on the bench, along with some workout clothes that Katie brought
down. We’ll hit the track.”

  Ella rolled her eyes and stood up to grab the clothes. This was not her idea of a fun time in the least. She changed and they went out to the track, starting off with a slow jog. She had no interest in proving herself to these goons, and she definitely wasn’t going to break a sweat for any of them.

  Come on, Melneck griped. You have the stamina of a six-year-old.

  Shut up, Ella growled.

  I’m not kidding, Melneck snapped. I have seen a toad move faster than you. A big fat one, missing one leg, just skimming along at a quicker pace than this.

  Ella picked up her pace and scowled. She had to figure out how to deal with humans who wanted to work her harder than her parents had and a demon who was a complete and total asshole.

  As she ran she thought about what had happened the day before. As if her day hadn’t already had a hard enough beginning running from her mother, she’d had to walk the trash out at that specific moment, thinking she could sneak a smoke.

  Oh, you won’t be smoking anymore, Melneck told her. Disgusting habit. I drained the nicotine from your system while you were asleep and made it so you were no longer addicted.

  Great, my demon is now an ad for Chantix. She scoffed.

  I also healed your lungs, he added. Which is why I am so surprised you move so slowly.

  Ella ignored him as she ran around the track, trying to focus enough to not trip over her feet. She seriously couldn’t figure out how her life had gotten so much worse. She had enough shit in her life; she did not need this.

  This is going to be sooo awesome, Melneck crowed excitedly. Every day we will get up early and eat a healthy breakfast—egg whites, toast, and maybe some coffee if you’re good—and then hit the gym. We have a whole gym at our fingertips. I will come up with a training routine for you. It will be fabulous.

  Great, thanks. She groaned. I just want to go back to bed and get high. Maybe not in that order, but you fucking get it.

  Not anymore, sugar tits, Melneck cooed. We are on the road to freedom here. Freedom from fat, cholesterol, and high sodium.

  “I really got to get out of here,” she mumbled to herself as she made the turn.

  Ella had gotten very tired of hearing Melneck, so she put her ass into everything else she did during the rest of training. She even went in and ate dinner with the team, getting to know them a little.

  She had to admit the whole thing had appeal, but it was not for her. By the time she made it back to her bedroom that night, she had created an entire plan to break free from the compound. She stood at her bed, twisting the sheets she found in the closet and tying them end to end.

  She quietly opened her window and lowered the sheets to the ground, securing the other end to the leg of her bed. Slowly she crawled out the window and lowered herself to the ground, making sure to avoid the other glass panels in case someone was awake. She hit the ground with a thud on legs swollen and sore from the early workout. She was just about to make a run for it when she heard a whisper behind her.

  “Where you are going?” the voice asked. “Where you are going? I left you a note…”

  Ella slowly turned around, slightly nervous about who she would find. She could see two round red eyes staring back at her from the darkness. Her heart started to beat faster and she clapped her palms in front of her. She couldn’t talk much less move by that point, and she was starting to think laps around the gym wouldn’t be that bad after all.

  “And the note says,” the voice snarled as Stephanie stepped into the light, blinking the red from her eyes and clearing her throat, “get yourself back in that fucking bed or I will kick your ass so hard you will need to send notes to it via air mail!”

  Ella let out a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders. She hated that she had gotten caught, but she was thankful the red eyes were just Stephanie. She had thought for sure that she was a goner. She stiffened her face and rolled her eyes before turning and sulking toward the door.

  “Nah ah ah,” Stephanie cautioned, waving her finger. “You came out the window, so you will go back in through the window.”

  “What?” Ella looked at her in surprise. “I could fall!”

  “Mmmhmm, yes,” Stephanie said, looking at her nails. “You could, and I will be right here in the sand waiting for you to do it so I can laugh at your useless ass. Please start climbing, because I really want to watch that happen. It would seriously make my whole week.”

  “You are a sadistic BITCH,” Ella growled. “If I fall I’m suing someone. I don’t know who yet, but I will find someone, and I will take them the fuck down.”

  Ella walked over to the dangling sheet, looking up it to the open window. She sighed, grabbed the fabric, and put one foot on the wall. Holding tightly to the sheet rope, she slowly pulled herself up. She climbed a bit higher and looked down at Stephanie, who stood there with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

  “Fucking assholes,” she mumbled. “They think they are so cute, with the lessons they want to teach me. All I see is a fucking rope that I have to climb. It could come loose at any point, and I could break my fucking legs.”

  When Ella got to the windowsill, she carefully grabbed the edge. She got a good hold on it and pulled herself toward the wall, but as soon as she got close her foot slipped, rocks crumbling beneath her. She let out a quiet yelp as she grabbed the sill with both hands and hung there, her arms shaking and nerves blowing up in her chest. Melneck pushed slightly, giving her the strength she needed to get through the window.

  Why did you help me? she asked after she was in safely.

  Failure would have affected your sleep schedule, he told her. And we are on a very tight schedule.

  You, Ella said, pulling the sheet rope up from the ground, are fucking insufferable.

  Oh, please. Melneck laughed. Petulant child, I’ve been told that by beings who could gnaw on your longest bone like a toothpick. You telling me that just makes my heart feel warm. It’s like you are complimenting me on a job well done, but I cannot say the same for you with your asinine fourteen-year-old’s plan to escape. I thought you were a genius. Was that all you could come up with?

  I’m under a lot of pressure here, she griped, untying the sheets. And I didn’t hear you giving me any good pointers. You were too busy acting like Jane-fucking-Fonda coming up with a new workout routine. If you put Pilates or jazzercise or hip hop or anything like that on that list, I will kill myself just to spite you.

  Trust me, honey, no one wants to see you jumping around to hip hop, okay? Melneck chuckled. You need help, and you don’t have time to play around with some at-home workouts. What I got for you is going to tone, burn, and churn those muscles to perfection.

  Great, she grumbled. This is my fucking life.

  12

  Calvin laughed. “This girl is quite the handful.” He was sitting in Korbin’s office with Katie and Damian. “She hates what she is doing here, even though she really has no clue about the extent of it yet.”

  “I don’t know if I would trust her with a weapon,” Katie mused. “She’s liable to stab herself or one of us by accident.”

  “Or on purpose.” Calvin chuckled.

  “Oh, I think she would show her true colors in action,” Damian said. “We have to have a little more faith in her than that. We did for you, Katie, and you have become a badass.”

  Katie looked at Korbin as he picked up his ringing phone and walked from the room to take the call.

  She sighed, thinking that Damian was right. When she’d gotten there she had been nothing but a volleyball player, and they turned her into a killer—though she still wasn’t sure she would consider herself a badass.

  Either way, Ella was confused and scared, and she needed all the positive reinforcement she could get. She didn’t need people talking down to her, but she was just such a damn bitch all the time it was hard not to.

  With that thought Korbin walked back in, shaking his head. He sat down in his chair and rubbed
his face, pulling everyone’s attention.

  “What’s going on, Korbin?” Calvin asked. “You look like you just have seen a ghost.”

  “Kind of,” Korbin replied. “That was the National Military Advisor on the phone. He wants to see the facilities, since he heard that we took quite a bit of damage recently.”

  “Damn!” Calvin exclaimed. “Well, how much time do we have? We can start cleaning everything out right away.”

  “There won’t be enough time for that,” Korbin said. “He will be here in twenty-four hours.”

  “Shit!” Katie sat up straight. “That’s one hell of a short notice.”

  “We need to get all the weapons out of here,” Calvin suggested. “Not just the new ones, but everything that’s not military issue.”

  “You’re right,” Korbin agreed. “Those weapons need to be taken over to the new base and stowed away. Calvin, I want you to grab Derek from upstairs, and the two of you will start loading everything into the truck. The new location is in the GPS, so take it over there and find a good spot for it. I think if you look on the blue prints you will find an armory on the property, so try there first.”

  “You got it, boss.” Calvin stood up and jogged from the room.

  “What about us?” Katie asked as Korbin picked up the phone, putting one finger up to silence her.

  “Stephanie,” Korbin said into the phone. “Something big just came up. I need you to come back home right away.

  A squawk came out of the speaker.

  “I really don’t care about the sale at Nordstrom’s,” Korbin said flatly.

  Loud cursing ensued.

  “Right. Okay, see you soon.”

  Katie chuckled and glanced at Damian. Korbin hung up the phone and shook his head, running his hands through his hair.

  “Why now?” he asked loudly. “Katie and Damian, I want you guys to get Ella packed up and take her back to New York to finish her training. It will be good for her to train in her home environment, and on top of that the New York team is asking for some help related to a spate of severe attacks in the area. I’m sure they will be happy to have you out there.”