by Luna Wolf
Octavius swings back and forth, gaining momentum. He releases the hold his feet have, and falls to land on the monster’s back. He tries to wrap both arms around the massive head, but they still have a wide gap between them. He jams the tip of the knife into the chest of the creature; little more than a dent happens, but it angers the beast enough that it lets go of my neck and tries to reach for Octavius.
I fall to the ground in a heap. I gasp for air, it hurts to breathe. “Run!” he yells. The creature rams itself into the wall. Octavius holds on tighter. Still trying to plunge the knife through the muscle. Not even blood, or some form of liquid, comes from the wound yet. What could it be made from, steel?
I stand on shaky legs. Everything in me says run, but I can’t leave him behind. He’s risking his life to save mine. I should do something to help get rid of this thing. My eyes search for anything that could give us an advantage. They fall on the fluorescent lights that now flicker on and off. They had to have put there for more than just psyching out our senses. The monster’s head almost hit them. My eyes fall on the long-enclosed wires they hang from. They look like they could stretch a little further.
The shaking leaves my legs. I know what I must do now. Taking a step back, I put my back flush with the wall again. They designed the width of this hallway for parkour. There is a small hole near the top of the wall. Why didn’t I see it earlier? I take a run at the wall and scale it, grabbing onto the edge of the hole. I look behind me. A light hangs there.
I take my other hand and shove into the hole also, before bending my knees and placing my bare feet on the wall. I need to spring from the wall and hope that I can grab onto the light. If not, I will be landing on the stone floor and that will not be fun at all. I fly from the wall and land on the light its not the one close enough to the monster, but it swings. I hold on for dear life, crouching on top of the long rectangle shaped hood. Longer I sit on it, the more it lengthens and lowers itself to the ground. I was right. I use my body weight to swing the lamp across the gap to the one that hangs closer to the monster. Leaping I and grab onto the next one pulling myself up. Pressing myself down into it, I make the lighter lower quicker. The hot bulbs skim the top of the monster’s head.
Octavius glances up in time to see what I’m doing. I must be visible because his black eyes meet mine. He lets go and falls as I crash the bulbs into its head. Electricity sparks everywhere. I jump off the lamp and fall to the ground, tucking and rolling; I have no doubt I will be stiff later. I’m glad I remembered my tuck and roll training. The creature shakes, as the electricity moves through its skull and down its body. The scent of burnt flesh fills my nose, I cover my nose and mouth.
The thing falls to the ground. Octavius runs forward—with his knife in hand—and lets out a battle cry. He lands once again on the creature’s chest. It doesn’t move, but I doubt it’s dead. With both hands grasping it, he raises the knife up and plunges it into an empty eye socket, with all the force he can muster. The knife goes in up to the hilt. The monster’s body jerks and it lets out a series of pig like grunts. He pulls the knife and slams into the other eye socket, and then again through the center of the forehead. Blue liquid splatters out of the multiple wounds, it covers Octavius face and the walls. I take a step back, not wanting to be hit. The thing should be dead now.
Octavius continues to stab the thing’s face, over and over. With slight hesitation, I move toward him and place a hand on his shoulder. He stops and glances over his shoulder. Pulling the knife out one last time, he splatters both of us with blue stuff. I turn my face away just in time for it to hit my cheek. I instantly wipe it off. My skin crawls with disgust.
He stands and moves off the monster. Taking his red shirt in his hand, he wipes the blood off the knife and closes it. “Thanks for helping me and not running off.” He gives me a sideways smile. Heat flares in my cheeks. I give a shrug. He helped save my life. The least I could do was help him. I look at the knife. Where did he get that? We aren’t allowed to carry weapons outside of training with them. He looks at me and then the knife. “I always carry one on me and they always take it away when they find it. With all the camera’s watching us, I’m sure they know I have this one now. I’m not worried about it, I have more in a place they will never find them.”
He nods his head in the direction we were walking before that thing came knocking. The journey begins again. How far will we get this time? I hope that monster was part of the challenges, if it was, then we only have one more to do before all this is over and we hopefully graduate. There’s no guarantee we will. It’s all up to them, the people who watch and train us. If we die, of course it’s over, but if we live and didn’t prove to them we were ready for the more advanced training, then they send us to Lock Down and I don’t know what happens there. Nothing good, since no one has ever returned from there.
I glance to Octavius. He’s such a rebellious person. I wish I could be more like that. Not caring what the doctors or guards tell me to do. Standing up for myself. Hell, being able to speak to people outside my sector would be nice. I don’t know why I go mute around people I didn’t grow up with, it just happens. One of the elders in my sectors says I’m just painfully introverted. Painful is right. I would give anything to be able to speak to this guy right now. The words are stuck in my throat, like a massive ball of ice cream I shoveled into my mouth too quickly. My eyes linger on his face longer, he has a nice profile. Even with the red liquid stuff on his face. Wait, red? It came out blue. I frown and stop walking. He stops a second later. “What’s up?”
I lift my hand and bring into his face. He watches it with curiosity, I wipe my finger through the drying red. It comes off and I show him. I hope he noticed what color it came out as. He frowns and grasps hold of my fingers and brings them close to one of his eyes. “Didn’t that stuff come out blue?”
I nod.
“Now it’s turning red?”
I nod again.
We look back to where the creature should be still on the ground: it’s gone, as is the blue that splattered the walls and floor.
“Where did it go? We didn’t hallucinate that, did we?”
I run my hand through the red on his face again and show it to him. I shake my head. No, we have proof that what happened was real. Just like the puzzle room, the mess we made had to have been picked up. He nods. “Good, I was worried I was going insane there for a moment. It wouldn’t be a long trip, if you know what I’m saying.”
I doubt it would be a long trip for any of us.
We walk again, when the ground under us begins to crack, within seconds it gives away, and we fall into darkness. A scream erupts from my throat, the first sound I have made all day. The darkness ends and lights shines up from somewhere below. At first my body hits something solid then it gives away. Water, I’m in water. I force my body to swim, bursting my head through the surface. Gasping for air, I push my silver and violet streaked hair out of my eyes. Dank air fills my nose. I struggle to stay topside. I look down into the water, only blackness meets me. No telling how deep it goes.
Octavius pokes his head up next to me. His white hair—turned grey with water—sticks to his face. He forces it out of the way, but has issues as more of it sticks to his fingers. A long string of white comes out of his hair and hangs off his hand He flicks it, but only manages to make to spin itself around his index and middle finger.
I smile, as he flicks his hand harder and growls. He looks at me. “Think this is funny? Imagine trying to tame this mane of sexiness every day, it’s a pain in the ass.” He smiles. “Where are we anyway?”
I shrug, like I would know. I turn in a circle, to get a better look at what’s around us. Behind us stands three large pillars, each one bigger than the first; vines of ivy climb them. The final and tallest one leads to a bridge, which crosses over to a doorway. This is it, we’re at the end. Just this one last challenge. It looks simple, too simple.
“Guess we have to climb those things and cross th
e bridge, right? Looks easy enough, so what are the bastards hiding up their sleeves? They wouldn’t threaten us with death the last two challenges and make the third one a piece of cake.”
My thoughts exactly. Can this guy read minds? He didn’t say he was spliced with more than one thing, but then again, I didn’t ask.
“Shit!” he yells. I stare at him with wide eyes, what has him startled? Then I feel it, something touches the bottom of my feet. I swim toward the lowest pillar. Octavius follows right behind. The dark mass of something continues to squirm around my bare feet. It could be harmless, but I don’t want to stick around long enough to find out.
Both of us grab onto the vines at the same time. Fire shoots through my arm and the pillar starts to drip with mud. Our hands let go of the vines at the same time, he must have felt the pain, too. “Oh fuck! I think something just bit off my big toe. I don’t care how painful it is… climb! It wants to eat us!” He grabs hold of the ivy once more and pulls himself up. The mud falls again. His foot comes out of the water, dripping with scarlet blood.
I grab onto the vines with both hands—fire shoots through them and down my body—I hoist myself out of the water, even though my body screams for me to let go and be free of the pain. The mud pours down over my hands, making my grip slippery, the vines sink with the mud. If I don’t hurry, I won’t be able to reach the top of the pillar. My fate will lie with whatever dwells in the water below, already hungry for flesh. I force myself to climb faster. The water below bubbles, as if it has begun to boil.
We reach the top of the first pillar. The boiling gets louder. Curiosity gets the better of me. I turn around to get a better look at what has happened to the water. Now, I can see the shadow of the thing that lurked under us and took Octavius’s toe. I glance at the missing toe. Blood slowly spurts from the wound and onto the rock, but it doesn’t seem to faze him.
He shrugs. “I won’t lose a ton of blood before I can get in cauterized and it will grow back in like a month.”
My eyes bug out, he can grow limbs back? I wish I had that trait. A splash alerts me of the water again. The thing rises out of the water. A long serpent’s head comes to meet us, eye to eye. Like something out of Greek mythology. It opens its mouth wide, rows of razor sharp teeth greet us; a long-forked tongue slithers out. It rushes at us. Our senses return. I stumble back and almost fall on my butt, but Octavius catches me and pulls me toward the next pillar and set of vines.
We climb, the serpent nips at our feet, but misses taking them whole. I can’t regenerate. I can’t risk losing a limb. The pain shoots through my body with greater intensity than the first set of vines and the mud spill faster. We reach the top of the second pillar in record time.
The serpent swims around to the side of the last pillar and rises higher. Its head could take us in one gulp now, if we aren’t careful and move faster. I grab hold of the last set of ivy and instantly pull back my hands. Swollen, red, blisters cover them.
Octavius grabs my arm. “C’mon, we have to keep moving. I know it hurts, but we must get through this. Show the bastards what we are made of.”
A new surge of energy fills me at his encouragement. Together we take hold of the vines. The palms of my hands and the soles of my feet burn with blisters bursting and bubbling, but I force down the pain, and make myself climb ever higher. The serpent waits for us at the top. What will we do once we get there?
I swear the entire pillar has begun to turn to mud. I’ve never had to climb so fast in my life. I didn’t even know my body can do this type of feat. We reach the top of the last pillar. The bridge and the end are so close now.
The pillars sink into the water below, the bridge tightens. Its ropes won’t hold forever against the pull of the rock and mud. The serpent lurches at us. The rows of teeth barely missing both of us, as we dodge in different directions.
Octavius pulls out the knife again, aiming for one of the eyes of thing. He misses, and it slides across the pillar—that sinks further into the water—I dive for it and grab it. “Run across the bridge!” I yell. I spoke. I can’t believe that even left my mouth.
I throw the knife at the creature, piercing its eye. It lets out a scream and rears back away from the pillar. It shrinks and thrashes from side to side. Water splashes onto the pillars, making the mud run like a waterfall. Octavius watches the thing: transfixed. I stand and run toward him, pulling him up and pushing him to go across the bridge. He makes it to the other side. I’m four steps behind. The rope holding the bridge up snaps under the pressure of it being pulled so far down. My legs fallout from underneath me and I hold on to one of the boards of the bridge.
I hang with the bridge from the suspended cliff, which leads to the way out of all this. The thrashing from the serpent goes silent. I look at it. It has dislodged the knife from its eye. Red runs like a river down its face, and now it’s coming for me. With all my might, and the last of my strength, I pull myself up the broken bridge like a ladder. The thing lurches from below me, nearly taking hold of my pajama pants.
Octavius reaches out for me. “Jump and grab my hand!”
The soles of my feet scream in pain, but I spring myself up the last foot and a half, grabbing hold of his hand. He pulls me up some and then takes hold of my wrist and forearm. My shoulder could pop out of the socket at any time. With a grunt, he pulls me up the rest of the way. The serpent lurches again, but can’t reach the height of the cliff. Octavius pulls me to his chest and wraps his arms around me, while he scoots back into the elevator that awaits us. The doors close behind us with a ding and, “Congratulations. You have passed your test. Shower and meet in the assembly hall in two hours.”
A laugh bursts out of me. I can’t believe I did it. He joins in, and then silence falls over us. I stare into his eyes. His hands tighten their hold at my sides. Heat consumes my cheeks, as one of his hands comes up to push a wet strand of my hair out of my face. “So, I finally get to hear your voice, Squeak. It’s cute.”
I swallow hard, my heart will hammer through my chest cavity I just know it. Please body, stay looking solid.
His pink tongue comes out to wet his lips, his eyes travel down to look at my own. My body leans against his. Something hard presses into my stomach. Now his hand travels down my side. I tighten my hold on his shoulders. “You know, I wouldn’t be averse to you joining me for my shower. I need help getting this mud and blood off me.”
That’s it that is all my brain can handle. My body, from head to two goes invisible and his eyes go wide. The ding sounds again and the elevator doors open. I’m off him and out of it before I can turn visible again and he can stop me. That didn’t happen. Stuff like that doesn’t happen to girls like me.
Chapter Two
The Shower & The Viewing
Entering sector five—where reptile splicers are housed—I grab a basic, black t-shirt and dark-blue denim jeans that have small spikes running down the legs.
As my adrenaline dwindles, the blisters on my hands and feet hurt more now. I need some healing spray. A simple first aid spray will heal them right over. If they were anything more than some bad blisters, I would have to go the infirmary and miss the required meeting in the auditorium. I rather not try and risk it when I’m so close to going onto more intense training at the other facility soon. Missing the meeting, or being late means punishment, and I have never been punished for anything in eighteen years.
The female showers are unusually quiet. How many of my kind passed the test? Maybe they’re still in their tests, and I’m just one of the first ones out? I smile, hoping being first is the reason I’m alone in the showers.
I walk over to the expansive, white-tiled wall in the bathroom and take a can of healing spray from the built-in shelf. Heat propels across my hand, protesting to any kind of texture sensation against my raw, beat-up skin.
I leave my clothes on a seat outside of one of the stalls and move behind the almost-clear glass. I wish it was frosted instead . . . not that I’m a particul
arly modest person. I can’t be with this type of living arrangement, but I’m not eager to be a nudist either.
Two, solid, white tiled walls stand on either side of me, giving the illusion of solitude. I spray the blisters on my hands and feet. Instantly, they clear up, leaving behind tingly fresh skin. I smile, loving the medicine our scientists came up with. Illness and injury haven’t been an issue for the compound since before I was born. I’ve never known what it’s like to wait for an injury to heal. Some aren’t as fortunate.
I turn the water on with a push of a button. It cascades over me like a waterfall, though it’s not ‘real’ water. The Earth lost most of that about a hundred years ago. Luckily, people found a large source of untapped fresh water underneath the ocean. We still have it now, but we rely more on synthetic drinking water. It provides the body with the same electrolytes and fluid as water, but its effects are longer, increasing the amount of time we stay hydrated. If that wasn’t impressive enough, they eventually came up with anti-bacterial bathing and swimming water.
I’m on cloud nine as mud and dried blood run off of me and down the drain. I push another button and hold my hand underneath the nozzle. Soap dispenses into my palm. I lather it between my hands and spread it all over my body.
I should hurry. I don’t like to be late to things. In fact, I like being fifteen minutes early.
My hands travel over my breasts and down my stomach. Down each of my legs, then up to my clean inner thighs. My fingers brush against my folds and I jump, I’m overly sensitive today. An effect of the endorphin rush?
I pull my hand away. I don’t have time to fool around, even if it’s been a while.
