“Take it out back with the rest and see what we can render out,” he said. “Cut it with machine oil if you have to.”
An empty pit formed in my stomach. The distant hum that I felt through the floor and the slow whistle of steam were variations on white noise that had been burned into my brain years ago, and never quite forgotten. The smell of cooking meat in the air, the smell that made my mouth water, came from the steam of a rendering vat. Hwong was selling prisoners, people he needed to disappear, to meat farmers.
“You’re cannibals,” I whispered.
The others ignored me, but not Green-eyes. His brow lowered and before I could react he lashed out and slapped me in the face with one big palm so hard I almost fell off the scale.
“Hey, you’re fucking up the scan,” the old man complained. Green-eyes shoved his index finger in my face.
“I’m no goddamned cannibal,” he said, “and even if I was, it’s better than being a terrorist.”
“I’m not a terrorist,” I said. I tasted blood in my mouth.
“I know,” he mocked. “The government’s evil, and all you dissidents are just misunderstood.”
“Don’t talk to it!” the old man barked.
Green-eye’s face grew darker, and his body was wound like a spring. The hand he’d slapped me with curled into a fist.
“Some are going to eat, and some are going to starve,” he said. “The only thing on this sorry planet we got a surplus of is idiots, drug addicts, and separatist assholes. We solve two problems at once here.”
“I’m a human being,” I said, looking around the room at the faces there. “My name is Xiao-Xing Shao. My father is—”
“Damn it, shut your mouth!” the old man snapped at Green-eyes. “I said don’t talk to it! Don’t talk to it means don’t talk to it, not keep talking to it!”
Perched on the scale, I looked from face to face but didn’t find anything like compassion in any of them. The old man and Green-eyes were angry, righteous. One of the other two looked amused. The last one looked bored. None of them were going to help me.
I scanned the room for something, anything that might get me out of there. On the folding table was a cardboard box, and through a gap in the top of it I could see the buckle of my belt shining under the overhead work light. They’d thrown my clothes in the box and brought it in to pick through. My knife might still be in my pants pocket. It wasn’t much, but it was sharp, and better than nothing.
“Hold it,” the old man said. His tone changed suddenly as he frowned down at a screen that faced away from me. The red laser dots had stopped their sweep and were doing a slow circle around my belly button.
“What’s that?” Green-eyes asked.
“I don’t know,” the old man said.
Green-eyes crossed to join him and squinted down at the screen while the old man tapped it with his finger. “Something wrong with the scanner?”
“No,” the old man said. “It’s localized right there. A dispersion field or something.”
“What... in there?”
“Something’s implanted in there,” the old man said. He sounded a little nervous now. Green-eyes just looked annoyed.
“Like what?” he asked.
“They’re fucking fanatics,” the old man hissed, glancing over at me. “It could be a goddamned suicide bomber for all we know!”
Some of the annoyance melted away from Green-eyes’ face, and his eyes turned calculating as he looked back at me. I looked at the other two men, who no longer appeared amused, or bored.
“Take it outside and shoot it,” the old man said. “If nothing happens, bring the body back and—”
I jumped off the scale and lunged for the table. The two guys by the door had expected me to go that way and stepped in to block me, while the old man seemed surprised and actually backed away. Green-eyes had my number, though, and took a swing at me. The only reason it missed was that my ankle gave when I hit the floor and I dropped under his passing fist. I felt it graze the hair on top of my head as I pitched forward and fell headlong into the table. The legs on the far side of it collapsed and folded back in, causing the whole end to crash down onto the floor.
My hips slammed into the edge of the table and I flipped forward face-first onto the sloped tabletop. The momentum threw my bare ass up over my head and I landed on the edge of the box, crumpling it underneath me.
“Grab it!” the old man shouted, backing away into the wall behind him like I was some kind of wild animal that’d just gotten loose. One of the guys by the exit threw open a locker door and grabbed a machete from inside.
I rolled off the box and pulled it open as someone got a fistful of my hair. He yanked back, but it was too short for him to get a grip on and I was able to slip through his fingers. As soon as I did, the heel of a boot came down hard on one of my shoulder blades, bowling me over and sending the contents of the box spilling out across the grimy floor. My sneakers rolled away as my pink tank top and cargo pants flopped out after them. I hauled myself up onto my hands and knees and made a mad crawl forward, grabbing my belt as the boot stomped me in the ass from behind.
The force of it hurled me forward into the lockers, and my forehead collided with one of the metal doors hard enough to make it spring open. For a second I saw stars as equipment from inside fell out and crashed down around me. The point of a machete thumped into the tile next to my hand, and then it clattered down onto the floor as a box hit me in the back of the head. It popped open, spraying plastic zip ties across the floor as I spun around and pulled my pants toward me.
“Hold it!”
I looked up and saw Green-eyes as he towered over me, glaring down out from beneath the shadow of his heavy brow. He raised his foot, ready to stamp me out like a cockroach, and I kicked away, my back slamming into the lockers behind me. I scrambled to find the pockets of my pants, but they’d turned into a tangle of material and my brain had begun to short-circuit. I slid to one side, rust and metal scratching my bare back, as the boot crashed into the locker door next to me and made the whole row shake. One of the guards was coming up on my other side while the last one blocked the door.
There was nowhere to run. My hand found one of my pockets and reached in. I felt my pocketknife in there and I when I pulled it out the sheet of blue crystal I’d taken from Dragan’s safe flipped out onto the floor after it, along with a tube of lipstick. I flicked the blade out and jabbed it into the first piece of skin I saw. Someone swore and jerked back out of range with the knife still stuck in his forearm.
Before anyone else could grab me, I snatched the lipstick up off the floor and popped the cap off. I squashed my thumb down over the protruding red end of the stick, then held my fist out in front of me like the tube was a cross to ward off vampires.
“Anyone moves and I’ll detonate the bomb!” I screamed.
The two guards backed off and then bolted through the door, leaving me alone with Green-eyes and the old man. The old man was backed up against the wall like he was about ready to piss in his tropical shorts. Green-eyes didn’t look so sure. He was wary, but a dangerous gleam still lingered in his eyes.
“I mean it,” I said. “Back off.”
“I don’t believe that’s a detonator,” he said.
“Go ahead and try me, then.”
I crouched down and grabbed the pill sheet, still holding the lipstick up as I edged toward the door. Blood had run down my forehead into the corner of one eye, and I wiped it with the back of my hand.
He took a step toward me, causing the old man to shout in a high-pitched voice, “Just let it go! Wait until it gets outside, then shoot it there!”
I bolted for the exit. My shoulder struck the green door’s lever hard and I slipped through as it opened. A hand brushed my back as I ran, stumbling down onto the skewed tile floor before I managed to get back on my feet.
“She’s bluffing!” Green-eyes yelled from behind me. “Stop her, goddamn it!”
The hallway ahead ended at a corner a
nd I banked, pushing off the wall. I headed down another hall that had been fractured halfway down its length. The floor rose toward the break and then sloped down on the other side, where the air grew hotter and more humid. Up ahead I could see light flickering through a big open doorway. With every step I took toward it, the hiss of steam grew louder and the smell of meat grew stronger. A few steps later I heard what sounded like a child’s scream, the high voice cutting through the rumble of machines.
Cooler air gripped my skin as I passed by a corridor branch. My body, seeming to act on its own, jerked to a stop so suddenly that I almost twisted my ankle.
That’s the way out.
I looked back and saw the men were hot on my heels. Down the branch to my right, I could hear the moan of wind and feel the current of cool air that was free from smoke, steam, and sweat. There was no time to think it through. It was either right, toward possible freedom, or straight on toward the sound of sizzling and screaming.
It was the thought of Vamp that made me move again. He’d be in with the rest, and I knew I couldn’t leave him no matter how scared I was. I took a step toward what I hoped would be him. My brain screamed not to do it, but if he was there and I left him, then I knew what would happen. He’d watch the other captives get slaughtered and cut up, until it was finally his turn. I took another step and picked up speed as I moved toward the light.
The air turned so thick it got hard to breathe, and the miasma of it covered my bare skin. In my mind, I heard the rattling of a chain and collar, my collar, as I dug at it with raw, bloody fingers with the little strength I had left. I remembered how fear had turned to terror, then terror into near disconnect as I had seen the others who arrived there before me hauled away to be strung up. Next would come the high-pitched shriek and gurgle. No matter how big the man was, it came out sounding like a girl until it stopped and the chopping began.
I couldn’t breathe. My legs were pumping on automatic pilot now, threatening to seize at each step.
You can do this. I said it to myself over and over, trying to make it be heard over the sound of the jingling chain and gurgling screams. My mind seemed to separate from my body, until I felt like I was floating forward.
You can do this. What if Dragan had left you?
I’d have been dead for sure. My number had finally come up when he stormed in. I remembered how strong he looked, how fearless as he marched across the factory floor. He’d looked over and seen me just before the men entered. He looked right in my eyes and then turned on them.
By the time he was done, the concrete floor was slick with blood. No arrests, no trials, only just deserts. I had lain back against the concrete wall, the collar’s chain digging into one cheek, while I listened to the shots, regular, rhythmic, and final.
Dragan...
I felt the impact at the same time I heard the pop. It slammed into my right shoulder blade and sent me pitching forward as pain drilled down my spine.
My momentum carried me, and when I came down on my left heel, it slipped out from under me. I felt a brief, weightless sensation as I flew through the doorway, and then an abrupt, bone-rattling impact as I crashed down onto the rusted metal deck.
~ * ~
Chapter Twenty
04:03:12 BC
“Sam, get up!”
The voice came from somewhere up above me, I was facedown on a filthy, damp floor, surrounded by the sounds of bubbling hot liquid and churning machinery. Pain throbbed from my skinned palms, and I felt a tight knot in the muscle behind my right shoulder. I reached back, my muscles stiff and sluggish, and felt something sticking out there.
“I got her!” a voice echoed through the halls. “She’s down!”
I winced as I pulled the object loose and it clattered onto the floor. It was some kind of little black dart, with a tuft of red fluff at the back end.
“Sam! Get up! Quick!”
My head felt like it was full of wet concrete as I lifted it up off the deck. A little ways away I saw the lipstick tube, the end squished flat, and the crumpled sheet of blue crystal. A few meters past them, a naked boy stared at me from behind the mesh of a wire cage, tears streaked down his soot-covered face.
There were more cages on either side of his, some empty and some occupied by other kids or teenagers. Some lay on their sides with their backs to me; others were awake now and staring at me.
I looked up and saw more cages stacked on top of each other, eight layers high. They went all the way up to the factory ceiling, where foam tiles had broken loose and exposed a maze of ductwork. A set of scaffolding had been built in front of the wall of cages, two stories connected by ramps to allow access to the upper levels. It all looked like it had been there a long time.
“Up here!”
The tower of cages swayed above me. At least, I thought they did. I couldn’t focus, and pins and needles pricked at my fingers and toes as I squinted to find the source of the voice. Way up, on the second-level platform, I saw fingers laced through one of the cage doors. They shook it as a familiar face looked down at me.
“Vamp?” The word squeaked out. I didn’t think he heard me.
“They’re coming. Move it!” he called down.
I looked back at the little dart. They’d drugged me, and it had really started to kick in. I didn’t have long before I’d be out, and then it would be all over.
I lunged and grabbed the pill sheet, then rolled over onto my back. Using my legs, I pushed myself back behind a big piece of machinery just as the men entered the room.
“Where the fuck did she go?” one of them asked.
It wouldn’t take them long to figure it out. I moved the pill sheet close to my face. Black spots bloomed in front of my eyes, and my fingers felt cold as I pushed the blue pill into my bloody palm. I popped it into my mouth and crunched down on it until the intense bitterness filled my nose and throat.
“Back here!” someone shouted.
The shard kicked in fast. In seconds the drug cut through the haze, and the approaching black cloud scattered. Energy pulsed through me, and as I sprang back to my feet I saw little white sparks flash in the air in front of me.
I had no idea how long it would last, but I knew I had to make it count. I bolted for the ramp that led to the first platform just as two figures emerged from the steam from that direction, and shoved the closest one away as I passed.
“There!” a voice shouted.
I skidded to a stop. When I turned back the other way, I saw another guy heading in my direction. They’d flanked me, and were closing in. I wasn’t going to make it to the ramp, and I couldn’t go back.
I put my foot on top of the nearest cage and heaved myself up. The woman inside stared as I grabbed the wire mesh above me and began to climb.
“She’s going up!”
“Load another dart, you stupid asshole!”
The crystal kicked in for real. The sweat that covered my body turned cold and sent a sick feeling into the pit of my stomach as every muscle came alive with a flood of pure chemical energy. My pulse revved as one foot slipped on the cage beneath it and I dropped, hanging from my hands for a second until I got my footing again.
A pop came from below, and something banged off the face of the cage next to me.
“Shit!”
The tower of cages swayed under my weight, but held as I scaled my way up past the first platform, toward the second, where Vamp was being held.
A gunshot boomed through the air, and a hole punched through the platform above me to my right. The people in the cages around me pushed themselves back, trying to get out of range, as I scurried past. The scaffolding shook now as the men below began to storm up the ramp, but to reach the second level they needed to traverse the whole platform first. I could get much higher, much quicker than they could as long as the crystal didn’t burn out first.
“Sam!”
Vamp had his back to the rear of his cage and was pushing against the door with his feet. The wire bowed outwa
rd, biting into his heels and drawing blood, but the latch wouldn’t give. My foot slipped again, a J-clip slashing my shin as I hauled myself up to the second platform where I pitched over the rail and rolled onto the wooden planks.
Looking down over the edge of the scaffolding, I saw a huge rendering vat through the haze of steam. It was a giant metal pit, embraced by slick, snaking pipes that kept its temperature constant. The inside was filled with a deep layer of bubbling ochre liquid littered with red-brown specks. Dark, glistening chunks were jumbled together on the surface, and among them I could make out bobbing hands and feet. Crisped skin puffed at the edges of cured, fried meat where the jutting ends of broken bones stuck out, white around a center of blackened marrow.
I pulled myself back up onto my feet as another shot went off, this time blowing a hole through the platform six inches from my foot. Two of the men had reached the base of the second ramp and were heading up to my level.
The Burn Zone Page 28
