The Hive (Rasper Book 2)

by Kathleen Groger

  “Well spotted. That’s our history.”

  12

  “Our history? What do you mean?”

  “The history of how the experiment of us, the three hundred, started.” Taylor clicked the file.

  The Seed Plot Project - A History - compiled by Dr. Andrews

  Project Status: Ongoing - Top Secret Clearance Only

  Original Goal: The primary goal of Seed Plot Project, which was originally named Mayan Quest, was to determine the cause of why the city of Tikal, Guatemala, was abandoned and left to be reclaimed by the jungle. Dr. Hathaway proposed disease had wiped out the population.

  History: In August of 1997, researcher Dr. Hathaway and his two graduate students arrived in Guatemala. The next day they entered the rainforest to find Tikal, the ancient Mayan city. They set up camp inside the structure cataloged as Temple II. They collected samples of the stone and dirt. They searched for yet undiscovered bones. On the last day of their expedition, the team went to Temple I, where they entered the three chambers. They said each chamber was set in front of the other. Dr. Hathaway noted the carvings on the wooden lintels in the doorways gave a clue to an illness. One graduate student was searching the chamber when she discovered a small box buried in the dirt. They carefully excavated the box and opened it.

  We do not know what was in the box, but we can surmise it must have been a venomous creature, possibly a scorpion. Dr. Hathaway was killed instantly, and the second grad student died later just outside the temple. The first student, who found the box, returned to the United States stating whatever had been in the box had stung all three of them. All she could say was that the creature was round in shape and moved very fast.

  Results: We immediately began performing tests on the graduate student. Her blood was analyzed. We performed every analysis possible but couldn’t determine the identity of the creature that stung her. Her blood and cells had changed. They had so many markers, but nothing that pointed to an existing species. It appeared we had come across a new species. The student had antibodies for so many diseases. We obtained stem cells from her to begin our protocol.

  It took a few years, but by utilizing her blood and cells, we thought we had perfected a vaccine for the common cold. We began our voluntary human trials. The Seed Plot Project started with 300 children all younger than a year. They came from all over the United States. Their parents were highly compensated for their children to be part of this historical research. The goal was to follow them until they turned eighteen, tracking how many colds they suffered from and all other aspects of their medical lives. Almost all 300 hundred children remained virus-free. We can statically say the project was a huge success. We began applying for FDA approval last year.

  Items of Note: In year twelve, subject XW057 passed away. The parents blamed Zigotgen and attempted to sue us. However, we were able to determine the child died not from our serum, but from negligence on the parents’ part, so the lawsuit was dropped.

  A few other subjects got severely sick, but again, there was no definitive link to the injection. What we had were 296 kids who never got sick. No colds. No strep throat. No chicken pox. Nothing.

  We started trying to create a cure for cancer.

  A couple of the test subjects were followed more closely than others due to their connections. One subject is the director’s own nephew, and our prized subject is the child of the original graduate student. She agreed to let us test her daughter in exchange for keeping her anonymous and well funded. She left medical research, turning instead to art.

  This subject has proved to be the strongest, since not only did she receive the serum, she already had the antibodies in her system. Her mother has agreed to have her join us once she turns eighteen.

  My chest tightened and my mouth dried up. She couldn’t have. Wouldn’t have.

  “Interesting, huh? My guess is that the thing in the box was one of the Bugs.” Taylor turned to me. “What’s wrong?”

  Chills shot down my arms, and my legs shook. “I think I’m their prized subject.”

  13

  “Taylor, I want to go back to the rooms. I need to…” I wasn’t sure what I needed. No, I knew exactly what I needed. I needed my mother. I needed to hear her tell me she hadn’t sold my health to this biotech company. But there was no way to ask her. She was dead.

  “Sure. Hang on. I need to wipe my searches and make us visible again.” Taylor worked the computer while I paced the tiny room.

  I stopped by the door. “If we leave here, where do we end up?” I had no desire to crawl through the tunnel.

  “Our visit here has been erased.” Taylor shut down the monitor he’d been using. “That door will take you into the main laboratories. They’re all locked and alarmed. The only way back is through the tunnel.”

  “And who made the tunnel?”

  He shrugged. “Not sure.”

  We crawled back to the residential wing. While he replaced the shelves and the books, I tugged the skirt down again.

  “I have to change. Give me a minute.”

  Taylor collapsed on a chair and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.

  I padded in my bare feet to my room, my heart racing the entire time. I had to calm down.

  I stripped off the clothes and tossed them on the bed. I scrubbed my face at the touch-less sink. Once I was dressed normally, I rejoined Taylor in the library.

  “Grab a water from over there.” Taylor pointed to a small refrigerator. “There are snacks in the cabinet.”

  I grabbed a water bottle, sat in the chair opposite him, and dropped my head between my knees.

  “Talk to me. What did you mean back there about being the special subject?”

  I looked up. Taylor’s pale blue eyes were trained on me. With the depth of his gaze, it felt like he could see into my soul and already knew the answer to his question. “I think my mom was the grad student.” Chills sliced across my skin, making me shiver.

  “Why?”

  I slid my hands into the pocket of my hoodie and twisted my fingers together. “My mom was an art teacher.”

  Taylor leaned forward. “That doesn’t mean anything. A lot of the kids in the project could have moms into art.”

  I nodded. “True. But I’m willing to bet I’m the only one whose mom originally studied archeology and medical research.”

  “Did she tell you?”

  “No. I was in the attic looking for something, and I found a box that had all her college mementos in it.” When I thought of the attic, my mind flashed to a different attic, the one in the house I had been staying at when Adam crashed into my life. How lonely it had felt. I shook off the memory. I had to stay focused on the present.

  “It was full of stuff, including her undergraduate diploma.” Tears formed in the corner of my eyes. I moved my jaw up and down and took a deep breath, trying to hold the tears back. “She double-majored in archeology and biomedical science. Her acceptance letter into grad school was for biomedical science. She never mentioned any of that to me. She was always an art teacher. Who switches from biomedical science to art?”

  “Someone who doesn’t have to worry about money,” Taylor said in a low, almost sad voice. “Was your family wealthier than they should have been? My dad was an accountant and my mom volunteered, yet we lived almost like we were upper class.”

  I couldn’t keep still. I removed my hands from the pocket and pulled on the hoodie strings. “Now that I think about it, yeah. I never paid attention before. I had what my friends had. We lived in a ritzy neighborhood of St. Louis, had a big house, nice cars. More stuff than a SWAT officer and an art teacher should have been able to afford.” Pain burst behind my right eye, and I dropped my head into my hands. “Damn.”

  Taylor stood and opened the snack cabinet. “Can I get you anything? Candy bar?” His face was filled with concern.

  I stood. “Actually, I have a nasty headache. I’m going to go to bed. What time do they get us up?”

  “The room wi
ll wake you at seven.” Taylor opened a candy bar. “Hope your headache goes away.”

  “Night.” I gave him a wave and went to my room.

  I changed into pajamas.

  “Asher, can you play music?” It had been forever since I heard music.

  “Yes, what would you like to listen to?”

  “Can you play something soothing, new-agey? But no thunderstorms.”

  “As you wish.”

  The sounds of nature mixed with relaxing meditative-type music drifted through the room. I crawled into the twin-size, firm bed.

  “Asher, can you turn on a light, low, barely there?”

  She didn’t respond, but the ceiling glowed a soft blue.

  “Perfect.”

  My brain ran a marathon of jumbled thoughts, each one plowing into the next. I forced myself to relax, to listen to the music, to will the headache away. I closed my eyes. The haunting melody soothed my soul and heart, transporting me to a level of relaxation I hadn’t felt since before the Great Discovery.

  I drifted off to sleep. Dreams of swimming in a never-ending lake of pink water filled my rest. When Asher told me in polite, even tones that it was time to awaken, I felt more rested than I had in a long time. I got dressed in pants and a hoodie, freshened up in the bathroom, then knocked on what I guessed was Adam’s door.

  He opened the door, awake, ready to go. “Morning.”

  “Morning. Did you know Asher can play music?”

  His face lit briefly. “What? No. I didn’t ask her about that. Look, we need to talk.”

  “I know. Let’s—”

  The main door slid open, and Carter glided in. “Hope everyone slept well. It’s time for breakfast.”

  We walked down the hall. Taylor opened his door and fell into step with us as we walked to the cafe area.

  The eatery was filled with rows of long tables and round tables surrounded by chairs. Loads of people filled the seats, eating food from metal trays.

  “Come on. I’ll show you the basics.” Taylor waved Carter off, and the robot glided to the corner.

  We entered a small area that held the trays and serve-yourself food items set out on plates or in bowls just like my school lunchroom. But what differed between my school and here was there were no chatty ladies serving the food. Here, there were robots. They were all built like Carter, only some were male and others female. They all had different facial looks and hair. Just like they were real people. It was beyond fascinating, so much that it bordered on creepy.

  I took a bagel, a banana, and a bowl of cereal. At the end of the line, there was a rack filled with glasses, and a drink station like those soda machines where you could create up to five hundred different combinations stood at the end of the service line. I opted for water. Then my heart sped up at the coffee bar setup steps away. One sugary coffee later, I was ready to eat, but when I walked out with my tray, I had that sensation of school again. As I searched for a spot to sit, people looked up. It felt like they were inspecting me with a microscopic eye.

  “Val, over here.” Taylor walked to an empty table. “This is my spot. It’s good to have company.”

  “You usually eat alone?” I sat.

  Taylor swallowed a bite. “Yeah, it’s been like high school. None of the cool scientists or soldiers will sit with the lab experiment.”

  His words made me ache for him. How awful that he’d been eating alone for months. Then I remembered he had been eating the entire time, while I had starved some days, and didn’t feel as sorry for him.

  Adam set his tray down next to me. “Wow, there is so much food.” His plate was full of pancakes and sausage.

  I let my spoon clank on the plate. “Where’s Uncle Director this morning?”

  Taylor half laughed, half snorted. “He, or any of the upper leaders, doesn’t dine with the commoners and the experiments. They have a private dining room beside the Dinner in the Round room.”

  I focused on Taylor. “What do you do all day?”

  “Be bored mostly. They let me watch the scientists sometimes.” Taylor pushed the spoon around in his oatmeal. “Hang out with Carter.”

  He had been here for months. The only teenager in a sea of crazy scientists with a robot to keep him company. I felt sorry for him again, at least I had Megan and Adam.

  “I heard my name,” Carter said as he glided up to our table.

  “Hey, man.” Taylor jabbed his chin toward Carter.

  The damn robot had to be eavesdropping.

  Taylor leaned toward Carter. “Can we show Val and Adam some of the stuff I’ve been watching Dr. Jenkins do in Lab K?”

  Carter’s expression didn’t change. “I will ask if that is possible. In the meantime, after you are finished eating, they would like you to come with me.”

  We finished eating in silence. I was sure none of us knew what to say. Taylor had been trapped in a prison with the necessities, but I was beginning to think being hungry and fighting to survive might be the better option. At least for me. I still needed to find Megan. I would find a way to talk to Adam later, and we could come up with a way out. And if Taylor wanted to come, he could.

  “All right. Follow me for our next adventure,” Carter said with upbeat attitude and neutral expression.

  The way they were able to inject so much emotion into the voices of the robots but not their facial expressions was kind of disturbing. Carter moved at a quick pace, and we had to powerwalk to keep up. Wherever we were going, he didn’t want to waste any time getting there. I felt like we had walked several city blocks when he turned right and into a room half the size of a football field. It was all white and filled with computers and equipment. People in lab coats worked at every station.

  “Taylor, they need to complete a check up on you. Dr. Marks is waiting.” Carter indicated the room Taylor should go to.

  “Catch you guys later,” Taylor said as he shuffled with sloped shoulders into the room.

  “You two will be in here.” Carter glided into a large room that reminded me more of a hospital than a lab.

  Five hospital-type beds stood against the one wall. All sorts of monitoring equipment sat on either side of the beds.

  “Hello again.” Dr. Collins came in from a side door. He pushed his glasses up and tugged his shirt down. Then he blew his already red nose loudly into a tissue.

  “Have a good flight?” I sneered. No matter how hard I tried to be the perfect, cooperative person, I couldn’t hold it in. This man had done nothing, nothing, to help us. He let us be subjected to tests and torture.

  “Val, don’t blame me. I’m only a humble worker. I do what I’m told and don’t cause any problems like jumping from helicopters. Yet in the end, it didn’t matter. You’re still here. Please have a seat on the beds.” He pushed his glasses up again and wiped his nose. “I apologize, I’m recovering from this nasty cold going around.”

  I took in the room. Besides Dr. Collins, Carter was the only one there. They said Carter could Taser us, but would he? I caught Adam’s eye, and ever so slightly tilted my head toward the door. He shook his head.

  Damn. I wasn’t going to volunteer for any more tests. I was so done with this. If I had to do it without him, so be it. I darted to the door. It clicked, and the lock panel glowed red.

  “Are you trying to leave?” Dr. Collins asked as he put on purple exam gloves.

  “Yes. You can’t treat me like this. I didn’t volunteer to be a lab rat. I’m a free person. I have rights.” I jabbed the buttons trying to open the door.

  A familiar noise from the other side of the room caught my attention. I turned, and the door Dr. Collins had come through was open. I made my move. Twenty feet, fifteen feet, ten feet. I was almost there when the feeling of being in a car that just slammed on it breaks hit me. Kalis and Dirk entered the room from my escape route, armed with guns and Tasers.

  “What are you two going to do? Kill me? I don’t think so.” Now that I knew who I was and what I meant to Zigotgen, I knew the
y wouldn’t kill me. They had never wanted me dead. Only the Raspers wanted that. No, these nutso scientists wanted to study me.

  “Val, let’s be reasonable. We don’t want to hurt you. Just do what the doc here says.” Kalis’s voice was even like he was talking to a suspect.

  I eyed Dirk’s gun. He held it somewhat loosely. Could I wrench it away from him before Kalis reacted? I was fast, but they were bigger. Stronger.

  I had to do something. I dropped and whirled around at the same time, grabbing the knife from Dirk’s leg strap. I raised it up. I finally had a weapon. Some power. Some control.

  A pain jabbed my shoulder. The knife clanged to the floor. I turned.

  Dr. Collins pulled away a needle.

  I swayed, and the room went blurry.

  14

  I couldn’t focus. Couldn’t feel. Couldn’t move. I was barely able to keep my balance.

  Dirk bent down and took his knife back. “You should have just done what you were effing told,” he all but growled.

  Kalis picked me up, then deposited me on one of the beds. Why wasn’t Adam helping me? We had to get out of here. My head swam like I was fighting to think through an ocean of blackness.

  My arms were pulled away from my sides, and a zipping noise preceded the bite of plastic on my wrists.

  “I’m going,” Adam said. In the fuzziness, it looked like he climbed onto the bed next to me. He was cooperating.

  “I need access to her arms. I can’t push up the sleeves. Can you cut off her sweatshirt?” Dr. Collins asked matter-of-factly. “Here are some scissors.”

  One of the soldiers, Kalis I think, but it was hard to tell because they were creepily similar, came to the side of the bed. “Val, I’m going to cut the sweatshirt away.” Yup. It was Kalis.

  He leaned over me. I couldn’t feel anything. He pulled what remained of the black hoodie away, leaving me in a bra and tank. All of a sudden cold air ripped across my arms. For a moment I was lost. How could I feel cold on my skin but not be able to move my arms?