Skin Trials

by S Y Humphrey

  “N.G., how much time do we have?” Seren asked.

  He struggled to breathe, drawing in as much air into his lungs as he could. “Two and a half minutes.”

  The Guardians and Lieutenant Scarborough hung back, so that she didn’t throw the grenade. They called out for backup, through their own clinks.

  Seren pulled out the keys she had lifted when they entered the block. She began unlocking some of the prison cells, and releasing prisoners.

  “Seren, don’t you do that! I’ve always protected you and kept you safe,” Lieutenant Scarborough cried.

  “Gentlemen, let yourselves out. And let out your friends,” Seren said.

  Seren heard the clink at her wrist again.“Seren, problem. It’s Dr. Terry. He won’t come out. He doesn’t trust us. Hurry,” one of the rebel fighters called back.

  One of the prison guards came for them in a Jeep. “I’m sorry! We didn’t know he’d be there. Somebody sold out but it wasn’t us!” the prison guard yelled.

  Seren and N.G. hopped in.

  “Are you okay?” She asked while they rolled over.

  He continued to rub his chest. “That hurt, but yes, I think I’ll live.”

  A helicopter could be heard flying toward them from a distance.

  “Seren and N.G., do you have Terry?” Pepper clinked, her breath winded and rushed.

  “Rebel three here, ma’am, we have eyes on Terry, but he is not in our possession,” one of the fighters reported. One of the prison guards drove faster. Bullets began to fly around them.

  “Seren, honey, we’re here to save you. Jump out of that vehicle and we will take care of the rest,” she heard her father’s voice. Seren knew what that meant.

  Seren swallowed and shut her eyes tight, trying to process whether she should leave. Or even if she could.

  “Seren,” she stiffened at the voice of her mother, that she hadn’t heard since she had been taken. Week and feeble, her mother continued, “Baby, we’ve been here terrified. Your father, Lyndon and I are here. We love you very much. Whatever they have done to you, we will make it right. We will fix it. It’s okay for you to come home. We will put everything back, just the way it was.”

  She felt the Jeep roll to a halt. The prison guard and N.G. jumped out. They ran to the cellblock, and NG turned to wait for Seren, saying nothing. Above Seren’s head, hovering in the sky, the helicopter hovered. A SkyPad detached from the helicopter belly, and floated downward, toward Seren. The floating pod levitated right in front of her, so she could step on.

  She turned toward N.G.

  “Exactly ninety seconds to get the doctor out before everything shuts back on.”

  “Dad, did you put Lyle Terry in this hole?” Seren asked, looking up at the sky. “Without a trial, a lawyer, or a jury? Without any crime?”

  She jumped down from the Jeep and half-ran, half-limped toward the cellblock door. NG held his gun up toward the sky, following her through the open door. In the solitary confinement block, there was only darkness. The other Anthistemi fighters lit a tiny space with the headlights in their night optical devices, creating a halo along the floor of green night vision lights.

  “Seren?” one of the rebels called.

  “Confirmed. It’s me,” Seren said, approaching slowly.

  N.G. arrived first, and she saw his face fall.

  “Get over here fast,” the rebel replied.

  “Anthistemi, we don’t have any more time. We must now use backup escape transportation. Air support arrives in twenty seconds,” Seren heard Max clink.

  Seren stepped in front of a literal blasted hole, uneven and jagged reaching in the wall. It couldn’t have been more than six feet around and eight feet long. She dropped to her knees at the sight of a man lying inside. His kinky hair was long and matted with dirt. He was infested with bugs, his skin rotting, and his clothing soiled. Rather than cover their noses at the putrid smell, the rebels turned their heads away.

  “Dr. Terry,” Seren said, her voice cajoling. The only reply she received was a barely existent moan. Her heart twisting, she leaned closer to him. “Lyle?”

  “N-n-nooo…” he whined in a childlike whimper. “Ple… don’t touch m….”

  He jerked, curling into a ball, clearly afraid of something attacking him.

  “Lyle, do you remember Cassie? Dancing under the trees of England?” Seren asked, quoting the parts of his letter that had touched her the most.

  N.G. looked inside the hole, squinting his eyes. He raised up and turned to Seren.

  “That’s not Lyle Terry.”

  “What?” She asked.

  “It’s a decoy.”

  As he said it, Guardian robots stormed the hole. Seren felt herself pulled away. She looked to N.G. as Guardians pulled away him and his fighters. Several fighter jets crisscrossed overhead, while the helicopter hovered and circled above.

  “Seren, there is no way they are leaving here alive,” Stephen Jernigan’s voice spoke from a speakerphone. “Come to your father.”

  “Dad, I love you. More than anything. But where is Lyle Terry?” Seren asked, staring up at the helicopter, while hobbling.

  Her father’s sleek aeroplane landed for them to board. Several older Anthistemi planes faced off against federal government fighter jets, signaling the mounting tension of an oncoming air battle.

  “Seren, back away from them. Come to me. If you don’t, you become an enemy of the state. Don’t do this, sweetheart,” Stephen Jernigan warned.

  “Don’t shoot!” she heard somewhere far away.

  Seren looked across the prison grounds, several blocks away to see that a crowd had gathered. The crowd from the rodeo.

  “No! Not right!”

  “You’re wrong!”

  “Jernigan is a jerk!”

  “Leave them alone!”

  Seren pleaded. “Where is he, Dad? Give these people the man they came for. A deal is a deal.”

  “No,” Jernigan countered. “If you get on this plane, I’ll let these people leave here alive. You’re all I came for.”

  “Done,” Seren replied.

  N.G. stared at her. “Who’s getting on that plane and heading back to Denver? Seren or Lillian?”

  Seren shot him an infuriated glare, and spoke through clenched teeth, “Get on the plane. He will kill you.”

  Rebel fighters pulled him away from the Guardian robots, separating them.

  “Anthistemi, roll out!” Max ordered, shooting Seren a glance. “The Hondurans will see you again. For Aurora.”

  Seren nodded. “Lillian will be ready next time.”

  The door to her father’s jet closed.

  Her mother threw her arms around Seren. It felt good to bury her face in the soft, familiar smell of her hair.

  Her father came to kiss her, pulling her to him.

  “I told you I would come to get you.” He looked down at her shaved head, brown spot on her face, and multicolored eyes. “Who’s rocket scientist are you?”

  Thank you!

  Thanks for trying out Skin Trials!

  Pre-order Skin Wars