The Warrior

by Rebecca Royce

  “No.” She sniffed. “I was just like you. A young Warrior. A Two. But I was in charge once we got to here. I mean, Rachel, why am I still alive here? I should be dead.”

  I couldn’t answer her question any more than I could explain why the rain fell or the sun rose. We just were. Fortunately, I don’t think she expected me to, because she closed her eyes and I knew within seconds she’d fallen asleep. My body craved sleep, but I couldn’t turn off my mind.

  Rosa, Ken, and Dave were all gifts to me. I could see they’d helped keep each other alive, and I wanted to help do that until we could annoy our way out of the mines. I looked over at Rosa and found my thoughts drift to Tia.

  I missed her, like I missed Micah, Carol, and Keith, but unlike the first time I’d ventured out in the wilderness, I didn’t want her with me. Her first night out had taught me she wasn’t cut out for tense situations. I couldn’t imagine her making this better. Maybe it was a good thing she’d decided to get pregnant.

  The thought startled me. Chad had been trying to tell me that a few days earlier. The idea of having a baby was as foreign to me as sprouting wings and flying to Mars, but it was, apparently, a decision she could make. It would also keep her safe and away from the fighting, which would, in turn, keep everyone safer.

  It shouldn’t surprise me that Chad had been right. He was always right. Everything had changed so dramatically in six months. I loved Tia, but I couldn’t respect her as I once had. How could such a short period of time alter the way I felt about a person I had known my whole life?

  A bang startled me as Payne pounded into the room looking left and right at the sleeping Warriors. He narrowed his eyes as he approached me. I had no time to do more than gasp as he grabbed me and with one arm lifted me off the ground. In two seconds flat, I was against the hot cavern wall, his face inches from mine as he snarled at me.

  My whole body shook from the assault but I refused to look afraid. “Problems?”

  “You’re my problem.” Small amounts of spit pooled on the side of his mouth when he spoke. It was gross and I gagged. “We did half the amount of production that we usually do. What are you pulling here?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He shook me and the back of my head banged into the wall behind me. I saw spots and wished I could close my eyes and whoosh him away like I had willed away the monsters under my bed when I’d been a child.

  “I could snap your neck in two seconds flat.”

  I wasn’t sure, but I thought he must have seen something in my eyes that startled him, because his black eyes flared cold before he dropped me on the floor.

  “Could you?” I stood, messaging my sore rear end from where it had collided with the floor after my hard descent. “Do it.”

  “Don’t tempt me, little girl.”

  I took a step forward, knowing that although they were silent, Rosa and the guys were wide awake.

  It was dumb. I knew it even as I shoved Payne backwards. Tired didn’t begin to describe how I felt about his abusing me. Exhausted. Depleted. Pissed off. They were better words.

  He stumbled two feet and, even though he stood in his human form, growled to the heavens as if he was a Wolf.

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it, like the run I’d done with Chad days earlier I had lost all coherent control of my own brain. I had simply reached another point where my very soul wouldn’t let me tolerate any more abuse.

  “What’s a matter, Wolf-boy? Don’t like being pushed around by a ‘little-girl’?”

  “Rachel!” Ken warned.

  I ignored him. I was also sick to death of fearful people who thought they could tell me what to do. I stalked forward to Payne.

  “I’m such an insignificant being that Icahn sent half-a-dozen Undead monsters to come get me? That he put me in your care? That one day with me in your mines and I disrupted your production?” I could feel reason returning to me, slowly. The red, which had coated my vision, receded a little bit. “Maybe you should just get rid of me, let the Vampires eat me. Oh, but wait, you’re probably too much of a coward to do that, aren’t you?”

  Rosa caught my drift. She kicked him, hard in the shins. “If you take her, I’ll make your life hell. You’ll have to take all of us.”

  His head jerked left and right as he regarded us. “Something is going on, I can smell it.”

  “You’re right something is going on.” I shoved at him again and watched as his eyes shifted to their wolf form.

  Oh, yes, he’s pissed.

  “We’re going to keep doing everything to destroy your efforts here, from now until we die.”

  Don’t let me have gone too far. Don’t let me have gone too far…

  “I’ve had enough.” Payne’s words were more said through gritted teeth. “Icahn will have to get over his need to watch you suffer for days. You’re going in the cages; all of you are going to know what true pain feels like from the embrace of a Vampire’s tooth.”

  He grabbed my arm as he roared again. Seconds later, the door busted open and three more Werewolves stormed into the room like they were late for an appointment. Apparently, when Payne roared, they ran.

  Now I just had to hope I hadn’t led us all from one bad situation to a worse one. I’d only been in the darkness of the mine for two days but my eyes objected to the onslaught of the false, manufactured light of the hallways like it had been months.

  My vision swam and I closed my eyes to shut out the pain. My eyesight had been under assault since the first time I went Upwards and experienced unmitigated sunlight. I had barely adjusted to that. I’d be lucky when this was over if I wasn’t totally blind.

  I forced my lids to open. Things might be horrendously bad, but I wasn’t going to compound the problem by going into this next situation with my eyes closed like a coward. I could only hope Payne remained unaware of how much my eyes hurt.

  “Stop struggling, Rachel Clancy, it’s only going to make it worse. The Vampires like to watch you strain to get away.”

  “Tell me something, Payne.” I was proud of how steady my voice sounded considering my nerves. “What did you do before Icahn took over your mind?”

  “Why do you always want to talk about Before Time, little girl? You weren’t even there!”

  I attempted to shrug and he dug his nails even harder into me, which was impressive considering I didn’t have any bare skin showing. I could hear the struggles of the Warriors behind me but I couldn’t turn around to look at them. I needed to trust that they could handle themselves. They might not be the Warriors I grew up with, but after a few days with them I would swear their hearts were the same. They wouldn’t go quietly to their deaths.

  I needed to answer Payne. I hated talking to him, but the more I did, the more distractible I found him to be. I wasn’t planning an escape, not from him, but I wouldn’t be opposed to an attempt presenting itself to me due to his lack of attention.

  “Just call me a history buff.”

  It seemed as good an answer as any I could give him. Truth was, I hadn’t spent much time studying in school. I’d been too miserable focusing on my ‘destiny’ that I’d considered so completely unfair. I wish someone could have pulled me out of my self-pity and told me I would need to know the things I’d been taught.

  “Before Dr. Icahn saved us from subservience to the humans, I was an Engineer.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I hadn’t expected that answer. In my head, Payne had been some kind of psycho-killer who’d been in jail on Armageddon day, not an Engineer.

  Maybe acting dumb was the answer. “Like on the choo-choo trains?”

  He rolled his eyes. “No, hell, they don’t teach you people anything down there in those places Icahn created for you, do they?’

  “What would they teach us?”

  Behind us, I heard Rosa snort, which meant she could hear what we talked about. Payne didn’t seem to be paying attention. He was too busy talking about himself again. In my l
imited experience, I found that most teenagers didn’t like to discuss themselves at all and that adults couldn’t stop doing so. What was it about attaining a certain age that meant a person couldn’t find anything to say except about him or herself?

  Apparently the phenomenon applied to adult Werewolves as well, because Payne was happy to keep going.

  “I was a Chemical Engineer.” He smiled at the memory. “That meant I helped to create new products people used in their homes, mostly of the cleaning variety.”

  We entered the room where the human-holding cages were held. Like before, when I’d rescued Deacon, several metal cages dangled from the ceiling, looking distinctly like birdhouses and not at all the houses of death they actually were.

  But not today, not for me. Today I would make them my escape vessels and say goodbye to this hellhole. The next time I came back, it would be with explosives, and I would render the entire facility little more than a bad memory.

  Payne picked me up and shoved me into the cage hard, with a snicker. “You’ll be visited soon by the Vampires. There will be a lot of them. You won’t be able to get away.”

  Rosa was pushed in next to me and the snide remark I felt like making died on my lips. The look in her eyes pleaded with me not to screw this up. Payne needed to go away. My antagonizing him wouldn’t make anything better.

  Dave and Ken were each in turn shoved into the metal cage. As the door slammed and Payne locked us in, I suppressed my grin. I’m not psychic. I don’t have visions of things to come, but every once in a while, when I couldn’t sleep, I would try to imagine how I would get myself out of the cage. I’d run through the scenarios a million times in my head.

  Payne was a problem, because he was just so with it. The Vampires were like snakes, they could be easily misled. Payne was too cognizant of everything around him. I’d never get away with what I had planned if he was here.

  I held my breath, waiting to see what would happen and to my utter relief, although he laughed like a monster the whole way, he left the room without turning back. I exhaled, loudly and grinned at the other three.

  Dave smiled back. “That went faster than I expected it to.”

  “I don’t think Payne has much patience.”

  Rosa stood up, moving to the metal bars of the cage. “Now what?”

  I stared down at the Vampires swirling below. They stared at us and then moved in frenzied motions as if in celebration of our presence in the cage.

  “One way or another we get out.”

  Rosa pointed at the crowd. “How do we get out without having to get too involved with them?”

  I stood to join her. The cage was big enough for all of us to stand up and still have room for more should they choose to shove more of their potential meals in here with us. The thought made a light bulb go off in my mind. Quickly, I looked at the other cages. They were all empty, which was good because it meant I wouldn’t have to rescue any non-Warrior humans from the cages, assuming I got out.

  “If they’re like the Vampires I encountered in one of these places before, they are lazy. They haven’t had to fight for their food in forty-six years. They’re not going to fight us. If they tried, we would eviscerate them.” I tried to do a head count of the Vamps. There were fifty of them. It seemed daunting, but there were more of them in my last battle like this. Their laziness was the key to beating them.

  But it might not come to that at all.

  “We’ve got to make this cage move.”

  Ken shook his head. “What?”

  “This cage, its attached—rather badly—to the ceiling. We’re going to make it swing off its hinges.”

  “Hate to mention this, Rachel.” Dave’s voice held a lot of amusement. “But if this cage goes crashing to the floor, we’re going to go crashing with it. We’re inside of it.”

  “Dave, we’re not that far up from the floor. Surely, you’ve been thrown around worse than falling with the cage from here will be.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I suppose.”

  “Look, it’s going to hurt, I have no doubt about it. But we’ll be free.”

  Dave nodded. “Okay.”

  He ran to the other end of the cage. He’d gotten the idea of what I wanted done without my having to tell him. Only, I suspected it was going to take all of us doing it together. Seconds later, we were all running. Back and forth until we’d gotten the cage rocking.

  The Vampires below us stared up at the cage. I knew they were confused. Good, let them stay that way. When we came crashing down on top of them they could figure out what we’d done.

  Chapter Twelve

  Faster than I could have anticipated, the cage fell from the ceiling. We weren’t prepared and hit the ground hard with an oomph. I pushed upwards, trying to dislodge the top of the cage from my body. It was heavy, but eventually all four of us moved it.

  That was when it occurred to me that we didn’t have any weapons. Not one. Rosa was ahead of me on that front. As I watched her break pieces of the fallen roof into small but workable stakes, I’ve never been so grateful to have an efficient, smart partner in my life.

  She chucked one of the makeshift weapons and I caught it as I darted to my feet. Vampires surrounded us on all sides. But I wasn’t concerned, because if they were anything like the ones I’d faced at the last feeding facility, they were lazy and untrained in fighting.

  I kicked out, catching one of them off guard. He flew backwards into another Vampire as I systematically staked one after another. They clawed at me but didn’t tear into my clothes. I took them down easily.

  The door to the room banged open and my worst nightmare entered. It was Payne, and the fuming red haze radiating from his eyes told me how furious he truly was. I had hoped to have more time before he appeared. In fact, I’d hoped to get out the facility all together without having to see him at all.

  Fighting him—or any other Wolves—was going to be a problem. I didn’t have a machete, the only way I knew how to take down a Wolf. Truth was, I’m a really, really bad Wolf fighter. Some of the Warriors were better at it than I was, and I didn’t really want to dwell at the moment on how much of that had to do with the fact that my ex-boyfriend was a Werewolf.

  Payne only had eyes for me. I kicked the Vampire blocking me from Payne out of my way. I had no choice. There was no getting away from him.

  As I watched, Payne shifted into his Wolf. His features elongated as his body reshaped into its canine form. I’d found Jason’s shifts to be beautiful, but Payne’s made me gag. Maybe it was the look of pure evil radiating from his eyes as he growled and salivated.

  Rosa yelled to my left. “Rachel, I think you need to run. Fast.”

  I could hear the terror in her voice. Run? Where would I go? I wouldn’t make it to the hall with Payne in the room.

  “Rosa, get the others out. I’ll stay here and hold him off as long as I can.”

  “Hell, no.” Rosa sounded fierce.

  I wanted to argue but there was no time. Payne was on top of me. He lunged for my face. Evidently, in his wolf form he wasn’t distractible. Instinctually, I covered my face with my hands. I didn’t want to be clawed to death.

  Bracing myself for the onslaught I knew was coming, I was shocked when Payne was pushed sideways instead of hitting me. I gasped as I immediately recognized the person who had kept Payne from hurting me.

  It was Chad.

  Chad attacked Payne fiercely. He held a wooden club that he must have made himself because I’d never seen anything like it before. The room filled with roars as the monsters fought back but all of my senses were completely focused on Chad.

  He lived. He breathed. He was here.

  And he was beating the heck out of Payne. I couldn’t help my grin, even as I fought back two Vampires. I bumped into Rosa who looked up at me, smiling.

  “That the boyfriend? Apparently, he’s still alive.”

  I laughed, true joy filling my entire being. “Yes and Yes.”

  Chad push
ed Payne back until the wolf had no choice but to rush out the door of the room. He turned to grin at me and I rushed to his side. I grabbed his hand; it was hard to find the words to tell him how excited I was that he was here.

  “How did you get here?”

  He shrugged before he pulled me in his arms and kissed me soundly. His lips were soft but demanding, and I wished we were in better circumstances.

  “Took me a little while. You didn’t think I’d let my girl just vanish, did you?”

  Chad’s face was impassive as he scanned the room, now filled mostly with dead Vampires, but his eyes spoke a different story. They seemed to devour my face, and I felt my cheeks heat up under his regard.

  I squeezed his hand. “But seriously, how did you find me?”

  “It took a little while. I had to stalk some of the local monster population and see where they went. I’ve never done that before. I almost got caught a few times.”

  I could picture him doing it, which was amazing. Was there anything Chad couldn’t do?

  “I thought you were dead.”

  “Yeah, well I did have to take down three of the Vampires you negotiated with. What the hell were you thinking? You don’t make deals with the Undead.”

  “Oh, Chad.” I shook my head. How was I supposed to explain what I didn’t fully understand? “I couldn’t be responsible for your death. I thought I could help you and then I couldn’t stop thinking I’d actually killed you.”

  “Rachel, the fate of the world is not on your shoulders alone. You made a mistake but we’ll handle it. Stop taking on every bad thing that happens as if you somehow caused it or were involved in it.”

  A roar behind us made me jump and Chad swore under his breath. Payne was back in the room with reinforcements. Still in their wolf bodies, I had to assume it was three other Werewolves who had hauled us into our cages earlier. Or maybe not. Maybe there was a never-ending supply of Werewolves in these tunnels. “I don’t have anything to fight them with. They can’t just let us go. Icahn is here.”