The Warrior

by Rebecca Royce

  My hands shook and the goose bumps on my skin stuck out so profoundly they hurt. I jumped from my left foot to my right. I meant it. I would strike him down if he—

  Jason leaped at me. I heard my mother shriek and then I blacked out.

  ***

  I woke up sitting on a floor in a strange room. I looked down at myself. My blue nightie was gone and in its place were jeans and a blue T-shirt. When had I dressed?

  People were shouting and I stood up to see what was going on. My father hollered at Isaac Icahn. I shook my head. What the hell? How had we gotten here? The last thing I remembered involved my bedroom and Jason turning into a…Werewolf.

  I didn’t see him anywhere, which caused me no short amount of relief. I took a deep breath. My mother was unconscious, across the room on a stretcher. Two men picked her up and carried her somewhere.

  “Stop!” I charged after her. What was wrong? Had Jason hurt my mom? “Where are you going?”

  “Stop, young lady. We won’t be harming any of you. We’re saving your life.” I knew the man who spoke to me but I couldn’t place him, not really. Maybe I had seen him at the Icahns’ party. I didn’t know for sure and I didn’t care.

  “What? Where are you taking my mother?” And why was my dad hollering at Icahn instead of doing something about this?

  “You’re right to question him!” a redheaded man tied to a chair shouted at me. I turned to look at him. He had an Irish accent and wore a brown plaid coat. His face, long and lean, had stubble on it like he hadn’t shaved in a while. “They’re lying. These people are the worst kind of scum.”

  “Now, now, Keith Endover, you should consider yourself lucky. You’re going to live through this mess, and when it’s over, you can report about it to the few hundreds of people who will still be around to hear it.”

  “You piece of shit!” Keith yelled back. He looked at me, his eyes red and bloodshot. “They’re going to stick us in some machines. Don’t believe them. It won’t save us. God knows what they’ll do to us while we’re in there. They have all sorts of things here straight out of fiction. Cloning machines. Mind manipulation. All kinds of illegal. This mess? This is their fault. They probably did it on purpose.”

  “What mess?” I could hardly speak

  “Look.” Keith motioned with his chin and I looked up at a television screen broadcasting in the corner of the room. The two men who had my mother disappeared with her. I tried to move to get to her and they blocked me again. My father would have to deal with them. Adults never took teenagers seriously. As he seemed to be in a screaming match with one of the most powerful men in the country, I decided to go see what Keith meant.

  The TV volume had been muted but I could see people on the screen. I covered my mouth as I realized what I looked at. No—not people. Pale, with red eyes and long teeth, the creatures running around on the screen attacking people were Vampires.

  “This can’t be real.” I had spoken aloud even though I hadn’t meant to.

  “It’s horribly real.”

  I jumped and then leaped at Chad Lyons the second I realized he stood behind me. He caught me in his arms and didn’t object to the hug I insisted he give me.

  Jason had become a Werewolf, and Vampires wandered the streets. The man named Keith talked about cloning and drugs. What did any of this have to do with me?

  “Are we going to die?” I whispered in Chad’s ear like he could make this all better, even though I knew he couldn’t.

  “No.” He shook his head, setting me back down on my feet. “They brought us here to save us. I’m so glad to see you.”

  “My ex-boyfriend must have gotten me here somehow. He came to my room. It’s really strange…he became a Werewolf.”

  Chad bent over. “Did I hear you correctly?”

  I nodded. “I’m not insane.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.” Icahn had managed to extricate himself from my father and the man had stood up on top of a desk. “Let me have your attention. You are the lucky few.”

  “This isn’t acceptable, Dr. Icahn,” Chad’s father called out to him. “You can’t hold us hostage here.”

  “As I’ve told you and everyone else many times, Mr. Lyons, you are here to be kept alive. Those people out there are all going to catch the virus. There’s nothing I can do about it now.”

  I looked at Chad. “Virus?”

  “The one that wasn’t supposed to be any big deal.” He shook his head. “My dad told my mom this wasn’t going to end well. I hate I took money from this guy.”

  Micah moved up next to us. “Don’t worry, big brother. It doesn’t look like you’ll ever really get the chance to use his funding. We’re all going to die today.”

  I shivered and Chad rubbed my arms. “Don’t be an ass. You’re frightening Rachel.”

  “She should be afraid. We should all be terrified.” Micah shook his head. “The good news is Tia will get to go meet her maker with her boyfriend in tow.”

  Micah’s sister huddled in the corner with Glen. How had he gotten here? In fact, how had everyone arrived at this location?

  “How did you guys get here?”

  “A man with a gun arrived at our house and dragged us all out. It could have gotten bad but they managed to subdue Dad before he could get to his gun. This is all so screwed up.” Micah walked away from us.

  “Ms. Clancy.”

  I looked up Isaac Icahn. “You’re talking to me?”

  “Yes.” He smiled and the image of a serpent rose to my mind. “You weren’t on my list initially, but I’m glad to have you. The Kenwood boy made quite a case for bringing you along. You should feel honored he spent so much energy. Andon couldn’t even get his own wife to come here.”

  I swallowed. “I saw him. He became—”

  “A Werewolf. Yes. I know.” Icahn dismissed me. “I think you’ll be an added benefit to our group. New energy. You’re bright, young, and attractive. Jason said you whacked him over the head with a lamp. You might be just what I was looking for.”

  Chad pulled me closer. “Dr. Icahn, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with you talking to Rachel like this.”

  Neither was I. Attractive? I shuddered. Grown men shouldn’t say things like that to teenagers. It just came across as creepy.

  “Well, you’re all going to get used to having me around.” He stared at the two of us. “This is an interesting problem. I made a promise to Andon’s son I am going to have to honor. Hopefully, when you wake up, whatever this is between the two of you will have passed.” He looked over his shoulder. “Liam, Noah, tell the guys to load them up.” His gaze met mine again. “We will survive this. Humanity will come back. I intend to see to it.”

  A tall man with thick, brown hair approached us. “I’ll take her.”

  I stared up at him, my heart beating so fast I could feel it in my stomach. So this was what a panic attack felt like. My chest tightened.

  “Daddy!” Where had he gone? Probably after my mother. I got no answer. I shook my head. This couldn’t be happening.

  Behind me, Chad struggled with his guard. “I’m not going with you!” He took a whack to the head by a brown stick resembling something someone would use on a horse. He reared back, trying to grab on to the stick before they could hit him again.

  Micah fought with his assailant, too. Hand to hand, they shoved and clawed.

  Icahn laughed. “Take note of who fights you and who doesn’t. It will matter later.”

  “My name is Darren.” The person who wanted to take me smiled at me. “Come with me, please.”

  “Darren.” I swallowed. “Are you a nice man?”

  “I am.” He extended his hand like I should take it.

  I looked up at the television again. The Vampire creatures were sucking on a news reporter’s neck. Across the room from me, Keith had slammed the backside of his chair into the two men who tried to take him down. A woman I didn’t know knelt on the floor, crying. Several people walked with their gu
ards without complaint.

  “If you’re a nice man, Darren, then I am sorry about this.” I kicked him hard, right in the center of his shin. He cursed and lunged for me. I ran toward Chad and Micah, grabbing on to their arms. We would all get out of there. And we’d find my parents. I didn’t know how, but we’d all be okay. There couldn’t be any other result.

  Darren grabbed me from behind. I tried to kick him again but I had no idea how to fight back. Why would I? Never in my life had defending myself mattered very much. If I’d known this would happen, I’d have taken a self-defense class. Chad tried to grab me and took another blow to the head for his efforts.

  “Put me down!” I hollered, trying to wrench myself free.

  My efforts made Darren laugh. “You’re a tough little girl, aren’t you? I’m going to put you down as a fighter. I’d like to see what happens to you.”

  “What happens to me?” My chest felt tight.

  Darren pulled me along with him. We entered a room the size of my school’s gymnasium. Lined up, one next to the other, were large pods more fitting for a space shuttle than the back room of whatever this place happened to be.

  “You’ll be right in the middle of the room.” Darren smiled. “It doesn’t matter. All of you will end up in the same place eventually.”

  “Please don’t put me in one of those things.” I didn’t even know what to call them.

  Ahead of me, Keith got shoved into a pod. He looked dazed.

  “Hey!” I called out to him and he raised his head. “What are they going to do to us?”

  He shook his head. “I wish I could tell you, young lady. I just don’t know. Good luck.”

  Darren dragged me along. I looked at each pod. Some of them weren’t empty; they had people inside of them. Their eyes closed, each person seemed to be sleeping. Oh God, I’d seen things like this before but always in the weird black-and-white movies my father watched at midnight on weekends.

  No. No. No.

  My father’s face, asleep in a state of repose making him look calm, stared out at me. I sucked in my breath. This couldn’t be happening. He was supposed to wake up and make this stop.

  I shook. “Daddy!” I screamed and nothing happened. He didn’t wake up. No one was going to make this situation any better for me.

  “Darren.” He kept tugging me along past the pod holding my mother, also sleeping. I winced. At least now I knew where they’d both landed. How could I get them out of their pods? Was there a wake-up switch?

  “You’re going to be okay, little girl. I’ll even come and check up on you. Every day. I’ll make sure everything with you is absolutely perfect until I have to go under, too.”

  “No. Darren, please. You can’t stick me in it. Let me go. I’ll take my people and leave. We won’t tell anyone what’s happening here.”

  He laughed. “If you left here, you’d be dead or you’d become one of them. I won’t be allowed to leave here for years. Heck, they may eventually end up sticking me in one of those, too. I’m not going to let you go. I’ve decided I like your spirit.”

  Darren stopped. “Here you go. Looks like a good one. It’s too bad I can’t make it prettier for you. Paint it pink or whatever you girls like.”

  “I don’t like pink.” What a ridiculous thing to say, even though I’d just uttered the words. He didn’t respond, which helped me not to feel quite so ridiculous.

  When it came down to it, I didn’t even fight getting into the pod. What good would it have done? Darren outweighed me by a great deal. He’d been trained as some kind of soldier, which of course begged the question as to how long Dr. Icahn had planned this horrid event.

  I was just a girl and even if I’d wanted to, I could never have won in a physical altercation with anyone. If my parents had been forced into pods and Keith, who looked pretty tough, ended up in one, then I didn’t stand a chance.

  “You’ll come and check on me every day?” I stared at Darren.

  He nodded. “Unless I’m in my own pod I won’t miss a day, Rachel.”

  Darren knew my name. I didn’t know when he’d learned it. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I stepped inside and leaned against the back. There really wasn’t any other position I could take. If these were the last moments of my life, they were really pretty pathetic.

  I’d never gotten to go to college, get married, have a job where I felt fulfilled and helped the world, or had a baby of my own. A tear slipped down my cheek, although crying felt pointless.

  Darren hadn’t closed the pod yet and I could still see everyone being hauled around. Chad had two people dragging him. He saw me as he passed and tried to stop. I heard him scream my name but I didn’t respond.

  If he could find a way to avoid the machines, then more power to him.

  Darren shut the pod door. It clicked like the way it sounds on an airplane when the flight attendant shuts the cabin door. Only I wasn’t on a trip, seated between my parents, waiting for the fasten seat belt sign to be turned off.

  This was a trip I had to take all by myself and I had no idea where I was going.

  I took a deep breath and then a blast of cold air….

  Chapter Sixteen

  Now

  I lunged at Deacon. I’d take off his goddamned head and not worry about the consequences. Days earlier, I’d failed with Jason. So much had changed and I wouldn’t fail everyone, not with so much on the line.

  The Deacon in front of me was a complete stranger. One who worked for Icahn.

  I caught him in the shoulder. Blood gushed out of his wound and he roared.

  Chad leaped forward, his own machete raised. “If you touch her, Evans, I’ll destroy you. Slowly.”

  His tone left no room for argument.

  “You’re so smitten with her. Can’t you see she’s lying? Nothing she says can be at all true.”

  Micah lunged forward. “You think working for a man who would unleash Vampires on human beings is the right move? You think those are the kind of guys you want on your side? Even if you thought we were all nuts, he sounds better to you?”

  Micah and Chad had him distracted, although I suspected Chad might really kill Deacon if he moved toward me. I had my machete drawn. It seemed like a perfectly good tool to use, considering the circumstances.

  “If what she says is true, then I spent my early years as Vampire bait.” Deacon slammed his hand against his chest. “That’s not who I am. Do you get it? I’m not Vampire food.”

  Deacon sounded so distraught I almost stopped what I’d planned to talk him down. I’d loved him. Well, sort of. I’d suspected I could grow to feel love if I’d ever really allowed it to start in my heart.

  His pain would have to wait. Maybe I was coldhearted. I really didn’t care.

  Without a second thought, I shoved the front end of my machete into the control panel of the machine. It felt good to attack an inanimate object causing so many people so much pain.

  The dials came off easily, but by the time I started chopping at the wires, sparks flew into the air. No one would be repairing it, not if I could get it into bad enough shape.

  It was really too bad I didn’t have a match.

  Deacon wailed behind me and I heard a scuffle.

  “Got it?” Micah asked Chad.

  “I do.” Chad made a tsking sound on his tongue. “You should never let someone disarm you like that, son.”

  He sounded so much like the Chad from the time before the world ended, I almost laughed.

  “She’s destroying a machine allowing you to live again.”

  “Exactly.” Dr. Icahn interrupted our discussion by walking into the room. I noted he didn’t carry his unnecessary cane. “And I’m afraid it’s worse. Darren.”

  Darren dragged my mother in by her hair. She’d been whacked and bruised. I could tell from the yellowing around her eye and the way her mouth had started to swell. But her eyes were steely. They hadn’t harmed her spirit.

  “M
om.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t look at me, Rachel. You do what you have to do. Finish what you start. Even when things are dire.”

  “Don’t listen to Mommy, Rachel. You see, the thing is,” Icahn walked to where the machine lay almost in pieces, “if you destroy my cloning device, I’m just not sure what will happen to Chad and your mom.”

  “What do you mean?” My stomach twisted.

  “We’re not clear about cloning. The world ended before I could perfect the science but all of us who have been cloned, and yes, I count myself in the number, we’re connected to the machine. If you destroy it beyond repair, I can’t promise we all won’t just drop dead.” Icahn smiled. “Now while I am certain you would be thrilled to watch me collapse on the ground, a pile of worthless cells, I know you don’t want to lose Chad again. You might die from the pain. And you’ve just reconnected with Mommy.”

  “Rachel.”

  I couldn’t look up to see what Chad would say. I didn’t have to. I knew what would be in his eyes. He’d want me to do the right thing and continue to destroy the cloning machines.

  “You don’t even make sense, Icahn.” I fisted my hands, wishing I could just lean over and break the man’s nose. “Why would you all be connected to the machine? You’re making shit up.”

  “I might be or maybe there is something metaphysical about this whole thing.” He shrugged. “I don’t really know because I can’t tell you why the cloning works. Where does the soul come from? Why does it reform in the body like it does? As I told you, we built the technology. We’re just not certain how it works.”

  “How did you build technology you don’t understand?” My head hurt.

  “The science was there. We knew how to grow a body. We simply didn’t expect the soul to come back with it.” He shook his head. “It will always be one of my greatest regrets. If we could have known cloning better, perhaps we could have been closer to being gods.”

  “All right.” I held up my hand. “Enough.” I really didn’t want to travel down the divinity path with him. Not even a little bit.