by Alisha Rai
“Seventeen.”
Jules readjusted her mental impression of the teen. Her fragility had been misleading. Really, she was barely a handful of years younger than herself. “Okay. Listen, no one’s going to die. Everything will be all right.” Sometimes reiteration helped not only the listener, but the speaker as well.
“I don’t believe you.”
I barely believe me. She inched closer to the bars and the girl. “Are you alone here, Carrie?”
“Sheila used to be in your cage. That’s the lady who bit me before you killed her.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. She’d turned,” Carrie said flatly. “A while ago. I’ve been scared of her biting me for weeks. I only wish you could have killed her before she did that.”
Jules recalled the moment of clarity she’d thought she’d seen in the Shadow’s eyes, and shuddered. Speaking of which… “How’s your wound?”
“They slapped a bandage on it.” Bitterness bit her words off. “Who knows.”
“You sound more lucid.”
“They had just shot me up with something before I ran. I’m not usually that out of it. I’m so sorry.”
“Stop apologizing. We’ll figure things out.” Jules took a deep breath, thinking. The incubation period before the Illness would start was about a week, which meant they had that long to get the girl out.
She’s probably already dead meat.
Jules had never heard of a person who had survived a bite. But she wasn’t about to give up until Carrie was dead or turned.
A loud moan preceded another scrape. “Is someone else here, Carrie? Who’s making that noise?”
“That’s Erik. I hope he’s coming to. It sounds like he is, at least. They must have tranqed him hard.”
Blood rushed through her ears. “What did you say his name was?”
“Erik.”
“His full name.”
“I don’t know. He’s just Erik.”
“How long has he been here?”
“If you want to know something about me, ask me.”
A thrill shot through her. A person could change a lot in a couple of years, but they couldn’t alter their voice. Low and raspy with disuse, it carried a trace of the man’s native Iranian accent. She swiveled and squinted, but even with her eyes adjusted to the dark, she couldn’t quite make out anything beyond shadows. “Erik? Erik Jafari?”
A stunned silence preceded his cautious reply. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”
“It’s me.” Excitement and amazement rose up to choke her, barely letting the few syllables out. She crossed the two feet to the other side of the cell. “It’s Jules.”
Another long silence. “You lie.”
“No.” She swallowed, trying to work around the thickness in her throat. Had someone told her she would have found her long-lost friend in a cage in the captivity of mad scientists, well, she would have laughed and asked what they were smoking. “My God, Erik. What happened to you?”
“Jules?”
“You know her, Erik?” Carrie interjected.
Jules wasn’t imagining the note of possessiveness in the younger girl’s tone. She would have been amused if she hadn’t been so darned worried.
She’d imagined Erik dead. Picturing what he must have gone through, locked in a cage with a small army of torturers, was almost worse.
“I knew her,” came Erik’s response.
“Is this where you’ve been all this time?”
“In this specific place?” Metal scraped against concrete again. In the darkness, she could barely make out the outline of his body—a body that looked larger than she recalled. “No. I’ve been here for a year or so. Right before they picked up Carrie. With these people? Yes. I’ve been with them since I left.”
“Jesus.” Years? What were these strangers doing, caging humans for years? “I’m so sorry. If only I had come sooner.”
“If only.”
His tone was devoid of inflection, but still she flinched. “I had no idea. None of us knew where you had gone…”
His mocking laugh shut her up. “Don’t give me that shit. Tim knew exactly where I went. I was there, in Cheyenne, for almost a year before they moved me here to take advantage of the lab. No one came for me while the fucked-up remnants of this government destroyed me.”
“He didn’t tell us.” She wished she knew why. Maybe it had been to keep the rest of them out of danger from the mystery at Cheyenne Mountain. She wasn’t the only one who would have gone charging after Erik. Others at Sanctuary had owed their life to this man. “If I had known, I would have come for you. I woulda saved you, Erik. I owe—”
“Whatever,” he said tightly. “Moot point now.”
“I’ll get us all out.”
“So confident,” he replied, with a sarcastic bite.
“I will. Is this place bugged?”
“Like with cameras?” Carrie whispered.
“Yes. Or listening devices.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Erik?”
There was silence. Then a grudging, “No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I had told Carrie yesterday I was going to create a diversion for her when they took us out for testing during the night. If they’d bugged the place, they would have known. They weren’t prepared for me.”
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t get away, Erik,” Carrie whispered.
Erik’s voice changed, became far more gentle. “It’s okay, child.”
“Did they beat you?”
The man was evasive in answering the young woman, Jules noted. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“They’re going to kill me for sure now, aren’t they?”
“I won’t let them,” Erik responded.
“Can someone fill me in on what’s happening?” Jules asked, feeling lost.
There was a pause. Carrie spoke, her tone matter-of-fact. “The scientists were going to kill me because I wasn’t responding to the testing the way I should. The guards said so. So when they took the three of us out for field testing before sunup this morning, Erik attacked the guards, and I escaped, though I did an awful job of it. Sheila did too, I guess. Sheila’s dead, Erik. Jules killed her.”
“She was too far gone. It’s a blessing.”
“I wish I could have killed her before she bit you,” Jules said.
There was a beat of silence, and the shadowy form of his body stilled completely. “She bit you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Carrie whispered.
“No wonder they didn’t kill you as soon as they tracked you down,” Erik said bitterly. “They probably want to observe how you react to the bite.”
“They said they were going to give me a day. If nothing changed by midnight, I would be terminated.” The girl spoke of her own death with a flat acceptance.
“Who are they?” Jules interjected.
Erik snorted. “Scientists, or so they call themselves.”
“We get lots of shots,” Carrie said tremulously. “They make us run through all these tests. They make Erik fight—”
“Enough, Carrie.”
But the teen ignored him. “They keep us drugged and starved and weak, and they even have an electroshock collar on Erik to control him. That’s what they’ll do to you. We’re nothing but guinea pigs to them.”
She so needed to get back in touch with James, if only to get this intel to him. Christ, now she almost hoped Compound didn’t send anyone in after her. They wouldn’t be prepared for this. “These guys…they’re, what, experimenting with the virus on humans?”
“The lady wins a prize,” Erik sneered.
“But…why? Are they trying to find a cure?”
“No, Miss Sunshine. Or if they are, they’re awfully willing to terminate the failures—” He cut himself off, probably realizing Carrie was listening. “Since when have humans ever needed a reason to be nuts?”
A chill ran down her s
pine. She rubbed the ache on her biceps, now really wishing she could see. Had they injected her with something when they’d drugged her?
She didn’t need to ask. She’d inflicted enough injections on herself in her life that she knew exactly what one felt like. All she could do was pray that it was nothing more harmful than another tranq. “The hell that’s what they’ll do to me. I’m breaking us all out of here if it’s the last thing I do.”
“You think I haven’t tried?” Erik asked, his voice low and tired. “The only reason I managed to take down two guards today was because the control for my collar had jammed in the doctor’s hands. Do you honestly think they’re going to give me the chance to get near the rest of them?”
“You don’t have to go near the rest of them.” Jules sat on the ground cross-legged and worked off one of her shoes. “You killed two? So that leaves, what, right now? The two scientists and…”
“Two guards. The two I killed usually patrolled the perimeter.”
“Will they replace the ones you’ve killed?”
Erik seemed to think about that. “Not right away. I don’t think so. They have more people at Cheyenne, but the doctor in charge here does not enjoy having news of anything he sees as his failure getting back to them. I doubt he’ll be racing to inform them that one of his creatures turned on them.”
“Carrie, you said they’ll be coming back to get you tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll have to act then.” With a great deal of difficulty, she finally managed to get her nails inside the space between the sole of her shoe and the leather.
“Jules, they’ll kill you—”
“You want to see this poor kid dead?” she snapped.
Ice filled his voice. “No. Of course not.”
“I’d rather be dead than locked in a cage anyway.” The sole came away from the bottom of the shoe, the super epoxy she’d used making it difficult work. “Don’t worry. It won’t come to that. I can handle things. I have a weapon.”
Erik was silent. “Do you, now?” he asked softly.
Her fingers found the handle of the very slim blade she’d hidden inside the shoe. Without extending the blade, the leather hilt tucked inside her palm. “I do. Listen up, guys. Here’s my plan.”
Chapter Seven
“Is she asleep?” Erik asked quietly.
Jules didn’t need to ask who he was talking about. “Yes.” Carrie, exhausted from the day’s events, had fallen into a fitful doze, after Erik had promised to wake her when the plan was put into motion.
“Listen. If you do manage to get free, you must escape with her. I do not expect you to come back for me.”
She didn’t want to close her eyes because she was worried she would sleep. “I told you, I’m getting all of us out.”
“Yes. You said that.”
Jules wriggled into a more comfortable position on the concrete floor. “And I meant it. I worked too hard to find you to give up on you now. A lot of the guys at Sanctuary searched for you, Erik. And after we joined up with the East Coast Raven Rock people and became Compound, we made sure everyone had a description of you.”
“Sanctuary was assimilated?”
“Yeah. This group who took you—that’s not the government. I don’t know who they are or what they’re claiming, if it’s a crazy faction of the original group who hid there or people who took the place over, but the real government is at Raven Rock. I can assure you they would never capture humans, they help them.”
“I can assure you, I have no desire to play politics or be a part of any group. I just want to be alone. Away from here.”
Jules winced at the bite in his words. “I swear, Compound is nothing like—”
“I don’t want to hear it. If and when I get out of here, I’ll never trust another do-gooding organization.”
The finality of his words depressed her. Would her old friend never trust her again? She was a part of Compound now, as much as James or Gabriel. She trusted them, believed in the mission.
“Do you think Carrie will survive the bite?”
“I do not know.”
“Will she turn?”
“I do not know.”
There went that subject. They sat and waited for a while longer. Jules drummed her fingers against the ground and wondered how many nights Erik had passed like this, with only his heartbeat and the hum of a nearby generator to keep him company.
“How do you stand this waiting?” she finally asked. Her dubious plan hinged on the guards coming, either to take Carrie for termination or to run tests on Jules. Either way, Jules planned on being the one who grabbed their attention.
“You always were impatient, once you’d set your mind to something.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“When you determined you were going to get clean, remember? You were infuriated at the withdrawal symptoms. You could not understand that your body would not simply obey your mind.”
A reluctant smile curled her lips, despite the gravity of their situation. No one but Erik had been privy to her struggle to get clean after he’d rescued her off the streets. “Those were hellish days. But they passed, as you said they would.”
“I take it you no longer use?” His inquiry was polite, as if he wasn’t the one who had mopped her sweaty brow and refused to let her give up when the shakes had gripped her body. As if he wasn’t the one who had told her she had something to live for. That she was worth saving.
Jules swallowed around the inexplicable lump in her throat. “No. Wasn’t about to go through that again.”
She waited for Erik to say something more. Maybe a “good”, or a “way to go”, or an “I knew you could do it.” But all he said was, “The guards should come. Soon. They work best at night, and you’re probably pretty attractive fresh meat for them. Like a new toy they want to play with before it breaks.” Bitterness coated his words.
“What a comforting comparison.”
“You wanted comfort, you came to the wrong man.”
James would have comforted her, she thought uncharitably. She bit her inner cheek. No, that wasn’t fair. Erik couldn’t be blamed because he wasn’t James. He also couldn’t be blamed because he was no longer Erik. Not the kind, gentle Erik she’d once known, at least.
“If something happens to me, use my ride to get yourselves to safety. If it’s still there, it’s a white van about a block west, in the parking lot of the office building down the road. There’s an extra set of keys in the dashboard, and the closest Compound outpost in California can be mapped from my GPS.” And give James my love. But she didn’t say that.
He ignored her words, like she hadn’t spoken. “You know they may tranq you to handle you.”
Which would pretty much ruin her plan. She needed her hands free. “We’ll just have to hope they don’t.”
Erik didn’t seem to be in any rush to speak with her anymore, so she decided to try to conserve her strength for the coming battle. Her confidence dissipated as she attempted to fathom how she would get one admittedly weak prisoner, a scared adolescent and herself to her vehicle and then to safety.
It was dead of night right now. She’d have to face Shadows once she left here, unless they got out after morning. She both wanted the guards to hurry and willed them to take their time.
She went around and around the problem in her mind, discarding one scenario after another, until the dilemma made her almost dizzy with its complexity. She frowned and raised her hand to her forehead, surprised to find it remarkably heavy.
Problems! Damn, but she had a lot of them.
“They’re coming.”
Jules turned toward Erik. “What?” Her voice sounded tinny. She cleared her throat. “What?”
“They’re coming. The guards.”
She tried to focus. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Trust me. You have seventy-five seconds before they’re at the door. Approximately.”
A
very precise estimate, but she supposed he must have heard the guards coming and going enough over the last year that he could time it perfectly. “How long was I sleeping?”
“It’s nearing midnight. A while.”
How had she lost track of time like that? How had hours zoomed by? More importantly… “How can you tell the time?”
“You live in a windowless room for a long time, you develop a sense about these things,” he answered, all zen mysterious. “And perhaps more accurately, since the doctors were going to reassess Carrie at midnight, I figure this is her escort right now.”
She wouldn’t kick herself for dozing. She needed all of her strength.
“Thirty seconds.”
A gasp brought her focus back to her in a rush. “Are they coming for me?” Carrie asked. Her voice was roughened by sleep.
“It’s not you they’ll be taking.” Jules shifted. “Relax.”
“What if this doesn’t work? We’re just assuming…”
“Carrie, hush.” Erik’s tone was firm enough that even Jules froze. “This is our only chance to get you out before they kill you, understand?”
Jules winced. Harsh, Erik.
A sigh came from the darkness. “Yes.”
“Then be quiet now.”
Carrie subsided.
“Jules, listen—take the female doctor out first, if you can. Use the male as a hostage. The guards give him more deference.”
As Erik finished speaking, Jules heard the heavy fall of footsteps approaching. A loud click resonated. The lock turned in the doorknob. As the door opened, the dim light of an old-fashioned flashlight swept inside. She saw a flash of steel from a cage before she drew upon every acting skill in her arsenal and did her best to recreate the appearance of a seizure victim.
Her mom had finally OD’d on crack and alcohol one night and had a similar seizure, so it wasn’t like she had nothing to go on. She made sure that her arms and legs flopping against the ground created enough noise for the guards to hear. Beneath her slitted lids, she caught the light illuminating her body as she arched her back.
One man swore. “Damn, wonder how long she’s been doing that for. Hurry, Fletcher, open her cage. We got to get her to the doctors.”
Booted footsteps came closer, and she kept up her act as keys jingled and the cage door was scraped open. She was hoisted into a pair of muscular arms. Pee-yew. Bile rose. She might actually go into a seizure from the unwashed scent of this man. Did bad guys not like bathing anymore?
