by Lucy Smoke
Before she left, we had been considering our future. Whether or not we both wanted to continue messaging. I don’t want to be a messenger forever, but I don’t know what else I might want to do. Kida had tried to be understanding, but I could tell that I frustrated her. Maybe we were just growing apart. People did that, right?
Haze pulls me out of my own head as we come to an intersecting hallway and he holds his fist up for me to be still. I freeze a step behind him and wait for further instructions as he leans closer to the wall and listens intently. In a whirlwind of movement, he spins and grabs me—shoving me into a nearby utility closet and covers my mouth with one firm hand.
Shock courses through me as not even thirty seconds later, footsteps approach the utility closet door and then pass it. My eyes glance up at Haze in the darkness. His hearing must be extremely sensitive. I hadn’t even noticed the footsteps. The utility closet door eases open and we step back into the hallway, stealthily moving towards the back end of the building. The blueprints on our scanners show a small delivery stairwell in that direction that leads all the way to the basement.
When we hit the stairwell, we don’t waste any time. I take two steps at a time as we descend, and with his long legs, Haze takes three. Static sounds in our ears and Haze freezes, leaning down to finger the inside of his shirt collar.
“Noaz?” he whispers.
“Vincent wants to send in a team,” Noaz replies. “Can you get to the service elevator and send it down?”
“You can’t control it from where you are?” I ask.
More static filters over the comm unit before he answers. “I’ll need Haze to bypass some extra controls someone has attached to the locking mechanism that decides which pod residents can access which floors. I need our team to have access to all of them.”
“Will do, we’re en route now,” Haze replies.
Grabbing my arm, he hauls me onto the nearest floor in search of the service elevator. He curses as soon as we push through the door and turns around, trying to shove me back. I half gasp, half scream in shock as a massive body slams into Haze from behind and he shoves me back into the stairwell. I curse my volume and how it echoes throughout the stairwell as Haze goes down under the onslaught of a giant, angry Tank.
Scrambling backward, my leg snaps out and kicks the Tank square in the face. Instead of breaking his nose or shoving him off Haze, my eyes widen when his grip tightens, and he looks up at me with a growl.
Haze turns, flipping the man over and delivers a blow to his throat, effectively cutting off any sound that may escape as he lands another punch to the Tank’s solar plexus and then his face. One more punch to the temple and the man is an unconscious mess on the floor.
“Fucking shit,” Haze growls brushing away a stray drop of blood from his cheek. I try not to follow the smear with my gaze as Haze grabs me once more and yanks me back into the hallway, nearly sprinting for the elevator. He slaps his chest once, twice, growling when whatever he’s doing doesn’t seem to accomplish what he wants. I look at him strangely until he finally reaches inside his shirt and I realize he’s trying to initiate contact with Noaz.
The static that I’ve come to associate with the comm units alerting either us or Noaz that someone is trying to talk reverberates in my head. Haze squeezes my arm tighter and picks up the pace. We hit the elevator and two Tanks come around the corner ten or so yards down the hallway.
“Haze? Cassandra?” Noaz’s voice comes over the comm as Haze shoves me at the door and turns to face the oncoming Tanks.
“Tanks have found us,” he says into the comm unit. “I can hold them off for a few minutes. Tell Cass what she needs to do to get you into the service elevator system.”
“Cassandra?” Noaz asks quietly as if wanting my permission. We don’t have time for permission though.
I get on my knees and face the lock box on the side of the elevator as one of the burly Tanks reaches Haze. “Tell me what I need to do,” I demand.
“Pull the box off of the locking mechanism,” he says. I clasp my hands together in a fist and bring it down over the top of the box once…twice…on the third try it comes off, clattering to the ground.
“Alright, what next?” I stare at the mass of wires, not unlike the one on my own lock screen box from my pod when Thayer had disabled it.
Noaz instructs me to pull several wires away from the wall. “Cut the black one,” he says.
“They’re all black!” I snap as I hear Haze grunt when the second Tank joins the first. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as they converge on him. He never seemed overly masculine before, but Haze holds his own against the two giants.
“The one on the farthest end to the right then,” he replies.
There’s nothing to cut it with, so with a yank, I rip it from the wall completely. “Uhh.” I stare down at the wire in my hand and hope to God he doesn’t need me to attach it to something.
“There should be a switch along the inside top part,” he says. “I need you to hit it. It should reset the entire system for all the elevators in the building. Wait thirty seconds and then hit it again. I’ll be able to slip in and control the elevators when the system comes back online.”
I scramble back to the mass of wires, shoving my loose hair back over my shoulders, hooking the strands behind my ears. Haze grunts and pins one Tank to the ground behind me as the other attempts to put him in a chokehold. All three men roll, narrowly missing me as I press against the elevator doors and reach my hand into the electrical outlet, hoping I don’t get fried, and search for the switch.
“I got it!” I exclaim excitedly as my fingertips brush the switch. I hit it once and sit back.
Impossibly large hands grab my waist and yank me away from the elevator. “Fuck!” I scream as those hands squeeze around me, surely leaving bruises. I pull and shove against the chest I’m pressed against. “Let go!”
“Cassandra! What’s going on?!” Noaz yells in my ear.
I elbow the giant holding me in the face, but he doesn’t even flinch as my joint makes contact with his cheek. His grip grows impossibly tighter and I gasp for air. My hands drop to the gargantuan paws around my waist and I try to pry them away to no avail.
Haze coughs nearby as the two Tanks haul him up and punch him in the face. It looks like he’s already taken too many punches in that area, his entire left cheek bruised and his eye nearly swollen shut. I squirm and struggle against the hands pinning me.
One of the Tanks holding Haze releases him to his comrade before reaching into his pocket and retrieving a communicator. My eyes widen as he presses a button and holds the device to his ear, waiting for someone to answer.
“Two trespassers on level five,” he says into the communicator, dusty, gray eyes sliding over me lasciviously before moving to Haze as he delivers another kick straight to Haze’s gut.
“Cassandra?” Noaz says in my ear. “Can you hit the switch? I can’t get in unless someone turns the system back on.”
The man with the communicator to his ear pulls it away and looks at the mess of wires before looking at me. He puts the device back against his ear. “Take the stairs, the girl took out the elevators.” He smiles wide. “Yeah, don’t you worry. I’ll treat her real nice, boss.”
I take a breath, mind racing. I need to hit the switch without them realizing what I’m trying to do. Glancing at the wall, I debate the success rate of what I’m considering. If I attempt it and get away with it, it’ll hurt. If I attempt it and don’t get away with it, Noaz will be left on the outs and I’ll still get hurt.
Haze looks at me and nods to the elevator. I notice that his comm unit didn’t fall out in the fight. He, too, heard Noaz’s plea. Sucking in a breath, I close my eyes and start crying. Big, fat tears roll down my cheeks and the Tank on the communicator mutters in disgust. The one behind me turns me around. I don’t expect the hard slap to the face.
“Stop it, bitch. I haven’t even begun to hurt you yet,” he snarls.
Finally, I can see what this man looks like and it’s not a pretty sight. A sharp scar runs across the left side of his face, over and through his eye which is now obviously blinded. I stare at his murky iris while the other one watches me with lust and hatred. I shudder in revulsion.
“What?” he asks. “Don’t like the way I look?” He shoves me backwards into the wall and presses his face close to mine. I turn my cheek and try not to breathe in his foul-smelling breath.
“No,” I say.
“I like it when they say ‘no’,” he chuckles to his buddies. He slams his lips down on my neck, his flat tongue running along my skin.
I’m going to peel my skin off and bathe in acid for weeks after this, I think.
Haze growls something on the other side of the man’s shoulders. Whatever he says earns him another hard kick.
Fuck, what am I gonna do? Breathing hard, I push my hands back, struggling against the man. He grips me tightly—so tight that I know I’ll have bruises after all of this is over.
Static. “Cassandra.” Fuck. Noaz. He’s relying on me. Haze is relying on me. Kida is relying on me. They are all relying on me. I need to do this.
I close my eyes and suck back a breath. Pulling my knees up I press my feet back, directly on the Tank’s thighs and push off, startling him so much that he lets go. My hands slap into the wall as I crash. It blocks my face plant rather spectacularly, but I don’t have time to stop and appreciate the lack of added bruising.
Scrambling for the hole in the wall next to the elevator, I shove my arm inside, barely concerning myself with the thought that a loose wire could electrocute me at any moment. I find the switch with my fingers as soon as the Tank yanks me up again. Pressing the pad of my middle finger against it, when he yanks me back the elevator system flickers to life.
“The hell you think you’re doing?!” the Tank holding me exclaims shaking me like a little kid holding a rattle toy.
Haze doesn’t say anything and neither do I, but we both hear Noaz’s relieved breath through our comm units. That is, until the Tank holding me sees the dark circle in my ear. One flat hand slaps my temple to hold my head to the side, while the other hand’s fingers dig the device from my ear. Scar-face growls loudly.
“Comms,” he snaps to the others. “Check him!” One of the other Tanks—the one unencumbered by his communicator conversation—leans down to Haze and there’s loud cursing and grunting as the man finds Haze’s comm unit and rips it away while simultaneously punching Haze in the side once more.
The Tank holding me snarls and drops me so that my feet touch the floor. Before I can even take a step away, he spins me around and slams me back against the wall until the hole and the bare wires are digging into my back.
His breath smells of rank, days-old leftovers, uncomfortably warm and nasty as it drifts over my face. I stifle a grimace and cringe away when his over-pumped arms land on either side of me and he leans down. “When we’re through with you, you’ll wish you had never stepped foot in here,” he promises.
I glare up at him as he looms intimidatingly. “You’re going to wish you never saw me,” I promise him in return.
With another snarl, he reels back and punches me once in the face and it’s lights. Fucking. Out.
Eleven
The Return
Feeling re-infuses my limbs in slow increments as I wake on a cold floor. I’ve never understood why sometimes cold surfaces feel wet even when they are completely dry. The floor beneath me has that sensation. As if every possible micro molecule of heat has been sucked away and left in its place, there remains only a frozen surface. I cough, sucking in equally cold, dusty air as I turn over onto my stomach and groan. My face feels like someone clubbed me with an iron bar. I reach up feeling along my nose to see if it’s broken. It’s not, but there’s still dried, crusted blood beneath my nose and along my upper lip.
A small, but firm hand touches my back as I slowly sit up. Gasping in surprise, I whirl around and am met with familiar golden eyes the same color a tiger’s might be if they were no longer extinct. My mouth sags open and a choked pant escapes.
“Kida?”
Her lips twist, two ripe petals against a bruised and battered face. “Hey, Cassie,” she grins. I nearly fall flat on my face as I fall all over myself trying to hug her. She chuckles and strokes my head as I wrap my arms around her middle and squeeze tight. “Cassie,” she says with a grunt when I get a bit overzealous and squeeze a bit too hard.
Loosening my hold, I sit back. “I-you-Kida…” I don’t know what to say. I knew she was here in the pod complex, somewhere. That is, if I haven’t been carted somewhere else. I just didn’t expect to see her so soon. I choke up once more when her hands touch my face, squeezing my cheeks together as she presses herself closer.
“I’ve missed you, Cassie,” she says quietly. “But, damn, babe, I really wish you had thought of some other way to come see me.”
“I’m here to rescue you,” I tell her.
She snorts, the sound less offensive than it might have been from someone else because of the soft and understanding smile that spreads across her mouth. “So far,” she chuckles. “I’m impressed by your gallantry. If you’ve got an escape plan, now might be the time to share it.”
“I–” My response is cut off by the sound of bolts snapping back as a solid door behind me opens and something heavy is thrown into the room. Scooting closer to Kida, I turn and glance over my shoulder. The door slams closed and Haze groans as one of his hands clutches his stomach. Kida yanks me closer and slightly behind her.
“Who the hell are you?” she snaps.
“No, no!” I say quickly. “He’s a friend. He’s here to help!”
She looks down at him with doubt, her long, dark-caramel strands tucked behind her ears. Some of the strands of her hair have banded together, just barely starting to resemble dreads.
“Cass?” Haze rolls onto his side, facing us, his arm still wrapped across his stomach. When he sees Kida, he slowly moves to his feet. They watch each other, one set of eyes cautious and untrusting, the other critical and analyzing. Haze measures her like he might measure a scientific experiment. I had never heard him talk about being interested in science, but I could see him in a white lab coat with concoctions of deadly proportions bubbling on a table in front of him.
“Haze, this is Kida,” I say, slowly edging my way around her. “Kida, this is Haze. He’s one of Vincent’s men and he’s here to help.”
“V’s men?” she says. “You know V?” Her eyes narrow, suspicious, as he moves closer. I know she doesn’t like that I’m between them. Even I feel like a moderator between two giant animals preparing to pounce.
“My name is Haze Royce, Kida, and yes, I do know your godfather.” Her eyes widen as though she recognizes the name. Shoulders loosening, Kida relaxes her stance and moves so that she’s no longer leaning forward towards me as though she might need to yank me out of the way for any reason.
“Kida Washington,” she says, holding out a hand. Haze switches so that his left hand is clutching his stomach and offers her his right hand to shake. I breathe a sigh of relief until Kida continues. “What took you so fucking long?”
With a groan, I bury my face in my hands and wonder why in the world I ever chose Kida. Haze chuckles and releases her hand, taking a step back, though keeping his eyes trained on the two of us.
“Seriously?” I lift my face to glare at her. When she shrugs, I notice that she only shrugs one shoulder. Even though I know she can lift both arms, she’s holding her left arm closer to her side.
I was so overjoyed at seeing her again after so long, I didn’t realize how much she’s changed. Her hair is only a small part. There are long, shadowed, half-moons under her eyes made even darker by the pale gauntness of her cheeks. She looks like she hasn’t eaten right in weeks and she’s hurt, the way she holds herself isn’t the only clue.
“We have a team, along with Vincent, on the outside of this pod
complex,” Haze says to Kida.
Kida responds by asking questions, wanting to know which sides they’ve surrounded, what they know. I’m glad they’re talking and that I can’t really answer anything more than Haze can, because it gives me an opportunity to analyze her and categorize her injuries and differences.
She’s wearing familiar clothes. Pants that, before, would have been loose enough for her to move freely now sag on her frame, and a long-sleeved shirt that does the same. Her lips are dry and cracked. Cheeks hollow. The normal rich, golden hue of her skin tone is gone, sallow and sickly. My nostrils flare as I turn away, looking at the room. It’s the size of a pod bedroom, without windows though. Perhaps a basement room? The floor is a plain slab of metal, the whole room a perfect little box. Like an elevator…
I inhale sharply, glancing at the door. Anxiety begins to unfurl in my stomach as I slowly stride towards it. My hands shake as I grasp the handle and pull, but, of course, it’s locked. Why would I think otherwise? I try again anyway. I can’t be locked in a windowless room. I don’t know for sure that it’s in the basement of the pod complex. It could be at the very top, just waiting to plummet down in a hail of screeching metal and bolts.
“Cass?” Haze’s voice sounds somewhere behind me.
I yank on the handle again, cursing before I let go and give the door a violent kick. “Cass, we have to wait. They aren’t going to come for us just yet.” He shifts as he ambles towards me, moving slower than he usually would.
“Cassie.” Kida moves towards me, ducking around Haze as I press my face to the cool metal of the door. My throat closes and panic settles under my skin, a vibrating anger and shock that ricochets through me. “Cassie, just breathe. It’s not an elevator. It’s just a room.”
Is it moving? Did I just feel it move? I can’t breathe!
“Cassie.” Kida’s fingers grip my chin and turn my face to hers. Golden eyes flicker with strength, staring at me. “You are fine. Do you understand? You are just fine. Take a breath. Open your mouth and breathe. It’s okay. You can do it. I believe in you.” I do what she says, opening my mouth as wide as I can. “That’s my girl. You’re okay, aren’t you? Why don’t we sit down?”
