by Angel Lawson
I have no idea what we’re about to walk into.
The boarded up, dusty windows give the impression it had been abandoned long before the crisis. If the rest of the area was like this, no wonder Trucker and Josie had a hard time finding food and supplies.
I wait for the Jeep to stop but the Hybrid keeps driving, passing the deserted small town until we’re on a side street with large, historic homes. She comes to a stop in front of a large white home with big columns.
“What’s this?”
“This is where we do the intake.”
Something’s off. It’s nothing like what we’ve been told to expect by neither Erwin’s scouts nor from Trucker and Josie.
“Here?” I reach for the weapon no longer attached to my hip. Crap.
Cole tenses next to me—his hand wraps around mine. Our eyes meet and I know. He knows. I’m one millisecond from shouting for my team to run like hell when a hand clamps over my mouth from behind and heavy, black fabric covers head.
Chapter 4
I’m gagged and blindfolded, then dragged kicking and grunting up a flight of hardwood stairs. A pair of strong hands holds me down, ties me to a hard, uncomfortable chair, restraining me against my will. I’m thinking terrible things. The worst things about being in this position. Did this man want to hurt me? To touch me? I swallow back pure fear. When the man tightens the rope, he’s close enough that I smell the slight scent of soap and sweat. To my relief, there’s no funny business.
That’s when the fear subsides and the anger returns and I start to fight back. No matter how many times I aimlessly kick, I can’t hit my target. Then I’m left alone to hear the others go through the same process. Doors slam, rattling the windows in the old house until it grows quiet.
Unknown time passes and I drift into sleep, waking when I hear feet on the stairs. My neck aches and my arm muscles burn, but I remain frozen as my captor passes by my room. A mixture of relief and worry washes over me. I’m thankful that no one came in the room, but I worry about my team. Are they separated? Would Davis come looking for us? Would he even know where to start?
The floor creaks to my left and I realize that no, I’m not alone, and terror seizes me when I sense a body move close to mine. I wait, trying to feel their location, bide my time. My thighs are bound but not my ankles. He’s close, I know he’s close, and I strike out with my foot and am rewarded with a grunt. I don’t even hide my muffled glee.
A hand wraps around my neck and a voice, low and menacing, says, “Do it again, and I’ll break a bone. I haven’t decided which one yet.”
My world stops at the threat and the hood is yanked from my head. I blink, eyes watering not from the adjustment to light but at the person holding me captive.
“No,” I say, garbled by my gag.
Wyatt stands, hard-faced, by the door. “Alex, keep your freaking mouth shut and don’t start.”
I rise up on my feet and rush at him. I don’t get far, barely two footsteps before I topple over and crash to my still-healing face.
He tips the chair, and me, back on all fours.
“Behave,” he says quietly, “and maybe you’ll get out of here alive.” The door opens behind him. I’m in for my second shock of the day when my father appears in the doorway. His eyes widen when he sees me and immediately says, “You gagged her? I was explicit in my instructions.”
“Sorry sir, she was a bit combative,” Wyatt replies.
Combative? I’ll show him combative. I’m going to kill him.
“Alexandra, you’ll behave?” my father asks.
Oh, I’m going to kill my father, too. Both of them. With my bare hands.
He looks at me expectantly so I give him a quick nod. Wyatt moves between me and my father and takes my jaw gently in both of his strong hands. Just before removing the gag, he whispers, “Keep your shit together.”
I try to bite his finger but miss. Stupid ninja.
“That’s better,” my father says with a weak smile. The room is bare, other than a matching chair to mine and the medical bag he places on the floor near the door. He sits across from me and I notice he’s wearing a Jane-approved uniform. It’s the first time I’ve seen him out of a lab coat in over a year. He looks nervous, face blotchy. I note the expansion of gray hairs in his beard and hair.
Everything about this situation is insane.
“Is this really necessary?” I ask my Dad.
“I’m afraid so, sweetheart.”
Anger builds at his use of endearments. I tug at my restraints. “What this is about?”
He glances at Wyatt and gives him a nod. Quietly, he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him, but not before giving me one last look. I roll my eyes, pretending my heart isn’t lodged in my throat. When I glance at my father again, his face has softened and he says, “Are you okay? I told them not to harm you. The Hybrids are a bit…unstable.”
My head spins. My father is talking about the Hybrids like they’re a normal thing. “I’m fine, I guess, but I really don’t understand what’s happening here. You kidnapped me! Tied me up!”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he mutters. His hands shake. “This isn’t me. I swear it’s not. And look at you! Dressed in a military uniform. Carrying weapons! We’re no longer recognizable, but unfortunately we’ve got no choice.”
“Don’t we?” I ask, because I refuse to act like I don’t have agency here. Not in this life. I cut to the chase. “Clearly you’ve picked me up because Jane wants me and the others dead, because I know about her nasty secret.”
“If only it were that simple,” He says gravely. “She doesn’t want you dead, Alexandra. She wants to turn you into one of them.”
My jaw drops. “A Hybrid? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Always literal, my father shakes his head. “No, I am not joking. I’m very serious. In a bizarre way, family is still very important to Jane, but like everything else she can’t just be satisfied with typical relationships. She wants to control us and view her ideas the same way she does. I’ve played along with her fantasies just to stay on the inside. She can’t alter my biology or I would be unable to do my job. But you…in her mind, you could be so much more.”
Realization sinks. “She wants to change me into a Hybrid so she can control me.”
He nods sadly. “She doesn’t want to lose you but she can’t accept you the way you are.”
“You mean my humanity? My independence? Or she can’t accept the fact I have a conscience.”
I don’t want to have to hurt my father, like physically harm him, but with the way this conversation is going it may be unavoidable. With Wyatt outside the door, even if I slit his throat I wouldn’t get far, and there’s no way I’d make it to the others. I’m trapped, and from the heavy bags under my father’s eyes, he knows it.
“So you picked me up to administer the EVI-2?” I ask, watching him as he reaches into his bag and pulls out a small case. It’s stainless steel with a latch and a number locking mechanism on the side. He shows me the code, 091898.
My birthday.
Sweat prickles on my neck and the air in the room seems too thin. The lock springs with a click and my father reveals six vials.
“Don’t do this,” I say.
“She knew you were going to attack the outpost today and she asked me to intercept you. I haven’t left the confines of the laboratory or The Fort since I got there. I think Jane wanted me to see the world she created, thinking I would be impressed and proud. It’s terrible. I don’t think she recognizes that. She can’t see the destruction—just the future.”
“Jane’s crazy, you know that, right?”
He doesn’t seem to hear me, because he keeps talking. “That big guy outside the door? He helped me find you. He knew exactly where you’d be—down to the minute. Jane thought we were going on to the medical center, that I’d give you the EVI-2 there, but he suggested something different.”
I swallow and give it everything I have. “Daddy
, please don’t do this to me. Please.”
He leans forward and in a low voice says, “Take these to General Erwin. Together, you’re our only chance.”
I blink, slow on the uptake. “What?”
The echoing sound of car doors slamming breaks the awkward moment between the two of us. My father snaps the box shut. I watch in pure confusion as he moves quicker than I thought possible. A blade flashes in the light and within seconds the binds are cut. “Stay here. Don’t move. Pretend you’re still tied up. I’ll take care of the guard outside.”
I snort. Sure, he’ll take care of Wyatt.
“What about the others? My friends.”
“I can’t save everyone, Alexandra.”
The sound of glass breaking and heavy boots sound from down the hallway. We both jump at the sound. It’s unexpected. And Wyatt’s quick footsteps move away from his spot guarding the door. My father tucks the knife in my pocket and says, “Lock the door behind me. There’s a porch overhang and trellis outside that window.” He smooths my hair with his hand, and I see the kindness and love in his eyes that I’ve known my whole life. “Stay safe. I love you.”
His words are a punch in the gut but he’s gone before I can reply. I wait for one confused beat before I jump out of my seat and race to the door, locking it quickly. Shoving the vaccine case in my cargo pocket, I go to the window and open the sash slowly.
Shouts echo down the hall. Loud, southern, and brash. Furniture crashes against the walls and floors, each bang closer than the next.
“I told you I’d kill you if you came near me and mine again. After everything you did to me. You took everything. My family, my health,” the man cries, anger rippling down the hall. The voice is familiar and I’ve got one leg over the window sill when it connects. It’s Trucker Hat. They must have come after us. After all, we’d made a deal and he made it clear he was going to watch us while we were with the Hybrids.
I hesitate. I don’t owe Trucker or Josie or any of their crew a thing. In fact, they owe us our weapons and half a day’s travel. I hear a yelp from a female and Josie’s scarred face and body come to mind. I can’t let this happen to anyone else again.
With a heavy sigh, I climb back in, slip the knife out of my boot and head into the hallway.
Chapter 5
I turn away from the fighting downstairs and down the narrow hall toward the closed doors I hope my friends are behind. I shake the handle on the first one and curse when it’s locked. Stepping back, I take a breath and kick at the door. It’s loud, and I flinch at the sound but quickly do it again, this time rewarded with a loud crack as the door flies backwards.
Jude waits, gagged and wide-eyed on the other side. I race to him, removing the gag. He coughs and says, “Thank God.”
“You okay?” I ask, fumbling with the ties. I use the knife like a saw and the threads finally break. I hand him the blade. “Do your feet.”
I’m back at the doorway, looking down the hall. Nothing but shouts from below. I don’t hear my father or Wyatt in the fray, though.
“What’s going on down there?” Jude asks.
“Trucker Hat followed us.”
“Oh hell,” he breathes. ”It may just give us time to get out of here.”
He’s on his feet and we move to the second door. This time, he takes it down and we find Parker in the same position. While he takes care of her, I run to the final room on the hallway, where I pray Cole will be behind the wooden door.
It takes me three tries and my knees ache from the impact when the wooden door finally bursts open. I nearly cry when I find Cole safely bound on the other side. His blue eyes fill with relief. There’s a bruise on his cheek—he must have fought back, and I wonder if Wyatt gave it to him. I take a brief moment to touch his chin before helping him get loose. Within minutes, we’re all in the hallway.
“We can go out the window,” I say, although it’s quieted down to nothing but boots shuffling on the ground on the first floor. I can’t tell who came out the winner of the fight, but I’m not sticking around to find out. “Or we can check on Trucker and Josie.”
“We didn’t uphold our end and there’s no way we’re going to get in that Med Center now,” Cole says.
I feel the weight of my father’s gift, the vaccine case, in my pocket. “We don’t have to.” They look at me in confusion. “I’ll explain later.”
“Then let’s go out the window,” Parker says.
The others nod and I lead the way. It’s still open from my earlier attempt. I crawl through, slipping into the dark. The shingles are old and slippery. I bend and get on my knees, feeling for the trellis over the edge.
“I’ll go first,” Cole says, coming up behind me. “Let me make sure it will hold.”
“I’m lighter.”
“I don’t care,” he says. Before I can go, he’s already down the side. I peer over and find him wobbling on the shaky, wooden structure until he tumbles a short fall to the ground. He rolls and is on his feet quickly and looks up with a sheepish grin.
“Go,” I say to the others, and one at a time they head down the trellis. Just as Parker’s head dips below the gutter I hear a noise in the bedroom. I look back and Trucker’s dirty beard appears in the window.
“Trying to sneak out, sweetheart?”
“Get out of here. Hide. Don’t let them find you,” I say in warning. There are forces at play here that he doesn’t understand. My father gave me a mission greater than anything else at the moment. A shadow moves behind the man in the window and Wyatt’s face comes into view.
“Who the hell are you?” Trucker asks him in a thick accent. I don’t stay for the answer, climbing over the edge of the porch while I have chance.
My toes find the trellis and I take one last look, just in time to see Wyatt clasp a hand around the other man’s neck. I don’t wait to see more.
The trellis shakes under my feet, and once it nearly pulls away from the side of the house, but I recover and jump the final section, landing on the soft, grassy yard. Strong arms, steady arms, hold on to my waist and I turn to face Cole. Brushing the hair out of his eyes, I ask, “Is everyone okay?”
“All accounted for.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
Jude smiles. “Definitely.”
The night is cool, autumn is coming, and the cloud cover is enough for us to move stealth-like around the side yard. I hold up a hand and say to the breathless group, “We’ve just got to get to the highway and back to Davis and Paul. Anyone got a map?”
I wait for someone to make one magically appear, because God knows I need it right now. Instead, I get three blank-faced reactions, all looking over my shoulder.
My heart sinks.
I expect Wyatt. I have no doubt he could kill a man in one second and get down here in the next. But it’s not him. What I don’t count on when I turn around is Josie, cheeks wet with tears.
“They’re dead,” she says, wiping her face.
“Who?” But I know only one man was going to come out of that room alive and one is a mercenary ninja. The odds are definitely not in Trucker’s favor.
“All of them. Everyone that came with me.”
I tighten my grip on the handle of the knife. “I’m sorry.”
Cole’s hand is firm on my back. Pressuring. He’s ready to go. The girl makes no move to get out of the way.
“They’ll be back when they see we’re missing,” I tell her. She still doesn’t move. “Josie?”
In the moonlight I see her face. The scar and the determination. I spot the weapon in her hand. It’s mine. It’s my hatchet. I’m about to ask for it back when she hands it over and says, “Can I come with you?”
Chapter 6
I expected it to take hours to get back to Davis, but to my surprise, he and Paul appear in the truck a mile or so away from the house. I’m dead on my feet when we get in the truck but I ask anyway, “How’d you know where to find us?”
He stares stonily ahea
d and asks back, “How did you get out of that alive?”
I guess we both have friends on the inside. I’m still reeling from the fact my father pulled this whole thing off. Of course he had Wyatt’s help, even though his motives are less clear. I don’t have a problem admitting, though, that it makes me feel better to have heard my father say he loves me.
I’m asleep before we get a mile away and wake only when we drive through the gates at Fort Arnold near dawn.
I ask for Erwin. The vaccine is heavy in my pocket. I haven’t told anyone about it. My team wanders off in search of food and beds. Josie is taken to quarantine. I jog toward Cole and tug his sleeve.
“Want to come with me to debrief the General?”
His eyes are dark. Hollow. Glancing at Josie’s retreating form he says, “I’ll go with her. Let them know what she went through. They may need to run additional tests.”
I nod and he hesitates, like he may reach out to me or say something else, but he smiles weakly and turns down toward the medical unit. A soldier waits at the hallway and escorts me down to the General’s office. I don’t wait for a greeting. I walk in and spy the coffee mug with steam rising out of the top. I lay the case on Erwin’s desk, swapping it for the mug. He lifts an eyebrow in reaction.
I take a sip. I take three. The liquid warms my belly. With the mug, I gesture to the case. “That’s the vaccine. Six vials. It’s all we’re getting.”
“So the mission was a success?”
I snort. Then laugh. A long, hysterical, exhausted laugh. He allows my small breakdown, and when I gain my composure I say, “Sure. We can call it successful.”
