Reservation 1

by Krista Street

  Since Sara and I shared the mental link we’d become quite close. And while Sophie was shyer and harder to get to know, she still seemed comfortable around me and readily spoke if I asked her something.

  In a way, it made me more comfortable to be around someone who also felt awkward with others. At least with Sophie, my anxiety didn’t matter. She had her own problems to contend with that made mine seem minimal.

  All of the Kazzies, except for Davin were in the arcade room when we arrived.

  “Meghan Forester! The woman of the hour!” Sage boomed when we stepped inside.

  My cheeks immediately flushed.

  “I heard that you’re now one of us, but I didn’t know if I believed it.” Sage waggled his eyebrows. “Welcome to the dark side.”

  Sophie smothered a laugh.

  “It’s so good to see you in normal clothes,” Dorothy said. “You’re even prettier without that hood on.”

  My cheeks heated. “Um, thank you.”

  “You do look pretty hot,” Sage added. “But you already knew I thought that about you.”

  Victor rolled his eyes. “Does that sweet talking crap actually work on women?” The red skinned Kazzie did not look impressed with Sage’s wooing. As usual, Victor wore an irritated expression.

  “Used too.” Sage shrugged.

  “I think it depends who the woman is.” My comment got a bark of laughter out of Victor and Dorothy.

  Everyone stepped forward, crowding around me. Normally, that would have made me step back, but with the Kazzies my usual anxious response faded.

  Dorothy picked up a pool cue. She wore workout shorts and a t-shirt. My guess was that she’d exercised again this morning. The woman was hell bent on losing weight and proving us all wrong. The brown shorts matched her eyes. Gray streaked through her dark hair. At forty-eight, she was the oldest one here. “So it’s really true that you’re stuck in here since you were exposed?” she asked.

  “It’s true. I’m officially quarantined for three weeks.”

  “Does that mean you’re going to play pool with us?” Garrett’s quiet tone drifted my way. Dark smudges covered his fingers. I figured he’d been doing more charcoal drawings lately.

  When I turned to address him, his large eyes blinked. Since they were as big as eggs, it was hard not to stare. I shrugged. “Sure, but I’ve never played before so I’m not sure how good I’ll be.”

  “We’ll teach you.” Sage winked.

  “Where’s Davin?” Sara twirled around, the movement as graceful as a dancer.

  “He said he was busy.” Victor picked up a pool cue while Dorothy racked the balls with the triangle.

  “Busy?” Sara raised an eyebrow. “Since when are any of us busy? Is he feeling okay today? You know, after whatever happened to him yesterday?”

  Victor shrugged. “He said he felt fine.”

  “Maybe they’re doing research on him.” Sage stood by the pool table. He shot an electric bolt from one hand and caught it in the other. A loud zap filled the room.

  “He didn’t seem very happy when I left his cell earlier.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Why? What’s up?” Sara asked.

  Heat filled my cheeks. I knew my face turned red despite trying to prevent it. I couldn’t exactly admit what had happened. Um… well… I’m totally in love with Davin, and I think he has feelings for me too, except you know, we can’t be together because of the virus and the government’s rules, so you know… He’s been pushing me away, telling me to hook up with Mitch as a way to distance himself. So I agreed to a date with my co-worker, never mind that it’s against policy, cause you know, I wanted to give Davin a taste of his own medicine.

  Yeah, definitely couldn’t say that.

  I settled with, “I’m not sure.”

  Sara watched me, a glint in her eyes. I knew I didn’t fool her.

  “Should one of us go find him?” Sophie asked, oblivious to her sister’s more in-tune reaction.

  Sage stopped throwing electric bolts and shook his head. “You know how he likes to be alone sometimes. Let’s leave him be. He can find us if he wants to.”

  The group proceeded to divvy up teams for the pool game. I tried to get into it, but without Davin there, it wasn’t the same.

  AFTER WE FINISHED three games of pool, I bowed out. “I have to work. Really, I do.”

  A few loud protests followed which only made me smile. The group seemed genuinely sad to see me go. My insides warmed.

  “Do you want me to walk back with you?” Sara stepped forward. She’d just beaten Sage at two games, and the Canadian didn’t seem happy.

  I knew a part of the reason she wanted to walk was to ask me about Davin. However, I wasn’t ready for that conversation. “No, I’ll be fine. Besides, I think Sage wants to redeem himself.”

  Sage perked up. He tossed an electric bolt up from his palm, a loud zap emitting around him before it sank back into his hand. “Third time’s a charm, Sara. Unless you’re afraid I’ll beat you.”

  Sara snorted. “Please. I could beat you in my sleep.”

  I left as the bantering continued and opted for the stairs to the lower levels.

  When I emerged into the back hallway that lined the Kazzies’ cells, the only sounds were the tapping of my canvas shoes on the concrete. It was eerily quiet in the vast gray corridor.

  Before, I’d always been in my suit. Inside that, my breathing was present and sounds echoed in the hood when I spoke. But now, without it, there was nothing.

  When the hall curved to door six, I paused. It was closed. I had no idea if Davin was inside.

  I hesitated.

  A part of me knew that I should carry on, leave him alone, but the other part of me hated this new dynamic between us.

  Before I could change my mind, I pushed the button to the side of the door and glanced upward at the camera. Sergeant Rose’s voice sounded through the speaker. “Good morning, Meghan.”

  “Hi, is he in his cell?”

  “He is. He just finished lunch.”

  My stomach grumbled at the mention of food. Right, lunch. I really need to stop forgetting to eat.

  Before I could ask to be let in, the door slid open. Davin waited on the other side.

  His presence only two feet away startled me. He was so tall and so strong looking. My gaze traveled up his chest. As always, defined pectoral muscles were visible through his t-shirt. My gaze continued its upward journey. A strong neck, square jaw, firm lips, high cheekbones, and eyes so blue they put sapphires to shame regarded me with a veiled look.

  Without the hindering biohazard suit, my neck kept bending, and without the added height of my suit’s boots, I realized how small I felt next to Davin. I cocked my head and said the first thing that came to mind. “How tall are you?”

  He cocked his head. “Um, six-two. I think.”

  That would explain it.

  “Sorry to interrupt your meal,” I managed. Despite Davin being the most comfortable human being I felt around, he could also be the most nerve wracking. Already, my heart hammered in my chest.

  He shrugged. “I’m done.”

  The urge to wring my hands lessened as one thing became obvious. Davin didn’t seem as distant as he’d been this morning. Maybe he doesn’t like this new dynamic between us either.

  “What are you doing?” His voice was deep as he again watched my every move.

  “I was on my way back to my cell. I’m sure there’s work waiting for me.”

  He put his hands on his hips. I tried to ignore how that made his shoulders bulge. “When was the last time you took a day off?”

  “Day off?” That concept was completely foreign to me. “I can’t remember.”

  “That’s what I thought.” He stepped into the hall and nodded goodbye to Sergeant Rose. The door slid closed behind him.

  With stiff movements, he turned. “Follow me. I want to show you something.”

  10 – SECRETS

  I followed D
avin to the elevators. Both of us walked stiffly. When my hand accidentally brushed his, I jumped while his breath hitched.

  A strange, unspoken vibe emanated between us. Like both of us were aware that we had entered new territory. We were now together, physically, and it had never felt so apparent.

  Once in the elevators, Davin stood ramrod straight as we ascended to the top floor.

  “I didn’t know you could get up to the fourth level,” I said awkwardly when the doors slid open.

  “That’s because you’re not supposed to be able to.”

  My eyebrows rose.

  His lips quirked up. “Just follow me. Trust me. It’s fine.”

  I stepped cautiously into a wide hallway. Like the research corridors in the Compound, this hall was bright white, harshly so. I shielded my eyes from the fluorescents. Our feet tapped on the floor as I followed Davin.

  My curiosity grew. It didn’t appear there was anything up here, other than an empty hallway, which put me at ease. Hardly anything top secret.

  “Just a little farther,” Davin said.

  The hallway widened. Only a wall waited after the corner we just passed. It looked like a dead-end. I slowed. “There’s nothing back here.”

  “Yes, there is.”

  A few feet from the end of the hall, Davin stopped and pointed up. “See?”

  It was only then I noticed the windows. Just below the ceiling were three. Each was small, only twelve inches high and about eighteen inches long.

  Davin smiled. The expression stopped my breath. He looked almost boyish in his excitement. “Look out them.”

  I stood on my tiptoes but wasn’t nearly tall enough. Each window base was at least eight feet from the floor. Davin chuckled and with a flash of movement, I was sitting atop his shoulders.

  I gasped in surprise, not just from the abrupt position change but from the way his strong hands felt holding my thighs on his shoulders.

  Perhaps I imagined it, but his hands seemed reluctant to let go of my thighs before moving to safer territory. He settled his large palms against my shins, steadying me. “Can you see it now?”

  I nodded mutely, still reeling. “Uh, yeah.”

  “What do you think?”

  The view was similar to the view from Dr. Sadowsky’s office. Prairie grass stretched forever. Wildflowers bloomed in a sea of color. It went as far as I could see. “It’s beautiful.” And I meant it.

  “I think so too,” he said quietly.

  “How are you able to see it?”

  He lifted me from his shoulders, his hands clamping firmly just under my rib cage until I slid against his body to the ground. The intimate touch made my head spin. Again, he did it as if I weighed nothing. He didn’t strain or groan. Strain 11’s effect on him was mind boggling. It was like he possessed the strength of ten men.

  When I stood on the floor beside him, his hands lingered on my waist. With a start, he abruptly cleared his throat and stepped back. “I’ll show you.”

  With an inhumanly fast jump, he gripped the lip of the window. Flexing his biceps, he lifted his chin up to the window’s ledge and hung there in a paralyzed chin-up.

  My mouth dropped. “That’s how you look out?”

  “Yep, it’s not like there’s anything to stand on.” As the minutes ticked by, he didn’t seem tired or strained, even though he hung from the window’s edge. There couldn’t be more than an inch of trim to hold onto, but it didn’t seem to faze him.

  “Um, how long can you do that?” I played with a strand of my long, brown hair and tucked it behind my ear.

  “I think the longest I’ve ever looked out is around an hour, maybe two.”

  “And you stay like that the entire time, just… hanging by your fingertips?”

  He let go and dropped back to the ground, landing as gracefully as a cat. “Yep.”

  I shook my head. “I really need to learn to not be surprised by this stuff.”

  He chuckled.

  “How did you find this place?”

  “By accident. For a long time, the elevator wouldn’t come up to this level. I’m not sure why it does now, but one day, I pressed the button for this floor, when I meant to press three, and it took me up here. Must have been a glitch in the system that never got caught. I’ve been coming up here ever since.”

  “And no one knows about it?”

  “Nobody except me and the other Kazzies. We all come up here sometimes to look out. It’s the only way any of us have seen the outside in the last seven years.”

  That statement made my heart fall. “That’s awful.”

  “You could say that.”

  “So there must not be security up here?”

  He shook his head. “No cameras. It’s like a forgotten corridor. This place is so big, there are probably lots of forgotten areas.”

  “But how do the others look out? I’m guessing nobody can hang from there except you?”

  “I lift all of them like I did you, and let them look outside until they’ve had their fill.”

  “And you don’t get tired?”

  “Nope, never.”

  I just shook my head, happy that we once again seemed to be enjoying each other’s company. With hesitant words, I peeked up at him through my lashes. “Are there any other secret places you’ve discovered?”

  “There are a few.” His look turned sly.

  I smiled. “Lead the way.”

  WE SPENT THE afternoon touring the entertainment rooms’ massive enclosures. I knew I needed to work, but I couldn’t pull myself away from the fun we were having. It felt like old-times, like how we used to be when we hung out. Only now a new subtle undercurrent of energy shifted between us, as if we were both more aware of each other physically.

  A few times our hands brushed, or his body bumped into mine, or I accidentally leaned against him. Each time, we both stiffened.

  The tense energy flowing between us made heat cascade to the junction of my thighs, but as much as I wanted to squirm, I made myself stay still and keep acting like it was just another normal afternoon in which we hung out.

  After the forgotten corridor, Davin showed me a closet in the locker room by the pool that he guessed was supposed to be locked but never was. Inside were chemicals and cleaning agents.

  My head cocked as I stared down at them. “Who uses these? I thought the robots cleaned all of these rooms?”

  “They do. I think these are left over from construction.”

  Davin then told me how he, Sage, and Victor had joked over the years about making a bomb and breaking out of the Compound. I knew he wasn’t serious, but from the dark way he described it I wondered if a part of him would consider doing something like that.

  Imprisonment could do strange things to people. People would do things they never thought they were capable of before confinement. That much I’d learned in my time at the Compound.

  “Have you ever tried breaking out?” I asked as Davin shut the cleaning closet.

  He latched the door and moved a bucket back in front of it. His knack for detail was obvious. Nobody would ever know we’d been in there.

  “Yes, once.”

  My eyes widened. “You did? When?”

  “After a particularly bad treatment with your former boss a few years ago.” Davin rested his palm against the closet door as his mouth turned grim. He rarely referred to Dr. Roberts by name. It seemed even saying his name brought back too many painful and rage-filled emotions. “But it didn’t work. We got caught by two guards before we left the Sanctum.”

  “We? How did you… and whoever… try to escape?”

  “Victor and I found a vent that was big enough to crawl through. What we didn’t account for was how loud it would be with us moving through it. The guards at an access point heard us.”

  I swallowed tightly. “Were you punished?”

  “Of course.”

  He said it so matter-of-factly. My gut burned.

  Davin crossed his arms and leaned aga
inst the closet door. A dark look again flashed across his face. “We haven’t tried since even though we could probably breakout now with Sage’s power, but he would never do it.”

  “Why not?”

  “Do you know how Sage was caught?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. He somehow crossed the border from Canada and jumped from town to town in northern Washington until the MRRA picked him up.”

  “So you probably know how many people died from his actions?”

  It hit me what he was implying. “You’re saying that Sage feels guilty for all of the people he exposed? That since they all died, because he ran and tried to avoid getting caught, he won’t try running again?”

  “Exactly.” Davin pushed away from the closet and pulled me into a walk. When our hands touched, it was like he caught himself in the familiar gesture. He let go and cleared his throat. “He never speaks about that time, but he always refused to try to escape, no matter how bad it became in here. All he would say is that innocent people would die if we got out.”

  Our feet tapped on the linoleum. It was the only sound in the hall. “He’s right,” I said. “Before the vaccine, you most likely would have killed people if you had escaped. Even if you tried to avoid people or cities, inevitably somebody would have caught Makanza from you and died.”

  “I know.” His eyes clouded over. “That’s why we didn’t try again.”

  “And now?”

  He smiled playfully, the dark look vanishing. “And now that we have a vaccine would we try escaping if they don’t let us out?”

  “Yeah.” I held my breath as I waited for his reply.

  “No.” He opened a door to a stairwell.

  I stepped inside and waited for him to join me. He nodded to the ascending stairs. I jogged up them as he continued.

  “If I were to escape, I’d spend my life on the run. I’d never be able to see my mom or have a normal life.” His words grew quiet, reminding me of how separate our lives would be once he was forced to move to the reservation.

  My breaths turned shallow. I need to stop the reservation from happening!

  Davin pushed the door open on the second floor. Bookstacks appeared. We were in the library. He led me to a bookshelf. After one look, I realized every book on it was dedicated to medicine.