by L. C. Mawson
Skeletons which had clearly been made that way by magical weapons.
It was the only glimpse Alex had ever had of the war, and she had to admit that it had given her a small touch of empathy with the older Enhanced.
Though, as she had walked into the final room and seen the clear plastic crib, with the labelling partially worn away, she had understood that the battle hadn’t entirely been one-sided.
The Enhanced hadn’t simply been ambushed in their home by an unrelenting army.
No, they had been as much to blame as anyone. Because while the labelling on the crib had been partially worn away, there was still enough left for Alex to read, “Demon Subject 001”.
A prisoner for the scientists to dissect and experiment on, to try and discern the weaknesses of their enemies.
A baby.
Alex hadn’t told Freya about what she had found beyond the fact that there had been prisoners.
She hadn’t wanted Freya to associate her with such things.
She hadn’t wanted anyone to associate her with such things, and she had started to question everything she had ever been told. Everything she had been brought up to believe.
The war hadn’t simply been a one-sided affair, and Alex knew that now. If they were ever going to truly achieve peace with the magical beings, it couldn’t be off the backs of tortured babies.
Though Alex wasn’t sure that the older Enhanced wanted peace anymore.
It seemed that their version of peace looked a hell of a lot like genocide...
Alex made sure to avoid any and all of the common rooms in their path, along with any of the sleeping quarters.
There was no guarantee that Effie and Jay weren’t anywhere else in the base, but it was the middle of the night, so they could reasonably assume that they would be sleeping somewhere.
If they kept to the corridors around the labs and main systems, it would be unlikely that they would run into them.
Thankfully, Alex’s hunch on that matter seemed to pay off, and they reached the central security systems without incident.
“Is this the system?” Gus asked as he walked up to one of the terminals, the door closing behind them.
As soon as the doors closed, Alex let out the breath that she hadn’t realised she had been holding, before nodding.
“Yeah, it is,” she said. “Check the internal sensors and see where Effie and Jay are. We should be able to lock them in whatever room they’re currently in, as well as lock them out of the systems. After that, we can decide what to do with them.”
“It would be safest to kill them,” Jan reasoned. “The base was designed to be fully sealed to contain bio-weapons, right? We could cut off their air supply and suffocate them.”
Mia folded her arms. “If we kill them, we won’t be able to question them. There are things that the other Enhanced kept from those of us of an age with Alex after she left. As much as we just left, we don’t have all the information that will help us fight them. Effie and Jay would have that information.”
Jan gave a humourless snort. “If you think they’ll talk, you’ve been getting even less sleep than me. All of us were trained to never talk, and if that training had flaws, we would have known about it during the war.”
Mia looked away, seemingly not having an argument.
“We should still try to question them,” Alex figured with a sigh. “Or hell, even just talk to them.”
Gus nodded. “Alex is right. Who knows, they might even be sympathetic. They might even join us.”
Jan gave him an unamused glare. “If you let them join us, you would be risking all of our lives.”
“The same risk we took when we brought you on board,” Gus reminded her.
Jan shook her head. “It’s not the same. We all had reasons to leave.”
“How do you know that they don’t?”
“If there was dissent among the older Enhanced, don’t you think we would have seen it? They’re the ones in charge, after all. If they don’t want to be doing any of this, they don’t have to be.”
Gus shrugged. “Maybe,” he conceded. “But maybe there is dissent that we simply do not see. You’ve been out in the real world for a while now, do you think parents out here allow their children to see them divided?”
Alex suppressed a grimace as Gus’s words betrayed just how little contact he had had with the outside world.
With normal families...
“They’re not our parents,” Jan hissed.
“Jan is right,” Alex said as she brushed a stray lock of hair from her face. “They’re not our parents. And I think she’s also right not to trust them completely. Even if they say they want to leave the other Enhanced, it will take a lot for me to trust them. Don’t forget, brother, they tried to kill both of us not long ago. On orders, maybe, but I’m growing more than a little tired of that being considered a valid excuse for any of this.”
Jan nodded in agreement. “When your monitor found us,” she said to Gus, “she brushed aside what had been done to Alex as her monitor just following orders. She admitted that they were poorly thought out orders, but to her, that was all the excuse that was needed. As if he couldn’t think for himself. And she acted as if nothing had been done to me because it was all done according to protocol.”
Gus looked away. “They don’t know anything else.”
“Neither did we,” Alex said. “And while I appreciate that it took my monitor trying to attack Freya for me to realise the exact nature of the Enhanced, I had never killed for them before that. In fact, I deliberately avoided killing magical beings, despite everything we had been taught about them. Despite protocol. If I can do that, I cannot believe that it is impossible for the other Enhanced to realise that something is wrong when they are asked to turn on their own.”
She shook her head, very aware that they were still within enemy territory. “But this is a discussion we can have another time,” she told the rest of them. “For now, let’s make sure that Effie and Jay are dealt with.”
Gus nodded before turning back to the terminal.
Alex couldn’t help but look over his shoulder, making sure that he was following the instructions she had given him before. Of course, with his perfect memory, and innate ability with computers, she had no reason to complain.
At least, not until an alarm blared around them.
“What’s going on?” Ty asked. “Did you trip something?”
“I’m not sure,” Gus said quickly before groaning. “But yes, I think it is reasonable to assume that they put some sort of safeguard around the base’s systems.”
Alex pinched the bridge of her nose.
So much for the element of surprise...
“Can you still get into the systems? Can you shut off the alarm and still trap Effie and Jay?”
Before Gus could answer, the metal door behind them snapped open.
Alex only got the briefest glimpse of Effie and Jay standing in the doorway before the room was filled with smoke.
Alex frowned for a moment, wondering why they hadn’t opened fire, before realising that they were surrounded by computers that probably weren’t bulletproof.
She stood as still as she could, listening for any noise.
Alex ducked, just barely managing to miss the swing of a baton.
She glanced up for a moment to see that Effie was on her, though it was difficult to make her out in the smoke.
Alex swung her legs out, attempting to knock Effie off balance.
Effie saw the attack coming – though Alex suspected, given the low visibility, that she had anticipated the attack through their shared training more than anything else – and jumped up to avoid Alex’s legs, before lashing out with her baton again.
The metal clipped Alex across the cheekbone, stinging as her head snapped to the side.
Alex ducked back, using her hand to navigate around one of the terminals, hoping that Effie would lose her in the smoke.
It seemed that she was o
ut of luck, as while Effie didn’t find her, she stumbled straight back into another body.
When another baton came down to smack her, she realised that she had crept straight over from Effie and into Jay.
She rolled out of the way of the strike, just barely managing to evade a blow to the head, though he did strike her shoulder.
The joint throbbed and Alex was certain that it would be swollen to the point of uselessness by the morning.
She tried to keep her mind on the immediate fight, however, spinning around as she straightened back up.
Alex faced Jay, ready to block any strike he attempted to make.
Running away a second time was likely to work just as well as the first. After all, Effie was still in the smoke, and even if Alex managed to evade both of them, that would just leave them for the others to fight.
Jay moved quickly, but Alex was quicker.
He brought his baton down to strike her again, this time aiming for her neck, but she brought up her hand to snatch the weapon out of the air, taking a firm grip of it as she knocked it down and around, trying to loosen it from his grip.
Jay responded with a kick as soon as he realised what she was attempting to do, hitting her in the midsection and causing her to lose her grasp on the weapon.
Alex stumbled but quickly recovered before striking her fist out, attempting to hit Jay in the jaw.
He slapped her hand away with the baton, however, leaving a ruby red mark across Alex’s skin, along with the biting sting.
Alex responded with a kick to his groin.
The kick landed, but he responded immediately.
His forearm connected with the side of her face, sending her reeling.
By the time Alex managed to gain her footing once more, she had turned back only to see that there was nothing in front of her but smoke.
She stood her ground, glancing around as she attempted to anticipate the next strike from the screen of grey in front of her.
She was hesitant to move without a better assessment of the situation or where the two eldest Enhanced were.
She kept looking into smoke, desperately searching for shadows.
After a while, however, it became clear that any sign of movement was just as likely to be a trick of the light as it was to actually be a sign of another human.
She moved backwards in cautious steps, deciding that it would be easier to keep track of incoming strikes if she didn't also have to watch her back.
If she kept moving back, she figured, she would eventually hit a wall.
Eventually, she did bump up against something, but it was definitely not solid metal.
She spun around, ready to strike whoever she had bumped up against, but she stilled her hand as she recognised her brother.
She almost cried his name out in relief but restrained herself as she remembered that doing so would most likely give away their position to Effie and Jay.
Gus used hand signs to tell her to spin around, and she followed his instruction before feeling his back up against hers.
No one was going to sneak up on them like that, and if either Effie or Jay found them, they would have to fight both of them.
Alex found her anxiety lessening, knowing that Gus had her back, though her reprieve was short lived.
Every moment that passed without attack seemed to take an eternity, and Alex found her palms sweating as she kept her fists up, ready for a strike.
Alex jumped when the silence was finally breached, though her surprise quickly turned to confusion at the mechanical noise.
It sounded like fans...
After a few moments, the smoke obscuring their vision began to clear, revealing Effie and Jay both knocked out on the floor, as everyone else looked around, bewildered.
Everyone, that is, except Ty, who was at the environmental controls.
“Wait, who took out Effie and Jay?” Mia asked.
Ty gave a heavy sigh, and Alex got the impression that he was rolling his eyes beneath his bandages.
“I did,” he said simply. “The door opened, and then everyone went silent. I was confused until I smelled the smoke. After that, I listened for signs of fighting. I was just going to stay out of everyone’s way, but the couple of clashes I could hear sounded as if they had gone in Effie and Jay’s favour.”
Jan frowned. “How could you tell who had won?”
“They’re not wearing shoes. The only stumbling I heard came from heavy boots. It seems as if everyone else here forgot their low visibility combat training. Our other senses are enhanced too, you know.”
Alex looked away sheepishly, having to acknowledge that Ty was right. She had been relying too much on her eyes.
“It’s not as if we’ve had much reason to use those skills outside of combat simulations,” Tina figured as she folded her arms.
“Maybe you haven’t,” Ty said with a wry smile. “Regardless, it seems as if Effie and Jay share your lack of practice. They were more than easy to knock down after approaching them from behind. And thankfully, it seems as if this base keeps the environmental controls in exactly the same place as ours does. That was just a case of muscle memory and hitting the right button.”
Mia sighed. “You’re going to be insufferable after this, aren’t you?” she asked her brother.
He grinned back at her. “If by that you mean that I’m going to be sure to painstakingly remind all of you that you owe me your lives? Probably. After all, I think it’s likely the only way you’ll remember that I have just as many genetic enhancements as the rest of you and the same training. And just because the rest of you are limited without your vision doesn’t mean that I am as well.”
“Okay, okay, we get the point,” Mia said, though it was with an apologetic smile. “We will crown you the king of our rebellion just as soon as we figure out what to do with our newly acquired prisoners.” She looked over to Effie and Jay.
Gus sighed, folding his arms. “Yeah, what are we going to do with them?” he asked Alex.
“For now? There should be a holding cell around here somewhere. Even if they don’t give us any information, we might be able to use them as leverage.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Alex
It seemed as if Alex wasn’t the only one who bent the rules a little when she went out on missions.
Intoxicants were strictly forbidden by the Enhanced because they limited your capabilities in battle.
That had been pretty much the first rule Alex had broken, besides starting to date Freya.
Not least because Freya’s Angelic metabolism made it difficult for her to get drunk, and she had grown up in an area where three shots of liquor in a mixer was the standard.
Not to mention how she relied on it to get through social situations without her anxiety flaring.
In short, spending a night with Freya usually meant alcohol.
It seemed as if Effie and Jay had also been more than happy to break that rule, as they had found a stash of beer fairly quickly.
The others cracked open the alcohol as soon as they made sure that the security systems were definitely secure and accessible only to them.
Gus had quickly patched the security flaw that had let them in in the first place, and since that had been one that had taken Alex weeks of tinkering with the British base to uncover, they weren’t exactly worried about the rest of the Enhanced being able to crack it so easily.
Alex stayed away from the booze, however. As the others celebrated, she kept watch over their new prisoners, waiting for them to wake.
It wasn’t long before they stirred, groggily blinking awake as they took stock of their new surroundings.
Jay simply leaned back against the metal wall of the cell with a resigned sigh.
Effie was not so subdued, however.
She glared at Alex, doing her best to get to her feet, even though she was still a little shaky.
“You shouldn’t strain yourself,” Alex told her. “You took quite the beating, and it�
�s going to take your enhanced healing a while to get you back in top shape.”
Effie’s glare only intensified at Alex’s words.
“Traitor,” she spat. “Was all of this worth it? Was leading your friends astray and turning on the rest of us worth your Angel whore?”
Alex sighed, shaking her head. “Why does everyone think calling Freya a whore is going to get me to listen to them?”
“Because that’s what she is and you cannot see it. She is worth nothing. She is a less than Human monster, and you would betray us for her. Why? Was she really that good?”
Alex frowned. “I mean, you all keep bringing it back to sex. Is that all you think she was to me?”
Effie continued to glare, though Alex could still see a glimmer of confusion through it.
“Oh my God,” Alex muttered. “You do think that’s all it was. That’s all any of you think it was. Relationships are banned among the Enhanced, so... That’s truly all you understand of it? I mean, Jan still managed to fall in love.”
“You mean with that boy? She had a lapse in judgement. One that no sane Enhanced would ever make.”
“You do realise that I’m going to defeat you, right?” Alex asked simply. “We may have had our speed and strength and senses enhanced, but we are still Human. You can’t train that out of us, and I think the others will all realise it eventually. Some of us already have. So the question is, are you really going to return to a world where you cannot choose your own future, or are you going to take the hand I’m about to offer you?”
“I would never take the hand of a traitor,” Effie spat.
Alex looked to Jay.
He sighed again before shrugging. “I don’t think you kids are wrong,” he said frankly. “I just think that this is a fight you can’t win, and I would much rather be on the winning side than the right one.”
Alex stood up, giving a reluctant nod of understanding. “Well, I see that I can’t change your minds. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure that you’re fed and whatever. And if you have so much faith in the other Enhanced, I’m sure that you’ll be rewarded with a swift rescue. I’ll be back in the morning, but for now, I think our first real victory is something worth celebrating.”
