“Yet, it wasn’t. Here we stand, more hunters, my mother on a rampage.” Lexia shook her head. “The government didn’t care. They just wanted to wash their hands of this mess. They must know of this place, of the men and women being sent here.” Lexia glared at Sarah, wanting answers; finally she’d found someone who’d been there from the beginning. Someone who could tell her how this mess, this hell, was being cleaned up by a twenty-year-old woman.
“Some are aware,” Sarah said quietly. “Some are supporters, and some are just scared.”
Lexia laughed bitterly. “Scared?” She turned away, pulling her hands through her hair roughly, frustrated at the cowards of this world. “Do you not think the people here are scared? God, I’m scared. Scared of what my mother has planned. Scared I’ll never free those who follow me.”
“The world is full of cowards I’m afraid,” Sarah told her.
“That’s it?” Lexia snapped, spinning to face her. “That’s all you’ve got for me?” She looked at her in disgust. “You’re a coward like the rest of them.”
Sarah looked shocked by Lexia’s anger. Standing wide-eyed she didn’t speak for a moment. “I’m maybe not as brave as you, but I’m no coward. For years I have worked against this place.”
“You are here doing my mother’s bidding,” Lexia scoffed. “Sorting out the degrade whatever that is.”
“The degrade is when a hunter begins to crack under the weight of all they’ve been ordered to do. Most hunters show small signs in the first year. Most go mad in the third. Lucy believes the more humanity a hunter has, the quicker they degrade. When the recruits go through their final tests, they are tested on the level of humanity they possess.”
“And then what?” Lexia asked, not sure she had it in her to know the answer.
“Some are terminated, others put through an extensive re-programing. Others had little comprehension of right and wrong to begin with.”
“Every one of the recruits made it through this year,” Lexia said quietly. Knowing she’d put them in danger, helping them to conceal what they feel. She’d helped them avoid one danger, only to walk right into another. “What does Lucy suspect?”
“I believe she thinks her little adjustments to the formula have solved the problem, though I cannot be certain. Lucy is very good at hiding her true intent.”
“You said you were working against this place. How?” Lexia waited for an answer, for Sarah to tell her all so this soon would be over.
“I’m working on a cure,” she answered quietly.
“Cure? How close are you?”
The pause before she answered told Lexia all she needed to know; not close.
“I’m missing something. I’m so close I can feel it. Yet…something is missing.”
“You’re of no use to me,” Lexia muttered angrily, walking away.
“Wait,” Sarah hissed, catching up to her.
Lexia paused, aware time was slipping away and soon the humans would be moving around. “Be quick.”
“I know people, people who are afraid but want this program to end, for good.”
“What use are they to me if they are cowards?”
“Get rid of Lucy and the board and they have nothing to fear.”
“Board?” Lexia said, turning to face Sarah. Staring at her intently, she watched the emotions behind her eyes as she spoke.
“A group of six who help run this place. Each has an agenda, some input.”
“Who are they?” Lexia asked, grabbing at the first piece of information she’d had that could help. She felt sick waiting for Sarah’s answer. Was she about to give her the names of those she needed to kill?
“I do not know.” Lexia’s face fell. “Wait, Lexia, they’re human. I know that. Connected to this place from the beginning, your mother is the leader. Find the other five and I can convince my friends to help. Just five names, Lexia.”
A door opened in the distance, voices flooded the corridors.
“The humans, they’ve finished for the day. I’ll be in touch.” Lexia rushed away, her mind a jumble. Just five names, Lexia. Yet it wasn’t just a list of names she needed. Once she had the list, she had to put a face to the name and then wipe that face from existence.
I’m one step closer, one more piece to the puzzle. I will do this. I will free my people.
Lexia woke with a start, her eyes frantically looking for the danger that had woken her, before realizing it was another nightmare. Slumping against her pillow with a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. It was barely morning, 3 am. She’d stayed awake as long as possible, too afraid to sleep, too afraid to endure another night of dreams, dreams full of the horrible, unforgiving things she’d done.
This is my punishment.
Swinging her legs out of bed, Lexia padded to her little bathroom and splashed some water on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked tired; her eyes red and drained with dark shadows beneath them. Keeping up this façade was taking its toll. She wondered what would become of her when this was finally over.
There was no point in trying to sleep again. She could feel the horror just below the surface, waiting for the moment she slept and then the nightmare would drag her back again.
Might as well go run.
Dressing quickly, she was walking through the corridors minutes later. When she did her usual scan to make sure no one else walked the corridors with her, she felt an aura. Her mother’s aura.
What are you doing, Mother?
Turning back, Lexia’s feet carried her swift and silent. She slipped inside an empty room and waited for her to pass. Lexia followed Lucy, keeping her in her mind’s eye and staying far enough back so Lucy wouldn’t hear.
Lucy went out the same door as Lexia used and rolled under the piece of fencing that was loose.
So that’s why it’s not been fixed.
Following Lucy through the forest wasn’t difficult. She’d have been able to follow her even without the light from her flashlight. Lucy didn’t have the same skills as Lexia. A shifter hadn’t trained her. Lexia was at home within the forest, silent as the panther she’d run with. Lucy was an intruder. She didn’t belong. She crashed her way through the trees, snapping twigs, brushing leaves and vines, the beam from her flashlight alerting her to all who called the forest home.
Why are you coming back here? There is nothing out here but trees.
The further Lucy went, the harder the terrain became but she seemed to know where she was going. Around twenty-five minutes later, Lexia heard her talk.
“What are you doing out here? It’s safer inside.” Lexia was surprised at the tone of her voice. It wasn’t sharp…but concerned.
“I’m in the middle of nowhere. Plus I need a smoke.” Lexia didn’t recognize the woman’s voice.
Climbing high into a nearby tree, Lexia crept along a sturdy branch until she could see her mother in the dim light of the flashlight. Lexia couldn’t see the woman Lucy was with, just the glow of her cigarette.
“Well if you’re finished, shall we go in?” Lucy asked.
“Lead the way,” the woman replied.
The beam of light briefly shone over the woman. She wore a white lab coat like the humans at the compound. The dim light highlighted scars running down one side of her face. Lucy focused the light on the handle of the door she pushed through and then they were gone.
As Lexia sat in the tree waiting for Lucy to return, she noticed she wasn’t the only one to have noticed her little trips. Hearing the softest of rustles to her left, Lexia reached out with her senses picking up the energies of wolves. They crept slowly toward the building and then waited just as Lexia did.
By the time Lucy emerged, the forest was flooded with the dim grey light of dawn. Lexia tensed, waiting to see the wolves’ intentions. Lucy trampled through the trees, blissfully unaware of the danger surrounding her, but the wolves made no move. They simply watched her go.
Lexia waited for Lucy
to walk ahead and the wolves to clear and then made her way quietly back. Head full of thoughts, she struggled to grasp hold of a plan. Lexia needed more information to make a solid strategy and there were still so many people she cared about that could end up being collateral damage.
The image of Alice, hatred so vivid in her eyes, taunted her as she walked. There is already too much collateral damage.
Biding her time wasn’t going to be an easy thing, but necessary. If she moved too soon, Lucy might survive and if she did…events would surely repeat themselves.
Chapter 14
“You’re late!” Derrick snapped as Lexia walked into the training center. Her steps didn’t falter, causing Derrick to jog to keep up. “I’ve been calling you,” he whispered harshly.
“Forgot my phone,” she replied coolly. “I went to visit Alice but she wasn’t there.”
Derrick jumped into Lexia’s path. “That’s what I was ringing you for.”
Lexia snapped to sharp focus, “What is it? Is she all right?” she asked urgently.
Derrick never had chance to answer. Alice’s voice echoed around the large room, her tone sounding familiar and alien all at once.
“Just peachy, Lex. Or is it Maura now?”
Lexia stepped around Derrick, her heart breaking a little more. . She stared at her best friend with the dark gold eyes of a stranger.
“You don't have to be here. There is no need for you to fight,” Lexia said quietly, the tremor in her fingers indicating she was coming undone.
The cruel, twisted smile that appeared on her face was nothing like the girl she'd once known.
“Why, Lex...Maura, am I not good enough to be in your little group?” Alice walked toward her, the hatred in her eyes growing with intensity the nearer she got. “Maybe you should have thought about that before you turned me into this.” She waved her hands down her body. Her words were full of such venom, they cut.
“Please, Alice, I...I never wanted this,” Lexia begged, wishing, praying her friend was still in there, somewhere.
Alice’s laugh was cruel and bitter, nothing at all like the joyful laughter she'd once possessed. “You look like Lexia to me. Still weak…still pathetic.”
Lexia didn't move; she was frozen in shock, slowly crumbling inside. She never reacted as Alice’s hands connected with her chest. She flew backward landing in a heap on the floor, the air leaving her in a rush. Sharp intakes of breath came from everyone around her. Lexia looked around not really taking in their shocked faces; all she saw was the monster her best friend had become...because of her, because she'd done nothing.
“Maura.”
Lexia focused on Derrick’s voice, the look on his face confirmed what she felt. Her mask was slipping; she was coming undone. Tears pooled in her eyes, her heart beating a rapid pace.
“What are you staring at? Drop and give me a hundred, now!” Derrick’s command was obeyed by all but Alice. “You. Go back to your room now before I have you imprisoned.”
With a satisfied smile, Alice sauntered away, not looking at all frightened by Derrick’s threat. He hauled Lexia to her feet, leading her away from her unit. “Get it together, Lex, before your mother finds out,” he whispered.
Get it together. He was right. She needed to end this. She needed to do something before more innocent lives were lost. Playing the game and biding her time was off the cards. It’s time to take action. To find those five names.
Pacing away from Derrick, her newfound determination held her broken pieces together.
“Where are you going?” Derrick hissed, striding to keep up.
“To get help. It's time to finish this,” she replied firmly.
“What? Lex, how?” he gasped.
“Wolves, Derrick. Wolves,” she replied with a smile, looking back. “Take the lesson will you,” Lexia added, closing the door in his face.
Derrick stared dumbstruck as she marched away.
First, she needed a bargaining chip. The wolves wouldn’t trust her without evidence.
Walking through the compound unseen during the day wasn’t an easy task. Without her ability to read auras, it would have been impossible. She stood staring at the smooth metal covering the door she hoped had her bargaining chip inside. Her only problem: there was someone in the room.
Walking further down the corridor, her back pressed to the rough concrete wall. Glancing at her watch, Lexia decided to wait the forty minutes ‘til lunch. Most of the humans inhabiting the compound all ate together in the mess hall.
She’d heard rumors of what lay behind the door, horrible enough to keep her away.
On cue, the door opened and the small female human wandered out on her way to lunch. Lexia moved quickly, her fingers wrapping around the edge of the door before it closed and then she slipped inside.
Thankfully, there were no cameras on this side of the compound. No cameras, no evidence of the horror going on behind closed doors. Lexia felt as if she’d walked into a movie set. The laboratory looked befitting of a horror movie. Jars of unidentifiable objects lined shelves, glass cabinets looked to be filled with all matter of concoctions, but it was the far end of the room that interested Lexia. Four small cells filled the tiny space and three were occupied.
“Help me. Help me,” came a gravelly whisper.
Lexia stopped, peering inside the first cell.
“Blood. I need blood,” it continued.
The vampire was unrecognizable, looking nothing like the ones she’d killed before. Its skin had shriveled; it was nothing more than skin and bone. She wondered how long it would take without blood for a vampire to look this bad. It looked at her, its red cloudy eyes desperate. “Please,” it begged, lifting an unsteady arm toward her.
Lexia swallowed the bile in her throat and opened the door, wasting no more time pitying a creature who fed on blood. Pulling her sword swiftly from its sheath, she levered off its head.
Without a second thought, Lexia closed the cell and moved on. The next prisoner was so badly beaten it resembled nothing more than flesh and blood. Reading its aura confirmed it wasn’t worth rescuing. Whatever had been done to it had either darkened its soul, or it had started out that way. With a swing of her sword, it was dead, and she turned to the last cell.
Inside, huddled a woman, her clothes so torn and ragged, they hardly covered her skinny body. Apart from looking half-starved and one bruise covering her eye and cheek, she seemed relatively fine.
The woman hadn’t noticed Lexia. She was lost in her own world, rocking backward and forward, saying Adam over and over.
Lexia unlocked her cell, but it only made the woman curl into herself, her rocking increasing.
“Hey, I’m here to save you, not hurt you,” Lexia whispered gently, her heart breaking for the woman.
Her rocking slowed as she looked up, her eyes huge and frightened.
“I d-don’t und-derstand. You’re, you’re a hu…” Her words trailed off as if she was too scared to say them.
“A hunter,” Lexia confirmed. Over time, she’d lost her hatred of the word – not all hunters were evil. “But not like the others. Come on, little wolf. If you’d like to get out of here alive, come with me now.” Lexia reached out her hand.
“How’d you know I’m a wolf?” she whispered, staring at her outstretched hand, still unsure if Lexia could be trusted.
Lexia let the power circulating around her body drop, giving way to the blue eyes of the girl she once was. Smiling, she repeated, “Because I’m not like the others.” The woman took her hand, allowing Lexia to pull her up and help her from the cell.
“How are we getting out of here?” she asked, eyes staring at the other two occupants. “That one used to be a shifter.” She trembled, horror in every quiver. “I was next.”
“You are not next.” Lexia shook the hideous images from her mind. She didn’t have the luxury of cracking from fear, of succumbing to the terror. “Follow me and be quiet,” she told her. If the wolf shifter was frighte
ned, she didn’t say anything. She replied with a firm nod, the look on her face one of determination.
Lexia reached out with her mind. Feeling no one nearby, she opened the door. They walked quickly away but soon ran into company. “Damn it,” Lexia muttered, pausing.
“What is it?” the woman hissed.
“Company.” Glancing around, she said, “Quick, in here.”
“How do you know? I can’t…wait, yes, I hear them.”
“Inside now,” Lexia snapped, gesturing toward the door.
They’d entered a laundry room. Lexia grabbed the nearest set of clean clothes to her and thrust them at the woman. “Get dressed.”
Once clear, Lexia carried on through the compound, the shifter wolf following her. Her plan to take her out through the same exit she used in the morning wasn’t the best of escapes. The outside of the compound was heavily guarded during the day, but Lexia could think of no other escape.
They’d almost made it when Lexia sensed her mother’s dark energy coming up from behind.
“Run!” Lexia hissed, taking hold of the woman’s hand and dragging her along.
“What’s wrong?” she gasped, struggling to keep up.
“Someone’s coming.”
“Can’t we hide?” the woman asked, breathing heavily.
“There is only one door unlocked down here.” Lexia’s heart was hammering so loud in her ears, it was a wonder it didn’t burst. She reached her door just as the sound of Lucy’s heels clicking echoed off the thick walls.
The shifter’s breath caught in her throat. Lexia pulled her to a stop, opening the door to her room and thrusting her inside.
“Maura,” Lucy called.
Pulling in a deep breath, Lexia squared her shoulders and turned around, a fake smile gracing her lips. She pulled the door closed as she spoke, “Mother.”
“I came by to the training center to see you, and it was of great surprise to find Derrick instead of you.”
“Sorry, Mother, I was running late. I’m just on my way there now.”
“No, you’re not. You’re needed with me,” she snapped, turning and walking away.
Holocaust (The Deadwood Hunter Series Book 3) Page 9
