Unsuitable

by Dawn Norwell

  Forty-eight hours?

  We would be trapped in this bunker for two full days, not knowing when or if an assault would happen? Although I was grateful that Concord had not attacked yet, I was nervous about my future if the Syndicate never followed through with their plan. Would Athena think that I was a liar and that it might have been a ruse all along? Would she banish me from Nova for giving false information? The idea made me anxious; I had nowhere else to go if Nova rejected me.

  “Well, this will be fun,” Ximea said with a sigh, reaching down to get a book from beside her bed.

  “I guess I’ll go take a shower,” I muttered, needing to do something other than sit there waiting with my overactive thoughts.

  Ximea gave me a half-hearted thumbs-up, already immersed in the pages of Jane Austin.

  I grabbed a towel and travel-sized soap from our closet and headed down the hallway to the communal bathroom. I peeked my head inside, relieved to see that I was the only one in the area.

  Going to the shower on the far side of the room, I turned the water on warm and started stripping off my clothes. I was just about to step inside the stall when the slamming of the bathroom door startled me.

  “Phreet, phreet!” someone whistled from behind me.

  I grabbed my towel to cover up, my cheeks heating with embarrassment as I turned to see a group of five boys just a few years older than I was, standing in front of the bathroom door, blocking my exit. Among the conglomerate was Zander, his muscular arms crossed with abhorrence. Though his eyes were narrowed in hateful slits, I was grateful that his gaze was trained on the floor rather than on my nearly naked body.

  “Who do we have here?” one of the men asked, eyeing me in a way that made me uncomfortable. “I thought I already knew all of the chicks in Nova.”

  His oily black hair was pulled into a messy ponytail, and his face was covered in dark stubble. It gave him a dark edge, like a villain straight out of a fictional movie.

  “She’s not from Nova, Jax. She’s a suit,” Zander hissed, his voice dripping with disgust. The other men snarled their lips in revulsion, taking a step back as though I were contagious.

  “A suit, huh?” Jax said, his eyes alert. His yellowing teeth twitched into a tiny smirk. “I’ve never had the pleasure of being near a suit in person. Welcome, your highness,” he said sarcastically, bowing low in front of me as the others snickered behind him.

  I didn’t respond. My heart pounded in my chest, adrenaline coursing through me as I stared at the men. The hair on my neck was raised in high alert. I felt like a rabbit cornered by a pack of wolves, knowing that I had no escape. I had an overwhelming feeling that this situation would work out in my favor.

  “I would say it’s nice to meet you, suit, but that would be a lie,” Jax muttered, spitting at my feet, his playful grin replaced for a look of pure malice. “You know, my father met a suit like you once. Then the man slit his throat without thinking twice about it. He didn’t care about the wife he would leave behind, or the children would become orphans. My father didn’t even do anything wrong. The suit just hated him because he was different; despised him enough to murder him in cold blood,” his eyebrows furrowed, thoughtful. “You know, I’ve always wanted the opportunity to give back a piece of what your people have given us over the years,” he said, his eyes darkening. “Perhaps now is my chance.”

  I took a step back as he approached me. “I don’t want any trouble,” I mumbled, averting my eyes.

  “Any trouble?” he scoffed. “Your entire existence has trouble. Your people have made our lives hell while you sit on your pedestals of purity and mock our lowly existence.”

  I opened my mouth to ask the men to just leave me alone, to tell them that I didn’t come here to cause problems, but I didn’t get the chance. Before I even realized what was happening, Jax’s fists made contact with my face. I clutched my cheek, eyes wide with fright, as an egregious pain to shot through me. My ears were ringing from the intensity of the punch, and I detected a metallic taste in my mouth as it filled with blood.

  Before I had fully recovered from the first hit, another blow landed in my gut, causing me to lose my breath and double over in pain. Each of the men took a turn hitting, slapping, or kicking me. Before I could discern the pain that came from one hit, another blow had already taken its place. My nose snapped as their fists connected with my face. Another punch hit the back of my head, causing the room to spin. Blood poured from a laceration on my forehead, and a few of my ribs broke as another kick landed across my abdomen.

  I fell helplessly to the ground and curled into the fetal position, writhing in agony as I tried desperately to escape their unrelenting assault. But I never stood a chance against the cohort of men, all of whom were three times my size. It was all I could do to retain consciousness, let alone protect myself from the continuous battering.

  I wanted to close my eyes, to shield myself from the relentless attack, but they were frozen open with terror. I noticed every blow before it hit, but was powerless to stop them. The hatred on each of the men’s faces was prevalent, along with the joy they were receiving being able to get revenge on an unsuspecting suit for their wrongful treatment through the years.

  The only man who didn’t participate in the assault was Zander, who stood to the side, looking uneasy. His eyes were tight, but his body remained motionless. My eyes drifted up to his, the man who was my only salvation in at that moment. He shifted uncomfortably, taking a few steps away from the violence as though the sight of it bothered him. Though he didn’t strike me as the others did, he didn’t make an effort to stop his friends, either. There was no one to save me but myself, and my efforts were futile at the moment. I was thoroughly helpless.

  I tried to tighten my towel securely around my naked body, but it a futile effort. It quickly fell to the floor as the battering continued, forcing what little dignity I had left to disappear.

  As the towel loosened from my body, the brutal beating temporarily ceased. I glanced up through swollen and tear-filled eyes and saw Jax hovering over me. He bit his lips ominously with his filthy, discolored teeth, and began unbuckling his belt.

  “What are you doing,” Zander asked in apprehension, grabbing Jax’s arm, but Jax shrugged away from him.

  “I’m just getting a sample of the goods that our people have missed out on over the centuries,” he said. The other boys laughed and nodded their heads encouragingly behind him.

  Dread coursed through me as I understood the implications in his words. I wanted to move, to use what little energy I had to force my way out of the bathroom at any cost, but I was frozen in terror.

  “You can’t be serious? Don’t you think this is a bit… extreme?” Zander asked, shuffling tensely from foot to foot.

  “Extreme?” Jax spit. “Don’t you think it was extreme that the Syndicate tossed our asses into the wastelands because we didn’t meet their impeccable standards? Wasn’t it extreme that the people we loved died pointless deaths that could have been prevented had it not been for the suits?”

  “Of course it was, Jax, but that’s not her fault,” Zander retorted.

  Jax snarled his lip hatred. “She’s a suit. That makes her guilty by association. Run along to your mommy if you don’t want to be a part of this, pretty boy.”

  Zander thought it over, his face torn. I gazed at him in desperation, pleading for his help. I knew that he hated suits as much as anyone else in Nova, but I prayed that some part of him would have mercy and intervene before it was too late.

  Instead, I stared in desolation as my only hope gave a frustrated sigh and walked out the bathroom door. There was no one left to help me now.

  “Pussy,” Jax muttered, getting back to the task at hand.

  I took a deep breath, ready to let out a scream for help, hoping that some passerby would show compassion and come to my rescue. But Jax covered my mouth with his hand before I had the chance to cry for help.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” he mutte
red.

  I threw punches blindly, trying to push him away as he hovered over me, but his friends grabbed my wrists and held me to the ground so that I couldn’t move. I flailed hopelessly beneath their ironclad grasps, terrified sobs racking my body.

  Jax leaned down and took a deep whiff of my hair, an arrogant smile on his lips. His face was only a few inches away from mine, so close that I could smell the putrid scent of alcohol on his breath.

  “This is for my parents, and their parents before them, and every other person who was made to feel less than human by your people,” he said, as pulling his pants to his ankles.

  Tears flowed from my engorged and bruised eyes as I continued to struggle uselessly beneath his hand. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the oncoming assault, understanding what was about to happen and also knowing that there was nothing I could do about it.

  But instead of the pain that I’d anticipated, I heard a blow echo through the room, followed by the sound of someone gasping for breath. Through the relentless trail of blood pouring from my forehead, I noticed Jax lying several feet away in a pool of scarlet. Zander stood over him, his body shaking with unrelenting rage.

  The men holding me to the ground forgot their task and ran to help their friend. They dove at the assailant, ready to defend their comrade, but they never stood a chance against Zander’s brawny build. He pushed them aside with ease, punching them in the face and kicking them in the ribs, the way they had just done to me.

  Sweet karma, I thought.

  The men continued falling at Zander’s hand, one after another, until finally, they’d had enough. They hurried to their feet, falling over one another in their haste, unable to get away from Zander fast enough.

  “Big mistake,” Jax bellowed at Zander, holding a hand to his bloody nose. “You’re a dead man, Marsala! Do you hear me? Dead!”

  “I’m so scared,” Zander muttered sarcastically.

  Jax gave a grunt of frustration before running from the bathroom with his pants still around his ankles, his lackeys following close behind.

  Zander turned back to me, lying naked on the floor. His eyes bulged in alarm as he took in my mutilated body. A look of apprehension crossed his face before he bent down, gently placing the bath towel over my bare torso.

  “You’ll be okay,” he whispered, seeming as though he was trying to convince himself as much as he was convincing me.

  His troubled, remorseful blue eyes were the last thing I saw before I fell unconscious.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: SECRETS & SCANDALS

  “I s she going to be okay?” Zander asked, anxiety coloring his voice. His words were distant, coming from some faraway place.

  “She’ll survive, but she needs rest. Her body has been through a great trauma,” Ximea mumbled. She gently placed a damp washcloth across my feverish forehead. “What the hell happened?”

  Zander sighed. “It's my fault. I shouldn't have told Jax she was a suit. But I had no idea it would come to this. They took things too far.”

  I heard the continuous thump thump of his feet as he paced around the room.

  “You need to tell Athena what happened.”

  “No,” he muttered. “She can never know about this.”

  “They nearly killed someone, Zander! I mean, look at her!” she exclaimed. A quiet stretched over the room as Zander stopped in his tracks. Ximea’s voice was softer, more compassionate when she spoke. “Jax and his lackeys are out of control, Zander. Athena needs to reign them in. Enough is enough.”

  “Absolutely not,” Zander said, his voice earnest. “It will ruin everything we're trying to build in Nova.”

  “Fine,” Ximea snapped. “I will keep this quiet so that you can protect your precious reputation since it’s that important to you. But, so help me, if I ever find you hanging out with Jax or those other assholes again, I’ll go to your mother myself.”

  Such assertiveness sounded strange coming from Ximea. I wanted to console her, to let her know that it would all be okay, but I couldn't muster the strength. A dark heaviness came over me, and I felt myself slipping away once again.

  No, don’t, I begged.

  I wanted to hear more, to learn what happened to the people who did this to me, but the drugs were strong, and I couldn't resist them. They quickly overpowered me, pulling me back into the dark abyss.

  **********

  “Kai? Kai, are you in there?” I heard Ximea calling. My eyelids fluttered open. Through my blurry vision, I saw her sitting at the edge of my bed. She smiled. “Hey, you. We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”

  I sat up and immediately wished that I hadn’t because my head throbbed, and the room had started to spin. I took a deep breath to steady myself, causing white-hot pain to run through the side of my injured body.

  “How bad is it?” I asked tentatively, my eyes watering from the ache.

  “Bad,” Ximea admitted. “You lost a lot of blood, and it took a while to get the seizures to stop. Best I can tell, you have three broken ribs, a fractured nose, two ruptured eyes, and a concussion.”

  Hmm. It seemed like much worse.

  “Where’s Zander?” I asked, searching the room. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to thank him for saving me or yell at him for putting me in that situation.

  “He was here for a while, but he had to leave for a meeting. Speaking of which, there’s an assembly in five minutes if you're feeling up to it.”

  “But we just had an assembly yesterday,” I complained. The idea of moving from this spot seemed like an impossible feat. My ribs ached just thinking about it.

  “Kai… that was almost a week ago,” she said.

  I gaped at her incredulously. “How long was I out for?”

  “You’ve been unconscious for a few days, and frankly, you’ve missed a hell of a lot,” she said. “The information you gave Athena proved accurate- there was an attack on Nova. It went on for hours. I was starting to wonder if it would ever stop,” she said, her eyes tight as they drifted to some distant place.

  My heart sank. The people of Nova had worked hard to build their community from scratch, and the Syndicate may have demolished it all with the press of a button. But the structural damage would be nothing compared to the loss of lives if the bunker hadn’t managed to hold.

  “Most of us are okay, thanks to you,” Ximea said, answering the unspoken question. “But Compartment A was hit pretty hard.”

  “I thought Athena said it would be fine,” I mumbled, remembering Zander voicing his concern about its stability.

  “Athena was wrong, and she feels pretty shitty about it.” She sighed. “Crews are working endlessly to dig people out of the wreckage, but it's taking a while. The survivors are being brought to the amphitheater for treatment. I told Athena about your background in Concord, and she’s called us to assist with the medical care. It must be pretty bad if she’s willing to let you help.”

  I nodded, troubled by her words. The pain that I was experiencing would be nothing compared to that of the individuals who had been buried under rubble for several days.

  I crawled out of bed and started getting dressed without a second thought. Hurt or not, it was in my nature to heal others- it was what I’d trained my entire life to do. There was no question that I would help the people of Nova however I could.

  As Ximea and I walked toward the auditorium, I kept my eyes on my feet, pulling my brown curls over my face in a futile attempt to hide the welts and bruises. This did little to prevent the horrified stares of passersby, as they stopped to gawk at me.

  I became mindful of the pain in my body as I trudged down the hallway. Each step jostled my injured ribs and brought tears to my eyes. I had to walk with languid movements and measure my breathing wisely to keep the pain at bay.

  “Oh, good!” Athena exclaimed, rushing up to us as we entered the room. She looked crazed, her face ashy and her shambolic hair falling in wild tendrils onto her face. The bags under her eyes told me that she hadn’t sleep in days.<
br />
  “Ximea, Kai, I need you to…” she hesitated, sucking in a breath when she took in my appearance. “What happened to you?!” she shrieked, grabbing my face and moving it from side to side to exam the injuries. I winced at her touch.

  “I slipped in the shower,” I lied, heat filling my cheeks. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

  Zander stood quietly at her side, avoiding my eyes.

  “Sure you did,” Athena mumbles, glancing heatedly at Zander from her peripherals. Her face reddened with anger, and her eyes filled with indignation. “You and I will discuss this later, Ms. Markavitch. For now, I need the two of you to see patients as quickly as possible. Many lives are hanging in the balance right now.”

  Remorse crossed her face, and I remembered what Ximea said about her feeling terrible about not listening to Zander. I could only imagine the guilt she must be enduring as she witnessed her people writhing in agony, knowing she could have prevented their pain.

  Athena escorted us to the back of the auditorium, which had been curtained off from the view of the other citizens. When she opened the drape, and I saw the magnitude of the injuries for myself, I gasped, grabbing my tender ribs discreetly as a throbbing ache shot through me. But my discomfort could not distract from the grotesque scene before me.

  Dozens of patients lay sprawled across the floor, many of their faces lifeless or draped with blood-soaked cloths so that they were hidden from curious eyes. Families surrounded the bedsides of the afflicted loved ones, clinging to one another as they grieved the loss of one of their own.

  The smell of rotting and infected flesh pervaded the air, so potent that I had to cover my nose to keep from being sick. Pain-filled wails resonated through the room as the hospital staff did what little they could to alleviate the agony of their patients, but with more injured unsuits than resources, their efforts were ineffectual.

  I stood frozen in place, staring at the terrifying scene before me. All of the medical training in the world couldn’t have prepared me for a catastrophe like this. I wanted to run back to our compartment, to forget that I had ever witnessed such horrendous things, to rinse my eyes and ears with water to try and expunge the cries of the injured and dying from my memories.