The Deep Beneath

by Natalie Wright

  Pain like a thousand needles spread across her back. She shook the cobwebs from her brain and tried to push herself up but could not force her torso from the ground. Her breathing was ragged, her lungs burning like they were aflame. She gasped and tried in vain to pull air into her lungs. Her throat hurt, and it felt as though a giant had his hands wrapped around her windpipe, choking off her air supply.

  “Stop it!” screamed Jack. “You’re killing her.”

  “No more,” Commander Sturgis said.

  “She intended to kill you, Commander. Anyone who attempts to kill my commander must be terminated.”

  The squeezing continued. Erika rasped, but very little air passed into her lungs. Darkness crowded her vision at the periphery. There were hands on her shoulders, someone said her name, but it sounded as though it had come through a long tunnel. Someone screamed the word ‘Stop!’ But she no longer cared about words or hybrids or going home. All she wanted was for the pain to stop.

  Erika let her eyes close. She was certain an elephant sat on her chest, forcing the air out and causing agonizing knives of fire to spread throughout her torso.

  “I need her, Alecto. Stop it. I command you!”

  The elephant got off of her chest. Erika’s lungs filled with air even though she didn’t tell them to. They were working on their own again. Agony was replaced with an ache in every inch of her.

  “Are you okay?” Ian asked.

  Arms encircled her. She didn’t know whose arms they were and she didn’t care. She had been so cold, and the warmth of the one who held her seeped into her. She opened her eyes and all was blurry. She blinked and blinked some more. A face came into focus. Scruffy and written with despair.

  Jack. She wanted to close her eyes again and pretend that she could stay that way forever, encircled in his ring of safety. “Jack?” Her voice was raspy and sounded tired, even to her own ears.

  Heels clicked on the floor. A shadow loomed over her. A cold, dry hand touched her neck.

  “Keep your hands off of her,” Jack said. His voice was firm and angry.

  “Relax, Mr. Wilson. I am assessing whether she has any broken bones. Can you stand?”

  Erika didn’t want to stand. She wanted to be on her porch, swinging in the hammock, intertwined with Jack.

  “Help her to stand,” Sturgis said.

  Jack stood and took his arms with him. Erika shivered from the sudden loss of Jack’s warmth. “Come on,” he said. “Take my hands.”

  Erika looked up and took Jack’s outstretched hands. Her knees trembled and her back felt like she’d been beaten with a ball bat. But she didn’t feel like anything was broken.

  “I apologize for the overzealous response by Alecto. She is still quite young and inexperienced.” Commander Sturgis’ bogus smile had returned. “Alecto, make amends for your error. Heal her injuries.”

  As much as Erika was hurting, she wasn’t sure she wanted Alecto to touch her. The odd girl creeped her out.

  “Why bother healing me?” Erika said. “You’re just going to have me killed anyway.”

  Jack swung his head around to look at Erika. His eyes were wide and his brows knit together.

  “Wherever did you get that idea?” Commander Sturgis said.

  “Um … from you,” Jack blurted out. “You threatened to kill us twice in the desert. Remember?”

  Commander Sturgis returned to her chair and sat down. She motioned to Alecto with her hand to help Erika.

  Alecto’s thin hands lightly hovered over Erika’s neck and back then moved over her arms. Alecto’s hands finally rested on Erika’s mid-back. Warmth spread through Erika’s back and there was a light tingling sensation.

  “My threats were made in haste,” Sturgis said.

  Erika closed her eyes and felt herself relax. A few minutes before she had wanted to recoil from Alecto’s touch. But the sensation was light and pleasant. She found she didn’t mind it at all.

  Alecto removed her hands.

  “All better?” Commander Sturgis asked.

  Erika twisted from side to side, raised her hands over her head and touched her toes. “Yes.” She had, in fact, never felt better.

  “Good. Now sit, please. Sign your papers; then Alecto and Sewell will escort you to have a last meeting with Tex before you go home.”

  “No offense, but I’d just like to go home. I don’t need any goodbyes with that guy,” said Ian.

  Erika kicked Ian under the table. He glared at her and she glared back at him. She was fairly certain that Ian had no idea why she had kicked him. Our nonverbal communication needs a tune-up.

  “You may not need – or want – to see him again, but I need for the three of you to pay him a last visit. It will show 9 my good faith, you see. That I’ve kept my word to him.”

  Jack’s fingers scribbled again on her leg. ‘Liar’ his fingers spelled. Erika didn’t know why Tex needed them to keep their knowledge of Sturgis’ true plan a secret. Erika hated playing games and keeping secrets. And I suck at it too.

  Ian searched for his pen and found it on the floor. He signed his paper and handed the pen to Erika. “Use it to sign this time, not attack anyone.”

  Erika mopped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand to keep it from dripping onto the page. She took the pen in her right hand. It shook so much she wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold it long enough to sign. She finally scribbled her name on the line at the bottom of the page. The signature looked like a drunk person had signed it.

  Ian picked up the signed paper and handed it, with his, to Sturgis. “I’m sorry about earlier. She’s just stressed out. Doesn’t do confinement well at all.”

  Commander Sturgis took the pages from Ian and put it with Jack’s and stuffed them nonchalantly into her folder. “No need to apologize. You aren’t the one that made an attempt on my life.” Sturgis’ unyielding eyes bored into Erika’s.

  If she’s looking for an apology, she’s not getting one.

  Jack rested his hand again on her thigh, but he didn’t trace any more letters for her. I guess he said all he needed to say.

  “Sewell will be here shortly to accompany you to the pool room for your meeting with 9 before you go home.” Sturgis pulled down her jacket by the hem and smoothed her hair. “I will forgive you your attempt on my life, Ms. Holt. Spending time down here can make some people go a bit nuts.”

  “You should know,” Erika said.

  “Erika!” Ian said. “Stop it.”

  But Erika couldn’t stop it. She was going to die anyway. Why hide behind lies? It was Sturgis’ way, not hers.

  Sturgis continued as though Erika had not popped off her mouth at her. “I am allowing this meeting for the sole purpose of 9 seeing that the three of you are okay. That you have not been mistreated –”

  “I guess bruised ribs and black eyes don’t count,” Erika said.

  Jack’s hand squeezed Erika’s thigh. She wasn’t sure if the squeeze meant ‘thanks for sticking up for me’ or ‘shut it’.

  Ian was less subtle. “Erika, for the love of God, shut up.”

  “As I was saying, 9 needs to see that I have kept up my end of the deal that we made at Bell Rock. He will see that you are well and he will get closure. It will ease his mind so that he can stop worrying about your well-being and get back to work.”

  Erika heard Sturgis’ speech, and it made sense. But Sturgis didn’t make eye contact with them when she spoke, and she fidgeted with the folder on the table in front of her. Her nervous actions tell the truth more than her words do.

  Erika’s shoulders slumped and she was suddenly very tired. Defeat clung to her like the red clay dirt of Sedona.

  Sturgis rose from her chair and smoothed her navy serge pencil skirt. “Oh, and Ms. Holt, I suggest you not try any more stunts like the one you pulled earlier. I won’t be there to rein Alecto in.” She turned and strode from the room.

  Erika’s hands were clenched fists on her thighs. She felt like she’d signed a de
al with the spawn of Satan. As soon as the door closed, Erika let out the breath she’d found herself holding. She looked across the table. Alecto stared back at her. It felt like Alecto looked right through her, dissecting her with her eyes and mind. A shiver ran up Erika’s spine. She wanted desperately to talk to Jack and Ian and to hear the rest of what Jack had to tell them. But they could not talk freely with Alecto present.

  The door slid open with a clang, and Sewell walked in. His puffy cheeks were red and he breathed hard as though he’d run. “You’re to come with me for your meeting with H.A.L.F. 9.”

  “Tex,” Erika said.

  “Commander Sturgis has mandated that we not use that name,” he said.

  “I’m sure she did,” said Erika. “Because using a name would humanize him, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

  Sewell didn’t respond. Erika could see sweat beads on Sewell’s forehead. He fidgeted his hands nervously.

  Ian rose and walked around the table. Jack followed.

  “Come on, Erika,” Jack said. “Time to say goodbye to Tex before we go home.” He turned and winked one eye at Erika as he said it. Play along. How could she convince Tex that all was right with the world when she knew it wasn’t?

  20

  GOODBYE

  Tex had been left alone to recover quietly in his quarters rather than forced to tolerate his typical daily routine of testing, education, exercise and more testing. He made several unsuccessful attempts to make contact with the greys. His mind was a fog, unable to reach out to their channel of thought. He even tried to speak telepathically with Alecto. But he did not feel the slightest buzz in his head. The mental airwaves were silent to him.

  Tex drifted in and out of sleep, and one day had turned into two. He dreamed about the three teens he had met in the desert. He groggily fluttered his eyelids open and remembered that in his dream he had Ian’s build instead of his own and he was carrying Erika in his arms, away from Sturgis and the armed soldiers. In his waking moments, he could not help but think about Erika.

  She was a conundrum to him. He would very much like to spend more time with her. He wanted to figure her out. She should have tried to put as much distance between herself and him as she could. But Erika had not run from him. Instead she had offered to help him even after he had shown how dangerous he was.

  Tex lay in his bed, his head resting on his hands. He stared up at the same grey, concrete ceiling that he’d stared at every day of his life. But somehow, with the memory of Erika’s sweet yet spicy scent in his mind, his surroundings were beyond unbearable. He longed for the open skies, dry air and the endless road of possibilities he had experienced. Before he met Erika, he had been curious about life outside of his four grey walls. But after being out there – after seeing what he could really be – after meeting her, Tex was ensconced in an anger that threatened to make him go mad.

  The sound of a card swoosh through a reader interrupted his thoughts. He had already been given breakfast and it was not yet lunch. He had been told he had the day off of testing or lab work. So why are they here? Perhaps they determined that they need to drain me of some blood in any event.

  But it was an armed guard at the door, not an attendant in white. This is not good.

  The guard did not speak. He did not have to. Tex rose from his bed without being asked. “Allow me to dress.”

  The guard nodded. Tex opened a drawer built into the wall, retrieved a white T-shirt and pulled it over his head. He pulled a pair of blue elastic-waist pants over his boxer shorts and slipped his feet into a pair of rubber sandals. He should have liked to don clothes more like what Jack or Ian wore. Jeans and boots, perhaps a T-shirt that was a color other than white or blue. Something that would make him feel more human and less like an experiment.

  Two more guards waited in the hall. All in all, the signs pointed to something brewing that he was not going to like.

  They marched him toward the center of A.H.D.N.A., and once again, instead of going left they turned right. He knew immediately where he was going.

  He wanted to turn in the opposite direction and run as quickly as he’d been able to run in the desert above. But it was no use. His breath was shallow and his hands trembled. Tex felt as though his feet were in quicksand. His legs were heavy. He could barely walk let alone run.

  And even if he could run, the guards may well shoot him. He could sense their anxiety. It was as pungent to Tex’s nose as if they had bathed in garlic. With fear oozing out of their pores, he knew they were trigger-happy. Even if they had been ordered not to shoot him, their instincts may have forced them to fire at him if he tried to bolt.

  All too soon he was back in the stands beside the pool, alone save for two guards. He could feel himself become still groggier from the toxic mixture of humidity and chlorine. Perhaps he was still weak, but it felt like the humidity may have even been raised in the room since his last visit. He sat on the bleacher and felt himself being wrapped in a woolen blanket. He was glad of that at least. He pulled it tightly around himself, and the cocoon of warmth helped to alleviate the shivers.

  The guards did not explain why he had been taken to Aphthartos again. He attempted to read their thoughts, but it was no use. He was not even sure he could read his own thoughts in such a weakened state.

  After what seemed like hours, the doors to the pool room opened. He assumed it was Sturgis and her mole rat Sewell, so he did not bother to turn his head to look.

  Someone knelt down in front of him. Someone small with dark hair. Someone that was not Commander Sturgis.

  Tex blinked his large eyes and tried to focus on the blob that knelt in front of him.

  Her voice helped to bring the scene into focus. “Are you okay? What have they done to you? Tex?”

  “Erika?” he croaked. Hearing her voice made his heart beat faster, and relief swept over him that it was Erika, not Commander Sturgis.

  The blanket shifted and a hand touched his. “And Ian and Jack, too. We’re here,” she said. “And Sewell is with us.”

  Sewell without Commander Sturgis? It seemed odd to him for Sewell to be without Commander Sturgis, but he did not waste mental energy to consider the reason. He was just glad that the commander was not present.

  Erika’s hand felt warm and electric – alive. No one had ever voluntarily touched him before. Any physical contact he had ever had was required as part of their job. Do not leave me.

  “Can you speak?” Jack asked.

  Tex forced his head up and through bleary eyes made out two people standing on either side of Erika’s kneeling form. Tex tried to lick his lips, but his mouth remained dry. He laughed internally at the irony that while his body was slowly drowning, his lips and throat were dry as bones in the noonday sun. Finally he got his mouth to work. “I am okay,” he croaked.

  “You don’t look okay,” Erika said.

  “Yeah. No offense, but you look like dog crap,” said Ian.

  “I did not know I was going to have visitors or I would have freshened up,” Tex said. His voice sounded like crunching crackers. He forced a wan smile to his lips.

  “That horrid woman. Look what she’s done to you. How am I supposed to leave you in this condition?”

  Erika’s voice sounded forced and tense. Tex lifted his head and tried to see Erika clearly. He blinked and her face came into focus. Her lip had nearly healed, but her right eye was still ringed by a purple bruise that had faded to green around the edges. Her hair was still pulled back, but a few stringy strands fell on either side of her face. She wore A.H.D.N.A. clothes, and Tex thought that they made her look somehow smaller than the black jeans, boots and black T-shirt she had been wearing when he met her. Overall she looked tired. And something else. Sad. So very sad. She knows the truth, then.

  Tex almost wished that Commander Sturgis had come with them. He imagined crushing her throat and watching her writhe on the floor like a fish out of water, gulping for precious air. But she was not there, and even if she wa
s, he was too weak to accomplish such a thing. Commander Sturgis, wherever she was, continued to breathe easily while his lungs were heavy and burdened by water.

  “What’s wrong with him? Why is he so weak and barely able to speak?” asked Ian.

  “The air in this very humid room has dampened his nervous system,” said Sewell. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t do permanent damage or anything. No different than a human getting a sedative.”

  Very different. I am drowning.

  “Is that why you left Alecto outside?” asked Erika.

  Alecto? Outside? Tex pulled himself inward for a moment and tried with everything he had to reach out to her. To feel her presence even if he could not speak with her. But he felt nothing except the pain in his lungs and the ache in his joints from his cells slowly drowning.

  “Yes,” said Sewell. “That way her abilities aren’t weakened. Did you hear that, 9? She’s out there to make sure you don’t try anything. You’ve got a few minutes to say goodbye to your friends here, then they’re going back up top.”

  Tex lifted his head again and searched the blobs in front of him to focus on Sewell. He blinked several times and his eyes focused long enough to see Sewell standing to the left of him and closest to the door. Sewell’s face was as ruddy and puffy as always. He was wringing his hands and licked his lips.

  “You know I am not going to try anything, Sewell. I can barely hold my head up. I am hardly in a condition to attempt an escape.”

  Sewell laughed nervously. “Well, that may be, but Commander Sturgis isn’t taking any chances.”

  Erika removed her hand from Tex and stood up. “Look at him,” said Erika. “He can barely stay upright. This is … he’s nearly –”

  Jack took Erika’s hand and he moved his thumb gently along the curve of her hand and glanced at her. Tex did not like seeing Erika’s hand in Jack’s. Again he felt the urge to hurt Jack. If his nervous system had not been flooded, he may have lashed out at Jack. For a brief moment he was glad of the humidity so that he could not act on his strange and newfound feelings of jealousy. I must learn to control these thoughts.