“My name is Kane,” I start as gasps and murmurs fill the small space. “I remember everything about my life. I’ve been biding my time here trying to figure out a way to escape. Because we’re all prisoners. We aren’t in danger from Sage Development. Canyon Nine took me. They attacked my mother’s home in the dead of the night. And then they murdered her right in front of me before I was chloroformed and brought here.”
“That’s impossible,” one of the fish argues, her face twisting in disgust.
“It’s true. My name’s Alannah. I was with Kane when his mother was murdered. I watched her take her final breath before I watched a man who had been shot in the face climb to his feet and smother Kane while other men held me at gunpoint. That man is here in this building working with Doctor Slone. He’s held me captive for months while my pregnancy has progressed. They want Kane’s baby, and they want to kill me to get him. But my baby’s shields are protecting me, so they’re having a hard time,” my woman explains calmly, though my rage boils as she speaks.
“My name is Alex,” he interjects as the confused murmurs grow louder. “I’ve been here for a five and a half years. I didn’t remember my life at first. But the longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve been able to remember. I don’t know who murdered my family. But everyone I love was killed in a car bomb. Every month when we get our injections, I forget their faces for a few days or lately only for a few hours. Canyon Nine is keeping us here against our will and stealing that will from us by removing our memories.”
Thirty-nine climbs to his feet and strides toward me, his face a mask of sorrow.
“You remember everything?” he whispers, stopping in front of Alannah and me.
“Every single thing.”
“Did they hurt you?” he asks Alannah with concern.
“They tried to, but our son doesn’t take too kindly to that,” she responds, rubbing her bump.
I cup my hand over hers and give it a firm squeeze.
“What are we going to do? Why are we in here?” one of the vests asks.
“Supposedly, there’ve been explosions around the facility. But you were all put in here long before any of them went off,” I answer. “I’ve got some help comin’ for us. We’ll have to work together, using our shields to help the most vulnerable bearers. We’re gettin’ outta here.”
“There aren’t enough of us to keep them all safe,” one of the blades points out.
He’s right. If Canyon Nine uses weapons, there are only four blades and six vests plus me to try to keep the other nineteen bearers safe along with Alannah. I know my son won’t let anything happen to her, but that’s not his job. It’s mine.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” one of the neckties declares, crossing her arms over her chest. “How do we know you’re not a plant with Sage Development here to take us to them?”
“You don’t. And frankly, I don’t give a shit if you don’t come. You’re one last person I’ll have to worry about. My pregnant woman and my friends are stuck in here. I’m gettin’ them out. If you all wanna come, I’m happy to try to help you. But I’m sure as shit not here to try to convince you of a damn thing.”
Maybe not the nicest thing to say, but it’s true. I’m getting the dragons and Alex out. I owe them that for everything they’ve done for me. I want to get Thirty-nine out too, but I won’t force him. The bearers have to make their own choice, which is something they haven’t had the luxury of since the day they woke up in this stark hellhole.
The door begins to slide open as Thirty-seven and Thirty-six lean down to retrieve scalpels from their shoes, just like Alex did earlier. One of the blades notices and holds his hand out for the weapon. He didn’t think about it. It was his instinct. I hope that means he’s good with it.
Thirty-seven watches me as I nod the okay to pass it off. He does, and the dark haired man grasps it like a pro. He’s got skills. Thank fuck.
I drop the empty pillowcase and the flashlight, ready the shitty excuse for a weapon in my hand and push Alannah’s small frame behind me.
I don’t know what I expected to find when the doors opened, but an empty, silent corridor wasn’t one of them.
I ease my way out with Thirty-six and the blade (Forty), all the while holding Alannah’s hand. I look right and left and then do it again before heading left. The only noise is from the shoes of the bearers following me. I don’t look back to see how many come, but I can tell it’s not everyone. I don’t have time to give a shit about that.
As we come to the lab, I slow the group. Bethany and Jeff should be in there. I have a hard time passing it by without them. I also want fucking answers that I know I’ll only find in there. But what I want and what I need are two different things.
I keep moving.
Just as we’re turning the corner, only fifty feet from the open door leading to the stairwell, an explosion rocks the corridor.
“Run!” I scream and start dragging Alannah toward our exit.
The explosion was behind us, but I can hear the flames whirring toward us. The dragons each grab a couple bearers and starting hauling ass ahead of us to the safety of the door awaiting us. When the fire starts to lick the legs of a necktie woman at the back of the group, she wails in agony.
Alannah drops my hand and pushes me back toward the necktie. I start to argue, but she pins me with a look that tells me to get my ass in gear. She yanks the scalpel out of my hand, shoves it in her back pocket and then she runs away from me toward our exit. Other bearers are trying to help the burnt necktie at the same time they’re trying not to be engulfed in flames themselves.
“Go,” I bark, scooping the average-sized redhead into my arms.
Her calves are seared, and her white sweat pants are melted into her wounds. I do my best to avoid hurting her, but she’ll live longer if I get her out of here quicker.
The heat of the flames reaching toward my back feels warm, but it doesn’t hurt or burn. I’m simply aware of the temperature. The necktie shrieks as the fire overtakes the walls around us, running over the white surfaces in a fluid motion. I pick up my pace and slide to a stop in the stairwell just as the flames overtake the opening.
The door slams shut as Thirty-seven takes the necktie from me, placing her on the ground so he can examine her wounds. We don’t have anything to treat her with, so it’s a fruitless task, but it’s important to him. That cocky smirk in nowhere to be seen now as he comforts and shushes the necktie.
“You got her?” I growl, locking eyes on the ass of my woman two flights up.
“Yeah,” he grunts back, throwing the necktie over his shoulder fireman-style.
I jog up the stairs in front of him, and he follows closely. I catch up to Alannah in no time, wrapping an arm around her rounded waist before pressing a kiss to her hair.
“Don’t do that shit again,” I demand.
She doesn’t respond as we move slowly up the two-person wide staircase.
“Alannah,” I admonish her silence.
“We’re not fighting right now,” she snaps. “Let’s just get the hell outta here and try not to let anyone die.”
I’m not like her. I don’t see life as important. I take lives for a living, or I did before my current and soon to be past occupation as a lab rat. Alannah saves lives for a living. We’re two opposite sides of the coin of life. Maybe that means we shouldn’t be together. Maybe that means once I get her out of this fucked up place I should let her go. I don’t give a flying fuck what anything means. She’s mine. The match to my soul. The mother of my child. I’ll let her go with my last breath and even then, she’ll never leave my heart.
“Not fighting,” I growl.
Then water begins to fall from above us. We have fifteen flights left before we’re at the service hallway. Fuck.
This isn’t a light trickle. Water is pouring at a gushing rate, knocking bearers off their feet. I snag the blizzard as his legs get knocked out from under him. He clutches my arm with an ironclad grip, bu
t he doesn’t right himself.
When I look down to figure out what’s wrong, I find him gripping Thirty-seven’s wrist to stop him from cascading down the stairs into the pool that’s formed at the floors beneath us. Water isn’t only coming in from above us; it’s filling from the basement. They’re trying to drown us.
I see a shadow to my left before a loud splash. I have to let go of Alannah to hang onto the railing to support the blizzard and Thirty-seven as he clings to the now unconscious necktie. Then Thirty-nine emerges from the water, pushing Thirty-seven from behind with strength I didn’t know his slight frame possessed.
The water is swirling in a vortex as Thirty-seven finds his footing while I pull the blizzard up to my stair that’s now submerged. We trudge up, helping each other as we go. I don’t stumble once I toe my soaked shoes and socks off. I grip the metal with my toes as I hold Alannah snugly to my front.
We’re slower than the water. It’s at my waist and climbing. We aren’t going to make it to the hallway. And if we do, it’ll fill with water once we open the door. If we can’t find a way to drain the stairwell, all of the bearers that aren’t fish will die. I don’t know if Alannah’s a fish, but I pray to Sorcha’s gods to make her one.
I can’t watch her die.
I have to save her.
“Alex!” I shout up at him.
He looks down at me with fury in his caramel eyes.
“Take Alannah. Don’t let her outta your sight,” I order.
Alannah turns to argue, but I press my mouth to hers in a rough kiss, knowing it could be my last. She clings to the wet fabric around my shoulders as I fist her drenched hair.
“I love you,” I state emphatically.
“I love you too,” she responds fiercely.
Alex makes his way to us, trying to remain stable on his feet.
I pass my woman off to him and hold her electric blue eyes a beat longer before turning my back on her.
“Go!” I shout at Thirty-seven and the blizzard, who are staring at me with conflicted eyes.
“I’m goin’ down to open the door,” I explain to Thirty-nine as I peel out of my clothes other than my underwear. If, by chance, I get us out of here, I don’t want to be walking for five miles with my dick swinging.
He matches my movements, stripping off his clothes.
“Let’s go,” his deep voice rumbles.
I nod, and we dive into the cold water. I don’t know how the water temperature affects him, but I hope he doesn’t freeze before he can help me.
I open my eyes, thankful for the light boxes on the wall that are still illuminated as I use the railing to pull myself deeper and deeper. This is the hard part. I’m holding my breath. It’s a natural reaction. I didn’t know I was a fish before Dr. Sadist drown me. As a child when I would mess around in an old metal pool Bert filled in the summer, I would hold my breath as long as I could. But like a normal person, when my lungs started to burn, and my body craved oxygen, I would emerge and take a gasping breath.
My lungs are burning now, and my natural reaction is to push off the stairs and swim to the surface. Thirty-nine senses my struggle, grabs my free hand in his and nods definitively at me. I take a deep gasping breath as I watch his black eyes. My mouth fills with water, but it comes right back out my nose, and my shield provides me needed oxygen. I breathe normally for a few seconds and then nod to Thirty-nine that I’m done being a pussy.
He smiles that kind smile of his and we continue our descent. The deeper we go, the harder it is to hang onto the railing. When we reach the basement, I find four massive spouts flush with the walls, rushing water into the stairwell while also churning it violently. As soon as I let go of the railing, I’m spinning uncontrollably and rising back toward the surface.
Long skinny fingers wrap around my wrist as I clutch onto Thirty-nine’s forearm. Once my body is tethered to his, I grasp the railing and heave myself back down. The railing is at least four and a half feet from the door. I can’t hold it and pry the door open. I’m not going to be able to do this.
Fuck!
Thirty-nine wraps his an arm through the railing before encasing my waist. If he can hold me here, I can kick my legs toward the handle. The door opens out, and I’m praying to Sorcha’s gods that the corridor on the other side isn’t filled with water too.
I test Thirty-nine’s hold on me and furiously kick my legs, trying to keep them straight as the strength of the water forces them into the vortex. With the water jetting in, it’s difficult to see, but the shiny metal of the door handle makes for an easy target.
I jut one leg out but come up short. I slide a little lower in Thirty-nine’s embrace, noting he’s starting to shake, and his skin feels cold against mine. I have to hurry.
I kick again and miss as the water catches my leg, moving it just before I reach my target. I kick again and again. Each time missing. I can imagine the water is almost at the top now. Alannah’s going to drown, and I won’t be there to hold her body against mine when it happens. I’m failing her again after I promised her I wouldn’t.
I have to fight.
You’re my warrior shield.
Sorcha’s airy voice rings in my ears as I slide as low as I can get, Thirty-nine holding my armpits as my body tries to float. With a soundless roar, I bend at the waist and crash both feet onto the handle. It breaks beneath my force and then I’m being sucked forward.
I grasp the railing behind my head and hang on with all of my strength as the water rushes into the corridor. Thirty-nine holds my shoulders tightly as we float together in the torrent stream we created.
He screams when the first body slams into us. It’s a white sweat suit covered body that I push off us and watch it flow away, thankful it’s not Alannah. Not yet. We’re hit with three more bodies before the water stops rushing around us.
When our feet are righted on the concrete floor, I look down to see who the last bearer is. Alannah never came past us. Either her body is stuck somewhere above us, or she made it. Please let her have made it.
It’s a vest. His dark chocolate eyes are fixed open, staring into nothingness. Thirty-nine reaches down and closes his lids before looking up at me with a mixture of pain and relief on his face.
“KANE!” Alannah screams at the top of her lungs and all the air that’s been trapped in mine whooshes out.
I almost fall over, bracing myself against the railing that helped me save my woman.
“Let’s go,” Thirty-nine chatters, wobbling on his feet.
His pale skin is turning blue along with his lips. Hypothermia will set in soon if it hasn’t already. I pick up his slight frame and cradle him to my chest as I take the stairs two at a time.
“Don’t you fuckin’ think about givin’ up,” I command.
He nods into my chest but closes his eyes in defeat. I’m heaving and panting with five stories to go as I hear footsteps clanging toward me.
Thirty-six and Thirty-five come into view first, Thirty-five snatching Thirty-nine away from me as Alannah heaves herself into my arms, sobbing.
“I’m okay,” I assure her, pulling her back to pepper her wet face with kisses.
“He held me up,” she cries.
“Who?” I ask painfully, not seeing Alex anywhere.
Please not him.
“Sixteen,” Alex’s voice rings out with sadness above me.
The vest. He saved my woman.
I hold her to my chest and say a quiet word of thanks before carrying Alannah back up the stairs. Alex claps my back when I get to him before apologizing, “I tried to be the one to do it. But Twenty insisted I had to live and started to hold me and Alannah up. She wasn’t strong enough to keep us each afloat. Sixteen told me to find his family to tell them he was sorry. Then he went under and held Alannah up before he drowned. The water started lowering a few seconds later.”
I was too slow. He died saving my woman, and I was too fucking slow to save him.
“Who else?” I growl.
A desert, a necktie and a blizzard.
I nod not knowing what to say as I reach the top of the stairs. Everyone is standing soaking wet with sorrow on their faces.
“We need to get him warm,” Thirty-five barks about Thirty-nine.
“Let’s move,” I order and push my way to the door, preparing for what I’ll find on the other side.
I set Alannah down and pull the scalpel from her back pocket. She steps behind me without having to be moved as Thirty-six and Forty flank me with their scalpels at the ready.
Here we go.
I bend my knee and kick the door open easily. I rush forward to find the concrete service hallway empty and dry. I start running. I’m not waiting around to see what else they’ll hit us with. They’re targeting specific shields, so I’m expecting knives and guns to come out at any time. I’m not sure if they’ll try to freeze us or overheat us and I don’t think they could try to choke us, but Canyon Nine is full of some tricky fuckers.
We make it to the door that leads to the attendants’ quarters without incident. I ease this door open quietly. This is where the guards masquerading as kind orderlies will be lying in wait. I poke my head out and sweep my gaze from side to side just as a knife attempts to plunge into my neck. I yank the door shut.
“Blades!” I roar, readying my scalpel.
Alannah’s a blade now, but I don’t want her experiencing this so I nudge her back toward Alex, who wraps his arms around her, nodding to me that he’ll keep her safe again. Forty and the rest of the blades come to the door. Simultaneously, the five of us fly through the door to be attacked by multiple knife-wielding attendants. I square off with two, keeping my back to the door so they can’t get at the other bearers.
Cocky asshole attendant A makes a move to stab me in the eye as the other attendant tries to tackle my legs. He gets a heel to the face, ending his fight quickly. I punch A in the ribs, brushing him back as he slices my arm. The fight and rage that’s been building in me soars to a new level when the cool metal glides across my skin. Four innocent people just died because of these motherfuckers.
Misunderstood Miracles Page 16