by Lauren Wood
“I guess you could call me a chip off the old block. I did what I had to. I’m sure that he hates me right about now, but his feelings don’t concern me. He should have thought about that before he came here. I think that you know that he’s not one of our usual mutations. He is an alien visitor and one that we should keep sheltered from the rest of the world.” Natalie was only saying what she thought her mother needed to hear. That was the only way to stay close and be ready to strike when the moment arrived.
“I never thought that you could be this cold hearted, but I guess I really didn’t know you at all. I’m glad to see that you’re not feeling anything towards him. I would hate to put you into quarantine and leave you there. You’ve shown some real character and I think that you’ll find that I’ll be giving you a lot more solo assignments from this moment on. You have a real knack for this type of work, Natalie. I might’ve been selling you short, but I won’t make that mistake again. You know that he’s been spouting off from the moment that he awoke in his cell. We have him wired. There are times that he tries to change and he’s given a reminder of who really is the king of the jungle. He keeps saying that there’s going to be hell to pay. I don’t know who he’s trying to fool.” Catherine was seeing her daughter in a different light.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have a report to file. I’m sure that you want to get back to whatever you were doing. I’m guessing that there’s going to be a lot of people happy with you right about now.” “I have to see him, but I have to do it in such a way that it doesn’t look suspicious. If I have to use my card of being her daughter, then I will gladly do that. I should’ve known that she would not take chances with my safety. I want him to know that I changed my mind and that I wasn’t going to call for reinforcements. He probably thinks that I betrayed him and that is not the way that I want this to go. I do worry about how he said that there would be hell to pay. I don’t think that he was just saying that for no good reason.”
I had the highest clearance and I made my way down into the bowels of the facility. I had avoided coming here. I think deep down I really didn’t want to see what all of my work had made happen. The door opened and the screams that followed made me cringe to think of the pain these people were in. I saw one that had a long tail coming out from behind his spine. He was being subjected to tests from scientists that looked like they were in their element. He was screaming and they were showing a mild curiosity. They were spineless cowards.
I walked with confidence, making everybody believe that I was supposed to be here and it wasn’t like they were going to say anything to the daughter of the commander. I found him with his head bowed and mumbling something underneath his breath. I walked a little closer and I heard words that made a shiver run down my spine.
“They will be coming. They’ll know about my captivity. I tried to avoid this, but it’s inevitable that they will do whatever it takes to free me. I guess I can take solace in that they’re not coming here to destroy me. They will consider me a prisoner of war and I will be treated accordingly. The skies are going to blacken and it won’t be long, until they arrive to decimate this planet. What the hell do you want?” He was talking to himself and then he felt her presence and looked up to see the one person that he didn’t want to see.
“You have every reason to be mad, but I think you know that my feelings for you were not fake. I changed my mind about bringing you in. My mother had other ideas. Let’s just say that her trust in me is flimsy at best.” “I feel cold and not being near him has made my temperature drop drastically. It was like that from the moment that I had been separated from his arms. I feel the chill in the air, but the temperature reflects that it’s 80 degrees down here.” “You have every reason to mistrust me, but what you said just now made me cock an eyebrow.”
“Your people don’t have any clue of what I’ve done to protect them. I’ve suppressed my natural form. I only let it out once a month during a full moon. If I were to stay in my dragon form, they would’ve been here long before now. I know that I only have myself to blame for letting my sex drive rule over me. I couldn’t stop myself and maybe you have been implicated in this as well. If it wasn’t for you trying to weasel yourself into my good graces I probably wouldn’t be here and your world wouldn’t be on the cusp of being destroyed.” Marcel was connected to all these wires and if he tried to pull, he would be summarily punished for that behavior. “I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that you would be a part of something like this. These people are humans, but they are different. How you can treat them like this is unconscionable. You should be ashamed of yourself, but I know that you were just doing your job.”
“I know that you won’t believe this, but I do want to help. I will get you out of here and that is a promise that I intend to keep.” She could still feel his body and the way that he claimed her for himself. There would be nobody that could come even close to giving her the kind of pleasure that he had inflicted on her. “It might be too late for us to stop the Armageddon, but maybe we can convince them to protect themselves. My mother is not easily convinced and she has to continually prove herself to the men that are standing over her with their foot ready to press against her throat. I know what it’s like to be a woman and have to be better than everybody else.” “I feel bad that he’s in there and the way that he looks at me hurts me more than he can ever know.
“It’s amazing that you humans think that you can play god. I thought that you might have learned her lesson by the debacle in Iran to go after Bin Laden. That was a war that shouldn’t have happened and I was right on the front line metaphorically speaking to make sure that my voice was heard. I do not believe in war and my people might think otherwise, but they are mostly in the minority.” Marcel stopped in mid sentence, lifted his head and sniffed the air like there was something there that others couldn’t detect. “They have entered earth’s atmosphere. They know where I’m at and they can find me even 1000 miles underneath the earth.” He heard the first impact and the ceiling scattered dust and debris. It made people choke and run for the elevator.
“This might be my chance to get you out of here. While their attention is on the impending attack, I can move you to a more secure location and away from prying eyes. I’ve already taken care of the audio portion of the video. I just need to cut off the feed and I should be able to do that with my laptop.” She was carrying it in her hand. She punched in sequences of numbers, until the green light turned red. “My mother shouldn’t have told me that I should learn everything and that makes me a powerful tool against her kind of tyranny. She will never learn to bend and the world will cave in around her. I gave up on love a long time ago, but maybe I gave up too soon.”
“I understand how your mother feels and I’m sure that if I were in her shoes I would have done the same thing. I would hope that I would have better sense than that. Threats are made to be eliminated, but those that are different should not automatically be considered a threat. If you are going to get me out, then you should do the same for the rest. They don’t deserve to be here. Even if you were able to get us all out, what makes you think that will stop your mother from coming after us all over again? She has our files and no doubt knows all about us. The only way this is going to work is if we can destroy everything about this place. I wouldn’t be all that surprised to learn that your mother had a self destruct sequence.” Marcel was released from the wires in his arms. They were hanging uselessly. He tried to change, but it was like trying to pull teeth. It hurt so much that he was barely able to stand.
The glass partition separated a few inches, just wide enough for him to slip through to the other side. He was dressed in an orange jumpsuit with the top portion pulled down to expose his skin to the kind of pain that could be given to him at a moment’s notice.
The whole complex was shaking and people were in a panic. They weren’t even paying attention to the orange traffic cone out of his cell. Every body was out to save their own skin.
> “They may not be watching us right now, but it won’t be long before somebody will see that you are gone. We need to get you some clothes and you’re basically standing out like a sore thumb.” “I know that I shouldn’t be helping him, but I need to do this to feel like myself again. I want to look into the mirror and know that what I’m doing is right. I haven’t been able to look at myself and maybe that should have been my first clue that what I was doing was wrong.” Natalie checked a few doors that they were locked and then finally came across one that wasn’t. She shuffled him into the room and closed the door behind her to make sure that they had a way to remain hidden for as long as possible.
“Natalie, I should hate you, but I don’t. I know that you were being influenced by your mother and by your need to please her. It’s the oldest story in the book and I guess I’ve been in the same boat. Everything that I did was never good enough for my father. I tried to make him happy, but then I realized that the only person that I needed to make happy was myself. I can’t live my life for him and you shouldn’t be living yours for your mother. She will only weigh you down with false praise that is meant to keep you in line. Your mother and my father have a lot in common and I’m not saying that’s a good thing.” Marcel found a lab coat and that would cover almost 80% of his body.
“I guess we have a lot more in common than we both initially thought. I’m guessing that your father was emotionless and only had the capacity of being nothing more than a caregiver. We both wanted a real mother and father and not to be molded into their image. Maybe that is the reason why I feel this way about you, but I have a feeling that there’s more to it. I want you to know that I’m never going to harm you and I won’t let anybody else harm you. We need to get out of here and you need to keep people from seeing you. I believe that I might have an idea to accomplish this.” “I’ve always had a thing for guys wearing glasses and maybe I can have my cake and eat it too.
“I’m not exactly in any position to argue with whatever you have in mind, I’m more than happy to follow your lead. I don’t know what I can do to stop them from destroying this world. I can plead your case, but I’m not sure that it’s going to do any good. They usually have a one track mind and I don’t think even my words are going to sway them one way or the other.” Marcel wanted to kiss her, but he knew that there was a time and place for something like that. It was hard to stand in front of her and hide his feelings. The object that was most telling was making a noticeable tent.
“These glasses will give you that intellectual look. Most people don’t look up or down. I have a way out of here, but it’s fraught with its own dangers. The elevator shaft is equipped with a ladder that spans the length of it from down here to the surface.” “I know that he’s not at 100% and I can see that he’s struggling. I know that I was complicit in all of this, but now I’ve seen the light. I don’t know what my mother is going to think about all this, but that is something that I can deal with later.”
Chapter 6
Her mother had other ideas and the door opened to reveal her standing there with a gun. “I should say that I’m surprised, but I’m really not. I deluded myself into thinking that you could be trusted.” Catherine had done the unforgivable and had her own child low jacked. There was a receiver in her arm that had been planted there from the moment that she was given the examination to come to work for her. “I heard everything you said and I couldn’t believe my ears. This betrayal will not go unpunished, but for now, I believe that we need to get that prisoner back in his cell where he belongs.” The alarm was wailing and she had seen on the screen that the sky was now littered with those of his kind.
“You don’t understand, mother. He’s been a friend to us. He might have come here for his people, but that changed. He wants to live in peace and that’s the reason why he has been keeping quiet and away from public scrutiny. He was afraid of what would happen if he changed any more than once a month. I think that you can see that he had every reason to be concerned. Let him leave and he might be the only one that will be able to stop this from escalating. You’re probably wondering why he would want to do that, but I think deep down he considers this planet his home.” “I know that I’m only grasping at straws. My mother is not one to be reasoned with and I have a feeling that my pleas are going to fall on deaf ears. I can see that she’s thinking, but I don’t think that she’s really giving what I said the attention that it deserves.”
“Being my daughter, I would think that you had more sense than to believe whatever came out of his mouth. I do believe that he can be of some help. I can use him as bait to lure the others closer, so that I can use a special weapon that will hopefully turn the tables. If worse comes to worst, I can try to trade his life for them leaving us in peace. I will only use that as a last resort.” Catherine didn’t know what she was going to do with her daughter, but for the time being she was better off being heard and not seen. “Both of you are going to come with me. I’m going to put an end to this invasion.”
“I know that you’re probably not going to believe this, but I might be able to help you. You have no reason to see me as an ally. I do think that you would be foolish not to take any advice that might get you out of this in one piece. Let me talk to them on your behalf. In the meantime, I suggest that you take these directions to heart. I’m going to write down exactly what you will need to turn the tide of this battle in your favor. I don’t think that you have a weapon that will kill them and if you think that you do, then you are about to find out how wrong you really are. There has been nothing in this universe that has been able to stand up to the likes of us.” Marcel was trying his best to see past his disgust, but it wasn’t easy with that woman holding him hostage. Without those wires stuck in his arms, he could easily overpower her, but he was only going to do that if absolutely necessary.
“I don’t know why you’re being so stubborn, mother. Your ego is the only thing that is keeping you from seeing the truth right in front of your face.” This was getting them nowhere and her mind had already been made up. Natalie glanced over her shoulder and didn’t even have to say one word. It was the expression and the way that her eyes pleaded with him that made it easier for both of them to convey what was on their minds without saying anything at all.
“I’ve heard just about… ARGHHHHHHH.” It was like she had been attacked by the wind itself. Catherine was lifted off the ground with this creature holding her in the air like she weighed nothing. His other hand was crushing the gun and her hand at the same time. She tried to scream, but there was nothing there. He dropped her crumpled form and she was on her knees looking at her hand and feeling the pain radiating through her limb like that of a white hot poker.
"I didn’t kill her, but I wanted to with every fiber of my being. I didn’t do that for you and I hope that it doesn’t come back and bite me. I wasn’t lying when I said that I could try to make this world inhospitable. They only came here because they think that this world will be easily inhabitable by their kind. I can show them that being here anymore than necessary is detrimental to their health. What you need to do is follow my directions to the letter. We have some time and this first attack was only to determine your defenses. They will retreat, until the crack of dawn. They will come in force and that is when we are going to have to work together.” Marcel had this need to join his brothers and having them this close had made that pull even that much harder to resist.
“I’m looking at these directions and they don’t seem to make much sense. I’m going on faith that you know what you’re doing. I can have all of these components loaded onto a scud missile. We’ve made an enemy out of my mother and I don’t think that she’s going to surrender easily. Waving the white flag has never been something that she was good at. She would rather go down in a blaze of Glory than to have to face any kind of tribunal.” “I’ve lived each day to the fullest, or at least I convinced myself that I was. I had let my mother dictate the terms of my life for long enough. I thoug
ht that I needed her approval, but I didn’t really need anything from her.” “I have a way to make them back down and give them something else to chew on for a while.” She played with the computer and all the cells opened up to reveal those that had been here one month or almost three years. None of them were very happy, but their freedom was not going to be easy.
They surrounded her and she noticed that they didn’t look like monsters anymore. They showed their pain and made no mistake about how they felt about being imprisoned. These were humans that had found a way to live with their mutations. They didn’t want to be brought into the light. It was that fear that made them hide what they were and what they were capable of. There were only a few bad apples and those that considered themselves superior turned out to be the worst of the lot.
“You don’t have any reason to believe me, but this is your way out.” She manipulated the controls of the elevator, so that the doors were the only things that opened. “You can climb the ladder to freedom. You will come across resistance and I expect that not all of you will survive.” “I shouldn’t be using them like this, but it’s the only way. They all have ways to defend themselves and they wouldn’t be here if my mother didn’t consider them to be problematic.”
All of them looked at her and considered hurting her, but then decided that discretion was a better part of valor. They knew that she was the commander’s daughter and doing anything that would even harm a hair on her head would’ve been tantamount to suicide. They were hesitant to climb the ladder, but when one started the others followed the leader. The one with the bull horns on his head had courage and strength and was willing to share with anybody that was going to follow him into battle. He had a remarkable gift of transferring his emotions to others, especially anger and that was something that he was going to use to his advantage.