The Hive (Rasper Book 2)

by Kathleen Groger

  “This is so creepy.” I wandered through the body parts and picked up an arm.

  It was so lifelike. The material covering the robotic parts not only looked like skin, it felt like it too. As I wiggled the fingers, I flashed back to the Rasper’s nail scraping down the car window as Adam and I sped away from the house. The house where in the garage we found a dead body. The dead body whose fleshless skeletal fingers clutched the old torn map. The map that had the words 300 Seed Plot written on it.

  I folded all the fingers down but the middle one and set the arm so it would give the finger to the next person to enter the warehouse. I hoped it was Dr. Morgenstern. It was totally childish and crude, but it gave me a small victory of being able to express my feelings.

  I walked back to the guys. “Let’s get out of here.”

  We left the robot part room and went further down the ramp. The circular shape cut in like it was a funnel, and the outside turned into what looked like metal. Strange geometrical diamond designs covered the metal. I got an overwhelming urge to run my fingers along the shapes, but I kept my hands balled in my hoodie’s pocket.

  Taylor stopped at a vault-like door marked with three slashes, Adam turned. “Why haven’t you checked out this level?”

  Taylor half shrugged. “I haven’t had the time. It took me a long time to break the security codes for the first two levels. This one took even longer. Working on the codes helped pass the day.”

  He cracked his knuckles, then made a complex maze of shapes, then typed in a series of numbers. After about twenty seconds of him making pattern after pattern, the door finally opened.

  “Whoa. Almost screwed it up.”

  The lights clicked on. We all stepped into a room about the size of a standard classroom. Black lockers bigger than the ones at school covered the walls. A metal door with a clear window filled the opposite wall, flanked by two banks of signs full of red and orange lettering. With each word I read, my skin tingled. The rules were strict, and the danger was real.

  I turned and whispered, not really knowing why, “It’s a clean room protocol. We’re supposed to put on suits from the lockers, then enter the chemical shower.” The process weirded me out a little. We were three levels below the facility. Below two levels of storage. “Why would they have a lab like this down this far?”

  “Probably because only a few people know what’s really down here.” Adam opened the closest locker. It was filled with a bio containment suit.

  “We’re doing this, right?” I opened a locker and pulled out a suit.

  “Hell yeah we are.” Taylor grabbed another one.

  Once we were suited up and shoe-covered, we opened the next door. My breath fogged up the mask of the suit’s hood. This space was big enough for only about four people in the suits.

  “Ready?” Taylor had his gloved hand on the pull chain to activate the chemical shower.

  Adam and I both gave him a thumbs-up.

  The shower roared to life, liquid rained down over us, then a dryer activated. It reminded me of a car wash. When the shower process finished, the door automatically slid open.

  The next room held a long line of black hoses hanging from tracks that covered the ceiling and were plugged into a unit on the wall. Taylor removed one from the unit. “Val, turn around.”

  I spun so he could clip the hose into a circle on the back of the suit. Air whirred into my suit. “How do you know how to do this?” My voice sounded muffled through the suit.

  “I loved sci-fi and zombie movies.” Taylor clipped a hose to Adam, who in turn clipped one to Taylor’s suit.

  I hit a button by a door that would lead us into the next room. The door slid back all the way from the ceiling, allowing us to go through with the hoses. I walked forward into a laboratory filled with electronics.

  And glass tanks big enough to fit a person inside.

  “What the hell are these for?” Adam asked from behind me.

  I turned, almost knocking into him. “I’m not sure I want to know.”

  The room and empty tanks seemed to go on for a while, but we finally reached another door. A weird pink glow emanated through the window. My knees weakened and I stumbled.

  Taylor grabbed me to keep me from falling. “You okay?”

  I swallowed. I desperately wanted to leave. “Yeah, darn suit is making me clumsy.”

  “Help us.” The words came from nowhere, yet it felt like everywhere. Like there were people surrounding me and screaming in my ears.

  Despite the heavy suit, chills raced across my skin at the words I knew no one else heard. I exhaled, making the mask fog over for a second. All the little hairs on my body stood at attention. Something wasn’t right. Whatever was on the other side of the door was bad. I knew it deep in my soul. But I couldn’t turn back. I had to see what Zigotgen was hiding in the bowels of their top-secret research facility.

  “What do you guys think?” Taylor asked with his finger hovering over the black hamburger-sized button to open the next door.

  “I didn’t get this dressed up not to do anything.” My words sounded much more confident than I felt.

  “Okay.” Taylor pushed the button.

  We went through the next door.

  The laboratory was bathed entirely in pink. Pink like my visions.

  My breath caught in my throat. It felt like the suit was choking me and the oxygen being pumped into the suit had turned to smoke.

  This lab was filled with more of the glass tanks.

  But these weren’t empty.

  Six of them had people inside.

  16

  “Holy—” Adam couldn’t get the words out. It was as if he was just punched in the gut and could not catch his breath.

  We gravitated to the closest tank. A woman floated inside a liquid that was pink or looked pink due to the light shining up from the bottom of the tank. Her brown hair billowed out, and her eyes were closed. Her naked skin had an orangish tint.

  “Is she dead?” Adam asked.

  “I don’t think so, look, there are bubbles around her head. She must be breathing somehow.” Taylor pointed with his gloved finger. “Do you think the light is making her skin look so weird?”

  Orange. Orange wasn’t a primary color. It was made from mixing red with yellow. Yellow. And if you mixed pink, a mix of red and white, with yellow, you would get… “Guys, I think she’s a Rasper.”

  “What?” Adam glanced at me then back at the tank.

  “If you have yellow skin, mix it with the pink, it would come out an orange shade.” I bent down to look at her nails. “Look. Her index finger has the damn pointy nail.” I backed up and tried to wrap my arms across my chest, but the bulky suit prevented it. I had been seeing this room in my visions. From the perspective of these people. How was that possible?

  “Are they all the same color?” Adam went to the three filled tanks on the right side.

  Taylor inspected the other two next to the woman. I couldn’t take my eyes off her hair. It undulated, reminding me of seaweed that coiled around your feet trapping you in the ocean waves.

  “All three over here are the same orange color.” Adam came back to my side.

  “Same here.” Taylor joined us.

  “What should we do?” Taylor asked.

  “Well, we can’t let them out. That’s for sure. I’m guessing that Zigotgen is studying them. We need to find out why and what they know.” I started walking toward the other tanks when a voice stopped me cold.

  “You do not need to know anything. You need to get out of here. Now.”

  I turned.

  Kalis and his crew stood inside the room armed with guns. They were not dressed in the biohazard suits. They were dressed for battle.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “Guess we didn’t need the suits,” Taylor said in a more smartass tone than he usually used.

  They had snuck up on us. I had a gun, but it was on the inside of the bio-suit. They had the advantage. There was no way I wa
s winning this round. Taylor’s and Adam’s slumping shoulders told the same story. They reluctantly turned and trudged out of the laboratory.

  Zombie came to my side. “Val, it’s not personal. We’re just doing our job.”

  “Our job is to remove you from here. So march.” Kalis aimed his gun at me.

  “I’m going.” I held up my puffy arms, then left.

  Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling I was missing something in the lab. Something I should have seen. Something important.

  At the outer room we removed the suits and walked sandwiched in between the soldiers back up the ramp. I cast a glance over my shoulder. The ramp kept going down. The third level wasn’t the bottom. My skin twitched at what else might be down there.

  We were brought to an office off of the main circular room with the starry ceiling. The soldiers took positions around the room, blocking us from leaving or touching the computer equipment. The guys sat at the table, but I couldn’t sit. I was too keyed up. I knew I had missed something in the lab, and I kept trying to picture it to figure out what was causing me to be so confident I’d failed.

  I stuffed my hands in the hoodie pocket to puff the sweatshirt out more. I couldn’t have one of the eagle-eyed soldiers noticing the gun bulge. There was no way it was being taken away from me. Always have a weapon. It was rule number two and a damn good one.

  I leaned toward the guys.

  “No. No talking.” Kalis waved his gun. “Val, take a seat or move back.”

  I took a seat and kept my hands in front of me. A fog crept from the peripheral parts of my vision until it covered my sight. I couldn’t see. Everything went numb. No sense of smell or temperature. It was as if I died. Then all of a sudden, my vision filled with a different view. Everything went pink. A sense of familiarity washed over me. I tried to turn my head, but nothing happened. Squinting, I tried to make out more than just pink. A hazy wall seemed to keep the pink in front of me. I didn’t understand, I was trapped and couldn’t get out. I tried to scream. Something rushed into my throat. I was choking. Darkness wrapped around me like a boa constrictor. My eyes grew heavy. The darkness won.

  I came to with my palms flat against the tabletop, breathing heavier than I should be. I shot a glance at Adam and then at Taylor. They were both looking at me with questioning faces. I gave them an I’m-okay nod.

  I had seen helicopter wreckage, the spiders from hell outside the facility, white space, then just pink. Pink. Pink. A chill ripped down my arms. Were the people in the tubes the ones calling to me? Had they been the ones guiding, pulling me here? I fought the urge to run, but not every muscle got the message. When I shifted, Kalis tipped the muzzle of his gun in my direction. Damn it. I had to wait. I needed to talk to the guys. I needed help.

  The director entered the room. “So, I hear you were caught in the, as you call them, Rasper experiment area. What exactly were you doing?” He directed the question to Adam, most likely expecting him to tell the truth.

  Taylor spoke first. “Aw, Director, I was bored. I’ve been here for months. No entertainment. Just wanted to explore. We didn’t do anything. Just checked out the tanks.”

  The director turned to Taylor. “You need to stop hacking the codes. Now we have to change everything. Again.” He tapped the back of a chair. “I thought you would have learned to keep your fingers off my keyboards after the last time.”

  “Yes, sir. I apologize. It won’t happen again.” Taylor had the talent to look embarrassed and regretful at the same time. He held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

  “Don’t give me that shit, Taylor. You were never a scout, and we both know you won’t be able to stop. You’re a damn hacker. And quickly becoming a liability.”

  Another chill slipped down my skin, but this one was due to fear. Taylor was becoming a liability because the director didn’t need him now that Adam and I were here.

  Adam must have came to the same conclusion because he said, “Uncle Darren, look, we want to help. Like I said before, we’re not the enemy. We want to get rid of these aliens just as much as you do, if not more. If we work together, we might be able to kick their ass. Please don’t make us feel like prisoners. Let us help.”

  The director rubbed his chin. “Yeah, I know. You made a very compelling argument before.” He walked to the screen on the wall. Zombie stepped to the left to give him room. The director stared at the screen, not saying anything.

  The silence in the room was more unconformable than fingernails on a chalkboard. What was about two or three minutes felt like an hour. Finally, the director slowly turned around. “Okay, no more guns. Thank you, Kalis. Your team is dismissed. Take the night off.”

  Kalis nodded, and the soldiers filed out of the room. Before Kalis left, he caught my eye. He gave me a look like he was trying to communicate something to me. I had no idea what though.

  “Okay, tomorrow you three will report to my office after breakfast. We’ll get down to business. Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind. I assume Taylor can navigate you back to your quarters.” He gazed back at the blank screen.

  The three of us scrambled to our feet and were out the door without a second thought. Taylor was able to determine the correct doorway to get us back to our residential wing. None of us went to our rooms. Instead I tilted my head to have the guys come into the library with me.

  “Thank you, Adam.” Taylor’s voice was soft and sincere.

  Adam nodded. “As I was telling Val before, we need to cooperate if we’re going to get out of here.”

  “What did the other Raspers in the tanks look like?” My nervousness over what they would say was ready to boil over. I tugged on the end of my hair to stay focused. I regretted not inspecting them all myself.

  Adam shrugged. “Pretty average. Two hairy dudes and a woman who looked like she was my mom’s age.”

  “A bald guy and a girl about our age. Why do you ask?” Taylor sat on the arm of one of the chairs.

  My insides pretzeled. “The girl. What did her hair look like?”

  Taylor held his hands out, palms up. “Blonde. Long blonde hair. She was actually very pretty.” His face reddened.

  Adam’s eyes widened. “Val, you’re not thinking it’s… oh, shit.”

  “What am I missing?” Taylor stood.

  “But that would mean she’s...” Adam ran his fingers through his hair. “That’s not possible. She’s right-handed.”

  “Who?”

  I faced Taylor. “I think Megan, our friend who we’ve been looking for, might be the blonde girl.”

  Taylor tiled his head. “Why would you think that without seeing her?”

  I licked my lips trying to get them some moisture. “Because I’ve been having visions. And I think I’m seeing what she’s seeing. Like we’re connected.”

  17

  “You think your friend is in a tank, a Rasper, and you can see what she’s seeing because, what, you have a weird psychic connection with her? What makes you think that when you didn’t even see her to know for sure she’s the one down there?” Taylor’s tone made me think he thought I was nuts.

  I wasn’t too sure I wasn’t.

  “There’s one way to find out. We go back,” Adam said, trying to soften some of the sharp daggers Taylor was throwing my way.

  “You may have convinced the director that we’re here to help, but if we go back there now, he’ll put us under lock and gun.” Taylor sat back on the arm of the chair.

  I bit my lower lip until I could taste the blood in my mouth.

  “I hate to agree. We need to wait.” The words stung as I heard myself say them.

  My eyes watered as they moved from the floor to Adam. His eyes looked like they were on fire.

  “What? You of all people think we should wait?”

  I didn’t like the way Adam looked at me.

  Adam ripped a book from the closest shelf and threw it across the room. “Damn it!”

  “Believe me, I don’t. I want to r
ace down there and check so I know for sure. But like you said, we need to cooperate. That’s the only way we’ll be able to get out of here. If Megan is in a tank, she’s a...” I swallowed past the lump of guilt in my throat. I wiped the tears with both hands but they wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t think it. I wouldn’t say it.

  “She’s a Rasper,” Adam said through gritted teeth.

  The actual words hit me like a freight train. I collapsed into the chair, hung my head, and bit my tongue hard to try and keep my emotions in check. I needed to think about the next step. What to do from here. But Megan’s infectious smile, her unfailing determination, kept creeping into every thought path I tried. There was no use. If it was true, I had failed. I had failed to protect her. Failed to keep my new family safe. If I failed at that, what good was I? Razor stabs sliced at my heart, shredding the very essence of who I was. I was a survivor. A protector. A saver. But I really wasn’t. I had gotten lucky. When it came to what mattered, I had failed.

  Adam put his hand on my back. When I didn’t say anything or jerk away, he rubbed small circles. “Maybe it’s not her. Taylor was the only one who saw her. As soon as it’s safe, we’ll find out for sure. If it turns out she is, maybe we can reverse it.”

  I looked up and used my sleeve to wipe my eyes. “How? If we could do that, we could save everyone.”

  Adam knelt in front of me, taking my hands in his. “Remember when we came through the tunnel to the storeroom at Camp David?”

  I thought back. That was where I grabbed the paper clip and noticed Rollins had my dad’s gun. “Yeah. So?”

  “So, remember Dr. Morgenstern getting pissy with Rollins? She said she might revoke her offer of vaccinating him. They have to have something here.”

  “How will we find it? They will have anything under tight security.” A pain like I ate something too spicy settled in my chest.

  “We didn’t go through all this to sit around and do nothing. I believe in you. In Megan. In us.”

  Taylor cleared his throat. “We need to figure out a plan. I’ll work on getting info from the computer system.” Taylor shifted to the edge of the coffee table.