The Renegade Shifters

by Cheryl Rush Cowperthwait

  A shrill ring pierced the calm room, rattling nerves and sending books flying. Bailey lunged forward as Rye picked up the phone. The ring could only be from Dave.

  “Hi, Dave.” Rye’s voice carried apprehension within it. He placed it to speaker phone so Bailey could hear.

  “I have confirmation the new pods will land sometime this evening, which is interesting as it coincides with a meteor shower. I only can hope their trajectory doesn’t place them into danger.”

  Bailey paced, one hand sliding over her head repetitively. “Why wouldn’t they have waited? This could endanger whoever is inside.”

  A grunt sound came through the phone. “It is typical procedure when you want to hide something. You hide it in plain sight. It’s only a guess, but I suspect the landing is timed for the wee hours to avoid a large number of eyes watching the skies. Fortune favors them in this endeavor as the forecast calls for substantial rain in the area.”

  “What are your plans for their arrival?” Rye asked, watching Bailey.

  “We are still in the planning stage. I do know they are keeping the Shifters in a sedated mode and have been giving them daily injections to quell their desire to shapeshift. I can’t help but feel they’re about to do something of formidable consequences. I’m afraid this is only part of the news I bring.”

  It grew quiet. Bailey lost the last ounce of patience she carried. “Spill it, Dave.”

  “My source intercepted a phone call. It’s believed that someone within the DGE has captured both Geoff and Linken. They used females as a lure. It was their phone call that alerted me. Let me read you the transcript of the call.” There was a brief pause and the sound of rustling paper.

  “Targets captured. Repeat. Targets captured.”

  “How many?”

  “There were two males and one female located at a surveillance site, a bar frequented by those who are or imitate the Shifters, among other things. We deployed the tactic previously discussed and lured the two males towards the van in the parking lot. I injected the serum into the first target and as he crumbled to the ground, the other target was injected before he could shift. Unfortunately, the female saw us as she came out of the bar to investigate. She fled on foot. We heard a howl shortly thereafter. No doubt that she shifted and headed towards one of the tunnels to escape.”

  “Well done. No need to worry about the other one right now. Bring the targets to H2. They will be transported with the rest to the new location. We will have delivery tonight of the other cargo.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  It was quiet for a moment before Bailey spoke. “Where are they taking them?”

  Rye whipped his head to look at her, not for the question she asked, but from the vehemence in her words. It would be an understatement for him to say she was seething.

  Dave’s voice pierced the tension. “They will be brought to the facility near me. I have a team here ready to help liberate the Shifters.”

  “How are you going to do that?” Rye asked, his brows bunched together in puzzlement.

  Dave paused. “When they bring in the new Shifters, we’re hoping to catch them off-guard, subdue them and take the Shifters before they’re taken into the facility.”

  “Hell no, Dave. You’ll only expose yourself. Wait. Bailey and I will head out to join you in New Mexico. You know I’m right on this. You need us to help you.”

  “We’re planning on the liberated Shifters joining in to help us.”

  “Bad move,” replied Bailey. “They don’t know you. They’ll think you’re another secret group trying to snatch and grab them against their will. At least if we’re with you, Geoff and Linken will recognize us and give you half a chance to tell them what’s going on.”

  “Or the chance to kill us for leaving them—” Rye argued, looking at Bailey.

  “It’s the best chance they have, otherwise any hope of helping the Shifters is gone.” She tilted her head, giving Rye a smirk. “Besides, a dragon trumps a vampire any day.”

  “Hear that, Dave? There’s your answer. We’ll throw things in the Humvee and start heading your way. Where are you?”

  “Just head to New Mexico. When you cross into the state, call and I’ll send you the coordinates. Stay safe and remember, disguise your appearance.”

  They heard the click of the phone, yet stood there unmoving. Rye slipped his arm over Bailey’s shoulders and asked, “Are you worried?”

  Nodding her head, she answered. “Yeah. All the way around. If the DGE doesn’t capture or kill us, then you might be right—it could just as easily be from Geoff or Linken. I’m fairly sure I could get Linken to listen and maybe understand, but Geoff? He will be raging mad, and you’re not his favorite person.”

  “Yeah, I wonder why that is?” He smirked. “It’s not like I ran away with his woman.”

  “Oh, bullshit, Rye. He may have a crush on me but I’ve never been his woman.” Her eyes flared, a hint of the dragon coming to the surface. “I can’t help it if he thinks I should have stayed even if you asked me to go. There were never any commitments that I’d stay in his house indefinitely.”

  “No, he won’t blame you for leaving. He’ll be after me.” Rye shrugged, as a frown formed. “I don’t blame him, it’s what men do. We blame one another for our own shortcomings. His folly was not making his feeling known to you, even though it was obvious to me from the first meeting. I was not going to make that same mistake. I wanted you to know—from the beginning, there was never anyone else for me.”

  Bailey swallowed deeply, shifting her eyes to stare at the floor.

  Rye continued. “It’s okay. I don’t expect you to say anything or even feel the same way that I do. I’ll wait. At some point you’ll accept what I’m saying as truth or you’ll tell me to get lost.”

  Bailey’s shoe scrapped over the rug, making swirls like her mind felt. She issued a deep sigh. Rye took that as his cue.

  “I’ll throw some things together for the trip, and meet you in the kitchen. Take whatever time you need to get ready to go. I plan on gathering stuff to eat on the run. We don’t know how closely they’ll be watching for us, but the fewer times we have to get out of the vehicle, the greater our odds are of making it to Dave safely.”

  “Great idea. It won’t take me long to put together a few things. I’ll help you in the kitchen when I’m done.”

  He smiled and walked off to the room he’d been using.

  Bailey entered her room, thinking. What is with me? I’ve felt something for him ever since I first saw them bringing him into the lab. Even after they dulled my feelings with their concoctions, I was still drawn to him. Why can’t I tell him? She rubbed her face briskly as if that would rub away her thoughts and insecurities. Opening the closet, she pulled out a pair of jeans with a red and black flanneled shirt to slip into. She rummaged through the dresser and grabbed the items she needed plus a few baseball styled caps for the road. The caps would help hide part of their faces. By the time she changed and tossed her clothes into a travel bag, Rye had already finished and was adding food into bags.

  “What do you have in all those bags, mister?” Bailey asked entering the kitchen, snooping into the first bag.

  “Just some stuff to take the edge off of hunger. I wouldn’t want to stop so you could go hunt down a sheep or cow on the way.”

  “A hearty ha-ha to you. I’ve never had to feast on the meandering livestock.” Her cheeks flushed red.

  “Whoa now, I was joking. Look, lots of fruit, some jerky and beef sticks, jar of pickles, cheese and crackers…what else do we need?” He asked hunched over rummaging through the refrigerator.

  She brightened. “Grab those bottles of water and some sodas. Then that should keep us pacified.”

  They grabbed the first round of bags and loaded them into the vehicle. Rye went back to grab the rest and locked the door.

  He jumped into the driver’s seat. “Let’s roll.” He started the Humvee and let it roar towards the exit, lights flickeri
ng on as they drove.

  Chapter 18

  As they left their safe place deep in the Colorado mountains, Bailey looked in the rear-view mirror at what looked like an entrance to an abandoned mine. A slow half-smile edged her lips. The stay had been short, but memorable. She’d been one of the few that had seen the inner workings of the high security shelter, and her conjecture of the owners would stay a hidden secret. She tossed a cap to Rye. He shoved his ebony hair underneath it, hoping to disguise against any pictures circulated by the DGE. Bailey had done the same.

  They shot down the 285, conscious to keep their heads down along the overpasses to avoid being detected. Bailey kept a lookout watching the rearview mirror, almost certain they were being followed.

  “I hate this feeling,” she vented in frustration. “I feel at any moment we could be hauled away and taken to the place they have all the other collected Shifters.”

  “Yeah, I know that feeling. I can’t help but look behind us and search the skies for helicopters tracking our movements.”

  Bailey immediately leaned forward to get a better look at the sky. “Did you see one?”

  “No, it’s my adrenaline working overtime. I see shadows everywhere.”

  “Yeah, me too. Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you, do you remember when they took you? I mean, like where you were at and how they did it?”

  He glanced at Bailey and shook his head no. “It’s strange, it’s like they eliminated that day. I don’t remember anything about it. My first clear memory was waking up in a strange cell-type room. Then I remember the aliens, or what we thought were aliens at the time.”

  “I know you think they were the DGE workers made to resemble aliens but I don’t buy your theory. Remember, I worked side by side with those—things. There are many things you can fake, but I just don’t think this was the case. I don’t think even our pseudo government could fake them so well. I heard them, Rye. I heard the way they spoke with strange guttural sounds and that vibrating sound that was their laughter.”

  He scratched his prickly chin beneath his day-old growth of stubble. “Well, whatever they are, I have a feeling we’ll see them again if we get into the military stronghold. Speaking of which, you should catch some shuteye. Once we hook up with Dave, it’s going to be chaotic.”

  “Thanks but there’s no way I could close my eyes, let alone sleep right now. My heart feels like it’s about ready to shoot through my head, it’s racing so fast. How much longer until we cross the border?”

  Rye checked his watch. “Not long now, a couple of hours then we can call Dave to get the coordinates of where he wants us to meet him.”

  Glancing out the window, Bailey noted the sinking of the sun to the west leaving ribbons of orange and red stretching between towering cloud-giants beyond her window. “It’ll be dark soon,” she mused. “Somehow, that makes me feel safer.”

  “Yeah, I’m thinking of them sending the pods down in the cover of nightfall. I guess we all have that instinct of hiding in the darkness. I hope we can get to Dave before these storms hit.” He pointed off to the distance where the dark towers erupted with lightning.

  Bailey fiddled with the radio and suddenly stopped. She cranked up the volume letting their ride echo the tune, and smirked. Rye returned the quirky smile as they both burst out singing the anthem of the Shifters, gone rouge. They were, indeed, the renegades.

  “It makes me wonder what Shifters we’ll find housed in the military facility.” Bailey mused, watching the last embers of the daylight fade away.

  Rye grumbled. “It makes me mad thinking of all the people they toyed with against their will. When I think of their clandestine movements, and the lengthy tracking of us, the ones that minded their own business and kept to themselves, I get pissed all over again. It was us they targeted. That alone makes me want to rip them a new one.”

  “Stand in line, sweet cheeks. I’ll flame a clear path to them.”

  Rye grinned. “You know, I hadn’t thought of that. We’re bringing substantial firepower into the mix!” He laughed, slamming a palm against the steering wheel.

  “That’s about all I can think about, using the weapon they created in me. I can’t wait to look at those in their military finery, the ones that hid behind walls of glass watching our torment, then roast them to a crisp.”

  Rye nodded and grew quiet.

  After a moment, Bailey asked, “Okay. What’s on your mind all of a sudden to make you so quiet?”

  He turned to peer at her, noticing her pert nose and flashing green eyes, taking in the stray auburn curls framing the edges of her baseball cap. His eyes pooled with water before he turned back to watch the road. “I’m thinking this could end badly for all of us.”

  Bailey wiggled in her seat and sighed. “Yeah. It could.” She stared out into the darkness with its storm clouds illuminated with branching lightning, stretching along the horizon. Each stroke of blindness brought the storm closer.

  A road sign illuminated in front of them. Rye pointed it out. “Only thirty miles to the New Mexico border.”

  It was a somber thought. Reality seeped through their pores. Things were about to get real.

  They passed the sign for New Mexico and Rye pulled over to make the call. “Hi Dave. We just entered New Mexico.” He pushed the button for speaker.

  “You are close. Head to the village of Chama. I’ll be in an old white Ford truck with lots of rust coloring the hood. Don’t get out when you see it. I’ll be watching for the Humvee. When you’re in my sight, I’ll pull onto the road. Follow me. No more calls.” He hung up.

  Rye frowned and glanced at Bailey whose face mimicked his own. “Well, here we go.”

  The quietness in the van camouflaged the thoughts whirling in their minds. The scenery was beautiful with tall sentinels gracing the skyline, illuminated by flashes of lightning. Howling wind buffered against the Humvee before the first fat raindrops pelted the windshield.

  As they made a turn in the road, a white pickup truck let off the brake lights and merged in front of them. Dave! Rye adjusted and sat taller in his seat. Bailey leaned forward, resting her arms against the dashboard, peering through the night.

  The white truck veered off the road onto a winding dirt path. Rye followed at a safe distance as Bailey looked all around them for anyone else that might have seen them exit. Spotting no one, she returned her sights to what lay ahead. When their headlights bounced up and down in front of them, she thought she spotted an old wooden structure up ahead.

  Dave tapped his brakes and made a sharp right, leading them up a mountain road. He went past a peeling barn-red wooden shack and parked in the back. Rye followed and parked next to him. Dave exited the pickup and didn’t wait for them to talk, only motioning them to follow him.

  They dodged through the stinging raindrops, hurrying to get inside before the storm clouds opened wide with its onslaught of rain churning in swollen bellies. The interior of the shack was filled with busted furniture and graffiti speckled walls. Dave guided them to what once was a kitchen and pulled open the pantry that gave access to the hidden stairway. When both Rye and Bailey were inside, Rye leaned over to grasp the leather pull and shut the entrance. The sound of footsteps permeated the chamber. At the bottom of the stairs held the basement and more storage for canned vegetables lined up in a shroud of dust. Dave hit a hidden button, sliding a wall open wide enough to pass through.

  The difference was like night and day. A whirl of activity was going on all around them in a vast underground facility complete with a glassed off lab. Several people worked in lab coats, three sitting inside the lab pouring over information at their computer stations. The inner sanctum had a height nearly fifteen feet by Rye’s estimation, with the back wall filled with enviable sized monitors depicting various places. Several people looked up from their work momentarily, then went back to their tasks seemingly disinterested in the new arrivals.

  Dave led them down a hall and opened a door, waiting for them to enter
. As they entered, they found a burly man sitting in a thickly padded leather chair, pouring over files on the long table in front of them.

  “Dr. Wesley Kord, this is Rhyzel and Bailey, the Shifters that previously escaped the space station.” Dave motioned for them to take a seat around the table.

  “I wish we could have met under better terms.” Wesley grimaced, biting down on the unlit cigar bobbing between his lips. “By the way, just call me Wes. I’ve got more doctorate designations than you could wipe from the crack of your ass, but my main job has always been military. Well, until I found out what they were doing, the sum bitches.”

  Bailey’s eyes grew wide. She didn’t know what to think about this new man. He certainly didn’t look military unless you had visions of old generals on the verge of war. Rye removed his cap, scratching his head as he took a seat across from Wesley. Bailey sat next to him and Dave took a seat to the left of Wesley.

  Wesley skidded folders in front of his new guests. “Open them up and take a look at what we’re up against.”

  The sound of flipping folders echoed in the quiet of the sound-proofed room. As each page turned, Rye glared at the images. What met their eyes was unlike anything they could have prepared for.

  Wesley pointed to several charts that he removed from his file and pointed to their files. “First, pick up this page.” He tapped the page with his finger. “This was the point in which I first became involved. We were supposed to dispose of undetonated nuclear bombs, they said for the release of natural gas. A whole bunch of shit came out after that, primarily how many cases of cancers were diagnosed afterward. Radiation leaked like a sieve. I say all this to tell you what I learned after the incident. It was not to test a new way to get to natural gas. Hell, we already knew how to get at that stuff. This was in the late nineteen-sixties and I was about to get me an edu-macation, as they say. There was an all-out war going on below the surface of that plateau.”

  Rye looked up from the pictures and asked, “What war?”