by Keary Taylor
We were all on a boat. A very large boat. We were bobbing just twenty yards from the shore.
And sitting right on that shore was a massive, towering city.
“This doesn’t exactly look like the Redwoods,” I growled as my eyes met Margaret’s.
“We lied,” she said, that grin creeping across her face. “Welcome to Seattle.”
“What about New Eden?” I asked, red hot coals building in me.
“Fine, for the most part,” she said, her expression going dark. “Once we realized what a valuable asset you were, we decided to take what we could and cut our losses. We don’t have the Pulse, but I’m sure you’ll provide some very interesting, very valuable information.”
“I don’t know anything about how to build the Pulse,” I said through gritted teeth. “And I’m not telling you anything.”
“That’s not exactly what we’re after,” she said with that wicked grin of hers. “And talking wasn’t the method I had in mind to obtain it.”
“Where’s West?” I demanded, again trying to jerk out of my bonds.
“He and some of the others headed for shore just before dawn on the speed boat,” she answered. “He’s safe.”
“What did you promise him?”
“We’ll honor our promise,” she said, lifting her chin just a bit, as if I had insulted her integrity. “He provided valuable information, even if he didn’t realize he was giving it and what we intended to do with it.”
“You tricked it out of him,” I said, hatred spewing from my every word.
The grin spread on her face and there was a manic look in her eyes. “The poor boy was so starved for some female attention. Tara was so attentive and such a good listener. She was so willing to hear all about the emotionally broken girl who picked another man over him.”
“He doesn’t know you’ve taken me, does he?” I said, my voice growing quieter.
“We thought it best with his…condition, if he remained cooperative and calm. You wouldn’t want him making any rash decisions, would you? We just might not be able to help him if he becomes unpleasant. And you might not have picked him, but I am sure you still don’t want him Evolving.”
I knew then that I would have no choice but to cooperate with this witch.
She saw it in my face and I wanted to kill her when that smile of hers reached her eyes.
“Now then,” she said turning to look at the shore. “We need your help I’m afraid. This big ship didn’t move as fast as we would have liked it to. We sent ahead some of our crew on the speed boat, including your West. They should have gotten to safety before the Bane woke. But it’s starting to get light, and they’re waiting for us.”
She pointed to the shore and I finally noticed the small details I had missed before.
Bane.
At least a dozen of them standing along the shore, watching us with empty eyes.
“From what your friend told Tara, you have the ability to control them,” she looked back at me with curiosity. “We need you to keep them off us so we can get home.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “I think you’re overestimating my abilities. Controlling the Bane, especially that many, isn’t a sure thing.”
“I think you’ll manage,” she said coldly. Suddenly she made a signal with her hand and the boat growled back to life and started to crawl forward.
It was going to be pointless to fight them, that much was obvious.
So all I could do was start thinking stay away.
The massive boat pulled alongside the dock, and with jerky movements, the Bane along the shore started moving toward us.
One of them had been standing on the boardwalk and was moving at a quick rate. His legs moved at jerky intervals as if he were walking through tar.
“I suggest you make it stop,” Margaret said, turning cold eyes on me. “Because if you can’t do what your friend West said you could do, we have no reason to try and keep you alive.”
“Just shoot it!” I yelled as I watched it make its way closer. It stumbled as its legs froze.
“Call this a test,” she said.
By now the Bane had climbed to its feet again and was sprinting toward the dock.
“Stop!” I yelled, my heart pounding in my chest.
And it instantly froze in place.
“The water,” I said, my voice shaking more than I would have liked. “Now.”
It jumped off the dock. It hit the water with hissing sounds and a quick pop of light before it shorted out and sank out of sight.
I slowly met Margaret’s eyes. That wicked grin was back. “Now that’s more like it,” she said. “Test completed. Shoot the rest of them.”
The air was instantly alive with the sound of gunfire. Their bodies dropped on the shore.
“Let’s move!” Alistar screamed.
The dolly I was chained to suddenly jerked to motion as one of the men grabbed the back of it and started pushing me out onto the dock. And everyone was running.
When we got to the end of the boardwalk and out onto a road, I saw why.
A good one hundred Bane were climbing out of buildings, running down roads. All called by the noise of their shots.
Stay back, I thought, over and over.
“Stay away from us!” I yelled.
More and more bodies climbed out of buildings.
My connection wasn’t very strong with so many of them, but my captors fired as we ran. And I was able to keep them far enough away to keep any of them from touching us.
We had run for less than a minute when one of the armed men pulled open a heavy door in the sidewalk. A set of stairs dropped into the darkness. Someone grabbed the metal plate beneath my feet, and the two of them lifted me and down we dropped.
Once everyone had clambered inside, the door was closed and I heard a lock slide into place.
The lighting was dim and it took even my eyes a few moments to adjust.
We were in some kind of tunnel. Crumbling brick, stone, and wood walls stretched out before us. Moisture was heavy in the air. Everything tasted like mildew. Gas lamps hung every so often, providing little light to see by.
They carried me down the tunnel. As we moved, other’s popped their heads out from doors. Each of them was as pale and sickly looking as the last.
I didn’t have to ask questions. They survived in this city by never seeing the sun.
But that was only going to last so long. The Bane were Evolving past that need.
We entered a large room. The floor was dirty and dusty, just like all the walls and the crumbling ceiling.
The men carrying me set the dolly down and Margaret and Alistar stood before me.
“Welcome to the Underground,” she said.
“I think I’ll decline that welcome,” I growled.
“Then decline it,” she said, her expression going sour. “But you’re not going anywhere.”
“Why are you doing this?” I said. I wasn’t sure if I felt any better when her armed men started disbanding from the room. “I mean, you’re human. Aren’t we supposed to be helping each other survive? Not kidnapping each other.”
“Exactly!” she exploded. Her eyes blazed and she seemed to grow six inches. “Those of us who are left are supposed to help each other! Each of us has a duty to reclaim our world. But your people keep their technology to themselves. They let that weapon sit and rot on the roof when they could be using it to clear our country, our continent!”
“What did you expect?” I spat back. “You came in with secrets and lies and guns and just expected us to hand it over to you?”
“I expected you all to see what the right thing to do was,” she said coldly as she took a step closer to me. “We are growing fewer and fewer each and every day. You want to know what the estimated percentage of the remaining human population is now? Less than half a percent! Ninety-nine point five percent of the population has been infected. If we don’t do something now, we are handing the planet over to the Bane.”<
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The last statistic I had heard was ninety-eight. And even though it had only changed by one and a half percent, it was crushing to hear it.
I didn’t have anything to say in response.
“We’re not done with your friends down south,” Margaret said. She placed her hands on her hips and took another step closer. “But we have a new subject to learn from first.”
“I’m not telling you anything until I see that West is safe.” Everything in me screamed to find a way out of this place, to not say a word. But I couldn’t just leave West here unaware of what these people were really doing.
“And I’m happy to oblige,” she said with that repulsive smile. I realized then why it was so vile. Her teeth were a disgusting mix of yellow and brown and the ones on the left side of her mouth were horridly crooked. “Right this way.”
Alistar came behind me and wheeled me down another tunnel.
“I seriously suggest you don’t say a word, or even breathe,” Margaret said as we slowed at the end of a tunnel. “He is never to know you are here.”
“I understand,” I said with a dead voice.
We stopped outside a door with a cloudy window. Alistar wheeled me right up to it.
West was seated inside, talking to a man with a bushy beard that didn’t fit his narrow body. The man tapped the device in West’s chest, speaking words I couldn’t hear.
“Thank you,” I said quietly and they started wheeling me down another tunnel. “What is this place?” I asked when we had some distance between us.
“The Underground of Seattle,” Alistar said. So he did speak for himself after all. “The majority of the city of Seattle burned in the late 1800’s. The ground level frequently flooded with the tides and rain though, so instead of rebuilding, they built on top of the remains. These tunnels are what’s left of the original city. We’ve extended them into the basements of other buildings, securing them.”
“How many of you are there?”
“That doesn’t concern you,” Margaret said in her cold voice. We reached another door which she pulled open and Alistar wheeled me into it.
I was unprepared for this room.
A single light bulb hung from the ceiling. In the middle of the small room, was a steel table.
It took everything I had in me not to start screaming for my release, not to break my cybernetic bones to get free.
The sound of a drill was echoing in my brain.
“Welcome to your room,” Margaret said.
Alistar wheeled me to one corner and parked me there.
“It’s been a long day,” she said as they walked to the door. “We’ll be back for you tomorrow morning. I hope you’re comfortable.”
They stepped outside and the door locked with a solid grinding sound of a metal post sliding into the wall.
And I was left there, chained to the dolly.
ELEVEN
I’d nearly tipped myself over in the struggle to free myself. The skin covering my ankles was torn and bleeding. I wore the flesh on my wrists away trying to escape my bonds. My cybernetic bones clanged against the chains.
But I’d gained no freedom.
Cyclones of emotions ripped through me. I’d been buoyed by rage and hatred for hours. I’d struggled against my bonds, my tiny new world washed in red.
But slowly uncertainty, bordering on fear, crept in.
What were they planning to do with me?
Assumptions were easy to make with that steel table in the middle of the room.
“She’s afraid,” a voice from the past echoed.
The drill screamed and the air was cold.
I closed my eyes, trying to force the dreams and memories out of my head.
“Doesn’t she ever get tired?
“She’s never been this aggressive before.”
There was so much red. Metal and blood.
My breath caught in my chest and I jerked my arms again, tearing my flesh more.
Subject is again devoid of emotion.
“Sometimes they would let us play together.”
“Damn it, West,” I hissed, my eyes sliding open and rising to the damp looking ceiling. “What did you do?”
I’d probably only been this room for a few hours, and already I was losing my mind.
But I’d been losing my mind before these people had cyborgnapped me. Avian had been right, it was only a matter of time before I would have snapped. And who knows who I would have broken with me.
I knew the answer to that question. I’d already started doing it.
West.
Despite how beyond angry I was with him in that moment, I hoped wherever he was, he was safe. As safe as he could be.
I assumed he would be. He’d left home willingly in order to escape me.
But how safe was everyone in New Eden now? How much damage had been done before my captors left?
A horrifying thought occurred to me then. What if they hadn’t all left? How did I know that they had all returned to Seattle?
How did I know that I was the only hostage?
“Avian.” His name whispered over my lips with the skip of a heartbeat and ice in my stomach.
No, he’d been fighting when I went down. I saw that. I had to tell myself that he was fine, back in New Eden. These people wanted to study me. Avian was normal, human. They would gain nothing by taking him.
But Avian tended to do stupid, irrational things when it came to my safety. What would he do when he found I was gone?
A low growl worked its way up my chest.
I’d kill every single one of them if anything happened to him.
I counted the seconds eagerly.
Sometime they were going to have to release me. Sometime these chains were going to loosen. Sometime someone was going to accidently grant me a tiny window of opportunity and I would exploit it.
I was going to make it out of here.
And I was going to make it home.
I waited in the pitch black, in the musty dark. I plotted all the ways I was going to choke Alistar. The way I would break in all of Margaret’s disgusting teeth.
And finally, the dim bulb above my head flickered back on.
Feet shuffled out in the hall. Muffled voices tricked in through the cracks around the door.
The knob turned, and the door shrieked as it was pushed open.
A tiny man with thick, black glasses stepped timidly into the room. His small shoulders were covered with a white lab coat. His shoes were ragged and worn. He wouldn’t make eye contact as I stared at him with dark eyes.
He carried a device with him. It reminded me of a radio but had something that looked like a tiny computer hooked to it.
“You are holding me prisoner here,” I said through clenched teeth. “We are both human, we do not treat each other like this. Not since the world started teetering on the edge of extinction.”
“That’s apparently debatable,” he said. His voice as small and weak sounding as his physique.
“What?” I questioned, not sure I had even heard what he had said.
“Us both being human.” He pushed a button on the radio looking portion of the device. It started making scratchy sounds.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I said, shaking my head, flexing my muscles, straining against my bonds. If only I could break free. I could snap this tiny man with little effort.
“You’re emitting a low frequency signal,” he said, turning the device so I could see it. A screen showed two barely twitching brilliant green lines. “Two, actually. One that is similar to the what the Bane emit. It doesn’t really do anything. It’s more a side effect of all of their cybernetic components. But the other, I’m not really sure what it is. Fascinating.”
“I swear to you, if you don’t let me go I will call a hoard of Bane down here to destroy every living soul in this hovel!” I screamed. And suddenly the idea, however startling it was, seemed like an option to gain my freedom.
“I don’t sugg
est it,” he said, his eyes dropping to my feet. “You see, while you were drugged, we attached a live electrical wire to that lovely thing you’re chained to. I just have to push this little button if you do anything I don’t like, and a shock strong enough to all but kill you will run through your mechanical body.”
“You son of a—”
“Language, please,” he said, his voice rising just slightly for the first time.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from spewing more vile things. My insides were full of them.
“Now,” he said, pulling a stool from beneath the table. It scraped the concrete floor and the sound echoed off the stone walls. “I have some questions. If you don’t mind.”
“Doesn’t seem I have much of a choice,” I said, my voice low.
“Not really,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. They were dead eyes, gray and hollow. They reminded me of the eyes of the Bane. “We’ll get our answers one way or another.”
“I don’t intend to do this the easy way.”
“That’s fine,” he said. His voice was madly calm and even. Almost as if he was talking to an animal he didn’t wish to scare away. “But for your safety, I suggest you change your mind on that.”
He didn’t wait for me to respond and placed another device on the table. It was an old fashioned tape recorder. The tape started slowly spinning when he pushed the button with the red circle.
“How long were you at NovaTor Biotics?” he asked, his eyes meeting mine again.
“How do you know I was ever there?” I said, once again trying to gain any wiggle room in my chains.
“Your friend accidently shared quite a few secrets,” he said.
“What did he tell you?”
“Not as much as we would like to know,” he said. “That is why I am asking you these questions. Now, how long were you at NovaTor?”
I held his eyes for a long time. There was something terrifying about this little man. Like he knew how to twist things into the shape he wanted to see, break you in ways you didn’t know you could be broken.
This little man was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
And maybe, just maybe, if I cooperated, I’d make it out of here alive to get back to Avian and New Eden.