by I. T. Lucas
She waved a hand. “It’s too early in the morning for that. I work two jobs, and I don’t have time for dating. Sorry.”
Scott finished unloading her cart and closed the trunk. “Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me. I work Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and the late shift on the weekend.”
“Sure.” She cast him a smile. “See you around.”
54
Brundar
“I’m calling Liam,” Brundar told Magnus as they arrived back at the hotel. “I hope he has something for me.”
He wondered whether he’d become more talkative because he was heading the operation with around thirty Guardians answering to him, or was it the influence of Magnus’s easy-going attitude and optimism? The Guardian hadn’t stopped believing they were going to find Anandur even when the situation seemed hopeless to Brundar.
He needed that to keep going. Sinking into despair was not an option.
Thankfully, Magnus seemed immune to the black hole effect Brundar’s darkness had on other people.
“At eleven o'clock in the morning? I doubt it. The girl is probably still asleep.”
“She has another job during the day. She can’t stay in bed.”
“Hard-working lass. I wonder what her story is.” Magnus chuckled. “I wonder about Wonder. That’s funny.”
Brundar shook his head. No wonder Anandur and Magnus got along so well. The two were a match made in heaven.
He dialed Liam’s number. “What’s up, Liam?”
“Nothing interesting. I followed the girl to the supermarket. I’m watching her now talking to the boy who helped her load her groceries into her trunk.”
“What did she buy?”
“A big-ass sack of rice and a couple of sacks of beans. The rest is in paper bags, and I don’t have X-ray vision.”
“Keep following her and let me know if you see anything suspicious.”
“Like what?”
“You have the addresses of the places she cleans for her other job. If she goes anywhere else, let me know.”
“Copy that.”
“Why the hell does she need so much rice and beans?” Magnus asked. “And for whom?”
“Maybe she ran an errand for the shelter. It would make sense for them to buy in bulk.”
55
Anandur
As Anandur saw Wonder walk in, he took his first easy breath of the day.
“Where have you been last night? I was worried.”
“Boo-hoo,” Shaveh teased.
Wonder ignored him and threw the shackles inside Anandur’s cage. “Put them on.”
“What? No good morning? No how have you been? Nothing?” Mordan pretended to pout. “You don’t love us anymore?”
“Good morning.” Wonder glared at him. “I hope you slept well. And now shut up.”
Grud walked to the front of his cage. “Someone has woken up grumpy this morning. What’s the matter, missed your lover boy?”
“Shut up, Grud, or you’ll stay hungry today. You forget who feeds you.” She pointed a finger at him, and then moved it to point at the other two. “And that goes for you as well. I don’t want to hear another word from either one of you, or none of you eats today.”
She opened Anandur’s cage even though he wasn’t done attaching the chain that connected his leg restraints to the handcuffs. “Come on. I have a lot of questions for you.”
He was surprised that the Doomers were keeping quiet. Apparently, they knew Wonder’s threats were not in vain, and none of them wanted to go without food for a whole day.
Tough girl. He was so proud of her.
As he shuffled out of the cage and Wonder motioned for him to walk ahead of her, Anandur noticed that she stuffed the key to the cage in her pocket instead of returning it to its regular place under the stack of papers.
In his limited experience with her, Wonder stuck him as a methodical person. It wasn’t like her to deviate from a routine. That was why he’d been so worried when she hadn’t shown up after her shift in the club.
“What happened last night? Why didn’t you come?”
“I was tired. I had to go home.”
That sounded like a lame excuse. “Really?’
She pinned him with a hard stare. “The club is not my only job.”
“I bet. You’re a hard-working girl, Wonder.”
She shrugged.
Anandur walked into the office they used for their talks and sat in his regular chair. “I see that you brought me more treats,” he said as he noted the new assortment.
“This time I made sure to include a plastic fork.” She leaned against the desk and crossed her arms under her impressive breasts, unintentionally giving them a boost.
Some women did that on purpose, but he was sure Wonder had no clue what that pose did to a male.
He made a point to stare at her face and not her chest. “I enjoyed eating from your hand.”
Averting her eyes, she picked up a tray of cold cuts and cheeses, the same kind she’d brought yesterday, and then handed it to him together with a plastic fork wrapped in a napkin.
“Thank you.” He unwrapped the fork, speared a chunk of cheese, and put it in his mouth.
“How many members do you have in your community?”
Anandur finished chewing. “Five hundred sixty-three, soon to be five hundred sixty-six.”
“Who are the three newcomers?”
“One is a baby about to be born in a couple of months, the other one is a guy we suspect of being a Dormant, and the third one is you.” He forked several slices of turkey and stuffed them in his mouth.
“Where is your community located?”
“We have three locations, but I’m not going to tell you where they are until you join us. We live in hiding.”
“Because you’re afraid of humans?”
“We need to keep our existence a secret from humans, but that is not why we hide as a group. The Brotherhood wants to annihilate us, and unfortunately there are many more of them than there are of us. We can’t face off with them.”
“Who is the head of your community?”
Anandur paused with his fork mid-air. “What’s with the twenty questions?”
Wonder raised a brow. “Who said anything about the number twenty? I didn’t count them.”
“It’s an expression. Why are you asking so many questions?”
“I’m curious.”
Right. Well, he couldn’t blame her. He was asking her to trust him based on very little information.
“Each one of the three locations is headed by a different person and for the most part is run independently. But when important decisions need to be made, all members who’ve reached their majority get to vote.”
“What do your people do to earn a living? Do they all work together?”
“Yes and no. It’s hard to explain in a few words. Each of our members does what she or he is interested in. But it’s a choice. Our community owns several corporations, and the net profits are divided among the members. The basic share is not huge. It’s enough to live on comfortably but not lavishly.”
“So if I come with you, I will become a member and get paid whether I work or not?”
“No, you will become a member when you join with a member in a permanent relationship.”
“Like marriage?”
“Something like that. It doesn’t have to be official. But you have nothing to worry about. There are plenty of jobs for someone like you.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean someone like me?”
“A hard-working girl that is not too picky.”
Her shoulders sagged. “I guess I’ll be the cleaning lady.”
“Why would you say that?”
“I don’t know how to do anything else.”
“You’re a bouncer, that’s sort of a guard. You can become a Guardian, which is a cross between a warrior and a law enforcer.”
She shook her head. “I’d ra
ther clean houses. I might be freakishly strong, but that doesn’t mean that I want to be a fighter. You may find it hard to believe, but I don’t like violence.”
“You can be whatever you want to be, Wonder. You can go to college and learn a profession of your choosing.”
“I can’t pay for that. Besides, I don’t even have a high-school education.”
Getting up slowly to avoid startling her, he shuffled to where she was leaning against the desk and lifted his hands to cup her cheeks.
Looking at him with wide eyes, she didn’t recoil from his touch or even his stench. She didn’t act scared in any way.
It was a very encouraging sign.
“Unlock my chains, Wonder, and say goodbye to all your worries. I’ll take care of you. You’ll get the schooling you need, and you will get to choose what you want to do with your future. I give you my word, and that’s not something I do lightly.”
56
Grud
As soon as Dur left with Wonder, Grud attacked the last concrete block standing between him and his freedom. Those two would be gone for hours, same as they had done yesterday, screwing each other’s brains out no doubt.
Fucking Dur was getting all the fun. What did she see in that ugly redhead?
Eh, whom was he kidding?
The woman had the hots for Dur because he was tall and built like a pro-wrestler. Besides, the fucker knew how to be charming, cracking that smile of his like a whip. He probably never had to rape a female or beat her into submission. One smile was enough to make them spread their legs for him.
Some guys had all the luck.
But Dur’s luck was about to run out. He was going to die today, and the female was going to belong to Grud.
The plan was simple, and even though he’d had to make some last minute adjustments, it was still a good one.
Grud wasn’t coming back for his Brothers. They could rot in there for all he cared. The idiots hadn’t even noticed that this time Wonder had taken the key with her. He couldn’t open their cages even if he wanted to. Not without wasting valuable time looking for it. She must’ve hidden it somewhere.
“Are you about done?” Shaveh asked.
“Almost. We get out of here today.”
“Sweet,” Mordan said. “So what’s the plan?”
“Same as it always was. I squeeze through the hole to the other room, and if I don’t end up in another cage, I find the exit, then come back for you, and we get the hell out of here.”
“What about Dur and the woman?”
“We leave them. I’m not going to risk my freedom for pussy.” Actually, he wasn’t going to risk his freedom for the two of them.
“I’m willing to risk mine for payback,” Shaveh said.
“Then you can stay behind for all I care.”
Mordan grabbed the bars and stuck his nose into Grud’s cage. “I’m with you, Grud. As much as I would’ve liked to fuck her, I’m not going to put myself in range of that Taser.”
“She can get only one of us,” Shaveh pointed out. “A Taser is not like a gun that can discharge many bullets. One shot and that’s it. Then the other two can knock her out. If we cooperate, we can all have us some pussy. What do you say, Grud?”
“I’ll think about it. Before I come back for you, I’ll check what those two are doing. If Dur is screwing her, she can’t Taser anyone. Right?”
“Unless she has the Taser on while he’s fucking her, eh?” Shaveh seemed to think it was hot.
Sick bastard.
Grud attacked the block with renewed vigor, chipping away at it even though his hands were bleeding all over the place. He was getting out of that cage today.
He only stopped when the hole looked large enough for him to squeeze through.
“Hey, Grud, if you get stuck in there, you stay stuck. We can’t help you out,” Mordan said.
“If my shoulders go through, I’ll make it.” Grud rose to his feet and walked over to the water tube.
First, he washed the blood off his hands, and then he took several long gulps of water to fill his empty belly. It was a pity that he had to run on an empty stomach, but it wasn’t as if he could wait for Wonder to feed him lunch and then go.
Dur would be back.
There wasn’t much the son of a bitch could do from a locked cage, but Grud’s instincts were telling him to run while Dur was busy elsewhere.
“I’m going,” he said to his jail mates.
“Good luck,” Mordan said.
Shaveh cast him a questioning look. “You’re coming back for us, right?”
“Of course.”
Wiping his hands on his pants, Grud walked back to the back wall and the hole he’d made.
First, he picked up the rod he’d been working with and put it on the other side right next to the wall. It was the only tool and weapon he had, and he would need it to complete his plan.
Next, he pushed his arms through the opening, put his hands on the floor on the other side, and pulled himself forward. As he’d expected, his shoulders got stuck, but after a little wiggling and grunting, he managed to push through. The rest of his body followed with ease.
Thank Mortdh, he didn’t end up in another cage.
With the glow from his eyes as the only illumination, he took a quick glance around. It was a long, narrow room with no furniture and no windows, but there was a door, not a reinforced one, but a simple one made from wood or particle board.
Grud smiled.
Luck was on his side today.
57
Brundar
Brundar’s phone rang. “What’s up, Liam?”
“I followed the girl to one of the places she cleans, and I’m sitting in the car across the street from it.”
“Anything interesting?”
“You tell me. She carried the things she’d bought in the supermarket inside.”
“Is there anyone else with her?”
“I didn’t check. But other than hers there are no other cars parked in front of the building.”
That was strange. Why would the bouncer bring rice and beans into an empty building she was supposed to clean? It wasn’t as if she needed a twenty-pound rice bag to make herself lunch.
Who was she cooking for?
“Stay in the car. Magnus and I are on our way.”
“Perhaps you want to bring more Guardians with you? She brought enough supplies to cook for an army,” Liam said. “If Doomers are using this building, they might have thralled the girl to bring them food.”
That didn’t seem likely. With all its faults and lack of care for its soldiers, the Brotherhood was a well-managed organization. If they used the facility, they would have had cars parked outside and guards patrolling the parameter.
“Did you see anyone at all in the vicinity of the building?”
“Not right next to it, but it’s an industrial park, and there are cars in the other parking lots. There isn’t much traffic, but there is some.”
“No one who looks like he is patrolling?”
“Come on, Brundar, I’m not a greenhorn. I know what to look out for. It looks like there is no one here other than the girl. The only reason I’m calling you is that I thought it was strange that she brought the food supplies in.”
“Maybe she is one of those survivalists who store food in case of an end of days annihilation event,” Magnus said. “Like a nuclear bomb, or a massive solar flare, or a huge meteor hitting earth.”
“That’s even more unlikely than her being a Doomer pawn. I’m calling everyone in.”
“What if it’s a false alarm?”
“We move on.”
“Right.”
58
Grud
His luck was still holding. The door wasn’t even locked.
Grud opened it carefully and peered outside. A single light fixture illuminated the long hallway in front of him, but coming from complete darkness, even that soft light managed to blind him momentarily until his eyes adjusted.
To his left were stairs going up, and to his right was the heavy door to the cage room. Ahead of him, the corridor was lined with several doors only on its right side. They were all closed, but he could hear murmurs coming from the last one.
That was where Wonder had taken Dur. It sounded like they were talking, not fucking, which meant that the woman had her Taser gun on.
The corridor terminated with another reinforced door, which Grud assumed led to the outside. That door was most likely locked, and to get to it, he would have to pass by the room Dur and the woman were in.
His escape would be short-lived if he chose that route. The choice was a no-brainer. Grud took the stairs, his bare feet making no sound as he climbed the concrete steps.
The staircase terminated in a landing and another door that was not only unlocked but left half open.
Peering from behind the door, Grud listened for a moment, reassuring himself that no one else was on the main floor of the building. When he stepped out into the lobby, he quickly scanned the layout. It seemed to bisect the main floor, with two corridors stretching away from it in opposite directions.
Ahead, double glass doors led to the outside.
It was tempting to push them open and run. But before doing that, he was going to take a look at what was out there.
Flattening his back against the wall, he leaned to peer out through the doors. His caution had been well justified. A car was turning into the building’s parking lot.
Whoever it was, Grud wasn’t going to hang around and find out.
Running down the corridor in the opposite direction from where the car was coming, he opened the door to the first office which looked out to the back of the building.
Thank Mortdh the room had a large window.
Quietly, he slid it open, and using his iron rod, he tore a hole in the screen. As he jumped out, Grud immediately crouched down and scanned the area.