I noticed that the metal syringe O’Neil was sticking into my flesh was the same kind that the ‘no whites’ had tried to stick me with, but luck wasn’t on my side this time.
Was I going to die?
Lucien wasn’t here to save me from this monster. Beads of sweat began to form over my body. I struggled to keep my eyes open, but it was useless.
***
A memory flashed through my mind. I was at Hidden Valley, mangled and bleeding, lying in my dad’s old Ford Escape. I was upside down, pinned against the dash. Finn was hanging outside the passenger door. He was bleeding and lying still. A deer wandered up to me and rubbed its nose on the ground right beside me. I found it odd how close the deer came. I lay there looking up into the doe’s eyes as it sniffed around me. An angel with white diamond eyes appeared. He gently lifted me from the wreckage with ease.
It was Lucien.
As I was jolted back to the present, I felt pain sting across my face. I felt it again and again. I opened my eyes and saw that it was Tom’s hand that was causing my pain. He held it up, pausing to see if I was awake. At that moment, he slapped me again. Oh, God…. No…. Please don’t.... The cloth sack was lifted over my face. Blackness surrounded me.
***
I felt drunk. I couldn’t breathe. L-Lucien, you’re back. We were standing in the gazebo back at school. Dark clouds surrounded us. The wind was blowing my hair. He looked as he always had: perfect. But there was sadness in his eyes. He took his hand and held my chin. I could see into his crystal eyes and sense his fear.
“Samantha, you have to be strong. Now more than ever.” He slipped his hands beneath my hair and pulled me close to his warm chest.
“I don’t understand, Lucien. Why aren’t you here with me? I can’t take this anymore without you,” I said pleadingly.
“I know, but you have to wait a little longer. Samantha, be careful. Don’t trust every word you hear. Trust your heart.”
Lucien lowered his face to mine and looked into my eyes one last time before his lips met mine.
32 Banth
My back hit hard against what I believed to be the back of a chair. I heard the sound of tape ripping, and then I felt my chest and arms tighten around me. The sack was lifted from my head. I spit out cotton fibers from my mouth. My throat was closing up. All at once, my eyes were blinded by a bright light. A pungent whiff of damp, musty air entered my nostrils. Tom’s evil, tetchy smile came into view. Whatever was in the syringe that O’Neil shot through my veins wasn’t good. My mind wasn’t lucid; everything was fuzzy. I couldn’t tell what was real and what was a dream. I tried moving my hands, but they were stuck.
“Tom, you lied to me. You’re not protecting me. You are in on this,” I managed to spit out.
But why didn’t he just take me when I was in the shower?
My eyes focused on O’Neil. “What did you give me? Why are you doing this?”
They ignored me. I wiggled and struggled to free myself.
“You’re wasting your time, Samantha,” a voice said in an accent I didn’t recognize.
My eyes focused, and I saw another figure hovering in front of me in the dark and damp, dirty room. He was tall, wearing all black. He had no hair, like Tom. He bent over and took my face in his hands. I jerked away, but he reclaimed it firmly. He caressed my skin like he was petting a puppy. He said something I didn’t understand; it was mumbled and not in any way English. He looked familiar, though. I can’t remember when, but I was sure I’d seen him before. Or maybe the drug was playing tricks on my mind.
He loosened his grip and my head flung forward. Slobber trickled down my chin and tears ran down my face. I tried to open my eyes again, but my vision was all blurred, and the room was moving again in every direction.
“Samanthaaaaa,” the strange voice said. He lifted my chin. “Open your eyes, my dear; look at me.”
I tried to open my eyes, but they kept shutting. I struggled to breathe as I listened to their muffled voices talking among themselves. Where was I? A cellar?
“How much did you give her?” the voice asked, questioning O’Neil.
“One vial,” she snapped.
“You weren’t supposed to hurt her, Thomas, you imbecile.”
“Hmmm…too much for her size. What were you thinking? She’s a child, not a Mack truck. She is reacting the opposite of what I intended, but this will have to do.”
“Samantha, tell me where your friend Lucien Foster is.”
I tried to focus on whose voice was speaking, but it was too blurred.
“Samantha, answer me.”
“Go to hell,” I moaned.
“That’s not the answer I was hoping for. Let’s try that once more.”
“Go to hell!”
“Thomas, hand me the small syringe. I didn’t want to use this one, Samantha, but you leave me no choice.”
I felt a sting. “Nooooo,” I moaned. I was floating and had no control of my thoughts.
“Samantha, can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s try this again. Where is Lucien Foster?”
“H-he’s gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Don’t know, lost?” I tried again to lift my head to see who was speaking.
“Where did Lucien Foster go? And when did your paths diverge?”
“What?”
“When did you two part? Do you understand?”
“He went away.”
“Samantha, if you don’t tell me, Thomas will take over for me. Now, where is Foster? I don’t enjoy the exigency of Thomas’s methods, believe me, but I will do what I have to in order to get the answers to my questions.”
“I-I don’t know. He left. He had to leave. He went far away into the big light...from the sky. It went whoosh.” My head felt heavy, and my eyes would not stay open.
“Good, Samantha. Now tell me what happened at Hidden Valley.”
I tried not to speak, but I had no control over my mouth. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Tears broke free and poured from my eyes.
“It’s okay, Samantha,” the voice said in a low whisper. “But I need to know now. Why are you important to Lucien?”
“He saved me; I w-was bleeding. He took me to the ranch, gave me his blood.”
“He gave you his blood? A transfusion? Of course. That’s it; that’s why you have Fosters’ eyes. There must be more,” he said in a quick, excited tone. “Your blood and his blood are transfiguring your DNA, creating a new binding of proteins, a new connection that is surviving.”
I nodded in agreement against my will. The tall giant was pleased with what I said.
“Sleep now.”
Sleep, yes, sleep. The voices faded in and out. I tried to listen. They were arguing about what to do with me.
“We need her. She’s priceless,” the voice with the accent said.
“She’s trouble, I tell you,” O’Neil said.
“Her blood mixed with the Reptilian hybrid’s. If her blood’s well preserved, she’ll be an excellent host.”
“You’re not serious, a hybrid’s blood and a human’s? Why can’t we harvest her stem cells and her ovaries and dispose of her body?”
I moaned at the thought of them using me as a lab rat.
“We need her alive. A live host’s embryo has a better chance of survival.”
“Banth, if she has his blood, her DNA is compromised. Foster’s a crossover, a mutt, a mutation from a race that died off a hundred years ago.”
“B-Banth?” I mumbled under my breath.
“Yes, Samantha, we meet again.”
“Banth Radav?” I knew I recognized his voice. He had been at the ranch. I grinded my teeth.
“O’Neil, yes, he’s part reptilian; but his geno has managed to survive. With him and Samant
ha Hunter’s genos, our race has a chance. Right now our race is dying. There’s a chance we can evolve and adapt to this planet with her and Foster’s DNA. Our race may never come back for us. It’s been a hundred years. Ordics and the interdimensional died off while the reptilians managed to survive. Lucien Foster and Samantha Hunter are the keys. By the time his race knows what we’ve done, it will have been completed. Lucien and his siblings are far from their home.”
“Samantha dear, we are the ancestors of what the humans call the Greys. We don’t need another hybrid. We have evolved through evolution and genetic engineering with the hu-mans in order to keep the alliance. However, now something has happened. We have contracted a virus that’s killing our females’ ova. Somehow, the Fosters’ blood mixed with you, and you survived. If we can tap into it, there may be a cure. The Fosters have special abilities that we don’t. Through genetic engineering, we can acquire the gene that gives them their special abilities, and we will claim it as our own.”
Banth looked and behaved like the ‘no whites’. His skin was pale like Lucien’s, but Lucien’s skin changed colors depending on whether he was in the sun or not. That’s because of the irdium in his bloodstream. He was telepathic, too, and he was super intelligent and could alter time and space. And there was one gift which had brought me to this point in my life: he could heal with just a touch of his hand. No wonder Banth wanted him, and now me.
Banth’s voice was strained. “You’ve evolved because of the alliances’ crossbreeding and their scientific experiments with humans to make a higher species. We are what the human government has created through experiments. We haven’t been able to succeed in finding the right life force to sustain our DNA. If the Reptilians discover her existence, they’ll claim her DNA and this planet as their own. But if we can claim her as our own....”
Without warning, Banth materialized into something I’d only seen in my nightmares. His skin changed into a pasty gray color; it was semi-transparent, and green veins pulsated through his gaunt skin. His eyes made my skin crawl. They were three times the human size. I wished the drug were still affecting my vision. He opened his mouth to speak. His teeth were jagged and sharp as razors. He had two slits where his nose had once been.
“This is what we are, O’Neil; but with this human’s DNA, we can sustain our human form for longer. Our offspring will always look and feel human. They will survive here on Earth. Right now we will die as surely as our planet did.”
He took his long clawed hand and held my chin still. My heart quickened. He lifted a piece of hair that had fallen on my face. My body quivered from his slimy touch. I wanted to scream; but instead of being paralyzed by some mind control, I was frozen with fear.
“She is priceless. Much more than an incubator.” He rubbed his finger down my arm. His skin melted and shifted into his human form once again.
He turned and faced O’Neil. “It’s decided. We’ll move her to Dulce. She’ll be fine here for now.”
Tom walked toward me carrying the black sack, and O’Neil had her black case. I knew what was coming next when Tom muttered, “Nighty, night.”
Tom lifted the sack over my head. I felt a pinch in my forearm. Ouch. The needle burned as it entered my flesh. I heard nothing for a few seconds, and then the shuffle of footsteps faded in the distance. I drifted off again into blackness.
33 Basement Rescue
“Samantha, wake up!” a rushed voice said, shaking me. “Samantha, come on, please wake up, please.”
“Finn, is that you? I-I can’t see you,” I gasped. “Finn, oh God, where am I?”
“It’s me, Dusty.”
He lifted the sack from my head. I squeezed my eyes shut, adjusting to the light while Dusty went behind me and ripped off the black duct tape. I tried to move.
“Wait, hold on. Let me get you out of this.”
He ripped the tape holding my ankles together. I nearly fell. He stopped my fall, easing me to a standing position.
“They drugged you, Samantha; hold onto me.”
“Whoaaa,” I said, holding onto Dusty for dear life. My legs were mush, and my head was pounding.
“Take it slow. Steady.”
“How did you know I was here? What’s this place?” I looked around, trying to remember.
“I think it’s a storm cellar. I told you that you were in danger.”
“The basement?”
“When I noticed you were gone, I went to find you. I would’ve come sooner. I thought they’d never leave.”
“How long have I been here?”
“A while.”
“How long?”
“A week maybe.”
“A week?” A bedpan filled with pee was next to my feet. How gross. “Dusty, they’re not human. They’re horrible.”
“I know. I’ve been trying to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to believe this was happening.”
“Why not? You believed Lucien.”
I shook my head. For the life of me, how did he know who Lucien was?
“You know everything, don’t you? What made you come down here?” I said while I rubbed my head.
“I had a bad feeling. I went to your room. You were gone. I followed the shadows down here. I saw Tom carrying you over his shoulder. O’Neil was right behind him. I hid behind some barrels and saw this man wearing a long black coat; his eyes were black with no whites. This was the first time you were alone. I was so freaked out. I kept coming down until you were by yourself. The tall guy in the long coat kept asking you questions about Lucien.”
“Banth! I wasn’t dreaming. I remember now; it was Banth.”
“You know him?” Dusty asked.
“I remember being in my bed and not being able to move. But that was before they drugged me. I was paralyzed, something they did to me telepathically.”
“They paralyzed you with their minds; they do that, you know.”
“No, I didn’t know that, but I do now, thank you,” I said with a hint of sarcasm.
“That’s one of the first things a-abductees say happens to them,” Dusty said in a fearful tone. “C-Come on, we have to get out of here fast.”
I leaned over, taking hold of his T-shirt. That’s when I saw a silver chain and a medallion. I grabbed the chain and tried to make out what the metal inscription said. I couldn’t focus my eyes, no matter how hard I tried.
“Where did you get this?”
Dusty looked down and grimaced. “I don’t know. I’ve had it since I was a baby.”
“I can’t make out what it says; tell me.”
“Some Bible verse.”
The wheels were spinning in my head. It couldn’t be possible. “Tell me what it says.”
“Corinthians five or something—I don’t know,” Dusty rushed out the words.
“Oh, my God, it can’t be.”
“Come on. We have to go.”
I stood a moment, trying to reclaim my thoughts. “What happened down here? Did I say anything I shouldn’t have to O’Neil or Banth?”
Dusty shrugged his shoulders. “We have to go.”
“How?” I could hardly stand, let alone escape from this place.
He looked around the dark, ominous cellar for some way out of this hell pit. “No windows.”
I looked around. There were no trap doors to crawl through. We didn’t have a choice; the only way out was the stairs.
Dusty may be young, but he was larger and stronger than me. Nevertheless, he couldn’t carry me the whole way up the stairs. He lifted one of my arms over his shoulder, putting the brunt of my weight on him. Each step was a struggle. I lifted my legs and missed. My heart leaped, and for a second, I thought I was going to stumble and fall back down the stairs.
When we reached the top, he turned the knob. Damn. It was
locked. He paused and sighed, looking back down the steps. Just then, a light seemed to go off in his head.
“What is it?” I said.
“Hold on.”
This wasn’t the time to meditate. My anxiety was rising.
Dusty reached in his back pocket and pulled out my broken bracelet. He stuck the metal through the keyhole and jiggled it a few times. The door popped open. He turned to me and gave me a wide grin. I patted his shoulder and wrapped my arms around him while we climbed the stairs to the main lobby.
34 Not Again
It must’ve been the middle of the night. The only lights on were the security lights shining in the halls of the main lobby. The cellar was located on the main floor of the kitchen. I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it or not, but we had to try. Dusty had been right about everything so far. I wasn’t taking any chances when it came to his dreams anymore. It was hard putting my trust in anyone, but what choice did I have?
“We have to leave this place, and now. You’ve got to get your shoes on; we’ll never make it to the highway,” Dusty said.
“The highway? There’s no way.”
“We h-have to.”
Dusty held onto the threshold, waiting patiently. It was a good thing my room was on the main floor. Oakridge Estates was a large remodeled chalet in the mountains, too steep in terrain to walk down from on foot. I barely made it up the stairs with Dusty’s help. How could I make it down the mountain?
I limped to my room. Dusty kept watch while I got dressed. Victoria was still sound asleep, which was good. I gathered my clothes and boots.
We looked both ways before we made our way. I remembered what Harmon told me in O’Neil’s office. Oakridge Estates was owned and operated by the federal government for secret research and clinical trials. Basically, the patient guests here were guinea pigs—or, at least, some of them—but that wouldn’t explain how O’Neil and Banth were involved.
Dusty poked his head in and motioned for me to hurry. I threw on a pair of jeans, a black sweatshirt, and a pair of hiking boots. I picked up my duffel, and limped over to the window. It was dark outside. Victoria moaned and rolled onto her side; she hadn’t a clue what was going on right under her nose. She was snoring away. I was just about to grab my coat off the hook when Dusty came rushing in.
Equinox (Beyond Moondust Trilogy Book 2) Page 10