by Webster, K
“We can’t leave you here,” Hadrian growls, his eyes glinting in a fierce way that reminds me so much of our leader. “Not now. Not after the breech.”
Fatigue is my biggest ailment at the moment. I scrub a palm over my face, sighing at his words. I don’t have the energy to argue with him. When I saw that thing on my female, I went mad for a moment. I’d been sure I lost myself to The Rades because the rage I’d felt over seeing that beast snarling at her overwhelmed every rekking thought.
I had to save her.
Because, if I hadn’t, I didn’t want to live.
My mind still churns with those confusing thoughts. Zoe is difficult, but I’m discovering it’s one of the traits I like about her. The thought of her being eaten alive was too much to bear.
“What is it you wish, Hadrian?” I ask, frowning at him. “To bring the sick to the Facility and infect them as well? Or would you rather everyone stay here and the pregnant females be vulnerable to more attacks by creatures that somehow managed to get inside a secure prison?”
“It’s not all or nothing here,” Theron agrees. “Avrell can handle his own. He killed the creature that got in. But he’s sick, Hadrian. We can’t risk it and you know it.”
Hadrian scowls. “Four solars. That’s all you’ll get before Breccan realizes we left you behind. We’ll leave at first light and then it’s up to you to finish this or our commander will drag you back whether you’re ready or not.”
I give him a quick nod as I begin to run through a list of everything that needs to be done before they depart. My brain is foggy and I’m weak. I’m in dire need of rest, but there’s no time.
“Are you holding up okay?” Hadrian asks, his irritation dissolving to worry.
“Indeed,” I lie. “Let’s get started.”
* * *
The silence is deafening.
Without Theron and Hadrian and the others, the fourteen of us left are too quiet because all but one is sick.
Normally, Zoe has plenty to say. Not since the attack. Not since they left. Rekk, not since I injected myself. She’s too quiet and it agitates me.
With a heavy sigh, I notate the sudden agitation on my tablet as a new symptom. I’m not agitated with her, but at the situation. This has to be a new symptom.
It takes all too much effort to shuffle between the isolated rooms to check on each sick patient. Zoe is nowhere to be found, which unnerves me because ever since the attack, I worry about losing sight of her.
Hadrian barricaded the broken door. She’s safe. My female is safe. Still, I can’t help but want to hunt her down and keep her right by my side where she belongs.
Possessive thoughts.
I add that to my list too before heading into Julie’s room. Her color has returned, and clarity burns bright in her eyes.
Improvement.
“Hello,” I greet. “How are you feeling?”
Her eyes narrow as she scrutinizes me. “Better than you.”
I nod because there’s no sense in denying it. “Any new symptoms?”
“No. I need to get back to work. The weapon.” She grimaces. “We might be too late.”
“Oz is still working on it. I assure you when he devises one that will work, he’ll pass down the information. By then, you should be healed and can resume your duties.”
My answer settles her and she nods.
“We had a breach,” I tell her. “A beast.”
Her eyes widen. “I thought I heard sirens last night, but I was still out of it. I thought I was dreaming it. Is everyone okay? Zoe?”
I flinch at the mention of Zoe, worry once again plaguing me worse than The Rades has the power to. “They are. We’ve sent the well ones back to the Facility. I managed to kill the beast before it hurt her.”
Julie’s eyes fall to the zonnoblaster holstered at my hip. “That explains the weapon. Jesus, how terrifying. What’s the progress on the cure?”
“I’m diligently working on it,” I assure her. “Rest up.”
“I’m good,” Julie says with a grimace. “Help me up. With everyone gone, I can’t in good conscience sit here any longer. I’m healing. I can feel it. I just need a little assistance. Get me to the control room.”
I don’t want to have her traipsing around, but she’s skilled in weaponry and defense and is on the mend.
“Not before you’ve had an electrolyte booster.”
She allows me to inject her and then I assist her to her feet. Julie is strong and capable but still requires my help. I walk her to the control room where all the cameras on the outside of Exilium are recording.
“I’m exhausted,” she complains. “I hate feeling so weak.”
“I understand the feeling.”
It’s been hours since our group left and I haven’t been back to the control room to check the perimeter. Julie and I both manage to see something move at the same time.
“What was that?” she demands, pointing a shaky finger at the screen.
It’s another one of those beasts. From what Zoe explained to me, it was blind. Like a sabrevipe but more feral if you can believe it. Zoe compared it to a rabid wolf or was it a rabbawolf?
“Rabbawolf. They have them on Earth II.”
“Nothing I’ve ever come in contact with,” Julie says, a shiver running through her. “I think it’s running from something.”
“Or toward us,” I counter. “I don’t think it can get in, but I should be prepared in case it does.”
“Give a zonnoblaster to everyone who can hold one just in case. I need two,” she grumbles. “Oh no…”
Several more rabbawolves chase after the first one. All of them are running full speed ahead, toward the side of Exilium where there’s an opening to store transport vehicles. It’s the same bay that leads to underground tunnels that eventually grant access into this building.
“If they get inside,” I rumble. “I’m not sure I can kill that many. Perhaps if we remain quiet, they will move along.”
“Perhaps,” Julie whispers.
“What’s going—oh my fucking God,” Zoe hisses as she enters the control room, coming to stand beside me.
On instinct, I grab hold of her hand. She’s so fixated on the horrible beasts, she doesn’t wiggle out of my grip. Satisfaction slides through my veins as I hold the hand of my female.
“Shh, stormy one,” I murmur. “We’re hoping they’ll lose interest and move on if there doesn’t seem to be any activity or sound here.”
She squeezes my hand, her nog nodding sharply. Julie mashes a button, zooming in the camera. The beasts are clawing at the door to get in but haven’t discovered how yet. There are six in all, each one howling and yipping and trembling as though they’re afraid.
Afraid of what?
My question is answered when I notice a dust cloud. Like that of a geostorm, it thickens and approaches. Something big is running right toward the pack of rabbawolves.
From the red haze, something races ahead. On two feet. Tall. Muscular. Feral. It’s barely clothed, a shred of cloth covering its cock, as it runs full speed ahead. A large spear is in its grip.
It’s almost as if this being is like…us.
Impossible.
Our kind died out ages ago. There is no one left. Especially no one that looks like…
Them.
There are more.
Several dart out of the dust plume, weapons drawn and ready for their hunt. With impressive speed and precision, they attack the pack of rabbawolves. Each being moves too quickly for me to identify their features or make sense of what I’m seeing. Both Julie and Zoe are shocked silent.
Easily, they overpower the rabbawolves. With powerful jabs, they stab at the beasts, killing them instantly. It’s when they’re dragging them away, I realize they only managed to get five of them. The sixth rabbawolf must have escaped.
“What the hell are those things?” Zoe asks, her voice raw with terror. “They’re like you, but…”
Bigger. Meaner. U
ncivilized.
And untouched by The Rades.
How?
One of the things kneels in front of its kill. He acts as though he’s starved, unable to wait like the rest of them. His claws—like our kind—are more elongated and sharper. He tears through the belly of the rabbawolf, ripping off a hunk of meaty muscle. Without bothering to char the flesh, he shoves it into his mouth, devouring it as though he needs the meat to survive the next several moments.
Once he’s eaten a few bites, he turns his nog, tilting to the side as he stares straight at the camera. Thick, green blood runs down his chin. After a snarl, he heaves the dead beast over his shoulder and trots back to the fading plume of dust where several of the others of his kind wait. Together, they take off running, once again leaving dust in their wake.
Julie and Zoe both start chattering as they try to understand what they just saw, both of them thankful the beings left.
My mind is elsewhere.
The fog of my weakening body tries to hinder my thinking, but I’m too close to let that stop me.
Closing my eyes, I begin speaking out loud, needing to talk it out. “Those creatures. They’re built like us. Which means…it means perhaps we weren’t alone as we thought. But, unlike us, they seem to be surviving despite the risk of The Rades or radiation. This means something.”
I wobble on my feet, dizzy and faint feeling.
“Avrell, you need to lie down,” Zoe instructs, her voice brokering no room for argument. “Now.”
Her arm wraps around my waist as she guides me from the control room back toward the Medical Bay. She walks me to a clean, isolated bed and helps me lie down.
“You’re burning up,” she grumbles. “Stupid man. I’ll never forgive you for injecting yourself.”
I grab her cool hand, bringing it to my cheek. It feels good to have her touch on me. I expect her to pull away, but she caresses me instead. When I turn my nog and kiss her palm, she tugs free and scowls at me.
“The disease is making you mad. You’re not thinking clearly.”
“I like your touch and your scent and your voice,” I mumble. “I think it’s because you’re my mate.”
She laughs and the sound is sweet. “I’m not your mate, dummy. You’re hallucinating. Add that to your list.”
My sassy, beautiful female.
“I will,” I retort as my eyes close.
I’m not sure how much time passes, but when I wake, Zoe is watching me with a concerned expression. With a shaky hand, I reach up to touch her soft, silky hair.
“You need to eat something. You’ve been out for hours,” she whispers. “I thought you were gone for a moment.” Her eyes water. “You may be the most annoying man on the planet, but it doesn’t mean you get to die. You’re mine to argue with.”
You’re mine.
“You’re mine too,” I murmur, grinning at her.
“Of course that’s what you’d hear,” she grumbles, but a smile touches her pretty lips. “I think Hadrian left some charred monster steak somewhere. I’ll go round some up for you.”
Meat. Blood.
“Wait,” I bark out, the fog clearing for a moment inside my nog. “Just be quiet and hear me out before I lose this train of thought.”
For once, she doesn’t fight me. Her brows furrow and she nods, her hand gripping mine. “Tell me.”
“The creatures out there. The ones like us…” I try to remember what they look like, but it’s already faded. “They ate those beasts. Raw.”
“Sick fuckers,” she bites out. “I’m surprised they’re not riddled from diseases.” Her eyes open wide. “Wait. Why don’t they have this disease?”
My smart mate.
“The sabrevipes, big birds, armworms, rogcows, rabbawolves—”
“Rabid wolves,” she interrupts, her dark brow arched.
“That’s what I said,” I say back, fixated on her mouth. “They all live outside with no problems. Because of the radiation that’s in their bodies, we’ve always charred the meat in order to protect ourselves from it.”
“But,” Zoe says, her gray eyes lighting up like a magnastrike in a geostorm, “maybe by charring them, you eliminated the very antibodies you needed to protect against the disease.”
“Precisely, stormy one.” I smile up at her, lost in her beautiful features. “So lovely.”
She gently smacks my cheek. “Focus, Av. You’re glassy-eyed and losing clarity. We need to figure this out. Don’t quit on me now.”
I nuzzle her palm that’s now resting on my cheek. She doesn’t pull away. After a quick kiss to her wrist, I look up at her.
“I need you to do something, my brave mate.”
Rather than arguing that she’s mine, she winces. “I feel like I’m really going to hate the sound of it.”
“We can wait until Julie is rested,” I offer, though time is not on our side. “She’s skilled with a weapon and—”
“Don’t go all protective daddy on me now,” Zoe snaps. “Tell me what I have to do. What I have to do to save you.”
My eyes grow heavy and I close them. Just for a moment. I wake to fingers running through my hair and hot breath on my face.
“Wake up,” Zoe pleads, emotion in her voice. “Don’t fade out on me now. Please.”
I barely manage to get my eyes open. She’s so close, her gray eyes glassy with tears. Somehow, I find the strength to grip her delicate neck and draw her to my mouth. My lips press to hers. Her mouth parts and then she gives me the quickest, sweetest kiss. The taste of her tongue is a tease, but that’s all I get. Blood rushes to my cock, invigorating my entire body. It gives me a rush of energy, though I know it won’t last long.
“I need you to hunt a beast and bring its carcass to me.”
Her lips press into a firm line, her gray eyes flashing with unease.
“I’m going to eat the meat. Like they did.” I groan at the idea, but I have no other choice. “It’s the only chance we’ve got.”
She brushes her nose against mine in the most gentle, affectionate way I’ve ever known any being to give another before she pulls away. Determination glints in her gray eyes.
“This better work, Avrell.” She licks her plump lips. “It has to. I need you.”
“It will, my mate. It will.”
We both know I can’t be sure. It’s only a hypothesis. But we’re out of options. It isn’t until she leaves my side that I realize she didn’t argue my words.
Zoe, the mean, feisty, sassy female is mine.
My mate.
Happiness and family and love are within reach. I just need to live long enough to grasp onto it.
Don’t worry, stormy one, it’ll work and then you’ll be mine.
5
Zoe
Four Solars Until Kevins Arrive…
I don’t waste time while Julie rests and gathers her strength.
Every second counts.
Hadrian and Lyric instructed we be left with enough supplies to feed and defend ourselves. They spared as much as they could, which wasn’t really much at all, but it would have to do. If we don’t find a cure by the time the Kevins arrive, supplies won’t matter anyway. We’ll all be dead.
As Julie sleeps, I go over the supplies for a second time, pulling out all the weapons I think we may need to face the beasts. Even thinking about them makes me shiver. They reminded me of the wolves we’d brought with us to Earth II, the ones that had escaped and turned rabid, stalking the streets for new victims and clustering together in packs. Except these were five times as big.
Not to mention the new aliens we’d seen hunting them. The ones with golden skin and dark ink or scars, I couldn’t be sure from a distance. I’d seen something like them before, in depictions of early men from the original Earth, before it had been ruined by civilization. Barbarians, they were called. Cavemen. Did they live in the caves, I wonder? Is that how they stayed protected? I couldn’t be sure.
We had bigger problems to dwell on than these wild
ones for now. They seemed aware of the prison, knew about the security cameras, and they’d kept their distance. They weren’t a threat.
For now.
I place two rucksacks from the store of supplies in front of me. I fill them with some rations of food, skeins of water, and zonnoblasters, one for Julie and one for me. There are two wicked sharp laser knives and I tuck one into each of our packs. I don’t relish the thought of tracking down the monsters, but I’ll do anything if it means keeping Avrell alive. Even if it means risking my own.
My chest grows tight and I have to pause for a moment in my work to rub at the space between my breasts that throbs with misery. He’s a jerk, sure, but I can’t stand to see him so weak and on the verge of death. Sometimes, when he looks at me, I can feel him saying goodbye and I want to scream and cry and rage.
The idiot.
Doesn’t he know I can’t do this without him?
Doesn’t he know the real reason why I was so upset at his appearance was because I was afraid?
Afraid of failure.
Afraid of death.
I’ve always been so afraid.
The only way to deal with it is to cover it up with healthy doses of rage. Rage is easy, but fear…fear is debilitating. It’d be all too easy to let fear consume me and drown me in its depths, but I can’t.
I have to fight.
I have to fight for Avrell.
“Let’s do this,” comes Julie’s voice from the doorway. I turn and match her tremulous smile. At least I’m not the only one who’s scared. It helps that I’m not alone. With these people, morts included, I’ll never have to be afraid and alone again.
“How are you feeling?” I ask as I get to my feet.
She bats my hands away when I attempt to lay one across her forehead to get a check on her temperature. “I’m fine. You’re as bad as Avrell. I feel much better after getting some sleep.”
“Are you sure? We can wait a few more hours if it would help. I don’t want you to push yourself too hard, too fast.”
Julie rolls her eyes. “I take it back. You’re worse than Avrell. Let’s go kill some monsters.”