Surviving Today

by Mande Chambers

  She turned back to Freddy in time to catch the blade of a knife in between her palms. “Seriously? Weren’t you the one just bitching about unfair use of weapons?”

  “You upped the ante when you threw powers into the mix.”

  “I knocked a weapon out of your hands. I didn’t try to physically harm you in any way!” she exclaimed.

  “Fair is fair.”

  Lise shot him a look, tossing the knife to the ground. “All right, Vega. Let’s make this a fair fight. Is that what you want?”

  “It’s what I always want, Yves.”

  Got it. Get out of there.

  She smiled at the voice in her head.

  Roger that.

  She was so ready for this night to end. Truthfully, she had been ready for it to end before the games had even begun.

  Out of the corner of her eyes, she caught Rivers and Steward climbing to their feet.

  “Sorry, boys. We’re going to have to pick this little foursome up some other time. It’s past my curfew and I’ve got school in a few hours. Seeing as it is the first day of my freshman year and all, I’d like to not look like the walking dead. So, as much as I’d like to continue to kick your asses, I feel a few hours of sleep is much more appealing.”

  “Wait…What?” Vega demanded.

  “What the hell just happened?” Tyler demanded.

  “We just got played by the east coast team, is what happened,” Josh said, catching her eye.

  “Huh?” Vega muttered.

  “Seeing as Lise looks like the cat that finally caught the canary, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say her team just won Desert Wars ’99.”

  Damn right they did.

  She didn’t wait around for further reactions. She called up the void, stepped into it, and faded away into the nothingness like a lost memory.

  CHAPTER 15

  August 2015

  Somewhere in VA

  Son of a…

  As the drug induced memory faded, Megan opened her eyes, keeping her breathing even. She was met with complete darkness and silence. She wasn’t really surprised. It was to be expected.

  Okay. Time to take a deep breath, let it out, and evaluate my situation.

  Observation number one. The hood was still over her head, which accounted for it being pitch black even though her eyes were open.

  Observation number two. They had the thermostat set to high heat. She was sweating in the high temperature, feeling like she was in the middle of the desert instead of trapped in a box.

  Observation number three. There was dried sweat on her bare arms and her hair was sticking to her neck and face.

  Observation number four. Her arms were bare, which meant that they had removed her button down shirt, leaving her in just her tank top.

  Observation number five. She was sitting in a hard metal chair. Her legs were tied at the ankles to the legs of the chair. Her arms, which were burning and just on this side of asleep, were zip tied behind her.

  So, taking into account everything she’d just observed about her situation, there was only one thing she could do. She shook her head and rolled her eyes in annoyance.

  Seriously?

  They had caught her fair and square. Peacefully at that. And their first act was to test her? What the hell? She had graduated past this part of their relationship somewhere around junior high.

  Apparently, they disagreed with that assessment.

  Instead of struggling against her restraints, she went to work on the cuffs. She still kept her breathing even, knowing they were watching her every move. She worked the cuffs until she was able to slip her right wrist free. She freed her other hand on an annoyed sigh.

  Not even bothering to take the hood off, she went to work on untying the suspiciously loose knots in the ropes binding her ankles. Once her legs were free, she pulled the hood off her head, blinking against the sudden brightness of the overhead lights.

  She stood up, rotating her shoulders and rubbing her arms as feeling made a burning trail back into her limbs. She scanned the room in an attempt to get her bearings. The walls were a dull gray, the floor was cement, and the only things in the small room were herself and the metal chair.

  Crap.

  Megan eyed the single door at the end of the room warily. Nothing good ever came out of a room with only one entrance or exit. She knew that she eventually had to make her way to the door and whatever waited on the other side of it, but she really didn’t want to.

  While she didn’t know exactly what awaited her on the other side of it, she did know that it was another test. Waking up disoriented, drugged, with a hood over her head, and tied to a metal chair was bringing back not so fuzzy feelings of déjà vu.

  She wasn’t in the mood to play their little game.

  Unfortunately, she really didn’t have a choice.

  Pushing her tangled hair off her face, she sighed in resignation and crossed the room to the door. Pushing through it, she walked into the next room of the warehouse. It was bigger than the last room and was just as bare. Instead of a metal chair in the center of the room, though, it just had mats covering the cement floor.

  You have got to be—Holy flying metal Batman!

  She ducked, the knife embedding itself into the door behind her. She caught the end of the wooden stick before it could connect with her ribcage. Pulling the end of it towards her body, she swept her foot out, knocking her opponent’s feet out from under him. He swore, landing hard on his back on the mats.

  Ignoring his muttered curse, she added her own into the mix as she dove to the side to avoid a foot to the face. She hit the mat hard, jarring her shoulder.

  Seriously?

  She pushed herself up off the mat. Swearing, she spun around, catching the knife an inch from her chest. Without thinking, she readjusted her grip on the blade, throwing the knife back in the direction it had come from.

  Megan blocked an incoming punch. She twisted the assailants arm behind his back, forcing him to his knees as a loud curse filled with pain and agony told her that the blade had found its mark.

  “Son of a bitch!” she swore as the opponent currently in her grasp head butted her. She released his arm, stumbling back. “Damn it!” The wooden stick connected with her unprotected ribs. “Jesus!” She ducked the kick aimed at her temple.

  Okay, enough was enough. This needed to end.

  Now.

  She blocked the next incoming swing of the stick with her forearm. It stung, but it was more manageable than the throbbing of her pissed off ribs.

  On the next attempt, she caught the end of the stick between her side and arm. Twisting away from her opponent, she knocked him off balance and was able to flip him over onto the mat as he lost his hold on the other end of the stick.

  He hit the mats hard with a loud exhale of breath.

  Megan held her side as she attempted to catch her breath. Muttering under her breath, she dropped down onto his chest. Holding one end of the stick in each hand, she held the middle of it against his windpipe.

  Readjusting her grip, she lifted a hand off the training weapon and grabbed the end of the ski mask covering his face. As they both evened out their breathing, she slowly lifted the mask up over his face. As her green eyes met a very familiar pair of eyes the color of the ocean, her heart stopped and it was suddenly harder to breath.

  “Want to ease up on that vise grip you’ve got going on here, sweetheart?” he rasped out.

  She jumped off him, backing away like he’d suddenly contracted a contagious and deadly disease. She dropped the stick like it was a snake. “Stay away from me, Raleigh.”

  “Gladly. That was the plan. For the record, I really tried to. Apparently, someone has other plans for us,” Scott Raleigh drawled as he dragged himself up off the mat. “C’mon, Nox. It’s been three years. You’ve had plenty of time to forgive me.”

  She stumbled back against the door, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. She felt for the knife that had originally b
een meant for her head and grasped the handle. She pulled it out of the door, throwing it at his head.

  Scott sighed, catching the blade between his palms.

  “Well, that definitely answers the question as to whether or not you’re still pissed at me.” He threw the knife to the mat, the blade burying itself in the blue material.

  Megan leaned back against the door, her heartbeat slowing down and her breathing finally evening out. She felt slightly better now that she’d gotten some of her anger out by throwing the knife at him. Granted, she had given him plenty of time to catch it. She wasn’t out to kill him, so it was a nice temporary outlet.

  Pushing away from the door, she walked over to him. Looking him straight in the eyes, she smiled and decked him.

  “Damn it, Megan!” he yelled, stumbling back.

  She walked back over to the door, leaning back against it again. “You really should have stayed gone, Scott,” she said. “I know you didn’t expect this little meeting to be all sunshine and rainbows after what you pulled the last time I saw you.”

  He narrowed his eyes, rubbing his jaw. “No, I had no delusions about how this would play out. I did, however, figure throwing a knife at my head would have gotten all your latent hostility towards me out of your system.”

  “Nope. Look on the bright side, Raleigh. I still hate your guts, but at least I’m no longer pissed at you.”

  “Well. Then I guess it’s time to break out the champagne and for us to have a wild party.”

  “Was that sarcasm?”

  “Nope. Not at all, Nox. Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  A door on the other end of the room opened before she could respond.

  Brian entered the room slowly, arms raised in peace. “I see the lovebirds have been reacquainted.”

  Wow, the man really had a death wish tonight. He really needed to learn when to keep his big trap shut. Pissing her off while she was trapped in a room with her ex wasn’t a good idea.

  “Bite me, Halia,” she responded, folding her arms over her chest.

  “Kiss my ass.” Scott caught the towel Brian tossed him. “What the hell was this little test and greet about?”

  Brian tossed Megan a bottle of water. “Don’t you mean ‘meet’ and greet?”

  Megan caught the bottle on the fly. “Nope. He meant test and greet. Somehow, I doubt our being here the day after it’s discovered the Denton Tiern is alive is a coincidence.”

  Scott shot her a surprised look. “D’s alive?”

  She nodded. “Yep. He came out of hiding yesterday.”

  “Shanna know?”

  “Yep.”

  “Sweet.”

  They focused their attention back on Brian. “So, tell me, Halia, why the sudden urge to test us?” Megan asked.

  “I had to see if you were still worth anything,” a disembodied voice said over the speakers in the ceiling. “Three years is a long time.”

  Megan froze, her blood slowly turning blue and developing little ice crystals, the bottle halfway to her lips. It figured he was behind it.

  Determined not to let him get to her, she shook her head and downed half the bottle in one gulp. Replacing the lid, she tossed the bottle to Scott, who was muttering under his breath.

  He’s so cute when he talks to himself.

  Whoa. Where had that come from?

  Scott caught the bottle as she said, “Well, well. If it isn’t the elusive General Christoph Yves. It’s so nice of you to grace us with your mechanical voice.”

  She ran a hand through her hair, sharing a long look with Scott. He shook his head.

  She smiled and added, sarcasm dripping from every word, “Hey, Dad? Do you think there’s any chance I could get a face to face meeting with you this time? No? Damn. Guess I’m just going to have to settle for you kidnapping and drugging me. Just a friendly FYI here, that’s not really the way to try and erase the past. Three years isn’t long enough to erase a lifetime of instinct and training. Or the reason’s I disappeared.”

  Brian shot her a look. “Must you antagonize the general?”

  Scott snorted as he finished off the water. “Grow a pair, Halia. It’s not like he is physically here in the facility. He’s tormenting us from the safety of his office back in D.C. He never did like to personally get his hands dirty.”

  “It’s hard to believe I ever questioned what my daughter saw in you.” There was a heavy sigh over the intercom. “Annelise—I’m sorry, Megan. You go by your middle name now. Anyway, why don’t you and Reece”—there was a cough over the system—“Ahem, I mean Scott, middle name again, go get cleaned up and meet the rest of the team in the briefing room in thirty.” There was a pause. “You do remember where the locker rooms and briefing room are, don’t you?”

  Scott and Megan exchanged annoyed looks. They then flipped off the camera in the far back corner of the room as they went their separate ways to make themselves presentable for the next stage in her father’s plan.

  CHAPTER 16

  August 1999

  Akron, OH

  “I don’t know about this whole going to school with her thing.”

  Shanna watched her cousin pace her bedroom floor. Placing the book she had been reading before he appeared—as in one minute she was alone in her room, the next he was standing at the end of the bed looking like a deer caught in the headlights—pages first down on her comforter, she sighed. “Reece, if you pace anymore, you’re liable to wear a hole in the carpet.”

  Reece Whitfield stopped his nervous pacing long enough to shoot her a look. “Seeing her at training a few times a year is one thing. Seeing her every day and having classes with her is a completely different matter.”

  Shanna rolled her eyes. If she thought her relationship, or whatever it was, with D was complicated, Reece’s relationship with her best friend

  Lise Yves was downright convoluted. Shakespeare would have salivated at the chance to write about them.

  “I mean, her father killed my parents while drunk. He almost killed me. Then he had me injected with some sort of untested serum to ‘save’ my life. More like to alleviate his own guilt,” Reece continued as he paced back and forth at the end of her bed. “Then, thanks to this serum, I became a freak of nature that was required to train like a child soldier for him. It was the least I could do for him saving my life, right?”

  Shanna groaned. “Reece, you’ve had a thing for Lise for as long as I can remember.”

  He shot her a dirty look. “That is not the point of this conversation, Shanna.”

  She threw her hands in the air. “Oh, my God! You are worse than a teenage girl!” she exclaimed. “That is exactly the point. Subconsciously, because of your history with her and her family, you feel that liking her as more than an acquaintance or—dare I say—friend is wrong.”

  “Speaking of people we shouldn’t like, how are things with D?”

  Shanna narrowed her eyes. “Low blow.”

  Reece shrugged. “Fair is fair.”

  “Asshole,” she muttered.

  “Bitch,” he returned. “Now answer the question.”

  Shanna fidgeted with the edge of her comforter. That was a loaded question and her cousin knew it. She also knew he was trying to take his mind off his nervousness about tomorrow.

  “I’ve been avoiding him since that night,” she grudgingly admitted.

  “Shan, you know he comes back tomorrow, right?” Reece asked.

  Before she could respond, they both froze. Tilting their heads, they listened, extending the range of their hearing out beyond the normal capabilities of human hearing.

  “And that would be my cue to exit stage left,” Reece said, fading out of sight.

  The next morning, a shrill beeping noise penetrated D’s conscious. He groaned, slipped a hand out from beneath the light blanket, and hit the snooze button.

  He popped an eye open, glancing at the bright red digits. It wasn’t even six yet. He promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.

 
Ten minutes later, the blasted beeping noise interrupted his dream again. He slapped the snooze button again. He laid on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

  He so did not want to go to school. He didn’t mind school, but he just wasn’t ready for summer to end yet. There were too many things left unresolved. There was too much drama surrounding him.

  Getting up also meant having to face Veronica on a daily basis after breaking up with her just last night. He didn’t expect a whole lot of problems, seeing as it was an amicable split. He did, however, expect a whole lot of awkwardness.

  And that was something he already had plenty of in his life.

  His thoughts turned to Shanna against his will. That had been a taboo subject for a while. Even though he had managed to corner her last night before the party, absolutely nothing was resolved. He was getting really frustrated with the whole situation.

  He had never been so freaking confused in his life. That was saying a lot, considering he’d known Shanna for most of it.

  He had seen her twice since cornering her yesterday evening. Both times she had paled, mumbled incoherently, and disappeared faster than a dog with a bone. She seemed more scared than ever.

  He was determined that one of these days they would discuss that night.

  Then again, maybe they shouldn’t. The last time they had attempted a serious conversation, they had ended up in this mess. Maybe it was time to take a couple of steps back and see what happened next.

  It was hard, though. He really wanted to know what was going on in that pretty little head of hers. What she thought about all of this. He honestly wanted to know if there was anything between them and, if there was, whether or not it was worth pursuing or not.

  He just needed her input.

  That was all.

  Yeah, pigs would sprout wings and fly before he pried and honest answer out of her.

  He knew it, but still held out hope.

  Shanna was secretive on a good day, but this was bordering on keeping him so far in the dark, he’d never see the light of day. At this point, the only way he’d find out the truth was if she confessed it over his grave.