“If you don’t go now, you won’t be able to leave.”
“Nonsense,” Bethany said dismissively. There were some cages open, but no one was coming out. Accessing the camera, she saw the Shifters were chained. Old-fashioned shackles. “We need to get Lucas and Lisa back here.”
Bethany tried to jump into the radio waves, but she couldn't reach them. It was as if the building was quicksand, and the more she struggled, the more she sank. She reached out for a device, but the automans were nonoperational. She was stuck in the building.
“Vera, you have to help me,” Bethany pleaded.
“It’s too late. You’ll need another Tech to free you.”
“Tell them to bring my body here.”
“I already have,” she said sadly. “They’re on their way. But it’s too late.”
“It can’t be too late.”
But it was. Bethany could feel it.
“It’s not fair,” Vera said and joined her in the control room of the prison. “You were supposed to come with me. Not get trapped here like one of those automans.”
“I don’t want to become that,” Bethany whispered and quieted an alarm that signaled two boats were heading in. “Lucas,” she cried.
“Forget about that meat bag,” Vera snarled. “I’m trying to tell you I love you.”
“What?” Bethany felt her energies merge with Vera.
“You’re a stupid meat bag too,” Vera said. “But you’re a lucky one.”
“What are you doing?”
“We’re getting out of here. Now pull.”
Vera grabbed her by the arms and yanked her out of the control room. She kept pulling as the security systems and generator clung to Bethany’s legs and tried to suck her back in.
“Fight, damn you,” Vera said. “Fight to get back to your Shifter. He has your body in his arms. He’s crying.”
“Lucas,” she shouted. “I’m here.”
“Come on, move it.”
Inch by inch, Vera pried her away from the prison. It was a prison in more than just the physical sense. It was sentient and as alive as she was. It watched her and Vera escape, powerless to stop them. But if it could.... Bethany shuddered. If surviving the apocalypse hadn’t drained it, they would never have been able to leave.
She saw them on the beach: Lewis and Clark directing the survivors who climbed over the automans and the bodies of the dead scientists to get out, Jesse and Lem offering food, and Karen offering blankets. Then she saw Lisa and Lucas. In Lucas’s arms was her body.
“Go.” Vera shoved her.
As Bethany fell, Vera ascended into the atmosphere.
“No,” she cried, reaching to save her as Vera had saved her. But there was not enough energy for her to do so.
“When you’ve used up your meat bag, I’ll be here, and then you will be mine.”
Bethany slammed back into her body, convulsing as pain and nausea battled it out for first place. Screaming, she blacked out.
Chapter Nineteen
Bethany
“JUST REST,” LISA SAID and held her hand.
“I’m okay,” Bethany said and looked into Lucas’s eyes. “Really. I just need a moment.”
Nobody believed her. She couldn’t blame them. She was covered in blood. When she came to, Lisa and Lucas were bent over her, arguing. It was the sweetest sound even though the slightest noise made her want to curl up and die.
Vera.
She owed her a debt. Maybe when it was her time to go into the atmosphere, Bethany would see her again and thank her. She would use this gift of life, though, to make sure no one was trapped again.
“My brother,” Bethany said. “There are still more down there. Chained to the wall.”
“We know,” Lucas said. “My pack told me. They’re helping the others.”
“My brother?”
“They’re looking for a Daniel.”
“There’s another level,” she murmured, remembering the control panel. “It’s a subbasement. They won’t be able to get there without me. There aren’t any stairs.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Lisa said.
After about ten minutes of breathing hard, Bethany’s body stilled. The sun’s weak rays through the darkened skies calmed her gut enough that she was able stand.
“What are you doing? You need to rest.”
“I need to find my brother.”
“Well done, Lady Tech,” Lewis said, coming over. “Excellent job.”
“Thank you for coming,” she said, leaning against Lucas for support.
Clark walked by with arms around both Lem and Jesse.
“Oh, I’m being well compensated,” Lewis said, gesturing with his head toward the threesome. “The entertainment tonight is going to be choice. I am only sorry you seem too under the weather to enjoy it.”
“Lem?” Bethany called.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m okay with this.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m supporting Jesse. That’s what couples do,” he said.
“Yeah.” Bethany hugged Lucas. “They do.”
They staggered through the gate of the prison together. She dimly saw Lisa getting undressed and shifting into a cat to better scent out the survivors.
The rusted iron fortress seemed hollow as Bethany’s boots rang out on it and Lisa’s claws scrabbled over the surface. There was an elevator at the end of the hall. The guard booth was empty, and Bethany could see some salvageable goods inside.
She pressed the elevator button for shits and giggles, but wasn’t surprised that the generator didn’t kick on. If she had more time, she’d power up the generator and the elevator would run off that instead of her own life force, but Bethany couldn’t wait.
“Don’t,” Lucas said.
But with another grunt of effort, Bethany opened the elevator’s door. The buttons lit up. It had been easier when she was inside the control panel, but Bethany wasn’t going to take the risk.
“I can handle this,” she said. She hoped.
She made it into the car without falling and propped herself up as nonchalantly as she could managed. Trying to keep from fainting, Bethany pressed the button, concentrating on the mechanism that would lower them into the subbasement. It was like she was pulling the cables herself. Bethany was sweating and panting by the time they clunked to the ground and she forced the doors open.
Lucas carried her out of the elevator, and she relaxed enough so the doors slammed closed behind them. The boom echoed down the prison corridor.
"Put me down. Go help them," she told Lucas.
He sat her up against the wall, but when he turned his back on her, she slowly keeled over.
Rows of cells on both sides faced them. Lisa, her tail puffed in agitation, investigated each one. That was when the moans and cries for help started.
“We found them, Lucas,” Bethany whispered, pressing her cheek against the cold stone and metal on the floor. “All of them.”
Lucas left her briefly to confirm and to examine the locks. But Bethany already knew what he would find. She had briefly touched the system through the generator. All the doors were electronically sealed and had electronic tracks. This was going to end her, but the cacophony of pleas grew maddening.
Lucas tried to calm them down. “We have a Tech. She can get you out. But she’s almost done in. You need to be patient.”
The wails and sobbing didn’t cease. They were frightened, and Bethany couldn’t blame them. “Shift,” she told Lucas.
He came toward her. “No, not yet. They’ve waited this long. They can wait one more day.”
“Not one more hour,” Bethany said, clenching her fist. “I couldn’t do this without the generator. But it’s there, and the solar cells have also charged a bit. I can wield it.”
He pulled her into his arms and cradled her there. “Your nose and ears have blood coming out of them. Your body is hot to the touch. You’re going to die.”
Her eyes c
losed, and more liquid seeped out of them. “I’m good.” Maybe Vera was still waiting for her, and they would dance all through eternity. She could almost see the glow of the path to find her.
“No, you’re not,” Lucas said.
“It’s a risk,” she admitted. “But you can’t stop me from taking it.”
“I can take you out of here.”
“You can take me as far as the hall. The elevator won’t work without me.”
“Damn it,” Lucas said.
“I won’t trap you all in here to die. I won’t die. It’s just a little bit more, and then I can rest. Now shift so you can protect me if I pass out.”
Lucas growled and didn’t stop growling, and soon there was a very upset cougar positioning himself above her.
Bethany pushed out against the cells and the electronic locks popped and the doors slid open. Fifty doors for fifty cells. Her head swam, and she knew she was going to pass out. Reaching out for the elevator, she powered it up. She sank a good fifteen-minute charge in the generator to keep it working. Then red spots exploded before her eyes, and she retched.
She had been expecting a mad rush for the doors when the cells slid open. But no one came out. Her head was swimming, and she attempted to roll out of the center of the corridor. Bethany lay whimpering on the floor, pressing her aching head to the ground. She would not pass out.
A tattered lion’s head poked out of his cell, and she flinched back from the size of him. It made her vision cloud to black, and it was only the stench of the place that kept her from going under. Lucas gave a warning in a coughing cat challenge, and the king of the jungle bellowed something back. The big cat limped out of his cell. Bethany pressed against the side of the prison wall as he came closer. Lisa flew down the corridor cawing, and slowly different animals slunk out. Their heads were down and wary, but their body language was tensed for a battle. But only about half of the occupants came out of their cells.
“You’re on an island,” Bethany said. “Your captors are either dead or have run away. I’m here to rescue my brother. His name is Daniel. He likes to be a wolf or a bear.”
The lion stopped and turned back toward her. Lucas hissed a warning, but the lion didn’t even look at him. It made sure she was looking into his eyes, and then the lion turned his head and looked at a cell.
“Thank you,” she said, inch by inch, pushed herself to her feet. Shaking against the wall, she used Lucas for balance. When she was strong enough, she stepped gingerly between the Shifters in their animal forms that were leaving.
The cells that weren’t empty held humans chained to the walls. That was how she found Daniel. He was, at least, conscious. But his eyes were flat, staring at her without recognition.
She stumbled in to him. “Daniel!”
He bared his teeth at her, snapping his head from side to side. He was chained against the wall, covered in filth and open sores. His eyes held little sanity, but she tried to reach him.
“It’s Bethany,” she said. “We’ve come to rescue you.” She looked back over at Lucas and Lisa who had rejoined them in cat form. “Maybe you can shift into something less threatening.”
They looked at each other and then shifted into ferrets. Lisa bounded off down the hallway.
“Where is she going?”
Lucas retreated to the far corner where he could keep an eye on both her and his sister.
“They say music soothes the savage beast,” a women in the cage across the hall said. “I can sing a little ditty if you’ll get me out of here.”
“We’re working on it,” Bethany said. “I’m a Tech.” With shaking knees, Bethany crouched on the squalid floor. Her head ached like an ice pick was being jammed into her eye socket, but she willed the music in the airwaves down into the prison. Somewhere, whether it was the loudspeakers or an old abandoned radio, a rip-roaring rag from the 1920s started to gear up. Music never died. The waves from space still held the echoes of the songs. Before there was a meteor, before the world went crazy, when the only problems were bootlegging liquor and organized crime, the songs from that era had always been her brother’s favorites. Even though she could probably touch on some classical strains of Bach or Beethoven that drifted through the atmosphere, they wouldn’t have affected her brother like the familiar call of the songs she used to play just for him.
“I didn’t come all this way to lose you now,” she said.
The snarling stopped long enough for him to listen to the music, and then his eyes closed, and he fell asleep. Lisa returned with a key ring in her mouth.
“Why hasn’t he shifted? The chains wouldn’t have held him.”
“The chains were forged from iron from the meteor,” the woman said. “We can’t shift when they touch us.”
Lisa worked the locks on Daniel’s legs and wrists before perching on his chest to take off the one on his neck.
Daniel’s eyes popped open when the neck chain dropped, and he spasmed as the chain hit the ground.
“Uh-oh,” the woman said. “Run! Get out of his way.”
Bethany saw the outline of the brown fur and realized there was about to be an angry grizzly bear in this cell in a moment. She tripped over her own feet to get out of the cage.
“What about me?” the woman cried.
Bethany darted into her cage and slammed the door shut. Another brief flash of Tech, and she locked it.
“You’re not supposed to be locked in here with me. It’s supposed to go the other way.”
“You want to be out there with him?” Bethany pointed as the bear bashed the door with its mighty paw and bent the steel.
“You have a point,” she said. “I’m Crystal, by the way.”
“Crystal, I hope these keys work on your chains,” Bethany said holding out her hand for Lisa to drop the keys in them.
“You and me both,” she said.
Daniel roared in anger and pulled himself up to his full seven feet.
“Thanks,” Crystal said. “Now back way up and open that door for me after I change.”
She shimmered and turned into a smaller brown bear, still easily filling the cramped space. Bethany pressed against the back of the cell and, with another popping pain, opened the cell door again.
Daniel lunged to attack, and the cell doors dented in slightly when the weight of the two bears hit it. Crystal roared into his face and blocked his claws with her own. She slammed against him, but he outweighed her by at least two hundred pounds. She never stopped roaring, but Daniel stopped attacking. He got off her slowly and sat back on his haunches and looked around. He pinned Bethany with his gaze, and she saw a semblance of sanity and recognition in them. Lucas climbed up on her shoulder and stared back at the bear that chuffed at him before lumbering away, Crystal at his heels.
“I’m going to free everyone else," she called after Daniel. "Don’t you dare go anywhere without me.” Although, they were on an island and there weren’t many places they could go. She couldn’t stop Lucas from sweeping her up in his arms after he shifted back. As it was, she was nearly blind with pain. All of the other prisoners shifted immediately once they were freed. Some were beyond help and already dead.
Bethany was glad to finally emerge from the gloomy prison into the cold night.
“I feel like Noah,” Bethany said as she watched the animals go up the gangplank to the tugboat they had anchored at the makeshift dock. The party had already started on Lewis and Clark’s boat, but Lucas’s pack stuck together.
He introduced her as his mate, and no one blinked twice. She had been worried about nothing. Of course, the fact she just rescued them probably gave her some slack as well.
Daniel didn’t shift back when they were on the boat. He did allow her to lay her hand in his paw.
“I know you heal faster in this form,” she said. “It’s going to take most of the day to get back to the mainland, barring an attack. Although, I’d really like to see the faces of the pirates that attack this ship.”
D
aniel gave a barking laugh.
“We can talk about what happened in Florida when you’re ready. But no one on this side of the world is hunting you. You’re safe now.”
He chuffed and sighed.
“This is my mate and his sister, Lisa.”
Daniel sniffed at them and grunted.
Bethany swatted him. “Be nice. They’re going to be your pack. That and the loot that’s in the cargo area of this ship should be enough to equip all of us up to be a good commodity for a tribe to take in.”
“Why don’t we start our own tribe?” Lisa said.
“A tribe of Shifters and one Tech?” Bethany said.
“Just because I’m a Shifter doesn’t mean I don’t know anything else. You of all people should know that. We’re all hunters, but we can also gather or farm or craft.”
“You’re right,” Bethany said. “I’ve never thought about it. I mean being a chief is a big responsibility.”
“Who said you would get to be chief? I was going to be chief!”
“Or,” Lucas said, breaking in. “We could vote on it. Or have a trial by combat.” He eyeballed Daniel who huffed again.
“How about we concentrate on making it to Reno so we can trade for some food and clothes for everyone first?” Bethany said, collapsing on the deck.
That seemed to satisfy the rest of them. She rested against Lucas as the boat sailed off on its own power into the moonlight.
The End
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